ONLINE STUDY COURSE VIA ZOOM
From Antioch to Ephesus
The Gospel, the Spirit, and the Rise of the Early Church
The Gospel Goes Forth
The Book of Acts tells the story of a Church learning to follow the risen Christ beyond familiar boundaries. From Antioch, the gospel moves outward into the wider Mediterranean world as the Holy Spirit calls, sends, and sustains a community being reshaped by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Following Acts 11–14 and 19–20, this six-session course explores not simply the journeys of Paul, but the formation of a missionary Church: worshiping and discerning, crossing cultural boundaries, enduring opposition, confronting competing loyalties, forming communities, raising leaders, and learning what faithful witness requires.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Interpret major events and themes in Acts 11–14 and 19–20 within their biblical, historical, and theological contexts.
- Explain the central role of the Holy Spirit in calling, sending, guiding, and sustaining the Church.
- Understand Antioch’s significance in the emergence of a missionary Church crossing ethnic, cultural, and geographical boundaries.
- Explore how worship, prayer, discernment, proclamation, teaching, and communal life shape Christian mission.
- Examine how the gospel encounters suffering, cultural difference, idolatry, competing loyalties, and social structures.
- Reflect on what Acts teaches the Church today about discipleship, leadership, mission, perseverance, and faithful witness.
Course Overview
This course follows the movement of the gospel from Antioch into the wider Mediterranean world through Acts 11–14 and 19–20. We will trace the emergence of Antioch as a missionary center, the sending of Paul and Barnabas, the formation of Christian communities across Asia Minor, and Paul’s extended ministry in Ephesus.
Through biblical exegesis, historical context, and theological reflection, we will consider what these chapters reveal about the identity and vocation of the Church itself—particularly the work of the Holy Spirit, the relationship between worship and mission, communication of the gospel across cultures, perseverance amid opposition, the confrontation between the gospel and idolatry, and the character of Christian leadership.
Throughout the course, three questions will guide our study: Who sends the Church? What kind of people does the gospel create? How then shall the Church bear faithful witness?
Dates:
Tuesdays, October 20–November 24, 2026
Time:
7:00–8:15 PM
Format:
Online via Zoom
Cost:
This course is offered tuition-free through the Emmaus Center for Biblical Teaching to all who desire deeper study and reflection.
Instructor:
Dr. Randy Furushima
Course Schedule
These six sessions trace how, guided by the Holy Spirit, the early Church carried the gospel from Antioch into the Gentile world through preaching, suffering, perseverance, and faithful witness.
Antioch: A Church Formed for Mission
(Acts 11)
October 20, 2026
Witness Under Pressure
(Acts 12)
October 27, 2026
Sent by the Holy Spirit
(Acts 13)
November 3, 2026
Through Many Tribulations
(Acts 14)
November 10, 2026
Ephesus: The Gospel and Competing Loyalties
(Acts 19)
November 17, 2026
Paul’s Farewell: Faithful Leadership and the Care of the Church
(Acts 20)
November 24, 2026
Course Descriptions
Session 1: Antioch: A Church Formed for Mission — Acts 11
Antioch becomes one of the first places where the consequences of the gospel’s movement beyond Jewish boundaries become unmistakable. We will explore belonging, teaching, communal formation, generosity, and the crossing of ethnic and religious boundaries as Antioch develops into a Church capable of recognizing and participating in what God is doing beyond familiar expectations.
Session 2: Witness Under Pressure — Acts 12
Acts 12 places martyrdom and miraculous deliverance side by side: James is killed while Peter is freed from prison. We will consider political power, communal prayer, divine providence, suffering, and uncertainty, asking what faithful Christian witness looks like when outcomes cannot be controlled.
Session 3: Sent by the Holy Spirit — Acts 13
The first missionary journey begins in worship as the Church at Antioch fasts, listens, and responds to the calling of the Holy Spirit. We will examine worship, discernment, vocation, Paul’s proclamation in Pisidian Antioch, and the recurring pattern of both reception and resistance as the gospel crosses boundaries.
Session 4: Through Many Tribulations — Acts 14
Paul and Barnabas encounter belief and hostility, healing and misunderstanding, hospitality and violence as they travel through Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. We will consider cross-cultural proclamation, perseverance amid suffering, and their deliberate work of returning to strengthen communities and appoint leaders.
Session 5: Ephesus: The Gospel and Competing Loyalties — Acts 19
In Ephesus, Christian proclamation encounters magic, spiritual power, the cult of Artemis, economic interests, and civic identity. We will examine what conversion means when allegiance to Jesus Christ challenges the powers, practices, identities, and interests by which a society has learned to live.
Session 6: Paul’s Farewell: Faithful Leadership and the Care of the Church — Acts 20
Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders turns our attention from missionary expansion to the care of the communities the gospel has brought into being. Through Paul’s language of humility, tears, vigilance, generosity, and self-giving, we will consider Christian leadership as the sacred responsibility of caring faithfully for what God has entrusted to the Church.
Instructor
Dr. Randy Furushima
Executive Director, Emmaus Center for Biblical Teaching
Dr. Randy Furushima teaches with a deep concern for biblical formation, theological reflection, and the life of Christian discipleship. His teaching invites participants to engage Scripture not only as information, but as a path of spiritual formation and faithful witness.
Join the Course
Registration is now open. This six-session online course is offered tuition-free through the Emmaus Center for Biblical Teaching to all who desire deeper study and reflection on Scripture, theology, and the life of the Church. Upon registration, participants will receive the Zoom link and course information.
Continue the Journey
This course stands on its own as a study of Acts and the missionary formation of the early Church. It also provides a biblical, historical, and theological foundation for the Emmaus Center’s 2027 Türkiye pilgrimage, The Path of St. Paul, October 18–31, 2027.
Along the journey, many of the places studied in this course will become settings for prayer, remembrance, theological reflection, and renewed Christian discipleship.