Persecuted for the Gospel’s Sake
Saul escaping his first persecution in Damascas

Persecuted for the Gospel’s Sake

In my last blog post, I wrote about Paul’s former life as Saul, the strict Pharisee who saw the fledgling Christian movement as a threat to the way of life he held so dear. As a consequence of that perceived threat, Saul had sought to destroy anyone who taught what…

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Saul the Persecutor of Christians
The young man Saul at the stoning of Stephen

Saul the Persecutor of Christians

To understand what happened when Paul visited Thessalonica and Berea (Acts 17), we must understand more about the man himself. Paul was a seemingly tireless pioneer of the faith taking the gospel message to the Gentile world. Before we can understand Paul's contributions, we must understand his former life. We…

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The Paul We Observe in Acts 17
Facial composite of Paul created by the Landeskriminalamt of North Rhine-Westphalia using historical sources

The Paul We Observe in Acts 17

Anyone who reads the New Testament knows something about the apostle Paul. After all, 13 of the epistles bear his name. And Luke devotes fully three-quarters of the book of Acts to the story of this man’s life and work. Even so, this post and two subsequent posts will cover,…

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Neighbor? Who Is My Neighbor?
Strangers, outsiders, neighbors, friends. How do you tell who is who?

Neighbor? Who Is My Neighbor?

In the last blog post, we diverted from our intention to move into the interpretation stage of our study. Finally, the moment has arrived. We are ready to ponder what it was that Christ was telling the lawyer who asked, "Who is my neighbor?" This question, as we have already…

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Who Is This Lawyer in Luke 10?
The Torah, the core of Law for Sadducee and Pharisee

Who Is This Lawyer in Luke 10?

In my last blog post, I indicated that this post would continue the interpretation phase of the inductive method. However, I realized that we had neglected to consider one crucial element. That element is the lawyer whose question prompted Christ to tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Who is…

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Just Who Were the Samaritans?
Samaritan high priest with a copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch

Just Who Were the Samaritans?

This week we'll wrap up the observation stage of our study of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We'll do so by taking a closer look at the single most important note we made as we read through Luke 10. Just who were the Samaritans? This task is not as…

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Hades and Hospitality in Luke 10
The front and back of a denarius from the time of Augustus

Hades and Hospitality in Luke 10

Last week we looked at the remaining five cities among the eight we discovered in Luke 10. This week we’ll take a look at most of the other significant concepts we noticed through the chapter. We'll begin with the Greek word Hades. What in the World is Hades? In Greek…

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Major Cities Mentioned in Luke 10
The desolate road connecting Jerusalem to Jericho

Major Cities Mentioned in Luke 10

In contrast to the three relatively unimportant towns of Galilee in my last blog post are the five major cities. All of these cities of Luke 10 span the pages of the Old and New Testaments. We’ll divide the cities into two groups for our discussion. Benchmarks for Sin The…

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