Podcasts about Cilicia

Title: God's Appointed Evangelist: YOU! Text: Acts 21:37-22:21 FCF: We often struggle feeling adequate enough to share our faith with others. Prop: Because God providentially equips us to share the gospel, we must be excellent at submitting to His prompting to share the clear truth of the gospel. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts chapter 21. In a moment we'll read from the LSB starting in verse 37. You can follow along in the pew bible or whatever version you prefer. Last time in the book of Acts Paul was dragged out of the temple and accused of violating a cultural law which prohibited all gentiles from entering the temple grounds. The crowd attempted to kill him. But he was rescued by the Roman commander who was merely trying to keep the peace. We noted last time that because the gospel is offensive we must be ready to endure slander and persecution for it. But we also must be ready to use such opportunities to share the gospel. Today we will see Paul doing just that. From his example we'll be able to understand what that looks like and how the Lord has providentially helped us to do this. So please stand with me to give honor to and to focus on the reading of the Word of God starting in verse 37 of Acts 21. Invocation: Heavenly Father, because we know that nothing happens outside of your decreed will and that all comes about to accomplish your purposes, we can rest assured that everything we have experienced in this life has been guided and directed by your providence. Therefore, we know that we are where we are because you have arranged it and that You have equipped us to do what You ask us to do. Let us then rest in this hope and strive to do all that You have asked us to. To make disciples and teach them all that You have commanded. Help us to see all this and more from the text this morning we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Transition: Let's get right to the text this morning. I.) God providentially equips us to share the gospel, so we must look out for opportunities He gives to share the gospel. (21:37-40) a. [Slide 2] 37 - As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? i. As they neared the Barracks, probably ascending the second stair case, Paul wishes to speak to the Jews, desiring to show compassion on them and share the gospel to them. ii. In this process he very politely addresses the Roman commander in Greek. Something that clearly catches the Roman officer off guard, but we are not exactly sure why. iii. The common language used in Judea would have been Aramaic. Hebrew would have been used in religious conversation and instruction, especially among Judean Jews. iv. Judean Jews in general would have avoided Hellenistic entanglements, chief among them being the Greek language. v. That being said, most Jews would have known at least a little Greek and been able to speak well enough to get by. vi. What makes this even more perplexing to us is what the commander says next… b. [Slide 3] 38 - “Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago raised a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” i. The translation of this question is something that is disputed. ii. We can talk more about it on Thursday. iii. But the guard clearly thinks or has thought up to this point that Paul is an Egyptian Assassin. iv. Again, we can go into the history of this on Thursday, but suffice it to say, something in Paul's speaking Greek has led the guard to ask this question of Paul. v. Paul quickly corrects the commander in the following verse. c. [Slide 4] 39 - But Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.” i. Paul lays out his pedigree. He is a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia and a citizen of that city which is by no means a backwater no name city. ii. Tarsus was an important city for trade throughout the empire. It also had a rich history of education. It was also granted “free city” status, meaning it was permitted to govern itself within the Roman Empire. iii. In other words – Paul is definitely NOT the Egyptian assassin. iv. Furthermore, Paul's heritage and citizenship to a prominent city indicated that his social status was actually above even the commander himself. v. It is probably because of this that the commander permitted him to speak to the crowd who up till recently tried to kill him. d. [Slide 5] 40 - And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, motioned to the people with his hand; and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying, i. The Commander no doubt standing next to him in approval helps to hush the crowd. ii. Then Paul begins to speak to them in the Hebrew language. Although there is a possibility that this means ancient Hebrew which we know was still known and spoken at that time, we also know that it was spoken mostly in religious situations and probably was not the common man's language. Indeed, Jews from Asia would probably not even know Hebrew. So most likely Luke means that Paul spoke Aramaic. e. [Slide 6] Summary of the Point: Today we see Paul taking the opportunity he is given to defend the gospel. But what gave him that opportunity? Paul's unique background, providentially ordered by the Lord, gives him the opportunity to defend the gospel. Paul having the pedigree he had, where he even had a higher social standing than the Roman commander arresting him, equipped him to be allowed to share the gospel that day. And the same is true for us. God has uniquely equipped each of us to share the gospel to people who other believers will never have opportunity. To the extent that where others may be silenced or killed, we will be permitted to at least provide a defense. Therefore, we must be like Paul and have the boldness and determination to speak up when we have an opportunity. Paul could have gone into the barracks and been safely secured against their attack, Instead, he used his social standing to gain an audience and defend the gospel. We should look for similar opportunities to share the gospel that are provided to us through our backgrounds which God arranged. Transition: [Slide 7(blank)] But what is Paul going to say? The crowd isn't exactly friendly. What is his responsibility in conveying the gospel to such a hostile group? Can he just be like Jonah and warn them that in 40 days they'll be destroyed? II.) God providentially equips us to share the gospel, so we must clarify misconceptions about the gospel. (22:1-16) a. [Slide 8] 1 - “Men, brothers, and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you.” i. Paul begins his defense with a similar address that Stephen gave to the Sanhedrin when he was brought before them. ii. Of course, Stephen was accused of speaking against the law of Moses and against the temple too. iii. And Jesus before them was accused of blasphemy and speaking against the temple. iv. What is clear is that the Jews had created a trinity of their own. They worshipped God, the law, and the temple. All of which were intricately connected. v. And bound up into that trinity is their national pride of being the chosen people of God. To attack one of the three is to attack all and to attack their Jewish identity as a whole. vi. It is no accident that the charges brought against everyone the Jews wanted dead were the same. This is the way they can make sure that they can stir up every Jew against the one they want gone. vii. Paul begins his defense which is not only a testimony of his salvation and commission to ministry – but also a rich defense of his own Jewish heritage and standing. b. [Slide 9] 2 - And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even quieter; and he said, i. Right off the bat, the people understand that this is not a Hellenized Jew – at least not entirely. ii. To speak Aramaic, and to do so well enough to make a defense before a hostile crowd, means that he is not rejecting Jewish heritage or culture. iii. The crowd responds with affording him their attention. c. [Slide 10] 3 - “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but having been brought up in this city, having been instructed at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictness of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today, i. Notice that Paul doesn't deny his birth city, but quickly moves past it to recount his early life. ii. From a boy, Paul was brought up in the city of Jerusalem. iii. While in the city, Paul was instructed according to the strictness of the Mosaic law by none other than Gamaliel. iv. The last time we heard that name was at Peter and John's trial before the Sanhedrin. v. Gamaliel's advice was to leave the apostles alone and see what happens of the Nazarene sect. If they are not of God, then they will dissolve to nothing. If they are of God, then the council would be caught fighting against God's will. vi. Pretty sound advice. Advice that they did not heed. vii. Still, from historical records, we know that Gamaliel was a Rabbi and head of a Rabbinical school in Jerusalem and even though they did not listen to his advice on that occasion, we know he was well respected in the Jewish community of that time. viii. Paul indicating that he was zealous for God just as the Jews were on this very day, is indicating that Paul does not see his persecutors as enemies. He too is zealous for God. And has been since being instructed in the ways of the Pharisees. ix. How devoted was he for God? d. [Slide 11] 4 - I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering both men and women into prisons, 5 - as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brothers, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. i. He was so zealous for God that he persecuted the Nazarene sect called “The Way” to death. ii. Perhaps at this time some rumor or lie was being spread around indicating that Paul never really did this. But Paul appeals to the testimony of the high priest and all the council of Elders. iii. They can give you their testimony that this is the case. iv. They can also tell you how they gave him letters to Damascus to bring those following The Way back to Jerusalem to be imprisoned and punished. v. Paul was once the exact same as they are today. To the extent that he did to others what they have done to him. vi. Paul doesn't see them as his enemy. Because he was just like them at one time. vii. So this begs the questions… what happened to make him different today? And how different has he become? e. [Slide 12] 6 - But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, i. Visions from God have been and continue to be recognized as important ways that God communicates corrective truth to people in the middle east. ii. As Eric Lundquist was saying last week, Iranian Christians converting from Islam frequently speak of visions they have received from God imploring them to seek Christ. iii. Some of the greatest prophets of Israel's and even Islam's history have or have claimed to see visions from God to reveal truth. iv. If someone today said something similar to Paul, we would be right to test them thoroughly for signs of God working in their life beyond simply a vision. And Paul will provide that too. v. But the Jews would not be skeptical of this sign merely because it was a vision from heaven. f. [Slide 13] 7 - and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' 8 - And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.' i. Voices from heaven are rare in the Old Testament. But when someone hears from heaven it is never anyone but God Himself who speaks. ii. This is probably why Paul assumed that this was the Lord speaking. iii. This is similar to the time when Moses asks what he should call God when he goes back to the Israelite captives to inform them that God was going to rescue them. Which God? iv. God says, tell them “I AM” has sent you. Yahweh. The proper name of God. v. By Paul asking Who are you, Lord – he is looking for confirmation that the God with whom He speaks is Yahweh Himself. vi. How shocking then… Is the answer? vii. I am Jesus the Nazarene whom you are persecuting. viii. In heaven, with God, is this one Jesus the Nazarene. ix. Without actually saying the words, Paul testifies clearly here that Jesus and Yahweh are one. They are One God in three distinct persons. x. The God who addressed Moses from the burning bush is the same God who addressed Paul on that road. xi. But to make such a claim that Jesus spoke to him from heaven, it would be necessary to have witnesses, wouldn't it? Especially since the name given was not Yahweh. xii. Who else was there to hear or see what happened? g. [Slide 14] 9 - And those who were with me beheld the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me. i. The guards who went with Paul that day, did see the light. ii. And here we have our first discrepancy regarding the story of Paul's conversion. iii. In Acts chapter 9 it says that these guards did hear the voice, but here Paul says that they did not understand the voice. Now before you start pointing out to me that hearing and understanding aren't the same things… iv. The Greek word IS the same. The LSB, for some reason, translates it here as understanding instead of hearing. What a crummy translation… well, hang on. Let's investigate. v. So how do we deal with Luke recording that the men heard the voice but didn't see the person speaking, and Paul saying that they did not hear the voice? This seems to be quite the contradiction. vi. There is an easy explanation that we can actually demonstrate using a similar word in English. 1. If I, in the midst of giving a command to my daughter, ask her if she is listening, and she says yes… in one sense we can see that she did listen to me. But if that story goes forward and we find out that she did not obey the command I gave, we could say that she did not listen. 2. Well how could she have listened and not listened at the same time? It is a matter of different definitions of the same word. Correct? 3. Listening can mean hearing and it can also mean obeying. vii. In a similar way, the semantic range of the word ἀκούω includes not only hearing the noise of something but also comprehending it. viii. So, in Luke's earlier account It is clear that he records that the soldiers heard the voice. ix. By Paul saying that they did not hear, we must take the second definition of the word which means to listen or to understand. x. Thus the LSB records for us the appropriate meaning. That the guards with him did hear the voice but were not able to comprehend what was said to Paul. xi. In short, he had witnesses to this event. And even though they did not understand the voice which spoke, they did hear it and they certainly heard and understood Paul's responses. h. [Slide 15] 10 - And I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been determined for you to do.' 11 - But since I could not see because of the glory of that light, being led by the hand by those who were with me, I came into Damascus. i. Jesus the Nazarene instructs Paul to go to Damascus and wait for someone to come to him to tell him what to do. ii. The miracle of this would not be lost on anyone, since Damascus was a large city and all those of The Way would have feared Paul to the point of avoiding him. Who is going to come and talk to Paul in this state? iii. Paul continues the story of how he was blinded by this light and had to be led to Damascus. Once again this is something the guards could have borne witness to. i. [Slide 16] 12 - Now a certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well-spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 - came to me, and standing near, said to me, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!' And at that very hour I regained my sight and saw him. i. Notice what Paul is doing with his testimony of conversion. ii. He is highlighting the important, Jewish, law abiding, zealous people who helped to shape and form him. iii. Now he moves to a man named Ananias, who is well known to be a devout law-abiding Jew, known by Jews who lived in Damascus. iv. But Ananias was CLEARLY of The Way. v. What is Paul saying? vi. They are not mutually exclusive. You can be zealous for the law of Moses and still be a follower of Christ. vii. That is not to say that they are the same thing or that the law is equal in importance to Christ. But it is to say that there is no conflict between abiding by the law of Moses and following Christ. viii. One must simply hold them in their appropriate places of importance. ix. Ananias commands Paul to regain his sight and at that moment his sight returned. j. [Slide 17] 14 - And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from His mouth. 15 - ‘For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 - Now why do you delay? Rise up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.' i. Notice what Ananias says. The God of our fathers – Yahweh of course, has appointed, chosen, elected you to know His will and to see the Righteous One (Jesus the Nazarene) and to hear a voice from His mouth. ii. The Righteous One title is interesting because it is a title given to Yahweh's servant who is called Righteous and will justify many by bearing their iniquities. iii. The title “The Righteous One” implies sinless perfection having no blemish or spot in moral uprightness. Truly no person could claim such a thing. And so this human must be more than merely human. iv. Paul is commissioned to go to all men and bear witness of what he has seen and heard. v. At that moment Ananias commands him to rise up and be baptized and wash your sins away calling on His name. vi. Although many camps within Christendom would see the teaching of water baptism in view here whereby we are actually, as they would say, washed from our sin – it is clear that Ananias means not a literal physical washing only, but an inward, Spirit baptism. To be baptized by the Spirit is to be converted, to be justified, to be indwelled by the Spirit. vii. Baptism of the Spirit refers to the moment when a person who has been made alive with Christ repents and receives Him as Lord and Savior. viii. Notice that Ananias says to be baptized, wash your sins away, while calling on His name. ix. Thus, Paul is converted in this moment. x. And notice what the good Jew says to Paul… Get up, be baptized, be washed of your sins by calling on His name. xi. Whose name? xii. Is it the God of our Fathers or is it the Righteous One? xiii. Yes. Calling on Jesus' name IS calling on Yahweh's name. k. Summary of the Point: Notice still God's providential hand on Paul's testimony of salvation. The charges against Paul are primarily his rejection of the law, the Jewish people and their customs, and the temple itself. But he was zealous for the law, even opposing The Way, but was rebuked by a Jewish Messiah who spoke from heaven, a place higher than the temple, and led to faith in this Jesus by a well-respected Jew in Damascus. You can't get much more Jewish than that story! God providentially provided all of this to Paul in his conversion testimony, so that he could systematically cast down and defend the gospel he preached against all the accusations of being anti-Jew, anti-law, and anti-temple. We too must cast down arguments and defend the gospel against false caricatures of its teachings. We must do apologetics to prove that such things are lies. And God providentially provides each of our testimonies of faith as arguments against those false views. Transition: [Slide 19 (blank)] Paul has successfully defended the gospel. But what about the other component here? What about the Gentiles. Why is Paul mixed up with them? III.) God providentially equips us to share the gospel, but we must trust His leading not our own wisdom. (22:17-21) a. [Slide 20] 17 - Now it happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I fell into a trance, 18 - and I saw Him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your witness about Me.' i. Although Luke does record Paul going back to Jerusalem in Acts 9, we are not told about this event. Luke there is focusing on Paul's relationship to other believers. That isn't what's happening here. What does he say? ii. While I was in the temple praying. iii. Well how much more devout could a Jew be to be praying in the temple? iv. And during a visit to the temple is when he sees another vision in a trance. v. In this vision, the Lord Jesus again speaks to him commanding him to get out of Jerusalem because “they” will not accept your witness about Me. vi. Who is they? vii. Paul's response to the Lord at that time makes it clear. b. [Slide 21] 19 - And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. 20 - And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and guarding the garments of those who were slaying him.' i. The “they” is the non-believing Jews. ii. Paul's rebuttal to the Lord Jesus is that he seems like the perfect candidate to send to the Jews. iii. Afterall, there are few in Jerusalem who do not know who he is. They know how he used to fight against the people of The Way and even stood in approval over the stoning of Stephen. iv. He has a powerful testimony toward these people. They SHOULD believe him. v. Why? vi. Because he used to be one of them. vii. But Jesus points out that often it is the opposite. viii. The Jews, as we have seen throughout the book of Acts, have either believed Paul's gospel message – or they have sought to kill him. And there really isn't any middle ground. ix. Jesus at this time commands him to leave. c. [Slide 22] 21 - And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'” i. You aren't the perfect person to go to the Jews. They are going to reject you and your message. ii. Instead I am sending you far away to the Gentiles. iii. First, to those in Tarsus… your home. iv. Then to those in Antioch of Syria. Then to Asia. Then to Greece. v. And soon to Rome and even Spain. vi. Paul would go to the Gentiles. vii. What a marvelous mission. viii. If only the Jews were not full of bigotry and hatred at this time… but more on that next week. d. [Slide 23] Summary of the Point: Here we see an interesting point that counterbalances all we have seen thus far. God providentially put Paul in a great position to share the gospel on this particular occasion. But keen observers would have noticed that all of his background was true before he left Jerusalem to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. So, we, and perhaps even his audience, would be wondering why Paul ever left if his background makes him an ideal candidate to share the gospel. Paul reveals in his testimony that he also wondered the same thing. From his perspective, he would be the ideal candidate to preach the gospel to the Jews. Nevertheless, God had other plans for him. Jesus commanded him to go. Why? Because the Jews would reject him and the gospel and because God had ordained him to take the gospel to the Gentiles. We too must be careful that we don't trust our own wisdom in analyzing who we are best equipped to take the gospel to. Instead, we must be sensitive to the Lord's leading in when and to whom we share our faith. Conclusion: So CBC, what have we learned and how shall we live? What are some basic teachings of belief and practice from this text? Basics of Belief and Practice: [Slide 24] The primary point of belief we should gain from this text is that God Himself providentially equips us to bear witness to the truth of the gospel. From this doctrinal point, revolving around God's role to sovereignly guide our backgrounds so we are the right tool for the job… we have several applications for us. First, is to seek and take opportunities to share the gospel. Second, we must clarify any known misrepresentations of the gospel as we give a defense for the hope we have in us. Thirdly, and serving as a counterweight to this, although God does providentially equip us to share the gospel, we must be careful that we don't make assumptions from our background of to whom we might be called to bear witness to the truth. But let me see if we can expand these truths out a little by first heading back to the text and then out from it to our lives. 1.) [Slide 25] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm that God providentially equips us to share the gospel with unbelievers. a. We see this in Paul's life as everything he is doing is completely in keeping with the scope of Judaism, the law, the Jewish nation, and the temple itself. b. Paul has been uniquely equipped to take the gospel to the Gentiles while continuing to cherish and observe the teachings of Judaism. c. Paul is not only the right man to preach the gospel to the Gentiles he is also the right man to stand before the Jews at this very moment and confront them with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. d. And of course, he is only allowed to do this because God providentially gave him a social standing that supersedes the Roman commander who was trying to arrest him. e. You and I also have been providentially, from the beginning of our lives to this very moment, supplied with a unique background which equips us with all sorts of experiences, values, morals, virtues, and passions. And each of these are given both negatively and positively. f. Modern psychology attempts to tell us that our backgrounds shape us and mold us for the worse. We are a product of our environment and our upbringing. But this isn't the way Paul saw it. g. And this isn't the way the scriptures frame God's sovereign control of all things. h. All our background, positive and negative, serves to shape and form and mold us to be uniquely equipped to serve the Lord and His Kingdom and His righteousness. i. Paul even uses his shameful persecution of Christians as a point in his gospel presentation to prove that the gospel is NOT anti-Jew. j. Everything we have experienced and gone through, everything that has shaped us, was not done by some blind force or shapeless entity we call “the universe”. k. Instead – EVERYTHING that has happened to us has been guided and superintended by a Good and Loving God who prepares us to serve Him as Soldiers of the Cross of Christ. l. You may not use every experience in every situation where God has called you to share the gospel – but make no mistake, God has prepared you to bring the truth of the gospel to bear upon the souls of those who do not believe. m. Not everyone needs a scholarly presentation of the gospel. Not everyone needs a story presentation of the gospel. Not everyone needs a hyper logical presentation of the gospel. But everyone needs the Word of God shown to them in ways that your unique background can help to explain. n. There is no Christian that God has providentially prepared to sit in the pews. There is no Christian that God has providentially prepared to keep quiet while the others talk. o. You have a mission field that few if any will ever be able to reach. p. So, what do we do with this truth? 2.) [Slide 26] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must jump on opportunities God gives to share the gospel. a. Paul could have stayed quiet. b. In fact, many counselors may have advised him at this time to quit while he was ahead. c. It seemed like the Roman commander was going to deliver him safely from the mob. d. Instead, he uses his social influence to convince the commander to allow him to address the crowds who were just moments ago trying to kill him. e. We too must seek and boldly capitalize on evangelism opportunities that come our way. f. Unfortunately many of us choose to hide in the shadows hoping someone else will speak up concerning the gospel message. g. We are tortured by fears of inadequacy and rejection. h. Paul's example, at least this week helps us. Of course they did reject Paul – we'll get to that next week. i. Ultimately this shows us that our fear of inadequacy is unfounded and our fear of rejection must be rebuked. j. Inadequacy cuts directly against the point we just looked at, where God uniquely equips us to share the gospel with others whom we come into contact with. k. And Rejection is actually something we are guaranteed we will experience. Fearing rejection for preaching the gospel is like fearing getting dirty if you clean out the pig pen. If fear of getting dirty stops you from cleaning out the pig pen, then you don't understand what it means to own a pig. In the same way if fear of rejection stops you from preaching the gospel, you may not even understand the gospel in the first place. l. Let me try to help you out to know whether or not God is calling you to step up and share the gospel with someone… m. If you are a Christian in the room when people misconstrue the gospel or ask questions concerning its teachings… guess what… You can just take that as God's call for you to speak. You don't have to wait for a sign. You don't have to pray about it to make sure it is God's will. n. You can just go for it. Speak from the heart, speak about what God did for you, and make sure that you speak with words the scriptures use. Stay away from trite phrases not found in the bible. Like… i. Ask Jesus into your heart. ii. Say yes to Jesus iii. Accept Jesus into your life iv. Pray this prayer v. Make him the Lord of your life vi. Etc. o. Also… stay away from non-universal experiences that are not common to every single person who comes to Christ in the bible. Like… i. I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders… ii. I felt warm all over as if I was being hugged by God iii. I wept uncontrollably iv. I started convulsing on the ground because I realized how sinful I was v. I heard an audible voice from God calling me to believe. vi. I saw Jesus holding out his arms to me. vii. Etc p. Instead, focus on what the bible actually says – stick to the words it uses as closely as you can while still being clear… i. All men are wicked and have evil hearts which cannot be cured. All men are dead in their trespasses and sins and are enslaved to their passions and their lusts. All men love their evil deeds. All men do not seek God. ii. Jesus died for sinners. Jesus became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus was the substitute which absorbed sin's penalty for sinners and gave them a right standing before God. Jesus is the new representative for all who place their complete trust in Him. iii. Jesus was raised the third day and has ascended to the Father's side where He now continues to be with and help all those who are His people. And all who are in Him will also be raised and live with Him forever. iv. Repent- turn from your sin and believe and depend on this gospel. q. In short – we must understand that since God has prepared us for this very purpose, if we are lazy or afraid, we are falling short of God's calling on our lives. We are failing at one of the very reasons we are still on earth. r. We aren't here to work a job, support our family, or enjoy retirement. These are inherently part of being what God wants us to be – but it isn't why we are here. s. We are here to make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Triune God and teaching them to observe all the things He has commanded. 3.) [Slide 27] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must clarify and defend the truth of the gospel. a. Paul, by his own testimony, proves without a doubt that everything about his conversion and his mission is NOT anti-jew. b. So we too must be apologists, seeking to defend the gospel against misconceptions and false summarizations of its teachings. c. Although the details are different, generally speaking all Christians are saved the exact same way. d. Romans 8 clues us in to some of that process and the 5 Solas of the reformation help to expound what the bible teaches on that process. e. Since this is the case, each of our testimonies serve as an anecdotal proof that all the misconceptions about the gospel fail when it is compared to the universal shared experience of all who are truly believers. f. We can go to the scriptures to show exactly what God did for us and how He accomplished it. g. We may not have understood it when we were saved – but we certainly understand it now or at least, we should. h. In this we can counter all the accusations of being brainwashed, deceived, or otherwise conned by this religious teaching. i. With the bible we can also address misconceptions about the gospel where people assume it is a works based salvation that is similar to other faiths, or an unnecessarily narrow religion of intolerance. j. In short, it is incumbent upon us as those who bear witness to the gospel of Christ, to clarify and defend the truth of the gospel. For if the gospel is tainted by untruth it stops becoming the gospel and is therefore unable to save anyone. k. But If we are to clarify and defend the truth of the gospel, we must be diligent in our study and understanding of it. We cannot be satisfied with a rudimentary understanding of nature of the gospel. For even though it is simple enough for children to believe, it is infinite enough that scholars still admit there are things we can't quite explain about God and what He has done for us. l. Just because it is simple enough for a child to believe, doesn't mean you should preach it with the understanding of a child. m. No Christian has an excuse. We must be theologians and understand as much as we can about this gospel we preach. 4.) [Slide 28] De-Exhortation: “What actions should we stop doing” or “What behaviors do we naturally practice that this passage tells us to stop doing?” We must stop assuming our background limits or reveals God's will for our mission field. a. Paul thought he was uniquely equipped to share the gospel with the Jews. b. And that is true in Acts 22. c. But this was only after God sent him to the gentiles. d. Because this is where God wanted him to go and because generally the Jews would see him as a traitor and not as an example to follow. e. Sometimes we can be abundantly convinced that we are best equipped to share the gospel to certain mission fields. Or that we are ill equipped to take the gospel to others. f. But this may be a terrible assumption which is counter to God's will. g. Former Mormons or Jehovah's witnesses can make excellent evangelists to some – but they can also be perceived as traitors and apostates and dismissed without even allowing them to speak. h. Former drug addicts could be effective at sharing the gospel to those still addicted – or they may be seen as a Christ figure, someone to be followed instead of Jesus Himself. i. In every case, as we consider where God would have us minister, our background can help to inform us where we might be best used, but ultimately, we must listen for the Lord's leading. 5.) Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” Why do you delay? Rise up, be baptized in the Spirit! Wash away your sins by calling on Jesus' name! a. Perhaps you are here today and the testimony of Paul and the songs about God's salvation and all that Jesus has done, have stirred your heart. b. Perhaps you have realized that you are a sinner in danger of the Lord's judgement and wrath? c. Perhaps you like Paul have opposed Christ at every turn. d. What are you waiting for? e. Call on the name of Jesus and wash yourself clean in His sacrifice for you. Follow Him and be His. Let me close with a prayer by the Scottish Reformed theologian Robert Rollock Lord, when we stand up to speak of the resurrection of Christ to others, give us grace so that we may be persuaded of it in our own hearts. May we find his gracious Spirit working in us, and as we speak of heaven and these joys to others, may we also find that joy in our own hearts. So that after this life is ended, we may reign with him in glory forever with Christ! To whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all honor, praise, and glory forevermore. Amen. Benediction: And now let all people in Zion declare his gracious name, With one accord, So that all nations will fear the name of the Lord, That a people yet to be created may praise the LORD. Until we meet again, go in peace.

25 He wrote a letter as follows: 26 Claudius Lysias, To His Excellency, Governor Felix: Greetings. 27 This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen. 28 I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin. 29 I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment. 30 When I was informed of a plot to be carried out against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also ordered his accusers to present to you their case against him. 31 So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul with them during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris. 32 The next day they let the cavalry go on with him, while they returned to the barracks. 33 When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him. 34 The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia, 35 he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers get here.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod's palace.

Wednesday, 21 May 2025   And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Matthew 10:14   “And who, if not he should receive you nor he should hear your words, departing the house or that city, you out-swing the dust of your feet!” (CG).   In the previous verse, Jesus continued his instructions about greeting a house when looking to stay with someone in a city. Concerning someone whose peace is not received, Jesus says, “And who, if not he should receive you nor he should hear your words.”   The word dechomai, to receive, is introduced. HELPS Word Studies says, “to receive in a welcoming (receptive) way. ... [The personal element is emphasized ... which accounts for it always being in the Greek middle voice. This stresses the high level of self-involvement (interest) involved with the ‘welcoming-receiving.'”   If the peace spoken to the house is not well-received, it symbolically returns to the one who made the greeting. The apostles' words were heard, their mission was explained, and the one to whom the appeal was made found it unsuitable to the state of their household.   This is essentially what Jesus is speaking of. If this is the case, and their words have been rejected, He next says, “departing the house or that city, you out-swing the dust of your feet!”   The word ektinassó, to out-swing, is first used here. It is derived from ek, out or from, and tinassó, to swing. Thus, it literally signifies to out-swing. Saying “shake off,” as most translations say, is a suitable and understandable translation.   One can imagine them walking out of the house or the city, putting their foot forward, and swinging it back and forth as a symbolic gesture of their displeasure at how things transpired. This is something that is seen by Paul in Acts 13 –   “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. 50 But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 15:48-52   A third new word is also seen in this verse, koniortos, dust. It is derived from koniaó, to whitewash or plaster, and ornumi, to rouse. Thus, one can think of something being pulverized. That leads to the thought of dust, which blows about like something as it is pulverized.   This symbolic gesture is a way of indicating that the very dust of the house or city that they visited was repulsive to them and they wanted to be rid of it, lest they carry a vestige of it with them, reminding them of the dirty treatment they received.   Life application: Concerning the act of shaking off the dust in this verse, the Pulpit Commentary, among other similar commentaries, says –   “Treating it as a heathen place, whose pollution must be shaken off. For the very dust from a heathen land was to be reckoned as polluting, since, as Rashi says on Talm. Bab., ‘Sabb.,' 15b (cf. Lightfoot, 'Hor. Hebr.,' in loc.), ‘It may be doubted, of all the dust of a heathen land, whether it were not from the sepulchre of the dead.'”   Because of this comment from Rashi, Vincent's Word Studies says –   “The very dust of a heathen country was unclean, and it defiled by contact. It was regarded like a grave, or like the putrescence of death. If a spot of heathen dust had touched an offering, it must at once be burnt. More than that, if by mischance any heathen dust had been brought into Palestine, it did not and could not mingle with that of 'the land,' but remained to the end what it had been - unclean, defiled and defiling everything to which it adhered." The apostles, therefore, were not only to leave the house or city which should refuse to receive them, ‘but it was to be considered and treated as if it were heathen, just as in the similar case mentioned in Matthew 18:17. All contact with such must be avoided, all trace of it shaken off' (Edersheim, ‘Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ').”   There is a problem with this, which is that there is nothing to support the conclusion that this was how Jews felt about the dust of pagan lands. It is illogical and a pointless commentary. First, many Jews lived in the diaspora. Paul was born and raised in Tarsus of Cilicia.   Acts 2 notes that Jews were visiting from all over the empire. Further, Rashi was born in France in 1040 AD, studied in Germany, and then returned to France. Commenting on the filthy nature of pagan lands by someone who was born, raised, and died in them just means that he was an arrogant, close-minded, and racist person who thought he was better than those among whom he lived.   Jesus was making a point about the treatment of the apostles in the land of Israel, not among Gentiles. In Acts 13, Paul was making the same point about Jews in a Gentile nation.   God is not worried about the dust of foreign lands. His concern is about the defiled nature of those who come against the gospel. Be sure not to pass on ridiculous commentaries that are not based on a rational analysis of Scripture or how God deals with humanity.   Rashi, like the Jews in Acts 13, rejected Jesus Christ. Therefore, Rashi, not the dust of the land in which he lived, was defiled and unacceptable to God.   Heavenly Father, the earth is Yours and all its fullness. You are pleased with Your creation, whether in Ome, Japan, or Pueblo Viejo, Ecuador. The things that displease You don't concern the nature of the lands or the clarity of the water. Rather, You are pleased with those who have received Your Son, Jesus. Upon all others, Your wrath remains. Help us to get the word out so that the world will know the glory of Jesus! Amen.  

The holy Thalelaeus is counted as one of the Unmercenary Physicians. He was a physician, born in Lebanon to a Berucius (a bishop) and Romylia. During the persecutions by the Emperor Numerian, he fled to Cilicia, but was captured and brought before Theodore, the governor. When Thalelaeus boldly confessed Christ, the cruel governor ordered two soldiers, Alexander and Asterius, to bore holes through his leg-bones, pass a rope through them, and hang him from a tree. But the executioners, by the power of God, were momentarily deprived of their wits and bored through a wooden plank instead, which they hung in the tree. The governor angrily ordered that the soldiers be flogged; during their flogging they cried out: 'The Lord is alive to us; from now on, we are become Christians. We believe in Christ, and suffer for Him.' Hearing these words, the governor ordered that both be beheaded. He then seized their awl and attempted to bore through Thalelaeus' legs himself; but his hand suddenly became paralyzed. The compassionate physician prayed to Christ and healed his persecutor' hand. His heart still hardened, the governor next ordered that the Saint be thrown into water and drowned; but he survived. Next he was thrown to wild beasts, but they licked his feet and rubbed tamely against him. Finally the holy Martyr was beheaded.

Send us a textActs 6:8-15And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.Support the show

.videoWrapper {position: relative;padding-bottom: 56.25%; /* 16:9 */padding-top: 25px;height: 0;}.videoWrapper iframe {position: absolute;top: 0;left: 0;width: 100%;height: 100%;} 2）迦1:11-24 天主將他的聖子啟示給我，叫我在外邦人中傳揚他。 11弟兄姊妹們：我告訴你們，我所宣講的福音，並不是由人而來的，12因為，這不是我由人而得來的，也不是由人學來的，而是由耶穌基督所啟示的。13你們一定聽說過，我從前尚在猶太教中的行動：我怎樣激烈地，迫害過天主的教會，竭力想把她消滅；14我在猶太教中，比我本族許多同年的人，更為急進，對我祖先的傳授，更富於熱忱。15但是，從母胎中已選拔我，以恩寵召叫我的天主，卻決意16將他的聖子，啟示給我，叫我在外邦人中傳揚他。我當時沒有與任何人商量，17也沒有上耶路撒冷，去見那些在我以前作宗徒的人。我立即去了阿剌伯，然後又回到了大馬士革。18此後，過了三年，我才上耶路撒冷，去拜見刻法，在他那裏逗留了十五天；19除了主的兄弟雅各伯，我沒有看見別的宗徒。20我給你們寫的都是真的，我在天主前作證，我決沒有說謊。21此後，我往敘利亞和基里基雅地域去了。22那時，猶太境內屬於基督的各教會，都沒有見過我的面；23只是聽說過：「那曾經迫害我們的，如今卻傳揚他曾經想消滅的信仰了。」24他們就為了我而光榮天主。 ❖保祿因不要求外邦人遵守猶太法律，人們便指他叛離了宗徒們的教導。然而保祿卻指出，他雖然比任何人更熱衷於猶太教，主耶穌的啟示卻令他超越了猶太教，叫他在外邦人中傳揚福音。他所宣講的並非人的智慧，而是天主的話。在保祿的這短短的自白中，我們可以窺探到他所經歷的歸依過程。 ❖「我所宣講的福音，並不是由人而來的……也不是由人學來的，而是由耶穌基督所啟示的」（11-12）── 保祿現在要證明自己所宣講的福音，是主耶穌親自啟示給他的。保祿這句話並不是要否定教會傳統的事實和價值，他在別處也肯定承認：「我當日把我所領受而又傳授給你們的」（格前15:3）。值得謹記的是，保祿傳教時尚未有人寫成福音，一切有關耶穌言行，全以宗徒的宣講來承傳。保祿的敵人誹謗他只能算是一個次等的宗徒，不能與十二宗徒等量齊觀，因為他們是直接從耶穌領受了傳佈福音的命令（瑪28:18-20）。他們認為保祿不曾認識耶穌，又不是由十二大宗徒所委派的，故此他所宣講的一切，怎能算為耶穌的真正福音呢？保祿卻力證：1）他所宣佈的福音，不是十二大宗徒教給他的，也不是如其他的信友一樣，由講授教理的教師學來的，而是直接得自耶穌基督的啟示；2）他雖不屬十二宗徒的團體，但他們，尤其是伯多祿卻認可了他所宣講的福音（2:1-21）。 ❖「你們一定聽說過，我從前尚在猶太教中的行動：我怎樣激烈地，迫害過天主的教會，竭力想把她消滅」（13）── 保祿像耶肋米亞先知一樣，提起了他親身所經歷的一些事，以證明自己的宗徒身份。因為人人都知道保祿從前激烈地迫害過基督的教會，設法要把她徹底消滅（宗9:1-30）。他不但是一位激烈的迫害者，同時更是一位激進的法利塞人，他對於猶太教義、習俗和祖先的傳授，比他同年的猶太人更加倍熱愛和保守（14）。保祿曾向在耶路撒冷的猶太人表明自己的身世說：「我原是猶太人，生於基里基雅的塔爾索，卻在這城裏長大，在加瑪里耳足前，對祖傳的法律，曾受過精確的教育；對天主我也是熱忱的，就如你們大家今天一樣」（宗22:3）。事實上，如今人們都會知道，「那曾經迫害我們的，如今卻傳揚他曾經想消滅的信仰了」（1:23）。 那麼保祿這翻天覆地的改變，由設法消滅這信仰，轉而去宣傳這信仰，是怎樣發生的呢？他是如何歸依的呢？我們聽他繼續親自表白⋯⋯ ❖「從母胎中已選拔我，以恩寵召叫我的天主，卻決意將他的聖子，啟示給我，叫我在外邦人中傳揚他」（15-16）── 天主在大馬士革附近發顯了奇蹟，給保祿啟示了復活的主耶穌，一方面叫他明白耶穌就是天主的聖子，是默西亞，另一方面，天主更選拔他在異民中作宣揚耶穌的宗徒。保祿感到自己就如舊約中的先知般，是天主所簡選，或更準確的說，是天主「從母胎中已選拔」並「以恩寵所召叫」的。 這正是保祿所熟悉的耶肋米亞先知的經驗，天主曾親自給先知說：「我還沒有在母腹內形成你以前，我已認識了你；在你還沒有出離母胎以前，我已祝聖了你，選定了你作萬民的先知」（耶1:5）。保祿日後反省這經驗，衷心感謝天主對自己及眾信友的召選說：「願我們的主耶穌基督的天主和父受讚美！他在天上，在基督內，以各種屬神的祝福，祝福了我們，因為他於創世以前，在基督內已揀選了我們，為使我們在他面前，成為聖潔無瑕疵的；又由於愛，按照自己旨意的決定，預定了我們藉着耶穌基督獲得義子的名分，而歸於他，為頌揚他恩寵的光榮，這恩寵是他在自己的愛子內賜與我們的」（弗1:3-6）。 ❖「我當時沒有與任何人商量，也沒有上耶路撒冷，去見那些在我以前作宗徒的人。我立即去了阿剌伯，然後又回到了大馬士革」（16-17）── 天主的啟示是人不可否定的，更是不可抗拒的；耶肋米亞曾經寫過：「假使我說：我再不想念他，不再以他的名發言；在我心中就像有火在焚燒，蘊藏在我的骨髓內，我竭力抑制，亦不可能」（耶20:9），所以保祿也沒有和任何人商量，也沒有往耶路撒冷去見大宗徒，而隨從了天主的指引，起身往阿剌伯去了（即大馬士革東南方的曠野）。有人以為保祿在阿剌伯開始傳教，但更可能的是保祿到那裏是為了專務默想、祈禱、苦身克己，準備去作外邦人的宗徒。我們不知保祿逗留在阿剌伯有多久，但按《宗徒大事錄》記載，他不久「又回到了大馬士革」，而且「更強而有力」地繼續「在各會堂中宣講耶穌，說他是天主子⋯⋯使僑居在大馬士革的猶太人驚惶失措，因為他指證耶穌就是默西亞。過了一些時日，猶太人就共同商議要殺害他」（宗9:20-23）。關於這事，保祿也曾在致格林多教會的信中提及，當「我在大馬士革時，阿勒達王的總督把守了大馬士革人的城，要逮捕我，而我竟被人用籃子從窗口，沿著城牆繫下，逃脫了他的手」（格後11:32-33）。 ❖「過了三年，我才上耶路撒冷，去拜見刻法」（18）── 這「三年」應是指保祿歸化後三年，他往耶路撒冷拜見刻法（阿剌美語 ap'yKe - Kefa' || 希臘文Khfa/j - Kēphas: Cephas＝石頭，喻指西滿伯多祿）。保祿去拜見伯多祿的原故，無疑的是因為他知道伯多祿是教會的首領。路加也記述了保祿這次上耶路撒冷見宗徒的事，在這機會上保祿更認識了巴爾納伯（宗9:26-30），但保祿在那裏「只逗留了十五天」（18）。 ❖「除了主的兄弟雅各伯，我沒有看見別的宗徒」（19）── 保祿在耶路撒冷除了伯多祿外，還看到了宗徒雅各伯。教會傳統為分辨他與若望的哥哥雅各伯，常稱他為次雅各伯。他之所以也被稱為「主的兄弟」，應是指耶穌的表兄弟而言。那些不接受耶穌的母親瑪利亞是終身童貞的人，往往按這句話大做文章，但他們也應注意路加提到耶穌復活後三位婦女向宗徒報告時，列出她們的名字是「瑪利亞瑪達肋納及約安納和雅各伯的母親瑪利亞」（路24:10），這裡提到位的「雅各伯的母親瑪利亞」，是指次雅各伯的母親而言。如果次雅各伯是耶穌的親兄弟，路加必然會稱他的母親為「耶穌和雅各伯的母親瑪利亞」。 ❖「此後，我往敘利亞和基里基雅地域去了」（21）── 保祿在耶路撒冷只逗留了十五天，但按《宗徒大事錄》記載，他也在耶京「因主的名字勇敢講道，並且同希臘化的猶太人談論辯道，他們就打算殺害他。兄弟們一知道這事，就領他下到凱撒勒雅，以後打發他到塔爾索去了」（宗9:29-30）。保祿在自己的故鄉塔爾索傳道，亦即他在本信中提到的「基里基雅地域」（Cilicia），有時也到附近的「敘利亞」。當時這兩個地方同為羅馬帝國的一省，受駐節於安提約基雅的敘利亞省督導使（legatus）管轄。 ❖「那時，猶太境內屬於基督的各教會，都沒有見過我的面；只是聽說過：那曾經迫害我們的，如今卻傳揚他曾經想消滅的信仰」（22-23）── 天主的計劃往往是出人意表的，掃祿想消滅基督信仰和初生的教會，天主偏要藉着這樣一個迫害者，去傳揚他的真道，完成一項偉大的傳教使命。保祿對自己曾迫害教會一事，直認不諱，至少在書信中四次承認了（格前15:9；迦1:13；斐3:6；弟前1:13），路加在《宗徒大事錄》中，更指他在耶路撒冷和凱撒勒雅，也親口承認了這往事（宗22:4; 26:10-11）。 ***** ***** ***** 保祿雖然堅稱自己所傳的福音是來自天主的啟示，但他並沒有獨斷獨行，或另立門戶。事實上，他歸化後雖然沒有立即去見在耶路撒冷的大宗徒，但過了三年，他也上了耶路撒冷，「去見那些在我以前作宗徒的人，」尤其是伯多祿。保祿深明教會合一的重要，而且這合一的可見標記，正是耶穌曾向他說：「你是伯多祿（磐石），在這磐石上，我要建立我的教會」的那位（瑪16:18）。

To Tell the Truth 8 Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. ~Acts 6:8-10 Sometimes, when you tell the truth, people don't like it. That was true for Stephen, one of the first Deacons of the church. The Greek word διάκονος (diakonos), translated “deacon,” literally means, servant. And that is what Stephen and six others in the earliest days of the church were called to do—to serve those in need. But Stephen also told the truth, and sometimes, telling the truth gets you in trouble. And that's what happened to Stephen. On Sunday I will talk about the importance of service, but also the importance of telling the truth about our story. Because sometime servants become holy troublemakers. Eastertide blessings, Pastor Ron

After leaving Antioch in Pisidia following the persecution from the Jews Paul and Barnabas come to Iconium and enter the synagogue and begin preaching. Chapter 14 of Acts tells of the unbelieving Jews who stir up the peace of the city, whose people then make an attempt to stone the two Apostles. Their response is to flee to the nearby cities of Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia (which means “wolf country”) in the wild north of Turkey. Verse 10 says that the Apostles cure a crippled man. The unsophisticated heathen now decide that Paul and Barnabas are gods clothed as men. These citizens think that Barnabas is Zeus, the chief god; and Paul is Hermes, the messenger of Zeus. Paul and Barnabas quickly tear their own clothes trying to convince the pagan priests that the Apostles are men like themselves. Paul and Barnabas teach the people of Lystra from the Word of God. The first quotation used was from Jeremiah 10:12 – one should read the entire context where “Yahweh the Living God” is contrasted with the idols of the nations. Next the population of Lystra turn on Paul, who continues to be persecuted by the Jews who came from Iconium. They stone Paul and drag him out of the city thinking that he was dead. Paul writes on this in 2nd Timothy 3 and I believe he also alludes to it in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 8-10 (which seems to imply that he was in fact resurrected at that time). Did Paul avoid these vicious foes? No! He stands again and walks back into Lystra – what a witness this is to the power of God. The next day the Apostles continue to travel to Derbe. These cities are part of Galatia – the Apostle Paul would later write a letter to the Galatians. Shortly after the events we have read, Paul and Barnabas revisit those believers and tell them (14:22) that, “it would be with great pressures on believers that God would bring them into His kingdom”. Paul's personal example strongly bore witness to that. The Apostles make administrative arrangements in the communities of the believers and return to Antioch in Syria from where the first missionary journey had started. There they rejoice with their home ecclesia about what God had accomplished through them. Chapter 15 commences by telling us that the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas, had not been with their home ecclesia for very long before believers from Jerusalem come to Antioch in Syria seeking to enforce Jewish customs on these newly baptised converts. A decision is made to resolve the matter by way of a conference in Jerusalem- the year is 44AD. Verse 5 speaks of the matters which are of prime concern to the converts from the Pharisees ie circumcision and the keeping the laws of Moses. Peter commences the discussion by explaining how by the conversion of Cornelius God had indicated that these matters were not necessary. What mattered was what they believed. Further the keeping of law was a yoke of bondage which the Jews themselves were not able to keep. Paul and Barnabas speak next and describe how the miracles and signs God did through those Apostles was evidence of God's acceptance of Gentiles, who He would save by His grace. James, the Lord's half brother, who had acted as Chairman of the Conference, summarises the outcomes in verses 13-21. He adds many supporting Scriptures in his summary. The Council (Conference) writes a letter, the contents of which we are told in verses 22-35; only four binding essentials were to be required of Gentile believers and these were mostly moral behaviours and an attempt not to offend Jewish believers. Two representatives from Jerusalem (Judas and Silas) are chosen to accompany Paul and Barnabas with the circular letter letter to Gentile converts which was to begin its journey at Antioch. The chapter concludes with a sad rift between Barnabas and Paul over the matter of whether Barnabas' nephew John Mark should accompany them in this task. The result is that Barnabas takes Mark with him and goes to Cyprus; while Paul travels with Silas throughout Syria and Cilicia.

1 “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.” 2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. 6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?' 8 “‘Who are you, Lord?' I asked. “ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. 10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?' I asked. “ ‘Get up,' the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.' 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. 12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very moment I was able to see him. 14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.' 17 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!' he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.' 19 “‘Lord,' I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when the blood of your martyr[a] Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.' 21 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' ” 22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!”

Weekly shoutout: Check out Lynchpins at the coalition, our ongoing David Lynch tribute series! -- Hi there, Today I am delighted to be arts calling novelist Nancy Kricorian! (https://nancykricorian.net) About our guest: Nancy Kricorian, who was born and raised in the Armenian community of Watertown, Massachusetts, is the author of four novels about post-genocide Armenian diaspora experience, including Zabelle, which was translated into seven languages, was adapted as a play, and has been continuously in print since 1998. Her new novel, The Burning Heart of the World, about Armenians in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, will be published in April 2025. Her essays and poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, Guernica, Parnassus, Minnesota Review, The Mississippi Review, and other journals. She has taught at Barnard, Columbia, Yale, and New York University, as well as with Teachers & Writers Collaborative in the New York City Public Schools, and has been a mentor with We Are Not Numbers since 2015. She has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a Gold Medal from the Writers Union of Armenia, and the Anahid Literary Award, among other honors. She lives in New York. THE BURNING HEART OF THE WORLD, now available from Red Hen Press! Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon Nancy Kricorian's The Burning Heart of the World tells the story of a Beirut Armenian family before, during, and after the Lebanese Civil War. Returning to the fabular tone of Zabelle, her popular first novel, Kricorian conjures up the lost worlds and intergenerational traumas that haunt a family in permanent exile. Leavened with humor and imbued with the timelessness of a folktale, The Burning Heart of the World is a sweeping saga that takes readers on an epic journey from the mountains of Cilicia to contemporary New York City. > Like colorful miniatures–from a childhood of elders haunted by the Armenian genocide, to girlhood and adolescence amidst war in Beirut, to marriage and children in New York at the time of 9/11—Nancy Kricorian finds just the right scale to bring her heroine's passage to vivid, reverberating life. > — Aram Saroyan > An arrestingly beautiful novel of how families draw us together, but also push us apart. Set amidst the backdrop of displacement and war, The Burning Heart of the World illuminates how we carry history deep into even the most forgotten corners of ourselves. Once you start reading about Vera and her family you won't be able to put this book down. > — Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Author of The Evening Hero Thanks for this amazing conversation, Nancy! All the best! -- Arts Calling is produced by Jaime Alejandro. HOW TO SUPPORT ARTS CALLING: PLEASE CONSIDER LEAVING A REVIEW, OR SHARING THIS EPISODE WITH A FRIEND! YOUR SUPPORT TRULY MAKES A DIFFERENCE, AND THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO LISTEN. Much love, j artscalling.com

Acts 5:8-15 8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed […] The post Stephen, One of a Kind (Acts 5:8-15) first appeared on Hope of Christ Church.

When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.) 30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36 The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Get rid of him!” Paul Speaks to the Crowd 37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?” “Do you speak Greek?” he replied. 38 “Aren't you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?” 39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.” 40 After receiving the commander's permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic[a]: 22 1 “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”

https://nancykricorian.net/In vivid, poetic prose Nancy Kricorian's THE BURNING HEART OF THE WORLD tells the story of a Beirut Armenian family before, during, and after the Lebanese Civil War. Returning to the fabular tone of ZABELLE, her popular first novel, Kricorian conjures up the lost worlds and intergenerational traumas that haunt a family in permanent exile. Leavened with humor and imbued with the timelessness of a folktale, THE BURNING HEART OF THE WORLD is a sweeping saga that takes readers on an epic journey from the mountains of Cilicia to contemporary New York City.“Like colorful miniatures—from a childhood of elders haunted by the Armenian genocide, to girlhood and adolescence amidst war in Beirut, to marriage and children in New York at the time of 9/11—Nancy Kricorian finds just the right scale to bring her heroine's passage to vivid, reverberating life.” —Aram Saroyan“An arrestingly beautiful novel of how families draw us together, but also push us apart. Set amidst the backdrop of displacement and war, THE BURNING HEART OF THE WORLD illuminates how we carry history deep into even the most forgotten corners of ourselves. Once you start reading about Vera and her family you won't be able to put this book down.” —Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Author of The Evening Hero

Acts 15:36-41Paul and Barnabas Separate36And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Lecturas interpretadas de La Santa Palabra De Dios, Elohim Adonai1 Por aquellos días, al multiplicarse el número de los discípulos, surgió una queja de parte de los judíos helenistas en contra de los judíos  nativos, porque sus viudas eran desatendidas en la distribución diaria de los alimentos.  2 Entonces los doce convocaron a la congregación de los discípulos, y dijeron: No es conveniente que nosotros descuidemos la palabra de Dios para servir mesas.  3 Por tanto, hermanos, escoged de entre vosotros siete hombres de buena reputación, llenos del Espíritu Santo y de sabiduría, a quienes podamos encargar esta tarea.  4 Y nosotros nos entregaremos a la oración y al ministerio de la palabra.  5 Lo propuesto tuvo la aprobación de toda la congregación, y escogieron a Esteban, un hombre lleno de fe y del Espíritu Santo, y a Felipe, a Prócoro, a Nicanor, a Timón, a Parmenas y a Nicolás, un prosélito de Antioquía;  6 a los cuales presentaron ante los apóstoles, y después de orar, pusieron sus manos sobre ellos. 7 Y la palabra de Dios crecía, y el número de los discípulos se multiplicaba en gran manera en Jerusalén, y muchos de los sacerdotes obedecían a la fe. 8 Y Esteban, lleno de gracia y de poder, hacía grandes prodigios y señales entre el pueblo.  9 Pero se levantaron algunos de la sinagoga llamada de los Libertos, incluyendo tanto cireneos como alejandrinos, y algunos de Cilicia y de Asia, y discutían con Esteban.  10 Pero no podían resistir a la sabiduría y al Espíritu con que hablaba.  11 Entonces, en secreto persuadieron a algunos hombres para que dijeran: Le hemos oído hablar palabras blasfemas contra Moisés y contra Dios.  12 Y alborotaron al pueblo, a los ancianos y a los escribas, y cayendo sobre él, lo arrebataron y lo trajeron en presencia del concilio.  13 Y presentaron testigos falsos que dijeron: Este hombre continuamente habla en contra de este lugar santo y de la ley;  14 porque le hemos oído decir que este nazareno, Jesús, destruirá este lugar, y cambiará las tradiciones que Moisés nos legó.  15 Y al fijar la mirada en él, todos los que estaban sentados en el concilio vieron su rostro como el rostro de un ángel.  --------1986, 1995, 1997 by The Lockman Foundation⁠⁠Más información sobre La Biblia de las Américas⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠paulino.solorzano@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Bible study for March 28, 2025, is cancelled.Scripture Reading: Acts 27:1–44 27 When it was decided we would sail to Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort named Julius. 2 We went on board a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail to various ports along the coast of the province of Asia and put out to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. 3 The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius, treating Paul kindly, allowed him to go to his friends so they could provide him with what he needed. 4 From there we put out to sea and sailed under the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 After we had sailed across the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we put in at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found a ship from Alexandria sailing for Italy, and he put us aboard it. 7 We sailed slowly for many days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus. Because the wind prevented us from going any farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. 8 With difficulty we sailed along the coast of Crete and came to a place called Fair Havens that was near the town of Lasea. 9 Since considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them, 10 “Men, I can see the voyage is going to end in disaster and great loss not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” 11 But the centurion was more convinced by the captain and the ship's owner than by what Paul said. 12 Because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there. They hoped that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete facing southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there. 13 When a gentle south wind sprang up, they thought they could carry out their purpose, so they weighed anchor and sailed close along the coast of Crete. 14 Not long after this, a hurricane-force wind called the northeaster blew down from the island. 15 When the ship was caught in it and could not head into the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 As we ran under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were able with difficulty to get the ship's boat under control. 17 After the crew had hoisted it aboard, they used supports to undergird the ship. Fearing they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor, thus letting themselves be driven along. 18 The next day, because we were violently battered by the storm, they began throwing the cargo overboard, 19 and on the third day they threw the ship's gear overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and a violent storm continued to batter us, we finally abandoned all hope of being saved. 21 Since many of them had no desire to eat, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not put out to sea from Crete, thus avoiding this damage and loss. 22 And now I advise you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship will be lost. 23 For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve came to me 24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul! You must stand before Caesar, and God has graciously granted you the safety of all who are sailing with you.' 25 Therefore keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be just as I have been told. 26 But we must run aground on some island.” 27 When the fourteenth night had come, while we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected they were approaching some land. 28 They took soundings and found the water was twenty fathoms deep; when they had sailed a little farther they took soundings again and found it was fifteen fathoms deep. 29 Because they were afraid that we would run aground on the rocky coast, they threw out four anchors from the stern and wished for day to appear. 30 Then when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and were lowering the ship's boat into the sea, pretending that they were going to put out anchors from the bow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes of the ship's boat and let it drift away. 33 As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have been in suspense and have gone without food; you have eaten nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take some food, for this is important for your survival. For not one of you will lose a hair from his head.” 35 After he said this, Paul took bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it, and began to eat. 36 So all of them were encouraged and took food themselves. 37 (We were in all 276 persons on the ship.) 38 When they had eaten enough to be satisfied, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea. 39 When day came, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. 40 So they slipped the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the linkage that bound the steering oars together. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and steered toward the beach. 41 But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force of the waves. 42 Now the soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners so that none of them would escape by swimming away. 43 But the centurion, wanting to save Paul's life, prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land, 44 and the rest were to follow, some on planks and some on pieces of the ship. And in this way all were brought safely to land.OutlinePaul Sails to RomeLuke narrates the shipwreck with special detailGod wants Paul to go to Rome; Paul is innocentHow It StartedPaul and his companions are assigned to a centurionSailing from Caesarea to Asia MinorPut in at SidonTo Myra in LyciaTransfer at MyraWith difficulty they reached Fair HavensPaul's first warningWinter travel—a dangerous affairLet's winter in Phoenix!To PhoenixHow It's GoingThe weather suddenly changesFind shelter behind Cauda and haul the boat!Anything but the Syrtis!Preparing the ship for the worseAll hope is lostPaul Offers HopePaul rises as a leader and encourages themPaul has had a visionThe ship approaches some landSome sailors attempt to escapeEveryone on board shares a mealDiscarding more cargoLast ditch effort: run the ship agroundThe prisoners are sparedEveryone swims to shore; everyone is saved!

Acts 15:22-35The Council's Letter to Gentile Believers22Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, 25it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”30So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. 33And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

Scripture Reading: Acts 23:11–24:9 11 The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Have courage, for just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” 12 When morning came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul. 13 There were more than forty of them who formed this conspiracy. 14 They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to partake of anything until we have killed Paul. 15 So now you and the council request the commanding officer to bring him down to you, as if you were going to determine his case by conducting a more thorough inquiry. We are ready to kill him before he comes near this place.” 16 But when the son of Paul's sister heard about the ambush, he came and entered the barracks and told Paul. 17 Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commanding officer, for he has something to report to him.” 18 So the centurion took him and brought him to the commanding officer and said, “The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you.” 19 The commanding officer took him by the hand, withdrew privately, and asked, “What is it that you want to report to me?” 20 He replied, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as if they were going to inquire more thoroughly about him. 21 So do not let them persuade you to do this, because more than forty of them are lying in ambush for him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink anything until they have killed him, and now they are ready, waiting for you to agree to their request.” 22 Then the commanding officer sent the young man away, directing him, “Tell no one that you have reported these things to me.” 23 Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, “Make ready 200 soldiers to go to Caesarea along with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen by nine o'clock tonight, 24 and provide mounts for Paul to ride so that he may be brought safely to Felix the governor.” 25 He wrote a letter that went like this: 26 Claudius Lysias to His Excellency Governor Felix, greetings. 27 This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, when I came up with the detachment and rescued him, because I had learned that he was a Roman citizen. 28 Since I wanted to know what charge they were accusing him of, I brought him down to their council. 29 I found he was accused with reference to controversial questions about their law, but no charge against him deserved death or imprisonment. 30 When I was informed there would be a plot against this man, I sent him to you at once, also ordering his accusers to state their charges against him before you. 31 So the soldiers, in accordance with their orders, took Paul and brought him to Antipatris during the night. 32 The next day they let the horsemen go on with him, and they returned to the barracks. 33 When the horsemen came to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him. 34 When the governor had read the letter, he asked what province he was from. When he learned that he was from Cilicia, 35 he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive too.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod's palace. 24 After five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and an attorney named Tertullus, and they brought formal charges against Paul to the governor. 2 When Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, “We have experienced a lengthy time of peace through your rule, and reforms are being made in this nation through your foresight. 3 Most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this everywhere and in every way with all gratitude. 4 But so that I may not delay you any further, I beg you to hear us briefly with your customary graciousness. 5 For we have found this man to be a troublemaker, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. 6 He even tried to desecrate the temple, so we arrested him. 8 When you examine him yourself, you will be able to learn from him about all these things we are accusing him of doing.” 9 The Jews also joined in the verbal attack, claiming that these things were true.OutlinePaul is Delivered from an Assassination PlotThe Lord assures PaulThe plot to kill PaulThey would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for that meddling kid!Lysias foils the assasins' planHow many soldiers?!Why send such a large force (at night)?To Caesarea, to FelixLysias' ReportPaul is Judged by FelixFelix receives PaulPaul's trial: a typical Roman trialThe prosecution

2025晨鐘課－每天，都是新的起點 以歷史智慧滋養生活，點亮2025每一天！ 借鑑過去，活在當下，展望未來！ 粵語廣播網站 (時兆出版社授權錄製) https://soundcloud.com/mediahk Podcast@靈修廣播站 3月4日 瓦器 我們有這寶貝放在瓦器裡，要顯明這莫大的能力是出於上帝，不是出於我們。 哥林多後書 4：7 許多人會對靈感著作的原創性產生質疑：真先知能否將非靈感的著作納入寫作來源？如果真這樣做了，那麼出現在靈感著作中的這部分內容是否不該被視為是上帝所啟示的？此外，如果先知參考了文獻，卻沒有標明資料來源，是否屬於剽竊行為？ 數百年來，文人們常常引用他人觀點卻不標注原始文獻。大名鼎鼎的莎士比亞（William Shakespeare）就是個典型的例子，愛默生（Ralph W. Emersn）曾如此評價莎翁：「他將『拿來主義』奉行到底，只要他看到了，他就拿來用。」但到了現代，許多地區和國家法律在版權問題上變得更加嚴格。美國1909年 3月4日頒佈的版權法（於1909年7月1日生效）是第一部有效保護文學、藝術、戲劇和音樂版權的聯邦法律。若用現代的版權法和慣例來評判經典作家（包括先知），顯然是有失公允的。 隨著對《聖經》的深入研究，人們發現聖經作者們也曾使用非上帝啟示的作品。例如，保羅引用過埃庇米尼得斯（Epimenides f Crete，徒17：28；多1：12）、西里西亞的阿拉圖斯（Aratus f Cilicia，徒17：28）和米南德（Menander，林前15：33）。猶大曾引用次經《以諾一書》（猶1：14、15）。〈約伯記〉裡有幾段話指責約伯做了惡事，這顯然不是來自上帝。《聖經》還引用了撒但的謊言（創3： 1–5；太4：3–11）。因此，先知的靈感之作並不意味著絕對的原創，只是透過聖靈的幫助如實傳達真理，並客觀地敘述事實。 我們至少要對靈感的運作有基本的了解，以免出現歪曲和誤解。我們不應該把焦點放在那用來傳遞信息的、不完美的「瓦器」上，而是應該放在絕無錯謬的「內容」上。「真理的財寶雖是放在瓦器裡的，但它畢竟是從天上來的。所作的見證雖然是用世人不完全的語言表達出來，但它總是上帝的見證。」《聖經》不只是包含上帝話語的一部書，實際上它就是祂的話語！

Paul Called by God11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.  The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ga 1:11–24.

These twelve holy Martyrs suffered in the reign of Diocletian.   "The first of these, Pamphilius, was priest in the church at Caesarea in Palestine; a learned and devout man, he corrected the mistakes of various copiers in the text of the New Testament. He himself copied this saving Book and gave it to any who desired it. The second was a deacon, Valentine, old in years and white with wisdom. He was a great expert in the Holy Scriptures, knowing them by heart. The third was Paul, a respected and eminent man, who had on a previous occasion been cast into the fire for the sake of Christ. With them were five Egyptians, brothers both in blood and soul, who were returning to their native land from serving a sentence in the mines of Cilicia. As they reached the gate of the town of Caesarea they said that they were Christians, and were therefore brought to trial. When asked their names, they replied: 'We have cast away the pagan names given us by our mother, and are called Elias, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Samuel and Daniel.' when asked where they were from, they replied: 'From Jerusalem that is above.' They were all beheaded, and a young man called Porphyrius, who had searched for their bodies to give them burial, suffered soon afterwards. Him they burned. An officer, Seleucus, who had come up to the martyrs and embraced them before the sword descended on their heads, was also burned, and an old man, Theodulus, a servant of the Roman judge, who had embraced one of the martyrs while they were under escort. Lastly Julian, who had kissed the dead bodies of the martyrs and honoured them, followed them in death. So they exchanged the small for the greater, the tawdry for the precious and death for immortality, and went to the Lord in 308." (Prologue)   The Synaxarion concludes, "After the martyrdom of Pamphilius, the leader of the glorious cohort, the impious governor gave orders that his body and those of his companions should be left where they lay as food for carnivorous animals. However by God's Providence, no animal came near their holy relics, which the Christians were able to lay to rest with due honour." The account of these Martyrs was written by Eusebius of Caeserea, Pamphilius' disciple.

Challenges of Church Growth Multiplication and Division Acts Focus Passage: Acts 6:1-5 1. The Importance of Unity in the Church     * Acts 6:1: “But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food distribution.”     * Growth often brings healthy challenges, and with challenges come opportunities for solutions shaped by God's wisdom. As leaders, we must remember that the same God who brings increase also provides answers. Rather than succumbing to panic, we are called to seek His guidance with faith, trusting that His hand will resolve difficulties when we ask, seek, and knock.     * The tension between the Hellenistic Jews and Hebraic Jews regarding the daily distribution of food underscores the importance of addressing cultural and community-specific needs within the church. This conflict wasn't just logistical—it revealed the more profound need for sensitivity, understanding, and intentional inclusion.     * The Holy Spirit equips us to be witnesses to all people (Acts 1:8), and He also empowers us with grace to bridge cultural differences, relate to diverse perspectives, and find Spirit-led solutions. Unity is not just a goal; the Church needs to embody the fullness of God's presence. As Jesus prayed in John 17:21, "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you," unity is the key to effective witness and sustained growth. 2. Spirit-Led Delegation and qualifications for leadership.     * (Acts 6:2-4).2 So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. 3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. 4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”     * Every leadership role in the body of Christ should require spirit-filling. Spiritual wisdom is needed to discern God's will and make decisions according to God's heart, not man's.     * The Apostles understood their primary responsibility with the early church was prayer and teaching of the Word, especially with the rapid growth, so other vital tasks like assisting widows had to be designated to others who had to be spirit-filled.     * In Christ, all we do is go unto Him, in the power of the Spirit. Nothing should be seen as less a duty than something else just because of one's title. 3. The Power of Spirit-Filled Ministry     * Acts 6:5-8
"Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. So, God's message continued to spread. The number of believers significantly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too."     * The power of God is not reserved for a select few but is available to all believers. As Jesus declared in Mark 16:17, the signs accompanying those who believe in Him include casting out demons, laying hands on the sick, and more. The early church leaders, like Stephen and the others chosen, exemplified the qualifications required for leadership: being full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Without these essential traits, we are unprepared to represent Jesus effectively and bring glory to His name.     * Furthermore, the act of elders laying hands on new leaders serves as a vital moment of consecration and empowerment, setting them apart for their God-given role. This practice reinforces the spiritual significance of stepping into leadership with prayerful preparation.     * When more believers rise to accept their calling and step into leadership, the Lord multiplies His work. As each vessel contributes to the mission, the Kingdom advances, and the message of God continues to spread powerfully, just as it did in the early church. 4.  Opposition to Spirit-Filled Witness     * Acts 6:9-14
"But one day, some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, began to debate with Stephen. These were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. Yet, none of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke. So they persuaded others to lie about Stephen, claiming, 'We heard him blaspheme Moses and even God.' This stirred up the people, elders, and teachers of religious law. As a result, they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council. The false witnesses testified, 'This man constantly speaks against the holy Temple and the law of Moses. We even heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.'"     * No one can stand against the wisdom of God. When we operate as Stephen did—full of faith and the Spirit—we are empowered to answer any question, speak boldly, and remain unmoved by human opposition, aligning ourselves with God's purpose. However, this does not guarantee that others will respond positively. Some hearts are so hardened and consumed by evil that nothing we say or do will move them.     * Opposition may come, often in the form of lies, schemes, and attempts to stop us at any cost. But we must remember that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces and principalities of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). Because of this, we should not take persecution personally. Instead, we are called to rejoice when we suffer for Christ's sake. By doing so, we share in the fellowship of His suffering and stand in solidarity with all the saints who have endured before us. 5. A Glimpse of Glory Amid Trials     * Acts 6:15: “At this point, everyone in the high council stared at Stephen because his face became as bright as an angel's.”     * Final Charge:
We are called to shine like the sun's rays, reflecting the light of the Son's presence. When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, no earthly opposition or suffering can diminish the glory of God radiating through us. Stephen's face, shining like an angel's, was a testament to his communion with the Lord, even in the face of persecution.     * With suffering comes glory! Let us boldly pursue the Lord and His will, keeping our gaze fixed on Him. No matter what happens on earth, we walk in the reality of Heaven. May our lives bear witness to His name, reflecting His light and His love, even in the darkest moments. -- Praise Tabernacle Dr. Joshua Kennedy,  Pastor 2235 Ocean Heights  Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08234 pastorjosh@praisetabernacle.com praisetabernacle.church  (609) 927-4560(w),

Scripture Reading: Acts 21:30–22:21 30 The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple courts, and immediately the doors were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, a report was sent up to the commanding officer of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd. When they saw the commanding officer and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the commanding officer came up and arrested him and ordered him to be tied up with two chains; he then asked who he was and what he had done. 34 But some in the crowd shouted one thing, and others something else, and when the commanding officer was unable to find out the truth because of the disturbance, he ordered Paul to be brought into the barracks. 35 When he came to the steps, Paul had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, 36 for a crowd of people followed them, screaming, “Away with him!” 37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commanding officer, “May I say something to you?” The officer replied, “Do you know Greek? 38 Then you're not that Egyptian who started a rebellion and led the 4,000 men of the ‘Assassins' into the wilderness some time ago?” 39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Please allow me to speak to the people.” 40 When the commanding officer had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and gestured to the people with his hand. When they had become silent, he addressed them in Aramaic, 22 “Brothers and fathers, listen to my defense that I now make to you.” 2 (When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.) Then Paul said, 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated with strictness under Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors, and was zealous for God just as all of you are today. 4 I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison, 5 as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I was on my way to make arrests there and bring the prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. 6 As I was en route and near Damascus, about noon a very bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. 7 Then I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' 8 I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?' He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.' 9 Those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 So I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?' The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told about everything that you have been designated to do.' 11 Since I could not see because of the brilliance of that light, I came to Damascus led by the hand of those who were with me. 12 A man named Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who live there, 13 came to me and stood beside me and said to me, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!' And at that very moment I looked up and saw him. 14 Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has already chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear a command from his mouth, 15 because you will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.' 17 When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.' 19 I replied, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat those in the various synagogues who believed in you. 20 And when the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing nearby, approving, and guarding the cloaks of those who were killing him.' 21 Then he said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' ”OutlinePolytheistic Romans Rescue Paul from His PeopleAll Jerusalem is in confusionThe Romans rescue PaulThe report goes up to the chiliarchPaul is arrested and falsely accusedPaul speaks Greek very wellThe Egyptian Jew and the SicariiPaul the citizen of Tarsus is no Egyptian, much less an assassinPaul Addresses His PeopleCould Paul have addressed the crowd?Brothers and fathersA Jew, brough up in Jerusalem, educated under Gamaliel, zealous for GodA persecutor of the WaySlight variations in Paul's retelling of his Damascus experienceThe second vision and the final twist: go to the Gentiles

EP | 131 - Hechos 6 – Conflictos internos y el ascenso de Esteban Un problema dentro de la iglesia: ¿Discriminación en la comida? 1 A medida que el número de creyentes aumentaba, también comenzaron los problemas. Los judíos de habla griega (helenistas) se quejaron de que sus viudas estaban siendo descuidadas en la distribución diaria de comida, mientras que las viudas de los judíos de habla hebrea recibían mejor trato. 2 Entonces los doce apóstoles reunieron a todos los creyentes y dijeron: "No es correcto que dejemos de predicar la Palabra de Dios para encargarnos de repartir comida." 3-4 "Así que elijan a siete hombres de buen testimonio, llenos del Espíritu Santo y sabiduría. Nosotros nos enfocaremos en la oración y en enseñar la Palabra, mientras ellos se encargan de esta tarea." 5 La propuesta les pareció bien a todos. Eligieron a Esteban (un hombre lleno de fe y del Espíritu Santo), a Felipe, a Prócoro, a Nicanor, a Timón, a Parmenas y a Nicolás (un converso de Antioquía). 6 Los presentaron ante los apóstoles, quienes oraron por ellos y les impusieron las manos. El mensaje sigue creciendo 7 El mensaje de Dios seguía extendiéndose. El número de discípulos en Jerusalén crecía rápidamente, e incluso muchos sacerdotes judíos comenzaron a creer. 8 Esteban, lleno de gracia y poder, realizaba grandes señales y milagros entre la gente. Esteban: Poder, sabiduría y enemigos 9 Pero un grupo de judíos de la sinagoga de los Libertos, junto con otros de Cirene, Alejandría, Cilicia y Asia, comenzaron a discutir con él. 10 Sin embargo, no podían refutar su sabiduría ni el Espíritu con el que hablaba. Acusaciones falsas contra Esteban 11 Entonces, sobornaron a unos hombres para que dijeran: "Hemos oído a Esteban hablar palabras blasfemas contra Moisés y contra Dios." 12 Esto provocó un gran escándalo en el pueblo. Los ancianos y los maestros de la ley lo arrestaron y lo llevaron ante el Sanedrín. 13-14 Presentaron testigos falsos que dijeron: "Este hombre no deja de hablar contra el templo y contra la ley. Hemos oído que dice que Jesús destruirá este lugar y cambiará las tradiciones que Moisés nos dejó." 15 Todos los que estaban en el Consejo fijaron la mirada en Esteban, y su rostro parecía el de un ángel. Reflexión y contexto

From Law to Grace: The Conversion That Changed Christianity The Conversion of St. Paul: A Remarkable Transformation Today, we celebrate the conversion of St. Paul. Before becoming one of Christianity's most influential figures, Paul was known as Saul. He was born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, to Jewish parents who were slaves to Roman citizens. However, due to Roman law, children born to enslaved parents serving Roman citizens were granted Roman citizenship at birth. This granted Saul the unique privilege of being both a Jew by heritage and a Roman citizen by status. To ensure that Saul remained rooted in his Jewish identity, his parents sent him to Jerusalem to study Jewish law. There, he became a student of Rabbi Gamaliel, a highly respected teacher of the law. During his time in Jerusalem, Saul was immersed in the prevailing belief that the coming of the Messiah would free Israel from Roman rule. Different groups held various approaches to hasten this liberation—some took up arms against Roman oppression, while others, like Saul's group under Gamaliel, believed strict adherence to the law would hasten the Messiah's arrival. Saul Believed By Following the Law, It Would Hasten the Arrival of … As a passionate and zealous student of Jewish law, Saul strictly followed every commandment and surpassed his peers in devotion. However, during this time, he began hearing about a young rabbi named Jesus, whose teachings and actions defied the traditional laws. Jesus and his followers disregarded rituals, such as washing hands before meals, and did not strictly observe every legal requirement. To Saul, this was unacceptable, and he became determined to defend the law at all costs. Saul's journey from a fierce persecutor of Christians to a devoted apostle of Christ is what makes his conversion so extraordinary. His transformation not only changed his life but also shaped the future of Christianity. Listen to this Meditation Media. Listen to: From Law to Grace: The Conversion That Changed Christianity ----------------------------------- Image The Conversion Of Saint Paul: French Painter: Nicolas Bernard Lépicié: late 1700s ----------------------------------- Gospel Reading: Mark: 16: 15-18 First Reading: Acts: 22: 3 – 16

Friends of the Rosary, Today, January 25, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, when he turned away from the persecution of Christians to promote Christianity. Born at Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, of Jewish parents who were descended from the tribe of Benjamin, Saul was a Roman citizen from birth. To complete his schooling, he was sent to Jerusalem, learned from Gamaliel, and educated in the strict observance of the ancestral Law, becoming a zealous Pharisee and a fanatic against the infant Church. He took part in the stoning of the first martyr, St. Stephen, and in the fierce persecution of the Christians that followed. On his way to Damascus to make new arrests, he was suddenly converted by a miraculous apparition of Our Lord. The conversion took place about five years after our Lord's death. He was baptized, changed his name from Saul to Paul, and began traveling and preaching the Faith. From a fierce persecutor, he became the great Apostle of the Gentiles. He made three missionary journeys to Asia Minor and southern Europe and made many converts. Fourteen of his Epistles are found in the New Testament. He was beheaded in Rome around 66 A.D., and his relics are in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls near the Ostian Way. The conversion of St. Paul reveals that the mercy of God is more powerful than human sinfulness. Ave Maria!Jesus, I Trust In You!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary! + Mikel Amigot | RosaryNetwork.com, New York • ⁠⁠Enhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University iOS app. • ⁠January 25, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Meditación del Libro de los Hechos de los Apóstoles 22, 3-16 por el biblista P. Norberto Padilla, misionero claretiano. Sábado 25/ene/2025, Levántate, recibe el bautismo y lava tus pecados invocando el nombre de Jesús. Canción: Te seguiré (2016), de P. Edward Gilbert ---------- Meditación del Libro de los Hechos de los Apóstoles 22, 3-16 En aquellos días, dijo Pablo al pueblo: "Yo soy judío, nací en Tarso de Cilicia, pero me crié en esta ciudad; fui alumno de Gamaliel y aprendí hasta el último detalle de la ley de nuestros padres; he servido a Dios con tanto fervor como ustedes muestran ahora. Yo perseguí a muerte este nuevo camino, metiendo en la cárcel, encadenados, a hombres y mujeres; y son testigos de esto el sumo sacerdote y todos los ancianos. Ellos me dieron cartas para los hermanos de Damasco, y fui allí para traerme presos a Jerusalén a los que encontrase, para que los castigaran. Pero en el viaje, cerca ya de Damasco, hacia mediodía, de repente una gran luz del cielo me envolvió con su resplandor, caí por tierra y oí una voz que me decía: "Saulo, Saulo, ¿por qué me persigues?" Yo pregunté: "¿Qué quieres, Señor?" Me respondió: "Yo soy Jesús Nazareno, a quien tú persigues." Mis compañeros vieron el resplandor, pero no comprendieron lo que decía la voz. Yo pregunté: "¿Qué debo hacer, Señor?" El Señor me respondió: "Levántate, sigue hasta Damasco, y allí te dirán lo que tienes que hacer." Como yo no veía, cegado por el resplandor de aquella luz, mis compañeros me llevaron de la mano a Damasco. Un cierto Ananías, devoto de la Ley, recomendado por todos los judíos de la ciudad, vino a verme. Se puso a mi lado y me dijo: "Saulo, hermano, recobra la vista." Inmediatamente recobré la vista y lo vi. Él me dijo: "El Dios de nuestros padres te ha elegido para que conozcas su voluntad, para que vieras al Justo y oyeras su voz, porque vas a ser su testigo ante todos los hombres de lo que has visto y oído. Ahora, no pierdas tiempo; levántate, recibe el bautismo que, por la invocación de su Nombre, lavará tus pecados."" Palabra de Dios... te alabamos, Señor #SoyClaretiano #Evangelio #MisionerosClaretianos #CMFAntillas Música de introducción: Lámpara Es Tu Palabra, de Ain Karem

St. George, dragons, dragon slayers, Precession of the Equinoxes, Age of Taurus, Age of Aries, Draco, Greek mythology, Perseus, Medusa, Andromeda, Perseus constellation, Perseus as dragon slayer, Jason, Argonauts, Colchis, Media, Jason as a dragon slayer, Jason as Perseus, Jason as stellar allegory, Mithras, Mithraism, why Roman Mithraism is not Persian, Cilicia, Tarsus, the Tarsus cult of Perseus, Mithraism as stellar cult, Mithras as Perseus, Perseus-Jason-Mithras as mushroom cult, theurgy, Gate of the Sun, soul flight, drawing down the moon, possession, why theurgy has military purposes, the origins of St. George and his legend, St. George as stellar allegory, St. George as Perseus/Mithras/Jason, military orders dedicated to St. George, Knights Templar, occult traditions in St. George orders, St. George's dragon as Saturn-Demiurge, why Perseus?https://www.decodingmythology.com/george/index.htmlMusic by: Keith Allen Dennishttps://keithallendennis.bandcamp.com/Additional Music: Albert Bouchardhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HST4KSD/ref=sr_1_3?crid=22ZFXGMRRVP1R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.x0P0auCPbT945qQ3bOIhOnkWQLnSmzkspbdVBfz1OeDjNGBi9jXxMvuUXsIMT0SgqecIv6zWPkIT0Jun9DO2zSP1cNP6pcZR_JlAneD79UP1qYiskVD7lSorzXoS7ggtazzYzanQCzVwQdTsSTcuQV-SeDoqoS_WH6-sGMrpLZbsNaebHVNIvMLZ1bgBsKckOc3Nk-xOLXeAf_iyXJW7r-eujmfPf-Y4Go9OYy_CTJs.n8Y_QZbimvc2UilE6kDw9UKQipisRasvPFnMKumNDoM&dib_tag=se&keywords=albert+bouchard&qid=1735363482&s=dmusic&sprefix=albert+bouch%2Cdigital-music%2C419&sr=1-3 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the storm of a lifetime was the only thing standing between you and your destiny? Join us on an epic maritime adventure, as we recount the gripping voyage of Paul to Rome, narrated with all the tension and drama of Acts 27. Alongside a centurion named Julius, an array of prisoners, and the steadfast Paul, we journey from an Adramidian ship through the turbulent seas of Cyprus, Cilicia, and Pamphylia. Feel the mounting suspense as Paul's grave warnings of disaster go unheeded, only to be fulfilled as a monstrous storm, the Iroquillo, unleashes chaos, forcing a desperate fight for survival.Experience the unwavering strength of faith as Paul becomes a beacon of hope amidst the pandemonium, inspired by an angelic message ensuring their safety. As the crew struggles against the elements, jettisoning cargo and grappling with their diminishing hope, discover how courage and divine assurance guide them towards the refuge of an unknown island. With every passing night on the treacherous Adriatic Sea, share in their anxiety and anticipation as they battle to stay afloat, casting anchors into the darkness and yearning for the dawn. This episode promises an exhilarating narrative of faith, courage, and the relentless human spirit against nature's fury.Support the showThe American Soul Podcasthttps://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe

Acts 6:8-15 8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.   Key Words: Full, Grace, Power, Dispute, Wisdom, Spirit, False Witness, Face Keystone Verse: But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. (Acts 6:10)     Download Bulletin    

The Quirinius census at the time of Jesus' birth referred to in the Gospel of Luke isn't recorded historically, but Christians believe it probably took place under a kind of extraordinary command authority that Roman official Quirinius (also called Cyrenius) possessed during his military maneuvers in Cilicia or possibly during a brief earlier stint as governor in Syria.  The Living Word podcast with Chuck Davis available at https://amzn.to/3Tao857   Daily Defense podcast available at https://amzn.to/3uFzHqN Catholic Answers Live podcast available at https://amzn.to/47IB5Yk Biblical Archaeology Today podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steve-waldron   Gospel of Luke available at https://amzn.to/45vVii4 ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet  SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you).  Mark Vinet's HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA podcast: www.parthenonpodcast.com/history-of-north-america                                               Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet                                  Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistoricalJesu   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels   Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM Source: When was Jesus Really Born? The Quirinius Conundrum (Paulogia podcast with J Warner Wallace). Audio excerpts reproduced under the Fair Use (Fair Dealings) Legal Doctrine for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, education, scholarship, research and news reporting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul with them during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris. The next day they let the cavalry go on with him, while they returned to the barracks. When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him. The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia, he said, ‘I will hear your case when your accusers get here.' Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod's palace. Five days later the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor. When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented his case before Felix: ‘We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude. But in order not to weary you further, I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly. ‘We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him. By examining him yourself you will be able to learn the truth about all these charges we are bringing against him.' The other Jews joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true... Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. They requested Festus, as a favour to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. Festus answered, ‘Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. Let some of your leaders come with me, and if the man has done anything wrong, they can press charges against him there.' After spending eight or ten days with them, Festus went down to Caesarea. The next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood round him. They brought many serious charges against him, but they could not prove them. Then Paul made his defence: ‘I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.' (Acts 23.31-24.9; 25.1-8)

The enrollment or registration at the time of Jesus' birth referred to in the Gospel of Luke isn't recorded historically, but Christians believe it probably took place under a kind of extraordinary command authority that Roman official Quirinius possessed during his military maneuvers in Cilicia or possibly during a brief earlier stint as governor in Syria. Enjoy this Encore Presentation! Paulogia podcast available at https://amzn.to/3Tg2Eno    Gospel of Luke available at https://amzn.to/45vVii4 ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet  SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you).  Mark Vinet's HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA podcast: www.parthenonpodcast.com/history-of-north-america                                               Video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet                                  Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistoricalJesu   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels   Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM  Source: When was Jesus Really Born? The Quirinius Conundrum (Paulogia podcast with J Warner Wallace). Audio excerpts reproduced under the Fair Use (Fair Dealings) Legal Doctrine for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, education, scholarship, research and news reporting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a text“Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas—Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, and they sent this letter by them, “The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings. Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.” So when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch; and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. When they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message. After they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who had sent them out. [But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.] But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others also, the word of the Lord.”‭‭Acts‬ ‭15‬:‭22‬-‭35‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬Support the showThe American Soul Podcasthttps://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe

My name is Rev. Alvin Lewis of Power To Change Ministry. Thank you for sharing your day with us, we would love to hear from you, your feedback is very important.Galatians 1:11-24 (NASB)11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.13 For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; 14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. 15 But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.18 Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother. 20 (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; 23 but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they were glorifying God because of me.Power To Change Ministry Rev. Alvin Lewis Powertochangeministry@gmail.Com Powertochangeministry.org 973-583-7482

Es un episodio poco conocido de la historia. Hubo una época en la que Madrid se convirtió en ‘capital' de Armenia en el s. XIV. Ocurrió cuando León V, el último rey del Reino Armenio de Cilicia fue capturado por los mamelucos en 1375. Después de su liberación, buscó refugio en Europa y, en 1383, Juan I de Castilla le otorgó la villa de Madrid, junto con Ciudad Real y Andújar. Técnicamente, no fue capital oficial, pero sí fue residencia del monarca exiliado. Y descubre más historias curiosas en el canal National Geographic y en Disney +. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He had wealth and wisdom but found it all to be ________________.   Three Things that Contributed to Solomon's Downfall.   1. Solomon craved ________________.   Deuteronomy 17:16-17 “The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.' 17 The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.   1 Kings 10:28 Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia; the king's traders acquired them from Cilicia at the standard price.   1 Kings 10:14-15; 21 Each year Solomon received about 25 tons of gold. 15 This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders, all the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the land. 21 All of King Solomon's drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver, for silver was considered worthless in Solomon's day!   2. Solomon ________________ after many women.   1 Kings 11:1-3 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh's daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. 2 The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. 3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord.   3. Solomon ________________ foreign gods.   1 Kings 11:4-9 In Solomon's old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father, David, had been. 5 Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 In this way, Solomon did what was evil in the Lord's sight; he refused to follow the Lord completely, as his father, David, had done. 7 On the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, he even built a pagan shrine for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and another for Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods. 9 The Lord was very angry with Solomon, for his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.   Solomon overlooked the fact that disobedience to God brings ________________ consequences.   Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. 11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.   The world is full of people who are making a ________________ living but living ________________ lives.   Deuteronomy 17:18-20 “When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. 20 This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.   Important we stay ________________ in God's Word.

Send us a text“And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council. They put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.” And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.”‭‭Acts‬ ‭6‬:‭8‬-‭15‬ ‭Support the showThe American Soul Podcasthttps://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe

The Church commemorates three pairs of brothers named Cosmas and Damian, all counted among the Unmercenary Physicians. The first reposed in peace and are commemorated on November 1; the second were stoned to death in Rome, and are commemorated on July 1; the third pair, commemorated today, were Arab doctors. They embraced the Christian faith together and thereafter cared for the sick in the name of the Lord Jesus, performing many miraculous healings. They were handed over to the governor Lysias by jealous pagans. When the governor accused them of healing by sorcery, they replied 'We have no sort of magic, nor use any, but we have the power of Christ to save us and all who call upon His holy Name.' The governor first attempted to bribe them to deny Christ then, when this was useless, subjected them to many tortures. Finally they were beheaded. Their holy relics continued to perform many miracles of healing.

All three suffered during the reign of Diocletian. Though born in three different places, the three were found to be Christians at Pompeiopolis in Cilicia, arrested together, and brought before the Governor, Numerian Maximus. Tarachus was sixty-five years old at the time of his arrest, but his captors showed no respect for his age, tormenting him as cruelly as the others. All three immediately and boldly confessed their faith, and were put to many vicious tortures, during which Probus said to Maximus, 'This bloodshed is oil and perfume for me to anoint myself with joy for further contests.' At one point the persecutors forcibly stuffed Andronicus' mouth with meat and wine that had been offered to idols, thinking that in doing so they were winning a victory. Andronicus only mocked them, explaining that only wilful apostasy brings defeat to a Christian.   Finally, Maximus ordered them taken to the theater and thrown to wild beasts for the entertainment of the people. Though the beasts had just torn others to pieces, they would not touch the holy martyrs, but played and fawned around them: A ferocious bear licked their wounds, and a lioness played affectionately around Tarachus. Seeing this, many in the crowd believed in Christ and denounced the Governor. The furious Maximus ordered his soldiers to enter the arena and cut the three to pieces. Three Christians who had witnessed the spectacle came by night to retrieve their bodies, but were unable to distinguish the martyrs' relics amid the general carnage. When they prayed for divine aid, three lights appeared above the bodies of the three holy ones, and they were given honorable burial in a mountain cave.

Scripture Reading: Acts 15:36–16:12 36 After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let's return and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord to see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to bring John called Mark along with them too, 38 but Paul insisted that they should not take along this one who had left them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. 39 They had a sharp disagreement, so that they parted company. Barnabas took along Mark and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and set out, commended to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters. 41 He passed through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. 16 He also came to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek. 2 The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was Greek. 4 As they went through the towns, they passed on the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers to obey. 5 So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number every day. 6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this, 8 so they passed through Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 A vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. 11 We put out to sea from Troas and sailed a straight course to Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of that district of Macedonia, a Roman colony.OutlinePaul Goes on Another JourneySecond half of Acts: carrying out the Gentile missionTimeline of Paul's missionary journeyPaul and Barnabas Part Over MarkAfter some daysThe Mark conflictSilas joins the teamTimothy Joins the TeamFrom Derbe to LystraTimothy, “the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek”Timothy, Jew or Gentile?Timothy is circumcisedPhrygia, Galatia, Mysia, and Down to TroasPhrygia and GalatiaNot Asia or BithyniaMysiaInvading Europe from Troas?Dreaming of Macedonia“We” PassagesThe narrator seems to be presentHow should “we” be interpretedMinistry in PhilippiPhilippi, a Roman colony

Scripture Reading: Acts 15:6–35 15:6 Both the apostles and the elders met together to deliberate about this matter. 15:7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that some time ago God chose me to preach to the Gentiles so they would hear the message of the gospel and believe. 15:8 And God, who knows the heart, has testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 15:9 and he made no distinction between them and us, cleansing their hearts by faith. 15:10 So now why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 15:11 On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they are.” 15:12 The whole group kept quiet and listened to Barnabas and Paul while they explained all the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 15:13 After they stopped speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 15:14 Simeon has explained how God first concerned himself to select from among the Gentiles a people for his name. 15:15 The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written, 15:16 ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the fallen tent of David; I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, 15:17 so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, namely, all the Gentiles I have called to be my own,' says the Lord, who makes these things 15:18 known from long ago. 15:19 “Therefore I conclude that we should not cause extra difficulty for those among the Gentiles who are turning to God, 15:20 but that we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things defiled by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. 15:21 For Moses has had those who proclaim him in every town from ancient times, because he is read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath.” 15:22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to send men chosen from among them, Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leaders among the brothers, to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. 15:23 They sent this letter with them: From the apostles and elders, your brothers, to the Gentile brothers and sisters in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, greetings! 15:24 Since we have heard that some have gone out from among us with no orders from us and have confused you, upsetting your minds by what they said, 15:25 we have unanimously decided to choose men to send to you along with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul, 15:26 who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15:27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas who will tell you these things themselves in person. 15:28 For it seemed best to the Holy Spirit and to us not to place any greater burden on you than these necessary rules: 15:29 that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from doing these things, you will do well. Farewell. 15:30 So when they were dismissed, they went down to Antioch, and after gathering the entire group together, they delivered the letter. 15:31 When they read it aloud, the people rejoiced at its encouragement. 15:32 Both Judas and Silas, who were prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with a long speech. 15:33 After they had spent some time there, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 15:35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming (along with many others) the word of the Lord.OutlinePeter's SpeechThe church—the assemblyA leader speaksGod's actions prove the message—says PeterSo do not test GodSaved through graceBarnabas and Paul Recount Miraculous SignsGod's actions prove the message—says PaulBut scripture says otherwise?James' SpeechJames who?James speaksAs Simeon ExplainedQuoting AmosImposing no extra difficultyThe DecreeViews on the decreeThe prohibitions are purely moral, analogous to the three most basic Jewish moral prohibitions.The prohibitions concern activity in pagan temples.They echo prohibitions for strangers in the land in Lev 17–18.They echo traditions that became the Noahide laws. Did Paul agree with the decree? What can we conclude?How hard was following the decree?A circular was sent

Entrusted with the Gospel Galatians 1:18-2:10 by William Klock I will never forget the first day I wore my letterman jacket to school.  High school is full of tribes.  There were the jocks and the nerds, there were the art kids and the shop kids, there were the cool girls and the stoners and the geeks.  And it was obvious which tribe everyone belonged to.  I was always carrying around a book by the likes of Tolkien or Asimov.  And my friends and I avoided the cafeteria at all costs.  Instead, we played Dungeons & Dragons in the library.  I had both feet firmly planted in the nerd tribe.  But I was also on the swim team.  The swim team was one of those sports no one paid attention to.  The only people who knew you were on the swim team were other people on the swim team.  So I remember walking into school that day with my letterman jacket on and everybody stopped and looked, because there I was, one of the nerds dressed like a jock.  But once the surprise wore off, everything fell into place.  Suddenly people who had never been friendly to me were friendly.  No questions asked.  That jacket marked me out as part of a new tribe.  I didn't hang out with the jocks.  I still wouldn't go anywhere near the cafeteria.  I still carried around my sci-fi novels and played D&D at lunch with the nerds, but to the other jocks it didn't matter.  I had a letterman jacket and that was all that mattered. It was something like that for Jews, except the thing that marked you out wasn't a letterman jacket; it was circumcision.  There were other things a good Jew was supposed to do that would also mark them out, because there was more to the torah than circumcision.  You kept the sabbath, you ate only clean foods, you avoided contact with gentiles.  Those were the big ones.  But circumcision was the marker.  You could fail at all those other things.  You could eat shrimp, you could do business on the sabbath, you could hang out with gentiles, but as long as you were circumcised you were still a Jew.  Maybe a bad Jew.  Maybe a people-pleasing Jew.  But still a Jew, because you bore the mark of God's covenant. With that in mind, it's not hard to imagine how this would present a problem for the first Christians.  Remember what I said last week.  They didn't see becoming a Christian as switching religions as we might think of it.  They were still Jews.  Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and he was the fulfilment of everything that Judaism stood for.  When gentiles believed in Jesus, they were joining up with a movement that was very much Jewish.  But what did that involve?  The Lord had cleared this up for Peter in Acts 10, when he sent him to the home of a Roman centurion named Cornelius.  Jews didn't visit or eat with gentiles, but in a vision the Lord made it clear to Peter that through faith in Jesus, even gentiles were made clean.  And this was absolutely earth-shaking.  Gentiles were unclean because they were idolaters.  They were sinners.  In those few instances where gentiles were attracted to Judaism, converting meant being purified and then being circumcised so that they were no longer sinful, unclean gentiles.  Only then could they associate with Jews and be accepted into the community.  But Paul is stressing—against these agitators in the Galatian churches and their false gospel—Paul is stressing that this new Israel, this new ekklesia or assembly of God, is marked out solely by faith in Jesus and that since Jesus dealt with sin in his death and resurrection, those who believe in him are no longer sinners, no longer unclean, and in need of nothing else in order to be part of the community.  In fact, going further, Paul stresses that the implication of this—and it goes against the grain of everything in Judaism of the day—the implication is that there is only one people of God.  Jew and gentile together—it doesn't matter, because the thing that always separated the two—sin—has been dealt with by Jesus.  This is why any “gospel” that adds anything to Jesus is false.  We saw in the first part of Chapter 1 that Paul actually calls down a curse on such teaching.  The gospel is Jesus plus nothing. So with this in mind, let's finish our look at Chapter 1 and then carry on to the first part of Chapter 2.  In the first part of Chapter 1 Paul has asserted first that his apostleship—his being called and sent—came directly from Jesus.  He's not the representative of any men.  He wasn't sent out by men—not even by other apostles.  He's been sent by Jesus.  And having established that, he's also stressed that his gospel came directly from Jesus, too.  He wasn't brought to faith in Jesus by Peter or James or anyone else.  Jesus met him on the road to Damascus, risen from the dead, and that changed everything for Paul.  Even then, he said, he didn't go to Jerusalem to consult with the other apostles.  Instead, like the prophet Elijah, he went to Mount Sinai to wrestle this through with the God of Israel.  There he worked through the implications of Jesus risen from the dead.  Only then did he go back to Antioch.  Now we'll pick up at 1:18.  Paul writes: Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas [that's Peter's Greek name…Cephas and Peter both mean “rock”].  I stayed with him for fifteen days.  I didn't see any of the other apostles, except James the Lord's brother.  And then Paul adds to stress his point, Look, I'm not lying!  The things I'm writing to you are written in God's presence. Paul uses this neat word here to describe his visit to Peter.  This is the only place we ever see it in the New Testament: historesai.  It's related to the word historia, which means “an account” or “a personal story”.  By Paul's day it usually just had the sense of visiting someone, but it could still carry the meaning of “to hear another person's story” and I think it's clear that's what Paul wants to stress here.  He could have said that he went to Peter to be taught, but hewants it to be clear that he didn't go to Peter for lessons on the gospel or on theology.  He'd wrestled that out with God after his encounter with the risen Messiah.  Paul's gospel was Jesus plus nothing.  Gentiles didn't need to be circumcised or to live by torah.  Paul had worked this out as the natural and inevitable implication of Jesus' death and resurrection.  So this visit was about getting to know his fellow apostle, Peter, to hear his story and to bring him up to date on Paul's own story and apostolic ministry—and hopefully they'd be in agreement about it all.  Again, Paul was sent by Jesus himself and his gospel came directly from Jesus, not from men.  Paul goes on in verses 21-24: Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.  I remained unknown by sight to the messianic assemblies in Judaea.  They simply heard that the one who had been persecuting them was now announcing the good news of the faith he once tried to destroy.  And they glorified God because of me.   So Paul and Peter met, they brought each other up to speed on their ministries and they got to know each other—lining this up with the book of Acts, this would have been Paul's first visit to Jerusalem, about A.D. 36—and then Paul went back to Syria to continue preaching the good news of faith in Jesus the Messiah.  The Jesus followers in Judaea knew who he was and they rejoiced that the man who had once tried to stamp them out was now one of them, but Paul's point here is that if they'd seen him on the street, they wouldn't have known who he was.  Again, apart from being a fellow apostle of Jesus, he had no connection with the apostles in Jerusalem.  He worked for Jesus, not for Peter or James.  And, he stresses, no one had a problem with this.  In fact, the people down in Judaea glorified God to hear of Paul's gospel ministry.  There's an echo of Isaiah there, where the Lord says, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” There is one thing that I think needs attention here before we move on and that's Paul's way of describing his ministry.  He describes himself as “announcing the good news of the faith”.  To put it literally, he's “gospelling the faith”.  It's an unusual way of putting things, but I think Paul does this here to stress what's going to be his main point in the rest of the letter: This faith—faith in Jesus the crucified and risen Messiah—is the thing that binds Jesus' people together.  It's the one thing that marks them out as his—not circumcision or anything else.  Faith in Jesus makes you part of the family. So there's about a decade of Paul's life that passes that we know nothing about other than that he was apparently ministering in Antioch and the surrounding area.  He picks up his story in 2:1, saying: After fourteen years [this would be from the time he met Jesus], I went up again to Jerusalem.  I took Barnabas with me, and Titus.  I went up because of a revelation.   Not everyone agrees on the timeline, but this seems to align with what we read in Acts 11, where a prophet named Agabus, told the churches that there would be a great famine.  This was in the middle of the 40s.  The church in Antioch—and that included Paul—responded by sending help to their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.  This is why Paul says he went to Jerusalem because of a revelation. Now, Paul taking money from his church to help other churches might seem incidental, but it really isn't.  In fact, it's very much part of the theme of Galatians.  I think there's a tendency in conservative circles to ignore the way these early churches cared for each other in response to people on the left making claims that the early church was Socialist.  There's no reason for conservatives to avoid this.  Karl Marx was two millennia away.  There was no “socialism” in the First Century.  What there was, was Christians doing their best to live out who they knew themselves to be in Jesus.  They were a family.  That's why we call each other “Brother” and “Sister”.  And families take care of each other.  When the brothers and sisters in Damascus heard that their cousins in Jerusalem were struggling, they sent help.  This was a very Jewish way of life.  This was how Jewish communities worked and I think what's really remarkable here—and something we probably miss in our reading of passages like this—it's remarkable that the early church was living this way.  The Jews were literally a family, but these new churches, they were different, especially once you got out of Judaea.  There were people of different races and nationalities, there were freemen and slaves, there were men and women and they quickly realised that just like the old Israel, they were a family.  So what's going on here is them trying to live that out in their communities.  I think this is something modern Christians in the West need to be thinking about, especially as the world around us becomes more hostile towards us.  Our culture is all about “me” and it's materialistic and commercialistic and we bring that thinking into the church.  We make it all about what the church can offer me.  When we don't get what we want or when we have a dispute with someone, we leave and go somewhere else.  We go “church shopping”, looking for the right experience or the right combination of “features”.  That's the polar opposite of what a family is. For Paul, this unity across all these differences of language, ethnicity, class, and sex, it wasn't some secondary thing.  It was central to the gospel.  Jesus has one people.  Gentiles who believed were no longer to be seen as “sinners” or as “unclean”, because Jesus dealt with sin on the cross.  Anyone who believes becomes a full member of the one family. So Paul went up to Jerusalem carrying the money raised in Antioch.  While he was there—because he was already there anyway—he met with some of the other apostles to talk about his ministry.  Continuing with verse 2: I laid before them the gospel which I announce among the gentiles (I did this privately, in the presence of key people), in case somehow I might be running, or might have run, to no good effect.   So did Paul do this because he thought he might have got things wrong and wanted Peter and the others to weigh in one way or the other?  I don't think that's it at all.  For ten years Paul had been proclaiming the gospel and he'd seen its power.  He had no doubts that he had the gospel right.  He'd got it straight from Jesus, after all.  His purpose, I think, seems to have been a desire to make sure that he and the others in Jerusalem were really on the same page.  Things had come up.  Maybe things lost in translation between Jerusalem and Antioch, and I think Paul trusted Peter and the others and that the problems were elsewhere, but he wanted to make sure.  If nothing else, we get the sense that Paul really loved Isaiah 49 and that he saw himself in the figure of Isaiah's “servant”.  He quoted from Isaiah 49:3 back in 1:24 and now he alludes to Isaiah 49:4, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward is with God.”  Paul was worried that he might be wasting his time.  If the apostles in Jerusalem were preaching something different, especially something that added torah to Jesus, well then, Paul was kind of doing all this for nothing, because that kind of teaching was going to tear the church apart.  Paul saw this united messianic community representing, unveiling God's new creation in the midst of the present evil age.  The fact that this new people existed as one despite all their differences, meant that Jesus had defeated the evil powers of this age on the cross.  And if the folks in Jerusalem were going to undermine that…well…why was Paul wasting his time? So Paul says: But even the Greek, Titus, who was with me, was not forced to get circumcised.   Not so much because Peter and the others were on the same page with Paul, but because Paul stood firmly on the gospel he'd received from Jesus himself and refused to move from it.  It turns out that not everyone at that meeting was well-meaning.  He goes on: But because of some pseudo-family members who had been secretly smuggled in, who came in on the side to spy on the freedom which we have in the Messiah, Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery… I didn't yield authority to them, not for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be maintained for you.   Someone—Paul doesn't seem to be clear who—but someone smuggled some folks into that meeting who shouldn't have been there.  He says literally “pseudo-brothers”.  They pretended—even claimed—to be members of the church family, but in reality they weren't.  This highlights just how serious Paul thinks it is to mess with the content of the gospel.  No doubt these pseudo-family members claimed to believe in Jesus, but when they realised that Titus, a Greek, was with Paul and uncircumcised, they insisted he be circumcised.  He was unclean—or so they thought.  This was no small thing.  To turn the gospel into a message of Jesus plus circumcision meant that they didn't really understand the gospel.  They were gutting Jesus' death and resurrection of their significance.  They were fake family members.  Paul knew that the gospel stands or falls on this.  Either the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Spirit defeated the evil powers of the present age, delivered people from their power, and made them new…or it didn't.  This was the same thing that was happening in Galatia and Paul took a stand even if Peter and the others wouldn't.  And, he says, he took his stand “so that the truth of the gospel might be maintained for” them—for his brothers and sisters in Galatia. We'll finish with verses 6-10.  Paul summarises the end result of his meeting with the other apostles: And those who seemed to be something—what sort of “thing” they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality—those of reputation added nothing extra to me.  On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcision, just as Peter had been with the gospel for the circumcision (for the one who gave Peter the power to be an apostle to the circumcision gave me the power of the gospel to the gentiles).  They knew, moreover, the grace that had been given to me.  So James, Cephas, and John, who were reputed to be “pillars”, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the gentiles, and they to the circumcision.  The only extra thing they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor—the very thing I was eager to do.   Paul went into this meeting knowing what people in Judaea thought of Peter, James, and the other original apostles.  The Christians there accorded them a lot of respect.  They were “something” Paul says.  But what Paul didn't know was how Peter and the others thought of themselves.  Were they basking in that respect and acclaim?  Or were they humble ministers of the gospel?  You see, what Paul stresses here is something that every gospel minister needs to take to heart—all of us, but especially, I think, pastors.  Paul talks about the “power to be an apostle”.  Energeo he calls it—where we get our word “energy”.  But he's not talking about some kind of tangible energy for the task, but the divine power behind the gospel call.  Paul knew that the gospel wasn't something that belonged to him.  It was a message he was entrusted with and the power in it lay not with him, but with God himself.  This is why Paul was fearless in his proclamation, this is why he could stand up in a synagogue and preach to hostile Jews and this is why he could stand in the agora in Athens and preach to hostile gentiles.  Because he knew that the power in gospel proclamation lies with God.  If it were just him, his ministry would never have gone anywhere.  But since the power was God's, Paul could confidently proclaim the good news of the Messiah anywhere and to anyone.  And to Paul's relief, even though there were some mixed up people in the church in Jerusalem, Peter and the other apostles believed the same thing—they were, after all, all on the same page.  Peter had been given the same calling as Paul.  The only difference was that Peter had been sent to the Jews and Paul to the gentiles—or as he puts it in verse 7, the circumcision and the uncircumcision.  Paul makes sure we don't forget the matter in Galatia. In the middle of this, Paul's description of Peter, James, and John as “pillars” jumps out at me, especially in light of why Paul was there.  Remember, he didn't go there to hash things out with Peter.  He went to Jerusalem to take the relief money that had been raised in Antioch to help the poor in Judaea.  To talk about “pillars” in this context calls up images of the temple and I think that's exactly why Paul calls Peter and the others “pillars”.  Because God was building a new temple, as Peter would later write in one of his own epistles.  This time not a temple of bricks and mortar, but a temple made of people—men and women with faith in the Messiah and filled with God's Spirit.  Peter and the others had been the start of it and, as eyewitnesses to Jesus himself and having been entrusted with the powerful message of Jesus, crucified and risen, they were its pillars—holding up the roof and inviting in the world.  But that temple imagery explains Paul's concern for the relief money he'd brought from Antioch.  That relief money from Antioch was a real, a tangible manifestation of this idea of new creation.  The temple didn't just stand by itself.  It stood—and it stand here today right now—as a symbol of God's intention to make the whole world new and to fill it with his glory.  We see this, on the one hand, as these believers—this new family brought together in Jesus—cared for each other.  But the nature of this family, it's unity across language, ethnicity, class, and status was underscored for Paul in that these Jewish believers in Jerusalem were willing to receive a gift from the believers in Antioch.  Unbelieving Jews probably would have turned it down.  At least they would have asked questions about its origin.  Did this money pass through the hands of unclean gentiles?  Unbelieving Jews would have looked at this motley group of people in Antioch as an abomination and the Jews there as people-pleasers.  But Peter and his people in Jerusalem saw the gospel, they saw Jesus and the Spirit at work in Antioch and knew the church there to be family, to be their brothers and sisters, even though many of them were gentiles.  Again, all because and only because of Jesus. So that's our text for today.  We'll pick up next week with 2:11, one of the most significant passages in the New Testament.  But what's the takeaway here?  I've touched on a few things already, but I want to close with two points that are closely tied together.  First, notice that when Paul was confronted with this problem of a mixed church of Jews and gentiles, he knew that there was one thing and nothing else that resolved this old problem.  That one thing was Jesus, specifically his death and resurrection.  He knew that Jesus' death dealt with sin and that those who have faith in him have been set free from their—from our—bondage to sin.  We are no longer sinners.  In other places Paul will say things like “once you were” and then he'll go into a list of a bunch of sins, but then he'll say, “but now you are in Jesus the Messiah”.  You've been freed from sin.  It no longer defines you.  What defines you now, through faith, is Jesus and this new family in which he's given you a place.  This means that there's one family.  The cross deals with the Jew-gentile divide, just as it deals with all the things that divide us today.  There is one family and our life as the church should reflect that reality.  It's one of the key ways we inhabit the gospel and lift the veil on God's new creation. Now, finally, closely tied to that is Paul's insistence on the power and authority of the gospel.  People were dismissing Paul, saying that he was working for other people or that he got his gospel from other people.  In response, Paul has insisted over and over that his calling and his authority lay with Jesus himself.  Neither the power that was revealed in his ministry nor the authority he had came from him—that is, from Paul.  It was all from Jesus.  Brothers and Sisters, we're too often afraid to proclaim the good news because we forget that the power of the gospel lies not with us, but with God.  We too often get discouraged when our proclamation of the good news doesn't produce the results we hoped for, because we forget that the power lies not with us, but with God.  Paul will write in 2 Corinthians that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that continues to work through our proclamation to change hearts, to change lives, to change whole communities, and to tear down the fortresses of the powers that once governed this evil age.  Just as the gospel is about Jesus plus nothing, its power lies in Jesus himself.  He sends us out to proclaim it, but when things happen, it's not us—it's all him.  We must never forget that. So Brothers and Sisters, come to the Lord's Table this morning and be reminded of what Jesus has done for us.  Eat the bread and drink the wine together and remember that by faith in Jesus, we are one family no matter our past.  The things that once separated us fade to nothing in light of our union with Jesus the Messiah.  But come, too, this morning and remember that Jesus not only died, he also rose from the grave.  Remember that in him God's new creation has begun and that we are part of it.  Remember that his resurrection has changed everything and that it's now both the lens through which we, his people, see ourselves, see each other, and see the world, but it's also the authoritative root of our gospel proclamation.  Brothers and Sisters, the same God who raised Jesus from the dead now sends us out, just like Paul, to proclaim the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection.  Never forget that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is present in our gospel proclamation and gospel witness. Let's pray: Almighty God, who on third day raised your Son from the grave, keep us ever mindful, we pray, that you have invested your gospel with the same power.  Remind us that you send us out, not to proclaim ourselves or our own message, but to proclaim with your authority the life-giving power of your gospel.  Make us faithful to live out that gospel in our life together as your church and make us fearless to proclaim it to the world around us, knowing again that it's authority and power lie not with us, but with you.  Through our Lord Jesus we pray.  Amen.

Dometian, a prince and a fierce persecutor of Christians, was hunting in the mountains when he came upon an old man surrounded by wild beasts, who were as gentle and tame as lambs in his presence. When asked who he was, the old man answered that he was Zosimas, a Christian who had left the persecutors in the city to live among the beasts instead. Dometian, hearing that Zosimas was a Christian, ordered him seized and bound, and subjected him to many tortures. When the holy man was wounded and beaten all over, the prince tied a rock around his neck and hanged him from a tree, mocking him with the words 'Command a wild beast to come, then we will all believe!' Zosimas prayed, and at once a large lion appeared, came up to Zosimas, and took the weight of the rock on its head to ease the martyr's sufferings. The terrified prince freed Zosimas, who died of his wounds not long afterward.

He began life as a pagan shepherd in Lycaonia. Coming to faith in Christ, he was baptized and received the name Sozon ("Save"). Thereafter he took every opportunity to proclaim the Gospel to his countrymen and to urge them to give up their idols. Entering a temple of Artemis in Cilicia, he cut off its golden hand, broke it into pieces, and distributed the gold to the poor. When he learned that because of this some were being punished unjustly for theft, he gave himself up to the governor Maximian. He was beaten to death with rods, by some accounts in 288, by others in 304.

Today we're covering Acts 7, the story of the first Christian martyr. We were going to ask the question, “Do Christians still get stoned?" (haha), but instead we want to take this story to another place.--The PursueGOD Truth podcast is the “easy button” for making disciples – whether you're looking for resources to lead a family devotional, a small group at church, or a one-on-one mentoring relationship. Join us for new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Find resources to talk about these episodes at pursueGOD.org.Help others go "full circle" as a follower of Jesus through our 12-week Pursuit series.Click here to learn more about how to use these resources at home, with a small group, or in a one-on-one discipleship relationship.Got questions or want to leave a note? Email us at podcast@pursueGOD.org.Donate Now --What do you do when the truth challenges tradition?We all do it: we grew up believing one thing, handed down through the generationsOften difficult to rethink these things, ingrainedMany times it had good roots, a tradition based on truthBut the tradition veered off course, gets legalisticBecame more man-made, and pretty soon the truth it was based on is no longer in sight.Example: religious traditionsNot drinking alcoholdressing up for churchExample: irreligious traditionsDrinking alcoholFootball on Sundays (missing church)Boating on weekendsTo be clear: there are times when truth aligns with traditionWe're certainly not saying that tradition always loses, or that new should always replace oldIn fact, these days we need to embrace traditional family values, like:Marriage is one man, one woman, for lifeGod made man and woman; gender is not fluidAll human life is precious to God, including the unbornOne more: Sex should be saved for marriageThe key is to know where to find the truth, and then align with itIn the examples above, old-fashioned tradition aligns with the truthWe find it clearly in the Bible These are truths that should not change with each new generationBut there are other examples where tradition actually misses the truthYou think that by following the tradition you're following GodBC it's what your parents didAnd it's what their parents didBut when you trace it back, somewhere it got disconnected from the truthSo now everyone's doing it for tradition's sakeAnd these kinds of people can be INTENSE Today we'll see an alarming example of truth vs. traditionThe Jewish religious leaders grilling StephenHe's challenging their traditions as he teaches about JesusThey think he's missing the point bc they're steeped in traditionBut ironically they're the ones missing out on the truthWe'll see their response to the truth-tellerThey reject the message and kill the messengerIt's a warning to us when we're challenged…Let's get to the text:The SetupActs 6:8-10 (NLT) 8 Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. 9 But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. 10 None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen...

Acts 15:36-41 English Standard VersionPaul and Barnabas Separate36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.English Standard Version (ESV)The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com_________________OpeningBlessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen.Come, let us worship God our King.Come, let us worship Christ, our King and our God.Come, let us worship Christ among us, our King and our God.Holy God,holy and mighty,holy immortal one,have mercy upon us. (3x)Glory be to the + Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,now and always and forever and ever. Amen. From Psalm 51Open my lips, O Lord, *and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.Create in me a clean heart, O God, *and renew a right spirit within me.Cast me not away from your presence *and take not your holy Spirit from me.Give me the joy of your saving help again *and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.Glory be to the + Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,now and always and forever and ever. Amen. A PsalmPsalm 54Deus, in nomineSave me, O God, by your Name; in your might, defend my cause.Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.For the arrogant have risen up against me, and the ruthless have sought my life, those who have no regard for God.Behold, God is my helper; it is the Lord who sustains my life.Render evil to those who spy on me; in your faithfulness, destroy them.I will offer you a freewill sacrifice and praise your Name, O Lord, for it is good.For you have rescued me from every trouble, and my eye has seen the ruin of my foes. Glory be to the + Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,now and always and forever and ever. Amen. The ReadingsGalatians 1:1-10English Standard VersionPaul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me,To the churches of Galatia:Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.Galatians 1:20-2:5(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me.Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.The Word of the LordThanks Be to God Mark 5:1-20English Standard VersionThey came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.The Word of the LordThanks Be to GodThe Apostles' CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth;I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. ExamenIn God's presence, think through the day ahead:the work you will do, the people you will encounter, the dangers or uncertainties you face, the possibilities for joy and acts of kindness, any particular resolutions you need to renew, consider what might draw you from the love of God and neighbor, the opportunities you will have to know and serve God and to grow in virtue, remember those closest to you and all for whom you have agreed to pray, ask God's blessings, guidance, and strength in all that lies before you. Gather up these thoughts and reflections in the wordsOur Savior taught us to say: The Lord's PrayerOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. The Collects of the DayAlmighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Closing PrayersA Prayer of St. ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. Glory be to the + Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,now and always and forever and ever. Amen.Lord, have mercy! (3x)God, be gracious to us and bless us and shine Your countenance upon us and have mercy on us.This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!The Father+ is my hope; the Son, my refuge; the Holy Spirit, my protection: All-Holy Trinity, glory to You!Amen!

"He was an officer, a tribune, in the Roman army in the time of the Emperor Maximian. A Syrian by birth, he served in his native land. When the Persians attacked the imperial Roman army, this Andrew was entrusted with the command in the battle against the enemy — whence his title: commander, strateletes. A secret Christian, although as yet unbaptised, Andrew commended himself to the living God, and, taking only the cream of the army, went to war. Before the battle, he told his soldiers that, if they all called upon the aid of the one, true God, Christ the Lord, their enemies would become as dust scattered before them. All the soldiers, fired with enthusiasm by Andrew and his faith, invoked Christ's aid and attacked. The Persian army was utterly routed. When the victorious Andrew returned to Antioch, some jealous men denounced him as a Christian and the imperial governor summoned him for trial. Andrew openly proclaimed his steadfast faith in Christ. After harsh torture, the governor threw Andrew into prison and wrote to the Emperor in Rome. Knowing Andrew's popularity among the people and in the army, the Emperor ordered the governor to set Andrew free, but to seek another occasion and another excuse (not his faith) to kill him. By God's revelation, Andrew came to know of this imperial command, and, taking his faithful soldiers (2,593 in all) with him, went off to Tarsus in Cilicia, where they were all baptised by the bishop, Peter. Persecuted here also by imperial might, Andrew and his companions withdrew deep into the Armenian mountain of Tavros. There in a ravine, while they were at prayer, the Roman army came upon them and beheaded them all. Not one of them would recant, all being determined on death by martyrdom for Christ. On the spot where a stream of the martyrs' blood flowed down, a spring of healing water sprang forth, healing from every disease. The bishop, Peter, came secretly with his people and buried the martyrs' bodies in that same place. They all suffered with honour at the end of the third century and were crowned with wreaths of eternal glory, entering into the Kingdom of Christ our God." (Prologue)

"He was an officer, a tribune, in the Roman army in the time of the Emperor Maximian. A Syrian by birth, he served in his native land. When the Persians attacked the imperial Roman army, this Andrew was entrusted with the command in the battle against the enemy — whence his title: commander, strateletes. A secret Christian, although as yet unbaptised, Andrew commended himself to the living God, and, taking only the cream of the army, went to war. Before the battle, he told his soldiers that, if they all called upon the aid of the one, true God, Christ the Lord, their enemies would become as dust scattered before them. All the soldiers, fired with enthusiasm by Andrew and his faith, invoked Christ's aid and attacked. The Persian army was utterly routed. When the victorious Andrew returned to Antioch, some jealous men denounced him as a Christian and the imperial governor summoned him for trial. Andrew openly proclaimed his steadfast faith in Christ. After harsh torture, the governor threw Andrew into prison and wrote to the Emperor in Rome. Knowing Andrew's popularity among the people and in the army, the Emperor ordered the governor to set Andrew free, but to seek another occasion and another excuse (not his faith) to kill him. By God's revelation, Andrew came to know of this imperial command, and, taking his faithful soldiers (2,593 in all) with him, went off to Tarsus in Cilicia, where they were all baptised by the bishop, Peter. Persecuted here also by imperial might, Andrew and his companions withdrew deep into the Armenian mountain of Tavros. There in a ravine, while they were at prayer, the Roman army came upon them and beheaded them all. Not one of them would recant, all being determined on death by martyrdom for Christ. On the spot where a stream of the martyrs' blood flowed down, a spring of healing water sprang forth, healing from every disease. The bishop, Peter, came secretly with his people and buried the martyrs' bodies in that same place. They all suffered with honour at the end of the third century and were crowned with wreaths of eternal glory, entering into the Kingdom of Christ our God." (Prologue)