New Testament Fly-by with Chris Brown

there is a lone candle that's still lit on the table even into the darkest hours of the morning he will sit on one side rolling the last bit of tea around the bottom of his cup she will sit with hers full and continue to stare at him she hopes her husband has an answer and yet she knows in her heart he doesn't they will glance back at the table at the list of names and the page filled with numbers and they will look back at each other and it seems like an eternity where no one says a word they don't have to they are both living out their greatest nightmare through a small doorway with a simple tapestry covering it their only daughter sleeps tomorrow's supposed to be the happiest day of her life tomorrow starts a new chapter a new family she's been given for quite some time tomorrow's the actual ceremony and they both know if everyone on this list shows up this will become an embarrassment she will never live down and after all these years of doing their best to raise her this is where it will end sleep won't come the morning will be filled with family and friends coming over even before the dawn plenty of last minute things to do flower arrangements colors little swaths doily things potpourri tables set yards still swept out everything's been clean a checklist has been made for weeks but but this is the day and one by one they start to arrive and mom and dad has a calculator going they showed up oh they showed up oh they brought friends and they brought a guest and they brought a guest and before they know it the small celebration has swelled the ra the wine has run out and the party will end and people will go home a celebration that should last for days will end prematurely they've tried to keep their daughter from knowing we just don't have what it takes to pull this off and word starts to spread mary has been invited she already knows there's something different about her son she knew from the beginning there was something different about her son she wishes joe was still alive to see the man that he's become but when she understands the gravity of the situation she simply tells the servants do whatever he tells you to do jesus reports to mom this isn't yet my time for miracles mom ignores jesus the only one on earth i think could get away with that looks at servants and says do whatever he's about to tell you to which puts jesus in an incredibly awkward spot mom i'm not doing a miracle he's about to do a miracle you just obey him do i follow heavenly father earthly mom this is awkward what do you have we have empty pots fill them with water and serve them jewish vases for ceremonial washing perhaps 20 to 30 gallons each are taken to the well are filled with water and somewhere in the process somewhere in the moving and walking servants dip the ladle in and it comes out crimson red and it starts to be poured and those at the table and the disciples that jesus brought with him knew what had happened even though the rest of the party just momentarily realizes the wine supply is on pause oh it's flowing again party continues daughter is on the dance floor with her friends doing some sort of line dance that most of people my age can't get involved with and she will never have a clue what's just happened at table 17 because a mom was invited a son was asked to come and then he was allowed to work and john will simply make a little note this was the first demonstration of his heavenly power and all those with him truly bought in that this was the son of god from there the stories will race from there it will be page after page from there people i'm telling you there's visions and stories that i sit back and scratch my head and go seriously seriously are we supposed to buy that is that how it happened 5 000 people show up because of his teaching they sit through breakfast lunch and dinner and he tells the disciples you better feed them and the disciples understand the gravity of the situation it would take half a year's salary to feed this crowd we don't feed this crowd we don't have that kind of food and jesus goes well how much do you have how much do we have oh like we forgot about the semi trucks the food park down back how much do we have that guy this kid has got a lunch box and jesus takes it and gives thanks isn't that amazing i'll take what little you have i'll take your insecurity i'll take your doubt i'll take your fear and in my hands i'll give thanks for such things when they're given to me and 5 000 are fed and there's baskets of leftover and every town in every city seems to have a story around a tiny little sea up here called galilee around a tiny little body of water just primarily the northern section it is village after village after village no more than 150 200 people for almost every city small little pueblos of land and blind men can now see crippled men can now walk those with leprosy have now got skin that they show off on a daily basis a 12 year old girl is trying her best to catch up in sixth grade she's missed a month and a half of school with fever with growing weak with death although no one mentions that he's protected that as well she's simply sleeping and when he raised her from the dead he let everyone in the house know don't tell anyone outside what i've just done she had fallen into a coma a deep sleep but but if it's your mission to tell people you're the son of god if it is your mission to let people know that god came to earth kick the door open let the funeral outside that has been started let them know you have the little girl you're holding her she was dead you know it you know it you know it you know it you know it tell her for yourself i was dead this is quite a road show take her on tour with your let her be the opening act let mom and dad come out and simply start a story about when their twelve-year-old died about sending a father out even though he was a synagogue ruler even though he was opposed to this teaching of jesus who seemed to be making a mockery out of the old testament saying that he was the messiah messiah christ this one you've been waiting for for 400 years since the close of the old testament this one that would come on the clouds with superhuman power you don't you don't fit the bill and yet when it's your 12 year old girl who hasn't been able to eat when it's your 12 year old girl that labors in breathing when it's your 12 year old girl with sunken cheeks who can't afford to lose much weight and when you hear stories about blind and crippled and lame and paralyzed now healed you will set out and look and when he finally brings jesus to the house too late mom will leave a bedside even though a daughter has passed on mom's post that she refuses to leave and for the first time she will stand and bury her head into her husband's broad chest he will grab her by the back of the neck the smaller the waist and she will finally let go of the sobs and for the first time he will see her without motion without breath peter james and john are allowed to stand in the corner of the house they know they're intruding on the most private of areas and jesus will slip beside the embrace touch the cold fingers taltha kaume an aramaic little girl get up and breath comes back into her body and he helps her to the side of the bed and to stand and mom and dad are filled with mom mom and dad are filled with uh adjectives we don't have words for what are you filled with when you see your child come back from the dead is it horror is it shock is it disbelief is it wonder is it joy is it all it's all-encompassing and in the silence is where jesus gave that command don't let anyone know she's 12. and if word gets out she's come back from the dead in this culture she's untouchable i've saved her to a life that has no life no life she'll never be allowed to play in games at recess she will sit by herself in school if she's allowed in the class she will grow to old alone she will find herself in the marketplace as a woman once again shopping for one only to have a small little girl inadvertently run up and look what's in her basket and the scene will be replayed that she has to live out a hundred times a mom will grab the daughter and pull her back don't you ever go near that lady again look at that lady that's the dead lady and he knows at prom no one will dance with a zombie he knows and he doesn't care about his reputation in chapter five he cares about her teenage years almost as if to say i can handle my reputation i also want to handle hers she was in a coma she woke up let her have life i thought in reading the bible matthew mark luke and john the first four books in the new testament we had all the stories of jesus until you get to the very last of those books john the very last chapter chapter 21 the very last paragraph john simply says it's time for me to stop writing it's been 21 chapters this is expensive and long i just want to let you know we haven't even scratched the surface of the miracles and the teachings of jesus if we got together and wrote down every day what he did there's not enough books and not enough libraries in the world that would contain his stories and no one ever told me that when you put it all together matthew mark luke and john you have about three months of jesus's life and there's over three years it's not the miracles though it's not the power it's the teaching it's the type of teaching where he's telling crowds this isn't a religion this isn't a philosophy this isn't a god you have to please this isn't sacrifices you have to do this isn't a list of rules that somehow you have to measure up to and the moment you miss one you start all over again this isn't an angry god that is waiting to smite you therefore here is the tightrope that you must walk it is a jesus teaching constantly about freedom and grace and mercy and walking in that and people can't get enough of it and big burly chested dock workers who row large wooden ships for a living leave everything and say that's the type of guy it can follow that finally makes sense here and here and for three years it's been building and it's been building and it's been building ever since the wedding in cana in galilee until that afternoon every city they walked into and every city they walked out of every crowd they approached every time he dealt with people he is about to flip the script he is about to do something completely contrary to anything they've ever seen or heard and his disciples are about to get rocked and he'll start with two of them you and you come here okay i need you to make your way through the crowd i know the city is packed i want you to get inside the gate the very first car that you see i want you to steal it drive it back out here we're going to ride it back in the disciples have to be shot seriously this is very unjesus-like he goes now we're going to pull off easter we're going to do it differently we're going to do with the carjacking go two disciples walk in the city as soon as they get inside the gate there's a donkey tied up damn jerusalem has swelled over 20 times its population every good jewish family wants to come back to jerusalem the capital of judea the capital of israel to celebrate passover to remember that some 1400 years ago when your people were enslaved in egypt that god ripped that nation apart simply to bring you back that he brought pharaoh to his knees and the very last plague was an angel of death that would come over the city if you put the blood of a lamb on the doorpost whoever's in the house is saved no blood of the lamb no one will be saved and the last plague hits pharaoh's household and the jewish people are woken up in the morning with the sound of crying and wailing and are told to pack up and get out they leave without having time to make anything for the journey they take dough that doesn't have time to rise and they run and for one thousand four hundred years your people have been celebrating this the passing over and everyone will come to this city and everyone will take a lamb and everyone will take it up to the temple and have it sacrificed and every family will sit around with flatbread and bitter herbs to remind you the bitterness of slavery and the little dish of salt water to remind you the tears that were shed and a little mixture of date and cinnamon that looks like mud all crunched together to remind you you weren't slaves and you made bricks for the egyptian empire and every family will come in the city and gather and at the end of every meal the passing over they will pick up a cup and that cup is a promise that one day god will send messiah man christ one day god would send a redeemer one day god would save you for good and they've been doing this every single year and in that city on that day for that celebration for that cause jesus says we're about to wreak havoc steal the donkey bring it back out the disciples untie it start to leave someone goes hey that's my car and they're like the master needs it and they just take off not a stallion nothing big no big suvs spinner hubs nothing like that not some fast quarter horse not some race car just just a donkey it's a prius jesus went green just prius they bring it outside the city and with the crowds that are packed inside thousands upon thousands camp outside the city you've all seen survivor you know how to make shelter if you have to for a night or two you cut down palm branches you lay them at an angle you pray it doesn't rain and you have shade and everyone from the areas of the galilee and the getty and the dead sea have cut down their palm branches and they brought their building material up to jerusalem because they know they and their family will have to camp out for this week there's not enough room inside that city to contain and when they see him riding on that cult head and shoulders now above the crowd heading in they grab their palm branches their building material and they start waving them and laying down in front of them and the disciples the hair on the back of their neck stands up this is what we've been waiting for for the last three years of being mocked and laughed at for the last three years of having religious leaders coming after us for the last three years of having strong jewish leaders opposing this idea that he's the messiah this is what we've come for it's a fever pitch and electricity that starts to rivet all around jerusalem for as far as you can see now in these hills you can see the man riding down above the others on his donkey and that's the one you've been hearing about that's the one that all the stories go back to that's the one that the blind and the lame and the crippled and leprous and the walking on water and the feeding of the five thousand that's the one they were all hoping for that's the one for the last two months they've been wondering do you think he'll show up oh the synagogue leaders those that run the temple have put a price on his head but do you think he would dare show up on this day and this week where we in every household will stand and have a cup god send your redeemer this guy seems like he could pull something off messiah christ do you think he could be you're tired aren't you you're tired a tiny little nation of israel only about 130 miles long by about 40 to 60 miles at most at its width a little sliver of land no more than from the border up to orange county as far as about temecula sir ramona you've been left out it is just a small little piece of land and yet you've been a pawn in the major trade routes of the world empires you've been traded by the egyptians by the babylonians by the syrians by the greeks by the persians and now by rome and for 1 400 years you've been holding a cup when are you going to bring someone and in that city at that time for that day he flips the switch we don't walk in we ride and he has the attention of the thousands roman guards are quadrupled during this time they know this is a crazy week they know nationalism and patriotism and spirituality and religiosity is going to be at a fever pitch among their little servants this israel community so i'm sure this catches rome's attention palm branch is down a lane is being split a parade is coming into town and someone fills their lungs with breath and they let it out hosanna and this room looks from where it came from from the other side of the street is picked up the crowd has been looking for something to do in this moment and they've just found their chance it's a mixture of two great hebrew words to save and now or quickly and the crowd starts chanting save now save now save now as they get close to their town someone will scream out above the rest blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord and the crowd cheers to come in the name of someone means to come in their power their might and with their authority save now save now bring the power of god save now save now bring the power of god i imagine by the time they reach the gates the house is built into the walls as if the city needed something more from a rooftop it is yelled bring the coming kingdom of david and it's like a spark that hits the powder keg and the streets of the city explode the last time your little nation had freedom was under a king named david it's been over a thousand years you've been waiting save now save now come with power save now save now set up a kingdom save now save now kick roman butt kick roman but the crowd is chanting guards are now getting together and locking themselves into places and jesus simply walks into the temple looks around and the bible says because it was almost evening he left and spent the night outside the city kind of an anti-climactic into a parade but i love it where does he go one destination into the headquarters of those that have put a price on his head simply to look around oh no doubt the temple courts have heard the ruckus from outside the moment he steps between the columns and walks into one of the gates it is dead silence simply look around and then he turns and leaves one of the most strategic bold calculated moves in all of history you've been looking for me i'm in town i'm calling the shots i'll see you tomorrow my truck gone for the next three days there'll be questions from religious leaders trying to trap him he'll get out of every one but he's also getting out of the popular vote he's not attacking religious leaders he's not attacking rome in fact he's not even speaking against rome and the crowded temple courts that would have hold thousands at this time several football fields long the question is simply asked do we pay taxes to caesar or not see that's a brilliant question if you say you have to pay taxes the people are going to hate you if you say don't pay taxes rome can kill you and jesus just simply says give me a coin who's that on it well that's caesar well why don't you give caesar what caesar's give god what's god's nobody's like dang you're good but he loses the crowd you're not going after rome you're not going after the religious system within a matter of days the leaders know we could probably take them quietly they will try them at night against all their laws against all the rules of their judicial system they will bring them out in daylight and tell the crowd that they have set up who should we release it's common this time rome would release a prisoner to be on good favor in a city that's a powder gag and the crowd chooses barabbas he's a murderer he's an insurrectionist he's at least taken out a few romans this guy's taken out none give us barabbas what do you want me to do with this guy then crucify him and he's beaten and stripped he's whipped he's mocked he's hung on a cross and his followers run three days later i've always imagined him pacing back and forth inside a small tomb wondering how many people are outside he's told the crowd four different times on the way to jerusalem here's what's going to happen i'm going to jerusalem i'm going to be handed over beaten whip spit upon crucified that's right i'm going to allow them to kill me after three days i'm pulling off easter he's told him now he's got to be sitting there thinking i've done every single thing i told them i would do the only thing left is for the stone to be rolled away i wonder how big the crowd would be i wonder if there's a band outside just warming them up don't keep your eye on the stone we are no longer alone banging and was just waiting for easter service stones rolled away jesus steps out crickets the bible says there's a gardener i can do with the weed eater doesn't even know what's going on he's like and he has to go find them where's he find them they went back to fishing exactly where he found him a little over three years ago what do you do when jesus doesn't pay off the way you want to pay off you go back to what you were doing before he doesn't hit him with lightning he doesn't catch the boat on fire in fact he gives him a ton of fish he sits on the beach he says do you really love me do you love me do you love me then become part of this takeover i don't care about rome i care about eternity i came to say hearts i came to save souls i came to save lives not jews from rome do you love me join the takeover from that moment on men who were afraid for their lives and ran you can't shut up every single one of them will die for this truth not a single one rule over not a single disciple or their family we'll say well we'll time out we were all in the cave one night we're doing some peyote we started writing about a dude that could do miracles it was great we put it out there sorry man this has gone too far not a single one of them we know what history is like you see a cult you see a bunch of lunatics they're usually run by someone who is a lunatic you kill the lunatic you lose the cult we've seen it all throughout history they kill the lunatic and this thing explodes and something happens right here in jerusalem in this little podunk piece of land called israel i'm the far eastern seaboard of the mediterranean sea within the roman empire something happens here that starts sending shock waves across the known world and everyone starts hearing the story and everyone starts hearing about the power of rome and one that allowed himself to be killed and walked away from it and everyone starts hearing stories about walking on water and the leprous and the blind and the diseased and it is spreading like a firestorm why because god picked this dot this place on the map where all things from africa must come up and through all things from europe and rome must come down and through all things from what we nowadays were called asia must come through this is the center of the highways of the known world and that's the spot that he picked that's where he put his people that's where he made his promise and that's where he sent his son and this now at this time in this place why didn't jesus show up 500 years earlier why was the old testament so long because god waited for the one time the one place where all roads led to rome and all roads lead away from rome and the first century was the first time in history you could have one event if it was centrally located that would reach all people and this thing explodes and jerusalem is rocked for two years for two years disciples are telling stories for two years peter stands up one day and starts preaching and three thousand people give their lives to christ why because they saw it they were there they heard it they're not telling stories about somebody down in arabia that raised from the dead they're not telling stories about someone off in taiwan who is the son of god who raised from the dead they're not telling stories about someone out in great britain that pulled off miracles they are telling the stories that everybody in this small little land saw for themselves heard for themselves there's the blind man there's the leprous there's the there's the five thousand ask them ask them ask them ask them he was killed in the capital he pulled away the stone in the capital and roman religious leaders cannot produce a body they cannot shut it up and so it starts to explode and you have the other side of the coin you have people love god so much they want to kill christians that's weird isn't it you have an entire nation that loves god so much they want to kill christians that's the hatred you've taken our word of god and you've claimed it was a mere carpenter who we killed you are telling us we missed our entire religion you're telling us we are that dumb we are that clueless and the lion is drawn in the sand two years into it stephen has had enough he's in a synagogue in jerusalem it's time for the reading of the scrolls the young disciples heart is racing beads of sweat have started to come together and they're pouring down his face and he stands and he grabs a scroll and he reads and he goes all the way back to abraham and isaac and jacob he goes back to the promises given to these people some 2 600 years ago he goes back to the very foundation of judaism and he goes to the old testament and he explains who god is and what he was doing and all of his promises and at the end he said and the messiah showed up and you missed him and you killed him and you'll be judged for that it's one of the best days in church ever people went nuts a couple are praising everyone else jumps on stephen they pull them outside in the streets everybody's like why did church just explode do you know what this guy just said and they start beating them all the way to the temple they take him to the temple and he does the exact same speech they take him to a rock outside the front gates about 15 foot up and they throw him off it's to debilitate you not to kill you it's so that something in your body would be broken or harmed so those gathered below with stones could do the rest don't kill someone like that easily everyone gets a shot and stephen falls and it's hurt the stones come flying in and everybody that wants a good shot takes their cloak off and where do you put your valuable cloak saul you can trust saul and they hand it to saul he's a young lawyer he's got amazing education he comes way up here from a place called tarsus he comes from a wealthy family he's a first round division one draft pick full-ride scholar he gets to come all the way down to jerusalem and he goes to the number one training center for judaism in the world and he's hand instructed by gamaliel he's now part of your supreme court your 72 ruling elders oh he doesn't have one of the seats yet but he's next in line he's a hot shot lawyer who has everything going for him and he watches the cloaks he makes sure nothing gets stolen from the pockets everyone will get theirs back he watches steven die and he watches the crowd join in and he realizes this is my ticket up no one has become a terrorist for god yet that position's open oh there's a lot of lawyers there's a lot of smart kids there's a lot of wealthy families no one's a terrorist for god so we simply ask religious leaders can we continue this we've got to stomp out christianity it's been two years since that jesus fellow has come and gone and look what's happened to our city and they gladly give him permission you can jail be kill any christian that you find and saul goes around jerusalem torturing christians he's found out that about 120 miles north toward the coast is a little place called damascus if i can get there he thinks there's a church there's a lot of believers that get together they worship freely still within the confines of judaism in israel he goes to their supreme court and he simply asks them in the sanhedrin can i have papers that you allow me to go and show everyone else i'm there to torture christians and they gladly sign the documents and saul starts off on his way i get this he's a good jew he could come from up in tarsus but he was circumcised at the right time on the right day he's named saul for a good reason his family's from the tribe of benjamin 12 tribes in israel tribe of benjamin your most famous dude ever first king of israel saul that's a heck of a name to give your firstborn boy saul jr get um he's highly trained he's highly skilled and somewhere on his journey there's a blinding light that shows up he drops to the ground and simply that voice saul can be scary i'm gonna do it again all right hold on saul saul why are you persecuting me that's that's always my jesus voice that's good it's always played by james earl jones simba that's it and saul has no answer i'm i'm killing christians because they're making a mockery out of the old testament god i'm killing christians because they claim that you are the messiah but we killed you and now you're i just and saul has no answer 20 to 30 years of education 20 to 30 years of some of the best training from tarsus some of the best university scholastic that you can get in judaism and how could everything he knows and every truth that he holds so dear so much that he will fight for it has just been ripped out of his hands and turned upside down and he meets jesus as a blinding light on the road his companions hear the voice they don't see anything when they go to pick saul up he's blind and he can't see they lead him to damascus and there's a leader in damascus of the church that he was going to kill glennonis and in a dream god tells him ananias i got a job for you and that's like yeah you know saul's coming to town i know we put extra locks on the doors we're praying we cancel church for the next couple of weeks we're all in a little bit of hiding we got plenty of food provision we got water yeah i want you to go meet them meet them i blinded them yes good job we can kill him because i want you to go pray for him for a quick death slow death i met your terrorist he's on straight street ananias has to get up and walk down i can't imagine how long he paced in front of the house in straight street seriously how many friends and family members back in jerusalem how many stories have you heard about this guy what would you do if the guy that was going around north county killing christians showed up a couple blocks away and you found out he was blind he goes and knocks on the house the door's open only a few inches yeah i'm here to see saw there's no saw here in the door shot yeah god told me saul's here i think he also told saul you should go ask him door shut for three days saul hasn't eaten or drank anything he's laying on a cot his face to the wall his entire life his training everything has just been thrown upside down and someone comes in um mr terrace sorry to bother you there's an old grizzly dude at the door that said you're supposed to come touch you and you said in a dream that and he's like yes let him in and nina comes in and lays hands on him and prays for him and his eyes are open and he invites him to bible study he invites him to the bible study that saul came to kill what kind of reception happens there what kind of church would welcome people that don't look like them don't speak like them don't believe like them and have a lifestyle contrary to what you hold dear god's church welcomes the terrorists and saul is sitting there and he can't believe for the first time in his life he's just met community and grace oh the story starts flying 30 years are about to happen in 20 pages right now he's going to go out to arabia somewhere down here we don't know where he's gonna spend time with jesus that's right three years he's gonna go he's gonna be taught by jesus himself i can't explain it there's one little verse in galatians that paul says this is what happened to me in a three-year period he's going to come back but where does he go he goes to jerusalem to whose house peter's house and he hangs out with peter and james for 15 days would you like to sit on that couch peter and james the peter and james of all the peter james and john's stories the disciples hanging out with the guy in the church they started that spent two years trying to kill them and now he's having dinner for 15 days they hang out and saul shows up door opens they probably slam it he's like i'm expecting that can you just hear me out i met your jesus we've been hanging out and for 15 days but he can't hang out in jerusalem because the religious leaders hate him because he's just flipped on them the christians don't trust him so where does he go a man named barnabas comes out an encourager and says i got a church for you it's up to a place called antioch antioch is going to be that's why we have extra markers antioch is going to be up here it's outside of the judean territory it's out on the coast and paul hangs out and he's just as part of an amazing church and in a bible study one night while they're praying god says you know what prayering while they're prayering it up while they're prayering it up god says it's time to go barnabas i want you and saul otherwise known as paul the name change didn't happen because of the blinding light sometimes it's interchangeably it's both the greek and the hebrew name that's happening or anyways so saul otherwise it's paul i'm going to use them both now now they take off on a journey they come across the seleucia over the psalmist they're in the island of cyprus they walk across and they start telling everybody have you heard the stories from this place and everyone's like are you kidding us everyone's heard stories let us set you straight on who he is and what he did and why some people believe some people just entertained by the stories they get all the way to paphos there's a governor's house over there the governor has been told on your island two guys are putting all the jesus pieces together in the puzzle you ought to hear him he brings them up to the mansion he's got his own sorcerer his own little power dude and every time paul and barnabas tried to sell a story the sorcerer's button in so finally paul goes look just shut up and the sorcerer becomes blind people have to lead him out he looks at the governor and realizes i just blinded the governor sorcerer and he goes look i'm sorry the guy was just annoying me and the governor's like hey i'm not gonna annoy you why don't you stay for dinner they stay for dinner they have an incredible conversation and the governor becomes christian and so now he wants christianity to be the religion of cyprus they sail over here to purge their land and they can come up through these places of antioch and pacifia antioch is the same antioch here yes i know it's same name it's like springfield they're all over the place and they start hanging out here in the city as they start traveling through pacifica and iconium they're going to go into the synagogue this is what paul and barnabas are gonna do barnabas has a cousin named mark and they take him with these three guys are gonna find a synagogue on the day of worship and they're gonna sit there and in every synagogue there's a place where someone can get up and read from the scrolls and teach a place in the service that's just open for the body to speak into and every time paul will stand up he'll grab one of the scrolls he'll talk about the messiah and they'll tell them about jesus now this doesn't go well most of the time can you imagine someone coming to north coast pushing larry out of the way during one of the messages and saying hey you guys are dead wrong on everything you believe and you're like gone i mean you got the right basis but you miss the messiah you miss jesus these stories that you've been hearing about everything that happened in the city for three years that was your messiah he didn't come to set up a kingdom he didn't come to kick roman but it was a spiritual thing he came for eternities not to give you a better 60 years here he cares about you way more than just your 60 years here some buy into it some don't they get kicked out of town they go to the next town i got to have my little note sheet here as we start walking through oh where'd i leave off in presidio there's an angry mob that chases them out right here they're going to come up to antioch and iconium as they come over here to iconium same thing they go to the synagogue they start preaching half the crowd likes them half don't in iconium there's a group outside the synagogue that says look when they come outside if we can catch them sometime tonight let's pick up rocks and kill them well one of the believers tells paul hey it was good sermon a lot of people liked it others are going to kill you it's a tough comment card right there so paul looks at barnabas and they're like hey we're new on this trip let's just go to the next town so they come to the next town and the next town is lystra you have a map on back if you want to follow or just watch this later i don't it's just a story i don't know where it's going either and so they're at lister right here at lister they start walking through the street teaching and there's a crippled man and they look down and paul says look i just stand to your feet and walk and he walks and the town's like holy cow we've heard stories from several years ago about a jesus that could do that but now you can do it he's like well it's the power of jesus not us and they start doing a parade and everyone starts rushing out the city with paul and barnabas and they want to make sacrifices and they're teaching and speaking in the laconium language and paul and barnabas are like what's going on and their buddies tell them they think you're zeus and they think you're hermes they think you're gods that came to earth they're running out to the temple of zeus and they want to give sacrifices on your behalf so paul jumps in front of the parade and says guys we're just mere men like you i've just met a risen god but there's nothing different between us just then the guys with rocks in their hand from iconium show up and go um they're right they're just troublemakers they busted up the last two towns and they all hit them with stones and they dragged paul outside the city and they leave them for dead the bible doesn't say it's a miracle but when you stone somebody and leave them for dead and the next day they get up and they continue doing ministry it was either an incredibly quick healing or raising from the dead you can decide what happens there they come back through these other cities they hit the port and they come back to antioch and they sit in church and go guys remember that bible study we had a year ago you wouldn't believe what's happened let me tell you about how some are receiving and some aren't receiving jesus in this entire area out here and they stay in antioch for about three more years well once again the group comes together and says guys i think there's more to do here i think people need to know this time barnabas and paul split up you see barnabas wants to take his cousin nephew i think it's cousin though um john mark and paul's like i don't like mark halfway through this he deserted us and barnabus is like well we're getting hit with rocks a lot it's hard to get people staying on all the way when that's kind of how it's traded i think we give him another shot and paul goes you give him another shot he's not traveling with me he's had his shot one of the many reasons i read paul and go i would never work with him and he would never have me but he's a heck of a guy and paul decides to take silas with him and they head up and they go through they come to a city called derby now this is the second trip in derby there's a jewish woman married to a greek man they have a son named timothy he's heard about these teachings from the last time they were in this area he's become a christian and everyone in the church goes you know if you're looking for an intern timothy's awesome he'd be our youth pastor but we don't have youth pastors yet that's another thousand years you should take timothy and timothy joins paul and silas and they start moving some of you at this time are going isn't this how we got the new testament i thought we were in the new testament books all of this at the end we'll put all 27 new testament books in a place where you go wow if you've seen it before you're just sitting there going i know it's coming if you haven't you're going to sit there and go wow that's our new testament i never knew it was one 30-year story and where they came from from derby they get timothy they come back through the cities and they come up this way paul doesn't know what to do they think they're supposed to go to bithynia but they're stopped they think they're supposed to go north but they're stopped he's confused i love that the bible says on one of the greatest missions of god ever it's okay to be confused so paul simply says we went to troas and we stayed there which is brilliant it's a beach community it's an all-inclusive resort hammocks umbrella drinks when you've been kicked out of town mob seen rioted stoned you just need siesta and they're hanging by the beach aren't you supposed to be on a missionary trip we have no clue what to do we're not told how god stopped him we're just told he got up here and he tried to go different directions and the spirit of god said no so they're hanging out in troas in a little beach community and they have to see a doctor probably because of all the bones that have been broken and the bumps on their head and they meet a doctor named luke and looks like what have you guys been through and they're like let me tell you the story it started with the blinding light but i got 20 20 now just wait this is going to take a while luke closes up his pharmacy in his doctor's office and he joins them and from this moment on in the book of acts everything is with personal pronouns i we and us and our not only do they have a physician to help them out because this is going to be a rough trip but they have an incredibly educated guy who's really good at doing notes even though you can't read them doctor no anyone and he'll start putting it all together and in a dream one night paul has a vision he's supposed to go to philippi they never dreamt of coming over here they thought this was about here and so they crossed the northern part of this is called the aegean sea and they land at philippi it's the first time now they're going to set foot within the roman soil and they're going to go and look for a synagogue but there is no synagogue in philippi which means there's not enough jewish people to even have a worship place either there's jews there that have given up on judaism where there's just not many jews in the town of philippi so they go down the river and the water once again i like this guy and they look for people and they begin to teach and there's a woman there named lydia the bible simply said she's a dealer in purple stop it's a little bit of a google search first century purple die never ever read one or two things you find on google get at least six or eight to find out is there any truth in this otherwise purple dye came from aliens a long time ago in the aegean sea on the eastern side of the mediterranean there's little sea snails and these sea snails emit a tiny little drop of purple dye for two reasons number one when they lay their eggs they cover it with this purple mucus it's the ward off anything else that would try to eat the eggs and secondly it's a defense mechanism when scared enough they can get a little bit of purple out if she is a dealer in purple linen she is incredibly wealthy the amount of people it takes to gather the tens of thousands of snails the amount of man-hours the production that has to happen to get enough dye to make anything purple is ridiculous and if you buy and sell in that industry you've got hundreds if not thousands of employees and contacts helping you out it's two ways to do it either crush the snail and get the purple out or you milk a snail it's true i don't know how you milk a snail but you can or maybe just scare it there's one no synagogue but a dealer in purple lydia becomes the first convert right here paul and timothy and silas start walking through town there's a slave girl that people have made profit on not sexually the bible says she has a spirit and she can tell futures and there's men that own this girl and they will tell her who to work for and who not to work for and the highest bidder can get your futures and they make a good deal of money off of her and as paul and silas and timothy are going through town telling people about jesus the spirit and the slave girl starts speaking they're telling you about jesus the son of god and how to be saved and they're like we don't need you on this we're good and they start to have a bible study in the streets and the slave girls start screaming out they're going to tell you about jesus the son of god and how to be saved and paul's like that's enough spirit come out of her and she shrieks and the demon leaves her i don't know about you but i would have kept her going if the town knows she's got a spirit it's like yeah speak up she's got it but truth coming from the wrong vessel is the wrong ministry and maybe paul has learned from jesus he's concerned more about the reputation of a girl than his and once the owners of the girl sees that the demon has left her they realize now they're broke so they go to the leaders of the town and they say there's some men in here that are stirring up trouble they grab them they bring in the jail at least paul and silas i don't know how timothy got out of this he's like stop breakfast burrito next thing he knows they're being arrested and he's like i'll just hang back paul and silas are taken to prison they're beaten they're whipped and that night they start worshiping god probably because on the stone slab they can't lay down there's no part of their body that isn't bleeding and they're just worshiping and in the middle of night in philippi there's an earthquake and the jail doors open and when the earth stops rumbling the jailer runs down and looks thinking the prisoners have escaped and now he in turn has to take all their punishment and sentence he's about to kill himself and paul speaks up and says hey we're still here he's like why are you guys here maybe for you and they tell them about jesus and the jailer takes him home in philippi wakes up his family makes his wife cook a meal and around candle like they tell the stories the ripple effect of a man that walked on water and who he was and way out here our first converts the roman empire lydia and a jailer and his family all become christians and that morning before 8 a.m there's an awkward conversation across the breakfast table would you guys mind going back to jail with me today they'll be by at eight to check on sales and if you're not there well paul and silas walk back to jail the magistrate of philippi sends words down we beat the guys kick them out of town the jailer comes hey good news they said they beat you enough get out of town and paul says i'm not leaving i want an apology and an escort you probably shouldn't push it at this point i'm a roman citizen you don't beat you don't touch a roman citizen without rome approval in the trial it's a death sentence i promise you everyone working that jail that day got really quiet you're not messing around are you no i'm a roman citizen and you didn't tell us no one asked if you got to get out of jail free card you play it before you go to jail if you have a no-one can touch me card you play it before you're beaten why'd you guys go through that maybe for him and his wife and the three kids at home maybe their salvation was worth more than our bruises and our blood at any rate i want an apology and an escort when the magistrate of philippi realizes they beat a roman citizen he comes down to the jail himself he checks out the paperwork he's got an apology you guys hungry can we do anything for you continental breakfast you've eaten all right are we good can i just walk you out are we fine is this going to come back am i dead what's going on and they take them outside the city of philippi they come over here to thessalonia that's the they come over here to thessalonia and they cross the thessalonians they only stay there for what we know as three sabbaths maybe longer but they're only three times in the synagogue once again the people hate them once again they come to the house to kill him they can't find paul so they take um they take the owner of the house where he's staying and they take him prisoner and they make him put up bonds to make sure that they get john they get paul and silas back so jason the owner of the house is held captive from there then they sneak out paul and silas and timothy they go to burrito with bria where people examine everything they say with scriptures themselves wait you're saying this where is that found isaiah 4 did anybody have a bible check of new zealand to jew wait now you're quoting psalms what psalm is that check the bible make sure it's true they're not people that stand in church and just go well chris showed it larry said it he'll consider it it must be true they're people who have the word of god and they chat is this true or is it not from there they make their way around the horn to a place called athens athens has a hill devoted to all the gods and they have one god to an unknown god and paul stands and he gives a speech in front of the unknown god let me tell you about the one you left out and it is the most important god it's an amazing speech but very few people believed so they make their way to corinth corinth is a giant port city see this little inlet of water didn't take a whole lot of digging before you could get water flowing all the way through cargo can easily be taken off and loaded on another ship smaller ships can be wheeled or floated through this area and corinth has become a hub it's the entire capital of the ki and paul once again shows up at the jewish church and once again the jews don't treat him finally and he goes you know why am i doing this and he starts hanging out with gentiles and paul is going to spend time in corinth at this for one and a half years and he's going to build a church corinth is a place of open sexuality you order it like you do your happy meals you can get a number five six or number eight super sized if you want it is a place where anything goes it is a las vegas waterway it is a port far from rome but right in the center of the rest of the world activity it is a place where merchants military businessmen and women hang out far from home and there's a group of people that are tired i'm tired of my sexuality i'm tired of my porn i'm tired of my addictions i'm tired of my drugs i'm tired of my alcohol i have consumed everything corinth and i am empty and there's a lecture hall in the center of town four blocks off main street where a man speaks truth that you can't get enough of it's about grace and mercy not who you were and what you've done right buddy because you don't know who i am and what i've done listen to me um the bible studies led by the terrorists that killed christians dang that dude may have outdone me he knows something about grace and mercy and in a year and a half little corinth starts to explode when the weather's back for sailing they leave here they come to another port city ephesus paul spends some time the people beg him to stay but he has to leave he comes back to antioch and the second journey is done after some time in antioch there's a third journey he's going to travel up here to all these cities in an area called galatia again he's going to go back to ephesus he's going to spend two years in ephesus he'll make his way back around the horn from corinth he'll return to jerusalem to bring an offering there's many believers in jerusalem and if he stuck to the christian church he would have done well but he goes to the temple and the people in the temple hate him you're the terrorist that years ago turned on us they saw him in town with gentile followers and so now the rumor gets out he has brought gentiles non-jews into our temple you cannot do that so they string them up as a crime they take them up to the leadership they have rome arrest this guy for causing a riot and rome keeps them over nights jewish believers in judaism not christianity gather outside and they take an oath we will not eat until we kill paul and they went to their church and told them the temple were so dedicated to the old testament to defending god the one true god that this messiah stuff has to stop a messiah would have freed us a messiah would have made this life better a messiah would have set up a free jerusalem a messiah would have kicked rome out a messiah would have built a capital a messiah would have given us political freedom and we're tired of some carpenter story we won't eat until we kill paul as that word is getting around the temple paul's nephew hears it the son of his sister he comes running to the guards asked to speak with his uncle tells paul the story paul said you better tell the guy in charge and they tell the guy in charge and now he's got a crisis on his hands dang now that i know this if i let a roman citizen even though he's a jew free and he's killed on my hands so in nightfall with horseback and armor and weapons they take him to caesarea a coastal city and for two years he's imprisoned he'll meet almost every magistrates every ruler of the area in the roman empire they love hearing his stories they're not sure what to do with them you've done nothing wrong rome doesn't care about you we'll let you go as soon as you let me go i'm going to be killed well then we can't let you go we want to let you what he goes i appeal to caesar okay and after two years they put him on a boat it's a long trip across it's crazy there's a shipwreck out here on the island the crete they finally make it up here they get to know they get around crete there's a shipwreck on malta he finally gets to rome and he'll spend two years under house arrest in rome he'll be released for a couple years he won't stop talking about a jesus and there is a god other than caesar so finally they'll bring him back they'll arrest him and they'll cut off his head to this point this is a story of jesus and paul and barnabas and silas and timothy and peter and james and john after a 10-minute break every new testament book you have all 27 is just gonna fall in the slots it'll still be a story who he wrote to and why and my hope is you never see that book the same again the most boring ancient non-applicable book in the world that was preached to me on weekends and i never had a clue that these 30 years we just covered has the entire new testament in it and what it was for and why if you need to leave leave by all means if there's like just two rows left we'll gather up front and i want you to see that book like you've never seen it before you may even know what's in it some of your favorite verses and stories but who wrote it and when and why and what city that landed in makes everything written in those pages come to life i had uh some people come up and say uh hey some of that i've heard you do before and i'm like yeah it's um it's the same bible i've been teaching here now for uh over 14 years and uh it'd be nice just to make up new stuff all the time and get fresh material but it's it's the same book now we're going to put it all together we're coming in still it's good wow most of you came back i lost that bet big time big time so now when you walk into church on the weekends you carry this book old testament new testament new testament 27 books and you've already heard the story of every single one of them you just got it all 27 books you have now heard and seen all we're going to do for the rest of this and it shouldn't take us an hour by any means is just go back and put the pieces together let's start with number one he's a tax collector in jerusalem he knows he's hated but he traded that for wealth it's nothing like our system it's not that well you have to pay taxes the percentage of your income process no no no remember rome now owns you your people your land your servants to rome rome collects taxes rome is smart enough to know we're not going to send our guys out from rome all over the known world to collect taxes no one's going to like that they're going to be beaten down we're going to demand taxes be collected from your city by your people and here's how we're going to do it we'll allow you to bid on taxes for this next year and so is an amazing system rome set up for the entire quadrant of jerusalem and the surrounding hills and the shephelah all the way down to the eastern mediterranean next thursday 2 p.m if you're interested in collecting the taxes for that you show up and it's a bidding war where do our taxes start this year and someone says i'll collect fifty thousand dollars and someone goes i'll collect sixty thousand dollars seventy thousand dollars eighty thousand you outbid yourself now you gotta be shrewd because if you can't come up with the taxes that you bid on your head is on the line but you're allowed to keep a percentage of that and so everyone understands that you have out bid you have jacked my taxes up over and over and over again just to pad your pockets and when the tax man comes you can't say no because the power of the roman government is behind them so they're jewish people who collect taxes from jewish people but they've sold out their own people they've ripped them off in order to live a life of luxury and levi is one such guy and somewhere in his brokenness of materialism and wealth jesus walks by the booth there's conversation there's story and he leaves shop much like luke did up in troas i have all that money can buy and there's no price on what i really want and i'm following you your new testament starts with his book he's called matthew he's also called levi and he writes a book he's now a jew writing to jewish people he's writing from this jerusalem area your first book in the new testament matthew this tax collector simply wants to write i want to tell you what i did with jesus for three years i want to tell you as one of his disciples what it was like i want to tell you primarily that he is king of the jews this guy was the one we were waiting for because he's a jew and because he's riding the jews he's going to use more old testament quotes than anybody else he's going to use more prophecy than anyone else he wants to start his entire book with the lineage going all the way back and all the way through david just to show that jesus fulfills the prophecy of the jews and the very first book in your bible is simply called matthew your second book is called mark mark lived in jerusalem his mother mary had a house there i've got a theory i think it's supported by the bible even though i can't say it for sure but i think i'm writing in heaven i'm just going to say i told you so i think mark's house had an upper room where the last supper was held here's why mark is going to write a book he's going to write a book to the christian world he was young when jesus was around jerusalem but he became the traveling companion of peter yes this is the same mark by the way that went on missionary journeys and got kicked out this is the same mark that is the cousin of encourager barnabas and they had the dispute and paul said look when the rock started getting thrown he left us he's no good for anything and god said he's good enough to write bible i think you missed that one paul and every matthew mark luke john four books that talk about the life of jesus talk about that last night talk about the death talk about the crucifixion talk about going out into the garden talking about going out with the twelve jesus knew what was gonna happen if they came to pick jesus up in the city a riot of epic proportions would have busted out he took his disciples outside the city he went to the garden no one has to go down but him and only in the book of mark it says this as the disciples ran there was a young man watching the roman guards tried to grab him he ducked out of his night clothes and he ran away naked did you ever see that in a film strip was that ever in a sunday school did you ever get to color the naked kid the night of the crucifixion no one ever told me that story it's a little verse only in the book of mark and you read that and go what the heck was that about you go to matthew he talks about jesus the guard and the disciples doesn't talk about a naked kid running away you go to luke he talks about the crucifixion doesn't know you go to john he talks about that night he doesn't talk about a little naked kid running away mark puts it in why here's what i think his house is where the church used to meet his house is where the upper room was the guards came that night and probably woke up the entire family they want to know where jesus the disciple was judas had sold them out judas had left the upper room to go say now's your time we can get him and when they came back jesus had taken the disciples outside the city i bet they woke up a young kid down below named mark who had a passion and love for jesus and disciples maybe at the age of 11 or 12 he sat with wide-eyed wonder at who these men were and what they were doing in his house and my bet is with just his little night gone on he ran as fast as he could to get to the garden and by the time he got there there were guards and there were disciples and peter was getting an ear cut off and disciples ran and making commotion trying to get back home they tried to grab him and being a little squirly guy he just ducked out of his gown and ran home which is nothing but his underoos on i think it's mark zway putting in the text i was there without saying i was there his name is john mark he's the cousin of barnabas he writes the second book we have matthew and we have mark he writes from rome to rome later on in life he's in rome with peter 30 years after all this has happened and he writes a book to the roman world he doesn't concerns concern himself a whole lot with old testament with prophecies he knows all the people up in this area don't really care about judaism and what was happening in the old testament he's just trying to get out to everybody this is savior and this is lord he's the shortest of the four books of jesus that's why it's my favorite remember i told you here they picked up a guy named luke luke matthew mark luke is the third book he's going to write an orderly account he's going to make his way not only is he going to write everything that i just said some of you came up here and said where'd you get that story from we're about to get to it luke's going to come back here and make eyewitness accounts every leper every blind man every crowd every synagogue ruler everybody he could find tell me the story uh-huh spit a loogie put it on your eyes uh-huh how many fingers am i holding up dang you're good got it next and luke's gonna use his education his doctor mine and he's going to put together the more store account he has he's going to be the gentile author the non-jewish guy that gets to write the story of jesus matthew mark and luke they're called synoptics it's a big word just means simply sharing the same or having the same view because matthew mark and luke the first three books in your bible all concern themselves with jesus they share most of the same miracles most of the same teaching and it's all right here oh there's discrepancies well and marcus said one blind guy came and lucas said two blind guys came can't trust the bible and i'm like seriously seriously two thousand years ago these stories happened the bible is written by 40 different authors over hundreds of years apart and what you call them on is one blind guy versus two seriously that's the discrepancy you find in the bible well if that's the discrepancy you find in life throw everything away mark didn't say there's only one he just talked about one luke saw from eyewitnesses i also step back and read the book of john that says so much of what he did we didn't record i look at him go how do we know he didn't heal 40 or 50 blind men at different times and ones twos and threes how do we know they're even the same stories they're just writing about the miracles matthew mark and luke synoptic gospels good news the stories of jesus your fourth book is john john is the only one of the disciples that wasn't martyred john is the only one of the 12 that is allowed to die of old age he will spend a couple years in ephesus in this church right here he will become a main figure for the church of ephesus then they're going to exile him out to the island and that's where he's going to spend his time he's not gonna be around the public anymore but they won't kill him early church tradition says they tried to boil him alive so he was an incredibly disfigured guy in his old older age and john's gonna write a book it's different than matthew mark and luke he's gonna write it some 30 to 40 years after matthew mark in luke it's as if he's saying look you already have matthew mark and luke's stories they're awesome i was there i saw it he's the last of the mohicans he's dying of old age he realizes there's so many stories and john's going to take a different approach very few miracles no parables in the book of john john is just trying to write to everybody why he was the son of god luke's going to write more doctrinal and medical stuff in his book john doesn't care about the main action the stories he's got a theology of just getting out the last book you need to know about jesus you've heard the stories the teaching the miracles matthew mark luke incredible let me tell you why it was the son of god and let me tell you why you can bank on that let me tell you why you can base your death and your eternity on that the very next book is called acts in your bible a-c-t-s acts it's the actions of all that happen everything i told you in the first hour on this board comes from the book of acts read it yourself it takes about 45 minutes to read the book of acts 30 years after jesus was crucified and risen again all of this happens and the doctor was on the journey and the doctor write it down he goes let me tell you from philippi from troas on let me tell you this is what we did this is what we did this is what we did this is what i saw this was our trip this was our mission this is what we did and it is an eyewitness account of the actions of the ripple effect of this life of jesus down here in jerusalem 30 years we covered therefore luke is going to write more of the new testament than anyone else in just two books luke and acts by volume by word count more than any other author and he's going to start and just say i'm giving you a thorough eyewitness and account of everything i saw of everything we did and the part i have to go back to on the life of jesus i'm going to give you a thorough eyewitness account of what i've investigated and what i've heard for myself matthew mark luke the later book of jesus john four books of jesus now the acts of what happened from here on out all on these journeys all in these spots all as paul was planning these churches and leaving little groups of bible studies and believers he had to stay in touch he would hear back reports here's what's going on in colossae here's what's going on in philippi here's what's going on in ephesus so he would sit down when given the time when they weren't being chased about or being stoned to death when he had time for like three months in corn he would sit and write letters to places some of these churches he started eight years earlier and he hasn't been able to get back to i just want you to write a letter about what's going on two big ones first and second corinthians we come to next remember i talked about corinth the las vegas on the waterway it needs some letters written to it they've got some serious problems so paul has to write you shouldn't sleep with your stepmom i mean shouldn't have to say it but it's there by the way don't get drunk doing communion that's not good either man these people are new on all this stuff let me tell you about idol worship we got to clear that up let me tell you about false teachings we have to clear that up let me talk to you a lot about sexual immorality we're going to hear a lot about sexual immorality in first corinthians why because there's a name for someone who is sexually immoral in the first century in rome it was called the corn zone mine a corinthian your town is the name for sexually immoral people how would you like that really really people go oh you're acting like a san marcos person and you're like dang have we gotten that bad and it's not in north county like people in philadelphia are like where are you from san marcos i mean within a period of decades the roman empire is using a corn zomi a corinthian as a sexually loose person so you got a church they love jesus and they don't know a lot so they're loving a lot of other things as well and so paul has to write some letters saying let me tell you because of the grace of god and what he did let me tell you how you give your body back let me tell you how your body is going to be a temple let me tell you about how you're going to honor god not what you're doing to please him not what you do to work up for him but in light of what he did and what he saved you from let me tell you because of now you know god's love for you what your response should be we have first corinthians second corinthians he has to write another letter back because people are accusing him that he was only in it for money and he was stirring himself and he was a false teacher so paul has to defend himself in second corinthians and he has to write about don't listen to false teachers here's what the true gospel is and here's the truth that you have to hold on to the next letter we have is galatians galatians isn't to a city it's to a region galatia galatia isn't a city it's a region remember i told you all those first little churches he hit where they had riots and mobs and people tried to make sacrifices to zeus and then he healed a crippled man and then all these people here stoned him and left him for dead and then they picked up this whole area is called galatia so paul doesn't write a letter to a church because they're all linked together about eight of them in here he just writes galatians because they're closer in proximity to jerusalem than the rest of the roman empire there's more jews here remember he spent more time in the synagogues here he didn't really make a flip the switch to really reach non-jews until he was out here in corinthians because they're jews they've got an issue i love god i love the grace of god but the longer paul is gone they slip back into legalism they're slipping back into the old testament they're slipping back into everything jesus came and died for and says it is finished it is done i've completed it and they slip back into legalism so paul writes the book called galatians to this group of people and says you have freedom in christ by the way your freedom isn't an excuse for bad behavior why are you committing adultery freedom in christ you haven't been sober in three days freedom and guys he's like let me tell you your freedom in christ should be used to serve and to free others and in a nutshell this is the book of galatians next we have in the bible what's called prison epistles for the two years that he is here and from rome the two years in house arrest he is going to write ephesus remember i told you he stayed there for over two years he's got a great love affair with the city of ephesus there's incredible work happening in the city of ephesus if corinth has the corn of the market on sexuality in this day and age ephesus has the corn of the market on black magic the dark arts ephesus is where you go to buy your abracadabras ephesus is where you go to buy your incantations ephesus is where you go to buy your curses for your enemies and your blessings for you and your family you wear the blessings close to your chest under your garment you buy the scrolls of curses and you bury them in your enemies field and you hope he doesn't find him and bury them in yours ephesus is the home of the goddess of diana or artemis by its greek or roman name the goddess of fertility the goddess of many breasts it is one of the major wonders of the world at that time the size and scope of this palace it is room after room after room corridor after corridor after corridor of room after room after room you worship you sacrifice and you indulge in anything sexual with the temple prostitutes it's hard to compete with the church down the street when that's the church down the street but paul's church in two years has made such a dent in the idol business and the black market in ephesus that they call a business meeting in the town hall and everyone comes together and says if you notice no one's buying the shrines anymore no one's buying the idols anymore and a riot breaks out of epic proportions and they try to kill paul and the christian leaders there so from prison he will write a letter to the church that he spent two years planting and doing in ephesus he's going to talk about what you need to put on and put off you put off the old self and here's what you put on in christ you have to put off the old behavior and here's what you put on in christ you put off the old you put on the new you're a new creation stop going back to the old ephesians stop going back to the old way of life he's going to talk about the armor of god some of you may have heard that here's how you put on the armor of god here's the helmet of salvation here's the breast prayed of righteousness here's what you wear as a christian and he's going to write ephesians 5. i need you guys to sit down and just be quiet on this one in marriage i needed to submit to each other i want to make sure you hear each other first because you're not going to like what comes next both of you wives i need to submit to your husband as to the lord notice i added that quickly not because he deserves it not because he's earned it not because you love him or like him anymore because you are a christian you're going to submit and you're going to love your husband husbands i need you to love your wives as christ loved the church notice i told you how as the one who gave himself up for his bride i need you to present her to yourself in your eyes for her hearing and her emotional and her mentality that she is without stain that she is without wrinkle that she is without blemish i don't care how old she is i don't care how many years she has i don't care how many kids she has delivered you present her to yourself as radiant radiant and it sent shock waves in the greek and roman empire women are to be used and to bear male sons to keep the home clean if you invite anyone over and to feed and clothe you to sacrificially die for a woman is nonsense husbands are not to be respected they are to be feared and paul writes a book from prison and he takes marriage in a greek and roman world and he shreds it and says we're done the churches marriages and families will look radically different than anything outside those walls and you're doing it because you're a christian not because anybody's earned it or deserved it and down the street there's the temple to artemis and diana and the men have to stop going we've heard ephesians 5 before but have you ever sat in the dark city of ephesus and heard it for the first time and realized what a game changer this was and for every woman touched by the gospel in the words of jesus he writes it ins now she has value she has worth she is the daughter of the king and if you cannot love her don't expect to have a great relationship with her father that's why i've always challenged men at north coast start our prayers not with dear heavenly father but dear father-in-law it's a constant reminder if you're on good terms with god by how you're treating his daughter in ephesians 5 in that port city where anything goes split the fabric of marriage once and for all and put it back together god's ways ephesians there's philippians one of the most heartfelt letters that paul will ever write he will write again in prison in rome waiting a death sentence and he will write to philippi remember lydia remember little purple snails remember at jailer remember there's not a synagogue remember she's must have some wealth this people this people in this place and a jailer that realized you guys saved my life i should have died tonight because the earthquake you would have split these people become the most generous givers paul has they're constantly giving to him they're constantly supporting to him so from prison he writes the church in philippi we call it philippians let me tell you he says i don't know if i'm going to live or die and they're bonus if they're asking me to choose they're both such great decisions i don't know what i would choose i mean if i live i'm going to keep telling people about jesus but if i die i get to see jesus and i tell you this telling people it's taken a toll on me four years now total of imprisonment is going on between caesarea and between up in rome he goes let me tell you what has happened though do you know that they have someone with me in howdy rest someone has chained with me do you know how many guards i talk to every day about jesus do you know they have to go home and love their wives differently yes the roman elites are starting to sacrificially love their wives and their wives only he goes i always wanted to do a ministry in rome i just didn't know it would be a prison ministry but in my prison ministry i'm reaching the palace through the palace guards by the way thanks for your support and your generosity i know god will richly provide for all your needs don't we love that verse out of philippians well my god will richly provide for all my needs that's if you are a generous philippian-type giver not a stingy christian who just wants more or needs more that was written to sellers of purple that said what do you need next what do you need next what do you need next and he writes his deer group and the people in philippi and it's simply called philippians oh he leaves them by the way with his devotion to christ and a challenge don't drift away and whatever you hear about me know i'm good either decision is great hold on tight and don't drift away the next book is colossians ephesians philippians colossians all written from prison in rome colossians isn't even on your map it's here between ephesians just below antioch right in this area right here ironically it's the only city that paul never went to its coliseum is the name of the city and that where it's called colossians as far as we know paul never visited he sends them award greetings he's sending brothers and sisters in christ it was probably started by his church in ephesus people traveling through brothers sisters you know how video venues happen bam ramona and he's like i haven't even gone there that's two two on ramona tonight that's good that's a that's a record um it's a warning against false prophets against here's what's happening in this area again we have a lot of jews in this area that are still finding out about god but holding on to old customs since he wasn't able to teach and plant this church with his own stuff they've got a mixture of judaism christianity eastern mysticism and greek philosophy colossians is all about the counterfeit you know the counterfeit by knowing what is true here is the true gospel here's who jesus is this incredible detailed colossians 1. let me tell you who jesus is he is the very icon of god when you tap jesus he's the app of god when you hit jesus you get all of god he was the firstborn of all creation made before all creation the maker of all creation it is a prison rant to a church in colisey saying don't fall for the counterfeit hold on to the truth i wasn't there to teach you myself but this book will get you through it it's an incredibly clear teaching of jesus next in the new testament first and second thessalonians remember they left philippi and they moved over here to thessalon thessalonians or thessalonica and as they're here in thessalonica is where another riot broke out they have to get paul out of there at night they take his house the owner of the house he's staying at jason they take him and make him put up bail which by the way the bible doesn't say it but it probably means jason was killed when you post bond and the guy you're posting bond for you sneak out of town well you don't do that to the roman government my bet is a household that allowed paul to stay there gave their lives to protect the work going on my brother did his entire phd on this 500 and some pages just on the court hearing of thessalonica he's so much smarter than me it's awesome i know doesn't doing much here's the other thing the first book first thessalonians he's concerned that they're drifting away comes there and silas comes back and goes they're not drifting away they're holding strong he talked to him in the first book about end times about his second coming now he's getting questions from him going man so jesus came is it coming now is this the second coming we're being persecuted so 2nd thessalonians has a lot of what we call the rapture the second coming eschatological theology the last days the end times what is happening you're going to get quite a bit of that in first and second thessalon thessalonians because that's what they were interested in next you have first and second timothy remember ephesus the big dark dirty city paul set up for two years when he left he left a pastor there a kid an intern that would make a great youth pastor from derby named timothy after doing these trips for a couple years with paul paul said you're ready son and he put him as the pastor of that church in ephesus just down the street from the temple of the goddess of sexuality and first timothy says don't let anyone look down on your youthfulness you may not have the long white beard you may not have the wrinkles under the eyes you may not look like an elder in jewish terms you set an example for everyone in that city by your life by your speech by your purity by your love and timothy wants to take the city by storm he tells him how to pick elders how to do church how to run church first timothy is a great book he's going to write a second book called titus we'll get to that in a second because in your new testament first and second timothy are together for order some three to four years later he writes the second book second timothy to ephesus almost 30 times he begs timothy don't give up don't give up don't give up don't give up you've been doing ministry for about three to four years now and this world is kicking your butt you're not making a dent your church is just below a billboard that says what happens in ephesus stays in ephesus and just when you reach one sailor 100 more come into port they're not there for your church they're there for the temple prostitutes and timothy wants to throw in the towel and in second timothy chapter 2 for me personally not in teaching but just personally one of my favorite chapters in the bible have you forgotten that i told you you're in a battle and you're surprised that you're getting shot at it's a little kick in the butt to timothy have you forgotten we're at war here and you want your life just to be easy i need you to fight like a good soldier i need you to please your commanding officer don't get caught up in the enemy schemes i need you to run this race like a good athlete stop cutting corners timothy i want you to look at the farmers and realize that they don't get any paycheck on the 15th and 30th they have no idea what all their blood sweat toil all the expense goes in the land they won't know until the harvest if anything's going to pan out and i want you to know buddy you're in ministry and there's no harvest yet so stop whining about yourself and now let me encourage you you're sitting in your church in ephesus whining i'm in chains in rome checkmate let me tell you what's not chained the gospel of jesus christ is not chained you cannot confine it you cannot lock it behind doors you cannot put it in prison it is loose it is alive it is well it is taking captives and it is setting them free and for that i will keep in chains and for that i will stay in prison and for any elect for anyone that ever comes to know christ because of my suffering because of what i'm doing i'm going to count it worthy what's your excuse keep on with the fights and he sent the letter the second one to timothy and ephesus little did timothy or paul know it's the last letter he will ever write they will cut off his head shortly after so his last words are i will take on any chains and suffering if it means someone comes to know christ wow those words carry a little more weight now don't they like i said in between those two books he wrote one called titus titus is another leader that he left titus is a pastor in the island of crete and he's simply writing an encouragement to him it's a small little book on just how to pick elders how to run church operations how to finish the fight how to stay away from false teaching there's a weird little book we're coming down to the very end of the new testament called philemon philemon is a one-page book sometimes i scratch my head and go why'd that get in there there is a slave called anissimus onisimus has broken away from the colossians area has made his way to rome has found out somehow about paul got into a bible said he came to know christ and then after bible study one night i'm at least imagine this in my head said hey p-dog can i talk to you for a second and they're like yeah what's going on he's like i'm actually a slave i'm owned by somebody and i stole a bunch of my master stuff before i left but now i love god what do you think i should do and paul's like that's a tough one i don't have a good verse for that who is your owner i wrote down the owner's name because i always forget what it is it's onesimus runaway slave oh it's the name of the book sorry philemon the little book at the end judah is the guy i don't know his name he's all what's the name of your owner philemon where is he from the colossians church and paul goes i know that guy seriously you know the owner i ran away from now don't think modern-day slavery and don't think 1800 slavery don't think american history the evil of slavery slavery was an indentured servant a lot of people gave themselves to be slaves of wealthy families because they can work the land they can be taken care of they can be given housing food their family would have a better upbringing so we got to get slavery out of our head for a second on that so paul writes philemon he goes anissimus take this letter to philemon and onesimus makes his way back home and this one page letter just simply says um philemon you could probably kill your slave but i found him like a son to me he's now a brother in christ i'm asking you to give grace and love i can't order you to do that you have your rights but man i know i would and it's a little book that says if you're wrong here's how to make it right and here's how to give grace and if you've done wrong maybe it's time to suck it up and go make it right it's a little one-page wonder called philemon from philemon we called hebrews we've been spending 30 weeks in hebrews kind of enough said here at north coast we don't know who wrote hebrews now we're getting into other authors paul we're done with his letters first timothy titus ii timothy he's done philemon's throne in there but it was written earlier hebrews unknown author to a jewish audience just saying don't go back to legalism again we've been teaching that on sundays we did use the time and now i'm running out james is next james is the leader of the church in jerusalem he's the half brother of jesus he's writing a letter to the 12 scattered it's called a universal epistle in other words it's not written to any church it's written to the 12 tribes jews because of the persecution here that have scattered all across so he writes a letter to saying how to get through persecution and james has got one of the best five page books on practical christian living every time he gets deep he throws a picture or a story in there and i'm like i can follow that i can follow that it's like a bit in the horse's mouth it's like looking into a mirror it's like someone that's got a ship and it's being torn and i'm like oh i like james it's story time with james he's writing to christians that are persecuted here's how to handle persecution and here's how to hold on to your christian walk in life next we have first and second peter peter's up here in rome with mark peters right into this area down here that we would call asia so all these churches in galatia and ephesians and colossians and beyond and again the persecution is starting to wreak havoc from the roman world on christians at this time so he just writes about suffering and how to hang in there and how to hold on to the truth and who your god is and that's first peter he then writes about having great relationships with authorities great relationships with each other and second peter he writes a warning against false teaching you see once you have the gospel and the freedom of christ ephesus and corinth and jerusalem has a way of coming back in oh i love god i see what god did what about my old lifestyle what about my old magic what about my old relationships what about my old self-pleasing what about my old and the world keeps coming back in and it's false teaching that says you're okay you're still all right you got jesus you got forgiveness you got grace and almost every one of these books are written to christians in an incredibly pagan society saying hold on to the truth and the gospel of jesus and don't water it down next you have first and second john again john is in ephesus until he's exiled to the island out to patmos right here so he's in this church in ephesus his first and second book he just writes to christians about the love of god and how to follow god and obedience if you ever want to know about god's love and how are you supposed to love god back of the bible two little tiny books first and second john they're only a couple pages each and they just hit you one after another he's the last of the mohicans the only disciple that wasn't killed he's dying of old age now he's dying exiled out on an island to at least try to silence him and he's writing the book here's god's love and here's how to love god third john is the one that i looked at and said what's the name of the guy he's writing about a squabble in a church between a guy named gaius and a guy named diatrip die they call him dio his friends call him deal one is showing hospitality the christian's coming through the other guy's not showing hospitality the christians coming through the town so he praises gaius for showing hospitality and being generous and he kind of slams dio and says look if you're a real christian you'd be generous and be hospitable it's a great little book if you're not hospitable right before revelation second to last book is called jude judah is written by james's brother the leader of the church and jude is part of the leader in jerusalem wait if jude is the brother of james and james is the half-brother of jesus then jude is also the half-brother of yeah that's how it worked these were jesus's little brother who just grew up going man why does he always make good grades we can't be as good as jesus how can and then they saw him going out miracles teaching they're like this guy's a wacko he's our brother how can it be god and then they killed him and he's like dang we lost our brother because he just didn't have common sense and then he rose from the dead and they're like dang we grew up with the messiah that's jacked up that is jacked up i always said the greatest proof that jesus was the son of god is that his two brothers are now leading the church and writing books i've got two brothers that i grew up with in west texas what would i have to do to convince them that i'm the son of god rise from the dead that's the most that's it to me the greatest proof jesus rose from the dead is that his two younger brothers are like oh i'm in man man didn't see that coming should have shared more jude is going to write a brook he just condemns heretics false teaching and challenging christians that are scattered abroad just to hold on to the faith the very last book in your bible is called revelation or the revelation to john it is from this island out here in exile the same john that walked with caesar's same john that walked to peter james and john the same john that has written two books on love and the last of the four gospels the good news of jesus about the ripple effect that he was the son of god is now exiled to die in old age on this island and jesus shows up and gives him a revelation it's almost as if to say you're the last of my boys some didn't make it long at all i want you to know it's all worth it and i wanted to show you the end so john's going to say i'm going to tell you i was brought to heaven and i'm going to write stuff that's hard to explain to give every christian hope that whatever suffering whatever you're going through whatever the cancer whatever the diagnosis whatever the relationship whatever the rejection i just want to give you a scoreboard scoreboard we win the book of revelation is simply shown jesus is a lamb of god who shows up on a scene of heaven with blood on the lamb a lamb that was slain but now a lamb that will judge and a lamb that will rule over a new heaven and a new earth after evil and all wrong and all harm has been judged and dealt with once and for all scoreboard bank on it i knew it i believed it jesus told us all about it i've now been able to see it the last book of the bible is a book of hope with images and stuff i still don't understand i can't explain with apocalyptic writings and words that john a creator is shown by the creation heaven and he can't explain it he goes heaven's got like streets of gold now people i promise you when you get to heaven it will not have streets of gold all john is saying is you know you know our streets where all the animals and the camels and the donkeys and the sheep were people throughout all their urine and other feces because they didn't understand germs biology and microbiology back then that's why foot washing was a big deal the streets are just layered crap that's what he's writing he said he said i can't explain heaven it's it's it's it's their crap is our gold that's what he's trying to get across i promise you earthly material isn't in heaven heaven's beyond us he's just trying to give you a glimpse what is the worst part of your life in heaven the worst part of heaven is gold it's it's wow it's 27 books letters to the churches to the people to the pastors from the pastors to their people because something happened in this city some two thousand years ago and today you cannot go a week without this tiny sliver of land showing up in our news there is a dome that is fought over on a mount that used to be a temple and is now under muslim control and this little dot of unrest today still sends out shock waves that fill our media and our news in the western world why something happened on that speck of land and it still has ramifications today and now i sit and i open the book what was that city what were they dealing with he's writing from prison man this is profound no one ever showed me the story behind 27 bucks and how they all went together because the journeys because of the failures because of the successes because the men here who are slowly being killed for their faith are getting off one more letter one more eyewitness account because you can chain me and you can kill me but you cannot chain and you cannot kill the gospel the good news of jesus and 2000 years later we are part of the 28th book it is being written right now through our story you're invited to play a role what a story and i thought it was the most boring book in the world people had just taught it to me my entire life and no one showed me what he pulled off here all the crowd should have left they voted him to die and if that stone wasn't rolled away and if he didn't walk out then what has caused this and we're the next chapter father may you allow us in the ephesus and the corinth that we live in today to hold on to your truth and to guard it to not be swept away by what the world would want to add to the story or say is okay but to hold on to a god that came to us because we couldn't come to you who showed us who he was through his power and miracles so we could listen to his words not be caught up in the actions for showing us how you transform terrorist runaway disciples tax collectors prostitutes slaves and change the world may we be next in line this weekend at north coast as we open up marriage and sexuality from ephesus and corinth may you rock us what role do we play because of your love how do we love you back so teach us how much you love us so we can learn how to love you back continue this story through us as a church as north coast we ask continue this story through us in jesus name amen

Channel: North Coast Church

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Keywords: north coast church, larry osborne, pastor chris brown, north coast, churches near me, christian, bible study, jesus, god, bible

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Length: 111min 2sec (6662 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 29 2020