followHIM - Acts 10-15 Part 1 • Dr. Michael Goodman • July 17 - July 23

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

How does understanding God's nature help us understand missionary work and priesthood authority? Dr. Michael Goodman explores the expanding Church, Peter's growth, and God's prophetic pattern for teaching His children.00:00 Part 1–Dr. Michael Goodman01:11 Introduction of Dr. Michael Goodman03:12 Background and context04:49 God’s plan involves everyone07:56 Teaching Jews and then Gentiles08:55 Understanding the nature of God 10:17 Cornelius’s vision and conversion13:25 Peter’s vision of clean animals and missionary work17:03 Policy, programs, and progress19:03 Edmund from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe20:11 Is it salvific?22:30 The Cornelius story continues25:20 God is no respecter of persons30:04 God is biased toward His children31:58 Elder Bednar teaches how God teaches 34:08 The prophetic pattern36:13 Acts 10 and Article of Faith 937:41 Converting to Christianity questions40:30 The Holy Ghost and the power to remember42:05 The persecution of Stephen46:48 Learning to accept Saints 50:29 Herod Agrippa, James, and Peter imprisoned55:20 Trusting God and His timing59:42 Emily Watts’ story of a pioneer girl1:02:18 Elder Foster shares a story about a girl that drowned1:05:25 John Mark is introduced1:08:04 Paul and Barnabas and a sorcerer1:13:15 The History of Israel in Acts1:15:50 Paul is successful 1:19:49 End of Part 1–Dr. Michael GoodmanPlease rate and review the podcast.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name's Hank Smith. I'm here with the amazing John, by the way. Welcome, John. Thank you. Good to be here. John, last week we looked at our little Christian church growing and meeting serious persecution with Stephen being martyred, but we saw Philip have some success. And then the major event of that lesson was the conversion of Paul. Paul is now in the church and I think has added an incredible amount of fuel to the fire. John, what do you see coming next for our church? Well, this is huge. The Lord has to get them to think

of things and think of the world in a whole new way and their work in a whole new way. So it's some pretty pivotal chapters. I think there's some bigger things on the horizon than maybe they saw. We're joined this week by Dr. Mike Goodman. Mike, what do you think is on the docket for our little Christian church here? I think it's going to experience some very major growing and growing pains as it's learning how to see things a little bit more as Heavenly Father sees them. Beautiful. John, why don't you introduce Mike to our audience? He's been here before, hasn't he? Yes, he has. We're so glad to have him back, too. This is Dr. Michael A. Goodman,

and he is the RSC's, now we know what that means, Hank, that's the Religious Studies Center's Associate Publications Director, rsc.byu.edu if they want to see some of those publications, excellent publications they do. Dr. Goodman has worked for the church educational system since 1989, was the manager of CES College Curriculum before joining the Department of Church History and Doctrine in 2007. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism with a public relations emphasis, a master's degree in IT. Everybody loves the IT guy in the office. And a PhD in marriage, family, and human development.

He is a co-investigator on the Family Foundations of Youth Development longitudinal research project. His research focus is on adolescent and family faith development and mental health outcomes with a special emphasis on suicidality. He has been married to Tina Anita Goodman from Lati, Finland since 1985. And personal note, he serves in a branch presidency in the MTC and was there when my son Matthew was on his mission. So that means a lot to me because he texted me and said, I saw Matthew today. He looks great. And so I have a personal debt of gratitude to you, Dr. Goodman. So thank you for

being with us today. Happy to be here. We love having you, Mike. On a personal note, Mike has dealt with some serious trials over the years. How many times have you dealt with cancer, Mike? I'm on my fourth right now. Okay. It's all good. And how are you doing? I'm alive.

I'm doing great. I've gotten three of them down. I got one that doesn't want to go away right now, but we're working on it. I think it's inspiring for people to know that our guests are not just supermen or superwomen that don't have to experience life. We definitely get life. Yeah, we all experience mortality. Mike, looking at this week's lesson, here's what the Come Follow Me manual says. It says, during his mortal ministry, Jesus Christ often challenged people's long-held traditions and beliefs.

This didn't stop after he ascended into heaven, as he continued to guide his church by revelation. So, that seems to be the opening, right, to what we're going to look at today. The name of the lesson is The Word of God Grew and Multiplied. Is that what we're looking at? That's what we're looking at. Acts chapters 10 through 15. Where do you want to start us out? Do you want to do, should we do a little background or should we just jump into chapter 10? Well, if you'll let me be rebellious a little bit, I'd actually like to start before the background. Okay. Wow.

The background. The background of the background. So you've brought Paul into the picture and that's going to become a very important part of what we do, especially basically from chapters 13 on. Having said that, Acts chapter 10 is a beautiful chapter that, to be very frank, many people don't think very much of. It's where we go from the church being specifically Jewish-centric to the first conversion of a Gentile and then beginning to become a more worldwide church. To be very frank, many of us, if you've been raised in the

Christian faith, that's just part of the story. You just don't think about it. But especially today, especially with Gen Z and some of our younger members and others, it's hard to fathom a God who would limit the church to a specific people, especially in today's world where basically acceptance and tolerance is seen as that's almost the prime directive, right? And I wanted to start out by making sure that we were clear. From the days of Adam forward, the plan has always involved everyone. But how that's worked has differed depending on the circumstances of the people. But I think you really have to start what we're looking at today by taking a look at the Abrahamic covenant. And I'm not going to do a half hour on the Abrahamic covenant, I promise.

But think about the words in Abraham chapter two. Let me just read a little bit to you. My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning. Therefore, my hand shall be over thee. And then listen to this wording for Abraham. And I will make thee, Abraham, a great nation. I will bless thee above measure. I will make thy name great among all nations. Thou shalt be a blessing under thy seat after thee. And now listen to this, that in their hands, they shall bear this ministry and priesthood unto all nations.

From the beginning, from Adam all the way through to Abraham, and then from Abraham forward, the goal, Heavenly Father's goal has always been to save all of his children. You think about the Savior's last words to his disciples, right? Go ye therefore and teach some nations? No. Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. I want to make sure we have that big picture vision, but we also have to acknowledge reality. There have been a dozen times in scriptural history where God or his prophets have limited who they've worked with. Think about the brother of Jared and the people around the Tower of Babel. Think about Adam and Cain's descendants.

Think about Enoch and Canaan. Think about Abraham, the Chaldeans. Think about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They didn't go teaching amongst the Palestinians. Moses, the Chaldeans. Think about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They didn't go teaching amongst the Palestinians. Moses, the Egyptians. And I can go on and on and on. But you go right down to this story, and this is Christ who set up his church in the meridian of time. But think of what he said in Matthew 10, verse 5. He explicitly commanded the 12, don't go to the Gentiles. Then in Matthew 15, he says, I wasn't sent to the Gentiles. I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

So you've got this situation where we know, if you know the nature of God, please, and I hope we do, you know, he loves all of his children. He doesn't play favorites. And yet we have times when it has been limited in how it's been approached. And I would simply have a start today with the understanding that that limitation is never because God doesn't want to save all of his children. He always, always, always does. But there are times when it's not the right thing at that time to go to all people. So I'm not a preacher. I'm a teacher. So can I ask you two a couple of questions? Please do. John will answer them. Wonderful. Why might Christ have told the apostles, don't go to the Gentiles, and I'm not going to the Gentiles. Why do you think that might've been? One of the thoughts I had was,

he's preparing them to do that. They're not done with their MTC yet. Okay, excellent. They're going to bear the ministry. It's a burden. The burden is to take the gospel. It's a blessing, but it's also part of the Abrahamic covenant. Your job is to take the gospel. It's a blessing, but it's also part of the Abrahamic covenant. Your job is to take the gospel to everyone. So everyone's always been part of it, but maybe they're not ready yet. That's a guess. Okay. There's a shot. Excellent. Hank, what do you think? It reminds me a little bit of the laborers in the vineyard, that there's some called in at six in the morning, some at nine, some at noon, some at three, some at four. Everybody finishes the same. And I remember Elder Oaks saying something to the effect of those who are maybe not laboring

formally in the vineyard are being prepared in other ways by the Lord. I would simply want those listening to understand we always have to start with what we understand about the nature of God. God loves all of his children. And the fact that at certain times it may be limited isn't an implication that Heavenly Father doesn't love. We know he wants to save all, but sometimes there might be preparation that's needed.

Sometimes there might be a people not ready for the gospel. Sometimes his covenant people may not be ready to share. We've kind of seen that a lot in the Old Testament in the beginning here. I would have as our theme song for today, 2 Nephi 26, where the Savior teaches, well, where we hear, and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness. And he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and free male, and he remembereth the heathen, and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile. So there's our foundation. There's our little piece that helps us to begin to make better sense of what we see in chapters 10 through 15.

Excellent. That's really helpful because Peter's going to struggle. Even the, we would say, the president of the church or the prophet of the church at the time, he's even going to, what is this about? That's right. So with that, shall we jump into 10?

Let's go. All right. Verse one, you always have to start with the beginning, right? There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. And I would simply give us a little bit of a staging there. There's

two places called Caesarea, one Caesarea Meritima and one Caesarea Philippi. They're different places. This is the one that's on the coast. It was largely a Gentile city north of Jerusalem, and it was the head of the Roman government in Judea. So it was an important place. And you've got Cornelius, who is a centurion, which is one who we generally think of centuries, someone who's in charge of a hundred. By this time, it was usually a couple hundred at least. But it was a soldier with quite a bit of authority. And he's called of the Italian band, the actual, the normal translation of that is the Italian cohort, which means it might have been a group of soldiers that were largely from Italy. There's some challenge with timing on that because the Italian cohort or the Italian band actually

was probably a little later than this date. So we don't know the details there. We simply know we've got Cornelius in a very big city that got great authority and is a really good man. Yeah. A devout man. Yes. Yeah. Verse two, a devout man, one who feared God with all his house. So Cornelius is going to have a visionary experience. And it says in verse three, he saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour, that the Greek there is definitively, he saw a vision and he saw an angel come to him. And I love the angel kind of soft pedals to start with.

Cornelius, it's okay. Don't be afraid. I'm here. You've done good. God knows you've done good. Now I need you to send to Joppa and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter. He's lodging with a tanner. And then I love this.

He, meaning Peter, shall tell thee what thou oughtst to do. Now think about that for a sec. You've got an angel who certainly knows the job description and knows what Cornelius needs to do, but he says, no, I need you to go to Peter because Peter's the one who's got to direct you in what you're doing. And I think there's great power in that. Joseph Smith actually added a really fun thought to that. He said this, no wonder the angel told good old Cornelius that he must send for Peter to learn how to be saved. Peter could baptize and the angel could not.

So long as there was a legal officer in the flesh holding the keys of the kingdom or the authority of the priesthood. So there was a reason why that authorized servant, i.e. Peter, had to be the one that was going to share the story with him. That's fantastic. So Cornelius is obedient. He tells his servants, and by the way, you can tell by what he says and how he says it, his servants seem to be believers also, like unto their master. They were devout. We'll just put it that way. And so they send for Peter. Well, while they're traveling, Peter's having his own visionary experience. On the next day, sixth hour, which would be about noon, verse 10 says he fell into a trance. I know that has a

strange sound to it, but basically he began a visionary experience. This vision, I think many people who know the Bible are familiar with it. The thing that looked like a sheet is lowered down from heaven and it's got all these animals on it. Some that would be quote unquote clean, some that would be not clean based on Israeli law and Jewish custom, right? And the voice says to Peter, rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, whoa, no way. Not so, Lord. Now, by the way, that takes guts to tell God no.

The servant, whoever it is, right? Not so, Lord, for I've never eaten anything that is common or unclean. But listen to what the voice says here. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that call thou not common. Now, if you look into the Greek, that common is often translated as unholy. Yeah. Profane.

Profane. Exactly. And so you've got this situation. And by the way, it happens three times. The Lord seems to like things in threes that way, right? Joseph Smith and others. And so it's interesting. He did not say to Peter, hey, this is clean. Don't naysay what

I say is clean. Look what he said, what God has cleansed. That call thou not come. And now not wanting to split hairs, but I do think it's really, really important that we recognize that prior to this vision, if Peter would have thought to himself, I think I'm going to go eat some lobster and some other things that are contrary to the law of Moses, some pork, time for a little bacon. He would not have been justified in that. Not because the pork was evil. Pork has never been evil. Ask anyone who eats bacon, right? Yeah. Sure smells great. Yeah, but it was unclean for them because God had said so. When we talk about things like that,

we're often talking about what we call policies or procedures. The violation, if someone would have eaten, gosh,, something that was not kosher, it's not because the food itself was evil, but it was something the Lord asked ancient Israel to do to separate them, kind of what we were talking about earlier, and to help them to be a holy people. And so you have a policy in place. It's not eternal. We have no evidence that Adam ate kosher. So we've got this policy that, by the way, the policy came from God. You can't just say it was a dumb policy. It came from God through Moses. God can and does adjust policies, procedures based on the needs of people. In other words, what we're seeing here in this vision, just if you stayed with food,

and we're about to see that it's not about food, but just if you stayed with food, you begin to see quickly that this isn't the changing of an eternal doctrine. This is the changing of a current policy that God had put in place. And so God can say, it has been cleansed. I have declared these things clean. Therefore, don't call it unholy. Don't call it common. It actually reminded me of a statement from President Uchtdorf, and this is one of dozens that say basically the same thing. Procedures, programs, policies, and patterns

of organization are helpful for our spiritual progress here on earth. But let's not forget that they are subject to change. In contrast, the core of the gospel, the doctrine, and the principles will never change. In a world today where we're seeing prophets like President Nelson, he's a change artist. How many things has he done? And to be very frank, some people get a little bit uncomfortable with that. I think it's crucial that we learn to differentiate between eternal doctrine, that which is based on eternal principles that can't and won't change. The atonement isn't one day going to become less central to our faith. Separating that from principles and policies such as eating kosher, which can and in this case are about to change. Not yet though. We're going

to get to chapter 15 before we do that. Fantastic. Mike, I just want to do a quick tangent off of this verse, if it's okay with both of you. I like that statement. I'm taking it out of context here, so I need everybody to understand that this isn't a great way to read scripture, to just find a statement. But sometimes you can find one. John calls them a sermon in a sentence. And it's this statement, what God hath cleansed, call not thou common. I think we can do that with people, that when people have repented, when they have done their best to make a change, let them change. Let people change, move on, forgive. I can see that in the Chronicles of Narnia when Edmund comes back and repents. And Aslan says something to the effect of, he and I have talked about it.

There is no need to speak of it again. Probably taking that statement out of context, but I like it. Oh, I think it's such an important principle though, Hank. And by the way, I just read that statement from Aslan to Edmund yesterday, so your timing is really good on that. I did. But I think it is crucial that we allow the Lord to do His work. In fact, that's going to be a major theme throughout these five chapters, is God's continuing to do His work. And His continuous to do His work doesn't have to create anxiety of, oh my goodness, what's going to change next?

Again, what are the eternal truths that will not change? I actually wrote a little article. Okay. It was a big, long article that was published in BYU Studies last year that looked at this issue. And I don't want to go into great detail, but in the last 30, 40 years, the brethren have basically repeatedly used three criteria to determine whether you can look at something and say, this is not going to change.

One is eternality. In other words, look back from Adam forward. Have you ever seen it different? Look at what prophets are saying. Do they say it's eternal? So the very fact that it has stayed the same is one of the ways that we can know that. Two, look at the united voice of the first presidency in Quorum of Twelve. Not an individual member, but the united voice. And three, does it have to do with salvation for all people

at all times? So kosher was absolutely crucial for Peter up until these chapters that we're hitting here. But kosher wasn't crucial for Adam, and it's not crucial for us. And so understanding those three things, eternality, united voice, the first presidency in Korma 12, and salvific. Is it salvific? Then you can say, okay, I know Jesus is going to stay the Christ. Heavenly Father is our Heavenly Father. We know the truths that aren't going to change. Then it becomes what Elder Maxwell says. It becomes high adventure as we watch the Lord do his work. So, we ready to go on? Yep. I call this the pigs in a blanket vision, just because the pig keeps getting wrapped up in the blanket, then comes back down, keeps getting wrapped up in the blanket and comes back down,

keeps getting wrapped up. It happens over and over. And fascinating that Peter doesn't seem to get it the first time. He's like, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to eat that. And even by the third time, he hasn't gotten it. Look at verse 17. Now, while Peter doubted in himself what this vision, which he had seen should mean. So in other words, I don't get it. I'm at a loss. That's when all of a sudden you hear a knock on the door, so to speak, and you've got Cornelius' servants coming to get him. It's not just Peter's lifetime. It's what he's been taught in history. This is centuries. This is millennia of practicing the law of Moses about clean and unclean animals. So one vision going, okay, change that. I can see that.

Yeah, I can see why he'd- Peter might be going, oh, give me a minute. Give me a minute. Little hesitant. Yeah. Yeah. And we're going to see going forward, it's not just Peter, obviously. You've got others who we've got to learn to give the benefit of the doubt to folks instead of villainizing them.

Others who are doing their best, holding on to truth that they believe is central. They're also going to have to work through this process of, okay, wait, maybe the Lord can do something different. And we are talking millennia here. This isn't a 50-year policy. This has been in place since Moses. Well, okay. We have this group come and they say, hey, Peter, come talk to our master, Cornelius,

right? They say Cornelius was warned by an angel to call for you. And so Peter goes with them, right? And when he got there, he found that Cornelius had gathered his family and those of his household together and go to verse 28 with me, if you would. And he said unto them, ye know how that it is unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or to come into one of another nation. That's possibly a little bit of an overstatement because they had interactions,

but there were certain interactions that weren't legal by the Mosaic law. But then look at this. But God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. So you can see Peter's beginning to, his eyes are beginning to open. He's going, oh, wait, this wasn't necessarily just about food. He's making the connection to where in the past, to be very frank, there were some not kind feelings between Jews and Gentiles, right? And the Lord's saying, hey, what I have cleansed, call thou not common. It's time to move on. Time to move, right? Lord's saying, hey, what I have cleansed, call thou not common.

It's time to move on. Time to move, right? Which, by the way, is again, go back to how we started today. It's the Lord moving them to where he always wanted them to be, but he needed both groups of people ready to be there, right? He then shares that he had had this vision. This is Cornelius' vision. I sent to thee, Peter, and thou hast done well that thou art come. Now, therefore, are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. We all have Cornelius' in our life.

Good people that are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. People that are like this, that are just salt of the earth goodness, that the Lord's waiting for us to see as he sees and be ready to invite as Peter's about to invite Cornelius. Cornelius not only was pious himself, but he'd clearly taught his household because they were there with him, waiting to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. This is where Peter's going to continue this eye-opening experience. Verse 34, then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel and preaching peace by Jesus Christ.

And then he's going to pivot and bring in the Savior. But before we go to the pivot, think of what Peter is saying here. He's saying that, listen, I in the past had thought being chosen meant that we were the uncommon or we were the clean ones. We were the holy ones. But now I'm beginning to see actually that or isn't the way Heavenly Father sees His children. I love this term, God is no respecter of persons. Now, think about this with me for a minute. Sometimes, especially in this world that we live in, that is, to be very frank, often

quite, what's the right word, doesn't necessarily believe in standards, doesn't necessarily believe in objective truth, in eternal law. Many times people take a statement like this, God is no respecter of persons, and basically take that to mean, therefore, no matter what you do, no matter what you think, no matter what you say, you're pleasing to God. And there should only be acceptance for no matter what it is a person thinks or feels. But I want you to look back at verse 35. That's not what the Lord's saying here. I don't think God wants us to be afraid of Him. The root to that is generally to respect Him. Those who respect see God for who God is. and that work righteousness. You can see that that clearly

fits Cornelius, right? And so the concept of God is no respecter of persons doesn't mean God doesn't still have a plan for his children to help them become like him. And it's not that we should simply accept anyone and everything for what they say, what they do, what they believe. I believe what Peter seems to be learning here and what the Lord's trying to teach is that all of God's children, there's nobody that by virtue of who they are is not loved, is not a child of God, is not wanted, is not part of God's plan. What God is desperately trying to do, as Elder Holland so clearly teaches, is He will take you exactly where you are. Just don't plan on staying where you are, because He's going to continue to ask us to grow. He's going to ask us to honor Him, to respect Him, to fear Him, to use this language. And he's going to ask us to work righteousness.

And you see that with Cornelius. That phrase was kind of a stumbling block for me as a teenager. It confused me. God is no respecter of persons. Because it sounds like what it's saying is God doesn't respect people. What it really means is, how would you phrase that? He doesn't treat you differently with respect to you. I have this, but with respect to you, I don't have.

Do you know what I mean? What is a better phrase for that? I wonder another Bible translation might help us or something, because that always required explanation for me as a teenager. God doesn't respect people because then in the next verse, nations that fear him that respect God. We all should respect God. So how do you explain that when you teach what that phrase means? God does not play favorites.

So you've got no one by virtue of who they are is disqualified from exaltation. Every person we ever meet is a child of God that God is seeking to save. He can't save us if we don't come to him. And so he's going to require us to come to him and to work works of righteousness. In other words, to become like him. But we start, all of us, on the him but we start all of us on the reality that god loves all of us we all belong god wants to save all of his children okay so king james says i perceive that god is no respecter of persons new american standard, I most certainly now understand God does not want to show partiality. NIV, then Peter began to speak, I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism. New Living Translation, I see very clearly that God doesn't show partiality. Okay, thank you for letting me do that. I just thought that might be helpful to some. One of the things I teach my students in my classes at BYU, this is going to sound wrong,

but work with me for a sec. I teach them that God is very biased. What I mean by that is God is purposefully trying to save. Sometimes we mistake God for justice. Justice is you hold that scale up. If you're saved, you're saved. If you're damned, you're damned. Oh, well. God's not Lady Justice. God is purposefully trying to save us. He gave his only begotten son to save us. And so God is very biased, but he's equally biased. He doesn't play favorites. He's trying to save all of his children. I think I said this earlier that we have record of God speaking to the Jews, right? That's our record that we have. And we all sometimes assume he's not talking to anybody else

when he very much is directing and preparing other people. Yes, absolutely. Well, Peter's eyes are opening. He's beginning to see things that he hadn't seen before. One of the things that I hope those who listen get out of this chapter, and it's going to continue as we go through the next three or four chapters, this is a line upon line process for Peter, as our own spiritual learning is a line upon line process, right? He starts out, he sees this vision of animals and he goes, I don't really know what this means. And then he comes down a little bit and goes, God might be not talking about animals and food, but people. And then he comes down here and he's going, oh, wow. No, God is completely trying to save all of us.

And so Peter is learning line upon line. You and I are learning line upon line. I hope we can find peace in realizing, well, it's okay. It's okay to continue to seek to learn. Elder Bednar put it this way. Many of us typically assume that we'll receive an answer or prompting to our earnest prayers and pleadings. We also frequently expect that such an answer or prompting will come immediately and all at once. Thus, we tend to believe the Lord

will give us a big answer quickly and all at one time. However, the pattern repeatedly described in the scriptures suggests that we receive line upon line, precept upon precept, or in other words, many small answers over a period of time. You can see that in chapter 10 explicitly. Recognizing and understanding this pattern is an important key to obtaining inspiration and help from the Holy Ghost. So I think Peter's modeling pretty nicely how you and I can learn to gain

personal revelation ourself. In the Come Follow Me manual, I think it's one of the first headings, God is no respecter of persons. For generations, the Jews had believed that being of the seed of Abraham or a literal descendant of Abraham meant that a person was accepted and chosen by God. They considered anyone else an unclean Gentile who was not chosen by God. They considered anyone else an unclean Gentile who was not accepted by God. But in Acts chapter 10, what did the Lord teach Peter about who is accepted with him? What evidence do you find in this chapter that Cornelius' life was acceptable to the Lord? And then the next paragraph, like the Jews who looked down on those who were not of the seat of Abraham.

Do you ever catch yourself making unkind or uninformed assumptions about someone who is different from you? How can you overcome this tendency? And it gives an activity that you might do. It says, it might be interesting to try a simple activity for the next few days. Whenever you interact with someone, try to think to yourself, this person is a child of God. As you do this, what changes do you notice in the way you interact with others? Great little insight there. Beautiful. Isn't it true that by the Book of Mormon definition, the three of us are Gentiles on this podcast? Gentiles, yeah. That's right. Gentiles means the nations. It was kind of the others. The not us. the not us.

The not us. We're part of that. Once Peter comes to this understanding, then he begins to share with Cornelius and his household about Christ and him crucified. One of the things I love in these chapters is as Peter, as Paul, as Barnabas and others go out, They always, and we're going to talk about this a little bit later. They always start where the people are and then they always move them to Christ. And that's what you see here. Verses 38 through 43, we won't read them, but if I could leave a thought on them, this is a pattern that we see the Lord use constantly. You've got 38 where it's the good news. In other words, it's

Jesus Christ. 39, God called witnesses. And then 41, not everyone gets that witness, but some of us do. Verse 42, then God commands those of us who got that witness to go out and teach. And hence, you can see what I call the prophetic pattern. That is, it's the way the Lord works. It's dispensationalism. It's the reality that Heavenly Father works through prophets to help bring truth and power and authority to all of His children in an attempt to save them. And as Peter's speaking, well, they begin to feel the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 44. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision, because Peter, we didn't mention this, Peter brought six friends with him, six people from Jerusalem.

They of the circumcision which believed were astonished as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. Oh, my goodness. They didn't see that coming. They did not see that coming, right? That's where Peter says, okay, they've gotten the Holy Spirit just like us. Who can deny them the chance to make a covenant with God to be baptized? And so it's a powerful chapter. It seems like maybe some had the thought you've got to be a Jew before you can convert to Christianity or something. We're going to see baptized. And so it's a powerful chapter. It seems like maybe some had the thought,

you've got to be a Jew before you can convert to Christianity or something. We're going to see that. Yes. That's next chapter. Yep. Now, this chapter, Acts chapter 10, always brings to mind article of faith number nine. We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God. I frequently tell my students, I don't think that's been rescinded. I don't think that the Lord has said, well, all the great and important things are out. From here on out, we're doing small and trivial. Seems that being part of the Latter-day Church means being prepared for new,

great, and important things. As President Nelson says, take your vitamins. We've got work to do, right? This is why I think it becomes so important that we learn to recognize what prophets, seers, and revelators are saying are eternal truths that won't change. Because we've got a lot of these kinds of things, policies and procedures that are about to change and have changed and must change so that the Lord can do his work. I think a modern day application of this can be something like the presentation of the endowment. The endowment itself doesn't change. It's the spiritual power that comes from God. But the presentation of the endowment, this is something I've learned from my friend Anthony Sweat, the presentation of the endowment can change, but that doesn't change

the endowment, the power. Yes, it's a great example. And by the way, Anthony's books are great. I strongly recommend them. So very good. Chapter 11. Okay, let's keep going. Yeah. Chapter 11, we can do fairly quickly, but I think it hearkens to a little something that John said earlier. There were some members of the church who believed that in order to come unto Christ, you had to start by coming unto Judaism. If you look at verse one, the apostles and the brethren that were in Judea heard the Gentiles had also received the word of God. So word came back. Peter just had this amazing experience with Cornelius. Verse two, and when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him. Now, here we go. And that they that are of the

circumcision can be one of two things. One, anyone who's Jewish is of the circumcision. So in other words, it could be Jewish Christian converts. It also could be a specific group within the Jewish Christian converts who were holding more tightly to what they'd held to before. The old policy. That's right. I would have us be a little more gentle with them. Not that what they'd held to before. The old policy. That's right. I would have us be a little more gentle with them. Not that what they were wanting and saying was right, but can we give them the benefit of the doubt that they were simply trying to help all people

stay covenant connected to Christ. And they believe that in order to do that, you had to fulfill the law of Moses, the Jewish law before. They didn't want to stop them there. They wanted them to come to Christ. These were believers, but they were believers who thought you still had to come through the door of Judaism. But it's interesting, if you go to verse three, and maybe it's just a lack of information in the scriptures, it doesn't look like they're

worried about them receiving the word of God. They're more worried that Peter ate with them. Verse three is saying, thou wentest into men uncircumcised and didst eat with them. And remember, we talked about this earlier, there were kosher laws and those kosher laws partially separated Israel from their neighbors. And so this comment would not have been out of line a week before because that requirement was still in place. And so these are members, these are believers in Christ who are saying, wait, you can't do this. And now Peter is going to have to, and that's why we can go through this chapter pretty quickly. Peter is going to rehearse to them everything that just happened. The vision he had. So we don't need to necessarily read all of that.

Though I do think, go to verse 16. This is kind of a neat little tidbit in the middle of it. He says in verse 15, the Holy Ghost fell on them. Verse 16. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he, Christ, said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized by the Holy Ghost. When I read that, I thought, oh, interesting. When Christ said that, it didn't necessarily click anything in Peter's head. But Peter goes, and he has this revelatory experience, and he goes and he meets with Cornelius who had a revelatory experiences. He sees Cornelius's household

received the Holy Ghost. And all of a sudden, something that was said earlier clicks and he goes, Oh wait, didn't Christ say something about this? And it's, to me, another great example of we're learning line upon line. Sometimes life experience is what it takes to help us to go, oh, that's what the Lord meant by this. And so I thought that was just kind of a sweet little line upon line experience that he's having there. Yeah, that is great. And you don't get that in the other chapter. That's right. You don't get that little insight. Yeah. It reminded me of John 14, 26, that God will bring all things back to our remembrance. That's one of the ways the Holy Spirit works with us is to bring things back to our remembrance.

And I love what Peter says in 17. He says, God gave us the Holy Ghost and he's giving them the Holy Ghost. What am I supposed to do? Stop him? You want me to stop God from giving them this gift that he gives? That's right. If you look at verse 18, like, oh, everyone's figured it out. When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. So I go,

woohoo. Oh, it's everybody. Yeah, we're good. We're going to see going forward, we're still working on it. Then we get this little switch going on where we're going to stop talking about Cornelius and we're going to prepare ourself to move a little bit towards Paul. But not yet, because we've got chapter 12 and that's still Peter. But we do have this interesting thing where based on the persecutions that happened to Stephen, that's verse 19, different believers went out and they began to preach the word, but they generally tried, or at that point,

this is pre the X 10 that they were teaching only under the Jews. But then verse 20 comes and says, and some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. Now, the word Grecian, I'm not a Greek expert, but I depend on those who are. In the earliest manuscripts, it's translated two ways. One as Hellenists, evidently referring to Jewish individuals who spoke Greek. And in other places, it's translated as Grecians, Greeks, meaning Gentiles. It almost

looks like right here, you begin to see the fruit of Peter's vision. I don't know if we can go there at this point because the text isn't clear enough for us to know one way or the other, but it sets the stage for these missions that are about to begin, chapter 13 actually, with Paul and Barnabas. We are actually introduced a little bit more to Barnabas. Barnabas came onto the scene earlier in Acts,

and you got to love Barnabas. Well, look at verse 24. He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and the faith. Then Barnabas goes and he says, hey, I got to meet up with Saul. And so it says they went. He went, verse 26, and he found him, and he brought him, he brought Saul unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

So you've got this beginning of this missionary work where the Lord's, what did he say? Go forth teaching all nations. This is really the beginning of that fulfillment where Paul and Barnabas begin to teach clearly both Jew and non-Jew or Jew and Gentile. And they ultimately begin to be called Christians, which we think was probably a derogatory at that point. It's basically partisans of Christ, those who believe in Christ. You've got the beginning of the story. Now, one of the challenges we have, this is one of the joys of an ancient text. This area, as we're going to see in chapters 13 and 14, is basically Southern Galatia. And for most of history, the scholars have believed that it's these people

and people in 13 and 14 that we're about to see that Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians. That may or may not be true. We don't know. There's an upper Galatia and there's a lower Galatia. Upper Galatia is talked about in Acts chapter 16. Lower Galatia is chapter 14. One way or the other, this area begins to be the very first mission field for non-Jewish

converts to Christianity. So, I recall that in Acts chapter 9, they refer to this movement as the way. Now, they're calling themselves Christians, and that's going to stick through the rest of the book of Acts, isn't it? I underline when it says, by the way, in the scriptures, did you underline when it says he was a good man? Just because that's your name. I did, but I had not made that connection. Oh, wow. I thought maybe you'd say that's my cousin Barnabas right there, Barnabas Goodman. Yeah, Barnabas Goodman. Well, John, I've never done it before, but from this point forward, I will. I thought you must be related to him because you're a good man too. What do we know about this Agabus? I remember one of my mission companions talking

about the prophet Agabus because it refers to him that way. Yeah. There's evidently some people that came up from Jerusalem that were prophets, that were basically those who were believers in Christ. And we don't get a lot of information on them. We learn a little bit more in Acts chapter 21 about Agabus, but we don't really learn a lot more. Interesting. If you think through this, what we've got is a situation where members of the church are having to learn to accept people that they haven't necessarily accepted before. All of us are going to have that experience in life. That wonderful person who comes and sits on the bench next to us and can smell the cigarette smoke, and you just realize they're not from here, and it's not the same thing.

I experienced a little bit of it myself when I was an investigator, which was when I was 17, 18 years old. I was definitely very non-LDS in my appearance and basic life. I had hair down to about here and I had a full mustache. And I will simply say this, no one ever confused me for being a Latter-day Saint before. And I remember when I walked into church the first time, eyes getting like this big, like, oh my goodness, what is he doing here? And no one was mean to me. No one was rude to me. I had a sweet and loving, but for the next little bit, because life started to change. And yes, even my appearance changed. My hair went to here to, I remember when I cut it to about here, I thought I'm downright respectable now. Right. And it started to change. And then I began to look a little bit more the part. But I was so grateful that people allowed me from a very rough background, with a loving

alcoholic family, with drug and alcohol addictions throughout our whole background. They loved me for me, and they allowed me to begin to make the changes that I needed to make to come to the Savior. And I needed to make changes. It wasn't just my hair. But what would have happened if they would have not? What would have happened if they would have said, oh no, we know him. He does not fit here. He does not belong. So I think there's great power in us realizing that God loves us all, and he's trying desperately to bring us all in. Hence, everyone needs to be loved and welcomed to come under the Savior. Perfect. Have either of you seen this new movie

called The Jesus Revolution? Yeah. No, it's good. And it's exactly this. This pastor had to decide if he wanted to let those who were described as hippies into his congregation. He at first said he just wanted them to take a bath. But it's a true story. And we enjoyed watching that great message of take people where they're at and let the Savior take them where they're not at. It's Jonathan Romi, the one who plays plays jesus in the chosen is the hippie yeah hippie preacher so it's good it's good okay chapter 12 is our little segue here this is our last major chapter where we get peter as the primary protagonist if you want to call it that. It's a sad, happy chapter. In fact, I think that's part of the message here.

If you look at the chapter heading, the chapter starts with the martyrdom of James, the brother of John, who's killed by Herod. Go to verse 1. Now about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church, and he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. It's a very sad reality that for the next three, four hundred years, Christians are going to be largely persecuted first amongst their own people, amongst the Jews, but also amongst the Romans. But James is killed. Herod's an interesting character. It's Herod Agrippa I. He was a grandson of Herod the Great. And he's an interesting character. You read this chapter and you're going to think,

he is one bad dude. And that's probably somewhat true. Having said that, if you actually look in Jewish writings, they portray Herod Agrippa very favorably, very fair, and say he's very religiously observant. But as you're going to see, it's not going to work out well for him. He's going to end up dying a horrible death at the end of the chapter. And we know that he does kill James. You've got the beginning of this is a really sad story. And then you're going to see that's taken and they're going to say, and he saw that that pleased the Jews, which maybe there was a good relationship with the Jews, but not with the Christians. And so he took Peter and he put Peter in jail, so to speak, in prison and guarded him with four quaternions, four squads

of four soldiers, which sounds like a tremendous overkill, I think. But he kept Peter in prison, verse five, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. which sounds like a tremendous overkill, I think. But he kept Peter in prison, verse 5. But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. The people of God, the members of the church, realize Peter's now been captured. He's being held. And they know that James has just been killed. And so they're praying, they're exercising faith on his behalf. And the story of Peter's escape is just fun. I don't know how else you'd put this. You've got an angel that comes and Peter's sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains. And there's people outside the door guarding the door.

They were very nervous that Peter was going to get out, right? But then the angel comes and Peter's sleeping. The angel smacks him, right? Peter, wake up. And as soon as Peter kind of wakes up, his chains fall off. And Peter's like, oh my goodness. But clearly he doesn't fully get it yet. Verse eight, angel said unto him, gird thyself and bind on thy sandals. So he did. And he said, cast thy garment about thee. Peter's thinking, as you're going to see in the next verse, he's thinking he's having a dream. But this is a reality that the angel has come to free him. Verse nine, he went out and followed him and wist not that it was true, which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision.

So, Peter didn't even realize he was actually making an escape. He dreamed he was escaping, or he thought he dreamed he was escaping. And so, you've got Peter coming out, and the angel walks him out past the gate. And as soon as he gets past the gate, the angel goes away. And Peter's like, oh, wow, what do I do now? Right? And so verse 12, he heads to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. We're going to talk about John Mark in just a moment, but a faithful family. And then you've got this almost hilarious situation. 13, as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate.

Can you just envision this? The iron gate that holds him in prison is no obstacle. The angel opens it up, but he can't get his friends to open the door so he can go in, right? But they finally say, oh, wow, wait, he's really out there. We hear someone banging, right? Verse 17. But he beckoned unto them, he, Peter, beckoned unto them with the hand to hold their peace and declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of

prison. And he said, go, shew these things unto James. James, we think, would be the brother of Christ, the head of the church in Jerusalem, and the brethren, the other apostles. And he departed. And so you've got, I think, this really powerful juxtaposition of two very disparate outcomes. You've got James, who I think we can safely say is no less righteous and good and valiant than Peter, and he's killed. And you have Peter, who goes through a comedy of errors as he's saved by this angel and brought back and delivered. I think I'm not the only one who looks at that and says, why is it that some people seem to receive miracles and others may not? Why the disparate outcomes? What are your two thoughts on that? It reminds me of how you put Shadrach, Meshach,

and Abednego against Abinadi. And you think, why do some people get saved and some people not? The daughters of Oneita that got burned when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were saved. It made me think back to Elder Christofferson's conference address where he taught this principle. I think it's really, really important that we understand what he was saying, which was don't treat God like he's a vending machine. It's not put in your coins of righteousness and then you get out whatever you want. But if it's okay, I'd like to read just a couple things from his conference talk. He said this, God will indeed honor his covenants and promises to each of us.

We need not worry about that. The atoning power of Jesus Christ, who descended below all things and then ascended on high and who possesses all power in heaven and on earth, ensures that God can and will fulfill his promises. No questions asked. It is essential that we honor and obey his laws, but not every blessing predicated on obedience to law is shaped, designed, and timed according to our expectations. We do our best but must leave to him, God, the management of the blessings, both the temporal and the spiritual.

President Brigham Young explained that his faith was not built on certain outcomes or blessings, but on his witness of and relationship with Jesus Christ. I think these are powerful principles because it's one of the age-old questions. If there's an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God, how can bad things keep happening? And why don't good people always get whatever they pray for? It's one of those situations where learning to trust, as Elder Maxwell said, in God's timing as well as his love becomes very important. I know personally, working through my fourth cancer right now, I would love to have my cancer removed.

And I have had several priesthood blessings, but I've had two priesthood blessings that have been profoundly moving. I was blessed by a stake president who's one of the most righteous men I know. He's so good. And by a member of the Seventy that both promised me that I would be healed. I still hold to that promise, but I still have cancer. I would love to know what and how the Lord's going to do what and how he's going to do. But is my faith in God dependent on, do I get what it is I think I want at a given time?

Or as Brigham Young said, it's not based on that. It's based on my relationship with and love of God. I think these two stories juxtaposed next to each other are kind of important reminders. We can trust God. You don't have to question whether his promises will be fulfilled, but he does not promise us a carefree, problem-free mortality. Events in my own family just really being taught that faith is not the first principle of the gospel. Yeah. We're backed up to the wall of faith in Christ sometimes, as Elder Maxwell might say, which is a great lesson to learn. It doesn't make life easy, but it's nice to know that we can trust him and trust his love for us, as you've said over and over today. That he'll walk with us. I don't always get what it is I'm asking, but I always get him.

He's the one who said it. He's the one who invited us. Abide in me and I in you. Therefore, walk with me. That's what the Lord is asking us to stay covenant connected to Him. Come what may, no matter what life brings, mortality brings. Mortality is not fair. Life is not fair, but God is always fair. He will always give us fair plus, but it comes back to, is my faith in outcomes or is my faith in Christ? I have a friend and this poor soul was the person who edited most of my books at Deseret Book. Her name is Emily Watts. And I remember one time in a timeout for women, she told a story of a little girl, a pioneer walking along the pioneer trail and very, very cold. And somebody in a wagon came by and said do you want to ride

and she said yes and this man reached over and grabbed the little girl's hand with one hand and with his other hand said yeah and got the horses to start to trot or gallop or something this little girl was running with everything she had, holding this man's hand. And she thought, this is the meanest man I've ever met. Just about the time she was so exhausted, he lifted her up next to him, wrapped her in a blanket and seated her next to him as they continued to ride. And she said, it took me, I can't remember how long, maybe years to realize he had just saved my feet

by making me run and warm up her body and get her blood circulating. Because if he just grabbed her, she might've been frostbitten or something. I can't remember the story. I just remember that he saved my feet. But at the time, it seemed like, what are you doing? Does that story sound familiar to both of you?

Yeah, I remember that story. That's a great one. President Boyd K. Packer, I guess when he was Elder Boyd K. Packer, told a story in a book called That All May Be Edified about a young couple who came to meet with him who were recently informed that they would not be able to have children of their own. And as he counseled with them, this is the one thing they wanted, and they were tearful and everything. And he said, as they were leaving, he said, you're a very fortunate young couple. And the young man turned around, how can you say that when you just learned that we're not going to be able to have children, the thing that we want? And President Packer said,

because you want them. And in the eternal scheme of things, that will make a much greater difference than you suppose, which is, whoa, what a story. Because their desires were in the right place. And he wanted them to know they were blessed for having a righteous desire. I mean, that's how I felt when I spent a long time being single. That that was a desire I had. It wasn't coming out the way I thought it should, according to all the stories I'd heard. This discussion we've had about the loss of James reminds me of a talk. This is Elder Bradley Foster, March of 2014, so almost 10 years ago. He talks about trials, tribulations, and trust in the Lord. bright and energetic blonde hair piercing blue eyes loves necklaces but her turn on earth was short on a warm night in july little presley was with relatives while her parents pat and ashley went on a date a few hours later her parents received a phone call telling them that presley

had fallen into a canal they needed to go straight to the hospital they had found the little girl in the canal and began CPR. Many months before the accident, Presley's mother had created a blog on which she shared happy stories and photos as Presley grew and experienced life. After the accident, the blog became a way for the family to update concerned family and friends on Presley's fight for life at the hospital. She's in the hospital for six days, and then her mother writes, Presley's condition has turned down a different path, and her little spirit is torn between two worlds. From one day to the next, it's as if her valiant little spirit is just staying long enough for us to realize that this is not the end. Little Presley has been a strong fighter,

but we don't know if she'll be fighting much longer. And after Presley passes away, Ashley, her mother, writes, She was an angel sent here for us, an angel that has taught us about miracles around us each and every day. When we think of what she's accomplished in just one week, because all the people gathered around her blog, we begin to cry. She rebuilt testimonies. She introduced people to the gospel. She even saved a complete stranger's marriage. We, like many of you, wonder why things had to turn out this way. With the hundreds and thousands of prayers offered up in her behalf and the complete faith we had for her to receive a miracle. And then Elder Foster goes on and says, look at the courageous

and faithful way Pat and Ashley responded to this loss. And then he goes through, so often in the scriptures, we read about loss after loss after loss. When sorrow, misfortune, or tragedy strike, how will we respond? How will we respond? If we trust in the Lord, and if our testimony of the Savior's gospel and the resurrection is strong, we will be able to respond with the faith of Pat and Ashley. I know there's so many listeners out there who just want the miracle, right, Mike, right, John? Please give me the miracle, please. And yet, so often, miracles come, but they come much differently than we had prayed for. It takes great faith to trust the Lord truly loves us and knows us. And I think it's important that we not twist that the wrong way and say, therefore, every bad thing

that happens to us is what God wants to happen to us. Mortal life is mortal life. It's not fair, and hard things are going to happen. Again, God's promise isn't that hard things won't happen. It's that he'll walk that path with us and that ultimately all things shall be for our good. All right. So when we get to the end of this chapter, we're given a little bit more information on this new character, which is going to play a large part, we think, in early Christian history. If you go down to verse 24, but the word of God grew and multiplied. So the beginnings of the success and the growth of the church. Verse 25, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and took with them John, whose surname

was Mark. Now, there's been historical arguments about who this character is, John Mark. Many scholars have come to the conclusion that this is John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, the interpreter, so to speak, for Peter, a close friend of Peter's. He's also, if it's the same person, he's also Barnabas's cousin. John Mark is going to be in and out of the saga as we go. We're going to see him walk out of a mission, and then we'll see him come back in. Ultimately, he's going to play quite an important role in the early Christian church. So 13 and 14 are the first missionary journey of Paul, and it's to the area that we're going to call Galatia. Again, as we talked about earlier, you've got northern Galatia and southern Galatia, and we're going to be

talking about southern Galatia in chapters 13 and 14, specifically 14. But you've got Barnabas and Paul continuing to do missionary work in Antioch, north of Israel, just on the coast there. And while they're there, verse 2, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And now I don't know exactly how the Holy Spirit did what the Holy Spirit did, but clearly Luke and those who are writing these stories see God's hand in this mission call. And just to give you a matter of timing, one of our friends, he's actually a member of my ward, Wilford Griggs, one of the great ancient scripture scholar, Egyptologist.

He said that this is about nine, 10 years after Paul's conversion. So Paul's been learning. He's been growing. He's been building the church. And now the Lord's saying, okay, it's time for you and Barnabas to head out on this mission. Verse 3, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, which would seem to tell you that there was some human connection here. It wasn't just the Holy Spirit doing a whisper thing because someone's laying their hands on Paul and Barnabas. They sent him away. Verse 4, so they being sent forth by the the Holy Ghost, departed and then starts to talk

about their journey. And they're going to do, this is kind of fun because they've been told, and we know of Paul's work largely amongst the Gentiles. You're going to see that in these two chapters, but they still start each place they go in the synagogue. They still start with the covenant people. They give those who are within the covenant a chance. And as we're going to see, it doesn't often go well for them, though they do have some converts amongst those of the synagogue, those of the Jewish people. But look at verse 5.

When they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues, plural, of the Jews, and they Jesus. Jesus is the Greek. Joshua is the Hebrew, who's a sorcerer. He's someone who has beguiled the people. And he's going to start to push back on the success that Paul and Barnabas are having. And it's not going to go well for him. Verse 9, then Saul, who is also called Paul. So we're going to begin to move towards the Gentile name, the Roman name, Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, oh, full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. So this doesn't seem to be a permanent

injunction against him, but it was a very effective way of getting Bar-Jesus to cease his opposition. And it's one of the very few times where you see the power of God used in a way that isn't necessarily what you would consider to build or to lift, but to enforce and to show the Lord's power to do his own work. So when they begin to teach amongst the Jews, they're going to do what I hope you and I do. Go to verse 16 with me. So we've got Bar Jesus. He's quiet now.

He's no longer part of this picture. Verse 16, then Paul stood up and beckoned with his hand and said, Men of Israel and ye that fear God give audience. The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt and with a high arm brought them, he them out of it. So what he does is exactly what we teach our missionaries to do. He begins to build on common beliefs and you're going to see him do this, whether he's working with Jewish people or Gentile people. He starts where they are. He values what they value. He shows them that he understands them. And then he pivots to try and

help bring them to Christ. In verse 23 is where he ultimately pivots from the story of ancient Israel. Verse 23, and this man's seed, meaning David's seed, hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. And then he begins to share the good news. And one of the things I hope those that are listening hear, whenever they're teaching Christ, they're teaching the resurrected news. And one of the things I hope those that are listening hear, whenever they're teaching Christ, they're teaching the resurrected Christ. And so that's what you see in verses 30, verse 37, 38, 39, you see this emphasis, verse 30, but God raised him from the dead. And he was seen many days of them, which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto this people.

Verse 37, But he whom God raised again saw no corruption. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. For you and I, preaching Christ and him resurrected is just second nature. This would not have been easily accepted or understood by those he was teaching. But it's interesting because Paul doesn't get lost in either relationship building, because he starts out trying to build that relationship, or in tangential aspects of what the Savior does or did,

he always brings it to Christ, the living God. Not the crucified only God, but the living God, and Christ as our Savior. I think there's great power in what he does there. And you'll see that in 14 and 15, actually, as you go throughout the rest of the book of Acts. So anything you'd add with that? I just love how quickly Paul gave the history of Israel.

I've heard Hank do the history of the house of Israel in an hour. And I see in verse 17, oh, the Exodus. Verse 18, the wandering. Verse 20, after that, he gave unto them judges for 450 years. And then verse 21, after that, they wanted unto them judges for 450 years. And then verse 21, after that, they wanted a king. So here's the period of kings. And then David, one of those kings, there's a Davidic line for a promise to Messiah. Oh, that's verse 23. And then John the Baptist comes along, verse 25. Jesus died, verse 28. Jesus is raised from the dead, verse 30 and 37.

Just kind of gave this whole quick history of the house of Israel. And what I love about Paul, he doesn't do that to the Greeks. They wouldn't know what he's talking about. But Paul's able to do that. He goes to other places and preaches to them about God in a totally different way. But in the synagogue, this is exactly what they need to hear. I think it's a great little speech. The entire history of Israel in two verses. Yeah. Yeah. It's great.

And again, he's helping those he's teaching understand a connection, a foundation that he's then going to build off of. And isn't that what we need to do as we lovingly share the gospel with our family and friends? Start where they are. Start where they are and show that we value and honor where they are. Taking interest, sincere interest. We're not pretending to be interested

in what they're doing so that they'll listen to us, but sincerely being interested in their goodness and what they believe and in their goodness and what they believe and what they see and what they value so that we have that foundation of trust that a true friendship is built off of. Once that friendship's there, then there's possibilities for what you're going to see, where he's going to say, okay, now let's start talking about some of the things that you may not be so familiar with, such as the resurrection of Christ.

Beautiful. He sure knows his stuff, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah. He's a Pharisee, so it makes sense. He's a Pharisee. He studied it. So, I mean, I just think it's, wow, that's pretty cool how he just did this whole history of the house of Israel and said, you know, that Messiah we've all been waiting for.

Well, it was Jesus. Who led right up to it and he died and God raised him again. And he offers forgiveness of sins. That's right. And they're going to have pretty amazing success. Verse 42, when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that the word might be preached to them next Sabbath.

Now, when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious process followed Paul and Barnas, who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of Christ. So they're doing good stuff. They're having good success. And then in verse 45, we start at Brahms again. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. And it looks like in verse 46 that there's going to be a change in direction here. Look at what Paul and Barnabas say. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should

first have been spoken to you, covenant Israel, but seeing ye put it from you and judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And it looks like, okay, from this point forward, we're just going to go and teach the Gentiles. But as you're going to see in chapter 14, verse 1, they're still going to continue in the different cities they go to, to usually start in the synagogue. Start in the synagogue. So isn't one of Paul's titles, the apostle of the Gentiles? Did I see that in the book title or something? Yeah, Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles, but he always started in the synagogue. Once they kick him out, it's okay. And what's fun is to see how differently he speaks to them. It's just a great example.

Again, it's teaching us how we can be effective disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's all Paul's doing. I've noticed that Paul, and I think he does this often, is instead of walking in and talking right about Jesus, he starts with some common ground, things we both agree on this story. And I wonder if we could do that better in our own teaching, trying to persuade is let's start with something we agree on. It seems that Ammon and Lamoni do that. Do you believe in God? I don't know what you're talking about.

Great spirit. Oh, well, that's God, right? Let's start from common ground. That's exactly what I was saying earlier. We teach our missionaries and we must learn to do that. And again, I would want to emphasize, we don't do it so people will listen to us. This isn't a sales pitch. We do it because we're human beings and they're our brothers and sisters and we love them

and we want to have that kind of relationship. If we don't have that relationship, it's very hard for us to be of influence for good or ill in their lives by sincerely being interested in them as human beings and the goodness that's in their life and the challenges that they have. That builds a relationship which then enables us to begin to share truths and other things they may or may not understand. Please join us for part two of this podcast.