Welcome to Day 1381 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to WisdomMastering the Bible – Paul's Letters in Context and The Tower of Babel Reversed – Worldview WednesdayWisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. Today is Day 1381 of our Trek, and it is Worldview Wednesday. Creating a Biblical Worldview is essential to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical Worldview, you must have a proper understanding of God and His Word. Our focus for the next several months on Worldview Wednesday is Mastering the Bible, through a series of brief insights. These insights are extracted from a book of the same title from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars, Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. This book is a collection of insights designed to help you understand the Bible better. When we let the Bible be what it is, we can understand it as the original readers did, and as its writers intended. Each week we will explore two insights.


Mastering The Bible – Paul’s Letters in Context and The Tower of Bable ReversedInsight Sixty One: The Book of Acts Provides the Context for Many of Paul’s LettersThe book of Acts picks up the New Testament story after the resurrection of Jesus. The book opens with the resurrected Christ giving his disciples instructions on spreading the good news of the cross, and his resurrection in the familiar verse Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere-in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”


Jesus promises to send the Spirit after he ascends, something that happens on the Day of Pentecost (Acts2:1-13)  The events of Pentecost mark the birth of the early apostolic church in Jerusalem. The book of Acts follows the triumphs and travails of the followers of Jesus, empowered by the Spirit to advance the kingdom of God. The central characters through the first twelve chapters are Stephen, Peter, and James. That changes in Acts 13, when the Jerusalem church sends Paul and Barnabas to preach to the gentiles.


Paul’s conversion had been recorded earlier in Acts 9, but Acts 13 changes the focus of the early Jesus-movement to the journeys of Paul. While Acts includes other figures who traveled with Paul, such as Barnabas, Silas, John Mark, Luke, Timothy, Paul is the central figure of the book from that point on.


Anyone who reads through Acts will know that Paul traveled widely, preaching the gospel of Israel’s Messiah to people of all nations. Acts tells us Paul went on three “missionary journeys” to gentile nations. Acts 13:1-14:28 chronicles the first trek, during which Paul visited places like Antioch, Perga, Pisidian Antioch (which is in Phrygia), Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. His second journey is the focus of Acts 15:36-18:22. His itinerary included Philippi. Thessalonica, Berea. Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus. His third and final trip, one that ended in Jerusalem with his imprisonment, is described in Acts 18:23-21:14. Paul revisited places he’d previously ventured as well as new locales; Macedonia, Philippi, Troas, Rhodes, Tyre, and Ephesus are among them. Paul spent three years in this last city.


Experts in Paul’s life and ministry have been able to determine that these missionary trips spanned roughly ten years. If we restrict ourselves to the churches named in Acts 13-21, Paul started just over a dozen churches. Chances are good he started more since he visited regions during his