Lesson 2
Tertulian said that the church was birthed from the blood of the martyrs.
"In the Fullness of Time"
Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, (NASB)
Five issues that made the world ready for the gospel:
1) Dispersion of Jews Throughout Roman world. 100 million people in Roman empire. 8 - 11 million Jews. Probably as large as any other ethnic group in the Empire. Rome was the largest city with 1 million people. Half were slaves in Rome. Only 500,000 true Romans in Rome. Only about 8 - 10 million Roman citizens existed in the Empire.
Synagogues in all the cities, one for Hebrew Jews and one for Hellenistic Jews.
Jews taught two things during the dispersion:
I) Messiah would come and fulfill OT prophecies
II) When he came he would usher in a new age of a new kingdom
2) Common language in the world was Greek (koine). Septuagint and gospels written in Greek.
3) Roman government ruled entire known civilized world. Roman law had evolved over 1,000 years. Equality and fairness was the basis of Roman law, which came from the philosophy of Stoics. With Roman government you have roads that lasted for centuries.
4) Unity of Roman empire brought about the concept of kingdom. Relative peace and stability existed. The emperorship was always in flux but beauracracy and the ideals of the empire were strong. Universal coinage was issued.
5) World had a common culture.
No mention of Paul in Acts until the death of Stephen. Day of Pentecost 3,000 saved, then 5,000 saved. Many of them were Hellenistic of Diaspora Jews.
Diaspora of Dispersion - 6th century B.C. Jews carried away to Babylon.
Pentecost is a feast of Harvest. An agricultural holiday made to coincide with the national holiday. One to two years after Pentecost many Hellenistic Jews stayed. It divided the church into Hebraic Jews and Hellenistic Jews.
The deacons chosen were all Hellenistic Jews, namely, Stephen, Phillip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas from Antioch. These are all Greek names.
Stephen Preaches to fellow unsaved Greek Jews in Acts 6:9. Inciting treason or invoking blasphemy against the temple was a death sentence that Rome allowed the Sanhedrin to judge and carry out.
Acts 7:58 they stoned Stephen laying their clothes at Saul's feet. Saul was a young doctrinal student between 24 - 28 years old.
A great persecution scattered the Hellenistic Jewish Christians from Jerusalem this was the first Christian Diaspora?
Paul talks of his hand in the persecution. The following verses are all about Paul persecuting the church.
Acts 8:3 - But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.
22:4, 5"And I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, 5 as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.
19-20 "And I said, 'Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in Thee. 20 'And when the blood of Thy witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the cloaks of those who were slaying him.'
26:9 - 11."So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 "And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 "And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
Gal 1:13,13 For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it;
22 - 24 - 22 And I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; 23 but only, they kept hearing, "He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy." 24 And they were glorifying God because of me.
Saul is a young man, full of zeal. He received authority from the chief priest to go to Damascus to persecute the church and bring them bound to Jerusalem.
The high priest had this power in Damascus due to a ruling by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, which said they could extradite and bring from foreign countries those, they found to be in sedition and treason against the Jewish faith and temple.
It was hard to make a case on the faith issue but easy on the temple issue.
This power was given only against those Jews who were from Judea. Hebraic and Hellenistic Jews could be extradited.
Paul had papers to go after the Jewish Christians of the Jerusalem church who had fled to Damascus at the persecution after Stephen's death. For Paul to have a pre-assigned profile on paper meant they had the names of those who fled.
Ananias was a non-Judean Jew.
Paul's goal was to get them to recant their faith. Those killed probably refused to recant their faith. The persecution after Stephen's death was just about eight month's long.
He had to use judgment. He could only get those Jews who committed the crimes in Judea and then fled.
Phillip probably fled from Jerusalem at this time to Samaria. Phillip established the church in Caesarea. Caesarea was the provincial capital of the area. Pilate ruled from there.
The second persecution of the Jerusalem church occurred about 44 AD after Herod Agrippa I killed James and threw Peter and John into prison.
Paul was probably used by older members of the Sanhedrin. They used him for their own end. They used his zeal. Paul was also trying to make a name for himself.
Paul was a marked man among the Jerusalem church.
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Day of Pentecost occurs fifty days after the Passover and ten days after Jesus ascension into heaven - between 29 and 33 AD.
35 AD Stephen dies and persecution starts. Stephen was the first martyr of the church. Paul was one of the leading men who persecuted.
Paul was converted at 36 AD at 24 - 28 years of age.
Acts 9:1 - 9 Paul is confronted by Jesus on his way to Damascus. It is mid-day; the sun is full, when a bright light shines, blinding him. The temple guards heard the voice but did not see a man.
"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks." The pricks, or goads, are a tool used on a team of oxen yoked together. They rebel against the wagon and will not participate willingly. Jesus was saying, I have been leading you a particular direction and you are kicking. Paul must have had pains in his conscience while he was persecuting.
There is a difference in the account of the soldiers’ sight and hearing. Not all heard and saw the same thing. Divergent opinion among the soldiers to avoid the conspiracy charge against them. Scripture gives different details.
Acts 9:7 7 And the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
Acts 22:9 "And those who were with me beheld the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.
Acts 26:12 - 20 The Damascus account is remembered later by Paul as he discoursed to King Agrippa. It is Paul's actual account. It contains the same information as in Acts 9 but expanded to include the prophetic call at the same time. Paul got saved and received his calling at the same instant.
"While thus engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13 at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. 14 "And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' 15 "And I said, 'who art Thou, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 'But arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to
the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17 delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.' 19 "Consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.
This is how the Acts 9 account of him being blind and fasting for three days makes sense. He had a lot to think and sort out. Blindness was to help him think carefully for three days. It was also a sign as genuine experience. Paul was a doctor of the law and knew the stories of theophanies occurring.
Acts 9 - 10 Ananias was a certain disciple of Damascus (not from Jerusalem residing at Damascus), Ananias mis-stated saying that Paul had authority to bind all that called on God's name. This statement is over-stated.
Ananias laid hands on Paul saying, Brother Saul etc. Paul, while blind and praying, saw in a vision a man named Ananias coming. A vision is not something you see with your natural eyes.
Paul sees Jesus, then a vision specifically telling him about Ananias. Ananias hears about Paul specifically in a vision also. This greatly helped Paul's faith.
Paul had scales fall from his eyes and was baptized in water and spirit. Acts 9:17
Acts 9:19 - 22 Paul preached in Damascus synagogues proving that Jesus was the Christ.
Gal 1:15 - 18 But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus. 18 Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days.
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Acts 9:23 - 26
23 And when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. And they were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death; 25 but his disciples took him by night, and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.
26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.
Paul was with the disciples in Damascus for a month after his conversion preaching in the synagogues. Probably not the Hebrew synagogue because he would have been killed. Hellenized Jewish Christians in the Hellenized synagogues were probably shouting "amen" in the company of unsaved Hellenized Jews.
When he was at Damascus he had to escape the city. King Arêtes, king of the Nabaeteans, whose capitol was Petra, was after him.
Paul then goes to Arabia for three years for some unknown reason. He then goes back to Damascus and preaches escaping only by being let down in a basket over the wall. King Arêtes tried to kill him for the trouble he caused, possibly even in Arabia during his three year stay.
Paul visited Arabia for three years because everything he had learned and lived by for his life has been stripped away. He is naked. The call to the Gentiles needed much thought.
Jesus, after encounter with God, goes to the wilderness for forty days.
Moses spends forty years in the wilderness.
Elijah goes to the wilderness after encounter with prophets of Baal.
Why did he go back to Damascus after Arabia? Maybe Damascus was the only place where he had Christian friends. It was the place where he became a Christian.
Paul then goes to Jerusalem and looks up Peter. He is with Peter for fifteen days getting more information on Christ's days on the earth here. Peter filled in the gaps and they had long theological discourses. This period was probably the second most important time in Paul's life.
A lot of men died for Paul's salvation. Apostle of grace- elaborate!
While with Peter in Jerusalem things got hot. Paul’s enemies knew he was there. It is possible that Paul tried to convert some of his old co-horts. The apostles are warned concerning threats against Paul.
They decide to send him somewhere safe where he had connections to sort out the rest of his life. He goes to Caesarea, particularly if Phillip was there, then boarded a ship to Tarsus.
The pillars of the church saw and confirmed the prophetic word he received from Jesus. Paul then went home into the Greek world, a foreign world, away from temple life and Jewish culture.
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