Looking for Paul

[JLG]

There is much we can learn from the life of the apostle Paul. Far from ordinary, Paul was given the opportunity to do extraordinary things for the kingdom of God. The story of Paul is a story of redemption in Jesus Christ and a testimony that no one is beyond the saving grace of the Lord. However, to gain the full measure of the man, we must examine his dark side and what he symbolized before becoming “the Apostle of Grace.” Paul’s early life was marked by religious zeal, brutal violence, and the relentless persecution of the early church. Fortunately, the later years of Paul’s life show a marked difference as he lived his life for Christ and for the advancement of His kingdom.

• Here we are told about Paul’s dark side!
• But there is no dark side!
• He honestly thought he was right!
• But it was corruption!
• And he was wrong!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

• His parents were Pharisees—fervent Jewish nationalists who adhered strictly to the Law of Moses—who sought to protect their children from “contamination” from the Gentiles!

• Anything Greek would have been despised in Saul’s household, yet he could speak Greek and passable Latin!

• His household would have spoken Aramaic, a derivative of Hebrew, which was the official language of Judea!

• Saul’s family were Roman citizens but viewed Jerusalem as a truly sacred and holy city!

• At age thirteen Saul was sent to Judea to learn from a rabbi named Gamaliel, under whom Saul mastered Jewish history, the Psalms, and the works of the prophets!

• His education would continue for five or six years as Saul learned such things as dissecting Scripture!

• It was during this time that he developed a question-and-answer style of teaching known in ancient times as “diatribe

• This method of articulation helped rabbis debate the finer points of Jewish law to either defend or prosecute those who broke the law!

• Saul went on to become a lawyer, and all signs pointed to his becoming a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court of 71 men who ruled over Jewish life and religion!

• Saul was zealous for his faith, and this faith did not allow for compromise!

• It is this zeal that led Saul down the path of religious extremism!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

168)
Looking for Paul
Where does it come from?
How does it grow?

Ephesians Chapter 2

- Moreover, he raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus, so that in the coming systems of things he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his undeserved kindness in his graciousness toward us in union with Christ Jesus.

- God and Jesus are busy preparing the coming systems of things! - That is really great! - Time is the answer! - At the difference of man! - God and Jesus take time to organize everything to do it the best way possible! - Man always does things when it’s too late and is unprepared! - When the situation is too bad! - like today! - And they never agree! - So they can’t find any proper solutions! - That’s again pure logic! - Man digs his own tomb!

 

[JLG]

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

169)
Looking for Paul
Where does it come from?
How does it grow?

Philippians Chapter 1

- True, some are preaching Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter are proclaiming the Christ out of love, for they know that I have been appointed to defend the good news; but the former do it out of contentiousness, not with a pure motive, for they are intending to create trouble for me in my prison bonds.

- Out of envy and rivalry and contentiousness! - Or out of goodwill and love! - Two different ways! - Only one is correct! - We should better find the right one! - And keep at it! - The bad one leads to big troubles! - And we won’t be able to say I didn’t know! - The Bible is here! - And the basic for us is to read it and study it carefully and speak about and exchange to find the right way! - We can’t sleep and stay inactive! - It will never work!

 

[JLG]

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

170)
Looking for Paul
Where does it come from?
How does it grow?

Colossians Chapter 1

- Indeed, you who were once alienated and enemies because your minds were on the works that were wicked, he has now reconciled by means of that one’s fleshly body through his death, in order to present you holy and unblemished and open to no accusation before him - provided, of course, that you continue in the faith, established on the foundation and steadfast, not being shifted away from the hope of that good news that you heard and that was preached in all creation under heaven. Of this good news I, Paul, became a minister.

- We must always remember the past so as not to go back to our past life! - We must always remember that Jesus died for us! - We must show how precious it is for us! - We must show him respect by working like Paul! - By being 100% active and not by sleeping quietly! - Thus we must be steadfast, always eager to learn more about God and Jesus and God’s word!

 

[JLG]

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

171)
Looking for Paul
Where does it come from?
How does it grow?

Thessalonians Chapter 2 - For the exhortation we give does not spring from error or from uncleanness or with deceit, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the good news, so we speak to please, not men, but God, who examines our hearts.

- No error! - No uncleanness! - No deceit! - Because we must be entrusted with the good news! - And it is an important responsibility! - And we can’t leave it to others! - We have to do our share! - When we speak about God’s word it is to please God not men! - And we must be careful because he examines our hearts! - We can cheat men but not God!

 

[JLG]

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

172)
Looking for Paul
Where does it come from?
How does it grow?
1 Timothy Chapter 1

- I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who imparted power to me, because he considered me faithful by assigning me to a ministry, although formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man. Nevertheless, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and with a lack of faith.

- Paul speaks about his past life! - He says he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man! - He doesn’t make any difference between others and himself! - When he has to speak about his past life, he employs strong words! - He doesn’t look for excuses! - Then he speaks about his ignorance and his lack of faith! - In fact, he didn’t have the right knowledge! - He was under influence! - He used to follow man’s tradition rather than God’s word!

 

[JLG]

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

Biblical Hebrew has a very small number of words, about 8,000, and around 1,700 of those words are hapax legomena (being said once) in the Hebrew Bible. Modern Hebrew has about 100,000 words. For comparison modern English has over 450,000 words, and Spanish has just over 175,000 words. Standard English dictionaries typically have about 200,000 words, whereas Spanish dictionaries have about 80,000 words.

This means words often have multiple meanings determined by context.

Although yom is commonly rendered as day in English translations, the word yom can be used in different ways to refer to different time spans:

• Point of time (a specific day)
• time period of a whole or half a day:
  • Period of light (as contrasted with the period of darkness),
  • Sunrise to sunset
  • Sunset to next sunset
• General term for time ( as in 'days of our lives')
• A year "lived a lot of days"
• Time period of unspecified length. "days and days"

__________________________________________________________________________

The Greek language is ranked as the richest in the world with 5 million words and 70 million word types. According to Dr. MacDonald, only 600,000 Greek words are used today, making the Greek vocabulary the largest in the world and 3.5 times bigger than the English vocabulary.

Though there are 138,607 words in the Greek New Testament, only 5,394 are unique.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

173)
Looking for Paul
Where does it come from?
How does it grow?

Titus Chapter 2

- You, however, keep on speaking what is consistent with wholesome teaching. Let the older men be moderate in habits, serious, sound in mind, healthy in faith, in love, in endurance.

- Keep on speaking! - Paul speaks to all the disciples without exceptions! - All have the same responsibility to speak! - They can’t shut up! - About the older men he says! - Moderate habits: it seems to be good for everybody! - Serious: we all should be serious! - Otherwise how can we defend our faith! - Sound in mind: to have a healthy mind which means being well educated! - Healthy in faith: we must build up our faith! - Our faith must be alive, meaning we must be active and not passive! - Healthy in love: we must show our love to others! - Healthy endurance: we must keep maintaining our faith and a good spirit !

 

[JLG]

__________________________________________________________________________

EXODUS 3:15

YAH.WEH THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS – THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB – HAS SENT ME TO YOU.
THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER, AND THIS IS HOW I AM TO BE REMEMBERED IN EVERY GENERATION IN EVERY GENERATION.


______________________________________________________________________________

Jesus had siblings :

- Guess what: the Bible is the history of the Israelites!
- Each page tells you that!
- Each story tells you that!
- Each family tells you that!
- The book of Adam's story tells you that!

____________________________________________________________

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

Biblical Hebrew has a very small number of words, about 8,000, and around 1,700 of those words are hapax legomena (being said once) in the Hebrew Bible. Modern Hebrew has about 100,000 words. For comparison modern English has over 450,000 words, and Spanish has just over 175,000 words. Standard English dictionaries typically have about 200,000 words, whereas Spanish dictionaries have about 80,000 words.

This means words often have multiple meanings determined by context.

Although yom is commonly rendered as day in English translations, the word yom can be used in different ways to refer to different time spans:

• Point of time (a specific day)
• time period of a whole or half a day:
  • Period of light (as contrasted with the period of darkness),
  • Sunrise to sunset
  • Sunset to next sunset
• General term for time ( as in 'days of our lives')
• A year "lived a lot of days"
• Time period of unspecified length. "days and days"

__________________________________________________________________________

The Greek language is ranked as the richest in the world with 5 million words and 70 million word types. According to Dr. MacDonald, only 600,000 Greek words are used today, making the Greek vocabulary the largest in the world and 3.5 times bigger than the English vocabulary.

Though there are 138,607 words in the Greek New Testament, only 5,394 are unique.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

174)
Looking for Paul
Where does it come from?
How does it grow?

Hebrews Chapter 2

- That is why it is necessary for us to pay more than the usual attention to the things we have heard, so that we never drift away.

- We must pay attention to God’s word! - And for that we need to read it and study it and speak about it! - That’s the only way to keep it alive! - If we don’t pay attention to it, we are going to forget it! - And Thus God will also forget us! - If we care for it constantly, God will do the same with us!

 

[JLG]

__________________________________________________________________________

EXODUS 3:15

YAH.WEH THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS – THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB – HAS SENT ME TO YOU.
THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER, AND THIS IS HOW I AM TO BE REMEMBERED IN EVERY GENERATION IN EVERY GENERATION.


______________________________________________________________________________

Jesus had siblings :

- Guess what: the Bible is the history of the Israelites!
- Each page tells you that!
- Each story tells you that!
- Each family tells you that!
- The book of Adam's story tells you that!

____________________________________________________________

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

Biblical Hebrew has a very small number of words, about 8,000, and around 1,700 of those words are hapax legomena (being said once) in the Hebrew Bible. Modern Hebrew has about 100,000 words. For comparison modern English has over 450,000 words, and Spanish has just over 175,000 words. Standard English dictionaries typically have about 200,000 words, whereas Spanish dictionaries have about 80,000 words.

This means words often have multiple meanings determined by context.

Although yom is commonly rendered as day in English translations, the word yom can be used in different ways to refer to different time spans:

• Point of time (a specific day)
• time period of a whole or half a day:
  • Period of light (as contrasted with the period of darkness),
  • Sunrise to sunset
  • Sunset to next sunset
• General term for time ( as in 'days of our lives')
• A year "lived a lot of days"
• Time period of unspecified length. "days and days"

__________________________________________________________________________

The Greek language is ranked as the richest in the world with 5 million words and 70 million word types. According to Dr. MacDonald, only 600,000 Greek words are used today, making the Greek vocabulary the largest in the world and 3.5 times bigger than the English vocabulary.

Though there are 138,607 words in the Greek New Testament, only 5,394 are unique.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

Romans Chapter 1

- disgraceful sexual passion

1 Corinthians Chapter 1

- For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks look for wisdom

Galatians Chapter 1

- Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and I stayed with him for 15 days. But I did not see any of the other apostles, only James the brother of the Lord.

Ephesians Chapter 2

- God and Jesus are busy preparing the coming systems of things!

Philippians Chapter 1

- True, some are preaching Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.

Colossians Chapter 1

- continue in the faith

Thessalonians Chapter 2

- speak to please, not men, but God, who examines our hearts.


1 Timothy Chapter 1

- He considered me faithful by assigning me to a ministry, although formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man.
- I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and with a lack of faith.

Titus Chapter 2

- keep on speaking what is consistent with wholesome teaching.

Hebrews Chapter 2

- We must pay attention to God’s word!

 

[JLG]

__________________________________________________________________________

EXODUS 3:15

YAH.WEH THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS – THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB – HAS SENT ME TO YOU.
THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER, AND THIS IS HOW I AM TO BE REMEMBERED IN EVERY GENERATION IN EVERY GENERATION.


______________________________________________________________________________

Jesus had siblings :

- Guess what: the Bible is the history of the Israelites!
- Each page tells you that!
- Each story tells you that!
- Each family tells you that!
- The book of Adam's story tells you that!

____________________________________________________________

Remember that:

• Paul received a good education according to Jewish tradition!
• His parents were Pharisees!
• Paul honestly thought he was right!
• But he was wrong because of corruption!
• When Jesus opened his eyes, he went straight away!
• And nothing or no one could stop him from walking on Jesus’ side!
• And he became the apostle of the nations!
• And he did it alone without the help or the control of the other apostles!
• Such an incredible choice from Jesus!
• And such an incredible example to follow!

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

• If you think like today’s people, you will never understand the Bible!
• They used to write differently!
• They used to speak differently!
• They used to think differently!
• They used to act differently!

__________________________________________________________________________

Remember:

Biblical Hebrew has a very small number of words, about 8,000, and around 1,700 of those words are hapax legomena (being said once) in the Hebrew Bible. Modern Hebrew has about 100,000 words. For comparison modern English has over 450,000 words, and Spanish has just over 175,000 words. Standard English dictionaries typically have about 200,000 words, whereas Spanish dictionaries have about 80,000 words.

This means words often have multiple meanings determined by context.

Although yom is commonly rendered as day in English translations, the word yom can be used in different ways to refer to different time spans:

• Point of time (a specific day)
• time period of a whole or half a day:
  • Period of light (as contrasted with the period of darkness),
  • Sunrise to sunset
  • Sunset to next sunset
• General term for time ( as in 'days of our lives')
• A year "lived a lot of days"
• Time period of unspecified length. "days and days"

__________________________________________________________________________

The Greek language is ranked as the richest in the world with 5 million words and 70 million word types. According to Dr. MacDonald, only 600,000 Greek words are used today, making the Greek vocabulary the largest in the world and 3.5 times bigger than the English vocabulary.

Though there are 138,607 words in the Greek New Testament, only 5,394 are unique.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

[JLG]

- Disgraceful sexual passion: nothing has changed!
- This world is completely away from Yah.weh!
- It is completely corrupt!
- Man will never understand!
- That’s why Yah.weh must clean it!

- The Jews ask for signs and the Greeks look for wisdom!
- But who looks for Yah.weh’s wisdom?

- When we think Paul was chosen by Jesus for a special mission and he did it alone without having anything to do with the 12, he shows us the way!
- We must not wait for others to do the job, we must do the Job!
- Remember: Yah.weh needs active people, not passive ones!

- God and Jesus are busy preparing the coming systems of things!
- they are always busy!
- And they want us to be busy!
- There is no other option!
- We must please Yah.weh, not men!
- If we don’t understand that, we can forget it right now!