Mitt Romney Rockstro senior u.s. Leaders are expressing confidence they will be able to going to its allies to help protect shipping in the Persian Gulf area against Iranian threats defense secretary Mark Asper says he's gotten a good response from allies and some announcements could be expected soon Secretary of State Mike Pompei Oh so there's a lot of conversations are being held However after a meeting with their Australian counterparts in Australia the 2 u.s. Leaders came away with no official commitment as yet more on these stories at townhall dot com Maybe you'd like to know what exactly really factor is it was created by doctors it's a 100 percent drug free supplement with 4 key ingredients that simply help your own body deal with the natural inflammatory response that it has it's easy to swallow for little capsules in each packet like the packets that I carry with me at all times 3 packets a day for a week then 2 packets a day for 2 weeks and I have just described a 3 week quick start and you will know in 3 weeks that's the beauty of it whether it works they don't drag you on that cost just $1000.95 there's a very good chance that a very serious percentage of my listeners suffer from some sort of muscular or joint pain you should try this for one $1000.95 that's all you can lose if it works it will send it to you automatically if it doesn't work tell them not to send any shipments and that's as simple as that it is all at relief factor dot com I've been using it for years now relief factor dot com. Sudan's pro-democracy movement on the ruling military council and finalized the power sharing agreement the 2 sides to fully agreed on a constitutional declaration outlining the division of power for a 3 year transition to elections the pro-democracy coalition issued a statement saying they would sign the document on Sunday it comes off to the military overthrew President I ma al Bashir in April following months of mass protests against his 3 decade long oath or Terry in roll demonstrations continue this protest and demanded a rapid transition to a civilian government the 2 sides reached a preliminary agreement last month bowing to pressure from the United States and its Arab allies I'm sorry Bassus the French inventor of an airborne hoverboard has successfully flown over the English Channel looking like a superhero 40 year old Frank he's a part of complete of the 22 mile journey in 22 minutes this morning news analysis at townhall dot com Mark your Charles Schneider been joins us again this week and this time he has and thoughts about a disease that tends to appear mostly in the summertime one disease is caused by bacteria spread by ticks one disease can cause skin rash usually a form of really quite fever fatigue and had that if untreated the bacteria can cause damage to joints harder nervous system newly approved blood tests that make diagnosis faster and more reliable trial snotter of Washington a Christian rapper who want to marry $3000000.00 judgment over Katy Perry's hit Darkhorse used his songs millions of plays on You Tube and Spotify is evidence that Perry and or team may have heard it and then stole it the Perry trial that I made last week with a win for rapper Marcus Gray shows that streaming services and other technology may be proving challenging for copyright law it was once very hard for minor artists to prove that major artists could have hurt their work and copied from it more on these stories at townhall dot com. Welcome back to the great adventure a 24 session course with author and theologians Jeff havens Let's begin our journey through the Bible once again. Welcome to our final session in the period of the church it's our 3rd section of the period of the church and we focus on this lesson from Acts 13 to the end of the chapter we focus primarily on the 3 missionary journeys of St Paul and we're going to take a look at where each of the books fit in context within those those 3 missionary journeys and before we get going on that I want to review with you real quickly the apostle Paul and a little bit about his background he is a major figure in the New Testament course Jesus is the figure and Peter the 1st the 1st 13 chapters of The Book of Acts really focus on Peter and from 13 on we really start focusing on the apostle Paul and the Apostle Paul wrote 13 epistles he wrote 13 Epistles and that is just behind Luke in total percentage and in fact one quarter of the New Testament is written by Paul and so Paul is a real major figure in the New Testament with 13 of these epistles. He was born in Tarsus he was a Roman citizen a Jew and he had providentially he had qualifications for his role as a missionary to the Roman Empire and as we look at the travels of Paul he's going to ultimately end up in Rome and I think that that is significant because when we look back into the Old Testament you may remember the prophecy of Daniel in chapter 2 that there was a prophecy that a stone would break 5 Kingdoms Assyria Babylon Persia Greece and finally Rome would be the last to fall and as you know if you've ever been to Rome and when you go to Rome you'll see right there right there for everybody to look at St Peter's Cathedral the St Peter's the great church the center of our faith where the pope is and so as Paul is making his way to Rome we also need to keep in the back of our mind Daniel's prophecy and I wonder if Paul was thinking about this as he was making his way to Rome Well it was ultimately a Rome that he would give his life and he would be beheaded and Peter would be also martyred for the faith crucified upside down Paul was a Roman citizen he was a Jew and this Roman citizen ship and able him to escape detainment in Acts 16. To avoid punishment and ACTs 22 and plead his case before Caesar in Rome in Acts 25 and so he had an advantage in having Roman citizen ship ultimately would wind him up in Rome where he died he was a tent maker by trade he made tents Acts Chapter 18 1st us alone eons to he was a tent maker one of the things that I appreciate about Paul is that he spends a tremendous amount of time working very hard going city to city proclaiming the good news teaching in the synagogues teaching in the various churches that were established but he supports himself for the most part through tent making that was his hit was his job he was a Hebrew of Hebrews zealous follower of Judaism a member of the strictest sect the fairest seas and the Pharaoh seas gave great attention to the oral law the tradition of of the elders. If you have your bible we'd like to start in Acts Chapter 13 what I am going to do here is go through the 3 missionary journeys of Saint Paul and these 3 would missionary journeys correspond to the 3rd part of Acts $18.00 that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and some area and to the uttermost parts of the earth it was the great Paul that took the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth this period of Paul's 3 missionary journeys is roughly 45 a.d. 45 a.d. To 62 a.d. That's not when he died but that is really us roughly the the the dates for his 3 missionary journeys covering about 17 years for these 3 missionary journeys and the 2nd half of the book of Acts is that is dedicated almost exclusively to the Apostle Paul Luke is the writer and Luke is the one who ended up the physician that ended up traveling with Paul and he was he accompanied Paul. The 1st missionary journey starts in chapter 13 verse one and goes to 14 verse $28.00 that's 131214288 covers a. Spring of $45.00 to the spring of $49.00 the spring of $45.00 to the spring of $49.00 Paul's Apostol with base of ministry as Jesus base of ministry was Capernaum up in Galilee Paul's Apostol at base is Antioch Antioch in Syria he started out from there any gravitated back there he always seemed to make his way back to Antioch except after his 3rd and last journey when he headed for Jerusalem and it was when Jerusalem that he would end up getting into trouble and then he would end up in imprisonment which will look at and then he would go to Rome where he was imprisoned in Rome Paul and Barnabas and John Mark set out in chapter 13 starting in verse one now in the Church of Antioch there were prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon who was called Niger Lucius of Sirene. Man him and a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch and Saul while they were worshipping the Lord in fasting the Holy Spirit said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off and that's the beginning of the 1st of the 1st missionary journey. Paul Barnabas and John Mark set out and they preached in a number of cities in Cyprus and then they went back to the mainland to visit philia society and. In the southwest of the present day Turkey and I'm going to give you a lot of different names but you don't have to memorize them all you're not going to be quizzed on them but it's nice to have them on the tape as far as following the journeys when they went out on their 1st missionary journey oftentimes they were met with violence they were met with violence from Jews who had settled there in Lystra Paul was a list drug Paul was stoned when he was there they made their way back to Antioch and there we witnessed the 1st clash with the Judy eyes or some we covered this last session they met with this clash with the Judy Hazaras who said you must be circumcised if you're going to be a part of the people of God you must be circumcised that brought on the Council of Jerusalem the issue was settled Peter settled it James affirmed that as far as being the local pastor in the church of Jerusalem now the 2nd missionary journey in the 1st missionary journey Paul doesn't write anything in the 1st missionary journey in the 2nd missionary journey which starts in the beginning of the year 50 and goes to the autumn of $5250.00 to $52.00 and in the scriptures the 2nd missionary journey is covered from Acts 15 verse 362-1822 the 2nd missionary journey 15362820 2 destination Macedonia and Greece and Greece. Paul and Barnabas decided to leave Antioch that was their base to visit the churches that that they had found on their 1st missionary journey and this is the pattern of St Paul is that he goes out and he establishes churches then he goes back again to see how they're doing to see how they're doing and in some cases he would go back a 3rd time to strengthen the church and occasionally he would write them a letter he would write them a letter and basically the letters that he writes are letters that are addressing problems in local churches he writes 13 letters altogether and what distinguishes Paul's letters is that they are written to individuals they're named after the person they're written to or the community there that they're written to that's how you can tell one of the Pauline epistles well they leave Antioch to visit the churches founded during their 1st missionary journey but they had a disagreement over whether to keep Mark with them they got into quite an argument over whether this young Mark was going to come with them and Paul said I do not want him with me on this trip apparently he had bowed out early on another trip and in the fall felt that he couldn't be counted on so Barnabas partnered up with Mark and by the way his name Barnabas means a son of encouragement he's a he's a encourager So he takes this young Mark with him and they set out to Cyprus part of this week with Mark went off to Cyprus while Paul and Silas partnered up and they they went out to Syria in Lister a they were joined by a young man Paul and Silas were joined by a young man by the name of Timothy. And Tema thi in and you can read about that in Acts Chapter 16 verses one through 3 Timothy would end up becoming the pastor a very young pastor of the church and f.s.s. In the church of deficit's I remember when I was a young pastor at 25 years old I read Timothy over and over and over because I identified with Timothy being a young pastor and getting the advice from Paul that great. Advice they then they then went on into Phrygia and delay show where they found a new Christian communities in Acts 16 verses 4 through 8 intro as Paul had the vision and by the way one of the things you might want to do is get a hold of your outlets and to literally follow these journeys because that's where it really starts coming alive as you see the kingdom expanding into the Roman Empire in Troy as Paul had the vision of a Macedonian and this Macedonian it was in his dream and as a result of that dream as a result of that they crossed over into Europe where the 1st cities he visited were Apple us and Philip and Philip I and he ends up writing a letter later to the Philippians and we'll get to that they then moved on to Thessalonika and Berea and Silas and Timothy stayed on in Berea Now there's a lot of movement here I'm not going to go through it many went here and they went there they were here and they went there because you have to really follow that the best way is to take a map and to follow the travels of Paul that this is the 2nd missionary journey now during the 2nd missionary journey Paul writes to that or he writes to letters and they are both to the Thessalonians. He writes these 2 letters to the people in festal the nikah and the City of Thessalonica had a population of about 200000 people Thessalonica was a prominent seaport and the capital of Macedonia and the 2nd thoughts alone Ians was written just a few months after 1st the Salone eons but these epistles were written some 20 years after the death of Jesus many scholars believe that these are really the earliest of the epistles the earliest of Paul's writings and it gives you a good look at the life of the early Christians for example in Thessalonians Paul admonishes the early church in Thessalonica to stop sitting around and waiting for the return of the Lord because they had this sense that the Lord's return was imminent yet that is going to happen in time. And that's a good thing to happen and that's a good thing to hope for but it doesn't mean you sell your house and go out there and sit in a field and wait and so Paul gets on them about go to work fruitful labor you need to go to work now Paul's 3rd missionary journey was his really his long journey and it's also where Paul writes The majority of his letters during his 2nd as 3rd missionary journey that missionary journey is from the spring of 53 to the spring of 58 the spring of 53 to the spring of 58 roughly and in this 3rd missionary journey which you can see in scripture in verses chapters 18 verse 23823 to 2116 that's 1823 to 2116 that is the 3rd missionary journey destination Asia Asia Minor. Now heifer staying for a while in Antioch in Syria the Apostle visited the churches in goal Aisha and Phrygia and he strengthened all the disciples There you can read about it in Acts 18 in verse 23 now he spent one of his longest pastoral stays was in f. Asus 3 years he spent in f.s.s. On this 3rd Missionary Journey 3 years he spent in f.s.s. And that is where Timothy was the pastor So just imagine what it was like for Timothy to get this training from Paul and this encourage men from Paul this this teaching during that time and f.s.s. He laid the foundations of the important low of the this very important local church and you can read about it in Acts 19 verses one through 20 x. 1001 through 20 now while he was an effort says he sat down and he wrote a letter to a community that he had recently visited which was. He wrote the letter to the Galatians while he was in emphasis roughly the year 54 now Gratian is one of my favorite. Books in the Bible the letter was written during Paul's 3 years and f.s.s. The main theme has to do with Christians freedom as regards the observance of the complex prescriptions of the Mosaic law. And Galatians being one of. The. It's a. Belated form if you will of the Romans which is going to write later Romans is like this amplitude amplification of Galatians and spells out the arguments of Galatians in more detail it all has to do with the dispute with some Christians of Jewish background who regarded these observances as necessary for salvation they said that it's necessary that you be circumcised Paul said who tripped you up I wish that these these people that are so big into the circumcision would just go all the way he actually says that right in the text all that you find it. Paul makes it very clear Paul makes it very clear that Christians are free to do whatever they want in this regard in fact 5 years earlier at the Council of Jerusalem he had brought the matter up and tamed a definitive decision from Peter about this issue so Paul teaches that Christians are grafted into Christ salvific action through faith and baptism with absolute independence of the old law my favorite text in the whole Bible happens to be from Galatians glaciers chapter 2 in verse 20 which says I have been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me and that's his argument to the Galatians while he is in f.s.s. He also writes to the Corinthians. He writes the 1st letter to the Corinthians which is a fairly lengthy letter and he writes that in the spring of 50 of $57.00 now Corinth was one of the the foremost commercial cities in the Mediterranean frequented by trading ships of all nations and it had Corinth had a very cosmopolitan population in fact the population was of roughly 700000 people is a really a good size city but 2 thirds of those people were slaves slaves remembers someone that you own it could be somebody that has a very respectable profession nevertheless they were your slave it had a very cosmopolitan population with with really religions of every sort but it was known for its moral decay Corinth was it was a morally decadent city so when you're reading Corinthians you can pay attention to that that Paul is really hitting on morality food that sacrificed to idols and sexual. Behavior and so forth one of its aberrations had to do with the worship of Aphrodite. Afro day and the 1000 priestesses dedicated to this goddess in Corinth and these priestesses practice so-called sacred prostitution. And there were thousands of them in Corinth and so one of the issues that Paul's going to have to deal with as he's a stablish this church in Corinth and he wants them to grow up into mature sons and daughters is going to have to hit this topic head on about the body being the temple of the Holy Spirit and what you do with your body and joining yourself you know with with other people Paul addresses the subject also of unity in the 1st letter if you want to look at how 1st Corinthians is kind of divided up I'll give you just a little bit of an outline here Paul has a tendency to write in sections in his epistles going from theme to theme in taking up 2 or 3 chapters to hit a topic then he kind of moves on James uses a different style which we'll get to in just a little bit Corinthians Chapter one what does he hit he tells them right away that he says I hear that there's factions among you can you believe that so early on in the church already people are starting to say well I like Paul I'm of Paul another one I'm a I'm a Peter I'm a Peter that's my favorite teacher Peter another one I'm of Apollos I'm of a policy and Paul says in verse 12 of Chapter One what I mean is that each one of you says I belong to Paul or I belong to a policy or I belong to c. For so I belong to Christ is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul I am think of all that I baptize not of you except Crispus and Gaius lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name I did baptize also the house