The Gospel to the World
5AD- 67AD
Bible Reference: Acts 8-28, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon
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- Paul was born in Tarsus to a Jewish family that held Roman citizenship and ran a profitable tent-making business.
- His parents’ wealth afforded him the best secular education possible in Tarsus and Jewish education in Jerusalem under the historical rabbi Gamaliel.
- Paul was present and had an active role in the martyrdom of Stephen, the first of those killed on account of believing in Jesus.
- Paul then took it upon himself with the blessing of the religious authority to imprison and to kill those who professed faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
- While he was on a trip to hunt Christians down in the city of Damascus, Jesus appeared to Paul on the road, knocked him down and asked, “Why are you persecuting Me?”
- His encounter with Jesus led to his conversion and to becoming the greatest evangelist in the history of the church.
- After his conversion, he was not welcomed by the disciples because of his history until Barnabas made the connection and introduced him to the apostles.
- Paul took time to grow in his faith after his conversion, and Jesus personally instructed him during this time in Arabia and he spent some time in Tarsus studying and connecting the dots between Judaism and Christianity.
- Paul later settled in Antioch where he began to work in one of the first Gentile churches and was sent off on three missionary journeys.
- Much of the New Testament records his journey and the letters that he wrote to the churches and the people he was training in ministry.
- God miraculously used Paul to spread the Gospel through Galatia (Turkey), Macedonia, the Greek Peninsula, and then Rome.
- Paul used his Roman citizenship to travel throughout the world and on occasion to get him out of times where he was persecuted, and when he was arrested in Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey, he appealed to Caesar to plead his case.
- He was sent to Rome by ship but was shipwrecked on the Island of Malta.
- While Paul awaited his trial, he was put on house arrest and given freedoms as a Roman citizen. As a result, many of the Roman guards and others became followers of Jesus.
- Ultimately, Paul was released from prison, and he continued to travel sharing about Jesus around the world.
- When Christians were blamed for the fires in Rome by Nero, Paul was taken back to the city to be put on trial.
- Paul’s second imprisonment in Rome was much more dire than the first as he wrote in the letter of second Timothy.
- Paul was martyred by being beheaded in Rome, but the extent of his influence and passion to make Jesus known turned the world upside down.
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