 Welcome to our New Testament survey class. Someone open us in prayer please. Let's pray. Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for enabling each one of us together here and to learn more truth in your scriptures. We pray for your guidance as we continue to learn your word or not. In Jesus name we pray. Okay, so I did post the exam on Saturday. So you all should see that in Google Classroom. And I've given you all till the 18th of March. So that's next Monday. Okay, since I think the on-campus students will be traveling and you'll be back on Monday. So you'll have until the end of Monday to complete it. If you want to finish before your travels then please do. Yeah, so completed before the deadline and I've posted other instructions there. For those who are not able to complete it and if you have a genuine reason, let me know. But other than that, any late submissions, I'll have to deduct a little bit, maybe a mark for each day. For e-learning students, I post the quiz on the e-learning platform this week. And you'll have till the end of the semester. So we can go into class into today's discussion. Just open, share the PowerPoint with us. Okay, so this is, we were discussing the Book of Acts last week and we'll just continue. So we talked about the message of the Book of Acts. So the main emphasis within this book is on prayer, signs and wonders and the working of the Holy Spirit. So we see how the Holy Spirit baptized the believers and empowered them to be witnesses all over the world. And so the second part of the emphasis of Acts is on world evangelization. So that evangelization is empowered through the Holy Spirit. So those are the two things we'll see mostly emphasized in this book. The unique features. So Acts focuses on three cities from Jerusalem, finally ending in Rome and through Antioch of Syria, which is where Paul's base church is. So we look at Paul's missionary journeys in the Book of Acts. And so he'll always start his missionary journeys from Antioch and return to Antioch at the end of each missionary journey. It also focuses on three continents. So Africa, Asia and Europe. It's a book of prayer. There are 18 prayer meetings recorded, nine revivals and 18 sermons. So focus on prayer, on revival, on preaching in this book. Compared to other books, we see that Acts is talking about how the gospel spread from the Jews to the Romans to the Greeks. And Matthew, Mark and Luke are then writing to the believers in these places. So the Jews, the Romans and Greeks. So Acts is how the gospel reached them. And Matthew, Mark and Luke are encouraging those believers in the faith that has been shared with them. The gospels focus on Christ's humiliation. What does that mean that Christ was humbled himself, right? So Christ humbled himself even to the point of death on the cross. So that's what the gospels focus on. Whereas Acts focuses on the exalted Christ. That is a Christ who has authority over all the earth and has sent us out in that authority to minister in his name. The gospels also talk about Jesus taking on human flesh. And Acts talks about the Holy Spirit moving in power through us as a church. So we become the body of Christ. So like Christ took on human flesh, the Holy Spirit is now moving through the church. The gospels and the epistles Acts connects the gospels to the epistles. So it provides a pathway to the epistles because a lot of what Paul wrote in the epistles is based on his missionary journeys that are recorded in Acts. So we get a historical background of these epistles except for 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus. The rest of the background we can get from Acts because as he was travelling on these journeys, he was also writing to the churches. So we know what the experience was of the churches as he was travelling to them and as he was establishing these new churches. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus were written after Paul's first imprisonment which is recorded in Acts 28. So where Acts 28 ends is Paul's first imprisonment. So those letters were written after his imprisonment and before his final martyrdom. So that's why we don't have that included in Acts. So with that we'll just go into an outline of the book of Acts. We have what we talked about Acts 1-8 which talks about Jerusalem, Judea and the ends of the earth. So the first seven chapters focus on the gospel spreading in Jerusalem and new believers coming to faith in Jerusalem. It starts with Luke addressing the book to Theophilus and then he talks about the promise of the Holy Spirit. We see that Jesus says the Spirit will come upon you and you will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And then we also see the promise of Jesus' second coming after his ascension. The angels speak to those who are there who have witnessed Jesus' ascension and say that Jesus will come back again in the same way he left. We then see the 120 believers gathered in the upper room, the choosing of the 12th apostle to replace Judas. So Matthias has chosen to replace Judas. And then we see the coming of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost. So we have recorded that there were devout Jews from every nation in Jerusalem at that time. And this is when God chooses to send the Holy Spirit and to empower the believers to speak in the languages of those Jews who have gathered in Jerusalem. The response to the baptism of the Holy Spirit is confusion, amazement. Some of the Jews are perplexed, some mock the disciples. And then Peter responds sharing what was accomplished through Christ. That's the first sermon that we have post resurrection and ascension. And he quotes from Psalm 16, you will not let your holy one rot in the grave. So throughout the book of Acts, we'll see that the resurrection becomes the focus of the message that the disciples are preaching. And we see that right here in the start. And it's recorded here that 3,000 new believers were added to the church. They were baptized, so from 120 it goes to 3,000 in that one day. Then we see the growth of the church in Jerusalem. We have the healing of the lame man and Peter preaching in the temple. With Peter's preaching in the temple is when persecution begins. So the Jewish leaders take notice of the fact that they are talking about Jesus and talking about his resurrection. They arrest him, he appears before the Sanhedrin. And the Sanhedrin tells him don't preach anymore in the name of Jesus. But they can't do anything to Peter and John because the lame man has been healed and they're not able to dispute the fact that there was a miracle that was done. So Peter and John leave the Sanhedrin and they pray for increased filling of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit comes upon them again in power. After that we have the story of Ananias and Sapphira who bring their money to the apostles but don't bring all the money from the sale of their land. And so both of them are judged and both of them fall dead at the apostles' feet. Then we have the record of the early church so the believers met in the temple. More and more people believed and there were signs and wonders that were done amongst the people. Again we see persecution resumes. This time the apostles are arrested and what happens is that an angel comes and frees them from prison. So they are arrested by the Sanhedrin but before they are tried the next morning they are released from prison by an angel and they are still preaching in the temple. This is when they are brought back before the Sanhedrin and the Sanhedrin is very upset about the message that they are preaching, about the resurrection that they are preaching. And they don't know what to do but Gamalil, does anyone remember what Gamalil's advice is to them who is part of the Sanhedrin? It's very wise and very key advice that kind of tells us what happens in the rest of Acts. So Gamalil gives them examples of other leaders who had led the Jews into different sects. But as soon as they died their disciples were scattered. He says in this case if you continue to fight against what is happening, if it is not from God you don't need to fight. They themselves will disperse as we've seen in these previous times. But if you do continue to fight and this is from God you will find yourself fighting against God himself. So that is Gamalil's advice to them and he says and if it is from God you can't stop it. And that's what we see in the book of Acts even though all of this persecution arises it only further fuels the spread of the gospel to other parts of the world. So these people actually take Gamalil's advice in that they don't kill the apostles but they don't take his advice in the fact that they continue to persecute the Christians. And so they are fighting against God himself and the work of God. So the apostles are flogged and told not to continue preaching the message and they leave rejoicing because they suffered for Christ's sake. After this we see the appointing of the seven deacons. So they are asked to work on daily distribution of food for the widows because there are some complaints that are raised. But the apostles say that they don't want to be distracted from the main work of prayer and preaching. And so they appoint seven other people to do that work. And then we have the story of the first martyr who is Stephen. Here he preaches to the Sanhedrin and he's stoned at the end of his preaching because he accuses them of having hearts of stone like their ancestors. And at the end before he dies he responds as Christ did when Christ was on the cross. So he says don't hold this against them. And so we see his martyrdom connected back to the death of Christ himself. From here we see with Stephen's death persecution increases in Jerusalem. And so the disciples are scattered to Judea and Samaria. And so we see the fulfillment of that prophecy that Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit coming. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. And so we see that spreading from here onwards from chapter 8 onwards. We see the first mention of Saul who is involved in the persecution. And then we see Philip being highlighted here. So Philip goes to Samaria. And we have the record of him ministering in Samaria and people coming to faith there. We have the record of Peter and John going to Samaria because there are new believers in Samaria. So the Samaritans are coming to faith. So Peter and John go there to lay hands on the believers and pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And we see the Holy Spirit come upon the believers in Samaria. And so they realize that God is moving beyond the Jews. He's also moving among the Samaritans. We then see the treasure of Ethiopia. That's the Ethiopian eunuch who meets Philip on the way. So from Samaria Philip goes to a place in the wilderness where he's led to this Ethiopian eunuch. He leads him to Christ and he comes to salvation. And then Philip is recorded as going further north. So he comes down. This is where he meets the Ethiopian eunuch. And then he goes back up to Caesarea. And then we hear about the conversion of Saul. So Saul's on his way to Damascus. We all know the story. He comes to faith. We'll just read Acts 9, 15, 16 and 31. Just those three verses. Just the Acts 1st chapter 9, once again. Yes. Acts chapter 9, 15 and 16 and then 31. Acts chapter 9, 15 and 16. But the Lord said to him, Go for he is chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. And verse 31, then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilea and Samaria had peace and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. They were multiplied. Thank you. So we see here Paul's conversion and then God sends Ananias to pray for Paul so that the scales from his eyes would fall off. And he says that he is my chosen instrument to the Gentiles. He will appear before kings. He will also be a witness to the people of Israel. You can see all of that also being included in Paul's story in the book of Acts, how he appears before kings, how he goes to the Gentiles, how he is persecuted, how he suffers for Christ's sake. And then 931, the church continues to grow and enjoys a time of peace, a break from the persecution that they had been experiencing. So from Judea and Samaria, we now see the gospel spreading to the ends of the earth and this will record some of Peter's ministry and a lot of Paul's missionary journeys. So Paul's three missionary journeys are recorded here. The church extends to Antioch. So we see Peter, the record of Peter raising or healing Ananias and Docus, who is a widow who is ministering to the widow, sorry, and she dies and so Peter goes and raises her to life. We see the conversion of Cornelius, so he is the first Gentile convert. So we've moved from the Jews to the Samaritans to now the Gentiles. And so Peter is led through a vision to go to Cornelius's house and his whole household, his friends are all baptized in the Holy Spirit. And so Peter says, if God has not shown any favoritism, then who are we to stop what God is doing? And then they get baptized in water after they've been baptized in the Holy Spirit. The church, when Peter goes back, is not very happy that he's entered a Gentiles house and had a meal with them, but then he shares a testimony of what God's done and the church rejoices at what God is doing, that he's also opening the doors to the Gentiles. We then see Greek converts being added to the church and this time Barnabas and Paul are sent on their first missionary journey from Antioch of Syria. And then Peter is imprisoned, he's set free by an angel and then we have the record before Peter is actually put to death that he's set free but then Herod who has imprisoned Peter dies right after that and that's where the story ends, we don't have any more record of Peter but the focus moves to Paul and Barnabas and their missionary journeys, to Paul's missionary journeys specifically. So we see here Paul's first missionary journey all over Asia Minor. Paul and Barnabas are prayed over and sent. As the Holy Spirit leads those elders who are praying, they are led to send them out on a mission trip. They go to Cyprus where they meet Paphis the procounsel and the procounsel of Paphis who is Paphis Paulus and he comes to faith. They go to Perga where John Mark returns to Jerusalem. So we have a record of John Mark going with Paul and Barnabas and at Perga is where John Mark returns to Jerusalem and leaves them for the remainder of their missionary journey. Paul then goes to Antioch and this is another Antioch right up here. So this is the Antioch which is their home church and this is the Antioch where they travel, they reach out to people in the synagogue. Gentiles believe the Jewish leaders respond in jealousy and there's persecution in the church, persecution against Paul and they are removed from Antioch. They then go to Iconium where a great number of Jews and Greeks believe but again there's a plan for them to be stoned and so they escape from Iconium to Lystra. Here we see a man lame from birth healed in Lystra and so the people there think that Paul and Barnabas are gods and start to sacrifice to them but at the same time the Jews from Iconium come and they win the crowds over and so again Paul is stoned and put outside of the city and then the believers gather around Paul and Paul rises up and moves from there to Derby. Derby, from Derby onwards he starts to go back to all of the places they visited strengthening the believers, appointing leaders over the churches and then goes back to their home church in Antioch to report what God had done through this first missionary journey. From Antioch we hear about certain believers from Judea coming in and talking to them about gentiles needing to be circumcised and so this is when Paul and Barnabas travel to Jerusalem to meet with the church elders and to find out what do we do? Do gentiles need to be circumcised? So we'll just read Acts 15 verses 24 to 29 about the response the church sends and it's a little summary of everything that happens as well. Acts 15, 24 to 29. Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your soul saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas who 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 necessary things that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. Thank you. So this is the letter the church in Jerusalem sends back to the gentiles who have come to faith, who are from Antioch. They give you a little summary of the problem that was there, their response to the problem and they send Judas and Silas with Paul and Barnabas as representatives of the Jerusalem church and their stand on whether circumcision is needed. From there, we see the start of Paul's second missionary journey. But this time he doesn't go with Barnabas because he doesn't want to take John Mark. He says John Mark abandoned them and left them in the middle of their first missionary journey. So Paul takes Silas and Barnabas takes John Mark. Barnabas and John go to Cyprus and Paul and Silas travel to Syria and Silasia. So they travel in this direction. And at this time is where Timothy joins Paul on the second missionary journey. So we'll go into the second missionary journey. This is when Paul has the vision of someone from Macedonia calling them to come to preach the gospel to them. And so Paul joins, Luke joins Paul and they travel to Macedonia. In Philippi in Macedonia they meet Lydia who deals in purple cloth. There is the female slave who is freed from demonic possession and that results in people becoming angry about this ministry because they lose their source of finances. They were earning money through this female slave because she was predicting the future. And because of that they start to fight against Paul and Silas and the ministry. Paul and Silas are then imprisoned and flogged but during that time they're able to minister to the jailer in prison and he and his whole household come to faith. From there they are set free and they travel to Thessalonica. In Thessalonica it's recorded that some Jews and a large number of God-fearing Greeks believed but again the jealous Jews stir up trouble and they move from Thessalonica to Berea. In Berea is where we have the Jews who were really interested in knowing the truth of what Paul was preaching and so they start to examine the scriptures and we see many Jews, prominent Greek men and women come to faith in Berea but at the same time again the Jews from Thessalonica travel to Berea and they start to cause trouble for Paul and Silas. So Paul leaves Berea while Silas and Timothy stay there and Paul travels on to Athens. In Athens is where Paul sees all of the idols that are there and so he's very disturbed by the idol worship that's going on. He goes to preach in the synagogue, the marketplace and the Areopagus and this is where he gets to speak to people as he's preaching in the marketplace. He's invited to present what he's talking about in the Areopagus. So the Areopagus was the highest ruling council in Athens. Athens had three different ruling councils and it was considered as a place that was free from Roman rule. So the highest ruling council was the Areopagus which consisted of about a hundred elite members of society. So Paul goes before these people and he shares with them about his faith in Christ and it's basically here again the focus on the resurrection of the dead that divides the people's response. Some people think he's crazy and other people are interested to hear more and they want to hear more about this message that he's preaching. From there Paul goes on to Corinth. Here is where he meets Aquila and Priscilla and he starts to work with them and then once Silas and Timothy join Paul he stops working but focuses on preaching the gospel. So we'll just read Acts 18 verses 9 to 11. Now the Lord spoke to Paul in a night by a vision. Do not be afraid but speak and do not be keep silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to hurt you for I have many people in the city. Verse 11 as well. And he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. So Paul stays in Corinth for a year and a half after he receives this vision from God and then he returns home back to Antioch that's recorded at the end of chapter 18. So Paul's home base is Antioch. Antioch in Syria so every time he finishes a missionary journey he goes back to Antioch of Syria he reports to the church he stays there for a while and then he starts his next missionary journey. So he starts now his third missionary journey. This time he goes to Ephesus from Antioch to Ephesus he preached in Ephesus in his second missionary journey but he didn't stay there to establish them in the faith. He just went, preached to them and moved on from there and this is the time when Apollos goes to Ephesus and Apollos is preaching about repentance and the baptism of repentance but he doesn't know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So Paul goes back to Ephesus and this time he prays over the church and they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. At the same time we have stories of other people the seven sons of Skiwa who see Paul's work and they want to imitate his work so they go out trying to cast out demons in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches but the response of demons is not favorable towards them they get beaten and they run away from there. We also see that as people recognize the power of God they give up sorcery that's recorded in Ephesus so that was something that was very commonly practiced in Ephesus and in one day about 50,000 drachmas I believe it is 1823 So this is after he goes to Ephesus but it's 50,000 days of work basically that's the worth of the scrolls that they burn in response to the Gospel because they see the power of the Gospel and they give up the sorcery that they have been practicing so far and then Dimitrius the silversmith starts to cause trouble for them because he recognizes that they are losing business as a result of the work that Paul and Silas are doing. We then have the record of Paul traveling to Greece they then travel to Trois where Luke again joins Paul from Philippi we have the story about Eutychus being raised from the dead Paul saying goodbye to the Ephesian leaders then they travel back to Tyre where there's a warning of Paul being arrested from Tyre they go to Caesarea again there's a prophet Agibus who talks about how Paul is going to be arrested and from there he still goes on to Jerusalem having heard all of those prophecies, having heard the warnings he says he's willing to go there and not only be imprisoned but also die for the sake of Christ and so he arrives in Jerusalem and he's advised by the church to go to the temple and to take a few other people who have made a vow so that the people there, the Jews there who think that Paul is against their faith can see that Paul still is following Jewish customs so to go there and to pay the fees for the vow that these Jews have made but during this time is when the Jews find Paul in the temple and they try to kill him as they're trying to kill him he is saved by a Roman officer who comes in and takes him away from them they can't continue to beat him because the Roman officer comes in so we'll just read one verse that's Paul, when Paul is arrested 21 versus 28A I'll just read that for us so it says here this is what the Jews were saying fellow Israelites help us this is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place so this is what the Jews believed about Paul and this is why they're trying to kill him so from here we come to the end of Acts which covers Paul's defense and trials so here after he is arrested he is presented before different groups of people and he responds to each of these groups in different ways the first group of people he responds to are the Jews themselves who accused him of speaking against their law what he does is he shares his personal testimony and he does it in Aramaic so as a way to prove to them that he is one of them immediately as soon as he starts to speak in Aramaic they all become silent and stop to listen to what he has to say but because he talks about God sending him to the Gentiles they once again become very angry with him and he's taken away but he's only saved because of his Roman citizenship so we see here Paul's wisdom with each group of people so with the Jews he speaks in Aramaic when he is going to be flogged he talks about his Roman citizenship then when he appears before the Sanhedrin he uses his faith in the resurrection again we see the preaching of the resurrection to divide the Sanhedrin so the Sadducees and the Pharisees start to fight amongst themselves the Pharisees are on Paul's side and the Sadducees are fighting with the Pharisees about whether the resurrection is something that is truly promised to all people then Paul is taken to Caesarea where there is a plot made to kill him let's just read verse 11 of Acts 23 verse 11 of Acts 23 but the following night the Lord stood by him and said be of good cheer Paul for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem so you must also bear witness at Rome thank you so we see here that Paul has this vision and then it comes to light that there is a plot among certain Jews that they are going to kill Paul but because his nephew hears about the plot he goes Paul sends the nephew to speak to the commander and he shares it with the commander and Paul is taken away to Caesarea to protect him and he goes to stand before Felix so when he stands before Felix the high priests come with their lawyers to present their case against Paul Paul defends himself but there is no decision that is made so he remains in prison for two years under Felix's reign after that we have a record of Festus taking over but Paul still remains in prison because Felix wants to give the Jews he wants to have favor among the Jews so he keeps Paul in prison and it's during his time before Festus that Paul appeals to Caesar because the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem want Paul to be taken to Jerusalem and they plan to kill him there but when Paul hears about this when he hears about him being taken to Jerusalem he appeals to Caesar saying that he would rather go before Caesar and present his case so we then have Festus consulting with King Agrippa and again here Paul shares his personal testimony and his hope in Christ and then from there Paul is taken to Rome because he has appealed to Caesar again we have this record of Luke joining Paul we have the storm, the shipwreck they're being on the island of Malta where many sick people are healed through Paul's ministry and then finally they arrive in Rome where Paul is imprisoned we'll just read Acts 28 verse 23 if someone can read that for us Acts 28 verse 23 so when they had appointed him a day many came to him at his lodging to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening so this is what Paul's time in prison in Rome was he was able to meet with the Jewish leaders then he was able to share with them about this hope that they have in Jesus and from the book of Moses from the prophets he was able to share with them so we see how the gospel has literally spread from Jerusalem all the way to the center of power which is Rome and we see also the prophecy about Paul going to the Gentiles Paul going to the Jews, going before kings Paul suffering for the name of Christ all of that fulfilled in this record of Paul's missionary journeys in the story of Acts so with this it ends it ends with Paul being in prison for two years there's no record of what happened to Paul after that but because Acts is written from the perspective of how the gospel spread the focus is not on Paul's life itself and Paul's ministry rather it is on the spread of the gospel and the church's growth throughout to the ends of the earth in that time because Rome was basically the center of power so it has spread throughout the Roman Empire in the book of Acts so we come to the end of Acts and we'll continue next week from Romans just a reminder to do your exam before the end of next Monday anything anyone wants to share any questions, any thoughts any insights from the book of Acts sister this is regarding the exam it is March 18th right yes March 18th the end of days so you can do it any time before that okay yes if you'll have any feedback for me regarding exams or regarding anything else about classes please feel free to email me or send me a message so that we can work towards work on your feedback as well since we're in the middle of the semester we still have time to do things better okay thank you all so we'll see you on Thursday we'll continue class in the book of Romans on Thursday