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THE BOOK OF ACTSThe Ongoing Church

by G.I. Harlow

EVERYDAY PUBLICATIONS INC.310 Killaly Street W. Port Colborne, ON

Canada L3K 6A6

Copyright © 1983 Gertrud I. Harlow

ISBN 0-88873-074-8Cover design by Brian Smithreset 2008

Printed in Canada

2 THE ONGOING CHURCH

Outline for Acts

PageIntroduction 7

1. Christ Sends the Holy Spirit Chapters 1 & 2 9Why Luke wrote the book of Acts 1.1,2The 40 days a�er Christ's resurrection 1.3-8The Lord Jesus returns to heaven 1.9-11Ma�hias is chosen to take Judas' place 1.12-26The believers are filled with the Holy Spirit 2.1-13Peter's first message 2.14-36Three thousand people believe 2.37-41The activities of the early believers 2.42-47

2. The Church in Jerusalem 3.1-5.11 21A lame man healed 3.1-10Peter's second message 3.11-26Peter and John are put in prison 4.1-4Peter's testimony before the Sanhedrin 4.5-12Peter and John are warned and set free 4.13-22The Christians pray 4.23-31 Oneness, love and sharing among 4.32-37

the believersAnanias and Sapphira 5.1-11

3. The Church in Jerusalem, cont’d 5.12-7.59 32Miracles in Jerusalem 5.12-16 The apostles are put in prison and 5.17-28

miraculously releasedThe apostles' answer and its result 5.29-32Gamaliel's advice 5.33-39The apostles are beaten and released 5.40-42Seven men are chosen to help the apostles 6.1-7Stephen arrested and unjustly accused 6.8-15Stephen speaks to the Council 7.1-53Stephen killed with stones 7.54-60

3

4. Philip and Saul Chapters 8 & 9 49Persecution of the church in Jerusalem 8.1-4Philip in Samaria 8.5-25Philip and the Ethiopian 8.26-40Saul becomes a Christian 9.1-9Ananias 9.10-19Saul preaches in Damascus 9.20-25Saul preaches in Jerusalem 9.26-31Peter in Lydda and Joppa 9.32-43

5. Peter Among Gentiles and in Prison Chapters 10 to 12 63Cornelius’ Vision 10.1-8Peter’s vision 10.9-16 Cornelius’ messengers arrive to call Peter 10.17-23 Peter comes to Cornelius 10.24-33 Peter's message to the Gentiles 10.34-43Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit and are 10.44-48

baptizedPeter explains his visit to Cornelius 11.1-18The church at Antioch 11.19-30James is killed and Peter put in prison 12.1-4Peter is brought miraculously out of prison 12.5-11Peter tells the believers what happened 12.12-19Herod's death 12.20-24

6. First Missionary Journey and the Council atJerusalem Chapters 13 to 15 81Barnabas and Saul set apart for God's work 13.1-3First missionary journey 13.4-14.28

Cyprus 13.4-12Antioch in Pisidia 3.13-52Iconium 14.1-7Lystra and Derbe 14.8-20Return journey to 14.21-28

Antioch and SyriaPaul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem 15.1-5The meeting of the apostles and elders 15.6-21

Peter's testimony 15.6-11Barnabas' and Paul's report 15.12James' decision 15.13-21

Le�er to the Gentile believers 15.22-29The le�er brought to Antioch 15.30-35


7. Beginning of Paul's Second Missionary Journey15.36-16.40 99

Barnabas and Saul separate 15.36-41Timothy joins Paul and Silas 16.1-5Paul's vision 16.6-10Philippi 16.11-34Paul and Silas leave for Thessalonica 16.35-40

8. Paul's Second Missionary Journey 17.1-18.22 109cont’d

Thessalonica 17.1-9Berea 17.10-15Athens 17.16-34Corinth 18.1-17The end of the second missionary journey 18.18-22

9. Paul's Third Missionary Journey 18.23–21.14 119Paul starts off again 18.23Apollos of Alexandria 18.24-28John's followers 19.1-12The sons of Sceva 19.13-20Trouble in Ephesus 19.21-41Paul revisits Macedonia and Achaia 20.1-3Paul's last visit to Troas 20.4-12Paul's farewell speech to the elders at 20.13-38

EphesusFrom Miletus to Tyre 21.1-6From Tyre to Caesaria 21.7-15

10. Paul in Jerusalem 21.15–23.35 134Paul arrives in Jerusalem 21.15-19 Paul follows the advice of the elders 21.20-26Paul is arrested 21.27-40Paul defends himself 22.1-21The Jews reject Paul's defense 22.22,23Paul escapes being whipped by the Romans 22.24-30Paul before the Council 23.1-6The Council is divided 23.7-11Paul is sent to Caesarea 23.12-35

11. Paul in Caesarea Chapters 24 to 26 146The Jews' accusation before Felix 24.1-9Paul’s defense 24.10-21Felix's response 24.22-27

Outline for Acts 5

Paul before Festus 25.1-12Paul before Agrippa 25.13-27Paul's life before he became a Christian 26.1-11Paul's conversion 26.12-18Paul's obedience to God's call 26.19-23Agrippa 's conclusion 26.24-32

12. Paul's Journey to Rome Chapters 27 & 28 155From Caesarea to Safe Harbours 27.1-8Driven by the storm until hope was gone 27.9-20Paul's vision 27.21-25All reach Malta safely 27.26-44Events in Malta 28.1-9The rest of the journey to Rome 28.10-15In Rome 28.16-31


Introduction

What happened next? A�er the Lord Jesus Christwent back to heaven? That's what the book of Actsis all about.

This book tells how the Church began atJerusalem and how a Jew, Saul of Tarsus became aChristian. Later this same man, now called Paul,was used of God to take the Gospel to manyGentile countries. Other believers from Jerusalembrought the Gospel to other countries also. Paulwrote many le�ers to help and teach the churchesthat had been formed in some of these places andsome of these le�ers are included in the NewTestament.

Who wrote the book of Acts?Luke, the writer of the Gospel which has his

name continued his account in the book of Acts ofwhat the Lord Jesus did and taught. Luke was aGentile—the only Gentile writer of any part of theNew Testament. The Holy Spirit guided Luke andshowed him what to write, 2 Timothy 3.16.

Luke was a medical doctor and one of Paul'sclose friends, Colossians 4.14. We do not see hisname in Acts but a number of verses show that heo�en travelled with Paul and had seen with hisown eyes many of the things he wrote about. See16.10-17; 20.5-21.18; 27.1-28.16. He was with Paulwhen God called Paul to go into Macedonia. WhenPaul was in prison in Rome for the last time onlyone person remained with him—faithful Luke.

7

– 1 –Christ sends the Holy Spirit

Chapters 1 and 2

Jesus Goes Back to Heaven - chapter 1

Why did Luke write the book of Acts? 1.1,2Luke had already wri�en his Gospel which he had

addressed to a man called Theophilus which means friend ofGod. He was probably a Gentile believer and Luke wanted himto know that the Lord Jesus did not only die for our sins butthat He rose again from death and went back to heaven. Evennow He continues to work with His servants, Mark 16.20;Ma�hew 28.20, and prays for us, Hebrews 7.25. In his gospelLuke had told about all that the Lord Jesus had begun to doand teach when He was here on earth. In Acts he told aboutHis continuing work through His servants a�er He hadreturned to heaven.

The forty days a�er Christ's resurrection, 1.3-83 Did the Lord Jesus go to heaven right a�er He rose from the

dead? This verse shows that a�er His resurrection He wasseen of the apostles and many others for a period of forty daysand proved in many ways that He was alive again. See also 1 Corinthians 15.4-8. It was impossible for the Lord of life andglory to remain in the grave!

The followers of many religions worship men who havedied. No doubt these were great men but now they aredead. Not so the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Saviour died toowhen He bore God's penalty for our sins, but He roseagain from death. This shows that God accepted the workHe did when He died on the Cross. Our Saviour is aliveagain-forever and ever, Revelation 1.18. We serve a risen,living Saviour!

9

During these forty days the Lord Jesus spoke to His disci-ples about the kingdom of God, v.3. What is the kingdom ofGod? At the present time it is God's rule in the hearts and livesof men who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour.4,5 The disciples probably wanted to go back to their fishing,

John 21.3. Or perhaps they wanted to start preaching theGospel right away to the people around them because the LordJesus had already commanded them to preach the Gospel toevery creature, Mark 16.15. But the time for this had not yetcome and the Lord Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem for awhile until they received the Holy Spirit whom He had prom-ised to send, see John 16.7,12-14. John had baptized with waterthose who repented, but they would be baptized with the HolySpirit before long, Ma�hew 3.11.6 The apostles did not ask any questions about receiving the

Holy Spirit, but they did wonder if Christ would set up Hiskingdom at that time. They were thinking about an earthlykingdom for Israel. This is what they were hoping for becausethen the Jewish people would no longer be ruled by the hatedRomans. Also the disciples probably expected to have impor-tant places in that new kingdom. They seemed to have forgot-ten that the Lord Jesus had said His kingdom is not of thisearth, John 18.36. He had also said that in the world theywould have outward trouble and inner peace, but not politicalfreedom, John 16.33.

For 40 days a�er rising from the dead the Lord had taughtabout the kingdom of God, a spiritual kingdom, but somehowthey had completely misunderstood His teaching.7,8 However the Old Testament shows that in the future

Christ will set up His kingdom here on earth, see Daniel7.13,14. The Lord told His disciples that it was not importantfor them to know when this would be. God the Father hasdecided on the date. The most important thing for them wasthat

1. they would receive power, heavenly power, when theHoly Spirit came on them.

2. they were to be Christ's witnesses1) in Jerusalem, then2) in Judea and Samaria, and finally


3) to all people everywhere—to the very ends of theearth.

What a challenging verse this is! The Lord gave similarcommands in the four Gospels a�er His resurrection:

He told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation, Mark 16.15.

Repentance and forgiveness of sins were to be preached to all nations and the disciples were to be witnesses of thesethings, Luke 24.45-49.

They were to teach all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that the Lord had commandedthem, Ma�hew 28.16-20.

The Lord Jesus Himself was sending them forth—as God theFather had sent Him, John 20.21-23.

Jerusalem—Judea and Samaria—to the ends of the earth ...The rest of Acts shows how the Gospel reached these variousareas and the book can be divided accordingly:

Jerusalem Acts 1.1-7.60Judea and Samaria Acts 8.1-11.18The ends of the earth Acts 11.19-28.31

Most of us do not live in the land of Israel, but that does notexcuse us from applying to ourselves the command in verse 8and those in the Gospels. Our “Jerusalem” is the town or vil-lage where we live and where people know us well. We mustwitness to them first and tell them about Christ. Our own fam-ilies and the people of our home-town are our first responsibil-ity. But they are only part of our responsibility. We are to bewitnesses also in “Judea and Samaria,” that is, our own territo-ry and the rest of our country. And that's not all. In addition toall these people the Lord commands us to preach the Gospel toall people everywhere!

Of course no one person can himself preach the Gospel toall people. The Lord chooses and sends His servants to differ-ent lands with the Gospel and we should be ready to go wher-ever He sends us. In addition we should have a burden for thepeople in all other countries. We should share in the witness ofGod's servants in those lands by praying for them and helpingwith our gi�s to make it possible for them to live there.

Acts 1 11

Yes, you must start in your hometown, your Jerusalem, butdon't spend all your strength for the rest of your life witness-ing only to the people of your own neighbourhood. Christcommands you to share in the work of spreading the Gospel inthe whole world.

How will you be able to do this? Not in your own strengthand wisdom. The disciples would soon receive power whenthe Holy Spirit would come on them. You and I have alreadyreceived that power. We received it when the Holy Spirit cameto live in us at the very moment we believed in the Lord JesusChrist as our own Saviour. Only in the power of the Holy Spiritwill you be able to obey the very important command in verse 8.

The Lord Jesus returns to heaven, 1.9-119 Read these verses together with Luke 24.50,51. Verses 7 and

8 seem to have been the Lord's last words to His disciplesbefore He returned to heaven. How surprised they must havebeen when they saw Him being taken up right before theireyes! Was that cloud an ordinary cloud? We do not know. Itmakes us think of the cloud in the book of Exodus which wasa sign of God's glory and presence with His people. SeeExodus 33.9-11; 40.34; Mark 9.7

And so the Lord Jesus went from them into heaven topray for us, Hebrews 9.24; 7.25. He will remain there untilall His enemies have been made a footstool for His feet,Psalm 110.1.

10,11 The disciples were longingly looking up into heaven when suddenly two men stood with them. No doubt

they were angels and they remind us of those whom thewomen saw at the Lord's grave a�er He rose from death. SeeLuke 24.1-5 and John 20.12.

What amazing words the angels told them! Their Lordwould come back again the way they had seen Him go up toheaven! No doubt they remembered the beautiful words of theLord Jesus in John 14.3 and His prayer in John 17.24. Theyknew the Old Testament prophecy which says that in thefuture the Lord Jesus would return and stand again on theMount of Olives, Zechariah 14.4. Read also the Lord's ownwords in Ma�hew 10.23 and 16.27.


The disciples must have wondered how all these verses fit-ted together. At this time they did not yet know that the Lordwould come to the air to take all true believers to be withHimself before He would return to this earth. This truth wasrevealed later to Paul and through him to us in 1 Thessalonians4.13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15.51-58. Even so the words of thetwo men must have been a great comfort to the disciples. Theirbeloved Lord WOULD COME BACK!

Those of us who love the Lord Jesus are looking for-ward with great joy to the day when He comes again. Butthose who do not know Him yet as their Saviour willhave no more opportunity to be saved. Now is a goodtime to ask the Lord Jesus to become your Saviour.

Ma�hias is chosen to take Judas' place, 1.12-2612,13 So the apostles returned to Jerusalem to the upper room

where they were staying. Was it the same room wherethe Lord Jesus had taught them to break the bread and drinkfrom the cup to remember Him? See Luke 22.12. We do notknow, but all the disciples were there except Judas Iscariot, seeLuke 6.13-16. Judas had hanged himself when he saw thatJesus was condemned to die because he knew He was inno-cent, Ma�hew 27.3-514 There were others with the apostles in that upper room.

Mary the mother of Jesus was there together with otherwomen. We do not know who these women were but no doubtthose who had gone to Jesus' grave early that Sunday morningwere among them, see Luke 23.55–24.10.

And Jesus' brothers were there! They had not believed inHim when He was among them, John 7.5, but now, a�er Hisresurrection, we see them also among the believers!

What were all these people doing? They joined togethercontinuously in prayer, no doubt, waiting and looking forwardto the time when the Holy Spirit would come on them as theLord had said in verse 8.15 Peter seems to have been the leader of the group of believ-

ers. It is true that he had denied his Lord, but he hadrepented and the Lord had given him the privilege of servingHim again, see Luke 22.54-62; John 21.15-17.

Acts 1 13

16,17 The disciples must have all been very upset when Judasbetrayed the Lord Jesus, but Peter understood that this

had been foretold in the Old Testament, Psalm 41.9, and wastherefore part of God's purposes.18,19 Here we read that Judas had bought a field with the

money which the chief priests and elders had givenhim, Ma�hew 26.14,15. He died in this very field—perhapsbecause he did not know how to hang himself successfully.Actually Judas had returned the money to the chief priests andelders, and it seems that they had bought this field in his namebecause it was really his money, Ma�hew 27.3-8.20 Peter used two more verses from the book of Psalms, 69.25

and 109.8, to show that they should choose someone to takeJudas' place as a leader of God's people.21,22 What kind of person would be able to take Judas' place?

It had to be someone who 1) had been with the Lord Jesus the whole time He was

here on earth;2) had seen Him a�er He rose from death and so would be

a witness to His resurrection.23 Two men were suggested of whom these things were true,

but we know nothing about them except their names.24,25 Which man should the disciples choose? They didn't

know and so they wisely asked the Lord to show themHis choice.

Yes, God knows everyone's heart, yours and mine also.He also knows our sins but is ready to forgive us if we askHim to do so, 1 John 1.9.

26 In the Old Testament people drew lots frequently to find out the Lord's will, see Joshua 18.10; 1 Samuel 14.41;

Proverbs 16.33; Ma�hew 27.35. Acts 1.26 is the last time weread about drawing lots in the New Testament. Now we havethe whole Word of God in our hands to show us His will andthe Holy Spirit in our hearts to guide us, so we no longer needto draw lots.

So Ma�hias became the twel�h apostle in Judas' place, butwe do not read anything else about him in the New Testament.


Later Paul became an apostle and others also were called apos-tles: Barnabas, 14.14; James, the Lord's brother, Galatians 1.19.

Now Test Yourself1. Who saw the Lord Jesus a�er He rose from death?2. What did the Lord tell the apostles to wait for in Jerusalem?3. What was more important for the disciples than knowing

when Christ will set up His kingdom on earth?4. How many apostles returned to Jerusalem a�er the Lord

went to heaven?5. The apostles drew lots to find out whom God wanted to

take Judas' place. Should Christians use this method to findout God's will today?

6. Who preached to the many visitors who were in Jerusalemon the day of Pentecost?

7. What Old Testament prophet had prophesied that the HolySpirit would come on all God's people?

8. To whom did God show in Old Testament times that Christwould rise again?

9. Where is the Lord Jesus now?10. What four things helped the new believers to continue to

follow the Lord?Write your answers on a piece of paper, then compare them

with those given on page 165.

Acts 1 15

The Coming of the Holy Spirit,chapter 2

This chapter tells about a very important event which tookplace on the day of Pentecost.

Pentecost means “fi�ieth” in the Greek language. TheGreek-speaking Jews had given this name to the OldTestament Feast of Weeks, Exodus 34.22, because it came 50days a�er the Passover feast, see Deuteronomy 16.6-10.

The Lord Jesus rose from death on the first day of the weekfollowing the Jewish Passover. He remained on earth for 40days a�er His resurrection. The day of Pentecost followedabout nine days a�er the Lord Jesus had gone back to heaven.

The believers are filled with the Holy Spirit, 2.1-131 On the day of Pentecost they were all in one place. No

doubt they were the group of about 120 believers we readabout in 1.15.2-4 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a strong wind filled

the house where they were. It was not wind but soundedlike wind. The Greek word meaning wind can also mean spir-it. Wind can be very strong but we cannot actually see it. Inthese two ways it is a picture of the Holy Spirit.

The believers heard the sound and they also saw somethingthey had never seen before. It looked like tongues of fire andsat on each of them, v.3.

Then something happened which had never happened tothem before: they were filled with the Holy Spirit and the HolySpirit enabled them to speak in other languages which theythemselves did not know.

The Lord Jesus had told the apostles before that they wouldbe baptized with the Holy Spirit, 1.5, and this took place at thesame time the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit.

16

We read more about the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12.13. There we see that by the Holy Spirit allbelievers were baptized into one body. This means that theHoly Spirit joined believers of different races together tobecome one Body, the Body of Christ which is the Church. Thisbaptism took place only once—it was never repeated, but weread of believers being filled again with the Holy Spirit, seeActs 4.8,31; 7.55; 11.24; 13.9,52.

Today all true believers have the Holy Spirit living inthem, see Romans 8.9, but not all believers are filled withthe Holy Spirit. Only those are filled with the Holy Spiritwho allow Him to have full control over their lives,Ephesians 5.18.

5-7 Most of the visitors in Jerusalem at that time were Jews who were living in other countries and who had come to

keep the feast of the Passover and Pentecost. How amazed theywere when they heard these Galilean Jews speaking in the lan-guages of the countries from which they had come!8-11 Some of the visitors were people from as far away as

Rome, both Jews and converts to the Jewish religion. Theyall heard the believers speaking in their own languages tellingabout God's wonderful works.12,13 The listeners just couldn't understand at all what was

happening, but some made fun of the believers sayingthey were drunk.

Today also people o�en make fun of Christians whenthey speak about the Lord. This should not surprise us orupset us.

Peter's first message, 2.14-36A large group of people gathered when the news had

spread among the people of what was going on. Now Peter gotup to speak to this crowd. First he explained what had hap-pened and then went on to preach the Gospel to them.14,15 The people had asked in verse 12 what all this meant,

these disciples speaking in other languages. Peter firsttold them quietly but plainly what it did not mean. It did notmean that the disciples were drunk. A�er all it was only 9o'clock in the morning!

Acts 2 17

16-21 Joel's prophecy16-18 Peter then reminded the people of what the Old

Testament prophet Joel had prophesied in Joel 2.28-32.In Old Testament times the Holy Spirit came on people in lead-ing positions, such as kings, priests and prophets. But in Joel'sprophecy God said that in the last days His Spirit would comeon all people, that is all God's people and they would proph-esy or tell out God's truth. This had just been partly fulfilled,and the disciples acted and spoke the way they did becausethey were full of the Holy Spirit.19,20 Joel's prophecy will be completely fulfilled at the time

called the “Day of the Lord” when Christ will come inpower and glory. At that time He will set up His kingdom hereon earth and will rule over the whole world for 1,000 years, seeMa�hew 24.29,30; Revelation 20.4.21 This verse will be true at that time but it is also true now.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.Have you called? If not, ask the Lord Jesus today to

become your Saviour, Romans 10.13.

22-24 Christ's death and resurrection22,23 The miracles the Lord Jesus did proved that God was

with Him. The people saw these miracles and wondersand signs, but they did not believe that Jesus was God's Son.Instead they turned Him over to evil men to have Him cruci-fied. Was God surprised by this? No, He knew it would hap-pen. It was God's plan that the Lord Jesus Christ should giveHis life for sinners, but God certainly did not lead men to strikeHis Son and spit in His face and they were all guilty.24 Men killed the Lord Jesus, but God raised Him from the

dead. How wonderful! Christ's resurrection showed thatGod was satisfied with the work His Son had done and that Heaccepted His sacrifice for the sins of men.

25-36 David and Christ25-28 Peter went on to show that even in Old Testament times

God had shown to His servant David that Christ wouldrise again. Some of the things David said in Psalm 16.8-11


could not have been true about himself, but the Holy Spirit wasleading him to speak about Christ.29-32 The Jews all knew that David had died and was buried

and that his body decayed in the grave. But God had swornto David that He would place one of his descendants on histhrone and David spoke as a prophet about the resurrection ofChrist. Christ was not le� in the grave for His human body todecay, but God raised Him to life again and the apostles hadseen Him a�er His resurrection.33 And that was not all. God not only raised the Lord Jesus

from the dead, He also exalted Him to the place of honourat His own right hand in heaven. From there the Lord Jesushad now poured out on His people the Holy Spirit as Joel hadprophesied many years before.34,35 David did not go up to heaven but in Psalm 110.1 he was

speaking about Christ again. In Revelation 3.21 we alsosee that the Lord Jesus is now on His Father's throne. See alsoRomans 8.34; Ephesians 1.20; Colossians 3.1; Hebrews 1.3,13;8.1; 10.12; 12.2.36 Therefore this Jesus whom the Jews had crucified was now

Lord and Christ in heaven!

Three thousand people believe, 2.37-4137 Peter was preaching to God-fearing Jews, v.5, and the Holy

Spirit used his message to speak to their hearts. They didnot try to deny what Peter had said and began to understandwhat a great sin their leaders had commi�ed when they haddelivered the Lord Jesus to the Romans to be crucified.38,39 What should they do? They were really worried but

Peter had an answer ready. They should repent, that isthey should change their thoughts about Christ and receiveHim as their Saviour. They should also be baptized to showthat they were really sorry for their sins and no longer joinedwith the rest of the nation who had rejected Christ. Theywould receive the Holy Spirit who had been promised to allwho will obey the call of the Lord to believe in Christ.40,41 Peter kept on talking to the people for a long time and

warned them to separate themselves from their fellowcountrymen who had done this evil thing. His preaching was

Acts 2 19

not in vain and about 3,000 people believed and were baptizedthat day. What a joy that must have been to Peter and to theother believers. And what rejoicing there must have been inheaven where the angels rejoice even over one sinner whorepents! Luke 15.7.

The activities of the early believers, 2.42-4742 At this time the New Testament had not yet been wri�en,

but these new believers obeyed the teaching the apostlesgave them. They continued to meet to have fellowship and talkabout the things of the Lord. They came together to break breadin order to remember the Lord and His death on the cross forthem, as He had requested, and they met together to pray.

So right here at the very beginning of the Church we findthe Christians doing these four things which are so importantfor every healthy church:

1) listening to the Word of God,2) having fellowship, and helping and encouraging each

other,3) remembering the Lord's death in the breaking of bread, 4) and meeting together for prayer.

43 The other people noticed these things and the miracles which were being done by the apostles and they were filled

with awe. Already these new believers had a powerful testimo-ny before the unsaved people around them.44,45 The believers continued to have close fellowship and

shared their belongings with one another according towhat each person needed. It seems that only the church atJerusalem did this and only at the very beginning. We do notread about anything like this being done in any of the church-es that were started in other places, But they helped one anoth-er when necessary, James 2.15,16; 2 Corinthians 8.2-4.46,47 These Christians met together every day in the temple

and probably continued for a while to worship God asthey had always done as Jews. They had a good testimonyamong the people and the number of those who believed in theLord Jesus grew every day.

The Bible tells us not to give up meeting together, butto encourage one another in the things of the Lord,Hebrews 10.25.


– 2 –The Church in Jerusalem,

Chapters 3.1 – 5.11

A lame man is healed, 3.1-101 The two apostles, Peter and John went to the temple one

day at 3 o'clock in the a�ernoon. This was the hour whenthe evening sacrifice was offered and prayer was made.2 The gate of the temple was called Beautiful, but it could not

help the lame man who was brought there every day to begfor money from those who entered the temple.3-6 This man begged from Peter and John also and looked at

them expectantly. Would they give him something? Yes,they would but their gi� would be far be�er than money. In thename of Jesus Christ Peter ordered him to get up and walk!7 Walk? The man had never walked before in his life! He

didn't even know what it was like to walk. Was Peter mak-ing fun of him? No, indeed. Peter himself helped him get upand as he did, his feet and ankles became strong.8 Now he could stand! And he could walk—this man who

had never walked before! No wonder he jumped for joyand praised God as he entered the temple courts together withPeter and John, perhaps for the first time in his life.9,10 The people had seen what had happened. They all knew

this beggar who lay at the gate of the temple every day.They knew he could not walk. But there he was, walking,jumping and praising God! Some had seen Peter helping himget up—but how could that make it possible for the man towalk? It was a miracle!

Peter's second message, 3.11-2611 The news of what had happened to the beggar spread

21

quickly among the people and they all ran to where Peter andJohn and the beggar were. It was a wonderful opportunity forPeter to speak to them again about the Lord Jesus Christ andhe made good use of it.12 First Peter made sure that the people would not think that

he and John had made this man walk. It was God who haddone it and Peter did not want any glory and praise for him-self.13 Notice how fearlessly Peter showed these Jews their great

sin of rejecting Christ: They had rejected Him—but Godgave Him divine glory. They had turned Him over to theRomans even a�er Pilate wanted to set him free, Mark15.9,10,12,13.14 They asked for a murderer to be released rather than the

pure and holy Lord Jesus, Ma�hew 27.20,21.15 They killed Him—but God raised Him from death and the

apostles had seen Him a�er His resurrection.Really no one could kill the Lord Jesus. In John 10.18 He

said that no one could take His life from Him, but that Hewould give it up of His own free will. He did not die of thewounds He received on the cross, but He Himself placed Hisspirit in His Father's hands, Luke 23.46.

The Jews had not actually nailed the Lord Jesus to thecross—they had no authority to do so—but they turned Himover to the Romans for this purpose. They hated Him, John15.18,25; and whoever hates his brother is a murderer, 1 John3.15.16 The crippled man had been healed through faith in the

name of this One whom they had killed and whom Godhad raised from death, the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith?Yes, but whose faith? No doubt it was Peter's because up tothat time the cripple had probably thought only about how tobeg so that he might receive many gi�s of money! Still hebelieved Peter's words and accepted healing in the name of theLord Jesus Christ.17,18 Peter realized that the Jews and their leaders did not real-

ly know what they were doing when they turned theLord Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified. The Lord JesusHimself had prayed while hanging on the cross, “Father, forgive


them, for they know not what they do,” Luke 23.34. Butthrough what they had done God fulfilled the Old Testamentprophecies that the Messiah would suffer, see Isaiah 50.6;53.4,5.19 However, they were still guilty and they should repent of

their sins and turn to the Lord so that they might be forgiven.20 In the future the Jews will turn to Christ when He returns

and there will be times of refreshing. It is God's will for allIsrael to be saved, Romans 11.26, and Peter pleaded with themto receive this salvation. God is not willing that any should belost, 2 Peter 3.9, but many will be.21 In the meantime Christ will remain in heaven until the time

has come for God to restore all things as they had beenbefore, that is, before sin entered the world. He had promisedthis through the Old Testament prophets, see Isaiah 9.7; 35.1;65.20,25. However, this does not mean that even those whorefuse to believe in Christ will be saved; the Bible nowhereteaches this.22 Many years before Moses had told the people that God

would send them from among themselves another prophetlike himself and they should listen to him, Deuteronomy 18.15-19. This Prophet had now come. His name? The Lord JesusChrist.23 Anyone who refused to accept Him and His word would be

cut off completely, see Deuteronomy 18.19.24-26 All the prophets beginning with Samuel had foretold

this time of salvation. God had made a covenant oragreement with the Jews' forefather Abraham promising tobless all the people of the earth through his descendants. Thepeople listening to Peter were Abraham's descendants and sowas the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent Him first to His own peo-ple, the Jews, to bless them and turn everyone of them from hisevil ways. But they must

repent, v.19and listen, v.22

and obey, v.26 in order to receive the blessing.

Acts 3 23

Peter and John are put in prison, 4.1-4Peter had spoken with great boldness to the people who

had gathered a�er the crippled man was healed. The priests,the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees also cameand listened. They did not like what they heard, especiallywhat the apostles taught about the resurrection because theSadducees did not believe that people will be raised to lifeagain. Also by praising the Lord Jesus Peter was really blamingthem for Christ's death. So they arrested Peter and John andput them in prison until the next day. Even so many who hadheard Peter's message believed and the number of believersgrew to about 5,000!

Peter's testimony before the Sanhedrin, 4.5-125-7 All the Jewish leaders met together in Jerusalem the fol-

lowing day. These men made up the highest court in Israel,the Sanhedrin. The Lord Jesus had also stood before this court.They wanted to know by what power or by what name orauthority Peter and John had done this miracle. Their ques-tions were very much like those they asked the Lord Jesus, seeMa�hew 21.23.8 In verses 9 to 12 we see a fulfillment of the Lord Jesus'

words in Ma�hew 10.17-20. Read these verses for your-self—perhaps they will be a comfort and encouragement toyou some day! Now the Holy Spirit shows Peter just what tosay and gives him the courage to speak without fear to hisjudges, these men who had the power to have him killed.

The Lord's promise in Ma�hew 10.17-20 is the same forChristians today as they face the enemies of the Gospel. TheHoly Spirit will remove their fear of man and give them theright words to say for the glory of the Lord. See Proverbs 29.25.

9,10 Yes, a good deed had been done to the cripple. He had been healed through this act of kindness but it had not

been done by Peter and John. Peter wanted the men of theSanhedrin and all Israel to know that this man had been madewell through the power of the name of Jesus Christ ofNazareth. He was not afraid to remind his judges that theywere guilty of crucifying this same Jesus but that God hadraised Him from death.


Read again Luke 22.54-62 where Peter had been afraidto admit that he was one of Christ's followers. How hehad changed! What caused the change? In Luke 22 Peterwas trusting in his own strength. Now he was filled withthe Holy Spirit.

11 This verse was a fulfillment of Psalm 118.22 which says that the builders (probably builders of the temple) thought one

stone to be useless, but it became the most important stone inthe building holding two walls together.

The stone here is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. HeHimself had quoted this verse when He was here on earth andapplied it to Himself, see Ma�hew 21.42. Peter used it now toanswer the same question the Jews had asked of the Lord, v.7;Ma�hew 21.23.

What is that building of which the Lord Jesus Christ isthe chief corner stone? The Apostle Paul gives us theanswer in Ephesians 2.20-22. Later Peter called Christ theliving Stone, 1 Peter 2.4,6.

12 And, Peter added, salvation can be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, this One whom men had despised and cruci-

fied, but whom God had raised from death. The Jews had com-mi�ed a terrible crime but God would forgive even them ifthey repented and accepted Christ as their Saviour. How won-derful is the grace of God!

Grace, grace, God's grace,Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God's grace,Grace that is greater than all our sin.

Men try to obtain salvation in many different ways: by liv-ing good lives, causing their bodies to suffer, offering sacrificesof food to idols, giving money to the Church, spending longhours saying prayers, helping the poor, but their efforts are allin vain. God's Word says that we can be saved only throughHis Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you received God's salva-tion or are you still trying to save yourself?

Peter and John are warned and set free, 4.13-2213 The well educated men of the Sanhedrin were very sur-

prised when they heard Peter speaking. They knew that he

Acts 4 25

and John were ordinary men and had had no education, yetthey spoke with boldness. See what the Jews had said aboutthe Lord Jesus in Ma�hew 13.55 and John 7.15. He also sur-prised the people because He spoke with authority, Mark 1.22.Now some of that authority was seen in His disciples.

The Jews also recognized Peter and John as having beenwith the Lord Jesus. Probably they had seen them togetherwith the Lord, but we think they also saw something of Hisgrace and righteousness and authority reflected by the apos-tles.

We too can reflect the Lord's glory as the Holy Spirittransforms us into His likeness, 2 Corinthians 3.18.

14-18 The Jews could not deny that a miracle had been per-formed because the man who had been healed was

standing right there with the apostles. However, they still didnot want to admit that they themselves had been wrong andthe miracle did not cause them to repent and turn to the Lord.Instead they commanded the apostles never to preach or teachagain in the name of Jesus.19,20 And what did the apostles answer? Did they say, “Yes,

sirs, we'll do as you say. Thank you so much for not pun-ishing us”? No, Peter and John could not agree to obey thiscommand. They knew they should obey God rather than theJews. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God had commanded them tobe His witnesses, 1.8, and they could not stop speaking of whatthey had seen and heard.21,22 The men of the Council were afraid to punish the apos-

tles because all the people were praising God for thehealing of this man. So they warned them again more stronglyand let them go.

The Christians pray, 4.23-3123,24 Peter and John went back to the Christians as soon as

they were set free and told them all that the chief priestsand elders had said to them.24 This led the group to join in prayer to God, the Creator of

heaven and earth.25,26 Their prayer was based on the Word of God, and the

Holy Spirit brought Psalm 2 to their minds. They were


being persecuted and the rulers were opposing both God andHis Christ.27,28 Both Jews and Gentiles had gathered together against

the Lord Jesus. They had brought about what God hadalready planned should happen, but they were guilty just thesame.29,30 The believers went on to pray for themselves. Did they

ask the Lord to protect them from those who were perse-cuting them? No, they asked for help that they might haveboldness to preach about Christ. They also prayed that mira-cles might be performed in the name of Jesus to prove that theywere really preaching the Word of God.

Today we do not need miracles to prove that someoneis preaching the truth of God. At the beginning of theChurch the New Testament Le�ers had not yet been writ-ten and these miracles showed that God approved ofwhat was being preached. Now we have the whole Bible,God's complete revelation to man and we can (and arecommanded to) make sure that all the teaching we hear orgive agrees with the truth of the Word of God, 1 Thes -salonians 5.21; 1 John 4.1.

31 The Lord answered the Christians' prayer, but this verse does not mean that they received the Holy Spirit a second

time. They had already been baptized with the Holy Spirit onthe day of Pentecost and had received Him at that time. Nowthey were filled with the Holy Spirit, just like a cup alreadyhaving some water in it can be filled completely. The result wasthat they did speak God's Word with boldness.

All Christians today can be, and should be, filled withthe Spirit, Ephesians 5.18. This is possible only if our con-stant aim and desire is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ inall that we do and say. What are some of the things thatSpirit-filled Christians do? Read Ephesians 5.19-21.

Oneness, love and sharing among the believers, 4.32-3732 All the believers were of one heart and mind, a sign that

they had been filled with the Spirit. Those who had needswere helped by those who were able to do so. They did not puttheir hearts on their earthly possessions any more, but were

Acts 4 27

laying up riches in a be�er place now, in heaven itself,Ma�hew 6.19-21. However, let us notice three things about thissharing among the early Christians:

1) They did so at a time when they were being persecutedby their enemies.

2) They did it of their own free will, not because they werecommanded to do so.

3) Read again the teaching on 2.44,45.To the unbelievers around them it was a wonderful witness ofthe oneness of the early Church.33 The resurrection of Christ was very important to the early

believers. The apostles continued to witness to it with greatpower and the Lord blessed them all richly.34,35 Some of the believers sold houses and fields which they

owned and brought the money to the apostles who divid-ed it according to each one's needs. This made it possible togive all their time to the work of the Lord.

Today Christians should help with their gi�s thoseamong them who spend all their time serving the Lord.Those who do so will share in the reward which the LordJesus will give His faithful servants when He returns.

36,37 We will read more about Barnabas later, in chapters 9, and 11 to 14. Here we only see that he was a Levite from

Cyprus. In 12.25 and Colossians 4.10 we see that he had rela-tives in Jerusalem. No doubt he had come to Jerusalem for thefeast of Pentecost. There the message of the Gospel of Christhad taken hold of him. He had believed it and had stayed onwith the other believers. He too sold land and turned themoney over to the apostles.

This man's real name was Joseph, but the disciples calledhim Barnabas which means “one who comforts or encour-ages.” No doubt they gave him that name because that was thekind of man he was. In this world of sorrow and trouble manysuch men (and women) are needed, those who will comfortand encourage their fellow believers to go on for the Lord. Maythe Lord give us tender, understanding hearts for the spiritualneeds of others.


Ananias and Sapphira, 5.1-11There was great blessing in the early church and many

unbelievers were accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as theirSaviour. The believers were of one mind and heart. They lovedand helped each other. Those who owned fields or houses soldthem in order to assist other believers who were poor.As we might expect Satan tried to spoil this happy spirit in thechurch and soon found a man and his wife whom he could useto do so.1,2 Ananias also sold some land. He and his wife agreed to

keep some of the money for themselves and turn the restover to the apostles.3,4 Why did Peter accuse Ananias of deceiving the Holy Spirit

and sinning against God? It was not a sin for Ananias tokeep some of the money for himself, but it was a sin to act as ifhe was giving all to the Lord when he was only giving part of it.

How did Peter know what Ananias had done? It wasrevealed to him by the Holy Spirit.

These two verses show clearly that 1) the Holy Spirit is aPerson, v.3, and that 2) He is God, v.4.Other verses in the Bible teach the same truth:

1) He is a Person: He can act, send, call, and lead, seeActs 10.19,20; 13.2; Romans 8.14.He has a will, see 1 Corinthians 12.11He also has feelings, Isaiah 63.10; Ephesians 4.30.

2) He is God: He is eternal, Hebrews 9.14He is mentioned together with God theFather and God the Son, Ma�hew 28.19; 2Corinthians 13.14.He knows all things, 1 Corinthians 2.10 He is everywhere at once, Psalm 139.7-10.

All these things are true only of God and prove that the HolySpirit is God. He lives in every believer, Romans 8.9, and whenthe believer sins, he sins against the Holy Spirit, v.3.

Acts 4, 5 29

5,6 God's judgment fell on Ananias right there and he fell down dead and was buried immediately.

7-10 Sapphira came in later, not knowing what had hap-pened. She too lied to the apostles as she had agreed

with her husband and was judged in the same way.These events show us what a great sin it is

1) to lie.2) to act as if we have given all to the Lord while we

are holding back something for ourselves. Whenwe sing so happily:

“All for Jesus, all for Jesus .. .–all my thoughts and words and mo ments,

–all my days and all my hours”are we singing the truth? God hates deceit andhypocrisy.

Perhaps you think that this was a very great punishmentfor telling a lie? But lying is sin and God cannot bless as longas there is sin among His people. Do you remember whatAchan did and its result? Thirty-six Israelites were killed bytheir enemies. And what happened to Achan—and his family?Read about it in Joshua chapter 7. This chapter shows veryplainly the great harm which unconfessed sin can do amongGod's people. Both these chapters, Acts 5 and Joshua 7 shouldbe a warning to us.11 No wonder all the believers and other people too were very

much afraid when they heard what had happened.This is the first time the word church is used in the book of

Acts. It is used in two ways throughout the New Testament:1) Of the Church in general, made up of all believers all

over the world. It is also called the Body of Christ,Ephesians 1.22,23. The Lord Jesus Christ in heaven is theHead of this body and believers are like different parts ofit, each with an important work to do, 1 Corinthians12.12-22.

2) A group of believers in one place is also called a church,Acts 13.1; 1 Corinthians 1.2.


Now Test Yourself1. What gave Peter the opportunity to speak to a large group

of people a second time?2. Peter said the Jews killed the Lord Jesus. What did he

mean?3. Moses had told the people that God would raise up anoth-

er prophet like himself. Who was this prophet?4. The Pharisees did not believe in resurrection. True or false?5. What was the Sanhedrin?6. Who enabled Peter to answer the leaders without fear and

showed him what to say?7. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Chief Corner Stone of what

building?8. Did the apostles obey the Jewish leaders who had com-

manded them not to preach any more about Christ? If not,why not?

9. Miracles were performed in the early church. What didthey. prove?

10. Why were Ananias and Sapphira judged so severely? Turn to page 165 for the correct answers.

Act 5 31

– 3 –The Church in Jerusalem (cont’d)

Chapters 5.12—7.59

Miracles in Jerusalem, 5.12-1612 Many miracles were being performed among the people

through the apostles. The early Christians did not have abuilding of their own and seem to have made Solomon's porchtheir meeting place. This was next to the Temple area on theeast side.13,14 A�er what had happened to Ananias and Sapphira cer-

tainly no one dared to join the Christians unless he hadbecome a true believer himself. The Lord blessed greatly a�erthose who had sinned had been judged and many more peoplereceived the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. There is always bless-ing a�er sin in the church has been judged.15,16 These verses are a partial fulfilment of the Lord's words

in John 14.12. The apostles did here some of the sameworks the Lord Jesus had done when He was on earth. Butnowhere in Scripture do we read that these miracles wouldcontinue throughout this present church age. They were onlyfor its beginning when the Gospel and the Church were stillsomething completely new and God's full revelation in theNew Testament had not yet been given.

But another kind of miracle is taking place even now!Is it not a miracle when people's lives are changed a�erthey have become Christians? The new Christian whoused to steal and lie and get drunk does not do so anymore. The one who used to think only about himself nowbegins to show love and care for other people. The onewho used to curse and swear now sings praise to God.Are these not miracles? Is it not a miracle when Christians

32

overcome temptations and live clean lives for God's gloryday a�er day through the power of the Holy Spirit?

The apostles are put in prison and miraculouslyreleased, 5.17-28

In verses 1 to 11 we saw how Satan tried to hinder the workof the Lord inside the church. Now he a�acked it again fromthe outside, by having the apostles put in prison.17 The high priest and the Sadducees were most unhappy

about what was going on; not only unhappy but jealous,jealous because the people were giving more honour to theapostles than to themselves.18 The apostles were receiving great honour from the people,

but the religious leaders had more power than they, so theyarrested the apostles and put them in jail.19 They thought that would put an end to their preaching and

the miracles they were performing, but they had forgo�enabout God! That night an angel of the Lord opened the prisondoors and brought them out!

Nothing can keep God from working out His purpos-es in your life!

20-24 You would think the angel would tell the apostles to get out of the city as quickly as possible to avoid further

trouble, but he didn't. He told them to go right back to theTemple and teach the people about the new life in Christ, andthe apostles obeyed.

Unbelievers are dead in sin, Ephesians 2.1, but theGospel message tells them how to get life, new life, eter-nal life. It also tells them how to live a�er they becomeChristians. The apostles were commanded to tell the peo-ple everything about this new life, and theLord Jesuswants us to teach people to obey all that He has com-manded us, Ma�hew 28.20.

In the meantime the chief priests and the officer in chargeof the temple guard wondered what could have happened tothe apostles because they had disappeared from the prison ... .25 But not for long. Soon they heard that the apostles were

teaching the people in the Temple—they were doing thevery thing they had been told not to do!

Acts 5 33

26 So again the officer and his men went to bring them before the Council, but without using force because they were

afraid of the people.27,28 The high priest accused the apostles of two things:

1) disobeying the command of the Council by continuing topreach in the name of this man, and

2) trying to make the high priest and chief priests responsi-ble for Christ's death.

Had they forgo�en that they themselves had said in Ma�hew27.25, Let His blood be on us and on our children? Now their evilconsciences were bothering them. They had seen plainly thatGod was with the apostles, but they were too proud to confessthat they themselves had been wrong and too proud to repent.They would not use the name of the Lord Jesus but spoke ofHim as this man or this name. Miracles will not help people tobelieve in Christ if they have been blinded by Satan.

The apostles' answer and its results, 5.29-3229 The apostles answered the first accusation first. God

through His angel had commanded them to teach the peo-ple even though the leaders had told them not to do so. Theyhad to make a choice whom they would obey, God or man.They made the right choice and obeyed God.

Again and again in the New Testament we read that weshould obey those who have authority over us:

We are commanded to obey our rulers, Romans 13.1,2.In the church we should submit to our spiritual leaders,Hebrews 13.17.Wives are commanded to submit to their husbands as to theLord, Ephesians 5.22.Children should obey their parents, Ephesians 6.1.But what should we do if what those in authority command

us to do causes us to disobey the teaching of the Word of God?In such cases we too must make a choice. Our choice should beto obey God even if this means disobeying our human leadersand could cause us trouble and persecution. God must be firstin our lives. We must obey God rather than man!30 Verses 30 to 32 give the apostles' answer to the second accu-


sation: Yes, the religious leaders of the Jews were guilty ofkilling the Lord Jesus by nailing Him to a tree. His blood wason them and the apostles were not afraid to tell them so.

But “the God of our fathers”—the apostles still thought ofthemselves as Jews. The early church was a group withinJudaism, not separate from it.31 The Jews had brought great shame on the Lord Jesus by

crucifying Him, see Deuteronomy 21.23, but God had givenHim the greatest honour possible when He raised Him fromdeath and seated Him at His own right hand in glory. ThroughHim God gave the people of Israel the opportunity to repentand have their sins forgiven, in spite of the great sin they hadcommi�ed. God can forgive sins only because Christ died forsin. Men had killed the Lord Jesus, but God used their terriblecrime to make salvation possible for everyone who accepts it.32 The apostles were witnesses of these things and so was theHoly Spirit whom God had given to those who obeyed Him.

Gamaliel's advice, 5.33-3933 The members of the Council wanted to hear nothing about

repentance and forgiveness of sins. They were furiousbecause these ordinary men were bold enough to accuse them,the religious leaders of Israel, God's chosen nation, of havingmurdered a righteous man, and to tell them to repent in orderthat they might be forgiven! They were so angry that theywanted to make plans to kill the apostles.34,35 But they did not carry out their evil plan. God had one

man even there among the members of the Council whomHe could use to do His will. Gamaliel was a Pharisee, one ofthe most honoured teachers of the law in those days and theother men were willing to listen to him.36 We know nothing about Theudas except what is wri�en in

this verse.37 Judas the Galilean also stirred up the people to revolt

against the government. He had many followers but he waskilled and his followers were sca�ered.38 Theudas and Judas were not led by God in what they tried

to do and so they were not successful. They both died andtheir followers were sca�ered. So Gamaliel said that the

Acts 5 35

Council should be very careful what they did to the apostles.The movement they were starting would also come to nothingunless God was with them.39 And what if it really came from God? Then they would be

fighting against God Himself by opposing His servants!Gamaliel had great human wisdom but we do not read

anywhere that he ever became a Christian. He gave goodadvice that day—advice that God could use to save thelives of His servants. However, we should not follow thisadvice today. Now we have a be�er way of testing if any-one's teaching is of God or not: We have God's completerevelation in the Bible and should examine all teaching bywhat we read in the Word of God.

The apostles are beaten and released, 5.40-4240 The members of the Council accepted Gamaliel's advice.

They set the apostles free, but first they had them whippedand commanded them never to speak in the name of Jesusagain.

This was the first time the apostles suffered physicallybecause of their witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Theywere beaten because they had disobeyed the commandthe Council had given them before not to preach anymore in the Lord Jesus' name, see 4.17,21. Perhaps theywere given as many as 40 lashes, see Deuteronomy 25.2,3,also 2 Corinthians 11.24.

41 How did the apostles feel when they le� the Council? Were they angry with the members of the Council? Or angry

with God for le�ing them suffer like this? No, they le� with joyin their hearts because their Saviour had considered them wor-thy to suffer shame and disgrace for Him. Read what Peterwrote later about suffering for the Lord, 1 Peter 4.13,14.42 And what about that command not to preach and teach any

more in the name of their beloved Lord? Well, they just didnot pay any a�ention to it! They carried on their work ofpreaching and teaching openly, even in the Temple, and also inpeople's homes.

Are you teaching the Word of God in your home? To yourfamily and your visitors? This is very important.


Seven men are chosen to help the apostles, 6.1-71 The number of believers in Jerusalem kept increasing.

Among them were a number of widows who received reg-ularly money for their needs. This came from gi�s which theother believers had brought to the apostles, see 4.34,35.

Two languages were used in the church of Jewish Chris -tians at Jerusalem: Aramaic and Greek. Aramaic was the lan-guage of the people living in Jerusalem and Judea. Jews livingoutside of Palestine spoke Greek. Many of these returned toJerusalem and some among them had been saved and were inthe church. But these Greek-speaking believers felt that theirwidows were not being cared for as well as those of theAramaic-speaking believers who had always lived inJerusalem. They were jealous and then they started to com-plain.

This was the first sign of weakness and trouble insidethe church. Complaining was also the first sin mentionedabout the people of Israel a�er God had brought themsafely out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, Exodus 16.2.

Complaining and grumbling leads to other sins and inPhilippians 2.14 the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paulcommands us to do everything without complaining.

To complain or grumble against the Lord is a veryserious sin indeed, as Paul reminded the Corinthians, see1 Corinthians 10.10 and Numbers 14.2-29.

2-4 The apostles felt that God had given them their work—to pray and to teach the Word of God, not to take care of such

ma�ers as giving money to needy believers which took quite abit of time. So they suggested that seven other men should bechosen for this work. They were to be men who were full of theHoly Spirit and wisdom because it is very important that themoney of the church be properly taken care of. Note that theapostles did not choose these men themselves, but let the otherbelievers choose them.

Now read verse 4 again. What did the apostles put first intheir work, v.4? They felt that prayer must come before theteaching of the Word of God. They understood that they mustspend time in prayer speaking to God and asking for Hisguidance, enabling and blessing before they stood before men

Acts 5, 6 37

to speak for God as they taught His Word. You and I canexpect the Holy Spirit to speak through us in power for theblessing of others only if we first take time to pray and to con-fess before the Lord that without Him we can do nothing, John15.5.5 All the believers approved of the apostles' suggestion. All

seven men who were chosen had Greek names and no doubtspoke Greek. The Greek-speaking believers had been the oneswho had complained and so they were given the work of look-ing a�er the money and giving some to those believers whoneeded it. This showed that the Aramaic-speaking believershad no bad thoughts against the ones who had grumbled.There was a real spirit of love among them all.6 The apostles prayed and laid their hands on those who had

been chosen. What is the meaning of “they laid their handson them”? Would these seven men now be different from theother believers? Would they receive greater honour or be givena special title or a salary? No, it simply meant that the apostlesapproved of the men who had been chosen and showed theirfellowship with them by laying their hands on them. It showedthat they were willing to associate themselves with these men.7 Now the problem of the widows' needs had been taken care

of. There was a happy spirit of oneness and fellowshipagain among the believers and God was able to bless thepreaching of His Word among them. Many more Jews weresaved, even a great number of priests!

Stephen arrested and unjustly accused, 6.8-158 Stephen was one of the men who had been chosen to look

a�er the money affairs of the church in Jerusalem, see verse5. His name shows that he was a Grecian Jew as we saw before,that is a Jew who had lived outside of Judea.

Stephen was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, v.5, andpower, v.8. He is the first disciple about whom we read that hedid great miracles and wonders even though he was not anapostle.9 A synagogue was made up of a group of ten or more Jews

who met together to study the Scriptures. There were manysynagogues in Jerusalem at that time. Probably the Jews


belonging to the synagogue of Freedmen were descendants ofJews who had been taken to Rome as slaves but who had beenset free. Cyrene and Alexandria were cities in North Africa.Cilicia was a country in what at that time was called Asia. Saulof Tarsus (later called Paul) was from Cilicia. Jews from thesevarious places started to argue with Stephen. Saul may havebeen among them.10 The Holy Spirit gave Stephen such wisdom that the Jews

could not prove that he was wrong. This was a fulfillmentof the promise the Lord Jesus had made to His disciples whenHe was still here on earth. He had told them that they need notworry what they would say to defend themselves before rulersand authorities because the Holy Spirit would teach them atthat time what they should say, Luke 12.11,12. He still does thesame for Christians today.11,12 The Jews refused to accept what Stephen said and so

they bribed some men to accuse him of things he hadnot done. In this they disobeyed the ninth of the TenCommandments God had given to Moses, Exodus 20.16. Thechief priests and the whole Council had done the same thing tothe Lord Jesus, Ma�hew 26.59,60.

Through these false accusations the Greek-speaking Jewsstirred up the people and the elders and teachers of the Law.They arrested Stephen and brought him before the Council.

How should you feel when people persecute you andfalsely say all kinds of evil against you because you are aChristian? How should you act? Should you fight back?Stand up for your rights? Read what the Lord Jesustaught about this in Ma�hew 5.11,12.

13,14 Apparently Stephen had been telling people that they could now worship God without the temple. No doubt

he was thinking of the words of the Lord Jesus in John 4.21-24.The other things they accused Stephen of were probably basedon things he had said but which they chose to misunderstand.15 How surprised the members of the Council must have been

when they looked at Stephen standing there before them!He did not look angry or worried or afraid, but his face lookedlike the face of an angel. Probably Saul saw that face too.

Acts 6 39

Perhaps he was thinking of Stephen when years later he wrotePhilippians 2.14,15.

Stephen speaks to the Council, 7.1-531 The high priest and president of the Council at this time was

still Caiaphas who had directed the trial of the Lord JesusChrist, Ma�hew 26.57-66.

2-8 God's call to AbrahamThis is the longest speech in the book of Acts. In it Stephen

did not try to prove that he had not done the things of whichhe had been accused. Instead he wanted to testify to his faith inthe Lord Jesus Christ. By reminding his listeners of their histo-ry he tried to show them that since the Lord Jesus had comepeople could worship God without the ternple and withoutbeing in the land of Israel.2 Stephen started by reminding his listeners that the God of

glory appeared to Abraham when Abraham's family werestill worshipping idols in the land of Mesopotamia, Joshua24.2. The God of glory is the all-powerful God, Psalm 29.3.3 This is the God who commanded Abraham to leave his

country and his family and go to a land which he did notknow, Genesis 12.1.4 Abraham obeyed and went. God had told him, to leave his

family behind, but in Genesis 11.31 we see that his fatherTerah and his nephew Lot went with him. On the way theystopped in Haran and stayed there until Terah died. ThenAbraham and Lot continued their journey and finally reachedCanaan, the land to which God had planned to take Abraham,Genesis 12.1-5.5 God did not give Abraham an inheritance in the land of

Canaan but He promised that this land would belong toAbraham's descendants. His descendants? How could Abra -ham have descendants when his wife was old and barren,Genesis 11.30? Yet in Romans 4.18-22 we see that even soAbraham believed God's promise. At that time there was notemple and the Law had not yet been given, but neverthelessGod revealed Himself to Abraham and Abraham worshippedHim.


6 God told Abraham that his descendants would not possess the land of Canaan right away, Genesis 15.13. For over 400

years they would live in the land of Egypt and would increasein number and become the slaves of the Egyptians.7 But the God of glory, the God of power, would judge the

Egyptians for the way they treated the descendants ofAbraham and would bring His people out to serve Him in theland He had chosen to give them, Genesis 15.14.8 Then He made a covenant of great blessing with Abraham,

Genesis 15.18. He and his descendants were to circumciseevery male child as a sign of this agreement between them-selves and God, Genesis 17.7-14. God made this covenant ofblessing long before He commanded His people to build thetabernacle.9-16 Joseph and his brothers9,10 Abraham's grandson Jacob had 12 sons, one of whom was

Joseph. Why were the other eleven sons jealous of Joseph?You can find the answer to this question in Genesis 37. Theaccount of Joseph's life is in Genesis 37 to 50.

The things that happened to Joseph are a picture of whatmen did to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 7 41

JosephJoseph's brothers sold himto Gentiles for 20 pieces ofsilver, Genesis 37.28.

They did it because theywere jealous of him, Genesis37.5-11. By rejecting himthey were refusing God'swill.

The Lord Jesus ChristJudas “sold” the Lord Jesus tothe religious leaders of the Jewsfor 30 pieces of silver and theyturned the Lord over to theGentiles, that is, the Romanswho ruled Judea at that time.Pilate, the Roman governor,knew that the chief priests hadhanded the Lord Jesus over tohim because of jealousy, Mark15.10. The Israelites were thesons of Joseph and Joseph'sbrothers and they too wererejecting the One whom Godhad chosen, the Lord JesusChrist.

11,12 Later there was a famine in Canaan and Egypt, but evenso there was food in Egypt because of the wisdom God

had given to Joseph, Genesis 41.47-54.13,14 Joseph made himself known to his brothers the second

time they came to Egypt to buy food and the brotherswere very sorry for what they had done to him.

The Jews rejected the Lord Jesus Christ when He wasamong them the first time and as a result they have had muchsuffering. When He comes back again He will appear first tothe people of Israel. This time they will receive Him as theirMessiah, but they will be very grieved because of the way theirnation had treated Him when He came to earth the first time,Zechariah 12.10.15,16 Joseph became his family's saviour by providing food

for them in the land of Egypt, in spite of the evil hisbrothers had done to him.

In the future the nations of the world will join together tofight against the Jews, but the Lord will defend them,Zechariah 14.2.3.

17-29 Moses in EgyptStephen now told his listeners about Moses whom the Jews

honoured greatly because he was the one through whom Godhad given them the Law.


Joseph, continued

God was with Joseph,Genesis 39.2.

God did not leave Josephjust because he was nolonger in Canaan, but in awonderful way made himruler over Egypt and overPharaoh's house, Genesis41.39,40.

The Lord Jesus Christ, continued

A li�le later Peter used the samewords of the Lord Jesus, see Acts10.38. Nicodemus' words in John3.2 show that the religious lead-ers knew this very well.

God has also delivered Christ byraising Him from the dead andmaking Him both Lord andChrist, Acts 2.36.

17 God had told Abraham that his descendants would be in Egypt for about 400 years, Genesis 15.13,14. For all these

years their number continued to increase.18,19 During the last part of this time a new king made life

very difficult for the people of Israel, Exodus 1.7-22. Thiswas all part of God's plan to bring His people out of Egypt andback into the land of Canaan and it was a fulfillment of whatHe had told Abraham, Genesis 15.13.20-22 God was also preparing the one whom He would use to

deliver His people from the Egyptians, v.20. There aremany things about Moses that make us think of the Lord JesusChrist. The king of Egypt wanted to kill him together with allthe other new-born baby boys in Egypt, but God protectedhim, v.21; Exodus 2.2-10. In the same way Herod the king ofJudea wanted to kill the baby Jesus, but Joseph obeyed God'swarning and took Him and Mary to a safe place in Egypt,Ma�hew 2.13,14.

God also made it possible for Moses to get all the humantraining that he would need for the important work of leadingthe people of God, v.22. He became a great man in words andin deeds, Exodus 2.11,12. The Lord Jesus was also great inword and deed, much more so than Moses. The people wereamazed also at the gracious words He spoke, Luke 4.22, andtestified that He had done everything well, Mark 7.37.

Moses learned all the human wisdom he could in Pha -raoh's house, but our Lord Jesus Christ IS the wisdom of God,1 Cor inthians 1.24, and God has made Him to be our wisdom, 1 Corinthians 1.30.23 It seems that up until this time Moses had had no contact

with the people of Israel but had lived like an Egyptian inPharaoh's house. And yet he knew that these slaves were hisown people and God's chosen nation. How did he know?Probably through what his parents taught him in the first fewyears of his life when he was still at home with them. Moseshad not forgo�en that teaching through all the long yearsamong the idol-worshipping Egyptians in the king's palace.And now he was sad when he saw how badly his people werebeing treated and how they were suffering. He wanted to helpthem but he knew that he would no longer be able to enjoy the

Acts 7 43

honour of being the son of Pharaoh's daughter if he associatedhimself with these despised people. And so he made thatimportant choice which we read about in Hebrews 11.24-26.

Read these important verses and ask yourself what ismore important to you, the pleasures and treasures of thisworld or serving the Lord Jesus Christ even though thismight mean poverty and disgrace here on earth. Moses chosewisely, looking forward to his reward. What about you?

24-28 Yes, Moses wanted to help his people, but they refused him. In this also Moses reminds us of the Lord Jesus

Christ. Moses had le� the riches and honour and comforts ofPharaoh's palace in order to help his people. The Lord Jesusle� the glories of heaven and died for our sins in order to makeit possible for us to be saved. But the people refused Him, justas they had refused Moses. See John 1.11. They were like thepeople in the parable in Luke 19.11-14 who said, We don't wantthis man to be our king.29 Pharaoh soon heard about what Moses had done and

Moses fled to the land of Midian to save his life.

30-35 God calls Moses30 For forty long years Moses was in the land of Midian. What

were his thoughts all these years? Was he sorry about thechoice he had made to leave Pharaoh's house? No doubt these40 years were very important in the life of Moses. Most of thefirst 40 years of his life were spent learning the wisdom of theEgyptians, but during the next 40 years God taught him Hisown perfect wisdom. At the end of that time He showedHimself to Moses in the form of an angel.31-33 This “angel of the Lord” was the Lord Himself, the God

of Moses' ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Mosestrembled with fear when he understood who was speaking tohim and the desert truly became holy ground.34 And what was God's message to Moses? That He had seen

the trouble of His people in Egypt and heard their groan-ing, and that He had not forgo�en His promise to bring themout of their slavery, Exodus 2.24,25. The time for the fulfillmentof this promise had now come and God planned to send Mosesback to Egypt to bring it about, Exodus 3.1-10.


35 The Israelites had refused Moses before, Exodus 2.14, but now God sent him back to be their ruler and deliver them

from being Pharaoh's slaves. In the same way Israel had reject-ed Christ but God gave Him glory.

36-43 Israel's disobedience in the desert36 So Moses brought the people out of Egypt and God enabled

him to perform wonders and miracles in Egypt and in thedesert.37 Moses also told the people that God would send them

another prophet, like himself, and that they should listen toHim. The Jews had been waiting for this prophet ever sinceand most of them did not recognize Him when He cameamong them. But some did understand that the Lord JesusChrist was indeed that prophet, see John 6.14; 7.40.38,39 In these verses Stephen speaks again about Moses. The

Greek word used here for church means a called-outgroup of people and described very well the people of Israelwho had been called out of Egypt. Since the time of Christ thissame word is used for the Body of Christ which is made up ofall true believers and for groups of believers meeting togetherin different places.

There at Mount Sinai the angel, that is, God Himself, spoketo Moses and gave him living messages to pass on to the peo-ple, but they refused to obey them. They rejected Moses, theone whom God had sent to deliver them and wished theycould go back to Egypt.40-43 They started to worship idols even while still in the

desert, vs. 40,41, and continued to do so a�er theyreached the land of Canaan.

The prophet's words in verses 42 and 43 are from Amos5.25-27. Molech was a god of the Ammonites, 1 Kings 11.7, andRephan was the name of another god connected with a largestar. The people of Israel continued to worship idols right upuntil God became so angry with them that He sent them asprisoners to Babylon.

44-53 Israel's disobedience in the land of Canaan44 God had given their ancestors the tabernacle in the desert

Acts 7 45

as a witness of His presence with them. This had been builtaccording to the instructions He had given Moses.45 The people carried the tabernacle with them as they trav-

elled in the desert and later brought it into the land ofCanaan. There it remained until the time of David.46,47 David loved and pleased God and wanted to build Him

a dwelling place, but it was his son Solomon who builtHim a house, 1 Chronicles 17.1-14.48-50 But no house on earth can be big enough for the God

who created the whole world. The Most High God doesnot live in houses built by men. The prophet Isaiah said thatthis earth in which we live is only a footstool for God's feet,Isaiah 66.1,2. Solomon realized that the temple he built wasmuch too small to hold God because not even all heaven islarge enough to hold Him, 1 Kings 8.27.

The people had accused Stephen of speaking against thetemple, 6.13, but this was not true. These verses do show how-ever that people can worship God without the temple, andthose who do worship Him in the temple do not always wor-ship Him in the right way.51 The people had also accused Stephen of speaking against

Moses, 6.11—another lie. Their ancestors and they them-selves had refused to listen and obey Moses.

Now Stephen himself boldly accused his accusers. He musthave had a lot of courage to do this because no doubt he knewthat the Jews would become very angry and kill him. He prob-ably hoped that even so his strong words might make some ofhis hearers realize their great sin of rejecting Christ and causethem to repent. He told them they were stubborn and actedlike people who did not belong to God, that is who had neverbeen circumcised. They had closed their ears to God's messageand resisted the Holy Spirit, just as their ancestors had done,see Isaiah 63.10.52 Their ancestors had persecuted all the prophets and killed

those who told about the coming of the Righteous One, thatis, their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Messiah had come just thesame, but they themselves had betrayed and murdered Him!53 They had received the Law given to them by God Himself,

see verse 38, but they had not obeyed it.


Stephen killed with stones, 7.54-6054 The members of the Council were furious when they heard

Stephen's accusation that they were murderers. This wasthe second time they had been accused of killing the Lord JesusChrist, see 5.29-33.55 Did Stephen tremble when he saw their anger? No, Ste -

phen, filled with the Holy Spirit, was looking up to heavenand no doubt was overjoyed with what he saw: the glory ofGod and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

The Lord Jesus had said Himself that He would sit atthe right hand of God, Luke 22.69. This is the way we usu-ally see Him in the New Testament, see Mark 16.19;Ephesians 1.20; Colossians 3.1; Hebrews 1.3. But here inActs 7.55 we see Him standing, ready to welcome Hisfaithful and courageous servant home to heaven.

56 Stephen could not keep this wonderful sight to himself, butagain testified to what he saw.

Only twice more did the glorified Christ show Himselfto people on earth:

1. to Saul as he was travelling to Damascus to persecutethe Christians, 9.4-6;

2. to the apostle John on the island of Patmos, Reve la tion1.12-16.

57,58 But the Jews had heard enough. They refused to listen toanything else. They all closed their ears with their hands

and rushed at Stephen and threw him out of the city so thatthey might stone him to death. (In this one thing they obeyedthe law which commanded that stoning be done outside thecamp or city, Leviticus 24.14; Numbers 15.35.)

In verse 58 we read about a young man named Saul, latercalled Paul, 13.9. We shall read much more about him in therest of the book of Acts. No doubt Saul heard Stephen's testi-mony, but even so he approved of his death, 8.1; 22.20.59,60 So the Jews kept on throwing stones at Stephen while

Stephen asked the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit. Hisprayer was very much like that of the Lord Jesus in Luke 23.46.Then he prayed that God would not remember this sin againstthem. In this also he resembled his Lord, see Luke 23.34. He

Acts 7 47

prayed with a loud voice, probably with all the strength he hadle�—he wanted them all to hear that he was not angry withthem but asked God to forgive them . . . And then he fellasleep. Asleep? Yes; the death of a believer was sometimescalled sleep in the New Testament, see John 11.11; 1 Thes -salonians 4.13,15.

Stephen was the first man who died because of his tes-timony for the Lord Jesus Christ. Since then thousands ofChristians have given their lives because of their faith.Thousands more are suffering even today because theyrefuse to deny that they belong to Christ. All these willreceive a great reward—the crown of life, Revelation 2.10.We are commanded to pray for those who are suffering,Hebrews 13.3. And we should ask ourselves: Am I willingto die for the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I willing to live forHim every day?

Now Test Yourself1. What did the apostles do a�er the angel brought them out

of prison?2. Was it true that the apostles wanted to make the priests

responsible for Christ's death?3. Give the name of the man who kept the members of the

Council from killing the apostles right away.4. How did the apostles feel a�er they had been beaten and

set free?5. What two languages were spoken in the church at

Jerusalem?6. How did the apostles stop the grumbling of the Greek-

speaking Jews7. The Jewish temple was at Jerusalem, but there were also

many synagogues in the city. True or false?8. Was the Jews' accusation of Stephen true?9. Name two people whose jealous enemies sold them for

money.10. Name one way in which Moses was a picture of the Lord

Jesus Christ.Turn to page 166 to see if your answers are correct.


- 4 -Philip and SaulChapters 8 and 9

Through Stephen the Gospel had again been offered to theJewish leaders and they had rejected it once more. From nowon the Good News would be preached to the Gentiles. InChapter 8 we see this beginning to take place.

Persecution of the church in Jerusalem, 8.1-41-3 These verses tell us of the first great persecution of the

Church. The young man Saul, 7.58, approved of Stephen'sdeath, v.1, and he himself began to destroy the Church. Heeven entered people's homes searching for Christians, and putin prison all whom he found, v.3

Godly men buried Stephen with great mourning, v.2. Yes,they were very sad because they had not yet learned about thewonderful hope the Christian has when another believerleaves this world through death. God revealed this wonderfultruth later through this same man Saul. At this time Saul wasan enemy of Christ, but later he became His faithful servant.We shall read about this in Chapter 9.

What is this wonderful hope? We can read about it is1 Corinthians 15.51-56 and 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18. Therewe see that Christ will come again to take His Church toheaven. All true believers who have died will be raisedfrom death, they will be caught up in the air and will beforever with the Lord. This is a wonderful hope for everybeliever, the blessed hope, Titus 2.13. Part of this hope isthat we will see again our loved ones who have died ifthey were Christians and if we are . . . . They have goneahead of us for just a short while. What a comfort this iswhen a beloved friend or relative leaves this earth.

4 The persecution made the believers do one thing which the

49

Lord had commanded them a�er He rose from death butwhich up until that time they had not done. He had told themto go into all the world to preach the Gospel and teach allnations about Himself, Ma�hew 28.19; Mark 16.15, but theyhad remained in Jerusalem. Now the believers were sca�eredthroughout the provinces of Judea and Samaria and theypreached the Gospel everywhere they went. But the apostlesstayed on in Jerusalem. They were the ones to whom the Lordhad given the command to go!

Today people do much travelling. Do we preach themessage of the Gospel everywhere we go? We should!

Philip in Samaria, 8.5-255 Philip was not one of the apostles. He was a Grecian Jew,

like Stephen, and had also been chosen to look a�er theneeds of the widows and other things related to the church inJerusalem, see 6.5.

Now the Lord led Philip to go to Samaria, probably to the


Map of page 48

same city where He Himself had gone, John 4. And who werethe people of Samaria? Some Israelites were le� in their landwhen the rest of the people were taken to Babylon by theAssyrians. The Assyrians then brought some people of anoth-er nation to live in the land with the Israelites and these peopleintermarried with them, 2 Kings 17.24-41. Their descendantsbecame known as Samaritans. In John 4.9 we see that later theJews would not associate with the Samaritans, but the LordJesus had told the disciples to preach the Gospel also inSamaria, 1.8.6-8 So Philip preached to the Samaritans and found them

ready to listen to him. Many of these people had believedwhen the Lord Himself was among them and so their heartswere prepared for Philip's message. They gladly accepted theGood News that the people of Jerusalem had refused.

The Lord enabled Philip to perform miracles too. Readagain the teaching on verse 30 of chapter 4 about miracles.

9-25 Simon the magician9 Simon was no doubt Satan's tool to try and undo the work

the Lord Jesus had done in Samaria, see John 4. This mandid witchcra� and magic and told the people that he was avery important person.10,11 Everyone paid a�ention to Simon, the rich and the poor,

the young and the old, and they called” him “the GreatPower.” This is the word the Greeks used when they spoke ofthe God whom the Jews worshipped. But Simon was a falseprophet and did his miracles with Satan's power. He a�ractedpeople to himself, but the true servant of God draws people toChrist.12 Even so many people believed Philip's message of salvation

and were baptized. A�er the Lord Jesus rose from death Hecommanded His disciples to go into all the world to preach theGospel and to baptize those who believed. The early Christiansfaithfully obeyed especially the second part of this command,beginning on the day of Pentecost, see Acts 2.38,41; 8.36-38;9.18; 10.48.13 Even Simon believed and was baptized. At least he said he

believed. Did he have true faith? Peter's words to him inverses 20 to 23 show that he did not have the kind of faith that

Acts 8 51

saves a man's soul. In John 2.23 we read about many believingin the Lord Jesus when they saw the miracles which He did.However the next verse shows that they too did not have truesaving faith because the all-knowing Lord would not trustHimself to them.

James also writes about two kinds of faith in the secondchapter of his le�er, verses 14 to 20. Read these verses verycarefully. Some people say they have faith, but their faith is adead faith because it cannot be seen in their actions. Othersshow by what they do that they have true faith. What kind offaith do you have? Remember that faith without actions isdead.14 News of what was happening in Samaria reached the apos-

tles in Jerusalem and they sent Peter and John to Samaria tosee for themselves. Read Luke 9.51-54 to see what happenedwhen John was in that same area before.15-17 The two apostles could see that some Samaritans had

really believed in the Lord Jesus. They also saw that thesenew believers had not yet received the Holy Spirit. So theyprayed for them and placed their hands on them. As they didthis the Samaritan believers received the Holy Spirit. Thisshowed that God had accepted them as His children.

Ordinarily a person receives the Holy Spirit as soon as hebelieves in the Lord Jesus Christ, see Acts 10.44; Ephesians1.13. Romans 8.9 tells us that a person without the Holy Spiritdoes not belong to Christ. However here the believers did notreceive the Holy Spirit until Peter and John came fromJerusalem. In past years there had always been bad feelingsand jealousy between the people of Jerusalem and Samaria andit was very important that there should be no such feelings inthe church. Now the Samaritan believers received the HolySpirit through Peter and John, apostles fiom Jerusalem. Thisshows that the believers in both Jerusalem and Samaria wereone fellowship, one Church in the Lord.

If we really love the Lord, we will love men too andgive them the Gospel even if they belong to anothernation or speak a different language.

Verse 17 does not teach that people can receive the HolySpirit only when someone lays his hand on them, nor do the


Le�ers of the New Testament teach this. In Acts we read of fourgroups of people who received the Holy Spirit:

The believers at Pentecost, chapter 2 The Samaritans, chapter 8Cornelius' household, chapter 10 The disciples at Ephesus, chapter 19

The believers on the day of Pentecost and those of Cornelius'household received the Holy Spirit without an apostle placinghis hands on them. To the other two groups the Holy Spirit wasgiven when apostles placed their hands on them. No doubtGod had a reason for this difference even though we may notfully understand it, but we must not say that someone canreceive the Holy Spirit only when a leader in the church layshis hands on him.18,19 Simon saw the people receiving the Holy Spirit when

the apostles laid their hands on them, but he did notunderstand at all what was happening. He thought it would bewonderful to have this power to make people receive the HolySpirit by placing his hands on them. Before Philip came toSamaria Simon had received money from people for his magic.Now he wanted to give this money to Peter in order to buy thepower to give the Holy Spirit to people! Probably he expectedthese people to pay him for the Holy Spirit!20-23 Simon's words showed plainly that he was not a true

believer and Peter told him so. God's gi�s cannot bebought for money and it was very wrong for Simon to try to doso. Peter told him strongly that his heart was not right in God'ssight and urged him to repent of his evil plan and ask the Lordto forgive him.

Eternal life is God's gi� to those who believe in HisSon. This includes the gi� of the Holy Spirit. Howevereven today many people seem to think that by givingmoney to their church they can buy this gi�. But how canone buy a gi�? When someone gives us something weinsult him if we try to pay for it. No one can buy eternallife. We can receive it only as a gi� by believing in theLord Jesus Christ. Read Romans 6.23. Are you insultingGod today by trying to pay for your salvation?

24 Simon asked Peter and John to pray that he might not be

Acts 8 53

judged by God, but even this does not prove that he reallyrepented of his sin.25 The Lord Jesus had told the apostles that they would be His

witnesses in Samaria, 1.8. Now we see at least Peter andJohn preaching the Gospel in many Samaritan villages on theirway back to Jerusalem.

Philip and the Ethiopian, 8.26-4026 Many people were believing in Christ as their Saviour in

Samaria because of Philip's preaching. No doubt Philip hadmade no plans to leave Samaria when the angel of the Lordtold him to do so and go in the direction of Gaza, a town southof Jerusalem.27 Did Philip argue with the angel? Did he ask: Who will

preach the Gospel to the Samaritans when I leave? Whowill teach the new believers? No, Philip may not have under-stood the reason for this command, but he obeyed immediate-ly, and got ready and went ... .

It was a desert road, used by only few people, but that dayPhilip met an Ethiopian eunuch* there. This man was animportant official of the Ethiopian queen. He had charge of thetreasury and he had gone to Jerusalem to worship the God ofthe Jews. He had gone with a hungry heart and now he was onhis way home—still hungry.28 The eunuch was reading in the prophecy of Isaiah as his

carriage bumped along over the rough, dusty road. He readslowly and carefully. He thought about what he read—but hecould not understand.29 Just then Philip had reached the place where the eunuch

was and the Holy Spirit told him to go to his carriage andstay near it.30 Philip was now near enough to hear the eunuch reading

and recognized the words. He could see that this man wasnot a Jew and probably not familiar with the Old TestamentProphets and so he asked him if he understood what he wasreading.__________________*A eunuch is a man who has had an operation and can never get married andhave children.


31 The eunuch was an important man in his own land, but he was humble enough to admit that he needed someone to

help him understand.32-34 He had been reading verses 7 and 8 in Isaiah 53 and

asked if the prophet was speaking of himself or of some-one else.35 And so Philip had the wonderful opportunity of telling him

that these beautiful verses speak of the suffering and deathof the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, John 1.29.36,37 The eunuch believed Philip's message right away and

accepted the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. His hungry heartwas satisfied at last.

But how did he know that he should be baptized? InJerusalem thousands had been baptized and Philip may havespoken about this also when he had preached about the LordJesus. There was no reason why the official should not be bap-tized because he had truly believed, and he was eager to obeythis command at once.*38 So there by the side of the road both Philip and the eunuch

went into the water and Philip baptized him. Chapter 6 ofPaul's le�er to the Romans tells us that thus the eunuch wasburied with Christ and shared His death so that he might livea new life, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glori-ous power of God the Father, Romans 6.4. Baptism is a pictureof a burial, and therefore the two men went into the water.According to the Old Testament Law a eunuch could not bereceived among the Lord's people, Deuteronomy 23.1. Howwonderful that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is for allwho truly believe, no ma�er who they are or of what nation orhow great their sins. No one who comes with true faith will berefused. The Lord Jesus said that He would never turn awayanyone who comes to Him, John 6.37. Have you come?39 The Holy Spirit miraculously took Philip away as soon as

the two men had come out of the water. The official was le�______________* Verse 37 is not found in the oldest manuscripts but was added a li�le later.It shows that in those early days of the Church new believers were baptizedright away as soon as they confessed Christ. The apostles could tell with theSpirit's help if people were really saved or not.

Acts 8 55

alone to continue his journey, and he did so rejoicing. We readno more about him in the Scriptures.

Philip being taken away miraculously is a picture ofthe Christian being caught up to meet the Lord in the air when He comes to take His Church to heaven, 1 Thessalonians 4.17. Our work will then be finished.

40 Philip was next seen in Azotus about 33 km. north of Gaza. He kept right on preaching the Gospel in all the towns until

he reached Caesarea. We will read about him again in chapter21 when Paul was his guest.

Saul becomes a Christian, 9.1-9Now we go back to the beginning of chapter 8 where we

read that a man by the name of Saul approved of Stephen'smurder. Chapter 9 tells us more about this man.

Who was he? He was the man who was later called Paul,13.9. He was born in Tarsus, the capital city of Cilicia, 22.3, atrue Hebrew, Philippians 3.5,6. He also had the honour ofbeing a citizen of Rome, 22.27,28. Probably his parents weremade Roman citizens as reward for some great service.

Saul was a student of Gamaliel, a highly respected teacherof the Jews, 5.34; 22.3. Saul was also a zealous Pharisee with agreat desire to please the God of his fathers. It was this zeal toserve God which led him to persecute the Christians. We sawthat he had an active part in the persecution of the Churchwhich followed Stephen's death, 8.3.9.1,2 At the beginning of chapter 9 we find Saul still threaten-

ing and persecuting the followers of the Lord. He evengot a le�er from the high priest giving him the authority toarrest any believers whom he might find in Damascus and tobring them to Jerusalem. At that time the Christians werecalled “followers of the Way” which makes us think of John14.6 where the Lord Jesus called Himself the Way. This namewas also used in Acts 19.9,23; 22.4; 24.14,22.

Israel as a nation had rejected the salvation which Godoffered them. This offer ended when they killed Stephen (butindividual Jews can still be saved). Perhaps Saul hated Christand His followers more than anyone else. Now God was going


to show the riches of His mercy and grace by saving even Saul,Ephesians 2.4; 1.7,8; 1 Timothy 1.15,16.3 And so Saul went on his journey to Damascus to arrest all

the Christians he could find. But God had a very specialplan for this man who truly loved Him but had such wrongideas about serving Him.

Saul and those with him were approaching the city when abright light from heaven flashed around him. It was aroundnoon when the sun shines the brightest, but the light that Saulsaw was much brighter than the sun, 26.13. It was the light ofthe glory of the Lord.4 Saul fell to the ground when he saw the bright light. Then

he heard a Voice calling him by name. And what a questionthe Voice asked him!5 To whom did this Voice belong? Saul wisely called Him

“Lord.” How the Lord's answer must have shaken him. Heseemed to understand immediately that the Lord Jesus was theJehovah God of the Old Testament. Saul had thought he wasserving Jehovah when he was persecuting His Son!

He had been persecuting the Christians, but the Voice hadsaid, Why do you persecute me? This shows that whoeverhurts a Christian is a�acking the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.What a shock it must have been for Saul to realize that thosedespised believers were part of Christ, the Son of God! Untilthe end of his life he could not forget what he had done, 1 Corinthians 15.9. Could he be forgiven for such a great sin?

Yes, indeed. The Voice Saul heard was not that of an angryJudge but of a loving Saviour. God was merciful to him and theLord poured out His abundant grace on him and gave him thefaith and love which are ours in union with the Lord JesusChrist, 1 Timothy 1.13,14. From then on Saul's message wasthat Christ came into the world to save sinners, including him-self, the worst of them all, 1 Timothy 1.15.6 The Lord then told Saul to go on to Damascus where he

would be shown what he should do. He would certainlynot carry out what he had planned to do when he started thatjourney! Now it was no longer Saul but Christ who was incharge of Saul's life.

Acts 9 57

The people who were travelling with Saul also heard theVoice that spoke to Saul.8,9 The very bright light had blinded Saul's eyes and when

he opened them he was not able to see anything. Thosewho travelled with him had to lead him to Damascus.

Ananias, 9.10-1910 Probably Ananias was one of the leaders in the church at

Damascus. Here he is just called a disciple but in 22.12 welearn that Ananias obeyed the law and was highly respected byall the Jews living in Damascus.11,12 God had a difficult job for Ananias to do but He knew

that Ananias would obey him. Notice that God hadrevealed to Saul in a vision that Ananias would come to himbefore He had actually spoken to Ananias about going to Saul.Can God be that certain that you will obey Him?13,14 Perhaps Ananias asked himself, “Does the Lord really

want me to go to that cruel man, that persecutor of theChristians? Did I understand His words correctly?” So he toldthe Lord about his fears.15,16 Yes, Ananias had understood correctly. The Lord knew

all about Saul's plans to arrest the Christians inDamascus, but even so He wanted Ananias to go to him andgraciously told him why—because He had chosen Saul for avery special service, to be His witness to the Gentiles.17 So Ananias went and entered the house where Saul was.

Note how lovingly he greeted him: “Brother Saul.” Thefeared Pharisee, the bi�er enemy of Christ, had become abeloved brother in the Lord! And Saul early learned somethingof what it means to belong to the family of God, the body ofChrist.18 Probably Saul received the Holy Spirit and was able to see

again at the time when Ananias laid his hands on him.A�er that he was baptized.

In the Acts of the Apostles, some people received theHoly Spirit a�er they were baptized, see 8.14-17; 19.5,6. Inchapter 10 we will read about Cornelius and his house-hold. The Holy Spirit came down on them before theywere baptized.


Why these differences? Because these people believedin the Lord Jesus during the time of change from Judaismto Christianity. Today people receive the Holy Spirit assoon as they believe, before they are baptized and with-out anyone placing his hands on them, see Ephesians1.13.

19 How the believers in Damascus must have rejoiced when this bi�er enemy of the Lord Jesus became His follower and

their brother in Christ! Their fellowship together must havebeen very sweet.

Saul preaches in Damascus, 9.20-2520 Saul did not wait long before starting to preach to the Jews

in their synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. It was verydangerous for him to do so because Jews are very bi�er againstanyone who leaves their religion.

What proves that someone has really received theLord Jesus Christ as his Saviour? His desire to tell othersabout Him.

21 How amazed the unbelieving Jews must have been when this one who persecuted the Christians so zealously before

now started to preach to them about Christ himself!22 Saul grew stronger and stronger spiritually and the Jews

were unable to prove that what he said about the LordJesus was wrong. How did Saul prove that Jesus is the Christ?No doubt he pointed out to the Jews the prophecies about theMessiah in the Old Testament and showed how they were ful-filled in the Lord Jesus Christ.23 We do not read in Acts what happened during the “many

days,”but Galatians 1.16,17 show that during this time Saulwent to Arabia. Here he was able to be alone with God andlearn from Him.

A�er Saul returned to Damascus, Galatians 1.17, hepreached with even greater power than before and the angryJews made plans to kill him.24,25 Saul found out about this and the believers helped him

to get safely out of the city. Saul never forgot this humil-iating experience. See 2 Corinthians 11.30-33. He found outvery soon that anyone who wants to live a godly life for Christ

Acts 9 59

will be persecuted, v.15; 2 Timothy 3.12. This is still true todayand we should be ready for it.

Saul preaches in Jerusalem, 9.26-3126 Now Saul went to Jerusalem for the first time a�er becom-

ing a Christian. Three years or more had passed since hefirst believed in Christ, Galatians 1.18. This showed that theLord and not the apostles in Jerusalem made Saul an apostle.But there was no warm welcome awaiting Saul in Jerusalem.The believers remembered how bi�erly this man had persecut-ed them before and they were afraid of him. They had notheard yet that he had changed and was now their brother inChrist.27 But Barnabas took Saul and brought him to the disciples.

He had heard the wonderful story of what had happenedon the road to Damascus and shared it now with his fellowbelievers.

We learn more about Saul's visit to Jerusalem in Gala tians 1.He saw only Peter and James, the Lord's brother, at that time,not all the apostles. He stayed with Peter for 15 days. Duringthat visit he probably asked Peter many questions about theLord Jesus and His teaching.28,29 So Saul preached boldly about the Lord Jesus. Before

long he started to dispute with the Greek-speaking Jews,just as Stephen had done, 6.9,10, and these Jews tried to killhim too.30 The believers found out about this and brought Saul safely

to Caesarea and from there sent him home to Tarsus. Welearn later in 22.17-21 that the Lord Himself had told him toleave Jerusalem at that time, because He was sending him tothe Gentiles.31 A�er Saul had turned to the Lord the Christians were not

persecuted for a while and the churches in Judea, Galileeand Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. Notice that by this timethere were already churches in these areas.

Peter in Lydda and Joppa, 9.32-43Peter was last mentioned in 8.25 where we saw him helping

the Christians who had been sca�ered to many Samaritan vil-


lages because of the persecution a�er Stephen's death. Therewere also many Gentiles in this area. We now read about whathappened when Peter was in Lydda.

32-35 AeneasAeneas lived in Lydda. For eight long years he had had to

stay in bed because he was paralyzed. We do not read that hewas a believer. He must have had some faith however becausehe believed Peter's words, Jesus Christ makes you well, and heobeyed when Peter told him to get up.

The people in Lydda and Sharon, the country aroundLydda were amazed when they saw this miracle and manyturned to the Lord.

36-43 Dorcas36-38 Joppa was about 16 kilometres from Lydda. Here too

there was a group of believers. Peter was still in Lyddawhen the believers from Joppa called him because theirbeloved sister Dorcas had died. She was beloved because shewas a good woman who showed the love of God by using allher time to help others.39-41 Peter went to Joppa with those who had come to call him

and here the Lord enabled him to do an even greatermiracle than in Lydda: he raised Dorcas from death. As Petersaid to Dorcas, Tabitha, get up! v, 40, did his thoughts go back tothat day when he had heard the Lord Jesus say these samewords to Jairus' daughter? See Mark 5.37-41.42 What rejoicing there must have been among the believers

and widows when Peter presented Dorcas alive to them!Here too many believed in the Lord as they heard about whathad happened.

Aeneas and Dorcas are pictures of two kinds of sin-ners. Aeneas was sick and could not do anything to getbe�er. He was helpless and makes us think of sinnerswho cannot do anything to save themselves. Dorcas wasa good woman. She spent all her time doing good andhelping the poor. But she died . . . in spite of all her goodworks. She reminds us of the fact that good works cannotsave us. All men are spiritually dead until they believe inthe Lord Jesus Christ and receive eternal life.

Acts 9 61

Are you spiritually dead, unable to do anything toobtain salvation? You can have eternal life today byreceiving Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

43 Peter remained in Joppa for a while and stayed with a leather-worker named Simon. People working with leather

used the skins of unclean animals and because of this the Jewsconsidered this kind of work unclean. It seems that Peter wasnot keeping the Jewish laws and customs quite as much asbefore.

Now Test Yourself1. Who led the persecution of the church a�er Stephen's

death?2. What command of the Lord Jesus did the persecution make

the Christians obey?3. For what special work had Philip and Stephen been cho-

sen?4. Who were the people of Samaria?5. Who preached the Gospel in Samaria before Philip?6. Name the two apostles who went to visit the new believers

in Samaria.7. The Lord was blessing Philip's preaching in Samaria. Why

then did Philip leave suddenly to go to Gaza?8. Who was Saul and who was his teacher?9. Where did Saul preach the Gospel first?

10. How did the Christians in Jerusalem receive Saul a�er hebecame a Christian?

Turn to page 166 to see if you answered correctly.


-5-Peter Among the Gentiles

and in PrisonChapters 10 – 12

Cornelius' vision, 10.1-8In verse 15 of chapter 9 we saw that God planned to use

Saul to make His Name known among the Gentiles, but chap-ter 10 tells us that Peter was the first one who actually preachedthe Gospel to them.

At this time the Romans were ruling over the Jews. The cityof Caesarea was on the border of the Mediterranean Sea,between Joppa and Dora. It was a Gentile city although manyJews lived there too.1 Cornelius was a Gentile. He was a captain in the Roman

army and had 100 soldiers under him. He was a good manand did much to help the poor people among the Jews.Cornelius and his whole family worshipped God even beforePeter came to him. He had turned away from idols to serve thetrue and living God, 1 Thessalonians 1.9, even though he hadnot yet heard anything about Christ. He tried to serve God byhelping poor people and was always praying.3 God saw in Cornelius' heart a longing to know Him be�er,

and He heard his prayers. God loves to answer such prayerand has promised in His Word that those who seek Him withall their heart will find Him, Jeremiah 29.13. So an angelappeared to Cornelius, perhaps while Cornelius was praying.It was in the a�ernoon, so Cornelius was not sleeping at thetime.

Cornelius had never had such a vision before and of coursehe was afraid. But what do the angel's words mean? Theymean that God saw and remembered Cornelius' good acts andhad heard his prayers. They do not mean that by doing these

63

things Cornelius had received salvation. His actions onlyshowed that his heart was prepared and ready to receive theSaviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.5,6 Then the angel told Cornelius exactly what he should do

and where his servants would be able to find Peter. We seethat God was certain that His servant Peter would obey Him,and told Cornelius to send men to call him before He had actu-ally told Peter to go with the men to this Gentile's house. Thisreminds us of what we read about Ananias in chapter 9.7,8 Did Cornelius wonder about the angel's command? He

was familiar with the customs of the Jews who lived inCaesarea and knew that they would not ordinarily go to thehouse of a Gentile. Was there any use in sending his servantsall the way to Joppa to call Peter? Would he come?

We read nothing of such thoughts in these verses. InsteadCornelius immediately called two of his house servants and asoldier who was also a God-fearing man. He told these meneverything that had happened and off they went to Joppa.

But why did Cornelius send a soldier? Perhaps he felt thiswould make the message of his servants more official andwould help to persuade Peter to come! He would also protectPeter on the way.Peter's vision, 10.9-16

Peter was a Jewish believer. He was filled with the HolySpirit but he needed a special message from God before hewould go to the home of a Gentile. In verse 39 of chapter 2Peter himself had said that the promise was not only for theJews but for all who are far away, that is, the Gentiles, but hedid not really understand what he had said. He also had notfully understood the command of the Lord Jesus in Mark 16.15to preach the Gospel to every creature.9 Cornelius' servants and the soldier started their journey to

Joppa the following day. Peter of course knew nothingabout all this and as usual went up on the roof of the houseabout noon to pray.10 He had become very hungry when he saw a vision.11,12 And what a strange vision it was, this thing that looked

like a sheet and had all kinds of clean and unclean ani-mals in it.


13,14 Peter was even more surprised by the words of the voicewhich spoke to him. How could he, a Jew, eat any of

these animals which were ceremonially unclean and forbiddenby the law of Moses? Never, no ma�er how hungry he was!15,16 But the voice spoke again, and again for the third time

telling Peter that he should not consider unclean any-thing that God had made clean, and then that sheet-like thingwas taken back into heaven.

Cornelius' messengers arrive to call Peter, 10.17-2317,18 What was the meaning of the vision Peter had just seen?

He did not have much time to think about it and try andunderstand it because by now the men sent by Cornelius hadarrived and asked for him.

But what did the vision mean? God was teaching Peter avery important lesson. All the different kinds of animals weretogether in this thing that looked like a large sheet. Accordingto Moses' law some of them were clean and others unclean. Yetthose in the sheet had all been made clean by God. Jews con-sidered people of other nations unclean, but Gentiles whobelieve in the Lord Jesus are made clean by His blood just asbelieving Jews are. This then is what God was teaching Peter:that He accepts people from any nation, not only Jews, andthat Peter should not consider believers of other nationsunclean and separate himself from them.

These believers make up the Church. Believing Jewsand Gentiles are all together in the Church of Christ,members together of one body, the body of Christ, andsharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus, Ephesians3.6.

19-21 Peter still had not fully understood the teaching of the animals and the Lord had to speak to him again not to

be afraid to go with Cornelius' servants.22,23 Finally Peter understood and accepted God's will to go

to tell this God-fearing Gentile about Christ. The follow-ing day he and some of the believers from Joppa (six of them,11.12) went with Cornelius' servants as they returned to theirmaster.

Acts 10 65

Peter comes to Cornelius, 10.24-3324 Cornelius was sure that Peter would come and he called

together his relatives and close friends so that they toowould hear God's message.25 This man loved God, but he did not know His Word very

well. He thought Peter must be a very important personand showed him great honour by bowing down before himand falling at his feet.26 But Peter refused to accept Cornelius' worship. He knew it

was a great sin to worship other men or even angels, Rev -elation 19.10; 22.9. God commanded that we should worshipand serve only Him, Ma�hew 4.8-10; Deuteronomy 6.13. Thismeans of course that we also worship the Lord Jesus Christbecause He is God. In John 5.23 we read that we should hon-our God the Son just as we honour God the Father.

Today there are millions of people who bow downbefore idols and images, but this is a great sin. God hassaid plainly that we must not have any other gods besideHim and must not make or worship any images, Exodus20.3-5.

27-29 Then Peter reminded all who had met together that the law does not allow a Jew to visit or associate with Gen -

tiles because these were considered ceremonially unclean.What then was Peter, a Jew, doing in Cornelius' house? He hadcome only because God had told him to do so and had taughthim that he no longer should consider any person ceremonial-ly unclean or defiled. However Peter still did not know whyCornelius had sent for him.30-33 Now Cornelius told Peter what he had learned through

the vision and praised him for having come when Cor -nelius sent for him. He and the other people in his house wereall waiting to hear what God wanted to .tell them.

Peter's message to the Gentiles, 10.34-4334 We wonder what Peter's thoughts were as he saw this eager

group of Gentiles waiting to hear the Word of God. Hecould see plainly that truly God does not show favoritism, buttreats everyone on the same basis.35 The Jews had always believed that only their nation was


accepted by God, but now Peter understood that He acceptspeople from any nation if they fear Him and do what is rightand acceptable to Him.

Later the Holy Spirit led Paul to write in Romans2.10,11 that there is no difference between Jews andGentiles.

36 In verses 36 to 41 Peter reminded his hearers of the message of salvation and peace which had been sent to the Jews.

This message proclaimed that Jesus is indeed Lord of all.37,38 Cornelius and those with him had heard about John's

baptism and about the miracles the Lord Jeus performedto heal sick people.39-41 Peter and others had seen Him do these things with their

own eyes, v. 39. The Jews had crucified the Lord Jesusbut God had raised Him from death and Peter and other cho-sen witnesses had seen Him a�er His resurrection.42,43 The Lord had commanded them to preach the Gospel to

the people and tell them that God had appointed Him tobe the Judge of the living and the dead.

What people? Cornelius might have thought at first thatthis refers to the Jews as the message had been sent to them,see verse 42, but verse 43 shows clearly that there is forgivenessof sins for everyone who believes in Christ.

Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit and are baptized, 10.44-4844 Cornelius and those with him listened carefully to Peter's

words and believed what he was telling them about theLord Jesus Christ. Right then the Holy Spirit came on them,while Peter was still speaking.

Did these Gentiles become Christians when the Holy Spiritcame on them or had they believed in Christ already whenthey received the Holy Spirit? In Ephesians 1.13 we read thatwe believed first and then God at once put His seal of owner-ship on us by giving us the Holy Spirit as He had promised.From this we learn that a person receives the Holy Spirit assoon as he accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her Saviour.First he believes and immediately the Holy Spirit comes to livein him. The fact that the Holy Spirit now lives in the believershows that he belongs to God.

Acts 10 67

Did these Gentiles try hard to receive the Holy Spirit?Did they pray that they might receive Him? No, all theydid was to believe the Gospel message when they heardit. It is the same today. The Holy Spirit lives in every truebeliever, Romans 8,9 (last part of the verse).

45 A few Jewish believers had come with Peter from Joppa. How amazed they were when they saw that God had

poured out His gi� of the Holy Spirit also on the Gentiles!46 How did they know that the Gentiles had received the Holy

Spirit? They knew because they heard them speaking intongues and praising God! This proved to them as well as toPeter that in God's eyes there is no difference between Jewishand Gentile believers.47,48 Yes, Cornelius and those with him had believed in the

Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. There was noreason why they should not be baptized. So Peter orderedthem to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

These verses show that baptism does not save a person.These people were already Christians when Peter told them tobe baptized.

In Ma�hew 28.19 the Lord Jesus commanded His disciplesto go to all peoples everywhere in order to

1) make them His disciples,2) baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the

Holy Spirit, and3) teach them to obey everything He had commanded them.

Later in Romans 6.1-14 the Holy Spirit through Paulteaches us the meaning of baptism. It is a picture of bury-ing, to show that we died with Christ when He died onthe cross for our sins. It shows that from now on we willno longer continue doing the sins we used to do becausewe have died to sin, v.2. Instead we will live a new life toGod's glory, v.4. We are no longer slaves of sin, v.6, but arenew beings in Christ Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5.17.

What happy fellowship Peter must have had withCornelius and the other believers in the next few days. Nodoubt he taught them many more things about the Lord JesusChrist and about how they should live as Christians.


Do you think Peter was sorry that he obeyed God'scommand to go to Cornelius? No doubt his heart wasover-flowing with praise to the Lord for His grace whichused him to bring even Gentiles into the family of God.

Peter explains his visit to Cornelius, 11.1-18Among the believers in the church at Jerusalem were many

Pharisees and priests. They and many of the other believersstill zealously obeyed the Law of Moses, 21.20. They stillthought that Gentiles were unclean and that if a Gentile want-ed to be saved he would first have to be circumcised andbecome a Jew, 15.5.

1-3 The Jewish believers criticize Peter's actions1 The apostles and believers throughout Judea soon heard

what had happened at Caesarea.2,3 But many of the Jewish believers felt Gentile Christians

should also be circumcised—did they rejoice because theGentiles had also received the Word of God through Peter?They did not. All they could think of was that Peter had dis-obeyed the Law by being a guest in the home of an uncircum-cised Gentile and even eating with him. To them obedience tothe Law of Moses seemed to be more important than salvationby grace through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here we see the beginning of a division in the earlyChurch. Two groups were starting to form. One groupwas made up of those Jewish believers who insisted thatGentiles must become Jews before becoming Christians.In the other group were those who understood that theimportant thing was to be born again by believing in theLord Jesus Christ and that circumcision was no longernecessary, see Galatians 5.6; 6.15. We will see later that theapostle Paul endured much persecution as result of thisdivision.

4-18 Peter's answer4 How would you have answered these critical Jews? How

did Peter answer them? Did he become angry because theycriticized him, the apostle? When Peter was a new disciple heo�en said things without really thinking first about what he

Acts 10,11 69

was going to say, as in Mark 9.5,6. He also got angry quickly,see Mark 14.47. But he was different now. As a result of beingwith the Lord Jesus for three years he had become more patientand gracious. Now he quietly explained everything to the Jewsjust as it had happened.5-15 These verses give us Peter's account of what took place in

Caesarea while he was speaking to Cornelius and thosewith him. The words at the beginning at the end of verse 15refer to the day of Pentecost when the first Jewish believersincluding Peter himself received the Holy Spirit, 2.1-4.16 In this verse Peter quoted the words of the Lord Jesus in

Acts 1.5.17 God had given the Holy Spirit to these Gentile believers in

Cornelius’ house just as He had done to the Jewish believ-ers at Pentecost and Peter understood that he would be oppos-ing God if he refused to accept them in the same way as he accepted Jewish believers. God had accepted them—whyshouldn't he?18 Peter's listeners were satisfied with Peter's reasons for

going to Cornelius’ house and they even praised Godbecause He had given also to the Gentiles the opportunity torepent and receive eternal life.

The church in Antioch, 11.19-3019 In chapter 8, verses 1 to 4 we read about the great persecu-

tion which broke out against the Christians a�er Stephen'sdeath. Verse 19 of chapter 11 continues where verse 4 of chap-ter 8 leaves off.

These believers travelled large distances as they fled fromJerusalem. Phoenicia is a strip of land about 200 kilometreslong on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea north ofJerusalem. Tyre and Sidon are cities of Phoenicia. See map onpage 50. Here the believers preached the Gospel, but only tothe Jews. They did not understand yet that it was God's will forit to be preached also to the Gentiles. The Lord blessed theirwitness and churches were formed as we can see from reading21.4-7 and 27.3.

Antioch was still further north. It was about 300 miles fromJerusalem and was the capital city of the Roman province of


Syria. It was a large Gentile city with a population of about500,000 people.20 Cyprus was an island east of Phoenicia and Cyrene was a

city near the north coast of Libya in North Africa. We do notknow how the Gospel reached these places, but it did, and nowJewish believers from Cyprus and Cyrene came to Antioch andstarted preaching the Gospel also to the Greeks.21 Was this according the God's will? Yes indeed. The Lord

was with them in power and a great number of peoplebelieved and turned to the Lord. Thus the Gospel began tospread also among the Gentiles.

22-26 Barnabas is sent to Antioch to help the new believers.22 The news of what was happening in Antioch soon reached

the believers in Jerusalem. Probably they were not quite sosurprised to hear of Gentiles turning to the Lord a�er what hadalready happened in Caesarea when Cornelius and those withhim, all Gentiles, received the Holy Spirit. Still they wanted toknow if the report was true. They chose the right man to makethe long journey to Antioch—Barnabas had lived amongGentiles in Cyprus, 4.36, and so was familiar with their ways.23 Barnabas found that the news was true. He rejoiced when

he saw how God blessed the people, even though thosewho brought the Gospel to them had not been sent by theapostles in Jerusalem. He also urged the new believers to befaithful and true to the Lord with all their hearts.24 Why was Barnabas willing to make that long journey to

Antioch? Remember there were no cars, no trains, noplanes. Why did he rejoice when he saw God blessing theGentiles? Because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spiritand faith. And the Lord used him to bring many more peopleto Himself there in Antioch.

Barnabas played an important part in the early church:When Saul became a follower of Christ, it was Barnabas

who believed his testimony and stood up for him andpersuaded the apostles in Jerusalem that their formerenemy was really a true believer, 9.26,27. Can you imag-ine what a comfort and encouragement this was to Saul?

In chapter 11 Barnabas came to Antioch as represent-

Acts 11 71

ing the apostles and could see that it was truly God whowas working among the people there.

A li�le later the Holy Spirit chose him and Paul to goon the first missionary journey.

Still later problems arose in Antioch concerning theGentile believers and circumcision, 15.1,2,12,25, andBarnabas stood up for the work of God among theGentiles at the conference held in Jerusalem about thema�er.

Perhaps Barnabas was not a great speaker like Peterand Paul, but he was a good man, a man whom Godcould use to bring comfort and encouragement to Hispeople. Are you a “Barnabas”?

25,26 But the many new believers needed to be taught the Word of God and led on in the ways of God. They were

Gentiles and did not have the knowledge of Scripture that theJews had. Barnabas knew whom he wanted to work with himin this important task. Saul knew the Scriptures well, havingbeen brought up in a good Jewish home and taught by thegreat teacher Gamaliel, 22.3, so Barnabas went to find him inTarsus and brought him back to Antioch.

For a whole year the two men met with the believers inAntioch teaching them the Word of God and how they shouldlive for Christ. Their teaching was effective in the lives of thebelievers and all the people around them could see that theywere followers of Christ, so they called them Christians, whichmeans “Christ's men.” The word Christian is found only -threetimes in the New Testament, here in verse 26, in 26.28 and in 1 Peter 4.16. It is a good name for believers in Christ.

We must all witness to unbelievers and lead them toput their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, but our responsi-bility does not end there. The new believers must betaught the Word of God and cared for so that they willgrow into strong Christians. Read the words of the LordJesus in Ma�hew 28.19,20.

27-30 Agabus prophesies a famine27 This is the first time New Testament prophets are men-

tioned. We read about them again in 13.1; 15.32 and 21.9,10.


Who were they? They were men who were led by the HolySpirit to declare the will of God at a time when the whole Biblehad not yet been wri�en. They also sometimes prophesiedwhat would happen in the near future. They were Christ's gi�to the early Church, Ephesians 4.11, and were next to the apos-tles, 1 Corinthians 12.28; Ephesians 2.20; 3.5.

There are no such prophets today because God's writ-ten Word is now complete and contains the whole revela-tion of His will for us. Now we have teachers who explainto us God's truth and will which have already beenrevealed in His wri�en Word.

Some of these prophets came from Jerusalem to Antiochwhile Barnabas and Saul were still there.28 One of them, named Agabus predicted that there would be

a great famine over all the earth. History books tell us thatthere was indeed a great famine in the land of Judea in 46 A.D.29 The believers believed Agabus' prediction and showed their

love to their fellow believers in Judea by sending a gi� ofmoney to help them. They decided that each of them wouldsend as much as he could, depending on how much he himselfhad. They would send it of their own free will and God wouldbe pleased with it, 2 Corinthians 8.12.

Later in Romans 15 Paul told of the believers inMacedonia and Achaia who sent a gi� to help poorbelievers in Jerusalem, v.26. He taught that this was goodbecause the Gentile believers had shared in the Jews' spir-itual blessing (the Gospel) and should therefore sharewith them their own material blessings, v.27. In the fol-lowing verse he called these material gi�s fruit. There areother kinds of fruit also that the believer can bear, seeRomans 1.13; Galatians 5.22,23.

30 The believers really gave as they had planned to do and asked Barnabas and Saul to take their gi�s to Jerusalem.

They were not like the Corinthian Christians later on whomPaul had to urge to do what they had promised to do, see 2 Corinthians 8.10,11.

We have in these verses a beautiful picture of the lovewe should have for fellow believers, even those of anoth-

Acts 11 73

er nation. The believers in Jerusalem had no authorityover those in Antioch but helped them by sendingBarnabas to teach them more about the Lord. Now theAntioch believers (mostly Gentiles) show their love byhelping the believers in Jerusalem in a material way intheir time of need.

James is killed and Peter put in prison, 12.1-41 About the time Barnabas and Saul taught the new believers

in Antioch, King Herod started to cause trouble for thechurch in Jerusalem. This Herod was Herod Agrippa I, thegrandson of Herod the Great who had killed all the baby boysin Bethlehem at the time the Lord Jesus was born, Ma�hew2.16. This is the first time the rulers of Palestine persecuted theChristians. Before this, persecution had always been started bythe Jews themselves.2 We do not know why King Herod killed James, except in

order to gain favour with the Jews. James was one of thethree apostles who had been especially near to the Lord whenHe was here on earth. The other two were Peter and James'brother John. (There was also another apostle called James, seeMa�hew 10.2,3.) James's death was a fulfillment of the Lord'swords to him in Ma�hew 20.23. He was the first of the apostlesto die for the Lord and the only one about whose death weread in the New Testament.3 Verse 17 and 11.30 make us think that Peter was the only

other apostle in Jerusalem at this time. In both verses theelders and believers are mentioned, not the apostles. Herodhad Peter arrested too when he saw that the Jews were pleasedwith what he had done to James. These rulers were always try-ing to please the Jews, even when this meant that they had toact unrighteously, see 24.27; 25.9.

The Festival of Unleavened Bread followed the Passover,see Exodus 12.15. The Israelites were commanded to keep itevery year in order to remember the time when the Lordbrought them out of slavery in Egypt.4 This was the third time Peter was put in prison. See 4.3 and

5.17,18. The people of Jerusalem probably still rememberedhow the angel of the Lord had opened the doors of the prison


for the apostles in chapter 5. Herod wanted to make very surethat Peter would not get away this time, so he arranged for himto be guarded by four groups of four soldiers each. He plannedto put him on public trial a�er the holy days of the Passoverand Unleavened Bread were over.

Peter brought miraculously out of prison, 12.5-115 So Peter remained in prison but the believers prayed

earnestly and without stopping for him.6 And the Lord answered! Probably Peter was fastened with

a chain to the soldiers who were guarding him whichwould make it impossible for him to get away. But Peter wasnot worried or upset. He knew he had not reached the end ofhis life because the Lord had promised he would live until hewas old, John 21.18. In verse 6 we find him sound asleep, notjust because he was tired as in Luke 9.32 and 22.45, but becausehe had peace in his heart as result of his trust in the Lord.7 Once again the angel of the Lord came into the prison. He

woke Peter up and told him to get up. As Peter obeyed thechains fell off his hands.8-10 Then the angel led Peter past the various guards (none of

whom knew what was happening) and through the irongate which opened for them by itself. Together they walkeddown the street of the city and then the angel suddenly le�Peter.

We see here that no earthly power can resist God'swill. God is all-powerful and will do great things for Hispeople in answer to prayer. He also expects us to do forourselves what we can.

11 Until this time Peter thought he was dreaming that these things were happening to him, but now he began to realize

that it was true. The angel had really come into the prison andbrought him out, past all those guards and through the heavyiron gate. And here he was—free again! How his heart musthave overflowed with praise.

Why was James killed but Peter was delivered? Sincethat day why have thousands of Christians died becauseof their testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ? Why doesGod sometimes not save the lives of His servants when

Acts 12 75

they are being persecuted? We do not know all theanswers. But we do know that God loves His childrenand brings into their lives only those things that will be ofgreatest spiritual blessing to them and help them to glori-fy Him best. In Romans 8.28 we read that in all thingsGod works for the good of those who love Him.

People seem to be afraid of dying for the Lord Jesus,but the apostle Paul was looking forward to being withChrist which he said is be�er by far, Philippians 1.23. Thisof course meant that he would have to die first, but he feltthis would be gain, Philippians 1.21. He would be happywith whatever way would best gloryify the Lord, eitherlife or death.

That is really the secret of the whole ma�er. Godknows who will be�er glorify Him by living for the Lordor dying for Him. Our great desire should be to glorifythe Lord Jesus in our bodies and be ready to die for Himif this is His will.

And how should we pray for those being persecutedfor the Lord? We should ask God to deliver them out ofthe persecution if it is His will. And if not, then weshould pray that they might have comfort and strength toglorify the Lord in the persecution.

Peter tells the believers what had happened, 12.12-1912 Where would you have gone first if you had been Peter?

Peter went to Mary's home because he probably thought hewould find many of the Christians there praying for him andthey would want them to see the answer to their prayers!

Mary was the mother of John Mark, about whom we shallread again later. She had a big house which made it possiblefor many to gather there for prayer.13 She also had servants, so we know that this was not a poor

family. She might have been a widow because we readnothing here about her husband.14 Rhoda was so happy and excited when she heard Peter's

voice that she forgot to open the door for him but ran to tellthe people inside.


15 And what did they do? Did they all run to the door to let Peter in? They did not. They said Rhoda was crazy! These

people were still praying in the middle of the night when Peterarrived, but the way they acted now showed that they did notreally expect God to answer their prayers. But He had! Theirfaith was weak but even so God honoured it. How wonderfulthat He remains faithful even when we don't believe Him, 2 Timothy 2.13. But remember, without faith it is impossible toplease God! See Hebrews 11.6.16 How amazed they were when they went finally to open the

door and found Peter himself standing there, alive andwell!

Do we pray like that? Earnestly, yet without faith? Notreally believing that it might please God to answer ourprayers with Yes? There are many promises in Scripturethat God will always answer our prayers according to Hiswill. Sometimes He might say No to what we asked ofHim but even so He answers by doing something muchbe�er than what we asked for. You will find the followingverses on prayer very helpful: Luke 11.9; John 14.14; 15.7;Mark 11.24; 2 Corinthians 12.8,9; James 4.3;_Ephesians3.20,21.

17 Now the people were probably all talking at the same time in their excitement. Peter knew it would not be safe for him

to stay in Jerusalem, but before leaving the city he told themhow wonderfully the Lord had brought him out of prison, andle� special greetings for James. This was not James the apostleand brother of John—we read about his death at the beginningof the chapter. This James was the half-brother of the LordJesus and a leader in the church at Jerusalem. We will readabout him again in chapter 15. About this time he wrote the let-ter in the New Testament called by his name.

Where did Peter go a�er he le� the brothers at Mary'shouse? We do not know. There is no proof that he went toRome. In chapter 15 we find him back in Jerusalem. In Gala -tians 2.7,8 we see that he continued to preach the Gospel to theJews.18,19 So Peter got away, but the prison guards lost their lives

because of his escape. It was a great crime for a guard to

Acts 12 77

allow his prisoner to get away. What happened to the soldierswho were guarding the grave of the Lord Jesus? See Ma�hew28.11-25.

Herod le� the church in Jerusalem alone a�er this unsuc-cessful a�empt to kill Peter and went to stay at Caesarea for awhile. Caesarea was the capital city of the province of Judea.

Herod's death, 12.20-2420 Tyre and Sidon were cities in the land of Phoenicia, a nar-

row strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea just north ofCaesarea. Today this country is called Syria. These cities werenot under Herod's rule but they depended on Galilee for thegrain they needed for their people. This forced them to try andmake peace with Herod who was very angry with them forsome reason. So a group of people from Tyre and Sidon wentto see him.21 Probably Herod was pleased that the people of Tyre and

Sidon had humbled themselves enough to come and makepeace with him, the great King Herod! We do not know whathe told them in his speech-perhaps that he had forgiven them.22 The nations in those days o�en treated their rulers and

other great men like gods, see Acts 14.11-13.23 The words of the people pleased Herod well and he did not

deny them or give honour to the only true God. But Godwill not give His honour to any man, Isaiah 42.8, and an angelof God struck Herod at once while he was still speaking.Historical records of that time say that he died a few days latera�er much suffering.24 Meanwhile the Word of God continued to increase and

spread. Nothing, not even King Herod, could hinder itsprogress.25 In verse 30 of chapter 11 we read about the believers in

Antioch sending Barnabas and Saul with gi�s to help thosein Jerusalem. Now we read that the two men had finished theirmission and returned to Antioch taking John Mark with them.We already saw his name in verse 12. Perhaps Barnabas andSaul were also at Mary's house when Peter was released fromprison.


Now Test Yourself1. Why did Peter need a special message from the Lord to

make him willing to go to Cornelius’ house?2. Peter saw all kinds of animals in the vision. Why did he call

some of them unclean?3. What was the important meaning of Peter's vision?4. Why did Peter not want Cornelius to fall down before him?5. Why did Cornelius have a vision from God?6. Many of the Jewish believers in Jerusalem thought that

Gentile Christians should be circumcised. Were they right?7. There were only believing Jews in the church at Antioch.

True or false?8. What did the believers in Antioch do when they heard that

those in Judea might be in need because of the famine?9. Name two men who were a great help to the church in

Antioch at the beginning.10. God delivered Peter from prison in answer to the prayers of

the believers and He always saves the lives of His servants.True or false?

Check your answers on page 167.

Acts 12 79

Chapters 13 – 28

Chapter 13 begins the second half of the book of Acts andshows the fulfillment of the last part of verse 8 of chapter 1-tothe ends of the earth. In chapters 1 to 12 Jerusalem had beenthe center of the Church and from there the Gospel spreadthroughout Judea and near-by areas and churches wereformed. In the rest of the book of Acts the Gospel reaches manyGentile cities, all the way to Rome. The Gentile city of Antiochbecame the center and the Church was no longer under thereligious laws and ceremonies of the Jews. Even so someJewish believers tried for years to force the Gentile Christiansto be circumcised. We shall read more about, this later.

There is another important difference between the first andsecond halves of Acts. Peter was the person we read aboutmost in the first twelve chapters, but in the rest of the book heappears only once, in chapter 15. The Holy Spirit also led himto write two of the le�ers in the New Testament.

Beginning with chapter 13 we read more about Saul thanabout anyone else. The writer, Luke, tells about his great mis-sionary journeys during which he preached the Gospel andestablished churches in many lands. It's an exciting and chal-lenging account of what God can do through one man who iscompletely obedient to Him.

80

Acts 1-12 Acts 13-28The center of the Church Jerusalem AntiochThe leading person Peter Saul (Paul)Churches established in Judea and In many

round about Gentile lands

- 6 -First Missionary Journey and

The Council at JerusalemChapters 13 - 15

Barnabas and Saul set apart for God's work, 13.1-31 We saw already that there were prophets in the church at

Jerusalem, see 11.27. In the church at Antioch there wereboth prophets and teachers. Turn back to pages 72 and 73 toremind yourself of the difference between prophets and teachers.

The names of these five men are given, among themBarnabas and Saul. Lucius was of Cyrene, a city on the north-ern tip of Libya. Niger means black and probably Simon wasan African. Could he be the Simon of Cyrene who carriedJesus' cross? See Mark 15.21. Manaen had been brought upwith Herod Antipas who was the ruler of Galilee during thelife of Christ, Luke 3.1.2 These five men were worshipping and serving the Lord

with the church when the Holy Spirit called Barnabas andSaul. Did they actually hear the Holy Spirit say these things?Probably He revealed His will through one of the prophetsamong, them. Let us mention three things:

1) Note what these men were doing when the Holy Spiritspoke. We too can expect the Holy Spirit to reveal to usGod's will when we wait on the Lord in prayer.

2) The Lord told them to set apart two of the five leadingmen in the church in Antioch for a special work to whichHe had called them. But were they not needed inAntioch? How would the church be able to carry onwithout them? Yes, they would be missed but the Lordwould exercise other brothers to take their places. Never

81

forget that the Lord has control over the affairs of theChurch and has the right to send His servants whereHe wants.

3) We do not read what work Barnabas and Saul had beencalled to. Saul knew already that he was to preach theGospel to the Gentiles in far-away lands—the Lord Jesushad told him this when He revealed Himself to Saul onthe road to Damas cus, see 26.12-18. No doubt Saul hadtold the other brothers about this and so they understoodto what work the Holy Spirit was calling Barnabas andSaul.

3 The brothers obeyed the command of the Holy Spirit right away. What was the meaning of their placing their hands

on Barnabas and Saul? It showed that they had understoodthat the Holy Spirit had called Barnabas and Saul to a specialwork and that they were in fellowship with them in this. Thenthey sent them away, that is, they let them go. Really Barnabasand Saul were being sent by the Holy Spirit, not the church, seeverse 4.

FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY


Map

FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY, 13.4–14.28

Cyprus, 13.4-124,5 So Barnabas and Saul started on their journey to take the

Gospel to other places and countries. They were accompa-nied by John Mark who was Barnabas’ cousin, 12.12. See alsoColossians 4.10. John had not been called by the Holy Spirittogether with the two other men, but went with them to helpin any way he could.

Seleucia was the sea port for the city of Antioch. Here thethree men entered a ship which took them to the island ofCyprus. They arrived in Salamis, a seaport of Cyprus, andstarted to preach the Gospel. Notice where and to whom theypreached: in the Jewish synagogues, not to the Gentiles, but seeverse 7.6 From Salamis they travelled to the other end of the island

to Paphos, the capital city. Probably they preached the goodnews of Jesus Christ all along the way. In Paphos they were metby a Jewish magician or witch doctor who was also a falseprophet. He called himself Bar-Jesus which means son ofJesus, or Joshua.7 This man was with Sergius Paulus, the Roman governor of

the island. The governor had a desire to hear the Word ofGod and called Barnabas and Saul,8 but Elymas (the magician's Greek name) tried to turn him

away from the truth.9,10 That was too much for Saul. He looked straight at Elymas

and, filled with the Holy Spirit, he called him a child of thedevil (not Bar-Jesus, a son of Jesus!), and an enemy of all that isgood, who tried to turn the Lord's truth into lies.11 Elymas was punished immediately by becoming blind for a

while so that he would stop opposing the preaching of theGood News. It is a terrible thing for someone to resist the lightof the Gospel. A�er a while this person is no longer able toknow what is truth and easily believes Satan's lies.

Elymas was a Jew who had rejected the Gospel himselfand tried to keep it from his Gentile friend. He is a picture

Acts 13 83

of the Jews who as a nation have refused the Good Newsand try to keep it from others. Elymas was punished withblindness for a while, and today the Jewish people as awhole are also spiritually blind-not forever but until thefull number of Gentiles has believed, Romans 11.25.

12 Then the governor believed in the Lord. He was amazed at the teaching about the Lord, not at what had happened to

Elymas.

Antioch in Pisidia, 13.13-52In verse 9 we saw for the first time Saul's Greek name Paul.

Beginning with verse 13 he is always called Paul.From now on we find Paul taking the leading place among

the li�le group and Barnabas takes the second place. Thisshows what a gracious, humble man Barnabas was.13 Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos to Perga. Perga

is on the southern coast of what was called Asia in thosedays. Now this land is called Turkey. The area around Pergawas called Pamphylia. Here John Mark le� Paul and Barnabas.Why? Did he find travelling with Paul and Barnabas too hard?Did he get homesick? Perhaps he did not want to be associat-ed with Gentiles? We do not know, but Paul felt very badlyabout John Mark leaving them, 15.38. It is good to know thatlater Paul accepted his service again, 2 Timothy 4.11. JohnMark had the honour of writing the Gospel of Mark, theGospel which tells about the perfect Servant of God.14 So John Mark went home, but Paul and Barnabas continued

their journey and went to Antioch in Pisidia. This is anoth-er Antioch, not the Antioch in Syria where they had startedtheir journey. Antioch was the most important city of Galatiaand probably the Gospel had never before been preached here.From Paul's le�er to the Galatians we know that God used himto start several churches here, Galatians 1.2.

Again Paul and Barnabas looked for the Jewish synagogueand went to worship there on the sabbath day. The officials ofthe synagogue gave them opportunity to speak a�er they hadfinished the reading from the law of Moses.

Paul's message in the synagogue in Antioch can be divided into three parts.


1. In verses 16 to 25 he reminded his listeners of Jewishhistory beginning with the years their ancestors spentin Egypt up to the time of John the Baptist.

2. In verses 26 to 39 he preached to them about Christand the forgiveness of sins.

3. Verses 40 and 41 contain a strong warning. No doubthis messages in other places were much the same.

16-25 Paul reminds his listeners of the history of their people16 There were two groups of people in the synagogue that day,

Jews and Gentiles who worshipped the only true God, butprobably without obeying the whole Jewish law, v.26. We haveread about Gentiles like that before, see 10.2.17-20 God destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan in

order to give this land to His people. These nations arenamed in Deuteronomy 7.1.20-22 These verses tell about the time of the Judges whom God

gave to lead the people, up to the time of King Saul. Godremoved Saul because of his disobedience and made Davidking in his place. He could say about David that he was a manwho will do all I want him to do. Oh, that God might be ableto say the same about you and me!23 This David was the ancestor of Jesus, the Saviour whom

God brought to Israel as He had promised through the OldTestament prophets.24 John the Baptist had preached to the people of Israel before

Jesus came. He had told them to repent of their sins and bebaptized.25 But John told the people plainly that he himself was not the

Saviour whom God had promised to send.

26-39 Paul preaches about Christ and the forgiveness of sins26 Now Paul starts to tell the people about the wonderful mes-

sage of salvation which had been sent to them.27,28 The Jews living in Jerusalem and their leaders did not

understand that Jesus was the Saviour prophesied bythe Old Testament prophets. So they condemned Him to deatheven though they could not find any reason for passing the

Acts 13 85

death sentence on Him. By doing this they made the prophets'words come true.29 They did everything to Jesus that had been wri�en about

Him in the Old Testament and then He was buried in atomb.30,31 But God raised Him from death. The tomb was empty

that first Lord's day when the women and the disciplescame. The angels could say, He is not here, He has risen! Luke24.6, and now He is alive for ever and ever, Revelation 1.18. Dothese verses fill your heart with joy? Your Saviour is alive!

Yes, God had raised Jesus from death. Those who had trav-elled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem were witnesses ofthis fact for they saw Him for many days a�er His resurrection.32,33 God has fulfilled the promise He made to their ancestors

by raising up the Lord Jesus, v. 23. Verse 33 is fromPsalm 2.7. This verse does not mean that the Lord Jesus becamethe Son of God when He was here on earth. He has alwaysbeen the Son of God from the eternity in the past. In Psalm 2.7God announced to all that Christ is indeed His Son. He did thesame in Ma�hew 3.17.34 This verse is from Isaiah 55.3. David was already dead

when Isaiah wrote these words. Isaiah therefore prophe-sied that David's Descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, would risefrom death.35 The quotation here is from Psalm 16.10 and speaks of

Christ. This verse could not refer to David as David haddied and his body had ro�ed in the grave. Peter used this sameverse in 2.25-31.36 David had done the will of God and served God's purpos-

es in his own time, but then he died.This should also be our aim: not to become rich or

famous but to serve God's purpose in our own times. Is ityours?

37 David's body ro�ed in the grave, but this did not happen to the One whom God raised from death. Many people saw

the Lord Jesus a�er He rose from death, 1 Corinthians 15.5,6,and He spoke and ate with His disciples, John 21.38,39 Now Paul tells his listeners about two great blessings


that can be theirs and ours as a result of the death and resur-rection of Christ:

1) Through the Lord Jesus we can receive forgiveness forall our sins. Those things you wish you had never done,those things that you are sorry about-they can all be for-given and forgo�en! See Hebrews 8.12.

2) Not only can you be forgiven—you can also be justifiedfrom all things. This is even more wonderful. “When wereceive forgiveness, the debt which we had because ofour sins is taken away. When we are justified, we have anew standing before God. In the Old Testament a personmight be forgiven many times, but in the NewTestament a person is justified only once. He will neverneed to be justified again

“When a person is justified, he is declared to be just. God says he is justified because he is now in Christ . . . .The man who is in Christ is no longer guilty of sin anddoes not have to pay for his sins, 2 Corinthians 5.21. Thisis not because he is without sin but because the LordJesus has paid the penalty for his sins. So God cannotcondemn him any more. Who shall lay any chargeagainst God's elect? It is God that justifies, Romans8.33.”* No wonder those who have been justified havepeace in their hearts, Romans 5.1!

Do you have this peace? If not, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today.

40,41 A strong warning40 Paul finished his message with a strong warning. His listen-

ers had now heard the Good News of salvation. Now theyhad to decide what they would do about it.41 Would they make fun of it and die? This is what the Old

Testament prophets had said would happen. Verse 41 istaken from Habakkuk 1.5 where the prophet was speaking ofGod's judgment on those who did not believe. Paul's listenerswould also be judged if they refused to believe the Gospel mes-sage.__________________* Harlow, Can-We Know God? page 69.

Acts 13 87

42-52 Opposition from the Jews42 Paul's message really spoke to the hearts of the people and

they invited him to speak to them again on the followingsabbath day.43 Many Jews, and the Gentiles who had been converted to

Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas a�er they le� the syn-agogue. The apostle encouraged them to keep on living in thegrace of God. This makes us think that these people hadaccepted God's offer of salvation in Christ.44 On the following sabbath nearly everyone in town came to

hear the Word of the Lord.45 This made the unbelieving Jews very jealous because they

had never been able to get so many people to listen to them.They started to talk against what Paul was saying and to insulthim.46,47 Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly. It had been

God' will for them to preach the Gospel first to the Jews,but now they would go and preach it to the Gentiles becausethe Jews had rejected it. This is what God had commandedthem through verse 6 of Isaiah 49.48 The Gentiles were very happy to hear this. But what does it

mean to be chosen for eternal life? Does it mean that onlythose chosen by God can be saved? No. We have already seenthat the Gospel is for all people and that everyone who believesit is forgiven and justified before God, vs. 38,39, and receiveseternal life, John 3.16. We have been commanded to preach theGospel to all men and each person must choose salvation forhimself. But God knew long ago those who would believe. Heknew all about you and me even when we did not love Him,and planned great blessings for us in Christ, Ephesians 1.3-5.

With our human minds we will never be able to reallyunderstand why we must choose to believe in the Lord JesusChrist if God has already chosen those who do believe, but thisis what the Bible teaches. We believe it even if we do not fullyunderstand and thank God for these wonderful truths.49,50 These new believers must have been good witnesses, but

the Jews continued to cause trouble. They stirred up theleading people in the city against Paul and Barnabas, persecut-ed them and made them leave the area. No details are given


here as to just what took place, but Paul never forgot what hesuffered at Antioch, 2 Timothy 3.11.51 So the apostles le� Antioch, shaking the dust off their feet

in protest against the Jews as they went. This is what theLord Jesus had told His disciples to do to those who wouldnot receive them or listen to their message. See Mark 6.11. Itshowed that the apostles had no more fellowship with theJews at Antioch and had no further responsibility towardthem.52 But the stop in Antioch had not been in vain. The apostles

le� behind them a group of believers who were full of joy andthe Holy Spirit. This made their sufferings well worth while.

Iconium, 14.1-71,2 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went again first to the syn-

agogue. Again both Jews and Gentiles heard them speakand a great number became believers.

But the same things happened as in Antioch. The Jews whorefused to believe stirred up the Gentiles in the town andturned them against the believers.3 Even so the opposition must have increased slowly because

Paul and Barnabas were able to stay there for some timespeaking boldly about the Lord. Here the Lord gave thempower to do miracles and wonders to prove that their messagewas really of God.4 As the days went by the people of the city were divided.

Some were for the Jews and others for the apostles.5-7 The apostles found out about the decision of the Gentiles

and Jews to mistreat and stone them, so they fled to Lystraand Derbe. Lystra was about 32 kilometres from Iconium. Nodoubt they did not leave because they were afraid but becausethe Lord led them to do so. Later in this chapter we find themgoing back to Iconium, which they certainly would not havedone if they had been afraid.

Lystra and Derbe, 14.8-20The apostles came first to Lystra. Perhaps you would think

they would stop preaching for a while a�er their experiencesat Antioch and Iconium, but that is not what we read in verse

Acts 13, 14 89

7. They went right on preaching the Good News! No mentionof a synagogue is made in Lystra—perhaps there were only afew Jews in this city.8-10 This crippled man had been lame from the day he was

born. He was like the man about whom we read in chap-ter 3 of this book. Both these men had faith and became able towalk. The first miracle took place in Jerusalem among the Jewsthrough Peter, the second here in Lystra among the Gentiles,through Paul.11 We are not surprised that the crowds were amazed when

they saw what God had done through Paul. Many of thepeople in these lands around the Mediterranean Sea spoke twolanguages, Greek and their own native language. The apostlescould not understand what they were shouting and so did notrealize right away what they were planning to do.12 The heathen people in Lystra thought their gods had come

down to them in the form of men! Zeus was the fatheramong the Greek gods while Hermes spoke for them.13 The temple of the god Zeus was just outside the town and

the priest brought bulls so that he and the people couldoffer sacrifices to the apostles!14,15 Paul and Barnabas were very unhappy when they

understood what was happening. They did not want thepeople to worship them! They had come to turn the people ofLystra away from their worthless idols and to teach them toworship the one true living God, the Creator of all.16-18 Notice how different the apostle's message to these hea-

then people is from the message he gave in Antioch.There Paul reminded his Jewish listeners of Old Testament his-tory. The Gentiles in Lystra knew nothing about Jewish historyand so Paul told them about God in a way that even heathenpeople could understand, by referring to nature, heaven, rain,crops and food.19 But the Jews from Antioch and Iconium followed the apos-

tles in order to turn the crowds against them. How quicklyand easily people can be influenced, especially to do what iswrong. In verse 18 they still wanted to offer a sacrifice to theapostles. Now they had changed completely and were ready tokill Paul with stones! We wonder what Paul's thoughts were


when the stones came crashing against his body. Did heremember Stephen, perhaps pray the same prayer? See 7.54-60.

Some teachers think that at this time Paul had the visionwhich he told about in 2 Corinthians 12.1-5. In his le�er to theGalatians he said that he bore in his body the marks of the LordJesus, Galatians 6.17. Could these marks have been caused bythe cruel stones of Lystra? Paul mentioned this stoning in 2 Corinthians 11.24,25.20 The people thought they had killed Paul and dragged his

body outside the city. But God still had work to do for Hisservant and enabled Paul to get up and go back into the city.He even had enough strength to go on to Derbe the next day.21 The people of Derbe also heard the Gospel through Paul

and Barnabas and many of them became disciples.Apparently there was no opposition here.

Return journey to Antioch and Syria, 14.21-28And then what? Did the apostles choose the shortest way to

get back home? No, they went right back to Lystra, Iconiumand Antioch, the three places where the Jews had so stronglyopposed and persecuted them.22 Why did they go back? To strengthen the new believers and

encourage them to remain true to the faith. No doubt thebelievers needed this encouragement. They had seen how theapostles had been persecuted because of preaching the Gospeland perhaps they were afraid and were tempted to hide thefact that they had become Christians. Paul and Barnabaswarned them that we must through many hardships enter thekingdom of God.

The kingdom of God refers to a time in the future when theLord Jesus returns to rule over this earth. At the present timebelievers should expect and be ready to suffer for Christ asthey look forward to the glory of the kingdom of God. Weshould not be surprised by persecution or try to avoid it, infact everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesuswill be persecuted, 2 Timothy 3.12.

The apostles went back to encourage and strengthenthe new believers and no doubt to teach them more abouttheir Saviour. This is very important. Have you brought

Acts 14 91

someone to the Lord? Remember that your responsibilitydoes not stop there. The Lord did not only tell us topreach the Gospel—He also commanded us to teach thenew believers all things that He has taught us in HisWord, Ma�hew 28.19,20. He wants us to feed the younglambs with spiritual food, John 21.15.

23 In each place Paul and Barnabas chose or appointed elders. They did not do this when they first preached in these

places as time was needed to show who has the gi� and qual-ifications for this work.

Later on Paul wrote down what elders should be like, see 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The Holy Spirit calls and fits elders fortheir work of caring for the people of God, Acts 20.28. Todaybelievers with the help of the Scriptures should recognize whoamong them are elders and should obey them, 1 Thessalonians5.12,13.

No doubt Paul and Barnabas would have liked to staylonger in each place to teach and care for the believers, butinstead they commended them to the Lord in prayer and con-tinued their journey.24,25 They travelled back through Pisidia and this time

preached in Perga. This is where John Mark had le�them near the beginning of the journey and we do not read thatthe apostles preached the Gospel there at that time, see13.13,14.26-28 Back in Antioch Paul and Barnabas told the believers all

that God had enabled them to do and how even theGentiles believed in the Lord. No doubt the other prophets andteachers in Antioch rejoiced when they heard their report, andwere glad the assembly had obeyed when the Holy Spirit hadtold them to set apart Paul and Barnabas to do the work towhich He had called them, even though they probably won-dered how they would be able to carry on without them.

The church at Antioch was completely independent of thatin Jerusalem and so we do not read that Paul and Barnabas sentany report of their preaching tour to the church in Jerusalem.

So the first missionary journey came to an end. During thisjourney several churches had been formed in the land ofGalatia, at Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and perhaps Derbe. Right


from the beginning the Jews made trouble for the new believ-ers and before long Jewish teachers from Jerusalem tried toforce them to be circumcised and keep the Jewish holy days.Paul heard that the Christians were tempted to accept this falseteaching. This made him very sad and he warned them stronglyin his le�er to the Galatians never to accept any teaching thatdenied that they were saved by faith alone. The believers accept-ed this warning and later Paul visited them again, 16.6; 18.23.

The Council at Jerusalem, chapter 15By now many Gentiles had been saved. Peter had preached

to them, chapter 10, and a number of churches had beenformed in Galatia in Asia through the preaching of Paul andBarnabas. The Gentile church in Antioch in Syria was wellestablished and had been able to send out missionaries(Barnabas and Paul) to take the Gospel to other places, 13.1.

These things were a problem to the church in Jerusalem. Itseems that some of the believers there thought Christianitywas just a movement within Judaism. Apparently the JewishChristians continued to keep the commandments of the Law ofMoses and other Jewish customs. Some believers among thePharisees felt very strongly that Gentiles must also be circum-cised and keep the Law in order to become Christians.

But Paul was teaching that we are saved by believing inChrist alone, not by believing in Christ and obeying the Law.We are saved by grace through faith, and salvation is God's gi�to us, not something we can earn by obeying the Law or doinggood works. Read Ephesians 2.8,9. Even so Paul did not objectto Jewish Christians keeping the Law if they wished to do so,but felt strongly that the Law should not be forced on Gentilebelievers as it would mean that they were no longer saved bygrace alone.

Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem, 15.1-51 Some of the Jewish teachers came to Antioch to teach the

believers there that they must be circumcised in order to besaved. Who sent these men? We do not know. Verse 24 showsthat they were not sent by the leaders of the church inJerusalem.

Acts 14, 15 93

2 Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch when these men cameand got into a fierce argument with them about this ma�erwithout coming to any agreement. Finally it was decided thatPaul and Barnabas together with a few other brothers wouldgo to Jerusalem to talk to the apostles and elders about thisteaching.

Why did Paul and Barnabas feel so strongly about circum-cision? In the Old Testament God had commanded the Jewishpeople to be circumcised to show that they were His specialpeople and wanted His blessing. Now Christ had come anddied for sin and circumcision is no longer necessary to showthat a man believes in God. Now the only thing a person needsin order to receive salvation is faith in the Lord Jesus Christand in the work which He has accomplished for us. He doesnot need to do any good works in order to be saved, or be bap-tized or join a church. All he needs is Christ. Later on he shouldconfess that he has become a true believer by being baptizedand he should join with a group of other Christians to worshipthe Lord.

What are you depending on for your salvation, theblood of Christ alone, or the blood of Christ together withyour own good works?

3 We know li�le about the churches in Phoenicia except that the Gospel was preached there by those who had to flee

from Jerusalem a�er Stephen had been killed, see 11.19. Philipwas the one who had brought the Gospel to Samaria, 8.5. Thebelievers in these places were glad when they heard howGentiles had come to the Lord in Asia.

4 The li�le group from Antioch was well received by the church in Jerusalem, the apostles and elders. Did Paul and

Barnabas tell them all that they had done? No, they told all thatGod had done through them!5 We do not read that the church in Jerusalem rejoiced to hear

the news as the believers in Phoenicia and Samaria haddone. Instead some of the believers who belonged to the partyof the Pharisees brought up right away the problem of circum-cision. Perhaps they were the same people as those in verse 1,or those who had sent them.


The meeting of the apostles and elders, 15.6-216-12 Peter's testimony6,7 The apostles and elders had discussed the ma�er for a long

time when finally Peter got up to speak. This is the lasttime we read about Peter in Acts. He now reminded those pres-ent how God had chosen him years ago to preach the Gospelto the Gentiles. We read about this in chapter 10.8,9 God had accepted the Gentiles who believed. He had for-

given their sins, had cleansed their hearts and giventhem the Holy Spirit because they believed in Him. In factHe had treated them just the same as He had treated theJewish believers.10 Why then did the Jewish believers want to test God by com-

manding these Gentiles to obey the Law of Moses in orderto be saved? The Jews themselves had never been able to fullyobey the Law and could only be saved through faith in theLord Jesus Christ!11 This was not God's will. Peter firmly believed that both

Jews and Gentiles are saved in the same way, through thegrace of the Lord Jesus, not through grace together with theirown efforts in trying to obey the Law.12 Barnabas’ and Paul's report. The people were silent which

seemed to show that they agreed with what Peter had said.They listened quietly to Barnabas and Paul as they told of thegreat things God had done among the Gentiles.13-21 James' decision13 Then James spoke up. He was a half-brother of the Lord

Jesus and took a leading part in the church in Jerusalem.14,15 Peter had just told the group how God had taken from

among the Gentiles a people to belong to Him. This hadbeen foretold by the prophets and the apostles had alreadyaccepted the fact, see 11.18.16-18 And what will happen a�er God has taken from among

the Gentiles a people to belong to Him? The Lord willreturn and will restore David's kingdom and all Israel will besaved, Romans 11.25. At that time there will be Gentile believ-ers as well as Jewish believers, Amos 9.11,12; Luke 1.32,33;Zechariah 8.21,22; Isaiah 11.10. Why then should the Gentile

Acts 15 95

believers at the present time have to become Jews through cir-cumcision?19-21 James therefore felt that the Gentile believers should not

be burdened with circumcision and obeying the Law ofMoses, but that a le�er should be wri�en to ask them not to dothree things:

1) They should not eat food that had been offered to idols.2) They should keep themselves from sexual immorality,

and3) They should not eat blood or any animal from which the

blood had not been properly removed. It was a custom ofheathen people to eat blood but the Old Testament teach-es that the life of every creature is in its blood, Genesis9.4. God gave this commandment even before He gaveMoses the Law and therefore it applies also to Gentiles.

The Gentiles were not to be asked to obey these rules in orderto receive salvation, but as an expression of Christian love andfellowship with the Jewish believers. The Gentile Christianswere not under law but under grace, Romans 6.14, and theyshould show grace by not doing things that would be offensiveto Jewish believers, Romans 14.12-17; 1 Corinthians 8.1-13.

Le�er to the Gentile believers, 15.22-2922 The apostles and elders and all the believers were happy

with this decision. They chose two men from among them-selves to go with Paul and Barnabas to take a le�er to Antioch.Perhaps Judas was a brother of Joseph who was also calledBarsabbas, see 1.23. Silas must have been a Grecian Jew. Hehad Roman citizenship, 16.37, and was sometimes calledSilvanus. Later he joined Paul on his second missionary jour-ney. These two men were highly respected by the believers.23 The le�er was addressed to the Gentile brothers in Antioch,

Syria and Cilicia, the country where Paul was brought up.24 First the brothers were told that the apostles and elders in

Jerusalem had not sent the men who were teaching them tobe circumcised in order to be saved.25,26 The leaders in Jerusalem called Barnabas and Paul

beloved friends, men who had risked their lives in theservice of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is be�er still than just


being highly respected by the believers, see verse 22. Wouldyou be willing to risk your life for the Lord?27 Judas and Silas would go with Barnabas and Paul to tell the

believers the same thing that had been wri�en in the le�er.This would make it impossible for anyone to say that Paul andBarnabas had wri�en the le�er themselves while claiming thatit had been wri�en by the leaders in Jerusalem.28,29 The Holy Spirit had helped the church in Jerusalem to

understand that Gentile believers do not need to be cir-cumcised and He was leading them to give the GentileChristians these rules. They are the same things James hadsuggested in verse 20.

The le�er brought to Antioch, 15.30-3530,31 There was great rejoicing among the believers in

Antioch when they heard what was wri�en in the le�er.However, this was not the end of the teaching that people mustkeep the Law in order to be saved. The Jews continued to forcethis doctrine on the people as we see in Paul's le�ers to theGalatians, 1 Corinthians, Philippians and Colossians, and theycaused Paul endless trouble wherever he went.32-34 Judas and Silas spent some time with the church in

Antioch, then Judas returned to Jerusalem.35 Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch for a while longer and

together with many others they taught and preached theWord of God.

Now Test Yourself1. Who sent Barnabas and Saul to their special work?2. Paphos was a city in Pisidia. True or false?3. What was the name of the first man who tried to oppose the

Gospel on this trip?4. Where did Paul and Barnabas go first each time they came

to another city? Why?5. Who stirred up the Gentiles against the apostles in Ico -

nium?6. In which city did the Jews make plans to stone Paul and

Barnabas?

Acts 15 97

7. In Acts we read about two crippled men who through amiracle were able to walk again. Where did they live andthrough whom did the miracle take place?

8. What did Paul and Barnabas do when they returned toAntioch in Syria?

9. Why did Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem?10. Who brought the le�er from the Jewish believers in

Jerusalem to Antioch and how was the le�er received?Check your answers on page 167


- 7 -Beginning of Paul's Second

Missionary journeyChapters 15.36 – 16.40

Paul and Barnabas separate, 15.36-4136 Paul was a real shepherd of the people of God and soon he

wanted to go back to Asia to visit the new believers thereand see how they were ge�ing on.37,38 Barnabas, the gracious one, wanted to take John Mark

with them again. We saw that John had returned hometo Jerusalem near the beginning of the first journey, see 13.13.Perhaps now he was sorry for not having been willing toendure the hardships of the journey together with the apostlesand Barnabas wanted to give him another chance, but Paul didnot think this would be right.39 We do not read that they asked the Lord to show them His

will in the ma�er. Instead they had a sharp argument andneither Paul nor Barnabas was willing to give in to the other.Then they separated and Barnabas and John Mark sailed forthe island of Cyprus (Barnabas' home country, 4.36) to visitagain the churches that had been started during the first jour-ney. We do not know if they stayed there or if they went on totake the Gospel to other places.

It is sad to see such strong disagreement between twoservants of the Lord who had worked together for Himfor so long. They had experienced many hardshipstogether and had also shared the joy of seeing the Lordblessing their service and bringing many Gentiles toHimself. Yet a�er all this they separated, not happily, butas the result of an argument. We all still have the oldnature which shows itself through pride and through

99

insisting on our own way. How much we should be inprayer about our relationships with other people, espe-cially those with whom we work. See Philippians 2.3,4.

However, their disagreement was not permanent andlater Paul mentioned with favor both Barnabas and JohnMark in his le�ers, see 1 Corinthians 9.6; Colossians 4.10;2 Timothy 4.11.

40 And who would now be Paul's companion on his journeys? Paul asked Silas to go with him. We have read about Silas

before in this chapter, see verses 22,27 and 32. The believers inAntioch seemed to have been happy about this and commend-ed Paul to the Lord's grace once again.41 The two men started their journey in a different direction

from Barnabas and Mark. They went north through Syriaand then turned west into Cilicia, strengthening the believersas they went. We do not know who started the churches inCilicia, but saw in verse 23 that there were already churches inthat country.

Timothy joins Paul and Silas, 16.1-51 Derbe was the last place where Paul and Barnabas

preached the Gospel on the first journey before starting thetrip back to Antioch. The town next to it was Lystra where Paulhad been stoned so much that the people thought they hadkilled him which was of course what they had intended to do.But God had performed a miracle to enable Paul to get up andcontinue his work, see 14.19,20.

There was a young man in Lystra at this time by the nameof Timothy. He was half Jew and half Gentile. His grandmoth-er and his Jewish mother had taught him the Word of Godsince he was a small boy, 2 Timothy 1.5; 3.15. They andTimothy himself had believed the Gospel and becomeChristians probably when Paul was in Lystra the first time.2,3 Timothy had a good testimony among the Christians of

Lystra and Iconium, another town a li�le further north-west. Why did Paul want Timothy to join him and Silas ontheir journey? Probably he wanted Timothy to help them asJohn Mark had done during the first part of their first journey.Perhaps he saw in Timothy a promising young man to whom


he could teach all he himself knew about God, His Word andHis ways. It is good for older men to disciple younger men inthis way and later Paul told Timothy to do the same thing, see2 Timothy 2.1,2.

But would Timothy be willing to go with them? No doubthe had seen or at least heard about what happened to Paul dur-ing his first visit to Lystra. He must have realized that the samething might happen to him if he joined these men in their jour-ney to reach with the Gospel those who had never heard itbefore. It was a big, important decision for Timothy to make.Yes, Timothy was ready to leave home and to labour and sufferwith Paul and Silas for the sake of the Gospel and the Lord heloved.

But why did Paul want Timothy to be circumcised when ithad just been decided in Jerusalem that it was not necessary forChristians to be circumcised? Timothy was only partly Jewishand Paul felt he would be be�er accepted by the Jews to whomthey would be preaching if he were circumcised. In this way hewould not be a stumbling block to them. Later Paul wrote tothe Corinthians, To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win theJews, 1 Corinthians 9.20.4,5 So Paul and Silas continued their journey and Timothy

went with them. They reported to the churches in the dif-ferent cities what had been decided by the church in Jerusalem,see 15.28,29, and the believers were greatly encouraged andstrengthened in the faith and more and more people believedin Christ as their Saviour.

Acts 16 101

MAP

Paul's vision, 16.6-106 Paul and his companions continued their journey in a

north-west direction. This took them through what wasthen called the province of Asia, but the Holy Spirit did notwant them to preach the Gospel there at that time. Later Paulspent over two years in Ephesus, a city of Asia and the wholeprovince heard the Word of God, see 19.1-10.7 Then the li�le group wanted to enter the province of Bithy -

nia, to the north but here too the door was closed to them.Did therefore the people in Bithynia never hear the Gospel?They must have heard it at some time, perhaps through Peter.Peter wrote his first le�er to the strangers sca�ered throughoutseveral countries including Bithynia, 1 Peter 1.1.8 Paul and Silas obeyed the leading of the Holy Spirit and did

not try to go to Bithynia anyway. Instead they went on tothe seaport of Troas. They had no thought of returning toAntioch discouraged.9 Something very important happened while they were in

Troas. No doubt Paul had prayed that God might guidethem very definitely as to what they should do, seeing bothAsia and Bithynia were closed to them. The Lord answeredthat prayer through the vision of the man of Macedonia callingfor help.

God does not usually guide His people through visions.In fact He uses this method very seldom, but He shows usin other ways what He wants us to do. He guides usthrough His Word, the Holy Scriptures, through things Heallows to happen, through other people, and by giving usassurance in our hearts that a certain thing is indeed whatHe wants us to do. Read Psalm 32.8.

10 Paul understood through the vision that it was God who was calling them to preach the Gospel in Macedonia. So

what did he do? Did he say, “But Lord, the people inMacedonia must be very different from us—I am afraid to gothere”? Or did he say, “Alright, Lord, I'll go a li�le later but firstI want to preach the Gospel to the people of Troas”? He didnot. He and those with him obeyed the Lord's call and gotready right away to leave for Macedonia. And so the Gospelentered Europe!


Up to verse 10 the writer had been telling about “them”,that is, Paul, Silas and Timothy, but now in verse 10 we readthat “we” got ready at once. From this we understand that nowLuke, the writer of this book, had joined Paul and the others.He travelled with them until they came to Philippi and stayedthere for a while even a�er the others had le�.

Philippi, 16.11-3411-15 Lydia11,12 The Macedonian city of Neapolis was the seaport for

Philippi. Philippi was a Roman colony and most of thepeople who lived there were Romans. It was an important city,the first city in Europe where the Gospel was preached by theapostles.13 There seems to have been no synagogue in Philippi. This

shows that probably only a few Jews lived there as only tenmen were needed in order to have a synagogue. But Paul andSilas found out where these few Jews met together for prayerand this is where they went on the Sabbath. They found a fewwomen by the side of the river and started to talk to themabout the Lord.14 Among them was one woman whose heart was already

prepared by the Lord. She was a li�le like the woman ofSamaria in John 4, and the Ethiopian in Acts 8, also likeCornelius in Acts 10. Lydia was a woman from Thyatira, a cityin the province of Asia where the Holy Spirit had not allowedPaul to preach at this time. She was a worshipper of the onlytrue God in the midst of pagan Philippi and the Lord openedher heart to receive Paul's message.

We are commanded to preach the Gospel to all people,but we cannot make them believe. Unless the Lord openstheir hearts our preaching is in vain.

15 Not only Lydia believed in the Lord but also the people liv-ing in her house and they were all baptized. We do not read

that there were any small children there. These would not havebeen among those baptized as in the New Testament peopleare baptized a�er they have believed in Christ, not as childrenwho are still too small to understand the Gospel and believe inthe Lord.

Acts 16 103

People do not receive eternal life by being baptized,but we should be baptized a�er we have becomeChristians as a testimony to the people of the world thatwe belong to Christ and will live for Him.

Lydia now invited Paul and those with him to stay in herhome while they were in Philippi. She had never heard thecommand to entertain strangers in Hebrews 13.2, but sheobeyed it anyway. She must have had a large house, largeenough for the believers to meet in, v.40.

16-18 The girl possessed by an evil spirit16 The evil spirit in this girl enabled her to predict the future.

She was a slave girl and earned a lot of money for her own-ers by telling people's fortunes.17,18 For many days she followed Paul and those with him

shouting that they were God's servants who had come totell the people how to be saved. This was true but Paul realizedthat an evil spirit was making her say these things, not theHoly Spirit of God. In the same way an evil spirit had recog-nized Jesus as the Holy One of God when He was on earth, seeMark 1.23,24. Even today unbelieving people can appear to behelping the work of God when they are actually hindering it.

But Paul did not want any help from Satan. Finally hebecame so upset by this slave girl shouting a�er them that hecommanded the spirit in the name of Jesus to come out of thegirl. And it did.

19-24 Paul and Silas accused and put in prison19 Of course the owners of the slave girl were very angry

because now she was no longer able to earn money for themby fortune telling. They seized Paul and Silas, not because theywere preaching the Gospel but because they had harmed theirbusiness of making money through fortune telling.20,21 Of course this was not the accusation they brought

against Paul and Silas! They said Paul and Silas wereteaching an unlawful religion. At this time Roman law allowedJews to worship God according to their own religion but theRomans did not want them to teach their religion to Roman cit-izens. Of course they thought Paul and Silas were teaching theJewish religion and accused them of breaking this law.


22 There was no proper examination or trial. It was a great shame for Paul and Silas to have their clothes stripped off

them. Paul referred to this in 1 Thessalonians 2.2.23,24 Then they were severely beaten and thrown into prison.

In 2 Corinthians 11.25 Paul mentioned that he hadendured beatings of this kind three times.

25-34 The salvation of the jailer25 What were Paul and Silas thinking a�er the jailer le� them

with their backs sore and bleeding and their feet fastenedsecurely between heavy blocks of wood making it impossiblefor them to escape? Did they think, “Why did God allow thisto happen to us when He Himself sent us here to preach theGospel? Did we misunderstand His leading?” Did they com-plain to God and wish they had never come?

No doubt the two men were wondering what would hap-pen next, but instead of complaining they commi�ed their wayto the Lord in prayer. Then they sang hymns, not quietly tothemselves but loud enough so that the other prisoners wereable to hear them. What a testimony this must have been tothese people. We wonder if it bore fruit in the lives of any ofthem. Scripture does not tell us, but perhaps we will meetsome of these Philippian prisoners in heaven.26 No, God had not forgo�en His suffering servants. He even

caused an earthquake which shook the prison so much thatall the doors opened and the chains fell off all the prisoners.27 The earthquake woke up the jailer too. How upset he was

when he saw all the prison doors open. He thought ofcourse that all the prisoners had fled and wanted to kill him-self. (In those days a jailer was responsible for not le�ing theprisoners escape. He himself would be killed by the rulers ifany got away, so this Philippian jailer thought he would killhimself rather than be killed.)28 But Paul saw the jailer as he was just about to use his sword

on himself and called to tell him that all the prisoners werestill there. Why hadn't they fled? Were they put in prisonagain? We do not know.29,30 No doubt the jailer realized that Paul and Silas had been

unjustly put into prison. Perhaps he had seen them in

Acts 16 105

the city before their arrest and had heard Paul preach aboutChrist and the forgiveness of sins. The earthquake would alsospeak to his heart. So now he fell trembling at the feet of Pauland Silas and asked that most important question anyone canask: What must I do to be saved?31 What must he do? The two men told him quickly that he

did not have to do anything except believe in the Lord JesusChrist. The members of his family would also be saved if theybelieved.32 Paul and Silas went on to explain to the jailer and his whole

family the way of salvation.33 But their backs were still sore from the beating they had

received. Probably their wounds were dirty and uncovered,perhaps still bleeding. Now this man who had been cruelenough to do the work of a jailer gently washed their wounds.This shows that he had truly believed in the Lord as he hadbeen told in verse 31, and his hard heart had been changed.Then he and his family were baptized.34 Finally the jailer brought Paul and Silas to his own home

and gave them food to eat. There was great joy in that homebecause now they all believed in God.

Paul and Silas leave for Thessalonica, 16.35-4035,36 The Roman authorities must have felt the earthquake

too in the middle of the night and in the morning theywould have heard what took place in the prison. Perhaps theyrealized that the earthquake was related to the two Jews whomthey had beaten and imprisoned the day before. So now theysent police officers to tell the jailer to let Paul and Silas go.37 But Paul refused to leave unless the Roman officials came

themselves to let them out. Both he and Silas were Romancitizens and it was a crime to whip a Roman who had not beentried and found guilty. Paul could have accused these men tothe higher authorities and they would have been punished forthe way they had treated Paul and Silas. Paul did not intend todo this but he thought these men should at least come andapologize and ask them to leave.38,39 This is exactly what the Roman officials did, for they


were afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Romancitizens.40 Paul and Silas le� Philippi soon a�er that but first they

returned to Lydia's house to encourage the believers.Paul visited Philippi again later when he made anoth-

er journey to Macedonia, see 20.1. The li�le group ofChristians grew and soon had their own elders and dea-cons, Philippians 1.1. Later on Paul wrote them a lovelyle�er to thank them for another gi� which they had sentto him, Philippians 4.18. (They had sent two gi�s to himbefore when he was in Thessalonica, Philippians 4.15,16).Paul was a prisoner in Rome at the time he wrote this let-ter and their gi� was especially welcome. It was also asweet smelling offering to God, a sacrifice which is acceptableand pleasing to Him, Philippians 4.18.

This le�er also contains wonderful and importantteaching about Christ, see 2.5-11. There is also muchabout joy. See how many times you can find such wordsas joy and rejoicing. Paul and those with him rejoicedwhen people were saved in Philippi. They were happywhen God allowed them to suffer for Christ in prison andwhen as a result still more people came to the Lord. Andso he writes in this le�er to them, Rejoice in the Lordalways! 4.4. In Nehemiah 8.10 we read that the joy of theLord is our strength.

Now Test Yourself1. Why did Paul and Barnabas not travel together any more

a�er the first missionary journey?2. Who was Timothy?3. Why did Paul want Timothy to be circumcised?4. What caused Paul and those with him to go to Macedonia?5. Who joined Paul, Silas and Timothy in Troas? How do you

know?6. Give the name of

1) the first city in Macedonia to which Paul and his com-panions brought the Gospel;

Acts 16 107

2) the name of the first person who became a Christianthere.

7. We do not read that Paul preached to crowds in this city.Why were he and Silas put in prison?

8. How did Paul and Silas act in prison? What was the result?9. Why were the Roman officials afraid when the police offi-

cer told them Paul's words in verse 37 of chapter 16?10. Where did Paul and his companions go a�er they le�

Philippi? Turn to page 168 to see if you answered correctly.


– 8 –Paul's Second Missionary

Journey (cont'd)Chapters 17.1 – 18.22

So Paul, Silas and Timothy le� Philippi but Luke stayed on tohelp the Christians and the assembly grew and became strong.About seven years later Paul visited Philippi again, 20.6. Atthat time Luke joined Paul again on his journey.

In chapter 17 we read about Paul bringing the Gospel totwo more cities in Macedonia, Thessalonica and Berea, and toAthens further south in Achaia.

Thessalonica, 17.1-91 We do not read that the li�le group preached the Gospel in

Amphipolis and Apollonia on their way to Thessalonica.No doubt they were guided of the Lord in this.

Do you have a real desire to serve the Lord? You willfind many things that should be done, many more thanyou can possibly do yourself. You should ask the HolySpirit to guide you and show you which of the manythings He wants you to do.

2,3 Again Paul went first to the synagogue and for three weeks he had discussions with the people to show them from the

Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah would have to suf-fer and die and rise from death. A�er he had proved that, hewent on to show that Jesus was that Messiah.4 Some of his listeners were convinced and joined Paul and

Silas, among them many of the leading women and a largegroup of God-fearing Greeks. However 1 Thessalonians 1.9

109

shows that most of the believers in the church at Thessalonicahad worshipped idols before they became Christians.5 The same happened here as in other cities where Paul

preached the Gospel. The Jews became jealous because somany people were following Paul and they gathered someworthless loafers from the street to help them cause an uproarin the city. Then they a�acked Jason's house where Paul, Silasand Timothy were staying.6-8 But Paul and Silas were not there, so in their place they

dragged Jason and some other believers before the cityauthorities. They accused Jason of having opened his home tothese men who have caused trouble all over the world. Theysaid that Paul and Silas had preached that there is another kingwho might try to take the place of the Roman emperor. Topreach such a message would have been a serious crime andwith these accusations the Jews succeeded in causing anuproar among the people and the city officials. It is true thatPaul preached about the Lord Jesus Christ, but he had not toldthe people to disobey their rulers. Read Romans 13.1-7 to findout what Paul taught about this.8 The authorities made Jason and the others with him pay

some money and then let them go. This money would notbe returned to them if they were any more trouble. Perhapsthis is what hindered Paul from returning to Thessalonica lateron, see 1 Thessalonians 2.18.

That same night the Christians sent Paul, Silas and Timothyto Berea so that they would not be hurt or imprisoned inThessalonica.

Paul was in Thessalonica for only about three weeks. Hetaught those who believed many things during that short time,but he knew that they would have much persecution a�er hele� and was afraid that they might be led astray by false teach-ers. So he wrote them two le�ers, 1 and 2 Thessalonians inorder to give them more teaching and encourage them to fol-low the Lord. In fact Paul was so concerned about them that hesent Timothy back to them to find out how they were ge�ingon, 1 Thessalonians 3.1,2,5,6.

Berea, 17.10-1510 So Paul and his companions came to Berea, about 65 km.


from Thessalonica, and again they first went to the synagogueof the Jews.11 Here the Jews were more open-minded and listened eager-

ly to Paul's message. Then they studied the Scriptures to seeif this message was true.

It is good to listen to those who teach us the Word ofGod, but we should also study the Scriptures ourselves.In this way we can make sure that they are teaching us thetruth and we can also hear the Lord speaking to us direct-ly through His Word. May He help us to be like theBereans.

12 The result was that many people in Berea believed, not only Jews but also many Greek men and women.

13 But Satan could not let this blessing go without opposition. The news soon travelled back to Thessalonica and unbe-

lieving Jews from that city came to Berea to stir up the people.14 Perhaps the believers in Berea had heard of the uproar

caused in Thessalonica by Paul's preaching, so theythought it would be wise to send Paul away immediately, butSilas and Timothy stayed with the believers a li�le longer.Some of the men accompanied Paul all the way to Athens, thenreturned to Berea with instructions from Paul that Silas andTimothy should meet him in Athens as soon as possible.

Athens, 17.16-3416 Athens was a great place of learning at that time. Even

young men from Rome went there for their universitystudies. But this is not what impressed Paul who had himselfstudied much. What was it that upset the apostle so much inAthens? Everywhere he looked there were idols. The cityseemed to be completely given over to idolatry.17 But what could one lonely Christian do in this wicked, idol-

atrous city? Did Paul feel that he had caused so much trou-ble in Thessalonica and Berea—perhaps he should just keepquiet here in Athens? No, Paul could not keep quiet. As usualhe went to the synagogue and had discussions there with theJews and God-fearing Greeks and he also went to the publicsquare of the city each day and had discussions with the peo-ple who happened to pass by.

Acts 17 111

18 The Epicureans and the Stoics taught different philoso-phies. They also had discussions with Paul who they

thought was just an ignorant talker trying to teach peopleabout some foreign god. They probably thought that Jesus andthe Greek word for resurrection were the names of two moregods.19 This city council, the Aeropagus, was not a legal court

which tried those who disobeyed Greek law. It was a groupof men who supervised what was being taught in the city. Itwould seem that Paul was brought before this council so thatthey might decide if he should be allowed to spread this newteaching in their city.20,21 It is not surprising that Paul's teaching sounded strange

to these heathen men. They wanted to find out moreabout it, not because they were looking for spiritual help fortheir own souls but because they enjoyed listening to and talk-ing about the latest ideas.22 This gave Paul a perfect opportunity to tell them about the

one true God. He started by telling them tactfully that thepeople of Athens seemed to be very religious. His listenerswould think this was a compliment, but Paul was thinking ofthe many idols he had seen in the city.23 He had even found an altar there on which was wri�en, “To

the unknown God.” This was the God about whom Paulwas telling them, this one whom they did not know.24 This God was different from the gods they worshipped. He

was not made by man and does not live in a temple. HeHimself had made the world and everything in it.25 Their idols needed to be cared for and they brought them

offerings of food, but Paul's God does not need anythingthat we can supply through our worship or service because HeHimself gives men life and breath and everything else.26 From one man He made all the nations of the earth and

decided beforehand the exact times and -seasons for themand where they should live in the earth.27 God did this so that men would seek for Him and find Him

although He is not far from any of us. He has revealedHimself to men through this wonderful world which He hascreated, Romans 1.20.


28 Notice that in this speech Paul did not quote from Scripture as his listeners were heathen people who were not familiar

with them. In this verse, however, he quoted from a poet fromCrete called Epimenides, and one from Cilicia called Aratus.We are all God's children in a way because He has created usand we depend on Him for everything we need in order to liveon this earth, but only those who receive the Son of God intotheir hearts become real sons.29 It is quite plain that the One who created men is greater

than they and we should not think that He, the God of thisuniverse, is like an image made by men of gold, silver or stone.Romans 1.21-23 shows that this is foolish and sinful.30 In the past God overlooked the fact that men did not know

Him, 14.16, but now He has made Himself known to themand commands people everywhere to repent and turn fromtheir evil ways.31 They should repent because God has already chosen the

day when He will judge the whole world with justice by theMan He has appointed. Who is that? The Lord Jesus Christwhom He has raised from death and to whom He has given theauthority to judge the world, John 5.22.32,33 Some of Paul's listeners made fun of his message, but

others said they wanted to hear him again. We don'tknow if they every did ... .34 Even so there was eternal fruit in Athens from Paul's testi-

mony there. A number of people believed in the Lord, butthere is no mention in the New Testament of a church havingbeen established there.

Corinth, 18.1-171 Corinth was a wealthy and wicked city almost straight west

of Athens.2 Aquila and Priscilla were from Italy, but had to leave Rome

when the Roman emperor Claudius told all Jews to get outof that city. Probably they had become Christians in Romethrough the witness of Roman Jews who had believed in theLord in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Or perhaps theythemselves had been in Jerusalem that day, see 2.9,10.

Acts 17 113

3 All Jewish boys were taught how to do some kind of work with their hands. Paul had learned how to make tents, and

so he stayed with Aquila and Priscilla who were also tent mak-ers. It was Paul's custom to work to support himself so that hewould not be a burden on anyone. He had done the same inThessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 2.9; 2 Thessalonians 3.8. See alsoActs 20.34.

A life-long friendship developed between Paul and Aquilaand Priscilla as a result of his stay with them here in Corinth.This couple moved to Ephesus a�er Paul le� Corinth, vs. 18,19,and were still there when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, see 1 Corinthians 16.8,19. A�er a while they went back to Rome,Romans 16.3, but later returned to Ephesus, 2 Timothy 4.19.4 Paul followed his usual custom in Corinth and tried to

reach first the Jews with the Gospel. For some time he haddiscussions with them in the synagogue every sabbath day.The Lord blessed his witness to them and we shall see in verse8 that even the leader of the synagogue believed.5 A�er a li�le while Silas and Timothy joined Paul again.

They had stayed behind in Berea when Paul had to leavebecause of the opposition caused by the Jews fromThessalonica, see 17.13-15. Probably Paul wrote his first le�erto the Thessalonians very soon a�er their arrival, 1 Thes -salonians 3.6,7. A�er they came Paul gave his whole time topreaching and testifying that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ.6 But most of the Jews opposed his message and said evil

things about him. How discouraging this constant opposi-tion from his own Jewish people must have been to Paul. Thistime he protested by shaking the dust from his clothes (seeexplanation of 13.51). He told them that he had fulfilled hisresponsibility to them by preaching to them about Christ andHis salvation. If they were lost they themselves must take theblame for this.

Your blood be on your own heads! These were strongwords and must have reminded the Jews of what some of theirown nation had said at the trial of the Lord Jesus before Pilate.At that time they had shouted out the terrible words, His bloodbe on us and on our children, Ma�hew 27.25. In Acts 5.28 the Jewsin Jerusalem had accused Peter and John of trying to bring


Christ's blood on them. But they could not put the blame onanyone else. They themselves were guilty and would bejudged by God unless they repented.

And so will you if you have heard about Christ andrefuse to accept His wonderful offer of salvation.

So again Paul turned away from his own people and startedto preach to the Gentiles as he had done also in Antioch ofPisidia, see 13.46.7 He did not have to go far because the man living in the

house right next to the synagogue was willing to welcomehim. Justus was a Gentile but a�ended the synagogue and wor-shipped the one true God. We have read similar words aboutLydia in 16.14. Justus had heard Paul's teaching in the syna-gogue and had apparently believed in the Saviour.8 Crispus, the leader of the synagogue and his family also

believed. Many other Corinthians believed as well andwere baptized. In 1 Corinthians 1.14 Paul tells us that he him-self baptized Crispus and one other Corinthian believer. We donot know who baptized the others.

In Luke 8.41,42.49-56 we read about the leader of anothersynagogue who showed that he had faith in the Lord Jesus.What was his name?9,10 The salvation of Crispus must have been a great encour-

agement to Paul, but perhaps he was doubtful about con-tinuing to preach in Corinth because of the strong oppositionof the Jews. So the Lord spoke to him in a vision as He haddone once before, 9.10. The Lord told him to continue to preachin Corinth. No one would be able to harm him in spite of thehatred of the Jews, but many Corinthians would believe in theLord.11 This was the encouragement Paul needed to stay on in

Corinth for another 1½ years teaching the Word of God.12,13 But the Jews did not stop to cause trouble. While Gallio

was the governor of Achaia they seized Paul andaccused him before the governor saying Paul tried to persuadepeople to worship God in a way which was different fromwhat was taught by the Law.14-16 Gallio refused to do anything about the Jews' accusation

Acts 18 115

because it was about their own religion. He did not even givePaul an opportunity to answer for himself but drove them allfrom the court.17 Now the Greeks became angry with the Jews because of the

trouble they were causing. They grabbed Sosthenes andbeat him up before the court, but Gallio paid no a�ention.

Sosthenes must have taken Crispus' place as leader of thesynagogue when Crispus became a Christian. It is probablethat he too accepted Christ as Saviour and that he is the manmentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1.1.

End of the second missionary journey, 18.18-2218 Paul stayed on still longer in Corinth. A church was begun

in that city but it was weak because of many troublescaused by the believers themselves, not through false teachingwhich came in from other places. There were divisions in thechurch and the believers did not judge immorality. They didnot come together in an orderly way to remember the Lord.There were many spiritual gi�s in the church, but the gi� oftongues was not used in the right way. Some teachers amongthem were saying that there was no resurrection.

So the church at Corinth still needed much teaching whichPaul tried to give them later through the le�ers he sent them.Two of these are in the New Testament, 1 and 2 Corinthians,and are very helpful to Christians today who have the sametroubles in their churches.*

Finally Paul le� Corinth a�er spending 11/2 years there andsailed to Syria. His friends Aquila and Priscilla went with him.

What vow had Paul taken? It was a Nazirite vow, Numbers6.1-21, which he made before he le� Corinth, perhaps to showhis gratitude to God. Vows are part of the Jewish religion.Paul's action here does not agree at all with his teaching inGalatians and elsewhere that Gentile believers must not beforced to obey the Law of Moses. Was Paul right in obeying ithimself? In 1 Corinthians 9.20 we see the reason why he didwhat he did.


____________

* For more teaching on 1 Corinthians read The Imperfect Church pub-lished by Everyday Publications.

A person taking a vow had to let his hair grow for the peri-od of the vow. The time of Paul's vow was over when hereached Cenchrea, the seaport of Corinth and he cut his hairbefore continuing his journey.19 Paul had tried to go to Ephesus during his first missionary

journey, but at that time the Holy Spirit would not allowhim to do so, 16.6. Ephesus was the capital of the Romanprovince of Asia and was known for its commerce and for itsgreat temple for the goddess Artemis, also called Diana.

No church had been formed at Ephesus by the time Paulvisited the city, so as usual he went to the synagogue and helddiscussions with the Jews.20,21 The Jews would have liked him to stay longer with them,

but Paul was anxious to continue his journey. He prom-ised to return if it was the Lord's will.

Paul always tried to be obedient to the will of God andto His guidance, see Romans 15.32; Ephesians 6.6. Jamestaught that we too should ask the Lord to guide us in allthat we do and be willing for Him to change our plans ifHe wishes to do so, James 4.15.

22 So Paul sailed for Caesarea and went up to Jerusalem. Luke tells us nothing about what he did there except that he

greeted the church. He ended his second missionary journeyby returning to his “home” church in Antioch, 13.1-3.

Now Test Yourself1. Who stayed on in Philippi to help the new believers when

Paul le�?2. What was the result of Paul's preaching in Thessalonica?3. Name one thing in which we should follow the example of

the Bereans.4. Who followed Paul and his companions to Berea?5. In what city did Paul find an altar on which was wri�en “To

the unknown God”?6. How did Paul try to reach the people of that city with the

Gospel?

Acts 18 117

7. Where did Paul stay when he came to Corinth?8. Did Paul expect his host to pay all his expenses while he

was staying with them?9. An important man among the Jews in Corinth believed in

Christ. Who was he?10. What was the vision Paul had in Corinth?

Compare your answers with those on page 168.


- 9 -Paul's Third Missionary Journey

Chapters 18.23 – 21.14

Paul starts off again, 18.23

Paul stayed in Antioch for a while a�er he returned fromhis second preaching trip and then started out on another jour-ney to help and teach the new believers in Galatia and Phrygia,18.23. During his second journey Paul had only passedthrough these areas, see 16.6, but even so some had becomebelievers. Paul witnessed for Christ everywhere he went—even when he was just travelling through a place.

Paul's le�er to the Galatians shows how badly this visit wasneeded. Jews from Jerusalem had gone to the new believers.They had taught them that they could not be saved by believ-ing in the Lord Jesus Christ without also being circumcisedand keeping the Jewish holy days. They had almost succeededin persuading the Christians in the Galatian churches to acceptthis false teaching. In his le�er Paul taught them again that weare saved only by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ andwarned them strongly against accepting any teaching thatdenies this important truth. They accepted Paul's warning andnow Paul went to visit them again.

Here again we see how important it is to keep onteaching and caring for new believers. Our responsibilitydoes not end when we have led someone to believe in theLord. The Lord Jesus commands us to feed my lambs,John 21.15, and we must feed the new-born babies inChrist with the milk of God's precious Word, 1 Peter 2.2,so that they will grow into strong Christians.

119

Apollos of Alexandria, 18.24-2824,25 Paul had stayed only a short time in Ephesus, but now

another preacher arrived there. Apollos knew the OldTestament Scriptures very well and he also knew that Jesuswas the Messiah, the Christ. He had heard about the miracleswhich the Lord Jesus had performed. He had been baptizedwith John's baptism unto repentance, but that was all he knew.26 Apollos was an eloquent and enthusiastic preacher and

began to speak boldly in the synagogue in Ephesus. Aquilaand Priscilla had stayed on in Ephesus a�er Paul le� to go toJerusalem, vs. 18-21, and they heard Apollos preach. Theycould see what a powerful preacher he was but that there weretruths that he had not yet been taught himself. Aquila andPriscilla were practical people. They did not just talk about thispreacher and what he did not know, but they decided to tryand help him. So they invited him to their house and Priscillaprobably prepared a delicious meal for him. Then they quietlytaught and explained to Apollos some of the things he had not heard before. No doubt they talked about Christ's deathand resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit and many other things. And Apollos, the eloquent speaker, was humbleenough to accept teaching from a tent maker and his wife.

Perhaps you have not been given the gi�s of preachingand teaching publicly, but you know the Word of Godwell. If this is so the Lord can use you to help those whohave these gi�s to understand God's Word be�er andthus enable them to teach God's people more effectively.You teach one person privately and he passes on thatteaching publicly to many others. But you must know theWord of God yourself! Are you studying it every day?

27 Apollos then decided to go to Achaia, so the Christians in Ephesus wrote a le�er to the believers there asking them to

welcome him. He was a great help to the Christians and wasable to pass on to them the truths he had learned from Aquilaand Priscilla.28 Apollos also debated with the Jews in public and proved to

them from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.Apollos was a great blessing to the church at Corinth

as he added to the teaching they had already received


from the apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 3.6. However, someof the Christians began to call themselves a�er him andformed one of the groups into which the church atCorinth was divided, see 1 Corinthians 1.10-12. Later Paulwanted Apollos togo back to Corinth, but he did not seemto be anxious to do so, 1 Corinthians 16.12. Perhaps hewas afraid of drawing the Corinthians to himself againinstead of to the Lord. This is something we must all tryto avoid.

John's followers, 19.1-121 Paul had promised the Jews in Ephesus that he would

return if it were the Lord's will, 18.21, and he did. He hadstarted his third journey by visiting the believers in Galatia andPhrygia, 18.23. From there he continued to travel west throughthe province of Asia until he came to Ephesus. Here he mettwelve disciples.2,3 Whose disciples were they? Probably they were followers

of Apollos because they knew about as much as he didbefore he met Aquila and Priscilla, 18.25. They did not knowthat the Holy Spirit existed and had received only John's bap-tism.5 No doubt Paul taught these men much more about the

Saviour and this led to their being baptized again, this timein the name of the Lord Jesus.6,7 They also received the Holy Spirit when Paul laid his hands

on them and they began to speak in tongues and to pro-claim God's message.

This is the last time we read in Acts about the Holy Spiritbeing given and about some of those receiving Him speakingin tongues. We have already read about three other times:1. On the day of Pentecost He descended and came on about

120 people. These were all Jews and began to speak intongues, see 1.15; 2.1-4.

2. Those who believed in Samaria received the Holy Spiritwhen Peter and John came from Jerusalem and laid theirhands on them, 8.17. We do not read that these Samaritanbelievers started to speak in tongues.

3. The Holy Spirit came on Cornelius and those with him

Acts 18, 19 121

while Peter was preaching to them and they began to speakin tongues, 10.44-46.So we see that the Holy Spirit was not only given to Jews,

but also to Samaritans and to Gentiles.The disciples in Ephesus received the Holy Spirit when

Paul laid hands on them. This showed that he was an apostlejust as much as Peter and John. This was important because theJews who tried to make the Gentile believers accept circumci-sion denied strongly that Paul was an apostle and had anyauthority from God.

At the present time people receive the Holy Spirit whenthey believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1.13. In fact aperson does not belong to Christ unless he has the Holy Spirit,Romans 8.9. Christians should not pray to be given the HolySpirit because He has already come to live in them. Theyshould not pray to be given more of the Holy Spirit, but theyshould yield themselves fully to God so that the Holy Spiritcan fill them completely.8 Then Paul went to the synagogue and for three months he

boldly held discussions to try to convince the people aboutthe kingdom of God.9 But some refused to believe and started to say evil things

before the crowd, so Paul le� them and took with him thosewho had become disciples. He was able to use a lecture hallnext to the synagogue belonging to Tyrannus and there he con-tinued to have discussions and to teach the new believers.Thus a church was begun in Ephesus.

There were a number of Christians from other placeswith Paul in Ephesus: Timothy and Erastus, 19.22; Gaiusand Aristarchus, 19.29; Aquila and Priscilla who were liv-ing there now and no doubt were carrying on a quiet tes-timony.

Among the new believers were Epenetus, the first oneto believe in Asia (not Achaia as in some Bibles), Romans16.5, also Onesiphorus and his family, 2 Timothy 1.16.

There were also in Ephesus some men who did greatharm to the work of the Lord, such as Hymenaeus,Alexander, Phygellus and Hermogenes, about whomPaul wrote in 1 Timothy 1.20 and 2 Timothy 1.15. (Paul


wrote these two le�ers when Timothy was working inEphesus.)

10 Paul continued this work of discussing and teaching for two years altogether. As a result the Gospel spread out

from Ephesus until all the Jews and Gentiles living in theprovince of Asia heard the Word of God, no doubt through thewitness of the new believers. The province of Asia was theirJudea, Acts 1.8. Compare this verse with Paul's sad words atthe end of his life, 2 Timothy 1.15.11,12 The Lord enabled Philip to do miracles in Samaria to

prove that he was really speaking for God, see 8.6. Paulalso did many miracles but he did not continue to have thispower. Later he could not heal himself of what was greatlytroubling him, 2 Corinthians 12.8, and he did not healEpaphroditus, Philippians 2.25-27; Timothy, 1 Timothy 5.23, orTrophimus, 2 Timothy 4.20.

The sons of Sceva, 19.13-2013 Satan is never far away when God's Holy Spirit is working.

Some of his servants will even use the name of Jesus inorder to get some money for themselves.

There were some Jews in Ephesus who travelled arounddriving evil spirits out of people. They saw the unusual mira-cles that were done through Paul in the power of Christ and sothey also tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus themselves indriving out the evil spirits. But they did not call Him Lord.They just called Him Jesus.14,15 The seven sons of a high priest called Sceva did this, but

the evil spirit did not obey them. The spirit said that heknew who Jesus was and that he also knew about Paul, butthese Jewish sons of Sceva—who were they?16 Then the man who had the evil spirit a�acked them with

great force and overpowered them, hurting them and tear-ing their clothes.

It is not enough for people just to use the name of theLord Jesus without really believing in Him and doing Hiswill, and such will not enter the kingdom of heaven, Mat-thew 7.21-23.

Acts 19 123

17 News of what had happened to these men spread quickly in Ephesus and both Jews and Gentiles were filled with fear

and gave great honour to the name of the Lord Jesus.18 These events also caused the believers to come and confess

any evil deeds that they had done.19 Apparently many of them had been involved in magic or

witchcra� themselves. Now they realized how evil thiswas, so they brought the books they used for their magic andburned them in public. These were very expensive books andto burn them would mean great financial loss to the owners.But they did it because they did not want anything more to dowith Satan. It was a wonderful testimony.

Are you a Christian? Then stay away from charms andmagic. The Lord Jesus Christ is living in you, John 14.23.His power is far greater than Satan's and He wants to useit to help you, see 1 John 4.4.

20 So the Word of God continued to spread and grow stronger.

Trouble in Ephesus, 19.21-4123,24 About this time a riot broke out in Ephesus. Satan had

tried to copy the power of God, but this had failed, sonow he stirred up trouble for the believers in another way. Thefamous temple of Artemis (also called Diana) was located inEphesus and the silversmiths of the city earned a lot of moneyby making and selling silver models of the temple. Those whoworshipped the goddess bought these idols and used them toworship her in their homes.25-27 Demetrius, one of the silversmiths was very unhappy

about the results of Paul's preaching and called all theother silversmiths to meet with him to discuss the ma�er.Everything he said about Paul was absolutely true and hiswords were a wonderful testimony of the power of the Gospeland the powerlessness of their goddess.28 Demetrius certainly succeeded in stirring up the anger of

the Ephesians. The temple of Artemis was one of the mostoutstanding buildings in the world at that time and through itthe city of Ephesus also became well known. They did notwant anything to lessen the greatness and importance of their


goddess and her temple—even if she could not look a�er her-self or do anything to help them, her devoted followers!29 The riot spread through the whole city and the mob

grabbed two of the men who were travelling with Paul andbrought them to the theatre. This was a very large buildingused for public gatherings in which over 20,000 people couldmeet.30,31 Paul wanted to go and speak to the crowd himself but

the believers would not let him, and even his friendsamong the provincial authorities begged him not to show him-self in the theatre.32 The meeting in the theatre was very disorderly. All the peo-

ple were shouting, some one thing and some another, andmost of them did not even know why they had come!33,34 The unbelieving Jews asked Alexander to speak to the

crowd on their behalf. They probably wanted to tell theEphesians that they were not associated with Paul and histeaching. But the crowd would not listen to Alexander becausethey recognized that he was a Jew and knew that the Jewshated idolatry.35-37 Finally the city clerk was able to calm the crowd and

spoke to them very wisely, according to Proverbs 15.1.He agreed with them in their worship of Artemis, but pointedout that Gaius and Aristarchus had not done anything bad tothe temple or said anything evil about their goddess. Thereforeit was not right to grab them and drag them into the theatre.38 Demetrius and his fellow silversmiths should bring their

accusations against anyone to the courts to be taken care ofin the usual way and not cause a riot.39-41 Any greater ma�ers would have to be se�led in a legal

meeting of citizens, not in such an uproar for which theycould be accused to the authorities in Rome.

Paul revisits Macedonia and Achaia, 20.1-31 When the uproar had died down, Paul said good-bye to the

Ephesian Christians and continued his journey to Mace -donia and Achaia as he had planned in 19.21. He had a greatdesire to get even to Rome.

Acts 19, 20 125

2 Luke does not tell us where Paul went in Macedonia, but probably he revisited Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea,

before going south to Achaia.3 No details are given about the three months Paul spent in

Achaia either, except that the Jews made a plot to kill Pauljust as he was ge�ing ready to sail to Syria. Paul found outabout this and decided to go back through Macedonia instead.During this visit to Corinth he wrote the le�er to the Romansin which he told them that he planned to go to Jerusalem anda�er that visit Rome, Romans 15.22-29.

Paul's last visit to Troas, 20.4-124 Seven men travelled with Paul at this time, some from

Macedonia and some from the province of Asia. These peo-ple had probably become Christians through Paul's preachingand now they wanted to serve the Lord by helping Paul. Nodoubt they also learned a lot as they lived and travelled withPaul. And what a wonderful fellowship they must have hadtogether!

At this time Paul was bringing the poor believers in Jeru -salem a gi� of money from other churches. Those travellingwith Paul would see that he kept none of the money for him-self. They would also protect him from robbers because travel-ling was dangerous in those days.5,6 These men all went ahead of Paul and waited for him in

Troas. Does this mean that during this part of the journeyPaul travelled alone?

No, someone else joined him at Philippi. Notice what weread in these verses: They . . . waited for us. We sailed fromPhilippi ... . Luke, the writer of the book of Acts had been withPaul when Paul had visited Philippi the first time and hadstayed there to teach and help the believers a�er Paul and Silasle� to continue their journey, see chapter 16. That was aboutseven years before. Now Luke joined Paul again and theysailed together from Philippi to meet the other men at Troas,and Luke stayed with Paul from now on all the way toJerusalem.7 Here we see what the early believers did on the first day of

the week. They came together to break bread, as the Lord


Jesus Himself had requested: Do this in remembrance of Me,1 Corinthians 11.24,25.

The Lord Jesus Christ rose from death on the first dayof the week, the day He showed Himself to His disciplesa�er His resurrection, John 20.19. This first day of theweek is called the Lord's Day in Revelation 1.10.

There is no command in Scripture about how o�enChristians should remember the Lord, but it seems fromActs 20.7 that the early Christians did so on the first dayof every week. The believers also brought their offeringsto the Lord on that day, 1 Corinthians 16.2.

Paul stayed altogether seven days at Troas. Probably hestayed so long because he especially wanted to be with themon that first day of the week. Among the Jews the first day ofthe week began a�er the sun went down on the Sabbath andquite likely the believers in Troas met together in the evening.Paul preached to them that evening because he was planningto leave the next day. What did he preach about? Was it abouttheir daily behavior as Christians? Was it about how to wor-ship the Lord? We do not know, but this was Paul's last oppor-tunity to challenge and teach and encourage the believers thereand to share with them what was on his heart. And his heartwas full, so he didn't stop speaking a�er 20,30 or 40 minutes—he went right on speaking until midnight.8-10 The meeting took place in an upstairs room and there

were many smoky lamps. That was too much for youngEutychus. The late hour and the hot smoky air caused him tofall sound asleep and he fell out of the third story windowwhere he had been si�ing and was picked up dead. However,Paul went down and found that he was still alive and thebelievers were comforted. Perhaps he had not been really deadalthough the believers thought he was.11,12 So Paul went back upstairs, broke bread with the believ-

ers and continued talking with them until sunrise. Thenhe le� and the people were glad to be able to take Eutychushome alive.

Paul's farewell speech to the elders at Ephesus, 20.13-3813-15 These verses show the route Paul and those with him

Acts 20 127

followed to get by ship from Troas to Miletus. Miletus was thesea port for the city of Ephesus.16,17 Paul still wanted to get to Jerusalem in time for the day

of Pentecost, so did not want to take time to go toEphesus and get involved in all the problems of the church atthis time. However the ship stopped in Miletus for severaldays, so he asked the elders of the church in Ephesus to comeand meet him in Miletus.18-21 How Paul had served the Lord among the Ephesians19 He had served with humility and many tears because of the

plots of the Jews. It seems that everywhere Paul went theunbelieving Jews tried to destroy his work and even Paul him-self. Paul was not ashamed of tears and he had shed manytears over them, v.31, and also over the Corinthian believers, 2 Corinthians 2.4.20 Paul had not tried to please men in his preaching. He had

taught them everything they needed to know, even thosethings that might make him unpopular. He knew he would notbe a true servant of Christ if he tried to please men, Galatians1.10. He did not only preach publicly to the whole group, butalso visited the homes giving the people more teaching as itwas needed.21 He had preached the Gospel to all, both Jews and Gentiles,

and had warned them that they should repent of their sinsand believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance will always bethe result when people hear the Gospel and believe in Christ.22-24 Paul was prepared for trouble and suffering22,23 The apostle felt urged and compelled by the Spirit to go

to Jerusalem, even though the Holy Spirit had warnedhim again and again that trouble was waiting for him thereand that he would be imprisoned.

Was Paul right in insisting on going to Jerusalem in spite ofthese warnings by the Holy Spirit? Some teachers feel heshould not have gone. Others teach that he was truly led by theHoly Spirit to go and that through these warnings the Spiritprepared him ahead of time for the sufferings he would haveto endure. They feel that Paul would have been disobedient ifhe had not gone.


24 So Paul was ready for all the trouble that lay ahead of him. He had a great longing to preach the Gospel to his own

people the Jews, Romans 9.1-3, and would be happy to share insome of the sufferings of his Lord if only he could testify to theGospel of God's grace and complete the task which the LordJesus had given him.25-31 Paul warns the Ephesian elders25-27 Paul did not expect ever to see again the Ephesians to

whom he had preached, but said he was not responsibleif any should be eternally lost, for he had announced amongthem the whole will and purpose of God without holding any-thing back.28 The elders should guard themselves and also all the flock

over which the Holy Spirit had made them overseers. Theymust watch over their own spiritual lives first before theycould be good shepherds of the other believers. Paul gave thesame command to Timothy later on, 1 Timothy 4.16, andthrough him to us. We must keep close to the Lord ourselves ifwe want to be a blessing and a help to others.

The Ephesian church was very precious to God because ithad been bought with the blood of His own beloved Son. SoPaul commands the elders again to be good shepherds of thebelievers.

The word used in Greek for overseers is differentfrom the one used for elders in verse 17. It has also beentranslated bishop in Philippians 1.1; 1 Timothy 3.1,2;Titus 1.7. However it is clear that the two Greek wordsrefer to the same work.

29,30 Why was Paul so concerned about the church in Ephesus? He knew that false teachers would come

among the Christians from other places with very wrongteaching. Even some of those in the church would start teach-ing things that were not according to the Word of God andwould try to make the other believers follow them.31 So Paul commanded the elders to watch out for these things

and to teach against them, remembering all that he himselfhad taught each of them during the three years he had beenwith them.

Acts 20 129

Only five or six years later these false teachers had alreadycome into the church, see 1 Timothy 1.3-7, 19,20. Paul le�Timothy in Ephesus for a while to command these people tostop teaching wrong doctrines and to give the Ephesian believ-ers more teaching about the church, and the work of the eldersand deacons.32-38 Final farewell32 Paul could not stay with the Ephesian church continuously

himself but he could commend the believers to God's careand to the Word of His grace. These would never change andwould be always there to help them. The Word of God shallstand forever, Isaiah 40.8. Christ's words will never pass away,Ma�hew 24.35. They are gracious words and the people wereamazed when they heard them, Luke 4.22. They will build upthose who read and study them and strengthen them in thefaith. Through the Word of God we are born again, 1 Peter 1.23,and share in the inheritance of God's children, Romans 8.16,17;Ephesians 1.11. This inheritance can never perish, spoil or fadeand is kept for us in heaven, 1 Peter 1.3,4. Through the readingof God's Word we can enjoy even now the blessings of thisinheritance.

Who are the sanctified? All true believers are sanctified,and have been set apart for God and called to be holy, 1 Corinthians 1.2.33,34 Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that he had not

preached among them for any personal profit. He hadworked with his hands in order to provide for his own needsand for the needs of those travelling with him. It was impor-tant for him to say this because the priests of the goddessArtemis received great wealth.35 These words of the Lord Jesus are not recorded in the

Gospels, but how true they are! There are many verses inScripture which promise a blessing to those who give gener-ously, see Proverbs 11.25; 22.9; Isaiah 58.10; Luke 6.38; 2 Corinthians 9.6.36-38 A�er Paul prayed with the elders, the final good-byes

were said with many tears while the elders brought Paul tothe ship.


Later Paul was twice in prison in Rome for the sake ofthe Gospel. During his first stay there he wrote a beauti-ful le�er to the believers at Ephesus, a le�er full of won-derful truths and lessons about how they should walk asChristians. In chapter 6, verses 10 to 18 he showed themhow they could and should stand up against their spiritu-al enemies about whom he had warned them before, Acts20.29,30. This le�er is a very important part of the NewTestament.

From Miletus to Tyre, 21.1-61 The ship took Paul and his companions to Patara on the

coast of Lycia.2 Here they changed ships because they found one which

was sailing directly to Phoenicia without stopping at theisland of Cyprus.3 They landed at Tyre and must have had an unusually fast

trip because from now on Paul did not seem to be in quiteas much of a hurry to get to Jerusalem in time for the day ofPentecost.4 It took some time to unload the cargo the ship had brought,

so the travellers were able to spend a week with the believ-ers in Tyre. These believers had come to Phoenicia when theChristians in Jerusalem were persecuted a�er Stephen's death,11.19. Here Paul was warned for the second time against goingto Jerusalem, in fact, the believers through the Spirit told himnot to go.5,6 But Paul was not persuaded. Probably he did not feel sure

that these disciples were truly led by the Holy Spirit inwhat they said.

This is always a problem when fellow-believers try toadvise us as to what we should do. We should ask advicefrom godly older brothers and sisters in Christ, but weourselves must make the final decision in the presence ofthe Lord as to what His will is and we must be very surethat we are truly guided by Him and not by our owndesires.

So the li�le group got ready to leave again a�er their timein Tyre was over. All the believers with their families lovingly

Acts 20,21 131

accompanied them to the beach, they all prayed together andthen Paul and his companions went on board the ship.

From Tyre to Caesarea, 21.7-147 The ship stopped in Ptolemais, so Paul and those with him

were able to visit with the believers there for a day.We too should look for the believers as we travel from

place to place and have fellowship with them in thethings of the Lord. This can be a great blessing to themand to ourselves.

8 At Caesarea the travellers le� the ship and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist. He was one of the seven men

who had been chosen to look a�er the widows in Jerusalem,6.3-5. A�er Stephen's death he had preached the Gospel inSamaria, 8.5, and all along the coast to Caesarea, 8.40, where henow lived.9 We note here that Philip's four daughters had the gi� of

prophecy, but we do not read about any prophecies they hadmade.10 Paul stayed in Caesarea for a number of days, the last days

of freedom he would enjoy for two or three years. Duringthis time the prophet Agabus came from Judea. We have readabout him before in 11.27,28.11 Through Agabus Paul was warned the third time that trou-

ble was waiting for him in Jerusalem. The prophet told himplainly, led by the Holy Spirit, that the Jews would bind himand turn him over to the Gentiles. However the Holy Spirit didnot lead Agabus to forbid Paul to go to Jerusalem.12,13 Again the believers tried to persuade Paul not to contin-

ue the journey to Jerusalem. Paul felt very badly to seethem all crying, but told them that he was ready even to die inJerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. He was determinedto go no ma�er what the cost might be.

Paul had a great burden on his heart to preach theGospel to his own people and to explain fully that keep-ing the Law is not necessary for salvation, Romans 10.1-4.

He also wanted to deliver himself the money gi�which the believers from other places had sent with him


for the poor believers in Jerusalem, see comments onverse 4 of chapter 20.

14 The Lord's will be done. We should always pray that the Lord's will be done in our lives, Psalm 143.10, and in the

lives of others, Hebrews 13.21.It is God's will that we should offer ourselves as living,

holy sacrifices to Him, Romans 12.1,2, and we should dothe will of God from our hearts, Ephesians 6.6. The worldand all its desires will pass away, but the man who doesGod's will lives forever, 1 John 2.17.

Now Test Yourself1. What false teaching had the Galatian believers received

from Jews coming from Jerusalem?2. What was the name of the preacher from Alexandria and

who received him into their home in Ephesus?3. What was John's baptism?4. How long was Paul in Ephesus?5. Where did the sons of Sceva live and what did they try to

do?6. Who did Satan use to start opposition to the Gospel in

Ephesus?7. Where did Paul preach to the believers from evening until

morning?8. How much of the Gospel message had Paul preached to the

Ephesians?9. What did Paul feel about the suffering that was waiting for

him in Jerusalem?10. Where did Paul want to go at the end of his third mission-

ary journey?Check your answers on page 169

Acts 21 133

-10-Paul in Jerusalem

Chapters 21.15 - 23.35

Paul arrives in Jerusalem, 21.15-1915,16 Some of the believers from Caesarea journeyed with

Paul to Jerusalem and brought him and his companionsto Mnason's house where they were to stay.

Mnason was a Jewish believer from Cyprus. He was usedto living among Gentiles and had no doubt associated withGentile Christians. A few Gentile believers were travelling withPaul and perhaps the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem would nothave been quite happy to welcome them into their homes.There would be no such problems in Mnason's home.17-19 The Jewish believers in Jerusalem welcomed Paul warm-

ly. Paul met with James (see 15.13) and all the elders andgave a full report of all that God had done among the Gentilesthrough him.

Paul follows the advice of the elders, 21.20-2620-22 Paul's listeners praised God for what they heard but

they were worried too. Apparently the thousands of JewishChristians living in Israel were still obeying the Law of Mosesduring this time of change from Judaism. Later in the le�er tothe Hebrews the Holy Spirit gave clear teaching that the Jewishbelievers should separate themselves from the Jewish priest-hood and temple and sacrifices because now they had a be�erHigh Priest who would never die. His one sacrifice was suffi-cient to take away all sin and made any further sacrificesunnecessary. These Jews had heard a report that Paul had beenteaching all the Jewish believers living in Gentile countries toabandon the Law of Moses and not to circumcise their sons orfollow the Jewish customs. This had made them very angrywith Paul. They would soon hear that Paul had come to

134

Jerusalem and the elders felt Paul should do something quick-ly to prove that these reports about him were false and that hehimself still obeyed the Law.23,24 These four men had taken a Nazirite vow. For some rea-

son they had become ceremonially unclean for sevendays, v.27. At the end of the seven days they would have toshave their heads and offer certain sacrifices for their cleans-ing. The elders wanted Paul to join these men in the ceremonyof purification and pay for the sacrifices. (See Numbers chap-ter 6 about Nazirite vows.) They thought that this would proveto all the Jews that Paul himself lived in obedience to the Law.25 The elders also repeated that Gentile believers should not

be forced to obey the Law of Moses when they becameChristians, see 15.19,20,28,29.26 Paul did what his Jewish brothers in Christ requested,

although to him these religious practices meant nothingany more since he became a new creature in Christ, Galatians6.14,15.

Did Paul do right? Some teachers say yes, others say that bydoing this he denied his own teaching that people can becomeChristians without keeping the Law. In 1 Corinthians 9.22 wesee that he believed he should become all things to all men sothat by all possible means he might lead people to the Lord. Nodoubt he felt that he would have a be�er opportunity to preachto the Jews in Jerusalem if he submi�ed himself to the Law inthis ma�er.

Paul is arrested, 21.27-4027 The Jewish believers seem to have been satisfied with what

Paul had done, but not so other Jews who lived in Asia andhad come to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. These Jewshad known Paul in Asia or had heard about him and theyhated him and his Gospel. They stirred up the crowd andgrabbed Paul when they saw him in the Temple.28,29 Their accusations were not true. Paul had taught that

people could not be saved by keeping the Law, but hehad not taught against the Law, the people of Israel or theTemple. Nor had he brought Gentiles into the court of Israelnext to the Temple where only Jews were allowed to enter. It

Acts 21 135

was a great crime to defile the Temple. According to JewishLaw the offender had to be punished with death.

Again it was the Asian Jews who stirred up the trouble.They had done the same with Stephen, 6.9-12. Their accusa-tions were similar to their accusations of Stephen, compareverse 28 with 6.13,14. Paul (Saul) himself had been amongStephen's accusers that day. Now he too was being persecutedfor preaching about the same Lord.30-32 But the crowd had been stirred up and got bigger and

bigger. They dragged Paul out of the temple area andstarted to beat him. They would have killed him if the Romancommander and his soldiers had not arrived quickly.33 The people stopped beating Paul when they saw the sol-

diers. The commander arrested him and ordered him to bebound so that the people would not be able to get at him again.34 However he was unable to find out just what had hap-

pened and why the people were beating Paul, so heordered his men to take him into the fort.35,36 But the mob was wild and continued to scream, Kill him.

They still tried to get their hands on Paul in order to killhim, so the soldiers had to carry him in order to protect himand get him through the crowd and up the steps into the fort.37 Paul's body must have hurt badly a�er the beating he had

received but he did not want to miss this opportunity ofpreaching the Gospel to the crowd.38 The commander was surprised to hear Paul speak to him in

Greek. Some time before this an Egyptian had started a rev-olution to try and overthrow the Roman government in Judea.The revolution had been put down at the time, but the leader hadescaped. Now the commander thought that Paul was this man.39,40 When Paul told him that he was a Jew from the city of

Tarsus the commander gave him permission to speak tothe people from the steps leading into the fort. The crowd qui-etened down as Paul started to speak to them in Aramaic, thelanguage used by the Jews in Palestine and those in theprovince of Asia.


Paul defends himself, 22.1-21This is the first time Paul spoke to defend himself. His

speech can be divided into three parts:1. Paul's life as a Jew before his conversion, 22.1-52. How Paul became a Christian, 22.6-163. God's call to Paul to go to the Gentiles, 22.17-21

1-5 Paul's life as a Jew before his conversion1 Notice how Paul addressed these men who had nearly

killed him: Brothers and fathers. He loved them still, somuch that in Romans 9.2,3 he said that he could wish that hehimself were cursed and cut off from Christ if by that theycould be saved.2 Many of the Jews who did not live in Judea spoke only

Greek, so the people were surprised when Paul spoke tothem in their own local language.3 Although Paul was born in Tarsus he had grown up in

Jerusalem where he was taught the Law by Gamaliel, afamous teacher and the best any Jewish boy could have. So hewas well taught in the Law of Moses and had been very zeal-ous in obeying it. See Galatians 1.14; Philippians 3.4,5. Howgraciously Paul talked to the Jews in this verse, as if the waythey had just treated him was a sign of their devotion to God!4,5 He reminded them how he himself had persecuted the

Christians and had obtained le�ers from the high priestand the Council to allow him to arrest Jewish believers whohad run away even as far away as Damascus, 8.3; 9.1,2; Gala -tians 1.13.6-16 How Paul became a Christian

We have already read about Paul's conversion in chapter 9and so will mention only a few differences between the twoaccounts.6,7 In 9.3 we read about the light that shone from heaven, but

here Paul draws a�ention to the brightness of the light.8 In 9.5 the Lord was called Jesus, here He is called Jesus of

Nazareth.9 In 9.7 Saul's companions heard the voice of the One speak-

ing to Saul, but here Paul said they did not hear the voice.

Act 21, 22 137

Probably he meant that they did not understand what the Lordsaid to Paul.12,13 Ananias was called a disciple in 9.10. Here Paul was

talking to Jews, so he said that Ananias was a religiousman who obeyed the Law and was highly respected by all theJews living there. It would seem that Ananias had continued toobey the Law even a�er becoming a Christian.14,15 These verses tell us more about what Ananias said to

Saul. God had chosen Saul to be Christ's witness and heshould get up and be baptized.16 What does this verse mean? When a person prays to the

Lord for forgiveness, his sins are washed away by the bloodof Christ, 1 John 1.7. He should then be baptized to show thathe has become a believer, a true follower of Christ, that he hasdied to sin with Christ and will from now on live a new life forthe glory of God, Romans 6.3,4. Baptism does not wash away aperson's sins. It only shows that the person baptized has agood conscience toward God as a result of obeying this com-mand and wants to live for Him, 1 Peter 3.21.

The Jews as a people had condemned Christ to death andso brought the nation under God's judgment. Some Jewsrepented of this crime and accepted the Lord Jesus as Saviour.They showed to all by baptism that they were Christians andthus separated from the rest of the people under God's judg-ment. In this sense they were “washed” from the guilt of thenation. Peter said something like this in Jerusalem on the dayof Pentecost, 2.38.17-21 God's call to Paul to go to the Gentiles17 Paul stayed for some time with the believers in Damascus

before returning to Jerusalem, 9.23-26. Here too hepreached fearlessly in the name of Jesus, and the Grecian Jewswanted to kill him, 9.27-29.18 During this time at Jerusalem the Lord told him in a vision

to get out quickly because the people would not accept histestimony. In 9.30 we read that the believers sent Paul away,but here Paul tells us that the Lord Himself had told him to go.

This same Lord is our Lord. All authority has beengiven to Him, Ma�hew 28.18, including authority over


your life and mine. When He says, Go, we must go, andwhen He commands, Stay, we must stay. How wonderfulthat He is interested in us, that He has a plan for our lives!May we be very careful to obey His commands and Hisleading and not hinder Him in any way from working outthis plan which is for His glory and our blessing.

19,20 Paul reminded the Lord how he had arrested the believ-ers before and had approved the murder of Stephen.

Perhaps he felt that these things would help his Jewish broth-ers in Jerusalem to accept his testimony.21 But the Lord said again, Go. . . for I will send you far away

to the Gentiles, 9.15, and Paul obeyed. We have alreadyseen in previous chapters of this book that he preached theGospel to the Gentiles all through the province of Asia, as wellas in Macedonia and Achaia and hundreds, if not thousandshad become Christians.

The Jews reject Paul's defense, 22.22,23Until now the Jews had listened quietly to Paul's words, but

when he said the Lord had sent him to the Gentiles, they couldnot control their anger any longer.

We have seen already that the Jews considered the Gentilesto be unclean and in the Old Testament God had commandedIsrael not to mix or intermarry with them. Peter needed a spe-cial revelation from God to make him willing to enterCornelius' house, 9.9-35. But Paul's listeners had not had a spe-cial vision from God nor understood properly the OldTestament and they found it impossible to believe that theirholy God might have an interest in the Gentiles. So theyscreamed that Paul should be killed and threw dust into the airto show their anger.

Paul escapes being whipped by the Romans, 22.24-3024 The Roman commander could not understand why the Jews

were so angry against this man. He thought Paul must havedone something terrible that he had not heard about. Howcould he find out? He thought a good whipping would makePaul confess what he had done. The Roman law gave permis-sion for slaves to be whipped for this purpose, but it wasagainst the law to whip a free man, a Roman citizen.

Acts 22 139

25 Paul was a free Roman citizen and he pointed out by his question to the officer standing by that it was not lawful for

him to be whipped, especially since he had not even been triedfor any crime.26-29 The commander was afraid when he found out that he

had bound a Roman citizen and Paul escaped the whip-ping. He had been whipped once before at Philippi, leaving hisback torn and bleeding, but this also had been against the law.See 16.23,37,38.

There were three ways for people to receive Romans citi-zenship:

1. By birth, if their parents were Roman citizens,2. By paying a large sum of money,3. As a gi� or reward from the Roman government.

The commander had paid a large sum of money to gain thisprivilege but Paul had been born a Roman citizen. We do notknow how his parents became citizens of Rome.30 Even so the commander wanted to find out why the Jews

were accusing Paul but now felt it would be be�er for thechief priests and the whole council to examine the ma�er. So hecalled them to meet, took Paul's chains off and made him standbefore them.

Paul before the Council, 23.1-61 Paul called the men of the Council brothers, showing that

he did not consider himself a criminal. In fact he had a clearconscience toward God with respect to his life up to that time.2 Ananias, the high priest must have thought this was a lie,

and so he told those standing near Paul to strike him on themouth. This was an insult and not according to the Law. TheLord Jesus was also tried before Ananias and struck in a simi-lar way, John 18.22.3 The Lord Jesus also questioned whether it was right for

Him to be struck. He did so graciously, John 18.23, but Paulbecame angry. He insulted the person who ordered him to bestruck by calling him a whitewashed wall, clean and righteouson the outside, but weak and evil on the inside. How could thismember of the Council judge him according to the Law whenhe himself broke the Law by commanding men to strike Paul?


4,5 Paul was only a man and he wasn't perfect. He did not always do the right thing. However he was sorry for the

strong way he had spoken as soon as he was told that he hadbeen speaking to the high priest. The command not to speakevil of the high priest was given in Exodus 22.28.

We do not know why Paul did not recognize the high priestas the high priest usually sat in the same place and wore spe-cial clothes in all the meetings of the Council. Perhaps he didnot wear his special clothes and sit in his usual place that daybecause this was a special meeting. Also Paul may have hadtrouble with his eyes.6 Paul could see that the Council would not judge him fairly,

so he tried to divide the men of the Council, some of whomwere Pharisees and some Sadducees. Perhaps he was thinkingof the words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples to be as wise assnakes and as innocent as doves, Ma�hew 10.16. The Phariseesbelieved that men would be raised from death, but theSadducees denied this. Paul had been a Pharisee, but as aChristian the resurrection had become even more important tohim. There could be no salvation from sin without the resurrec-tion, 1 Corinthians 15.16,17. Peter and John had already beenopposed by the Sadducees because they preached throughJesus the resurrection from the dead, 4.1,2. So Paul called outthat he was on trial because of his hope that the dead will beraised to life.

The Council is divided, 23.7-117,8 Paul's words had exactly the effect that he wanted them to

have.9 The two groups started to argue between themselves and

their shouting became louder and louder. Some of thosebelonging to the party of the Pharisees stood up for Paul say-ing they could not find anything wrong with him.10 Their argument over Paul became so violent that the com-

mander was afraid for Paul's safety and ordered his men tobring him back into the fort.11 So there he was, a prisoner in the fort of the Romans, and

probably very sad as he thought over the events of the lasttwo days and the hatred of the Jews. He had been so eager to

Acts 22, 23 141

get to Jerusalem and proclaim the Gospel to his own people.Yes, he had been warned at least three times that he wouldhave trouble and be imprisoned and he was prepared for it.Now Agabus' prophecy had been fulfilled.

We cannot know what Paul really thought and felt at thistime, but the Lord knew what was going on in the heart of Hisservant and we read, That night the Lord stood by Paul. Not anangel but the Lord Himself! How beautiful and how comfort-ing! Paul might have felt that he had failed completely in hisa�empt to tell his Jewish brothers about the Gospel of Christ.He might have felt alone and deserted by his friends—but theLord stood by him! He had not deserted Paul. Now listen towhat the Lord said to him: Take courage! As you have testifiedabout Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome. Paulhad hoped to be able to go to Rome, 19.21, and now the Lordassured him that this desire would be fulfilled.

When we look over chapter 22 and the beginning of chap-ter 23 we might think that Paul had been able to say only veryli�le about Christ, but the Lord did not mention anything thatPaul had done wrong. His words show that Paul's testimonyhad not been in vain.

Christ appeared to Paul four times:At his conversion, 9.5; 26.16In Corinth, 18.9,10On his.first visit to Jerusalem, 22.17,18 During his last visit, 23.11.

We too can believe and know that the Lord is with usin any service we a�empt to do for Him. He is there whenwe seem to succeed and He is also there when we fail. Hehas promised to be with us to the end of the age, Ma�hew28.20. What an encouragement to serve and keep on serv-ing Him.

Paul is sent to Caesarea, 23.12-3512-22 The plot to kill Paul12,13 Some of the Jews, over 40 men were determined to get

rid of Paul. They swore that they would starve them-selves to death if they did not kill Paul. They were willing to


face being killed themselves by the Roman soldiers whoguarded Paul if they carried out their plan. This showed howmuch they hated him.14,15 These men went to tell the chief priests and the elders of

the solemn vow they had taken and to ask them to helpthem carry out their plan.16 Yes, it was their plan. God had other plans for His servant.

Somehow Paul's nephew heard about the plot of the Jewsto kill his uncle and went to tell him.

Almost nothing is known about Paul's family except that hehad a sister and a nephew. In Philippians 3.8, Paul said that forthe sake of knowing Christ he had lost all things. Many Bibleteachers think this means that Paul's family took away his partof the family inheritance when he became a Christian and didnot consider him as belonging to their family any longer.

But this young man loved his uncle. We do not even knowhis name or if perhaps he too was a believer.17-19 Paul knew the commander should be informed of the

plot the Jews had made and asked one of the officers totake his nephew to him.20-22 The commander was willing to listen to the news the

young man brought and to believe them.

23-35 The journey to Caesarea23,24 The commander made plans immediately to get Paul out

of Jerusalem and take him to the Roman governor inCaesarea which was the capital of Judea. He told 200 soldiers,70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to get ready to take Paul toCaesarea. This was a very strong guard, but the commanderwanted nothing to happen to Paul because he was a Roman cit-izen.

The commander must have been a kind man too who feltsorry for Paul's aching body a�er the beating he had receivedfrom the Jews only two days before. He ordered some horsesto go along so that Paul would not have to make the long jour-ney on foot. Or perhaps he felt Paul should be able to ridebecause he was a Roman.25 Then the commander wrote a le�er to Felix, the governor in

Caesarea, to send with the soldiers.

Acts 23 143

26-28 These verses tell us at last the name of the commander in Jerusalem—Claudius Lysias. The facts in the le�er

were not completely true because Lysias did not understandright away that Paul was a Roman and almost had himwhipped.29,30 Lysias did not feel that Paul had done anything for

which he deserved to be put in prison or killed, butdecided to send him to Caesarea when he found out that hislife was in danger in Jerusalem.31 The journey started that evening as planned and the whole

group of soldiers and horsemen brought Paul safely toAntipatris, about 60 km. from Jerusalem.32,33 From here the horsemen took him the rest of the way

while the foot soldiers returned to Jerusalem.34 Felix was the Roman governor of Judea between 52 and 58

A.D. History tells us that he was a cruel, evil man. He wasqualified to examine Paul himself as Paul was from Cilicia, aRoman province.35 Felix promised to do so when Paul's accusers arrived from

Jerusalem. In the meantime he commanded that Paul beguarded in Herod's palace which had been taken over by theRoman governors and become their headquarters.

And what about the 40 Jews and their vow to kill Paul orstarve to death? Their evil plan was spoiled, but it is doubtfulthat they killed themselves by starvation. The Jewish scribeshad ways of releasing men from such vows.

Now Test Yourself1. During the early years of the church, Jews stopped obeying

the Law of Moses as soon as they became Christians. Trueor false?

2. Why did unbelieving Jews stir up the crowd and grab Paulin the temple?

3. Who came to rescue Paul from being killed by the angrycrowd?

4. How did Paul address this crowd who had nearly killedhim?

5. Was Paul surprised by the hatred of the Jews?


6. Why was the Jewish nation under God's judgment?7. Paul was a Roman citizen as well as a Jew. How did this

help him now?8. Who encouraged Paul even there in prison?9. How did Paul escape the plot of the Jews to kill him?

10. Who was the Roman governor of Judea when Paul came toCaesarea?

Turn to page 169 to see if your answers agree with those given there.

Acts 23 145

-11-Paul in Caesarea,Chapters 24 - 26

The Jews' accusation before Felix, 24.1-91 The Roman commander in Jerusalem had told Paul's accus-

ers to make their charges against Paul before the governorin Caesarea, 23.30, so five days later they arrived: the HighPriest Ananias with some of the elders and Tertullus, a lawyer,who was going to do the speaking on their behalf. As Paul hadfollowed the early Christians to Damascus to persecute them,9.2, so now the Jews followed him to Caesarea.2-4 We know nothing about Tertullus. He had a Roman name

but might have been a Jew himself because in his accusa-tion he used the word “we” repeatedly.

Tertullusus started his accusation with great praise for thegovernor. No doubt he hoped this would make him more will-ing to accept his accusation.5,6 The Jews were accusing Paul of three things. They said that

1) Paul was a troublemaker who started riots among theJews all over the world. Does this mean riots among the Jewsthemselves or was Tertullus trying to accuse Paul of stirring uptrouble against the Romans? This would have been a seriouscrime.

2) Paul was the leader of the party of the Nazarenes. This isthe only place in the New Testament where the Christians werecalled Nazarenes, but this is the word used even today inArabic and Hebrew for Christians. The Nazarenes were con-sidered to be a party within Judaism, not yet separate from it.

3) Paul tried to defile the Temple. Before this the Jews hadaccused Paul of actually defiling the Temple, see 21.28, and forthis offense he could have been legally put to death. But nowTertullus only said that he tried to do so.

146

7,8 The last part of verse 6, all of verse 7 and the first part of verse 8 are not in the oldest Greek manuscripts from which

the New Testament was translated, but are probably also partof the inspired Scriptures. Tertullus certainly did not give atrue report here about the Council and the commander Lysias,but the la�er was not present to give his account.9 The Jews however agreed with everything Tertullus had

said.

Paul's defense, 24.10-2110 Paul started to defend himself by addressing the governor

politely, but not by praising him for things which weren'ttrue. See what the Scriptures teach about this in Proverbs 26.28and Psalm 12.3.11-13 Paul denied that he had stirred up trouble in the Temple

or anywhere else. He had not argued with the Jews asStephen had done, 6.9,10; nor would the Jews be able to provetheir accusations.14 But Paul did admit that he was a follower of the Way, that

is he was one of the Nazarenes, v.5, which meant that heworshipped God as a Christian. The Jews said that Way wasfalse, but Paul believed that it was the fulfilment of OldTestament prophecies and he continued to believe everythingwri�en in the Law of Moses and the books of the prophets.15 He also believed that all people will rise from death, as we

saw already in 23.6. Many of the Jews shared this belief.16 Again Paul spoke about his conscience. He tried always to

have a clear conscience before God and man. This state-ment was not quite as strong as what he had said in 23.1 whenthe High Priest Ananias ordered someone to strike him on themouth. This time, in the presence of the governor, Ananiascould not give a similar command!17 This is the only place in Acts where we read why Paul had

come to Jerusalem. But we have already seen that in addi-tion to this reason there was that burning desire in his heart topreach the Gospel to his own beloved people.18 Paul was ceremonially clean when he was in the Temple

and there was no crowd around him nor had he caused anydisorder.

Acts 24 147

19 The Jews from Asia were the ones who had caused the uproar and they should have come to Caesarea too with

their accusations.20,21 Paul claimed that he had done nothing wrong and that

he had been accused by the Jews because he believed inthe resurrection. This was a question of religious teaching andhad nothing to do with Roman law.

Felix' response, 24.22-2722,23 Felix knew quite a bit about the Way, perhaps through

his Jewish wife Drusilla, v.24. The statements made byTertullus and Paul did not agree, so Felix said he would be ableto decide Paul's case only when Lysias came and gave hisreport of what happened. Luke does not tell us if Lysias evercame, but in the meantime Paul's accusers had to go back toJerusalem without being able to do Paul any more harm. Paulhimself remained a prisoner, but he had some freedom and hisfriends were allowed to care for his needs. We saw before thatPhilip the evangelist and probably other believers lived inCaesarea, 21.8.24 A few days later Felix called for Paul and Paul was able to

talk to him and his wife Drusilla about believing in Christ.Drusilla was the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa, the onewho had killed James and put Peter in prison, see 12.1. Felixwas Drusilla's second husband. Felix called Paul because hewanted to be be�er informed about the Way, or perhaps he felta need for God in his own soul.25 Paul talked plainly about the Gospel, and especially about

righteousness, self-control and the coming Day ofJudgment. Felix was afraid as God spoke to his soul throughPaul, but he made no decision to turn to the Lord. He hardenedhis heart that day when his conscience was stirred and we donot read that he ever became a Christian. Read Proverbs 29.1.26 He called Paul o�en to talk to him, hoping that Paul would

try to bribe him by giving him money so that Felix wouldset him free. This of course was forbidden by Roman law andFelix hoped in vain because Paul would not do anything dis-honest.

There are millions of people like Felix in the world


today. They have heard the Gospel but have never accept-ed Christ as their Saviour. They are more interested inmoney than in the salvation of their souls. They will neverreach heaven ... .

27 So time went by. There was no just reason for keeping Paul in prison but that is just where he stayed because Felix

wanted to please the Jews! See 12.3. Paul was still there twolong years later when Porcius Festus came to take Felix' placeas governor of Judea. Luke was with Paul during the wholetime and perhaps it was during this period that he gatheredmuch information which later helped him to write the book ofActs.

Paul before Festus, 25.1-121 Festus was a be�er ruler than Felix and wasted no time

before ge�ing into the work of looking a�er the affairs ofhis province. Only three days a�er arriving in Caesarea hewent up to Jerusalem, the religious capital of the province.2 Two years had passed since Paul had been arrested in the

Temple, but the Jewish leaders had not forgo�en andbrought their charges against Paul.3 They wanted Festus to command that Paul be brought to

Jerusalem so that they might kill him on the way.4,5 But God did not allow their plan to succeed. Festus knew

nothing about it, but he refused their request and toldthem to return to Caesarea with him to accuse Paul there.6,7 Festus called for Paul the day a�er his return to Caesarea.

The Jews who had come with Festus made many seriouscharges against him but they were unable to prove that thesecharges were true.8 Paul denied all their accusations and said he had done

nothing wrong against the Law or the Temple or theRoman Emperor.9 Now Festus also wanted to do the Jews a favor (see 24.27),

so he asked Paul if he would be willing to go to Jerusalemand be tried there before him on these charges.10 But Paul knew his own people be�er than this Roman gov-

ernor. He well remembered their previous plot to kill him

Acts 24, 25 149

and knew he would not be judged fairly in Jerusalem. He wasa Roman citizen who was being tried by a Roman court andthat was the way it should be.11 He was not trying to escape the death penalty if he

deserved it for breaking the Law. But no one had the rightto hand him over to the Jews if the charges they had broughtagainst him were untrue. Therefore he appealed to Caesar, theRoman Emperor for justice.

Paul was not wrong in appealing to Caesar. The Lord hadtold him that he would testify for Him in Rome and Paul nowshowed his willingness to do so even as a prisoner. By appeal-ing to Caesar he showed that he believed God would accom-plish His will and that he himself submi�ed to it.

Paul before Agrippa, 25.13-2713 We read in chapter 12 about God's judgment on the father

of this King Agrippa. Bernice was the king's sister, not hiswife. She had gone to live with her brother since she became awidow. She was also the sister of Felix' wife Drusilla.14-16 A�er Agrippa and Bernice had been with Festus a li�le

while Festus told them about his trip to Jerusalem andthe Jews' charges against Paul.17,18 On Festus' request Paul's accusers had come to Cae -

sarea, but there they did not accuse him of evil crimes asFestus had expected.19 Their charges were about their own religion and about a

man named Jesus.20,21 We saw already that Paul refused to go to Jerusalem to

be tried there but appealed to the Emperor to decide hiscase. So Festus was keeping him under guard until there wasan opportunity to send him to Rome.22,23 Agrippa wanted to hear Paul himself, so Festus made

arrangements for this. The following day Agrippa andBernice entered the audience hall with much ceremony, andtogether with the military chiefs and the leading men of thecity. Then Festus commanded Paul to be brought in.24 Festus told the people present all he knew about Paul, the

accusations of the Jews against him and their demand thathe should be killed.


25 But Festus himself could not find Paul guilty of anything deserving the death sentence and had decided to send him

to Rome as Paul had appealed to the Emperor.26,27 Festus had to send a le�er with Paul to Rome giving the

reason for sending him, but what could he say aboutPaul? Perhaps King Agrippa would be able to give him someadvice.

Paul's life before he became a Christian, 26.1-111 There was no need for Paul to defend himself before King

Agrippa as he had already appealed to the Roman Em -peror. But here was another opportunity for Paul to witness forhis Lord and he made good use of it.2 Fortunate? Yes, Paul considered himself fortunate to be

able to witness to such an important person as KingAgrippa. The words the Lord Jesus had said to Ananias aboutPaul in 9.15 were being fulfilled.3 Paul was able to compliment the king on his knowledge of

Jewish affairs.In verses 4 to 11 Paul gives more detail of his early years

before he became a Christian, how he had persecuted thebelievers and why he himself was now being accused by unbe-lieving Jews.4,5 The Jews all knew that Paul had lived as a Pharisee who

carefully had obeyed every detail of the Law.6-8 He shared all their hopes in the fulfillment of the promise

which God had made to their ancestors. What had Godpromised? He had promised to send the Messiah, Genesis22.18; 49.10. But here he stood, accused by the Jews because ofthis hope! Yet why should it be so difficult to believe that Godraises the dead? Writers of the Old Testament believed thatGod will raise the dead, see Psalm 49.15; 71.20; Hosea 13.14.The resurrection of Christ proved that He was the Holy Oneand the Hope of Israel.9-11 Paul gives more detail here than before as to how he per-

secuted the believers. Some of those he had put in prisonwere sentenced to die, and he had punished many of them inthe synagogues and tried hard to force them to deny their faith.

Acts 25, 26 151

Paul's conversion, 26.12-18Compare these verses with 9.3-6 and 22.6-10. You will find

that here in chapter 26 Paul adds a few more facts that he didnot tell before.12,13 In all three chapters we read about the light which Paul

saw, but here he tells how very bright it was, muchbrighter than the sun.14,15 They had all fallen to the ground, not only Paul but also

those travelling with him. Some translations mentionthe goads (stick used to make an animal move) also in chapter9, but this is found only in chapter 26 in the original manu-scripts from which the New Testament was translated.Probably Paul's conscience had been bothering him while hewas persecuting the Christians and perhaps he wondered inhis heart if really Stephen and the other believers were rightand he was wrong.16 In chapter 9 the Lord had told Ananias about the work to

which He was calling Paul, but verse 16 shows us that Paulhad also received this call directly from the Lord.17 The message of salvation was not only for the Jews and

God was sending Paul to the Gentiles with it. This is whathad made the Jews so angry: for anyone to say that God had amessage for the Gentiles, these people that they despised andconsidered to be unclean. But it was true! God's messagethrough Paul was for both Jews and Gentiles, so that they allmight turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satanto God and receive forgiveness of sins, 20.21.

Paul's obedience to God's call, 26.19-2319,20 These two verses are a brief summary of Paul's mission-

ary work. Everywhere he went he had preached to thepeople that they must repent and turn to God, and that theymust show by their actions that they had truly turned fromtheir sins.

This is important. It is not enough to say that you haverepented of your sins and believed in the Lord unlessyour actions show that you have true faith. James 2.26tells us that Faith without works is dead. It cannot saveanyone.


21 The Jews were angry with Paul because he preached the same message, God's message, to both Jews and Gentiles,

and for this reason they had seized him and tried to kill him.22 But Paul could testify to the fact that God had protected

him until that very day and so he was still able to give histestimony to everyone, small and great alike. And what hepreached agreed with what Moses and the prophets had saidwould happen.23 What was it that Moses and the prophets had foretold?

That Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to risefrom the dead and would announce light, the light of salvationto His own people the Jews, and to the Gentiles.

Agrippa's conclusion, 26.24-3224 Festus could not understand at all what Paul was saying

about the resurrection. He knew that Paul was a well edu-cated man and thought his great learning was driving himinsane. The Jews had said such things about the Lord JesusHimself when He was here on earth, see Mark 3.21; John 10.20.25,26 Paul did not agree. He said the things he had said were

true and reasonable. He was sure the king understoodwhat he was talking about for he was informed about Jesus'death and resurrection. These things had not been done insecret. In his le�er to the Corinthians he said that many peoplestill living at that time had seen the Lord Jesus a�er His resur-rection, see 1 Corinthians 15.6.27 Did King Agrippa believe the prophets? Any-

one who knew and believed the Old Testament propheciesabout Christ would agree with what Paul was saying.28 This was a difficult question for the king to answer. He rep-

resented the Roman goverment and did not want Festus tothink he was as insane as Paul. Also he did not want to lessenhis influence with the Jews by denying that he believed theprophets.28 So he avoided answering Paul by asking him a question.

Did Paul really think he would be able to persuade the kingso quickly to become a Christian? Probably Agrippa's con-science was bothering him but he did not do anything about it.

Acts 26 153

Since that day how many people have closed theirspiritual ears to the voice of their conscience telling themto repent of their sins and believe in Christ! They havelost their never-dying souls for eternity!

29 Herod might try to make it appear to be a foolish thing for Paul to try to persuade him to become a Christian, but Paul

was very serious about it. He was praying that not only theking but all those listening to him might become believers inChrist.30-32 Thus ended Paul's fi�h and last defense in the book of

Acts. King Agrippa and all who heard Paul felt he didnot deserve to die or to be kept in prison. But Paul hadappealed to Caesar, so he had to be sent to Rome. Probably theking helped Festus write a le�er to the emperor explainingwhat the Jews had against Paul and suggesting that he shouldbe set free.

Now Test Yourself1. Of what three things did the Jews accuse Paul?2. Were these accusations true? What did Paul think?3. Which Jews had actually started all the trouble in Jeru -

salem? Were they among Paul's accusers in Caesarea?4. Name one of the Christians who lived in Caesarea while

Paul was a prisoner there.5. What was Felix' response when Paul preached the Gospel

to him?6. What happened to Paul during the next two years and who

was with him?7. What was the name of the governor who took Felix' place?

Where did he ask Paul to be tried?8. What did Paul do so that he might get a fair trial?9. Name two other important people to whom Paul was able

to witness about Christ. What prophecy did this fulfill?10. What was the king's opinion of Paul a�er he heard his tes-

timony?Did you know all the answers? Turn to page 170 to make sure

you answered correctly.


Map of page 144

–12-Paul's journey to Rome,

Chapters 27 – 28

From Caesarea to Safe Harbors, 27.1-81,2 At last Paul was on his way to Rome, the city he had so

hoped to visit, see 19.21; Romans 1.15. Luke was with him,for we read, “We should sail . . .” So was Aristarchus, aChristian from Macedonia who had travelled to Jerusalemwith Paul, see 20.4. Paul called Aristarchus his fellow prisonerwhen he wrote to the Colossians from Rome, Colossians 4.10,but we do not know if Aristarchus was actually a prisoner withhim at this time.

The officer Julius was commander of 100 men. He wasresponsible for taking Paul and some other prisoners safely toRome. All the travellers went aboard a ship which had comefrom Adramy�ium, on the west coast of the province of Asia,and was on its way back.3 The next day they arrived at Sidon, on the west coast of

Phoenicia. Probably Julius knew that King Agrippa did notfeel Paul was guilty of any crime, so he was kind to Paul andallowed him to visit his friends in Sidon.

155

4,5 In those days people had only sailing ships and had to depend on the winds to take them where they wanted to

go. As the ship le� Sidon to continue its journey the windswere blowing against it, so they first sailed north and then westaround the northern side of the island of Cyprus until theyreached Myra in Lycia.6 In Myra they took another ship which came from Alexan -

dria and was taking grain to Italy.7,8 They continued to sail toward the west, but with great diffi-

culty and finally reached Cnidus, a town at the south-west-ern tip of the province of Asia. Here the winds made it impos-sible for them to go any further in that direction, so they turnedin a south-western direction to Crete and sailed along thesouthern coast of the island until they reached a place calledSafe Harbors.

Driven by the storm until hope was gone, 27.9-209,10 Around the middle of September every year it became

very dangerous to sail from Crete to Italy because of thestrong winds. The fast mentioned in verse 9 was the Day ofAtonement at the end of September or the beginning ofOctober. Paul knew a lot about travelling by sea—in 2 Corinthians 11.25 he tells us that he was shipwrecked threetimes before this. He realized it would be very dangerous tocontinue their journey and warned Julius and the captain andowner of the ship.11,12 But these men did not listen to Paul's warning and

thought it would not be pleasant to have to spend thewhole winter in this harbor. It seems that everyone on boardthe ship was asked what they would like to do. Most of themwished to go on to Phoenix, another town on the island ofCrete which had a be�er harbor.13 So they started off again when a so� wind blew from the

south, but they were unable to reach Phoenix.14,15 Soon a very strong wind blowing from the north-east

replaced the pleasant south wind and carried the shipbefore it.16-19 They got a li�le shelter when they passed to the south of

a li�le island called Cauda and were able to pull up the


small boat which was pulled behind the ship. They also fas-tened some ropes tightly around the ship to keep it from beingbroken in pieces by the storm. They lowered the sail and final-ly threw some of the ship's cargo and equipment overboard inorder to make the ship lighter.20 And the storm continued, day a�er day, for many days.

They could not see the sun or the stars and so had no ideawhere they were. Finally they gave up all hope of reachingItaly alive.

Paul's vision, 27.21-2521 The men on the ship had not eaten for a long time now. No

doubt much of the food they carried with them had becomewet and had spoiled. Also the high winds caused the ship toroll strongly making people seasick. They were a sad and dis-couraged group. But now Paul had a message of encourage-ment for them. First he reminded them that he had warnedthem not to leave Crete but they had refused to accept hisadvice. So this was the result.22 Even so he told them to take courage. The ship would be

lost, but no one on the ship would lose his life.23,24 How did Paul know? He knew because an angel of God

had told him the night before that it was God's will forhim to stand before Caesar in Rome, therefore he himself couldnot drown and those travelling with him would also be saved.25 So they should take courage, for Paul trusted God com

pletely and was absolutely sure that things would turn outjust as he had been told. Yes, Paul the prisoner, the man of Godknew more about God's will than those who had charge ofhim, and he was not afraid to tell them what to do.

The Old Testament tells of others who also had com-plete faith and trust in the Lord and His word. Read theseverses for your own encouragement:

Abraham Genesis 22.8Caleb Joshua 14.12David 1 Samuel 17.37

All reach Malta safely, 27.26-4426,27 The storm had been driving the ship in the Me -

Acts 27 157

diterranean Sea for 13 days but on the 14th night the sailors sus-pected that they were ge�ing close to land. They measured thedepth of the water and found it was ge�ing less and less deep.29 This probably did not surprise them because Paul had

already told them that they would be driven ashore onsome island. However now they were afraid that the waves ofthe sea would throw the ship against the rocks, so they low-ered four anchors to keep the ship from going any further untildaylight when they would be able to see where they were.30 The sailors thought they would try to save their own lives

by ge�ing to shore in the boat which was much too smallfor all the people on the ship. They selfishly thought only ofthemselves and their own safety and did not care what wouldhappen to the others.

How many of us are just like them. We care only aboutourselves and try to get what we want in whatever waywe can even if it might hurt other people. But Scripturetells us to do nothing out of selfish ambition or a desire toboast, but to consider others be�er than ourselves. We arecommanded to look out for one another's interests, notjust our own, Philippians 2.3,4. What do we read inRomans 12.10; 15.2,3 and 1 Corinthians 13.4,5? Even theLord Jesus Christ pleased not Himself!

31,32 Paul found out about the selfish plan of the sailors and warned the army officer and the soldiers that there was

no hope for them to be saved if the sailors got away. This timethe soldiers believed Paul and they cut the ropes that held theboat and let it dri� away.33,34 While it was still dark Paul encouraged the people to eat

some food. They had not eaten for 13 days and neededthe food to give them strength for what was ahead of them.Once again he assured them that they all would be saved.35 Paul himself set them a good example by taking some

bread, thanking God for it in front of them all and eating it.36-38 Then everyone of the 275 people on board took courage

and also ate some food, a�er which they threw all thewheat into the sea. They did this in order to lighten the ship sothat it would be high in the water and able to get as close aspossible to the shore without ge�ing stuck on the ground.


39 Finally daylight came and 276 people rejoiced to see land! They did not know the coast or what country they were

approaching but tried to reach a bay with a beach.40 They cut the anchors and let them fall into the ocean to fur-

ther lighten the ship and raised the sail so that the windwould blow the ship forward toward the shore.41 Unfortunately they did not reach the shore because the ship

got stuck on a sandbank and the waves started to break theback part of the ship.42-44 The soldiers were responsible for the prisoners and

would be punished if they allowed any of them toescape, see 12.19; 16.27. In order to prevent this they wanted tokill them, but the army officer did not allow them to do sobecause he wanted to save Paul. Instead he commanded allwho could swim to shore to do so. The rest of the people alsoreached land safely by holding on to planks and other piecesfrom the broken back part of the ship. The Lord always keepsHis promises.

Events in Malta, 28.1-91 The place where the shipwrecked people went ashore turned

out to be the island of Malta (called Melita in some Bibles).2 The people of the island did not speak Greek or Latin but

they were very kind to this large group of wet and drippingstrangers who appeared on their beach. They made them wel-come and started a big fire so they could get warmed up.3 Paul was not too proud to help gather sticks for the fire, but

as he put his bundle of sticks on the fire a poisonous snakefastened itself on his hand.4 Satan had tried before to keep Paul from reaching Rome, first

through the Jews who had tried to kill him and then throughthe soldiers who wanted to kill all the prisoners on board theship, but God had not allowed their plans to be carried out.Now Satan tried once more through the poisonous snake todefeat God's purposes for Paul, see 23.11. The people of theisland thought Paul must be a murderer who was being pun-ished through the poison of the snake even though he had beenable to escape death at sea.5,6 But they were wrong! They expected Paul to fall down

Acts 27, 28 159

dead, but the snake had not harmed him at all and he shook itoff into the fire. Then they changed their minds completely andthought he must be a god! They did not know the one true Godwho was able to protect His servant from harm, and whoalways carries out His plans. No doubt Paul had opportunityto tell them about Him a li�le later.

The poisonous snake is a picture of Satan. He tries toget us under his control whenever he can. In James 4.7 weare commanded to resist him and he will flee if we do. Atthe end he will be thrown into the lake of fire, Revelation20.10.

7 Publius, the chief man of the island entertained them kindly as his guests for three days. We do not know who were

included in the “we”, only Paul, Luke and Aristarchus or alsoother men such as the Roman officer, the captain of the shipand so on. We are also not sure if Publius was a native of Maltaor was representing the Roman government there.8 Publius was rewarded for his kindness to the servants of the

Lord, for God worked a miracle through Paul to heal hisfather of dysentery. The Lord Jesus said, Give and it will begiven to you, Luke 6.38.9 The news about this soon spread among the people of the

island and many others came to be healed. The Greek wordused for healing in this verse is different from the one used inverse 8 and does not mean miraculous healing. It means thatpeople were given medical treatment, probably by Dr. Luke,Colossians 4.14, and got be�er.

The rest of the journey to Rome, 28.10-1510,11 The people were most grateful for the help they received

and brought many gi�s. Finally, a�er three months Pauland Luke were ready to sail to Italy on another ship and thepeople provided for them all that they might need for the restof the trip. They travelled on a ship from Alexandria which hadspent the winter in the island. It was now the middle ofFebruary and was probably still early for safe sailing.12,13 They reached Syracuse the next day without any trouble.

A�er a three day stay there they came to Rhegium fur-ther north the following day. Rhegium was at the southern tip


of Italy. Two days later they reached Puteoli, the harbor for thecity of Naples. This was the port to which grain ships fromAlexandria usually came.

Julius, the officer in charge of Paul and the other prisoners,must have had some business to take care of here for Paul andLuke and Aristarchus were able to stay with the believers for aweek. We know nothing about the believers in Puteoli except thatthey received the weary travellers as their guests. They probablyhad never read Hebrews 13.1-3, but they obeyed it anyway. Readalso Ma�hew 25.35,40. Luke does not tell us anything about thetime spent here, but how the love and kindness of these believersmust have warmed their hearts and strengthened them for therest of the journey. And so we came to Rome.15 During the seven days they were in Puteoli the believers in

Rome heard about them and came to meet them as theywere travelling north toward Rome. No doubt these Christianshad hoped to meet Paul some day. They had had for some timethe le�er which he had wri�en to them, the Epistle to theRomans, and had read again and again his words in the firstchapter, I long to see you . . . , but he had never come. Now atlast this wish was going to be fulfilled. Paul thanked God whenhe saw them and was greatly encouraged.

Neither Paul nor Peter started the church in Rome.How then was it begun? We do not know. Perhaps the vis-itors from Rome who were in Jerusalem at Pentecost, Acts2.10, took the Gospel back home with them.

In Rome, 28.16-3116 And what happened when Paul finally reached Rome? Was

he put in prison right away? No, he was allowed to live ina house by himself with a soldier to guard him. Perhaps Lukeand Aristarchus stayed there too and cared for him.17 Only three days later Paul asked the Jewish leaders to come

and see him as he was not able to go to them. This is the lasttime he spoke to the Jews first. Perhaps Paul wondered howmuch these men already knew about him through news fromJerusalem and wanted to explain why he was a prisoner. In hisle�er to the Romans he had mentioned twice his great longingfor his fellow countrymen to become Christians, see 9.1,2 and

Acts 28 161

10.1. Even now his feelings toward them had not changed andthere was no bi�erness in his heart in spite of the way they hadtreated him.18-20 Paul did not want to speak against the Jews because

what they had done to him, so he said he was a prison-er because of the One for whom the people of Israel were hop-ing, Christ their Messiah.21,22 It is hard to believe that these Jews had really not heard

any news about Paul because people were coming fromJerusalem frequently. However this is what they said. Yes, theyhad heard people speaking against this new sect among theJews which believed in Christ and taught that He was theMessiah and they wanted to know more.23 So they arranged to meet Paul on a certain day and a large

number of them came to where he was staying. This gavePaul a wonderful opportunity from morning until evening toexplain the Good News of salvation to them. He quoted versesfrom the Old Testament Scriptures to show that Christ was thetrue fulfillment of the Law of Moses and the prophecies in thebooks of the prophets concerning the Messiah.24 The result was the same as it had been every other time

when Paul had preached the Gospel to the Jews. Somebelieved but many did not.25-27 Finally they le�, arguing among themselves about what

they had heard. But first Paul quoted two verses from theprophecy of Isaiah, verses 9 and 10 of chapter 6. These versesforetold the hardness of their hearts and their slowness inunderstanding spiritual things. Isaiah had made this prophecyover 700 years before and God had graciously and patientlywaited all these years for His people to come back to Him.Read 2 Peter 3.9. The Lord Jesus Himself quoted these verses inMa�hew 13.12-14 showing that they were being fulfilled atthat time. We read them again in John 12.37-41 where the peo-ple refused to believe in Christ even a�er seeing all the mira-cles He had done before them. Finally here in Acts 28 theywere quoted for the last time. It was a sad but true descriptionof God's people the Jews.28 Paul then finished his message by telling them that God's

salvation had been sent to the Gentiles, these people that


they despised so much, and that the Gentiles would listen toand accept the wonderful message that the Jews refused.29 This verse is not found in many of the old manuscripts and

it is almost the same as the beginning of verse 25.The Apostle Paul must have had a very heavy heart as he

watched the Jews leave—his own beloved people, turning theirback on their Messiah once again, probably for the last time ... 30,31 For two whole years Paul remained in Rome. He lived in

the house which he had rented and had complete free-dom to preach the Gospel to all who came to see him. Duringthat time the Gospel became known throughout Caesar'swhole palace guard, probably through the soldiers who tookturns guarding Paul, Philippians 1.13. Paul also wrote four ofthe epistles in the NewTestament at this time, Ephesians,Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. These le�ers containmany precious and wonderful truths. So Paul could say thatthe things that happened to him had really helped the progressof the Gospel! Philippians 1.12.

Verse 30 makes us think that at the end of the two yearsPaul was set free. A few years later he was imprisoned againand was put to death in Rome around 64 A.D. During his sec-ond time in prison he wrote his second le�er to Timothy, see 2 Timothy 4.6-8.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And so we come to the end of the book of Acts as wri�enby Luke, but the work of preaching the Gospel of Christ con-tinues. Today God has His servants in many lands, men andwomen whose great desire and purpose is to tell the lost aboutthe Son of God who died to save them. May we too be willingto be God's faithful messengers and be used by Him to bringmany others to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now Test Yourself1. Who was in charge of Paul's trip to Rome?2. Name two Christians who travelled to Rome with Paul.3. Why did Paul think the ship should stay in a harbor of

Crete until the winter was over?

Acts 28 163

4. What was the name of the island where the people finallywent ashore?

5. Name the first place in Italy where Paul and his compan-ions met believers.

6. Who started the church in Rome?7. How did the Jewish leaders in Rome receive Paul's testimo-

ny?8. Name two important things Paul did during the next two

years in prison.Compare your answers with those on page 170.


HERE ARE THE ANSWERS !

Page 151. The apostles and many other people, 1.3; 1 Corinthians 15.6.2. The coming of the Holy Spirit, 1.53. That they would receive power to be Christ's witnesses to

the ends of the earth, 1.8.4. Eleven. Judas Iscariot had killed himself, Ma�hew 27.3-55. No. Now we can be guided by reading the Word of God

and by the Holy Spirit in our hearts.6. Peter, 2.14.7. Joel, see Joel 2.28-32.8. David, see Psalm 16.8-119. In heaven at the right side of God the Father, 2.33.

10. Listening to God's Word; helping and encouraging one another; breaking bread together to remember the Lord'sdeath, and praying together, 2.42.

Page 311. Many people gathered around him and John in the temple

a�er the beggar had been healed.2. See explanation of 3.15 on page 22.3. The Lord Jesus Christ.4. False. The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection.5. The highest court in Israel.6. The Holy Spirit. See 4.8 and Ma�hew 10.17-20.7. The Church, see Ephesians 2.20-22.8. No. They knew they must obey God, not man, and this

command was not according to God's will.9. That those through whom they were performed were real-

ly preaching the Word of God.10. Because they lied. They acted as if they were giving all the

money to the Lord when they were giving only part of it.God hates hypocrisy.

165

Page 481. They taught the people again in the temple.2. No, they and all the people had said themselves, Let His

blood be on us and on our children, Ma�hew 27.25.3. Gamaliel.4. They were very happy because they had been able to suffer

a li�le for the Lord who had suffered so much for them.5. Aramaic and Greek.6. They asked the believers to choose seven godly men to look

a�er the money ma�ers of the church.7. True.8. No, they had bribed some people to say these false things

about him. They had done the same to the Lord Jesus,Ma�hew 26.59,60.

9. Joseph, Genesis 37.28; and the Lord Jesus, Ma�hew 26.15;Mark 15.10.

10. Moses le� the riches and honour of Pharaoh's house inorder to help his people. The Lord Jesus le� the glories ofheaven so that men might be saved.

Page 621. Saul who later became the apostle Paul.2. To preach the Gospel to other nations.3. To look a�er the money ma�ers of the church at Jerusalem,

together with five other men.4. The Israelites intermarried with the people of another na -

tion who lived in their land when most Israelites had beentaken to Babylon. Their descendants were calledSamaritans. See 2 Kings 17.24-41.

5. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, see John 4.40-42.6. Peter and John.7. Because the Lord told him to do this. He wanted Philip to

preach to the Ethiopian eunuch on his way home.8. Saul was a Jew even though he was born in another coun-

try. His teacher was Gamaliel. See Acts 22.3.9. In Damascus, and the people were amazed when they heard

him.10. They were afraid of him, until Barnabas told them how

Saul had become a Christian.


Page 791. Cornelius was a Gentile and the Jews considered Gentiles

to be unclean.2. According to the law of Moses certain kinds of animals

were ceremonially unclean and the Jews were forbidden toeat or even touch them, see verse 28; Leviticus 11; Ezekiel4.14.

3. That Gentiles can also be saved if they believe in the LordJesus Christ. God accepts all who have been washed in theblood of His Son, v.35.

4. This was a sign of worship and Peter knew that only Godshould be worshipped.

5. Because God always reveals Himself to those who reallywant to know Him.

6. No. Faith is the only thing that is needed for salvation, notfaith and circumcision (or good works or anything else).God accepted these Gentile believers even though they hadnot been circumcised. See 10.44,45; Galatians 5.6.

7. False, See 11.20,21.8. They sent gi�s of money to them with Barnabas and Saul.9. Barnabas and Saul (Paul).

10. False. Sometimes He allows them to glorify Him by enduringpersecution or by dying for Him, see Philippians 1.20-22.

Page 971. The Holy Spirit, 13.4.2. False. It was a city on the eastern coast of the island of

Cyprus.3. Bar-Jesus, also called Elymas.4. The Jewish synagogue. See 13.14; 14.1. They always

preach ed the Gospel first to the Jews.5. Unbelieving Jews.6. In Iconium, 14.5.7. Jerusalem, among Jews, through Peter, chapter 3; Lystra,

among Gentiles, through Paul, chapter 14.8. They reported to their brothers in Christ all that God had

done through them during their journey.9. To discuss with the apostles and elders there if Gentile

be liev ers should also be circumcised.

ANSWERS TO TEST QUESTIONS 167

10. Barnabas and Paul, Judas and Silas. The believers were veryhappy when they heard what was in the le�er.

Page 107

1. They disagreed about taking Mark on the second journeywith them, see 15.37,38.

2. A young Christian man from Lystra. Paul asked Timothy tojoin him and Silas during Paul's second missionary journey.

3. Timothy was only partly Jewish and Paul felt he would bebe�er accepted by the Jews to whom they would be preach-ing if he were circumcised.

4. The vision which God gave Paul of a Macedonian man call-ing for help.

5. Luke was the writer of Acts. Until verse 9 of chapter 16 hewrote they (Paul, Silas and Timothy) did certain things butin verse 10 we takes the place of they.

6. Philippi; Lydia.7. Because Paul commanded an evil spirit to come out of a

girl. This spirit had enabled her to earn much money for hermasters through fortune telling. Paul and Silas were alsoaccused of teaching an unlawful religion.

8. They sang hymns to God. No doubt their testimony playeda big part in bringing the jailer to the Lord.

9. Paul could have accused them to the higher authorities be -cause they had commanded Paul and Silas to be whippedbefore they were tried and found guilty. Both he and Silaswere Romans and it was a crime to treat a Roman citizenthis way.

10. Thessalonica.Page 117

1. Luke.2. Many believed and the unbelieving Jews became jealous

and caused an uproar in the city.3. They studied the Scriptures themselves to make sure that

the teaching they were hearing was really true.4. Unbelieving Jews from Thessalonica came to stir up trouble.5. In Athens.6. He went to the public square each day and had discussions

with those who happened to be there.


7. With Aquila and Priscilla, believing Jews from Italy.8. No, his hosts were tent makers and he worked with them.9. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue.

10. The Lord told him in the vision to keep on preaching inCorinth because many people would believe in the Lord.No one would be able to harm him even though the Jewshated him so much.

Page 1331. That they had to be circumcised in order to be saved.2. Apollos; Aquila and Priscilla.3. It was a baptism of repentance for those who had turned

from their sins.4. Two years.5. In Ephesus; they tried to use the name of Jesus to drive out

evil spirits.6. A silversmith called Demetrius.7. In Troas.8. He had preached it all, without holding anything back.9. He was ready for it and only wanted to finish the work the

Lord had given him.10. To Jerusalem.

Page 1451. False. The early Jewish believers continued to worship God

in the temple and obey the Law of Moses.2. They were angry because they thought Paul had “defiled”

the temple by bringing one of the Gentile Christians intothe temple with him.

3. The Roman commander and his soldiers.4. He called them “brothers and fathers” and spoke gracious-

ly to them, 22.1,3.5. No; God had told him years before that the Jews would not

accept his witness about Christ, see 22.18 and 9.29.6. Because they had condemned Christ to death.7. He escaped being whipped by the Roman soldiers because

it was against Roman law to whip a Roman citizen whohad not been tried and found guilty.


8. The Lord Himself appeared to him. He told Paul that theJews would not kill him but that he would testify for Christeven in Rome. This was something Paul had always want-ed to do, see 19.21. See also Romans 1.10,11.

9. Paul's nephew informed the commander of the plot andthe commander arranged to get Paul out of Jerusalemimmediately.

10. FelixPage 154

1. The answer is found in verses 5 and 6 of chapter 24.2. Paul agreed with only one of the things he was accused of,

that he was truly a follower of “the Way.”3. Jews from the Province of Asia. No, they did not come to

Caesarea.4. Philip the evangelist, 21.8.5. His conscience was stirred and he trembled but we do not

read that he believed in Christ.6. He remained in prison in Caesarea. Luke was with him.7. Festus; Jerusalem.8. He asked to be tried by Caesar, the Roman Emperor.9. King Agrippa and his sister Bernice. See verse 15 of chapter 9.

10. That Paul had done nothing deserving death, but that heshould be sent to Rome as he had requested.

Page 1631. The officer Julius.2. Luke and Aristarchus. Note “we” in 27.1.3. The winds were especially strong during the winter

months and could easily destroy their sailing ship.4. God had told him through an angel the night before.5. Malta, also called Melita.6. 1) The storm. 2) The sailors tried to save their own lives

with the lifeboat without caring if the rest of the people inthe ship drowned. 3) The soldiers wanted to kill all theprisoners including Paul so they would not be able toescape. 4) The poisonous snake which fastened itself toPaul's hand.


7. Puteoli, on the west coast of Italy. This place was the har-bor for the city of Naples.

8. We do not know. It was not started by either Paul or Peterbut perhaps through visitors from Rome who were inJerusalem on the day of Pentecost, see 2.10.

9. Some believed it but many did not. This was the last timePaul spoke to the Jews first.

10. 1) He preached the Gospel to all who came to see him. 2)He wrote four of the New Testament Le�ers: Ephesians,Philippians, Colossians and Philemon.


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