We continued in our study of the Book of Acts on Sunday, covering chapters 16 through 21. When we left off at the end of chapter 15, Paul and Silas had just set out on the second missionary journey. This is after the council in Jerusalem, in 49 AD, and Paul and Silas planned to visit the churches started by Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey.

Stretch Your Vision

Acts 16 begins with Paul arriving in Lystra, where he meets a young disciple named Timothy. He is spoken well of by brothers in Lystra and Iconium. Because Paul has a plan to go to the synagogues in every city, he circumcises Timothy! Right here, we see the heart of Timothy, who is willing to do whatever he has to do so that he can be effective in winning souls! We need to have the heart to go anywhere, do anything, and give it up everything for the sake of the Gospel! Paul, Sislas, and Timothy start by visiting the churches that Paul had planted. The Bible records that they go and bring decisions made by the Apostles to the other churches, so that the churches can obey the decisions! Clearly, these were not autonomous, or self-governing, churches! They had outside influences and leadership, and, I believe, we must follow the example set by Paul and have the influence of outside leadership in our church as well!

Acts 16:5 states that these churches had daily growth! This very exciting to see that not only did the church in Jerusalem have daily baptisms (Acts 2:47), but now the other churches had daily baptisms as well! I look forward to the time when we have daily baptisms here in Phoenix! Paul and his companions continue to travel through the province of Asia (modern day Turkey), and are directed by the Spirit of Jesus and a vision (Acts 16:8-9) to go over to Macedonia (modern day Greece) and preach the gospel to them! Luke joins the group at this point, and reports “we got ready at once.” Only Paul received the vision, but they all adopted this vision and made it their own, “concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16:10) The call to go to Macedonia is especially significant because this is a new continent! Paul had previously preached only in the continent of Asia, but now he was being called to go to Europe! Paul had to stretch his vision to go, not only to Asia, but also to Europe and anywhere else that he was called by God! For us today, we need to stretch our vision to include all of the Phoenix Valley, all of Arizona, all of the United States, and all of the world! We need to have a world vision, just like Jesus had!

Effective Preaching

In Acts 16:11-12, we see Paul’s strategy to evangelize an area. He goes past Samothrace and Neapolis without stopping to preach or plant a church, and goes straight for Philippi, “the leading city in that district of Macedonia.” His strategy is to plant a church in the population center, or largest city in an area, and allow that church to send out church plantings to the outlying region. He saw this strategy work when he preached in Pisidian Antioch, resulting in “the word of the Lord spreading through the whole region.” (Acts 13:49) Another part of his strategy is converting opinion leaders. Paul meets Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, and converts her and her family. (Acts 16:13-15) The way we know that she is an opinion leader is because the Bible notes specifically that she dealt in purple cloth, which was very expensive and used in royal garments. This meant that she was no ordinary cloth dealer, but a high-powered business woman, who likely dealt with royalty in some way! Also, she persuaded Paul to come and stay at her house, meaning that she was definitely and influential woman! The reason that Paul chose to go after opinion leaders is that they bring others with them, and they can convert others once they are converted.

The rest of chapter 16 covers Paul and Silas being arrested, flogged, and thrown in jail for driving out a spirit from a slave girl. An earthquake sets them free, and they are able to convert the Jailer and his family. Paul and Silas head out for Thessalonica in chapter 17. Again, following his strategy, Paul and his companions “passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia” and came to Thessalonica, which was the capital and largest city of Macedonia! In Acts 17:4, we see Paul again doing the second part of his strategy, converting “prominent women.” The Jews became jealous and started a riot and dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, accusing them of causing “trouble all over the world.” (Acts 17:6) This same verse in the New King James version says “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too,” which is where the title of the lesson comes from. After the riot, Paul and Silas leave the city and go on to Berea, where, again, they convert “prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” The second half of chapter 17 records the account of Paul while alone in Athens. He begins preaching and is brought before the Areopagus, a decision making group, very much like a supreme court! There he converts Dionysius, one of the members of the Areopagus, who would later become the leader of the church in Athens! Again we see Paul’s strategy of starting churches in the large cities, and going after those who can influence others!

In chapter 18, Paul moves on to Corinth. When he gets there he has no financial support so he turns to tent making. This is where he meets Pricilla and Aquila, who would be life-long friends. Later, Silas and Timothy come and support him financially so that he can devote “himself exclusively to preaching.” (Acts 18:5) Paul continues to preach for some time in Corinth before moving on to Ephesus. Acts 19 begins with Paul meeting some disciples who only knew of John’s baptism. Paul teaches the Ephesians about Jesus and then baptizes them in the name of our Lord. Paul stays in Ephesus until there is a riot, then sets out for Macedonia.

 Teach Them to Obey

In chapter 20, Paul goes to on Troas where he meets disciples there and teaches them all night. At about midnight, Eutychus, a young man listening to Paul, falls asleep and falls out of the third story window and dies. Paul went down and raised him back to life, then they ate and Paul continued to teach them until the morning. That morning Paul set sail with eagerness to get to Jerusalem before Pentecost. He wanted to meet with the elders from Ephesus to say goodbye, knowing that he would never see them again, but he didn’t want to get caught in the city for a period of time. So Paul called for the elders to come to Miletus, where he could meet with them. In his farewell, he remarks “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia.” (Acts 20:17) And he also says a little later in the same conversation “Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:31) Clearly, Paul was involved on a heart level with these people! Paul was living out the great commission in not only making disciples and baptizing them, but also in teaching them to obey everything commanded by Jesus! (Matthew 28:18-20) Today, we need to have the same heart, not only to seek and save the lost (Luke19:10), but also to teach them to obey Jesus commands after they are saved! (Matthew 28:20) In all of our relationships with other disciples, we need to be helping and warning each other “night and day with tears!”

By the middle of chapter 21, Paul has reached Jerusalem and shares all the good news with James, the half brother of Jesus, and the elders in Jerusalem! He finds that all the Apostles have left Jerusalem and gone out preaching, yet the church has multiplied rapidly and “many thousands” of Jews are now believers! (Acts 21:20) God’s word truly does bear much fruit! (John 15:5-8)

Today, we need to have the same heart as Paul had, to “Turn the world upsidedown!” To do this we must stretch our vision to not only our city, but the entire world as well! We need to also be effective in our preaching of God’s word, and then, continue to teach obedience to Jesus to those we convert, which includes “Making disciples of all nations!” If we can follow the example we see in God’s word, we will succeed in “Turning the world upsidedown,” and we will see the world evangelized in our day!

Luke Speckman

Last week, we continued in our study on the book of Acts, covering chapters 9-15. The title of the message,“Forcefully Advancing The Kingdom,” comes from Matthew 11:12. “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” Our first study focused primarily on the start of the church and its growth in Jerusalem. In chapter 8, we see that the disciples leave Jerusalem and preach wherever they go! This is the start of the spread of Christianity “To the ends of the earth!” (Acts 1:8) In order to be a part of the forceful advancement of the Kingdom, or Church, we must be very zealous for God, His righteousness, and his Kingdom! In last week’s study, we looked at 5 different areas in which we need to have zeal:

Zeal for the Truth:

Acts chapter 9 is the account of Saul’s conversion. Saul (later Paul) had been very zealous for God! He believed he was defending God by persecuting, arresting, and killing Christians. I believe he probably thought of himself as a Phinehas (Numbers 25), who killed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman because of their blatant disobedience to God’s commands, or Elijah (1 Kings 18), who killed 450 false prophets of Baal and 400 false prophets of Asherah! Both of these men were very zealous for God and his honor, and God was pleased with their actions! Saul probably thought of himself like one of these men, and thought he was being righteous by persecuting the church! Jesus had to appear to Saul personally to show him that he was wrong. “ ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’ “ (Acts 9:4-5) Jesus blinded him and sent him to Damascus where he would have his eyesight restored, and be baptized by Ananias. Immediately after

he was baptized, he went out preaching “that Jesus is the Son of God!” (Acts 9:20)

Today, we understand that, like Saul, we can be very zealous for God, and yet, be very wrong! We need to also be very zealous for the truth; not waiting for Jesus to confront us personally and tell us that we are wrong, but we need to compare our lives to the Bible, and change where our lives don’t match up to the Bible! “Do not merely listen to the word, and

so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:22-23)

Zeal to Preach:

Acts 10 and 11 primarily focus on God making it clear to Peter and the other Apostles that God

has called the Gentiles as well as the Jews. “When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.’ “ (Acts 11:18) We saw in Acts 11:19, where some disciples went to Antioch and began preaching to Gentiles! They accepted the message, and a “great number of people believed and turned to the Lord!” (Acts 11:21) Many scholars believe the Church in Antioch to have grown to 25,000-50,000 disciples! Those certainly are great numbers! In Acts 11:26, there is a simple statement: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” This is actually one of only three times that the word “Christian” is mentioned in the Bible, and is the only time that a comparison is made between a “Christian” and a “Disciple.” Today, in our society, many people believe that there is a different standard

or expectation for someone who wants to be a disciple than there is for someone who wants to be a Christian. According to Acts 11:26, the words are simply different names for the same people. In other words, there is no difference between a disciple and a Christian! They are exactly the same. If one is a Christian, then he is a disciple, and vice versa. Conversely, if one is not a disciple, he is not a Christian! This is a high calling, as there are over 270 scriptures which talk about the requirements of being a disciple of Jesus! Many of them are very challenging, because we see that being a disciple, or a Christian, takes so much more than having a

simple faith or belief in Jesus! Luke 14:33 states, “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” And James confirms that faith alone won’t save you when he says, “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24) In order to forcefully advance the Kingdom of God, we must have a zeal to preach not only “Christ crucified,” (1 Corinthians 1:23) but also “that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:21) There must be a visual change; repentance is necessary in addition to faith. In Acts 26:20, Paul says, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” This can be a challenging message, but we must preach it!

Zeal to Pray:

In Acts 12, the Apostle James is put to death and Peter is arrested. I think we are all challenged when someone, who we consider to be a good person, dies unjustly, but we should be encouraged in our faith when we consider the deaths of the Apostles. After Judas commits suicide and is replaced by Matthias, we see that all of the Apostles, except John, die for their faith in Jesus! Now, John was boiled in oil, and should have died, and was also exiled to the Island of Patmos, but he did die a natural death. The other faithful Apostles were all martyred. According to church history, about half of the Apostles were crucified when they

were killed. This brings a whole different meaning to Jesus’ words “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Now, the reason that all of this should be encouraging to us is that people are only willing to die for something they truly believe in! And all of the men, who walked with Jesus,

willingly chose death because they would not deny that Jesus was the son of God! This should

encourage us today in our faith because we know that their testimony was true! Back to Acts 12: we left off with James just being killed and Peter in prison. The Disciples all gathered together to pray for Peter’s release. I believe that there was a great deal of uncertainty to these

people whether God would answer this prayer. God after all, had not spared James. Peter, however, was released by an Angel! He came to the place where they were praying and knocked on the door and a servant girl went to answer the door. When she heard it was Peter, she rushed back, without opening the door, and told the disciples who were praying for him at that very moment! At first they didn’t believe it was him, but then they opened the door and were astonished to find Peter standing there! If we want to see miracles in our lives

today, we also must have a zeal to pray!

Zeal for the Mission:

In Acts 13 and 14, Paul and Barnabas are sent off on the first missionary journey, accompanied

by John Mark. They traveled through portions of Asia (modern day Turkey) and preached in the different cities. They encountered much opposition. In fact, in Lystra, Paul was stoned and dragged out of the city. He then proceeded to get back up and go back into the city. Because of their zeal to preach, and their zeal for the mission, “the word of the Lord spread through the whole region.” (Acts 13:49) John Mark unfortunately deserted them during the journey and went back to Jerusalem.

Zeal for Unity:

In Acts 15, we find that a dispute broke out among the disciples whether circumcision was necessary to be saved. This dispute could easily have split the church, had it not been dealt with. Some thought that it was necessary to be circumcised, while Paul and Barnabas taught that is was not necessary in order to be saved. After some discussion among the Apostles, James, the brother of Jesus, spoke up and made the decision that it was not necessary. He referenced scriptures and recent events to show that God had called the Gentiles, and that they should not make it difficult for gentiles to become Christians by making them obey the Law of Moses in this matter. He then decided that the Church in Jerusalem would send out letters to the other churches to tell them the decision that had been made, so they could follow it. There was not a vote or committee to make this decision, but a godly man using the scriptures; and everyone followed the decision made. This is God’s plan of leadership and authority: the leaders lead, and the people follow. This is what brings true unity! In the first century, the Kingdom of God certainly did forcefully advance! We want to imitate what we read about in the book of Acts, and we hope to duplicate the results! To do this, I believe we will need to have Zeal in the 5 areas we spoke about: Zeal for the truth, Zeal to preach, Zeal to pray, Zeal for the mission, and Zeal for unity! If we can do this, I believe we will see God’s Kingdom forcefully advance today just like it did in the first century, and we’ll see the world evangelized in our generation! And all the glory will be to God!