Transcript

John Barnett speaking, and it's Wednesday. Welcome to the launch of Paul's Life and Letters through the Book of Acts. I'm very excited and Bonnie is right here with me getting this new course. This is what we're going to be teaching all the way from right now through the end of the year. So, you're going to see me in many different places. We're scheduled to be teaching in New York, in Florida, in Massachusetts. Then, we're going to Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas. Then, I'll be teaching this actually as we cross through Europe and end up in Asia. Lord willing, if the Lord tarries, we should get to chapter 28 of the Book of Acts somewhere in Asia, in some hotel somewhere filming the class. I'm looking forward to spending this journey with you.

I'm not going to repeat what I did in the advertisement, but if you haven't seen the reasons why you should study this course with us, I'm going to tack it on the end of this introduction just so you can keep watching. It talks all about the MacArthur Study Bible and all the resources, how to use your journal. I show you a journal page and even how to mark your Bibles. All of that will be right at the end.

But let's begin with this series of slides. This is my goal for you, and I've never done this before in my whole life, and that's why Bonnie is especially praying as we capture this class. I want to cover for you the entire arc of the book of Acts, all three sections, all 28 chapters, and the big picture of God's plan for the launch of the Gospel, which I call, and we'll start there, The Unstoppable Gospel. That's really what I'm trying to share with you, that these are troublesome times; gas prices are going up because of the blockade of the Persian Gulf, and the oil tankers, and you know everything that's going on. Especially if you have any family or friends in the military with 50,000 of our American soldiers over there in the Gulf area. It's just a troublesome time in America. So much is going on with the TSA slow down, shut down, everything else. Many people are concerned for the future. What a great time, look at this, for the unstoppable Gospel.

So, I want to go through a strategic master timeline of the Early Church, which God gave us right here in Acts 1-28. Now, in the background, if you can see, this circle here is Jerusalem, and these concentric circles show the Gospel going throughout the whole world.

Now, if I was to summarize, this will be the pre-summary. So, I'm going to show you the whole book on one page. Okay?

So, here's the whole book of Acts. It's an expedition through Paul's life and letters. There are two major frames we use, the fullness of time, which is God saying that He launched the Earth just at the moment in history surrounding the birth of Christ that was most strategic to get the Gospel global. Then Satan, he is trying to confound and to subvert and to poison the Gospel. So, Acts gives us a timeline for all 13 of Paul's epistles. So, using the Romans Road, Paul travels and we're going to see where every one of his epistles were written in the next few moments.

Here's a snapshot of the whole course. I'm going to show you where all 13 of Paul's letters were, how to fit 115 chapters of the Bible together. That's the Book of Acts and all of Paul's epistles. This whole time period will launch you into what could be a 52-week study of Paul's life and letters.

Now, I'm going to emphasize, and at the end you can watch the explanation for the four-step devotional method. Now, this is what I use. In fact, on Thursday of last week, I had a veteran pastor by me. He pastors a huge church in Pennsylvania. He was sitting next to me in a conference we were both attending. He looked at me and he looked very weary. I know because he has a huge church and ministries and he's everywhere online and television and radio and everything else. He looked at me and he said, John, could I just ask you a quick question on the break? I said, always. I said, what is it? He said, how do you keep up message preparation? I grab two things, of course, my Bible. I said, I study one chapter of the Bible every day, and I write down a four-step devotional plan that I follow for every chapter of the Bible, all 1,189. I told him where I was and how I'm working right now in the Book of Acts.

He looked at me and he said I'm talking about preparing your sermon. I said, that's what I'm talking about. I said, you can't preach something and hope to live up to it. You should find the Scripture, live it yourself, test it in life, and see the Lord bring about the truths of His Word. Then proclaim it to people. Look at this, it starts with, for every chapter, assigning a title, summarizing what's in the chapter, extracting the truths and the lessons and the principles, and then asking, begging, praying for God to apply that in our lives.

That's what I call, see right here, the transformational engine for us to reach our generation. That's why this is a perfect time, these unsettled times. I just read in Bloomberg today and the Wall Street that America is on the precipice of a recession, downturn. Last month was the first month ever recorded where there was no job creation in America. So, it's a calamitous, precipitous, foreboding time, which means it's a great time to share the Gospel. See, that's why I have my tract right here. You notice it's one of these folded up ones that I keep in my wallet.

So, we should be reaching our generation with the Gospel using all the talk about the war, the oil, the TSA, and the prophetic implications of what's going on. Look at this, on the far right of the slide, we should have joy in the trenches. That means no matter what we're going through in life, as my favorite verse, you hear me quote almost in every class, Thy words were found and I did eat them. That's me getting the Word of God into my heart and life. Thy Word was to me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Why? Because I'm called by Your name, oh Lord God of hosts. That's, right there, joy in the trenches.

So, here we go. Let's go through Acts. Number one, this is the blueprint of an expanding ripple. What I mean by that is Acts 1-7 is the first ring. Remember, the whole book of Acts is outlined. It's one of the few books in the Bible that opens with its personal outline. I'll read it to you right now. So, grab your Bible if you have one handy or write this down. Acts chapter 1, verse 8 is an outline of the whole book. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to Me. That's the unstoppable Gospel. We are witnesses to God. That's why we're alive. That's why He saved us. That's why He's continuing to give us life and breath. Wherever you live, wherever you travel, whoever you live around, whoever you live with, your parents, your children, your family, your husband, your wife, your class, your coworkers, your fellow students, whatever context you're in, other people in the nursing home, the retirement village, whatever, wherever we are in the spectrum of life, we're supposed to be His witnesses. That's why we're here. That's our calling. We all have 100% shared calling to be His witnesses.

Now, look at verse 8. By the way, some of you're saying, but it scares me. I can't pass out tracts. I don't know what to do. Oh, the beginning of the verse, you shall receive power. The Holy Spirit is powerful enough to overcome my fear and my fleshes unwillingness to boldly share Christ. You might in this course need to back up and reconnect with the Holy Spirit because once He gets let loose in a surrendered life, the byproduct of the Holy Spirit within us is boldness.

But you shall be My witnesses - here's the three-part outline of the book - in Jerusalem and all Judea. That's number one. And Samaria, that's number two. And to the ends of the Earth. Now, look back at this slide. Ring one, Acts 1-7 shows the Gospel going in Jerusalem and Judea. That's this ring right here. See, the red dot is Jerusalem. Ring one. Ring two is Samaria and Judea. Then ring three is orchestrating out, and now it's just going like this till the whole Earth is encompassed by the Gospel.

I'm going to show you in just a minute when Paul, by being chained to Roman soldiers, that was part of God's plan. They rotated the soldiers through and during the end of his career, they were Pretorian soldiers who all became high ranking representatives of the emperor at the furthest reaches of the empire. Paul got to be chained to one after another for two years. Can you imagine the converts one of the greatest testifiers and witnesses of Christ had with these Pretorian guards that were watching him on behalf of the emperor? And then they were launched out to the furthest outposts of the empire. That's what we see, this expanding ripple. The book of Acts traces this explosion of the Gospel across the world. Okay.

Phase one, the explosion starts in chapters 1, 2, and 3. They wait in the upper room. That's Acts chapter 1. The Holy Spirit ignites them. That's Acts chapter 2. We call that the Day of Pentecost. Then they demonstrate that newfound Gospel power in chapter 3. So, that's the first three chapters of Acts. Then that takes us to the expansion. Now, remember, the Gospel was not released by the power of the Holy Spirit in a vacuum.

Look where the Gospel is released, under the shadow of Rome. Tiberius, who ends his reign as emperor in 37, followed by Caligula, who we know is dissipated. Then Claudius, who was totally distracted with his building campaigns, and conquering Great Britain. Then Nero. Okay.

But every riot, every missionary journey, every miracle takes place against the backdrop of those emperors and that empire. That is what unleashes the explanation of what God was doing and why He was doing it and how He did it. That's what illustrates what the Holy Spirit can do in our lives today. Okay, back to the slides, because I want to cover the whole book.

Next, there are two parts to the book of Acts. Not only this concentric ring thing, but who the primary leaders were of the Church. In Acts 1-7, it's Peter. In Acts 13-28, it's Paul. Peter focuses around Jerusalem and Judea, Paul to the global pagan world. Peter is under Tiberius. Paul is primarily serving under Claudias and Nero. Peter is from Pentecost, and the upper room catalyzed into ministry. Paul, through his persecuting work and then into his mission. So, you can see the two stars of the two halves of the book of Acts as far as who's the lead.

Okay, next, the ignition point. What really happened in chapter 1? The mandate was given: wait in the upper room till the Holy Spirit comes. What's important about that? You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. There's power that you can experience this very moment from the Holy Spirit. You say, what do you mean? Go do a miracle? Participate in the powerful miracle of the Holy Spirit. Number one, He illuminates our minds to the Word of God. He is the Spirit of illumination. He is the Spirit that gives us understanding. He brings to our remembrance what we've studied when we share the Gospel. He's the one in chapter 4, we're going to see in a minute, who brings boldness. So, that's that half.

But do you know what the other half of His power is? Not just the Gospel sharing and marvelous ministry through the Church. Do you know what the other half is? Seeing Him overcome the horrific power of sin that's in our flesh, and that surrounds us, and that used to enslave us. You want to experience the power of the Holy Spirit right now? Say no to sin. Cry out to God and say, save me from that temptation. Give me an open door. Help me to flee. Help me to say, no. Help me not to defile myself, to grieve Your Spirit. He will, and you can experience His power right now. Secondly, the explosion of Acts 2. 3,000 instant salvations on the day of Pentecost, and then the beautiful miracle at the Gate. Beautiful.

So, we go into the pressure cooker I call it. The external attacks start in chapter 4. The first arrest as Peter and John are arrested for preaching the resurrection. Then the Church is infiltrated by hypocrites, Ananias and Sapphira. And, of course, the angelic jailbreak that follows of the apostles out of jail. Then the Church gets distracted, all the complaining over the food distribution. Then the Church is represented by Stephen who gives one of the greatest defenses of the Gospel and becomes the first Christian martyr.

Now, chapter 4, the boldness. Chapter 5, the way the Holy Spirit sees through hypocrisy and doesn't want us purporting to be more surrendered to Him than we are. Then chapter 6, how God appoints those deacons. In 7, the amazing glowing face of Stephen as he's becomes the first martyr. I call that the pressure cooker.

But look at this. This is what we're going to see all the way through the book of Acts. Here are Satan's tactics and here is what God counters within the Church. We're going to study in chapter 4, Satan arrests so they go into unshakable prayer and boldness. There's this internal rot, so God divinely purges it. There's an administrative division, so God shows servants delegated to do the work. There's ultimate violence, brutal stoning. Look, the Holy Spirit gives fearless defense as a martyr is formed.

What's the purpose of all this? That why it's an unstoppable Gospel. The scattering of the Church, which we see in Acts 8-12, is the paradox of persecution. Saul's persecution hit the Jerusalem Church in chapter 8. What happens? It says the believers are scattered. Any of you that live in Nebraska, you know that they had the largest wildfire in the history of the state. It's already 1 million acres and a horrible devastation to the crops and the cattle. What spread it? The fire spread at 30 to 50 miles an hour. You understand? Did you hear that? 30 miles in one hour of wildfire? How is that even possible? Because the winds were 50 to 70 miles an hour. Look at this slide. Do you see these embers? That's what spread the Nebraska fire. That's what, in a beautiful sense, the sparks were the believers being scattered. Everywhere they went, they started a new fire of the Holy Spirit in that place.

That takes us to what I call the plot twist and breakthrough. In Acts chapter 9, God's enemy gets converted. That's the Apostle Paul. He's radically converted on the road to Damascus, and we're going to study the implications of that. In chapters 10 and 11 there were ethnic barriers that were a blockade to the Church. They only wanted to witness to their own kind. They only wanted to witness to people in Jerusalem and Judea. So, the Lord brought a horrific persecution, Paul, coming in and hailing them and dragging them off and martyring many. Not just Stephen, but Paul witnessed that. He's going off on his own. What does that do? It spreads them outside their comfort zone into Samaria where we see a huge revival. It's where the people hear the Gospel. And then it spreads to the uttermost parts until the center of Christianity moves from Jerusalem to Antioch. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. Get back here to the slide.

Here's the key element I want you to see. The unstoppable Gospel shatters every ethnic barrier. Remember, in chapter 10, God sends Peter the revelation. Do you remember that? The sheet coming down and Peter saying no, I'll never touch anything unclean. God said, no. What I call clean, you don't say it's unclean. He did that three times. As soon as the third time the vision rises up what happens? A knock on the door of a gentile. Worse than just a gentile, a Roman occupying soldier centurion sends for Peter to come to his home. Good Jews in Peter's day never went into a gentile's home, let alone a Roman, let alone a soldier. Okay, see the breaking down?

The target was Peter to go to Centurion Cornelius's, commander's, home, and it was a breakthrough for grace. Not only was Cornelius and his entire household saved as they heard the Word of God and received the Gospel and were saved and the Holy Spirit filled them, but the ultimate cultural barrier was breached, and now the Gospel can go global.

That takes us to the launching of the global campaign in chapters 13 and 14. The launchpad is in Acts 13, and there we're going to study the Antioch church model, Paul's first missionary journey, which is followed up by spiritual warfare. Right here, Paul goes from Antioch to Paphos, and then he goes up here to Lystra and faces the brutal reality of the pain of missions. He's stoned and left for dead, and he is raised up by miraculous divine power and comes back and shares a testimony to the church in the Antioch.

What does he say? Let me read that to you now. I read chapter 1, verse 8. Now, I'm going to read chapter 14, almost the last verse. This is a verse that my wonderful Bonnie, my wonderful wife Bonnie and I love to share. When we go and present to churches, we share with them what Paul said here. He said in verse 27, now, when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported, listen to this, verse 27, all that God had done through them. Did you catch that? All that God wants to do through you and me. Are you surrendering to the Lord and saying where do you want me to go and share Your Word today?

Just looking at Bonnie sitting over there in the control room. We were at a conference recently, I don't know, two weeks ago. It was a winter conference it was called, and there were hundreds of 65 and up and a few younger people there, but mostly seniors. I just pulled out of my wallet, pulled my wallet out of my pocket, pulled out my tract, held it up, and shared with them how I had just had a divine opportunity and appointment to share the Gospel. I told them how I opened it up and circled the verse references, explained the Gospel, wrote my email address on the back, went through the whole process. I got done teaching, and Bonnie got mobbed and I got mobbed.

These seniors came up, many of them with tears in their eyes. I'll never forget one who said to me I'm from Massachusetts. I'm a music teacher, retired, and we got saved in the last five years. Then they told me it was through watching some of our classes during COVID and what a blessing it was to meet them and be able to encourage them. They said, but now, and the look on their faces was worth a million dollars. They both said we want to take someone with us to Heaven before the Lord calls us home. Will you show us your tract? I pulled it out, went through the process, and I started handing it to them. They said no, we don't want to take your last tract. I said, I'll get another one. They said, no. I said, no. I want to give it to you for this reason: I'm going to give this to you and then I want you to report back to me who it is you got to have a, an appointment to give it to. Because if you ask the Lord as the book of Acts says with the unstoppable Gospel, He'll give you appointments. Okay. So, that's the global campaign that was launched.

Now, the Battle for Pure Grace. Now, I love that. How do you like that? That's my title for chapter 15. The threat was legalism. There were two directions the Church was facing. The false path of salvation equals Jesus plus law keeping, and the result is an impossible yoke on the neck of the disciples that God said is anathema. That anybody that preaches that is to be cursed and separated from God forever. They affirmed that was Satan's poison and lie. The true path was salvation is through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. The result; grace was defended, the gentile Church is liberated, and expansion is unhindered.

Of course, that is what the book of Galatians is about. As a part of this course, if you're with us all year, I'll be saying, and now this is where the book of Galatians fits in. This is now where the eight chapters of 1 and 2 Thessalonians fit in. I will share all along the way where these different epistles of Paul originate. So, this is where Galatians originates.

Now, look what happens next. It's the intellectual. See, first it was the legalism confronted. Now, the intellectual and cultural battlefields the Gospel had to penetrate. That's Acts 16 through 18 right here. In chapter 16 is the Philippian jail. Paul invades Europe with the Gospel with Silas and Timothy. Paul and Silas are beaten and put in jail. Look at this. God liberates them and all the other prisoners hear the Gospel. The jailer and his family are saved.

Then look, Paul goes from there in chapter 17 to Thessalonica and Berea, and he turns the culture upside down. Then he goes to Athens and Corinth in chapter 17 and 18, confronts the elite, and preaches. It takes 18 months. Of course, that's where so many epistles come from. As I'm going to show you, that's where in chapter 15 he wrote Galatians. Right here is where he writes 1, 2 Thessalonians.

So, now watch what's happening. This is what I call chapter, 16 through 20 of Acts, turning the world upside down. How does he do it? First right here. This is Philippi. That's when he invades. You remember, Paul sails from Miletus here to Philippi and defeating the Satanic medium spirit of Python. We'll study all that. The Gospel goes forth. There are many saved, a church started, but Paul and Silas are imprisoned and had to sing in the prison. God delivers them.

Secondly, right here, see, this is Athens and this is the intellectual front. When Paul gives one of the greatest Gospel presentations in chapter 17. We will study that. He moves on from there to right here. See, this is Philippi. This is Athens. This is Corinth, and he works as a tent maker in chapter 18 for 18 months. Remember this, Paul writes more letters to and from Corinth than any other place. He writes two letters to Corinth and then he writes four letters from Corinth. He writes, Titus, he writes the book of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and then he writes the epistle to the Romans. So, those four amazing books were written in Corinth and two were written to Corinth. So, six of Paul's epistles, almost half are from that city of Corinth. It's just amazing to sit there and think of all that God did.

Well, next Ephesus and right there is Ephesus. Paul goes and sails to Ephesus, and that's the occultic front. Then he goes to Troas and Miletus for chapter 20. That's where he bids them farewell and goes back to Jerusalem.

Now, remember, the overarching message is the Gospel's unstoppable. Now, why is that? Because we're so great at sharing it? Because we have such good tracts? No, because it's the Gospel of God, energized by the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is share the Word of God and God unleashes His divine power. So, watch the unstoppable Gospel and what I mean by that.

In the Ephesian epicenter and the theater riot, this is chapters 19 and 20, we see Paul spends three highly effective years here, causes an economic upheaval because he gets the people to not buy these little idols. He overpowers the darkness by preaching the Gospel and lives are transformed. But then they drive him out of town and so he has to bid farewell. That just shows that Gospel sharing is costly, but God is powerful.

The Book of Acts ends with what I call the Road to Rome, and it's an escalation of the conflict. Here's a timeline of it. It goes from chapters 21 to 27. First of all, the mob in the Jerusalem Temple. Paul defends himself. They strap him down to beat him. He claims his citizenship. They don't scourge him, and they send him off to Caesarea. But hazard number two is chapter 23. He's faced with these assassins and the Lord delivers him in the night journey to Caesarea. So, then he faces the corrupt governors in chapters 24 to 26, Felix. The whole appeal that Paul makes to Festus and before Agrippa. Finally, he takes off in chapter 27 on a Roman all-expense paid cruise to Rome and gets in that huge storm and the boat sinks.

Now, let me show you this in a little different way. Look at how Paul takes advantage of his Roman citizenship in these chapters. In Acts 21 and 22 with the violent mob he leverages his citizenship to avoid scourging. With the testimony in the barracks, Paul is guarded by a whole Roman military contingent to take him to his important stop in Caesarea. Before Governor Felix Paul gives the most beautiful defense of the Gospel, and this governor lets Paul be in prison for two years.

What was that for? So, the book of Acts could be written. Paul stays in Caesarea while Luke is busily coming and going, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he is writing down the Gospel by Luke while all those people can still be interviewed. He could see Mary and he could see all the people that were involved in the Early Church and write down their stories, all under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit as part of the preparation for Paul's trial. He was to stay in jail until his court documents and his defense were prepared for Caesar, for Nero. So, during those two years it says, Paul is given freedom for people to come and go. Luke can come and go and visit him. Luke writes Acts. Then he records all the events that took place of Paul's ministry. Of course, Peter's in the book of Acts. Those two documents were the legal documents that were presented at the Basilica of Julia for Paul's trial. That's why it so abruptly ends with Paul under house arrest, living in a house in Rome, as I'll show you in just a minute here.

So, in Acts 25, governor Festus refuses for Paul to be killed on his way back to Jerusalem. Instead, Paul appeals to Caesar and he sends him in chains to stand before Agrippa and give us one of the greatest testimonies of all times, Acts 26:18. That's the context. That's another favorite verse. This is what Paul said in Acts 26:18. He said, Jesus, on the road to Damascus told me this, my calling, and I'll read it to you, Acts 26:18. Now, this is one of those verses you should have underlined, highlighted, marked, and memorized. It's such a blessing. It says this. Right there. You see how marked it is. In order to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. Those are Jesus' words.

The seven dynamics and elements of salvation. The first thing that happens, our eyes are opened, we're turned, our orientation is turned from darkness to light. We're set free from the power of Satan unto God. Our sins are forgiven. We receive the hope of an inheritance by faith that's in Christ. We're sanctified. Oh, what a precious verse.

So, back to this chain of command. Look what happens. Paul gets to Rome at last. He's unhindered by being in chains, even in the shipwreck with this nightmare voyage in the hurricane of Euroclydon. Even through that God radically spares all 276 lives and washes all of them ashore on Malta.

Last year, Bonnie and I got to teach the Word of God on Malta. We got to stand in that very bay where Paul washed ashore and they floated on the wreckage. There's still an amazing Gospel witness. In fact, we have a Discover the Book Academy student studying the Bible on Malta holding small groups on that island where Paul shipwrecked 2000 years ago. That's the unstoppable Gospel. Okay? But he gets to the capitol at last. He finally reaches Rome. He's two years under house arrest, and though he's physically in chains, he preaches that unstoppable Gospel with total confidence, completely unhindered.

Now, look at the paradox of Rome. The whole book of Acts is illustrated in the 28th chapter. Paul is under house arrest bound with a chain for his hope of Israel, he calls it. Yet he spends two years boldly preaching the kingdom of God from morning till evening. How do you like that? Instead of spending all this time writing letters hoping to get a petition to get his freedom, he says, if I'm in line for this trial, if I'm going to get to stand before the emperor and share my faith in Christ until that moment comes, I don't know if I'm going to live or die, but I'm going to do what chapter 1 verse 8 say. Remember how we started? Let's see, 37 minutes ago. Do you know how we started? But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My wha? Witnesses.

Look what Paul does. After surviving a deadly viper strike in Malta, finally, Paul arrives right here in the epicenter of the Ancient World, right outside the forum, and here's the message. You can chain the messenger, but you cannot chain the message. The divine blueprint of this unstoppable Gospel, the book of Acts, is chapter 1, verse 8, and that verse is fulfilled. The cosmic war continues. That's why Paul was in chains. Satan was trying to stop him, but the Gospel remains totally unstoppable.

How can we participate in the power of the Gospel? How can you do your part in the unstoppable movement of the Gospel? Number one, find the power of the Holy Spirit by dependence on prayer and seeking God. So, it's prayer and the Spirit's power, which leads to bold proclamation, even with opposition, which leads to leveraging the system. Now, what do I mean by that? Paul used the Roman system. He used his citizenship. He used the Roman language, the Roman roads, the Romans legal system, the Roman culture and Pax Romana where he could travel freely. He leveraged the system as long as he could.

Do you know what we can do? Start sharing the Gospel in every context whether it be online through your social media, whether it be in person, whether it be with the way that our culture is that we are moved about with our work or at school or whatever, where we live. Use the system to share the Gospel. The seasons. Easter season, when everybody's acclimated, invite them to go with you to hear the Gospel. Carry your tracts. We still have freedom to do that. Paul leveraged the system.

Then the final element is to thrive under pressure. The book of Acts, from a single upper room in about A.D. 30 to the heart of Rome about A.D. 63 shows us the Gospel was structurally uncontainable. It adapted to every culture, surviving every emperor, and broke through every boundary. That's the unstoppable Gospel.

Now, what I'm going to do next is clip onto the end of this the announcement I made several weeks back, and it's going to talk to you. I'm going to talk to you about the resources, the study, bible, your journals, all the online resources you can get. But this is class zero to get you ready, to gather your materials. Start reading the book of Acts. Start finding something that you can write on to do your chapter a day that I showed you earlier in this lesson, and that I'm going to describe next. Next week when we gather, Lord willing, we're going to cover all of chapter 1. I'm going to go through all the verses. I'm going to show you everything that is transformative in my life that I've found this week, and this is the setting.

Now, as I sit here I'm actually sitting at a long table and Bonnie's at the other end of it recording this, the sound, and the slides, and the video, and everything. But in my mind, do you know what I see when I'm not distracted by Bonnie? You know what I see? I see the years that I spent as a pastor sitting around a table like this at a coffee shop, or at a restaurant, a Panera, a Chipotle, or Starbucks, or somewhere with one or two or three or my largest small group was eight. What I would do is I would launch the week study by covering everything that I've found and then send them out and they would come back the next week and share from their journals the lessons they found. We would pray our prayers around the table of what we're asking God to change in our life that week. So, that's what I want you to join me in doing.

This week, get all your tools together. Just look over the book of Acts. If you have your study Bible yet, your MacArthur Study Bible, read the introduction, the overview of the book of Acts and get a feel for where we're headed. Think about everything I just shared. I've covered the whole panorama of Acts. Watch this next section that's right after this and let the Lord begin stirring your heart for Him to change you from the inside out and make you so full of joy and rejoicing in these difficult days we live that people will come up to you. Like you heard me say, I was at the Apple store in New England about three weeks, four weeks ago, and the clerk came up to me and said, you're a Christian, aren't you? And I thought, what's going on? Is my iPhone listening to me? How does he know? He said, I'm a Christian too, and I've learned the radiant look of Christians when they come into the Apple Store. They have a peace and a joy. I thought Thy words were found, Jeremiah 15:16, and I ate them today. Your Word became for me, the joy and rejoice in my heart.

Have a great week. Watch this next clip. See you, Lord willing, one week from today as we do chapter 1. God bless you.

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But, what I want to share with you is, this course is what we have been teaching starting last year, we started teaching it in Scotland and then we went on from there and taught in France, and then we taught in Italy, then we taught in Greece, and now, Lord willing, this fall if things quiet down as it's quite, dangerous right now in the Middle East, but if things settle down, we're scheduled to teach this course right there in the Land of the Book in Israel itself. But what I want to share with you is, could be this is your very first time catching one of our videos on YouTube, or maybe you are just watching everything like the precious note we got this morning from the head coach of a California basketball, college basketball team who's now moved to Oregon and he sent me an email and just told me of how God has transformed his life through His Word, through studying, through journaling. So, my invitation to you. With this masterclass going through the Book of Acts. My invitation to you is to prayerfully think about what I'm going to share with you in just a minute, spending a year of your life one day a week going through a chapter of the Book of Acts. Spending the time it takes, for me it takes maybe 30, 45 minutes, an hour, to journal that chapter to, after having read it in the Word of God, and to follow all of the footnotes and to mark. And by the way, this is my Holy Land trip Bible. You can see all the Post-it notes here. It's the one I take with me and use it whether I'm in Greece or in Italy at those Land of the Book sites or doing Church History of the English Bible in England, or this is what will be with me when we're in the Holy Land, Lord willing this fall, but I'll show you how to mark your Bibles.

So, let me take you through these slides, and as we go through these slides remember this is our hope for you, that many of you in America will join what we have seen the Lord use so much in Europe and in the Middle East and in Asia. This is a an overview of the scriptures using the Book of Acts.

So, here we go. It's the ultimate expedition. We're discovering Paul's Life and Letters using the Book of Acts. See, the Book of Acts becomes the timeline for every one of Paul's epistles. Now, I just, one of the young people the Lord brought into my life, I had to go and work on tuning up my phone. And so, I went to the Apple store and I always, and Bonnie joins me, I always pray for a divine appointment. Well, the Lord brought me a divine appointment. The fellow that they assigned to me walked up and he looked at me and he smiled and he said, you're a Christian, aren't you? And I thought, does the Apple store, you know how we have artificial intelligence and your watch is always listening, I thought, yes. I was ready. Was I going to be arrested? And he said, I ask God to help me. He said, my mother led me to the Lord after a horrible life of sin. He said, I just wasted all my early young years and he was probably 25 30. And he said, I wasted my life and I was kind of on the downward, going to the end. And he said, my mother never gave up on me, led me to the Lord. And he said, now I'm a Christian and I'm following the Lord but he said, I'm really having a hard time. And I said, God, please send a Christian that will encourage me. And he said when they assigned you to me and you started walking to me, he said, I saw the radiance, that I've learned working here in the Apple store, only Christians have. He said, thanks. And what a blessing. I just started sharing with him. When I got all done with my phone problem, I said, you know what? Have you ever studied the Bible? He says no. He said, only after I got saved I read the Gospels and he says, I haven't gone any further. He said I've always wondered how the Church and all that started. I said, hey, I'm teaching a course on that. And he says, where is it? I said, it's on YouTube. Well, immediately pulled out his own personal phone, found our YouTube website, a channel, and immediately said, oh, wow, I'm going to take the course.

Well, here we go. Here's the course. Okay? We're discovering Paul's Life and Letters through the Book of Acts.

And I'm asking you this question, are you ready to stop reading your Bible in just black and white and finally experience it in high def?

What I mean by that is, if you join us this is a sweeping, monumental, 52-week expedition that will fundamentally change how you view, for the rest of your life, the New Testament.

And the reason I say that is, in this comprehensive masterclass, I'm going to use the Book of Acts as the grand timeline, slotting in all 13 of the Apostle Paul's epistles into the exact historical and geographical moments where they were written.

This isn't just a dry history lesson. And I want you to know my PhD work was in Church History. There's nothing dry about the Book of Acts. It's an urgent, modern-day mandate, a lesson about the 1st century that asks you an inescapable question. How are you and how am I doing at reaching my generation?

Now, you know this. As I sit in the studio, I've got my Gospel tract right here. It's by Life Gate. It's called God's Simple Plan of Salvation. It's just a simple, very low-tech piece of paper that gives the Gospel message very clearly. On the back there's just enough space right here I can write my email address. It's just the right size to fit into my wallet. Let me see if I can. Get my wallet, find it, right here it is. And when I open it up, look what comes out, there is my Gospel tract, multiple of them right in my wallet, ready to share with my divine appointments. And so, we're going to talk about that. Are you reaching your generation? That's what God left you to do.

What does it mean to reach our generation? What does it mean when I say, how are you doing at reaching your generation?

What I mean is, the Book of Acts shows, watch this, the unstoppable Gospel, and that's what I want you to commit to.

This life changing course shows you the Book of Acts and shows you how the Gospel goes from the cross, the empty tomb, through the launch of the Church on the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit, all the way down to today. That's why I could share with that young man at the Apple store, trying to think... even what's.... I think we were in New England somewhere. I was teaching in Massachusetts and New York, so one of those Apple stores there I had a divine appointment because the unstoppable Gospel that started, that God ordained to launch on the day of Pentecost there in Jerusalem has now spread to the ends of the Earth, and you and I are a part of that.

Okay. What I'm launching with Bonnie on April 1st is a high def, New Testament experience for you to go from black and white, you know the words you've always read, to seeing the context for the Book of Acts and every one of Paul's epistles. That means when we get done in a year, you'll not only have read all 115 of the chapters that we're going to cover, you'll also have spent 115 pages of your journal asking God to open your eyes, to summarize that chapter, to give a kind of an overview of it, to find every biblical truth and doctrine, and everything that is usable in your spiritual life, and then writing a prayer asking God to change your life. It's a 52-week expedition.

Now, what we're doing is we're using the Book of Acts as a grand timeline. Look at this. We're seeing the first New Testament epistle, Galatians, where it fits in Acts. Then, Paul wrote the Thessalonian epistles, first and second. Then he wrote the Corinthian epistles and Romans, and then he started writing these prison epistles, Philemon, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and then he wrote those pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. All of that is in the backdrop, the timeline of the Book of Acts.

Now, real quickly this is the reason why the New Testament will become full color. Number one, I call it the pillars of this course, the Imperial Stage. You cannot fully interpret the New Testament without understanding the massive imposing shadow of the Roman empire. Jesus arrived, now look what it says in Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5, Galatians, let me get to the right chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. What is that fullness of time? It's the Imperial Stage. It's what God chose to do.

The sovereign, that's what my little pictures is covering up, sovereign engineering for a global Gospel. The Pax Romana. This era of unprecedented stability. The 200 year period that went from the time of Augustus all the way through those early emperors, that brought a global peace and a global common, universal Greek language uniting the empire, and those Roman roads that were an unbelievable network allowing the Gospel to instantly go global. And you know what I do? I take you with me. Remember I told you, Bonnie and I started this last year with the Europeans. When we were with the British students in London, I took them on a walking tour of the British Museum. And praise the Lord, Bonnie followed me around and captured it. She captured audio and video, and you're going to get to come with me as you look directly at the carved stone faces of the Caesars, Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and see how God engineered the launch of the Gospel.

Pillar number two, erase your ideas of a peaceful, quiet Early Church. Sometimes we think they were just sitting around singing and listening to the apostles. The spread of grace was met with gritty, brutal reality. Nobody wants to confront their sin. We were born in rebellion. And God has to break through the darkness. He has to shatter the chains that bind us in the prison that holds us captive, the endless warfare of Satan. And by the way, we're going to run into, especially in Acts 13, the 13th week of our journey through the Book of Acts, the 14th and the 16th week as we see, in Acts 13, the first missionary journey, in chapter 14, continuing with Paul stoning, and then in chapter 16 the imprisonment of the Apostle Paul in Philippi.

But what we're seeing is the front lines of 1st century spiritual warfare. On the first missionary journey Paul blinds Elymas of sorcerer to reach the highest levels of Roman government. And by the way, I have all kinds of, I haven't finished editing my slides because we're traveling right now, but the blessing is we took our European students, we were in Cyprus, and we took them to see that whole area of the first missionary journey, then. Onward, when we were with the Italy students, we took them to see what that convert, what Sergius Paulus, who came to Christ, his family, he went from being a governor there in Cyprus, he went on to serve the Lord amazingly in the Roman Empire. And I'll cover that in Rome, and I'll show you when we get there, to chapter 13. But commanding a demon to leave a python, possessed occultic slave girl, that's chapter 16. Python? Yeah. The Python was the name of the demon that came from Apollo, that came from the Oracle of Delphi, if you've ever heard of the Oracle of Delphi. That's where Apollo told the future. That's where Alexander the Great, Nero, and many other notables went to find out their future. And that's where we study the occult and demon and remind ourselves, look at this, that you're immortal until God's earthly plans for you are finished. I mean, Paul was stoned to death and God raised him up. It's unimaginable what incredible things God can do with each one of us if we just surrender our future to His hands and say, I'll do what You called me to do. I'll do it at any cost, at any price. And I sacrifice my agenda to embrace Yours. Paul was dragged out of Lystra, stoned with rocks only to miraculously stand up and walk directly back into the city because God wasn't through with him.

Pillar number three, the blueprint of grace. Discover why Paul's letters sound the way they do by reading them from the very trenches where they were forged. Acts 15, Philippians 4. Both of those, Acts 15 talking about the launch of grace and the whole Judaism onslaught to make people want to earn their way, and to God's favor rather than salvation by grace through faith. And then Acts 16, as we see the context of Philippians 4 and the blueprint of the power of grace. You know what Paul wrote? The grace of God that brings salvation. By the way, he wrote those words in Corinth to his young son in the faith Titus, who was serving the Lord planting and growing a church on the island of Crete. And he said, the grace of God that brings salvation, the grace that saved you Titus, the grace that saved me Paul said, and I'll add the grace that saved us. That grace, Paul wrote, teaches us to deny ungodliness. I affirm today the reality of the Christian life that I have experienced, that I have embraced Christ because I see Jesus Christ setting me free from bondage to sin. It's so easy to become fearful, to become anxious, to become embittered. I just talked to dear friends that served 54 years in the same ministry and were thrown out and told they're no longer welcome on the property. This is a Christian ministry of God. Now that's hard to take, but that's how born again Christians in sin sometimes act, but the grace of God teaches us that we don't have to be in enslaved by bitterness or anger or fear or lust or anxiety. No. We follow God's blueprint of grace. And what does it teach us?

Well, we see a theology forged in extreme conditions. The Jerusalem council directly preceded the fiery defensive grace that Paul wrote in the book of Galatians, and he was unwilling to give any quarter to the Judaism and the legalism and to the works salvation.

And then the Praetorium and Roman dungeons, the grim backdrop, by the way, in this course, you're going to get to go right down in the Mamertine. I took our students. Oh, the Lord really blessed. We were teaching in Rome and usually the Mamertine, I've been there many times for the last 30 years. It's always crowded, busloads of tourists, I don't know what happened that day, we were all alone. All alone inside the museum and the Mamertine dungeon for about 45 minutes, and I read all the verses to them. I taught the lesson. I kept my eye on the stairway. I kept expecting a busload to come down. No, the Lord just gave us that moment. So, you'll get to experience that. The backdrop for Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. We don't know which of them were written during the Roman imprisonment. We do know that Paul wrote them either in Caesarea or in Rome. Now, there's another. I mean, if you pray for the piece of Jerusalem and we're all supposed to, if it's peaceful then this fall I'll be teaching you sitting right there in the excavations where Paul was in prison for two years and he most likely during those two years in Caesarea Mamertine which is modern day coastal Israel, he wrote some of these prison epistles. He either wrote Ephesians or Philippians or Colossians or Philemon from there; he wrote the rest from Rome. We don't know where he wrote them, but it's in one of those two places. And so, I'll show you on this trip, the Roman area and the whole area where he was imprisoned before the Mamertine. And then, Lord willing, this Fall I'm going to hopefully be able to do a live stream sitting there and read to you Paul, as he's writing his epistle from the prison in the Mamertine. But we see the theology forged in such extreme conditions.

Here's the fourth pillar. I call it the devotional engine. That's why I start, every time I have the class, I always start with my two tools. My Bible, the voice of God every day into my heart and life and my devotional journal. This red journal is one that went with me for all of last year and with our students in Europe, in the Middle East, and in Asia. I went through every single one of the 115 chapters from Acts through Philemon. And I journaled with them and you can see, the page after page with all the students. It was such a joy, because of this fourth pillar. This course will transform you from a passive spectator into an active participant in God's mission. Your Bible is about to become your battlefield manual. Now, when we get to Acts chapter 6 and verse 4 and when we look at Romans chapter 12, which is right there, Paul wrote it from Corinth and so probably Romans was written about Acts chapter 18. You're going to see the devotional engine.

Now, to master those 115 chapters from Acts to Philemon I open my own journal and teach a deeply customized method for every chapter of Acts and Paul's epistles. You write your own title. I summarize the entire chapter with one phrase. I mean here, and I'll show you this every time.

1 Corinthians 13, love endures. 1 Corinthians 14, tongues in the church. 1 Corinthians 15, Jesus rose and what that means. Ephesians 1, how to be happy in prison. How do you like that? Might come for us in America before long. Ephesians 2, my new walk in Christ. I'm walking. The mystery of Israel and the Church in Christ. That's Ephesians 3. 2 Thessalonians 3, God is faithful to bless His Word. I mean, every chapter. I reduce down in entire chapter of God's Word into one little phrase and write a summary. A single sentence summary, now sometimes I go two sentences, but Paul was in Corinth on the second missionary journey, whatever and tell the backdrop of the chapter. Then, I extract all of the doctrines, truths, lessons, principles everything that God has in that one chapter. I just bow my head before I do this study and say, Lord, open my eyes to behold wonderful things. And boy, he does. And that's what I list off, again, back in the journal.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 11, Imitating Christ for Life. That was my phrase. My summary is Paul explains that the key to life eternal lived on Earth is to follow, taste, Jesus Christ. Paul said, follow me in each way that I follow Him. So, that's my summary. And then I write these, number three lessons. Mimicking Christ as imitators, verse 1. The creation order, and I describe it, verses 2-8. We each have gender specific roles, verses 9-16 of 1 Corinthians 11. Beware of selfish divisions, verses 17 to 22. And the Lord's Supper and chastening, verses 23 to 34. So, you write down direct life lessons. And then look at this, this is the key to life change and mastering the scriptures. You write a prayer. Now, I'll just pull one out. Let's see. Here's a prayer from 2 Timothy 2. Where with my students, I wrote being a good soldier. And here's my prayer, Lord, I want to be a lifelong investor in others. I want to stay unentangled so I can please You. Help me strive as an athlete every day to farm and feast on Your Word. Oh, it says we're supposed to be like farmers. By Your grace, I want to endure. Keep me unashamed at Your coming. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Now I studied that, I wrote in my journal, on Tuesday, November 1st in Rome with the students.

You say, that wasn't very big prayer. No, but on that day, November 1st, it was a prayer that transformed me a little bit more from the selfish, pagan, horrific, enemy, and rebel against God I was at birth into a tiny bit more, into the image of Christ. We're supposed to be growing a little bit more every day into the likeness of Christ. So, that's how we master the 115 chapters.

Equipped for the modern battlefield. I'm going to teach you next week, well next week we'll be on April 8th, how to be equipped for the battlefield. Arm yourself with a pocket size tract, God's Simple Plan of Salvation, stash it in your wallet. I mean, I just showed you that right here. Pray daily for divine appointments to share the Word by which we're saved. How are you doing it, reaching your generation? I mean, it was just, I mean, what was it last Friday? This is Wednesday. Last Friday when I was in that, wherever I was in New England at that Apple store, I said, God, I want an appointment. I put this tract in my wallet. I go to get my phone fixed and this Apple employee was smiling at me. I just wonder what was going on. And he said, are you a Christian? I said, yes. And he said, I asked God to send you. We're supposed to pray daily for divine appointments. How are you doing at reaching your generation?

We need to deploy the Antioch model. It's the duty of every generation to reach their generation for Christ. Don't just gather biblical trivia as you're reading the Bible. If you take the Paul's Life and Letter course going through Acts, you'll deploy a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. You'll learn to be a little Christ. That's what we were called in Antioch, Christians. That's the first time in chapter 11 that, that term shows up in the Bible. It was a disparaging term by the Pagans, but it became the greatest endearing term for who we are. We who follow and learn of Christ want to be like Him. We imitate Him. And that's what we're supposed to be a little Christ in our community, as we carry the unstoppable Gospel into our world.

Now you say, I can't take the Paul's Life and Letters course today? It's not starting till April 1st? That's right. But this is what you can do. Look at this.

Go to, oh, I don't know if you can see that, it's Land of the Book tours. See right there, book tours, on Facebook. That's my webpage. And you'll see this nice picture right there of Bonnie. In fact, you got to, I got to move you down there. There's Bonnie, see. And we're actually in Israel right there in that picture. Sorry, this is not fully framed, but the reason that is, is all of these things right here are the resources. You can get those resources today. Let me show you what the resources are.

The study guide for the Book of Acts course. Now that's what I want you to get started today on. And I mean, this, today is actually March 2nd and the Iran bombings and everything are going on and oil is going up in price and we're all kind of confused in America what is happening, what our country's committing to over there. And I don't want to be political, but if you want to today, get started studying the Book of Acts. You know how everybody likes to get a head start, we'll go to, and let me back up there, go to the Land of the Book tours on Facebook and right here in the photo section are all of these resources that you can download and print off and let me show you what they are.

Chart number one is the historical context of Acts, and I'm going to mention it starting in our sixth lesson in the Book of Acts. Chart number two are all the sites on the map, and I'm going to talk to you about, if you want to, you can actually go on Amazon and spend $8 or $9 and buy a National Geographic map of Israel, of Greece, and of Italy. And you can actually chart on a map everywhere the Bible is talking about. And I show you how to mark your map. And chart number two has all the places that we go to in Italy and Greece and Athens, and Rome. It's very exciting.

Chart number three are the 27 New Testament books. An overview of all 27 of them in chronological order. It provides the date of writing the name, the geographic place it was written from, a one sentence theme that's used in most of the lessons. Chart number four is the homothymadon, with one accord, the holy passion of the Early Saints. You can start finding these and seeing the significance of them.

Chart number five are all the places mentioned in Acts. Chart six is the message of every chapter of Acts.

Number seven are the 250 events of the Gospels and then the transition to the Book of Acts, and there are 12 chronological events in the Gospels that are mentioned in the Book of Acts. And then the message of salvation. Did you know that there are 22 different times the Gospel is shared in the Book of Acts? You can start marking those. Every time we're working through each week. I tell you, you need to mark that. Well, you can get started now and mark all those that are on that chart.

And then chart number nine is believers baptism. It records all nine instances of baptism in the Book of Acts.

Well, that's the... I invite you today, and I'm going to keep inviting you every day until March 1st [Should be April 1st] to come on the Ultimate Expedition to discover Paul's Life and Letters through the Book of Acts. We are going to be posting, I'm going to front end, each of the classes that we're posting I've already taught over in Europe. And you're going to see they're all different backgrounds and backdrops. And we're staying in one of them, we're staying in London and there had been a fire in the building where we're staying and it just smelled like smoke, and I comment on it and everything else.

But the Unstoppable Gospel is the master course. And what we want to do is to encourage you to spend, starting on April 1st, one year with us using the Book of Acts as the timeline for you to journal and let God transform your life by unleashing 115 chapters into your life. Wow. Can't wait to start this year with you and to see God, what He's going to do in all of our lives.

God bless you. Thanks for joining me. I'm sorry, went longer than I wanted, 25 minutes, but my wonderful wife saying, yeah. Want everybody to finish this. God bless you. See you on April 1st as we launch the book of Acts class and see the unstoppable Gospel. God bless you till then.