Paul's Vision of Heaven & the Jerusalem Council 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, now let's just go right back where we left off again in the last program, and that'll be back in the last couple of verses of Acts chapter 13. For those of you joining us on television, again, we'd like to just inform you this is an informal Bible study. We'd just like to have you search the Scriptures and see if these things are really so. In fact, we'll probably run into that in the book of Acts in the next program or so. And those were the people at Berea up there in Macedonia. They went home and searched the Scriptures to see if the things that Paul said were really true. And again, we always like to make you aware that all our past programs, felled away from Genesis 1 on up to the present, are available in VCR tapes, as well as most of them now in printed form in little booklets. Now, we don't make anything on the tapes or the books. We just try to hold our budget together. We don't intend to make anything. In fact, I'd like to share with people. I feel like five bucks is quite a bit for that little book. And I just can't understand people even paying five bucks for one of them. But they cost us $4.93. So we just round it off and we get five bucks. So six cents a book doesn't make us any great amount of money. But anyway, the little books are reaching a lot of people. Now, I just got a letter again day before yesterday from a family up in Minnesota. And I'll share this one with you because it's real short and to the point. He said, Dear Les, your tapes are beginning to produce some of the results we'd hoped for. The teaching is so clear and easily understood that several of our family members have become interested after visiting us and watching your programs with us. We're praying to the Lord that our family's interest will continue to increase in their study of the Bible. Well, that's all we want. You know, we just appreciate how many times parents are able to get through to their kids through these tapes. I had a lady in one of our classes some time ago say that her daughter had told her, don't ever send us any of that religious stuff. We're not interested. We don't want it. But she said, I took a chance. And she said, I sent one of your tapes. And she said it wasn't long. And she called and said, if you got any more, send them. And we're seeing this all over the country. A lady from Phoenix, Arizona, the same way. Her daughter was visiting from Denver and watched one of the tapes and took the whole set along with her back to Denver. And over and over we get those kind of reports. So we trust that God is using us thanks to your prayers and your efforts with us. So much for that. I think I'll just drop right back into Acts 13, the final verses of that chapter, beginning of verse 50, the Jews stirred up the devout and the honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coasts or out of their borders. The opposition from the Jews. Verse 51, but they, Paul and Barnabas, shook off the dust of their feet against them and came to Iconium. Now this is another one of the towns there in Central Asia Minor, and the disciples were filled with joy. That is these Gentile disciples now, these Gentile believers, and they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. All right, now in chapter 14 then, they're going to stop with the little city of Iconium, which again is up here in this central part of Galatia. And then we'll go to Derbe and Lystra, all those places up there in Galatia or Central Asia Minor, however you want to put it. Now then, as he goes into Iconium, they have the same thing. Verse 2, the unbelieving Jews, verse 2 of chapter 14, the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren. So long time therefore abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hand. But the multitude of the city was divided, part held with the Jews, that Paul and Barnabas were false teachers, and part with the apostles, and became followers of Paul and Barnabas. And when there was an assault made, both of the Gentiles and also the Jews and their rulers to use them despitefully and to stone them, they were aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe. Well then they go on up to the next little town, which is Lystra, and much the same thing happens and then you come down to verse 19. Like I said, I'm skimming a lot of this for sake of time. And there came thither, that is to Lystra, certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, they drew him, or literally dragged him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Now I'm going to have you turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, because the timing is identical. And so I like to think, and I make no apology for teaching, that while Paul was unconscious having been stoned and dragged out for dead, God gave him an even greater experience. And that is that Paul got a glimpse of glory. I envy him. But you know, God never let him share it. Now let's look at the account in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Verse 1, he said, It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and the revelations of the Lord. And of course he shares them in various ways in his epistles. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago. Now that's identical then with the time that he was here in Derbe and Lystra back in Acts chapter 14. I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body. Well he must have been out of the body, because that was laying outside of Derbe and taken for dead. But such a one was caught up to the third heaven. Now you want to remember Scripture has three areas called heaven. One is the atmosphere, the birds of the heaven. The other is the area of the stars and the planets, which is called the heavens. And then the third heaven is the very abode of God, the heaven of the heavens. Verse 3, I knew such a man whether in the body or out I cannot tell, but he says God knows. Verse 4, how that he, and we're sure he's speaking of himself. How that he was caught up into paradise, see, in the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words. He heard the language of heaven, which it is not lawful or permitted for a man to utter. Verse 5, of such a one I will glory. What's Paul saying? Oh, he'd like to have shared it. Oh, he would like to have just told the world what he saw and heard, but God didn't permit it. Yet, if he says of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities, for though I would desire to glory, now I guess the word we'd use would be what? Brag. He would really have liked to brag to people, hey, look what I saw and heard, but God didn't permit it. He says, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he see me to be, or that he hearth of me. Now you want to remember, Paul was always putting himself down, wasn't he? Back here in Corinthians he says, they say, that is his hearers, his speech is contemptible. His appearance was almost, what shall I say, repulsive. And so he had nothing to brag about in the flesh, and he knew that. And so this is what he's referring to, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he hearth. Contemptible and repulsive, and that's the way Paul wanted to be remembered. All right, but now go to the next verse, verse 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. Isn't that something? In other words, God puts a human suffering on the body of Paul to keep him humble, lest he should get proud and feel exalted. So he says, lest I should be exalted, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. And he says, for this thing I besought, he prayed, he petitioned the Lord three times that it might depart from me. But did it? No, no. God didn't heal him of that whatever it was. I've got an idea, but I probably have no room to express it. But I've got a pretty good idea what his malady was, and it was a repulsive disease, it was a painful disease, and yet he took it with him all the days of his life. Because God said, verse 9, My grace is sufficient for thee. And we knew it was. It carried Paul all the way through his ministry, shipwrecks, beatings, hunger, cold, naked, and yet God's grace was always sufficient. See, and that's what you and I as believers have to rest on, that regardless of what God may see fit to take us through, yet we know that He's going to take us through it, and He'll be with us when we reach the other side. And so He says, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect, how? In our weakness. See, this is why God chose never to use the great men of this world. He didn't use the wealthy, He didn't use kings, but He always used the commonplace. He used the people who had nothing in their flesh to offer. You remember when we were back in Genesis, and Moses, bless his heart, thought that he was going to be God's man? Now I'm going back to Acts again while I'm talking, back to Acts 14. You remember that Moses, when he was the second man of Egypt, and he had all the power and the pomp and the circumstance of Pharaoh behind him, he thought he could lead children of Israel out, but God couldn't use him. But where did God send him? To the backside of the desert to herd sheep for 40 years, and then as a lowly shepherd, probably kind of smelly, now God could say, Moses, I want to send you back to Egypt. But see, that's the way God works. He can't use the pomp and circumstance of this world. All right, I'm going to just briefly go through chapter 15, because we've touched on it several times in the last couple of weeks, that it's in this chapter 15 that Paul and Barnabas are now called up to Jerusalem. After all of these missionary endeavors throughout Asia Minor, they're back at Antioch, and again the Gentiles are coming into that congregation, and the news of it reaches Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem people, Peter, James, and John, and the rest of them, they just can't comprehend that God is doing this with Gentiles. And so in chapter 15, we have what we call the Consulate of Jerusalem, which as I showed a few weeks ago, was in A.D. 51. Now remember, that's 20 some years after Pentecost, and these Jewish people of Jerusalem are still not ready to accept Gentiles being saved by Paul's gospel, aside from keeping the law and the circumcision. Well, we went through all this several times, and I don't feel right about repeating it for a third or fourth time, but I do have to come in where we did not cover the chapter, and that would be down to verse 13. After Peter had come to Paul's defense, remember, remembering that at the house of Cornelius, God indeed saved Gentiles, and so then the multitude of Jews at Jerusalem quieted down and said, well all right, if this is the way Peter feels about it, then we'll let them go back up to their Gentile ministry. So verse 13, after they had held their peace, that is the Jewish believers, James, who is the moderator here, and remember this isn't the James of the Twelve, he's been beheaded earlier. James, the half-brother of Jesus, who was not even one of the Twelve, is moderating this meeting, not Peter. Remember I made a point of that a few weeks ago. So after they held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken, or listen to me, Simeon, or Peter, has declared how God at the first, see that, how God at the first, now when was that? Well just the chapter after Saul's conversion, that was the first Gentiles that were approached after Paul had been converted on the road to Damascus. So now James says that Peter at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. What is that? The church, the body of Christ, is now going to be called out of that mass of Gentiles. You remember I made the analogy several weeks ago when Peter preached to the nation of Israel, how many had to respond? Every one. But when Paul goes to the Gentiles, it's a what? Saving some. See? A calling out of, you might say, a sampling out of the masses of the Gentile people. He's going to call out a people for his name. Now verse 15, you see the order, and to this agree the words of the prophets, for as it is written, it comes from the book of Amos, after this, now I've usually had my people in my classes underline those two words, after this, well after what? The calling out of the church, the body, after calling out of a people for his name. After that has been done and accomplished, and as Paul teaches, it has to be lifted off the earth, it has to be called away, then where is God going to start working once again? With the nation of Israel. See how plain that is? After this, after the calling out of a people for his name, God says, I will return and build again the tabernacle of David. Well, what was the tabernacle of David? Well, it was the temple and the whole sphere of Israel's kingdom, see? And so we know this is in Israel's future. I don't care what they say. The Jew in Palestine tonight is the beginning of all this. They're coming from every nation under heaven, and God is getting the little favored nation ready for the appearance now of first the Antichrist, of course, but then the true Christ. So after this, the calling out of a body, the church, I will return and build again the tabernacle of David which has fallen down. I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up. In other words, God's going to finish what He started with Israel. And then, well, might as well read verse 17 and 18, that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. No, none to God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Now then, verse 19. We can't overlook these verses because when the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem gave an agreement that they would recognize Gentiles could be saved by Paul's Gospel aside from Judaism, in other words, without adhering to the Law of Moses, well, alright, we'll agree to that Providing that you teach these Gentile believers then to, verse 20, abstain from pollution of idols. Now again, that doesn't mean much to us today because we don't have rank idolatry around us and people making sacrifices to pagan gods, but see, in Paul's day, everywhere they went, that's all it was, was paganism. All these great temples to the pagan gods were blatant idolatry, and with all of their sacrifices, their animal sacrifices, and of course, what was the custom? So many of these sheep and goats that were offered as sacrifice, these pagan temples, where would they end up? Well, in the marketplace. Now, you've got to be in the Middle East even today. You go through the marketplace of old Jerusalem and up in Nazareth and some of those places, and when we go to Israel, we go through it. There hang these little carcasses, you know, crawling with flies and all the rest of it, but there they are, and then these women will come along, and they'll just cut off a little chunk of meat, enough for their noon meal or whatever they want, and take it home and cook it. Well, back in Paul's day, a lot of those, like Paul said, it didn't bother him, you either had to recognize that those pagan gods had no power. They couldn't affect that meat, but if you had any idea that those animal sacrifices that went to that pagan god had somehow been tainted, then don't eat of it. Leave it alone, and that's what he's referring to here, to the things that were polluted by idolatry. Then they were to refrain from fornication, immorality in all of its forms. I guess I'd better stop here a minute. I had someone at our break time say, well, maybe I left the wrong impression when I said that there is no need to ask for forgiveness. Now, I was talking about the unbeliever in search of salvation. For the believer, that is not licensed. How many times haven't I said that? That is not licensed for the believer, but when we sin, now I'm digressing again, but when we sin as a believer, we still don't have to beg for forgiveness. We are forgiven, but we've got to recognize our sin and call it what God calls it, and what's the word? We confess it. We confess it, and the moment we confess it, call it what God calls it, it's forgiven. I've got to clarify that because I don't want somebody to think that I am promoting license and that you can sin because you're forgiven. Never. I don't think anybody teaches more plainly the separated walk of the believer that God demands. All right, coming back now then to the text. So this is what they were to carry out to the Gentile believing world, the true believers now that they were to abstain from anything polluted by idols. They were to abstain from gross immorality, from things strangled. Now how far back does that go? All the way back to Genesis chapter 9, when Noah and the three sons came off the ark. Up until that time nothing was ever killed to be eaten, they ate only that which grew naturally. But after the flood, God now said that they could eat the flesh of animals, and this is I've read in hunting and fishing magazines over and over. If you want your game to be good eating, if you want your fish to be good tasting, what's the first requirement? Bleed them. Bleed them. I read in Field and Stream several years ago, I think it was, the minute you pull your fish stringer out of the water, cut the tails off, so that by the time you've walked up to your vehicle, they're all well bled. Well it's biblical, see? God has mandated that man not partake of the blood of anything. Alright, here it is. They were to be reminded. Verse 21, "...for the leaders of Jerusalem said, Moses of old time hath in every city," that is throughout the Roman Empire, "...them that preach him," that is the Law of Moses. And these Gentile believers could not just fly in the face of all that, because it would be destroying their testimony. It's no different today. You know what the biggest detriment to true Christianity today? Careless Christians. No wonder the world says they're a bunch of hypocrites. Of course you can't hide behind a hypocrite, you know, like my wife always says, you've got to be smaller than they are, and that's so true. But nevertheless, the world is watching us, see? Alright, let's come all the way on up to verse 28, in this same chapter, "...for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit unto us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things," and then he repeats it, "...and so when they were dismissed," that is from the Jerusalem Council now, with the full permission to go and preach that Gospel of Grace to the Gentiles, don't try to proselytize them into Judaism, "...so when they were dismissed they came back to Antioch, and they gathered the multitude, and they delivered the epistle, which when they read they rejoiced," for the what? The consolation, that they didn't have to keep the Judaic Law. They didn't have to keep circumcision. They were free from all that. Alright, then verse 32, "...Judas and Silas, being prophets themselves, exhorted the brethren, and after they had tarried in the airspace, they were let go in peace from the brethren to the apostles, and nevertheless it pleased Silas to abide there still." Isn't it amazing how God works? God knew that Paul and Barnabas were going to have a falling out, so He caused Silas not to go back to Jerusalem with the rest of them, and so Paul and Barnabas continued in Antioch, preaching the Word of the Lord, and with many others. Alright, then in the verses from 36 to 41, we have the falling out between Paul and Barnabas because of John Mark, and Barnabas slips off the scene, and Silas ascends to preeminence with Paul. And then in chapter 16, we're going to come all the way over to verse 6, and I hope I got time enough for this in this program. Now they'd gone throughout all of Phrygia, they've covered this whole central part of Asia Minor, Galatia, that's what the letter of Galatians are written to these churches, and now they're up here at Troas, back through Bithynia, and then I imagine back through Asia and back down to Antioch. But now look what happens up here at Troas. Now this is on the shore of the Aegean Sea, here is Macedonia, Greece, right up to the just across the Isthmus, verse 6. Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden of the Holy Spirit. God had something else in mind. And so verse 7, after they had come to Mysia, permitted them not. And so passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas, as I've got it on the map, on the sea coast, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night, and there stood a man of Macedonia, that's northern Greece, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and he didn't argue, Paul didn't try to retrace some maps and so forth, but immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia. And of course Luke is with him now, he's using the personal pronoun. So Luke says, "...we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathered that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore loosing from Troas, we came in a straight course to Samothracea, and the next days to Neapolis, which is over there on the shores of Greece." Alright, what's happened? God had long before ordained that this gospel of grace should not go east to the Orient, but it should go west to Europe. And I've told my classes for 20 some years, in your prayer time, you thank God that He sent Paul over to Europe rather than back to Asia, because when the gospel went to Europe, that was our forefathers, and it was the gospel that set everything moving in Europe. All of the Reformations and all of the Industrial Revolution and all the technology that came out of Europe is what set everything free. Christianity is what gave mankind the freedom to pursue his own ideas. Christianity is what set the female gender free. That was the beginning of true feminism, is when Christianity put women on the same level in God's eyes as man. And so over and over, thank the Lord for this vision that said, go to Macedonia. 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 7, that's Route 1, Box 7. 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.