Thank God maybe we can you weren't here but I told them I want them to share their, in their words the story and you can read it you don't have to like do it from memory and I'll go first and so you all can, you know, see if you can and you can read like I said, you can read it you don't have to do it from memory. So in the beginning of everything God spoke everything into being Creator God. And he saw that his creation was good. And then He created man and woman in His image and he saw that it was very good. And they were together in the garden and they fellowshipped and life was perfect. It was paradise. But it was short lived, because the man and the woman wanted to be like God, because they were tempted by the serpent. And so they made a bad choice to listen to the serpent and not believe who they were and who God was. And so sin entered the scene. And that seed has carried us all the way through today and the following that sin in that breakdown. That sin just it was just a seed that spread like wildfire among them and they couldn't almost contain it to the point that as they multiplied God was still there was so blessing in the sin and in the hard things. And in an effort to defy God, they built a tower not to reach God, but so that God could reach them come down on their terms, and this angered God and so God confused them. There was many languages and they had to disperse. They were spread all over the land. And so, they continued in this downward spiral of sin and darkness, and then God was angered and done with them. But then he found Abraham, the one that was faithful and his faithfulness, as we know is counted to him as righteousness. And because God still loved his image bearers, he wanted to have that relationship again. So he made a covenant with them, not because they deserved it, and not because they were righteous, but because he loved them and he wanted that relationship that he had originally created them for. And so they entered in to the Abrahamic covenant. And that continued on and we had Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and then Joseph, and from Joseph, they experience finally some really good times. They moved to a new land, they were immigrants, but they had favor with Pharaoh, the king of the land, and that went on for many years until a new king came on. And then there was again, hard times and they were suppressed. They were enslaved, and in that they cried out and God answered them, and he called Moses who was uniquely gifted to fill that role to be the liaison between God and the people and God and Pharaoh because he was born an Israelite, but he was adopted as an Egyptian or raised as an adept Egyptian and then that's kind of fell apart. And after a bit, he, you know, he was torn between his two heritage and so we left and the many lined up with the Midianite. And so through that, we see the story of women that Moses came to be Moses because women, his sister, Miriam, his mother, Pharaoh's daughter, the the midwives all said, this is, this is what we're going to stand up for, even though they had to go against what the king of the land was saying what Pharaoh was saying. And because of that, God has Moses led up to this and through Moses, the greatest moment other than creation up to this point happens, and God frees them in this miraculous act as 10 plagues that they go through and then he parts the sea, and this extraordinary moment in all of history. And they walk freely and the Egyptians are wiped out. The mighty Egyptians are wiped out. And so they are walking on because they're finally going to see the fulfillment they've already known that they that they are God's people and God is there God as He said they would be now they're looking for that fulfillment of the land the promised land because king needs a kingdom. So they're walking towards that. And there's lots of missteps along the way. There's a golden calf, some broken tablets, and then we finally get the commandments and they finally make it lead now not by Moses, Moses is passed on and Joshua and Caleb are the ones to leave them in to the promised land and they go into the Promised Land, finally, and it's good, the land flowing with milk and honey. But yet again, just like all those years before with Adam and Eve, it didn't last long and the people the Canaanites that were there. They slowly intermarried and took on their lifestyle and they became like those that didn't that weren't bearing God's image, and they faltered. And so in this moment, they said we want to be like every other nation. Give us a king and God said, I'm your king and I will rule over you and they said, No, we want to be like every other kingdom. So they got Sol, and God warned them. He will rule over you He will be a heinous king. You don't want this? And they said, Yes, we do. And so he told Samuel, the priests and the Prophet prophet at that time, do what they want. And so he did it for a while. Again, it was good. And then Saul, again, saw himself as more than God and he didn't want to listen to God. And God regretted that. And so he was replaced and another came in his place King David, and even though King David was good, a really good king, and he was a man after God's own heart. He had some missteps and some hiccups. And we see God's redemption through all of this. And we see this played out in really powerful ways in King David. And yet again, God steps in and he says, I am going to make another covenant with you. Again, it's not dependent on you, but through your lineage David, I will bring the final answer to making this redemption of redeeming people to myself so that we can be connected and holy relationship again. And so through King David, we get Solomon and from King like, even before David there was all of these songs and wisdom that was there. This that the Psalms were their songs of how they worship together into God, and how they were identified as a people. But David was very prolific and writing a lot of songs down and sharing them with the people he was known because he played the flute, this mighty warrior that was this really beautiful man also was musical
and from his son, Solomon, who is credited as the wisest, king of all times, although that's debatable, right. God gives us all of this wisdom that we get from the book of Proverbs. So during this time, it was a time of knowledge and growing in how they built their worship to God they already had the temple and all of that was created. So they grew in this. There was prophets that came, and yet again, we see this kingdom building and on the south Judah, the line of Judah, right? There's mostly good kings or some bad kings intermingle, but for the most part, they're good kings. This and there's this divide between the two kingdoms. The north side was nothing but they were all bad. They fell quickly, and they were taken captive, and they were taken off. The Judah held out for a long time and there thought there was hope because King Josiah had been risen. up after his grandfather and his father were horrible king, some of the worst kings and they bring back the the law that they got from the Pentateuch, for Deuteronomy. And they're trying to bring this back in but it was short lived and they to get captured and so they're all in captivity, and everything that the prophet Jeremiah had foretold has now come to be, and so they're all in captivity. And during this time, we see Daniel, he was a prophet. He didn't really want to be a prophet, but he came one because he lived so well and we get Ezra and Nehemiah prophets, and through this time, they're finally experienced freedom and they're coming back to rebuild the temple. And then we have silence for 120 years of silence. And then God moves with an old man and an old woman who had long for a child and and prayed in the temple daily to God. And the they are blessed with a child and that would become John the Baptist, who is the one in the desert, preparing the name of the Lord, right. He is going to tell everybody about God's answer that he spoke of with David the Messiah. And all of those prophecies are about to be fulfilled in a baby that's born of a virgin, and Christ comes to earth in this glorious way. Although nobody knew it at the moment. Christ is born. He is He comes up and as he starts growing into a man, his ministry starts forming. And then he builds his ministry with disciples and followers that come after him and he starts telling the message that I am the way and it harkens all the way back to Exodus about when God said, I am and now the Messiah. All this prophecy that we got from all of the Minor Prophets of the major prophets that they have heard about for hundreds and hundreds of years is about to be fulfilled through Christ. And so Christ shares his his message that he will die and be raised again. The temple will break and he will create a new covenant, a final covenant with God's people. And that is exactly what happens. The Jews stand against Christ. They don't agree with him, they crucify Him, that death couldn't hold him and his meshes comes to light and the greatest moment in all of history is that God defeated death and he made a way so that the original plan all the way back from Genesis is now in fulfillment, and Christ is risen, and he imparts final words to His disciples and he is taken back up into heaven. And then we await his return for that. And in the meantime, he said, carry on everything that I've taught you. Go to the nations, share the Gospel, tell people about how they can be in relationship and it doesn't matter do Greek male female, it doesn't matter who you are, or where you are. You all are invited into this. And so we see the growing of this ministry of God, and these disciples that are raised up and nothing can squash it. There's no real enemy against it because the more that they are oppressed, the more that the gospel of Jesus Christ is alive and spreading. And here we are, over 2000 years later, that message is still going and God's still building his church. And we await that time that as the book wraps up, it's the we get to know the ending of the story before it happens, that there's going to be all this trial and we're going to have to stand it but we get to be God's image bearers. And that once again, Christ is going to come down heavens is going to come down and all that we saw and read about and generate in Genesis is going to be fulfilled through this revelation, and we will once again have a garden and a city, and people will worship God all of those that have been grafted in that have called him Lord and accepted the gospel of Christ. And that is the story of God redeeming his people to Himself. Genesis to Revelation and me get to be a part of that by believing in the new covenant and trusting in Christ. So it would probably be different three days from now. So that wasn't perfect, but you know, I'm sure I left on a few things in there, but
please,
guy you're gonna do yours. Come on. Come on. Do it. Go as far as you go. I told them they didn't have to go all the way but it was kind of hard to stop because I was like, you know I was going God
God's beautiful. Creation is full by sample man. Adam in the discipline guy. Cain kills. Mankind continues to become more and more wicked. God did decide to start over by flooding the earth and destroying everything on it except for Noah and his family of eight and to have every kind of animal after the flood event God tells Noah and family to repopulate the earth. They didn't get very far and shortly thereafter, they began to build a tower that was offensive to God. God scattered them by changing their magnitudes that Zara's still have a relationship with, with his creative image and speaks to Abraham and tells him to gather his possessions. And so to land he will promise to give him God makes a covenant with Abraham, telling him he will make him a great nation that his descendants will be more numerous than the stars. God tells Abraham he will bless those who bless him, those who pursued so after some of their own planning, Abraham and Sarah have a son named Isaac, who has a son named Jacob, who then has 12 sons who eventually become the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob and his family ended up moving to Egypt due to famine, and are reunited with his with his so in slavery son Joseph, who had become a powerful person in Egypt. They ended up staying there for 100 years and become enslaved to the Egyptians. God hears the cries of his people in Egypt and calls on Moses to rescue should carry out his plan to rescue. Moses was reluctant at first but he carries out God's plan to carry out God's plan after 10 plagues Pharaoh, that's the safe can go have a wordsmith people leave Egypt take go silver and other plunder given to them by the Egyptians. Pharaoh has a change of heart chases that catches them at the Red Sea. Arts rips the art Hebrews go through the Pharaoh on his army chase after God. Guy clubs are chased after him got close to the target city. God then leads people to Mount Sinai where he as Moses commandments. God explains his relationship with the people by saying I will be your guide and you will be my faithful and I will dwell in your midst. The people get a little sidetrack and build a golden calf, but realize they're wrong in doing so and get back on track by constructing a tabernacle for God's instructions in order for God to grow them. With God about to live among them. He gives them instructions on how to do so. This is a bit of case law laws, because he is he is a holy God. They need to be held. He then leads them to the promised land but they cower down and refuse to cross over to the land, then makes him wandering in the desert for 40 more years until that generation is gone. Again God leads into the rent of the promised land and in this time, they are ready. But before crossing the Jordan, God and Deuteronomy reiterates His laws and living with him and a few other concerning the inhabitants of the land there. They're about dockside. Joshua is now the leader of Israelites and God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous and convey the law of Moses. God parks the Jordan River and they are also Joshua sends spies to Jericho, and a prostitute named Rahab. Helps them and give him that she does this because she has heard and believes in their God. I mean, Jesus came from that yeah,
you're right. You're right. You're right. That's right. I meant to put her in mind too. And I totally felt like after I did it because I wanted to do women and then we connect back with women in the New Testament. I was trying to do a theme but anyway, keep going. You're doing it
to everyone said right now, other than a slight setback. Hey, knock her off. Someone then divides the land up between the 12 tribes and tells him to grab the remainder of the Canaanites out unfortunately, did not do this. And this resulted in the Israelites turning out overshooting ways. Joshua dies and during the time of judges, evangelist Jeff Manson God's people apparently as wicked as the Canaanites they were to drive. Who will deliver the Israelites from religion? They have spiraled out it will be David sama Jesse and the great grandmother drew a Moabite woman after the judges, various people cry out for it they want to be like the other countries around saw his point of kin. Based initially on his appearance got annoyed itself Samuel but saw through foolish decision loses faith or was God then choose chooses and has Samuel annoying even though solid people Solid. Solid as vision takes over the conquest making Jerusalem the capital and moving the tabernacle and fanfare. At this point, God establishes the covenants with David Vinod Kevin. David has a lapse of judgment with the Shiva and his kingdom begins a downward trend Solomon son David and Bathsheba, Solomon, son of David and Shiva is appointed king by him and he starts at well and despite his father, count him to follow the Mosaic Covenant. He takes his nation on a downward spiral for all of a Solomon's wisdom he's blessed he disobeyed the Mosaic Covenant contained you do you marry foreign prison princesses and worship their gods. He even went as far as constructing buildings for the worship of these gods. Solomon forced many years relax into forced labor like the Egyptians, which was in violation of Iraq, Israel.
Israel was sliding further and further into idolatry and the blessing of Deuteronomy were slipping away. After Solomon's Beth, Israel splits into two kingdoms northern and southern and northern kingdom is called Israel and so the kingdom is Judah. Northern Kingdom has terrible and leads the kingdom could further worship provides that violence has enough and in 722 BC, they are conquered other games and had a few good games, but they were not enough to overcome that balladry and sinful nature of the people and its leadership. They were conquered in exile to Babylon by the Babylonians in 586 BC prior to the exile prophets in both kingdom through 23 Basic messages, you have broken the covenant and you must repent. No repentance and judgment will come. There is a glorious feature time of restoration coming after the jet through a righteous team. That was during during their captivity Daniel in France remain strong in their faithfulness to God by posing their captures pressure to worship their adults and adopt their ways. After many years of exile and under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. Some of the people are allowed to return to Jerusalem and Judah to rebuild. Although they are back in the Promised Land, they are still a long way. Glorious common restoration the prophets spoke Old Testament closes with hope and expectation of becoming recited for over 40 years, for
us for 20. I think that's right.
All right after a long period, with God's new covenant Prophet, John the Baptizer who is to prepare the way for the coming in. Having a mother as if urgent and being born in a stable Jesus enters the world and he never after His baptism by John the Baptist, Jesus's name tested by sectioning wilderness. We're using scripture to defeat Satan's fanpage after passing delivering this test, Jesus is now ready to begin his mission slash ministry. Jesus began to this ministry by announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of God and to enter it one must repent, believe in the good news and become a follower of Jesus. The Kingdom begins to take shape and grow and Jesus wants a community of disciples teaches with authority and performs miracles. Jesus popularity grows as he shows compassion to the outcasts and opera salvation to centers. These practices that compassionately salvation put him in conflict with their religious leaders. As he nears the end of his ministry, he talks to his disciples about who he is when he came to the disciples understand, he is the Messiah, but they cannot grasp that he came to deliver the people by dying on a cross and being raised from the dead. It is not until Jesus transfiguration when God speaks to Peter, James and John, that clarifies that that clarifies what Jesus's mission is, as far as I got. Perfect,
excellent job.
And can we tell that guy's an engineer by that is so good? It was no, that's good. Like it's just very, you start seeing personalities like we do in the Gospel, like you yours was very precise and succinct and like you did, like you got all of the main things like that was really good. Like you got the flood in there and Rahab and several things. So that includes so that was really good. I like that. All right. Well, let's jump in. I'll give you all time to think about if anybody else wants to do it before we in class, I'll save a few minutes if somebody wants to do it. what stuck out I know it was a lot of reading. And Paul is is kind of fun encouraging in a way, but he's also hard to read. He's hard in the Greek if that makes you feel any better. Scholars really grapple with Paul is He's highly educated, he's very intelligent. And sometimes it's hard to understand him and we're trying to read back into a context that we don't fully understand. So. But did anybody have any aha, this is all scripture. You've heard 1000 sermons on you've probably memorized lots of these verses in here. I'm sure you all of you know this very well. Or maybe not maybe this maybe you guys were like, gosh, I I thought I knew this, but I saw something new. That's awesome. Would you say? Yeah.
name was changed to Paul. Most likely, not because of his conversion, but because the relevant name call is more fitting for his ministry. Magenta.
That's right. Yeah. It was strategic. Paul was very strategic in what he did. Yeah. Yeah.
I listened to a podcast this week about Paul's name change. And for the longest time, we thought, Oh, it was a conversion thing.
But it doesn't right away. Yeah,
this is more accurate here. It's like no, it's it was a as he became the apostles to the Gentiles, and kind of filled that role. It makes sense that he's Paul. Now it's more you know, going to the Gentiles do we know he probably had both names. Everybody in nature will have three names. Yeah. And they so he had Sol and Paul, and then his family name would have been like Gaius or wherever he was from or something like that so yeah. The in fact that really close to Yeah, it's close to Galilee. Yeah, Galilean area, but there was the Christianity Today this month. fascinating article on Paul in his background, like where his parents came from, and a lot of it's from origin who wrote in the aisle, maybe fourth or fifth century. I'm not sure. That's all right. And then the Jerome wrote, like commentary. I think it was Jerome I might be mixing stuff up now but and it's pretty much they're accusing him of plagiarizing origin. We don't have a lot of writings if any of origin himself so we're so but we're thinking that kind of adds some credence to where it's coming from. But anyway, it just a real fascinating article on what the early fathers believed about Paul and kind of his background and so it was really fascinating. I think they thought he was a maverick for sure.
Bring it Roger.
Love it. Oh, love it.
Too much. time in the car for straightforward and back
is that
people in the Bible have last names. You just said that. I wanted to Google and I haven't done it when people started having less well,
I mean, it was like of like their last name was connected to what well, it was connected to where they were from. Like that's what we're saying like it was Paul was Paul solve something accessory or so I think was what they think we don't know for sure. You know, but I think a lot of that like you you would be you know, Debbie of Bryant or whatever.
In the Bible, there's so much every time it says somebody's name. It says her father. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that is the origin of how we came to have last names is because son like a lot of people's. A lot of people's name means something son of so that is the origin of how we got last names, but this is way before that. And if you think about it, even in England, they still carry on today like the noble nobility doesn't have last names. Their last names like Oh, Harry and Sally, right? No. That's my, my favorite movie When Harry Met Sally. Harry and Meghan of Sussex. Right? So that what you know there was all this controversy about like what their last name was going to be and so they chose the Sussex because that's the region of where their estate is or whatever I'm probably using the wrong words but that so that was the I mean that still is prevalent in parts of the area today. There's I've Kristen was here she could answer is because her husband is from Nigeria is that right? And he's here to correct me. Nigeria. Yeah. And like they do
almost like a tribal name and a Christian name. Yes.
Yeah. So like her kids all have like Christian because they're because their family a little ways back. I don't know how far our Christian so they have Christian and like connected to their tribe or husband as she's not she's from here. She's from like south Arkansas five acres or but um, so anyway, they have that and then you know, the Latina culture has y'all probably know that like they have their mother's maiden name and their father's last name, like as part of their name. So there's like, they still hold on to the familia part of their lineage too. So there's a lot of different cultures that do it different ways.
So in they've Johnston's doctorate thesis, he says,
You're quoting Hertz.
Every Roman citizen had a trop part tied name a given or personal name, which was the pre anom, an ancestral or clan name, the gnomon, and a family name cognomen saw was Paul's Jewish name, Paul, his Roman or Latin name. His full name was possibly Saul and toniest Paul, because Mark Anthony made Tarsus a free city so so their scholars are saying Paul is most likely his cognomen and so it was just anyway, so there's he, in a lot of his letters, he's not like, Hey, this is written by and it gives us full name.
All of Tarsus, though, and some intense college courses. So it's,
in most of most of them are attributed to Paul you know, so and that's kind of how we know him but
I think oh king of relevancy to like, he was always like connecting with people like where they were like if he was speaking to the Gentiles in Rome, he was leaning into his Roman part of who he was. And I think with Paul, we see a lot of the echoes like we saw with Moses, that he was so uniquely gifted for what God like there's a reason why it wasn't that God went after the baddest, like Jew that was harassing his people. That could have had something to do with it, but I think it was a lot like Moses because he was super educated. He was super smart, like it like flexibility and like, Okay, what do we need to do here? And he was articulate, not all smart people articulate something, that's a different thing. And then, I think just his birthright and his heritage and all of that like he was so connected to all these key cultures that needed to happen. And like Dave mentioned, like, right before all this happened, they they'd set up we talked about this quite a few classes ago, but the roadways like so that people can even go to the ends of the earth. So I mean, there's just all these things that God had that was so important and strategic for exactly when Christ come and how it spread and who he chose to do that. So great question, y'all.
Good stuff. Yeah,
I love it. I love it.
Because you also mentioned to the end of the year, yeah. That bled into another discussion about I guess at this time, everybody thought the Earth was flat. They
never thought the Earth was flat.
That is bad information. But they probably didn't also know about they didn't think it was round America.
They didn't know how big the world was. That's very true. That's really
tweak our understanding of how to read Revelation. We put America right in the middle of all of Revelation. It's like
oh, my gosh, it's so funny. Okay.
We're gonna go. All right, Dave, if you all turn the page, they've put together one of his lovely charts. Y'all know how he loves to do that. We get to look at the life of Paul. And I kind of already touched on how he was so uniquely gifted for how he does that, but I think it's really helpful. When you look at his life, how he's called the time when he's living when he's writing stuff, because if you read one of his letters, or one of the books that he wrote in the New Testament, and if you know where that is in his ministry in his life, like where it was after his conversion, you really see Paul evolves, as we all do with people hopefully for the better. And we see that in there. We have I don't know if y'all how if y'all read closely in your in your textbook, but it talks about what were Galatians is there's a highly debated scholars are very divided whether Galatians is old or new. Dave and I both land we agree with them that it's a new, an early dating, I said new I'm in it early versus late dating of Galatians. So that means it was his first letter if it's the early dating, and that helps synthesize because Galatians is there's a lot of controversial stuff that Paul says. I mean, it's really, there's a lot of it about circumcision. It's not all about that. But I think beyond that you see all of these cultural issues that they're trying to synthesize because you have the Jews that are so unique. They're God's people that he set apart right in the very beginning. And all of these things like circumcision was their mark of their covenant with their God, and how they had one God and nobody else had one God nobody else was had to cut themselves for that. They mutilated themselves in other ways, that way, so that was unique to them. And then you have the Gentiles. That's just all over the place. They may worship, you know, 12 gods or 50 gods or what you know, and they have all these different things. And you're trying to say, these are all now one. And so you see this balance where Paul was trying to do it, to bring it together, and he comes down really heavy with this idea of circumcision. And that is then settled in x 15, which is a much later letter that was written by Luke, Luke who went around with Paul so Luke was not a direct Paul wasn't either. No, I got that wrong. Is that right? Yeah. Paul and Luke, were buddies. Yeah, that's right. So they went around together. But Paul was much more connected. I think I could say that with the apostles. Luke was more. John, Mark. Right, John, who was with Luke had another buddy that was with him. Timothy, yeah, and Timothy we know is like Paul's protege. I mean, that's like his his son. He didn't actually have a son, but Timothy was like a son to him, and did all of that. So they're getting these accounts and building out how all of this came. To be Lucas doing that. And so Paul has was one of these early writers in there. And so without getting into all of that, we get to see that as we laid out, did y'all have any thoughts or comments about Paul's life and when he's writing anything, any aha moments or questions
so that's a good thing for you guys to you know, like maybe put a little tab on or something anytime, if you're studying the letter. I think that's always helpful to have that resource. Because if you start asking questions, if you go down, like Roger, and depth, down, down the rabbit holes, sometimes these help you answer it, because you ask the question, well, when did he write that? Would he have said that at that point? Was that before the Jerusalem council or after the Jerusalem Council? Things like that? It helps. All right. Dave broke this down into books of the Bible. Where's x? Because you're not doing for x?
No, that's it the first page, the first page, okay. All right. Um,
and I just really asked him this to christen the print because I didn't come to the office today. And evidently, she doesn't have my fonts. Oh, that's why it looks a little disappointed.
They get it printed. And all right, if y'all open up your Bibles looks like x four and five really quickly here
so x 413. Somebody want to read that for us? Just one I know I never do that. Read the whole chapter. That's usually when I knew.
They were in school, ordinary men. They were astonished and they took note that these men had been with
Jesus, y'all read that last line again.
They took they were astonished and took note that these men had been with mine says marveling I like that one better. Yeah. Marveling they were marveling and began to huh Oh, mine's probably I was like this thing I've tried to rebind it but I didn't do a good job so Wow. Right. So this is this is when they were speaking to the Jews. I guess I should have oriented y'all your x for this is still like this part of x. We're talking about Peter's ministry right? And he's really heavily going with the Jews. He's kind of taken Jesus's baton and a lot of ways most of the apostles did, but we really see that with Peter a lot. Peter who betrayed Christ, then it's just like picking up right where Christ left off. And they they know that like, you know, like, what does that remind you of anything else? We've read maybe all the way back to the Old Testament. Does that remind you of anything? Somebody else that it affected their appearance because they'd been with God. Yeah, right. Like after he'd been on the mountain and like, they're like, what's going on with your face Moses, like it was glowing like that. I just, I say it a lot that people are dripping with the Holy Spirit. Like if you're around somebody and they're just so full of the Spirit, and there's just no mistaking that they are Christian. You don't even have to ask him you just know you've met somebody you've had a conversation interaction or watch them how they handle themselves. Do you have one for you have to pick your staple out
for me, no, you're kind of cutting curving around there. So
we see how powerful it is for that people that had been around God. And like not even these high priests could miss that. That they had were that there was a difference above them. Alright, somebody read x 541. So just a little further down in the next chapter.
They've just been imprisoned and beaten to Orientis for that 1x by 41. So I read that
in the window from the presence of the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name.
They were beaten y'all and they were rejoicing. Praise God that we get to join him in his suffering. Do we think like that? We're like a YB guy
praise good. Yeah, absolutely. have like, I know we're out. No, we still got plenty time. All right. I want to tell you all kind of a wild story. How God I love telling this story. This one my always been a Guinea when I was on South Campus Crusade. I was a missionary. And we would travel all around like you know as doing college ministry, so I lived college life like we do spring break and we would travel places in the summer. We do summer mission projects. And this summer, we had taken a group of our students to PCB Panama City Beach, and it was always Yeah. Dan can tell you about he went with the VCM and they drove drunk people around in vans. Three had some fun stories. That was not what the Holy campus crusaders did.
On the beach and talk to people that were laying out in the beach during the day, not at night. Yeah, we're up at two in the morning and people are covered in foam
because they went to anyway. He could tell you some crazy stories. But um, so we were in a day and you could always tell the Crusaders because we had our full piece we were like so all these college kids are out there. They've traveled from all over to come just be listen to us, right? I mean, you know, and we stayed right in the middle of all of them. And this day, we'd always pair up with different people. And I had Allison that was one of my precious disciples that like back on Baylor's campus like I met with her weekly she was in one of my Bible studies. And she and I could not be more polar opposite here. I am loud, extroverted, not afraid of anything was going on. And Allison was most quiet, demure. She's real short, tiny had a shock of red hair. She was the most quiet redhead I've ever known. She did not live up to the you know the moniker of being a redhead but we were going out and I knew she was petrified y'all like I could just see her quickie. And we were gonna we like they said we would go out and talk to people had these surveys that we would ask them questions. And we don't really do much with the data. I think we sent them into crew and they might have tolerated but really the point was to get these spiritual conversations going. So we'd walk up to these like half you know, hung over people like laying out, you know, and there. So we did this that day. And we were like, striking. I mean, people were nice. Some people were like, Yeah, you can pray for me and other people are like, you know, and we're like, okay, and so she's like, Well, they didn't want to pray. It's like, well, that doesn't mean we're not gonna pray for him. I was I was walking on the beach and pray for they won't know. And so we were walking around praying for people and talking to them. And I just really don't remember that day and I wouldn't have remembered that day except for. So that was Spring Break. That summer. I went with a group of students I was like one of the staff that was helping lead at a mission trip to Thailand. And we went over there and we were on some college campuses and I was in charge of like this one campus. That was like a private school. But there's Thailand is really dark place like spiritually. They have an impure Buddhism, but anyway, not not to get and all that. So we had to be like, you know, undercover. We were teaching English on campus. We were doing that. And we they asked us to come up, they were having some kind of conference or something. And there were several missionary groups like from around the world that were visiting in Thailand, and somehow I don't remember all the details, but we got invited. So we went up to a little bit north. We've been in a no, we went further up north. We were already north, but we went further up north up this mountain, and on this campus with your habitus and so we were there for all these different events and at some point, somebody comes up to you you're I'm in Thailand, and I'm a little girl from Oklahoma, living in Waco, Texas doing college ministry. And one of the staff that was from there said, Hey, there's somebody here that wants to see you. And I'm just like, yeah, and people always mistake me for other people. And so but I was like, surely not intact, because ties are really short. And I'm taught like, they are all like here anyway on me and I'm like, they are not mistaking me and I'm clearly American. They always comment on my white skin. You know, they're wrong. And I'm like, oh, no, they must be confused. And they're like, no, no, no, they they pointed it, she pointed at you and said that she knew you and she wanted to talk to you. And I'm just like, I was like, so I told me since y'all stay here. I'm gonna go see what this is about. Because I'm like, I'm sure they're confused. And I went over and there was this young girl. She goes, you probably don't remember me. But I will never forget you. She was like we met on a beach. I'm from Mississippi. And she's like me and my girlfriend's like softball together and we had went up for spring break to Panama City. And she said, You came and talk to us on that beach. And she said, Let me tell you what happened because they let us pray for their group of three girls and as she's saying it it's kind of coming back to me. And Alison was with me. And I remember that. She was like, Yeah, you and your friend. She said on that car ride up. She said, I really felt God tugging on me that I probably shouldn't be doing this. And she said the one of the girls that was with me was not a believer, and my friend and I knew that she was it, but we weren't really living for it either. And we all just wanted to go party and she said, we went up there and we weren't having a great time. And she said, when you guys came to talk to us, she said after you left we had the longest conversation about God and she said, we started talking to her friend and then on the way back, we talked to her and we got back to school and we started talking to her and our friend has now come to know Christ and she's like, I have started living for the Lord. And she's like I just did away with all that party and carrying on and so she got involved with a group. I don't know who it was, but that group she was here and so she's like, I just I couldn't believe it when I saw you and she's like, I know her. That's why I'm here. And so she came and told me and I was like and you know I tell that story because that is a God thing that has nothing to do with brandy. Because if you were to ask me how that day would have went that day, I would have said God love Alice and she probably will never go out with me. Because you know, it's one of those moments and I just kept internally praying God do something big, you know, help Allison to see that and she saw nothing. And so I'm like Alice, I felt like it was a failure because Allison wasn't seeing God move. And I think how many times you know, they walked out of that moment with the Jews, the Jews and with Paul, especially Paul. We were talking about one of my professors. That's Dave's friend too. He had Dave read Watchtower together, but he's like a giant in the world. He's written so many books and stuff and we just love him. But he is very much says he believes that Paul was very genuine. Do you always say you still got on his Jewish underwear? No, some scholars don't agree with that. But I think we can definitely see like, he explains why Paul was so just relentless. He kept going to the Jews and they kept beating him and like locking him up. And like even there he has a warning from his friend don't go to the Jews. And Paul's like I hear you. And then he went anyway, because he had to do it. He had to continue the work that Jesus was doing and he wanted his friends to know. And I think there's just so many things like that like that girl to like, in the midst of partying to turn for Jesus. Like that's the power of what God can do and we don't give up on people. And sometimes we just don't know how God's moving like the things that we see as a failure. God is like, step back. You don't know what I'm doing. Just trust and we don't always get to see those wild moments. But I think on the other side of heaven, all of us are going to have so many stories. I think that story is not going to be the exception. I think we're all going to have these stories. I just got to see that and be encouraged by it. I get to encourage other people say, y'all like this girl from Mississippi. I'm from Oklahoma, Allison's from Texas. And we're all here in Panama City and we meet randomly one time and never again or I thought so I thought that she would be at the same conference in Thailand. It's not the place where I was located and she had just popped. I mean, there's just so many things that like how did that fall into place God and you know, and who knows what's going on in those? I have no idea like what happened to those girls? But none of us do. And I think that's the power of the story where we read it. If we are sit in the in the presence of God, if we know this story, not just the weekend brag and say, Oh, I know scripture from Genesis to Revelation. When we tell that story. It helps us know God. It gives us a bigger vantage point how God sees stuff. We're still not going to see it how he does but we get the bigger picture because we can read this stuff and we can be like Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Peter and be grateful that we get to stand on their shoulders, because thank you to the midwives that did what they did, we all stand on their shoulders and we get to be grafted in of this beautiful story. And our story serves that way for somebody else. We don't even know it sometimes. Praise God. Right. So anyway, I wanted to share that with you. I hope you guys are being encouraged because I know that you guys have read all of this stuff, but I wanted to touch on that from acts on the Jews.
Right yeah.
Okay came from you know, you don't want to give up on those people that you know, I mean, he came from
being the worst guy Absolutely. Killed
the Christians. That
He sacrificed His life, his well being his reputation for that to do it. And we won't even set up sacrifice an awkward conversation with, you know, some sometimes and so, I think, you know, it should embolden us that we should be that radiant and that reflective of God but we it's not what that we're worried that they're going to think less of us or they're gonna you know, ostracize us, but it's like we want like, that's how he thought about I want them to be in heaven. I want them to be in this New Covenant to let go of the dead. Like that veiled tour, that temple was destroyed, that's done. And it's so hard because that's their culture and he understood like that. You're still Jewish, you know, you still are Jewish. I'm still Jewish, but we're also part of this new covenant. And it's hard. It's hard to accept new things and to let go of old things, because even if they're imperfect, when we have to let go of them, they suddenly look really perfect, right? Like we start seeing all the things that's great about being a Jew. So, goodness, y'all so much here. We see, you know, at the end, we see this evolution, like I mentioned earlier of Paul's life Galatians like we mentioned, I really would date that early and he's trying to deal with you know, we already talked about that whether how Jewish do you need to be and there's that question of cultural versus Christ, like, how do we do that? And that's hard and there's not always an easy answer. I know. When I was on the Baylor campus. My last year there I was put in charge of CO leading the ministry and I also which meant that I then took on our impact ministry, which was to African Americans. And so more than half my disciples the students that I met one on one with were black girls, and it was an education for me because I was as wide as they could be, and grew up in the sticks of Oklahoma and the only black girl I knew was adopted. And a black boy, that was a foster kid. That was one of my friends, but they were they were more white than they were black, you know, like culturally. And so, learning how they do Bible study like not like this nobody sits and takes turns or raises hands or waits. Everybody's talking over each other. And something that my leader that was in my position before she left and I moved up, she had to deal with a lot of her leaders just they were like, This is how we dress. This is how the black community dresses and like how we talk like you know, like, they would just say things that were like, Oh my gosh, like, you know, Oh, she got big, but nonetheless, she got big like that. And I'm just like, we'll just say that about her. And she's like, Oh, no, she likes it and like, you know, so I'm just like, if I send it to my girlfriend, she's not me. You know, so they were whatever, but, and their mom's dress very provocative. We had student leaders, and they were like, This is our culture. And it was like, we had to have these conversations of like, no, that's it. Yes, it might be your culture. But there's a time when we have to put our cultures up against our Christ's likeness. And does that allow us to be Christ like that? How many of these companies awkward conversations in the helping bridge gaps between things that we don't really know a lot about and being like, I love you. I don't want you to be like me. I want you to be like Christ, and what is Christ say and looking at that and try to figure out and I think, not exactly about don't wear your booty shorts, like but do I have to be circumcised or not, you know, and they have this church that's waiting in bated anticipation, like, are we going to have to certify circumcised these grown men? And what's that going to be like? And they're like, let's figure this out. Because in and they landed finally to say, this is not a deal breaker. And this is what they got into a love how they talk about, you know, there's things that we draw those hard lines where we say crap, there is one Lord. Jesus Christ is the Lord and it's through him that we have read that like that we are redeemed through His blood that we get to have eternal life. Like there's just things like that where we draw hard lines, but then it's like, do we raise our hands for worship? When do we take communion? Like a doorway dunked or sprinkle? You know, like, all these things where we have to say, you know, that's interpretation that is I can still have fellowship with you. Maybe the I don't participate in the same body as you but we can find unity and common ground and celebrate that there's different ways because we don't know exactly the side of heaven, all of those things. So how do we figure that out? And I feel like that's a big part of Paul's ministry is being all things to all people but not letting go of the the absolute like, where we draw the lines like this is the truth. And then there's these things of like, how care whether you're circumcised or not, God can move and that's not important, but you can understand we and we kind of brush that off, but that was such a huge deal for them. And it was causing, you know, disunity, and dissension and then you have to add on that we think that we live in a rocky, that is like very, you know, was lista Vyas like I'm not saying that right either. My mouth is not working. But y'all know what I'm saying? We're very loose in our morals is what we would say. But you read like things that were going on in God's house and outside of there, and Paul's having to deal with this and he's coming down hard. Core rent was raunchy y'all raunchy. And they are living in this ranch and trying to figure out how to be little Christ to be Christian. And Paul is coming at them and he's trying to encourage them, and they were just his problem child and he the thorn in his side. They were not his Philippi they were, you know, these different ones. And so as we read this story, we really see some really beautiful pictures of, you know, even Paul himself, like he was not happy with John Mark. But they made amends at some point because they disagreed. You know, how, like, will you go your way and won't go, you know, because he was like, he, he checked out like, he didn't stay the course. And Barnabas like, let's give him another shot. And Paul's like, No. And so we all have these moments, but, you know, I think Devall did a really good job of bringing us back to the core of all that and Paul hits it again and again and again, unity, like we can't be together as a body. If we don't find unity, and we don't find unity in this stuff, the opinions and the preferences, we find unity and what do we agree on? And then do we love each other enough to say we're united on this and we make space for each other, to connect with and worship God? As long as it's not unholy? And it's not bringing that like, how do we figure that out? And I think that's when we say, I care more that guy feels loved and included than I get in the knee getting my way. And Paul talks very specifically about that, and like Philippians, two, right, and other places, but he calls us out to say, Be of the same mind, be united in spirit, intent on one purpose. He says that to us distinctly. And that's where I look through all of Paul's writings. It's hard to synthesize because he says a lot is deep and it's heavy. And even as I was thinking, I was like Dave, oh, we're gonna teach this. Like, how do you synthesize Paul? And I don't know that that's a good but those are some of my takeaways. Y'all have anything else that you saw or questions? Thoughts?
You covered. Roger, are you ready? Go home. You guys have had a long week in emotional weight. Yeah.
I mean, you kind of see in the book of Acts. Similar to Paul story. of land. I think I mentioned this last week, the Jews. It's almost like Paul tries to go to the Jews. First, the first missionary strategies. He goes into the synagogue, because he understands how they operate and then starts preaching Jesus. And so eventually, that's the conflict is the you know, the Jews eventually. You know, they go from persecuting Paul or Paul's persecuting them Christians as a Jew to now the Jews are persecuting Paul. And as x keeps going, as Paul keeps going with this message, it's almost like the Jews kind of become the enemies. They're the ones that are trying to stop, Paul. So all of these letters, including Galatians, is what does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to put your faith in Jesus? What is the gospel? How Jewish do we need to be? And is there any salvation in maintaining this Jewishness? You know, or is it faith in Christ? You know, and so I think that's that's the tension throughout this of, of the trying to figure out what does it mean to be the church? What does it mean to be the people of God? How are we empowered by the Spirit and what does that mean? So that's what they're trying to flesh out and Paul's continue to travel around sharing this message of who Jesus is. And then you know, the conflict that's there, so Jew, Gentile. Let's figure that one out. I mean, arguably, how many letters were written because they're trying to there's conflict. between the Jews and the Gentiles. I mean, Galatians Romans For sure, you know, there that's the
core Corinthians is just Corinth is your last Your Jesus. Corinth
is how do you how do you live as a Christian and as a church in a very Greek place that was we would say, just crazy. But they also how much of that was seeping into the church? I think what they were doing was the rich people were coming in during their communion meals as the church and they were eating all the good food. And the poor people were, were still being treated like they were outside of the church. And Paul's like, you need to examine yourself, man. So we when we take communion we examine ourselves as if they're sin in our lives for them it was how are you treating these people that you're you don't have as much money as they as you as you do, you know? And so there was some social factions going on in Corinth and Paul's like, listen, y'all, you know and then immediately goes into, you know, love and the love chapter of Corinthians, you know, has been like this is this is what love looks like and it's not based on who has more money or not, you know, and so, this Jesus is the great equalizer sort of speak like we're all one in Christ. You hear that again in Ephesians. And again, I'm skipping the next week because you know, I have to
but he says even even if you do the good thing, even if you deliver your possessions to feed the poor and deliver your body to be burned but do not have love that profits you nothing so it's not just a useless gone including them, but it's like loving them like they are there. Yeah, there's unity. There's connectedness, it's like there's no there's no levels of the cross. We're all there equally.
Yeah, very humbling. Two minutes.
Any other thoughts?
I don't know. 20 or so years ago in talking about circumcision, foods and you know, all that stuff getting in the way. At first kind of music. You need to do something that all the people in the church raising their hands while we're seeing we're just not right. This was a guy thing because I'm not an off the cuff talker. I'm a thinker. Yeah. And, and I said, Well, listen. If the Holy Spirit person to raise their hands, who am I to go and tell him not to do that same Holy Spirit that had to walk down the aisle is the same Holy Spirit. That's telling man the razor?
Yeah. Good for you guy.
And the same Holy Spirit that's telling you you need to be Reverend and not raise your hands. Yeah, you know, right. So I mean, you know, and that's
where we get that like you said, that's a perfect unity like that's not a place where we need to draw the lines but we do. And again, it's like, we all have denomination preferences and even food like even that's, it is a cultural thing. Because if you go to somewhere else, and they're feeding you food, like go to another country, you'll get like, you'll get that feeling really quick, because times like stuff spicy and like just all kinds of like they eat seaweed as if it's a chips and like, they feed it to you and you like if you reject it, it's like you're deeply offending them. So I mean, there was a time when they gave us a bowl of soup, and we're all sharing it because we're all like picking the tiniest little sets, and there's like that much gone and we've passed it all. Love it, and I'm like, we're like it's totally safe. God just keeps really filling them all. up like the loaves and fishes got some Moon teared it no
multiplying Alright, so next week we'll do chapter 19. You got the Scripture passages to read we'll do the what's commonly known as the prison letters, the Paul the letters that Paul wrote from prison. I did throw just a reminder, just to note that the assignment for our last chapter is to read the book of Revelation. All of it. Yeah. And
we're glad to have been doing it.
Give you a heads up. If you have time. Go ahead and start knocking that out, because it's not a short book. But the important step one, in interpreting revelation is you have to see the forest. Yeah, instead of getting mixed up and confused and all the trees you got to zoom out. And the best way to do that is to try to sit down and read through it, you know, so we're kind of doing an interpretive strategy there, but I'm giving you a heads up now. So you don't hate me that oh, the night before.
Amen. cannot be any more chapters.
This week was a lot Yes. If anybody wants to share their story their their version of the story next week
everyone's got their own twist. Yeah, we
did. We did. We shared IT guy did a great job. Fee you're gonna have to be scared. You can do it. We're not going for perfection. Practice, right. We're all in process. Awesome. Well, y'all keep praying for Tara. She
