Bible Study

Well, good evening, everyone, and welcome to Bible study, biweekly Bible study. Actually, it's the monthly Bible study. The last time we held it was four weeks ago. We skipped two weeks ago because of a possible tornado, tornado watch in the area, or tornado warning, sorry. So we decided, rather than having people here having to fight the tornadoes all the way home, we decided to let them stay home and fight them in their house instead of on the highway. So we had to cancel. It was the last-minute decision, but we apologize for anybody who was out there online waiting to hear us. Say hello to all of you out there online on the webcast for the Bible study this evening, and for those who tune in regularly.

Thank you. Say hi to some friends of ours in Quebec, Canada, Mr. and Mrs. Delfino and their family. Say hi to them. And to say hi to the Myers, Steve and Kathy Myers, up in Minnesota, where a lot of Minnesotans listen to us as well, as well as other parts of the country and in some parts of the world. So thank you for being interested in God's Word. We hope we can do our part and keep it interesting.

So we'll ask God's blessing. You'll just bow your heads as your blessing. Dear Father in Heaven, our awesome God, thank you that we could come to you, our Heavenly Father, with Jesus Christ at your right hand, who is the living Word, and ask your help and inspiration tonight as we study and expound your Word. We ask your blessing upon us, upon Randy and myself, as we teach your Word to those who are in the audience this evening.

We ask you to please give us inspiration, give us understanding, give us even instant understanding, an instant inspiration that we may truly transmit your Word and what you want your people to hear. So we thank you. We ask your blessing. We thank you for preserving this Word. We thank you for giving it to us, and we pray for the help and strength we need to honor and respect it and follow it.

We thank you very much, in Jesus' name. Amen. Also wanted to update you on Derek Strauss, who was taken to the hospital. He felt like his face had some type of pain on his face, and his left arm, and his head was hurting, so they thought it could be some problems with the heart.

And so far, they have found nothing in that regard. They're still checking him out at the hospital. I want to thank George DeCampus, who went downtown instead of me, to be able to see what was happening. And he was with him for a few hours downtown in the afternoon and up until about the six o'clock hour. And then he said he was going to come back after that time. So I certainly appreciate the fact that he went down there to be with him. Also remind you that tomorrow, Barb Fauch goes in for an operation at 1.30 to remove a little growth on her neck.

That you would – they don't know what it is if it's cancerous or non-cancerous or non-malignant or whatever. But certainly she asks for your prayers in that regard. She's one of our faithful social committee leaders here for the Cincinnati East area. So we certainly ask you to please join us in prayer for her, that everything will be well.

So Chapter 15, we're going to get into – Mr. Stiver and I are going to share. I'm going to do verses 1 to 22. He's going to pick it up there and take it all the way through the rest of Chapter 15, Chapter 16 to verse 24, and then I'll wrap it up with verses 25 to 40. Let me also remind you if you have any questions to submit, if you're here or you're on the webcast, you can submit them by sending them to UCG Bible study.

All three together, UCG Bible study, all small case, at gmail.com, and we'll do our best to answer them tonight. Just to start off, I had a brief little correction from last time. Mr. Antion said that Paul was a Gentile. Well, if I said that, I truly apologize. I assume that that was a slip. It was a slip. He was the apostle to the Gentiles, but he was not a Gentile. Paul said he was a Hebrew, and he was. He was actually a Benjamite. Not a Vegemite, but a Benjamite. Vegemites are from Australia. Then he quotes a couple of scriptures on it.

Yes, that is true. Then it says, wasn't Paul of the tribe of Benjamin? Yes. Anyway, I wanted to clarify that. If I led you astray, I'm sorry, and I apologize. It was a slip of the tongue, not a slip of the head. I don't believe that. Acts 15, we're going to see in this particular chapter the Council at Jerusalem. We're going to see verses 1-22 questions in the decision. Then verses 23-25, we'll see the messages sent out, sent forth. Then we're going to see the second journey for the apostle Paul as he begins to launch out verses 36-41. The apostle Paul wanted to be careful how he was dealing with the Gentiles. He wasn't going around telling them you had to first become a Jew in order to become a spiritual Israelite. In other words, they didn't have to become a part of physical Israel to become a part of spiritual Israel. So he wanted to make sure that he dealt with them effectively and properly. Remember, too, he had been trained by Jesus Christ. So he knew what Christ's will was for them after he was converted in Acts 9. He was then taken for several, we don't know, up to three and a half years or three years in Arabia where he was trained by Jesus Christ. He says that in Galatians 1-12 and 17. So he wanted to be careful how he dealt with them. In Galatians 2, we might just take one quick look as a little bit of background to this whole situation. Galatians 2-12, we read this, for before that certain came from James, certain group of men came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles.

So this was Peter. So verse 11 says, Peter was come up to Antioch, he said I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. So Peter comes up, remember Peter was instrumental in the Gentiles being converted. Peter was the one who went to Cornelius, who said, how can we refuse that this man, this Gentile man, has the same type of spirit, the same type of heart and attitude that we all should have as Christians? And then the others who were with him witnessed that. They agreed, they testified, yeah, this is good. We see them receive the Holy Spirit just as we did so that God has bestowed upon them these wonderful blessings. So now Peter came and Paul said I had to withstand him to his face because he was to be blamed. He did wrong. Verse 12, for before certain men came, before that certain men came, before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles.

So remember, Peter didn't have a problem staying with Simon the Tanner. And tanners are people who deal with dead bodies. And a Tanner who dealt with dead hides and dead carcasses would have been unclean. And yet Peter was staying with him at his home down by the seaside in Joppa. So here, as soon as he hears the James, a group from James is coming, remember James represents a very conservative element in the church who believed that you needed to first be Jew and then be Christian. So he did eat with the Gentiles until they came.

But when they were come, he withdrew himself and separated, fearing them which were of the circumcision. So when those who were coming, he perceived were the Jews that were coming there. He didn't want them to see him eating with these uncircumcised Gentiles. So he got up and stepped aside. And the other Jews dissembled likewise. So any of the others who were in the party with Peter, they also got up and left, insomuch that even Barnabas, Mr. Courageous, Mr. Encourager, Mr. you know, gentle, kind man, even Mr. ... well, maybe we should all do this. So he got up and he left too. Barnabas also was carried away with her dissimulation, with her pretense. Wait a minute. Now you've just been eating with these people. How must these people feel? But when I saw that they walked on uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you being a Jew live after the manner of the Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews? You're going to separate yourself. You're going to be a Jew. Why are you going to make them? You're recognizing they're separate already. Why do you want to make them like you? Why do you want to make them have to be circumcised? He said, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. Why did you do this? Why did you separate? Now some people think that they had this running rift the rest of their lives which they did not. We'll see that in Acts chapter 15. And in fact, by this time, Peter has come around to seeing that the Gentiles do not need to be circumcised and followed the rituals, the ceremonial cleansings that were still needed and necessary as long as there was a temple there for the Jews. So we're going to see that as we go through Acts 15. I just want to give you that little bit of background. Paul said something to Peter about it. It said something to Peter and therefore Peter's judgment changed. We're going to see that he changed on behalf of the Gentiles. So chapter 15 in verse 1 of the book of Acts.

He says, And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren that unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Wow! There was a man in England who read the Scriptures, Old Testament, read about circumcision to be a part of the covenant, and wrote in for a visit. I was one of the visiting teams in England at that time.

He wasn't in my area, but he was in my friend's area.

And before my friend got to him, this man circumcised himself. And he was sore.

He was sore. He thought he had to be circumcised in order to be pleasing to God. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 19. Let's answer the question. 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 19.

Circumcision, according to Paul, is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing but serving God, keeping the commandments, following God. That's what it counts, not circumcision. Now, if you go back to Leviticus 12 and verse 3, Leviticus 12 and verse 3, take a quick look here and see what God speaks about circumcision.

Get there in a minute. Leviticus 12 and verse 3, it says, In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. So in order to join, to be a bona fide apart, and to be a part of the covenant relationship, they had to do this. In Exodus 12 and verse 48, in order to participate in the Passover service, they had to be circumcised. Exodus 12. Exodus 12 and verse 48 says, When a stranger shall sojourn with you, will keep the Passover up to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised.

And then let him come near and keep it. He shall be one as one that is born in the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. So it was true circumcision was necessary for entrance into physical Israel to partake of that covenant that God established with Abraham before.

But as I read to you 1 Corinthians 7.19, or quoted, let's read it, look at it, 1 Corinthians 7.19, where the apostle Paul boldly tells the Gentile church, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Don't talk about what you do to the flesh, but the keeping of the commandments of God. That's what was important. Walking in God's ways, that's what was important. And it's interesting over in Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2. And by the way, Mr. Stiver, anytime you want to chime in with anything, please feel free to help me out.

Do you have any comments? Okay, but verse 28, Romans 2.28-29, For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. So you don't have to be physically circumcised, you do have to be spiritually circumcised. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Now, is circumcision an okay thing for people to do for their little baby boys? Of course. Of course. It is a matter of cleanliness. They do find that the wives of Jewish men have far less incidence of cervical cancer. So they know that as a statistical fact. So we're not condemning circumcision, we're condemning circumcision as necessary for spiritual salvation. So keep that in mind, because you know San Francisco has a law out there. They're trying to pass a law, I don't know if it's passed or not, but they're trying out in that area. Do you have a comment on it? Yes, they're trying to forbid circumcision in the city of San Francisco, which seems rather odd, considering it has a significant Jewish population. So we'll see how that goes. And again, they're talking about religious persecution, because the same type of people who would forbid that would probably be voting for burkas for women, for the Shiite women to wear burkas. They would probably be voting for that. So it is amazing what comes up and comes out. Alright, so, verse 1 of chapter 15, we see the problem. Verse 2, Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension, and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So here we have a dispute.

Let's go up and get this resolved, because the one was teaching this and the other was teaching that. It was a doctrinal dispute. A doctrinal dispute. Verse 3, So being sent on their way by the church. They passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles. Remember, that was a huge thing going back in chapters 10 and 11. Huge thing for the Gentiles to be converted. And they caused great joy to all the brethren. They explained to the brethren what was going on. The brethren were very happy to hear. The Gentiles were now being converted. The question was, was this legitimate without them first being circumcised? And verse 4, And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them. So many times, like with our general conference of elders when we have meetings and the church is there. We have all types of reports that come in. Reports about what's going on, reports from the president, reports from the treasurer, reports from the ministerial services, reports from the media. We have reports. We have reports what's going on, the status of the church, reports from international areas. People get excited about finding out what's going on, about new ways to preach the gospel, these kingdom of God seminars that are going to be coming up. That'll be another new step forward for us as we launch that program in September, I think September 10th. And it'll be exciting for us to have those going on all over the world, reaching out to people that have already shown an interest in the church through their taking of the Good News magazine and showing some of their interest in other ways by being able to come and listen and hear seminars being taught to them about the kingdom of God. So they were excited, but they were received and they were received well.

Once in Jerusalem they told all that God had done through them what God was doing. They were the willing participants, but God was the one who got the credit, the things that God had done with them.

Verse 5, but some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed... So you had people who came in, but they still came in with a little bit of baggage. They came in with their spiritual baggage dragging behind them. They weren't quite willing to give that up yet. They weren't quite willing to yield, but they were converted. He said, some of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying, it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

Now, the law of Moses could be defined many ways. First five books, the law of Moses.

The law of Moses could be the Ten Commandments. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.

Any number of things, any part out of the Ten Commandments, the sacrificial law, the law of Moses, whatever comes out of the law of Moses could technically be called the law of Moses. But what is he referring to here? The portion of the law that was given that had to do with the ceremonies, the ceremonies and those particular actions which made a person justified to go worship at the temple. Ceremonial cleanliness. Ceremonial, what they had to do to be clean, to wash themselves, to make all the things that had to be done in order to fulfill the cleanliness of the law, the ceremonies, to make a person ready to go to the temple. That's what they wanted them to do. It wasn't the Ten Commandments. It wasn't saying, you need to just keep the Ten Commandments because nowhere did the Apostle Paul waive the Ten Commandments for them. Let's go on and read, and we'll have this clarified a little bit more. I have a scriptural quote here, 2 Chronicles 2318.

2 Chronicles 2318, that I did not check up, but it is in my inspired margin, so it must have some relevance. 2 Chronicles 2318. Yes, it says, and Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord by the hand of the priests of the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord as it is written in the law of Moses.

So we're talking about sacrifices, talking about burnt offerings, talking about what you would do in that sense. He said, with rejoicing and with singing as it was ordained by David, that the law of Moses contained sacrifices as well. So verse 6. So what part of the law of Moses were they concerned about? The part that talked about circumcision, the entrance into the land of Israel. Ten commandments were not the issue here. How do we know that? Because we see the Apostle Paul throughout many other of the books of the epistles that he wrote, very much standing for the commandments, like we read. Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments. So he was not against the commandments of God. He was not against the Ten Commandments, but he's here telling them that you cannot make these people into Israelites.

They don't have to be made into Israelites physically in order to be saved. That was the question. So verse 6. Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. So they had a meeting, they had a big meeting. I remember years ago in Pasadena, every year, every January, they had what they called a ministerial conference. And I started going out there about 1965. I was ordained in 1964. Started going out in 1965, and almost every year thereafter, I would go out for the ministerial conference. And all the ministers, many ministers from all over the world, would come in, and they would be there to have meetings. And we would go over various questions that had been asked, all over from our congregations, and people had submitted questions. And Mr. Herbert Armstrong and other individuals would sit up there, and they would give answers to these questions that we would have. And so they had an opportunity to teach us all together, so that we all could speak with the same voice. So they came together to consider this matter. Verse 7. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, Ben and brethren, you know that a good while ago, so Peter stands up, God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

So Peter stands up first. Now, he wasn't the one in charge here, apparently. The one who had the overall direction of this was James. This is being held in Jerusalem. James apparently became the headquarters or the headquarters apostle at that time, James the brother of Jesus.

So Peter stood up. He said, you know that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. Verse 8. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us. They actually spoke in tongues after they received the Holy Spirit.

And then after that, we're baptized. And He made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. He cleansed them. He cleaned them up. He made them Christians, just like He made us Christians. That's what He's talking about. So again, He wants to make it clear to God there is no difference between us, Jew and Gentile, because God has cleansed them. Ephesians talks about God who broke down the middle wall of partition so that they didn't have anything dividing them anymore. Ephesians 2. I think verses about 7 through 9. Verse 10.

Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Why are you doing this to them? The yoke, the circumcision of adults. It entitled them to be a part of physical Israelites. It does nothing for the heart. It does nothing for the heart. It does something to the flesh.

It does nothing for the heart. Galatians 5 verses 1 and 2. Galatians chapter 5 verses 1 and 2.

We read this. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall not, Christ shall profit you nothing. In other words, just by being circumcised, that doesn't do anything for you. Now is he calling God's law a law of bondage? No, but it led people into going a direction where they throw, ah, this way is too hard to follow. No, he's following this.

He said, no, they were not able to follow that. Verse 11. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, back in Acts 15, 11, we shall be saved in the same manner as they.

How are we saved? Ephesians 2 verse 8. By grace are you saved through faith, not by circumcision are you saved by a knife. By grace are you saved through faith.

That's how people are saved. They don't have to first undergo circumcision physically in order to be saved. So verse 12. Then all the, all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul. So there's a multitude there. There are those who came, you know, representing the Gentiles, or those who came representing the Pharisees who were over in those areas who said, we can't do this. We're not allowed to, we're not allowed to let people become Christians without being circumcised. So they were there. The multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul. That was, that was amazing. If I could interject. Sure. When you read back in, I mean that they quieted down because you're talking about a Jewish culture because bulk of the brethren came out of a Jewish background and those who didn't came out of a Greek background, both of which are well known for their noisiness. When they get into a, you know, a vigorous discussion, well known for their noisiness. Because it said in verse six, the apostles and elders came together to consider the matter in verse seven, and when there had been much dispute or debate, and now they all fall silent. You know, that you got to appreciate the fact that, whoa, you know, it's just like being shot at and missed, that they would all fall silent. So, and considering the cultural background of everybody. Good point. They all wanted to keep quiet so that they could listen and hear what God had done among the Gentiles. So Barnabas and Paul, they're the ones out there working with the Gentiles, they give their report. Peter says, hey, I'm all four of them not being circumcised. Why? Because I saw that God gave them the Holy Spirit without being circumcised. I went there. I was there. God chose me to be first among them, to go there. First among all the other apostles to go take the message to the Gentiles. And so, verse 15, they kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul, declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. I love the way Luke puts it.

God did the work, but He did it through them. They were willing participants.

They didn't resist God. They were in His hands for Him to be able to use. And in verse, so He says, and again, now we see the decision.

And after they had become silent, again, they had become silent once more, James, who is this James? Mark 6, verse 3. Jesus Christ had a brother named James. Galatians 1, 19 says that James, the Lord's brother, was the one that the apostle Paul went up to see at Jerusalem. So every commentary feels this was James that we believe was the brother of Christ. Some of them might say he was the cousin, but this was the James who was the brother of Jesus Christ. After they had become silent, once again, a lot of dispute, a lot of frustration about this issue, James answered, saying, men and brethren, listen to me. So I'm going to summarize and give you the summary of this whole matter. I'm going to tell you what the answer is. So James is the moderator. Chapter 1, 19, he's the brother of the Lord. He says, listen to me. Verse 14, Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.

And with this, the words of the prophet agree, just as it is written, quote, after this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins. I will set it up so that the rest of the mankind may seek the Lord, even the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who does all these things. It's found in Amos 9, verses 11 and 12. God was going to call Gentiles. And that's a prophecy even beyond that time, but he applies it to what he sees happening. God said he's going to call the Gentiles. God says he's going to be a banner to the Gentiles. I think it's in Isaiah 11, verse 10. He's going to be a banner. He's going to stand up for the Gentiles. He's going to be the flag. He's going to be the flag that the Gentiles look to and can rally behind. So Amos 9, verses 11 and 12, God knew he was going to call Gentiles into the faith. That's what he's saying. Here's the Scripture. Known to God from eternity are all his works. Whatever God wants to do, God knows what he's doing. That's what he's saying. Who could have given them the Holy Spirit? Who could have imbued them with the Holy Spirit? Only God could have done that. So then in verse 19, therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God.

Yeah, circumcision is a trouble. It's not a trouble when you're a baby. It is a trouble when you're older. Not much of a trouble when you're a baby. But that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. I'm a Gentile. I don't have to keep the Sabbath. I can even murder people.

I can steal. I can lust. I can even set up an idol. I just have to not be polluted by it.

I can't commit adultery. Sorry, sexual immorality. Stay away from that.

From things strangled. Everything else I can do. I can dishonor my parents. I can murder them. I can steal. Some say all he required of the Gentiles were these things. No. He was answering the question, should they have to follow the law of Moses, quote unquote, the sacrificial, the ceremonial, the circumcision side of the law? And he says, no, they don't. But these things we want to remind them about. They need to quit being polluted by idols because at that time, almost all the meat sold in the marketplace had been already offered to idols. To stay away from sexual immorality, to worship the pagan gods, they had their temple priestesses. If you could get close to the priestess, you were getting close to the god that she represented. So stay away from that. Stay away from things strangled. They didn't have a proper way of bleeding the animals. They didn't care whether they were strangled or just killed, laid on their side, didn't give them a chance to bleed properly. God says, no, don't have that. Don't allow that. He didn't allow eating of the blood. So this is what he tells them to stay away from. Guide lives for them. He didn't discuss murder. He didn't discuss lies. And by the way, it is not a trouble to obey God to keep His commandments. In fact, they're represented by what word? Love.

Keeping the commandments. What is the love of God? This is the love of God.

It doesn't say this is the trouble of God that we keep His commandments. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments. He that says, I know Him and keeps not His commandments is a liar.

1 John 2 verses 3 and 4. And the truth is not in Him.

So He wasn't talking against the commandments of God. He was talking against the system, what you had to go through to become a part of physical Israel. Circumcision and some of the other rituals and ceremonies that had to do with that. So going on, notice what He says. But that we write to them, stay away from these things, abstain from things polluted from the idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach Him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath. So He's not against the teachings of Moses. He was against that portion of it. Then it pleased the apostles and elders, notice, with the whole church. There was church involvement. Brethren could give input. Brethren could listen. Brethren could hear. Brethren did not decide. But they did. There was a decision made after James heard all this information. He summarized it. Then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send certain men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who's also called Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. So there was encouragement to send these individuals along with them. So again, in order to take the message out, not only just send the message, but also to take it out and literally have it brought out to the people the decision that was made in Acts 15 of this council. Randy? Okay. Let's go back to verse 22 because there's another aspect that's of great value to us here to consider. This was a great challenge to the church at the time. How are we going to deal with the circumcision issue? You know, those who were of the circumcision school of thought thought that should be the teaching, and then there were Paul and Barnabas, and those who had come to understand what, in fact, God was doing with the Gentiles. But it was a conflict within the church. Notice, though, that there was a systematic process that the leading apostles ran here, essentially as a council of the church at the time. First, the problem when they brought everybody together, the problem was clearly stated as to what was the challenge. So there was no confusion. Everybody understood what the problem was. And then each side was presented in a debate.

You know, the one side explained their view, the other side their view. And then secondly, the facts were presented by those who are acquainted with them. Paul and Barnabas, explaining what they had experienced. Those were critical facts. You know, they were seeing Gentiles converted, and circumcision wasn't required. They were seeing people growing in the fruits of God's Spirit, and circumcision wasn't required for the male Gentiles for that to happen.

Thirdly, the council of the pastors there, or rather the apostles, there was the council given by a person trusted for his objectivity. That was Peter.

Now, Peter had background in this too, because the household of Cornelius was fundamentally a Gentile household, and he was the first one way back, way back, earlier in the Church, some years before this. And they sort of had forgotten the implications of what Peter had done, and what God had led him to do, and what even the elders at the time that Peter did it, back in Acts chapter 10 and 11, even what they had come to see, and they rejoiced, you know, so God is granted unto the Gentiles repentance unto life. Somebody had forgotten, hold it, we've covered that before.

Well, Peter reminded them, and so he had that objective perspective at that time.

Then, fourthly, they sought unanimity for the decision. The decision was made, they sought to get everybody on board, and when they all fell silent, that was to listen, you know, to Paul and Barnabas and so on, that the unanimity was starting to come around. And then finally, the fifth thing is an attitude of preserving unity of the Spirit and the unity of the Church that was sought that remained utmost in the Council's mind. You know, we're going to get through this, we'll come to the truth, they're seeking God's direction, he gave it to them, and instead of making it a conflict or a break apart issue, they found a way to work systematically through this, calmly, as calmly as Jewish Christians, Greek Christians can be.

You know, there's a lot of emotion, but they can calm down, and they can be reasoned with, and they were, they reasoned with each other.

And then, following up on the formula, they sent the letter, we'll read that in a moment, and they sent to the Gentile areas, specifically to Antioch, which was up in Syria, north of Jerusalem quite some distance, they sent Judas, who is called Barsabas, now that's a Jewish name, so he, Judas is, so he would then be one that was from the area of Judea. Isilos, however, is a Greek name. He was Jewish, but that was his Greek name, therefore he was what was called a Hellenistic Jew, a Jew that lived in the Greek area. So that's where he was from. So they had one of each, going up and explaining the teaching, backing up Paul and Barnabas there in Antioch, and the other congregations undoubtedly along the way. It was a systematic process that helped the church walk through this challenge and not get sore and get upset with each other to walk through it, resolve it, and move forward, and they did. They had a good lesson there for us, isn't it? Now, we go on to read the letter. So they wrote this letter to them in verse 23. The apostles, the elders, and the brethren to the brethren who are of the Gentiles. So it's written on behalf of the brethren. I mean, the brethren are very much a part of this. There was undoubtedly opportunity to let their voices be heard, and it's always important for God's ministers to listen to the observations of the members of the church. You know, sometimes we can get into an opinion of our own studiousness and assume that we have nothing to learn from anybody else, but that's not a good, safe place to be. There's much to be learned, and it was vital that everybody be heard and have this thing worked out and resolved, and a positive spirit came because of that. So the brethren are involved in this, too. The message is going on their behalf of encouragement to the brethren who are in the Gentile areas, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles, and Antioch, Cyri, and Cilicia. Greetings. We have heard that some who went out from us troubled you with words unsettling your souls. That's a very tactful letter. We have heard of this, saying that you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment.

Because there had been some who assumed that they could decide what the teaching of the church was, independent of the processes of the ministry, who had gone up there and had caused no small stir.

But they had not come by the direction of the apostles or the rest of the elders, either.

It seemed good to us, and it's in many respects a very warm and a very friendly letter. It seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, emphasizing the unity of the Spirit there, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. Now Barnabas and Paul were essentially their pastors up there in those areas. And so they were beloved of the brethren in Jerusalem. That's a good message. And through the process where there had been tension, by the time it was done, they were beloved again. They were troublemakers. They were in fact had wisdom for the church and truth. Men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so they paid appropriate honor to Paul and Barnabas and their service. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will report the same things by word of mouth. Now that in itself was again another stroke of wisdom and good judgment and certainly I think just inspired by God at the time.

When you can write a letter, and a letter can be pretty effective for some, but when it's something of this huge importance, it's so much better to send somebody with the letter so they can read the letter, they can tell the story, you can really get a complete feel for what's going on. You know, we've been trying to do that with in the United Church of God to fill in the knowledge and keep all of our brethren scattered about as we are in this world today.

Keep them up to date on what's happening and, you know, with a pulse on not only the church, but the work that God is having us to do. So we've sent them, they can give the same things by word of mouth, for it seemed good to us, good to the Holy Spirit and to us. And by this, by the Holy Spirit, it means through inspiration that they felt that they were inspired through God's Spirit to do this. And they were, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things that you abstain from meats offered to idols, or things offered to idols, from blood and from things strangled and from sexual immorality. As Mr. Antionate explained, things offered to idols, the meat in many of the Gentile cities was almost all the meat that was sold in the market was offered to an idol. Then the offeror would take some of it home and some would go to the priest or priestesses of whatever pagan temple it was, and then what isn't going to be consumed because the deep freezes never worked very well back then. Then they would sell it in the marketplace. Virtually all the meat was offered to idols. So that probably became a bit of a problem. Later, the Apostle Paul, and you can read about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, well, most of chapter 8, he explained later that the idols really don't amount to anything and don't contaminate the meat. But where there is a conscience issue, you must be very careful.

The conscience issue was a concern. I remember a story of one of our ministers who many years ago, there was a family that had come from a vegetarian background into the church.

They knew they could eat meat, clean meat, of course. But it took two years in the church before they were ready to try it. The husband and wife had grown up in that faith, and they had never eaten meat. So they called one of our elders, a good friend of ours in those days, who is deceased now, but a great servant of God. Anyway, they called him and his wife and said, Would you come over and have dinner with us? And he said, Sure. And they seemed really serious.

He said, Everything okay? He said, Yes. We're going to have hamburgers.

And of course, the elder knew exactly why they were feeling serious, because this was the first time that they had ever eaten meat. And so they wanted him and his wife to be there. I don't know.

Make sure they survived. And they wouldn't know if they all got sick. No, it made them sick when they ate it. Their bodies weren't used to it. And they were still working through the sort of conscience of motion. Not the conscience so much. They got past that, but there's certainly an emotional issue that the body pays attention to. Later on, they gradually got to be okay, and they could do that. But there was a conscience they had to get over that hurdle, and then the body had to get over it, too. Anyway, from blood. And what do you mean from blood? Well, even today, in some cultures, blood sausage and blood pudding is very popular.

But of course, we'd never think about eating it because it's made with pork blood.

But we wouldn't eat it if it was beef blood, because God forbids us to eat the blood. So blood was in a lot of products. You can't, even if it was beef or goat, you don't eat the sausage that's the blood sausage. Or from things strangled. That's where the blood's left in the meat.

And from sexual immorality. And as Mr. Andean pointed out, virtually all, or nearly all, of the pagan idols and shrines, part of their ceremonies of worship were what we call ritualistic fornication, or sexual immorality to worship the gods and goddesses. You see why paganism had a big draw. But also you can see why there were a number of women, women of the gentile background, who rejected that, and rightly so. And the truth of God, and even what the Jews understood, appealed to them, and so they became God-fearers of the God of Israel.

If you keep for yourselves from these, you will do well. Now this also allowed them, because of these particular issues, it allowed the fellowship of the Jewish brethren and the gentile brethren and the common meals they would share not to have problems, so that they could continue to do that. So then we go on to the next thing. So that was set out. They sent them off, verse 30, and when they gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.

And when they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. This was really, encouraging. I mean, you've got to try to imagine what that must have been like for the gentile brethren and how, frankly, patient they had been. They had been shielded by Paul and Barnabas to some degree, but they also knew the dynamics. Now Judas and Silas themselves, being prophets also, so here's a rare instance where we have ministers who were of what we would call the rank or the position, maybe rank isn't the right word, of a prophet. And he gave some to be apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers and helps. That's back from Ephesians chapter 4 and verse someplace in Ephesians 4. Not verse 11. Yes, it is verse 11, I think. Okay, so these were their position and their services. Ministers were prophets. There were times that God revealed things to clarify as they were going along, and there were a few prophets in the New Testament, not many. And they also exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. So they were good speakers, very encouraging personalities, and God was working through them. And after they'd stayed there for a while, they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles, except it wasn't they. It was just one. Judas went back because Silas said, I kind of like it here. In verse 34, it seemed good to Silas to remain there.

And Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also. So Paul and Barnabas, who had been traveling so much in the previous years, decided to stay in Antioch for a time and have maybe a little bit of a normal life. You can imagine what it must have been like for them. Speaking of a normal life, I send greetings to my wife and daughter, who back home in Columbus here. I've been on the road for a few months down here at home office, while we're waiting for our home to sell up there.

Okay, and then after some days, Paul and Barnabas said, so they decided to have some normalcy in their life. But Paul and Barnabas, I think you would have to say, were fidgety.

They just couldn't take this normal life and routine. Let's go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they're doing.

Not just some of them. Let's just go to this region first, and then we'll come back and rest up. No, let's go see everybody everywhere now. So here we have a very interesting challenge. We just get through this huge hurdle of a doctrinal issue in the church. And now you get these two leading apostles. Bear in mind Barnabas and Paul were both apostles. From Acts 13-2, it shows that.

I make a comment here on Acts 15-36. Acts 15-36 shows us what the ministry does as a matter of normal maintenance. That is, visit the brethren. I feel like sometimes, I remember in Toronto, we used to try to get around to see everybody. We had several teams of ministers in Toronto, elders and ministers. And we would try to launch out. We would launch out seeing new people. Then we would fit in brethren in between. Sometimes brethren would ask us to come by. Sometimes we just hadn't seen these people for a while. So we would call them and say, you know, are you going to be available tomorrow night for us to come visit you? They say, yes, okay, you come. And then we find out later that some of them would call each other. I don't know, Mr. Antion is coming to visit tonight. Do you have any questions? Do you have any Bible questions you can give me to ask him? So they wanted to make sure that when I came, they'd ask me some Bible questions. It's coming to see how you're doing. And if you're doing fine, that's fine. If you have a Bible question, that's your question, fine. You don't have to go find somebody who has a question that could give you so that we feel like you're studious, spiritual, or biblically learned. So they would want to know. But just, again, I'd like the principle, and there's a difference between visiting and counseling. So we go sit with you, come to visit you in your home to see how you're doing. That's all. This one lady I remember visiting in Toronto, she, outside of Toronto, she was so excited for my wife and me to see where she sat and did her Bible study. She was so excited to see for us to see. I sit down here, and then she was a widow lady. I sit down here in this chair, and this is where I do my Bible Sunday, and I overlook this little pond that's on my property. But she was so excited for us to be there. We didn't preach anything to her or anything. It wasn't anything major that was that, but she was so excited that we came and visited her in her own home. And that's something that ministers can do from time to time. And anybody wants to visit and asks for a visit, we will try to make sure we get to them. But others may be just in routine, and that's what I see Paul and Barnabas doing, wanting to go out and launch out on this tour. I concur with that entirely. One of my mentors and dear friends in the ministry, almost like a father to me, is Glenn White out in Montana. His statement when he was, you know, I spent some of my training years working with him. And valuable they were. He said, a visit is a social call until something comes up where you need to be able to do some counseling. You know, if it comes up, otherwise it's just a social call to, you know, we establish a rapport. We get to know each other. Then you're comfortable when you do need to talk about something, you're able to do that. And otherwise, it's just a wonderful joy to know God's people and to be encouraged by, as Paul said, that my spirit may be encouraged with yours, and we move from faith to faith. There's a little talk about that in Romans chapter one, where he goes through that. So, I remember you talking about the lady with a with a Bible study. One of the first visits, my wife and I were allowed to go on our own, too. This was also in Montana. She wasn't, she wasn't a widow, and you always had to plan when you went to her house to be hungry.

She and her husband had grown up in the ranching community. He'd been a cowboy, and she'd been the cook on different big spreads in southern Montana, and she didn't know how to cook a little.

So, it was always roast beef pot roast with all the onions and vegetables. She didn't cut the onions up, either. She just put them in there, and oh, it was good. Anyway, she was also had the honorary title of grandma. There were some ladies in the church area out there. Grandma Davis is what everybody called her, but she was telling me that she'd written a sermon.

And I thought, what? I thought, uh-oh, this visit has just switched to a counseling.

One of my very first solos, so to speak. My wife was there, though. We both glanced sideways. She said, oh, yes, I wrote a sermon yesterday. I said, you wrote a sermon? She said, sure.

They said, when I get a letter from Mr. Armstrong, a member letter, I'll study all the scriptures, and they'll make me think of things. And so, I'll sit down, and I'll write out a sermon, and then I'll give it to myself. It was her way of doing Bible study. I've got a sermon based on her sermon processes called Bible study by sermon, where you sit down to study through a topic, and you make some notes about the scriptures and the other scriptures that come to mind, and you construct it into a message, and then you use that in a few days for your own Bible study as you give yourself the sermon. That's what she did all the time. That's how she studied God's Word. Well, I thought, whoa, that's actually a very sophisticated way to make God's Word stink deeper into your mind, to have to think through a subject and present it. And then, when you pull it out a few days later, okay, now I get to give myself the sermon, and you read through it and study the scriptures and think through it again. You learn those passages better that way. So, there's a Bible study tip for you. Now, where was I? All right. Back to Paul and Barnabas. Oh, okay, yes, this is the second challenge. Chapter 15 is a challenging chapter. So, they're going to go back, and they're just going to see everybody. Paul and Barnabas don't do halfway. Now, Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark.

John called Mark is the Mark who wrote the book of Mark. And I actually have a sermon that talks a little bit about him that's coming up this Sabbath. There's some more interesting information about him, but I won't tell you that tonight. Mark had gone with them before on their earlier journey a few years earlier, and he got to Pamphylia, and Paul felt like he flaked out. We don't know why Mark went back, but he left and went back. And Paul was not happy about that. You would see an interesting tidbit of Paul's personality unfolding in the next few verses.

But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, that was in southern Asia Minor, and had not gone with them to the work. What do you want to take him for? He just left for no good reason. He comes back, and here we had to go on and get persecuted and beat up, and I was left for dead. And where was John Mark? I don't know if Paul could make his case. And then we find this in verse 39. Paul and Barnabas are like the team up to this point. The contention became so sharp that they parted from one another.

They couldn't travel together. Now, boy, how do you deal with that? Well, notice this.

Barnabas did not make this an issue. He didn't take this to the church. He and Paul kept it between themselves. Now, they couldn't agree, so they had to work separately. And Paul didn't take it to the church either. They dealt with this privately within the ministry. This was an issue with them. They didn't have to go and try to build sides this way, that way, or the other way. So Barnabas, they parted from other weather, and Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. Now, some commentators think that Mark was probably his nephew or a close relative of Barnabas.

Colossians 4-10 points that out. He was a nephew of Barnabas.

So he believed in Barnabas. Now, you stop and think about it. From Mark's point of view, you know, my uncle Barnabas believes in me. You know, he got his self-respect back a little bit, and it gave him encouragement because there's good news to follow. But notice how this unfolds. Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus. Well, hold it. That's where they went first. They went to Cyprus before they went up into Asia Minor. So what did Paul do? Well, Paul said, hey, Silas, let's stop hanging around here. We'll go up to Pamphylia and Selecia and everywhere else, that where Barnabas covers Cyprus, we'll go up there. And he took Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren by the grace of God, and he went through Syria to Selecia, strengthening the churches. Now, you stop and think. Paul and Barnabas always travel together, but now you have quite a lot of areas to cover. And so Christ does this.

You go that way, Barnabas, and you go this way, Paul. Get twice as much done.

He divided their forces so they could cover more and get more done. So you know, it's the way you can see the hand of Christ. Now, whether they could have resolved the issue or not, clearly what Christ wanted was Mark to continue to serve, and Silas was sitting there. And there's no use to have a sitting Silas. You know, don't sit in Silas, so you've got to go out and go to work. And so off they went, and they covered all those areas. And you know, it all worked out with Mark, and Silas in the end. When you go back here to...oh, let me see, let me get the scripture that it's in. It's in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 11. I'm going to make a note of that. 2 Timothy 4. Paul is writing to Timothy, and he wants Timothy to come and see him. But he says, Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. As Paul got older, he and Mark patched up whatever disagreements they had, whatever differences that was all gone.

And they were working as a team. This was, I believe, the time that he was telling Timothy to bring the parchments with him. And you can't help but wonder, bring the parchments. Were those copies of Paul's letters? Perhaps he was beginning to think about what is God inspired that might be preserved as a part of his word later on. It's possible, it doesn't really say.

But Mark was a writer, and that would certainly be consistent. Timothy had to bring the parchments and bring Mark. Go and get Mark! Mark wasn't where Timothy was. Go get him and bring him along. I need him. You know, it's like, what was it? Alexander Graham Bell. The first thing he said on the telephone is, Watson, come here. I need you. And Paul said, Mark, come here. I need you.

So that all resolved itself in the long run, and a lot of time our differences do. Just calm the emotions. Go do the work. And some things just disappear if we let them.

Don't nurture grudges. Forget about them. Move forward. It's a fascinating study in resolving conflict, keeping private things private, and not disturbing the peace of others, and finding a way to get busy and do God's work, and doing it even better than they had before. Okay, so he went to Derby, and he went to Lystra in chapter 16. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy. Oh boy. So there we now we come to Timothy. Timothy gets involved. The son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. So Timothy was the son of a Jewish woman named Eunice, and his grandmother's name was...

Lois. Lois, Lois and Eunice. So Eunice was his mother. But she was married to a Greek, so Timothy was half Jew and half Greek. Now, Paul was stoned and left for dead outside the city walls of Lystra. That was earlier. A few years earlier. About five years earlier, actually. And a group of the brethren were standing around him, wondering how do you bury an apostle, when he stopped being dead. Whether he was only mostly dead or he was really dead, and God revived him. Either way, he revived him. And I wonder if Timothy wasn't standing there as a young teen ager, perhaps, because he was a young minister when Paul talks about him even years later. So very likely was a very young lad at the time. He was well spoken of, well witnessed, by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Timothy had a positive reputation at a very young age. He was one who had really had a lot of zeal and enthusiasm and dedication to God. And it was obvious. You know, he was serving and helping and doing whatever. Paul wanted to have him go with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were of that region, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now, two things. Paul recognized it was time to train another generation. That's an important lesson. Sometimes as parents, we forget to train and pass on the wisdom we've accumulated to our children as they come of age. In the Church, we need to do that. Even as we get older and serving in the Church, we need to be training replacements to take our place in service, handing on to them opportunities to serve and sharing with them what you've learned, and building friendships that bridge the generations within the Church. Paul was doing that, and Timothy was the classic case in point. He became like a son to Paul in the faith. Now, he circumcised him. He said, well, why did you circumcise him? We just went through that whole circumcision thing. Technically, because he had a Jewish mother, Timothy was considered Jewish, but in the Greek families, the father had almost dictatorial powers in the family, and so he didn't apparently allow him to be circumcised. But Paul wanted him to be circumcised, and you stop and think about why would that be. Well, Paul said, because there were Jews there, and this was still an issue that some would have conscious issues, plus new people coming in, not understanding it, because they knew his father was a Greek. Timothy was well known around about.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, and you know this passage well, verse 19, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all. He wanted Timothy also to be a servant to all, that I might win the more. So to the Jews, I am as a Jew.

Now, it was easy for Paul because he was a Jew. Timothy was half Jewish, and so he needed to deal with the Jews. They decided, I am sure Timothy agreed, that this is the wise thing to do in serving and helping. To become all things to all men, Paul goes on to conclude that section, I have become all things to all men, and I might by all means save some, because we make a positive connection with people who feel comfortable and safe that they can talk to you, and you can begin to explain more to them. And God then works through that. So then Timothy was circumcised because of the Jews in the region who knew he was Greek. And then in verse 4, They went through the cities, delivered to them the decrees to keep, carrying the letter and explaining it. And Stylus was there to give another witness of it, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. And the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in number daily. When we are in unity with each other and with God, even when we have differences, we still work through them and move forward, then God can bless the church because we have a very healthy culture institutionally that God can bring people safely into. We have what we call in the camp program, the zone, functioning within the church.

Then we go on to verse 6. Now when they had gone through Phrygia in the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. So how were they forbidden to preach the word in Asia? It was a part of Asia Minor at the time. There was a section of it that was called Asia. Now we refer to all of Turkey as Asia Minor, but at that time it was a certain portion of it that was, and they weren't allowed to go there. The Holy Spirit forbade them. Well, circumstances is one of the ways that God inspires us to do things.

And sometimes inspiration. You know, well, as I mull it over, I think it's wiser to go there than to go here. He might have done it that way. There was another way, and that's a vision. Paul had that vision in a moment, one of the few that he had, but there were. At that time, the New Testament visions were used periodically to communicate, and they had come to Mysia.

They tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. Whoa! They got stopped again.

Was it by circumstance? Was it Paul thinking, no. I just don't feel right about going over there.

It doesn't really say, but we've seen it happen in similar ways. So passing Mysia, or Mysia, they came down to Troas, which is on the coast, and a vision. Now we have a vision. A vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him. Macedonia was across the Dardanelles. I think that was where the Dardanelles are, across the Adriatic there, beckoning him to come across to Macedonia. Well, this is the call from Macedonia. Come over to Macedonia and help us. So Paul, in his vision, he sees this man as we're on the coast of Europe, because he's in what is considered Asia, and it's on the coast of Europe. Come and help us.

Now, after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia. Whoa! Now, we just changed our pronouns. Notice verse 6. After they had gone, and verse 7. After they had come, and they tried, and then in verse 8, they came down to Troas, and now it says, we sought.

Now, we know that Luke wrote Acts. Now we find Luke traveling with Paul. Thus, he speaks in the first person. Whereas he was speaking in the third person, now he switches to the third person. This is one of the we sections of the book of Acts. Now, when you look at that, you'll see that in the book of Acts. Luke, we know, was a beloved physician. Paul was going to go to Bithynia, for example, but the Spirit of God prevented him. You could put two and two together, and perhaps God was sort of guiding Paul by his own health. We know Paul had certain health problems, and getting beaten up and left for dead and things like that, they just didn't help them at all.

And Luke was a physician, and knew how to help him care for him. So, maybe he was being funneled out to Troas, prevented to go anywhere else, because he didn't feel well, until they got there. And then here's Luke. And so now Luke goes with him. He feels better. They went to Macedonia, concluding the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now, what is happening here is the gospel of the kingdom is jumping from one continent to another.

Now, it's not a huge long jump, because the sea is narrow there, but it doesn't matter. It's one continent to another. So therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neopolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. It was named after the father of Alexander the Great, Philippi was, and it was a capital, a Roman provincial capital there. There were many Roman veterans that were settled in cities like that, so it had a large Roman population of army veterans and such. They populated that area. So Philippi was also, because of its location near the coast, was a very important business center for that part of Greece as well, and Macedonia. And we were staying in the city for some days, and on the Sabbath day, we went out from the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made. What that tells us is that there were not many Jews in Philippi.

According to Jewish traditions, they needed ten households in a city, ten male households, to be able to have a synagogue. And if they didn't have ten, then they simply had a place where they went for prayer and for fellowship and such along with that. And they did that by the riverside someplace there in Philippi, where prayer was customarily made. We sat down and spoke to the women who met there. So obviously, there weren't a lot of men. There were a number of women. Now, a certain woman named Lydia heard us, and she was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira. Purple was made from a little sea mollusk, and it was very difficult to extract it. And so purple was very, very expensive as a fabric dye. And needless to say, Lydia was a wealthy woman because she made her business in this. And I'm presuming that she was perhaps a Gentile woman, thus a God fearing woman, rather than a Jewish woman. Seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God. Lord opened her heart and heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, so it wasn't just her. There was a significant baptism. She begged us, saying, if you have judged me faithful toward the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. So Paul, Timothy, and Silas then stayed at her house, which was obviously large because she had all kinds of servants. And she became a base that they could operate from. Lydia carried later one of the epistles of Paul, I think to the Romans, was able to serve. In her normal business travels, she was able to be an adjunct in transporting things for Paul periodically. Now, it happened as we went to prayer. And this is a very interesting episode starting in verse 16. It gives another insight into Paul's sort of fiery personality. It happened as we went to prayer, a certain slave girl, possessed with the spirit of divination, met us, who brought her master's much profit by fortune telling. And the girl followed Paul and us, cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. This she did for many days.

She was a demonic in the sense that she was demon possessed. And as it says, she was a slave girl. Her owners used her, and they made money off of this demon speaking through her, you know, fortune telling or whatever it was. But obviously, demons tend to know who God's people are.

And so she's running around shouting this. Jesus had to deal with a demon or two. They were doing something similar, and he quieted them down. Well, Paul put up with this for many days.

But there comes a limit to Paul's patience. It comes a limit to anybody's patience. Believe me, there comes a limit to God's patience. That's a good lesson for us when it comes to overcoming. Patience is not to be. It was never meant to be inexhaustible. God's patience can be exhausted.

Paul, when his patience was exhausted, got greatly annoyed. Everywhere they go, you have this girl shouting out, you know, he, these servants of the Lord, servants of the Most High God, and, you know, kind of in this loud, raucous way, perhaps. Well, he got fed up with it. He was tired of that, constantly happening behind them, around them, and interfering with their normal processes. So he turned and said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

And he spoke to the demon, and he cast it out. He had the authority to do that. And out he came at that very hour. Then, when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, suddenly she was just a slave girl who couldn't make any money for them, they ceased Paul and Silas and dragged them to the marketplace and to the authorities. You know, I don't know if Paul thought this would happen, but again, bearing in mind the things he'd gone through up to this point, he probably wasn't surprised. They brought them to the magistrates, and then they said, these men, being Jews, exceedingly troubled our city. And they teach customs which are not lawful for us being Romans, to receive or observe. You know, these are trumped-up charges. They weren't doing anything subversive at all, peacefully teaching God's way to those who wanted to know it.

Well, they started a riot. The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes, not their magistrates' clothes. They tore off Paul's and Silas's, and commanded them to be beaten with rods. This would be like a caning, I think, as is done in some Asian countries. And maybe not as flexible as the bamboo. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison. And I presume the throwing was meant to be said. Commanding the jailer to keep them securely. In other words, if they escaped, the jailer would die. That was the Roman law. So that motivated jailers. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in stalks. So their backs are bleeding and welted and bruised. They're probably a mass of black and blue from the back of their neck to the back of their feet.

And welts and sores. And then they had to have their feet in stalks. So where their feet are in stalks, how are you going to lay down or sit up and lean against anything? They were in great pain.

And there I leave them for Mr. Antion to bring them relief.

Okay, thank you. I wanted to bring you, I'll try to bring it home now. In Acts 16 and verse 25.

One of my favorite stories, by the way. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. Now mind you, these men had just been beaten. These men are bleeding. Nobody's tended their wounds. They're in the stalks, probably a stockade. Or in some cases, some felt maybe they fasted their feet into chains and had them pegged into the floor. Some think stockade, Barkley thinks of stockade. And the inner prison was shut with wood, like a wood bar over the door, so they couldn't get out. So here they are. And what are they doing? They are praying at midnight and they are singing hymns. Didn't say they were singing mournful hymns. They were singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. My granddad used to pray in the room next to us when we would stay with him. He wasn't in the church, but he was a Middle Easterner.

And I mean, my wife and I would be there. We were newlyweds, relatively married a year or so. And my granddad would pray so loud so we could hear him through the walls.

He didn't care if we heard. He was praying in Arabic, so I really couldn't understand what he was saying. But I could hear him praying. So Paul and Silas don't mind praying. And they don't mind talking to God. And I don't know what they would have been saying. I can only imagine. They would say, God, you sent us out on this journey. You wanted us to preach the Gospel. How can we do this, being here in prison? But you're the one that is the ruler over at all. If you want us to be out of here, you have to release us. But we can't get out by ourselves. But we know you are our God, and we worship you in our prayer. They had such a demeanor that it affected everybody we're going to see. Not only them, it affected the jailer too before he fell asleep. Verse 26, suddenly there was a great earthquake that said earthquakes were common to this region. But there was in our great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And when it was being shaken and rumbling and rolling, the doors popped open, the bar flew up, the stockades flew up, and they were able to get out. So that the foundations of prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were open, and everyone's chains were loose. Or whenever they were bound, they had chains on their legs, and they were pegged in the ground, because of the rumbling effect, that popped out of the ground. They were all free. The keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep, but he probably wasn't asleep when he first put them there. Interesting, they're put in the inner prison. This is kind of like maximum security. And seeing the prison doors opened after he was awaking out of sleep, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword, and was about to kill himself. Because the punishment was death if you had a criminal who was assigned to death. If not, you got whatever that guy was supposed to do, you got it. And if all those people left, he might as well kill himself, because he'll never get out of there. So he was ready to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, and this is interesting, saying, do yourself no harm, for we are all here. Now what did the Apostle Paul do? Did he exercise power and authority over these other individuals? Yes, he did. So they must have heard him praying before. They knew this was a kind of a special man, and probably said to them, don't run, you'll be killed. Don't try to escape. Stop, guys, don't run. He kept them there. So he was able to tell the jailer, don't kill yourself. We're all still here. And then he called for a light, that's the jailer, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. You men that we've just beaten, you men that we threw into prison, you men that I fastened your legs to the ground and put you in the stockade and locked you in an inner and never touched your wounded body, you men saved my life. You men saved my life. I owe you. And verse 30, he brought them out, and he said, sirs, to prisoners, to criminals, to him criminals, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

How can I be saved? How can I be like you? How can I have the same spirit, the same demeanor, the same care, the same love that I see emanating from you? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved in your household. There. See? We don't have to do anything but believe. What he said, I'm just going to pull this out of Scripture, put it on a Scripture card, stick it on my wall, and say, I don't have to repent. I don't have to do anything. All I have to do is intellectually believe. Well, if you know what believe means, James, it means faith with works. So truly, that would be correct. You have to do something, faith with works. But he did more than that. He told them, you need to believe. You have to have belief. You have to believe God can do it. And notice what he goes on to say in verse 32.

Then he said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him. It wasn't just some momentary feeling that they were converted. It wasn't something hit their heart. When I hear these people say, and suddenly my heart was warmed, I say, take some gas-sex. That'll help you.

Suddenly my heart was warmed. Do you ever have heartburn? That's probably what happened to you. Suddenly my heart was warmed. It isn't just a heartwarming situation. It is somebody who comes to more than that. And so he said, they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in their house. Now here, see, his whole house is being baptized. Then we should baptize children, right? Yes, you should. You should baptize children if they're of an age to be baptized, like 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, or 24. And in those days they did live at home for longer.

And he taught to all those who could hear the word. There was a little baby that they were holding. Do you think the baby heard the word? No, the baby didn't hear the word. They heard signs, didn't hear the word. Spoke the word to all that were in his house. So all that were in his house heard the word. And he took them the same hour, that's the jailer did, took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. He bathed their stripes. He put some Neosporum on it or whatever. He had their polysporum to make them better. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Isn't that amazing? But he understood. They preached to him the word of God, the word of the Lord. It wasn't just some momentary thing. It wasn't some whim that he were baptized. It wasn't some warming of his heart. They heard the word of God. They believed what they heard. Yes, they were prepared for it by God through the circumstance of his life being threatened by him killing himself. He was saved. And immediately after that, he and his family were baptized. So he cleaned up Paul and Silas physically and they helped God clean him up spiritually, the jailer. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them.

And he rejoiced having believed in God with all his household. Another interesting thing is you find belief in baptism here. No mention of repentance, though Acts 2.38, I'm sure he would have required it. But no mention of repentance. It does show how important belief is to baptism that we should make sure we believe. Verse 35, this is an awesome event, an awesome event of belief in baptism. Verse 35, when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers saying, let those men go. So guess what? Paul's back in prison again. He goes back to prison.

Let those men go. So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore, depart and go in peace.

So you're free. They said it's okay. But Paul said to them, they have beaten us openly.

Uncondemned Romans have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No, indeed. I'm not leaving. Let them come out themselves and get us out. Those men who did that to him as Romans, they could have been killed. You cannot beat a Roman. You cannot throw him into prison without due process. And they did all of that without due process. So Paul knew the law.

It also shows us that you can use the law. If you study the law, you can use the law.

I know one time I was driving and I was with three ministers in the car in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. And I went to make a left-hand turn. I was going to make a left-hand turn. And just as I was going to turn, this person steps into the street that I'm turning into. He shouldn't have been crossing, but he did. So I stopped right in the middle of that intersection, waited for him to go by, and after he went by, I proceeded. There was a policeman standing on the corner. He goes, pulls me over, motions to me to move over. So I pulled over. Maybe my lights aren't working. What's going on? So he came up, give me your license. Let me see your license. Let me see your insurance. He said, did I do something wrong, officer? You went through a red light.

I said, I'm sorry, officer. The person was doing that. No, you didn't. You're going to get a ticket.

You know, I didn't like his attitude. You know what I said? What's your badge number?

What's your name? I took his badge number and his name. And I whipped around after that, and I went right to the police station where he was from, where he worked out of. And I told him how I was treated. I said, I try to be a law-abiding citizen. I explained the situation. If I did wrong, I'm willing to pay my, I'm willing to pay. But I'm not willing to be treated like somebody who's a criminal when I was saving somebody's life by not going through on the green light.

And the guy said, I know, and he said, well, you know, we have some some stinkers on the force or whatever. And so I said, I'm going to appeal this.

So sure enough, I wasn't able to go down there, but the ministry who lived there was, went there to represent me. That police officer never showed up. So I was off. I didn't have to pay. That was party. Never showed up. So you can use the law. If you understand the law, you can use it, not abuse it, but you can use it for your sake. So he says, no, let him come get aside. Verse 38, and the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. You bet they were afraid, because they could have died.

Could have been put to death for what they did to them. Then they came and pleaded with them, and brought them out, and asked them to depart out of the city. That also shows you the attitude of Paul. Paul was not trying to get that. I didn't ask for this man's job. I just said, I don't appreciate being treated that way. And I thought I would let you know that if they treat other citizens this way, they are hurting them and hurting your image. Verse 40, so they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia. They went back to Lydia's house where they had originally started, and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. So there was encouragement. The brethren saw them, they brought encouragement to them, and they had a base of operation from Lydia. And by the way, we were in Thyatira, where Lydia, you know, seller of purple. And when we visited Thyatira and Turkey, guess what we saw hanging out of the windows, right near where we visited this one synagogue, of the store? All types of purple scarves, purple cloths. We bought about four of them to bring them back. Now the name of the store wasn't Lydia's, but it was interesting that I thought, here we are in Thyatira. And this lady from Thyatira was a seller of purple. And what did they have hanging out of this store blowing as the wind was blowing? And you could see as this whole bunch of scarves, most of them purple. So it was really interesting. Well, I hope you've enjoyed the Bible study tonight. We didn't have any questions come in tonight, the least we've received. So we're going to have to sign off because we're already a couple of minutes beyond. So anyway, thank you very much for attending. Thank you all on the webcast. We'll see you in two weeks. Good night. I have a question. It's beyond Bible study time.

Well, I know. It says if an animal is bled properly, doesn't mean that blood hasn't gone through it. But there's a way of bleeding it, properly bleeding it, so that the blood goes out of it. But if you kill an animal and just let it sit there, then the blood coagulates in it, and then you've got blood already in it. Yeah, not that blood hasn't gone into it. When a beef is shot for butchering, the heart beats for five minutes, usually. Yeah, so everything goes out. Heart's empty, the liver's empty, everything's empty, provided, you know, it's been stuck to bleed it out. Have a good evening, and we will see you after Pentecost. I'll be back after Pentecost.

Do I want to make that one? This is Michael. Could I have some sound up here? Michael Brandenburg has asked prayers for his mother, Anna Faye Brandenburg, who was admitted to Clinton Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, Ohio, last Sunday morning, with a rapid and irregular heartbeat. She's responding to treatment, but is still weak. So please remember her for Michael. Thank you. All right.