Acts Chapter 19 - Questions Are Important.

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Today we are starting into chapter 19 of Acts.

We briefly heard about Apollos in chapter 18 in A Godly Couple (the previous blog post in this series), when Aquila & Priscilla met him and helped him.

It seems as if he and Paul are travelling in different directions and we have no mention of them having met yet.

So today we are back with Paul who now has come back to Ephesus and there meets 12 men who are described as disciples.

But who were they disciples of?


verses 1 - 7

The interesting thing here is that Paul needs to ask some very important questions.

The first one is found in verse 2

2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? 

and in the same verse we have their answer

And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

Now I have to mention here that at a certain time in my life if I had been asked this question my answer would not have been too dissimilar to their's.
I was brought up in a church where the work of The Holy Spirit was not taught about in Sunday School or not immediately obvious in the sermons (which I did try to listen to as a young teenager) but I had heard mention of The Holy Spirit in the Bible and at one youth meeting I had gone to in a different church.

So yes I knew there was a Holy Spirit but I was not knowledgeable about the work of The Holy spirit.

These 12 men had no idea at all about the Holy Spirit.
They really were missing out on knowing about the Triune God.

So Paul asks another Question in verse 3

3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? 

and again they answer him in the same verse

And they said, Unto John's baptism.

Perhaps they had been converts from the ministry of Apollos as we read about his lack of full knowledge of the gospel and how Aquila & Priscilla had helped him learn more.

So in verse 4 Paul explained that their baptism was because they had learnt about their need of repentance but they also needed to know about the Saviour who had come after John and was the one they needed to believe in.  (Reminds me once again of that favourite verse of mine in Act 16 v 31 - Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and all you household.)

We do not know just how much Paul said to them but we do know that after listening to Paul about Jesus there is the correct response and obedience from the 12 men in verse 5

5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Obedience is always a sign of true belief.

But Paul did not leave them with just knowledge and understanding of the Holy Spirit about which he had first asked them.

They had now heard the full Gospel but he knew that they needed the experience as well.

6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

What a day for these 12 men

• Full understanding of the Gospel of Jesus
• True belief and obedience to God
• Baptism in the Name of Jesus 
• Baptism in the Holy Spirit

A great example of the importance of questions and of course the right questions to get the clear picture in all circumstances.  We can never presume what another person thinks or knows or fully understands.

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Three Act Tragedy - Book Review

I am reading through the novels of Agatha Christie in the order in which they were written and writing a review on each one.

Three Act Tragedy

1934

Description

At an apparently respectable dinner party, a vicar is the first to die…

Thirteen guests arrived at dinner at the actor’s house. It was to be a particularly unlucky evening for the mild-mannered Reverend Stephen Babbington, who choked on his cocktail, went into convulsions and died.

But when his martini glass was sent for chemical analysis, there was no trace of poison – just as Poirot had predicted. Even more troubling for the great detective, there was absolutely no motive…

My Thoughts

This is the 23rd book by Agatha Christie and the 10th Poirot Mystery

Not one of my favourites.  Mainly because there is one part of the story line which I either just don't read or follow properly or is not explained properly but I have felt (on the both occasions that I have now read it) is not compatible with the rest of this murder mystery.  

This is one of Miss Christie's books to have multiple murders and speculation of even more murders so there is a lot to take in as we go through this book.

Friends are a feature of this novel too on both the murderer's side and the sleuth's side.

It is indeed a tragedy for more than one person and in more than one way but will bring the reader a great deal of satisfaction if they can not only work out who the murderer is but can work out exactly how it all was orchestrated or performed.

If you would like to know more about this book then click on the title or picture above.

 Here is a link to a list of her novels on Amazon
Books by Agatha Christie


If thinking of reading this book in the future why not pin this pic to go back to later.

Acts Chapter 18 (contd.) - A Godly Couple

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We started chapter 18 of Acts covering the first part in Reactions of People

Now today we will look at the rest of the chapter concentrating on a husband and wife that are mentioned several times in the New Testament.

In fact they have already been mentioned for the first time in verse 2 of this chapter so lets start here and go on to see all the other times we hear about them.



First Meeting in Corinth  -  Acts 18 v 2  

2 And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla

The "he" in this verse refers to Paul who had arrived in Corinth with we presume Luke (who was documenting his travels) but having left Timothy and Silas in Berea although he did request that they should join him as soon as they could in chapter 17 - The Power & Destruction of Envy


Aquila & Priscilla were new friends for Paul.
They were Italian Jews and had to leave Italy because of the command of Claudius that all Jews were to leave Rome.



Common Interest  -  Acts 18 v 3

3 So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers.

Aquila & Priscilla were tentmakers.

This is the first time we see the occupation of Paul as we had only known of him as a persecutor of the Christians and now a follower of Christ.

They must have been a hospitable couple because it states Paul stayed with them and they must also have been generous to share their work with him.

Presumably Timothy and Silas stayed there too when they rejoined Paul and Luke later.




Travelling Together to Syria  -  Acts 18 v 18  

18 So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him.

I have read elsewhere that it is thought that Paul was in Corinth for about 18 months and then left for Syria.  Obviously Aquila and Priscilla had become close friends with him then as they decided to sail to Syria with him.  I don't think he would have wanted them to join him if they had not been of a very similar mind-frame as him.

Acts 18 v 19  -  They Remain in Ephesus

19 And he came to Ephesus, and left them there; 

However they did not continue the whole trip with Paul as they stayed in Ephesus while Paul journeyed on to Antioch in Syria.  We are not given a reason for the couple staying in Ephesus but we do know that they were meant to be there as they had a distinct role to play later.




They Discipled Appollos  -  Acts 18 v 24 - 28 

24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; 28 for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. 

Aquila and Priscilla both spoke with Apollos and helped him to understand and gain knowledge that was missing in his preaching of the Gospel.  They explained more to him and made sure he had an accurate understanding so that he would then work better for God.
How do we know for certain that Apollos really benefited and grew in understanding from this encounter?
Well when he wanted to travel to Achaia the christians in Ephesus wrote to commend him to the Christians in Achaia and verse 27 clearly tells us that he was of good help there and could stand in defence of Jesus in the scriptures against the Jews.

I have seen where some people like to bring out Priscilla as a teacher of men here but I feel this is not the right way to see the passage or to use the passage.
There are people who say that some of the times Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned in the Bible, Priscilla's name is put first and that this points to her taking the lead and being a stronger teacher and preacher than her husband.  However this argument cannot be made at this point as it is clear from the verses above that Aquila's name comes first in this meeting and time of teaching.  In fact only once so far has Priscilla's name come first and that was in stating that they sailed with Paul.

No more mention is made of them in the book of Acts but we do find a few more references elsewhere.

Romans 16 v 3

3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. 5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house.

Here in Romans we read about the couple again.  This time Priscilla's name is written first with no reference here to teaching but instead of being Paul's co-workers and of their bravery and the thanks the converted Gentiles owed them.  

It is also mentioned that a church met in their house so we can presume that they had some oversight for that, again showing them working as a couple.

It is good to work together for God.

1 Corinthians 16 v 19 

19 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.

Here they are mentioned by Paul as sending greetings to the church in Corinth which was the first place Paul met and worked with them.



2 timothy 4 v 19

19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

The last time we read of them in the New Testament is in this small mention where Paul wishes to have Timothy greet them for him which shows he was still thinking of them fondly years later.

Interested to know more about the Book of Acts?
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Acts Chapter 18 - Reactions of People.

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Having completed the 31 Day Blogging Challenge last month I have decided to continue blogging on through the book of Acts but not everyday, probably 2 times a week.

We finished on Day 31  Knowing God having finished chapter 17  noting that God looks for true worship and obedience and that Christianity is not based on works but on the death & resurrection of Jesus.

So on to Acts chapter 18 today.


verses 1 - 4

Paul has come to Corinth (from Athens) which is the first time we see it mentioned in Acts.
We are then introduced to a married couple called Aquila & Priscilla who were originally from Italy but had moved here having had to leave there homeland because they were Jews.

The first thing I thought about was that Paul found people he could easily become friends with because they had two things in common

• They were Jews
• They had the same occupation

How do we meet people and become friends?

Exactly the same way through our jobs or through coming from the same background.

When we went to live in America from 1992 - 1995 we first met people through Fred's job there and then through the church we attended.
Then later through our daughter's school and the neighbourhood we lived in.

When we went to live in Belgium from 2004 - 2010 things were different because we were not fluent Flemish or French speakers so a lot of the time we gravitated towards British and American people but in the end had friends from many nationalities due to going to an International Church.

We probably tend to forget that Paul may not have had any contacts in Corinth to go to and it is not easy to arrive anywhere not knowing anyone and settle there.

People always have to provide for themselves and can not always be dependant on others and that is just what Paul did here.  He worked at a skilled job during the week and then on the Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue with Jews and Greeks.

reasoned

adjective

1. based on logic or good sense.

   
   

   "a reasoned judgement"   or   "a reasoned argument"
2. well expressed, well presented, considered, sensible, intelligent

Something to note here is that Paul did not have to devote all his time to preaching, teaching or indeed studying the scriptures to be able to share about Jesus.  So neither do we, instead we just have to be willing to give up of our weekends or free time from the daily work and provision we are responsible to make for ourselves and family.

It does not say in these few verses that Aquila & Priscilla were Christians but obviously they were friendly and hospitable to Paul and willing to share work with him.

verses 5 - 11

Silas & Timothy have now rejoined Paul after having been left in Berea in Macedonia in Day 30 The Power & Destruction of Envy 

This means they were not in Athens at all and also not with Paul when he met Aquila & Priscilla and worked with them.

We now see Paul being zealous in his proclaiming of Jesus as the Messiah to the Jews but this message was not well received and it specifically states that the Jews were against Paul and blasphemed.

 6 But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 

Paul claims he will not bother to witness to the Jews again but only to the Gentiles.

He obviously took the blasphemy very seriously.

blasphemy

noun

1. the action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk.

But even with this happening the next convert we see is the ruler of the synagogue (presumably a Jew) and his household.  This reminds us of other instances of families already covered in Day 19  It's Not About Us, It's All About God  with Cornelius and  Day 26  Believe in the Right Thing  with the Phillippian jailer.

Then we also see "many of the Corinthians" believing and being baptized and they were presumably Gentiles because they were Greeks.

So even when there was opposition to God's Word being preached and the truth of the Gospel being told; God was still working and bringing people to know Him.  

Even today God is still working and bringing people to know Him.

We need to remember this and believe that

Even today when there is opposition to God's Word being preached and the truth of the Gospel being told; God will still be working and bringing people to know Him.  

If you are interested in more of the posts in this series on The Book of Acts please click on the link below and you will find a list & link to all of the posts.

The Book of Acts

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Scrapbooking Freebies!!! - Coffee & Conversation

I have an interest in Scrapbooking but I'm not so keen that I have done several.

For my mother's 90th Birthday I made a scrap book covering all the big events in her and daddy's life together.  This was an actual scrap book and I have always thought that I would do more to cover special events in my life too but so far they have only been in the planning list stage with only a few items gathered together.

Now the emphasis is all on digital scrap booking and I have started to dabble into this too.

Of course unless I am sure that I will make great use of something, I am reluctant to spend money on it (hence my iPad is full of free apps - and they are very good too).  So when I discovered a place where I could get free downloads I waded in and now I get emails with scrapbooking freebies.

SCRAPBOOKING FREEBIES!!!

So I thought I would share this with you for any other dabblers like me or more serious digital scrappers.

Go along to My Memories and register for the emails which will bring you notifications of lots of free items.  You will also receive info on all the products for sale and special offers on a regular basis.

Then have a look on the left side bar of their site for the words  "Free Kits" and make sure you free up some time to look through all the many pages of these.

I won't guarantee these will to make you a better scrapper

but there is the potential to do so 

however

please don't blame me if you are tempted to buy some things too.

Knowing God - 31 Days in Acts

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At the end of this blog post the whole 31 Days Challenge will be over.  Some days the blog post has taken a little over an hour to work on but mostly it has taken up to three hours or more so for any blogger who can keep up daily blogging for longer than a month - Good for you!

Yesterday we left chapter 17 at the end of verse 15 so today we will finish off the chapter.

verses 16 - 21

Paul had gone on to Athens ahead of Silas, Timothy and Luke because of the anger incited up against him at the end of  Day 30  The Power & Destruction of Envy

Now we see him getting upset about the idol worship of the people in this city.  He feels so strongly about it that he goes to the synagogue and tries to get the Jews and the Gentile worshippers to see how wrong this is.  We are told he even went into the marketplace each day to talk to people there. 

The people who seemed to take the most notice are the philosophers who just want to always talk and hear about new things and they think that Paul is talking about a new god because he is preaching about the resurrection of Jesus which is unfamiliar to them.

The first thing that stood out to me here was the mention, yet again, of the resurrection being preached about and we have seen this several times before by Peter and others so it appears that the Apostles and other early Christians thought it important that they spoke of the resurrection and indeed could not preach about Salvation without including it.  

We would not have any hope of resurrection ourselves if Jesus had not been resurrected and yes part of our eternal life will involve resurrection for us so it is a main part of our understanding about Salvation.

So the philosophers take Paul to Mars Hill ( Areopagus ) because they want to know what this talk of his is all about.

verses 22 - 34

He starts with something that is familiar to them all which is the altar with the inscription to the 

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

An altar indicated that they would worship this god, one whom they did not know anything about but Paul directs them straight to God the creator of the world from this.

He explains who the god they don't know is, He's the creator, He is Lord of heaven and earth and everything else but does not dwell in temples that the people have made.

He isn't worshipped by our hard work instead He has formed us all as we are and placed on on this earth so that all men would seek Him and find Him.  He does not need us to do things for Him as we saw in Day 29  What Does God Need?

Why?

Because everything we do is made possible by Him

28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 

So the true God is not an idol, not made or formed by man but is alive and is to be worshipped by all when we understand who He is

30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

and He brings us to the knowledge of Him and the understanding that we need to repent of our sins and accept the fact that one day we will face Jesus and we will have no righteousness of our own to be able to stand before Him as He judges the world.  We will have no right to say we have worked for Him if we have not accepted Him as the true and living God because he has not looked for work.

God looks for true worship and obedience.

Then back to the testimony of the resurrection again.

Some people mocked Paul for telling them about the true God the one they felt existed but did not know who He was and perhaps were just happy not knowing so that they could believe whatever they wanted but Paul because He was a believer and was called of God to preach had the responsibility to speak the truth to them.

This should be a challenge to us that no matter what others decide to believe about God, if it is not what the Word of God tells us then we as believers have also the responsibility to tell them the truth.

Remember all of us will stand before Christ one day and we can only depend on one thing 

 - not how we lived our lives 

but who we truly worshipped as our Lord.

Christianity is not based on works but on the death and resurrection of Jesus in our place for the life we are not able to live by ourselves.

Christianity is not based on works but on the death and resurrection of Jesus in our place.

Thank you for joining in so much with me over this past month and for those who have asked if I'm going to continue in Acts the answer is yes, but not on a daily basis.  I will post a few times a week but not feel an obligation to keep to a very rigid schedule.

For anyone who has been reading and realises that they have not known who the true God is or has in the past kept putting off actually becoming a true believer then please click on the short  3 2 1 video at the side of my blog to hear more about the Gospel or contact me for further info.

Also if you have missed any of the days in this series on Acts please click on the link below and you will find a list & link to all of the 31 Days.

The 31 Days in Acts Page

Interested to know more about the Book of Acts?
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The Power and Destruction of Envy - 31 Days in Acts

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Today then is Day 30 and we are on chapter 17 of Acts.

verses 1-10

Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke are still travelling and have reached Thessalonica.
There is a synagogue there and as we have seen in previous chapters the synagogue is where they go to be able to speak to the Jews of the new location they are in.  So no change here but this time we see that they go there for 3 consecutive Sabbath Days.  It does not tell us that they were greatly received and many were saved straight after the first sermon but rather that they reasoned and explained for 3 different days so people were listening but not necessarily responding immediately.

Doesn't this give us encouragement to know that Paul did not always have a great immediate response from everywhere he went but would sometimes have to wait to see the fruit of sharing Christ with others?  We need to not get disheartened and think we can't do a good enough job when we do not see results like Paul often saw.


So in verse 4 we read that many were saved, some were Jews, a lot were Greeks and some women get a mention here.

However, in verse 5 we see another reaction

5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

Look at the result of envy here.

The meaning of envy:

a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck.

Note it does not say that the person has done something wrong to cause this feeling in others.

First of all what were they envious of?  
If we go by the meaning above then they were envious of the qualities Paul and the others had or the way things were happening around them or the good situation they appeared to be in or the way others liked them.
This means they resented Paul & the others and the effect they thought they had on people which was not an effect they themselves had.
There was probably a lot of admiring talk about these visitors and the Jews who had not believed their message grew angry and did some irrational and violent things because of the feelings they allowed to accumulate in their minds.

A lot of harm can be done in any setting whether it be a home, a city, a church, a community, or a workplace when someone becomes envious of another.

Secondly what does envy entail?  

Envy 

• brings exaggeration of incidents or actions, 
• increases associations with people who may have other ulterior motives, 
• invites gossip, 
• often involves lies, 
• incites other people who would otherwise have been happy enough with the situation originally, 
• spits out accusations 
• brings on attacks whether physical or verbal.

No-one involved in the situation can come through it unharmed in some way.

Jason is a new person introduced to us now, obviously someone who was hospitable and a believer and because they cannot find Paul and the others, he is ill treated simply for providing a place for the visitors to stay.

Then in verse 7  I think it is very interesting to read

 7 Jason has harboured them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” 

because it makes me think of the accusations that were actually made of Jesus when the Jewish rulers were inciting the people and having Jesus brought for trial before being crucified.


Thirdly what were the two results of this envy?

verse 9   -   Jason & other believers had to give money to show they are promising that Jason's guests will not be a problem in the city.

verse 10  -  Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke had to leave straight away and go to Berea possibly because the other believers could not trust the mob or the Jews and still feared something would happen to them.

In a situation ruled by envy it is always hard to trust again.

verses 11-15

We can think back to Day 22  Daily Scriptures  when we looked at the verse about the Bereans and see a different attitude here from people who trusted by verifying with scripture and not going by feelings.

However those who had been ruled by envy came to Berea to cause trouble once more and again Paul & Luke had to leave immediately, moving on this time to Athens.  Silas & Timothy were left behind in Berea but Paul wanted them to join him again as soon as possible.

Evil will always want to stop the Gospel being preached.

I'm trying to read and write about the Book of Acts for 31 Days so please come back and join me for some notes & some thoughts each day. 

As the month goes on each Day's Link will be added in 

The 31 Days in Acts Page

Interested to know more about the Book of Acts?
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