Acts 15:36 - 16:40 Why is the Holy Spirit called the Spirit of Jesus?

hello we're going to be following the jerusalem council that tremendous decision that's made in acts 15 1-35 on how do you bring greeks or gentiles into the christian church it was a major issue now that it's been settled the information or the decision of that council needs to be disseminated among the churches that paul and barnabas started on their first missionary journey so we pick up in acts 15 36 where he's going to be talking about going back to the churches that they first begun in cyprus and then in the lower part of a minor modern day turkey to share them the jerusalem council to encourage them and hopefully to start some new churches so we pick up in verse 36 some days after this paul and barnabas and of course his name means son of encouragement but he is going to be far from encouraging at this point there's going to be a tremendous hair pull here any aren't you glad the bible presents us warts and all there are no super saints in the bible just men and women like you and i who give what they have to god and make mistakes but god uses them it starts by saying let us go back and visit the brothers in every town where we preach the lord's message now that was their intent but god had far more in mind than what they intended verse 37 but barnabas persisted and wanted to take along john mark john who is called mark now remember john mark from acts 12 12 we know that he lived in jerusalem apparently he was his father was dead some even speculate that he may have been the house where the upper room was where the lord's supper was observed i'm not sure others think that he was the naked man in the gospel of mark chapter 14 that was somehow there that night in the garden we can't be certain of that it is obvious that he is a young jewish man a cousin of barnabas we learn from some of the other scriptures i believe it's colossians 4 10. and he was a chosen to be kind of a an assistant now what that meant exactly whether to teach the new converts or help in baptism we're not real sure but he accomplished barnabas and paul on the first missionary journey but something happened we see it in acts 13 13 and he turned back and paul just didn't think it was wise to take a man who had turned back and barnabas said no you give another chance you can see both sides of this but a great great argument ensued and it's going to split the missionary team paul however did not consider imperfect tense over and over barnabas asked over and over paul rejected such a man fit to take along with them the man who deserted them in famfilia and did not go on with them to the work he did not finish the task he said he would do that's the issue and verse 39 a disagreement was so sharp they separated now the word here the verb is only used here in revelation 6 14 where it talks about cosmic upheaval it's a word that means to sharpen a blade and we used metaphorically in the sense of to sharpen one's spirit and so there was a sharp contention obviously paul did not hold a grudge against john mark later on he says mark is helpful to me bring him with you mark seems to be later identified with the apostle peter tradition says that john mark is the one who wrote the recollections the apostle peter and what you know as the gospel of mark a further tradition says that he is the one that began alexandrian christianity alexandria egypt we just can't be sure about that at last barnabas took mark and sailed for cyprus that was his home island he went back to the first churches that they had started on the first missionary journey but paul selected silas and set out now silas is an interesting choice he's often called sylvanus in the epistles but silas in acts he is also a roman citizen and apparently he was a leader in the church of jerusalem as barnabas was it seemed to be very important for paul that the mother church in jerusalem knew approved and understood what he was doing with the gentile churches so silas is in the same mold as barnabas and he took him along with him now after the brothers had committed him to the favor of the lord this seems to imply the laying on of hands the setting them apart from particular tasks we see it in acts 6 6 we see it in acts 13 3 for the first missionary journey and this church set paul aside and will they also set barnabas and mark we're not sure some have used this verse to say the early church in antioch of syria agreed with paul but that's reading much too much into this they simply set off paul and silas barnabas is not mentioned again in acts luke thinks that the ministry of paul is more significant and more widespread in in its revelation than that of barnabas although barnabas is such a great great fellow i'm looking forward to meet him verse 41 he journeyed through syria and cilicia and continued to strengthen the churches now if you look at a map syria and celestia means that paul took the land route back to modern-day turkey and he went through an area that where he grew up in tarsus and so many of us think that these churches are not listed anywhere else in acts as being started by someone so we think maybe paul started these churches in the silent years before barnabas came and got him at tarsus to help him barnabas at antioch now in chapter 16. now he went to derby and lystra in your outline i've given you a brief outline of the geographical locations of the second missionary journey many suppose this took from three to five years a much more extensive trip than was originally planned and a much more extensive trip than the first missionary journey but god was certainly involved in guiding these men where they should go now they went to derby and lystrom this is in one administrative district the province of galatia and apparently he was there on the first missionary journey it says that there was a man there named timothy now his mother my williams translation has a christian jewish jewish but we're not real sure if timothy accepted christ on the first missionary journey or if his mother and grandmother accepted christ on the first missionary journey or if they were already believers some way and timothy just came to the lord through their witness which seems to be true from second timothy 1 5. when paul arrived there though he found a young man that was very active very committed and had a good reputation and paul's going to use him to replace seemingly john mark now timothy is a man mentioned most often in paul's correspondence paul calls him my own son which seems to imply he trusted the lord in the first missionary journey as a young child and had grown in the lord since then two of the pastoral epistles are written to him he is paul's trusted lieutenant with the problem church at corinth and is mentioned more than any other see your uh outline i've given you an extensive bibliography on both marx alice and timothy now it says whose mother was a christian jewish we learned this the grandmother was also a great person of faith and brought this boy up in the old testament scriptures um and that's the witness we have from second timothy 1 5. it also mentions in the pastorals that his gift was confirmed at the laying on of his hands and with prophecy now his father was a greek the imperfect tense means implies he is dead he had a high reputation among the brothers in lystra and iconium now that's very important you might want to see in first timothy 3 7 where a good reputation within and without the church is a criteria for leadership paul wanted him to join him on his journey notice that timothy did not volunteer he was drafted by paul i think there's something to the idea the early church saw gifted people and the early church called them out and and asked them to serve and i think we've lost some of that in our emphasis on an individual call but i think the church still can do that i think you might want to see first timothy 3 1. notice where it says uh it says and so on account of the jews in that district he took him and had him circumcised for everybody knew that his father was a greek now why would paul circumcise timothy when just a few you know weeks earlier at the jerusalem council circumcision was seen as something that was not necessary for salvation well you got to realize you got to combine several things here being half jewish the jews would not accept timothy uncircumcised and the greeks would not accept him because he was half jewish apparently so paul made a compromise here for timothy's effectiveness it has nothing to do with the qualifications for the gospel it has nothing to do with becoming a jew before you become a christian it simply expedites timothy's effectiveness with jews so he has him circumcised later on titus who is a complete gentile paul absolutely refuses to circumcise him in the face of the pressure from the judaizers in the book of galatians so we have to see here paul not compromising a theological position but for utilitarian purposes allows timothy to work with jews um let's see okay and as he journeyed on from town to town to deliver to the brothers to keep the decisions reached by the apostles and the elders at jerusalem and this refers to the decision made the jerusalem council in the first part of acts 15. notice that silas who was there seems to give the report so it wouldn't seem that paul was biasing them on what he wanted that decision to say i think that's why he wanted silas to come so the churches through their faith continued to grow in strength and increase in numbers from day to day exactly the purpose of their trip was to strengthen and help these new churches to grow then they crossed phrygia and galatia there's been much discussion here among commentators about what this refers to some say refers to political roman province of galatia other think it refers to the linguistic and racial province of galatia it's obvious from the greek text that there was a an area of land shared by both of these regions and paul is going to pass through that but because they were prevented by the holy spirit now it's interesting to me to know there's a very negative leadership here in verse 6 where the holy spirit prevented them now how he prevented we're not sure but notice that in verse 9 there's going to be a positive vision from the holy spirit to tell them where to go it's important for me to know that paul did not always know god's will completely here the holy spirit has to lead him by one blind alley and one open door and i think a spirit will lead us in the same way paul is not a super saint he has to walk by faith as the rest of us now notice where it mentions here the holy spirit in verse six and the spirit of jesus down in verse eight now this is the only place he's called the spirit of jesus it reminds me so much of the wording of romans chapter eight verse nine you might wanna also look at philippians 1 19 and first peter 1 11. i've heard i forgot who said it but someone said the holy spirit is the other jesus and that is very true for the new testament the ministry of the son and spirit are so intermingled and interrelated that they can almost be identified with themselves um i'll give you a good place the sermon i'm in the great commission and lo i'm with you always even to the end of the age there's jesus speaking that he'll be with them though from other revelation we know it's the spirit's presence now uh in galatians excuse me colossians 1 where it says christ in you the hope of glory there's the indwelling christ whether from rest of scripture we often think of the indwelling spirit so their ministries are very similar and very linked together so they passed by missia and went down to troas now the idea here about uh missia they tried to go to missia but they were prevented they want to go through missile to bithynia first they wanted to go to the cities of asia that would be where there was a large jewish population in large cities but it wasn't time yet then they wanted to go through bithynia but it wasn't right yet peter is going to evangelize this later on paul is going to be allowed to go into asia later on god wasn't saying no to these areas but it's not the right time for these areas now tried to get into bithynia but the spirit of jesus would not permit them so they passed by messiah and went to troas now troas is about four miles from the ancient city of troy the very you know the wooden horse of troy and all that um it is the seaport from mission and they are going to cross the the sea here and go into modern greece and this is a very important time i think now they paul had a vision one night you know paul had these visions over and over i've mentioned in your outlines how many he had we think of paul's a great strong man of faith the truth is he was weak in many areas and jesus had to appear to him personally and say paul hang in there i'm with you it's all right we're going to work through this thing together several times in paul's life it took a vision took a vision the road to damascus took a vision about the shipwreck took a vision here paul needed encouragement god gave it to him a man from macedonia some have wondered how he knows from macedonia some say he's alexander the great some say he's luke the physician maybe so could lew's going to appear at philippi maybe he was dressed like a macedonian talked like a macedonian i don't know maybe the words a man from macedonia is where he got the idea i just don't know kept standing and pleading with him with these words come over and help us erist imperative and paul is sure going to do it most come to make a big deal about the gospel enters europe instead of asia here i think we make probably too big a distinction there god's going to deal with asia and god's going to deal with europe but this timing it was time to go to greece so as soon as he had this vision i'm amazed the number of times that the author of acts which of course luke the physician gentile physician uses these little phrases about timing now he says as soon as verse 19 the next day verse 11 some days verse 12 once as we were on the way verse 16 down in verse 18 and at that very moment look over in verse 25 about midnight verse 26 suddenly verse 26 again at once verse 30 after verse 33 at that very time of the night he is an eyewitness account matter of fact the wii sections beginning in verse 10 assume that luke joined the team some think the reason the spirit didn't let paul go to asia because of health reasons and he needed luke that's a good possibility from barclay but it can't be certain now these wee sections occur in several contexts chapter 16 verses 10 through 17 chapter 20 verses 5 through 15 chapter 21 verses 1 through 18 and chapter 27 1 through 28 16. so these are certain that luke is with the team at these times and of course he is using eyewitness account that's why he's putting these time elements in late our plans to get off to macedonia because we can't clear that god had called us to tell the good news they realize it was god's will now and they're ready to move we sailed away from troy and struck a bee line that's williams but it means a direct route the winds were favorable we had a direct direct route didn't have to tack or anything uh for samuel threat that's an island about halfway between macedonia and missia it stands about five thousand feet out of the water and they just went right by there the next day onto neopolis this means new city there are several of them in the ancient world but this particular one is the seaport of philippi it's about those six miles away from philippi from there we went on to philippi a roman colony the leading city in that part of macedonia well that's not really the leading city but maybe luke we think we think luke this may be in luke's hometown he's going to stay here when the others leave the next time we catch him is when they come back to philippi now philippi was an ancient city it was originally called trinities or whales philip of macedon ii took this city because it had gold in the area changed his name after himself philippi when the the triumphant beat brutus and cassius in their revolt and set up the empire versus the roman republic it was close to this city and uh octavian settled some of his troops there that's what a roman colony is it's like a little rome and had they had citizens rights no taxes well later on when anthony with cleopatra tried to fight octavian in the battle of actium which is somewhat close uh octavian won of course and settled more troops here so it was like a little rome that's what it was now in this town they stayed some days and on the sabbath they went outside the gate to the bank of the river and this would be the river ganges and that's the common place of prayer for jews who had no synagogue we learned from josephus and you got to have 10 men for a synagogue so they weren't there but there were some women there a place of prayer they sat down began to talk with women who were there among them was a woman named lydia now she comes from thyratira that's a city of asia minor and it was originally called lydia that's where she got her name macedonia was of all the places in the ancient world women had more freedom there and of course that's where philippi is so she appears as a woman of some economic influence and renown she deals in purple dyes unless she deals with the dye itself and the dyed cloth we're not sure but purple of course was wrong very popular romans the army soldiers wore it it was called royal purple we still call it that and so it was sold very well there and that's who who trusts the lord she's called a god fear which meant she was a process by the gate she was not a full jew but she was a gentile attracted to the monotheism and morality of judaism she had not been baptized and had not offered a sacrifice but she did worship apparently with the jews there's a large jewish community in thyroid tyra maybe that's where she came identified with it unless it says the lord moved on her heart opened her heart to the gospel and she responded at verse 15 and when she and her household were baptized this is the first of household baptism with a second really the first one's cornelius in acts 10. this is the second one the third one's going to be the flippy and jailer later on this chapter now we don't know all that's involved her servants her hired people her family members believed along with her and they were all baptized baptism was an immediate thing it was an important thing it was not an option it was something they just did because that's what christians do because the lord said so in matthew 28 19 20. they were all baptized it was there an infant here we're not certain it doesn't say it's a it's an argument from silence but it's the first the oi cost evangelism techniques and she begged us by continuing to say if you have made up your mind that i'm a real believer it's a first class conditional sentence since you know i'm a believer come stay with me and of course she kept going and kept on and paul allowed her now later on paul would make his own way but apparently paul here allowed her to help and she did once they were on our way the place of prayer a slave girl met us a girl a gift of magical fortune telling now this word is somewhat unusual in greek it's the luke uses the word uh pyrothis or pyrois it comes from of course the snake python which is connected with the oracle at delphi where apollo was supposed to speak and snakes became characteristic of that we would say this girl was demon possessed but she was a fortune teller and a slave girl and she's going to follow these men around and continue to make great profits for her owners by fortune telling this girl kept following paul and the rest of us shrieking these are slaves of the most high god and they are we're claiming to you a way of salvation well that's a pretty good witness why didn't paul accept it well jesus would not accept demonic testimony even though their testimony was true and i think because later on the jews claimed that jesus had power but he had satan's power because even the demons testified to him and so jesus would not accept demonic testimony and paul would neither notice the word most high god can refer to yahweh or to zeus it's used in both ways also it says a way of salvation not the way of salvation she was just saying these guys are a way to god maybe that's why well paul in love didn't turn around and cast the demon out of her i get so tickled here paul got agitated at her shrieking voice day after day and and being picked off he turned around and cast the demon out kind of as a an afterthought or an emotional reaction you mean paul got nervous and and antsy about things yeah he did he sure did and boy it's going to get him in a barrel of pickles right here i'll tell you what the demon came out yeah she was a tremendously healed i do believe in demon possession i also believe in the power of the name of jesus hallelujah because paul was so much annoyed with her he turned and said to the spirit in her in the name of jesus christ i order you to come out whoop out it came friends there is no more name in the universe more powerful the name of jesus christ name represents his character it's not a magical use of the term it's knowing the one who is the king of kings and lord of lords that's the that has the relationship at that very moment it came out of her but the owner saw that their hope of prophet bacon was gone they didn't care this girl for nothing and they seized paul and sinus now why not timothy with him and luke well i heard i was reading f f bruce i like him so much he said that silas and paul looked more jewish because they were of course and luke and timothy timothy half greek luke all greek and maybe didn't look jewish but whatever they grabbed these two and the other they didn't drag them to the square before the authorities and brought them to the chief of police now it's very interesting in the in the book of acts that luke is very accurate in what he says about these people he knows their specific titles these have a specific title as the ones that thessalonica have a specific title and he used the exact correct historical title it says notice the the jewish racism here these men are jews against us romans there's an obvious racism here jews were legal but they could not proselyte rome there's a very roman town they got in trouble now here's the famous account of getting stripped down and beaten with rods roman punishment they could deem as many times as they want to not just the forty of the of the jewish flogging so they just beat the hound out of them put them in the inner sail in stock spread their legs wide apart very uncomfortable they didn't lock the doors of the jail in that day they just locked them in these stalks chained to the wall well about midnight paul and silas begin to praise god i think a good translation means singing the songs as prayers to god the other prisoners heard him all of a sudden the earthquake came broke the doors opened just a latch holding them and suddenly they were all loose the the jailer woke up saw what happened afraid the prisoner had escaped because if they had he had to pay the price and was going to kill himself paul said don't do that friend we're all here. even the other prisoners hadn't escaped maybe because they heard paul's message maybe there was their time i don't know the jailer comes in asks for the other jailers to bring lights and says what must i do to be saved i'm sure he may have heard paul preach maybe he heard them singing these psalms i don't know but friends he was out of this predicament that he had personally felt in this existential moment of this tension and they say to him believe in the lord jesus christ and thou must be saved notice the idea of simple belief in jesus christ is the message they proclaim to these greeks the word believe is the idea of a volitional commitment to not just cognitive facts or emotional response that very night he took them and washed their wounds and and they were baptized you see how and where i don't know but paul did it right then it was important to him now the very next day the police said well you can go now paul said not on your life friend you beat us in public and you're going to kick us out no way now why would paul be so tacky as to make them come and deliver him well most of us think that it wasn't just a idiosyncrasy of his nature though paul sure had that but maybe by these officials having to come and escort them out of the prison because they were roman citizens didn't know it they could lose their whole colony by beating roman citizens it was a very serious offense maybe he gave some status to the new church that was founded there maybe it was his way of protecting these new christians from further persecution because he doesn't leave immediately he goes to lydia's house and talks to the brothers paul didn't just do this i don't think by accident he did it in a way to say you leave these folks alone we're roman citizens you've treated us wrong now you don't mess with this new church and i think that's what happened but he went on to to uh lydia's house and saw the brothers and encourage them and then they left now apparently luke does not leave with them we don't find luke until chapter 20 verse 5 and 6 back in philippi so apparently luke stayed to teach the new converts to strengthen the church we're not sure but the we section stop here i think it's very interesting that paul dealt with three different kinds of people here notice he found a woman whose heart was open and he found a slave girl and he found an old roman soldier who was the captain of the prisons and the lord melted each one of them's heart this one knew a little bit about the old testament from her backgrounds of god fear the slave girl knew nothing but she was demon possessed and the roman had almost no background of christianity or judaism and yet god moved into every heart now it doesn't say for certain the slave girl was redeemed but most of the exorcisms and healings and new testament accompanied spiritual salvation not all but most and i'm sure if you were set free from a demon you'd be pretty much following after the one who sets you free which of course is the person of jesus christ in the representation of paul this is a very famous beginning of the second missionary journey we see how paul's ministry was beginning to balloon to the direct leadership of god because paul didn't know where to go and god had to lead him boy it's so helpful to know that paul didn't always know god's will that paul got flustered and had to have a vision that paul got irked and did something spiritual out of poor motives friends it helps to know paul's that way because that's the way we are and yet god can use us just like he used him i've enjoyed being with you and i'll see you again same time same place next week god bless you you

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Length: 31min 35sec (1895 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021