Apostolic Purpose

In this week’s session of our Bible study, we discuss the momentous Church Council at Jerusalem, and see the beginning of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey in Acts chapters 15 and 16. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

The story of Paul and his team deciding to turn into Greece is a wonderful example of how we need to stay in close communication with the Holy Spirit. When we have decisions to make, we need to make it a matter of constant prayer, constant seeking of God's face. We don’t know how the Spirit told them not to remain in Asia, nor go towards the Black Sea, but somehow, He made it clear. Perhaps it was through an inner witness, a lack of peace, or through a prophetic word. In any case, Paul’s vision of a Macedonian leads them to make the fateful decision to bring the Gospel into Europe for the first time.

Next to the decision of Jerusalem Council, this is the most historic decision anybody makes in the Book of Acts. God ordained, for reasons known only to Him, that the Gospel should go first to Europe, and then spread from that base to most of the world across the centuries.

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In this week’s session of our Bible study, we look at Paul’s famous First Missionary Journey in Acts chapters 13 and 14. The Gospel begins to move out farther from its home in Jerusalem, and Gentiles begin to come to faith in large numbers. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

As you read Acts, notice that Paul's preaching varies depending on the audience and the context. Here in Acts 13, he’ll be preaching in a synagogue to an audience of people who already know the Bible. He will be using Scripture and presenting Jesus to them as the fulfillment of the promises God has made to Israel. This is very different from the way he will later present Jesus to pagans. However, as we’ve seen before in Acts, healings and miracles will often create opportunities for the apostles to share the Gospel.

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In this week’s session of our “Acts” Bible study, we see how believers began to deliberately reach out to Gentiles with the Good News for the first time, and Gentile churches began to be planted. We also get our final story focused mainly on Peter, as the emphasis shifts to Paul and his missionary activities. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

The Jewish-Roman historian Josephus has his own version of this story, and it’s similar. According to Josephus, Herod didn’t rebuke the people who called him a god, and he was struck with intense pain in his stomach that gripped him for five days before he finally died. We do believe the Bible’s version, of course, but it’s interesting that even a secular historian of the time seems to attribute Agrippa’s death to this arrogant blasphemy. Agrippa was eaten by worms, but the Word of God grew and multiplied.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nickuva.substack.com

In this session of our Bible study in Acts, we see the Gospel going directly to the Gentiles for the first time. See what happened when God opened the door of faith to those who were outside of the family of Israel. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

There were many people like Cornelius in the Empire, Gentiles who were not idolaters but who honored the God of Israel as the true God. These were known as "God-fearers." You will see the concept of a “God-fearer” coming up from time to time in Acts. They prayed to Israel's God but for various reasons didn’t go all the way and take the final steps to become a Jew. Being circumcised would mean isolation from friends, and not being able to share a table with your own flesh and blood. For most people it was too high a fence to jump over.

To reach Gentiles, even God-fearing ones like Cornelius, Peter would need to jump over some major fences of his own. Peter would have to overcome centuries of tradition and what he might have thought the Bible said.

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We began the second half of our course on the Book of Acts (on a very stormy night that resulted in roads being closed) by looking at Acts chapter 9 and the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus. Join us as we talk about this major milestone in the history of the Church. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

Perhaps the most likely answer as to why Saul was sent back to Tarsus from Jerusalem was his personal history, and how he was seen as a traitor by the religious leadership. This made it impossible for him to accomplish anything there.

Paul seems to back this up. Later on, in Acts 22, Paul is sharing his testimony to the Jews in Jerusalem who were trying to kill him, and he tells them this: “Now it happened, when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance and saw Him [Jesus] saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me’” (Acts 22:17-18).

Jesus is the One who is building His Church, and He only allows the Church to experience such dangers and trials as He wills, and for His purposes. It seems that after this time, Paul was mostly “put on the shelf,” as people like to say, and perhaps did very little ministry for as much as ten years, until Barnabas would go and bring him back into a full-time ministry.

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We conclude the first half of our course on the Book of Acts by examining the ministry of Philip in Samaria and his ministry to an Ethiopian official. We’ll see how the Gospel is beginning to spread now to the ends of the earth, as Jesus said it would. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

Tradition tells us that the Ethiopian eunuch became the first missionary to Africa. The Church Father Irenaeus, writing in the 2nd century, tells us this: "This man (Simeon Bachos the Eunuch) was also sent into the regions of Ethiopia, to preach what he had himself believed, that there was one God preached by the prophets, but that the Son of this (God) had already made (His) appearance in human flesh, and had been led as a sheep to the slaughter; and all the other statements which the prophets made regarding Him."

Apparently, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church preserves his name as Bachos, and believes him to have been a Jew called Simeon the Black. This may indicate that he is the same man who was part of the team of elders in the church at Antioch, together with Barnabas and Paul. One of the prophets and teachers there, according to Acts 13, was Simeon called Niger, meaning, the black man.

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This was a brief message followed by a season of prayer during an evening prayer meeting at Harvest Time Church. What preparations do we need to make in order to reap a harvest of souls for God?

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

Another attack the Devil brought against the Church in Jerusalem was the attack of disunity. One group of saints complained because they felt they were being treated worse than another group. There was grumbling and murmuring that threatened to divide the people of God.

We’ll never be effective laborers in God’s harvest field until we can recognize and deal with the spirit of complaining and grumbling. The antidote is giving thanks instead. The antidote is bringing our questions and concerns to people in a spirit of honest inquiry instead of a spirit of accusation. The antidote is walking in the kind of love that assumes the best of others instead of assuming a bad motive on their part. The spirit of complaining is running wild in our society right now, but it has no place in the hearts of God’s children.

If we’ve walked hand in hand with that spirit, it's time to repent – or else God will have to put us on the sidelines.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nickuva.substack.com

In this week’s Bible study we explore Acts chapter 7 and Stephen’s defense before the council. Does our relationship with God depend on external things, or is it a matter of the heart? Stephen, the first martyr, preached a powerful message that helped pave the way for the Gospel to go to the nations. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

These men were cut to the heart, but they didn’t react like the men in Acts 2 who were cut to the heart. Stephen, on the other hand, has an open vision of Heaven, and he sees Jesus, the Son of Man, standing. Remember that the apostles had been proclaiming that Jesus was the fulfillment of Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man. Jesus had Himself told the High Priest that He was that Divine-Human One, and now here is Stephen proclaiming it, as he sees the Lord.

People have wondered why Jesus was standing and not sitting at the right hand of God. I think the simple answer is that the Lord was standing to welcome the very first person who would die to seal his testimony of Jesus.

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In this week’s session we move into Acts chapter 6 and explore a new assault on the growing Church – an attack on the unity of the believers. In the midst of a powerful outpouring of the Spirit in Jerusalem, we are introduced to the ministry of Stephen, who will become the first Christian martyr. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

Luke highlights how powerfully the Lord is using Stephen. He not only says that he is full of faith and power but also that he is doing great wonders and signs. You might have heard me say this before, but as far as I know, this is the only person in the Bible who is said to have done great wonders and signs, other than perhaps Moses and Jesus. That doesn't mean other people were not doing great wonders and signs, but it’s rare for the Holy Spirit to use such language.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nickuva.substack.com

In this session we examine Acts chapter 5 and the enemy’s continued challenges to the young church in Jerusalem, including hypocrisy and persecution. As the church successfully faces these challenges, there is a great release of God’s power. Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

In the next few chapters of Acts (5, 6, and 7) we will see again the Devil trying to stop the growth of the Church through persecution. Together with the powerful spread of the Gospel, we see several different efforts to bog down the Church or short-circuit its power.

The late commentator John Stott said that the Devil’s weapons were physical (referring to persecution), moral (referring to sin), and professional (referring to the apostles getting bogged down in administrative duties).

To those weapons I would add one more, which would simply be the spiritual. The Devil was trying to weaken and injure the Body through grumbling and disunity. We’ll see each one of those in the next few chapters.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nickuva.substack.com