Bible Study With Jairus-Acts

#Bible Study With #Jairus #Acts 10 (Part 2) The Story Of Peter And Cornelius #Christian 2024 - 05 - 15

#Bible Study With #Jairus #Acts 10 (Part 2) The Story Of Peter And Cornelius

Bible Study with Jairus – Acts 15

OPENING:
Brother Jairus leads a Bible study group in Chinese every week, and the Holy Spirit often speaks in these meetings. We felt obligated to share some of the enlightenments we received from the Holy Spirit and hope this will benefit more listeners. So welcome to Bible Study with Jairus. 
This kind of Bible study is not a verse by verse study of scriptures. Rather each study will focus on certain topics or verses highlighted by the Holy Spirit. The structure our Bible Study is to have one brother or sister share their understanding of the chapter and ask some questions about it. Everybody in the small group, or a cell group, takes turn leading the Bible study, and afterwards we allow people to share freely. I will often comment on questions or share what I have received from the Holy Spirit. This is a better way to study the Bible compared to when one particular person leads the discussion. I say this because it forces this person who leads to read the Bible during the week and spend more time in prayer asking for help with understanding. It also helps this person to practice his or her skill to teach the Bible and often helps them to grow spiritually. Of course, it is also vital to have someone with more understanding of the Bible to help new people grow in the knowledge and experience of the Word of God.
One of the problems in this fast paced world is that people have no time to read the Bible on a daily basis. Even though it is greatly encouraged that Christians should read the Bible every day, I have found they do not. Many factors prevent Christians from reading the Bible. It is true especially when it comes to some new believers or some Christians who don’t have a strong spiritual discipline.
So on a practical level, our way of studying the Bible in a small group setting offers one person a chance once or twice a month to lead a Bible study. This helps them to get deeper into a certain chapter or book of the Bible. At other meetings, he or she will still have chance to listen to other people sharing what they’ve learned about the Bible. This way of studying the Bible really helps them to build up their knowledge about the Word of God.



Acts 15 tells us three stories. The first story is that Paul and Barnabas got into a fierce argument with some people about the need to circumcise the Gentiles. Peter and Jacob responded saying that God had chosen the Gentiles. The second story is the sending of Judas and Silas to Antioch to comfort the brothers and sisters of Gentiles. The third story is about Paul and Barnabas getting into a disagreement whether or not they should take Mark to Pamphylia. 

The discussion we had in our Bible study revolved around these three stories.

Bible Study With Jairus - Acts 15

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 14
Today we will share some understanding from our recent study on Acts 14.
Acts chapter 14 talks about the story of Paul healing a man who was lame from birth in Lystra.  Paul preached the Gospel in the city of Lystra and then Derbe. He won many converts in Derbe and then returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch (verse 21). 
In verse 22 it says, “Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God’. （ESV）
There are many different translations of this phrase “strengthening the souls of the disciples”. For example, the NIV translates it as “strengthening the disciples” and the New Living Translation translates it as “they strengthened the believers”.  But the English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible and King James Bible all pointed out that they strengthen the “souls of the disciples.” 
The English Standard version and others   translate this phrase as strengthening the “souls” of the disciples. But some of our Bible study group members use the Chinese Union Version which translates it as “strengthening the hearts of the believers”. 
The woman who led the Bible study this week asked a question “why does the Bible say strengthening the ‘soul’ here rather than the ‘spirit’?” This question has its legitimacy as we can learn from the famous verse in Ephesians 3:16:
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,” (NIV)
The “inner being” here often refers to the spiritual man inside of us or our spirit. This seems to be a pattern in Paul’s speaking.   He often mentions the Lord will be present or strengthening our spirits. For example, 2 Timothy 4:22,
“The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.” 
Galatians 6:18 also says,
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers, and sisters. Amen.” (NIV)
I am not sure if this question makes sense to you or not but it does make sense to some of our members in this Bible study. Some of them were saved in a church movement where they stressed the importance of exercising our human spirit strongly. This teaching stresses that once we pursue the growth in our inner spiritual life, other problems in our soul will be solved. Gradually this teaching becomes focused on the development of our spiritual man but neglects the issues in our soul. Whenever someone has troubles in their soul, someone in the church may ignore it by just considering this person has not fully reckoned his or her death in Jesus Christ. 

But this verse says these Apostles strengthened the souls of the disciples which bothered this woman. So, she asked this question. Why does here stress the word “soul” instead of the word “spirit”? Why does the Bible just say “strengthening their spirits”? What are the significance to mention “souls” here?

Bible Study With Jairus - Acts 14

Bible Study with Jairus- Acts 16
The verses of Acts 16 begin with Paul coming to Derbe and then traveling to Lystra where he met Timothy. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium had spoken well of him. Paul intended to take him along on the journey but his father was a Greek (which is the Greek of the Gentiles). He took Timothy to be circumcised for the sake of the Jews who lived in that area before they began their travels. Paul traveled with Timothy and they went to different cities, and they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem for the disciples to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
At this time, the flow of the writing of the Bible had suddenly changed and it began to describe how the Holy Spirit did not allow them to preach in Asia. They had no choice but to go through the region of Phrygia and Galatia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
Because many of us are not familiar with the geography of ancient Israel, when we hear these names, we may feel confused or overwhelmed trying to understand the story.  As a result, the names of these places will not leave a deep impact on us. This is one of the difficulties in reading the Bible. We have a relatively poor understanding of ancient geography and historical knowledge, so it causes some difficulty understanding the Bible. When the author of the book was writing these, the original readers would understand these differences, so no special explanation was needed.
I studied the map and found when you travel from Derbe to Lystra, you’ll be going from west to east, and then north to Iconium. Then from Iconium, you go west before you arrive in Asia. This time, Acts 16:6 says that the Holy Spirit forbids them to preach the word in the province of Asia. The location of Asia is in the south, so this means that the Holy Spirit does not allow them to go south. Then they went to the region of Phrygia and Galatia, which were in the north of Asia, but it’s located in the south of Bithynia. They tried to go north to enter Bithynia from the border of Mysia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them to go again.
If you are confused, Galatia, Phrygia, and Mysia are lined up from east to west, and north of them is bordered by a place called Bithynia. In other words, Paul and others went from the southeast of Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium to the northwest, and then they tried to go south to Asia until the Holy Spirit forbid them so, they had no choice but to go northeast and go to Galatia, then go west and continue to go to Phrygia, and then continue west to Asia, and then continue to go north to Bithynia, but again, the Holy Spirit would not allow them to.
During this time, Paul had a vision, that told him the Macedonians needed them to preach the gospel. Macedonia is closer to the west. At that time, Macedonia was a place where the message of the gospel had not yet reached. Therefore, this so-called "Macedonian Call" is often used in Christian history to describe the call of God to His servant to head to places where the gospel had not yet been preached.

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 16

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 23
Let's look at a rough outline of Acts 23.  Paul was imprisoned but uses his identity as a Pharisee to his advantage to defend himself and cause division amongst the Sadducees and Pharisees. The Lord Jesus appeared to Paul later that night assuring him that He would be with him and not to be afraid. The chapter ends with a group of Jews taking an oath to kill Paul but were unsuccessful because Paul's nephew heard about the plot and reported it to the centurion.  The centurion snuck Paul out of the city in the middle of the night surrounded by soldiers to protect him.  He was kept in Herod's palace.
The revelation we received from this chapter is that God will use us to change society if we don't compromise with the religious spirit of the church. What do I mean by this? Listen carefully, and I'll explain.
One man in our study shared that he felt Paul was using the conflict between the Pharisees and the Sadducees to divide them. Scripture says, But the Lord appeared to him at night, stood near him and said, "As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." (NIV, Acts 23:11)
We know that Jerusalem was the center of religious power at that time, and Rome was the center of secular power.
I think this man's analysis makes some sense. I call the Pharisees' sect "Vigilantism". They are neither Levites nor priests, and they consider themselves to be defenders of the Jewish law.  They incorporated hundreds of laws that went far beyond the Law of Moses. Their laws were intolerable. Thus, when the Lord Jesus came, He criticized them for being hypocritical and blamed them for putting heavy burdens on people. They also opposed Roman rule. This represents religious power in  the Jewish religion.
Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They even challenged the Lord Jesus on the resurrection of the dead. They did not believe in resurrection and angels, but the Pharisees did believe these things were true.   The Sadducees were known to have vested interest in Roman rule, so they had a mixed bag of secular power among the Jews.    
  Paul was breaking the traditional boundaries of Judaism by spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles, so both groups joined forces against him.  There are religious and secular forces here. The main issue is the religious spirit stirred the Jews up against Paul. Instead of giving in to the religious spirit, Paul bravely fought the spirit of the religion, which stirred the Jews into making a vow to kill him.
I shared my experience of leaving one evangelical church and moving to a Pentecostal church to learn more about what they believe.  This caused a lot of trouble because my original church didn't understand or accept the Pentecostal Movement.  The rise of the religious spirit in several members of my former congregation caused many arguments.  If you've ever left a traditional church and moved towards Pentecostalism, you understand what I mean.  If someone as unimportant as me can cause such opposition from this religious spirit, you can imagine how an important figure like Paul, who was steeped in Judaism, was strongly opposed for converting to Christianity and preaching the Gospel.
I went to the Pentecostal Movement to seek prayer for healing and prophetic guidance because my wife was unable to conceive.  Over time I learned many new truths from this movement.  I understand that there is a lot of the enemy's infiltration as well as human flesh that can get in the way but there are many truths that are important to examine and study.  The baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing, spiritual gifts and worship are a few to consider.  I tried to explain to my former church members what I was learning but some believed they possessed the only truth and didn't accept what I was trying to get across.  Others were too afraid to accept it.

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 23

Bible Study with Jairus – Acts 24

Acts 24 tells the story of a Jewish high priest, elders, and a lawyer named Tertullus accusing Paul when he was brought to Governor Felix to make his defense.  
The verse that we are discussing this time is:
24:15 and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. (NIV)
A member of our bible study asked, "What did Paul mean by this statement?" In particular, we are questioning the phrase: "the same hope in God as these men themselves have." Who are "these men" referring to?  As we were discussing this verse, the Holy Spirit gave us insight. A person who experientially knows and understands resurrection was being accused by people who only knew about the resurrection written in black and white.  They had no personal experience to back it up.  This is true of those in churches today. Some experientially know the power of the resurrection, and others only go by the written letter.
Let's discuss this.  I think that "these men" refers to the Jews. Paul's name was Saul before he became a Christian.  He was a Pharisee like them (Philippians 3:5). The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees didn't.  Even though the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, they didn't accept Jesus, who proclaimed himself to be the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). They knew the doctrine of the resurrection but failed to see Jesus, who was the resurrection.
There is a parable in China called "Lord Ye Loves Dragons." The parable is about a person who loves dragons so much that he fills his house with them, but when the dragon visited him, he was terrified and drove the dragon away.   A person can be full of positive talk about a particular thing but, in actuality, not like it at all. The dragon is a negative image in the Bible and Western culture. I used the Chinese parable to illustrate a story. The Pharisees are "Lord Ye who Loves Dragons." They outwardly spoke of their hope for resurrection, but when Jesus came to them as the resurrection, they rejected Him.
Paul was like this before his conversion.  He passionately defended Judaism, even calling for the arrest of those who believed in Jesus.  Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and transformed his life.  He went from a persecutor of Christians to an apostle of Christ.  Paul finally understood the resurrection not only in black and white but from personal experience. 
What happened here? Why can a spiritual experience completely change a person, yet the wealth of knowledge that he possessed before conversion didn't change him?
Do you really know the resurrection through experience or only as words on the page?
If Christians today truly understood the power of the resurrection, their attitude about life would be totally different.  They wouldn't be so eager to cling to the things of this world.
For example, there was a story about a Christian couple whose young daughter passed away while exercising.  If you were the pastor of this couple's church, how would you comfort them?  Christians often try to comfort by saying, "she’s in God’s arms and is so happy.”  Unfortunately, many who say such things really aren’t sure if this is true, and it comes across to the grieving parents as a Christian cliché rather than comfort.  If the pastor really believes and understands the resurrection experientially, he’ll be able to communicate it in a way that truly comforts.  When there is no experiential truth, there is a lack of boldness and a sense of helplessness.
Felix was a Gentile governor. He was a sinner. When Paul preached the gospel to him, he was afraid on the one hand, but on the other hand, he hoped that Paul would offer him a bribe. He is an example of a person who doesn’t know the resurrection at all, but he was the judge here.

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 24

这是睚鲁弟兄和一班弟兄姊妹读经的记录。睚鲁意思是“神赐光”、“蒙光照者”，愿在这里我们都能来到圣经的光中，一同做一个蒙光照、得医治的睚鲁。记得主对睚鲁说：不要怕，只要信！这也是我们的座右铭和对你的祝福。不要怕，只要信！睚鲁弟兄的信心医治经历不仅得着一个神迹宝贝，更是经历了对神的更深的认识。愿意我们的分享能够祝福你。
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Jairus means "God gives light" or "Receiving light". In Mark Chapter 5, Jesus heals his daughter. Jesus told him "Do not be afraid -- only believe." What an encouragement! Jairus Bible World Ministry is birthed in the heart of God to heal the sick and share the pain of the world and preach Gospel of Jesus to the lost and share the light in the Word of God to help Christians to grow in life as well.

#Bible Study With #Jairus #Acts 10 (Part 2) The Story Of Peter And Cornelius

睚鲁的圣经世界by Jairus Bible World Ministries