Bible in A Year: Episode 34

Intro • 00:00
Welcome to Read the Bible in a Year with Matt and Hannah, a weekly podcast from Fairfax Bible Church where we explore scripture together, uncovering its themes and design patterns. We’re glad you’re here. Now, here are your hosts, Matt and Hannah.

Matt • 00:16
Okay, we are here. This is Read the Bible in a Year with Matt and Hannah. This is episode 34, Hannah.

Hannah • 00:24
Mm-hmm.

Matt • 00:25
You excited? Can you believe we’ve made it this far?

Hannah • 00:28
I can’t believe it.

Matt • 00:30
We’re actually turning a corner a little bit, uh, because we’re in the book of Acts. We’re gonna talk a lot about Acts this episode. This is really the last book that we have that has a proper narrative.

Hannah • 00:42
Yeah.

Matt • 00:43
When we move into the letters, I mean there’s still narrative, but you gotta do a little bit more reading between the lines. But in terms of like Here’s a story of a man named Peter Paul and his very lovely companion Barnabas. I accidentally stumbled into the theme of the Brady Bunch here. I’m sorry, everybody. You know, we don’t have the so we get to soak up the last bit of narrative, but is basically what I’m saying here.

Hannah • 01:09
Yeah.

Matt • 01:10
Yeah. So um and it’s kind of a sequel. We’ve talked about sequels before. I won’t ask you your favorite movie sequel again. Again. I think we I I have memory that we did that earlier this year.

Hannah • 01:23
Oh, maybe.

Matt • 01:24
Because I asked you what’s your favorite movie sequel, and you’re like, I don’t really watch movies. I don’t know. Stop asking me.

Hannah • 01:32
I do watch movies. I just feel like they’re not the same movies that you watch, maybe.

Matt • 01:36
Oh, well there’s like some touchstone movies though. I mean you you must have watched Star Wars at some point.

Hannah • 01:43
I did. Okay. But in like, you know, two thousand twelve or something.

Matt • 01:48
Okay, well that’s a good time to watch Star Wars.

Hannah • 01:51
Sure.

Matt • 01:51
Yeah. But like OG Star Wars or like the new school stuff? Okay.

Hannah • 01:55
No, the first six.

Matt • 01:57
Okay, well. But like Empire Strikes Back is fantastic. That’s that’s the correct answer. Yeah. Anyway, so I mean Acts isn’t quite the sequel to Luke. It’s more like the part two to the part one that is Luke. It’s a little more like Lord of the Rings. Only instead of three books we have two books.

Hannah • 02:19
Okay.

Matt • 02:20
Yeah. It works. Trust me. Trust me, the comparison works. Wait, have you have you read Lord of the Rings?

Hannah • 02:27
I have not read them, no. My husband did force me to watch the movies. What?

Matt • 02:32
Force you?

Hannah • 02:33
Yeah, they’re too long. Okay.

Matt • 02:38
Um there that would be fighting words to many, many people in our church family.

Hannah • 02:44
It’s just like fighting and then three more hours of fighting. Well yeah.

Matt • 02:52
It’s a lot happening. It’s a lot at stake, Anna. Can’t let Sauron get the ring. We were talking who were we with? It was like uh maybe it was a new member meeting and like the icebreaker was like your favorite movie or whatever it was. And um And a couple people said Lord of the Rings, but it was established that uh you could only properly give that as an answer if you meant the extended version.

Hannah • 03:20
Oh yeah. I did watch the extended versions. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean the That’s why that’s why they’re still fun. That’s right.

Matt • 03:31
Uh I kinda like them. Okay, well So we’re gonna talk about X. Why don’t you catch the video?

Hannah • 03:36
Okay, but before we get into X, you didn’t give us a a sports number with our episode.

Matt • 03:43
Number thirty four.

Hannah • 03:44
My dad provided one.

Matt • 03:45
Oh yes Yes, so Chicago is dead.

Hannah • 03:49
Chicago Sports thirty four.

Matt • 03:51
Walter Payton?

Hannah • 03:52
Yep, that’s the one.

Matt • 03:53
Amazing Amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Hannah’s daddy.

Hannah • 03:59
You almost missed another sports reference.

Matt • 04:02
It was not immediate to me. But as soon as your is well frankly, as soon as you said your dad, because I know your dad’s from Chicago or lived around Chicago. So yes, Walter Payton, pfft, that’s amazing. Excellent. Very strong.

Hannah • 04:15
Yeah. Okay, now we can proceed with that.

Matt • 04:18
Well I was gonna say tell them to be ready for 35.

Hannah • 04:22
Okay. I don’t know. We’ll see.

Matt • 04:25
I’m I might actually look up I’m not you know what I’ll worry about that next time third third time Maybe the Lord comes back before we record episode 35. That might be okay. That might be okay.

Hannah • 04:38
Yeah. Yeah.

Matt • 04:39
Lot going on in the world. Yeah. All right. So what’s the story so far?

Hannah • 04:46
Well, we are gonna cover Acts chapters one through twenty-two today. We’re a little bit off in our our normal podcast rhythm, so we’re covering a few more episodes than we than we might or um a few more chapters than we might normally in one episode. Um we have seen the um this is the continuation of Luke’s two-part work from Luke and Acts. Um and so we see what the the spirit empowered people Followers of Jesus continue to carry out Jesus’ mission through the early church, the giving of the Spirit um pouring out on his people. We see many, many people coming to know Jesus, being baptized, filled with the Spirit, the multiplication of the early church. Um yeah, and we’ll get into a handful of those things.

Matt • 05:47
Uh love it. Excited. Well, here’s my first question. I’m gonna uh and I did give you a warning that I wanted to ask you this question. Um, how is this the only book that we have about this like time period? Because we have four gospels, four accounts of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, but we only have one book about this time period. I don’t know, maybe you don’t know. And you can humor me, that’s fine. But how is this the only book? I feel like there’s like other cool stories and other things that we would know. That would be cool for us to uh experience and understand, but we don’t we don’t have those in our scripture.

Hannah • 06:25
Hmm. Well, it’s the only narrative book of this time period.

Matt • 06:29
Right, yeah.

Hannah • 06:31
So, you know, we’ve been introduced to the character of Paul, who writes a bunch of the following letters that we’re gonna read.

Intro • 06:38
Yeah.

Hannah • 06:38
And so they’re not narrative, but they do reveal a ton of insights into how the early church operated, what their theology was, um, how they met and gathered and All of their problems.

Matt • 06:52
Yeah, I I think I just feel like I made some friends as we were reading through the Gospels. Uh like well I mean Peter. We get to know Peter in this book and a little bit uh in his letters and some other stuff, but like James, uh, and John. We don’t get much insight of them. Andrew. What happened to Andrew? I like Andrew. Where did Thomas has this amazing moment uh at the end of John’s Gospel? Where um where he says, My Lord and my God, you know, doubting Thomas, the whole that that whole story. And then we don’t see Thomas. Well, he just disappears from the narrative. I want to know what happened to Thomas. Sure, yeah.

Hannah • 07:30
Well we do we do know what happened to James. We’re told in Acts that he’s the uh he’s mart the first of the twelve disciples who’s martyred.

Matt • 07:39
Poor James.

Hannah • 07:40
Yeah.

Matt • 07:40
I do feel for him. Well then and then there’s another uh this is something that I just have to get used to because now we get some new characters that we haven’t met before and they’re just treated as like super important. Even though it’s like, where did you come from? I was hanging out with Thomas and Andrew and Mary. Hello, Mary Magdalene Super big deal in the gospels, and then we don’t get to hang out with her anymore. And now all of a sudden this guy like Barnabas is on the scene, and there’s another James. We lost our James. Sad, but now we got another James who’s like in charge here. What where did he come from? What is what is happening here?

Hannah • 08:17
Yeah.

Matt • 08:17
I want to speak to the editor, I think is what I’m trying to say.

Hannah • 08:23
Well, I mean we do have to remember this is just one perspective, right? This is Luke’s he he’s done a lot of work to interview eyewitnesses, but he also was obviously part of one of these particular groups. We see in like the later half of Acts that he starts using the pronoun we Like when when he’s traveling with Paul. So that implies to us that Luke was traveling along on these missionary journeys. So I don’t want to say he was biased, but he kind of was biased to like tell the story he knew. Mm-hmm. You know? And uh For whatever reason, other apostles were maybe more focused on spreading the gospel than they were about documenting the history of how the gospel spread.

Matt • 09:10
I’m sh I mean, I’m sure it’s in somebody’s account somewhere. Um But uh well, my namesake, Matthew. What happened to Matthew? Where did he go? Hmm. I would like to learn this. I’m sure it’s in somebody’s church history book somewhere and just haven’t read it, but

Hannah • 09:26
Yeah, yeah. There are a lot of early church fathers who have written. It’s just not it didn’t make it into the canon of scripture.

Matt • 09:33
Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh so you’re telling me I should do my homework is what what you’re saying.

Hannah • 09:39
Maybe.

Matt • 09:40
Okay.

Hannah • 09:40
I mean, I don’t know that much else about outside of outside of scripture. I haven’t read a ton of early church fathers’ writings either. I would like to. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt • 09:50
So it is so as we mentioned, Acts is a continuation of Luke’s gospel, sort of a part two to to that part one. And there’s lots of sort of parallels and um sort of continuing in he’s doing it in sort of the text itself. Tell us a little bit about that.

Hannah • 10:08
Yeah, so in the first verse, Acts chapter one, verse one, Luke describes his first volume as everything that Jesus began to do and teach. Um and so that’s suggesting that this second work of writing is the story of what Jesus continues to do and teach, but this time through the Spirit and through his people. And so Jesus’ ministry and mission are not totally complete by the time that he ascends into heaven Uh he continues to fulfill his mission and his purposes through now his spirit-empowered followers So there are, like you said, a ton of parallels between Luke and Acts showing how the apostles are continuing the work of Jesus and actively participating. in the mission that Jesus began. So just a few of them are um like Jesus’s healing of A lame man in Luke 5, and then Peter heals a lame man in Acts 3. Jesus is invited into a centurion’s house in Luke 7, and Peter also was in Acts 10. Jesus is arrested during Passover, and so is Peter. Um let’s see a couple others The one that I find really interesting, and we’ll talk a little bit more about some of the parallels with Paul that towards the end of Acts, Paul’s um sort of the the last stories about Paul and Acts and the parallels with Jesus and his time in Jerusalem. But the there’s like really specifically Jesus was tried four times and of those four times he was declared innocent three times and the same exact thing for Paul Which is really interesting.

Matt • 11:59
I’ve never put those things together before.

Hannah • 12:02
Yeah.

Matt • 12:02
That is really interesting.

Hannah • 12:05
Yeah, so the the the lives and ministry of the apostles are mirroring Jesus’ life and ministry, um, showing that you know their lives are so committed to the way of Jesus that their lives end up looking very much like Jesus’ own life, which is really cool.

Matt • 12:25
Yeah, that is neat. I remember one time when we were talking about uh church planting uh and we’re talking about the idea of spiritual multiplication. And Luke is really good for showing that principle and showing how it plays out. You know, in I think it’s in chapter nine, uh, Jesus sends out the twelve, and then at chapter ten, he sends out the seventy-two. And he’s you sort of get the sense that, you know, we we multiplied from 12 to 72. And then in Acts He keeps doing the same sort of thing. He’s like, it was three thousand. Then it multiplied to five thousand. Then it and he keeps saying after a while he stops using numbers. He’s like, they multiply, they increase. Like he’s just sort of keeping that idea of multiplication going. Um so it’s really, really interesting um to kind of see how he threads that through uh Luke and Acts both. Yeah.

Hannah • 13:14
Yeah. Yeah, some scholars even um structure like find the structure of the book of Acts based on f phrases like that. So there’s these like summary phrases throughout the book that capture the multiplication of the church. And so there’s very similar phrases like the word of God continued to increase and the church multiplied and The word of God increased and multiplied, so you see like I think it’s six times that kind of break up the structure of Acts Yeah, so that’s a a common theme and even maybe the way that the whole book is structured around that multiplication.

Matt • 13:54
Yeah, that’s really cool. Yeah. So uh yeah, so getting into it a little bit, obviously the first couple or the first chapter, we actually get to see Jesus just for a little bit. Uh there’s that scene where he ascends into heaven. And the famous it’s not w it’s not quite what we call the Great Commission, but the the same idea as the verse that we call the Great Commission, where he says, I’m taking off, I’m going, but you’re gonna stay in Jerusalem, uh, and I’m gonna send the helper And then you’re gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem and then in Judea and then Samaria and then out to the ends of the earth. And then that’s sort of the pattern that the book follows from there. The first first couple of chapters are there in Jerusalem, then it sort of broadens out to um you know the places in Israel we’re familiar with, Samaria. And then we start to go out to the ends of the earth. First of all, the sort of fringe areas of kind of the the area we call Palestine. Um, and then obviously the book turns and we’re going out to Ephesus and Rome and you know out to the ends of the earth. So the the book follows that pattern that Jesus lays out there in the early verses.

Hannah • 15:00
Yeah.

Matt • 15:01
Yeah. So the first big event, you know, once Jesus departs the scene and the disciples are just sort of hanging out. uh waiting for him to show up and then we have this thing called Pentecost kind of a big deal um so a what is pentecost uh and b what in the world what happens here

Hannah • 15:24
Yeah. Well, Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which is the Feast of Weeks. uh or sometimes called the feast of the first fruits, um, in the Old Testament. And the this Pentecost is one of the pilgrimage holidays, so when Jews would travel to Jerusalem specifically to celebrate, So uh we know Passover was one of those, and then there’s three of them. I think the other one might be Sukkot, which is the Feast of Tabernacles. Um but anyway, so there’s a ton of uh Jews traveling to Jerusalem where the disciples are. Um we see that there’s 120 of them at the beginning of Acts, it tells us. And so they’re all gathered together. celebrating. Um and then we see this crazy event described, which is the the giving of the spirit or the pouring out of the spirit. And so Luke describes this mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire resting on top of each of Jesus’ followers. Um they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They start speaking in other languages. And so um Peter tells us this is a fulfillment of a number of prophetic promises. He quotes particularly from Joel.

Matt • 16:51
Oh but also I love Joel. I’m so glad to see Joel get a shout out.

Hannah • 16:56
Yeah. Um but also Ezekiel and Isaiah and probably a few other prophets. Um prophesied that the Spirit would be poured out on God’s people to give them a new heart, to put his spirit within them, to transform them from the inside out And there’s a ton of language used here with the fire and the rushing wind that recalls some Old Testament passages about God’s glory and presence. So first um the burning bush in Exodus three God’s presence in fire appearing to Moses And then on Mount Sinai, God’s presence descends in fire on top of the mountain in Exodus 19.

Matt • 17:42
Yeah.

Hannah • 17:43
And then when God’s glory fills the tabernacle in Exodus 40. That’s another hyperlink. And then finally, when God’s glory fills Solomon’s temple in 2 Chronicles 7, we see this idea of Fire and wind presence of God. But instead of now here in Acts chapter 2, instead of fire descending on a mountain or in a building, it comes to rest on individual people. communicating that God has chosen to dwell among his people. His presence is now with them and inside of them in a brand new way. Um, both in each individual, but also together as a community. That’s important. Yeah. Um, so these connections I think probably help form some of the theology we get of the church being the new temple.

Matt • 18:37
Okay.

Hannah • 18:37
You know, filled with God’s presence.

Matt • 18:39
Yeah, we’re gonna see a lot of that when we get to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Yep.

Hannah • 18:44
Yeah, yeah, and because shortly after this, um after the Pentecost, um we see this community of the early church. practicing generosity and abundance and love, living together in community, which uh is clearly a way that they’re embodying the purpose of the temple, which is to be this place where heaven and earth meet, where uh people experience God’s presence and his love, his generosity. Um yeah, so it’s a really cool image there.

Matt • 19:18
Yeah. I I kind of love those early chapters where they’re all just hanging out at the temple. Like there’s part of me that wonders like, don’t you people have jobs? Like what is where where are you go how are you just hanging out at the temple all day? But I guess the first century Jewish economy was different than uh the United States in the twenty-first century. Uh but like they’re just hanging out Like they’re sharing, like nobody lacks food, everybody’s got what they need. Like we’re told expressly, like everybody gets taken care of. Everybody’s looked out for. They’re together, they’re devoting themselves to teaching and to prayer, to fellowship. And everybody’s needs are taken care of. And it’s it’s like, wow. And it’s even like challenging. It’s like, well, I mean, I like our church, but that doesn’t happen at our church, you know. Maybe it should. Like maybe maybe we lack something there, but it’s like, wow, that is it’s just really cool.

Hannah • 20:11
Yeah.

Matt • 20:11
Yeah.

Hannah • 20:12
Yeah. And so uh maybe just to add another note about the significance of this pouring out of the spirit happening at or during Pentecost.

Matt • 20:22
Okay.

Hannah • 20:22
Yeah. Um, so there’s a connection between Jesus’ death and resurrection occurring during the Passover. There’s there’s a lot of events timed with these Jewish festivals. And what that does is add a layer of meaning to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Okay. connecting it to Israel’s story of redemption from Egypt, uh which is the the Passover, uh recounts that story. And so those ideas of Of redemption, deliverance, salvation, being connected to Jesus’ death and resurrection is significant. So here we see the pouring out of the Spirit connected to the meaning of Pentecost. So I said Pentecost is the feast of weeks or the first fruits. And so Jewish people would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the first fruits of their wheat harvest. So they would come offer the first fruits of their harvest to God, celebrating that this was like the first taste of the harvest that God was going to provide for them over the coming weeks or months. And so the connection is that this first pouring out of the spirit on this subset of believers is like the first fruits of a much greater harvest.

Matt • 21:42
Oh.

Hannah • 21:44
So the the God’s Spirit is going to continue to be poured out to fill followers of Jesus as the good news spreads to the ends of the earth. So we see this happening, because here this is 120 Jewish people, but later we see the spirit be poured out on uh you know, Cornelius, the Gentiles and and his households. And then there’s uh a couple other chapters where we see the spirit. poured out on others. So this is just the first fruits, but there’s, you know, so much more to come.

Matt • 22:14
Oh, that’s really interesting.

Hannah • 22:16
Yeah.

Matt • 22:17
Oh. Um speaking of Cornelius, he’s kinda well actually we should stop before we talk about Cornelius. One of the things is of course these great things happen uh and they’re amazing, but like not everybody’s excited about this. Kind of like we saw in Luke where Jesus would do uh miracles and healings and then sort of right away there would be somebody from the religious leadership who would contest him and challenge him and that culminated in his trial and crucifixion followed by his resurrection. Some of that that a little bit of that shape of narrative shows up in this one too where something cool happens but then the the religious leaders are like this is not cool we we don’t like this And they, you know, start to arrest people. They arrest Peter and John, um, who uh and then there’s actually uh a s sort of a sham trial. um that they uh get out of. But so that that idea of like it’s not gonna be hunky dory, there’s gonna be um challenge, there’s gonna be persecution, there’s gonna be resistance to this idea. That shows up even as early as these um first few chapters in Acts.

Hannah • 23:22
Yeah.

Matt • 23:23
Yeah, and that sort of culminates in the story of Stephen, um, which I I think a lot of people would be familiar with that, but Stephen is sort of one of these early early followers. He uh is arrested by the authorities, he gives testimony, and and at his testimony he says, you know, I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, and they stone him, they take him out and they stone him. And that begins. Oh, there’s a couple interesting notes here. One is we’re told that the person standing there receiving tribute for this is a young man named Saul. That’s not the last time we’re gonna see him. He comes back into the story a little bit later. But also people start to scatter from there. Um so you can kind of see this this pattern of going out into Judea and Samaria. It it sort of is expedited by the uh Stonian of Stephen. So in the aftermath of that it gets what, about chapter ten, where we meet Cornelius. Sir Cornelius is a Roman centurion. And he has a vision. And in this vision, it’s like, go ask, you know, call for a man named Peter. Meanwhile, Peter happens to be in like a town, what, I don’t know. A day’s walk away or whatever it was. Peter has this vision of like all these animals that according to the Mosaic Law he should not be allowed to eat. And the vision tells him, get up and eat. He’s like, no, I don’t I’m I’m I’m a good Jewish boy. I eat kosher, I’m not gonna eat these. And he’s like, Don’t call unclean what I’ve made clean. And he’s wondering what this means when he gets this word, he’s like, hey, Cornelius wants you to come over and talk to him. So I that’s a kind of an interesting note here.

Hannah • 24:53
So yeah.

Matt • 24:54
Yeah.

Hannah • 24:55
Yeah. Yeah, and the vision is obviously not telling Peter he should change his diet. You know, it’s uh an analogy for for people. And Peter even multiple times after that interprets uh it clearly in the in the text. He’s like This is God was telling me not to show partiality towards people.

Matt • 25:16
Yeah.

Hannah • 25:16
Yeah.

Matt • 25:17
Yeah. And I th one of the things I and I confess that I sort of overlooked this for years. Cause it’s kind of a cool story. Like he goes, talks to Peter, he’s got this vision. He explains to Cornelius and Cornelius and his whole household believes in Jesus and they get baptized. Yay! Excellent Aesop fable moment here, right? The moral of the story. But then it’s actually he goes back to Jerusalem to talk about this and the early believers are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, timeout. What? So but oh. Okay, well I guess I guess God’s salvation through Jesus is for the Gentiles too. This is shocking to them. This is new information to them.

Hannah • 25:57
Yeah. Yeah, when that happens in chapter eleven, I’ve I took note of that ver of verse eighteen because that stood out to me after the Jews are criticizing Peter, but he tells the whole story of what happened. And then verse 18 says, When they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life. Like, you know, just the the testimony of what happened to these people was enough for them to be like, wow, and and praise the Lord. And I guess, you know, the Gentiles are welcome now.

Matt • 26:31
Yeah. And it’s cause it’s so interesting, ’cause you can see them wrestling even then. We got a hint of it in the vision story. But like, okay, so we believe in Jesus, uh, and we believe, um you can even see that’s by believing and trusting in Jesus uh that we’re saved. uh and can experience salvation and rescuing and and restoration to fellowship with the father, but we still got all these laws. And we still feel beholden to like follow these laws. So the the diet laws, the eating laws, the ceremonial cleansing, and this one in particular. Uh, you know, it was not f uh favor. It’s not a great idea for Peter to go into a Gentile’s house. That would have been really challenging for a lot of his compatriots there. And you can sort of see them be like, why would you do this? Why would you make yourself unclean? Why would you associate the Gentiles? And then Peter tells them what happened. They’re like, oh Okay, well I I guess we have a new game now. It’s you could like the light bulb going off or this awakening that they have is really interesting to see.

Hannah • 27:38
Yeah.

Matt • 27:40
Yeah, they’re still doing like I mean we’re the we were gonna this this sort of thread, you know, how do we we are Jewish people and we uh the the messiah that we believe in jesus is a jewish man he’s a jewish messiah he’s he’s the fulfillment of all of these promises that God has made to the Jewish people But now we got all these Gentiles that want to become part of the party. How do we manage this? Are they supposed to become fully Jewish and dress the way that we do and go through the rituals that we do and Follow the restrictions that we follow, or like how do we accommodate all this? How do we manage all this? And this becomes like a really important theme, not only for the rest of the book, acts. But for the whole rest of the scriptures. Like Paul Paul comes back to this again and again in his epistles. The other writers of the epistles pick it up a little bit too. So this becomes a huge thread in the rest of the story.

Hannah • 28:38
Yeah. Yeah, maybe, arguably one of the the main ideas of Paul’s letters. Yeah

Matt • 28:47
Yeah, huge threat in Romans. Um, and that’s Pastor Matthew’s been talking a lot a little bit, and it’s gonna get to in the next few weeks, I think. Um huge threat in Galatians and Ephesians. Yeah, so Um, yeah, so what do we do? Like we have all these ru our identity is wrapped up in all these things. Now we have all these people that used to harass us and um uh uh you know to challenge us and and take us over. Now we’re family members, we’re the same people, even though we have all these different rituals and beliefs and diet preferences and we speak different languages and yeah it’s a it’s it’s a huge theme.

Hannah • 29:26
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Matt • 29:26
Yeah. So much so that they actually have to have a big meeting about it.

Hannah • 29:31
Yeah.

Matt • 29:31
Again, chapter 15, the Council of Jerusalem. Tell us a little bit about that.

Hannah • 29:39
I don’t know. You wrote that down in the notes.

Matt • 29:40
Oh, okay. Yes. You tell us about it. Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll Have to do all the work around here. That’s a joke. It’s a joke. Hannah’s a lot smarter than I am. Anyway, so this issue comes to a head and they decide, okay, let’s get all the smart people in a room. uh in Jerusalem and they sort of argue it all out. By by this time uh I think Paul is it No. So they um they’re like, okay, what do we do about this? And they they make the decision. Well both sides sort of argue. There’s one side that argues Hey, they gotta be Jewish, they gotta get circumcised, they gotta do all the stuff, uh, because that’s what obedience to God looks like. And then you have another side who’s saying, well, wait a minute, no, no, no. The The way you experience salvation is just through believing in Jesus. Why would we add all of these um uh requirements to them? We haven’t even been able to pull this off for thousands of years. Why are we now going to put this burden? uh on our new brothers and sisters in Christ. And so that’s where they live. So they they basically give counsel out to the Gentile believers and they say, hey You’re not obligated to follow law, but we would caution you. I think it’s refrain from uh uh like stay sexually pure, so no more sexual immorality. Uh don’t uh do idol worship. So turn from that and then I’m missing one. That’s the third.

Hannah • 30:55
There’s a couple others that are like, don’t eat blood.

Matt • 31:00
Yeah, let’s see. So okay. So it’s uh chapter fifteen, verse twenty-eight. It says, It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements. that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols. So this is a theme that comes up a lot in Paul’s writings. You could go into a market in, you know, big cities and you th like there would be a section where it’s like, here’s the food that was sacrificed to the idol, and it would be like price difference or it was considered cool or something like that. So they don’t want you to do that. Um they don’t want you to eat blood, um which is continuing in one of the old testament uh requirements uh and what has been strangled, that’s pretty interesting, and then from s from sexual immorality. So if you keep these thing keep yourself from these things. You will do well. Farewell. I love the little node. Farewell. So relatively simple You know, not not particularly onus. I think it would be a lifestyle change for some of these people. Um certainly the sexual immorality, that would be very different because sexual ethics were very, very different. around most uh non-Jewish places than Jewish people would have experienced at the time and in even how we practice today. Um and then I think the the diet laws th but they wouldn’t be burdensome, but it would definitely be somebody would have to be intentional about this.

Hannah • 32:20
Yeah. Yeah, and I don’t actually know the reason why those uh like the two other diet laws are in there. There’s probably something to do with um distinction from pagan rituals. That would be my guess.

Matt • 32:35
I think so, yeah.

Hannah • 32:36
Yeah.

Matt • 32:36
And I think Paul gets into that a little bit in like his letters to the Corinthians. So I think it’s sort of a uh uh related to those things, yeah.

Hannah • 32:44
Yeah.

Matt • 32:45
Yeah. So so yeah, so now we got a uh little point of tension. How is God going to bring these all of these different groups into the family of God. We got a new family of God, new temple, new this. How’s God gonna bring these people together? And one of the principal instruments he uses for that is a man. We first met him as Saul. But then as we get into the narrative a little bit, his name, he is he doesn’t change names, but we start seeing him referred to more often as Paul rather than Saul. So who is this guy? And what’s going on here?

Hannah • 33:22
Yeah, so Saul uh was a very devout Jewish man who believed um He believed he was being faithful to God by persecuting followers of Jesus because at first he didn’t believe that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. So he is very zealous in trying to protect what he believed was the proper uh you know way to follow the tr one true God. Um And we so I don’t know, sometimes we think of his conversion as like he was this terrible man killing a bunch of people and then he came to know Jesus and he’s great now. Um he he was doing what he thought was right. Yeah. Um he was very zealous both before and after the revelation that Jesus gave him, but he’s just very zealous for different things now.

Matt • 34:15
Yeah. Yeah.

Hannah • 34:16
Yeah. So this revelation that uh Jesus uh you know appears to Paul is recounted three different times in Acts. So in chapter nine, twenty-two and twenty-six. So that’s how significant it was. I mean, if if Jesus physically appeared to me the way that he appeared to Paul and in such brightness that it blinded me for three days and audibly spoke to me. I think I would probably repeat that story a million times as well.

Matt • 34:45
I think he he repeats it in at least one of his letters. I think it’s in Galatians he repeats the story. There might be another reference to it. But yeah. He tells the story for the rest of his life.

Hannah • 34:55
Yeah, yeah, and it totally I mean, it completely reshapes his view of reality, first of all. And I think it totally shapes his later theology that we see in his letters too. He talks a ton about revelation and opening your eyes, um light versus darkness. Light is another, you know, part of this experience of revelation he had. So like in Ephesians especially. Um in chapter one, he prays for the church in Ephesus to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of God, to have the eyes of their hearts enlightened. That’s like all the same language of the revelation that he had. He wants others to have the same revelation.

Matt • 35:43
I’m mildly curious about something.

Hannah • 35:46
Yeah.

Matt • 35:47
Um, do you think he met Jesus during Jesus’ life? We don’t have any record that he did. We don’t we there’s no and there’s nothing to suggest that he did, but he obviously had some familiarity with who Jesus was. I wonder did he have do we wonder if he had any encounter with him? I guess maybe he’s in Tarsus. He’s in some other town. So maybe he only heard about Jesus. Maybe didn’t actually run into him. Because he would talk about uh encountering Jesus, and clearly he’s referencing most often to the experience that he has on the road to Damascus. Um, but I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder is like, did he like note was he like there for like one of the big temple confrontations or something like that? Um I’ve just always been curious about that.

Hannah • 36:33
Yeah. I don’t know. Good question.

Matt • 36:35
Yeah. Not sure if I’ll ask him when I get there.

Hannah • 36:39
Yeah. I’ll have to be patient for that. Um but yeah, the the one thing in particular that stands out to me about Jesus’ revelation to Paul is that um the thing that he asks Paul is, why are you persecuting me?

Matt • 36:56
Yeah.

Hannah • 36:57
You know. So Jesus uh identifies the persecution of his people as persecution of himself. um which is just a really cool idea of, you know, the union with Christ that he identifies with his followers so much. that if if his followers are being persecuted, then he’s being persecuted. Yeah. Yeah. And I I think that might have also influenced Paul’s theology as well, p potentially. He talks a lot about union with Christ. Yeah. Yeah, so this revelation completely changes the trajectory of his life and his view of reality. Um and his mission that Jesus gives him is particularly to preach to the Gentiles. So just like we were talking about before the the the mission to spread the gospel out, um, not just the Jewish people but to all nations.

Matt • 37:55
Yeah. So the story basically leaves Jerusalem and Israel at this point. and follows Paul as he goes on journeys throughout the area that we would call Turkey. So Asia and then Greece and Italy a little bit. He’s eventually arrested. uh and ends up in Rome. That’s a whole series of things. We’ll probably cover more of that in the next episode. But yeah, so we’re going out to the ends of the earth just the way that Jesus had described it uh in the very beginning. We get a brief return to Jerusalem, but uh that’s for the next episode. We’ll we’ll talk more about that then. Yeah.

Hannah • 38:28
Yeah.

Matt • 38:28
Yeah. Go ahead.

Hannah • 38:31
Uh I was just gonna add that um Saul would be like the most unexpected person for Jesus to use.

Matt • 38:41
You think so?

Hannah • 38:42
Well, maybe not the most, but like the way that he was persecuting followers of Jesus and now become so zealous for Jesus, it it’s quite unexpected that he would be the one to be So zealous for Jesus. And I just think that that’s very clear that this happened only by God’s power and mercy alone

Intro • 39:07
Yeah.

Hannah • 39:08
Um that he uses, I mean he has a habit of using unexpected people, right, throughout the whole scriptures. Yes. Um that are that have weaknesses and um Yeah, inabilities to fulfill or serve the mission of their own power or uh being. So Yeah, I think Paul’s an example of that.

Matt • 39:30
Yeah, he does have a way of just plucking out unlikely people. And be like, you are it. Yeah, like duck duck goose. Yeah. So yeah. And uh yeah, I don’t know if Uh the most unlikely. Maybe, yeah. I mean I think I think we’re supposed to read it that way. That’s somebody go, if not most unlikely. I mean somebody who is Not just indifferent to the things of God.

Hannah • 39:56
Yeah.

Matt • 39:56
Like cause it’s it’s kind of like the opposite of loyal and faithful to God is not um antagonistic. It’s indifferent. Um, and so Paul’s he’s it’s not that he’s indifferent, he is antagonistic toward the person of Jesus and the work that is happening here. And God is like, okay, cool, you’re on my team now. Yeah.

Hannah • 40:17
Yeah.

Matt • 40:20
In the middle of a game, football game, the your dad’s watching the Bears and then the middle of the game Uh Bears Packers, fierce rivalry. In the middle of the game, the Packers are just like, uh, you, you’re on our team now. Come on over. Like it’s what? Like it does the the rules don’t work that way. It’s not supposed to It’s not supposed to happen that way. Yeah. Just change teams right in the middle of the game.

Hannah • 40:44
Yeah.

Matt • 40:45
Yeah.

Hannah • 40:45
Yeah. Unlikely.

Matt • 40:47
I’m using sports metaphors again. I’m sorry.

Hannah • 40:49
Yeah.

Matt • 40:50
It’s okay.

Hannah • 40:51
I’ll forgive you.

Matt • 40:52
Your dad appreciates it though.

Hannah • 40:54
Maybe. He’s he’s neutral towards sports, I think I think that’s how you would describe it.

Matt • 41:00
Okay, but the Walter Payton reference was pretty solid. So Paul is a fantastic example. He’s only one. I think we have some others of another theme that we wanted to to talk about is this idea of sort of finding joy in the midst of persecution. We’ve talked about a little bit in this one, but the persecution in Acts is significant. Uh it is one of the things that actually drives the story. It’s like how they actually move out of Jerusalem is because Jerusalem is a dangerous place for them to be. And then other places become dangerous. And yet we don’t get the sense that they are panicked, running for their lives. They’re they’re trying to be wise and smart and not be reckless, which is hence why they start to to move out. But we’re not told uh that they sort of cower in fear. There’s there’s some interesting mentions here. So I know you got a couple you want to share with us.

Hannah • 41:48
Yeah. Yeah. So the first one, um, I think it was Casey Maddox put a comment on um for chapter five.

Matt • 41:56
Gold star Casey.

Hannah • 41:57
Verse 41. Um Which says, then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. Like what a powerful statement. So this is referring to the apostles who were arrested by the Sadducees for preaching about Jesus after they were already told to stop and so they’re brought before the Sanhedrin to be questioned. They’re even beaten. Um, but they count they rejoice in that because they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus.

Matt • 42:33
Not gonna lie. Would not be rejoicing.

Hannah • 42:36
Yeah. Yeah, there’s a a similar example in chapter 13. Um well when Paul and Barnabas are preaching in Antioch and the Gentiles all gather to hear, um, but the Jews are jealous of the crowds. And so in verse 50, it says that the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city. um stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. So I thought that connection of being filled with joy in the Holy Spirit right after they, you know, um faced this persecution and rejection was another um Cool thread there. And then the last one is uh when Paul is about to go to Jerusalem, it says multiple times that he knows that the Holy Spirit told him that he’s going to be imprisoned in Jerusalem. But he’s so dead set on going to Jerusalem because that’s what he believes is his mission. And the other apostles even try to convince him not to go. So in chapter 21, verse 13, it says, Then Paul answered, What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am not For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. So yeah, Paul shows the same sort of joy um in sharing in Jesus’ suffering with him. And I think that’s even more strong with the connections we already noted between Jesus’ own journey to Jerusalem at the end of his life, and now Paul’s journey towards Jerusalem to face imprisonment. where Luke is portraying Paul as following in the same footsteps of Jesus and embracing suffering as part of his mission and part of the way that he shares in Jesus’ mission.

Matt • 44:47
Yeah, you know it’s interesting when you when you see them lined up like that, and when you sort of keep in mind some of the other things Paul says in his letters, it’s a little bit as if there’s a certain kind of joy. That you can only experience through persecution. Sort of framing it not just as like suck it up. It’s you know, yeah, it’s unfortunate, but like you know, you’ll get through it and it’ll be okay and you’ll find joy in it. It’s like No, no, if you want joy, if you want the joy of Jesus, you don’t really have a road other than persecution. And I that’s that one’s a little bit hard to get my head around.

Hannah • 45:25
Yeah. Yeah, well uh Jesus told us back in Luke chapter six, verses twenty-two to twenty-three. He says, Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man, rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

Matt • 45:49
Yeah. Certainly as Americans in the twenty first century, this is something I think we have a lot to learn from our brothers and sisters in other countries. You know, think about the stories that Pastor Matthew told coming back from Nepal. Um where if you tell your family you’re a follower of Jesus, they they hold a funeral for you. Like you’re essentially dead to them. Um and especially in countries with like case systems or c yeah, case case systems Um, if you declare yourself to be a Christian, you automatically go to the bottom of the case or caste system and you lose social standing, you lose economic position, you lose jobs, family connections. Uh and yet when you talk to these people, they’re overjoyed to do it. They’re like, okay, yeah, no no big I have Jesus. I I don’t need all that stuff. And I it’s it it just it’s hard to see that kind of fervor. You know, it’s hard to see that level of c uh commitment uh in the American church right now. Um and h and I’m saying we, like I’m including myself in the story. I’m not judging. I’m just saying I I I don’t I don’t see it the way that our brothers and sisters in overseas um Nigeria is a place where there’s just very some come some concerning things happen. Other places where it’s like you follow Jesus, there’s a very real cost to it. Economic, social, political these things. Uh and yet we don’t seem to be having those conversations in the United States. So this is something I think about a lot.

Hannah • 47:23
Yeah, totally.

Matt • 47:24
Yeah. Yeah. All right, well Acts, a lot happening in Acts. It’s a busy book.

Hannah • 47:31
Yeah. Yeah. We’re moving around a lot.

Matt • 47:34
Yeah, a lot of characters. This is something you and I were talking about when we were doing the rundown. Uh for first of all, Luke puts himself in the narrative.

Hannah • 47:42
Yeah.

Matt • 47:42
Uh like right about what what we figured out? Chapter 16, 17, somewhere there. So Luke is just like, oh yeah, and then we went here and then we went there. And Luke just starts dropping names. Like it’s like, oh yeah, we just go to the city and then that’s when we met Diotheles, and these I won’t get the names right, but he he just starts throwing a bunch of names in there And I assume his readers would have some idea of who these people were. He assumes like talks to them as if they would be very familiar, but he’s just like throwing them in. I don’t know. I don’t know who these people are. And you got rid of some of my favorites. Now I gotta I’m still blue. Um Yeah, so it’s a really active busy book But then it’s going to slow down a little bit as Paul goes through these trials. I think we want to save that for the next episode because I think there’s an interesting pattern there we want to explore. And I think we’ll probably uh tip into Romans a little bit in the next episode. So um yeah, but the hits just keep on coming and we are We’re almost done. We’re just a couple months away from having read the whole Bible.

Hannah • 48:39
Yeah.

Matt • 48:40
That’s amazing.

Hannah • 48:41
Yeah, hopefully some others are still hanging on with us. Oh, I think I know, I know some are.

Matt • 48:47
Yeah. And you know, as we’ve as we’ve said, hey, for some people this is new or or life happens like you get sick or you go on vacation or you know, the kids get sick or something like that. So you but it’s okay. Just Do it at your own pace. You know, catch up. Yeah. It’s you’re you’re fine. Totally. It’s all fine. We’re all good. Nobody’s angry. Yeah. Well, why don’t you pray for us and we’ll get out of here.

Hannah • 49:10
Yeah. Lord, we just thank you so much for the gift of your spirit that we see here in Acts. Yeah, how incredible to have your presence in us. Um in in us as individuals, but even more powerfully as a community. um as a church, and we just praise you for pouring out your life-giving presence in us and in our community to empower us. to um yeah let us experience a a taste of your presence um which we long for even more fully in the new creation um but what a a a beautiful foretaste that we have now um with your spirit dwelling in us. Yeah, we pray that you would uh show us what it looks like to be spirit-empowered people to um live according to um yeah your wisdom and your truth and your love and your generosity in abundance, just like we see with early church. We pray that you would use your spirit to illuminate your truth to us as we continue to read your word and that you would give us the endurance to continue together in reading. uh the next uh week and just take this one week at a time as we’re getting towards the final stretch. And so Um, we pray that you would continue to bless our time in your word. And we pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Matt • 50:44
Amen. Thanks, Hannah.

Hannah • 50:45
Yeah, thank you.