Looking for Paul

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16) Looking for Paul

Acts 24

So Felix listens to the accusers and Paul. And Felix decides to wait for the commander to come to take a decision. Paul is kept under arrest but given some freedom. Later he asks Paul to speak about the Christ in front of him and his wife who is Jewish. So Paul has various occasions to speak to Felix who expects Paul to give him money for his freedom. But after two years Felix is replaced by Porcius Festus.

- As usual we are told about corruption: corruption about the Romans and about the Jews!

- And Paul keeps speaking boldly about God’s word and about Jesus!

- Time changes but corruption stays!

- And faithfulness too but not for the majority!

- Faithfulness is a rare jewel or a precious stone or gold!

 

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17) Looking for Paul

Acts 25

- So once again the Jews are planning an ambush against Paul!

- But he refuses and he wants to hear about Paul and his accusers!

- Finally Paul appeals to Caesar!

- Thus the governor decides to send him to Caesar!

- Then king Agrippa visits the governor and he wants to listen to Paul!

- But the governor doesn’t know what to say in his letter to Caesar because he has nothing against Paul!

- So the history is repeating again and again and Paul keeps defending himself before whoever listens to him!

 

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18) Looking for Paul

Acts 26

- Thus Paul speaks in front of Agrippa!

- And once again those who listen to him find nothing against him!

- So he could have been released!

- But he appealed to Caesar!

- Thus he will go to Caesar!

-What a patience from Paul!

- All the time he has to repeat the same again and again!

- And the Jews are never tired of trying to kill him and accuse him!

- What a strong will from Paul!

 

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19) Looking for Paul

Acts 27

During the trip to Rome, Paul warns the army officer that the ship and many lives will be lost if they keep traveling without waiting. But the army officer doesn’t listen to Paul and the ship and people are lost. There is a violent storm and people lose hope to save their lives. But Paul has a vision in which an angel tells him that everybody will be safe because of Paul but they must cast ashore on some island. Some sailors try to escape but Paul tells the army officer that if everybody doesn’t stay on board nobody will be saved. So the army officer prevent the sailors to escape. Finally Paul tells the men to eat to get strength. And they beach the ship. And the army officer prevents the soldiers to kill the prisoners because he wants to bring Paul safely through. Finally all are brought safely to land.

- Really interesting because Paul tells the men exactly what to do to survive!

- At first the army officer doesn’t listen to Paul!

- But finally, seeing how things occur, he follows exactly what Paul says!

- Even if he was wrong at first, then he made the right choice!

- On the contrary, men usually prefers man’s tradition to God’s word!

- They usually make the wrong choice like the Israelites!

- So then it is normal for them to pay the price!

- Paul was wrong and when he was told by Jesus, he changed his mind and his way of doing things!

- He wasn’t told twice!

- With humanity, they don’t care!

- The more they pay, the more they keep in the same direction!

- How intelligent they are!

 

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20) Looking for Paul

Acts 28

- In Malta, Paul cures many people!

- So they receive many gifts!

- Finally Paul arrives in Rome and he is permitted to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him!

- Paul speaks before the principal men of the Jews!

- They haven’t received any letters against him!

- So they think it proper to hear from Paul about his beliefs!

- So they arrange a day and many people come to listen to Paul!

- Some begin to believe what Paul says!

- And Paul says that God’s salvation has been sent out to the nations!

- And till his death, he will keep speaking about God’s word and about Jesus!

- Nobody will be able to stop him!

- Definitely a chosen vessel and a precious and excellent one!

 

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1) Looking for Paul

Acts 8

- We see Saul who fights against Jesus’ disciples!

- He puts them into prison (men and women)!

Acts 9

- He goes to Damascus where he wants to do the same!

- Going to Damascus, he sees a light from heaven flashes around him!

- He also hears Jesus’ voice asking him why he is persecuting him!

- Jesus’ voice also tells him to go to the city and he will be told what to do!

- He can’t see anymore!

- Ananias is sent to Saul to make him see again!

- Jesus tells Ananias that Saul is a chosen vessel to him to bear his name to the nations!

- So Ananias lays his hands on Saul who can see again!

- Saul stays few days with the disciples!

- And immediately in the synagogues he begins to preach about Jesus!

- And he keeps on acquiring more and more power and is confounding the Jews who live in Damascus, as he proves logically that this is the Christ!

- Thus he becomes too dangerous for the Jews who try to kill him!

- So the disciples help him to escape by night in a basket!

- Barnabas comes to his aid and leads him to the apostles in Jerusalem!

- There again he speaks boldly in the name of the Lord!

- There again the Jews try to kill him!

- So the disciples send him to Caesarea and Tarsus!

- Thus we can see that Jesus uses two strategies!

- When he was on earth, he chose people he could train personally!

- And he did it during all the time of his mission on earth!

- He had to teach them everything through a progressive teaching!

- But they didn’t understand till his death!

- Of course, after his death, they received holy spirit!

- But it took a lot of time!

- When Jesus left the earth, he could train another disciple!

- So he chose Saul or Paul who had a good knowledge as he was trained as a Pharisee!

- Unfortunately his knowledge couldn’t prevent him to choose the wrong way!

- So Jesus had to put him on the right way!

- And it is incredible to think that he didn’t lose time!

- He didn’t argue about man’s tradition he had received from the Pharisees!

- All at once he started to preach in the name of Jesus!

- But it was much more than that!

- It was a real race against the clock of corruption!

- And it started when Jesus died and it was worse after the death of all the apostles!

- They mixed man’s tradition with God’s word as Jesus told them!

- And when it became the religion of the Roman empire, then you had religion and politics business together in a disastrous melting-pot!

- And in fact, Paul did an incredible work among the nations!

 

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2) Looking for Paul

Acts 12

- Barnabas and Saul did a good job in Jerusalem!

- After that they took John also called Mark with them!

Acts 13

- Wherever they go it is always the same simple story!

- First they do an incredible work teaching in the synagogues!

- Second many people become believers!

- Third The Jews become jealous and they try to kill them!

- Fourth they have to move to another city!

- In Cyprus, the proconsul became a believer!

- In Antioch in Pisidia, it was there that Paul decided to turn to the people of the nations because of the attitude of the Jews!

- At first, Barnabas was the leader but soon Paul took the lead!

 

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3) Looking for Paul

Acts 14

- In Iconium they did a good job!

- Then because of the Jews, the city was divided in two parts!

- The Jews tried to treat them insolently and stone them!

- So they went to other cities!

- It is often the case today!

- There are people who do the same!

- They have no arguments but they do as if they knew everything whereas they don’t know anything!

- It is always interesting to exchange arguments!

- But sometimes people should go back to school or read more seriously the Bible!

- In fact, the more you read the bible, the more you get to know!

- And we also learn a lot by exchanging ideas!

- Because then we have to look for more information!

- In this chapter, the people even take Paul and Barnabas for gods!

- But then Jews coming from Antioch and Iconium persuaded the crowds and they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, imagining that he was dead!

- After that, they went on their trip!

 

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4) Looking for Paul

Acts 15

- Here something new happened!

- Some disciples who are Jews teach the disciples about the necessity of getting circumcised according to the custom of Moses!

- There we see the difference between such men and Paul!

- They want to mix man’s tradition!

- Thus there happened a dissension and disputing by Paul and Barnabas with these men!

- So Paul and Barnabas and some men of the others go to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders regarding this issue!

- Take note that for Paul it was clear that is no more circumcision for the disciples!

- And Peter explained that people from the nations became disciples and received holy spirit without being circumcised!

- That was the point, a logical one!

- And Peter asked them additionally: “So why are you now making a test of God by imposing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we were capable of bearing?”

- And Barnabas and Paul related the events in connection with people of nations becoming disciples!

- What was the conclusion for the disciples: they should abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.

- Then they sent people with Paul and Barnabas to tell the disciples to Antioch about the decision which was taken in relation with circumcision!

- In Antioch, Paul and Barnabas separated because Barnabas wanted to take John with them whereas Paul disagreed!

- Then Paul took Silas with him!

 

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52) Looking for Paul

Acts 16

- Finally Paul decided to take Timothy with him, his mother was a believing Jewish woman and his father a Greek!

- He circumcised him because of the Jews in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek!

- And Paul used to go to teach in the synagogues!

- They would deliver the decrees decided by the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem!

- And the holy spirit told them the places they couldn’t go and the ones they could go especially into Macedonia!

- In Philippi, Paul cured a servant girl who was possessed by a demon of divination and thus bringing a lot of money to her masters!

- When she was cured, they couldn’t earn anymore money, they took Paul and Silas to the rulers of the city who put them into prison!

- An earthquake occurred and all the doors were instantly opened!

- The jailer wanted to kill himself thinking that all prisoners had escaped!

- But Paul prevented him to do it saying that nobody had escaped!

- Then the jailer and his household became believers and were baptized all at once!

- The next day they were released!

- There again, we see that Paul does everything correctly telling the decisions about circumcisions in all the cities he visited!

- All the time he would do an incredible work and many people became believers!

 

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53) Looking for Paul

Acts 17

- In Thessalonica, we get the usual story with the Jews trying to kill Paul!

- So the disciples sent Paul and Silas to Beroea!

- Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they accepted the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore, many of them became believers, and so did quite a few of the reputable Greek women as well as some of the men.

- Everybody should do that!

- It should be the norm!

- Unfortunately it is not the case!

- And the Jews from Thessalonica came to get rid of Paul!

- Then Paul goes to Athens!

- He goes to the Areopagus to speak with the Greek!

- And some became believers!

 

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54) Looking for Paul

Acts 18

- In Corinth, Paul worked as tentmaker!

- He would give a talk in the synagogue every sabbath and would persuade Jews and Greeks!

- When Silas and Timothy met him, Paul began to be intensely occupied with the word!

- But the Jews opposed him and spoke abusively, he turned to the people of the nations!

- And many Corinthians became believers and got baptized!

- There he spent a year and six months!

- The Jews brought him before the proconsul!

- Finally Paul sailed to Syria!

- He spent some time in Ephesus!

- Then in Caesarea and other places!

- Well, the usual routine!

- And a dangerous one with the Jews always trying to get rid of him!

- But Paul didn’t care, he had to work for God!

 

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55) Looking for Paul

Acts 19

- In Ephesus, Paul asked the disciples if they had received holy spirit!

- But they had no idea what it was!

- Because they were baptized in John’s baptism!

- Then they got baptized in the name of Jesus!

- Then Paul laid his hands on them!

- And after that they received holy spirit and they started speaking in foreign languages and prophesying!

- Then he spoke with boldness in the synagogue for three months!

- But some Jews started to speak injuriously as usual!

- Then Paul went to the school auditorium of Tyrannus and he kept speaking there!

- God kept performing extraordinary powerful works through the hands of Paul!

- Thus cloths and aprons he had touched could cure people!

- Some Jews tried to cast out demons by the name of Jesus but it didn’t work , they had to flee, the demons saying they knew Jesus and Paul but not them!

- And many became believers and burnt their expensive books on magical arts before everybody!

- But men using religion to make profit opposed the disciples and took some to the theater and there was a lot of confusion!

- Paul wanted to go there to defend himself but the disciples refused!

- Then the city recorder quieted the crowd!

- And the assembly was dismissed!

- Apparently Paul did a really good job with the other disciples and the city became full of disciples in such a way that the men who made business through religion were afraid of losing their business!

- In fact, everywhere where Paul went, the number of disciples increased to a large extent!

 

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56) Looking for Paul

Acts 20

- As the Jews tried to kill him again, Paul had to change his way!

- Instead of sailing for Syria, he returned through Macedonia!

- In Troas, Paul made a long speech to the disciples at night!

- A young disciple fell asleep and fell down from the third story and was picked up dead!

- Paul resurrected him saying: “Stop making a commotion, for he is alive”!

- It’s interesting because Paul had the same attitude in front of death as Jesus that is death is like being asleep!

- What is more important is to be written in the book of life (Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12-15)!

- He spoke to the elders from Ephesus: “You well know how I conducted myself among you from the first day I stepped into the province of Asia, slaving for the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials that befell me by the plots of the Jews, while I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.

- There Paul is clear about his mission for the Lord (humility, tears and trials)!

- He knew that imprisonment and tribulations were waiting for him in Jerusalem!

- But he wanted to achieve his mission for the Lord!

- He told them it was the last time they would see each other!

- And he said again: “I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.”

- It couldn’t be more clear!

- Thus Paul told them to KEEP AWAKE!

 

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57) Looking for Paul not published

Acts 21

- Paul was told that he would be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem!

- And they would give him into the hands of people of the nations!

- In Jerusalem the Jews tried to kill Paul but the Roman commander rescued him and took him into custody!

- And Paul asked the commander for the permission to speak to the crowd!

- As usual, Paul was always ready to defend himself and to give testimony about Jesus!

- He was never afraid of dying!

- And nobody could stop him!

- When he had to go away, he would start again to teach people in other cities!

 

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58) Looking for Paul

Acts 22

- Paul told his story to the people!

- And as usual he bore witness of Jesus!

- So they wanted to kill him!

- Then the commander wanted to interrogate him under scourging!

- But then Paul asked him: “Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman who has not been condemned?”!

- Then he stopped and released Paul!

- And he assembled the chief priests and the Sanhedrin and Paul to know exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews!

- Someone who did everything properly!

- Not like the Jews!

- Paul knew how to behave and spoke to get results as usual!

 

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59) Looking for Paul

Acts 23

- Paul divided the Pharisees and the Sadducees by telling he was accused according to the resurrection!

- So a great uproar broke out!

- And the commander feared for paul’s security so he took him to the soldiers’ quarters!

- At night the Lord stood by him and said: “take courage! For just as you have been giving a thorough witness about me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.”

- Thus in every aspect of his life, Paul would serve Jesus’ interests!

- And it would be the same when he pronounced a word!

- For his protection, Paul was sent to the Governor Felix with a letter by the commander!

- The Governor was prepared to listen to him before his accusers!

- And the Jews tried everything to kill him but they couldn’t do it because it was against Jesus’ interests who wanted him to go to Rome to give testimony about him!

- Thus Paul got into many troubles but he survived to be able to fill his mission!

- And it was an incredible mission indeed!

- Many became believers through his teaching!

 

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60) Looking for Paul

Acts 24

- After hearing Paul and his accusers, Felix decided to wait for the arrival of the commander!

- Thus Paul was kept under arrest but given some freedom!

- Felix would listen to Paul from time to time expecting to get some money from him!

- CORRUPTION once again has always been a virus destroying big powers and empires!

- But it wouldn’t stop Paul to keep bearing testimony about Jesus!

 

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61) Looking for Paul

Acts 25

- The new governor was to arrive!

- He refused Paul to be sent to Jerusalem!

- He wanted to hear personally Paul and his accusers in Caesarea!

- Then Paul appealed to Caesar according to Jesus’ will!

- King Agrippa went to visit Festus!

- Then Agrippa wanted to hear Paul!

- But Festus didn’t know what to write about Paul because he had no real accusations!

- Thus Paul is always ready to speak to any kind of people, simple ones or important one, it is the same for him!

- But he was also able to adapt to whom he was speaking!

 

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62) Looking for Paul

Acts 26

- Thus Paul spoke about the resurrection of the dead!

- Paul had the patience to repeat again and again his personal history and telling about all the events he went through!

- Both King Agrippa and Governor Festus recognized that Paul had done nothing wrong!

- But as he appealed to Caesar, he had to go to Rome before Caesar!

- Once again Paul did a great job!

- And he knew exactly what to say to Festus and king Agrippa and being always respectful!