Week 1 - Sunday

The Apostle Paul

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God (Romans 1:1)

The Bible consists of 66 books which are divided into two main parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains 39 books that were all written before the birth of Jesus Christ. The 27 New Testament books were all written after Jesus was raised from the dead.

A man by the name of Paul was the writer of 12 of the New Testament books, including the book of Romans. Paul was a Jew. In the Bible the people of the nation of Israel are often called Jews. Before he became a Christian, Paul was also a Pharisee (one of the highest religious leaders of the Jews). The Pharisees hated Christianity because they thought that it's teachings contradicted the teachings of the Old Testament. Paul (who was also called Saul) had a particulary strong hated of Christians and spent much of his time attacking them and having them thrown in prison. One day when Paul was on his way to Damascus, to attack Christians there, he was was confronted in person by Jesus Christ. Jesus said to him, "Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:1-15). The reason Jesus confronted Paul is because He had chosen him to be one of His apostles . The word apostle means a special messenger of Jesus Christ. Jesus also chose 12 other men, before he chose Paul, to be His apostles. Paul and the other 12 apostles, had each been personally chosen by Jesus and had each seen Jesus alive after Jesus was raised from the dead. Even though Paul had been persecuting Christians, he was still chosen by Jesus to be His apostle and preach the gospel. Paul responsed by serving Christ Jesus as a bond-servant (a willing slave), for the rest of his life.

The New Testament that we have today, was originally written in Greek about 1,900 years ago. At that time Greek was considered to be a universal language, much like English is now. Euangelion is the Greek word that has been translated into English as gospel and it means "good news". Sin is the bad news of the Bible. People are guilty of sin whenever they do, say, or think anything that God says is wrong. It is also sin, not to do the good things that God says we should be doing. Because God doesn't want people to sin, He has designed the world so that when we do sin there are negative consequences. Drinking too much alcohol is one example of this. A few of the things it can cause are fatal car accidents, health problems and broken relationships. Having sex with someone you aren't married to is another example. It can result in unwanted pregnancies and all kinds of venereal diseases.

As bad as these things may be, they are not the worst consequences of sin. The number one reason why sin is so bad is because it separates people from God. God is holy and good. God is so holy that He cannot bear to be in the presence of sin. Consequently, if a person dies without having their sins forgiven, it results in their being separated from God forever. The good news of the gospel is that God loves us and wants to forgive our sins. Because of this, God sent His Son Jesus into the world to save people from their sins. Jesus Christ is the "good news" of the gospel.

Readings for today: Acts 1:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:12-16; John 3:16