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Paul now gets a vision to enter into Greece for missional work, and this means he enters into what we today call Europe. While it is popular to make a big deal of this, it was all the Roman Empire at that time. Paul enters because of a vision about a man from Macedonia (pictured).

16:6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia. 16:7 When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this, 16:8 so they passed through Mysia and went down to Troas. 16:9 A vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there urging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" 16:10 After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

16:1 He also came to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek. 16:2 The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 16:3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was Greek. 16:4 As they went through the towns, they passed on the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers to obey. 16:5 So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number every day.

Jerusalem remained at that time the center of God's people and that meant also the central city for the Church, the people of Messiah Jesus. This is the context for the next passage, a passage for which we need to give thanks and about which we need to be sorry:

15:36 After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let's return and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord to see how they are doing."15:37 Barnabas wanted to bring John called Mark along with them too, 15:38 but Paul insisted that they should not take along this one who had left them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. 15:39 They had a sharp disagreement, so that they parted company. Barnabas took along Mark and sailed away to Cyprus, 15:40 but Paul chose Silas and set out, commended to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters. 15:41 He passed through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.. 

Let's back up again to see what is going on if we look at the Book of Acts in its presentation of God's mission. The more strict Pharisaic believers contend that Gentile converts have to "go all the way" to circumcision to be fully devoted (Jewish) Messiah followers. The issue is no small one: it has to do with one's view of Scripture, one's view of how God regulates God's people, and one's view of authority. It was too simple, the apostles argued, to say "it is written" without taking into consideration what God's big plan was and how God would incorporate the Gentiles. So, instead of arguing that Gentiles had to become Jews, the apostles argued that Gentiles could remain Gentiles -- and they anchored this in the Torah itself (probably Lev 17-18). Gentiles will be expected to keep a minimum of Torah -- or better yet the Torah as shaped for the Gentile. So, here's the letter sent to the Christians that sums up what the apostolic conference determined:

Here goes the fundamental decision by the Apostolic council in Jerusalem. They debate whether or not Gentiles have to be follow the Torah to be saved -- reduced to circumcision. Peter, Paul, Barnabas tells stories; James knows their stories but appeals to Scripture. Gentiles are part of the eschatological people of God, and experience shows that they come in by faith and not by Torah. So they render this most important of decisions:

15:19 "Therefore I conclude that we should not cause extra difficulty for those among the Gentiles who are turning to God, 15:20 but that we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things defiled by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. 15:21 For Moses has had those who proclaim him in every town from ancient times, because he is read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath."

Acts 15 is in Jerusalem, the center of the church at that time. From Peter we move to Paul and Barnabas who also tell the same story that Peter had: God is saving Gentiles by faith, not by following the...

Paul is at odds with Pharisaic believers over Gentiles: how are they saved? Do they need to embrace the whole Torah and get circumcised?15:6 Both the apostles and the elders met together to deliberate about this matter. 15:7 After there had been much...

Acts 15 is a watershed in earliest Christianty -- even if it interrupts the flow of the gospel and mission of God in the Book of Acts, and how you read this chapter affects everything about how you read the...

I'd like to sketch a couple of more general points about the first missionary trip of Paul and Barnabas, and hope this can be put into the larger missional theology that the Book of Acts inhabits. I'm concerned about Acts...

The missional work of God goes on and continues to expand, but Paul and Barnabas retrace their steps to visit the previous spots of mission in order to deepen and anchor those missional outposts of the gospel.14:21 After they had proclaimed...

The cycle continues but this time with a new twist in Lystra -- Paul's miracles evoke an attempt to worship him and Barnabas, a stock response in the ancient world (see Beverly Gaventa's The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon New...

The Book of Acts, once it turns to Paul, turns almost exclusively to Paul -- Peter mostly drops from the narrative (except in chp 15) and we now read about Paul's missionary travels, and we need to remind ourselves that...

The listeners -- both Jews and god-fearing Gentiles -- wanted more out of Paul after his initial gospeling in Pisidian Antioch. 13:42 As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people were urging them to speak about these things on the next...

Once again, the mission of the church, the mission of Paul and the mission of Christians today is the mission of God -- the Book of Acts records for us the works/acts of God in this world through the earliest...

The Spirit spoke through the leaders at the church in Antioch and directed them to set apart Saul and Barnabas for the work to which God had called them. Acts 13:4-12 clarifies what that work is:13:4 So Barnabas and Saul, sent...

The Book of Acts, in Acts 13, turns once again toward Paul and from here out it is mostly about Paul and Paul's missional work. The opening verses of Acts 13 are fitting beginning for the week because it is...

Luke ties off the end of chp 12 with subtle words, but words that indicate that God is in charge and God's mission will move forward -- even if it means death of God's special servants, like James, and corrupt...

What holds Acts 12 together is as much Herod as it is the mission of God -- in fact, the chp is about God's mission in spite of Herod Agrippa I. Herod's a creep, a brutal despot who puts people...

The story in Acts moves from the martyrdom of James, brother of John (sons of Zebedee), back to Peter, whose own agency in the mission of God shapes the first half of the Book of Acts. Peter, along with James,...

The mission of God in this world -- that is the message of the Book of Acts. It tells us the story of how God as at work -- in Christ's death, resurrection and ascension, along with the Pentecost Spirit...

The gospel is moving in all directions: the folks in Jerusalem are embracing it; Jews in other cities embrace it; Gentiles begin embracing it; and the whole movement looks like the work of God to save through Messiah Jesus, the...

The center of the messianic movement was Jerusalem, and this is clearly seen in our text from Acts 11:11:22 A report about them came to the attention of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 11:23 When he came and...

It is not often recognized that Peter formed the vanguard of gospeling the Gentiles. But in his wake came Barnabas and Saul (aka, Paul):11:19 Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen went as...

Peter was called to explain himself, his behaviors, and what had happened when the Jerusalem church heard that Gentiles were doing these most Jewish of things -- believing in Jesus as Messiah, mixing with the messianic movement, accepting the word...

Peter's gospel, inspired as it was by God's revelation that all humans are on the same plane, results in a Spirit-inspired response:10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the message. 10:45 The circumcised...

Peter's message reshaped the Church to expand it to its universal proportions:Acts 10:37 .... you know what happened throughout Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 10:38 with respect to Jesus from Nazareth, that God anointed him with the...

The following words of Peter are boundary-breaking theology, and as we have said a number of times, we are using Beverly Gaventa's fine commentary on Acts for our conversation partner (The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries) ).10:34 Then...

In Peter the church finds one who paved the path toward the Gentile mission. Paul gets all the credit, but Peter paved the way, and the speech is Acts 10 is breathtaking.On the next day he got up and set...

One of the most notable features of "missional" work is the awkward, surprising works of providence -- how God brings events and people into a moment where the work of God occurs. (Again, see: The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon...

The narrative of Acts shifts back to Peter, and Peter's story is about his healings which set up his mission to Gentiles -- showing that Peter and Paul were on the same page: the gospel is for all.9:32 Now as Peter...

Our examination of the missional theme of Acts continues -- Paul's life is dramatically changed. He shifts from persecution to mission, and the result is that he now experiences what the disciples had been experiencing at his hand. (If you...

The paradigmatic conversion story in the Book of Acts is the story of Paul, but that story contains a missional element many ignore. Paul's "conversion" is not emphasized as one from sinner to saved but one from persecutor to missional...

Several Fridays ago, Scot allowed me to post here about several reasons that working supernaturally with and through the Spirit (healings, prophetic insights, etc.) can be a match made in heaven--and on earth--for those interested in joining God's mission.  We also discussed how...

Paul loomed over chapter 8 in Acts; he now lights up the pages with a conversion story. It's appropriate to have this text today, because tonight I will give a lecture at a North Park seminary conference on the conversion...

With Paul looming on the horizon, Philip moves further on and evangelizes another person outside the flock of God: an Ethiopian eunuch. No doubt, a Gentile and probably not a proselyte. No doubt, from the ends of the earth. No...

Saul's persecutions led to the scattering of the gospel agents who were caught up in the mission of God through Jesus Christ. One of those who were scattered was Philip (->).As is clear in Beverly Gaventa (The Acts of the...

Enter Saul, soon to become the apostle Paul. This is where we pick up the thread of our series on the Book of Acts as we enter into chp 8:8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing him. Now on that day a...

Stephen's speech is not an evangelistic sermon, and I'm willing to say it contains the gospel but is not gospeling itself, and the reason I say that is that the ending is not a call to repent and believe and...

The speech of Stephen is quite the speech in Acts. It illustrates both how the gospel was conceived as the climax of Israel's Story and how the early Church read the Bible from beginning to end. But first we've got...

The mission of God focuses on Jesus Christ, God's Son and now Lord over death as a result of the resurrection and ascension. Attempts to snuff out this fledgling movement fail, and this has been seen both in attempts to...

The question to ask when we read the Book of Acts is not so much "What do we learn about mission?" but "What is God doing in God's mission?" The second question's answer leads to an answer for the first...

Missional communities are apostolically-shaped communities where the wonders of God are seen but where the wonders of God sometimes provoke persecution of the people of God. But persecution provokes courage on the part of the missional community. Read Acts 5:27-32:Having...

Missional communities are apostolically-shaped communities where the wonders of God are seen but where the wonders of God sometimes provoke persecution of the people of God. Here is Acts 5:17-26:Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members...

Missional communities are apostolically-shaped communities where the wonders of God are seen.As is made clear time and again in Beverly Gaventa's The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries), the Book of Acts describes the mission of God in this...

Missional communities are not perfect, idealized, romanticized communities. They are apostolically-shaped but still sin-influenced. They are called to join Peter on their knees. As is made clear time and again in Beverly Gaventa's The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries), ...

Acts 4 is a witness to the missional beliefs of Peter and the earliest Christians, and to helps us in this reading, we are reading The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries). The missional work of God...

Acts 4 is a witness to the missional beliefs of Peter and the earliest Christians, and to helps u in this reading, we are reading The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries). Peter (and John) heal a...

Acts 4 is a witness to the missional beliefs of Peter and the earliest Christians, and to helps u in this reading, we are reading The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries). After Peter witnesses to the resurrection-shaped...

We turn now to Acts 4 in our quest to read the Book of Acts together as we probe the missional theology of this early Christian witness to what God was doing -- through the apostles -- and through the...

The Book of Acts records the missional work of God in various cities in the Roman Empire. Acts 3 is the story of a healing, the people praising God, and Peter's clarification of what God is doing. As we...

The Book of Acts records the missional work of God in various cities in the Roman Empire. Acts 3 is the story of a healing, the people praising God, and Peter's clarification of what God is doing. As we...

The Book of Acts records the missional work of God in various cities in the Roman Empire. Acts 3 is the story of a healing, the people praising God, and Peter's clarification of what God is doing. As we...

The Book of Acts records the missional work of God in various cities in the Roman Empire. Acts 2 reveals that the missional work of God begins when God's Spirit swoops down, gives voice to the first followers of Jesus,...

What happens when Pentecost happens? That's our week's question. What happens is that community happens? That's our week's answer. How does community happen? We'll look at a fourth characteristic today. Again, the passage:They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching...

What happens when Pentecost happens? That's our week's question. What happens is that community happens? That's our week's answer. How does community happen? We'll look at a third characteristic today. Again, the passage:They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching...

What happens when Pentecost happens? That's our week's question. What happens is that community happens? That's our week's answer. How does community happen? We'll begin to look at that today. Again, the passage:They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and...

What happens when Pentecost happens? Let us take Pentecost as a paradigm of what happens when the Spirit comes down, when God's Spirit sways God's People to be and do as they are supposed to, and I can't see that...

Peter's sermon moves from Jesus' miracles to Jesus' death to Jesus' resurrection. This is where many of us stop -- in fact, many of us stop with the death and don't include God's raising Jesus in our gospeling. But for...

Peter's "sermon" -- which is more interpretation of event than anything else -- explains that the tongue-speaking community, of which he is a part, is not some lunatic fringe but the very embodiment of God's promises through the prophet Joel.But...

The earliest followers of Jesus are empowered by God's Spirit -- we dare not forget that "Pentecost" is an act of God -- to declare the wonders of God in languages they did not know (Acts 2:1-13). Event is followed...

We are looking at the Book of Acts, and we are looking at Acts through the lens of "mission," and we are looking at the Book of Acts with the help of Beverly Gaventa's commentary on Acts (The Acts...

This is the most important "mission" text in the history of the Church:When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled...

The word "apostle," by and large, isn't all that important to low church evangelicals. It is far more important to the liturgical and creedal traditions, and it was very important to the earliest Christians. So important that Judas' falling out...

That opening sketch in Acts (1:1-11) is wide-ranging and cosmic in its theology. We return to earth with the next scene: the earliest followers of Jesus are gathered for prayer (1:12-14): Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill...

We begin our series today on the book of Acts, a march right through this book from 1:1 to 28:31, and I anticipate it will take us months. As we march through this book, our emphasis will be on the...