Title: Chapter 08 Part A-J
Course: Course PE500, Acts of the Apostles > Section: Unit 6

Before reading the chapter(s) for this week please click the next button at the bottom right of the page to find the homework sheet for the assigned reading. The homework will aid you in taking the quizzes, mid-term, and final. Complete the homework as you read the reading assignment below.

VIII.    OUTSTANDING CHARACTERS

A.       Ananias

We do not know much about Ananias.  However, we do know that he was married to Sapphira.  At this time in history, it was a common practice for church members to sell what they had and lay the proceeds at the feet of the Apostles.  These offerings were then used to care for the needy.  Many sold their properties and gave the earnings to the poor.  Barnabas was included among those who sold all and gave it to the poor.

Ananias and Sapphira did the same, but unlike the others they held back some of the profit while claiming they gave it all.

Peter spoke by the Spirit in his accusation of Ananias lying to the Holy Spirit and to God.  Hearing the Apostle's judgment, Ananias fell down and died.  Sapphira agreed with her husband when questioned by the apostles and fell dead three hours after her husband died.

B.       Barnabas

A native of Cyprus and member of the tribe of Levi, Barnabas perhaps served in the Temple.  Barnabas was a crucial early link between Jewish and Gentile Christians.  Luke introduced Barnabas as a generous man who sold land to support the growing church.

Barnabas soon vouched for a new convert named Saul of Tarsus (Paul) who was distrusted by those who had recently been targets of Saul's persecution.  Shortly thereafter, Jerusalem church leaders sent Barnabas to Antioch where the congregation contained both Jews and Gentiles.  Under Barnabas, the church grew so quickly that Barnabas went to Tarsus and asked Saul (Paul) to join him.  Together Barnabas and Saul worked successfully for a year.  At this time in Antioch, "the disciples were for the first time called Christians" (Ac.11:26).

Barnabas organized a relief drive during a famine.  He and Saul took the gifts to Jerusalem.  Then, the church sent Barnabas, Paul, and John Mark on a tour to preach to the Gentiles.  Their first stop was Cyprus, where the Proconsul, Sergius Paulus was converted.  They continued to travel together for a time.

Barnabas and Paul planned one more trip to the sites of their first successes.  However, Paul did not want Mark to accompany them because he had abandoned the first mission trip after Cyrus.  Unable to agree they went their separate ways.

C.       Cornelius

Cornelius was a Roman Centurion, who was sympathetic towards the Jews.  He apparently was the first Gentile to become a Christian.

An angel appeared to the Centurion and told him to summon Peter.  The next day Peter had a vision, which occurred three times.  Peter concluded that, just as no food was unclean, no person could be considered unclean either.  Gentiles were as free to receive Jesus as the Jews.

Peter visited Cornelius at his home in Caesarea.  While Peter was preaching, Cornelius and other Gentiles began speaking in tongues. Thus, with the vision and the people in Cornelius house receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Peter agreed with God that the Gentiles there should be baptized, just as a Jew would be.

D.       Dorcas

Dorcas was also known as Tabitha.  Everyone was familiar with her acts of charity, including making garments for the poor.

When Dorcas became ill and died, many mourned her.  Peter was ten miles away and was sent for.  He came to Dorcas' side and prayed over her.  He said, "Tabitha, rise," and she opened her eyes and extended her hand to him.  Peter presented her alive.  This was the first such miracle by an apostle and gained many believers.

E.       Felix

Felix, formerly a royal slave, was Procurator of Judea approximately A.D. 52.  He was married to Drusilla, daughter of Herod Agrippa.

Felix's procuratorship was characterized by turmoil.  Felix held Paul prisoner for two years without charges, hoping to extort a bribe.  However, Felix allowed him to receive visitors.  The “worthy deeds” referred to in Acts 24:2 was his clearing the country of bandits and impostors.

Felix was replaced as procurator (A.D. 60), then proceeded to Rome, and was there accused of cruelty and corruption of office by the Jews of Caesarea.  Felix himself barely escaped severe punishment in Rome, where his powerful brother Pallas had to intervene with Nero to spare his life.

F.       Festus

Festus succeeded Felix as Procurator of Judea in approximately 60 A.D.  During his reign, Festus destroyed a group of bandits who had been terrorizing the land.  During his visit to Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders reminded him that Paul was still in prison in Caesarea by Felix's order.  Paul was brought before Festus, Herod Agrippa, and Bernice in Caesarea for trial.  They all agreed on Paul's innocence.  Festus concluded, "This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar" (Ac.26:32), then unwillingly dispatched Paul to Rome.

G.      Herod Agrippa II

Like his father Herod Agrippa I, Marcus Julius Agrippa (his Roman name) was raised in the imperial court at Rome.  When his father died suddenly in AD 44, Agrippa was only 17 and, according to the emperor Claudius, too young to inherit the kingdom. It was instead placed under direct Roman administration.  Six years later Claudius named the young man ruler of Chalcis, a small kingdom in present-day Lebanon. The previous king, Herod of Chalcis, was Agrippa's uncle and the husband of his sister Bernice.  Then, in AD 53, Agrippa surrendered Chalcis in order to receive the tetrarchy formerly held by Herod Phillip and Lysanias.  In AD 61 the emperor Nero, Claudius's successor, granted him portions of Galilee and Perea as well.

Herod Agrippa II appears in the Book of Acts as one of the rulers before whom the apostle Paul defended himself.  About AD 56, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem for inciting a riot.  He presented his defense first before the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, next before the Roman procurator Antonius Felix in Caesarea, then two years later before Felix's successor Porcius Festus.  Since Agrippa and his sister Bernice, who had come to live with him following the death of her husband, were visiting Caesarea, Festus informed them of the case.  "I should like to hear the man myself", (Ac.25:22) Agrippa told the procurator.  The next day Paul was brought before them so that they could help Festus decide what charges were to be pressed against the apostle.

Paul's defense included a review of his life with an emphasis on his conversion and his call to preach to the Gentiles.  But he opened with an appeal to Agrippa's knowledge of Jewish customs and closed with a rhetorical question: "King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?  I know that you believe." (Ac.26:27-28)  Agrippa recommended that Paul be released, agreeing with the governor that Paul deserved neither death nor imprisonment.  But since the apostle had already appealed to Caesar, he had to go to Rome for final judgment.

In Rome under Claudius, Agrippa had defended Jewish causes, and later, as king in Jerusalem, he undertook costly improvement of the Temple.  However, his true loyalty was to Rome.  When the Jews rebelled against Rome in AD 66, Agrippa, like many other Jewish leaders, judiciously sided with the Romans.  After the rebellion had been suppressed, Agrippa was rewarded with additional territories to expand his kingdom.  Although he continued to rule until his death in AD 93, Agrippa lived in Rome for much of his last two decades.  Since Agrippa never married and was childless, he was the last of the Herodian dynasty.

H.       James

James, the brother of John and the son of Zebedee, is the vaguest figure among the twelve apostles.  There is no doubt, however, that he held a leading place among the apostles.  He was the first apostle to gain a martyr's crown (Ac.12:2).

James appears with his brother John at all times in Scripture.  The only time James appears alone is when he was martyred (Ac.12:1-2).  Therefore to obtain a clear picture of James, we need to study John and James, together.

James was a man of both courage and forgiveness.  He was without jealousy, as he lived in the shadow of John.  He possessed an extraordinary faith, and is a good example of victorious faith.

Both James and John were members of the inner circle, along with Peter.  They participated in most of the sacred occasions with Jesus.  They were fishermen, and of a wealthy family. Their father had servants working for him.  Both James and John were called by Jesus to be 'fishers of men,' and they accepted the challenge.  James and John are mentioned together throughout the New Testament.  James is usually named first, which is believed because he was the elder of the two.  Quite often they are referred to as the "sons of thunder" (Mk.3:17).  This was thought as given them because of their fiery personalities.  In fact, on one occasion, the brothers exhibited their impulsive and rash demeanor.

James death is recorded in Acts 12:2.  Herod Agrippa I was the ruler who put James to death. His martyrdom is the only one of the twelve apostles recorded in the New Testament.

I.        John

John was the brother of James and the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve apostles.  John was a prominent leader in the Early Church.  In fact, Paul lists John as one of the pillars (Ga.2:9) of the Jerusalem church.  James and Peter were also mentioned as pillars of the Early Church.  Acts records John traveling with Peter on important mission trips.  On one occasion, they helped a lame man and they encountered the opposition of the Jewish authorities.

John wrote the Gospel of John, and the three letters (Epistles) of John and the last book of the New Testament, Revelation.

According to Luke, Peter and John were sent to prepare the Passover meal on the eve of Jesus' crucifixion.

J.       Paul

Although Paul was the leading persecutor of Christians in the first years of the new faith, Paul became a believer in Jesus and the most influential voice - after Jesus himself - in the history of the Church.  Paul's conversion placed him on the borderline between two worlds.  He had been raised in a strict Jewish home that led him to devote his life to the defense of Mosaic Law against a "sect" that not only questioned that law and worship in the Temple but also claimed a crucified Galilean teacher was the Messiah.  Paul's transformation convinced him that indeed the crucified Galilean was the Messiah and Son of God and that the Messiah's message was not only for Jews but also for Gentiles.  The experience could not have been more traumatic or ultimately more joyful for Paul.  Although he continued to devote his life to the same God he had always worshiped, Paul came to see God's will as pointing in another direction.

Paul was born in the Greek city of Tarsus, a prosperous and renowned center of education and philosophy in the region of Cilicia in southern Asia Minor.  Paul's family thus lived in the two worlds of Greek and Jewish culture.  As Paul told an assembly of Pharisees and Sadducees, "I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees" (Ac.23:6).  His parents gave him the Hebrew name of Saul, in honor of King Saul, who was of their tribe of Benjamin.  He also bore the Latin name Paulus and was proud to assert that he was both a citizen of the Greek city of Tarsus and a citizen of Rome.  Relatively few Jewish families of the Diaspora enjoyed such privileges of citizenship, which often required compromise with pagan culture and having sons educated in Greek culture in the city school, called a gymnasium.  Paul's father apparently had enough wealth to attain citizen status while remaining a strict Pharisee. Life in the Diaspora, and being besieged by Greek political and cultural influences, evidently made him more devoted to his own religion.

Apparently, while Paul was still a youth, the family moved to Jerusalem.  Paul was educated there and his only known sibling, a married sister with a son, still lived there many years later.  Paul's Pharisaic roots led him to study with one of the leading teachers of the time, Gamaliel the elder. He was known in tradition as the grandson of the great Hillel, the leading Jewish teacher of the first century B.C.  Through this training, Paul said, "I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers" (Ga.1:14).  At the same time, Paul learned the craft of tent making in order to support himself for his study of the law.

A cosmopolitan city, Jerusalem had numerous synagogues where Jews from Greek-speaking regions gathered for study and mutual support.  The Book of Acts mentions synagogues for Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and Asia (the region around Ephesus).  Since he was from Tarsus, Paul most likely made the synagogue of the Cilicians his base, and there he began to dispute with Christians such as Stephen, one of the leaders of the Greek-speaking church in Jerusalem.  To Paul such people seemed determined to undermine the law and worship at the holy Temple, all in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.  Though Paul was probably in Jerusalem during the final period of Jesus' life, he never gives any hint in his writings that he saw or heard of Jesus during his ministry.  It was only in later debates with Jesus' followers that Paul became alarmed at the rapid development of the movement.

Paul (still known as Saul) first appears in the New Testament as a consenting witness at the execution of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Stephen was brought before a council to be charged with speaking "against this holy place and the law" and with arguing that Jesus would "destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us" (Ac.6:13-14).  Stephen confirmed the worst fears of people like Paul by attacking his countrymen for always opposing God, for believing that God could ever dwell in a man-made house like the Temple, and for betraying and killing the Messiah.  For Paul, these were words of war.  Everything that he held dear, the law, the Temple, the traditions of his people, seemed at risk if a sect like this was allowed to survive.  What is more, the sect was proclaiming as the Messiah a man who had been hung on a cross, whereas the Scriptures taught that a hanged man was accursed by God (De.21:23).  A broken law, a destroyed Temple, and an accursed Messiah-to Paul these heresies summarized the dangerous new sect.  Thus, as he later wrote, "I persecuted the Church of God violently and tried to destroy it" (Ga.1:13).

The first target of Paul’s attacks was evidently the Christians of Jerusalem, who were Jews from the Greek Diaspora, like Stephen and Paul himself.  Many, including the evangelist Philip, another of the seven leaders of the Greek-speaking Christians, fled to Samaria, Damascus, Phoenicia, Cyprus, or Antioch of Syria.  Paul even used his influence with the high priest in Jerusalem to reach beyond the city to attack Christians in regions outside Judea, obtaining from him letters to the synagogues at Damascus.  Though the high priest had no legal authority outside Judea, his word could certainly affect how synagogues would cooperate with Paul in his opposition to the new faith.

1.   A transforming vision

About A.D. 35, some five years after Jesus' crucifixion, Paul, perhaps about 30 years old, was on his way to Damascus with the letters from the high priest in hand.  God chose that moment to reverse his life.  In later years Paul described the event calmly, saying simply that God "was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles" (Ga.1:16).  In Acts, the event is recounted three times in considerable detail.

Paul was nearing Damascus when a brilliant light from heaven surrounded him.  A voice addressed Paul by his Hebrew name; "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  Paul might have hoped for such a vision to approve his work for God, but he was dumbfounded when the voice accused him of persecution.  He could only ask, "Who are you, Lord?"  The next words Paul heard crushed his world and transformed his future.  The voice answered, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting" (Ac.9:4-5).

War is fought by two opposing forces.  We find those two opposing forces being the natural and supernatural realms within the life of the believer.  Paul was in a struggle, waging war concerning his own understandings and that of what he did not understand.  In the mind of Paul he was in one facet content with his existing knowledge of God. However, when a new idea arose in the midst of Judaism, this caused a great schism in his mind concerning the true faithfulness of God.  People are hindered from reality if, in preaching the Gospel, one substitute’s man’s knowledge for the reality of God.  Paul was struggling with that precise fact.  Judaism made many requirements of man yet this new sect was stating that the only requirement was to believe on a man.  This was a new and unheard of way of salvation; for to have confidence in the power of the Gospel of Christ was to go against the very teachings that he was accustomed.  Could this Jesus be the Messiah?

That would be impossible!  Jesus had been crucified-accursed.  He could not be the Messiah, much less be speaking to him in a vision from heaven.  But Paul was himself experiencing that vision, and he could not deny it. The experience was such that Paul simply knew with profound assurance that this was indeed a heavenly vision (Ac.26:19) from God whom he had been serving but whom he had radically misunderstood.  For Paul the impossible had become real.

As soon as we are rooted in reality, nothing can shake us. If our faith is in occurrences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith.   Paul was being uprooted and shaken in his own understanding.  But nothing can ever change God or the reality of redemption.   Paul tried to reconcile himself with that of what was being preached by the apostles and their followers.  He was failing and probably knew it.  Faith which is based on man’s requirements means we are not secure in God. Having a personal relationship with Christ, means we hopefully, will never be provoked again unto self.  That is one of the meanings of sanctification. God disapproves of our human labors to adhere to the concept that sanctification is merely an experience. Paul struggled to give his consecrated life, by way of the law, to God for His service. This challenge meant he would necessarily have to throw away all that he had learned and desired to be.

Paul had heard the preaching of many of the early disciples, especially Stephen.  The blood was preached, the atoning facets of Jesus’ death and the lack of importance in the actual sacrificial system of that day.  Yet, Paul was not converted.  In fact it drove him to a state of frenzied fanaticism to “preserve the Law”.  He sought out permission and letters to persecute believers.  Paul was so zealous in his charge that his fame grew rapidly.  Yet with all the testimonies around him and even directed toward him, he still resisted conviction by word of mouth.  Paul had yet to receive the revelation of Christ.

The dazzling light had blinded Paul, perhaps to teach him the blindness of the violent persecution he had instigated.  The brilliant light that accompanied the voice of Jesus was a common Old Testament symbol of God’s presence. Paul submitted without reserve, desirous to know what the Lord Jesus would have him to do.  But with his companions Paul continued to Damascus, where he would spend three days praying in that unaccustomed darkness, fasting, cut off from his past, not knowing what the future held.  Physically blind for three days, Paul took no meat and the Lord brought to bear his sins. It pleased God to leave him for that time without relief. His sins were now set in order before him and now he was prepared for the Maker’s hand.

Finally, he was approached by a man named Ananias, a devout Jew who was also an adherent of the new faith.  Through Ananias, Paul would begin to experience the true blessings of relationship.  He was broken and trembling, stricken and apprehensive, yet praying: he was truly a new convert, seeking God’s face; looking for relationship.  Then, Ananias called Paul brother. He now had confirmation; he had been truly forgiven and received by the Lord.  A relationship was established in both the physical and spiritual.  The scales of darkness fell from his eyes, symbolizing how the scales of spiritual darkness and sin and shame had been removed from his heart as the entrance of the Keeper of our heart comes.  He was baptized and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit which had made Stephen speak boldly.  This endued him with power to begin his task.

Immediately, Paul began to proclaim his new faith in Jesus with some of the same vigor he had used before to defend the law. He startled Jews and Christians in Damascus by entering their debates on the opposite side from the one they had expected.  He preached Christ, no longer preaching religion, tradition, ceremony, or ritual. He was not preaching himself or his spiritual experiences. He preached Christ and Him alone. Paul stood as a testimony; publicans and leaders of the synagogue were amazed, for they were witnessing a man radically changed by the power of God.

When the situation became dangerous, Paul did not return directly to Jerusalem but traveled south into Arabia, then a part of the kingdom of Nabatea, and remained there two or three years, preaching and teaching.  By the time he went back to Damascus, he had evidently become the object of such antagonism that King Aretas of Nabatea had the city guarded to prevent Paul's escape.  But aided by Christian friends, Paul "was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped his hands" (2Co.11:33).

In about A.D. 38, Paul finally returned to Jerusalem, where many Christians had formerly suffered persecution at his hands.  The believers would not receive him. They did not have faith in his testimony. They were apprehensive, thinking he was a charlatan trying to work his way into the group of believers to spy upon them.  Even the disciples, until Barnabas, acting as an encourager, and vouching for Saul’s sincerity and effectiveness in Damascus, were still afraid of Saul’s reputation.  Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus who was one of the original members of the Christian community in Jerusalem was held in great esteem by the disciples. His guarantee for Paul carried great influence. At that time he met only two of the church's leaders, Peter (whom he called Cephas) and James, "the Lord's brother" (Ga.1:19), who was becoming the major voice of the Jerusalem community.    Paul's very presence in Jerusalem was such a catalyst for conflict, however, that he soon departed for Tarsus and spent the next several years working in Cilicia and Syria.

2.   A message for Gentiles

Few details are known of Paul's work in those first 10 to 12 years after his dramatic conversion.  It was doubtless a time of much activity but also profound reflection for Paul.  He knew that God had called him not simply to repeat the words of others but to delve deeply into the revelation that he himself had received. What did it mean to trust that one who had been crucified was indeed God's Messiah?  What did it mean that the message was for Gentiles, not as proselytes to Judaism but as Gentiles?  Paul was a highly trained Jew, and his understanding of the law, tradition, Israel's history, and God's grace and love had to be completely rethought.  The message of the cross, which had once seemed so scandalously foolish, he now saw as the very embodiment of God's wisdom and power.

Paul played a large part in God’s plan to take the Gospel to the Gentile world. By doing all he could against the name of Christ, he thought he did God service in the effort to eradicate this heretical sect.  But God had other ideas. As a principal in the effort to stifle Christianity, he became its greatest apologist. Saul of Tarsus, the arch-persecutor of Jesus and His disciples, was soon to become Paul, the most celebrated apostle to the world.

During those years, his preaching and reflection crystallized into the powerful theological message that is apparent in the letters Paul later wrote.  In practical terms, the problem of the relevance of the Gospel to Gentiles as well as Jews was becoming the thorniest theological dilemma for the early Christian communities.  Peter was pushed by a dramatic vision to overcome his strong personal aversion and preached the Gospel to a pious Gentile named Cornelius.  His action sparked a sharp controversy within the church in Jerusalem.  The entire first generation of believers was Jewish, and to many of them faith in the Messiah was intimately linked to observance of the Mosaic Law.  It seemed impossible to them that a community of believers in the Messiah would not faithfully keep the law.

The admission of Gentiles as equals with the Jews in the Church was a principle Paul probably acted on from the very beginning of his ministry. But Peter, on the other hand, had to erase all prejudices and barriers between people. Jew and Gentile are now one in Christ Jesus, a foreign concept to a Jew. Jews had become separatists, extremely prejudiced, building barriers and partitions between themselves and the other people of the world (Gentiles). God had to break these barriers down.

Peter’s preparation for the visit is very interesting. He took six Jewish believers, orthodox Jews, with him.  Peter knew he was creating problems by associating with Gentiles; he sensed he would need witnesses to what he was doing.Cornelius was so confident that Peter would come and he was so expectant of Peter’s message that he called together his relatives and close friends. Cornelius was already witnessing by bringing people to hear the messenger from God.

God alone saves the Gentiles and the Jews, that is, the people of the world. No man can save another man. No man has the authority to save anyone else. Salvation, the gift of the new birth and of God’s Spirit, is of God and God alone. This is made abundantly clear in this passage, the passage where the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit of God. Peter’s message was rapidly concluded by the sovereign interruption of the Holy Spirit who came on all those who heard Peter’s message about Jesus and believed. The Jews who were circumcised believers, were astonished; they were beside themselves at this evidence of equality of Gentiles with Jewish believers.

3.       Jews contended with Paul

The faithful Jews contended with Peter over fellowshipping and eating with Gentiles.  The lack of understanding led to this confrontation, however, the Spirit of God intervened as Peter explained how the Holy Ghost came upon them all who had believed in the house.  The Church’s early vision was narrow and traditional. They saw Christianity as an extension of Judaism; if a person wished to accept Christ, he had to become a Jew first. Peter had gone contrary to these beliefs and practices. God’s will for the Church’s vision was a world-wide mission. Peter simply reached out to the contentious and explained as clearly and straightforwardly as he could by simply sharing what had happened.

4.       Gentile church

It was evidently in Antioch of Syria that the new faith was first actively taught among Gentiles.  The Gentiles were then accepted into the community without having to be circumcised or without being required to observe the dietary laws and regulations of purity that distinguishes Judaism.  Barnabas came from Jerusalem and strongly approved of these new developments.  Needing additional help, he went to Tarsus, found Paul, and brought him to Antioch.  Together these two functioned as the leading teachers in Antioch for a year.  And there, outsiders began to call the disciples "Christians," meaning "followers of Christ" or “little Christs”, to distinguish them from other Jewish groups.  Though the ethnic mix of this community made it very different from the Jerusalem church, the Christians in Antioch were careful to maintain close ties with that community by sending aid in times of famine.  On one occasion, perhaps about A.D. 46, Barnabas and Paul took the aid to Jerusalem and returned with Barnabas' cousin, John Mark.

5.       Mission thrust

Soon after their return to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas realized that the Spirit was calling them to new areas of work.  With fasting and prayer, the two set out for Cyprus, taking John Mark as their assistant on what has traditionally been called the First Missionary Journey.

With Barnabas' knowledge of his home island, the company began work in Salamis on the east coast, preaching in synagogues there before traveling west across the island to Paphos.  At Paphos they encountered one of the many strange religious characters that could be found in cities throughout the Roman Empire; a Jew named Bar-Jesus who claimed to be a prophet and a magician and who had become a spiritual adviser to the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus.  When the magician tried to keep the proconsul from listening to the Christian message, Paul spoke God’s judgment upon Bar-Jesus and he was blind for a season. Paulus believed, "astounded at the teaching of the Lord" (Ac.13:12).  In Acts, this event marks the point at which Paul became the leader of the missionary enterprise and, coincidentally, began to be called by his Latin name; whereas Luke had earlier written of "Barnabas and Saul," he now speaks of "Paul and his company" (Acts 13:7, 13).

Next, the group of missionaries crossed over to Asia Minor and traveled inland through the region of Pisidia to another of the towns named Antioch, where Paul preached in the synagogue.  "We bring you the good news," Paul proclaimed, "that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus" (Ac.13:32-33).  Many responded enthusiastically, but others in the synagogue were outraged.  The message split the Jewish community and soon stirred up the whole town.  But an exuberant Christian community, made up primarily of Gentiles, was formed apart from the synagogue.  After a few weeks; however, the opposition to Paul and Barnabas became so intense that they traveled on to other cities; Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, all in the region call Lycaonia.

6.   Hailed as gods

In each of these cities, the missionaries met with a combination of positive response and intense opposition.  Pagan crowds in Lystra first thought that Paul and Barnabas were gods for having healed a lame man but later turned on them and stoned Paul till they thought he was dead.  The sever injuries from such a stoning might well have weakened Paul's health permanently, for he mentioned later of his physical frailty.  Yet communities of believers were established in each of these cities, drawing people from both Jewish and pagan backgrounds into their new faith.

After Derbe, Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps to each city, "strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Ac.14:22).  At some point on this trip Paul and Barnabas were joined by Titus, a young Greek convert who later became one of Paul's most important coworkers.  Together they traveled back to Antioch in Syria and reported to the church there how God "had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (Ac.14:27).

7.       Conference in Jerusalem

The simmering tensions between Jews and Gentiles within the church, however, were coming to a boil.  Christian teachers from Judea came to Antioch with a warning for all the Gentile converts: "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved" (Ac.15:1).  These Christians had been Pharisees before they came to believe in Jesus and vigorously challenged Paul's understanding of the Gospel.  In the face of this pressure, in about A.D. 49, Paul and Barnabas took Titus-refusing to allow him to be circumcised-and went to Jerusalem to confront the issue with the leaders of the Church.  Thus, by taking Titus as an example of the power of the Gospel among Gentiles, Paul kept the issue from becoming too abstract.  For Paul and others like him, the very heart of his message - what he calls "the truth of the gospel" (Ga.2:5)-was at stake.  If the grace of God in Jesus that he had preached was to be only for Jews and for Gentiles who became proselytes to Judaism, then Paul had profoundly misunderstood the Gospel, and indeed, as he expressed it, he "had run in vain" (Ga.2:2).

The results of this crucial meeting were positive from Paul's point of view.  Two accounts of the event highlight very different aspects, but both report the same basic results.  In Acts, written a generation later, Luke describes a general assembly of the apostles and elders with speeches by Peter and James the brother of Jesus and a report of their work by Barnabas and Paul.  From this meeting the Church issued a letter that refused to require Gentiles to be circumcised in order to become Christians but required them to avoid meat from animals sacrificed to pagan gods or from which the blood was not properly removed and to shun immorality. Paul himself describes the meeting in his letter to the Galatians.  He and Barnabas met with the so-called pillars of the church in Jerusalem, Peter, James, and John the son of Zebedee.  They agreed that just as Peter had been chosen by God to lead the mission to the Jews, at that time the great majority of all Christians, so Paul had been chosen to lead the mission to the Gentiles.  According to Paul, the Jerusalem leaders gave him and Barnabas "the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they unto the circumcised."  They also asked that the Gentile Christians remember to help the poor, "which very thing," Paul says, "I was eager to do" (Ga.2:9-10).

The stand of Paul and Barnabas at the conference in Jerusalem by no means ended all controversy over the volatile issue of Jews and Gentiles, but it tipped the balance.  Christianity was to be a universal religion; the Church could spread freely in the broad world of the Roman empire and beyond and would not be limited to the domain of Jews and proselytes. Questions of dietary laws and table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile Christians remained in dispute, leading to sharp differences between Paul and Peter and even between Paul and Barnabas.  But Paul never wavered in his conviction that God had called the Gentiles to faith as Gentiles, entirely apart from the distinctive requirements of the law of Moses, and he was confident enough to defend that conviction even in opposition to a pillar of the Church like Peter.

Paul's disagreements with Barnabas led them to continue their ministries separately.  Barnabas took John Mark, sailed to Cyprus to preach, while Paul chose Silas (short for Silvanus), and traveled by land to Asia Minor on what is known as the Second Missionary Journey.  They passed through Lystra where Timothy, a young man like Titus, who was to become one of Paul's principle aides, joined them.  The three traveled north into the interior cities of Galatia, then west into Phrygia, founding small communities of disciples all along the way.  Paul perhaps spent extra time in Galatia because of a bodily ailment, which he does not identify.  But the joy of the new converts was such that they cared for Paul "as an angel of God" (Ga.4:13-14).

8.       Beaten, imprisoned, freed

Eventually, Paul and Silas came to Troas (ancient Troy), and sailed from there to Macedonia, taking the Christian message for the first time to Europe.  Every city offered its particular challenges, dangers, and opportunities.  In Philippi, Lydia was converted under their ministry, a Gentile woman sympathetic to Judaism.  Her home became the first center in Philippi of the Church; the community there developed a particularly affectionate relationship with Paul.  But when Paul and Silas healed a slave girl whose owners touted her as a soothsayer with a spirit of divination, they found themselves dragged before the town magistrates in the forum, stripped, beaten with rods, and locked in stocks in prison.  Undaunted, they were singing hymns for the other prisoners at midnight when a terrifying earthquake shook the prison, miraculously throwing open the doors and loosening their fetters.  After converting the jailer to the faith, they were set free.

Leaving Philippi, Paul's company traveled along the main Roman road, the Via Egnatia, to Amphipolis, Apollonia, and finally to Thessalonica, the Roman capital of Macedonia.  As was Paul's practice, the apostle first began to teach in the synagogue, where he would find people who knew the Scriptures and what it meant to say, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ" (Ac.17:3).  As the radical meaning of Paul's proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah became clear; however, the Jewish community split.  From the synagogue Paul drew off a few of the Jews, many "devout Greeks," and "leading women" (Ac.17:4) who had been attracted to the synagogue.  These joined with a number of pagans who, as Paul wrote, "turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God". (1Th.1:9) This diverse group formed the new Christian community at Thessalonica.

It is not hard to understand the bitterness of the many Jews who rejected Paul's teaching and saw their synagogue communities torn asunder by this religious earthquake.  In Thessalonica they failed to arrest Paul but brought his host, a Jewish believer named Jason, before the magistrates, accusing him of harboring "these men who have turned the world upside down" (Ac.17:6).  Paul and Silas were often pushed or pulled from town to town both by grateful believers, who desired to protect those who had brought them new life, and by those who were outraged at the effect they had on the community.

Leaving Macedonia, Paul preached briefly in Athens, where he made a memorable speech concerning the unknown God to Greek philosophers before the council known as the Areopagus.  His message elicited little positive response among the literati of Athens; and he soon moved to Corinth, the Roman capital of the region of Achaia.

Paul was becoming ever more aware of how vulnerable the small communities of believers were that he had founded.  The Church in Thessalonica had faced strong opposition, and Paul was afraid that in the weeks since he had left it the community might have been overwhelmed.  When Paul "could bear it no longer" (1Th.3:1), he sent Timothy back north to Thessalonica to learn what had happened.  In the glow of relief and gratitude that Paul felt when Timothy returned with good news, Paul began a new enterprise that was to affect the entire history of Christianity.  He began to write letters.

Paul's first letter, to the Thessalonians in about AD 51, represents the earliest writing in the New Testament.  The letter was a genuine outpouring of affection for the Christians in Thessalonica.  It is colored with memories of the struggles they had faced combined with instruction in their new faith and exhortations to grow spiritually, love each other, live quietly, and "rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances” (1Th.5:16-18). It was not a private letter but a public document to be "read to all the brethren" (5:27).  In the years that followed Paul's letters became an effective tool for dealing with the needs of his far-flung congregations; the documents substituted for the presence of the apostle himself in an era when travel was slow and often dangerous.

Meanwhile, Corinth had proved to be a place of both conflict and profitable work for Paul.  He preached in the synagogue and won over Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, as well as Titus Justus, a devout Gentile who lent Paul his house next door to the synagogue for his teaching.  Many other Gentiles were also converted to Christianity.  Paul was aided in his work not only by Silas and Timothy but also by Aquila and his wife, Priscilla (Prisca). These were Jewish Christians who had been forced to leave Rome and who shared with Paul the craft of tent making.  Though the Jews once tried to have Paul condemned as a criminal before the Roman proconsul Gallio, the official refused to hear a dispute "about words and names and your own law" (Ac.18:15).

9.       Rich with spiritual gifts

The community Paul founded at Corinth was a diverse assortment of Jews and Gentiles, mostly from the lower classes, but with a few who had some personal wealth.  They responded to the message of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit with particular enthusiasm.  Both Jews and Gentiles had broken with their own religious traditions and communities to become part of the new fellowship, and they delighted in experiences of spiritual fulfillment, wisdom, freedom, and intimacy with God.  The tendency of the Corinthian Christians was always to push their individual spiritual experiences to the furthest extent.  They felt like kings, sated with a wealth of spiritual gifts.  In spite of strong opposition, Paul was able to remain with them a year and a half, longer than he had stayed at any place since leaving Antioch.

When he left Corinth, Paul took Priscilla and Aquila with him to Ephesus and soon booked passage alone to Caesarea.  From there he went on to Jerusalem.  After stopping at the Temple and calling on the Christian community, Paul headed north to revisit the churches in Antioch and the regions of Galatia and Phrygia before returning to Ephesus, where he rejoined Priscilla and Aquila. But part of what Paul found on his Third Missionary Journey deeply disturbed him.

Among the largely Gentile churches of Galatia, other Jewish Christian missionaries had followed his example and had tried with some success to convince these Gentile Christians that they must be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses.  Paul wrote an urgent letter to all the churches of the region warning against such revisions of the Gospel:  "Even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a Gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed."  "For freedom Christ has set us free," he urged them; "stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."  Those who depend on obedience to the law for salvation "are severed from Christ," he warned, and "have fallen away from grace" (Ga.1:8; 5:1, 4).

In Ephesus, the Roman capital of the province of Asia, Paul began a more than two-year period of work, using the city as a base from which he sent his co-workers out into the surrounding regions to establish churches.  Paul himself taught daily in a hired lecture room called "the hall of Tyrannus" (Ac.19:9), and the church thrived.  But all was not well elsewhere.

Paul received reports of growing problems in the church at Corinth, and a letter from the Christian community there poses a series of questions about such topics as spiritual gifts, the resurrection of the dead and eating food that had been offered to idols.  The believers in Corinth were still very enthusiastic in their faith, but their delight in their individual spiritual experiences was straining the fabric of mutual love that held the congregation together.  They were competing with each other in displaying such gifts as speaking in tongues; they were dividing in their allegiance to various teachers; they were showing such indifference to taboos surrounding food sacrificed to idols that the faith of some Christians was being destroyed.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, calling on them to refocus their faith not on their spiritual accomplishments but on the self-giving love shown in Christ on the cross, the true "power of God and the wisdom of God" (1Co.1:24).  The highest spiritual gift, one that would last beyond this world, he told them, is simple love.  They must put love for each other and the good of the whole community above personal desires.  Without that love, no amount of faith or religious insight would be of any value, (13:1).  By keeping the cross of Christ and the love that it expressed as their central vision, the Corinthians could handle all the diverse questions troubling them.

In Ephesus the impact of Paul's preaching, as always, won converts and roused opposition.  Paul told the Corinthians how he "fought with beasts at Ephesus" (1Co.15:32), a likely metaphor for strong opposition.  It may have been while he was imprisoned there that he wrote to the church at Philippi to encourage the congregation and thank its members for sending one of their own, Epaphroditus, to help him in his work.  "Rejoice in the Lord always," he urged them, "again I will say, Rejoice." "I have learned”, he confided, "in whatever state I am to be content ... I can do all things through the anointing which strengthens me" (Php.4:4, 11, 13).

Paul's "anxiety for all the churches" (2Co.11:28), however, could never be fully relieved.  He had to deal with rival missionaries in both Corinth and Philippi, men who tried to turn the new Christians away from the Gospel.  With sharp irony Paul termed these men "superlative apostles" (11:5), because of the extravagant claims they made for their own spiritual power.  For a time it appeared that the church at Corinth would renounce its association with Paul and abandon the true Gospel.  But by using Titus as an emissary, Paul finally reestablished his close relationship with the Corinthians.

The situation at Ephesus finally exploded.  Devotees of Ephesus's famous goddess, the many-breasted Artemis, felt the impact of Paul's work on their religion and their livelihood.  Led by a silversmith named Demetrius, they rioted against Paul, shouting, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" (Ac.19:28)  As the object of this uproar, Paul-who had wanted to revisit the churches-decided that it was best to leave Ephesus, and he traveled around the Aegean coast to Macedonia and ultimately returned to Corinth.

10.     Summarization of Paul's preaching

Through many difficulties and struggles and in the face of harsh persecution, Paul felt that he had finally brought the churches around the Aegean and in the interior of Asia Minor to a level of maturity and stability that they could maintain on their own.  He believed it was time to move on.  When he arrived in Corinth for a final three month visit, he had decided to travel west to Spain, a region yet untouched by the message of Jesus.

Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome, requesting its members' hospitality and aid as he traveled through the imperial city on his way to Spain.  Paul used his letter to a distant church-his longest and most important-as an opportunity to lay out in summary fashion the foundations of the Gospel he preached.

The Gospel, he asserted, "is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Ro.1:16).  In response to the violence and corruption that enslave humanity, God had sent His Son to break the enslaving power of sin through his redemptive death on the cross.  Though humanity is weak and unworthy, Paul announced, "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Ro.5:8).  No human being can break the power of sin and stand righteous before God, but God in His grace chooses to pronounce over the guilty person who trusts in Jesus the verdict of innocent.  What is more, as the believer is "baptized into Christ Jesus"; experiences "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," the power of sin and death is broken, and God makes the believer His own child.  "When we cry, Abba Father” Paul said, "it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God."  The power of this vision gave Paul the basis for profound peace, joy, and confidence in God: "If God is for us, who is against us?"  Nothing, Paul concluded, "in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ro.6:3; 8:2, 15-16, 31, 39).

Before leaving for Spain, Paul decided to make a final visit to Jerusalem to deliver to the church there gifts for the poor that he had gathered from all the churches he had founded, thereby fulfilling his promise to Peter, James, and John.  He bade farewell to the churches around the Aegean, expecting "that they should see his face no more" (Ac.20:38).

He traveled with considerable trepidation toward Jerusalem, where he was welcomed by James and the elders.  But unfortunately his notoriety among other Jews had preceded him.  When he entered the Temple, Jews from the region of Ephesus accused him of desecrating the Temple by bringing Greeks inside, and they started a riot.  The tribune Claudius Lysias sent Roman soldiers from the garrison that over-looked the Temple court to intervene, saving Paul from being beaten to death but also putting him under arrest.  From that moment on, Paul was never again free, so far as Acts recounts and all his plans were foiled.

The dislike and hatred for Paul, who had become a Christian and devoted himself to the Gentiles was so great that Lysias had to send his prisoner to Caesarea, seat of the governor, for protection.  The governor, Felix, was acquainted with Christianity and evidently discounted all the charges against Paul but held him in custody in Caesarea for two years.

In about AD 59, Felix was replaced by a new governor, Festus, who suggested that Paul be returned to Jerusalem, but Paul refused to go and appealed for a hearing before the emperor in Rome-his right as a Roman citizen.  When the well-educated but dissolute Herod Agrippa II and his sister Bernice visited Caesarea, Paul recounted his story and his faith at length before them.  Agrippa was amazed at Paul's audacity in trying to convert him, but all recognized that Paul did not deserve to be imprisoned.  Because of his appeal; however, they agreed that he must be sent to Rome.

11.     His final destination

Soon Paul was put aboard ship with several companions in the care of a kindly centurion named Julius, who was transporting several prisoners to Rome.  The voyage started late in the year, nearing the time when the Mediterranean becomes too tempestuous for ship travel.  At first the trip went well. But as the ship left Crete it was caught in a major storm; for 14 days it was driven by the wind until it broke apart on a shoal (shallow area of water, possibly a sandbar or reef) off the island of Malta.  Miraculously, all on board escaped with their lives.

When spring of AD 60 arrived, Paul was transported on to Rome.  He and his companions were welcomed by leaders of the church, and Paul met with leaders of the Jewish community.  Though he received some positive response from them, the lines between Christians and Jews were already drawn in Rome.  The Book of Acts concludes with a description of Paul living in Rome for two years under a loose house arrest, but able to preach and teach freely to all who came to him.

Paul's co-workers, including John Mark and Luke "the beloved physician" (Co.4:14), helped him continue his missionary work even under arrest.  It was evidently during this period that he wrote letters to the churches in Colosse and Ephesus as well as a short letter to a Christian in Colosse name Philemon about his slave Onesimus, who had become one of Paul's co-workers.  He sent these letters back to Asia Minor by Tychicus and Onesimus.

By this time Paul had evidently given up on his plans to go to Spain.  He wrote to Philemon to "prepare a guest room for me" (Phil. 22) because he hoped to visit Colosse soon.  Without the aid of Acts, it is difficult to reconstruct the course of Paul's last years.  Many scholars argue that the so-called pastoral letters ( I and II Timothy and Titus) were not written by Paul himself but by one of his followers, because their Greek style is so different from that of Paul's other letters.  In that case, Paul may well have been executed in or about AD 62, perhaps during Nero's persecution of Christians after the fire that destroyed Rome in 64.  If the pastoral letters were written by Paul, however, they show that the apostle was released from house arrest in Rome and traveled back to the Aegean area, visiting Crete, Ephesus, Miletus, Troas, Macedonia, Corinth, and Nicopolis in Epirus.  Eventually, he was arrested again and taken to Rome for trial.  Although, apparently alone at this time, he defended himself successfully and was released.

Soon Paul was rearrested and accused of a capital offense; perhaps simply the charge of being a Christian leader.  When he wrote 2 Timothy, Paul was awaiting trial but did not expect a successful result.  His co-workers were scattered everywhere; only Luke remained with him.  But Paul was undaunted.  "I am already on the point of being sacrificed," he wrote to Timothy; "the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2Ti.4:6-7).

According to tradition, Paul was beheaded in Rome, though we have no exact record of it.  He was probably less than 60 years old.  Though he was a highly controversial figure throughout his life, Paul was recognized as a genuine hero of the faith in the generation after his death, when the Acts of the Apostles was written.  Throughout Christianity, Paul's powerful formulation of the Gospel, emphasizing salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus, and his focus on love as the central value of Christian life, has served the Church's greatest theologians well.

Click Modules to return to the module list or click Quiz 6 to be taken to the quiz for this unit.