Lessons

The lesson on March 14, 2021 was part 8 of the “Acts – When and Why?” study.  Wayne opened the lesson and took on a thorough review of how Galatians is a Pauline epistle but it was written during the Acts period and cannot divorce its context from the book of Acts. Showing us examples from Acts 19:6 KJV “… when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.”  In Acts the Apostles had power and signs of the world that was to come.  These were real not what smooth pastors try to imitate today. In Galatians 4:26 KJV it says “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”  This is Israel’s hope!  We have a different hope that was explained in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.  You have to rightly divide the Apostle Paul’s ministry to those seven books written during the Acts and those written after.  Yet, even later after Acts 28 in 2 Timothy 1:6 Paul told Timothy “… I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” that these gifts remained in a different fashion because they had to train the body of Christ from Acts with a new ministry that was hidden in God (called the Mystery).  We reviewed and example in 1 Corinthians 12:9-10 KJV “9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:”  This is all relevant and accurate to the context of the Acts period.  This lesson leads up to what is coming next in this study. Specifically, when did Paul write “Galatians”.  Paul’s Jerusalem visits.  Looking intently at Acts 15 and another look at “at the first”.  The scripture reading was from 2 Timothy 1:5-8 KJV

“5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. 6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;