God’s Message goes to All Nations
About these Units
EasyEnglish Study Units (2800 word vocabulary) on the New Testament from Acts to Revelation
G. Barrie Wetherill and M. P. H. Stear
A word list at the end explains words with a *star by them.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all of *Judea and *Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
1. We want to write about the story of the early church which the *New Testament tells us.
2. We want to show how the church grew. It began as a *Jewish church, and became a church which had more *Gentiles than *Jews. The *Holy Spirit caused this.
3. We want to discuss why men wrote the letters in the *New Testament. (We will not study each separate letter.)
|
Unit |
Title |
|
Introduction |
A short description of the work. |
|
1 |
The beginning of the church. Peter speaks about Jesus for the first time. |
|
2 |
People oppose Christians, but more people hear the good news about Jesus. Acts 3-8 |
|
3 |
The Damascus Road. Paul becomes a Christian. [This unit has extra information on ‘Paul, a *Roman citizen and his rights’.] |
|
4 |
The first *missionary journey. Acts 13-15 (AD 46-48) |
|
5 |
The second *missionary journey. Acts 15-18 |
|
6 |
The third *missionary journey. Acts 18:23-21:17 |
|
7 |
Men arrest Paul. They put him in prison, and send him to Rome. |
|
8 |
The wars of the *Jews. Enemies destroy the *Temple. |
|
9 |
Paul’s last years – and the other *apostles [using traditional *sources.] |
|
10 |
John and the book of Revelation. |
|
11 |
Paul’s desire to tell many people about Jesus |
apostle ~ one of the 12 men that Jesus chose to be his helpers. He chose them to teach other people about him. Christians call Paul an apostle.
commentary ~ a book which explains what another writer has said.
Gentiles ~ people who are not *Jews; people who do not know God.
gospel ~ the good news for everybody that God sent Jesus to die for our *sin instead of us.
Holy Spirit ~ God’s Spirit; Jesus sent him to help people.
Jew ~ a person from the same big family and country as Jesus.
Jewish ~ a word that describes a *Jew or anything to do with a *Jew.
Judea ~ the country of the *Jews.
missionary ~ a person who goes to another country to tell other people about Jesus.
New Testament ~ the part of the Bible that tells about the life of Jesus, and what happened afterwards.
Roman ~ Romans were people from Rome. They ruled over Israel. Rome was a large city.
Samaria ~ the country next to Judea.
sin ~ when people do not do what God wants; wrong things that we do or say.
sources ~ original writings.
temple ~ the special building in Jerusalem where the *Jews went to pray to God.
Craig Keener ~ Bible Background *Commentary NT ~ IVP
B. M. Newman and E. A. Nida ~ A Translators Handbook on The Acts of The *Apostles ~ UBS
F. F. Bruce ~ The Book of The Acts ~ MMS
Donald Grey Barnhouse ~ Acts – An expositional commentary ~ Zondervan
In the Footsteps of Paul ~ CWR (Daily Bible Readings 1988)
I. Howard Marshall ~ Acts ~ Tyndale
Campbell Morgan ~ Acts of the *Apostles ~ Pickering and Inglis
Paul Barnett ~ Bethlehem to Patmos ~ Paternoster 1989
Also: Personal notes and material from many other sources
© 1999-2003, Wycliffe Associates (UK)
This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).
July 2003
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