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Week 1: Introduction. Deployed: Paul on Mission. Presented by. Warm / Interactive / Relevant / Challenging / Action Oriented. Purpose. Learn about Paul; his mission, his motivation. Explore what it means to be deployed; i.e. on mission.

karleigh-wilkinson
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  1. Week 1: Introduction Deployed: Paul on Mission Presented by Warm / Interactive / Relevant / Challenging / Action Oriented

  2. Purpose • Learn about Paul; his mission, his motivation. • Explore what it means to be deployed; i.e. on mission. • By proxy, better understand our mission; i.e. our purpose, what God expects from us. • DEPLOY!

  3. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles • Of the 27 books of the New Testament, 13 came by way of Apostle Paul. • His writings were authenticated to be inspired scripture by Peter.  ( 2 Peter 3:15-16 ) • Paul's influence on Christian thinking arguably has been more significant than any other New Testament author

  4. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles • His leadership, influence and legacy led to the formation of communities dominated by gentile groups that adhered to the Judaic "moral code" but relaxed or abandoned the "ritual" obligations of the Mosaic law on the basis of the life and works of Jesus Christ and the New Covenant. • These communities eventually formed Christianity

  5. Thoughts • In his later life, after his conversion, where did Paul live? • He is not known for where he lived, but where he went; i.e. on mission • What causes a person to “leave home”, and “deploy”? • Thinking of Paul led me to remember many of our friends and acquaintances who are deployed. Can we learn something from them?

  6. Survey • What cause someone to sacrifice self and commit to something bigger? • Three question survey: • What was your motivation for volunteering to deploy to a dangerous location? • What did you feel like you accomplished when you were there? • What was the personal cost that you paid to deploy? • What did you hear?

  7. Next Week I want to update our email list Re acquaint yourself with our wiki (http://connexionsonline.pbworks.com/ ) . I’ll be posting class content and study guide. Topic: Getting Acquainted with Paul

  8. Week 2: Who Was Paul? Deployed: Paul on Mission Presented by Warm / Interactive / Relevant / Challenging / Action Oriented

  9. Study Organization

  10. Who Was Paul? • Paul or Saul? Why two names? • Saul – Hebrew “home” name • Paul – for use in the Gentile world. • Why do we predominantly know him as Paul? • Native of Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, a Roman province in the SE of Asia Minor. • Tarsus was on the Cydnus river, and a center of commercial traffic, a university town.

  11. Who Was Paul? • Paul’s father was a Jewish Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin (Acts 23:6, Phil. 3:5) and also a Roman citizen. • Paul had a sister and a nephew (Acts 23:16) and the Bible speaks of other family (Rom. 16:7, 11, 12). • There is no indication that Paul was ever married.

  12. Who Was Paul? • According to Jewish custom Paul learned a trade before his higher education. What was Paul’s profession? • Tarsus was well known for a type of black goat’s hair – from which strong cloth (cilicium) was made; also used in tents • At age 5 Paul would have begun studying the Pentateuch. • At age 10 he would have graduated to the advanced study of the Mishnah.

  13. What is Mishnah • In Judaism, the first part of the Talmud. The Mishnah is the systemized collection of both the Oral Law of the Old Testament, and of the political and civil laws of Judaism. • Mishnah is Hebrew and means "repeated study". The traditions of Mishnah goes back as far as 450 BCE, a period when all material was transmitted orally. • Mishnah is written in Hebrew, but has many words from Aramaic and Greek. It is arranged to 6 orders with 63 tractates, each tractate divided into chapters.

  14. Who Was Paul? • By 13 he would have completed the study of the Mishnah and would be ready for formal rabbinical school. • This is when Paul probably left home for Jerusalem, probably accompanied by his married sister (Acts 23:16), to attend the Hillel rabbinical school. • Paul got his “Ph.D.” under the renown rabbit Gamaliel I (Acts 22:3).

  15. Who Was Paul? • Paul grew up in the “Ivy League” town of Tarsus where he would have been exposed to Hellenistic thought (e.g. Stoicism). • His rabbinical training & pedigree were top notch. • Look at the tools that God equipped this man with; seemingly uniquely outfitted as “Missionary to the Gentiles.”

  16. Who Was Paul? • With this great pedigree, it’s no surprise that Paul rose to the rank of Sanhedrin. • Paul also led the defense of Judaism against this “cancerous corruption of Judaism”; i.e. Christianity. • Can you think of a personality today whose conversion would be more shocking that the conversion of Paul was to his contemporaries?

  17. Next Week See study guide and helps at http://connexionsonline.pbworks.com/ ) Topic: Section 2: Paul’s Conversion

  18. Week 3: Paul’s Conversion Deployed: Paul on Mission Presented by Warm / Interactive / Relevant / Challenging / Action Oriented

  19. Paul’s Conversion • Paul could have had an easy life! • Excellent educational credentials • Member of the Sanhedrin (e.g. Supreme Court) • Well respected Jew – “Pharisee of Pharisees” • Businessman / respected bloodline • Just when it looked like he was coming into his own something dramatic happened! What was it? • Some people have said this is the 2nd most important event in human history.

  20. Paul’s Conversion • Read Acts 9:1-9 • Paul was a man of action, not just words (see v. 2) • In v.4 a voice asked, “. . . Why persecutest thou me? . . .” • Who was speaking? • Had Paul persecuted Jesus? • Jesus identifies with His people!

  21. Paul’s Conversion • Paul asked two questions; #1 in v.5 & #2 in v.6. What happened between those two questions. • Did Paul pray a sinner’s prayer? • Paul’s was a silent conversion but one can detect in his own statements that he had submitted to God’s purpose (i.e. will) for his life.

  22. Paul’s Conversion • Who was with Paul at the time of his conversion? • Did they experience the same thing Paul did? • Paul’s conversion: • was both public and personal • was lifelong • changed his perspective

  23. Paul’s Conversion • Was Paul physically changed at the time of his conversion? • He could not see and lost his appetite • Why do you think he was blind? • Thoughts: • Punishment? • Proof that he had a glimpse of God? • A parable acted out (a brief, succinct story that illustrates a moral or religious lesson) – the spiritual bankruptcy of his prior life

  24. Paul’s Conversion • The Jews, especially the rabbis, used the image “guide to the blind” to describe their God-given role among the Gentiles. • Read Acts 26:17. • What do you think was on Paul’s mind during those 3 days of blindness?

  25. Paul, Welcome to Your New Life! • Starts blind & hungry • Healed & baptized • Regained strength by eating • Started preaching in the synagogue to the amazement of those who knew him before • Jews plotted to kill him • Escaped by cover of night to Jerusalem • Other Christians were afraid of him • “Sponsored” by Barnabus

  26. The Bab Kisan (The Kisan Gate)

  27. Paul, Welcome to Your New Life! • So we see early on Paul making a decision to “deploy”. Why? • Did he have a choice? • With a start like that now you know why I almost titled this study; “Paul, The Original Action Adventure Figure!” • Other observations? • Stay tuned, we’re just getting started.

  28. Next Week See study guide and helps at http://connexionsonline.pbworks.com/ ) Topic: Section 3: Early Christian Life

  29. Week 4: Early Christian Life Deployed: Paul on Mission Presented by Warm / Interactive / Relevant / Challenging / Action Oriented

  30. A Model for Ministry • Read Acts 9:10-19 • Ananias ministers to Saul as a convert: • He heals him – sight is regained • He instructs him • He comforts him • Finally He feed him – physical restoration • He baptized him • Ananias’s ministry models for us the supportive, restorative role the church is to play in the lives of the newly converted.

  31. Paul’s Chronology

  32. Chronology Review • The crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ occurred in the spring of 32 AD. • Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), Stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:59) • In about 37 AD, Jesus Christ speaks to Saul (Paul) on the road to Damascus. Paul is led blind to Damascus (Acts 9:8). • After the visit by Ananias, Paul then goes to Arabia and returns to Damascus where he spends 3 years (Galatians 1:17-18 and Acts 9:22-23). • In 37 AD King Aretas took control of Damascus when Emperor Tiberius Caesar died. Paul departed from Damascus at night, being let down from the city wall in a basket (Acts 9:25 and 2 Corinthians 11:32). This could not have been after 40 AD, the year that King Aretas died.

  33. Chronology Review (cont.) • Paul met with Barnabus, Peter, and James in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26 and Galatians 1:18-19).Paul in Caesarea and Tarsus (Acts 9:30)Peter goes to house of Cornelius (Acts 10) • Barnabus gets Paul and they stay in Antioch (Syria) for one year (Acts 11:26). This must be between 41 AD (beginning of Claudius Caesar's reign) and 44 AD (Acts 11:28). Believers are first called Christians at Antioch. • James, brother of John, killed by Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2).Herod Agrippa I dies in 44 AD (Acts 12:23).

  34. Divine Revelation • Read Acts 9:17. Did Paul see a vision on the Damascus road? • Was this a “normal” conversion? • Read Galatians 1:15-17. • Where did Paul derive his authority? • Paul was chosen by God as an Apostle to the Gentiles. • We will see over and over that Paul spoke as one who had authority.

  35. Then Jerusalem & Home • Read Gal. 1:18-19. • After 3 years Paul went to Jerusalem to see Peter and the other Apostles. Why? • Read Acts 11:19:26 • Barnabus went to Tarsus to get Paul. Why? • Antioch was the 3rd most important city behind Rome and Alexandria; i.e. “the eastern Rome”. Christianity was on the move.

  36. Summary / Next Week What are some things that impressed you from this week’s study? See study guide and helps at http://connexionsonline.pbworks.com/ ) Topic: Section 4: 1st Deployment

  37. Week 5: 1st Deployment Deployed: Paul on Mission Presented by Warm / Interactive / Relevant / Challenging / Action Oriented

  38. Ready to Go • Do you remember what Ryan Watkins said about his preparation for deployment and how that affected his willingness for put his life at risk in Iraq? • Paul had spent at least three years after his conversion in preparation. Where had he spent that time? • It’s possible that Paul went to the very location of the revelation of the 1st covenant promise to receive revelation.

  39. Deployment Map

  40. 1st Deployment Overview • The first journey begins when Paul, Barnabus, and Mark set out from Antioch (Acts 13:4). This journey started after 44 AD and ended a "long time" (Acts 14:28) before 50 AD. • They left Antioch for Seleucia and sailed to Cyprus, large island 100 miles off Syrian coast. There they went to Salamis and Paphos where Paul met Bar-Jesus the sorcerer. (Acts 13:4-6). • Then they sail to Perga in Pamphylia, which is now southern Turkey. From here, Mark returns to Jerusalem.

  41. 1st Deployment Overview • At Antioch in Pisidia (not to be confused with the one in Syria), Paul and Barnabas turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). • Then it was on to Iconium, where they abode a "long time" (Acts 14:3), Lystra, where Paul was stoned, but lives (Acts 14:19), and Derbe. Then they retraced their steps back through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch (in Pisidia) (Acts 14:21). • Paul and Barnabas went throughout Pisidia, Pamphylia, then to Perga, Attalia, and sailed back to Antioch in Syria (Acts 14:24-26) • The first journey ends in Antioch, Syria, where Paul and Barnabus stay there a long time (Acts 14:28).

  42. Paul’s Chronology

  43. What Was It Like? • How did people travel in the 1st century BC? • How much territory (i.e. distance) did Paul cover on his 1st missionary journey? • 1400 miles • Where did he sleep? • What did he eat? • What did he do?

  44. The Launch • Read Acts 13:1-3 • What were they doing when God instructed Barnabus and Saul to make their first trip? • Where were they going? • Read 13:4-5 • How did they know which direction to go? • Where did they preach at Salamis?

  45. Full of the Holy Spirit • Read Acts 13:6-12 • A Roman Proconsul (provincial governor) called for Paul to come share the word of God with him. What happened? • What caused the proconsul to believe. • What occurred in v9? • Read 13:13 • Why did John leave?

  46. Jewish Jealousy • Read Acts 13:14 • Paul’s regular practice was to begin by preaching in the synagogue. Why? • If we would read the remainder of the chapter we’d find that the Gentiles gladly received the Gospel and that the Jews were jealous for the attention was would seek to harm the missionaries. • Why did God’s people have a closed mind to the message?

  47. Summary / Next Week See study guide and helps at http://connexionsonline.pbworks.com/ ) Topic: Section 4: 1st Deployment

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