Notes compiled from my BSF group
2 Thessalonians
Acts 18:23–28
During Paul's 3rd missionary journey, Paul traveled throughout Galatia and Phrygia and strengthened all the disciples (Acts 18:23)
Before Aquila and Priscilla helped Apollo, Apollo was a learned man who thoroughly knew the Scriptures. He was brought up in the way of the Lord and taught about Jesus accurately, passionately, and publicly (Acts 18:24-26).
Priscilla and Aquila invited Apollo to their home and explained the way of God more adequately. After this encounter, Apollo was compelled to go to Achaia and was encouraged by his fellow brothers.
1 Corinthians 1:1–12; 3:4–6; 16:12
The good results from Apollos' ministry in Corinth is...
- The Corinthians are enriched in every way, in their speaking and in their knowledge (1 Corinthians 1:5)
- They do not lack any spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 1:6)
However, Apollos' ministry also resulted in...
- Divisions in the Church (1 Corinthians 1:12)
- The Corinthians became worldly (1 Corinthians 3:3). This means these people were very focused on the materialistic things of their life. Instead of being focused on living for God, they worried about earthly things like money, power, and status.
Apollo was frustrated enough with this outcome that he was reluctant to go to them again. However, the other apostles encouraged Apollo to go again, and Paul also urged the Corinthians to see the fallacy of the divisions and their worldliness.
Acts 19
The disciples mentioned here had not yet received the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2).
Paul taught boldly in Ephesus. However, some were stubborn and refused to receive Christ. Paul then left them and went instead to preach to the Jews and Greeks who lived in Asia. During this time, God worked many miracles through Paul, healing the sick and performing exorcism. When people of Ephesus saw the power of Jesus had over evil spirits, they openly confessed their sins, turned away from their old life style, refused to worship man-made idols, and accepted Christ. The Word of God thereafter spread widely and grew in power (Acts 8-20).
This passage (Acts 19:14-16) tells us many things:
1. Even demonic spirits KNOW and FEAR Jesus! If we can become over-powered by demonic spirits, we can only imagine the greater power that rests in Jesus. Furthermore, if demonic spirits fear Jesus, how could we not come to know Jesus and be confident that with Him, we will always be safe!
2. The ONLY being who has the power to drive out demons is Jesus. This is why when Paul is driving out evil spirits from people who were demon-possessed, Paul always said, “In the name of Jesus, I command you to come out.” When we are strong in our faith, we know that all we need to do is call on the name of the Lord, and we will be saved (Romans 10:13). We would be foolish to think we have any power without God. As this passage shows, if we try to take on demonic spirits without Jesus, we only get ourselves into deeper trouble. Demons do not fear us. Demons fear Jesus. Demons therefore fear us when we have the power of Jesus residing within us.
True repentance means 1) we truly understand we are sinners, 2) only Jesus can save us from our sins, 3) when we truly accept Christ to save us from our sins, we cannot go on living the sinful life that we’ve been living; we must TURN AWAY from those things.
Like the people of Ephesus did, when they repented, they stopped doing the things that were sinful, such as stopping idol worship. Every person sins. It may not be idol worship. It may be money worship. It may be power worship. It might be social status worship. It may even be self-worship, which comes in the form of pride. Whatever we hold higher than Jesus, that is our biggest sin. We are to worship no one but Jesus. True repentance returns our WHOLE heart to Jesus.
Acts 19:23–41
John 19:10–11
Acts 16:37–39
Romans 13:1–7
There is order in life. God’s order. Even when we meet resistance from authorities, we are to behave in a Christian manner and find peaceful ways to resolve the issue. There is no authority that did not come from God. Even when it is run corrupted by man, we need to remember that ultimately, the authority placed in man's hands comes from God. The corrupted person running it may not deserve respect, but we still need to respect God's authority. Therefore, when we run into trouble with social authorities, we should not take matters into our own hands but turn to God with our prayers. God will always save us in the end, as illustrated here in Acts (which not only resulted in Paul and his companions being released from prison but also led the prison guard and his family turn to Christ).
Another idea here is that God uses EVERY situation to His advantage. Just as God can use His enemies for good, God can also use unfortunate events to redeem His people.
Read also the Book of Esther. I think this is a beautiful picture of how God uses civil authority to accomplish His purpose for the world, nations, and individuals.
My notes on Esther is here:
http://aletheia-seekers.blogspot.com/2011/12/esther.html
Acts 20:1–12
Paul knew about the plot the Jews had made against him, so Paul decided to stay in Macedonia and travel through Greece instead of setting off for Syria (Acts 20:3).
Eutychus fell asleep and fell out of the window from the 3rd floor when Paul was speaking to the believers at Troas and was found dead after his fall (Acts 20:9).
Paul then immediately ran down and raised Eutychus from the dead in the name of Jesus.
We learn several things from this passage:
1. When we study the Word of God, we should let the Word of God fill our heart and mind.
2. The power of Jesus is GREAT. Paul was able to raise Eutychus from the dead because of Paul's faith in Jesus. This was a miracle of God that Paul was able to perform because Paul performed it in the name of Jesus. When we have deep faith in Jesus like Paul, we, too, can perform miracles like Paul did in time of need. This miracle helped turn many people to Jesus. For example, before this miracle, people were falling asleep during Paul’s sermons. This suggests people listened, but they didn’t really believe or understand. This is why the miracle was necessary. When the people witnessed the power of God with their own eyes, they immediately turned to the Lord.
Acts 20:17–21:15
Paul ran into many hardships during his ministry:
- Severely tested by the plots of Jews
- Warned by the Holy Spirit that prison and hardships face him
- Warned by Agabus that the Jews will imprison Paul and hand him over to the Gentiles
The following verses in Paul’s farewell speech are particularly meaningful to me:
- However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace (Act 20:24)
- Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God (Acts 20:26-27)
- Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! (Acts 20:30-31)
These phrases tell me the following things:
1. Paul is one of the best examples of how we should live as Christians, as disciples of Jesus. Our goal in this life, on this Earth, is not to gain riches or power but to preach the Gospel and help bring as many souls to God as we can. If we do not have this as the one and only focus in our lives, then we do not truly understand what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Our lives have no meaning without Jesus. And with Jesus, our lives need to be devoted to accomplishing the will of God. Not our own selfish will. The Will of God.
2. Paul always told people about the Gospel of God, and shared his knowledge with those around him. He never did it half-heartedly or thought, “Oh, this would get me in trouble, so I’d better not talk about it.” This is why he could say, “I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.” We learn here that a) Paul never hesitated. If he knows you haven’t heard the Word of God, he will not hesitate to share it with you. Furthermore, b) Paul told the WHOLE will of God. He didn’t just tell people bits and pieces that he liked the best. He shared EVERYTHING he knew with EVERYONE. This was how Paul lived as a disciple of Christ. He was so focused on spreading the Word, he preached to everyone, people he’d meet on the street, people he’d meet in prison. To Him, death was not a concern. Not being able to spread the Word to as many people as he could was the ONLY concern he had. And so, anywhere, any time, Paul is always spreading the word. And not just parts of the Word. The WHOLE Word.
3. We need to keep our faith tight. Paul warned us that even those close to us could cause us to fall. If we do not take care to keep our faith righteousness, sin will seep back in and cause us to fall away from the Way. This is why we need to be on our guard. We need to make sure we never fall away from the Way. This is why it is always smart to have a few strong Christian friends, because when we are weak, they can strengthen us. Satan is a scary opponent. We are stronger together against him, and we should therefore gather together to fight against him.
Paul is a very strong believer. It is incredible to see how far he has come. He was once an over-zealous and religious Pharisee who murdered Christians. Jesus, however, opened his eyes and cleansed him of his sins, and he was changed from then on. And from then on, we can see how he devoted his entire life to spreading the Gospel of God. He saw how deprived he was before he became a Christian and truly understood how such a life was meaningless. He truly know that life without Jesus is meaningless because he was once there! Once he knew that, Paul never stopped preaching the Word. Even with his last dying breath, he still preached. Hundreds and thousands and millions of lives have been saved because of Paul. Paul showed us how we have nothing to fear, not even death, when we are focused on doing the will of God. Paul lived such a fearless life. He’s a great role model for me, and this is why I pray always to have the opportunity to tell people about Christ. I, too, want to be like Paul, never stop bringing the Gospel to people.
Souls need to be saved. At the end of this battle between God and Satan, souls would either belong to God or stolen by Satan. Right now, there are a lot of lost souls that are in danger of being stolen by Satan. There are so many lost souls around us. Walk outside, and all we see are lost souls! We should bring the Good News of the Gospel to these people whenever we can. Obviously, we can’t just go up to strangers and start talking to them about God. People nowadays are so against such interactions, they don’t even listen before they assume we’re crazy. I think the best thing for us to do is to pray for the opportunity. This is what I do when I pray at night. I always pray for God to give me the opportunity to share His Word with the people around me. So far, I’ve talked to several people at work, and I can see how they are beginning to think about the Word. It's just amazing how God provides the opportunity, and it's even more amazing how saying the right things at the right time by the will of God changes things. However, change doesn’t happen overnight and takes a LOT of THINKING. I see the changes in the people I've talked to, and I now pray, thanking God for giving me that opportunity to share God’s Wisdom with them. I also now pray that God will work their heart and open their eyes so that they can make the choice to return to God. None of this is easy, but I just pray that I can be a support for these people. Sharing the Word with people doesn’t mean getting into people’s faces and start yapping away non-stop, shoving Scriptures down their throats. Sharing the Word with people means love. It means care. We therefore need to pray for guidance and the opportunity and go out with a loving heart, a heart that wants to prevent more souls from falling into the traps of Satan, as opposed to a heart that evangelizes with harsh rebuke.
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