The Prophet Like Moses ~ Savior

As we go through Acts 7, I am emphasizing parts of Stephen’s address before the Sanhedrin, hoping to show how the young Messianic leader put forth not only his defense but that of the Gospel as well. Throughout Stephen’s address he points to Israel’s history—a solidified revelation of how God has interpreted himself and his relationship with mankind in such a manner that God’s people’s eyes were always directed toward the future. It was a history of faith and expectation. The problem in Stephen’s day was the Jewish authorities wrongly defined their present service to God with the past.

 

The Structure of the Book of Acts ~ Part 2

This is the second in a three part study that shows how I believe Luke constructed his thesis, the Book of Acts. What he did was structure it in three pairs of subject matter or sub-themes. The first pair unveiled the Temple built without hands that was not stationary, but moved about the world, just as the original Tabernacle in the wilderness did (see Stephen’s argument in Acts 7 concerning the international, non-stationary God). Luke’s second pair concerns how the teaching of circumcision affected the Church, once Gentiles began to be received into the predominantly Jewish body of believers. We are in the middle of this study now. The third and final pair of teachings will show that the Gospel and the Church are totally innocuous. Preaching Jesus is not against any political sphere nor will the presence of the Church upset the community at large. We are harmless and our existence is not against any law.

 

The Structure of the Book of Acts ~ Part 1

In ancient times when a book was a scroll, how was the book put together; more specifically, how was Luke’s Acts put together? Did Luke simply begin writing, stopping only when his work was written? It seems to me, if this were true, error would be rampant and confusing due to themes begun and left unfinished. There must be a better way to write a scroll.

 

The Union of Jews and Gentiles

Once you get the Jews and the Gentiles in the Church together, how does that work? Under what conditions is this possible, and who gets to say? God’s plan has always been not only to sum up everything in heaven and earth in Christ, but to bring together the whole human race in him as a sign to the principalities and powers (Ephesians 3:10). Caesar and world powers today would have loved to unite the world in this way, but they cannot. Only God is able to cross national and traditional boundaries with all the differences this implies, and cross gender lines, social class, and levels of authority and unite all in one body under the Lordship of Jesus.

 

Who Were the Men From James?

At first when Paul tells us that men from James arrived in Antioch and drew Peter and Barnabas away from the table fellowship of Jewish and Gentile believers (Galatians 2:11-13), one thinks that James actually sent these men, but it is something he specifically denied in Acts 15. I think we should probably understand the phrase as being equal to “…men from the Jerusalem church.” James seems to have been the acknowledged leader of the Jerusalem community of believers by this time, which was after the expulsion of the Apostles under the Agrippa persecution of the early 40s CE (Acts 12).

 

Paul and the Doctrine of Circumcision

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Did you ever wonder how Paul first began to understand the circumcision doctrine that so identified Pauline theology? Well, immediately following his heavenly vision, Paul went into Arabia. More than likely he spent some time in the synagogues in various cities he visited there. Paul already knew the Nabataeans were near relatives to the Jews, descending from Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah’s slave. He would have found, if he didn’t know already, Nabataeans were more easily won over as proselytes to Judaism there than in other Gentile countries in the empire. Why was this so? No doubt it was because of the Nabataean’s disposition toward the Jewish practice of circumcision. Being descended from Abraham, circumcision was not rejected, as it was in other Gentile countries. It was already practiced, but not under compulsory conditions as in Judea and Galilee. Nabataeans were more or less indifferent toward the practice.

 

The Faith I Have is the Faith I Show!

In chapter four of Romans Paul talks about Abraham, the father of the Jewish race. Paul made the statement in chapter 3 that folks are justified by faith and not by the deeds of the Law. In other words, Paul is saying we are accepted by God, not through our service to him, but through our trust in him. If it could be shown that faith is not all that important, Paul could be justifiably branded as a heretical Jew, going about preaching his own brand of religion. However, if Paul is able to show the Scriptures say that men are found righteous through trusting God (faith), then he has made his case. This is why Abraham is so important.

 

The New Man

Paul concludes his letter to the Galatians by again presenting a final argument from the positions of the party of the circumcision and those who walk in the Spirit. How does one treat someone who has been overcome in a fault? Is he to be excluded, or made to feel he is not measuring up to the standard of what is expected? Of course not, but this is what we do to such a one, if we point to the Law, as our measure of righteousness. That is a conceited method that offers an impossible challenge to one who is already envious of another’s apparently righteous lifestyle (Galatians 5:26). Nevertheless, holding up oneself as a model is a work of self-deception (Galatians 6:3).

 

I Cannot Do What I Want

Paul is writing to people who want to be righteous. He is not speaking to all mankind, some of whom desire nothing better than to do evil all day. He is writing to people searching for the means to be righteous. It is because they wished to be righteous that the Galatians were drawn away from Christ by the party of the circumcision that brought them under the Law. With this as a background, Paul submits his argument concerning two powers—the flesh and the Spirit.

 

Stand Fast in Liberty

Paul begins the fifth chapter of his epistle with the idea that it is Jesus who has made us free from sin, and we should stand firm in that freedom and not seek freedom from sin by any other means. Jesus told us that the truth will make us free (Galatians 5:1; John 8:32). However, he later proclaimed that he is not only the Truth but also our Way and our Life, and no one is able to come to the Father except through him, i.e. Jesus (John 14:6). This is what Paul has been trying to get across to the Galatians. It is Christ alone who sets us free from sin (John 8:36), and if it is he who frees us from sin, then our righteousness also comes by Jesus (Romans 6:18). 

 

Have I, Your Friend, Become Your Enemy?

At this point in Galatians, I believe Paul comes to a heart-to-heart part of his message. He expresses his personal sadness over how the Galatians have acted. He began by recalling how they had treated him while he was with them during his first missionary journey. Paul had been attacked, but not by them. He was attacked by his own countrymen—the Jews of the Diaspora who lived in the cities of Galatia. At one point Paul was left for dead. He was stoned, and, though Luke is not clear on the matter in Acts 14:19-20, Paul was probably dead. Yet, whether dead or near death, God performed a miracle, and Paul rose up as though unharmed. Nevertheless, according to his letter to the Galatians, he recalled his wounds and how they affected his preaching the Gospel to them.

 

In Christ There Is Neither Jew nor Gentile

Reading over Galatians 2:11-21 I had to pause and think for awhile about what might have occurred. Some things seem clear, but others are not so readily apparent. For example, were the Jews eating food that wasn’t kosher? It is evident that they were not abiding by some of their traditions, otherwise how could the presence of the “men from James” affect their behavior? The “men from James” used the subtle power of persuasion through their own separation from the others (cp. Galatians 4:17) to cause the Jews to retreat from what they had been doing, namely, eating freely with their Gentile Christian brethren.

 

Paul and Spiritual Warfare!

Writing to the Galatians, Paul jumps ahead of his story to fourteen years after his conversion. Now, Paul saw Jesus in 36 CE, immediately following his receiving new orders from the High Priest. Caiaphas was put out of that office in 36CE around the time of the Passover. So, Paul would need new letters to take to the synagogues, showing that the current High Priest, Jonathan, was carrying out the same policy of laying hands upon the Grecian Messianic Jews and bringing them to Jerusalem for judgment (Acts 9:1-2).

 

Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

I have decided to go through the book of Galatians. Galatians is Paul’s first recorded letter to any of the churches. The churches in Galatia were a product of his first missionary journey with Barnabas. Trouble seemed to follow Paul wherever he went, but this is to be expected, if we are to believe in a God who is breaking into the environment of a rebellious world. It is only logical that those who are in rebellion, whether flesh or spirits, would resist the work of God in whatever form it would take.

 

Why Was Timothy Circumcised?

As we say good-by to Barnabas in Acts and leave the Jerusalem council behind, we find Paul and Silas on their way in Paul’s second missionary journey to the Galatian area. Silas must have been a great asset to Paul’s ministry at this particular time, because of his leadership at Jerusalem. Any argument that Hellenistic Jewish believers may have had with Paul’s Gospel not being in agreement with that of the Apostles would have been considerably undermined with his presence with Paul. Therefore, Paul’s arguments in his most recent letter to them (The Epistle to the Galatians), would be vindicated with the coming of Silas.