ACTS 16-21 1) what
do we really worship? 2) powerful female disciples of Christ 3) burning books
(and ships) 4) feeding the flock
--Ephesians 3:19
Know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fulness of God
--Colossians
3:1-3, 5 If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,
where Christ is…not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and and
your life is hidden with Christ in God….Put to death, therefore, whatever in
you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed
which (which is idolatry)
--Call from
Paul to focus first on Jesus not things
--Counterfeit
God is anything we get our self-satisfaction or sense of value from
--if happiness
rooted in things rather than Jesus & God
--Acts 16:13:15
On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there
was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered
there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us;
she was … a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen
eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household (She’s the head of
household? Owner of her own business?) were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘if
you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And
she prevailed upon us.
--Acts 16:40 After
Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they
met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
--Lydia brave
to have Christian’s meeting in her house after Paul & Silas thrown into
prison, same thing could happen to her; were they there to pray for Paul &
Silas or to encourage & teach one another because of all the opposition?
Lydia had home to host a group of people and a heart big enough to love and
support those new converts, Lydia good example to let Lord open her heart and do
what is needed to build testimony and faith in her community
--Woman named
Priscilla, also called Prisca in Acts 18:2, she & her husband Aquila lived
in Corinth & had Paul stay & he worked with them 18 months, when Paul
left Corinth for Ephesus…Priscilla & Aquila went with him, when Paul left
Ephesus to teach elsewhere, Priscilla & Aquila stayed in Ephesus to build
up the church, a missionary named Apollos came to Ephesus, he was a good
teacher but didn’t have all the gospel of Jesus Christ details quite right…
--Acts 18:26
When Priscilla and Aquila heard [Apollos], they took him aside and explained
the Way of God to him more accurately
--Priscilla
isn’t on sidelines but preaching, they give all they have to building up Church
of Jesus Christ
--Romans 16:5 Greet… the church in their house
(this couple opens their home & hosting church meetings)
--Lydia and
Priscilla are doing great works, in Thessalonica Paul met more female disciples
of Jesus, in Athens woman named Damaris who worshipped idols, he teaches her
about the one true God & she totally left teachings of her culture to join church,
--Acts 16-20
group of women converts in Philippi, Athens, Thessalonica & Berea and 3
named women converts: Lydia in Philippi, Damaris in Athens and Priscilla in
Corinth, many unnamed women converts in early Christian church
--in Acts 21 Paul
travels back to Jerusalem via Tyre gathering disciples and their wives and
children were with them, Paul stops with Philip who has 4 unmarried daughters
who were known to prophecy, in coming chapter we will read about Paul’s sister
whose son helps Paul escape, in Romans we read about Phoebe who helped many
people including Paul, Romans 16:6 Mary of Rome who works hard for saints, Romans
16:12 Tryphena, Tryphosa and Persis work very hard for Lord, Romans 16:13 Mother
of Rufus who is mother figure to Paul and others, Romans 16:7, 15 Sister of
Nerus, Julia and Junia who are fellow saints Paul sends greetings to, 1
Corinthians 1:11 Chloe who offers her home, leader in church, Philippians 4:2-3
Euodia and Syntyche who labor at Paul’s side, 2 Timothy 4:21 Claudia who is believer,
2 Timothy 1:5 Lois and Eunice who taught faith to children, only Priscilla is
mentioned as having husband, others not married?
--Whether
married or not, we all can make difference in building the Church
--Timothy
called to be Paul’s helper, how did this happen—his father Greek who did not
believe in Jesus but his mom Jewish
--2 Timothy
1:15 I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith [REAL FAITH] that is in
thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and am
persuaded is in thee also
--Remind us
countless female disciples who further the work of the Lord in their own home,
teaching the gospel to children and grandchildren
--in 1979
Spencer W Kimball made profound prophecy about impact covenant-keeping women would
have on future of Lord’s church: Much of major growth that is coming to the
Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world
will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that
the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives
and to the degree that women of the church are seen as distinct and different
in happy ways from the women of the world.
--Pres Nelson:
My dear sisters, you who are our vital associated during this winding up scene,
the day Pres Kimball foresaw is today. You are the women he foresaw. Your
virtue, light, love, knowledge, courage, character, faith and righteous lives
will draw women of the world along with their families to the Church in
unprecedented numbers.
Pres Nelson continued with list of
attributes righteous women need today…Early Christian [New Testament] women
exemplified these traits…this list not all-inclusive. There are many more women
we could list…
Pres Nelson: We need women who know
how to make important things happen by their faith (Tryphosa and Tryphena) and
who are courageous defenders of morality and families in a sin-sick world (Mary
of Rome). We need women who are devoted to shepherding God’s children along the
covenant path toward exaltation (Lydia), women who know how to receive personal
revelation (Damaris)…We need women who can detect deception in all of its forms
(Julia and Junia). We need women who know how to access the power that God
makes available to covenant keepers (Euodia and Syntyche) and who express their
beliefs with confidence and charity (Claudia, Phebe, Chloe). We need women who
have the courage and vision of our Mother Eve (Rufus’ mother and Persis).
--during
Spanish conquest of Aztec empire, Cortez burnt his ships so they had no
other goal than conquering, historically many other cultures did the same,
sometimes burning the ship gave people motivation they needed to move forward.
Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s buried their weapons deep in ground to never use them again,
similar story happened while Paul was in Ephesus, Paul preached gospel to group
of people who practiced magical arts, something like witchcraft, many of those
people believed Paul’s words and decided to metaphorically speaking burn the
ship
--Acts
19:19-20 They collected their books and burned them publicly; when the value of
these books was calculated, it was found to come to 50 thousand silver coins. So
the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
--John Hilton
III preparing to give talk on Alma 27—the converts of Ammon who were “Perfectly
Honest”, first he thought he’d take this part out to fit his life and then he
thought, I should be changing my life to fit the scriptures so he
metaphorically speaking burned the ship
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