Themes Covered in this Study: Jesus’ Pre-existence and Deity, the Incarnation, Jesus’ Birth, Childhood, Ministry, His Betrayal, Trial, Death, Resurrection, post-resurrection Commissioning of His Witnesses, Ascension and Second Coming.

The church in our present time seems to have no real concern for the concept of holiness as it relates to the people purchased by Jesus to be the dwelling-place of God. The holiness of God requires that the people He has redeemed, who have been called into covenant with Him, and who ultimately are being built together to become a holy temple in the Lord, be holy even as He Himself is holy (Lev 19:1-2; cf 1 Pet 1:15-16).

Regaining Respect for what is Sacred

In Lev 26 Moses is about to lay out the blessings and curses of the covenant. In vv 1-2, however, he reminds them of two basic “God commandments”: 1) to shun idolatry and all image worship; 2) keep Sabbaths and Reverence God’s Sanctuary. Our teacher places special emphasis on the this latter idea: that we have a certain respect for the church, the New Temple, the house of God, lest we become profane, with no respect for that which is sacred, and continually defile God’s house with our sinful attitudes and behaviors.

Cleansing Ourselves From Defilement

• To fulfill our calling as the New Temple (2 Cor 6:14-18), we must deliberately and aggressively pursue God’s command to cleanse ourselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (7:1). The sins of the flesh are at the very least the uncleanness and defilement that come from sexual immorality (2 Chron 5:1; Heb 13:4; 1 Cor 5). The sins of the spirit are at the very least the root of bitterness, which, if it springs up among us, will defile many (Hebrews 12:15; Deut 29:14-21)

• We must remember that the Temple of God is a collective Temple, and hold His house to be holy! (1 Cor 3:9-17) God warns of destruction that will come upon those who defile His Temple with division, jealousy, immorality, bitterness, rebellion, etc.

Application: let us obey 2 Cor 7:1, seeking to cleanse ourselves from every form of defilement through deliberate repentance and cleansing of the Blood of Jesus (1 John 1:5-2:2).

Sent out by the church and the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:1-4a), Paul and Barnabas go first to the island of Cyprus, where they preach the gospel in the synagogues of the Jews, traversing from east to west until they come to Paphos, the seat of provincial administration.

• The Word of God reaches the seat of power.

The apostles are invited to speak to the proconsul of the island, a man of intelligence, who desires to hear what they have to say about things Divine.

•  Opposition to the Word of God.

The apostles are opposed by a certain Bar-Jesus, a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet who seeks to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Paul’s apostolic authority in the Gospel of Christ is here manifest in a unique way. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he confronts this enemy of the gospel, not in word but in power. Right there before the eyes of the proconsul, he declares the disciplinary judgment of God that would come upon Bar-Jesus, whom he names as fraudulent and a co-worker with Satan. The hand of the Lord comes upon him and strikes him with blindness from that moment on. This must be regarded as one of the marks of a true apostle: miracles, signs, and wonders (2 Cor 12:12). The proconsul believes as he witnesses his miracle, which functions not only as a wonder that could only have taken place as a manifestation of the power of God, but as a sign that confirms the message of truth being spoken to him by Barnabas and Paul.

Application: pray for the full manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the power of signs and wonders to be manifest in the preaching of the Gospel (1 Cor 12:31; 14:1; Rom 15:19; Acts 4:29-31).

o       None of the Jerusalem apostles require Titus to be circumcised

o       The pillars in Jerusalem (James, Peter, John) add nothing to Paul in terms of the  basic gospel he preaches among the Gentiles

o       The Jerusalem pillars recognize the grace God had given to Paul and Barnabas to take the gospel to the Gentiles and offer the right hand of fellowship to them, agreeing that each should go to their respective fields of labor in accordance with the grace given to them

o       Paul agrees to “keep on remembering the poor”, i.e. the poor brethren in Judea, which he then does in the “collection for the saints” that continues to take place over the next 10 years as he preaches the gospel among the Gentiles.

• Remembering the Poor

o       God’s Word teaches that we should deliberately perform Acts of Righteousness; cf. Matt 6:1-18; Acts 10:1-4; 1 John 3:1-18

Paul’s Collection for the Poor in his Gentile mission cf. Rom 15:22-30; 1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 8-9; Gal 2:10; Eph 4:28; Phil 4:10-20; 1 Thess 4:9-12; 2 Thess 3; 1 Tim 6:17-19; Titus 3:8-14.

• The Story of the Gentile Mission begins in Acts 11:19-26:  Paul and Barnabas joined as co-laborers in Antioch
• Visit of Agabus and other prophets from Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-30): prophecy of famine during the reign of Claudius, which corroborates with the witness of secular historians
• Relief sent from Antioch to Jerusalem in the hand of Paul and Barnabas in 46 A.D. (Acts 11:30; 12:25). What happened during this visit is expounded in Galatians 2:1-10. Four important things:

o       None of the Jerusalem apostles require Titus to be circumcised

o       The pillars in Jerusalem (James, Peter, John) add nothing to Paul in terms of the  basic gospel he preaches among the Gentiles

o       The Jerusalem pillars recognize the grace God had given to Paul and Barnabas to take the gospel to the Gentiles and offer the right hand of fellowship to them, agreeing that each should go to their respective fields of labor in accordance with the grace given to them

o       Paul agrees to “keep on remembering the poor”, i.e. the poor brethren in Judea, which he then does in the “collection for the saints” that continues to take place over the next 10 years as he preaches the gospel among the Gentiles.

• Remembering the Poor

o       God’s Word teaches that we should deliberately perform Acts of Righteousness; cf. Matt 6:1-18; Acts 10:1-4; 1 John 3:1-18

Paul’s Collection for the Poor in his Gentile mission cf. Rom 15:22-30; 1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 8-9; Gal 2:10; Eph 4:28; Phil 4:10-20; 1 Thess 4:9-12; 2 Thess 3; 1 Tim 6:17-19; Titus 3:8-14.

• John Mark’s mother and her house
• John Mark’s involvement with Jesus during His earthly ministry
• John Mark’s involvement with events in the early church
• John Mark accompanies Paul and Barnabas on first missionary journey
• John Mark with Barnabas in Cyprus
• John Mark’s later usefulness for ministry according to Paul
• John Mark with Peter in Rome: author of the Gospel of Mark
• John Mark as founder of the church in Alexandria

Application: God is gracious, and can use even failure as a part of that process by which He prepares us for greatness.

The apostle Paul was given a special grace to minister the Gospel to the Gentiles and to achieve certain Divinely ordained goals among them. Romans 1:1-5; 11:13; 15:14-21; 1 Cor 9:16-17; 15:10; Gal 2:6-9; 1 Thess 2:3-4

Paul and a group of co-laborers bring the Gospel to Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia Minor in a period of about 10 years (46-56 A.D.).

Paul and Barnabas were sent by the church in Antioch and by the Holy Spirit, Who spoke through one of the church’s prophets concerning what these men had been called to do (Acts 13:1-4).

• The God of the Open Door

God is the God Who opens doors for His servants to labor in the Gospel in accordance with His will. His Son Jesus, exalted to His right hand in the heavenlies, has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), which in turn is foundational to the work He sends us to do in the Great Commission (28:19-20). In other words, the Great Commission is based on Jesus having been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth! Cf. Eph 1:19-23; 1 Pet 3:22; Psalm 110:1, cited in Acts 2:36; 1 Cor 15:24-28; Heb 1:13.

Hence God the Father has given all authority to the Son, Who is now at His right hand as the Second Adam, the Lord of all creation. Jesus therefore has the key of David, and is the One Who opens and none shuts and gives an open door to His servants to labor in the Gospel. See Revelation 3:7-8; 1 Cor 16:8-8; 2 Cor2:12-13;

Prayer and the Open Door: Matthew 9:36-38; Col 4:2-4; 2 Thess 3:1-5

• Stewardship in the Gospel

A steward is one entrusted with responsibility and authority for a task and the achieving of certain ends foreordained by a master. Paul was not “trying to do something for Jesus”. His philosophy of ministry was quite different, for he viewed himself and wanted others to view him as a servant of God who had been entrusted with a stewardship in the mysteries of God that laid the foundation for the church. See 1 Cor 4:1-2; 9:16-17; Eph 3:1-11; Col 1:24-29; 1 Thess 2:3-4; 2 Tim 1:12-16; 2:15

• Ambassador in the Ministry of Reconciliation  2 Cor 5:12-21
• The Lord’s Prisoner (Eph 3:1; 4:1; Phil 1:12-26)

The gospel thus went out to the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles throughout the Roman world. It was a harvest that He had prepared for many centuries, using Empires (Greece and Rome) He had raised up so that the Scriptures might be translated into a common language (Greek) and the roads prepared for His Word to go forth in a way never possible before that point in salvation-history, which Paul refers to as “the fullness of the times” (Gal 4:4).