The Complete Story of Paul: The Apostle to the Gentiles

two it has been six years since the virgin mary brought a dark and olive skinned jew into the world through the power and love of god himself this man ended up changing the course of hi

story

breaking the tide of time and breaking the curtain of temple he was the The most important man who ever lived and told the most important

story

with his life, death and resurrection, but 961 miles to the north another baby is being born. He's not the most important man who ever lived, but he too will end up changing the course of history. forever, him not living the most important story of all time, but telling it to a people who did not deserve it.

His name is and in time he will become one of the most influential, inspiring and divisive men of the century, second only to history. He lives to tell us that Saul was born into a family in Tarsus of the tribe of Benjamin, there is no doubt that he was named after one of his most illustrious ancestors, King Saul of Gibeah, a divided man who, as the story goes, went from be a pious and zealous man. A traitorous assassin Saul of Tarsus seeks to undo what his namesake said in motion Modern Turkey's Tarsus was conquered by Rome 70 years before Saul was born, although there are many theories that Saul's grandparents likely owned land before Saul was born. rome colonized this prosperous city and as anyone in the first century would know, if you owned land in roman territory, you and your children were granted roman citizenship and were able to maintain your cultural ties without repercussions, a coveted prize, no doubt, tarso, As the capital of Cilicia, it was a center for exchanging wealth and knowledge, as it had one of the largest universities in the known world that was rivaled only by Athens.

Saul spent the most influential years of his life in this bustling city and, as a Roman citizen, had access to much of what the city had to offer. But his family was

complete

ly Jewish. His father, a tent maker and Pharisee, taught his son the tips of the trade for 14 years when Saul turned 14 in approximately the year 20 AD. His father probably pushed him to study with an old family friend, Gamaliel, who now not anyone who studied with Gamaliel Gamaliel was one of the highest-ranking Pharisees of his time and was influential in the liberal theology of Pharisaic Judaism.

He taught how to apply the law to contemporary social problems facing Jerusalem. He taught how the law can be interpreted for everyday use. to make you healthier, wiser and more prosperous than your neighbors, a theological vein that would have been attractive to the wealthy family of Tarsus, so in 2018 Saul begins his formal Pharisaic training. Now the Pharisees were a middle-class sect of first century Judaism who sought to interpret the law through modern issues, they were often considered liberal in their theology and emerged as a reaction against the elitism of the Sadducees and scribes of their day. .

Approximately 10 Pharisees were selected to serve on the highest council of the law in Jerusalem called the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin had the greatest power in all of Judaism and included members of every respected group and the high priest. What the Sanhedrin made law became the law for all of Judaism, regardless of location. Paul studied under Gamaliel for about eight years before returning to Tarsus to serve. At the local synagogue it is then that Saul receives the message of his life, just a few years later, he has been chosen by Gamaliel to sit on the council of the Sanhedrin, so with an anxious mind and an excited heart Saul returns from Tarsus to He serves Jerusalem with the full force of his knowledge and zeal.

Only when he returns to his city of study does he find it not as he left it. He learns of a new sect of Judaism that has emerged in recent months and has taken the main city by storm. They follow a man from Nazareth who claimed to be God himself incarnated among men, fulfilling the prophecies that Saul knew so well. They call themselves the path as if the Sanhedrin could not provide light to the world. Saul refuses. He calls them strictly by one name. of shame the Nazarenes a new sect of zealous blasphemers Saul begins a vicious movement within the Sanhedrin to reject this new thinking begins to seek out and question the first followers fishermen, however, uneducated common people questioning their authority Saul and his contemporaries Les They strictly order them not to proclaim to Jerusalem that Jesus is the Jewish messiah, but the disciples do not listen.

So after capturing one of the Nazarene's followers, a man named Steven Saul calls an emergency council meeting, but what comes out of Stephen's mouth infuriates him. Saul more than he is able to control himself by putting aside his cloak, quite rightly Saul takes a stone and throws it at Steven's head. The rest of the Sanhedrin continues to place their cloaks at Saul's feet and Saul watches as the members of the highest council of jerusalem law and order murder of a man named stephen this is the martyr is heard in the church as members of the church in jerusalem, fearing for their lives, flee back to their homes in asia minor.

Several months pass as the Sanhedrin debates and discusses the best possible way to crush. This new movement and upon learning of its popularity in the north decide that they will pass a law that will prohibit any member of the Jewish family living in Antioch from participating in the new radical movement under threat of arrest or worse and who better to do it. sends these letters to the northern country that his own Saul of Tarsus, born and raised there, a man who would have known the roads well packs his bags and begins the treacherous three-day trek along the road from Jerusalem to Damascus, a journey that will change the course of saul's life a journey that will change the course of human history forever as saul walks with a small council of servants and companions discussing the manners of torah and life a burning light blinds him saul why me you're chasing me who?

You are your lord, I am Jesus who is persecuted, but get up and enter the city and they will tell you what to do. The men who were traveling with him were speechless when they heard the voice, but when they saw no one, Saul stood up from the ground and although his eyes were He opened he didn't see anything so they took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus and for three days he didn't see and he didn't eat or drink at the end of those three days a faithful man named Ananias of Damascus reluctantly put his hands on the song and through the power of the holy spirit something like scales fell from saul's eyes and perhaps for the first time in his life he could see clearly who god was now while the events that followed are somewhat confusing we know that for three years saul leaves damascus and heads to arabia while a dark veil covers the exact ideas of saul's journey to arabia, we can assume that while there he searched the scriptures and grew in his love and understanding of his newfound savior jesus, a man he now called christ This is what the scriptures say and immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight then he got up and was baptized by taking food he strengthened himself for a few days he was with the disciples in Damascus I did not immediately consult with anyone nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the who were the

apostle

s before me but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus and immediately proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues saying that he is the son of God and all who heard it were amazed and said: Is not this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem to those who called on this same name and has not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests but Saul increased even more in strength and confounded the Jews living in Damascus?

Upon proving that Jesus was the Christ, when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but Saul learned of his plan. They were watching the doors day and night to kill him, but his disciples took him at night and let him down. an opening in the wall they lower him in a basket and after three years he had come to Jerusalem in Jerusalem Saul begins to consult with Peter and James for 15 days about the resurrection and about the life and person of Jesus Christ but this is not a warm welcome home to saul the sanhedrin has heard about everything that saul had been preaching and the jewish men and women have heard about everything that saul had been persecuting so out of fear of the people the

apostle

s think it is better to send saul Returning to his hometown of Tarsus, Saul leaves Jerusalem and leaves for three years.

During those three years, however, the apostle Peter has a profoundly important revelation when he looks up to heaven in a dream and sees a sheet pulled down with a plethora of clean and unclean animals, God Peter tells him the interpretation of this dream means that the Gentiles can now enter into the salvation of Jesus Christ from this universally important message we begin to see God's cosmic plan for the fullness of time unfolding throughout Throughout the scriptures we see that God's plan for human culture and flourishing begins and ends with unity through the diversity of his people.

At the heart of God's kingdom lies the messianic Jewish movement Jewish men and women and Samaritans. who have decided that Jesus is the long-awaited messiah then we see that first century Gentiles like those in Antioch or Corinth have access to this church and finally we see that non-first century Gentiles who are given the grace to know and understand the message of Jesus they enter the family of God armed with this new revelation Peter and the apostles sent Barnabas a faithful and righteous man to Antioch to teach the Gentile church that was established there after the persecution of Stephen the church of Antioch devoid of Jewish culture and customs even has a new name for its Christian movement which means little christs Barnabas however he realizes that he is out of his element in this new space so he quickly stops at Tarsus in recruiting Saul a man who had grown up immersed in hellenistic culture to help him guide the new church until now the news of jesus christ has spread mainly through travelers who have arrived in jerusalem and have heard the good news and returned home, however, After a year of pastoring the church at Antioch, Saul and Barnabas receive a divine call to go and preach this good news of the absolution of sin to Gentile cities throughout the known world and if they can get the locals to keep up. the church then the church will grow into a global kingdom they believe that if they can take this message far enough to the west then the kingdom of god will extend even to spain they recruit juan marcos to help them in their quest and set out in the first missionary journey of the christian church comparatively the first missionary journey is a small simple circle that goes from antioch to asia minor by water, but the impact that this first missionary journey will have on the identity formation of saul and the christian church as the whole cannot be underestimated the company sets sail from seleucia a port city in antioch and sails to cyprus here sergios

paul

us a roman overseer converts to christianity saul realizes he could reach more people by adopting a more hellenistic name as his new friend I convert and it is here that Saul officially becomes Paul of Tarsus.

They leave Cyprus for Pergia and Pemphilia, where they encounter severe opposition, so severe, in fact, that John Mark, fearing for his life, withdraws from the mission and heads off. To Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas continue and go north to another city called Antioch but this is in Pisidia here Paul gives his first important sermon in a Jewish synagogue but after again encountering strong opposition Paul renounces preaching to the Jewish people and declares that He will bring the good news that Jesus preached only to the Gentiles and so it is here that Saul of Tarsus officially becomes Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.

They move from Antioch to Passidia and head east toward Iconium, where they again encounter strong opposition. so much so that they are under threat of being stoned so they flee to Lystra where the tension of the journey finally increases. The Gentiles confuse Barnabas with Zeus and Paul with Hermes incarnate after the two heal a crippled man in the name of Jesus. With all this Blasphemy, the local Jewish leaders attempt to stone Paul to death, only this time they almost succeed. They drag Paul out of Lystra and float to Durb, where they rest and preach the gospel some more.

They return to the northern route visiting some of the friendliest churches in Antioch of Pisidia before finally landing in Italy. This task they realize will be more difficult and more valuable than they could have ever imagined. When Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch they find men from Judea who have come to their church and have been preaching to the Gentiles that they must be circumcised under the law of Moses to become Christians after intense debate about this theology of works righteousness, Paul and Barnabas decide to take their matter to the apostles in Jerusalem sometime between 48 and 50 AD. heApostle James presides over the Council of Jerusalem with Peter and John and other apostles who have decided to stay in Jerusalem.

A fierce discussion takes place about the importance of the Law of Moses for the Gentiles. This will be the discussion that will resonate throughout the rest of the New Testament, but here On this day James and the apostles decide in favor of Paul that Gentiles do not need to follow certain Jewish customs to become followers of Jesus Christ that the cross of Jesus Christ has achieved everything that we could not do thus fulfilling the law and they no longer need to keep the law out of obligation but only out of gratitude and reverence for the god of Israel overflowing with the exciting news.

Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch that same year. They decide that they will undertake another missionary journey to preach this good news to the Gentiles, but suddenly a problem arises. Strong disagreement between the two missionaries, oddly enough, is more or less about the justice of someone's works, specifically their friend John Mark, whom Barnabas has found the ability to forgive and Paul has not. Paul thinks Mark is a burden and refuses to go with him on another journey. Instead, Paul leaves Barnabas and goes on his missionary journey with Silas, a young man named Timothy. The idea for his second missionary journey is basically the same as the first, they will revisit the churches planted on their first trip only. this time by land to be able to go further west to Bithynia, they leave Antioch and revisit their churches in Asia Minor Lystra Iconium Antioch II in an attempt to go to Bithynia, but by some divine and loving force they are taken to Troas and while they sleep In his camp in Troas Paul suddenly finds himself awake on the shores of the port city and sees a man on the opposite shore in Macedonia calling him Paul concludes that this must be a message from the spirit of God.

The next day the motley crew of Los Revolutionaries set sail for Neapolis, a port city in the far north of Greece. Here his friend and author Luke joins him as he gathers information for a new book he is writing. They walk half a day's journey north from Neapolis to Philippi and it is here that Paul and his friends are imprisoned for the first time in ancient cities. The prisons are unpleasant and brutal places, they are overcrowded, humid and smell like horses, they are often holes or caves. It happened that night when Paul was imprisoned, only a blessing because from the dark corners of this prison came songs and joy and when the spirit of God He shook the prison doors open, the jailer himself even converted to the way Paul is now a leader of them.

They leave the Philippines and arrive in Thessaloniki, where they create such a disturbance that they have to flee at night to Berea. From Berea they set sail for Athens, a city that Paul must have been eager to reach, but they do not spend much time there, he preaches his famous sermon. from eriopicus and they laugh outside the city so they go directly to Corinth where they spend a whole year and a half here Paul writes his letters to the church in Thessalonica after a year and a half they leave Corinth by sea they stop in Centerea and Ephesus before to finally return to Jerusalem, a much longer journey, no doubt, but one that spread the message of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins to the Gentiles throughout the Mediterranean, but Paul was not finished yet, he had plans to leave on a third mission trip. for which it was proposed a year later in the year 53 AD.

Paul at this time is almost 47 years old and outlived many of his Greek brothers and sisters by almost 10 years, but he sees that God has given him the grace to live as Christ lived preaching the kingdom of God to all who will listen and suffer well. For him when his feet leave his base in Antioch, it is certain that he does not realize that he will never return, but he will not because he will soon write to live is Christ. and to die is gain when he leaves antioch approximately in the year 53 AD. He revisits all the churches in Asia Minor and then makes a beeline west stopping in Ephesus where he spends a total of three years of intensive work in the church he planted there Two years before many things happen in this church, Paul He writes his famous letters to the Corinthians urging them to help ease the burden of the famine in Jerusalem.

He also sends missionaries from Ephesus to the colossal churches of Laodicea to which John the seer will write decades from now. but here Paul performs such incredible miracles and gives such powerful sermons baptizing people in the sin-forgiving grace of Jesus that when he leaves the church in Ephesus the entire city explodes like dynamite in an uproar of tumult where a riot breaks out, sending the city in disorder. Paul needs to send some of his workers back just to calm the city, from there he heads to Troas where his nightly sermon causes a boy to fall out of a window to his death, but as beautifully as the message he is preaching, Paul the child rises from the dead entering the ranks of some of the most important biblical characters that we can read about when he leaves troas he passes through macedonia and achaea where he writes the letter to the roman church in his letter to the church of galatia but Your 4-year long journey is coming to an end.

Paul makes one last stop in a small port city called Miletus and, for obvious reasons, he does not want to re-enter Ephesus, he calls the leaders of the church of Ephesus and reveals to them a plan that he knows they know. will end in his eventual arrest and death, has resolved that it is the Lord's plan for him to go to Jerusalem and celebrate with the apostles the feast of Passover, which will be the last time he will be able to do so with the church of Jerusalem while the Council of Ephesian he advises against it after many tears and much anxiety they also decide that your will be done and not his let

paul

go to death when paul arrives in jerusalem the air is as tense as the sanhedrin predicted he is furious because he has abandoned the fold of the Judaism and has been preaching to the Gentiles and more than that they believe that Paul has been preaching for people to abandon the law of Moses and disobey the commandments of the Lord insisting that this is not the case Paul makes a Nazirite vow while celebrating the holidays Easter but this is not enough people form a riot and Paul is arrested in the temple of Jerusalem Paul is taken to a port city called Caesarea but he was not imprisoned there he was arrested imagine with me that he had freedom to wander around his barracks overlooking the mediterranean sea here he would have had access to study materials, writing materials, and preaching materials, but he decided not to do any of these things, taking a much-needed break for two full years.

Paul watches the waves come and go before appealing. going to Rome and writing some of his most influential sermons of all time in about 60 AD. He makes Festus take charge of the Judean council to which Paul appeals and sends him to Rome. His trip to Rome was no less tumultuous than his trip to any other place he went. through shipwrecks, storms, snake bites and belligerent resistance, but in the year 61 AD, Paul lands in Rome under house arrest for another year, but here, after his much-needed rest, he gets to work writing some of the most famous and impressive doctrines that Christians in the world.

Even to this day he studies letters like Colossians Ephesians Philippians and Philemon takes on the role of shepherding the house that is under arrest answering questions that stop the problems and solving some of the most difficult theological puzzles that the church of his time faced after his year under house arrest he is released by Caesar and sent back to Macedonia he spent several months traveling through Macedonia and Asia Minor visiting encouraging and exhorting the churches he helped plant all those years ago he writes his first letter to Timothy in his letter to Titus but it is in the year 62 AD when Nero takes over as emperor of Rome.

It is difficult to underestimate the impact that someone like Nero had on the first century church. His name may not appear in our Bibles, but it certainly does: he would burn Christians alive for sport. and parties, he caused most of the persecution found in letters such as James and the Revelation and many scholars would agree that he is the archetypal figure of the beast in Revelation, his traumatizing and violent resistance to Christianity would help explain its absence in the Scriptures, but when Rome is burned Nero blames the Nazarenes who have arisen throughout his empire by requesting that Paul, the main leader of the Gentiles, be arrested for this atrocity, so Paul is arrested for the second time. and last time here.

He writes the second Timothy before being chained and beheaded before Nero. sometime between 64 and 68 AD. The Christian dictionary says this at the end of Paul's life at the court dressed in the imperial purple said a man who in an evil world had achieved the eminence of being the worst and the most evil, being in it a man stained with every crime he committed. a man whose entire being was so steeped in every nameable and unnameable vice that his body and soul were, as someone said at the time, nothing more than a compound of mud and blood, and in the prisoner's dock was the best man in the world.

He possessed his bleached hair with works for the good of men and the glory of God and in that Paul is murdered but his legacy of power and message resonate in the halls of Christianity today a man so impacted by the reality of his long-awaited messiah so moved that his messiah would choose him that he brought the message of hope and salvation to the entire known world to the Gentiles the message that although all have sinned and come short of the glory of god, the justice of god is available through faith in Jesus Christ there Therefore now there is no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus, but in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, in the mystery that has been hidden since centuries past and generations now has been manifested. his saints this mystery is that the Gentiles are joint heirs with the Jews if then you have risen with Christ seek the things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God and the God of peace will be with you because this was the plan for the fullness of the times to unite in it all things, things in heaven and things on earth, thank God, you would have done well to note that during the duration of this video the images did not always faithfully represent the times or cultures in which scenes took place if you would like to support bible unbound in its mission to help everyone better understand the biblical epic you can support us on patreon.com or for one-time donations at kofi you