Journeying with Paul...part four

Journeying with Paul, continued...

At this point we see that Paul spent two years teaching ‘so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.’ But we see, too, that ‘God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.’

We are then introduced to something new, not through Paul but through those that attempted to imitate him. The Jewish exorcists, or Jewish missionaries, were often wanderers, traveling from city to city showing their power to their god. These missionaries would often turn out in the busy places, such as marketplaces, where there would be different missionaries teaching of their god. They would compete against each other trying to prove that their god was the more powerful god. These missionaries would use spiritual forces to try and prove that their god was the more powerful and therefore get the people to follow their god. This was a way of life for these people as well as a means of financial support.

In their attempts to prove their gods superiority they attempted to cast out demons in the name of Christ. This resulted in the demon turning on them.

It was around this time that Paul expresses a desire to go to Rome although he doesn’t follow through on that desire. Instead he sends Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia while he stays in Asia.

And it’s here that he writes to the Corinthians. Once again he begins his letter with a description of himself, although this time we are given a much more insightful description. He begins his letter with, ‘Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus…’ And then he addresses those he is writing to. We once again are given, in our English translation, a word that was not in the original Scriptures. “To the church of God that is in Corinth…” And there it is, once again, helpful to put the true word in the place of the one that men have erroneously inserted into Scripture. We need to add the word ekklesia and remove the word church. Translating ekklesia to ‘the called out ones’ or ‘the called out assembly’, we get, ‘To the called out ones of God that is in Corinth’ or ‘To the called out assembly that is in Corinth.’

And so we can immediately see that Paul is once again addressing not a set of people within a system of worship but a certain group of people. This then makes what he says next very different than the implication we first get. You see if we look at that whole section of Scripture we see that Paul said, ‘To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together…’ This would put us in the mindset that Paul is speaking to the people within the ‘church’ system, that these are the sanctified saints. But if we once again change ‘church’ to the translation of ekklesia, we get, ‘To the called out assembly that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together…’ And with that change we see that he is speaking not to people within a certain worship place but to a certain set of people. These people may or may not have met in specific places but those places, if they existed, would have looked nothing like the ‘churches’ we see today.

This is the believers that Paul is speaking to, the saints, those that are in Christ. The tone of his letter implies that he is speaking to the elect although there would have most likely been believers among the group that were not necessarily the elect. That is, there may have been believers there that did not have saving faith.

We see, very early in this letter, that there is something of a denomination issue going on among the believers in Corinth. They are claiming to ‘follow’ certain people and are not in agreement on who, or Who, they are following. And Paul tells them to have no division among them.

I can only imagine what Paul was experiencing but…I can imagine what Paul was experiencing. A few months ago I watched a documentary on the history of the Bible and in it were scenes of people writing out Scripture. They wrote by candlelight with quill and ink. The furniture was sturdy wood but not necessarily comfortable looking. Scrolls made of animal skins were the ‘paper’ of the time, and we know that scrolls were the paper because we know the Scriptures were written on Scrolls.

So I can imagine Paul sitting in a small room, or even a large one, lit by candles. He is bent over a handmade wooden table, dipping his ‘pen’ in ink and writing on a piece of animal skin. I imagine, too, that he may be doing this at the end of a long day. Maybe he’s tired. Maybe he spent the day working, earning money to pay for the room he’s sitting in, maybe he had a chunk of hard bread and some cheese for supper, maybe he’s still eating it, taking bites from time to time, or maybe he had lamb or some other meat that he ate before coming to this room. Now here he sits, bent over this ‘paper’, scratching, for ‘pens’ in those days made a bit of a scratching sound, out this letter.

I imagine he has had a long day, has probably taught people of Christ that day. He may have had to correct believers, point them back to Christ…again. Maybe he has spent the evening, after working all day, teaching and preaching to anyone that would listen. And now here he is, after having heard from ‘Chloe’s people’ that the believers he left in Corinth, believers that he spent over 18 months with, are now arguing over just who it is that they follow and they are allowing things that they should not.

Is he frustrated as he writes this letter? Does he want to ask them what is so hard about this? Does he want to show them that he is spending his entire life going from place to place telling people the very things he told them and he manages to get it right? Does he want to point out to them all the hours he’s already put in today and now he must put in more time, time when he would like to be sleeping, to write to them and correct them?

Or is he is resigned as he sits down to write the letter? Maybe he sits in that small, candlelit room, eating his supper while he writes or maybe he has taken his ‘pen’, ink, and ‘paper’ and gone into the country or down by the water and he sits under a tree on a bright sunny day, rested for the moment, and he eagerly, if a bit sad at having to do it, grabs this moment of peace and calm to write to them, to encourage them, to tell them how much he appreciates them and to explain to them how they should be living, correcting them even as he encourages them?

We don’t know where Paul was when he wrote the letter or what the weather was like, for all we know there was a fierce thunderstorm raging outside and he was inside a small leaky tent. But wherever he was…he is encouraging and correcting the called out ones that he has left in Corinth.

And it is here, in this first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 2) that we see something of great importance about Paul. He writes, ‘For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.’ Paul was a man of great standing. He had a position that put fear in more than a few hearts. He was well educated. And he says he decided to know nothing but Christ.

This, along with things like his writing of the fruits of the Spirit, that give us insight into who Paul was as a person. He has set aside all that he knows so that he knows nothing but Christ.

As we read through this letter, a letter I’ve read many times before but never in this context, never in light of Paul’s life, I see that Paul’s tone here has changed. He writes more…passionately…here. the first letter of his that we read as we traveled through Paul’s life was written to what he implied may well be people that professed belief but may not have truly believed. He then wrote to those in Thessalonica and he seemed to have deeper affections for those he addressed those letters to, and he even said he boasted of them. But now we see in this letter to the Corinthians that he is going into much deeper issues.

Maybe he taught the believers in Corinth more than he did any of the others. Maybe those in Corinth learned easier. Maybe he spent more time with them. Whatever the reason he is writing them of deeper issues. He even tells them that he had to feed them as if they were infants because they were ‘people of the flesh’ and that they are ‘still of the flesh’ because there is jealousy and strife among them.

Again he gives us insight not only into who we should be in Christ but into the kind of man he must have been. If those in Corinth were ‘people of the flesh’ because of ‘jealousy and strife’ and if he couldn’t teach them things that are ‘spiritually discerned’ because of that…then he must have been without ‘jealousy and strife’.

But that isn’t the only insight he gives us. In this letter he tells us something of his way of life. ‘…we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.’

If ever there was a man to be labeled as a man of God, Paul was him. And there we see that he was ‘like the scum of the world.’ He was poorly dressed and homeless. This is what believing in Christ got him. This is the life the man that wrote a good amount of our New Testament lived.

And people today claim that God wants to bless us with earthly blessings.

Where was Paul’s earthly blessings? Where was his big fancy house? Where were all the earthly things that he deserved?

Now we can add a new image to our picture of Paul, bent over his piece of animal skin, writing a letter by candlelight. Now we can see him in tattered clothes, possibly without shoes. Now we can see him ragged and cast out from the places where people of standing go.

Here was the second greatest man in the New Testament, I personally think he was the second greatest man in all of Scripture but I will admit I am a bit partial to Paul, and he is ‘like the scum of the earth.’

In my imagining of Paul I now imagine that he was like the homeless people of today. The ones that most people pass on the streets, trying to avoid all contact with. Their clothes are dirty and tattered, they may have a backpack at their feet or on their back. Are their hands clean? Do their eyes sparkle? Or are they empty?

About a year ago I was grocery shopping a couple of hours from home. There was a man standing at the exit to the store parking lot, a cardboard sign in his hand said he was homeless. He had a backpack with him. It was cold outside. And there stood this man, in the cold, holding a sign announcing to all that he had nowhere to go.

I remember this man. I remember that he stood there watching every car that passed, walking to those that rolled their windows down, staying where he was when the cars passed him by.

Was this how Paul was? Dirty? Cold? Hungry? Only instead of a sign pronouncing he was homeless, instead of asking for money, he approached people that would listen and told them of Christ. Did he stand on the corner talking to anyone that passed by? Did he wait for the people to stop before he approached them?

I would love to have the chance to sit and listen to Paul talk. Oh, what wonders he could have shared. His value wasn’t in the clothes he wore. It wasn’t in the house he owned. It wasn’t in whether or not he had bathed that day or even that month. His value lay in the message he had to give, in his faith in Christ.

My grandpa grew up in a time that was far removed from the days in which I lived. As a child, and even an adult, I used to ask my grandpa to tell me stories of when he was a boy. He told me of how he quit school in the third grade to hunt and fish to feed his mother and little brother after his dad died. He told me of how he traveled cross country in a covered wagon. These stories were fascinating. They were amazing. They were stories the likes of which no book could give, because unlike books, these stories were real, and they happened to my grandpa.

As my grandpa aged...what did the world see? An old man with little or nothing to contribute to society. A man that got in the way of their pursuits as he drove slowly down the road, driving slowly because his eyesight was failing him. I don't know what the world saw when they encountered my grandpa but I know what the general attitude is toward older people and quite honestly...it seems to be that older people have little to contribute to our lives. They slow us down. They get in our way. They keep us from doing things.

But my grandpa contributed much to my life. He told me stories that I treasure to this day. He spent time with me, took time with me. He loved me. And he had much to share with others, if only they would have listened.

Oh, but for the chance to sit with Paul and listen. What stories he could have told. What insight he would have given. Was Paul dirty? Did he smell bad? Who cares? He was valuable for the wonderful things he could have, and did, share. But he said he had become like scum.

And so here Paul sits, or maybe stands, essentially calling himself scum, writing out his letter to those that he spent so much time on in Corinth. He says that they ‘have become rich’. He tells them that without ‘us’ they have ‘become kings’. These believers he left in Corinth don’t seem to be suffering the same afflictions as those in Thessalonica. And they don’t seem to have the same faith.

He has already admonished them for arguing over who they follow now we see that he gets onto them for sexual immorality. He tells them that he will be coming to them soon, ‘if the Lord wills’, and asks them if they want him to come ‘with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness.’

Paul goes on to tell them that there is sexual immorality among them, the likes of which even the pagans do not tolerate (1 Corinthians 5). He then tells them that this person should be removed from among them and that even though he isn't there with them he has already judged this person/situation.

Oh, how that flies against the ways of our American culture today. If there was a single sentence to use to define the standard go-to belief of our times, it would seem to be 'don't judge'. I've heard that statement from children and adults alike. I've heard it said about statements that I couldn't imagine anyone judging anything on anyway. And I've even heard someone say it because they had a heater under their desk in a very air conditioned building. People of today seem to think that 'don't judge' is the way to live and to look at others. I won't go to far into that because I'm fairly sure I could write pages on that subject alone, but what would even most 'Christians' of today think if they were to be told that someone, anyone, said, 'For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgement on the one who did such a thing'. Not only did he say that, something that would have American's as a whole pitching a fit if anyone dared to say such a thing about them, but he went on to say, 'you are to deliver this man to Satan'.

What I wouldn't give to hear anyone speak so plainly, so openly, so Truthfully, today. Who dares to stand before blatant sinners and tell them, yes, judgmentally, Scripturally judgmentally, that what they are doing is wrong. Who tells them that they are in the hands of Satan for what they are doing? Who tells them that they cannot be in the midst of others because of their sin?

Paul did.

He even went so far as to tell them that they are to judge those that are within the 'church', or the called out ones, the very people that he referred to as 'the way'. He went so far as to tell them, 'purge the evil person from among you'.

In other words, he says not to allow those living in sin to be among the called out ones, among the believers, do not tolerate their sins in your midst.

But most people today that claim to be 'Christians' willingly, eagerly, accept people living in sinful lifestyles into their midst, embracing them as they, both the 'Christians' and the blatant sinner, professing to be 'Christians'. Both parties would claim that the best way to influence someone 'for Christ' is to simply love them in their sin.

Not so says Paul.

At least not if they are Christians. What of those that profess to be 'Christians'? That's a good question, one I won't attempt to answer here.

Paul goes on, giving more instructions, giving deeper insights. He writes of marriage and marrying. He writes on what to do in marriage.

In chapter 7 verse 17, Paul says something that I find amazing every time I read it, 'Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him'. I find that so enlightening. Here, in a single sentence, Paul clearly says that each person has a life assigned to him. Years ago my children were in a program that assigned numbers to each participating child. When we arrived to the program, we had to sign in and let them know we were there. Upon signing in we were handed a paper with a number printed on it. This number was to be pinned to my children's backs. We weren't asked what number we wanted. We weren't told to pick a number. We were never given an option between number this or number that. We were simply handed the number that had been assigned to each child. And we never put up a fuss over the number, it never even occurred to us to do so.

We were assigned the number and we took the number assigned to us. Here, in this verse, Paul clearly says that each person is assigned a life. We do not get to chose what that life is, although many think they do. It's like some kind of grand illusion, did someone chose to go to college or choose not to, did they chose to marry this person or that one? They think that they choose their life based on the choices they made but Scripture clearly says their life is assigned to them.

So, here, in the midst of Paul's instructions on marriage and marrying, he drops this very important tidbit of information, information that can and probably does sum up so much of all of life on earth for all of time on earth.

It's hard to move from that single verse, and the great importance it imparts to life, and back to what Paul is teaching. I wonder if he tucked that little bit of information in there in the midst of all the other things he was teaching on purpose. Did he deliberately try to make it blend in to what was written around it? Either way, no matter how my mind wants to get stuck on that single verse, to stay there, to marvel over what Paul has just said, there is so much more to read, to study, to learn, and an entire lifetime of Paul's yet to discover, so I will leave that verse behind and move forward.

Paul teaches them of the fruits of the Spirit, on what the body of Christ is made up of, and how there should be no division in the body of Christ. He teaches on love and what love means. We can see what love is, or should be, in chapter 13. Then he tells them how they should worship together, not led by a single man, but with several men, leading and teaching, contributing what they know, and telling them that women should be silent in their meetings, questioning their own husband's at home.

He goes on to encourage them in their faith, telling them, 'unless you believed in vain', so even here he questions their faith, or at least questions the faith of some. Then later he tells them to wake and do not go on sinning.

Paul tells them that he will visit them and possibly stay with them for a time. He encourages them even to the very last word of his letter, a letter that held both encouragement and chastisement, a letter that contained love and taught on love. A letter that must have caused him pain to write, as he dealt with issues that he had heard of, issues that, it would seem, made him question their faith. And then he ends his letter, not just in love but in...judgment?...wrath?...by saying, 'If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed', and then he tells them, 'the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you'. So he curses them and sends Christ's grace to them as he ends his letter.

To be continued....

Journeying with Paul...part three

In part two of journeying with Paul, I traced his first journey, seeing how he taught and established pockets of the ekklesia in the towns that he visited, setting elders up to lead them before moving on to the next town. I followed him all the way back to his starting point of Antioch, which is where I will take up in part three of his journeys.

At this point Paul returns to Antioch. It is during this time that the conference in Jerusalem takes place and it is during this time that Paul writes his letter to the Galatians, at least this is the period in which my chronological Bible places that letter.

One belief is that Galatia may have been the area that included the cities of Antioch, Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium. If so then we see that despite Paul’s best efforts to teach the ekklesia in those areas and to leave them with elders that can lead them as needed, they have not stuck to the things he taught them.

The book of Galatians, after Paul has introduced himself, starts with him telling them, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” From that we can see that the believers he has left behind are not holding to the faith they had when he was with them and that there are those that are leading them astray.

I don’t know if these believers are merely immature in their faith and have nothing to turn to to test what people are trying to teach them or if these believers did not hold a deep enough faith to have faith unto salvation. Either way there are false teachers in their midst.

Paul writes them that anyone teaching a gospel other than what he taught them is accursed and that he did not learn from any man the gospel he gave them but that he got it straight from Christ. We can see in Paul’s letter that the Lord is the one that did all these things in his life. In this letter he tells them, ‘…when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me…’ There he tells them Who was behind him getting the gospel that he taught them and just after that he tells them, ‘I did not immediately consult with anyone.’ (Galatians 1)

As Paul writes this letter he is, it would seem, taking them back to the very basics, explaining…again…the gospel that he has already given them, almost walking them step by step through the gospel. Is he frustrated with them? Is he upset? Angry? Disappointed? We don’t know but Galatians two gives us an idea that he feels something strong as he writes this letter. He calls them, ‘O Foolish Galatians!’ Did he shake his head as he wrote that? Did he cry tears of sadness for their lack of faith? Did he stop what he was writing and pray for their faith?

We don’t know. But we know that he continues, almost taking them by the hand and explaining, step by step, why the law is not the faith they should have now. In chapter four he questions them, ‘…now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world…’ And he tells them something that gives us an idea of this thoughts, if not his feelings, he says, ‘I’m afraid I may have labored over you in vain.’ He continues with his worries over them, reminding them of the faith they had while he was with them, and then he says, ‘for I am perplexed about you.’

It’s at some point after writing to the Galatians that Paul begins his second journey, which takes us back to the 15^th chapter of Acts. Here we see Paul telling Barnabas that they should revisit the cities of their first journey, to check on the believers there. Possibly because of whatever prompted him to write the letter to the Galatians? Barnabas wanted to take John (Mark) with them but Paul doesn’t want to since John left them on the first journey. Barnabas and Paul wind up parting ways over this, Barnabas and John, who is called Mark here, going one way and Paul and Silas going another.

Paul winds up back in Derbe and Lystra. Chances are good that he is checking up on them, seeing how their faith is holding up, if it’s real, if it bloomed for a moment and then faded away, if they followed every doctrine that came their way. Is he trying to separate the wheat from the chaff? Is he trying to get those that seem to be true believers, now tested by time, away from those that may or may not still profess a belief? We don’t know. Scripture doesn’t tell us what he’s doing but if we look back to the letter he sent to them we get an idea of what he may have faced when he revisited these cities. What then would he have done when he got there?

It is here that we first meet Timothy, who now joins Paul on his journey. We are told that the assemblies are strengthened and that they are growing daily.

In a time when we have so many professing believers my mind both wants to understand that concept and be amazed that the numbers of believers could really grow that quickly. On first appearance, if one could somehow travel to every city in America on a Sunday morning, and if they had the ability to see into every ‘church’ in those cities, as well as the ones that aren’t located in cities, it would appear that the ‘church’ is of huge proportions, but the reality is that the majority of those going to those ‘churches’ profess a faith that they do not live. The faith many of them hold is only surface deep.

They are on the broad road. They are the many. They are those that profess with their lips. But how many among them are among the few? How many are the ones whose hearts are not far from the Lord?

Only the Lord knows the answer to that.

But that is what I think of as I think of the early groups of believers growing so quickly. Throughout the New Testament we are told time and again of false teachers, and we have just seen that false teachers were a problem among the early believers as well. We are also told of those whose hearts are far from the Lord. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians gave them the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. In that letter he told them to look after each other and themselves. Later he tells the disciples in Corinth to test themselves to see if they are in the faith. He doesn’t mean that they should see if they have faith to claim a belief in Christ, he is telling them to test themselves to see if they have saving faith, to see if their faith is real, to see if the salvation they think they have is real or if it is only something they think they have because they want to have it.

I think of those that claim to believe in Christ and yet cuss words come from their lips. I personally know someone that has stood in a ‘church’ building and said just such words. I think of someone that claims to believe in Christ but enjoys movies that depict sin. I think of someone that claims to know Christ but thinks nothing of living with someone without being married to that person.

These are the many that make up the ‘church’ buildings of our day. I don’t know what cultural things the many of Paul’s day were hanging onto while claiming to belong to Christ. In chapter 15 of Acts we can see that sexual immorality and idolatry were at least a portion of it.

These are the people that Paul spent his life teaching and encouraging. These are the people that Paul prayed for. These are the people that Paul told to test themselves.

In other words Paul knew there were false believers among those he was teaching. He knew they were there and he was telling them to check for themselves to see if they truly had salvation, to see if their faith was real, if it was heart felt.

I am put in the mind of those that tell us that ‘God loves everyone’ and that ‘we are all equal in God’s eyes.’ Most of those that say that are probably only repeating what they have been told, most likely from someone in a ‘leadership’ role. If the God that said ‘Jacob I loved but Esau I hated’ saw everyone equal…then why does Scripture show us that there is a distinction between those he loves and those he doesn’t? Why does Scripture tell us that the prayers of the righteous availeth much (James 5:16) but the prayers of the sinner are not heard (John 9:31)?

But it isn’t the people that are repeating these heresies that my mind goes to but to the heretical ‘leaders’ that planted these ideas in their heads. Scripture shows us Paul telling those he is leading to ‘test’ themselves. He tells them to check their faith, put it to the test. Here is a man trying to show them through their own faith that the faith they have may not be the real thing. And then there are those ‘leaders’ today that assure anyone that has said the ‘prayer’ that they have eternal salvation, those that tell people that ‘God’ just wants to love them, those that tell them that we are all equal in ‘God’s’ eyes.

Maybe we are all equal in their god’s eyes but their god is not my God, nor is their god the God of Scripture.

The times were different, the heresies may have been different, the sins may have been, in some way, different, but the false believers were mixed among the true believers then just as they are today. And those false believers were standing up and proclaiming Christ just as the true Christians were. And the false teachers were causing trouble among the church, confusing things, mixing things up.

The church was no longer what it was when Paul first encountered it. When Paul first came into Scripture the called out assembly was strong, living under the leadership of the apostles, probably the constant leadership, and they were all living for the betterment of each other. They were lifting each other up and supporting each other as they should, and when they didn’t their sin was quickly, and harshly, dealt with, or so it would seem from the only example we are given. But gone are those days. As we move into chapter 16 we see that Paul is teaching a different kind of assembly of believers, one where sin is a problem along with false professions.

On this second journey of Paul’s we also see that the Holy Spirit is controlling where he goes and who he speaks to. We see no direct interaction with believers during this journey until Paul gets to Philippi. Here they go to the riverside and encounter a group of women, among which is Lydia, a woman that is a ‘worshipper of God.’ And here we once again see the Lord at work for we are told that ‘the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.’

And later we see that the spirit living within the slave girl…the demon…recognized Paul and those with him for what they were. Paul cast the demon out of the girl but then finds himself and those with him, once again, being persecuted by the people. They are beat and thrown into prison. By the Lord’s hand they are freed, no small miracle in the way that came about, and are eventually escorted from the city.

In time they make their way to Thessalonica where a mob forms and accuses them, through accusations toward Jason and some others, of having ‘turned the world upside down.’ There in that accusation it would seem to me that their accusers would see that they aren’t dealing with any small thing. What in this world has the ability to turn the world upside down? Much of the problem, as I understand it, was that Paul and the others, these men of God, were following the laws of the land only so far as they did not go against the laws of the Lord. They followed Christ first, taught that He was the King, before they would follow the king of the land. This was a belief that turned the world, as it was known, upside down. Christ and His ways were being taught over those of the king of the land. And this new belief was what was turning the world upside down.

How many groups of people have gone around trying to get others to believe what they do…and not one of them has turned the world upside down. The only one is the group of believers that belong to Christ. And why did they turn the world upside down? Because Christ did the turning.

It is at this point, once Jason and the others are free, that Paul and Silas escape during the night. What was it like that night, being snuck out of town, traveling dark roads? Did their hearts pound in fear? Did they jump at every little sound? Did they avoid the roads and walk through areas where no one would be looking for them, or where they weren’t likely to run into anyone?

They get to Berea and are received ‘with all eagerness’. The Jews there compared what Paul said against the Scriptures and many of them believed. We are told here that those in Berea have the Scriptures, rather, we are told that they compare what they are taught against the Scriptures, so they must have had a copy of the Scriptures. This group of people may have had a slight advantage over those in the other towns, or they may not have, we really don't know if the people in the other towns had a copy of the Scriptures or not. It does seem that those in the other towns did not compare Paul's teachings against Scripture. Although that, too, is something we really don't know, it just seems that way because Scripture specifically mentions those in Berea comparing Paul's teachings to the Scriptures.

 So here Paul was, received 'with all eagerness, by a group of people that tested what he taught and as a result believed what he said. What fellowship he must have had with them. What enjoyment may he have gained being with them? But Paul’s trouble with the Thessalonians wasn’t over. Those in Thessalonica heard that Paul was teaching in Berea and they followed him there, causing trouble for him. The ‘brothers’ immediately sent Paul away but his leaving parted him from Silas and Timothy.

Paul, while waiting for his companions, spoke in the synagogues of Athens. After seeing several of those he spoke to believe, Paul then went on to Corinth. Here we see that Paul worked as a tent maker and spoke in the synagogues ‘every Sabbath’.

Silas and Timothy arrive in Corinth to find Paul busy trying to teach the word to the Jews but they ‘reviled him’. Paul then took his teaching to the Gentiles. For a year and a half Paul lived and taught among the Gentiles in Corinth.

About a year and a half ago I wanted to understand more of what Paul experienced in Corinth so I spent weeks studying 1 and 2 Corinthians. As I studied those two books I wanted to understand not only what Paul was writing of but what he was experiencing at that time.

That study led me to the understanding that Corinth was a very popular and very large city. It sat between two bodies of water that was part of a main travel route. People came and went from this city pretty much constantly. Travelers passed through from all lands bringing with them their beliefs and their customs.

Corinth was a city that was deep in sin. Homosexuality was rampant as was the worshipping of all manner of idols and gods. I remember reading somewhere, on the city of Corinth, that homosexuality was so abundant there that Paul most likely couldn’t have avoided it if he had so much as looked out his window.

This was what Paul lived in the midst of. This is what he struggled against. This is what he faced every single day as he shared the Gospel with people that weren’t always receptive.

It was here, in Corinth, that Paul wrote his letters to the Thessalonians. These letters were written to the believers in the very city that Paul and the others had to be snuck out of under the cover of darkness. This is the very same city that the Jews there weren’t happy enough that they were out of their city but those very Jews chased after him and stirred up so much trouble in Berea that Paul had to be sent away.

And it’s to the believers there that Paul writes while he is living in Corinth. In this letter we see that Paul worries over the believers there, in chapter three, we learn that he was so worried that he sent Timothy to find out how they were doing and it’s at some point after Timothy’s return that Paul writes this letter.

Paul writes of his thankfulness for the believers in Thessalonica and tells them that they are ‘chosen’. He reminds them of the men that he and the others provoked while they were among them.

This seems to be a very different letter than that last one he wrote. With his first letter he was grieved and worried over the condition of the church, of the believers, that he had once seen faith in. In this letter he writes of how he has heard of their faith from others.

In this letter we see something that anyone that teaches of Christ should take to heart. Paul writes, ‘…we speak, not to please man, but to please God…’ He tells them that ‘we’ are speaking only to please God. They aren’t concerned about upsetting anyone, as so many preachers today are. They aren’t concerned about saying something that may not fit with the times, may not be accepted by most people, or may be considered illegal. He tells them they speak for the purpose of pleasing God.

When was the last time you heard of a preacher that did that? I’ve never heard of any in our modern society.

But Paul doesn’t stop with that. He tells them, ‘…we never came with words of flattery…nor with a pretext for greed…nor do we seek glory from people.’ There is an example that anyone in a ‘leadership’ role could take to heart. Don’t do it to flatter anyone. Don’t be afraid of offending them. Don’t do it out of greed. Don’t do it for the attention or fame it brings. Don’t do it to please man. Do it to please God.

Oh…how many preachers and elders of today would be put out of business if they had to meet just those qualifications?

Paul goes on to give them instructions for living to please the Lord as well as how to live so that they may ‘walk properly before outsiders.’ They were to work with their hands ‘as we instructed you’ and ‘be dependent on no one.’

If all that isn’t enough, at the very end of 1 Thessalonians, Paul says, ‘we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you…’ Would he not be speaking of the elders there? Are these not the men that would be what our society labels as preachers today? Paul clearly says that these are the men that are ‘over you’ and ‘admonish you’, are those not the men in position over the believers?

It would seem to me that those are the very men he is speaking of there, the elders. And he clearly states that these are men ‘who labor among you’. That, I suppose, could be seen as working among the believers, ministering to them, helping them, serving them. But it could also mean that they are literally working among the others. Paul was, even as he wrote this letter, working among those that he was ‘over’. He was working as a tent maker even as he was teaching of Christ and most likely teaching all the believers around him. Not only that but he was, even while working as a tent maker and teaching the believers around him, instructing the believers in the far off cities.

Paul uses this letter to encourage and to teach the believers in Thessalonica. Even as he is basically telling them that they are doing a good job, he gives them instructions on what they should be doing.

And we must remember that this letter is going into the hands of believers that most likely had little or no written instructions for living in faith. They had no Bible to turn to. They couldn’t even go to someone that was further along in their faith than they were because they were all relatively new believers.

What treasure this letter must have been to them. As they struggled to live out their faith, most likely basing their lives on what was in their hearts and what they remembered of the instruction Paul had given them while among them, what treasure would it have been for them to get this letter, to have it to read time and again, to turn to it when they questioned something.

And chances are Paul knew that.

While still in Corinth Paul wrote a second letter to the believers in Thessalonica. I find his introduction enlightening. Just after he writes who the letter is from he says…’To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ That is the ESV version but if we remember that the word ‘church’ did not exist in the Scriptures until the 1500’s then we know that the word ‘church’ was not in the original letter that Paul wrote. That leaves us to look to the word that would have been there…ekklesia…and if we use the English translation of that word we get something like… ‘To the called out ones of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Unless we want to change the word ‘church’ to assembly and then we have, ‘To the called out assembly of God…’

Whatever definition we put in place of ekklesia it certainly changes the tone of the letter. These were a specific people that this letter is being written to. Our modern day minds are conditioned to see the word ‘church’ and to equate it with a ‘church’ system inside a physical building. And that…is exactly why the word ‘church’ was put in the English translations to begin with, to give more power to this organized system than it should have.

If we change ‘church’ to ‘the called out ones…we go from ‘church…in God’ to ‘called out ones…in God.’ And that, to me, is a major difference.

And so Paul addresses his second letter to ‘the called out ones’ in Thessalonica. It would seem, from Thessalonians chapter one, that Paul and those with him use the believers in Thessalonica as an example when speaking to other believers. It also appears that as of the time of this second letter, those in Thessalonica are still being persecuted.

Paul encourages the believers and gives them hope for themselves while also telling them of what will befall the unbelievers. As he moves into chapter two, which wouldn’t have been a chapter in the original letter, or in the original Scriptures, like the word church, chapters and verses weren’t added to Scripture until the mid-1500’s, Paul says something that is very easily overlooked. He is speaking of the coming of Christ but almost immediately he says, ‘…we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us…’ It would seem from what is said there that someone has approached the Thessalonians through a letter claiming to be Paul or one of the men with him or through messages they claimed were from Paul and those with him, either that or Paul fears that someone might do that very thing.

Here, in this letter, Paul tells the Thessalonians that ‘…they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them (unbelievers) a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.’ And almost immediately after that he says, ‘But …God chose you…to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you…’ There Paul spells out for them who is behind the unbelief and who is behind the belief. In just those few words Paul shows the Thessalonians, and us, that faith is by the hand of the Lord. God sent a delusion on the unbeliever and he called the believers to salvation. He tells them so much in such a short bit of writing.

If we think back to his first letter to the Thessalonians we will recall that Paul gave them instruction about working with their hands and depending on no one. Here, in this second letter, he tells them, ‘…keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.’ Now, we know that Paul is specifically speaking to the Thessalonians here but these same teachings would also apply to those throughout time. Paul explained what was expected of believers and showed how ‘elders’ are to lead. In his first letter to the Thessalonians he said, ‘we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you…’ and in this second letter he tells them, ‘keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness…’

In the first letter he clearly states that those that are over them in the Lord and that admonish them are laboring among them and then here, in this second letter, he tells them to keep away from any brother walking in idleness. There is much to be gained from those two things. He is addressing those that are ‘brothers’, these are believers, most likely, from the tone of this letter, he is addressing the elect, or those he believes to be the elect. In 1 Thessalonians he addressed his letter to the saints. Then he gives insight into what the leaders are to be doing…working among the brothers…and now he tells them to stay away from anyone walking in idleness. These leaders of the ‘called out ones’ were to be working just as he did, remember he was a tent maker, and he straight out tells them, ‘…you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day…’. This was what Paul and those with him did, even as they ministered to the believers, teaching and instructing them, and this was what Paul says the leaders should do. They were to work just as he did and just as the other believers were. And he tells the ‘brothers’ to stay away from those walking in idleness.

 That would include the leaders. Paul taught them through his words and actions what a leader is to be. Next to Christ, Paul was the most important teacher of the Scriptures. He has set the example for them and he tells them in his letters what should be happening and what they are to do with those that are not doing as he instructed and showed by example.

In other words…the leaders were to be working with their hands, holding down jobs, not sitting in a building, sometimes visiting ‘members’, and generally spending his days ‘earning’ his income by sponging off the believers of the ‘church’ while claiming that this ‘ministering’ is work.

Paul draws this letter to a close by telling them that he has heard that there are some that are not doing their part, they are not working. And he tells them to warn them and then to have nothing to do with them, ‘If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.’

So not only is Paul spreading the gospel in Corinth, a city of great sin, but he is working, presumably six days a week, since Scripture tells us ‘six days you shall work’, and then teaching in the synagogues on the Sabbath, but he is also writing letters of encouragement and teaching to the believers in the cities he has previously visited. And since we know he taught much while in those cities, it is highly likely, although we don’t know for certain, that Paul is also teaching believers in Corinth.

This would seem to be supported by the fact that he wrote in his second letter to the Thessalonians that they worked night and day while in Thessalonica. To hold down a job, teach on the Sabbath, instruct the believers in their faith, and write letters of encouragement and instruction to believers, it would pretty much take night and day.

And it’s at this point, sometime after writing the second letter to the Thessalonians, that Paul once again finds himself in trouble. The Jews united against him in attack and ‘brought him before the tribunal’. Their charge? ‘This man is persuading the people to worship God contrary to the law.’

The NKJV says ‘judgment seat’ instead of ‘tribunal’. This judgement seat was a platform supposedly similar to an outdoor theater where the courts were conducted. The judgment seat in Corinth has been excavated and today it is possible to literally stand where Paul did, facing the same platform where Paul faced Gallio.

Several years ago I visited a nature museum that had an outdoor theater. I didn’t watch any kind of performance there but I can imagine Paul standing there, facing a judge that was to decide his fate. Now Paul well knew his fate rested in the hands of the Lord and so he knew that whatever happened would happen by the Lord’s hand. But still…I wonder…did Paul worry? Was he afraid? Did he fear being beat again? Being stoned? Being put in prison again? Did his legs shake as he faced that judge? Did his hands tremble? Did he close his eyes to block what was before him from his vision? Did he pray?

This facing of Gallio all came to nothing because Gallio threw the charges out and did nothing, not to Paul, not to the Jews.

It was at some point after his appearance before Gallio that Paul begins to travel again. He leaves Corinth and sails to Syria. He cuts his hair because of a vow he ‘was under’ but we aren’t told of that vow. When he arrives in Ephesus he leaves Priscilla and Aquila and goes into the synagogues to reason with the Jews. It appears that his time in Ephesus was brief for he leaves them despite them asking him to stay longer.

From there he sails to Caesarea where we are told he ‘went up and greeted the church’, again if we recall that ‘church’ was not in the original Scriptures, nor was it a part of the lives of people in the New Testament than we can understand that he went to greet the ‘called out ones’, or ‘the called out assembly’. He met with the believers. Where, we do not know. Maybe he met with them in a building. Maybe he met with them in someone’s house. Maybe he met with them in a field or in a cemetery. We don’t know where he met with them but we know it isn’t in a ‘church’ and we know that he wasn’t meeting with the ‘church’ as our minds would, through conditioning, tend to think upon reading that word.

After leaving Caesarea he goes to Antioch, having now made a full circle back to where he started and ending his second journey.

This pretty much ends the time in which Paul made his second journey. Is Paul tired? Does he feel that he is accomplishing anything? Does he feel that he labors over people that turn back to their sinful ways as soon as he is out of sight? Does he ever long to stay in one place? To leave behind all the persecution and be 'normal'?

We still see nothing of what Paul wants or thinks. We see nothing of his feelings beyond what we can discern from his letters, and there is very little of that. But he teaching and leading...and angering non believers...everywhere he goes. He is doing what the Lord has set him aside to do, what he has been called to do. He was doing what the Lord had planned for him to do long before he was even born.

Journeying with Paul...part two

When I first started writing about Paul's journey's, I intended to post it all in one post but as I wrote more and more to this article, I began to realize that there was just no way to feasibly do that. The longer it grew the more I realized that people simply don't have the time to sit and read something so long all in one sitting. It didn't make sense to post it as a single post, and yet, it bothers me to split it into multiple posts too. I think it reads better as a single post, that it makes more sense as one long post, but I can't expect anyone to have such a large chunk of time to devote to reading about Paul and his journeys all at once. So I'm splitting this into multiple installments. If you haven't yet read part one, you might wish to begin there.

At the end of part one in Journeying with Paul we had just left Simon. 

We move on in the story of the apostles and the church. The gospel, repent and be baptized, was being preached throughout the lands. With the gospel spreading ever further, Scripture takes us back to Saul, telling us that he is ‘still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.’

It would seem that Saul has taken the existence of the believers as almost a personal thing. He wants them gone so badly that he goes to the high priest and asks for letters to the synagogues in Damascus so that he may arrest any believers that he finds in their midst. And here we see that the church is referred to as the Way. There is no explanation there for why Saul refers to the church that way just a single word in his request to go and arrest the believers. Considering Saul’s apparent hate for the church it would seem as though this was not a complementary description.

Saul was granted his request. We aren’t told of any time passing or what he may have had to go through to get his letters all we see is that after making the request Saul is on his way to Damascus.

And here is where Saul’s life will be forever changed. We can’t know what Saul thought, felt or believed, but we can know that he was against anyone believing in Christ, so much so that he hunted them down and threw them in prison. That would imply a deep hatred or at least a deep resentment toward Christ.

Here was a man that could very easily be labeled as an enemy of Christ.

If anyone on earth at that time would have appeared to be someone that would never be converted then, at least from a human standpoint, Saul would appear to be that person. But the Lord had other plans.

And what mighty plans they were.

How many Christians of that day lived in fear of Saul? How many hid when they saw him coming? How many fled when they heard he was in the area?

This was a man that had to inflict terror into the hearts of those that believed in Christ.

And in a moments time everything Saul stood for was changed. Saul did not go seeking Christ, quite the opposite; he lived in defiance of Him and persecuted those that were His. This is not a man that ‘made a decision for Christ’, that ‘sought after God’, that said a prayer, that ‘asked Jesus into his heart.’ This was a man that was, it would seem, happily wiping out the believers far and wide. He did not, it would appear, want to believe in Christ.

Saul had asked to be allowed to go to Damascus and arrest Christians and had been granted his request. Chances are he was good at what he did, good enough to be allowed to go elsewhere at his own request. And as he approached Damascus, Saul found not believers but the One they believed in. Or rather Christ found him.

Before Saul a light appeared and he was asked why he was persecuting ‘Me.’ There is a lesson in that alone. The Lord did not ask Saul why he was persecuting those that believed in Him but why he was persecuting Him. An attack on the called out ones, or those that belong to Christ, is an attack on Christ. And we see something remarkable in Saul’s response. Saul does not simply ask who is questioning him, he says, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul knew perfectly well to Whom he was talking.

Saul may have been systematically wiping out believers but he knew the Lord’s voice when he heard it. Despite his disbelief, Saul knew who the Lord was.

Later in chapter nine we step away from Saul for a moment and see the Lord addressing Ananias, telling him to go to Saul. And we see the fear that Ananias has of Saul. But the lord overrules that fear and says, ‘he is a chosen instrument of mine.’

I wonder here how anyone can deny that the Lord controls everything. But I know that there is a great delusion involved and I know that those that do not believe in the Lord’s sovereign control would have many arguments, soft arguments, I’ve heard them called, for the Lord choosing Saul. But here…I see the hand of the Lord at work, working out His plan.

So here starts Saul’s journey with the Lord, and here starts his earthly journey, teaching of Christ, but we won’t see his physical traveling journeys of evangelism until a bit later in Scripture, although he does a bit of moving around and teaching before then. After spending ‘some days’ with the disciples at Damascus he ‘immediately’ began to teach of Christ in the synagogues.

The people were amazed because here was the man that had hunted down anyone that believed in Christ and now he was teaching of Christ to whoever would listen. Not all that long ago I was told the testimony of someone that went to bed disdainful of all things having to do with God and woke up the next morning seeking for Christ. I can only imagine that that must be what this was like for Saul. And that the people who witnessed his conversion, or heard of it, must have marveled at the seeming instant change of heart.

And almost from the very beginning of that conversion Saul began to teach of Christ.

I know several unbelievers, they profess not the slightest belief in the Lord. These unbelievers can make things…difficult…for those that believe. Talking to them is an entirely different experience than talking to someone that holds at least a minuscule amount of faith in the Lord. I can well imagine the shock I would feel if one of them were to get up one morning teaching and preaching of Christ. I can also imagine how I would feel if these same people had held positions of authority and had been imprisoning anyone that believed in Christ. Quite honestly I would wonder if it was some sort of set up, if they were speaking of Christ to somehow lure believers into coming to them.

And we can see in Scripture that there were those that felt that very way about Saul. We can also see that Saul quickly went from being the hunter to the hunted.

Scripture then moves away from Saul for a while, the focus moves to others and to what is being done in the ekklesia. Of all that is happening we see that the Lord gives salvation to the Gentiles and not just to the Jews. This will later become an important thing to Saul as his ministry will be toward the Gentiles.

And that brings us to chapter thirteen and back to Saul. At the very beginning of the chapter we see that the Holy Spirit is ready for Barnabas and Saul to do ‘the work to which I have called them.’ And here is where the mighty work of Paul begins.

Here, too, is where we can begin to follow Paul’s journeys on the map. The Bible that I am using for this actually has two different maps of Paul’s journeys. There is one map for his first and second journey, and one map for his third journey and his journey to Rome.

Paul and Barnabas begin their journey in Antioch. After being set apart by the Holy Spirit they went to Seleucia and then boarded a boat to travel to Cyprus, an island where Salamis is located. They then preached in the synagogues there, teaching of Christ and performing miraculous feats, or Paul did so on at least one occasion.

Paul, it might be said, is a traveling missionary. He is just beginning his journey’s here, telling of Christ, seeing new believers converted, and in many ways establishing new groups, or assemblies, of believers. Not because he is setting up physical churches but because he is spreading the gospel to people that have never heard it and seeing new believers being given salvation.

If only one person believed in a town where Paul was, Paul established the assembly there. Because the believers are the called out ones, than that one believer would be a new assembly, or what we have been taught to call a ‘church’, in an area where believers did not exist before. Only it wouldn't have been a 'church' as we know it because we are conditioned to think of a physical building, usually with a steeple on the top, as a 'church'. That isn't what Paul was establishing. Instead he established a body of believers, introducing people that had never heard of Christ to the Gospel and to a Savior and leaving behind a body of believers, no matter what their number was, in his wake.

What, I wonder, did Paul have to leave behind with the newly established assembly when he left that area and moved on to the next? Today if someone witnessed the conversion of another person or even the first stages of belief in them, here in America, we could leave with them a copy of the Scriptures in the form of a Bible. We could hand them a list of websites to visit. We could give them our phone number so that they could call us when they had questions. But…what did Paul have to leave with them? A bit of instruction? At best maybe a few written words? The Old Testament existed but I would assume that it wasn’t all that easy to come by. I read somewhere that around the 1500's it cost a priest a years wages to buy a Bible. This was long before then. Things were still written on scrolls, if they were written at all. 

To have the Scriptures in Paul’s day, someone would have had to hand-write them. Even paper wasn’t easy to acquire. Paper as we know it did not exist then, nor did pen and ink as we know them. Owning a copy of Scripture in those days would have been no small thing, no matter how easy or hard it may have been to attain. And even if a new believer could have acquired a copy of the Scriptures, they would have only the Old Testament.

So what did Paul leave them with? Did he have words of wisdom, a bit of the Old Testament, a letter...anything...to leave in the hands of these new believers? Or did he simply leave them with their new found faith and whatever they could remember of his teachings?

And so here we gain an idea of what Paul is dealing with. People that are steeped in deep traditions. People that are being saved out of religions with their own beliefs and requirements. People that would have a lifetime of learning to put behind them as they learn a whole new way of life, of believing. And Paul has little more than his own verbal instructions to give them, he may have had nothing but his verbal instructions to give them.

From what I gathered from commentary on chapter 13 when Paul began this first journey, Barnabas was most likely the leader of the journey, Paul being a relatively new believer, but it would seem that after their time on Cyprus Paul advanced to being the leader of the group. Going only from what I’m reading in chapter 13, I did not see anything that indicated this may be true or false. Scripture, in chapter 13, only describes them as a group, although it does tell us that Barnabas and Saul had John to help them. So we know John was not in any kind of leadership or even of an equal status.

After traveling through Cyprus, the group leaves, having spread the gospel through the entire land, and travels by ship to his next stop, Perga. At this point John left them. Paul and Barnabas continued their journey to the city of Antioch, not the same Antioch that they started from.

It was here that Paul and Barnabas began to give the gospel to the Gentiles.

As we move into the final verses in chapter thirteen we see that the Gentiles rejoiced and glorified the word of God. But we see something else too, ‘as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.’ Here among this great crowd, written in a few words, is what Paul later refers to as the elect, the chosen of God. Here, we see that only those appointed to eternal life believed. It would be easy to read these verses and come to the conclusion that in the crowds of Gentiles now following Paul and Barnabas were all believers. These people followed after him rejoicing in the word of God…aren’t they all believers? Aren’t they all receiving salvation?

Just as in the ‘church’ buildings of today, in that group were many people that were professing a belief in Christ but Christ himself told us that ‘their hearts are far from me.’ A profession from ones mouth does not equal a converted heart. It’s easy to believe in something when you see the wonders before you. For example…anyone that’s ever stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon cannot help but admit that it’s real but can they admit that it was created?

Here in these large groups of people was much excitement, and probably no small amount of stories being told of Christ and His miracles, His resurrection alone was a huge miracle, and the people in these groups are being swept away by this excitement and the stories they heard.

I went to a play at a ‘church’ building just before Christmas. Toward the end of the play the preacher went onstage and spoke to the audience, eventually leading them through the ‘salvation’ prayer. Many, many voices joined together that night in prayer. Why? Do you suppose that everyone  that said that prayer in the audience that night had their hearts changed and were given salvation by the Lord? Do you suppose that play had the ability to reach deep into all those people and change them to the point that the Lord saved them? Or is it more likely that the play being given that night affected their emotions to the point that they were ‘ripe for the picking’ when the preacher told them they could spend eternity in heaven? Who, after all, doesn’t want to go to heaven?

These groups following Paul were probably no different…minus the ‘salvation’ prayer. They were seeing Paul, hearing the stories he and Barnabas told, possibly hearing stories from others. Chances are they were being drawn into the excitement of the moment.

And we should probably not forget that in these days what excitement did they have? Roman soldiers going through their towns? Public beatings? A trip to the marketplace? There were no televisions, no movies, no internet. I admit to knowing little of what life was like during that time. Did they have festivals? I don't know but if they did than those festivals would most likely have been like the festivals of today, coming around only every so often. If they had reading material it probably wasn't like the stories we have in books today, fairy tales and romances, to entertain the mind and remove the reader from reality, and even if they had stories the likes of which we have today, those stories would not have been in the easy to come by, cheap paperbacks of today.

Excitement might have been all it took to make their minds believe and their mouths confess, but that doesn’t mean their hearts believed unto salvation. And Scripture tells us, right there toward the end of chapter thirteen, that ‘as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.’

So here is what Paul is dealing with. Large crowds of scoffers and those that not only do not believe but that would gladly kill him for his belief. And large crowds of people claiming to believe. How is he to know the true believers from the ‘professors’?

At this point the Jews were so against him that they ‘drove them out of their district.’ Paul and Barnabas ‘shake the dust from their feet’ and leave. They move on to Iconium and get much the same response, great numbers of believers and unbelievers stirring up trouble against them. Here we see that ‘they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.’

These men were performing miracles. And just as the people had done with Christ, the people in this city set out to stone them for the things they said and did. Paul and Barnabas, learning of the plan to stone them, flee the city.

They now spend some time in the cities of Derbe and Lystra and the ‘surrounding country.’ It is here, in Lystra, that Paul and Barnabas are taken to be gods and it is here that the Jews from Iconium and Antioch follow them, convincing the crowds to side with them, the Jews stone Paul and drag him from the city, assuming that he is dead.

These were the same crowds that had just been wanting to make sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, thinking they were gods. Now at the word of Jews from other cities, not even one of their own city, they stone Paul.

What determination did Paul have to have to endure such persecution? What must have filled his heart and mind to the point that he could and would willingly keep going through such horrors as he had just faced? But keep going he did. Paul gets up and goes into Derbe. He and Barnabas preach the gospel there and ‘made many disciples’.

Paul not only kept going after he was stoned...and I don't know about you but I can hardly even imagine the pain that being stoned must bring...but Paul got up after being stoned to the point that he was dragged from the city and discarded, being thought dead. We are told nothing of his injuries or of his recovery, only that he got up and kept going but he had to have had injuries, severe injuries to be taken for dead.

We don't know how long Paul recuperated but we are told that they then go back the way they came, revisiting the cities that they had fled.  Here we see that they ‘strengthen the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.’

They are, it would seem, giving instruction to the believers, telling them how to live, and that they will enter the ‘kingdom of God’ through ‘tribulations’. Here again, I must wonder at the modern belief that God only wants to love us and to bless us. That is a very popular belief among many that profess a belief in Christ. And yet…Scripture clearly says that the kingdom of God is entered through ‘many tribulations.’ Where is the idea that He only wants to bless us in that?

But back to Paul…he is urging the ‘disciples’ to continue in the faith, telling them that they will have many tribulations. Did he tell them of what he himself has gone through? Did he tell them stories of the believers he threw into prison? Did he tell them of Stephen and how he held fast to his faith in his final moments on earth? We don’t know. But we do know that he urges them to continue in the faith and that there will be tribulations.

At that point we see that elders are appointed. Who would these elders be? I read that this first journey of Paul’s lasted two years. If that’s correct then it would seem that among these believers there would be none whose faith was more than two years old, most likely much less than that. Paul was retracing his steps, revisiting the places he had been. He was working his way backwards through the cities he had spread the gospel in. So those that were given faith at the beginning of his journey would be back on the island of Cyprus and Paul is starting with his most recent stops…Lystra, the very city that attempted to stone him to death.

And it is among these new believers that elders must be appointed. So…who would the elders be? They wouldn’t be chosen from the upstanding men of the city, wouldn’t be chosen based off age. What then would qualify someone to be an elder among these new believers? Maybe the Lord gave Paul the perception to see who was a true believer and who wasn’t. Maybe the Lord delivered those that He wanted to be made elders to Paul in some way. We can’t really know how the elders came to be chosen but we can be fairly sure that these men were chosen as elders based off their understanding of the gospel and at least seemingly genuine faith.

Paul knew that he was about to leave brand new believers in the hands of these men. These believers had nothing to go by except what they had learned from Paul and what these men would teach them. They had no Scripture in their hands to use as a measuring stick for themselves or for others.

These elders would have been very important, both to the new believers and to Paul. Paul had to be able to trust these men with the teaching of the new believers and the believers had to be able to trust these men to teach them the right way.

Funny…today we hold within our hands the very word of God. With the turning of a few pages and a few minutes of our time we can see what the Lord expects of those that lead His people and yet…many blindly follow the man standing behind the pulpit in whatever building wears the name of ‘church’.

These early believers had no Bible to use for testing those in leadership roles, they had nothing to study at home, they had nothing to follow. They had their faith and the few words they were given by Paul, or whoever. And they had the elders appointed in each place.

And these elders were being chosen based off their faith and most likely their understanding of Scripture. Today, elders are appointed based off…whatever man deemed qualification they wish to use. Preachers are chosen based off which seminary they graduated from and…whatever other similar qualifications are looked for.

Does anyone ever question these ‘elders’ and preachers on how they came to be ‘Christians’? And if so are their testimonies ever checked against what Scripture says true conversion is? Are they ever quizzed to see how well they know Scripture? Are they ever chosen based on the standards set forth in Scripture? Are they ever put through the tests of the faith in 1 John?

This appointing of elders and encouraging of the disciples brings an end to Paul’s first journey. He works his way back the way he came, encouraging and putting something of a system in place for the believers that he was an instrument in their believing in Christ.

And that brings us to the end of Paul's first journey. We have mentally walked where he walked and in doing so I have had numerous questions that there are no biblical answers to, so much of that time in Paul's life is left out. We are given the basics and nothing else. We are shown what he does and how it related to the early ekklesia but we are not told of what Paul thought or felt. Did he ever have days when he just wanted to give up? Days when he remembered his former life, may have remembered the ease of that life, if it was a life of ease, possibly even wished, in some way or another, for a life without the persecution he was facing in this new life that he did not ask for.

What I wouldn't give for a more in depth look into this part of Paul's life, to read, say, his journal, telling of his thoughts and feelings, what he went through, what he wished for, what he wanted to do, but the Lord did not see fit to provide us with that much insight into Paul's life. Maybe because He wanted the importance on what Paul was doing more than what Paul was feeling, or even on Paul himself. Either way, we are not given that kind of insight. But we can gain great insight and understanding in walking with Paul as he made those journeys. 

Journeying with Paul....part one

It’s kind of funny how things come together in life. Many would say this is just the way things worked out, it was a ‘coincidence’, or ‘wasn’t that convenient’ but the reality is that life works out the way it does by the hand of the Lord.

A couple of weeks ago my husband suggested I should read the book of Acts while looking at a map of Paul’s journey. He said he thought I would enjoy it. I suspected that what he was suggesting was going to be a rather big undertaking, that, at the very least, it would take a lot of time. When he suggested I do that I simply didn’t have the time I thought such an undertaking should be given, and most likely would require. So, fully intending to do just what he suggested, I set the idea aside for a few days. Well, those few days wound up making me forget all about his suggestion until he mentioned it again a couple of weeks later.

But by the time he mentioned it again I had found myself the recipient of questions from two different people. One of these people questioned the way my husband and I believe, they wanted to understand what exactly it was that we believe and how it differed from what they believe. The other was questioning the ‘church’ today and how it relates to the church in Scripture.

On the surface it would appear that these three conversations have nothing to do with one another and that they have little if anything in common but to me they all worked together. Or will work together.

You see, my husband suggested I follow Paul’s journeys through the Scriptures but to also follow those journey’s on a map as I read of them. And then I found myself explaining how my beliefs differ from those of someone, who I truly didn’t know what they believe, while almost at the same time explaining my beliefs on the ‘church’ buildings of today and the church of Scripture.

And that…is where I wish to start with Paul. Not on the first page of Acts but here, in my living room, as I write this, in my very own experiences. I’m not even close to what Paul was, his life so far exceeds what mine is that they aren’t even comparable. But…Paul began his journey with Christ as an ordinary man, doing ordinary things of this world.

As he went about his life he wound up being pulled into his faith and as a result found himself teaching and preaching of Christ. Did he have to explain why he believed what he did? Did he have to explain exactly what it was he believed? We know from Scripture that he was not only a part of the early church but that he set many of the rules for how the local body of believers was to be led. And that is where the connection between what recently took place in my life and Paul’s journey’s come together. Not because my life in any way resembles Paul’s but because Paul was an ordinary man of his time. He went about his life, doing the things that men of his time did, both before he was converted and afterward. And in doing that he found himself in the midst of conversations that he may not have sought.

That is where I started on Paul’s journeys, thinking of how I had found myself in the midst of these conversations, explaining my side of things, and wondering if Paul didn’t somehow find himself in the midst of things, possibly while wondering how he got there.

But to start with Paul, I had to start with me. To follow Paul’s journeys, I needed at least two Bibles. I used three. One to read out of, one to look at the map in, and one that I like for the extra information it gives. The final Bible has lots of notes and pictures of what things were like in the days being spoken of in Scripture. I personally do not like the version of that particular Bible so I use it only for the extras it contains and not for the Scriptures. I guess you might say it is a reference book.

So I sat down with three Bibles and my computer. The Bibles to follow Paul’s journeys through Scripture and my computer to write as I followed Paul. And that is the point I am at now. Sitting on my couch I have a Bible on either side of me, one in my lap, and my computer before me. I also grabbed paper and pen…just in case.

And now I wish to turn from my world to Paul’s. I began at chapter one of Acts. Here we have those final moments of Christ on earth and the beginning of the disciples/apostles ministry. Here is the beginning of the church.

Only…here is where I feel I must point something out. There was no church. You see in Scripture there was no church until a man named Theodore Beza began to use that word in 1556. Beza was a Portestant, a follower of John Calvin. Beza was a Presbyterian who came to Scripture with his own ideas of what ‘church’ means.

In 1557 the Geneva New Testament became the first Bible to translate the word ‘ekklesia’ as ‘church’. And that is when ‘church’ came into the Scriptures. It is when ‘church’ in any way became a part of the life of the Lord’s people.

And so at the time of Christ and in the early years of the spreading of the Gospel, there was no church involved. Church was a word that they did not use. I have found it interesting that as I read through Scripture anytime we see of a meeting place for religious ceremonies we see that they go to the synagogues. We also see temples. But never once do we see that any of the believers, or Christ, went to a ‘church’.

The reason that they did not use the word church was because there was no church. Not in the sense of a physical building and not in the sense of a body of believers. In the original languages where modern translations have, thanks to Beza, placed the word ‘church’, there was the word ekklesia.

The word ekklesia is translated as ‘assembly’ or ‘congregation’, it means ‘the called out ones’. I have seen it translated as ‘the called out assembly’. What it does not translate as is ‘church’. There is a Greek word for church but ekklesia is not it.

And so we need to approach the life of Paul with a different understanding than that which our modern versions of Scripture want us to understand. The word ‘church’ was…we might say…added to Scripture for the purpose of supporting the ‘church’ systems of the time.

Our minds are conditioned to think of ‘church’ as physical buildings with a system for how things are done. In the 1500’s those systems included much control of the people within them. That was a system that those using, or adding, the word ‘church’ in the Scriptures did not want to give up. They either wanted to keep the control they had or they were accustomed to the way things were done and did not see the meetings of believers as anything but what they had grown accustomed to. We have much the same situation today, in that most people cannot imagine a ‘church’ as anything but a physical building with a leader in the form of a preacher and possibly other ‘elders’ or ‘deacons’ to run things. They may say that the people are the 'church' but they mean it in the sense of the people inside the physical building referred to as 'church' are the 'church'. And they usually mean the people that go to their physical 'church' building.

But that is not what was in place in Christ’s time or in the early days following his resurrection. So…I wish to remove the word ‘church’ from Paul’s journeys. He was not leading the ‘church’ but the ekklesia or the ‘called out ones’, or the ‘called out assembly.’ These were believers that followed him, learning of Christ and His ways. These were not people going to what would have been referred to as synagogues in that time.

Which brings us back to Paul…These very early days of the ekklesia show us something of what believers were going through in those days.

Here in the early days, we see toward the end of Acts chapter two that Peter tells those that question him as to what they are to do to be saved, that they should ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

This is the teaching of the early Christians. This is the teaching of the early ekklesia. There in the very beginning days of the called out ones of our Lord, salvation was clearly spelled out.

When I was questioned about the position of elders in the ‘church’ I didn’t think to point to this very spot in Scripture. Here is the example of what the ‘church’ is. Here is the ‘elder’ leading those in the ‘church’. Here is an example of what the ‘elder’ does. Peter gives those questioning him the gospel. There are no flowery words here, no special prayers. Repent and be baptized. That is the very same gospel John the Baptist gave. The very same gospel Christ gave. The very same gospel Christ told the disciples to give. And here Peter gives that gospel to those that questioned him on salvation.

And on that day ‘there were added…about three thousand souls’.

That gospel obviously works. Repent and be baptized. That was the gospel of the early called out ones. Chapter two goes on to tell us that those that were given salvation that day ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching’. Here we can see that those with the knowledge of Scripture are those that we would call ‘preachers’ or ‘elders’ today. The disciples did the teaching and the new believers devoted themselves to learning what the ‘elders’ were teaching. But we can see from above that these ‘elders’ were teaching the very same things that Christ taught. That was the gospel they were teaching and it was the message they were giving. These elders never went to school, or seminary, to learn to preach. They did not devote years to learning what men wanted them to learn about how to give the 'gospel'. These men learned from other men, men that knew Scripture, men that had walked with Christ, men that taught what Christ taught. There were preacher in Scripture that sound very much like the preachers filling the 'churches' today, Matthew chapter 23 is one example of those men, preaching a false gospel, but the men spoken of here as devoting themselves to the apostle's teachings were not those sort of men. These were serious students of Scripture, there hearts had been changed, they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit and were learning from the men that could teach them. But nowhere in there do we see them going to 'church', and that includes seminary or any other version of 'church'.

And, still, at the end of chapter two we see that ‘all who believed were together’. There is the ekklesia, or what we have been condition, even through our Bibles to call the ‘church’, all together, and they ‘had all things in common’. ‘And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.’

And again at the end of chapter four we see the same thing. Here we see that ‘the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.’ From there we see that the apostles were giving their testimonies and great grace was upon them. We aren’t told there that the apostles were leading but the very next part of those verses tells us, ‘There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet…’ From that we can clearly see that the apostles were the ones in charge. They were the leaders or elders…why else would they be given all the funds and entrusted with distributing them?

So we can see that the apostles are leading the believers, that the believers are all together, a unit so to speak, working for the good of all. They divide what they have between everyone, claiming nothing as their own. And the money that they have is used for the good of the entire group of believers…or for the ekklesia.

This was the ‘church’…system…of those days. Here were the men and women that were among the first believers after Christ’s death and resurrection. Here is what the early ekklesia, or assembly of believers, looked like.

This early ekklesia was persecuted. Stephen, in chapter seven spoke before the elders and scribes, telling them of Moses and the law that they did not keep. These very people became enraged at what Stephen told them and they took him out of the city and stoned him.

And this is where Paul, as Saul, comes into Scripture. Saul stood there, garments belonging to the witnesses at his feet, and watched Stephen be stoned to death. He heard with his own ears Stephen call out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” He watched as Stephen took his last breath, dying for the Lord, using his last words to beg for mercy for those stoning him.

Did Stephen’s prayer for mercy somehow work so that Saul was given salvation? We cannot know. But we know that Stephen prayed for those killing him. And we know that, although it doesn’t appear that Saul had any direct responsibility for Stephens’s death, that he was there, watching as it happened, hearing his final words, witnessing his final, violent moments on earth.

That was the assembly of believers when Paul, or Saul, came into it. That is where we are introduced to Saul. And that is where Paul’s journey with Christ begins…at least for us. Here we are briefly introduced to Saul. It would seem that he has little importance in the death of Stephen but I’d like to point something out. Before Stephen was removed from the city to be stoned he referred to the people before him as ‘stiff necked people.’ That was his description of the people he was speaking to. We aren’t told how many were in this group of people that Stephen stood before but we know from the description at the end of chapter seven that this was a group because ‘they’ ground their teeth at him, ‘they’ cried out with a loud voice, plugged their ears, and rushed toward him. ‘They’ cast him out of the city and stoned him. We also see that ‘witnesses’ laid their garments at the feet of Saul. So this was a crowd of people. There were many in this group, how many we do not know but they were a group of people. And in this group…only Saul is mentioned by name. And not just by name but we are given an idea of his age along with his name, ‘a young man named Saul.’

So out of an entire group of people, only Paul, or Saul, was singled out by name. Why? When the focus should be, and is, on Stephen, or more precisely on Stephen’s death for his faith, and the faith he conveyed even in his final moments, why is Saul mentioned by name?

If we move into chapter eight we get our answer. The very first verse says, ‘And Saul approved of his execution.’ Here is a man that is in favor of killing someone simply because he believes in Christ. From our first meeting with Paul he does not seem to be someone that endears himself to any believer. This man approved of the killing of Stephen for no other reason than his faith in Christ and the fact that he shared that belief with others.

That day, the day Stephen was killed, began a great persecution of believers. This persecution scattered all the believers but the apostles. It changed the ekklesia as it had been and created, what we might call, pockets of believers. No longer was the church all together learning from the apostles, all as a unit, now they scattered throughout the land. We don’t know how many believers there were in each place, there could have been hundreds in a town or a single person, and most likely it was both, many in this place, few in that place, but the reality is that we just don’t know exactly how they scattered, all we know is that they did scatter, that they no longer lived together as a group, with all things in common. Most likely they would have taken that way of life, of living and worshiping, and learning, together with them to wherever they scattered, creating smaller groups that were similar to what they had known when they were all together. But again…we just don’t know what they did when they scattered. But that is the assembly of believers when Saul comes into Scripture. And that is the ekklesia that Saul found himself in the middle of, so to speak. At this time Saul is on the outside of that assembly. He is an enemy of the believers.

Paul lived in the early days of that assembly of believers. But Scripture tells us that he was no friend of the believers. At the beginning of chapter eight we see that ‘Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.’

And again…the word we see above as ‘church’ was not a word that was in the original Scriptures. I did take that straight from an ESV Bible but ‘church’ was added many years after the time that the Scriptures were written. Instead of reading ‘church’ we should have something to the effect of ‘Saul was ravaging the called out ones’ or ‘Saul was ravaging the assembly of the called out ones’, although I hesitate to use that last description because in using the word ‘assembly’ it makes it sound as if Saul was ravaging a physical meeting place but the context of that verse tells us that isn’t what he was doing. Saul was going from house to house, not worship place to worship place.

And really if we look at the way that verse reads, because of conditioning, which was actually intended by the translators of Scripture in the early days of the English translating, that it appears that Saul was ravaging the ‘church’ and going from house to house. When, if we look to the original meaning of the word that predated the word ‘church’, we see that Saul was ravaging the ‘called out ones’ and going from house to house. These were a people he was ravaging, a people that he was hunting down, and he was doing it systematically, entering house after house.

Not only was Paul, as Saul, much against  the believers, but it would seem that he was systematically hunting them down and throwing them into prison. House by house. One by one. Man by man. Woman by woman. He was searching the land and removing, we might say, the believers from that land.

When I was a child head lice went through our school. I well remember the teachers lining us all up outside the nurse’s office where we were taken in one by one to have our heads checked. The nurse set us down and, using a comb to part out our hair, she searched our heads looking for any sign of infestation. It seemed as if she left no part of our heads unsearched, using the comb to separate our hair into tiny sections to be checked. I can also remember that some parents did the same thing, plucking the tiny insects off their child’s head each time they found one. That bug was then killed before the mother would search for another. It was a systematic search that ended in extermination of the offensive critters.

This is what comes to mind when I think of Saul going through the land searching out Christians, removing them from homes and imprisoning them. And for what? Because they were a threat? Because they were seen as an ‘infestation’ among the long held beliefs and customs of the time? Because…?

But this is what Paul did. He searched out the believers of the early ekklesia and he threw them in prison because they believed. These were not physical ‘church’ buildings that Saul was searching out and throwing in prison. He was not after men and women that merely professed a belief in Christ. No, these were the real believers making up the real body of Christ in Scripture. These were men and women willing to go to prison for the Lord they believed in, men and women willing to die for their faith in Christ.

Could there have been professing ‘Christians’ in their midst? People that professed a belief with their minds and lips that did not change their hearts? Possibly. We know for sure that there were professing believers later. And we know that Christ had His disciples and then he sent out the 70 to prepare the way for Him. Were all of those 70 elect believers? Or was it possible that some of them believed but were not of the elect? We don’t know.

What we can be pretty sure of is the fact that these believers lives were in danger for their beliefs and therefore they held a real belief. Was it a belief that made them part of the elect? We don’t know. But this was no surface level belief.

There were no professing ‘Christians’ claiming that Jesus just wants to love them. There were no professing ‘Christians’ saying that God wants to bless them with earthly wealth and belongings. No, these were men and women that had given everything they had to the group of believers and were willing to give their lives for their Lord. These were people that believed enough to put their lives in danger for those beliefs. This…was the ‘called out ones’ of Scripture, this was what we have been conditioned to think of as the same thing that meets in physical buildings today, meetings held with padded seats, air conditioning, friendly faces, and no physical discomfort or threat in any way. This…was a group of people that believed in Christ enough to risk their lives.

And this was what Saul wanted to wipe out.

While all of this was going on the believers continued to share the gospel. In the town of Samaria was a man named Simon. This man practiced magic and was highly esteemed among the people. Phillip preached the gospel in Samaria and Simon, among many others, believed him. I think that, maybe, we can see in Simon the very proof that not all that believed were among the elect. Scripture tells us that Simon believed what the apostles taught. But it also tells us just how Simon’s belief was.

The apostles then went to Samaria to pray for those that believed and to finish what had been started among these people. They laid their hands upon them and the Holy Spirit came upon them.

Simon was amazed by this and offered to buy the power that would put the Holy Spirit into people. Peter essentially cursed Simon saying, ‘may your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!’

Here is a man that seeks to buy favor with God and is told that it is impossible. Peter goes even further to tell him, ‘Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.’ Peter did not take all hope away from Simon, he told him to repent that…if possible…what he had wanted would be forgiven him. There is hope in that but very little of it.

I’m going to go just a bit…out of context here. Simon was popular among people, he was used to being looked to for all the things he did. It was even said of him, just prior to his encounter with Peter, ‘This man is the power of God that is called Great.’ So Simon is a very popular man. He is something of a…diety…among the people of Samaria. He is used to people looking to him, looking up to him. He is used to them thinking highly of him and putting great importance on him. Chances are he made money off the magic he performed, magic that was attributed to the power of God.

Now, when Simon sees something that he cannot do he offers to buy the ability to do it. Why? We aren’t told what his reasons are. Maybe he desired the ability to do what the apostles did. Maybe he wanted the power of God that he had been attributed with having. Maybe he was afraid that he would lose his status among the people if he could not do what the apostles had just done. Maybe he feared that now that the people had seen this mighty thing of God that he would no longer be looked to, and would therefore lose the money he had made from the powers he performed before them. We don’t know why Simon wanted this power all we know is that he wanted it and he offered to pay to get it.

And we know that Peter all but cursed him because of it. Now is where I’m going a bit out of context. Scripture does not tell us that Simon was a preacher of any sort only that he was given credit for having the power of God. Does that not, in some way, remind us of many preachers today? They influence people…Simon had enough influence on people to be given credit for the power of God…and seek to maintain that status. I know that I am speaking of Simon in a way that Scripture does not. I’m not saying that he was a preacher or even a leader. Scripture says he was a magician. But how many preachers today seem more like magicians than the ‘elders’ we saw in the ekklesia at the beginning of Acts?

A good number of today’s ‘churches’ put on shows every Sunday. These shows are designed to entertain groups of people that are used to constant entertainment and instant gratification. These people are used to smoke screens that keep them entertained. How many Sunday services today are filled with lights and smoke, some of them literally, some of them in the form of big bands and fancy props? How many preachers lead the ‘church’ in ways that are anything other than what we saw the apostles doing?

How many of them stand before their congregations not as humble ‘elders’ leading the church under the direction of the Head, of Christ, but as men that want the power of God, and often wield that ‘power’ before a congregation that believes the church spoken of in Scripture is the ‘church’ they sit in and that they must be under the rule of the ‘man of God’ standing in the pulpit?

That is what Simon reminds me of. Not a man that seeks to serve the Lord but a man that grabs at the power that can be attained by using the name of God. And he was willing to buy that power. So much so that he may well have paid for it with his very soul. What is the ‘power’ being wrongly wielded by preachers today costing them?

In Acts we see that Peter chastises and basically curses Simon for what he says, for what he desired out of his heart. And Simon well knew what had just taken place because he said, ‘Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”

And the Scriptures move away from Simon.

To be continued...

Following Paul through what we know of his life is a long, enjoyable, and enlightening journey for me. I am following his life step by step. In doing so I am learning so much about Paul and about the early ekklesia, and even about myself. But I'm learning something else too, I'm learning that Paul's journeys cannot be followed without going in depth, at least not and write about them as I follow them, and that there is no way to follow along with Paul and do so in a short, or even semi long, blog post. This post, one I originally thought would reach no more than twenty pages has stretched further and further until I feel it best to post it in parts. Thank you for reading part one.