Come Follow Me LDS- Acts 16-21, Part 1

'Reason & Strange Things'
- Paul's 2nd Mission
- Paul reasons in the synagogues
- Paul contends with philosophers
- Paul teaches 'Strange Things'

 

 

Come Follow Me

LDS Mormon New Testament Acts Bible

 

all right in this episode we're going to

talk about reason and strange things

here we go

okay setting the stage this week

remember last week we ended with the

council at Jerusalem where the decision

about circumcision and whether the

Gentiles had to be circumcised was

resolved Peter says that the Gentiles do

not need to be circumcised

after this we get this little tidbit

here about Paul again having some

disputations and this time it's with

Barnabas and he's getting ready to leave

again on another mission and Barnabas

wants to take John mark with him as well

remember Barnabas and John Mark are

probably maybe distant cousins and Paul

does not get along with John mark and so

there's a very strong contention here

we're told by Luke on the at the end of

chapter 15 and Paul decides to take

Silas instead and Barnabas goes off with

John mark and so that's how they couple

off and Paul gets what he wants here

again so what we're going to cover in

this episode is basically Paul's second

mission and this comprises chapter 16

and 17 and chapter 18 down to I believe

it's verse 22 and this is where he

expands the territory a little bit in

the first mission he was mostly in

Palestine moving up into Antioch and

other parts of what they called Asia

which is really Asia Minor or today

Turkey here he's going to expand the

territory a little bit the mission field

out into Greece and this mission

comprises thousands of miles that they

take

and many different cities throughout

Greece and throughout Asia Minor or

Turkey and chapter 16 starts off like

this in verse 1 then came heat as Paul

to Derbe and Lystra and behold a

certain disciple was there named

Timotheus this is timothy that we get in

the letters of Paul later on in the new

testament the son of a certain woman

which was a Jewess and believed but his

father was a Greek so you have a split

family in a sense theologically

religiously you have a Gentile and you

have the mom as a Jewess but Timothy was

a believer but he was not circumcised

and so here we had just left the Council

of Jerusalem where it says that Gentiles

do not need to be circumcised but Paul

kind of decides that hey this is

probably going to be a good idea for the

people in these areas for the Jews

remember he Paul consistently goes to

these cities he eventually gets to the

Gentiles but he appears to arrive at

each of these cities and first go to

teach on the Sabbath as would be the

practice in the synagogue's with the

Jews first in each of these areas and he

feels that perhaps it's going to be a

lot easier for him to be with Timothy

here if Timothy is circumcised and so he

does have Timothy circumcised to help

placate the Jews in these areas and so

they're travelling through the areas of

Asia Minor and the Holy Ghost inspires

them basically says to them warns them

that they should not be in that area

for whatever reason and tells them to

move beyond Asia and so they start

heading toward Messiah and Bethea Mia

and the Holy Ghost here says again no

you need to go somewhere else and so

Paul has another vision here and in this

vision in verse 9 there was a man that

appears to him it says that are stood a

man of Macedonia this is an area of

Greece and prayed him saying come over

into Macedonia

and help us so again a vision is

revealed to Paul just as we've seen with

Peter and Cornelius and Paul previously

but this is a common thing to happen in

a new dispensation it happens often it

happened with Joseph Smith it happened

with Oliver Cowdery

it happened with many people at Kirtland

it happened with other members where

there was the speaking of tongues and an

outpouring of a spirit and a visions

that people had but this is a way that

the Lord speaks to us I've always

wondered about this as to why the Lord

does this is this something that is his

subconscious is just a dream that he has

what do we mean by the word vision I

think normally that's what it means I

don't know if it's always that way but

the Lord seems to speak to our

subconscious sometimes directly and

sometimes perhaps there's more truth

there the psychoanalyst Carl Jung used

to say that there's more truth in your

dreams than there is in your

consciousness that it's hard for a dream

to lie that there's reason and symbolism

and truth just embedded in your dreams

and so Paul ends up travelling toward

Macedonia and he ends up at Philippi

which is an area within Macedonia and

here in verse 12 it says that this is

the chief city of that part of Macedonia

and a colony and we were in that city

abiding certain days now here we get a

first person plural from Luke did you

know what I said I said and we were in

that city abiding certain days now

previous to this we don't have this

first-person plural from Luke so all of

a sudden Luke seems to be a part of this

now remember that Luke is likely a

Gentile and a physician we learned this

from Paul's letters later on and so it

could very well be that Luke is from

Philip I or from one of the areas the

cities that Paul stopped off at on his

way to Macedonia and this would make a

lot of sense why is Luke writing acts

he's written the Gospel according to

probably a Gentile and now he's writing

Acts the second volume of his book and

what does acts focus on Acts focuses on

the preaching of the gospel going out to

the Gentiles with Cornelius and Paul and

Peter and these visions and now these

missions that Paul is going out on to

Jew and Gentile but eventually mostly to

the Gentiles and this is Luke who is

writing this so this makes a lot of

sense and when we consider the

interpreter of authorship and we think

about Luke as a physician and as a

Gentile we might start to think about

his perspective in what he writes both

in his gospel and in the book of Acts

he's speaking from his own background

and his own perspective on this but he

now seems to join Paul on this mission

and may very well be at this point a

first-hand witness and kind of a

biographer of Paul at this point and

that might be the whole purpose of the

book of Acts is that he's wanting to

write about Paul preaching to the

Gentiles this is where perhaps Luke is

converted and this is what would be

obviously very central and at Luke's

core and in verse 13 another interesting

point here we say it says and on the

Sabbath we went out of the city by a

Riverside where prayer was want to be

made or where they went to offer prayer

often and we sat down and spake unto the

women which resorted thither why the

women here you know we've talked often

about the women being a representation

of the passing on of different steps of

eternity so birth and death resurrection

where we see Mary at these area at these

points and we

women oftentimes associated with all of

these events well they're also always

associated with water

it seems think about the Samaritan woman

at the well where does Moses meet Zipporah

the daughter of Jethro at hey well how

about Rachel and Rebecca they're at

wells so the wells themselves and water

here with women they are at the

Riverside or think as I said previously

about Mowgli where does he see the young

woman at the end of a jungle book while

she's going there to get water at the

river or at the lake or at the pond or

whatever it might be so women are

associated with water often and this is

part of their culture this is where they

would have gathered they would have been

there to maybe offer prayers but also

possibly to be retrieving water for

their homes and here there's a certain

woman named Lydia who is a seller of

purple this would be purple dye and the

city that she's at which is Thyatira or

a theater ah is known for their colored

dyes for clothing and Lydia is baptized

and her household and she invites Paul

and his group into their home and here

again Luke says us invited us into

her home and as they went to pray it

says a certain damsel possessed with a

spirit of divination

met them which brought her master's much

gain by soothsaying so this is another

hard thing for us to understand what

might be happening here but she's

working with a spirit of divination this

might be where you need to go to find

something this might be what you need to

do we might think of something more like

tarot cards or a crystal ball things

that would find out things for the

future for a number of people here where

they are getting gained out of this well

Paul basically exercises this spirit of

divination whatever

means from her and her master's those

are you making money off of this are not

very happy about it and so the Masters

find Paul and Silas and draw them into

the marketplace under the rulers the

marketplace would be where everybody

comes together right is this the big

social place that you would have it

would be where you go to buy things and

where people would meet up and in verse

20 it says and they brought them to the

magistrates saying these men being Jews

do exceedingly trouble our city and it

said and they say something interesting

here to the magistrates they say that

these Jews teach customs which are not

lawful for us to receive neither to

observe being Romans so a very simple

principle here where for example we send

our missionaries out around the world to

places where there are very different

cultures and different laws and

different customs for example we can't

go to China and preach we can't go to

Jerusalem and preach because of those

customs and laws but Paul is doing the

exact opposite he is a little bit of you

know kicking the hornet's nest just a

little bit here what he is teaching is

very different from what both the Jews

believe and what the Gentiles believe in

these areas and so the multitude rises

up that had that here's this little mini

trial going on here and the magistrates

rent their clothes and they command that

these guys be beaten and so they whip

them and this is something that happens

to Paul over and over and over again he

is going to pay for his missionary work

constantly

he's shipwrecked several times he's

whipped many times he's stoned once he's

jailed often he will pay a massive

social and physical price for trying to

change things and for trying to bring

about the truth and be the messenger of

the Lord in spreading the gospel out to

the Gentiles and we can see in our day

the direct effect of this one man Paul

he changed the entire Western world by

spreading the gospel out among the

Gentiles he as though there's more and

more persecution that comes on here

eventually Rome takes on Christianity as

its state religion and though the gospel

in its fullness is lost and though the

priesthood is lost

and the temple is lost Christianity and

Western thought take hold had they have

a tumultuous time going through the many

centuries through the Dark Ages and

beyond but it takes hold and changes the

entire world and so they throw Paul and

those with him in Chains and into the

jail and something interesting

happens here and at midnight Paul and

Silas prayed was the companionship maybe

Luke's not with him here maybe is and

saying praises unto God and the

prisoners heard them and suddenly there

was a great earthquake where do we hear

this we heard this with the missionaries

Nephi and Lehi in the Book of Mormon

there was a great earthquake remember

and they are let free from the prison

and they walk out and then think of the

death of Jesus Christ as he's dying when

he dies there's a great earthquake in

darkness well how does that is that

associated with all of this well because

remember the veil is rent his body is

pierced the veil is rent and we are all

freed from prison in the afterlife and

that's a big theme from Isaiah and from

the early Christians and then the

Gospels that the prisoners would be left

free and so earthquakes seem to come up

constantly they go along with this frame

those that are in prison and so the

jailer is going to kill himself because

he believes that the prisoners have been

let free but they're all in there and

they say hey hold on don't do that and

the jailer then believes that in what

they have been preaching and says what

do I need to be saved what do I need to

do and they say you need to believe on

the

of Jesus Christ and so he and his

household are converted and baptized

timing is everything I suppose I mean if

he wouldn't have heard from Paul and

Silas here known that they were still

around and maybe just a couple of

moments later would have would have

recognized that they were there he may

have taken his own life because that's

probably what he needed to do it

probably would have been bad on his

family if he wouldn't have done that so

they leave Macedonian they come in 2

Thessalonians and here they end up

at a synagogue this is kind of his

practice again Paul's practice was to go

in first to the synagogues in his local

areas so some of these places would have

a small Jewish congregation and some

would have maybe many synagogues a

larger group of Jews in those areas that

would have been moved out into these

areas through commerce or through rule

in other words many of the kings and

emperors would have moved a lot of

people from different territories within

the Roman Empire by force and so there

are several Jews in each of these

different areas and Paul goes and

preaches in their synagogues first

before going to the Gentiles in that

area and I love what is said here it

says here in verse 2 and Paul as his

manner was went in unto them in the

synagogue's and three Sabbath days

reasoned with them out of the scriptures

i think this is a really important point

we need to be able to reason I think

both with ourselves

well with ourselves with God and with

others about what truth is about why we

are latter-day saints and about the

gospel and its principles I think that

the come follow me program is so great

because what I sense was kind of really

being involved with this is that there's

been a rejuvenation of scripture study

among the church and I think it's

crucial I think it's so important

that we're able to do this because we

need to be able to reason

first with ourselves we need to be able

to strengthen our testimonies and we do

that first through knowledge and then

wisdom and then with a spirit but we

need that knowledge we need to be able

to reason with God the more knowledge

that we have about gospel principles the

easier it is I think for us to

communicate with God it brings up a

couple of scriptures in Isaiah that I

like about reasoning one is we're very

familiar with and that's in chapter 1

verse 18 and Isaiah it says come now

this is the Lord speaking through Isaiah

come now and let us reason together I

love that first we usually focus on the

rest of this first which is saith the

Lord though your sins be as scarlet they

shall be as white as snow though they be

red like crimson they shall be as wool

so though this is a scripture on

repentance which by the way has a

reference directly to the day of

atonement the wall they're talking about

is from the goat and the ritual of the

two goats on the day of atonement each

year but the Lord is saying look I mean

we have on our end with the lower law

and what we do through atonement that is

reaching up to God we reason that's what

we have that's a tool that mankind has

it's not the greatest tool but it's a

good tool it's part of the lower law we

reason to try and figure things out we

used logic and that's crucial it's very

important for us to do that and then we

reach up to the Lord and hope that he

brings us revelation and the spirit that

combined with that reason and maybe

points us into a new direction and we

kind of meet in the middle there and

that's kind of where faith would maybe

reside right or that trust in the

principles of the gospel the principles

of the sacrifice of our Savior the

principle of trust in the love that our

Heavenly Father has for us

it's not where those would meet at one

at one mint so he lowers himself here

and says let us reason together and it

has to do with

it has to do with repentance in this

verse but I think we all need to be able

to reason we need the reason and

understand the principles and the truths

and principles of the Gospels and of

truths and then also in Isaiah in

chapter 41 this is has to do with the

Gentiles and with the role the Lord has

in all of our lives

it says verse 21 produce your cause so

you want a relationship with the Lord

okay

produce your cause what are your wants

what are your needs and how would you

produce that cause well bring forth your

strong reasons saith the king of Jacob

so the Lord wants us to reason with him

to struggle a little bit with him just

like Jacob did he wrestled with the Lord

and as we go through our experiences in

life and learn from those hopefully and

we gain a greater knowledge of the

Scriptures and of the principles of the

gospel then we can reason more with the

Lord and that completely changes our

relationship with him that's my

experience

remember with Adam in the book of Moses

there are two parts to what happened

there and then though in the example

that we oftentimes give about obedience

where the angel shows up as Adam is

sacrificing and says why are you doing

this and of course I'm paraphrasing here

and Adam says I don't know but the

Lord's told me to do it it's I'm falling

I'm being obedient I'm following the

commandments so that's the first step

and that's obviously the first that's

crucial but he still wants to know he

wants to know why and so it's important

for him to know why and so the angel

does reveal that to him so he offers his

obedience first and then the reasons and

the information then comes to Adam at

that point again he offers obedience to

the commandments with his current

reasoning and then the angel gives him

additional information through the

spirit or through and

case a messenger at one MIT the lower

and the higher laws coming together and

so Luke gives this example a few times

here with Paul reasoning with those that

he's speaking with he may be saying in a

sense just like Isaiah 1:18 was talking

about repentance when talking about

reasoning together

he may be preaching repentance here to

them and change and he's doing it

through reasoned or at least partially

through reason and so some of the Jews

here in the synagogue do believe on Paul

and Silas but most of them don't and

they end up getting together here Luke

describes this pretty interesting Lee he

says but the Jews which believed not

moved with envy it's really interesting

again we've brought this up before how

Envy becomes such a bitter and dark tool

for the adversary within us and he's a

pretty ugly thing so Luke as perhaps a

witness here sees how the Jews are

acting and he believes it's through Envy

that they do this but they took unto

them certain lewd fellows of the baser

sort and gathered a company and said all

the city on an uproar

so this again is a common principle that

we see happening this can happen in our

own families this can happen in a

company at work this can happen in

politics this can happen to a country a

nation but there are a few people that

have a very strong passion for something

good or bad and they gather together

others it says lewd and base or sword so

this would be those that would be

willing then to lie to cause problems

and where are they taking that well

they're taking that out to others that

may not be as base or lewd but then that

group of people are swayed and so and

that becomes the mass and that becomes

the movement it's very easy to see this

and politics there are a few very strong

people with a specific agenda sometimes

it's good sometimes it's not and they

gather the right people that they can

bring in as people that will work with

them and then they bring that out to a

larger group where it's probably watered

down a little bit more again good or bad

left or right but the movement itself

really has a source it's not the mass

that the mass is really what we see but

there is a source behind those things I

think that's what's happening here and

they're saying look we've these people

have turned the world upside down and

they do all of these things contrary to

the decrees of Caesar this sounds

exactly like what the Jews did in

Jerusalem with Jesus saying that there

is another king one Jesus it's the same

thing they don't care about this just

like the Jews in Jerusalem didn't care

about Jesus saying that he was a king so

much other than he is the Messiah which

would go along with that but they're

using this as the more base and lewd

approach to try and get Paul and Silas

into trouble into hot water here because

those that are listening may not

understand as much what this means about

Jesus being the king and they know that

right those in charge here they

they understand well how they're

manipulating the situation here and so

the group of disciples basically send

Paul and Silas off because it's going to

be too dangerous for that and they end

up in another city called Berea who

coming thither went into the synagogue's

of the Jews so they do the same thing

you can imagine Paul here right he is a

Pharisee he's used to this he's used to

going into the synagogue's he

understands how this is done he

understands how maybe an open period of

time is available during worship and the

synagogue on the Sabbath and how you can

go up and say something kind of like

Jesus did when he announced himself as

the Messiah when he was quoting Isaiah

and so here in Berea they preached the

gospel and they get more converts the

disciples but those in Thessalonians

that kicked them out before that

after him before actually hear about

this and they don't want to have Paul

have this success so it doesn't affect

them even now at this point it their

world isn't being turned upside down but

that wasn't ever the real motivation it

was Envy it was hatred and so just as

those in Missouri again we saw this

before in Antioch just like those in

Missouri came up to Illinois Nauvoo and

went after Joseph Smith even though he

was no longer down in the in the area of

Missouri the same thing is happening

here those in Thessalonica the Jews and

Thessalonians oh they sent Paul off he's

got ahead of it he goes off to Athens

and Timothy and Silas remain behind in

Berea and in Athens Paul sees that

everybody is under the spell of idolatry

and this is again an interesting thing

about idolatry we hear about this all

the time in the Old Testament it is so

foreign to us in a scientific modern

world to think about these people that

are worshipping these strange gods but I

and I know that we oftentimes couple

this these foreign gods these idol

idols with what we put in front of God

today I don't think that that is just a

comparison that we're like we're

stretching here a little bit and kind of

putting a good lesson together I think

it's the same thing I think it's the

exact same thing I think that the

idolatry and the paganism of ancient

times has everything to do with the

individuals psychology and the sociology

of cultures it's the gods that they

worship it's the values that they put up

high in their values hierarchy it's the

things in nature that are important to

them and it's the characteristics that

come along with these gods because

they're very well developed these

characters are very well developed

whether it's someone like pan who is

mischievous

or Athena who is the goddess of war and

wisdom

it is a values hierarchy with

personification and we do the exact same

thing today I don't think it's just a

comparison I think it is coming from the

same place in our minds and in our

hearts idolatry is alive and well today

without the personification and so Paul

is here in Athens which is also a center

of course for philosophy remember the

great philosophers of Greece that came

from about the time of Lehi really and

and I think that the further you go back

toward the time of Lehi the greater the

philosophy find there was a lot that was

built up off of each philosopher in

Greece but as he talks about this

idolatry here in Athens he says

this in verse 17 therefore disputed he

and the synagogue with the Jews and with

the devout persons and in the market

daily with them that met with him he's

out there every day you can just see

this guy again Paul just adamant and

just driven every day to change the

world and he does verse 18 then certain

philosophers of the Epicureans and of

the Stoics encountered him so here come

the philosophies of men that are going

to confound Paul and get rid of his

ridiculous Christianity and the

Epicureans are those that don't believe

that God really has he exists but

they're kind of like deists right he's

not really involved with your life at

all he's there it exists we can look to

him but it's really all just us for the

most part he lets us completely alone

and the Stoics were very involved with

reason and that it was important to

build reason and logic and so they're

just mocking him they say here and some

said what will this babbler say and they

accuse him of being one that is a setter

forth

of strange gods because he preached unto

them Jesus and the resurrection well

what is the difference today that

there's still

that strong force against the idea of

the suffering servant of God that came

down to earth and took on our sins for

whatever reason and I still try to I

work on this all the time in my mind but

for whatever reason I've got some ideas

but for whatever reason the world does

not like the idea of the suffering

servant they hate it they hate the idea

that God took on our sins it disrupts

the economy the emotional economy the

spiritual economy for them and of course

they don't like the resurrection the

idea that sticking to principles and

truth can be something that is eternal

and provides growth and progression if

you follow those principles you couple

those together an eternity life

everlasting with the teachings of Jesus

and of him taking on the sins of the

world and of course you have to humble

yourself and bow to those principles

then you can have that eternal growth

that would come through the resurrection

and so they take Paul to what they call

the iropagas which is really the rock

of Ares there's a large rock formation

here outside of Athens where perhaps

they had their councils or at least

that's just what they called the council

this is Mars Hill in roughly the Rome

Aries is Mars to the Romans and they say

this they say may we know what this new

doctrine whereof thou speakest is so

Paul is preaching the fullness of the

gospel and they say this in verse 24

thou bringest certain strange things to

our ears we would know therefore what

these things mean well how important it

is for those strange things to be told

everywhere and this is being thrown into

a very muddy picture this is what it

says in verse 21 for all the Athenians

strangers which were there spent their

time nothing else but either to tell or

to hear some new thing right everybody's

got a new idea about something about how

to live or a new truth it's the idea

that we have the gospel and then we have

the philosophies of men it's exactly

what it is and Paul is here in the Lions

Den among all of this philosophy and

these supposed truths and he's throwing

his hat into the ring and so this is

what he says in verse 23 for as I passed

by and beheld your devotions this would

be maybe their statues or their

idols I found an altar with this

inscription to the unknown God

whom therefore ye ignorantly worship Him

declare I unto you I love this example

this is just like Ammon with King Lamoni

do you remember what he says with King

Lamoni he says do you know who God is

and Lamoni says well I know about the

Great Spirit and instead of saying old

it's not the Great Spirit I mean you're

totally wrong with that

he totally tries to bring it together

with religion in this concept and he

builds on that and he says well that

Great Spirit is God who I am talking

about that's the right thing to do have

a blog post that I had written on this a

few years back for us in different

faiths different religions to be able to

get along and for us to have the gospel

spread around the world I think that's

the approach that we have to take you

try to take the information and culture

of where you're at and you work with

that you build bridges I think that's

what the church is doing with the

NAACP right now I think it's a

great miraculous thing and so he kind of

gives a description of who God is that

he is he's saying that he is this

unknown God this would be him let me

reveal him to you and he teaches a very

important truth here that we have

referred to probably many times here in

verse 28 it says for in him we live and

move and have our being as certain also

of your own poets have said for we are

also his office

spring for as much then as we are the

offspring of God we ought not to think

that the Godhead is liken to gold or

silver or stone graven by art and man's

device so in other words as you go out

and you build things with your hands out

of these materials and put them up to

worship this has nothing to do with who

this God is you are the offspring of him

you are alive he is alive and you are

like him or as we might say you were

born in the image of God he's like us

and then he talks about repentance and

judgment and then the resurrection and

then of course all of the philosophers

there laugh at him and mock him and it

says here in verse 34 that some people

did believe him so he's being persecuted

he's being rejected everywhere he's

being whipped he's fleeing everywhere

but he's having success a little bit

here and a little bit there and in some

places even we're told that there are

converts made daily so Paul leaves

Athens and he ends up in Corinth

now Corinth is the administrative center

for Greece right which is under the

Roman Empire so it's a very important

place he's not just out at the little

villages he's in the major centers of

Greece and Asia in Turkey and here again

he first goes to the synagogues and here

it says it again in verse 4 and he

reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath

and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks in

every one of these areas here there are

some Greeks that are a part of the

congregation in these synagogues which

is interesting so maybe there are some

proselytizing going on among the Jews

but there are Gentiles that are

attending they may be separated in some

way but they are attending the

synagogues and they may be involved some

way with Judaism that might have been a

common thing for a few people Cornelius

the Centurion he was obviously a pious

man who worshiped God

and followed Jewish practices so same

thing here in all of these cities in

Greece Philo the historian tells us that

there are a lot of Jews in Corinth at

this time and Paul testifies to them

that Jesus is the Christ as it says here

of course you'd be saying to them Jesus

is the Messiah and along with that no

doubt he would be talking about Jesus as

the Son of God that he is Jehovah right

he's giving them the whole enchilada

here about the doctrine of Christ and

he's completely rejected and yet the

chief ruler of the synagogue believes on

the Lord with all his house and many of

the Corinthians hearing believed and

were baptized so again he's rejected but

there's someone there that

listens how about a Ben and I write he's

preaching two very wicked men but who's

there

Alma's there and what a difference Alma

makes the early Saints as they went out

on their missions

sometimes they hardly found anybody but

there was a Brigham Young there was a

Heber C Kimball

there was a John Taylor right among

these missions that ended up changing

the trajectory and the growth of the

church and so while he's there the Jews

make have an insurrection and they bring

him to Gallio Gallio is the chief

magistrate we know this historically he

is the chief magistrate of all of the

area of Greece and they say to him this

fellow persuaded men to worship God

contrary to the law well whose law and

isn't this interesting think about what

Paul is facing here Paul as a Jew

himself as someone who persecuted the

church early on he has to face number

one the Christians themselves think

of Alma the younger what he had to do at

first when he went out preaching the

gospel he had been a sinner and was

persecuting the church so he has to

convince the Christians the members of

the church that's Alma the younger and

Paul that he is really for real

that he has repented that he has changed

secondly he has to go and talk to the

Jews many of whom are vitriolic toward

him and would probably be even more

vitriolic toward him than they would be

a Gentile that was bringing something up

because he's one of their own that

betrayed them in a sense so he's going

right into their synagogues and

preaching about Jesus Christ and then

thirdly he has the Gentiles many of whom

are just our pagans know nothing about

Christianity and so he's juggling these

three different things all at once all

the time you have to wonder if he wasn't

just many times just sitting in his room

contemplating how am I going to approach

each one of these groups what is going

to work what am I going to say this

didn't work very well today what could I

do tomorrow but he's constantly fighting

against all of this opposition around

him and yet he succeeds and so Gallio

basically says look he's not doing

anything against our law if it's against

your law this is up to you but we're not

going to do anything against Paul here

and then in verse 18 we learned that

Paul leaves Corinth and he goes to Syria

and we get this little piece of

information here that's kind of

interesting it says that he had shorn

his head because he had a vow well it's

very possible that he had taken a vow

may have been the Nazarite vow same

thing you know Sampson was a Nazarite

and you remember his long hair and how

that gave him strength well that was

part of the vow that he would have had

where he wouldn't have cut his hair

but once he's done it's over a certain

period of time once he's done with a vow

then he would shave his head off shave

off his locks and here you have the

coupling of him shaving Paul shaving his

head because of a vow so it could have

been a Nazarite vow or some other type

of a vow like that that he had fulfilled

at this point be interesting to know

just what that was some kind of major

commitment and sacrifice

that Paul would have made over a period

of time here and then again in verse 19

it says he came to a thesis and entered

into the synagogue and reasoned with the

Jews he knows his stuff

and so the Ephesians accept him much

more and they want him to stick around

but he has to go back he has to go to

Jerusalem for a feast and so he ends up

in Antioch hereafter verse 22 which is

where he started this second mission I

think it was three thousand total miles

that he covered so Luke a Gentile gives

us a picture a biography of these few

years of Paul's life an amazing

individual that overcomes untold numbers

of obstacles to preach the gospel in

various parts of the world to various

cultures to enemies to kings and

magistrates to Jews Samaritans and

Gentiles and Paul does end up changing

the world I'll talk to you next time