This week, we look at the 2nd half of Luke to Chapter 28. Luke sets the stage for Paul’s 7 letters that he wrote, or 13 that we ascribe to him, which is a significant part of the New Testament.
We're going to start with 16th century Zurich, Switzerland, since I was just there and I think there was some relevance and then I'm going to go to first, second and third century to some catacombs that I went to in Rome. And then, we’re going to talk about what brought the church to this distinctiveness that so many people gave their lives for. One of the catacombs that I went to had 15 km of tombs. There were 64 catacombs around Rome and this one catacomb has 500,000 tombs and it was not just a place to bury; it was a place to worship. A lot of people gave their lives for what Paul did. This guy is absolutely amazing, and as we look at the distinctiveness issues that he set up, I want you to read through it and I want you to think from the Roman perspective what is it that Paul set up and why was it so objectionable. What did the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians do to deserve the treatment they got?
I’ll also take you to Nazareth on this one. The Christian church had an influence around the world like no other religious movement in world history - Judaism, Islam, nothing like it. I think this is an exciting chapter which I've never seen before to set the stage for 13 books of Paul to come, and as we read those books we’ll see these distinctive issues creeping out as we read each book in its entirety.
Listen to the book of Acts from BibleGateway: ESV, KJV, MSG, NIV, NKJV
Short Outline of the Book of Acts from the Today's English Version: