Living hope and small group Bible study (Acts 28:17-31)

[Stephan Choe]

May 25, 2024

Key verses 30-31:       “But Paul remained two full years in his own home, receiving all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.”

This biblical passage from the Acts of the Apostles gives us Paul's work for the salvation of the people in Rome. This passage is the conclusion of the Acts of the Apostles.

Although Paul was imprisoned and not free, everyone was allowed to visit him in his rented apartment and hear the gospel from him.

We want to get to know the secret of spreading the gospel through this.

1. Fulfilled hope (17-22)

Before the journey to Rome, Paul had made a missionary journey through Asia Minor and Greece. Afterward he was arrested in Jerusalem because of a disturbance and was to be judged by the governor of Judea. But he learned that some Jews were planning to murder him secretly. He therefore used his right as a Roman citizen and claimed the imperial court in Rome. So he came to Rome as a prisoner in 59/60 AD.

In Rome, he was to wait quite a long time for the emperor's court. He therefore rented an apartment and one soldier guarded him. According to tradition, he was executed two years later after the trial, or he died later together with other Christians due to the great fire in Rome in 64.

Once in Rome, Paul invites respected Jews and explains to them the reason for his arrival as a prisoner. And he finally says: “I am wearing this chain because of the hope of the Messiah, for whom all Israel is waiting” (20).

He tells them that he also wants to share the good news in Rome, namely the Israelites' fulfilled hope of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Of course, Jesus Christ is not only the hope of the Israelites, but also the hope of all the people of the world.

We have various hopes. For example, we hope for a successful education, after which we will get a decent job and start a happy family. Such hopes give us motivation and a zest for life. We should strive to fulfill such hopes.

But we know that such successes cannot make us happy in the long term. In order to be able to live a truly happy and meaningful life in the long term, we need eternal life and the true meaning of life. To do this, we need to know God and have a lasting love relationship with God. Without the lasting, eternal love of God and eternal life, we are like cut flowers that look alive but quickly wither. Without the lasting, real meaning of life, we quickly feel boring and pointless. So we require an eternal, meaningful life.

A prophet named Ezekiel lived in Israel around 600 BC, when Israel was destroyed by the then world power Babylon and numerous Israelites were dragged off to Babylon as captives. Ezekiel was one of them. During this hopeless time, Ezekiel saw a heavenly vision: numerous dead bones were brought back to life by the Spirit of God (Ezekiel 37:9-10). This was a vision of the resurrection and the opening of the kingdom of heaven. Resurrection and the kingdom of heaven: that was the hope of Israel. That was Paul's hope. That is our hope too. We grow old in the course of time and will die one day. But after that, we who believe in Jesus Christ will rise from the dead and enter the kingdom of heaven, where there is no more death, no more sorrow, but only life and joy. That is our true hope.

Jesus Christ came into the world to make God known to us and to give us the resurrection and God's kingdom. He gives us God's Spirit, eternal life and the kingdom of heaven. In this way, we can be children of God and lead a meaningful life on this earth. Then we will rise from the dead and enter the kingdom of heaven. Paul came to Rome to announce the fulfillment of this hope to the people there.

Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible thing will put on imperishability, and this mortal thing will put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:52b-54a).

2. Small Group Bible Study & One-to-One Bible Study (23-31)

What does Paul do in Rome to make this living hope known to the people?

He arranges a day with the respected Jews to explain to them in detail the fulfillment of this hope. On the appointed day, numerous Jews appear (23). All day Paul explains to them that Jesus is the promised Messiah and gives forgiveness and the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Some agree, but others don't.

Unfortunately, no one wants to personally accept Jesus as their Savior. Despite the numerous visitors, the result of his work is almost nil.

Then Paul recognizes God's will: He should not have to deal with the unwilling people and waste his time and strength. Instead, he should help willing people.

That is why Paul tells the people: “Know that God will proclaim the word of salvation to other nations, and they will hear it” (28).

After this day, Paul specifically helps receptive people to understand the gospel, accept it and become disciples of Jesus. This is what the last two verses of Acts read:

“But Paul remained in his own dwelling two full years, receiving all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance.”

So Paul helps people who hear the gospel with open hearts. Sometimes two or three people come together. Often a single person comes. He does small group Bible study or one-to-one Bible study with them. He explains the gospel to his listeners in an adapted way.

We should not forget that Paul remains a prisoner in his own home. That's why he spends all his time with a soldier guarding him. After about 3 hours another soldier comes to change duty. So Paul has another Bible student. The next day, the same soldier from yesterday usually comes and Paul can continue the Bible study with him. He teaches God's Word from Genesis, Prophets, Gospels, and Romans etc. Without Bible study the soldier would be bored. He finds Bible study interesting. He is passionate about the love of God in Christ. He becomes a Christian. He learns God's Word almost every day for about two years. This is how he becomes a good disciple of Jesus.

Small group Bible study or one-to-one Bible study has one disadvantage compared to mass evangelism: you can only help a few people in a shorter period of time. Despite this disadvantage, small group Bible study or one-to-one Bible study does have some advantages.

On the University of Bochum website you can find an article: “Law students learn in small groups”:

“A maximum of five students from the third semester onwards form a small group to apply what they have learned, exchange ideas and ask questions. Working in small groups offers many advantages: On the one hand, learning partnerships are created. On the other hand, the intimate atmosphere of the small group offers a good atmosphere for asking personal questions.”

For a similar reason, studying the Bible in small groups or in one-to-one study can better open your heart to the gospel. In particular, during a one-to-one Bible study, you can discuss your personal problems in confidence and personally accept Jesus Christ. Once you have learned God's Word sufficiently, you can teach the Bible to other people. By passing on the word you will be strengthened in your own faith.

Bible study in small groups or one-to-one is one of God's most important ways of working. God used to have a personal Bible study with Abraham for more than 25 years, so that he grew in faith and became the first father of faith.

Jesus Christ helped crowds through his preaching because he intended to help as many people as possible. But he placed great emphasis on discipleship the 12 people, especially the training of three people like Peter, James, and John. He helped them through community life and personal Bible discussions. This enabled them to get to know Jesus’ heart, spirit and love well and grow as Jesus’ disciples.

For a similar reason, studying the Bible in small groups or one-to-one can better open your heart to the gospel. In particular, during a one-to-one Bible study, you can discuss your personal problems in confidence and personally accept Jesus Christ. Once you have learned God's Word sufficiently, you can teach the Bible to other people. By passing on the word you will be strengthened in your own faith. Bible study in small groups or one-to-one is one of God's most important ways of working. God used to have a personal Bible study with Abraham for more than 25 years, so that he grew in faith and became the first father of faith. Jesus Christ helped crowds through his preaching because he intended to help as many people as possible. But he placed great emphasis on discipleship the 12 people, especially the training of three people like Peter, James and John. He helped them through community life and personal Bible discussions. This enabled them to get to know Jesus’ heart, spirit and love well and grow as Jesus’ disciples. Above all, Jesus helped one disciple, Peter. It is no wonder that Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matthew 16:16). However, Peter's faith was still weak despite his profession of faith. He denied Jesus three times.

After the resurrection, Jesus visited him and asked him the same question three times: “Do you love me?” To which Peter replied each time: “Yes, you know that I love you.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep!”

Through many years of patient help from Christ, Peter was able to know Jesus' love well and love him. So he became a good teacher of Christianity. He and other disciples raised more disciples through personal relationships.

Until the 3rd century there was no church building because Christians met in the houses like our community. But from these house churches many good disciples of Jesus were born. Therefore, the gospel could be spread credibly and powerfully.

We Christians need both fellowship with all church members and Bible discussion in pairs or in small groups. We celebrate church service on Sundays and have a table together. This is for fellowship with all community members. We also need Bible study in small groups or in pairs. You also need a personal, confidential conversation every now and then.

We should of course pray and work to ensure that as many people as possible are saved and blessed. We should also pray that these believers will not always remain as beginners in the faith, but will grow as disciples of Christ. To this end, we ourselves should grow as disciples of Jesus and work to raise other disciples. We cannot train people as a mass to be disciples of Jesus through some crash course. It took Jesus Christ three years to raise 12 people as good disciples through the community of life. We need a lot of patience and prayer so that we ourselves can become good disciples of Jesus and help others become good disciples of Jesus.

God began his work of redemption through this small community 37 years ago as a small contribution to world evangelization. To do this, God first appointed Renate, Joseph Kim and Paula Kim and our family as the first workers in Bochum. Paula and Joseph Kim were students at the Ruhr University at the time. Renate began her medical studies in Bochum in October 1986. Her father is a pastor. So she was raised as a believer by her parents. Despite her impeccable faith life, she was uncertain about her salvation. God gave her the certainty of salvation through the one-on-one Bible study with Paula Kim. From the beginning of this community, Renate invited her fellow students, such as Anja Nagel, to Bible study and church services.

Beginning in 1988, God sent a total of 29 missionaries[1]  to our church. God gave these missionaries such a heart to leave their secure jobs in Korea and come as missionaries. On the one hand, they studied and, on the other, worked as newspaper sellers or cleaning women to finance their living. They also had to raise their small children. Nevertheless, God gave them a burning heart for the salvation of the students, so they committed themselves to the mission almost every day. God blessed their devotion. Students came to Bible study, became believers, and grew as Jesus' disciples. After years, God gave these missionaries decent jobs. So they moved to Munich, Duisburg, Essen, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, and Berlin and worked there to save souls.

Together with missionaries, Andreas[2], Ludger, Anja, Ulrike[3], etc., as shepherds and Bible teachers, also devotedly helped students[4] with the gospel. In particular, Andreas delicately helped the students with the gospel without taking a job and took over the role of preacher and leader in 2019. Today, our former employees work for the Gospel in their own city, for example Ludger in Essen, Anja in Aachen and Ulrike in Cologne serve the Lord.

From April 2013, God began a new work in Bochum through the cooking course, open Bible evenings, Alpha course, film evenings, etc. Dunja Sharbat Dar (from April 2013) and Denis Shakirova (from June 17, 2014 to November 10, 2015) contributed to this. David served a short mission in Chiang Mai, Thailand from August 2014 to June 2015. Yurim Sim worked as a volunteer in Rwanda, Africa for two years before coming to Bochum. She has been working with her heart since August 9, 2015.

God's work for his glory

We should not overlook the fact that God often helps many people with the gospel through mass evangelism. We should also pray for such work. But we should be faithful to our task of raising disciples. The effectiveness of small group and personal Bible study shows well in countries like China, where the government oppresses churches. Despite such oppression, the number of Christians in China is growing rapidly through small groups such as house churches and the faith of Christians is alive.

Raising disciples can be compared to the chain reaction of an atom. Let's say that in 10 years a Christian raises one to be a disciple of Jesus, and in 10 years that disciple in turn raises another disciple, and so on. After 20 years there are a total of 4 disciples of Jesus, after 30 years there are 8, after 200 years there are 1,048,576 disciples. After 200 years, one disciple becomes one million people. This is really explosive like an atomic bomb.

After we have led someone to faith, we should not think that we have already completed our task. No. We should not only lead people to faith, but also support them in growing as disciples of Jesus. They should both experience the blessedness of the life of faith and become credible Christians. May God help us to raise some of Jesus’ disciples so that a chain reaction of disciple-making continues. Through this work people should be blessed and praise God. Amen!

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[1]Arrival and sending dates of the missionaries who worked with us in Bochum: Paula & Joseph Kim (to Duisburg at the end of 1999), Thomas Hwang and Sarah Oh came from Korea on March 24, 1988 (Thomas Hwang's family moved to Münster in November 1994), Abraham Oh and Maria Hwang with little Maria and Johann (March 29, 1989) (Abraham Oh's family July 1, 1999 to Darmstadt), Paulina Lee (married Kim) (October 13, 1988; 1991 to Cologne), Andreas (Jong -Il) Rhee and Esther Chung (married Bae) (March 29, 1989), Rebekka (Sun-Mi) Kyung (married Park) and Esther Song (married Park) (August 23, 1989 - flew 2.5 years later returned to Korea), Grace Sarah (Seong-Hyung) Lee (married Hong) (September 6, 1989), Samuel & Hannah Kim (October 4, 1989), Hanna Rhee (April 19, 1990), Peter Bae (March 19, 1989). .1991; his family has been working for a Korean community since 2006 and then freely -Gi) Park (May 30, 1992. March 3, 2000 to Korea), Philia (Soon-Ja) Cho (Sept. 1992), Daniel (Un-Pyo) Hong (September 23, 1993, his family June 3, 2001 to Munich), Moffat Kim (August 4, 1994. His family February 23, 2003 to Korea), Lydia Lee (1994 from Essen ), Paul (Du-Jin) Chang + Sara (Hyun-Kum) Chang (née Oh) (from Dortmund. February 16, 1995. July 16, 1999 to Darmstadt), Abraham (Elia) Park and Sarah Park (01/23 .2000 from Aachen. August 24, 2003 to Frankfurt), Young-Il Choi (May 26, 2000), Kaleb Lee (end of August 2000). Johanna Lee (October 18, 2000), Jakob Zheng from China (approx. 2000, after completing his doctorate in Wiesbaden, February 15, 2011): With Stephan & Esther Choe and Joseph & Paula Kim a total of 33 missionaries.

[2] Andreas Schmeinck wirkt seit 16. Sept. 1993 in Bochum aktiv mit

[3] Anja Willkommen wirkte in Bochum vom Ende 1989 – 25. Sept. 1999 und Ulrike Brinkmann vom Febr. 1991 bis 9. Juli 1994, Ludger Sickelmann zog 30.6.1990 von Krefeld nach Bochum um, segensreicher Tag 18.12.90 in Daejeon, zog 9.11.2002 nach Essen um

[4] Bibelfreunde bis 2012 z.B.: Anja Nagel (1987), Michael Sander (Dez 1987), Michael Jochmann (Herbst 1988), Hartmut Rose (1990), Peter Ruhnau (1990), Andreas Lange (1993), Wei Mao(), Igor Poleschtschuk (1992-1993 aus Weißrussland), Irina Stobbe (1992), Stefan Schulzki (1994), Stephanie Kunze (1997), Geogia (seit 2000), Christoph Bussmann (2001), Emil (2001), Sang-Hee Park (2006), und Gyu-Yun Yeon und Hyeon Lee (2007), Nara Hong (2008), Ji-Woong Park (2008), Jimmy (2011), Mega (2012), Michael (2012), Bianca (2012), Tim Morris (Nov 2012)

[4]Arrival and sending date of the missionaries who worked with us in Bochum: Paula & Joseph Kim (to Duisburg at the end of 1999), Thomas Hwang and Sarah Oh came from Korea on March 24, 1988 (Thomas Hwang's family moved to Münster in November 1994), Abraham Oh and Maria Hwang with little Maria and Johann (March 29, 1989) (Abraham Oh's family July 1, 1999 to Darmstadt), Paulina Lee (married Kim) (October 13, 1988; 1991 to Cologne), Andreas (Jong -Il) Rhee and Esther Chung (married Bae) (March 29, 1989), Rebekka (Sun-Mi) Kyung (married Park) and Esther Song (married Park) (August 23, 1989 - flew 2.5 years later returned to Korea), Grace Sarah (Seong-Hyung) Lee (married Hong) (September 6, 1989), Samuel & Hannah Kim (October 4, 1989), Hanna Rhee (April 19, 1990), Peter Bae (March 19, 1989). .1991; his family has been working for a Korean community since 2006 and then freely -Gi) Park (May 30, 1992. March 3, 2000 to Korea), Philia (Soon-Ja) Cho (Sept. 1992), Daniel (Un-Pyo) Hong (September 23, 1993, his family June 3, 2001 to Munich), Moffat Kim (August 4, 1994. His family February 23, 2003 to Korea), Lydia Lee (1994 from Essen), Paul (Du-Jin) Chang + Sara (Hyun-Kum) Chang (née Oh) (from Dortmund. February 16, 1995. July 16, 1999 to Darmstadt), Abraham (Elia) Park and Sarah Park (01/23 .2000 from Aachen. August 24, 2003 to Frankfurt), Young-Il Choi (May 26, 2000), Kaleb Lee (end of August 2000). Johanna Lee (October 18, 2000), Jakob Zheng from China (approx. 2000, after completing his doctorate in Wiesbaden, February 15, 2011): With Stephan & Esther Choe and Joseph & Paula Kim a total of 33 missionaries.

[4] Bible friends up to 2012 e.g.: Anja Nagel (1987), Michael Sander (December 1987), Michael Jochmann (autumn 1988), Hartmut Rose (1990), Peter Ruhnau (1990), Andreas Lange (1993), Wei Mao(), Igor Poleschtschuk (1992-1993 from Belarus), Irina Stobbe (1992), Stefan Schulzki (1994), Stephanie Kunze (1997), Geogia (since 2000), Christoph Bussmann (2001), Emil (2001), Sang-Hee Park (2006) , and Gyu-Yun Yeon and Hyeon Lee (2007), Nara Hong (2008), Ji-Woong Park (2008), Jimmy (2011), Mega (2012), Michael (2012), Bianca (2012), Tim Morris ( Nov 2012)