353 - Les Feldick Bible Study Lesson 2 - Part 1 - Book 30 - Paul, Our Apostle

https://lesfeldickbiblestudy.com Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 2 * PART 1 * BOOK 30 PAUL, OUR APOSTLE DEFENDING HIS APOSTLESHIP In our last lesson we finished I Corinthians 15 and 16. Of course most of you understand now that I stress that the Apostle Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles, and that's what he was called specifically to be. Romans 11:13 "For I (Paul) speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:" And in that role as the apostle to the Gentiles when he writes he is writing primarily to Gentile believers. Here Paul is writing the second letter to the congregation at Corinth on the tip of Greece. Also remember in the first letter, these believers had sent Paul a long letter of questions of how they were to handle all these various problems, and we dealt with that as we came up through I Corinthians. Now in the first six chapters of this letter Paul is more or less dealing with the defense of his apostleship. Every time that you get into Paul's writing he has to defend his apostleship. Now it stands to reason if you all understand religion. Well the Apostle Paul was in that same situation. Now as he goes out among the Gentile cities and he's calling out, by virtue of preaching the Gospel (I Corinthians 15:1-4), a people for the Name of Christ, these Jews, whether they were part of the believing element or whether they were totally still in Judaism, constantly came back to the fact that, "You never walked with Jesus like Peter did. Well under those kinds of attacks what does Paul have to do? I'm afraid that there are a lot of people today that are still treating Paul the same way that the early Churches did. A Judaiser was a believer that believed for salvation that Jesus was the Christ, he was saved under that Kingdom Gospel. You may remember the book. "Here I am sold out to Christ, I am beating the bushes of the Gentile community for the sake of the Gospel," and how he suffered. I just have to remind folks of this because even today there are so many people that almost ridicule the writings of the Apostle Paul. People don't change, their attitudes stay the same." It has boggled my mind as long as I've been teaching this Book. So Paul is telling Timothy to hang onto this doctrine of the mysteries that was revealed to him by the ascended Lord which I have now left these mysteries with you. Now reading on. II Timothy 1:14 Imagine that poor man having to write a statement like this, and Paul was not lying. II Timothy 1:15 Also remember II Corinthians was written two years after the letter to the Galatians. I'll be going back to that to show you that what Paul dealt with in the Galatian letter had already taken place quite some time before he wrote this letter of II Corinthians. II Corinthians 1:1-4 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, (Paul was set apart by God Himself) and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: (southern Greece) Grace be to you and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth (encourages) us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." In other words even for us believers today as we go through trying and testing times we have that promise that God is going to be a constant encouragement. II Corinthians 1:5-7 "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, (Paul is speaking of his own experience) so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. (The same Lord that permits persecution and testing to come into the life is the same Lord that will provide the strength we need to go through it.) So to become a believer under Paul's preaching and teaching actually was an invitation to persecution. So remember, although these early believer were under constant pressure they also had that promise that The Lord Who was permitting the affliction and pressure was also The Lord Who had the strength to bring them through it. Now verse 8: II Corinthians 1:8 What was Paul talking about? Now verse 9: II Corinthians 1:9-10 The apostle Paul must have had much the same kind of mental attitude regarding his trials and tribulations as they pertained to the resurrection, as Peter and the other disciple must have had at the time of the crucifixion. After His resurrection! II Corinthians 1:11 In other words Paul then, and like we do today, realized what really sustained him in his ministry. Pray for us, and others in the ministry that God is using to reach hearts. Remember prayer changes things. Now verse 12: II Corinthians 1:12 What's Paul saying? Now for a moment let's turn to I Thessalonians Chapter 1. And this is typical of every place that Paul ministered. #LesFeldick #BibleStudy #Bible