The Book of Acts, Part 1

I want to do... maybe I could ask Brad to help me pass these out to people. These are just maps that I'm going to cover a little bit today. Or actually, maybe over the next couple of sermons. Because as I got to thinking about this, I found that there was far more material than I could ever possibly cover. And before the Days of Unleavened Bread, I had given a sermon. It wasn't here, but it was up in Kansas City. Some of you were there at that time. I'd given a sermon about how God had converted Saul of Tarsus. And as all of you know, he became known as the Apostle Paul. And of course, what God did was change the anger, change the hatred, change the heart that Saul had to one of having love for the brethren. He was out killing the church at one time. And you see this recorded in the book of Acts. And then later, you know, he ends up writing many, many of the New Testament books. And I hope today, and perhaps the next time, because I know I'm not going to be able to get all this in one session, I hope to be able to cover information about Paul, about his life, but maybe not so much only about Paul, but about the book of Acts. You recall that the theme of our conference's pastime was laboring in the Word. And so we certainly want to be becoming more and more familiar with the Word of God. And I know there are many things in the Old Testament that we could go over and cover, and yet often provides a background or history for what we read about in the New Testament. And if we want to study the life of Jesus, all of you know that you can go to Matthew or Mark or Luke or John or all four of those Gospel accounts of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. That's where the information is going to be. And yet, the bulk of the rest of the New Testament is, in many ways, writings of the apostle Paul or some of Peter and some of John. And we know we get to the book of Revelation at the end, and that's a revealing of Jesus Christ to John. He says, I want you to write this down, and this is for the time of the end. This will be more understandable as you get to the time of the end. So these different sections, and I know many of you are, perhaps all of you are, students of the Bible and very familiar with all of this. But the book of Acts is actually a remarkable history book because it tells the history of the first century of the church of God, the New Testament church of God. And, of course, it gives information even about the congregation in the wilderness in the Old Testament. At least, it describes and talks about the children of Israel in that way. And yet, as I've read through the book of Acts here recently, it's fascinating to see what is covered. Now, who wrote the book of Acts?

All of you can tell me, I'm sure. Nobody wants to speak up. Acts! No. Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts. Acts didn't write it.

Luke, of course, wrote, and he says so in the beginning of it. And he was writing this account. Now, was Luke an apostle? Well, no, it doesn't designate him as an apostle. But he does appear to be a traveling companion of some of the apostles and of the apostle Paul, even at times. And clearly, and this is why I do sometimes ask new folks, if they're wanting information, if they want to really gather some clarity. Because the Bible, in many ways, to most people is not very clear. It's written in somewhat of a manner that to those who might be unfamiliar with it, it's hard to understand. Trying to read prophecy or trying to read the begats, trying to over and over and over or going back through things, it can be awfully fragmenting. You can read the book of Proverbs and you're bouncing off the wall. You don't know where it's heading because it jumped from topic to topic to topic from verse to verse. You can read the book of Psalms. As encouraging and uplifting as many of the Psalms are, they're kind of in a, you know, there is a pattern, I guess, but it goes through many, many, many topics. And whenever you get to the New Testament and you want to study the New Testament, I think most of us realize that a number of the letters to the churches and then to the ministry are written by the apostles. But the basis for this is kind of described in the book of Acts. And what is described there? What did Luke wrote his gospel? And then he wrote the book of Acts in what you could say is somewhat of a, you know, a methodical or a not entirely chronological, perhaps, you know, the gospel, not, I mean, parables and such. I don't know, chronology is not, it is very methodical. It's very, in a sense, it's almost simple and clear. And you find the same thing in the book of Acts. A beginning in Acts 2 of the New Testament Church and the Day of Pentecost that we've just studied a little on, the Day of Pentecost here a few weeks ago, we start there and then Luke writes about Peter and John. He writes about the death of James. He writes about Stephen and Philip.

And then he eventually gets to Paul. Or in chapter 9, he starts with Saul and his conversion. And from chapter 9 mostly till the end of the book, chapter 28, you've got almost 20 chapters about Paul, about his activity. There is some about Peter there as well with Cornelius. But see, you want to be able to have that in mind whenever you read other things that Paul is writing, because he's writing to specific congregations on the maps I've given you. You know, these are not obviously the only maps you can look up. You have these in your atlases, probably in the back of your Bible. Maybe many better maps than the ones I'm giving you. But I thought it was these were kind of revealing the two different maps. The one side, let's see, the other side, Mr. Jackson. The one side has a description, actually in kind of the boxed sections there. Point out the different churches that Paul wrote a letter to, whether it's Rome, Thessalonica, Thessalonians, Corinth, Corinthians, Philippi, Philippians, Ephesians, the letter to Galatia or to Colossae. And of course he wrote other letters to Timothy and Titus. But I thought it was interesting to see, now you also on that same side of the map, you see Tarsus, which is where Paul was born. That's on the very right side. It's right on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, way over there, the northeastern shore. And it's in the section of Cilicia. That's a province. And the whole thing here between Ephesus and Cilicia on that map is what we think of as Turkey today. Actually, Turkey extends even further to the east than this map actually even shows. But you also see right under Tarsus, you see Syrian Antioch. And I want to be able to mention a little bit about Syrian Antioch, because it is an important place. And I ask that, why? Why is it an important place? Why would Syrian Antioch be mentioned as much as it is? Well, it's because it was a location that Paul eventually kind of settled in and kind of came in and out of. As he would go on his journeys, which he later would go on three kind of trips, journeys. They call them missionary tours and most of the maps that you look at. You find that it was coming in and out of Syrian Antioch.

And you find beyond that that he ultimately was going to be traveling by ship to Rome.

And he was there. You read the very last couple of verses in the book of Acts and you find that, well, he was there. It almost looks like he was in captivity to the Roman system, but at least he was allowed to preach. He was allowed to teach. He was allowed to have his own hired house. Whatever that means. He was in his own location, able to receive people, able to talk, able to write. Because that apparently is where he did write several of the letters that he would later send to the churches that he was used by God to raise up. And so I point these out just because it's helpful to me to be able to know, and of course you look on a modern map and you don't see many of these names. You may see some of them, but you certainly some of these are ancient cities. They don't exist. Now Corinth, where it was there, is close to where the city of Corinth is now. And when it talks about Athens, I'm sure that's the area where Athens was. But I think it's helpful to gain an overview of that. And then on the other side, the other map, I simply gave that to you because it has the names. Now the churches are not highlighted here. The churches that Paul would raise up and then later be writing to.

But you see, again, the geography of the area and kind of the names that are written about in the book of Acts. You can see over on the right-hand side in Syria, you see the city of Antioch again, Silesia, Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithnia, and then Asia coming down toward the western end of Turkey. And then to the north of that Thrace, Macedonia, and coming down to the left of Achaia and out in the Mediterranean, the islands of Crete and Cyprus and Cyrene. I again, I know all of you have maps of this type and I only give these to you as a reference. It always is helpful to me to be able to try to figure out where does it appear he was and what was happening in these areas. And again, the names of these places are often quite different today, and so you have to look back on a map that was somewhat older. And so I'll just point that out to you that you might use these if you read through the book of Acts. And I would encourage you to do so. It's not a hard book to read. It's a very simple book to read. It's really just kind of a history book. Most everything there is rather clear. You read some of Paul's writings, it's a little more complicated. It's a little more difficult to study or to read because he's addressing doctrinal issues. But what Luke is doing in the book of Acts is just simply recording the history of what happened about 30 or 40 years after the death of Jesus. And much of it having to do with what did the apostles do, where did they go, but then you only see Peter and John for a very short period of time. And the bulk of the book of Acts is following Paul. It's following where he went and what God was doing in causing the Gentile world to be exposed to the gospel, to the message of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but to the message of the Kingdom of God. That's exactly what Paul was preaching. That's what he was teaching. That's what he knew that he had been called or drawn by God to do that. And so I think it's fascinating when you look at these.

And whenever you get to the end of the book of Acts, you find Paul and Rome. That's where it kind of stops.

And yet you also can read additional information about the history of regarding Paul. And it appears that he was released from there. It appears he later would go on even traveling further into Spain and perhaps up to Britain. I don't have a lot of that information, but one of the very prominent cathedrals there in London is St. Paul's Cathedral, one of the most widely shown and and used cathedrals there in the city of Rome, or excuse me, in the city of London. And so it appears that Paul then would later be coming back and in captivity again and eventually die in Rome or outside of Rome, perhaps by beheading. These are of course what commentaries follow up on. You can read different ones. They're not always exactly the same, but reasonably similar that in the late 60s or latter 60s Paul would die. So for a period of time after the beginning of the church until the late 60s, so that would be approximately 30 years, Paul was a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Let's take a look here in Acts 22, the first thing I want to point out is just what Paul says about himself. He says here in Acts 22, and this is when he has actually been arrested and he is needing to defend himself, here in Acts 22 verse 3 Paul says, I'm a Jew, I was born in Tarsus, in Cilicia. So you can see those on the map. You see where that is. But I was brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. So here he's back in Jerusalem. So I don't know how long Paul was in Tarsus, but that's where he was born. And what's significant about that is that Cilicia was a Roman province, and Tarsus was a city of the Roman province of Cilicia. And so perhaps by birth, and I don't know exactly this for sure, but somehow Paul was like we are, I think all of us would be, citizens of the United States. Paul was a citizen of the Roman system or the Roman Empire. And because he was born there, and it doesn't appear from what we're going to read here in a little bit, that he had certain rights as a Roman citizen. Rights that he could use or he could not use, just like with all of us being born here in the United States. You know, we become U.S. citizens. We have certain rights. We can choose to use those rights, whether, you know, at least we have the rights. We can determine whether or not we want to use them. And the same thing was the case with Saul. He says he was born in Tarsus. He was taught at the feet of Gamaliel. He was educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being that of Judaism, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. And I even persecuted this way up to a point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison. This was what Paul was quite successful at in the very first part of what we read in Acts 7 and 8. You see him incredibly angry, horribly hate-filled toward this way, the way that God had called Christians to live.

But I want to drop on down here, because this is where it points out that Paul was a Roman citizen, and he wondered, you know, he understood what rights they had. You know, they were to be treated in a certain way. They were not, in a sense, to be punished for everything that others might be punished for. They were not to be punished for or in the manner that others might be punished. Here in verse 25, Paul is before the Roman Tribune, and he says, when they had tied him with thongs—I don't think they probably were supposed to be doing that.

Again, even though he had certain rights, and even though he was only exerting those rights as he seemed to feel like it or feel like he needed it, here in verse 25, he said, they tied him with thongs, and he said to the centurion who was standing by, is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is un-condemned?

And so not only was he a Roman citizen, but also he understood what the laws were, he understood what they should and should not be doing. That didn't mean that that's what actually happened, because you can clearly see later on that he was beaten with rods, which was a Roman punishment several times.

So were they doing what they were supposed to? No. But here he's just pointing out, having been a Roman citizen, in verse 26, the centurion, he thought about this, he went to the Tribune and he said to him, what are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen. And in verse 27, the Tribune came and asked Paul, tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And he said, yes. The Tribune answered and said, it cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship. So you could be born a citizen or you could purchase that in some way. And so one or the other had happened to Paul, but it appears where he happened to be born in a Roman province, that perhaps it was by birth.

And he actually says it was by birth. Immediately, in verse 29, those who were about to examine him, drew back from him and the Tribune was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he'd already bound him. He'd already crossed the line. He'd already done more than he had expected or had normally would have been expected to do. And so I only point these things out because you know Paul uses the rights that he had, he uses the rights to take opportunity to do his job, to take opportunity to preach the gospel and to share the message of the kingdom of God under certain circumstances that he was in.

The second thing I want to mention is just about Syrian Antioch. Antioch, as you read about it here, let's turn to chapter 11. Acts chapter 11, what we find is Antioch was in a sense a base of operation for most of Paul's journeys. Starting here in verse 19, Acts 11 verse 19, and this kind of gives a history of how it was that Antioch became a setting for what appears to be a pretty prominent church of God. Now you don't see any letter written to the church at Antioch. You don't find that, but you do find this church verse 19.

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen. So we read this back in chapter 7 and 8 when Stephen was persecuted and when he was actually put to death, the churches scattered. They go in a lot of different directions. One of those directions was into the area of Syrian Antioch. It says, the persecution that took place over Stephen, people traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch and they spoke the word to no one except Jews.

And so this is just a statement that they initially, whenever the church was scattered and people went in different parts of the world, they went into an island in the Mediterranean up into Antioch. It says in verse 20, among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who on coming to Antioch, they spoke to the Greeks as well.

They spoke to them proclaiming the Lord Jesus and the hand of the Lord was with them. In verse 21, a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. And so this actually shows, you know, Saul or Paul didn't raise up that church and it doesn't even appear that Peter or John were raising up a church in Antioch, but some of the brethren who had come from Cyprus had come to Antioch and God caused, he blessed that in verse 21. The hand of the Lord was with them, a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. And then news of this development came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem.

So this is where Peter and where James would be, where John was. James, the half-brother of Jesus, of course James, the brother of John had been killed. Verse 22, news of this came to Jerusalem and so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. And it may be that Barnabas would even have known some of these brethren who came from Cyprus since he was from Cyprus himself. In Acts 4, verse 36, you see him being described in that way.

But it says, they sent Barnabas to Antioch and when he came and he saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion. For he was a good man, this is talking about Barnabas, he was full of the Holy Spirit, he was full of faith, and a great many people were brought to the Lord. And so even as Barnabas came from Jerusalem up to the city of Antioch, he rejoiced that more and more of the Gentile world had accepted the message about Jesus Christ. And in verse 25 it says, Barnabas went over to Tarsus to look for Saul. So at this time, you know, I'm not going through all the history here about where Saul had gone.

He had been in Arabia for a while, he had been back to Damascus, he later probably would be returning home to Tarsus. And here Saul is being sought by Barnabas. I want you to come and help us. Barnabas helped him in Jerusalem a little later, but here he's bringing him to Antioch. In verse 25, Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.

So it was for an entire year they met with the church and they taught a great many people. And it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

See, this church, even though there's not a letter written to it, it is of significance because Antioch in Syria was a large population center. It was one of the main cities on the eastern Mediterranean coast. You find Antioch, let me see, I've had a sheet here that told me a little more about that. Let's see, it was the third largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria. And so, you know, the significance of this Antioch is hard to tell when you look at a map, but when you realize it was in the Roman Empire, it was the third largest population center. Rome was largest, Alexandria down in Egypt was also large, but then Syria and Antioch was a large area, highly populated. And as I mentioned, you know, it was one of the three greatest cities in the eastern Mediterranean, the other two being Alexandria in Egypt and Ephesus on the other end of what we know of as Turkey. So Ephesus, Antioch, and Alexandria were the major cities on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean. But even in the whole Roman Empire, Syria and Antioch was a very large city. It was the third largest after Rome and Alexandria. So you see in Antioch, there were many Greeks or Gentiles who had come into the church. There were Jews there as well. And you actually find, whenever you read later in the book of Galatians, that Paul has to confront Peter. And I'm not going to go through that exchange there in Galatians chapter 1 and 2, but that's in the city of Antioch. That's where that dispute came about and where it needed to be corrected. So again, I just want to point this out as far as, in a sense, setting the stage for studying what it is that we can learn from the travels of Paul. The third thing that I want to cover here regarding this sermon is simply the fact that God, of course, brought Saul to his needs. When we read in Acts chapter 9, he was struck down and was blinded. He was then revived. But what we see here in Acts chapter 9 is a verse that perhaps all of us should in some ways identify with. Here in Acts chapter 9, in verse 13, Ananias says to the Lord, I've heard that from about this man, Saul, how much evil he has done to the saints in Jerusalem. He has authority from the chief peace to bind those who invoke your name. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is an instrument who I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel. So this was a part of Paul's commission that he would go to the Greek world, he would go to the Roman world, he would be to the Israelites, he would go before kings. This was in a sense somewhat of an all-encompassing mission that he had, even though he was directed more so to the Gentiles. But verse 16 is what I want to focus on because it says that Ananias was told that God had chosen Paul to bring his name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel. And in verse 16 he says, I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

See, that's a very, again, simple statement. And yet what we find when we study the remainder of Paul's life and his writing and his telling others about what you might expect, you know, he writes in Acts 14 verse 22, it is through much tribulation that you can enter into the kingdom of God. There is going to be a time of trouble and maybe times of trouble and suffering that all of us will go through. And so in many ways, even though we all pray to God, we ask for God's help, we ask for God's blessing, we ask for his direction, we should also understand that, well, along with that guidance and that encouragement and comfort, that we're going to go through difficult times. We're going to go through difficulties that shouldn't surprise us. It shouldn't be an unknown because clearly, if we look over here in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, you see Paul describing, and this is kind of an encapsulated description of what he went through. Here in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, starting in about verse 16, in a sense, Paul is defending his authority as an apostle. You wouldn't really think that he would need to do that. Certainly to the church in Corinth that he had been instrumental in causing it to exist.

And yet this is what he had to endure. He says in verse 16, let no one of you think that I'm, I repeat, let no one think that I'm a fool, but if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I may boast a little. What I'm saying in regard to this boastful confidence, I'm saying not for the Lord's authority, but as a fool. Since many boast according to human standards, I also will boast. He was having to defend himself. He was having to point out, well, since others are trying to say many false things about me, they're trying to elevate themselves, I'm going to go ahead and tell you a little bit about what my life is. In verse 19, you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves, but you put up with it when someone makes slaves of you or prays upon you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or gives you a slap in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast of that. So he said, I know that it's useless for me to boast in this way, but in order to put you in your place, I'm going to go ahead and say it. He says in verse 22, Are they Hebrews? Well, so am I. Are they Israelites? Well, so am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? And now I really am talking like a madman. I am a better one, with far greater labors and more imprisonments and countless floggings, and often near death. I don't know that any of us would describe our lives that way, but sometimes we labor with the struggles that we have in our lives. And admittedly, our struggles are different. We're not going through the same thing the Apostle Paul did. But clearly, God was using him as His servant, just as God can use each of us as a servant of Jesus Christ. And as we endure certain things, Paul goes on in verse 24, five times, I received from the Jews 40 flashes minus 1.

See now, why were the Jews so angry with Him? Why were they so upset with Him? Well, He had turned on them. He was no longer preaching and promoting Judaism. He was promoting Christianity. He had been one of their chief agents to go out and persecute Christianity.

And yet you find, and I'll actually just say that, whenever you look at who was it that opposed Paul, well, there were many groups that opposed Paul. And this is a primary one, you know, that the Jews, you know, put him through this beating, lashing, five different times. He says in verse 25, three times, I was beaten with rods. Now, that is a Roman punishment, not a Jewish punishment, but a Roman punishment. So you would say that probably was coming from, again, the Gentile world with Roman oversight. And why would they not like Paul? Why would they not want to hear whatever he has to say? Well, what you find is that when Paul goes and talks about preaching the true God, and preaching or explaining to the pagan world about the unknown God, you know, they didn't really want to hear that. And of course, you find whenever that started affecting their livelihood, in some cases, it's doing all the selling of idols was a big business in Ephesus and in other parts of the world that he was traveling in. Now, they beat him three different times. Now, were they supposed to do that? Was that something that a Roman citizen was supposed to endure? No, but it's what he went through. He goes ahead in verse 25, once I received a stoning. Now, what's the purpose of stoning? Well, when you read this, you can go back to Acts chapter 14 verse 19. Maybe we should do that. Acts chapter 14 verse 19. This is when he was in Lystra. I believe Lystra was... well, I don't have that marked on the map, so I'm not sure. I think it's in the area of Galatia or in that general area kind of mid-turkey, anyway. But here in Acts chapter 14 and verse 19, who were stoning people? Well, in verse 19, the Jews came there from Antioch and from Iconium and won over the crowd. And then they stoned Paul and drug him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. And so, of course, the purpose of stoning. In this case, the Jews who had persecuted him in cities before came, turned the crowds on him and stoned him, leaving him for dead. And in what seems to be the most understated verse in the Bible, when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. If he had been left for dead, either God resurrected him from the dead or God healed him of the stoning. And whether the disciples there were anointing him or they were certainly praying for them, you would think. But God lifted him up, and the next day he went on with Barnabas into Derby. Verse 20 is quite an amazing verse, and it doesn't really tell you much as far as I know. There's not a lot of additional information to know. But whenever he records here in 2 Corinthians what he suffered for Jesus Christ, he said, I had these beatings by the Jews, I had beatings by the Romans or Greeks, I had been stoned, this was by the Jews, again in chapter 11, verse 25, three times I was shipwrecked for a night in the day I was adrift at sea. And so here he mentions a couple of things that are even prior to when he will later be shipwrecked in Malta, and on his way to Rome. See, this is before he ever gets to that point where he's going to be shipwrecked again.

But he says at this point, I can say I've been shipwrecked three times for a night in the day, I've been adrift at sea, infrequent journeys in dangers, from rivers in danger from bandits, in danger from my own people, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the wilderness, in danger at sea, in danger from false brethren. See, here he has not only the Jews are against him, the Greeks are against him, sometimes the church was afraid of him, that was initial, and later there were those who truly hated Paul, and who would not accept that God was working through him as he went to the Gentile world. There were several. Alexander, let's see, I have these written down, Alexander and Hymenaeus, and Phileidus, he mentions these individuals by name in his writing to Timothy. He tells Timothy, watch out for these brethren who can be poisonous and who are, actually have done me great harm. And so, you see kind of multifaceted problems that Paul is facing. And yet, when you read again here in verse 27, he says, in danger from many different sides, but in verse 27, in toil and in hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked, and besides other things, I'm under daily pressure because of my own care for all the churches. See, Paul describes, in this short section here from about verse 24 down to verse 28, he describes a life of suffering, in some ways a life that you would think would just be miserable. And yet, you always find him getting up, even as we did there in Lystra, getting up and continuing to do the job that God had given him to do.

And so, it's fascinating to see, you know, just how it is that Paul was able to endure because his focus was on, you know, the mission he'd been given, his focus was on the future, on the kingdom of God. It was not so much on this physical life. You know, he ran into trouble almost everywhere he went. And yet, you might also keep in mind, and of course, you know, what we find was that Paul realized that he would ultimately go to Rome. Now, this seems to be revealed as we look at the book of Romans, that he really wants to come there.

He really wants to be there and see the church there because there was a church there even before he got there. There were groups of Christians who were there, perhaps brought there, maybe moved there because of obviously the world capital it would have been at the time. And yet, well, we could go to that, perhaps, in Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15.

Let's start in verse 14. Paul was writing this letter to the Christians who lived in Rome, looking forward to seeing them. Looking forward, he's writing this and saying that's what he's planning to do. But in verse 14, he starts writing about how it is that he has come to do the job that he has been given to do. He says, I myself feel confident about you, brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness and knowledge and able to instruct one another. Nevertheless, on some points I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace that was given to me by God, to be a minister of Jesus Christ, to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

And in verse 17 in Jesus Christ, then, I have reason to boast of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except that Christ, what Christ has accomplished through me, to win obedience from the Gentiles by word and deed, and by the power and signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far away as the Lyricum, I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ.

Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, to proclaim the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never seen were told of him who shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand. See, Paul had a desire to continue to expand, to continue to go further into other parts of the world. Now, I guess he could have stayed around Antioch, he could have stayed in the area of Jerusalem, but that wasn't going to fulfill his mission.

That wasn't going to achieve the commission that he had been given. So he says in verse 22, this is the reason that I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, with no further place for me in these regions, I desire, as I have for many years, to come to you when I go to Spain. For I do hope to see you on my journey, and to be sent on by you, only I have enjoyed your company for a little while. At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem in a ministry for the saints. From Macedonia and Achaia, I've been pleased to share their resources from the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.

So he's obviously writing this from there in Greece, what we would think of as Greece today in Macedonia or Achaia. And he's writing this to the church in Rome. He says, I've got to go to Jerusalem first. And they are going to be sending the supplies that they have put together for the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do this, and indeed they owe it to them.

For if the Gentiles have come to share in the spiritual blessings, they also ought to be of service to them in material things. So when I have completed this, and I am delivered to them what has been collected, I will set out by way of you to Spain. And I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessings of God.

In verse 30, he says, I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by the will of God I may come to you with joy, and be refreshed in your company. And God of peace be with all of you. It's almost like he's concluding that and then adding this last chapter into Romans as an additional part of his closing to the book. But here you see, you know, Paul's intention was to continue to expand preaching where Christ had not been preached, preaching the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ in areas where people needed that information. And of course, whenever, you know, we study, which we'll try to go over the next time, you know, we find that Paul was directed to go from where he was in Asia Minor in Turkey. He was directed to go into Europe, he was directed to go into Macedonia and Achaia, those areas that are on the other side of, what is it, the Aegean Sea, I think, and is the Adriatic between there and Italy. Now, the one that I'm thinking of is the one that's to the right of that. So yeah, yeah, the Aegean Sea. And so, you know, he was guided in that. He was given a mid-vision. He was shown, you know, you ought to go over and go on to Philippi and Thessalonica and Corinth and Athens. And so he was guided in that. And it seems that, you know, Paul had no idea how he might get to Rome. I'm sure he had no idea, well, when we read chapter 21 to chapter 28 of his trip to Rome as a captive, I'm sure he had no idea that that's how I'm going to get to Rome, at least the first time. He mentions here in the book of Romans, which he was writing from in Achaia or Macedonia, he was writing that wanting to come. But surely he had no idea what God was going to put him through with certainly the type of sailing problems that they had to ultimately get to Italy and then on to Rome. But you also, you can think back to how it was that Joseph got into Egypt. You know, Joseph didn't plan to go to Egypt. He wasn't trying to figure out how to become a ruler in Pharaoh's house. He was simply just doing what he thought he was supposed to do and caring for his father and having a close relationship with him. But his brothers sold him into slavery, eventually sent him into Egypt, and ultimately, he was there for a purpose. He was there for a reason. This is what he says in Genesis chapter 45. I think we might think of this whenever we think of what Paul went through, because surely he would never have an idea that he was going to go through what he did to get to Rome. But here in Genesis 45, you see what Joseph said to his brothers.

And I think you have to see that God's involvement with Joseph and preserving Israel here in this particular case could very well be similar to the type of involvement and direction that Christ was giving Paul as he was going to direct him ultimately to be in Rome.

Here in chapter 45, you find Joseph ultimately having his brothers come in before him and send everybody else away. They didn't really realize who he was. In verse 2, he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it, and Joseph said to his brothers, I'm Joseph. And he asked about his father Jacob. Is he still alive? His brothers wouldn't answer him. They were just dumbfounded at his presence. And Joseph said to his brothers, come closer to me. They came closer and said, I'm your brother Joseph, whom you sold in Egypt. And now go, do not be distressed. Do not be angry with yourself, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life.

The famine had been in the land for two years, and over five more years, in which you were going to be neither plowing nor harvest. But verse 7, God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God, for He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of His house and ruler of the land of Egypt. And so hurry and bring my father Jacob down here, because I'm in a position to be able to help. What you ultimately find with Paul is that he gets in a position to be able to preach the gospel. And I think you would say it may have been under the same supervision that Joseph was sent into the land of Egypt so that he would be able to preserve his family, his brothers, his father, and then, of course, their descendants that would make up the house of Israel. So that's perhaps all we can go over today. There's a lot more that I want to go over here, out of the book of Acts and regarding Paul's journeys. But I will ask, if you have the inclination, if you read through the book of Acts, which is easy to read, you will gain a great deal of insight into how God allowed Paul to suffer, and yet how he also was at work in his life to achieve not only the preaching of the gospel, but to achieve the development of the divine nature in Paul that Paul writes about to all of the letters that he sends to the churches. So that's what we're going to cover in a sense next time, or we'll cover more of the story of Paul and his travels.