The Life and Times of the Early Church

A verse-by-verse study of Acts 15:36—16:40. An account of the beginning of Paul’s second missionary journey which will bring the Gospel to Europe. His first stop is the city of Phillipi, where he has great success but is also arrested and almost beaten to death for preaching the Gospel. May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Acts 15:1-35. An account of the meeting in Jerusalem to decide how to incorporate Gentile believers into the Lord’s churches—a decision that had far reaching implications for the advance of Christiainity.  May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 6:1-17.  Paul closes his letter to the Galatians by teaching on several practical aspects of a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.    May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 5:22-26.  The Apostle Paul shares nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit.  The characteristics of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are representative of the kind of life the Holy Spirit produces in believers, marking us as the people of God. These nine qualities flow into one another, mutually reinforcin...

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 5:16-21.  Paul provides two lists that contrast “the works of the flesh” with the fruit of the Spirit. In this lesson we will look at the first list, which catalogues 15 representative works of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgi...

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 5:8-15.  The young and naive Christians in the Galatian churches were being persuaded by outsiders to return to the legalism of Judiasm. In this passage, Paul explains to the Galatians where this legalism came from, what it was doing to their churches, and where it would lead in the end. He then talks about freedom in Christ and how we can use our freedom as an...

A verse-by-verse study of Galatians 5:1-7.  Paul appeals to the Christians in Galatia to live out the freedom of the gospel both in their witness to the world and their relationships with one another. Our text, the first seven verses of chapter 5, introduces his theme, freedom in Christ, and how that freedom is different from the kind of freedom most of us are looking for! May the Lord bless your...

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 4:21-31.  Paul uses a complex allegory involving Sarah versus Hagar, Isaac versus Ishmael, the Mosaic Covenant versus the Abrahamic Covenant, and the “old Jerusalem” versus the “new Jerusalem” to explain that salvation comes through faith in Christ and transcends ethnicity, social status, and gender. May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 4:12-20.  Paul’s love and concern for the Galatians prompts him to warn them they are in danger of abandoning the gospel of grace for an unholy amalgamation of faith in Jesus and obedience to the Mosaic law. In this passage, Paul makes a personal appeal to the struggling congregations, recalling the way he had taught and served while planting the churches in Gal...

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 4:1-11.  Paul explains how faith in Jesus makes all believers—Jew and Gentile alike—children of Abraham and “heirs according to promise.” Then he unpacks what it means to be an heir of the Creator and Ruler of the universe. May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 3:26-29.  Paul explains how our relationship with Jesus can make us an heir to God’s kingdom and how all who are joined to Jesus share in His inheritance, regardless of ethnicity, social status, or gender. May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 3:15-25.  In Galatians 3 Paul proves from Scripture that salvation comes by God’s grace through faith in Jesus and not by keeping the Mosaic Law. But if the Law was not given to us as a roadmap to salvation, what was its purpose? Paul answers that question in three parts. First, he explains why the law was given , then he shows how the Mosaic law does not run co...

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 3:6-14.  Paul offers the example of the patriarch, Abraham to support his claim that justification (right standing with God) comes by faith alone.    May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 2:15—3:5.  Paul opens the theological section of his letter with an explanation of the vital biblical concept of justification and the nature of salvation.   May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 2:2-14.  Paul concludes the historical section of his letter with an account of the highlights and challenges of his early ministry, which included conflict with Peter about how non-Jews were to be received into the church.  May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Galations 1:10—2:1.  Paul recounts his journey toward Christ and his call to become an apostle to the Gentiles.  May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

An introduction to Paul’s Letter to the Galatians and a verse-by-verse study of Galations 1:1-9.  After a brief greeting, Paul gets right to his point: the churches in Galatia have been deceived by a false gospel that is taking them away from Christ.    May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Acts 14:1—15:2. The Lord leads Paul and Barnabus to the pagan city of Lystra, where they are mistakenly identified as the gods, Zeus and Hermes. The final stops of Paul’s first missionary journey yield mixed results—great advances are made among the Gentiles, but there is fierce opposition from Jewish religious leaders who have rejected Jesus as the Messiah. May the Lord...

 A verse-by-verse study of Acts 13:32-52, which provides us with a deep theological explanation of the coming of the Messiah. May the Lord bless your study of His Word!

A verse-by-verse study of Acts 11:25-30 and 12:24—13:31.  We will look at several significant events that took place in the years AD46-49.  During this time the first Gentile church was established and Paul set out on his first missionary journey, a trip that had great success, but was filled with near-death experiences for the missionaries. 

A verse-by-verse study of James 5:12-20. We conclude our study of the Letter with a study of 5:12-20, where James teaches us about integrity, prayer, and how to heal relationships.

A verse-by-verse study of James 4:13—5:11. We will look at three subjects that all of us deal with every day: how to prepare for the future, how to use the wealth God has entrusted to us, and the value of patience.

A verse-by-verse study of James 4:1-12 on a subject all of us are familiar with: conflict . We’ve experienced it with others and even within ourselves. James explains the source of conflict and how to respond when it happens.

A verse-by-verse study of James 3:1-18, which offers invaluable counsel on wisdom and how to attain it. In vv 1-12 he talks about a subject all of us get in trouble with from time to time: our words. Then in vv 13-18 he talks about two kinds of wisdom: the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below.

A verse-by-verse study of James 2:14-28 and what James says about people who say they have faith in Christ but have no evidence of it in their lives. This passage has created lots of confusion and heated debate because many people assume that James is contrasting faith and works, but that is not what he is doing it all.