Episode 2 - Transcript

[00:00:00] Matt Andersen: once you start to see this, it's kinda one of those things that I think you can't unsee. You start to realize, "Oh yeah, it makes sense what Luke was trying to do with these six literary sections." 

[00:00:12] Matt Andersen - Intro: Welcome to Guarding the Good Deposit, where we're contending for the faith in a time when Christendom is fading. We're your hosts, Matt Anderson and Scott Kenyon, and today we're diving into the patterns of Acts and the Epistles to imagine what a renewed church could look like today. In episode one, we introduced the Book of Acts by asking a foundational question, why Acts?

[00:00:49] We explored Luke's purpose in writing, and why Acts is much more than just a historical record. It was written to give confidence in the apostolic [00:01:00] teaching and to shape the life of the church. If you haven't listened to episode one yet, we'd encourage you to start there. It lays the foundation for everything we'll be discussing in this series.

[00:01:15] In today's episode, we're taking the next step by looking at the literary design of Acts. We'll explore how Luke intentionally structured the book into six major literary sections, each marked by the progress of the gospel and the fulfillment of Christ's commission to make disciples of all nations. To help you follow along and to reinforce what we're discussing, we've created a downloadable infographic illustrating the six literary panels of Acts and the progression of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome throughout the whole book.

[00:01:57] You can find the link to the PDF in the show [00:02:00] notes. So with that said, let's jump into today's discussion

[00:02:10] Matt Andersen: All right, Scott, we are back for episode number two. Good to be here with you. Everything going good with you today?

[00:02:17] Scott Canion: Yeah, it's going great

[00:02:19] Matt Andersen: Awesome. Thanks everybody for joining us again today. This is Matt Andersen. I'm here with Scott Canion. You're listening to Guarding the Good Deposit, episode number two. We are talking about Acts again today.

[00:02:32] If you were with us last time in episode one, we-- And if you haven't listened to episode one yet, I'd encourage you to, go back and listen to that first, , before you get into this episode here. But, we spent some time introducing the podcast, who we are, what we're about, what the purpose of this podcast is.

[00:02:51] Um, but then we, uh, one of the first steps in the process that we want to go through as we, interpret the [00:03:00] scriptures is understanding the writer's intent. So we spent some time last time talking about the importance of the writer's intent. What did the writer actually intend for the text to mean? How did they want their readers to be understanding it?

[00:03:21] And this was so important. we talked about it, a little bit longer last time, but just to kind of review, it's this idea that, many times, in our world today, people approach the scriptures backwards, and they approach it with an attitude of like, "Well, what does this mean to me?" And, I like to say that, uh, sometimes people approach it like a Rorschach test, if you know what those ink blot tests are that psychologists use.

[00:03:51] And sometimes we can look at the scriptures and say, "Well, what do you see? And what do you see?" And then we're just happy with what everybody sees. [00:04:00] But we have to ask the question, what could go really wrong? Some things could go really wrong if that's our method for interpretation, and there's a lot at stake if we get this wrong.

[00:04:13] So Scott, last time we talked about the main point, the big idea was that Acts is intended to be catechetical. Can you, uh, just give us a, a one or two sentence summary real quick? What does that mean? What do we mean when we say that word, catechetical?

[00:04:31] Scott Canion: Right. So, I mean, I think we're all-- we've all heard the term catechism, a, a teaching, a training, a going over and over until something is understood well enough that can be, called to mind, recited back, and I would say in the case of Acts, when we say catechetical, we're also talking about intended to give us patterns for us to shape our lives around.

[00:04:59] Matt Andersen: Yeah. [00:05:00] Yeah, that's good. And, and that's the approach that we're taking when we talk about the Book of Acts, is we are taking this approach that the writer's intent, Luke, wanted this to be something that would be, not just a history of the early church, but this narrative of carefully collected events that are intended to be catechetical in nature.

[00:05:24] They're intended to teach us, and they're ultimately intended to give us this framework, and we talked about this on episode one, for all of the New Testament. And today, as we're taking that next step and we're moving into talking about this idea of literary design, we're gonna be seeing that framework. 

[00:05:45] We touched on this again very briefly last time, not in a lot of depth, but this idea of literary design is looking at the book, the document, the letter, understanding how it's structured, [00:06:00] right? Is it poetry? Is it a letter? Is it one narrative all the way through? And how can we look at different sections of the book to make sure that we're understanding things the way they're intended to be understood, by the author?

[00:06:14] This is why last episode, we talked about, Luke and Acts being part of two volumes of one work together, which is important for us to understand because that gives us insight into what Luke is trying to accomplish. If you think about literary design, the guys at The Bible Project do a really good job a lot of times looking at literary design.

[00:06:36] That's a big part of the approach that they take when they put together their explainer videos. So, literary design in the Book of Acts. Scott, where do we, where do you wanna start with literary design in the Book of Acts?

[00:06:52] Scott Canion: Yeah, I mean, I, I think literary design is really, it's really part of the author's intent. If the author is writing [00:07:00] something that they want us to teach and follow, then how they put that together, know, what, literary genre they choose to write in, how they separate the different parts of it, and how they make their argument across those parts and build on that across the parts, is part of what they're trying to communicate to us.

[00:07:24] Matt Andersen: Yeah. One of the areas when I think about Acts, 'cause I've seen it broken down in different ways, um, sometimes people will break it down very simply and say, "Well, the first half is about, uh, uh, primarily Peter as a main character. The second half is about Paul," right?

[00:07:42] They'll break it down that way, or, , they may have other ways of dividing up the book, based on, missionary journeys or different kinds of events and things like that. But, in the beginning of the Book of Acts, Luke actually gives us a clue into where he's going with the literary design, and [00:08:00] it's actually found in Acts 1:8, where this widest, broadest framework is, is laid out for us, where Jesus says that, "You'll receive the Holy Spirit, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth."

[00:08:18] And ultimately, that's the framework that we're seeing unfold in the Book of Acts. We see it moving all the way from Jerusalem all the way to the uttermost parts of the earth, which at that time was actually the book ends in, with Paul in Rome. Um, But, that's this larger framework that exists in the book that Luke is trying to communicate to Theophilus in this letter.

[00:08:43] This is part of that catechesis is how did that happen? How do we understand this amazing expansion of the gospel, uh, throughout, a majority of the known world, at that time? And so, that's the first part of the, of the framework there. Scott, [00:09:00] anything I'm missing on that or anything, uh, anything you see there?

[00:09:03] Scott Canion: No, I mean, you, you mentioned that at, at the end of the book, Paul is in Rome and he's talking about wanting to go on to Spain.

[00:09:12] Matt Andersen: Right

[00:09:13] Scott Canion: So you have this, like you said, even at the, largest structural level, you have this sense that there is an expansion, a widening of what God's spirit is doing Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, uttermost parts of the earth, and then the story itself moves in that direction

[00:09:32] Matt Andersen: Yeah. And so one of the ways I like to, and this was really eye-opening to me when I learned about how, the Book of Acts was designed is how there are these six sections of the Book of Acts. We mentioned this briefly in the last episode. We told you to go ahead and read it and see if you can, start to identify those six sections and how Acts can be broken up.

[00:09:56] And once you start to see this, it's kinda one of those things that I think [00:10:00] you can't unsee anymore. You start to realize, "Oh yeah, it makes sense what Luke was trying to do with these six literary sections." And each one of these sections is actually, marked with a literary marker highlighting the end of each section.

[00:10:19] And so what happens in each of these literary sections, Luke tells us some of the things that are happening. He's, he's catechizing us in these patterns, and then at the end of it, there's a commentary about all that happened in that literary section. So I'm gonna give you real quickly here the literary markers, the end of each of those six panels of Acts.

[00:10:43] There's literary markers at, chapter six verse seven, chapter nine verse 31, chapter 12 verse 24, 16:15, 19:20, and then 28, 30 and 31. So there's six [00:11:00] literary markers, and we're gonna go through each one of those six panels and kinda summarize some of the events. But as we go through this conversation, what we're really trying to pull out of this is what are the keys that Luke is trying to communicate to us so that we can pattern our lives and ministries around this Holy Spirit-inspired strategy?

[00:11:27] And we're gonna see the progress each step of the way. We're gonna see that Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and uttermost parts of the earth, we're gonna see that in the six panels. And we're gonna see, really the Holy Spirit laying out these patterns for us that I believe, man, if we were... I mean, Scott, we gotta ask ourselves as we dig into even the Book of Acts, do we believe this can actually happen today?

[00:11:54] I think a lot of people don't. I think they think that that kind of expansion, that kind [00:12:00] of gospel progress was just for 2,000 years ago, and it's different today. But I don't know. Do you think this can happen today, Scott?

[00:12:09] Scott Canion: Yeah. Well, I mean, that again goes back to the idea of whether Luke is intending this to be catechetical.

[00:12:16] Matt Andersen: Right

[00:12:16] Scott Canion: If he's intending for us to be taught by this and to see, models and patterns that we are to be following, then all of those ideas for me connect together. And so, you know, I think what that means is that as we look at Acts and as we work through these six panels, we've gotta be keeping that in mind and thinking about what are the patterns, what are the pieces here? Because it's, it's not everything, and Luke doesn't even include everything that happened, but there are things there that Luke includes that are given to us to understand the patterns that we're to [00:13:00] follow and this trajectory of how the church developed over those thirty, forty years that Acts covers.

[00:13:09] Matt Andersen: Yeah, and let me say this too before we start getting into the first panel here too. Scott, as we go through this, we're gonna be pulling out some of those keys. I, I don't wanna approach this as if we're gonna actually mention all of the keys that exist we're not gonna be able to do that in one podcast episode.

[00:13:28] So this is not necessarily gonna be an exhaustive or comprehensive exercise. But what I really want people to be able to glean from this is being able to think differently about how we read the Book of Acts and how we apply it to our lives today, because there's so much there, and when you do...

[00:13:50] We'll do this in episode four, I believe, four or five. We're gonna do a little bit of a comparison between our modern-day church systems [00:14:00] and what we read about in the Book of Acts, and it's a little bit of a sobering exercise to go through, when we start to realize there's a lot of things that just don't quite add up or don't match up with what we read about from the first century.

[00:14:13] So let me dive in here. I'm gonna just give a quick outline summary of panel number one, and Scott, maybe when I'm done, you can chime in with one or two keys that you see happening there in the first handful of chapters of Acts. So, panel number one in the Book of Acts, the first literary section, Acts 1:1 to 6:7, and we can think of this as the Jerusalem portion, right?

[00:14:40] This is where we see the gospel expanding in Jerusalem. So many of you are familiar with, obviously Jesus's ascension. Pentecost is happening. There's, a man healed at the gate, uh, by Peter and John. It says in Acts 2:42 that they were all [00:15:00] devoted to four things.

[00:15:01] They were devoted to doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayer, and so, so that was the framework of what they were doing at that time. Peter, preaches, and Peter and John are brought before, the council, the Jewish council. One of the characteristics of believers, of followers of Jesus at this time is that they are characterized by boldness, and it says actually that they have everything in common.

[00:15:30] We also see a lot of signs and wonders happening later on in, in chapter five into six, but also we see, the account of Ananias and Sapphira where, you know, basically they were being hypocrites, right? They were, they were saying one thing about their money and their, giving and all of those things, and it was actually not true, and, their lives were taken from them.

[00:15:53] And the last thing is we also see the seven that are chosen to serve, where there was [00:16:00] this conflict with the distribution of food and they chose seven to help oversee that distribution. At the end of this section, chapter six verse seven, it says, and this is that literary marker at the end of this literary section, it says, "And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith."

[00:16:32] So that's a pretty good summary statement there of what's going on in Jerusalem. You can see that progress, right? The word continued to increase. The number of disciples multiplied. Priests were becoming obedient to the faith. So Scott, when you see those different accounts that I outlined there, um, when you see this first literary section, what, what do you see that's really key for us today to understand [00:17:00] how we accomplish the Great Commission?

[00:17:03] Scott Canion: Yeah, I mean, you, you've mentioned the fact that, um, there was significant boldness, especially among the key leaders early on at this point. Boldness in the sense that they were, , boldly explaining how Jesus was the Messiah and calling those other Jews around them to make a shift from the system that had been in existence to the one that Jesus had introduced. So bold in that way, but also they were bold in dealing with conflicts and threats that arose. So, you know, there was outside opposition that they were bold in addressing. There was the internal hypocrisy that you mentioned with Ananias and Sapphira, who were basically lying, trying to get credit for something that, that they weren't actually doing. And then you have the internal strife of the ethnic nature. I think you've mentioned that as [00:18:00] well, the, the selection of the other leaders to go and care for the Hellenistic Jews there in their midst. So there was a clarity and a boldness on the part of the leaders who had understood the gospel well enough and how the gospel related to the Old Testament scriptures, that they were able to take those things and begin shaping a community around them at a kind of a DNA level. When you mention the Acts 2:42, the church got together and ate together and learned together and prayed together. That's kind of a, seed of all that the church was gonna grow out of. Those things continued, but they grew into, new practices and new ways of, gathering together.

[00:18:44] So you're getting kind of the early DNA here of what it takes to successfully see churches and networks begin developing

[00:18:52] Matt Andersen: yeah, that's-- You know, you bring that up that, uh, I think a lot of times when people think about the birth of the church, [00:19:00] they think of a big thing like Pentecost which was a big deal, in Acts chapter 2, Peter preaches, uh, 3,000, come to follow Jesus that day. But what's really happening in the midst of that is that community life is beginning to emerge.

[00:19:18] Like, there's this incredible one-mindedness that is happening through, like you said, the apostles' teaching, through fellowship, through having all things in common like it says. That's actually what that koinonia fellowship word is all about.

[00:19:34] We think fellowship in our, churches today, Scott, is like, oh, everybody just gets along. And you go, get along and have a good time. And then we watch a movie or read a book like The Fellowship of the Ring, right? And there's this idea that there was this company of individuals that was all working together in this common enterprise.

[00:19:58] And so this is, part of what was [00:20:00] starting to take shape very, very early on in Jerusalem, and obviously, like you said, with the breaking of bread and prayer. And I'll, I'll just mention one other thing, and then we'll go on to, to key number two, unless you have any others. But, uh, one other key point here is that the Word of God was central to everything.

[00:20:17] 6 verse 7 says, "The word of God continued to increase," but we see that where they're devoted to the apostles' teaching. Peter's sermons are rooted in the Old Testament scriptures very, very much, and the progress of the gospel is directly connected to the Word of God spreading throughout Jerusalem.

[00:20:39] So let me just, before we go to the next one too, just mention "should we see this today?" Going back to the author's intent, we've gotta keep that in the back of our minds, and we have to be uh, willing to ask "Why don't we see this today? And "What kinds of things can get in the way of this kind of community life?"

[00:20:56] So panel number two, keep those questions in the back [00:21:00] of your mind, is chapter six verse eight through chapter nine, verse 31. So the first panel was primarily Jerusalem. Now we're moving into that next part of this framework of Acts into Judea and Samaria, and we see here, Stephen arrested, and he preaches a sermon, before the Sanhedrin.

[00:21:25] Um, Saul's, persecution begins, which is pretty horrific. Philip is in Samaria, and Peter and John eventually follow into Samaria because the gospel is expanding beyond just Jerusalem and Judea. Now it's into Samaria. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is part of this section. And then, ultimately it comes back to Saul's conversion and him preaching and escaping from uh, Damascus, and then ultimately he's in [00:22:00] Jerusalem there.

[00:22:00] So then in chapter nine, the summary statement there for this second literary section is, chapter nine, verse 31: "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied."

[00:22:24] Scott, what do you got? What keys do you see coming out from this second literary section?

[00:22:29] Scott Canion: Oh man, there is-- this one's really packed. Um, there's quite a bit that happens here. I think part of what you see is, there's this scattering that happens because of the persecution, because of the-- because it seems like things aren't going well. There's a scattering that happens of the existing believers. But what happens is because they are well-grounded in the gospel and they are bold, what we've already seen in, in the first [00:23:00] panel, as they are scattered, they take the gospel with them and form new communities in, in new places. So even out of this, it's like a scattering of seed, even though it was scattered by something traumatic, now you have new situations beginning to grow all over the place. So you see that happening, and then the most dramatic thing in the whole section there is one of the key people that's driving the persecution becomes converted, in a very dramatic way with, with Jesus actually showing up. And I think we often miss, the significance of, of Paul's conversion.

[00:23:39] Because it was so dramatic, we tend to focus on it as a, as a dramatic narrative and think, "Wow, it was an amazing conversion," experience. When really what I think the emphasis is that Luke is putting on that story is how significant Paul is to what Christ was gonna continue to accomplish. [00:24:00] He was significant enough that even after Jesus had gone to be with the Father, He shows back up to specifically select Paul and yank him out of his situation and help him understand the significance of the gospel and how it relates to all the Old Testament because Paul was going to be such a critical piece, such a necessary piece, and He was gonna give Paul a, a special stewardship even to make His plan known. So it's a significant piece that happens in this panel that we often overlook the significance of and just think of it as a, cool conversion story.

[00:24:46] Matt Andersen: It's interesting, you know, the, the role that persecution plays, like you mentioned in the scattering, and obviously Saul, who would be converted and be known as Paul, and the role that they all [00:25:00] played, but the role that persecution played, but also the role that the Holy Spirit played in the midst of that.

[00:25:06] Because sometimes we can look at even something like persecution, like, oh, the whole strategy, the whole plan is getting ruined because of somebody like Saul. And, the fact that the Spirit of God is orchestrating everything, even working in the midst of, of opposition and horrific persecution like Saul was doing, I think that's really an important thing for us to take away from this.

[00:25:33] And in the midst of that, one of the things that I love about this is we see new leaders stepping up as well. Earlier on in Jerusalem, everything was mostly centered around the apostles, and it was, primarily, Peter and John. But here we're seeing new leaders like Stephen stepping up.

[00:25:53] We're seeing obviously Paul coming into the picture, Philip really being a key person [00:26:00] helping to expand the gospel into Samaria, and ultimately, with the Ethiopian eunuch bringing the gospel back to Africa, right? So there's some other key leaders that are kinda rising to the surface here, and I think that's important, how important these leaders are.

[00:26:18] They also worked very hard to keep the gospel pure. That's part of the role of what these leaders were doing. If you, remember the story in Samaria where, Peter and John went to Samaria and, they were preaching to them about the Holy Spirit, right? And the Holy Spirit came upon them in Samaria, and Simon the Magician was like, "Oh, I want some of that.

[00:26:42] Let me know how I can do that." And Peter said, "No, no, no, it doesn't work that way. That's, that's not the gospel." He was obviously Simon the Magician was missing the whole point of the gospel. And there's leaders that are keeping pure, uh, this community and keeping the purity [00:27:00] of the gospel there as well.

[00:27:02] So anything else from this section, Scott? I know there's a lot here.

[00:27:05] Scott Canion: No, I think that's all I had

[00:27:07] Matt Andersen: Let me mention one more since I'm just looking at it now because I think this is important because this element is going to continue to expand. Um, and it's the idea that there were pockets of Christianity, there were Christian communities multiplying according to this Acts 1:8 pattern.

[00:27:24] Um, where we see the expansion into Judea and Samaria. And, and I say that because, you're gonna hear us talk about this a whole bunch of times, but this is not just a multiplication of individuals. This is a multiplication of communities that's happening here throughout the Book of Acts.

[00:27:44] So we're seeing that where it's, you know, initially in Jerusalem, and sometimes we say, "Well, it was 3,000 individuals at Pentecost." No, it was actually all of these communities that were birthed out of that communities multiplying, um, [00:28:00] and we see that here in Judea and Samaria.

[00:28:04] So again Can we do this today? Is it even possible to see this in our world today? I'd like to think so. We've got a lot of work to do, but let's take a look at panel number three, Acts 9:32 through 12:24. And the events that happened here, um, we see Peter performing some miracles.

[00:28:30] The key event actually is Peter and Cornelius, uh, the conversion of Cornelius and his household. Um, this is where the gospel first goes to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles are now brought into this family. and so Peter goes and preaches to Cornelius and his household, and then Peter goes back and reports to the church about what happened and how the Holy Spirit was also given to the Gentiles.

[00:28:59] And for them, [00:29:00] that was like, "Whoa, this is a big deal. This is a, a, a big thing happening here." Um, and then, we also see the church in Antioch where Barnabas grabs Paul, and he says, "Paul, come with me to Antioch. We're going to teach the leaders in Antioch," and Antioch is going to be a key hub, for the rest of the book really.

[00:29:24] And then, you know, the other thing that we see is we see persecution, where James is killed, Peter is put in prison and ultimately miraculously freed, and then, Herod dies, um, Herod who had been persecuting as well. So we s- can see continued persecution. And then in 12:24 is that summary statement, uh, "But the word of God increased and multiplied."

[00:29:51] Scott, what do you see in this as far as keys from panel number three?

[00:29:56] Scott Canion: Yeah, you, you-- I think you brought up the key [00:30:00] one, the, the idea that the Gentiles are included in this new family that Jesus has inaugurated. So th-this new movement that's happening is not just... It's not a Jewish movement. , It's not that it's not just a Jewish movement, it isn't a Jewish movement.

[00:30:15] It's a whole new family that includes everyone, Jews and Gentiles as well. And we know from Acts and some of Paul's letters that this was a debate that didn't end quickly. Paul had to work really hard, to win this argument, and it took him probably ten, twelve years to win it with the other Jewish apostles. But we see, even from Peter's writings later on and from John's writings later on, how they did come to embrace the idea that what Jesus did was not a, a new movement inside of Judaism, but was a, an entirely new thing. But it took time for them to work through those things, go back and [00:31:00] forth on them, and really get that clear in their head and understand, I think even some of the things from the Old Testament scriptures, that they were misunderstanding because they hadn't truly understood what Jesus accomplished.

[00:31:13] And so, again, Paul is key to that. And but then you also have-- You have the Spirit working significantly here, where you have, the Spirit's using those who were particularly suited to a, a work or a task. , Those that needed developing, He matured. Uh, those who were skeptical, He convinced. The ones who were unreliable, He made useful. even set people free from prison. But those who attempted to hinder the progress of the Gospel or take away the glory from Him perished. And so you, continue to see... see the apostles getting clearer, and understanding better what's going on.

[00:31:53] You see the Spirit continuing to work, um, and you see the continued progression and expansion [00:32:00] happening.

[00:32:01] Matt Andersen: Yeah, there's a sense, I think, where, what you were touching on there at the end, the apostles, they understood that things were happening according to Christ's plan and being led and guided by the Spirit, by Christ's Spirit, and so they were getting clear on that plan, especially with, with the Gentiles being a part of this new global family.

[00:32:25] But there were those who weren't committed to following the plan. There were those that, that they thought that this should be just reserved for the Jews, and Peter stood up and defended God's plan. Ultimately, Paul and Barnabas said, "Yes, we're on the same page here. This is what all of the prophets, the law the prophets, and the writings in the Old Testament spoke of, was this new global family that is Jew and Gentile all living according to Christ's plan." But there was definitely opposition to that. There were people that didn't [00:33:00] see that, and, and they had to be convinced.

[00:33:02] They had to be convinced even that there was this plan and that we need to all be following it, and those leaders were vigorously guarding that, right? That's, that's part of the reason why we've named this, podcast Guarding the Good Deposit, because it's this idea that there is something that needs to be vigorously protected and guarded to make sure that it doesn't get skewed away from where Christ intended it to be.

[00:33:34] All right, we're halfway through our look at the literary design of Acts. If you're following along, now might be a good time to pull out the downloadable infographic found in the show notes. Seeing the six literary panels visually really helps connect the dots as we move into the second half of the book.

[00:33:54] We'll be right back. 

[00:34:00] Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development – www.antiochschool.edu

[00:34:57] Please support Guarding the Good Deposit: www.guardingthegooddeposit.com

[00:35:42] Matt Andersen: So moving on to panel number four Acts twelve twenty-five through sixteen five, and panel number four is really where we start to see, well, actually, panel number three, [00:36:00] we started to see things expanding globally a little bit into a place like Antioch. We've moved beyond Judea and Samaria, and now we're moving towards the uttermost parts of the earth. But it's really in panel number four where we start to see the global strategy start to come into play.

[00:36:17] Paul and Barnabas are sent out from Antioch and they go to a whole bunch of places, Cyprus, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra. Paul's stoned in Lystra. They go back to Antioch. Uh, there's the Jerusalem Council, and they're again having gospel-related issues, not sure what to do about, Gentile believers and circumcision, right?

[00:36:43] So they have this conversation in Jerusalem, and, Paul and Barnabas speak to them about this, from their experience with a Gentile-based church in Antioch. Peter speaks up about this, and all of these gospel questions are starting to come [00:37:00] into play. Ultimately, , Paul and Barnabas end up going back to Antioch.

[00:37:05] They report to the church in Antioch about all the things that had happened, all the churches that had been planted. And then we have in sixteen five this summary statement, again, that literary marker at the end of this literary section, so the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily."

[00:37:27] So Luke's given us keys there. How did this happen? What are the things? He's selectively, uh, putting these things into this panel so that we can know how the churches were strengthened in the faith and how they increased in numbers daily. So Scott, what do you see here with panel number four?

[00:37:47] Scott Canion: Yeah, this is where you begin to see, you know, you mentioned, the fact that now the gospel has expanded beyond Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. It's including Gentiles. You have leaders being sent [00:38:00] out, and you begin to get clarity on the, cyclical strategy that those leaders use to plant churches, to establish new communities. They evangelize in strategic cities, establish local churches, and entrust them to leaders. And so you've got these three pieces that are what you do when you're planting churches, but also what you do when you're training leaders, and also what you do when you are building mature believers in churches, and also what you do when you're shaping a network of churches. It's not just a cycle of going out, it's a cycle of how you actually build Jesus' family. And so being able to think about it that way becomes really helpful when we think about our own life and ministry in our homes, in our churches, across networks, in the various ministries that we're [00:39:00] in. Being able to have these categories in our head helps us figure out how to engage in maturing leaders to be able to do this kind of thing.

[00:39:10] Matt Andersen: Yeah, and just to clarify a little bit of what you're saying, Scott, for some who this may be new ideas for them. What we're talking about, we refer to as the Pauline Cycle. And so the Pauline Cycle is those three things with that at 

[00:39:25] Scott Canion: You call it the Pauline cycle, I call it the Pauline cycle.

[00:39:29] Matt Andersen: Pauline cycle. Okay, yeah, that's fine.

[00:39:31] Scott Canion: Pauline- Pauline

[00:39:32] Matt Andersen: Yeah. And it's, uh, those three things, evangelizing strategic cities, establishing new churches, and appointing elders to lead those churches, and we see that happening over and over. It's a cyclical thing. It's an iterative process that Paul and Barnabas are going through on their journey, where they're going and they're doing this over and over and over again.

[00:39:53] I bring it up to say that this is, this is really the key to these, last few [00:40:00] panels in Acts, You, you see this repeated not just here in this fourth literary section, but we see it, throughout the rest of the book, where these three things are happening over and over and over again.

[00:40:12] I don't wanna spend too much time on the Pauline/Pauline cycle today, because that's actually gonna be the main thrust of our conversation in our next episode. But suffice it to say that there is a strategy being walked out by Paul and Barnabas, right? They're being sent out, and they're doing these three things over and over and over again, and they're continuing to partner with their sending church in Antioch, and they're going back and - encouraging them and reporting to them on all that the Lord has done.

[00:40:44] But there's this pattern starting to emerge with this this cycle, this iterative process happening of evangelizing, establishing, and appointing elders. And so, that's really important for us to understand 'cause we're gonna see that [00:41:00] again in the next two sections as well. Let me just mention also, one of the other key things that happens is, uh, the Jerusalem, Council, and I, I wanna point this out because I think it's an important key for us for today as well.

[00:41:15] yes, they were having serious conversation about the preservation of the gospel and how this ought to be worked out in their communities, And now that this is, this is a, a Jew plus Gentile movement, they're trying to figure out, the key leaders are trying to figure out how does this happen, But then what it says is that when they decided, um, Peter spoke up and told how the Spirit worked in Cornelius's household. Paul and Barnabas shared about how God had been working and moving among the Gentiles in multiple cities. And ultimately, James stands up in this Jerusalem council and says that his judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but to [00:42:00] write them to ask them to abstain from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.

[00:42:09] So they put this together, and they actually circulate letters, it says, to the believers scattered in multiple cities, explaining the conclusion of the leaders in Jerusalem. And why is this significant? Because this shows that believers, many of them separated by many miles, viewed themselves as part of one movement of churches they viewed themselves as all having to be on the same page. There was this unity, this one-mindedness that they knew was so, so important in preserving and expanding the gospel. And so it was important that the leaders went to great lengths to make sure that they were all on the same page.

[00:42:52] They were in agreement that there was this one teaching that they all needed to be committed [00:43:00] to. So I think that's an, a, an important key for us to understand, that this is even though things are expanding, there was scattering and there's expansion, and now we're, uh, moving up into, you know, places like Asia Minor and eventually, uh, up to, you know, areas around Greece and ultimately Rome.

[00:43:19] There's this one teaching, there's this one-mindedness. They're all on the same page, and their leaders are committed to making sure that that happens.

[00:43:29] panel number five, Acts 16:6 through 19:20. and this is, uh, again, like we said, more global expansion. We're looking at Paul's second and third missionary journeys, Uh, Timothy joins Paul and Silas. Uh, if you remember in chapter 16, they had a vision of Macedonia. Uh, Lydia was converted in Philippi.

[00:43:55] Paul and Silas were imprisoned, and then miraculously, the, [00:44:00] the prison shook. You're probably familiar with that whole story. The Philippian jailer was converted there. Um, they go to Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, where Paul speaks at the Areopagus there in Mars Hill. That's, uh, chapter 17.

[00:44:16] Uh, Corinth, uh, they're with Apollos in Ephesus, where Priscilla and Aquila more fully explain the gospel to them and how the Holy Spirit, uh, relates to us now, because of Christ's work. That's chapter 19, I believe. And then Paul is also in Ephesus, and we see the story of the, the sons of Sceva.

[00:44:41] I don't know if I say that one right. Scott, do you have a different way of saying that one?

[00:44:45] Scott Canion: So no, that one I, I agree with you on

[00:44:47] Matt Andersen: Oh, okay. So summary statement at the end of the fifth panel of Acts is, chapter 19 verse 20: "So the word of the Lord continued to increase and [00:45:00] prevail mightily." Keys from this panel, uh, I'll just start out here on this one, Scott, just quickly to say, we see the church being more and more rooted in each city and moving more and more towards Rome, And the same process is being followed by Paul and his team, working make sure that churches are well-established in the teaching. They're doing that whole Pauline cycle of, evangelizing strategic cities and establishing churches and appointing elders. And then they're revisiting those places, the places that they had already planted churches, making sure that they're doing okay, that they're staying on track.

[00:45:39] They're expanding into new territory. And One thing I wanna point out in this section that I think is important, Scott, we haven't talked about this yet, Paul is working as part of a team, and I think that's, that's an important key for us here, um, that he's not a lone ranger.

[00:45:56] He's working as part of a team, and he's actually building a [00:46:00] team and training up other leaders to operate as a team of teams, as you might say. So, um, so I think that's really important for us to understand this expansion happening with apostolic-type leaders operating with apostolic teams, working to make sure that churches are well-established in the teaching.

[00:46:20] Any other thoughts on this section, Scott?

[00:46:23] Scott Canion: Yeah, I'm gonna go a little bit back to, the Pauline cycle. But you, see it here in this, in this section, but you see it, you see Paul actually engaging with it in flexible ways. So sometimes he enters a city, and he engages in strategic dialogue with local community leaders. Other times, he goes right to look for, God-fearers, particularly heads of households, because if he can get the head of the household, he has potential to get a, a whole family and household. , Other times he's looking to create opportunities for, pagan, folks in, cities. and then [00:47:00] sometimes he's, locating existing believers and confirming that they've legitimately understood the gospel and making sure that they are baptized to be part of a community, and then strengthening them and making sure there's leaders in place.

[00:47:11] So he-- You have... You see a flexible, uh... He, he's still working from the, that three-part cycle, but you see how he's flexible in where he goes to engage in, in that, , which I think is an interesting aspect of it

[00:47:27] Matt Andersen: Yeah. One of the things that sticks out to me too is, the time and the intentionality that Paul did spend in some of these places as well, especially when you think about making sure that churches are really, really well established in the teaching and raising up elders. We see Paul spend, some significant time in places like Ephesus and in places like Corinth, where there was serious ordered teaching going on.

[00:47:55] He was reasoning and persuading them. He dialogued among them. He wasn't [00:48:00] preaching at them necessarily like we might think of, , in our world today where so much ministry is preaching focused, but, he's arguing with them, right? , He's reasoning and persuading them. , There's this, this learning process that he is walking leaders through, and that's part of the reason why ultimately you end up seeing , a well-trained group of, competent leaders in a city like Ephesus, is because of that intentional time Paul spent, teaching them there as well.

[00:48:32] So, this panel, I think, as we move on to panel number six in just a second, but it shows us the kind of work that, Paul did to create a network of multiplying churches to make sure that they were well established in the teaching and that they had well-trained leaders appointed in each city so that churches were well-positioned to be able to, , multiply churches, not just multiply individuals, but [00:49:00] multiply churches.

[00:49:01] Panel number six, the last one here. This has been a long journey through, 28 chapters of Acts, but Acts 19:21 through 28, 31. this final panel of Acts, uh, we see riots in Ephesus. We see Paul in Macedonia and Greece. The story of, uh, Eutychus, if you remember, Paul was, dialoguing with them, uh, late into the night, and he fell out the window and, and was raised from the dead.

[00:49:32] Paul eventually goes to Jerusalem. First, he says farewell to the Ephesian elders in, chapter 20. Then he goes to Jerusalem. He visits with James and the elders. Ultimately, he's arrested. he, goes before Felix. He ap- appeals to Caesar and, and to Rome.

[00:49:51] He goes before Herod Agrippa , and Bernice in chapter 26, and, uh, he's tell-- basically telling the story, right? He's telling the story [00:50:00] of his conversion. He's telling the story of what Christ is doing. and, ultimately, because he appealed to Caesar in Rome, he sails as a prisoner to Rome. Uh, along the way, he's shipwrecked on the island of Malta.

[00:50:15] And then, finally, at the end, chapter 28, we get to, Paul in Rome, and here's the final statement, uh, of this literary section and ultimately of the book of Acts. The summary statement from 28, 30 and 31 says, "He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance."

[00:50:51] So keys from this panel, obviously, as we have followed Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and now the uttermost [00:51:00] parts of the earth, our attention is moved towards Rome. Paul has done three missionary journeys, planted all of these churches, a growing, thriving network of churches throughout Asia Minor from, really from Jerusalem all the way to Rome.

[00:51:16] And, the attention now is turned to Rome, which is really the center of the world in that day, and it, it completes that whole Holy Spirit outline of Acts for us, as they end up in Rome. And, interesting, I'll just, just say this and let you chime in, Scott, then, but that the story is left kind of open-ended here, it's kind of a, an abrupt open-ended ending to the book of Acts, which I think is actually the way Luke intended it, because really what we're looking at is Acts being the first chapter in many chapters of church history. At least 20 centuries would follow, , and we're living-- It's the idea that we're living in the same [00:52:00] story today.

[00:52:01] and so Scott, what else do you see there in, this last section of Acts before we move on?

[00:52:07] Scott Canion: Yeah, I'll say in working in Acts and trying to, discover what the patterns were that Luke included there that he wants us to take note of and get our heads around so that we can use them in our own situations, this panel was always the toughest for me to get at, this, this last panel. So it made me go do a lot of work on it. So now I, I feel like it's one of the ones where I have the tightest best work. So I, I think three things. I think, Paul is, is presenting a, a prototype, in his arguments i-in front of the Roman rulers, he's presenting a prototype for addressing earthly governments and authorities with the authority of the gospel of Jesus. he models the content and structure and tone of how to mount a defense, whether those in authority are friendly or antagonistic. sometimes he's [00:53:00] dealing with anta-antagonistic leaders, sometimes he's dealing with friendly ones. He knows how to, mount a defense for himself using the gospel in front of leaders, and he does it confidently. So I think that's one of the pieces.

[00:53:12] The other is, that his defense of the gospel is simultaneously a defense of his entire work. He's testifying that he has finished the job Jesus gave him to do, namely to take the gospel to the Gentiles and to reveal the true nature and order of the church as a family of families. And then lastly, I think, like you pointed out, the story ends in Acts like it began in Luke. we talked about those being one body of work. So it ends in Acts like it began in Luke with, the pinnacle of the story clearly addressing the limits of Caesar's authority. You have Caesar executing Jesus, but God resurrects Jesus and gives him authority over all the rulers and nations and builds a family that is able to move unhindered and live unhindered in the midst [00:54:00] of, Caesar's rule.

[00:54:01] so I, I think those are, are key pieces of that.

[00:54:04] Matt Andersen: Yeah, and on that note, Scott, that's it for the six, literary sections as we've kinda committed to looking at the literary design and really trying to understand what is Luke actually trying to accomplish here. There's one more point I want us to talk through before we close out, and then next episode we're gonna get, uh, much more deep into the Pauline-Pauline cycle.

[00:54:28] now I don't even know what to call that anymore, but,

[00:54:31] Scott Canion: You say Pauline, I say Pauline.

[00:54:33] Matt Andersen: yeah.

[00:54:33] Scott Canion: That's a song somewhere

[00:54:35] Matt Andersen: Yeah. but, there's , one more thread that we see actually in all of these literary sections, that I wanna point out to us because I just think this is of the utmost importance for us to understand. While Luke is tracing the advancement of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome, his intent, like we looked at last time, is to give us [00:55:00] confidence.

[00:55:00] It's intended to teach us or to catechize us, to show us that the Holy Spirit inspired this strategy that can be implemented in any place or time or culture, but that one consistent thread woven throughout is the role of the local church. And this is so important, Scott. This is actually a little bit of a soapbox thing for me maybe.

[00:55:25] I don't know w-what I might call this 'cause it's kinda frustrating to me. But, when you start to see that Paul was about planting church communities In our day today, we tend to be about planting a mission, doing some sort of, mission work, whether it's doing food outreach or distribution or hospitals or education or, whatever, it might be.

[00:55:55] And sometimes we even use the term ministry. quite often it ends up [00:56:00] being nonprofits in our world today. But when we think of the fulfillment of the Great Commission, we have to think about the multiplication of communities like we see in the Book of Acts. It's church planting. It's planting churches.

[00:56:17] It's planting communities. It's building church families. And this is so different from what we see in America today, where we wanna look at everything as an individual thing, right? We say things like, I hear this sometimes, it drives me nuts, but the phrase, "Each one teach one." I don't know if you've ever heard that before, Scott.

[00:56:37] You know, where that's basically the strategy for church multiplication. And, it's this, this very individualistic model, and we try to inspire our churches with this idea, and it's, nice and trite because it rhymes and all that kind of stuff. But if everybody goes out and just disciples one person, training them, disciple them, and then they can go and disciple another person, that it [00:57:00] would have some sort of exponential impact.

[00:57:02] But the problem is, it's just not working. I told you I was on a little bit of a soapbox here, Scott. but if we establish each church community to multiply church communities That's a different kind of exponential progress of the gospel that we can see, but we've put the individual at the center of the Great Commission, and in Acts, the church is at the center of the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

[00:57:31] So I get really frustrated by this. Scott, you know I used to work in the nonprofit world, and I used to tell people, "In 500 years, if the Lord should tarry, there might be no such thing as a 501[c][3] nonprofit, but there will be the church," that's the center of Christ's plan, and we see that all throughout the Book of Acts.

[00:57:53] But in our day, we just wanna bypass the church. There's actually church leaders that [00:58:00] don't fully believe in the church, and maybe because the church is all over the place, maybe because we're so disunified, I don't know. But I think also maybe because they don't understand the Holy Spirit-inspired strategy of the Book of Acts.

[00:58:18] So Scott, tell me where I'm wrong. Tell me if I'm right. I don't know. Tell me, tell me you're frustrated by this sometimes too in our world, because I, like, the church is at the center of His plan, right?

[00:58:31] Scott Canion: Yeah, I mean it, th-the idea is that the gospel creates an integrated system, So that, system the basis of that system is the the gospel or the kerygma story itself, understanding what God has been doing all along throughout history, that Jesus was the turning point, the, the upgrade of that into something new, and that what that created is a family. So that's [00:59:00] the basis of everything. Living together in communities that are part of larger networks of communities, that's the basis for everything else. And out of that, you have pieces that are part of that system, which include shaping our lives around the apostles' teaching, how we gather the heart of our, of our community life together, how we select and train leaders and shape teams and build networks.

[00:59:27] It's all one integrated system. And so what happens today is that somebody likes one piece of that, one little piece of it, they pull that piece out, and then they create their own system around that one piece. And so that's why we can say it's ministry, it's mission, it's all these other things, because it's still got that little teeny piece that we see in somewhere in the New Testament, and yet we've taken it out of the integrated system that Christ intended, that Paul and the apostles established [01:00:00] churches around, and we create another system, and then we wonder why we, th- we say we, "Oh, we can't do those things."

[01:00:07] It's because we're not in that system. We're in our own system that we've created around a teeny little piece of it

[01:00:13] Matt Andersen: Yeah, so much there. I know this is part of the reason why we're doing this is because we have all of those different facets of, of this, gospel system to be talking through. but if we can understand, if we can understand that Acts is intended to be catechetical, that it's a framework for, doing ministry today, for, for living out the gospel and, fulfilling the Great Commission today, and we can understand that the church is at the center of that plan, I think that's a pretty good start for us.

[01:00:47] All right. Well, thanks Scott. Thanks for your time again today. This was good, good conversation. And like I said, next time when we come back, we will, jump deeper into the Pauline [01:01:00] cycle and, uh, as we work our way through the Book of Acts on a little bit. We're gonna be going 

[01:01:04] a little bit now deeper.

[01:01:06] We've looked at some of the, 100,000-foot level kind of stuff, and now we're gonna be l- going a little bit deeper into that Pauline cycle and talking about some of the implications of, of really understanding, , how we can make that work in our world today. So thanks everybody for listening.

[01:01:23] Have a good one, Scott. Appreciate you. 

[01:01:24] Scott Canion: Thanks Matt. 

[01:01:26] Matt Andersen - Outro: Thanks everyone for listening. We're grateful you joined us for this conversation, and we hope it's helping you reflect more deeply on the foundations of our faith. If today's episode helped you see the Book of Acts in a new way, we'd encourage you to download the Acts literary design PDF infographic using the link in the show notes.

[01:01:49] We hope it'll be a helpful resource as you continue reading and studying Acts for yourself. It's also super helpful to us if you could follow, like, [01:02:00] and subscribe to our podcast on whatever platform you're using. It really goes a long way towards helping more people discover these conversations. To learn more, visit us at guardingthegooddeposit.com.

[01:02:16] We'd also love to hear your thoughts, questions, and comments. Feel free to message us through the podcast feed, connect with us on social media, or send us an email at hello@guardingthegooddeposit.com. You can also follow us on Substack. Scott's Substack, After Christendom, can be found at afterchristendom.com, and Matt's Substack is at patternsandparadigms.com.

[01:02:45] If you'd like to support the work we're doing, you can give a gift at buymeacoffee.com/gooddeposit. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time. Guarding the Good Deposit is a Magic Is [01:03:00] Me production. Music by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors.