Another Bible Commentary: Acts

Acts is the sequel to Luke. Luke and Acts point to what the Holy Spirit did. It was written to (likely rich) Theophilus. The same Lukan emphases of believing in Christ, repenting from cheating financially, putting Jesus before profit, being generous and a good steward of resources, trusting God rather than money, and being humble continue in this installment.

The notion of Jesus rising before the General Resurrection (Daniel 12:2) was a very un-Jewish thing to think back then. The apostles refused to recant their stories under torture. Illiterate fishermen did not pull off an elaborate hoax to convert three thousand people in the town that had just watched Jesus die and then also choose horrible deaths. They fled before the Crucifixion. The Risen Christ changed them. Changed lives today are proof enough of the power of the Gospel. They saw Him alive again, so they knew not to fear death anymore.

In the period of history covered by Acts, you can see both the “receiving the Spirit” Old Testament-style “on” people through apostolic touch frequently for charismatic evangelism gifts (leftover from John 20:22) and the New Covenant Holy Spirit entering “in” people forever for salvation like in Galatians 3:2,5. See also 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and 1 Timothy 4:14. We’ll discuss possible reasons along the way. Things do simplify themselves by the end of Acts.

1:1 “all” See John 21:25.

1:2 “through the Holy Spirit” See 1 Corinthians 2:14. This is still the Spirit on them from John 20.

1:3 He taught them for forty days before ascending. He told them to teach (Matthew 28:20), and the letters we have are the fruit of their obedience. Since the Epistles containing this knowledge were written down first and Christians received New Covenant teaching from their pastors, the gospels do not record this new material.

1:4-5 “but” Only the spiritual dunk into Jesus (John 17:20-23) that comes with believing in Him matters. See Joel 2:28.

1:6-7 See Matthew 24:44. Since He’s coming when we don’t expect Him, and the shelves of Christian bookstores are full of predictions that cover the foreseeable future, are we trying to keep Him away? “Maranatha!” or “Come, our Lord!” is a traditional expression among we who eagerly await His return. Maranatha!

1:8 Since Acts is a sequel or back half of Luke, this scene sounds like Luke 1:35. Also, since they’ve been sent again (having not made it through all the towns), and He’s come to His heavenly throne (Daniel 7:13-14), then Matthew 10:23 is fulfilled.

1:9 Remember when Elijah ascended to Heaven and Elisha carried on with Elijah’s spirit and power? Guess what happens in Acts 2…

1:10-12 See Zechariah 14:4.

1:14 Jesus’ Old Covenant students were told to pray for the fulfillment of Joel 2:28, Isaiah 32:15, etc. (Luke 11:13).

1:16-17,20 “Scripture” Perhaps Psalm 41:9, Psalm 69:25, and Psalm 109:8.

1:18 “burst” This happened when the decaying hanged body fell (Matthew 27:5). Have you ever seen an otherwise healthy person lose their intestines while falling in a field? Maybe bouncing down a mountain, but…anyway. As to who bought the field, Judas or the priests, since he gave the money back either could be credited with the purchase (Matthew 27:6-10); whether he bought it before hanging himself or they bought it after he hanged himself, there doesn’t seem to be an important difference to people except for those actively resisting God’s grace by trying to poke holes in this very old story. It also seems to be a callback to 2 Samuel 20:9-10 with a betrayer and entrails.

1:23-25 Based on the qualifications in Acts 1:21-22, these two men were likely in The Seventy/The Seventy-Two (Luke 10).

1:26 See Luke 1:9 and Proverbs 16:33. It’s hard to condemn gambling/dice games because the Romans cast lots for Jesus’ garments when God’s people frequently used this as an alternative to other divination methods. Barsabbas/Justus missed out on the Revelation 21:14 recognition, etc. Just keep bearing fruit where you are, keep looking to Jesus, and keep moving forward if you aren’t appreciated. Since Matthias is not featured distinctly from the rest of The Twelve as we proceed through the Bible, this episode fixes the mentions of twelve thrones, etc., and foreshadows Paul becoming an apostle, too, since adding apostles was okay.

2:2 The heavens opened, and people heard weird stuff like at Jesus’ baptism. The New Testament is realized (Luke 3:16).

2:3 Some teachers use later verses in Acts to prop up belief in a touchy “second blessing” Holy Spirit transmission scheme, but I’d like to point out that no one ran around doing anything physical to these people. In 2 Chronicles 7, fire fell from Heaven to inaugurate the Temple; we are the New Temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). (In the noncanonical Book of Enoch, the Temple in Heaven has tongues of fire among its building materials.) Moreover, in 2 Chronicles 7 the fire fell on the sacrifice, so Christ (John 1:29) lives in us (John 17:20-23). See Exodus 19:18; we are the holy place where God dwells, and the world meets Him through us. In 2 Kings 2, fire and wind kicked off the sequel to Elijah’s ministry. See Job 29:3; God’s candle gives us understanding (1 Corinthians 2:14) which can extend to things like human languages. In Isaiah 6, contact with fire was the beginning of Isaiah being forgiven and sent to preach. While these signs were undoubtedly edifying for those present, God is at work in us whether there is visible fire or not (John 11:42).

2:4 The gift of tongues is the gift of evangelizing in existing human languages, as seen in the next few verses.

2:5 “every nation under Heaven” See Matthew 28:19 and Colossians 1:23. I applaud the efforts of today’s evangelists to reach the last remaining ethnic groups that have had no historically recorded contact with the Gospel, and I encourage you to support evangelism, Bible translation, etc., but per the Genesis 10 definition of “nation”, talking to this bunch of Diaspora Jews completed the Great Commission. There is no obstacle to the return of Christ.

2:6 This is like the opposite of what happened at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). You know how some stories go out to a point and then return home, like going to a concert? In the grand scheme of things, we’ve metaphorically progressed back to the days between Noah and the Tower of Babel, so it’s no wonder that the behaviors encouraged in the Epistles match the Noahide Laws that were in effect even back then.

2:13 Those with hardened hearts only heard speech foreign to them.

2:14 This feels like when Jesus addressed the crowd in Nazareth in Luke 4.

2:15 Notice that Peter didn’t say “Christians don’t drink” or even “Christians don’t drink enough to speak incomprehensibly”, just “it’s too early for that to be believable”. I happen to have been living sober for quite some time now (apart from some rare social gatherings) for health reasons at the time of this writing, but there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about that, and you are free in Christ. Follow the Spirit’s lead.

2:17-21 See Joel 2:28-32. Notice “daughters” and “women”; females are allowed to speak in a religious context according to both the Old and New Testaments. There are verses we’ll discuss later that have given some groups a different opinion about that, and both Acts 2:17-21 and those verses in Joel that this cites stand in their way.

2:20 It was night during the day during the Crucifixion in recent memory for them.

2:21 “everyone who calls…will be saved” See Joel 2:32 and Romans 10:9. In John 3:16, “whosoever” means “whosoever”. If you’re worried about whether “Jesus” is actually pronounced “Yehoshua” or something, remember a time you were kind to someone who got your name wrong. He’s better than us; He forgave the people who were in the process of crucifying Him.

2:25-28 Psalm 16:8-11 as seen in the Septuagint.

2:30 in Psalm 132:11.

2:31 in Psalm 16:10.

2:33 Because He sits, the Holy Spirit came. The display at Pentecost was proof to the Old Covenant believers that Jesus is Lord.

2:34-35 in Psalm 110:1.

2:36 “you” We all killed Him with sin (Isaiah 53:5). See Matthew 24:30.

2:37-39 What shall you do? Believe (John 6:28-29, Acts 13:39). Since the one “work” is to believe (John 16:9), “repent” is change from an unbelieving mind to faith in Christ. Because of John 17:20-23, baptism (into Christ – Colossians 3:3) is receiving the Holy Spirit because of believing in Christ (Luke 3:16, Galatians 3:2,5). Paul made a point of not baptizing a lot of people (1 Corinthians 1:17-18) because preaching faith in Him is what matters (Romans 1:16).

2:40 Killing Christ was a greater “oops” than the Golden Calf incident (Matthew 27:25).

2:41 Christians, those born again with the Holy Spirit living in us forever, first happened at Pentecost. Three thousand conversions from Peter’s sermon was a good foundation for the Church (Matthew 16:18). It’s also a good candidate for a “greater work” (John 14:12). The same number died in Exodus 32:28, continuing the Sinai metaphor I mentioned back in Acts 2:3.

2:44-47 resembles the spirit of Luke 5:27-29 and the Greek ideal of friendship or the Essene commune. Let’s not lose sight of these believers still being Jewish Christians observing Deuteronomy 15:7-11. There’s also a deeper symbolism: back in Exodus 36:1-7 and 1 Chronicles 29:1-9 we saw big initial outlays that reached logical endpoints. Seeing the Kingdom as a community, the early believers were building the Temple of Us (1 Corinthians 3:16), so to speak, by supporting widows, orphans, the persecuted (James 1:27, Hebrews 10:32-34), etc. The Spirit asked more early on to fan the wee spark. As the number of believers grew, less was required from each of us to meet the needs; we have our problems in common like a family. The more familiar “helps'' ministries through deacons, voluntarily giving from abundance, and being more discerning about which widows really needed/deserved to be on the dole (1 Timothy 5) started showing up around Acts 6 and have been established since the days of the Epistles. You can see similar behavior today; think of any new ministry that is really elevated by big donors early on that then becomes a popular podcast that does even better on a portion of the audience donating $10 per month.

3:1-2 “Peter and John” Peter’s a Rock, but Jesus is the Cornerstone. Notice how Peter’s portrayed in the Bible as at most a leader among equals (and not infallible); he’s very “not Pope” most of the time.

3:6 Some translations say that Peter had no money “for you”; sometimes it may be better to give someone food than money, etc.

3:7-8 Much like how grace teaches us to live uprightly (Titus 2:11-12).

3:13 “servant” in the sense of Isaiah 52:13 through the end of Isaiah 53.

3:14 See Matthew 27:25.

3:21 in Psalm 110:1-2.

3:22-23 from Deuteronomy 18.

3:24 As Moses and the Judges were before, the line of prophets begins at Samuel. Peter may have been referring to the book named in honor of Samuel, because Samuel’s mom predicted the Messiah before him (1 Samuel 2:10).

3:25 in Genesis 22:18. Paul emphasized the singular “Seed” as Jesus (Galatians 3:16). See also Genesis 26:4.

3:26 “first” This means that by definition the Gentiles were last. Since the last were to be first, we’ve seen Romans 9 through Romans 11 play out.

4:5-7 The same men who had Jesus crucified asked the apostles about their authority just as they had also questioned Jesus.

4:8 See Luke 12:12. Ephesians 3:19 says that to be inspired by His love is how to feel this fullness.

4:9 Jesus frequently had to answer for His healings.

4:11 in Psalm 118:22.

4:12 Christianity is exclusive. Christianity and the world’s religions are not all inherently the same faith disguised as different ways to the same end. They have rule books, and we have a Savior.

4:22 “forty years old” Forty is greater than thirty-eight (John 5:5), so here’s another candidate for a greater work (John 14:12).

4:25-26 in Psalm 2:1-2.

4:31 The quake signified that God was with them (Exodus 19:18). He’s with you always (Matthew 28:20), whether the ground wiggles or not (John 11:42). All believers have the Holy Spirit; to be filled in this manner is to be inspired by God’s love (Ephesians 3:19).

4:32-35 See Acts 2:44-47 note. You’re saved because of faith (Acts 13:39, Acts 15:9); you don’t buy a seat in Heaven. The “houses” are other/vacation homes; Jesus was very clear about how reprehensible taking widows’ homes is. See Mark 12:38 through Mark 13:2. Donating primary residences would have just added people to the pool requiring the Deuteronomy-inspired assistance among these Jewish Christians.

4:36-37 Remember when we looked to Leviticus 25:32-34 and Joshua 21:13-19 to confirm the legitimacy of Jeremiah’s land deal (Jeremiah 32:7-12)? Perhaps Barnabas donated property he probably shouldn’t have owned as a Levite (Deuteronomy 10:9) in an act of repentance like Zacchaeus (Luke 19). In Acts 14:14, Barnabas is recognized as an apostle. To say that someone is the son of something speaks to their nature. A “son of encouragement” has an encouraging nature. Barney’s a good dude, so he got to vouch for Paul in Acts 9:27. See Matthew 20:26-27. Think of this story and the next one in the context of client/patron relationships in Rome – those who benefitted from such a great gift would be gratefully indebted, naturally increasing Barnabas’ status. The “Big Man” in Polynesian culture functions similarly, with the most respected member of the society offering great gifts to those he leads, increasing his status cyclically. Keep Barnabas in mind in the next story.

5:1 If you just got here, look back at Acts 4:36-37 and its note for context. There is no glowing description of these peoples’ piety or good qualities unlike other characters like Barnabas.

5:2 He claimed to have donated it all like Barnabas did as seen in verse 4. For another couple that died in part due to property crimes, look back at 1 Kings 21.

5:3 Satan does not enter the hearts of believers (1 John 5:18). They were unbelievers like Judas (John 6:64, John 13:27, Luke 22:3) because there is no wrath for believers (John 3:36, John 5:24, Romans 5:9, Romans 8:1). The agent of that wrath is not specified here, but see Hebrews 2:14 and John 10:10. There is no sin that Jesus did not take care of for you at the Cross.

5:4 This verse affirms the existence of private property. The issue is that Ananias and Sapphira tried to scam a Barnabas-like role like Simon Magus in Acts 8; Jesus had harsh things to say to the holier-than-thou Pharisees who publicly presented themselves as more pious than they were actually achieving, too.

5:5-10 Interesting times are dangerous times, and the days of miracles and fire from on high were interesting. Christ warned there would be false teachers/prophets, and Paul had to contend with false apostles (2 Corinthians 11:13); see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Joshua 7, and Leviticus 10. The point of including this story in Acts is that Paul, whom we will meet in a little while, is a legitimate apostle; Paul would have died otherwise in times like those.

5:11-14 The alleged contradictions actually make the story clearer. There are believers, and there are unbelievers. Notice the “the church and all”. Ananias and Sapphira were of the “all” and of the “No one else” who dared to attend, in contrast to “the believers” that added more and more to their number.

5:15 This shadow trick is another candidate for a “greater work” (John 14:12).

5:21 The Sanhedrin were the guys that had Jesus killed.

5:22-23 This fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1 also rhymes with Jesus’ guarded tomb resurrection.

5:28 See John 19:11 and Matthew 27:25.

5:29 Luke 12:12 kicked in again.

5:31 “that He might give repentance and forgiveness…” is another translation. It is a gift. His work is finished. Repentance is changing your mind from unbelief to belief in Christ (Acts 13:39, Acts 15:9).

5:32 “obey” or acknowledge Him as King. See John 6:28-29.

5:34 Gamaliel was Rabbi Hillel’s grandson and Saul/Paul’s teacher (Acts 22:3).

5:36-37 Jesus warned of false Messiah claimants (Matthew 24:5)

5:39 Saul tried this before his conversion.

5:40-41 “disgrace” Flogging meant being publicly stripped and beaten.

6:1 The widows among those who mainly spoke Greek and had assimilated to the occupying culture were being overlooked in favor of those among the Hebrew-speaking separatists. See Deuteronomy 27:19.

6:2-3 Numbers 11 had fire from God, complaints about food, and Moses getting seventy subordinates to help with the mundane stuff. We’ve reached the nicer New Testament version with the Holy Spirit instead of burning people. The fullness of the Spirit is being inspired by the love of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).

6:5 There are interpreters that likely slander Nicolas as the leader of the Nicolaitans, there are people from the Tubingen school that think the Nicolaitans are Pauline Christians, etc. Nicolas’ generosity inspires millions to be generous at Christmas, and you probably know him as Santa Claus (Saint Nicolas). We’ll look at the Nicolaitans in more detail in Revelation when they are mentioned.

6:6 as in Numbers 27:23. It is this sort of commissioning that Paul mentions in 1 and 2 Timothy with regard to laying on of hands.

6:10 See Luke 12:12.

6:13 See Mark 14:55-58, John 2:19, and Luke 21:6,20. Look for Stephen’s answers to these charges in his speech.

6:14 They saw Jesus as a new Nebuchadnezzar or Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” of sorts. We are the Temple now (1 Corinthians 3:16), and we are dead to the Law (Romans 7:4). See Hebrews 8:13.

6:15 like Exodus 34:29-35.

7:2 Luke 12:12 is still in effect. There are minor continuity curiosities like comparing this verse to Genesis 11:31. We’re inspired, but we’re not God. The Bible is inerrant in that it reports that Stephen said this. Everybody happy?

7:5 “he and…” Necessitating the resurrection of the dead (Luke 20:37).

7:9 amounts to: “You are as bad at recognizing the right authority as your ancestors were.”

7:24-25 Here’s the early Church praising a killing, which would be weird if the prevailing view of Christian ethics were right.

7:26 Think of how they persecuted the Christians when they were just a new Jewish sect, or how they fell into factional infighting in the years leading up to 70 AD.

7:27 Again, they didn’t recognize their true leader. They misjudged Jesus, too.

7:32 Much of the history lesson was background for this line.

7:34-35 He saw what they were enduring under the Romans just like He saw what they had endured in Egypt. And yet, the people considered rejecting Moses and going back to Egypt after they were delivered (Numbers 14:4).

7:37 in Deuteronomy 18:15.

7:39 like how Stephen’s accusers were rejecting Christ.

7:42-43 from the Septuagint’s rendering of Amos 5:25-27. Amos 5 includes refusing sacrifices from the wicked, so their Temple was useless. “Rephan” is frequently identified with Saturn. Regarding “exile beyond Babylon”, the events of 70 AD were coming for Stephen’s audience, too, and the later Bar Kokhba revolt sealed it.

7:48 They accused Stephen of speaking against the holy place (Acts 6:13).

7:49-50 See Isaiah 66:1-2. Isaiah 66 includes refusing sacrifices from the wicked, so their Temple was useless. 70 AD rhymed with 586 BC.

7:51 See Deuteronomy 10:16. Deuteronomy 30:6 is accomplished for us with the New Covenant.

7:53 “through angels” See Deuteronomy 33:2 and Galatians 3:19. As we saw in verses 37 through 39, the main way they were disobeying the Law was refusing to recognize Christ (Deuteronomy 18:15).

7:56 Christ’s posture resembling Isaiah 3:13-14 rather than Psalm 110:1 was another clue that judgment was coming for them.

7:57-58 They thought they were stoning a blasphemer (Leviticus 24:13-16 and Deuteronomy 13:5), but they continued their legacy of killing prophets (2 Chronicles 24:19-21) instead. The preservation of Daniel, etc., demonstrated God’s existence and power. Christian martyrs dying well demonstrate God’s power in us and the superiority of what we look forward to compared to this reality. Saul/Paul (spoiler alert) will become a main character of the back half of Acts.

7:59-60 See Luke 23:46. Stephen was very Christlike. Compare Luke 23:34 with 2 Chronicles 24:22.

8:1 Persecution caused the fulfillment of Acts 1:8. It also kept a bunch of people safe from the later events of 70 AD. See Romans 8:28. He’s not sending bad stuff your way, but He uses everything.

8:4 These preachers were laymen (Acts 8:1).

8:5 The old biases seen in Luke 9 and Luke 10 are gone. The reacceptance of the Samaritans (Ezekiel 16:60-63, John 4) is another reason why John is before Acts in the Bible.

8:9-12 Jesus began His ministry fighting Satan in the wilderness. This church (and Antioch in Acts 13) started out fighting sorcerers. Simon Magus had been a Samaritan pseudo-Jesus and is a convenient stand-in for all Samaritan religious authority. See 2 Kings 17:41 and John 4:22. He’s also traditionally called the father of Gnosticism. His attempt to buy an apostleship in this chapter contrasts Paul’s legitimacy.

8:13 Simon Magus was a believer, and was therefore a totally forgiven person (Acts 10:43). Since Simon Peter shows up in the next verse, this looks like: “Hey, our magical Simon is better than yours. Your guy even converted to our religion.” Purchasing an ecclesiastical office is still known as simony.

8:14-17 See Matthew 16:19; Heaven became open for Samaria. John wanted to call down fire on Samaritans in Luke 9:54, so now he had to call the Spirit (baptism of fire) down on them here. The spread of the Holy Spirit to the Samaritans through apostolic touch was to publicly prove John 4:22. This is not the norm. It’s not needed in Acts 10:44, for example, or Galatians 3:2, Galatians 3:5, etc.

8:18-19 It looks like he wanted to be special again (1 Peter 5:3). Lukan thought is usually associated with donating large amounts of money, but not for this guy. Paul and John in their writings say all believers get the Holy Spirit by grace through faith in the Gospel, so the touchy second-blessing-looking stuff was for powers and offices in the early days, object lessons, and signs to a people historically accustomed to signs.

8:20-23 Peter the ear-cutter, who had been tearfully restored to apostleship in John 21, got incensed at the thought it could be bought. Barsabbas from Acts 1:23 would have been made one before Simon Magus if it were a calling someone could decide to request. Peter saw this as another case like Ananias and Sapphira; God knows the heart. 1 Peter is clearly a once-saved-always-saved letter, so “may your money perish with you” is colloquially “to Hell with you and your money!” from a documented occasional hothead. See James 3:8; Peter looks like a glimpse of Saul in Acts 9:1, but we all slip up (James 3:2). Simon Magus had no part in Peter’s ministry, not the faith (2 Timothy 2:21); Simon Magus believed and was baptized in verse 13. Since “forgive” is also “release”, he was to pray for some Romans 12:2 help to stop thinking like a devil wizard. Verse 23 is an exhortation similar to Ephesians 4:31 and Hebrews 12:1.

8:24 There’s no mention of Peter praying, but there was no wrath coming (Romans 5:9). Even if a certain interpretation of 1 Peter 4:6 and 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 allowed for Simon Magus to be destroyed temporally, his eternity is in the hands of Jesus. Again, the Bible reports what Peter said. He wasn’t the last pastor to call a believer unregenerate.

8:27 The Greeks said that Ethiopia was the end of the world, so here’s another point for Colossians 1:23. This convert to Judaism was next to power (Queen Candace/Kandake/Candice) like Joseph, Mordecai, and Nehemiah. There were many wealthy Jews overseas tithing to the wealthy chief priests. About ten percent of the Roman Empire as a whole and twenty percent of what is modern Turkey was Jewish at the time, etc. The Sadducees were rich enough to be the focus of Revelation 18.

8:31 Holy Tradition – People inspired by God wrote the books, selected the canon, and explained the meanings. Their written and spoken instructions are valid (2 Thessalonians 2:15), but we also have the Holy Spirit guiding us into all truth (John 16:13) and the Scripture is enough to equip you for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Therefore, test the fruit of those claiming to be the established Church (Galatians 1:8-9). For example, if they’re telling you that as a Christian you’d better get ready to stand before God but Jesus Christ is telling you in Scripture that you will not be judged (John 5:24), you know Whom to believe.

8:32-33 in the Septuagint’s Isaiah 53:7-8. The New Testament says that the Isaiah 53 Servant is Jesus (Acts 8:35), so feel free to ignore people who try to tell you that it is about Israel. The bit about His descendants may have struck a nerve with the eunuch.

8:35 like Luke 24:13-35.

8:39 like the Ezekiel 11:1 teleportation.

8:40 There was no hint of a two-step second-blessing Holy Spirit transmission in Acts 8:26-40.

Acts 9 – We’ll discuss later what predestination is and isn’t. All that talk of “choose ye this day” and “don’t harden your hearts” and, come to think of it, all evangelism in general would be playacting if people couldn’t choose. I didn’t say “free will” because no one is free of influences, and we’ll explore that in Romans. People say that Saul of Tarsus was converted without any choice on his part. See Jeremiah 29:13. Several people in Acts like Saul, Cornelius, etc., were seeking God (in different ways), and when you look for Him, you will find Him. Many people aren’t looking for Him, so we show them anyway. Why did Paul get personal treatment and today’s doubters don’t? People meet Jesus all the time in one of the most common, accessible, best-selling books in the world called The Bible. The Bible means THE Book. Anyone who expects Him to show up while ignoring it or ignoring some of the better expositors on the Internet, television, radio, etc., isn’t really looking for Him. He saved me, and He can save anybody.

9:2 “letters” Isn’t it great when a show gives you a “character establishing moment” early on that catches you up on who someone is and points to where they’re going? Paul’s later opponents carried letters of recommendation (2 Corinthians 3:1), and the letters Paul wrote became much of the New Testament. Regarding “the Way”, the movement was called that at first because of Isaiah 35:8-10. See also John 14:6.

9:4 The promised Son of David asked a question of a man named Saul that seems very similar to 1 Samuel 24 and 1 Samuel 26. This meeting is similar to Numbers 22:32.

9:5 Saul had been fighting God like Gamaliel, his teacher (Acts 22:3), warned of in Acts 5.

9:9 See Deuteronomy 28:28-29. Saul spent three days in darkness, like Jesus in the tomb, or like Jonah in the fish belly. Jonah was sent to preach to Gentiles. Paul was to do the same.

9:10 Ananias is derived from Hananiah, like the boy who was renamed Shadrach in Daniel 1. Annas the High Priest had a similarly derived name. The man in Acts 9 is likely not the man from Acts 5 resurrected, but stranger things have happened.

9:11 There is still an Orthodox church on Straight Street at the time of this writing.

9:16 There is no sin that Jesus did not take care of for you at the Cross. Paul’s suffering wasn’t payback, but to prove his legitimacy to humans. Why would he have endured what he did unless he was sincere? See Colossians 1:24. As we’ll see in his letters, many of the behavior instructions are intended to make us inoffensive to the masses so we don’t get in the way of them receiving the Gospel.

9:17 A blind person gaining sight is a symbol of conversion. You’ve likely heard “Amazing Grace”, and grace is amazing. Notice that the water comes in the next verse (after “be filled with the Holy Spirit”) as a symbol of what has already happened within Saul/Paul and of his acceptance into the movement.

9:18 “scales” Our Accuser (Genesis 3) is scaly, and Saul had been looking at us through his eyes. Also, fish are scaly and Saul was about to be sent to the Gentiles like Jonah. A different Saul became a new person in 1 Samuel 10:6,9 but thanks to Jesus, the change of the New Covenant is permanent.

9:19 The people that Saul was coming to kill saved him, and the people that Jesus came to save killed Him.

9:23 “many days” Three years (Galatians 1:17-18). Paul spent the same amount of time learning directly from Jesus as the rest of the apostles.

9:25 “basket” like Moses. Good job standing firm to the end (Matthew 10:22-23). It’s okay to opt out of martyrdom if it’s not your time.

9:26 See Galatians 1:17-18.

9:27 Barnabas deserved a special mention earlier so this endorsement would mean something.

9:28 Fifteen days (Galatians 1:17-18). Within a few years of these events, Herod Antipas (John the Baptist’s killer) lost his army fighting King Aretas IV of Nabatea. There have always been wars and rumors of wars.

9:31 This verse represents a nice nonspecific block of time that can help everyone’s favored timelines get along. The “fear of the Lord” is awe and wonder; no one’s supposed to be encouraged and comforted by the Holy Spirit and simultaneously terrified of God.

9:32 Acts follows Peter and Paul especially. Paul is presented as a “Parallel Pete”, if you will.

9:33-35 like Luke 5:17-26.

9:37 They didn’t place her in a tomb. They were expecting a miracle, given everything else going on in Christianity then.

9:39 Poor Dorcas. Absent from the body is present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). See Philippians 1:23 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14. These people basically said, “Come back from Heaven! We need more coats!”

9:40 like Mark 5:40-41.

9:43 Here’s another verse representing a nice nonspecific block of time. Tanners were thought to be unclean by the Pharisees due to all that contact with dead animals (and their home workshops smelled bad). Joppa is where Jonah bugged out instead of beginning his ministry to the Gentiles immediately. Peter would begin a ministry to the Gentiles in Acts 10.

10:1 “Caesarea” Philip’s preaching (Acts 8:40) had been effective in the seat of the Roman government in Judea. This story reminds me of Luke 7:1-10. It’s Gentile time.

10:2 Cornelius believed in God and he loved. See Hosea 10:12; he was an example of “plowed soil” (Old Testament style) to begin planting among us. Again, fear of God is awe and worshipfulness. Like Abraham, Cornelius was notable for his generosity. Cornelius fit Jeremiah 29:13, so he got to be an early adopter of Christianity.

10:3 “three in the afternoon” was when Jesus died and the afternoon sacrifices took place.

10:4 See Hebrews 13:15-16; our offerings are praise/gratitude and sharing.

10:9 “noon” Psalm 55:17 was a fine Old Covenant approach. Now, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says we can be in constant contact with our Father, expressing gratitude throughout our lives. It’s a privilege and great for you, not a hoop to jump through. There are no hoops because Jesus did it all.

10:11 See Psalm 102:25-26, Isaiah 25:7, and Hebrews 1:10-12. Pete saw a symbol of a new cosmos.

10:12-13 See Leviticus 11. Mark 7 was about handwashing in Peter’s view. Canaanites didn’t die for eating the wrong animals (Leviticus 18:23,26-27). Being ritually unclean was not a sin, only bringing ritual uncleanness to the Tabernacle/Temple. The clean/unclean distinction went away when the veil ripped at the Crucifixion. Also, note that the command wasn’t for Peter to become a vegan.

10:14 like Ezekiel 4:14.

10:15 See Ezekiel 22:26.

10:25 A centurion commanded 100 legionnaires. It would have been highly unusual for a boss to fall down at the feet of a local in occupied territory.

10:28 This was the point of the vision. Every person is someone Christ died for and loves. See Isaiah 60:3 and Psalm 15. Ribs are on the menu too, though, and Paul will tell us all about it later. See also Galatians 2:14 and Hebrews 8:13.

10:35 Want to respect God and do what is right? Admit that you need the Son (John 6:28-29).

10:36 See Romans 5:1.

10:41 Jesus has physicality.

10:42 He judges/rules who lives and who dies by His very existence; their response to His Gospel determines that. Christians will not be judged for their behavior (John 5:24).

10:43 Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins. See Joel 2:32 and John 3:16. While Peter was saying this, the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit as we’ll see in the next verse. We are saved by grace through faith.

10:44-46 See Matthew 16:19; the door for the Gentiles had been opened. The exceptional sign gifts in Acts 10:46 were intended to legitimize the beginning of the Gentile mission. They had what Paul spoke of in Galatians 3:2,5 from faith through hearing (and were therefore already saved – Romans 8:9-11), and they also had the show-off stuff similar to Acts 2 to justify getting a water ceremony identifying them with God’s historically chosen people. Since this point in history, this is how getting saved and receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit has worked. See 1 Corinthians 12. There is one Spirit but there are many spiritual gifts. Speaking in tongues is not a test of whether every person is saved or not. That would be the same as saying that every believer has to be awesome at hospitality, preaching, etc.

11:14 They moistened (Acts 10:48) the whole household. There is no mention of excluding babies, etc. The old Confirmation two-step of claiming it later in life when you can think for yourself is a relic from the Church making money from plague-fearing parents, but believing in Christ is the John 17:20-23 dunk that matters. John 3:16 does not mention the youth pastor’s pool. I see no point in cataloging here the ways that churches that do baptism “correctly” are still being unbiblical about other things. Let’s all get together under the big tent of what Jesus did for us.

11:16 “but” See the Acts 11:14 note.

11:17 The Holy Spirit and salvation are gifts given in response to faith.

11:18 This talk of “repentance” was not mentioned at Cornelius’ house. This repentance is a change of mind toward belief in Christ. Acts 10:35 did mention respecting God and doing what is right, which is first of all to believe in the Son. He will save you and also produce fruit in your life that looks like the more common conception of doing what is right.

11:19-20 Here we have the beginnings of a church of believers that were saved in response to preaching by laymen before the apostles arrived. Antioch means “holding out against”, as we are in this world but not of this world. There are many Antiochs named after the Macedonian name “Antiochos” (or Antiochus) of Seleucid rulers. Antioch became the center of the Gentile mission. They were the first believers called “Christians” instead of “the Way”.

11:21 See the Acts 11:17 note.

11:22-23 This was not a seventeen part sermon series about how to produce the fruit of the Spirit faster through human effort. These were former pagans. Encouraging them to “remain true” meant encouraging them to not worship other gods as part of the pantheon they were used to but rather to worship the Lord exclusively.

11:25 Barnabas looked for Saul because he knew Paul’s mission (Acts 9:15) and had vouched for him before (Acts 9:27).

11:28 Agabus shows up again in Acts 21:10.

11:29 This is the context of Paul’s admonitions to remember the poor (Galatians 2:10). Matthew 6’s promises of sustenance for the faithful came true through Gentiles who were never under the Law of Moses nor the Sermon, only the encouragement of Galatians 2:10, 2 Corinthians 9, etc.

11:30 The people from the Tubingen school that say that Paul and James were the heads of rival religions must have missed the many mentions in the New Testament of Paul raising money to feed people in Jerusalem. The Galatians 2:1 meeting took place fourteen years after Acts 9:26.

12:1-3 Like Christ, some disciples got tried by Herod and executed during Passover.

12:4 See Isaiah 61:1 and Acts 5:19.

12:12 John Mark, better known as Mark, as in the Gospel of Mark.

12:15 They had thought Peter was a goner and that they’d never see him again. He was back from the “dead” so to speak, seen by a woman, and people didn’t believe it at first (much like Christ). Peter stood at the door and knocked (Revelation 3:20).

12:17 “another place” Eventually, Peter was the Bishop of Rome. Jesus’ brother (Joseph’s son) James the Just, who did not believe in Christ until after the Resurrection, stepped up to lead in Jerusalem.

12:19 If a prisoner got away, their guard got their sentence.

Around this time or so depending on your Acts chronology, Emperor Caligula wanted pagan statues in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jews were willing to die instead. Rome backed off, but that whole ordeal interrupted the harvest, leading to a food shortage ahead of the famine under Claudius that Agabus predicted in Acts 11:28. Historians quibble that the famine was a series of food shortages in various places all over the Roman Empire during that time frame, whatever that’s worth.

12:23 Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” died the same way in 2 Maccabees 9:9.

12:25 While the story shifts away from Jerusalem for the next couple of chapters, in 48 AD a notable riot happened there when a Roman soldier angered a crowd of pilgrims by exposing himself.

13:1 Calling Simeon “the dark one” was descriptive rather than mean-spirited; modern usage of similar words has been affected by centuries of ugliness associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and is aftereffects. No matter what your background, Heaven will have someone there that looks like you, sounds like you, etc. (Revelation 7:9).

13:2 The Jewish people fasted when they meant business (Acts 23:12). Know that Jesus is always with you, and see Luke 5:34 to know that not eating is totally optional for Christians.

13:3 as in Numbers 27:23. It is this sort of commissioning that Paul mentions in 1 and 2 Timothy with regard to laying on of hands.

Paul and Peter could have run into each other for the incident in Galatians 2:11-14 around Acts 13:1-3 or Acts 14:26-28.

13:5 “John” This is still John Mark, better known as Mark (Acts 12:12,25). He is Barnabas’ nephew.

13:6-7 Paul is a Parallel Pete. Peter dealt with Simon Magus (Acts 8:9). Notice the alleged “Son of Jesus” was practicing sorcery forbidden to Jews (Deuteronomy 18:10-12), and the Gentile was the one wanting to hear about the Word of God.

13:9 Paul is the Romanized form of Saul. In that multilingual society, people used different names in different contexts. This is similar to what we’ve seen before with Jesus/Joshua. However, this is a name upgrade like Simon Peter because using Paul to identify Saul, former Jewish separatist (Philippians 3:4-8), moving forward in the text reflects his calling as the Apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13).

13:10 “perverting the right ways of the Lord” is also “making crooked the straight path” like an anti-John the Baptist.

13:11 See Acts 9:8 and Deuteronomy 28:28-29.

13:13 John Mark, Barnabas’ nephew, left this mission. This led to disagreements. Everyone got along again later. Mark also helped Peter. See Colossians 4:10, Philemon 24, 2 Timothy 4:11, 1 Peter 5:13

13:14 Pisidian Antioch, one of sixteen cities around there named “Antioch”, was the hometown of Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:7), who may have facilitated this trip. Pisidian Antioch was in the province of Galatia. Galatia was named for the Gauls aka the Celts; some of them had moved to the region. They had been Hellenized, so they spoke/lived like Greeks/Romans, but they looked like the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, etc. Paul wrote to the Galatians about our freedom from the Law, and he was about to debut that concept for them in this chapter.

13:15 This “open mic” time was reminiscent of Jesus speaking to the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke 4.

13:17 Paul, who had attended Stephen’s stoning, made a speech reminiscent of Stephen’s.

13:24 Think of the corrupt Sadducees with regard to a 1 Samuel 3:14 scenario ruining the Day of Atonement. John the Baptist was a prophet from priestly lineage and a Nazirite from birth (Numbers 6:8, Luke 1:15) living in the wilderness (Isaiah 32:16, Isaiah 40:3, Hosea 2:14) like Elijah (1 Kings 17) (out of the cursed land—Leviticus 18:25, Haggai 2:14) rebooting Israel (Ezekiel 18:21-23) as a priestly nation again (Exodus 19:6) with water for removing uncleanliness and as an ordination rite in advance of the arrival of the Messiah (Matthew 3:1-11). All of that was before the Cross, therefore all of that was Old Covenant.

13:25 like Luke 3:16 and John 1:27. Start checking your Bingo card: Paul mentioned the Messiah…

13:26 “us” including you.

13:28 Paul told them Jesus the Messiah died…

13:30 Paul told them Jesus the Messiah lives again. See Romans 10:9.

13:33 in Psalm 2:7.

13:34 in Isaiah 55:3.

13:35 in the Septuagint’s Psalm 16:10.

13:39 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the risen Lord is freed from guilt and declared entirely right with God. Keeping any of the Law of Moses has nothing to do with that. See John 3:16-17, John 5:24, John 6:28-29, Romans 3:20-28, Romans 8:3, Colossians 1:22, Colossians 2:13-14, Hebrews 10:14, 1 John 2:1-2. I could keep going. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone. See Ephesians 2:8-9; I couldn't resist. Galatians 3 has more.

13:40 Take care? Take care to believe.

13:41 in Habakkuk 1:5. They were told “you would never believe” because the New Covenant really is that good.

13:43 “continue in the grace of God” These people who grew up under the Old Covenant had just heard about grace, and it can take time to sink in. They were encouraged to really trust and accept that Jesus did it all.

13:46 We’ll discuss predestination later. This verse shows that people have options. Evangelism would be pretty silly if they don’t.

13:47 in Isaiah 49:6.

13:48 That’s an interesting turn of phrase, “all who were appointed for eternal life believed.” It’s like the sign at Heaven’s border says “Free to All Who Believe” on one side, and the back of it says “We Knew You Were Coming Since the Foundation of the World”. Knowing that something is going to happen is not the same as causing it to happen.

13:50 The Roman author Juvenal accused them of behavior like this and 2 Timothy 3:6.

13:52 They were inspired by the love of God (Ephesians 3:19).

14:3 The Gospel is summarized as “the message of His grace”.

14:8 Paul is a Parallel Pete. See Acts 3:2.

14:9 There are people who have faith but aren’t healed; God’s grace is sufficient for them (2 Corinthians 12:9). There are people that don’t have faith that get healed anyway because God is kind and it’s a lesson for others (Acts 3:6). There are people that have faith and get healed.

14:11 There is a story in Ovid’s Metamorphosis about Zeus and Hermes in that town disguised as men.

14:12 Hermes was thought to be the messenger of the gods.

14:14 “apostles” Barnabas and Paul were afforded the same status as Matthias and the Eleven.

14:15-17 Paul explained this and the effects of idolatry at length in Romans 1:18-32.

14:18 Wow, they really liked Barnabas and Paul.

14:19 Wow, that escalated quickly. They were ready to worship Paul a verse ago. This account of Paul’s attempted/temporary execution-and-resurrection resembled the setting of Christ’s (Hebrews 13:12). Paul got stoned like Stephen (Acts 7:60). Jesus was crucified. The road is bumpy. The bumps aren’t sent by God to get you to fail a test and rule you out, but passing the “tests” is celebrated. See 1 Peter 1:6-9.

14:22 The bumpiness of the road does not affect the certainty of the destination.

14:23 Notice there were “elders” even during Paul’s first missionary journey; some scholars will try to tell you that the church structure developed later.

14:27 as in Isaiah 49:6.

14:28 “long time” More wiggle room for chronologies. Place Galatians 2 and Paul’s reconciliation with Barnabas where you wish. However, it would be weird for Barnabas to disagree with Paul about eating with Gentiles if the Council at Jerusalem had already happened. I think the events described in Galatians 2 had already happened by this point in the story and that Peter listening to Paul prompted the mission of the Judaizers in Acts 15:1.

Acts 15 – The Council at Jerusalem

Please forgive me for this chunk of introductory material:

Prophecies about Gentiles worshiping God like Isaiah 49:6 and Psalm 86:9 wouldn’t be true if they all converted to Judaism. Getting circumcised made one as Jewish as a genetic descendant of Jacob. See Exodus 12:43-44,48 and Esther 8:17.

Jesus’ brother (Joseph’s son) James the Just led the church in Jerusalem after Peter went on the lam in Acts 12.

The Council at Jerusalem distilled the minimum behavior requirements for their Gentile friends down to “abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality”. I think they looked to the Laws of Noah that were already kept by Gentile God-fearers like Cornelius (Acts 10) that were the minimum requirements to visit a synagogue (Acts 15:20-21,29) and I think they were mindful of the pikuach nefesh exceptions. Working backwards, the existence of a halakhic principle like pikuach nefesh inspires a search for a baseline. See Leviticus 18:5 and Proverbs 19:16. The principle of pikuach nefesh can be summarized as “save lives” and therefore “lives are greater than laws” (with a few exceptions that cause death or national exile—murder, idolatry, and sexual immorality—as seen in Ezekiel 33:25-26 and Psalm 106:34-40). The Jewish religious leaders had reasoned that if the point of keeping the Law was to live, then laws could safely (or even had to) be broken if lives were in jeopardy. This is how people who lie to killers (Rahab, the Hebrew midwives, etc.) end up getting rewarded by the God who says liars go in the fire. No one but Jesus ever kept the Law of Moses. Some of the 613 commands contradicted each other at times. There was much discussion of which commandments "weighed" more than others, or how to prioritize what to obey when. You can see this in Jesus' discussion of priests circumcising on the Sabbath, in His mention of David and his men eating the showbread, Jesus admonishing the tithing Pharisees about neglecting the weightier matters (justice, mercy, and faithfulness), and in the questions of which commands were the greatest (Love of God and neighbor). The rabbis say that they weren’t permitted murder, idolatry, or sexual immorality (as enumerated in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20) even to save their own lives because they would fail to possess the land (Ezekiel 33:25-26, Deuteronomy 18:12) and get wiped out like the Canaanites, drowned like the world in Noah’s day, burnt like Sodom, etc. I’m not saying Gentiles were ever under the Law of Moses for these hard stops; the big hint is that there is behavior that got punished even among those who never were under the Law of Moses (Genesis 9:6, Jeremiah 48:35, Genesis 20:7, etc.). These issues look a lot like what the Gentile Christians were expected to obey in Acts 15. As a refresher, the Laws of Noah aka Noahide Laws aka What God Expected From Righteous Gentiles Before Christ are a) Don’t curse God, including swearing falsely by His Name b) Don’t worship idols or do the occult stuff from Deuteronomy 18 c) Don’t eat blood, flesh ripped from living animals, etc. d) establish/support legitimate government (including respecting your betters and your parents, who had the power to execute disobedient offspring in the ancient world) because it enforces: e) no murder, f) no theft or kidnapping, and g) no sexual immorality. Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 spells out the off-limits sexual behaviors even Canaanites without the Law of Moses got punished for. The rules in Acts 15 and Acts 21 agree with these Genesis-era baseline expectations. The behavioral instructions in the New Testament can be linked to this list, proper respect for God, love for others, and/or making the Gospel attractive by not being reprehensible. For example, drinking to the point of experiencing blackouts is a willingness to forget whether you made vows in God’s name that need keeping, a willingness to sire your own grandchild, etc.

I’ve said all of that to say this: the Council at Jerusalem mandated obedience by Gentile Christians to the parts of the Noahide Laws that aren’t immediately obvious from Jesus’ New Testament commands that we studied in John: 1) Believe and 2) Love.

15:1 “from Judea” These were not necessarily official representatives of the church in Jerusalem.

15:2 “sharp dispute and debate” See Galatians 5:12. A meeting of the authorities to sort this out is a traditional application of Matthew 16:19’s binding and loosing, or determining how to apply laws. See Matthew 18:20.

15:3 The presence of miracles like in Acts 14:19-20, healings, etc., would have been of great interest to prove God’s approval.

15:5 This was not the whole Jerusalem church as some of the Tubingen people would have you believe. This was a subset of the Pharisees. Paul was a Pharisee too; different Pharisee schools disagreed on how to apply the laws.

15:8-9 To be saved is to have the Holy Spirit, and to have the Holy Spirit is to be saved. Our hearts are purified by faith when we believe in Christ (Acts 13:39).

15:10 Think of this verse anytime anyone suggests bringing back fasting, pork avoidance, the Sabbath, tithing, etc., at your church. Only Jesus kept the Law of Moses.

15:11 Getting or staying saved is not a reason to obey the Law of Moses (Romans 3:24, Romans 4:16, Romans 5:21). Grace is the only way for Jews and for Gentiles.

15:12 Miracles are rare, and most prove a point. See John 9:33.

15:13 James the Just, the guy whose letter is used by those attempting a rebuttal of all of this grace stuff, was about to personally endorse a low bar for Gentiles.

15:14-18 James quoted Amos 9:11-12. The Psalms frequently predicted Gentile inclusion (Psalm 67, Psalm 86:9, Psalm 87:4). If the people fully converted, they would have become Israelites; they would no longer have been referred to as “the nations”, etc.

15:19 James said to make it easy to come to Jesus for an easy yoke (Matthew 11:28-30).

15:20 I say these are the Noahide Laws that aren’t included in Jesus’ commands to Believe and Love. (Since the problem with strangled animals is blood, if “blood” stands for murder, then it’s also conveniently the pikuach nefesh exceptions.) A believer in Christ as God made flesh who loves and serves others (John 13:34-35, Romans 13:10) made in His Image (especially other believers – 1 John 5:1) as modeled by Him typically won’t worship other gods, curse God, cheat other people by swearing falsely by His Name, seriously deal with occult powers, live as a murderer/thief/kidnapper/other criminal (Romans 13), and habitually disrespect their parents, etc. See Leviticus 20:23 and Deuteronomy 18:9. A believer in Christ that was freshly full of that warm feeling but fuzzy on the Noahide Laws might think it’s okay to go visit their old church to eat from the idol buffet and enjoy some ritual sex while they spread the Good News to their friends and family, so the apostles underlined a few points for them. (1 Timothy 4:1-4, Mark 7:18-19, Matthew 15:11, Romans 14, and 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 have more to think about regarding food. Paul distinguishes between eating in a pagan temple and buying groceries with a sketchy provenance, making these rules even easier to follow.) We end up with something that tastes like the Ten Commandments minus the Sabbath (Colossians 2:16, Hebrews 4), plus blood drinking, occult stuff, the full menu of sex crimes, etc. If you don’t believe my derivation, stating they made up these and other New Testament behavior instructions arbitrarily using the binding-and-loosing power given to them by Christ would give you the same list to memorize. When we get to the rest of the New Testament behavior instructions, I’m going to repeatedly emphasize that they were written primarily to former pagans having trouble being formerly pagan. The meanings of words drift over time, so my attempts to re-contextualize them will inevitably be seen by some as encouraging licentiousness since we’ve been trained to operate within Pharisee fences. I said this over a hundred pages ago, so it bears repeating:

An illustration: It's like an adopted child came home from school to a note saying, "Clean your room. Love, Dad." She saved it, and it became a treasured object because of what it says and because of who wrote it. After all, it's written proof that she is loved and that someone calls her his daughter. Eventually, the note is passed down to the next generation. Imagine the grandchild who reads it in an orderly house and doesn't quite get the original significance of why it was kept. Then, this child begins retrofitting their bedroom into an ISO Class 5 cleanroom more suitable for bio-technical research than for human habitation. Satan loves legalism. By building a fence six inches inside our yard, the Accuser can get countless believers thinking something is wrong and yet doing it anyway, which is sinful (Romans 14:23) and makes us smell like a bunch of hypocrites, ruining our witness. Some believers are better at this version of the-floor-is-lava than others, turning churches into behavior-improvement country clubs. Even though tax collectors and whores beat Pharisees into the Kingdom (Matthew 21:31), Pharisees still have an audience. Jesus said that theirs was a heavy yoke and that they weren't helping (Matthew 23:4). His yoke is easy. His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). He is the Truth (John 14:6) who sets us free (John 8:32). Life did not get worse under grace than it was under the Old Covenant.

Since verse 21 clarifies that the verse 20 prohibitions are to be understood in light of an assumed Gentile familiarity with the Law of Moses, we can see that modern blood transfusions don’t seem like the eating of blood from Leviticus 17:11-12; additionally, we can see that the sexual immorality that is prohibited pertains to what is enumerated in the Leviticus 18 passages that also applied to people who were not under the Law of Moses, etc.

15:21 The rules expected of Gentile Christians were conveniently what was expected of Gentiles who wanted to visit synagogue services. Righteous Gentiles/God-fearers/ger toshav/Noahides who followed God’s expectations for all humanity without getting circumcised/converting to Judaism were people like Cornelius (Acts 10) who became some of the earliest converts to Christianity. Following the rules doesn’t save us (Romans 4:15); like any loving parent, He guides us in the lives He saved us to live.

15:22 Joseph/Barsabbas/Justus the almost-apostle (Acts 1:23) makes another appearance here.

15:24 When Paul says friends of James were bothering the Gentile Christians, he doesn’t mean James sent them.

15:29 Again, these are not for salvation (Acts 13:39, Acts 15:9) but about living the good lives we were saved to live.

15:37 Mark was Barnabas’ nephew.

15:38 in Acts 13:13.

15:39-40 Barnabas leaves the book of Acts here. Christians can disagree and be separate physically without being unloving. Paul and Mark had become friendly again around Acts 24 when Paul had written Colossians 4:10. There was still respect evident between Paul and Barnabas as seen in 1 Corinthians 9:6, which was written after Acts 18.

16:1 The prohibitions of intermarriage in Deuteronomy 7 were about specific nations that formerly occupied the Promised Land. Despite all the patrilineal genealogies and righteous Old Testament characters that married foreign women (although it’s easy to assume they converted), ever since people read about Ezra throwing all those foreign women and their children into the street, Jewish heritage has been reckoned as being born to a Jewish mother.

16:3 Paul was like a chameleon, fitting in with different groups trying to convert people (1 Corinthians 9). Timothy didn’t seek to be circumcised to put himself under the Jewish Law like the Galatians were being coerced into (Galatians 5); Paul did this so Timothy would have access to places that would have otherwise kept him out for being uncircumcised (Genesis 17:14). Paul was accused of bringing guests where they didn’t belong (Acts 21:29).

16:6 They got to go to the parts of Asia Minor they wanted to visit later (Acts 18:19). Here, the Spirit blocked them; in 1 Thessalonians 2:18, Satan was the source of opposition for a different trip; life on Earth's complicated, so try not to take things personally.

16:8 “Troas” or Troy, a port city in what is now Western Turkey. It was a popular staging area to go to Greece (Acts 20:5).

16:10 “we” Notice that Luke joins Paul’s company here.

16:12 “Philippi” as in the Epistle to the Philippians.

16:13 There was a requirement of at least ten Jewish males to have a synagogue, perhaps derived from Genesis 18:32.

16:14 As a dyer of Thyatira purple, Lydia was very rich. “The Lord opened her heart…” demonstrating that there is grace available even to understand the Gospel (known as prevenient grace). We’ll read more about Thyatira in Revelation.

16:15 “household” This verse does not mention a lack of moist babies accompanied by promises to raise them right and to tell them about Jesus. These “household” verses don’t say everyone living there could articulate an acceptable understanding of the Gospel, etc., prior to getting wet.

16:16 Like we saw back in Job, the devil cannot actually tell the future. Only God really knows. Demons (with centuries of studying human behavior and the Bible, as well as lots of experience meddling in human affairs through their pawns) can guess the future well enough to fool people. There are also plenty of charlatans that are good at cold reading, etc.

16:17 Mockers can say true things in the “wrong” tone to make the truth off-putting.

16:18 Paul is a Parallel Pete (Acts 5:16).

16:19 Paul and Silas separated from Luke’s “we” at this point.

16:20-21 “customs unlawful for us Romans” Christians came to be called atheists by the Romans since we don’t believe in their gods. The Romans were quite accepting of any new polytheists they found; they were good at identifying reasons to say that these new gods were versions of their own idols back on the mantle at home. However, flushing all their stuff to keep Jesus led to us being blamed for disasters since we were infidels to the gods of the affected spheres of influence. Worshiping Jesus instead of the emperor was thought to be disloyal. Christians were also accused of corrupting the youth, inciting rebellion among slaves (Isaiah 58:6) and women, promoting gender equality (Galatians 3:28), engaging in incest (think of a Roman who met a married couple who are brothers and sisters in Christ), and practicing cannibalism (see John 6:51-58).

16:22 like Acts 5:40-41.

16:25 Praise is powerful, as we saw in 2 Chronicles 20.

16:26 Paul is a Parallel Pete, who had miraculous jailbreaks in Acts 5 and Acts 12.

16:27 Even though he would have likely been beheaded instead of crucified, getting beaten and executed by the Romans was not fun.

16:30-31 On this side of the Cross, the answer is different than it was in Matthew 19:17. You guessed “believe”, right?

16:34 Paul remembered these people fondly in Philippians 1:3.

16:37-38 Locals got stripped nude and roughed up, but Roman citizens got due process.

17:1 “Thessalonica” or Thessaloniki was where the audience of 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians lived.

17:2-3 Paul gave them the proverbial Walk to Emmaus from Luke 24.

17:4 Again, the God-fearers/Righteous Gentiles/ger toshav/Noahides were found visiting the synagogues.

17:11 Be a good Berean and check religious messages against all of the Scriptures.

17:12 More rich folks were getting it right in this verse. I keep pointing this out since Luke and Acts are often used to prop up anti-wealth thinking.

17:13 They were willing to travel sixty miles to rile up a crowd against us but not check the Scriptures like those in verse 11.

17:15 Comparing this verse to 1 Thessalonians 3:1-3, since Acts 18:1 is an unspecified amount of time, it seems that Timothy came to Paul, got sent to the Thessalonians to check on them, then reconvened with him in Acts 18:5.

17:17 The idols-at-home Gentiles weren’t welcome at the synagogue, but the Noahides were.

17:18 Stoicism (oversimplification): all is fated, control your feelings, and only the mind matters. Most of the Pharisees and the Stoics agreed that humans have immortal souls and that behavior affected the fate of those souls. Their “vice lists” even overlapped to a great extent. The list from 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 is constructed in a way that would be familiar reading to both Pharisees and Stoics. Epicureanism (oversimplification): human behavior is of no importance to God, enjoy the simple things, and only the body matters. Most of the Sadducees and the Epicureans agreed that God didn’t care much about human behavior and that death was final. Lately, Epicureanism is confused with (and used as a synonym for) hedonism. Hedonism: only pleasure matters, live it up, and achieve maximum debauchery.

17:19 “Areopagus” or Mars Hill, where trials were held.

17:22 Notice that Paul began addressing them with positivity instead of calling them out all out as a bunch of depraved doomed perverts.

17:23 Paul discusses how they should have known God in Romans 1.

17:24 Nice church buildings/facilities can make people want to come, but the Church is the people.

17:25 God is not needy. God is generous. God is a joy to know.

17:27 God stymied humanism and hubris at the Tower of Babel so we’d look to Him instead of to our own works.

17:28 Rather than reference Psalm 145:18 and Genesis 1:27 (which they had no familiarity with), Paul used what he could of their own true stuff by quoting Epimenides and Aratus. He met people where they were. I’ve seen pastors use movie clips and Internet memes to try to get a sermon across. Granted, Paul was speaking to outsiders who knew nothing; on a typical Sunday, I would like to see pastors mostly using the Bible (and nice large paragraphs thereof, not just out-of-context soundbites), but I’m not trying to argue with something if it is actually bringing people to Christ. Just like the Outrunners said, “Nothing succeeds like success.”

17:29 like Isaiah 44.

17:30-31 Gentile repentance is turning from idols to Christ, from unbelief to belief. Paul says Jesus will judge the world, Jesus says believers won’t be judged (John 5:24), Jesus says we are in the world but not of the world (John 17:16), and I don’t think Paul disagrees with Jesus at all. Rather, saving other people from the coming judgment by converting them is a motivator for evangelism (2 Corinthians 5:10-11). Seeing the effects of Jesus living in you is the only Bible most people will ever read.

17:32 Platonists thought of the body as a prison for the soul and unworthy of saving. The ideas about living forever in Heaven as a disembodied spirit are Platonist. Their spirit-good-matter-bad philosophy led to the development of Gnosticism.

18:1 Paul wrote several letters to the Corinthians, and we have two of them.

18:2 Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from the city of Rome for disputing over “Chrestus”; they returned after his murder. Tension between the returning Jewish Christians and the Gentile believers is addressed in the Book of Romans.

18:5 Money from the Philippians (Philippians 4:15) in Macedonia financed this (2 Corinthians 11:8-9).

18:6 This is not an example of cheek-turning (Matthew 5:39). As Paul’s Christlikeness is endorsed in Scripture (1 Corinthians 11:1), this supports our assertions of cultural hyperbole in the Sermon on the Mount as well as its Old Covenant context.

18:8 There’s a different synagogue leader in verse 17 because Crispus quit his job by switching to Christianity (Acts 18:13, John 16:2).

18:10 “I am with you” is a motif throughout the Bible (in Deuteronomy 20:1, Joshua 1:9, Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 43:5, Jeremiah 1:8,19, Romans 8:31, etc.).

18:12 Gallio was proconsul of Achaia in 51-52 AD.

18:19 Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesians. He also wrote to Timothy, who was leading the church in Ephesus at the time. Ephesus got another small letter in Revelation. The Apostle John, caretaker of Jesus’ mother Mary, spent his latter years there, too.

18:24-26 At first, Apollos only knew the pre-Cross teachings of Jesus about Judaism.

18:27-28 Apollos preached in Corinth (in the province of Achaia); Paul mentions this in his writings to the Corinthians. I also think there’s a good chance Apollos wrote the Book of Hebrews, and we’ll cover more about that when we get there.

19:1-3 “disciples” Torah students, perhaps followers of John the Baptist (that were absent on the day he said Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16) or pre-conversion Apollos (Acts 18:25). They believed the pre-Cross teachings of Jesus about turning from sin at best, as receiving the Holy Spirit is as simple as believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God risen from the dead.

19:6 Before I start rambling, the point of this story is that Paul is proven to be just as much an apostle as Peter and John (Acts 8:16-17). Here’s that old touchy two-step Holy Spirit transmission seen among the Jews including the John the Baptist people, the Samaritans, anyone quasi-Torah observant, etc., that resembles the Old Testament method of commissioning people for service, passing along spiritual abilities etc. Gentiles didn’t have that baggage, so it’s no surprise that believing is receiving for us. Remember the Gentile with great faith that Jesus did a healing for at a distance just by speaking in Matthew 8? Contrast Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10 with speech and another blind man in John 9 with spit mud. Much like proving to the world with regard to the Samaritans that salvation comes through the Jews (John 4), these early episodes requiring apostolic touch affirm their authority and demonstrate “which” Judaism was right given all the sects we’ve read about. Basically no one among the first century Jews thought that the Gentiles were any better than talking barnyard animals, so we were not a part of such an object lesson. With all points already having been proven, all believers receive the Holy Spirit (John 7:39, Galatians 3:2,5) without any so-called “second blessing”. Getting saved, getting the Holy Spirit, etc., is all accomplished in one step through belief in Jesus. We have every spiritual blessing already in Christ (Ephesians 1:3) without attending or paying for extra classes (which can sometimes resemble Simon Magus’ attempt at simony) or being touched with or without oil by someone claiming to be this generation’s Peter, etc.

19:8 Namely, that the Kingdom is the King they were lacking in verse 4. We get placed into Him at salvation.

19:10 Otherwise unrecorded beatings, imprisonments, etc., seen in 2 Corinthians could have happened in these two years.

19:11-12 Paul is a Parallel Pete (Acts 5:15). This story is also reminiscent of the healing brought about by touching Jesus’ garment in Luke 8:44-48.

19:13-16 In Mark 9, Jesus said that in that instance prayer was the missing ingredient for a difficult exorcism. Let’s unpack this: Salvation comes through knowing Christ, not performing works. God is kind, so healing can happen sometimes even if the healer is not right with Him. Some things like exorcisms, prophecies like John 11:51, or miracles can happen through an office or through mere use of the Name. Others require prayer (a relationship). The Jews in Matthew 7:22 did the first kind, and the Acts 19 Scevites attempted the second kind without apostolic authority (Matthew 10:1, Mark 3:15) or the protection He gives us (1 John 5:18). In other words, some Matthew 7:22 unbelievers met a Mark 9 demon.

19:17-21 Some translations speak of “sins” in verse 18 and others speak of ”deeds”. Salvation is from belief (Acts 13:39). I propose that public esteem of Jesus (verse 17) led those who had already believed to stop living in secret and to confess Him openly (verse 18). The fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives was attractive, and there were many conversions in verse 20. The book burning (Deuteronomy 18:10-14) of verse 19 is a success against the occult to contrast the failure in verse 16. This state of affairs led to the widespread acceptance of the Gospel seen in verse 26. Therefore, “after all this” in verse 21 Paul was free to go to Jerusalem for events which eventually led to his death like Christ, just like most of the rest of the apostles who got martyred after completing their mission.

19:24 Artemis of the Ephesians is the Greek Artemis (whom the Romans called Diana, and they combined her with Luna the moon and Hecate of the underworld) plus the Turkish Cybele. She was a perpetually virgin mother goddess with a dying/rising castrated grandson/consort named Attis. The priests in Cybele’s religion castrated themselves, and religious observances included getting the blood from that procedure onto the congregation’s garments. Buggery with the castrated priests was also part of the religious services. I am also told that they had their own version of Holy Week (“Hilaria”) with indoor tree decoration and (since the days of Emperor Augustus) washing a sacred stone in a stream.

19:27,36 If she had actual power, this concern would be unnecessary. Likewise, God’s tough, so you don’t have to defend Him.

20:5-6 They rejoined Luke at Troas. They got separated from Luke at Philippi in Acts 16:19.

20:7 They had Communion weekly here. They had it daily in Acts 2:46. There are no rules governing its frequency. Just don’t make an idol of it.

20:9 Falling asleep during sermons is biblical. This young man received medical care, not punishment.

20:10 Paul is Parallel Pete (Acts 9:36-41). See also 2 Kings 4:35.

20:16 It’s okay to be smart about your time, your social life, etc.

20:21 See John 6:28-29 and John 16:9. The sin is unbelief in Jesus, so the repentance is changing your mind to believe in Jesus.

20:24 Paul succeeded (2 Timothy 4:7). Notice that the main thing is the good news of God’s grace (Ephesians 3:8-12).

20:25-26 Paul referenced Ezekiel 33:6.

20:27 “whole will of God” Salvation by grace through faith in our risen Lord Jesus (John 6:28-29), as seen in Acts 19:4.

20:28 Similar to the shepherd talk in John 10 and John 21. Notice that the Church was bought with His blood (Isaiah 53:12); the Church was born at the Cross and the Resurrection. The Church already had a structure/hierarchy sooner that some “scholars” will tell you we did.

20:29-30 “wolves” For example, Paul’s opponents from verse 19, other Judaizers like those bothering the Galatians, the nasty people from Jude 4, and the whole spectrum of rulemaking Pharisee wannabes and seeker-friendly still-pagans between them. See 1 Timothy 1:3 and Revelation 2:2.

20:32 He committed them to God because we can’t do it on our own. We are given the inheritance by God’s grace. It is by God’s grace that we are already sanctified (1 Corinthians 6:11, Hebrews 10:10,14).

20:33 The wolves from verse 29 want the material goods in this verse.

20:34-35 See John 21:25. We don’t have the source of Paul’s Jesus quote. Jesus praised generosity in the gospels we have previously discussed. Paul seconded that in Galatians 6:10 and 2 Corinthians 9:12-13. Appropriate focuses for generosity are discussed in James 1:27 and 1 Timothy 5. You don’t have to go overboard (2 Corinthians 8:13-14), and what you give doesn’t have to be money (1 Peter 4:10-11).

21:7 “Ptolemais” may be familiar to you as Acre if you’ve read about the Crusades.

21:8 You remember good ol’ Phil from Acts 6.

21:9 See Acts 2:17-18. They were unmarried, so a “head covering” does not appear to mean a husband in 1 Corinthians 11.

21:10 See Acts 11:27-28.

21:11 This is similar to the symbol used in Jeremiah 13. Some say that Paul going to Jerusalem was against the leading of the Spirit, but see Acts 23:11.

21:12-14 Here’s a look ahead: Paul was initially welcome in Jerusalem. He visited the Temple. He was opposed by religious leaders. He broke bread, was seized by a crowd, got slapped by the High Priest’s assistant, and was tried by the Sanhedrin and a Gentile (with the Gentile saying he wasn’t guilty). Paul really is an imitator of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

21:20 “zealous for the Law” Not that they should have been (Acts 15:10-11, Hebrews 8:13, Hebrews 10:9), as we’ll discuss throughout the rest of the Bible. They kept it about as well as humans can to maintain their distinct identity as a people, but they couldn’t rely on it for salvation (Romans 3:20), it inflames the desire to sin (Romans 7:8), and following part of it is cursed (Galatians 3:10) which is inevitable since everyone stumbles (James 3:2). You don’t follow something you’re dead to (Romans 7:4, Romans 10:4).

21:21 Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” claimed divinity and tried to do those very things to the Jews. Not demanding conversion to Judaism for Gentiles to become Christians in order to keep prophecies of Gentiles worshiping God true is different than forbidding Jewish Christians from maintaining a cultural identity. Compare the keeping-the-tribes-separate vibe in 1 Corinthians 7:17-20 to the supersessionism of Galatians 3:24-29. Okay, it’s alleged supersessionism; he didn’t specifically say to stop being Jewish, just that it does not grant a privileged status in Christ relative to being Gentile. He pointed out some good things about being Jewish in Romans 3. Paul was a chameleon (1 Corinthians 9), fitting in with different groups in an attempt to save as many people as possible.

21:24 Paul had been in unclean Gentile lands. See Acts 18:18.

21:25 James himself had announced the easier deal for Gentile Christians in Acts 15.

21:26 If, as some say, James were behind the “superapostle” Judaizers/circumcisers of Gentiles, wouldn’t the setup on Paul have hit before verse 27? And wouldn’t Acts 15 have gone entirely differently?

21:27-35 Paul found himself in Stephen’s shoes (Acts 6:13) and Jesus’ (Mark 14:55-59).

21:36 like Luke 23:18.

21:38 Here’s another of the Messiah claimants Jesus warned of in the Olivet Discourse.

22:1 like Stephen in Acts 7:2.

22:9 This agrees with Acts 9:7; they heard the voice, but did not understand what was said.

22:16 Notice that calling on His Name is the baptism that washes Saul’s sins away (Joel 2:32, Romans 10:9-10).

22:22 They were interested in Paul’s story until he said “Gentiles”.

22:25 Think of Jesus’ outstretched arms on the Cross.

22:28 See Acts 6:9. Freedmen were full Roman citizens with the exception that they couldn’t hold office. Their children were full Roman citizens.

22:30 like Pilate sending Jesus to Herod, etc.

23:2 like John 18:22.

23:3 See Ezekiel 13:10.

23:5 It is speculated that Paul had some lingering eye problems based on this, mentioning being ill (Galatians 4:14), writing in large letters (Galatians 6:11), people being willing to donate their eyes to him (Galatians 4:15), etc. Then again, he may have just been snarky (Galatians 5:12). The high priest (Exodus 22:28) wasn’t behaving like one.

23:8 Even if the Sadducees only acknowledged the first five books of the Old Testament, there are many angel appearances in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers. Therefore, they resembled the modern elitists who consider our faith superstition for the weak.

23:9 This is possibly a preview or a clue to whom Paul was talking about in Colossians 2:18.

23:12 like in 1 Samuel 14.

23:16-22 For anyone still operating by other commentators’ handling of “resist not an evildoer”, please at least see that snitching is fine.

23:23 If you don’t want a fight, bringing enough troops to make an attack on you futile is effective.

23:29 like Luke 23:15.

23:35 “Herod’s palace” Wealthy Herod had several palaces. This part of Paul’s story is reminiscent of Jesus being sent to Herod for one of His trials.

24:1 This sequence mirrors Christ’s trial under Pilate with Jewish accusers. Also, Peter had his big Matthew 16:16 realization in one of the Caesareas.

24:6 “desecrate the Temple” Paul was accused of bringing a Gentile; Jesus knocked over some furniture.

24:14 They thought the Way was a sect that believed in Jesus as Messiah in the same way the Pharisees were a sect that believed in the oral Torah. Jesus is the Way. God’s people all along have been those who believe. We are not a sect or a subgroup of Judaism; it’s all really been about Him.

24:15 See Daniel 12:2.

24:16 Believer, your conscience is clear before God because of what Jesus did for us (1 John 2:1-2, Colossians 1:22). Paul kept his conscience clear before man not out of a paranoia born from the Sermon on the Mount about being reconciled to your brother before sacrificing an animal to God (which was meant to cause despair among the original hearers of ever attaining Law-based righteousness), but because he didn’t want to create obstacles to people hearing the message of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:27, Titus 2:10).

24:17 “gifts for the poor…offerings” In addition to the collection for the poor mentioned in Paul’s letters, Paul offered the sacrifices needed to complete his (Nazirite?) vow and ritual purification from traveling amongst the Gentiles (verse 18). Paul played nice with the Temple system to have maximum access to both Jewish and Gentile potential converts. Ritual purification is not a thing for us under the New Covenant.

24:23 Basically, Paul was put under house arrest as a Roman citizen.

24:24 Drusilla was Herod Agrippa’s daughter. Herod Agrippa was the grandson of Herod the Great. Drusilla divorced her husband to marry Felix; John the Baptist criticized Herod Antipas (Agrippa’s uncle) for the same scenario. Herod Agrippa, as part of Emperor Caligula’s entourage, sailed with him to the Netherlands (to party, I assume).

24:25 Since sexual immorality (verse 24) is still a no-no under the New Covenant, Paul’s instructions probably sounded like John the Baptist’s to the Roman.

24:27 Looking back to Acts 21:17, Luke (who wrote down Acts) had plenty of time to interview people to prepare his gospel.

25:1 Depending on your timeline, this might have been around 62 AD when James (Jesus’ brother, Joseph’s son) was murdered at the order of High Priest Ananus.

25:8 Jesus could have said the same thing (John 8:46).

25:9 Paul correctly picked up on the missing clause at the end of that sentence: “and get murdered?”

25:12 We have appealed to Christ. Our plea was guilty, and our sentence was death, which Jesus already took care of for us (John 5:24).

25:13 Bernice, who had allegedly been involved in brother-sister incest, was later romantically involved with Titus (leader of the siege of Jerusalem who went on to become an emperor).

25:24 Much like the crowd that yelled, “Crucify Him!”

25:25 Much like Pilate’s handwashing.

26:14 “kick against the goads” Paul was being led like an animal pricked by oxgoads. Jonah, another prophet to the Gentiles, resisted his calling too.

26:18 Paul’s argument about how saving the Gentiles would lead to saving the Jews is in Romans 9 through Romans 11. Paul didn’t just make up the Gentile mission; See Deuteronomy 32:21, Isaiah 49:6, Luke 2:32, and Acts 13:47 to follow the thread here. Faith is what sanctifies us (Acts 13:39, Acts 15:8-11), and it is a completed process (1 Corinthians 6:11, Hebrews 10:10). Our behavior isn’t perfect yet, but believers are perfectly cleansed already (Hebrews 10:14).

26:20 This summarizes Paul’s letters: Jesus fixed you, so live like it.

26:22 “Moses” See Deuteronomy 32:21.

26:23 “first” Plenty of people got resuscitated before Jesus, but He is different. Those people lived some more but then died again. Jesus is the firstborn of the General Resurrection of Daniel 12:2. We will get immortal new bodies (1 Corinthians 15:35-49) like Him.

27:1 Luke rejoined Paul.

27:10-12 Winter sailing in that region had an unsafe track record.

27:20 They lost the ability to navigate.

27:22 This is reminiscent of us (when the world ends).

27:24 You will fulfill your God-given destiny (Ephesians 2:10). Samson eventually defeated the Philistines and made it into the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11, though not by means he would have preferred. God can still get you where you need to be (Philippians 2:13). God’s blessings in your life also lift up those around you, like Laban on behalf of Jacob (Genesis 30:27). This scene is reminiscent of how the disciples (minus Judas) were kept safe through the ending of the four gospels.

27:30-32 God can be practical at times, as seen in the “two boats and a helicopter” joke I related back in the Nehemiah 4 notes. Paul, the centurion, and the soldiers still needed the God-given skill of the sailors to operate the boat.

27:34 We eat Him (John 6:58) and live forever; we celebrate “in remembrance” of this (already accomplished) fact with Communion (Luke 22:19-20). He’s not dying over and over again (Hebrews 9:27-28), so it is finished; your forgiveness is settled (John 19:30, Hebrews 10:14).

27:43 Again, God blessing you can bless those around you, too.

27:44 They ended up making it to shore without the boat. God can get you where He’s taking you without who or what you may have been relying on, so keep believing.

28:2 “unusual kindness” Being His kid is nice.

28:3-6 See Mark 16:18. This fulfills the snake thing on behalf of Christians, because we are united (John 17:20-23). Paul was thought to be a god back in Acts 14:11, too.

28:8 See Luke 4:38-40; Paul is an imitator of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

28:11 “Castor and Pollux” as well as Helen of Troy were reportedly the product of relations between a woman named Leda and a swan (Zeus in disguise) in violation of Leviticus 18:23. The more descriptive stories summarized in that sentence (and re-enacted in pagan temples) are the type of “obscene” pagan thing Paul wrote against in Ephesians 5:4.

28:16 This ends Luke’s “we” statements.

28:17-19 Paul is very Christlike. He may as well have quoted Luke 23:34 here.

28:23 Basically, Paul gave them the Emmaus Walk through the Scriptures from Luke 24.

28:25-28 Paul made a “final” statement. He quoted the Septuagint’s handling of Isaiah 6:9-10 again. This does not mean that Abraham’s physical descendants are cast away forever; Paul explains at length about how saving the Gentiles is a prelude to saving the Jews in Romans 9 through Romans 11. However, this episode does seem to be a line of demarcation in history. Up until this point in Acts, we’ve seen lingering elements of John the Baptist’s exhortation to national repentance from sin, familiar Old Testament practices like fasting and laying on hands to receive sign gifts or apostleship, etc., as well as plenty of supernatural content. In 1 Corinthians 1:22, Paul said that the Jews sought signs from Heaven and the Greeks sought human wisdom. There is a point of view called cessationism that says that all miraculous spiritual gifts stopped in the time of the apostles. I’m not advocating that; miracles still happen, but we call them miracles because they are unusual. I see God’s goodness all the time in the blessings in my life; this is about the headline-worthy miracle-healings-from-napkins stuff that authenticated the ministries we’ve studied recently. In the later letters from the apostles, we see the miracle men from Acts praying for healing and advocating practical solutions like drinking red wine instead of just superheroing away Tim’s stomach ailments and Paul’s eye problems. The miracles in the Gospel of John were specific signs to explain Jesus. The miracles in Acts validated the Church as the Body of Christ. Even in the miraculous Old Testament days, the manna ran out when the crops became available. Pivoting to a Gentile audience and the advent of the writings that became the New Testament explains the apparent de-powering of the apostles to me in light of 1 Corinthians 1:22. Faith is knowing and trusting; it wouldn’t be faith if everything were accompanied by obvious pyrotechnics.

28:31 Plus, locking Paul up gave him time to write a lot of the New Testament. What looks like a mishap now might actually be how something amazing happens.

After the Book of Acts, Nero blamed a fire in Rome on Christians. Christians had been called atheists for not worshiping the pagan gods and inviting their wrath. Emperor Nero demanded worship as a god while he was still alive, and an enormous bronze statue of himself, the Nero Colossus, may have given the Colosseum (or the Flavian Amphitheater) its name when it was moved there (and its head changed a few times, but I digress). Paul was beheaded and Peter was crucified upside down. (Non-apostle James the Just, Jesus’ brother and Joseph’s son, had already been thrown from the roof of the Temple.) Since the apostles completed their mission (Colossians 1:23), the protections pronounced on them at the end of Mark had ended. The grim stuff kept coming. We already read about James’ (John’s brother) beheading in Acts. Per tradition, Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross and took two days to die, Thomas was impaled/stabbed, Philip was crucified upside down with hooks, Matthew was impaled/stabbed, Bartholomew was flayed with whips, James son of Alpheus was stoned/clubbed, Simon the Zealot was crucified or sawed in half upside down starting at the groin, Matthias (the newest team member) was burned, and Jude was crucified. John was boiled in oil but it didn’t kill him. He took care of Mary. He spent time on the prison island of Patmos, but led the church in Ephesus in his later years. John the Apostle lived nearly to the end of the first century.

As for the regional history of Judea, in 64 AD, procurator Albinus emptied the prisons. The ranks of the Zealots grew with what Josephus presented as perverted bandits (The Jewish War 4.9.10). In 66 AD, procurator Florus looted the Temple and crucified prominent citizens, triggering a rebellion. The 12th Legion (Fulminata, or Lightning) was defeated by Jews including Simon bar Giora. The First Jewish-Roman War began in 66 AD. Vespasian (oddly, the Roman general was a self-styled Jewish Messiah claimant) invaded Galilee with four legions in 67 AD. Driven from Galilee, Zealot rebels and thousands of refugees arrived in Jerusalem, and internecine fighting ensued. In 67 AD, factions associated with Josephus, Vespasian, and John of Gischala were at war. Vespasian’s son Titus came with more troops. At Jotapata/Yodfat, Josephus surrendered and started working for Rome. In 68 AD, the chaos continued. Zealots and Edomites/Idumeans terrorized the populace. Zealots dressed as women to ambush people. Meanwhile, Simon bar Giora looted Idumea. Some Jerusalem Zealots kidnapped Simon’s wife, and in retaliation he amputated many hands as a message until she was returned. The civil war and looting went on. Emperor Nero committed suicide, leading to more instability. Jerusalem was divided among Simon ben Giora, John of Gischala, and Eleazar ben Simon. In 69 AD, Vespasian was called to Rome and made emperor, leaving Titus (also a future emperor) to besiege Jerusalem in 70 AD. In 70 AD, John of Gischala and Simon ben Giora burned each others’ grain supplies, worsening the famine. Titus let the Passover pilgrims into the city but not back out. A wall was built around Jerusalem. Starving people tortured each other to obtain hidden food. Escapees got crucified until the occupying Romans ran out of wood, but people kept trying rather than starve. People resorted to cannibalism. The Romans got into Jerusalem, and the Temple got burnt (reportedly against Titus’ wishes). False prophets had convinced people to hide in the inner rooms (Matthew 24:26). The rebel leaders were captured, more than a million people died, 97,000 people got captured, and the city was basically razed. The Temple was destroyed one biblical generation after Jesus’ Olivet Discourse. The Western Wall of the Temple precinct and three towers of Herod’s palace remained to show the strength of the defenses that Rome had beaten. (Much of Jerusalem has since been rebuilt, and it has become a popular tourism destination.) In 73 AD, after years of mopping up, the Romans approached the Sicarii defenders at Masada. At the end of lives full of threats to themselves and their loved ones, the trapped rebels chose death by mass suicide over capture. There were many Jewish insurrections against the Romans, and more than a few involved Messiah claimants (Acts 5:36-38). About a hundred years after Jesus said Matthew 24:5, a man that rabbis claimed was the Messiah named Simon bar Kokhba led a failed revolt after Emperor Hadrian had a temple for Jupiter built on the old Temple site in 132 AD. In 136 AD, the false Messiah failed. Jews were banished from Jerusalem, and the region was renamed for their Philistine ancestral enemies: “Palestine”. The early Church had once maintained a closer relationship with Judaism to utilize their exemption from worshiping the emperor, but Christianity distanced itself from Judaism when it became politically expedient. This led to forgetting much about Christianity’s Jewish roots. An attempt to rebuild the Temple was stopped by the Galilee earthquake of 363 AD.

Finally, please allow me to provide some context for the Epistles. A church as a gathering of mostly Christians in a building dedicated to that purpose happened later. Christians gathered in each others’ homes or in secret during persecution, but during the period the letters were written an ekklesia or assembly was the congregation and likely whoever else was in attendance for a public reading, sometimes still at a synagogue. The letters contain evangelistic appeals to the unsaved just like (hopefully) your pastor throws in an altar call instead of assuming the whole crowd is Heaven-bound. Saying “to the assembly at Rome” meant that churches were by location, so not everyone had their theological ducks in a row in the same order. Imagine every allegedly Christian group in your town having a big ecumenical gathering, MethodoLuthCathBaptocostals sharing space with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, etc. This was like early Christians meeting together with people (heretics – you don’t have to know what these all mean) with Arian, docetist, proto-Gnostic, Marcionite, Ebionite, etc., beliefs. Remember the audience, and if the shoe fits, wear it, but not everything in the letters was addressed to you.

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