Paul's Gospel of Grace: From Acts to Romans Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, it's good to have everybody in again, and we get ready to roll through another four programs. We trust that you'll not only be blessed, but that we'll be able to share these things with our television audience. And again, we always like to remind people that we're just an informal Bible study. We're not associated with any one group. We do not trumpet anyone. We don't attack anyone. We're just here to teach the book, and we trust good folk to start reading it and studying it on their own. It's not an impossible book to understand, and I've always suggested just get a good concordance and start comparing Scripture with Scripture. Again, we like to remind our television folk that all the past programs are available on videotape. We don't trumpet them because we don't make any money on them. We don't attempt to. Which reminds me, I've been wanting to do it for a long time. I want to let folk know out there that if you want to copy these tapes, dub them, whatever you want to call it, and pass them on, you feel free to do so. Don't worry about the copyright. The only thing that's on there for is so that someone won't do it and try to make a profit. But feel free to copy whatever material, the books or the videotapes, whatever, because we feel the time is short, and we want to get the word out to as many as can possibly hear it. And then, as I was about to mention, every videotape up through 16 now has been transcribed into booklet form, and we're getting good response from those little books. I would have never dreamed it. It never even, what shall I say, never crossed my mind to put all this into print. But remember the lady back in Colorado was the one who first instigated it, and it's just been going from there. All right, so much for announcements. We always like to use every minute we possibly can for the study. And so those of you here in the studio, your turn to Acts chapter 18. We're going to pick right up where we left off after the last program. And Paul, of course, has now begun his journeys amongst the Gentile world of Asia Minor out there in western Turkey. And he crossed over, of course, into Greece, came down the coastline to Athens, and that's where we left him in our last program. And now he's moved across to the west a few miles to the port city of Corinth. And Corinth, at the time of Paul, of course, being a port city, two ports really, one port to the west that took shipping on to Rome, and another port on the east that took the shipping to the east end of the Mediterranean. So it was a bustling city. It was a commercial city, and it was a wicked one, grossly immoral. But to this city of Corinth, Paul comes with the gospel of grace amongst the Gentiles. And then beginning in verse 1, "...and after these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Achela, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius, the emperor, of course, had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome. And he came unto them." Now verse 3, "...and because he, Paul, was of the same craft, or trade, as..." I think it's Achela, if I remember correctly. "...Achela and Priscilla, he abode with them, and worked. For by their occupation they were," all three of them, "...tent makers." Now, of course, there's some controversy among scholars what the tent was. Some feel it was a headgear that was used in Jewish worship, and others, of course, feel it was tents as we know them, places of abode, which many people, of course, used back in those days. But whatever, it was a work that required handwork, probably stitching and sewing of one sort or another. And, of course, I always like to equate this with women who have quilting clubs, and they get around that quilting frame, and I've always asked the ladies in my classes, as you stitch and tie and so forth, do you sit there silent? Well, hardly, and men wouldn't either. But what do we do? They talk. They converse. And so I can just envision these three people, as they labored, they were conversing. But I'm quite sure that the primary figure was Paul. And what he had been doing was sharing all of his new revelations with this Jewish couple that had now come to Corinth from Rome. And Paul had a way of just simply unloading everything that God had revealed to him, to anyone that would listen. And he, of course, must have been a master teacher, because he refers to it often in his letters that, well, I said such and such to you, and you know that this is what I told you, and remember. And so they had grasped it. Now, as he was working with Aquila and Priscilla then, he evidently shared all of these revelations. And then Paul goes on his way, and then in verse 24 of this same chapter, we find now that this Jewish couple have moved on from Corinth over to Ephesus. And if you remember the map I had on the board a week or two ago, Ephesus was again on the western shores of what today is Turkey. And at the city of Ephesus, where Paul, of course, had started a church, and that letter to the Ephesians was to that congregation. And now this Jewish couple have ended up in Ephesus, and are evidently laboring there. And then you pick it up in verse 24, that a certain Jew named Apollos, born in Alexandria, that of course would be down in Egypt, an eloquent man, mighty in the Scriptures. Now always stop and ask yourself some things now. Is there a New Testament yet? No. So what Scriptures would he be mighty in? Well, the old. And so here this Jewish fellow comes from the area of Alexandria, Egypt, eloquent. In other words, he was an orator. He was what we would call a silver -tongued orator. And he had all the right expressions, and he had the right charisma, and he could just captivate his audience. And so now read on. He was mighty in the Old Testament, and he comes to Ephesus. Verse 25, this man Apollos, a Jew, was... Now what's the next word? Instructed. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, being fervent in the Spirit. He spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, but he knew only that which had transpired up to and including what? The baptism of John. In other words, Apollos knew nothing of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. He was still back on Christ's earthly ministry. He was instructed. Now I always like to compare Scripture with Scripture in order to make my point. So now keep your hand in your necks. We'll be back shortly, and turn with me to Galatians. And I just want you to see the graphic difference in the language. Now in Galatians chapter 1, and we'll be looking at these verses more, because hopefully after this program we'll be starting the Book of Romans. I had just about as many people anxiously await my study of the Book of Romans as they did some time ago for the Book of Revelation. So I'm getting anxious, too, now. I want to get into the Book of Romans just as quickly as we can. But here in Galatians chapter 1, beginning at verse 11, Paul, by inspiration remember, every word that Paul writes is inspired by the Holy Spirit. None of this, even though it sounds like it's coming from his own thinking, from his own thoughts, but it isn't. It's inspired of the Spirit. And so he says, "...I certify, I guarantee you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man." In other words, he didn't go to school or seminary someplace and learn it. Now the next word, verse 12, "...for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the instruction..." What? You see the difference? See, that's why I'm always stressing, be careful when you read. Don't just read to be reading, because, see, every once in a while you hit a word like this that just makes all the difference in the world. Paul says that he wasn't taught it. That's why he's separating himself from the 12 throughout these whole two chapters of Galatians 1 and 2. He wasn't taught it, neither by the 12 nor anyone else, not by some great scholar. But everything that he lays down in his preaching and in his teaching and in his writing, he got how? By revelation. Now you see the difference? Apollos was a mighty man, eloquent, but he had been instructed. Someone had taught him. But Paul says, everything that I have I receive by revelation. Now, that tells us then that even though the Lord has ascended back to glory, Paul makes it very plain that he saw Christ face to face. And I don't think it was only on the road to Damascus, but in other areas of his revelations, the Lord just revealed these things to Paul in such a way that even when you go on into Galatians chapter 2, as we've done previously, Peter and the 11 couldn't comprehend what Paul was talking about, because it was way beyond anything they'd ever heard. And that's what we're talking about, that Paul operates by revelation. And now, if you'll come back with me to Acts chapter 18, Apollos, of course, by instruction. Whatever Apollos knew, whatever Apollos taught from the Old Testament, he had been instructed by someone else. Alright, now then, coming down to verse 26. Since Apollos knew only that which took place under John the Baptist's preaching, which was that Jesus was the Christ, you know, the Messiah, the Son of God. Then look at verse 26. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, and no doubt he had a right to speak boldly. He was intelligent, he was well taught, he was eloquent. Whom when Apollos and Priscilla had heard, in other words, they sat and they listened to him. Now watch it. When they had heard what Apollos was preaching, they took him unto them. In fact, I always like to tell my classes, I think they probably took him home for dinner after church, after synagogue service. They probably took him home, and as they sat around that table, they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly or more completely. What's happening? Oh hey, Apollos and Priscilla have been sitting there with Paul for we don't know how long, weeks at least, and Paul has just been unloading on them this tremendous gospel of grace. How that everything that man needed was accomplished on that cross, and the power of his resurrection. And Apollos knew none of that, see. Now I've always encouraged my own class people. When you hear your pastor, and most people love their pastor, they don't want to do anything to upset him or to belittle him, but my man, if he's a man of God, and if he is all that he claims to be, and if one of his church members can come and kindly show to him something from the scripture that he's missing, if he's an Apollos, he should be able to take it like a man and say, boy now I never saw this before. That's what Apollos did. Apollos, highly educated, highly polished, eloquent in the scriptures, suddenly realized from these two common tent makers, there was a lot he didn't know. Now we pick this up then in the next couple verses, that as Apollos finished his ministry there at Ephesus, he took to heart the things he had learned in turn now from this Jewish couple, and when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, that's the other part of Greece, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples or the believers to receive him, who, now we're talking about Apollos remember, who when he was come helped them much, who had believed not through John's message, but now through what? Through grace. Where did he pick it up? From Priscilla and Aquila. Where'd they get it? From working with Paul. And then you go into verse 28, for he, that is Apollos, mightily, see, oh he's really got something going for him now. He was pretty good to start with, but now he's got all this extra information and knowledge now that had begun with Paul and come through this other Jewish couple, and so now he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, not in a corner, but publicly, showing by the Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures, that Jesus, now of course it doesn't say here of Nazareth, but we always like to qualify it, that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the what? The Christ, see. But oh, now of course Apollos could go beyond that he was the Old Testament Messiah. Now Apollos, I'm sure, was able to share, especially when you see that word grace up in verse 27. He could continue now with Paul's gospel, that Christ died for the sins of the world. He was buried, and he arose from the dead. You see the difference? And it took two common, ordinary people to bring that man to this further revelation, and that's where you and I come in. But I've always told my people, and I'll tell you, and I'll tell my television audience, don't do it with pride, don't do it with sarcasm, but just humbly, and by the grace of God, approach some of these people. It may even be a Sunday school teacher or whatever, and say, wait a minute, you're missing so much, and point it out to them. Be skilled in the use of this book, and be able to say, this is what the book says, and you're missing it. And if they're Apollos, they'll take it to heart, and you have not only gained a more informed teacher or pastor, you've also been, I think you've appreciated his love and his concern for you and for his congregation. All right, now then, as we go on, I'm going to wind up the book of Acts in this program, so that I can get into the book of Romans. We're just going to skim through here, and what we're finding now in these final chapters is that Paul goes to Jerusalem, contrary to a lot of warnings, which of course gives rise to a lot of discussion. Was he being pig-headed? Should he have listened? Should he have stayed away from Jerusalem? Or was in the end this everything that God intended? Well, that's the way I have to look at it. I have to feel that Paul got to Jerusalem in spite of all of these little roadblocks, because here is where he had to make his final move to the nation of Israel. Again, they had to make their final decree away with him. They didn't want anything to do with him or his message, and so he has to, of course, appeal to the Roman authorities, and they come to his rescue first, of course, and then as you come on through the succeeding chapters, and you get to chapter 27, and with this we're going to try and wind up in the next few moments this tremendous book of Acts. How that Israel continues to reject her Messiah, and because of that, as we're going to see in Romans chapter 11, because of their rejection of their Messiah, because of their fall, salvation goes to the Gentile, you and I. But here in Acts chapter 27, Paul has not succeeded in making any dents in the hard armor of the Jewish people. He had to appeal to Rome after spending a year and a half in prison in Caesarea, and so now he's on ship headed for Rome. And as we'll be going into the book of Romans, the letter written to the believers at Rome, I think it's almost amazing that this little Jew, in the face of everything, could just almost without fear go right into the very capital of that pagan Roman Empire, which was now beginning to turn on Christianity. Now I think I've explained it in a previous program, why did the Romans put up with the Jews and their religion, and they did, even though the Jews gave them a lot of problems and all that, and sometimes they would come down on them rather harshly. But for the most part, the Roman Empire gave the Jewish religious people their freedom. In fact, I was reading here a while back that even during those 70 years between the crucifixion and the destruction of the temple, huge sums of money would come from far ends of the Roman Empire to the temple, the tithes and offerings of the Jewish people. Rome never intercepted a dime of it. If anything, they gave it safe protection. And so they protected the Jews' religion more or less, but yet they came down and began to persecute Christianity. Why? Well, the best answer I found is that the Romans, of course being steeped in paganism and mythology themselves, had respect for anyone else's religion if it was ancient. In other words, a religion that went clear back into the antiquities, Rome would respect it, because after all it was there before they were. But see, Christianity wasn't. Christianity, they thought, was something relatively new. It was coming up, and on top of that, of course, they were claiming a king with a power above Rome, and that just, of course, infuriated them. So that precipitated this tremendous persecution. But now Paul goes right into the heart of all this, under arrest. Never forget that he goes under arrest with Roman soldiers probably chained to him. And then he gets to Rome, and now as you come into chapter 28, read chapter 27, his shipwreck and the storm and the terrible experience at sea. But now when you get to chapter 28, he gets to Rome. Verse 16, and they're going to put him under what today we call house arrest. They're going to let him live in his own rented house, but always with Roman soldiers at his side. So verse 16 of Acts 28, so when he came, when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with a soldier or a guard who kept him. And then it came to pass that after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together. Not the heads of the Christian community, probably down in the catacombs already, but instead he still has that heart for Israel. And so he calls for the chief of the Jews, and when they were come together, he said of them, men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, that is Israel, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. Verse 18, who when they had examined me would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained or forced to appeal unto Caesar. In other words, the protection of the Roman government. Not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. For this cause therefore, in other words, he had nothing to be ashamed of. He had no reason to be under arrest, but the Jews were the ones who demanded it. So he says, for this cause therefore, have I called for you to see you and to speak with you, because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. But don't lose sight of what he says in Ephesians chapter three. I'm not going to take time to have you turn to it. But in Ephesians chapter three, verse one, the apostle says, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. See that? But here he still has that burden for Israel. And so he says, for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. In other words, the reason he was arrested, he was appealing to the Jews back there at Jerusalem. And it caused such a riot that they had to bring him under what today we would call protective custody. And from there, of course, he had to appeal to Caesar. Now then, when we come down for these last few moments and we close the book of Acts, come all the way down to verse 23 of Acts 28. So when they had appointed him a day where he could meet with these Jewish leaders at Rome, there came many to him in his lodging. So you see the Romans gave him a fair amount of freedom to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God. Now I've explained that kingdom of God more than once. It's that whole sphere which is under God's sovereign control. That's the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven is that which had been promised to Israel ever since the time of Abraham and the kingdom that will yet come upon the earth. And it is within the kingdom of God. So God, when Paul talks about the kingdom of God, he's talking about the whole sphere of God's influence. In fact, if I had time, and I don't, I'd take you back to where he was in Athens. And when he appealed to those philosophers and he explained that the God that they had left a blank space for, was the God that he was presenting. He was the God that provided all man's needs. He's the one who made everything. You remember that? And the same way here, when he began to tell these Jewish leaders about the kingdom of God, he didn't leave a stone unturned. He covered the whole gamut. All right, then verse 24. Some believed, even of these Jewish leaders at Rome. Some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed what? Not. See that? Verse 25. And when they agreed not among themselves. Now remember, keep the people straight here. We're talking about the Jewish leaders at Rome. The heads of their synagogues and so forth. When they could not agree among themselves, they departed. They left. After Paul had spoken one word, well spake the Holy Spirit by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers. In other words, our forefathers in days gone by. Saying, go to this people, Israel, and say, hearing you shall hear, and you shall not understand. Seeing you shall see and not perceive. Now remember, God spoke this clear back in Isaiah 600 years before Christ. For the heart of this people is wax gross. Their ears are dull of hearing, their eyes they've closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted. And I should heal them. That is spiritually, maybe also physically. Now verse 28. Here comes that crowning statement that will now carry all the way on up to our own present day. And Paul says, be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will not believe it, but they're what? They're going to hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired, or today we'd say rented house, and received all that came unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you see, when you put those three words together, that is everything that He is to you and I in His post-resurrection experience. He is Lord of lords. Absolutely He is. He is still the Jesus of Nazareth, the man God, but He's the Christ, the Messiah of Israel. And so for you and I today, that's the most inclusive term we can put on our Lord. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've said it before, you know, even the twelve never referred to Jesus only by His name, Jesus. And I still do not feel it's appropriate. Whenever we refer to the name of Jesus, we should also include the word Lord. And you want to be all-inclusive, you call Him the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer -supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.