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The Jews that had believed in Antioch were the first that had come to know of God’s great mercy and grace as God’s great enemy Saul was gloriously saved.   They received him willingly upon hearing the story.   But what about the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and Judea?   Would they be as willing?   Today we have the privilege of seeing how through an abundance of signs and wond...

If they only had known it, Stephen’s death at the hands of Israel’s religious leaders was a signal to that nation that the advancing “Pentecostal” outreach to God’s people was now failing.   Perhaps God would now turn his back on Israel as Stephen had so strongly suggested in his great message in chapter 7 of the Acts.   For the one bringing the accusation against Stephen was a young man...

Perhaps the greatest miracle of all in the early chapters of the Acts (before Paul’s salvation, that is) was the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing a singleness of heart to all believers that led to the selling of properties and the proceeds being distributed according to need.   However, even with so many spiritual and physical miracles proving that God was working toward the realization of...

One thing we have learned in our studies on the Great Transition is that the preaching of the Kingdom when it is authorized by God is always accompanied by Signs and Wonders.   That is so evident in the early chapters of Acts.   In chapter 2 Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost and the great miracle was that of foreign languages.   All those Jews that had gathered in Jerusalem spe...

Today we reach our next major development in the ongoing post-resurrection ministry of the apostles to God’s chosen people, Israel.   Since Pentecost, Signs and Wonders have been manifested as the Gospel of the Kingdom was preached.   Thousands have come to repentance and faith in their risen Messiah. Chapter 3 opens with the Lord using Peter to heal a man crippled from birth.   He...

Last time we learned that the Gospel of the Kingdom was preached as “at hand” and that preaching was accompanied by God-given Signs and Wonders.   After Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection the disciples were asked to wait for the giving of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God, called by our Lord Jesus “the Promise”.   He then ascended to the right hand of God to reside there until,...

We have seen how Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 13 that the miraculous gifts found among believers in Corinth would be passing away.  As a result, no one should assume that those gifts would be permanent.  God would be giving something far better, namely, the fullness or completion of the Word of God.  We saw how that was accomplished through the writings of the apost...

Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 & 13 highlight not only the temporary nature of those sign gifts and other miraculous gifts if the Spirit, but also the reason why they were soon to pass away.  That reason was that through Paul the completed word of grace would be completed and then there would not longer be a reason for these gifts.  Even the gift of apostleship would pass away w...

Based on Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 - 13, we have seen how what was true then when he was writing was in the process already of changing.  Before long those gifts of the Spirit mentioned in chapter 12 would be gone, whether ceasing of their own accord or being perhaps dramatically terminated.  Even the gift of prophecy was included.  But we know from othe...

Today we look carefully at Paul’s primary teaching on the gifts of the Spirit to members of the Body of Christ.   Miraculous powers were indeed given to believers under Paul’s ministry.   But, he teaches in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14 that these special gifts from the Spirit would be given and useable only for a short time.   He teaches that they were appropriate only for t...

1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14 provide the teaching on the miraculous gifts of the spirit that were given to believers in the early Church which is His Body. Signs, wonders, and miracles were common during Christ’s earthly ministry and continued during the early Acts period after the death and resurrection of our Lord.   They provided authentication of the messenger and the message as t...

Today our focus is on the gospel of the Kingdom and the signs and wonders that accompanied its preaching.   This is so clearly revealed in the gospel accounts we shall examine in today’s Bible study.   This working the Lord God was so different than what Paul preached according to the revelation given to him.   He exhorts believers today to follow or imitate him as he imitates Chris...

Today we begin what is anticipated to be a three part series on why those who Rightly Divide the Word of Truth should be dedicated to “follow Paul” as he exhorts in his several letters. Our focus this time is on how Paul describes that “following” or “imitating”.   He specifically mentions first of all in 2 Tim. 3:10-12 “doctrine” and then adds a number of very practical items relating to our...

In today’s study our goal is to carefully unpack this key verse in chapter 2 where the exhortation is to be diligent in the “Right Division of the word of truth”!   It seems like a strange request perhaps, but in the context it is easily grasped.   Paul’s central focus here is on the false teachers arising in even the church at Ephesus.   Timothy is to wage warfare against them lest...

We continue today in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, chapter 2.   With anticipated spiritual war coming, false teachers abounding, and ministry challenges on every side, Paul exhorts Timothy (and all of us too) in what may be his most important challenge, to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus”.   He also commands his son in the faith to raise up others also who will propaga...

Today we will begin a study in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, chapter 1. Here the apostle beings with several “remembrances” and concludes with several “commitments”.   The one leads directly to the other, thus our title today, “Fond Remembrances Foreshadow Future Triumph — and Tragedy”.   Central to the introduction is Paul’s reminder to Timothy of how he had come to faith in Christ a...

Today we will finish Paul’s first letter to Timothy by summarizing the significant lessons taught there.  This is the list. Last time we went chapter by chapter, today theme by theme.         * An Exhortation (1 Tim. 1:4)         * Its Essence (1 Tim. 1:6)         * Its Foundation (1 Tim....

Today we will finish Paul’s first letter to Timothy by summarizing the significant lessons taught there.   This is the list: Some Have Swerved from True Doctrine, Teaching Not Grace But the Law (Chapter 1) Saved through Childbearing, the Promise of the Seed Gives Hope Always (Chapter 2) Without Controversy, Great is the Mystery of Godliness   (Chapter 3) In the Latter Times, Some Shall D...

In today’s study we reach the last two verses of Paul’s first letter to Timothy.   These are not his last words before his martyrdom, but they are his last words for a while with Timothy and must have struck a powerful note for him and should also for us today.   Here, he writes of the sacred trust committed to his son in the faith, and that is as the last verse says, the faith itself. &...

Twice in the final chapter of this letter, in both verses 12 & 19, the apostle in this culminating exhortation to his son in the faith, uses a word that needs some explanation.   That word is here translated “lay hold on”.   It is a good translation.   In our English Bibles that term is found predominantly in John’s gospel and his first letter where it is found 34 times.  ...

In the midst of chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, the apostle exhorts his son in the faith to take very seriously the false teachers he will be encountering in his ministry.   Their teaching, he warns, entirely misses the point regarding God’s great work in this dispensation.   That work has been the subject of Paul’s teaching in chapter 3 where he calls it “the mystery of godliness”.   The f...

Paul here emphasizes again how necessary it was for the truths of the mystery and specifically the mystery of godliness to be taught.   Those elders that labored in the teaching of that doctrine were to be honored well.   But, to underscore this teaching to Timothy, the apostle adds to the gravity of the situation by writing here that there are heavenly observers of Timothy’s oversight of the asse...

In our teaching today, the apostle continues his theme on order in the churches and particularly emphasizes the care of widows by the church.   He identifies some widows as “widows indeed” and lists their qualifications.   No younger widow is to be allowed into this privileged group, we writes, because they are so much more likely to ignore their ministerial duties as widows in this cate...

Living a life of godliness is a major focus of this letter as 1 Tim. 3:16 states says so clearly:  "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."  In chapter 4 as we have seen already, the apostle continues this theme.  B...

In dark times, where Pauline doctrines clearly taught in his letters concerning the Mystery revealed to him for the church, the bold and true teachings must be continued, whatever the consequences.   This, Paul writes here in this letter is most critically important.   That those with the responsibility in the churches must never fail to make that teaching known is Paul’s meaning here. &...