

Timothy had been saved by grace through faith. This wasn’t a matter of salvation but of missionary strategy. Now, this may sound confusing because in the prior chapter, Acts 15, at the Jerusalem Counsel, Paul had railed against those who were trying to compel others to be circumcised. Verse 3: Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. He could have been a little older, but he’s described as a “disciple.” His mother and grandmother were also saved but Timothy’s father was either dead or a non-Christian. Timothy turned out to be one the stellar heroes of the New Testament. We don’t know his exact age, but I see him as being thirteen or fourteen when he became a Christian, and now he’s perhaps sixteen or seventeen. Now, on his second visit to the area, Paul was able to see how his past efforts had created future leadership for the church in the person of Timothy. Paul later called Timothy his “true son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2), which would indicate that Timothy came to Christ during Paul’s first visit. On his first trip, he had come to the towns of Derbe and Lystra and evidently a young fellow come to Christ. In Acts 16, the Apostle Paul began his second missionary journey by visiting again some of the churches he had established on his first trip. The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Verses 1-2: Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek.

Our Present Endeavors Will Raise Up A Future Generation for Christ
The book of acts bible study how to#
I want to go through this chapter and make seven suggestions for how to respond in times like this.ġ. As ominous as that sounds, that’s exactly where Paul found himself in Acts 16 so let’s study this to see what lessons we can learn for our own perilous days. Justices Roberts and Scalia, in their dissenting opinion, went so far as to call this decision a “threat to democracy,” and specifically warned those who are biblical Christians that the decision will leave us vulnerable to all kinds of challenges. The article said that the ground under our feet has shifted tectonically and that’s it’s hard to overstate the challenges this is going to present to churches and to Christians. There’s a chilling article in Time Magazine right now about the impact of last week’s Supreme Court decision on the church in America. Introduction: I don’t want to be drawn tonight into discussing last week’s Supreme Court decision, but it serves as a good introduction to our Bible study tonight.
