welcome back welcome back to class number five of paul's journeys and writings as always let's ask god to be a part of our class and our learning while we thank your god for this class we thank you for all the classes that we're learning about paul his character your character this the power of the spirit of god working and pulling all things together father god as you bring your plan to fruition so father we thank you lord god that you give us the ears to hear and the eyes to see we thank you lord god that we have a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of revelation concerning you and that everything is exposed to us father you said there's nothing hit that will not be revealed so we thank you for it in advance in jesus name amen all right so we saw so far some of the characteristics of paul he had great commitment and determination and seeking out members of the early church that was to destroy them right by the way god would use this type of persecution of the holy church to scatter them throughout the regions of israel and scattering them they shared wherever they went they would preach the gospel they would share it with other people and that's how the gospel was spread in those days in the early days the people wanted to stay in jerusalem because that's where they felt safe they had other friends but because the persecution came in it drove them out and they would find the little pockets they would gather together but they would talk with other people people that they befriended and they would share the gospel and it would more people would get saved and it would get bigger and bigger and bigger all right we learned paul spent three years with jesus being taught what is to become what we call the pauline revelation right uh that is saved by grace through god's mercy had nothing to do with our works all of that all the promises everything that that jesus accomplished paul had that revealed to him so it was not just a simple act uh and we just do one thing uh we find that there's nothing left for us to do except to adhere to what the word of god says and to follow after jesus that's it right all right uh the revelation was accepting christ crucified alone which which would lead to salvation uh that we could not add any works particularly those of the old covenant you remember that we're going to talk about it how how they dragged in some of the stuff from the old covenant and added it to what jesus did so that the person could earn salvation there was none of that paul was a jew and he grew up in a city called tarsus and we're going to see that tarsus is way up here in the area what we now know as uh turkey uh we also found out that even being born they had been born a jew that his father was pretty wealthy and schooled him properly with the with the smartest people that was around and his father probably bought roman citizenship which would have made paul automatically entitled to be a roman citizen at birth all right we're going to find out that god would use that in the days ahead all right paul meets jesus for the first time on the road to damascus and becomes born again after that you remember the story where jesus is uh appears to paul paul is knocked off his horse paul is temporarily blinded and has to have ananias come and pray for him all right we find uh that after preaching christ to the jews they even attempt to kill him even though he was on their side you're going to find that the way you thought in the old days you was one of the guys and now when you get saved and you don't do the same things that they were doing that the very people that used to like you will wind up hating you and don't think that that that is peculiar that's usually the way it works uh we find out that barnabas who was a stalwart in the church at the time seeks him out uh and finds him in tarsus and and in tarsus and there they minister together he eventually brings paul back to jerusalem where paul shares all that he was shown in the three years that he spent in the desert with jesus the elders agreed that no circumcision is required for salvation because that was the big thing that was being pushed you're saying by jesus but you had to be circumcised and so we see that that was no longer a consideration all this took years it gets lost that that that fact that the amount of time it gets lost if we just read the accounts in the book of acts we have to understand that time was passing on and the whole book of acts is it is decades long all right so we pick up in lesson two part two paul's first missionary journey during his first missionary journey paul would begin his ministry in each city by going into the synagogues we have to remember that in the beginning the covenant promise in the old covenant was that the new covenant would be established for them all right so here we have every place that paul went he and barnabas went into the synagogues to preach first all right this fulfilled that word however paul began to preach in the streets and other places to the gentiles who had no previous connection to judaism paul loved the jewish people but we will see that wherever he went to preach it was the religious jews would start to give him the trouble that he encountered we will find that the people that wanted to kill him were not the gentiles it was the jews the the religious jews that would go out continually trying to kill him all right but we do have to remember that paul loved the jewish people just because he went out and minister to the gentiles did not preclude the fact that he loved the jews he said i would i would even give my own life and spend eternity away in hell i love them that much if they would just listen and get saved i would swap places with them that's how much you love not no one can swap places so we want to get that settled no one can swap places with anybody everybody has to make their own decision but paul was just talking about his heart all right the first journey that we will talk about uh would last two years all right on this journey barnabas his relative john mark and that's the saint mark that wrote the gospel accompanied the two of them on their first trip now some say mark was barnabas cousin some say he was his nephew but we know that he was a related person right on his trip paul often preached directly to the gentiles bypassing judaism which watered down the gospel with the things of the old covenant you had it you perform rights you had circumcision you had observed the law you had to do all these things and uh paul had already been given a revelation that that was not required so uh so they begin they start out and their first leg began with a visit to the island of cyprus now let me just show you and uh look at this tremendous map that i drew if you will understand that when i was in school we had art classes and and of course you got graded in art and sad to say i remember one one marking period i got a 20 that meant i couldn't draw and this is the reason why i got the 20. there's it's not exactly a picture but it'll do for the time being while i explain the different things that paul and barnabas did so they wind up leaving tarsus they come down they visit in antioch and they hop across the water and they visit the island of cyprus and they land in a town called salamis all right uh there they preached to the jews where in the synagogue who they preached to the jews why because they were the ones that received the promise in jeremiah 31 31. so as they worked their way across the island they looked up the jewish church which was scattered out of judea because of that persecution remember what we said about the persecution god used it now god doesn't cause the persecution but he uses the persecution to put us in different places so that we can continually focus on god and continue to share the gospel all right so as they worked their way across the island they looked up the jewish church they taught the things concerning christ and his salvation grace mercy forgiveness all right and this was still in the early stages of christianity so we're going to pick it up and we're going to pick it up in acts 13. when they get to the western portion now they meet up with some interesting people all right verse 6 acts 13 verse 6. we're going to pick it up and when they had gone through the aisle onto pefforts now let me show you castles that force is the capital of cyprus which is on the other side of the island so all along the way they're going across the island of cyprus and they're busy going into all the synagogues they're looking up now listen they were looking up the believers that the jewish believers that were on the island they were scattered they they came out of israel because they were being persecuted and they went every which way right they probably went in groups but not everybody went to one place who went here who went there we went there right and so we see that god scatters them so that the gospel is being preached throughout this whole area now the gospel at that particular time prior to paul was very simple jesus died for you on the cross they get stuck with the old covenant and the new covenant right they were dragging in things from the old covenant into the new covenant so we see that in verse six and when they had gone through the isle of patmos they found certain sorcerer a false prophet a jew whose name was bar jesus which was with the deputy of the country sergius paulus now i gotta tell you i'm glad i'm in the united states where the names are fred and john and peter we got all these other names sergius paulus uh it would be kind of tough to in to hang around those people right so he was a prudent man who called for barnabas and saul and desired to hear the word of god but illinois now that's the arabic name the sorcerer which was the same as bar jesus right same person all right so ilimus was the was the arabic name so he withstood them seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith in other words the deputy uh sergius paulus had asked for to hear paul and and barnabas that what what what is this new thing that they're preaching and he was interested but this sorcerer uh didn't like it because he was the leader so to speak everything he said he did that everybody did and now we have two people coming in saying something different verse nine then saul who's called paul filled with the holy ghost set his eyes on him in verse 10 he said and said o full of subtlety and all mischief thou child of the devil thou enemy of all righteousness without not cease to pervert the right ways of the lord in other words you're doing everything that's contrary to the lord you're putting these people under bondage jesus came to set them free you're putting them back into bondage or holding them into bondage and we came to set them free and you're coming against the very thing that the lord is behind so in verse 11 he says and now behold the hand of the lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blind not seeing the son for a season and immediately he did fell on him a midst and darkness and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand then the deputy when he saw what was done believed being astonished at the doctrine of the lord so this man we see sergius paulus who we have to remember was a prudent man he sees everything that's going on all right he uh he hears what paul is saying and his teachings and wants to meet him uh so we have we have for jesus trying to interfere uh he worked his magic often on the people right so we have to remember he challenges paul so he can keep the government under the wing of opponents and what we see as we've read that paul then pronounces paul has had enough under the united spirit now listen paul did not do this on his own we have to understand that when that judgment is pronounced it's pronounced from god he was standing in a gap he was being a vessel but the bottom line was god was bringing the judgment and you will notice that even about jesus he only blinded him for a short period of time looking for him to repent all right uh so sometimes we have people upset with us after we get saved we're we're so upsetting the apple cart so to speak all right we must try and stay focused on the lord and our responsibility is to speak the truth we are not there to cast anybody into hell or to bring damnation on people we're there for one purpose and that is to share the good news the good news is jesus died for you you no longer are stuck with all the infirmities that you had and all the sins that you had jesus wiped them away so paul speaks forth to prophecy which is fulfilled immediately now i want us to see something here what satan meant for evil god used for good because we see in verse 12 the governor believed in the message so we know that once he gets saved other people in that country will be listening more attentively because of the fact that somebody that they respect has heard the good news and has accepted it and that opens the door for them to receive it so we have to remember that when we speak to people oftentimes uh we have to understand that we don't know who it is that we're talking to and we don't know the effects of what will happen after we're gone but we never should underestimate the effect you may be having on that particular person or the circumstance or the or for that matter the area that that he's in or the one you're witnessing to all right all right let's go to part c they all get on a ship and head for the mainland so in other words they're done with the island they've been across it now and we have to remember this is just a little blip here on my map but that's a lot of miles and they were walking all right and going from time to time and preaching so it didn't just take two days for it to happen it took a while remember the whole trip the whole first missionary trip which was a short basically short one uh compared to the others uh took two years all right so here you go they leave cyprus and they go to a town called burger on the mainland do you see that and from there they're going to venture up into the different towns now i'm going to just let you know in advance we'll probably touch on face it again but there is a town called antioch that's up in the area of turkey or what is now turkey all right that difference from the antioch that is in syria where most of the christians were where paul did some of his work where barnabas went to discuss uh the things of the gospel all right so his jerusalem is israel down here is antioch in syria and here's antioch up here in what is now known as turkey and we're going to touch on those but i don't want you to be be uh misled by the term antioch uh for the longest time i thought a story in new york where i was brought up was uh the only one the only historia in the whole world i find out there's one upstate new york i find that there's one in in the oregon the state of oregon i find that a story is all over the place and how did i know that you know saying when people say where you come from i say a story they say a story of what so it's the same thing here we have to know that when paul says of antiochus when luke the writer of acts says antioch he is talking about a different antioch than this antioch and we have to find out which antioch he's talking about so that we can identify with what paul is talking about all right so part c they all get on the ship and head for the main man here they arrive now when they get there they find that john mark decided he wants to catch a ship so he can return to jerusalem now there's several reasons why and it's all speculation one is some say he was probably homesick some others say he didn't want to endure the traveling over the mountains because this was a mountainous region when you went from here all this was mountainous so it wasn't just like walking down main street in syria or main street in your town it was going over mountains it was facing the weather facing terrible roads it was facing a lot of things so that was that trip that they made some say he may have been disillusioned because of the changes of leadership because it became quite apparent that uh paul was the leader of this group it started out that barnabas was the leader he was the one that that dragged paul to jerusalem and shared with the elders there that paul was preaching the gospel and that he was something that god had raised up and so now we see that the two of them go out together and paul is taking more and more uh a role of the number one man and some say that paul uh john mark got dissolution because you know he found favor with his uncle barnabas and so now he was stuck others just say he didn't like to encounter all the controversy that came with it so there's many reasons why but in any case it ain't paul greatly in the future that anger would cause a conflict between he and barnabas we know that as we read uh we refer to in the new testament we find out that barnabas and paul it says do they have an argument and it's no little argument it's a lot of yelling and screaming okay uh so we find out that that paul really has in the early days has an anger problem that's left over from the early paul the early soul all right uh and so what i want us to see is that anger not dealt with usually surfaces and causes us to do things we are sorry for so when we are dealing with anger we need to find out why am i angry lord help me with this anger the bible says to be angry and sin not i'm angry and i'm sinning i don't want the best for the other person on the other end of my anger i want what's worse for them i want them to have i want to have revenge so to speak and the bottom line is the bible says that revenge is the lord's right so how do we become angry and sin not we don't like what people do and we don't adhere to it but we don't involve ourselves to the point where emotionally we're tied up and we become uh a target of the enemy to use that anger to promote us or provoke us to do something that is not christ-like and something that we'll be sorry for in the end so paul and barnabas traveled to antioch of pesadia this is and so they go from parker all the way up and it travels to this antioch up here not this one but this one right my antioch is disappearing every time i touch it all right uh passinia was a region modern-day turkey obviously this is different city than antioch in syria so if just reading without understanding this could confuse you and we're we're here to enlighten the spirit of god is here to enlighten so we want to make sure that you you fully understand that all right so let's go to acts 13 let's pick it up in verse 15. and this is the long read so we're going to read all the way to verse 41 all right and after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying men and brethren if you have any word of exhortation for the people say on now what did they read they read the law which has already been done done away not done away with but completed by jesus right and so uh they say men and brethren if you have any word of exploitation for the people say on verse 16 then paul stood up emotionally with his hand said men of israel and you who fear god listen in other words talking to the men of israel the jew and any gentile prostholites that were there who were believers of god verse 17. the god of this people israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt on strange as strangers in the land of egypt now i want you to understand something what we're about to read gives us a synopsis of what took place and it's good for you to go over it just so you can get a vision of what paul was dealing with how he dealt with it so that you can understand when you have to deal with people uh regarding their lifestyle compared to your lifestyle that you're not in a place of judgment you're telling a story you're saying hey listen i used to be there and now god has delivered me from that to this and with the deliverance comes the assurance that i'm going to spend eternity with him in heaven apart from that jesus said i am the way the truth and the life and apart from jesus there is no other entrance into the kingdom of god no matter how many religions spring up no matter what the devil brings to focus on the only thing that is possibly uh acceptable by god is jesus all right so he says as strange as the land of egypt and with an uplifted arm he brought them uh out of it verse 18 now for a time of about 40 years he put up with their ways in the wilderness and when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of cana he distributed their land to them by allotment and that he gave them judges for about 450 years until samuel the prophet and afterwards they asked for a king so god gave them saul the son of of kish a man of the tribe of benjamin for forty years in other words it was not god's plan but you asked for it i'll give you so the worst thing we can do sometimes is to ask for us to have our own way because the bottom line is we may not like what we get in the end all right we know that the people of israel did not like saul as a king because he was he was hard and he was out for himself verse 22 and when he had removed him he raised up for them david as king to whom also he gave testimony and said i have found david the son of jesse a man after my own heart who will do all my will verse 23 from this man's seed according to the promise god raised up for israel a savior jesus after john had first preached before his coming to baptism of repentance can you see the whole story is unfolding here the repentance to all the people of israel verse 25 and as john was finishing his course he said who do you think i am i am not he but behold there comes one after me the sandals of whose feet i am not worthy to lose men and brethren sons of the family of abraham those among you who fear god remember the several groups there to you the word of this salvation has been sent for those who dwell in jerusalem and their rulers because they did not know him nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath have fulfilled them in condemning him so the bottom line is they knew what the word said but not having understanding and not seeking the will of god they just wanted to be able to quote it and live their life the way they wanted to and of course paul was saying to them that the the word warned them about jesus about what would be needed to fulfill the word regarding the savior regarding jesus and that he had to be crucified so they participated in the crucifixion verse 28 and though they found no cause for death in him they asked pilate that he should be put to death now when they had fulfilled that what was written concerning him they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb but god raised him from the dead he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from galilee to jerusalem who are his witnesses to the people and we declare to you glad tidings that prom that promise which was made to the fathers in other words jeremiah 31 31 god has fulfilled this for us their children and that he has raised up jesus as is also written in a second psalm you are my son today i have begotten you verse 34 and that he raised him from the from the dead no more to return to corruption he has spoken thus i will give you the sure mercies of david therefore he also said in another psalm you will not allow your holy one to see corruption so paul is laying his hall out as stephen did before the pharisees here paul is laying all this out before the jews and the believing prosthetics all right for david after he had served his own generation by the will of god fell asleep was buried with his father and saw corruption but he whom god raised up saw no corruption otherwise he wasn't talking about david he was talking about david seed jesus all right 33 38 therefore let it be known to you brethren that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins not the covering but the complete forgiveness and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by you by the law of moses that was the law of moses didn't free anybody in fact if it did anything it revealed how bad they really were verse 40 people and beware therefore this what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you verse 31 he quotes the scripture behold you despises marvel and perish for a work of work in your days a work which you will by no means believe though one were to declare it to you in other words it was paul declaring it but it was the spirit of god witnessing to them and their rejection was not just the rejection of paul which was minor but he was they were rejecting what the spirit of god was witnessing to them which was greater all right verse 32 so when the jews went out of the synagogue the gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath now when the congregation had broken up many of the jews and the devout prostitutes followed paul and barnabas who speaking and persuaded them to continue in the grace of god on the next sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of god verse 45 but when the jews saw the multitudes they were filled with envy envy they were for andy it wasn't righteous indignation it was filled with envy uh and they began contradicting blasphemy they oppose the things spoken by paul all right so what we see here then is uh polar bonders begin to go out they run up into all the towns and they wind up in antioch and they're in the synagogue and they're preaching to there and the jews some of them believe some of them don't why why don't the ones that don't believe because they've allowed the old covenant the laws the the law the circumcision all their own works their sacrifice their personal sacrifices they allowed them to to enter in just as man does today and uh man will say hey if anybody's going to have it it's me i'm a pretty good guy i mean i help old ladies across the street i uh i throw five dollars in in the offering when it goes by i go to church uh i i try to be good i think about god but all those things that's that's what these people did prior to hearing what paul and barnabas had to say and now things were changing for them right they all sat and listened so barnabas and paul encouraged them to follow the plan of salvation god provided through jesus they sat and preached and preached and preached and preached wherever wherever they could stand to having coffee with somebody they would preach the gospel they'd be in the marketplace buying food and the door opened up they would preach the gospel all right the following week practically the whole town turns out to hear them all right the jewish leaders are jealous because they uh they are used to commanding the crowds and that's what the envy was about they were now reduced to just being hearers rather than those that would be exalted and people would come to hear they began to contradict an opposed paul what was saying they stirred up enough people where they threw out uh threw them out of the region so they were you will find that your friends will get to the place where they will no longer want to be around you you have few and fewer people from the crowd that you used to go with be willing to put up with what you expose you're a light coming to darkness and the bible says jesus said that the darkness hated the light because it exposed their deeds so we have to remember that when we're in the midst of all these things we have to remember what paul and barnabas went through and that it's not unique that we as believers witnessing speaking the gospel sharing with people we are not going to win everybody over not everybody's going to love us some of us will throw throw it some of them will throw us out of their little circle all right all right so what what is this all about and then natural being the forefront of ministry paul and barnabas uh find out that it's not a picnic and sometimes we find out that it's it's not a picnic sharing the gospel it's good we we feel tremendous we feel we're used of god but we have to remember that not everyone is going to receive us with a big smile on their face the devil does not relinquish his territories easily we know that every person that the devil has control of every person that you witness to the enemies in there saying something contrary to what you're saying trying to confuse that person so that they don't hear right all you can do is show them the goodness of god share the gospel and pray for them right they met great opposition we'll see that it gets harder not easier as time goes by why because there's more and more jews chasing after them all right but the rewards were great also why because there was more and more people beginning to to uh jump in and listen to the gospel and getting saved we flying down the whole town of antioch showed up at the synagogue and was there to hear paul in it the following week all right so uh the disciples those that received the message that paul preached were filled with joy and the holy spirit in other words it was expanding there's a lot of things like what we see going on in church today we see people being saved we're seeing people glad that they they've come to church they're glad to hear the good news they're glad to be saved they're glad to be free of what the bondages that now when they look at the bondages that they were in they're just glad that they're around from underneath that whole thing so i want to see that paul is a man of passion just as you and i he showed anger if you will he had no patience when he came to john mark and we know that paul in the end learns what the spirit of god wants him to learn concerning this anger and concerning his feelings for john mark he he writes in the second book of timothy which is the last epistle that he will write he says send john mark to me for he is good for me none is he good for working for me but he's good to remind me continually so you'll find that god will put different people into your path into your life that will like john mark was to mr paul a a something that would be confronting your issues so that you could turn those things over to god all right in addition when an antioch he utters in verse 46 then paul and barnabas wax bold and said it was necessary that the word of god should first have been spoken to you speaking to the jews in the synagogue but seeing putting it from you and to judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to gentiles in other words you're trying to kill us we came here to preach the good news to you and you're trying to kill us you want to stone us you want to you want to rid us you're trying to drive us out on a rail out of town uh time out you don't want to hear it that's okay by us we're just going to move on all right uh in italian we would say see you later alligator right uh more more than likely some of them might have gotten saved because people change but god's intentions now listen this was god's intentions all along was for the gentiles to hear the good news and that they were included in god's plan it was not just for the jew even though jews were the first one to receive it it was open to the gentiles all right so they shake off the dust in first 47 in other words whatever you get you get i'm finished with you i'm moving out to the gentiles okay now we know that paul's heart was for the jew so therefore he wasn't fed up with them he's just saying you this group this group you don't want to hear it okay we're moving on we're going to move on to the gentiles because those people have been asking us to come back again and again and again and we're we're we're going to administer to them so we'll see many of the traits that take back take a back seat to the ones god will create in paul you'll see that paul some of it his anger is still there some of it god begins to deal with we see that over the course of time that god begins to change paul he conforms into the image of jesus and of course we are being conformed to the image of jesus and that we have to allow god the same rights to come in paul was no different than us he wasn't this this highly exalted thing that never had to deal with any any sin issue any any personal issues he had them all paul said i'm the chief sinner look at the mercy and grace of god and so when i look at paul i say thank you jesus because i know i'm filled with a whole lot of issues help me to get on top of these things lord you cause me to be victorious over them and so that i can be an example to somebody else all right so part f they traveled to iconium where they stayed for a long period now here is berger antioch least derby okay and they travel to an iconium is in there we see that they travel in this little circle they come out of here they go here here here here and now to complete we're gonna find out to complete the trip they go backwards and he wind up back in antioch verse 13 acts 13 verse 4 uh with through here sorry f i'm so excited myself if they travel to italian where they stayed for a long period of time then they preach boldly not just being loud but with great anointing you know we can yell and scream at people but actually we can be very quiet and when the anointing is upon us people will listen all right we don't have to poke our finger in their face we just have to just let the spirit of god deal with them they they preached they turned the city uh so upside down that it became divided things are not any different than today right some reject it uh they reject everything they like the way they're living right there are people who are religious and so they're stuck on their religiosity they're stuck on your good works and that doesn't do it all right those that require uh rejoiced at the spirit as the spirit witnessed to them they would rejoice so we had the three groups the one that didn't care about anything the one who counted themselves i'm a good person look at me i go to church i do this i love god but they haven't done anything about lining up and accepting jesus as their savior they don't see the need for it and then we have the third group who sees the need who listens to what the word is saying what the spirit of god is saying and then they rejoice at it i'm just trying to see how much time i all right so uh so they shake it off okay uh when possible they did what you and i would do in these circumstances when they could they would leave and not be foolish in other words whenever there was issues david say god don't deliver me they used common sense of what the spirit guy was showing them and they left right so we always come back to the fact that poland barnums were humans just as you and i they had to make up uh they had to make decisions as they came before them as they met those what we call the fork in the road and we choose righteousness choose god or choose the world when we come to those things we have to decide for ourselves what are we going to do are we getting the picture here there are things here that are left for us to see the decisions they made always work for god and now we have to make the same decisions they would not do them justice just to read they want uh they wanted to stone them they have to understand not only did they want to stone but they were chasing after them all right they had to hide they sneak out they continue on their trip to lifestream derby here's leicester his derby all right now they could have cut across here but instead what they do is they decide to go back to all the cities that they had preached in right acts 14 19 says and that came to this certain jews from antioch and iconium uh who persuaded the people and having stone poor drew him out of the city supposing he had been dead so we know that at one point paul gets caught up they catch him and they stone him right now it says here uh supposing he had been dead in verse 20 it says how beat as the disciples put around about him he rose up and came into the city and the next day he departed with barnabas to derby now i will tell you uh the word in the greek for dead is the same word for resurrection no one has to be resurrected unless they're dead first right it says that he rose back up and went back into town so you tell me after being stormed who's going to be back up and walk back into town unless god had intervened and raised him up from the dead all right so the bottom line is the worst he's got the worst headache in the world he's already battered up from all the stones that have hit him right uh and yet with all that god supernaturally heals him so that he can go back in at the derby davis site they would head for home you and i we may have decided to head for home a little earlier but they decide to head for home but in seeing that it says that they were they were with the regular people as a good example so uh we don't want to hold we want to hold things to us that are dear to us that reveal god and so we want to we want to be what god wants us to be right second corinthians chapter 11. of the jews five times received by 40 stripes save one paul rehearses all of things thrice i was beating barrage once i was stoned twice i suffered shipwreck at night and they've been in the deep journeys often in perils of water and perils of rubber barrels of see so it wasn't an easy walk but paul had with barnabas as they went through the mountains and through the roads they were constantly vigilant about what was what was before them and weariness and painfulness and watching often in hunger and thirst and family often in the golden ages so luke is the author of the book of acts doesn't describe all the perils yet paul says these things happened and so we have to realize that this was not a a happy trip for paul all right part three the jerusalem council after sharing with the church and antioch all that it happened probably some of the hellenistic jews reported back to the people in jerusalem so here we are now we're back in antioch of syria antioch by the way is the one place where the believers got the word christians assigned to them so let's pick it up in acts 15 verses 1 and 2. certain man which came down from judea taught the brethren and said except you be circumcised after the man of moses you cannot be saved when therefore paul and barnabas had no small dissension this disputation with them they determined that paul barnes and certain others of them should go up to the jerusalem to the apostles and held us about this question so we see that we have some christians that were still stuck with some of the things of the old testament right the judaizers were jewish believers of jewish uh believers of jesus christ who believed their traditions of circumcision and following the law given to moses was necessary to be saved uh it's not any different than today we still have the same thing today we have the religious people who try to follow the law and they say look i don't do this i don't do that i don't do this but the bottom line is none of that prevails because we all violate the law right the only thing that matters is jesus crucified that he took on our sins he he established the law and it's all settled and everything he did was for our good all right so i want you to read chapter 15 over by yourself with this information out of this council the doctrine was saved by grace apart from works there was a circumcision keeping the law all of that was removed and what became accepted is what paul had been preaching the doctrine would lead to a final formal separation of christianity from judaism so read the conclusion of the jerusalem council on your own on your outline just remember that the first journey took approximately two years and so we're going to close with this and we'll pick up next time in lesson number three until then have a great week