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Good evening and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah Shipley at Witten Baptist Church. I'm excited to be here with you guys. We're going to continue with the life of Paul. Two weeks ago we did Acts chapter 9 and his conversion.
Last week we did the life of Paul pre-salvation or pre-conversion and this week we're going to do the life of Paul post-conversion or post-salvation. We'll cover a few things that we find in scripture about what happened after he was saved.
We are nearing the end of August already which is crazy. I want to encourage those of you in the Memphis area who maybe haven't to come to Witten Baptist Church on Sundays and Wednesdays. We're open and we'd love to have you.
Those of you not in the area, I love you guys listening to videos like this. I hope I can continue to be a minister to you, a help to you along with all the videos we post at Witten, but remember you need to find a local church congregation where you can serve.
Not simply be fed through online messages. I listen to online sermons and stuff all the time, but I recognize that in scripture we're also called to be part of a local body of believers where we can serve each other as the body of Christ.
Let me just encourage you in that. As far as Witten social media, we have the Witten public Facebook page, Witten Baptist Church, and of course we have Witten Media Ministry on YouTube which is little by little getting bigger.
We still need some more subscribers and stuff so we can do more and more things. As you know, YouTube, you're allowed to do more as a video editor. You're allowed to do more as a producer of videos the more subscribers you have, so keep that in mind.
We're not receiving any money for anything like that. Also our lineup, remember Monday mornings is time out with Pastor Ben, Tuesdays is Bible study, Tuesday night Bible study with Pastor Jeff, Wednesdays is hymn histories, Thursdays is wow moment with our women of Witten, Fridays are off, Saturdays we do question and answer, sometimes live, sometimes pre-recorded.
We've been doing live for some months now. And then Sunday mornings are sermons with Brother Jeff and Sunday evenings are Sunday night Bible studies with yours truly. Okay, so interesting to note, very soon, once we finish the life of the apostles, we're going to do, I believe we're going to do James next week, all the Jameses of the New Testament and go over which one is which.
We may do a few others, maybe Peter, John, Thomas, those kind of things. And then sometime mid-September, we're going to start the Canon of Scripture. Why these books are included in the Canon of Scripture, why others aren't.
It's not a conspiracy theory, it makes total sense, come with an open mind, maybe you'll learn something you didn't know before. All right, without further ado, let's get started on the life of Paul. So again, we did his conversion two weeks ago in Acts chapter 9.
Last week, we went over pre-conversion, how he was a Pharisee taught by Gamaliel, I always struggle to say his name, one of the most well-known Jewish rabbis in the world at that time. Roman citizen, we went through all types of stuff like that, how he persecuted the church.
And now, he is newly saved. So what happened then? I am in Galatians. If you want to know about the life of Paul in a chronological fashion, read the book of Acts, starting in chapter 9, and read the book of Galatians.
Book of Galatians was the first book Paul wrote. Paul wrote the letter of Galatians in the late 40s, probably 48, maybe early 49, before the Jerusalem Council, most likely, before the Jerusalem Council in late 49.
It is possible he wrote it after the Jerusalem Council, which would have been late 49, 50, 51. So, somewhere in the late 40s, early 50s, I tend to think that he wrote it before him. At any rate, Galatians is a collection of churches, a region of churches in, I guess you would call it, Southeastern Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, it was a Roman province of Galatia, so it was the only letter of Paul where he wrote to a collection of churches in the region.
It was his first letter, as I said. He had just been on a missionary journey to these churches that he established. These are churches he established on his first missionary journey, which we can read about in the book of Acts.
So, here we go, this is after his missionary journey, could be just a few months after, and this is what Paul says, starting in Galatians chapter 1, verse 11. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel which is preached to me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. We talked about that last week. Verse 14, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
Verse 15, but when he who had set me apart before I was born and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
Verse 18, after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, that's Peter, and remained with him fifteen days, but I saw none of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie.
Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They were only hearing it said, he used to persecute us, and I was preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and the glorified God because of me.
Chapter 2, verse 1, then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. Alright, stop there. I know that was a long portion to read, but bear with me guys, it's the Bible.
It's a big long story of God's redemptive plan for man, so it's worth reading. Few things to note out here, so obviously chapter 1, verse 15, when he who set me apart before I was born, we've been over this many times, but it's worth going over again.
Paul, I'm sorry, Jesus didn't call Saul, or Paul, because Saul decided, hey I want to start following Jesus on my own, and without any conviction or nothing, I'll just, Paul, Saul was on his way to have Christians imprisoned and executed, until God showed up.
We only love him because he first loved us. You didn't find Jesus, Jesus found you, and then you called on the name of the Lord. And my point in saying that is, God had already set Paul apart before he was born.
When he who set me apart before I was born, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me. He called me before I was born, but he revealed his son to me on that Damascus road. I didn't immediately consult with anyone.
So it says that Paul went away to Arabia, which would have been east of him, and then came back to Damascus. And after three years, he went to Jerusalem for one purpose. What does it say in verse 18? To visit Peter.
Cephas, Simon, Peter, that's all Peter. Like Peter, you know, walked on water with Jesus, denied him three times, one of the twelve disciples, fisherman, that Peter. He stayed with him for fifteen days.
Now, I mentioned this in the in-person Bible study, you know the Bible says, then we will be fully known as I am known, or we will fully know as I am. I don't know if that means that we'll have perfect knowledge in heaven, I don't know if that's a fair way to put it.
But if not, one of the first things I think I'm going to ask when I get to heaven is when I talk to Peter and Paul, is what did y 'all talk about in those fifteen days? Where it was just you and him. You went to Jerusalem and found Peter and stayed in his house for fifteen days.
What did y 'all talk about? How awesome would that be? He said he saw no one else of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Now we're going to go over all the James' next week, but this is James, the Lord's brother.
Remember, Jesus had four brothers and at least a couple sisters, if not more, and we'll show that in Mark and Matthew next week. But this is the James that wrote the book of James. This is Jesus' brother, not one of the twelve disciples originally.
Gotta love coffee. He saw him. That's it. Those are the only two apostles he talked to in Jerusalem, and this is three years after his conversion. Then chapter two, verse one, after fourteen years, he went again with Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus along with me.
Now some people ask, what happened during those fourteen years? He didn't write any letters. He didn't go on any mission trips. What happened in those fourteen years? Well, I'd like to think that Paul learned, you know, learned more about the scriptures, had a talk about Jesus.
Paul talks about in Corinth how he knew a man who was caught up to a third heaven and received revelation from God and things of that sort. It's widely thought that that was himself. So the Holy Spirit worked on Paul's heart.
His sanctification happened, just like the rest of us, over fourteen years. He didn't just get saved and become a pastor the next day and start, no, he was sanctified. That's the process of becoming more and more like Christ.
If you're a Christian, if you're really a Christian, you're being sanctified. And this is where, when the Bible in Philippians 2 talks about work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, that's your sanctification.
That is you becoming more and more holy, not perfect, more and more set apart. Martin Luther said it this way, the more holy or sanctified a man becomes, the more disgusted he is with the sin that remains.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, 2 Corinthians 5 .17. Old things have passed away, behold, all have become new. While we never reach sinless perfection, our lives should look different before conversion and after conversion.
Even if you were saved at a young age, your life should continually, not be getting better by worldly standards, but you should continue becoming more and more like Christ, more obedient to the word the more you grow in the faith.
If you're not, if you're flatlining and you feel no conviction about it, we have a problem. We might need to check our salvation in the first place. Because the Bible says the Lord chastens those he loves and punishes every son he received.
But if you're really a Christian out there, you know it, because when you're not right with the Lord, you feel it. That tugging on your heart, that knocking on the door, that son get right, that's the Holy Spirit talking.
I don't mean guilt in the worldly sense where you feel bad. You know the difference if you're a Christian when the Holy Spirit gets a hold of your heart. The Holy Spirit's conviction leads to repentance.
Guilt just leads to you feeling shame and not doing anything about it. Alright, so, after those 14 years, Paul starts going on missionary journeys. And you know, a lot of your Bibles have maps in the back of Paul's journeys.
I've got one here, you probably can't see it too well. But there's some good ones online that you can look at. Conforming to Jesus has a good map on there. I don't know about the rest of their stuff. I haven't checked, so don't quote me on the rest of their stuff.
But the map of Paul's missionary journeys, there's some good ones you can find. Anyway, the first one you'll see was to Galatia. And then, on the second one, he starts going more to the ones you may be even more familiar with in the rest of Turkey and Greece and Macedonia and those places.
He starts going to Troas, to Corinth, to Ephesus, Thessalonica. He goes on a couple missionary journeys there. His last one, of course, was when he was imprisoned and sailed all the way to Rome to appeal to Caesar.
And after a couple wrecks, eventually made it there. And I'd say that's his last one. That's his last recorded one. The Book of Acts ends with him in house arrest from 61 to 63 AD, which is where he wrote the prison epistles.
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Though we know he got out, because there's no mention of him being imprisoned in 1 Timothy or Titus. It's very possible he ended up going to Spain like he said he wanted to in Romans 15 -16.
At any rate, he eventually ended up back in Rome in prison and beheaded under Nero, according to church tradition. And in that imprisonment is when he wrote 2 Timothy. He knew his time was at hand. Alright, some more things.
First off, on these missionary journeys, You could call Paul a church planter. I think that's okay to call him that. What Paul would do, though, is he would go to these different regions and set up churches.
I don't mean church buildings. Remember, the church is not the building, it's the people. And he would disciple them, and he would often be the pastor until he discipled someone to take his place. Sometimes it would be a native from that land.
You know, excuse me. But, you know, sometimes he would only stay 3 or 4 weeks. Sometimes he would stay 3 years, like he did in Ephesus. But, he didn't just go and do a mission trip and leave with no foundation.
He made sure to lay a foundation, to lay a foundation in the gospel, and to teach them how to teach others. He was really big on that. He was big on discipleship, as the church should be today. Sometimes he would disciple and train up Timothy, for example.
And say, okay, Timothy, now you be the pastor in Ephesus, I'm going to go to Thessalonica. And he would teach people there. And if you read the book of Acts carefully, remember, who wrote Acts? Luke. Luke wrote Acts.
You'll read, for example, and Luke is from Troas, for example. And you'll read the word, we. You could assume that means Luke is with whoever he's talking about there. So, for example, with Paul and Barnabas.
He disciples Titus along the way, who was, I guess you'd call him half-Gentile, half-Jew. His mother was Jewish, his father was a Gentile. We're not sure, but it appears his father may not have been a believer.
And things like that. What he would often do is go on the mission trip, and then write the letters back to those churches, checking up on them. He had people everywhere. Paul had folks and eyes everywhere in the Roman Empire.
He would write them letters saying, hey, I've heard that you're not doing this right. You need to get right with Jesus. Or, I sent Timothy over here, or I sent Epaphroditus over here, or I sent this person here, and things aren't going right.
Or, he'll say, I have heard good reports that your love has continued, and your love has endured. So, he would get reports back and send letters of encouragement, exhortation, and correction to these churches.
So that is what Paul was in the business of doing after his conversion. He set up all the churches he wrote to, except for Colossae and Romans. The church in Rome was already set up by the time he finally got there, and then by the time he finally wrote to them.
He wrote to the Romans before he ever got there. Colossae, it appears, we don't know because, again, after he was released from his first Roman imprisonment, we don't exactly know where he went. But it appears that he never made it to the church at Colossae, and I could be wrong about that.
But, you read Colossians, it makes it sound like he never got to go there. And it's possible he went afterwards, like I said, but we're not sure. But besides that, Thessalonica, Philippi, Ephesus, Galatia, Corinth, he set up all those churches.
Remember, Timothy and Titus, he wrote to pastors. So in all, Paul wrote 13 letters, possibly 14 if you think he wrote Hebrews. But he wrote 13 letters, 10 of them to churches. Okay, remember churches are the people, not the buildings.
Three of them to pastors, 1st, 2nd Timothy, and Titus. And I guess you should really say nine of them to churches, because Philemon was written to an individual at the church of Colossae. So, yeah, that's kind of what Paul was in the business of doing.
Paul would have been converted, like we said, late 20s, early 30s, I think it's probably safe to say. According to the Mishnah, the oral tradition of the Pharisees, you received a calling when you were 20, and you received authority when you were 30.
So Paul would have had the minimum, being in his 20s, when he got his orders from Caiaphas, no, I shouldn't say that, from the high priest, to go persecute the Christians in Acts 9. So, after, you know, three years in Arabia and back in Damascus, visiting Peter, and then 14 years later, he would have, you know, had to have been in his late 40s, at least, by the time he wrote the book of Galatians.
So by the time he's writing all his letters, he's in his 50s, and then closing in on 60 towards the end of his writing career. And probably never made it to 70, probably would have died before then, because he probably died in the mid to late 60s, probably 67, under persecution of Emperor Nero, probably the same year that Peter died.
According to church tradition, Peter was also killed under persecution of Nero. He was fleeing Rome, the Lord told him to go back, and it was time. They killed Peter's wife in front of him, and then Peter was crucified upside down.
Church tradition says, it's not in the Bible, but church tradition says that Peter said, I am not worthy to die in the same manner of my Lord, can you crucify me upside down? And so they did, and Paul was beheaded, because Paul was a Roman citizen.
Okay, so, there is a synopsis of the life of Paul after his conversion. There's a lot of other things we could go on about. Let me just point out a few things in his letters. First off, sometimes people struggle with the idea of, okay Josiah, well if he wrote a letter to a church at Corinth, what does that have to do with us today?
If he wrote a letter to Timothy, how does that apply to us today? Well, a few things. All scripture is inspired by God, and it's proper for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
Peter, in 1 and 2 Peter, talks about Paul's letters, and calls them scripture, holy scripture. Why don't you think about that? Even Peter knew that he was writing inspired work, that Paul was. Secondly, Paul's letters, he always intended to have them circulated.
He even said at the end of Colossians, he even said in some of his other books, have these letters circulated to the other churches in the area. Obviously Galatians he intended to be circulated. So they were always intended to be circulatory, and what they would do is, let's say the church at Colossae got the letter.
What they would do is, yeah, see at the end of Colossians, Colossians 4, 16, and when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of Laodiceans. What they would do is, they would copy down Paul's letter.
They would keep the copy and send the original on. And they would make a copy, keep the copy, and send the original on. So that, it's no secret, we don't have any of the original autographs, if you want to think of it that way, we don't have any of the original letters that Paul literally wrote with his own hand, but we have copies.
We have five and a half thousand Greek manuscripts, which are copies of the original letters of the New Testament. I'm just talking about the New Testament. We could recreate the New Testament just with sermon notes from pastors from the first few centuries of the church.
It's incredible. No other work of history has as much manuscript, remember manuscript just means handwritten, manuscript evidence as the New Testament does. So he always had these letters and intended them to be circulated to other churches.
So he's always intended that even though he was writing specifically to Corinth, or Galatia, or Colossae, he wanted it read to the other churches as well, so they could learn from it, just like we can.
Also, don't forget Matthew 22 -31. This is a super helpful way to think about this. We've read this many times here, but it's worth doing again. And it's always hard for me, because I know sometimes people join in who haven't been able to join in the past few weeks.
So if I repeat myself, you know, I think sometimes it's for the good. The Sadducees, we talked about them last week. The Sadducees were the sect of Judaism. They were a little more liberal, I guess you would say.
They didn't believe the law should be taken literally. They didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. They didn't believe in souls, so on and so forth. And they were trying to trap Jesus in Matthew 22, because they don't believe in the resurrection.
So they said, okay Jesus, if you believe that our bodies will be resurrected and all that stuff, if a woman was married to a man, and then that man died, and she remarried, and then he died, and she remarried, so on and so forth, seven times, who will she be married to in heaven, oh Jesus, since you know everything?
And Jesus said, in the resurrection they will neither marry or are given the marriage, but they're like the angels in heaven. And then he said this in verse 31, And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God?
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. When the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. What's amazing about this, and I think this is one of the most underused passages for this, Jesus just quoted Exodus chapter 3, where God reveals his name to Moses.
But listen to what Jesus told the Pharisees, 1 ,500 years after Moses wrote that down. Have you not read what was spoken to you by God? Jesus is holding the Sadducees accountable for something Moses wrote down 1 ,500 years ago, and then Moses looks at them, Moses looks at them, I'm sorry, forgive me, Jesus looks at them and says, Have you not read what God spoke to you, what God spoke to you, by Moses writing it down 1 ,500 years ago?
Have you not read what God spoke to you? That's incredible. Jesus recognized that when they read Exodus, it was God speaking to them today. When we read Colossae, Galatians, Thessalonians, and all these, it's still God speaking to us today, and God holds us accountable to that.
That is amazing. Just like it was 1 ,500 years, the amount of time doesn't matter, because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You know, Joshua quoted Moses' book, and was referring to the books of Moses, specifically Deuteronomy, after Moses died.
But he said, This book of instruction, Joshua 1 .8 .9, must not depart from your mouth. You are to recite it day and night, so you may carefully observe everything written in it. For in doing so, you may prosper and succeed in whatever you do.
Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, and not be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you, wherever you may go. All throughout the New Testament, we see the authors, well, the writers, quoting Old Testament writers, and holding New Testament readers accountable for what was written before.
Because all Scripture is inspired by God. No prophecy of man has ever come from one's own interpretation. Instead, men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So, all that to say, Paul's letters are still binding to us today, because the Old Testament was still binding to the people in Jesus' day, we are still bound by the New Testament, so on and so forth.
Now, of course, and we'll go into this when we go through the canon of Scripture, we've got to understand the difference between an account and a command. But we can go into that later. But my point is this, all Scripture is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
Okay? Alrighty. Alright, guys. Well, I love you all. I hope this was beneficial to you. Keep in mind to watch the rest of our videos. Keep up with our lessons, all of the stuff we do during the week at Witten Baptist Church.
And I do want to leave you with something I read last night on the question and answer. I believe it was yesterday. And I read it to open up church. I shouldn't say that. To start service. I'm getting my days mixed up.
Maybe it was last week that I read this on question and answer. I believe it was last week. And I read this last Sunday to start service. This is Isaiah 46, 1 through 4. Listen to the comparison of the fake gods to the true God.
Baal bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are on beast and livestock. These things you carry are born as burdens on weary beast. They stoop. They bow down together. They cannot save the burden. But they themselves go into captivity.
But listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of Israel, who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb. Even to your old age I am he. And to your gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made. I will bear. I will carry. And I will save. The fake gods have to be carried by animals. And the worshipers have to carry those fake gods. But our God carries us. Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been born by me before your birth, born by God before your birth from your mother.
When did God start loving you? Before creation began. Carried from the womb. And then, guys, Jesus didn't just save you and say, all right, you're on your own. Salvation is a lifelong process of sanctification.
Even to your old age I am he. And to the gray hairs I will carry you. I have made you. I will bear. I will carry. And I will save. Let that encourage you today. I love you guys very much. As you go forward in this week, every day be able to go to bed saying this, today I loved Jesus more than I did yesterday, not by a feeling, but because I obeyed him better today than I did yesterday.
If you love me, you'll keep my commands, John 14, 15. Love you guys very much.
