Acts 1-3: A Supernatural Invasion - John Lennox

you in the next three lectures I intend to look at three of the major sections of the book of Acts they are sections one sections 2 and section 5 yesterday I very briefly indicated that Luke has deliberately divided the book of Acts into six major sections and he indicates that fact by a literary device of a summary statement at the end of each of them so the Word of God spread then the church like you did enjoy a time of peace but the Word of God continued to increase so the churches were strengthened and so on and you will notice that they alternate it's the word and the church the word Church like two feet pacing their way through the book of Acts and structure is only valuable if it conveys a message and there is a message right on the surface which is profoundly important and that is this you will never get the church increasing without the word increasing it's L an entry but it has been vastly neglected we must make every effort to increase the word if we are to have any hope of the church's increasing that splits the gospel up into six yesterday we were beginning to have a look at the first section which is 8 stuartt it divides very neatly into two there is first of all the events before Pentecost and immediately after it the Sterling Jerusalem is so great that there is reaction from the religious authorities and they put the Apostles on trial twice and we notice the emphasis on two major things first of all the Spirit comes at Pentecost in the coming of the Spirit has implications for people's attitude to the material world and so just looking at these eight parts we notice that the altar date between evident powers of the supernatural dimension as the spirit invades earth so to speak and comes to reside in the church and the effect on the people involved so let's read a few verses from the very beginning of the book of Acts in the first group called Theophilus I have dealt with all the Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up after that he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen to them he presented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God and was staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which he said you heard from me for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from that and together they asked him Lord will you at this putt restore the kingdom to Israel he said to them it's not for you to know Titans of seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth and when he had said these things as they were looking on he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight Luke does not say that in these 40 days the disciples merely discussed the evidence for the resurrection it says that for 40 days Jesus presented himself alive and taught them about the kingdom of God that is their experience of Jesus teaching was a living experience of his presence and that was a secret of the word grew the churches multiplied it is the living contact with the Risen Word himself that put fire and passion into the early Christians they knew by experience that Jesus was alive the evidences for the resurrection are vastly important intellectually but equally if not more important is our sensing in our experience that Christ is alive 40 days of teaching and were not given the details how curious that makes me wouldn't you love to have been there just imagine a resurrected human being standing in front of you teaching and explaining to you the things concerning the government of God because the idea of the kingdom of God in its primary sense is God's rules and the basic thing Christ had said to his disciples years before was seek first the kingdom the government of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you and for 40 days he explained to them what it meant for them to actively seek the government of God in their lives Christ authenticated himself through being a living resurrected man the son of God and pouring scripture into their thoughts and minds I suggest to you and to me that this is where we need to start some of us have never spent 40 days in Scripture and perhaps that's the reason that sometimes our impact is less than it should be they didn't say anything publicly for a number of weeks but the Lord Jesus prepared them and he said don't depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise and with that statement about promises leading them into the fact that what was about to happen had been predicted by first of all he mentions himself he told them that when he went the Holy Spirit would come they hadn't quite understood that connection but he reminds them here that John the Baptist had also said the same thing he said i baptize you with water but there's one standing among you he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire but the fire is not mentioned here because the order was going to be John the Baptist would come baptize with water Jesus would come and baptize the spirit and I were reaching that point in God's scheme where this was about to happen and fulfill both Christ's words and those of John the Baptist remember Luke has said it is introduction that he's writing about things fulfilled he's not simply writing about history factually though he is doing that brilliantly he's trying to get across to us that this business of human salvation gears into history with an additional element that's utterly unique to the Christian faith and that is predictive prophecy through the Old Testament revelation and in our contemporary age dominated by scientific naturalism it's very difficult to get this into our hearts because prophecy embarrasses us have you ever noticed that we usually only talk about it at Christmas and we sing carols and we have readings that are full of predictions of Christ's birth and where it was and so on and so forth but for the rest of the year well of course I don't speak of you all but for the rest of the year some has a little bit embarrassing in our culture the why should it be if we believe that Jesus rose from the dead which is obviously supernatural if we believe is the Incarnate son of God what's our problem in adding this bit of extra evidence that Christianity authenticates itself by being part of a prior revealed Steve God's plan of salvation now of course these people and the disciples where Jewish people and we noticed yesterday how important it is to see what happens in the book of Acts in its cultural context and the first part of Acts is mainly Jewish the second part is mainly Gentiles and the nuances of context are very important but Jesus resurrection and who's being allied showed he'd conquered death a resurrected man has unique power and of course it revived all kinds of ideas of the centuries-old hope of freedom for their nation of Israel surely now was the train track politically get rid of the Romans and set their nation free so they come to Jesus and they have a question I want you to notice exactly what it is here at this time restore the kingdom to Israel please please notice the question is not will you restore the kingdom to Israel it's will you do it now they had no issue because they expected the kingdom to be restored that was a fundamental assumption that runs through the whole of the Old Testament the question is Lord are you going to do it no of course they had certain skewed notions and for some of the expectation of an outward Kingdom blinded them to the fact but when Jesus came he was the very king standing in front of them and he couldn't see it that wasn't because of lack of evidence it's because they didn't realize that the concept of the kingdom of God was bigger then I kingdom on this earth and it would start actually first of all with the king coming and offering his kingdom and rule to all who trusted him and would be like Nicodemus born again and therefore enter the kingdom of God a spiritual dimension is inevitable when you see what the King stands for because the existence and survival of any kingdom depends on the loyalty of its citizens to the king and when the king is God incarnate it is clear that not only socio-political freedom from oppression is involved trust must be involved and in particularly the loyalty of the human heart that's where the gospel starts with the challenge to our hearts and minds to receive Jesus Christ as Lord but you see having said that just as the Pharisees made the mistake of concentrating on the outward and visible aspect of the kingdom and missed it's in a spiritual nature it is possible to make the opposite mistake and so to be taken up with the spiritual characteristics of the kingdom that we miss its outward and visible aspect and of the prophetess that tells us in his gospel spoke of Jesus to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem that is the freedom of Jerusalem from oppression it was part of their hope that Micah expressed in the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple would be established as chief among the mountains many nations will come and say come up to the mountain of the Lord the lower voice from Zion the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and so on and then comes the famous statement that the United Nations have inscribed on their building in New York they will beat their swords into places spears into pruning hooks will not take up sword against nation nor will they train for war anymore that is what godly Jews expected they still do expect it actually to you a Luke records that the disciples on their way to Emmaus were utterly dejected that the rejection and death of Jesus why well we hope that he would redeem Israel they didn't and so now they say he's risen from the dead his conquered death Lord are you going to do it now now is the time to seize the opportunity and Darrell Bock in his Magisterial commentary says jesus replied does not reject the premise of the question that the kingdom will one day be restored to Israel longenecker adds Paul speaks in Romans nine to eleven not only of a remnant with is within Israel responding to God but also the nation of Israel still being involved in some way in God's redemptive program and yet to be saved in the future and Bob finally makes the perceptive point that looks view that the Word of God comes to pass speaks also for the idea that Israel still is a future in God's plan Luke tells us about the idea that there is a time of the Gentiles suggesting that a time for Israel may come in the future after a period when Gentiles are the center of attention does it matter I think it does you see throughout history and still today articulating Christian conviction that God still is purposes for Israel might well have done and still could do much to ward off some of the anti-semitism that is sadly besmirched Tristan done even at the time of the Reformation it's important to get our proportions straight and it is my impression that sometimes we have rightly emphasized the spiritual nature of Christ's Kingdom but we forget that God has made promises irrevocable promises to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the early disciples quite rightly expected them be fulfilled and they wanted to know who would be be fulfilled now and jesus answered it very straight well first of all he said it's not for you to know the times of the seasons that was fairly blunt that the father has fixed please notice that so really organized he said to them the father has fixed these times and seasons it will happen but I'm not going to tell you about it and you know that takes as many fish Christian fish because the moment these things in the future mentioned people instantly asked about the timing builder and can get very bogged down in it now firstly notice that timing is involved and we'll see in a moment or two it's crucial but it's not everything and asked if when the kingdom is going to be restored it's not for you to know he said to them what are you going to do well he said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses stop worrying about when it happens and get on with the gospel that was pretty straight wasn't it but then he did another thing to convince him that he wasn't going to do it at that time he ascended it is feared he went to heaven that made it pretty obvious he wasn't going to take over the government and Jerusalem tin men and all they watched as we saw yesterday therefore saw it visibly Luke was not a primitive pre-scientific he'd probably been educated at Alexandria and he didn't believe in a three-decker universe anywhere and he wasn't so beset with fundamental misunderstandings of the kind that David humors perpetuated for the last few hundred years he describes what was seen that Jesus went up and then disappeared into the other world and what was that for this is where we ended yesterday that was for demonstrating that this same Jesus will so come as you saw him go that has huge implications ladies and gentlemen huge in implications for the future this same thickness also come as you saw him go I need sometimes Christians that are a bit uneasy about the implications of the Resurrection Anastasi is resurrection of the body and we'll see that when we come later to accidently Christ law out the Ascension still in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily God is not finished with physics and chemistry at his Greek mythology not Christianity that teaches matter is evil he will come again as he saw him go there is to be a physical manifestation indeed there are to be new heavens and the new earth I'll not be tempted to say any more of that because we must proceed but you notice now we've been given an order of events you stay in Jerusalem the Holy Spirit will come I'm going to come back but in the meantime you are going to get on with the gospel in the power of the Spirit elementary logic tells you their fur that is coming back will be after Pentecost not before it so that's the first bit of prediction the second is very surprising the very next thing we are told is by look historically that they went back to Jerusalem and they devoted themselves to prayer and Peter stood up verse 15 among the brothers there 120 all together and said the scripture had to be fulfilled what scripture oh he says which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus the defection of Judas is part of the predictive prophetic scheme that's not so comfortable is it you might have thought that Luke would be like many historians selective and leave out the bad bits to get across the good bits but you see he doesn't leave out the bad bits he not only refers to the defection of Judas that had diminished the Apostolic number by one he says scripture knows about this and prescribes that Judas the defector must be replaced as Peter saying it it's very poignant isn't it fully aware that he himself had denied Jesus publicly but yet there's a profound difference between Peter and Judas isn't there and we may be thankful for that Judas by his behavior proved he never was a believer Peter by his behavior proved he was a believer all the way through but a believer caught out by circumstances that broke him temporarily and he publicly appeared to defect now my friends this is a major problem that we need to face the problem of defection and Luke regards it as very important otherwise he wouldn't have talked about it and in this section you will have noticed that Judas he gained a field by the reward of his evil and fields keep cropping up throughout this first section of you notice that Barnabas a bit later on he sold the field and brought the money to the Apostles feet Ananias and Sapphira so that they had pretended they'd sold it for so much but they were withholding it and they were executed some early by God's judgement field field field our little possessions of bits of planet Earth this is the material as opposed to the spiritual and Judas defected and everybody knew about it now high priests didn't know what to do when he threw his money back and they bought a field with it to bury strangers in that lasted probably for centuries in Jerusalem as a memorial to the fact that one of the inner group of Christians was not genuine now here we are and I have no doubt that as you look not only at church history but at your own history the problem of defection has reached you it often is money at sometimes sex and sometimes it's power and when Luther hemorrhages ninety-five theses of the door of the church at Wittenberg they were mostly about indulgences weren't they and one of the things that precipitated the Reformation was defection defection from the gospel of Jesus Christ and turning it into a money-making racket we have to face it there is a something in the human heart that can produce people like Judas who for three years looked exactly like everybody else so much so that for Jesus indicated he was going to betray him he said quietly what you're doing dude quickly and he said it in such a tone of voice that the disciples thought that Jesus was telling Judas to work give some money to the poor can you imagine what tone of voice price would he use to do that now this is a big topic and I'm not going to spend much time on it but principle number one defectors must be replaced we don't give up for this defection we replace the vectors now Luke tells us that one of the things Jesus did for all of them at this stage a little bit earlier on was to open their minds that they would understand the scriptures and this is a wonderful example of them doing that he opened their minds to understand the scriptures that David written now here Peter quotes two verses one from Sam 69 and one from Sam 109 that ought to lead you to stop and read those sons in detail and their historical context and Vita because what they will tell you is that defection was not new with Judas it occurred in the experience of King David where he experienced a lot of opposition from people he thought were his friends but David describes it in such a way that it goes way beyond him because he's speaking as a prophet more in numbers than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause might hear those who would destroy me those who attack me with lies and so on for the zeal of your house has covered has consumed me in the approaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me quoted directly by Christ himself they gave me poison for food and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink and later in that Psalm may there can't be a desolation let no one dwell in their tents for they persecute him whom you have struck down and they recount the pain of those you've wounded and David have experienced bitter betrayal of you in this past year someone you trusted someone you relied on has let you die how do we respond to that is one thing to be attacked by an enemy a secularist that we have to expect but the toughest kind of defection is the time that comes from inside isn't it I'm encouraged that the very fact that Luke not only mentions that but says it is to be expected from Scripture and shows what's to be done about it and that means enormous ly encouraging David the experienced the defection of Ahithophel and that story is fascinating and he writes in Psalm 109 wicked and the sea for miles are opened against me and returned for my love they accuse me are you sitting here smarting from false accusations from other believers for all I know that some of you are we all receive this don't we how shall we take it well you know we shouldn't try to hide it it can certainly lead to us feeling we're sinking but it shows us what the issues are and it gives us a prayer to pray for ourselves listen to this prayer of David Psalm 69 verse 6 let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me O Lord God of hosts let not those who seek you be brought to dishonour through me O God of Israel I have to pray that prayer Lord in your mercy helped me not to blow it because if they've been given the pastoral teaching leadership position people are watching what a tragedy it would be of having taught of having encouraged of having preached I were to blow it and people who trust God because of what I said are ashamed as tough stuff isn't it the very fact that David prayed it and Paul prayed it means that those of us that means all of us who are lesser than Paul and David we need to pray it too humbly and you know when we face this scripture tells us straight 1 John 2:19 children it's the last hour and as you've heard Antichrist is coming so many humpy Christ's have come therefore we know it's the last hour they went out from us but they were not off us now listen to this very carefully because it's theologically critical if they had been office that is if they'd been genuine they would have continued with us but they went out that it made the complain that they are not office perhaps the thing that we need to do is that go away quietly after this and meditate on Psalm 69 and 109 and to bring to the Lord all those deep waters in which we feel we're sinking the barrage of hurtful words particularly on the internet and David in one of those sounds lifts his heart to God for the Lord stands at the right hand of the needy to save him from those who condemn his soul today David needed to know that that I need to know that that's Psalm 109 the very next time is Psalm 110 which is about to be quoted in this book which talks about the high priest after the order of Melchizedek and Hebrews will explain that he prays for us what for as he did for Peter I have prayed for you that your faith fail not so with the defector replaced we move on to the day of Pentecost itself I feel almost well I feel certainly that I'm totally inadequate to describe the events that happen on Pentecost just as there is a profound mystery about God becoming human incarnate in Jesus Christ there is a profound mystery in God the spirit becoming incarnate in the church it goes beyond all our imaginings wouldn't you love to have been there in Jerusalem as suddenly you heard the sound of a rushing mighty wind and you looked at your fellows around the room and you saw that they'd become living torches and flames appear to be coming out of their heads what a powerful symbol that is of what they were about to do and whether we have literal things on our heads or not we're called to be witnesses you shall be my witnesses and I am going to give you the light and the powered by the spirit they then started to speak the mighty words of God mighty works of God I took the open air and to their amazement the people were running in prides and suddenly here's a man from Patagonia and he hears this disciple from Galilee speaking puffs livonian would you plays and he calls all the past accordions out and that happens with the Cappadocia ins of the cratons and all over the place and they're hearing them speak please notice that it wasn't a miracle of hearing it was a medical speech speaking languages that they'd never learned and when you analyze that and I love languages gosh I wish I could do this how much time it would save if I had a supernatural ability to speak all of your languages how many hours it would have saved me learning French German and Russian and so on but this was unique ladies and gent what may happen occasionally later but think about it they were speaking about the mighty works of God but they're very speaking was the mighty work of God have you got that they were speaking the mighty works of God but they're speaking as a phenomenon was itself a mighty work of God and of course this linguistic miracle was a reversal of Babel and all the implications of that because God was creating a unity that was utterly new a common living Holy Spirit empowering that testimony and the speech to bear witness to the Lord Jesus and now Peter starts to use prophecy in a very powerful way because of course this drew a huge crowd they couldn't deny that there was a supernatural proverb phenomenon occurring and so Peter stood up to explain it some people of course thought the folks were drunk but that isn't likely at 9 o'clock in the morning apart from Britain and people stood up and says men acedia this to me these men are not drunk but this was spoken about by Joel the Prophet just imagine in front of people knowing Old Testament scripture being able to stand up in public with confidence and say this has been predicted because there was a prophet joel and he was talking about the last days and God would pour out his spirit on all flesh and wonders would be sane and it says a son shall be turned to doctors the moon to blood before the day of the Lord and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls in the name of the Lord shall be saved so what's happened this morning he says is God pouring out his spirit so we've moved a gigantic step forward towards the day of judgment that is just stupendous isn't it we're moving towards a day of the Lord this is a moral universe God will eventually come to judge the world and we're moving towards it this is the huge event that has occurred and you can imagine an absolutely stunned by the announcement and then those lovely words whoever so called upon the name of the Lord shall be say ladies and gentlemen said Peter Jesus yes you are Savior so very nice word there is a savior calling upon the name of the Lord is not some obstruction and now so brilliantly he moves from Joel and since there is a salvation men of Israel hear these words Jesus the savior of Nazareth and then attested to you by God you all know what's been happening in the last few weeks with mighty works wonders and signs that God did you know this this Jesus is Savior delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you crucified and killed him this was tough stuff wasn't it and you see the delicate balance between the sovereignty of God in history this was part of God's plan but don't let that make you think that you're not responsible for it you crucified it your people right here it was a colossal shock to the system but the Jesus they had rejected he's a savior and you did this but God raised him up loosing the prangs of death it wasn't possible for him to stay there why's that because he's a messiah and because scripture said he wouldn't remain in the grave and now he goes to the second scripture joel's of our scripture son 16 is the second scripture and he says David says you will not abandon my soul to Hades and let your Holy One see corruption and just on the road is the tomb of David he's still with us everybody knows that but he was a prophet and God had promised him that the Messiah would come from his descendants and therefore David as a prophet is speaking that Messiah would not see corruption this Jesus God raised up and we are all witnesses of that what a powerful bringing together of prophecy actual experience history and the eyewitness testimony of the disciples to the resurrection therefore exalted that the right hand of God it's not onlys been raised he's been exalted and now he's referring to his ascension of course and having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit he's poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing for David did not ascend to the heavens did he no but he said the Lord said to my lord that is God said to my Lord the Messiah always interesting to ask my Jewish friends what this verse means the usual answer is the rabbi's are working on it it's the most quoted text from Old Testament in the new used for many different purposes but here it's sheer genius of course it's the inspired Word of God the Lord said to my lord sit at my right hand what's the logical implication of that he hadn't always been sixth and that just points to the Incarnation but now he died he's risen and this is fulfilling the next bit the Lord God invites and this sidered his right hand that is a very important thing to be able to say you can see the cynics and the tried say just Peter hang on a minute just don't talk to us about the Messiah going to heaven what a very convenient explanation so you don't know where Jesus is so you invent this myth of heaven where he's gone don't expect us to swallow that all but it was predicted it was predicted Pentecost was predicted the death of Christ was predicted his burial resurrection were predicted his ascension to the right hand of God were predicted Peter rises to an irresistible climax let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus that you have crucified what must we do imagine being a man or a woman standing in that crowded weeks before you'd yelled away with him away with him and now you are unmistakably confronted with supernatural powers of the age to come and with an irresistible explanation of the whole scheme of events and you find yourself caught like a rabbit in the headlights what can I do and the Apostle says there is something you can do God isn't going to zap you arbitrarily there's something you can do and the thing you can do is to repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ they had publicly sent away with it and so in this occasion God insisted they be publicly baptized in his name before they would be accepted as genuine that's not always the case of baptism of course and so it starts the movement that's led to us sitting here a final word we started late we're going to finish slightly late they went and devoted themselves 3,000 of them added and all came upon and they discovered that they could do miraculous signs and it started to affect their attitude to the concessions distributing to the needy and going into the temple and filling it with praise to God and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved and then we come down to earth with a colossal cry now people in John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer and the man lame from birth was being carriage and they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate as you go up to worship you'll find a lay man sitting looking at your the gate how can you go and worship God with any good conscience when the world is full of such suffering congenital suffering from disease suffering from war malnutrition poverty and everything else at the gate of your temple this is powerful ladies and gentlemen this is beep apologetics that I might call it Peter is facing the logical implications of this colossal invasion of spiritual power what about the problem of evil then what about it we have to face it all and we know what happened in this occasion he looked for arms and Peter said I've got an e in John but what we have will give you and arise and walk and the man lapped up fulfilling another prophecy of course but he was only one man he proves crucial to the witness to the Sanhedrin but what about it then well let me just give you the short answered we might take it up again tomorrow are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel no not at this time you get on with the gospel but as you get on with the gospel you're going to face the problem of evil is God never going to do anything about that and in the central sermon of this section now Peter answers the question and he talks about Jesus and he talks about him in these terms but what God foretold and he's speaking now to the people in Solomon's porch immediately after healing the man what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer he thus fulfilled repent therefore and turn again that your sins may be blotted out the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Christ appointed for you Jesus whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago there is to be a bigger restoration than the restoration of the kingdom to Israel the heavens must receive jesus said that my right hand what until I make your enemies the footstool please notice the word until it's repeated here the heavens must receive him until he does what effects a gigantic restoration but it won't happen on the large scale until he comes again what it will happen do you believe it will happen is there enough evidence here for you to hang on in the face of the mysteries of pain and suffering that will enable you not to give up your faith in God and become an atheist or an agnostic and see it of evidence in what's written here that you can say Lord it's difficult but I do believe there's a restoration let's pray father we thank you for the power of these words echoing into our hearts through the centuries we're amazed that the courage of these men described as unburned yet they'd been with Jesus and we long ourselves to have that courage that people will actually see something in us and the way we live that we've been with Jesus help us to understand these things and Lord help your word the Silph sink into us that it it gets a grip of us and gives us the ability within our own personal histories that we might have courage to stand for you help us to be living torches empowered by your spirit learning sometimes a difficulty the language and culture of others that we can pour the mighty works of God in an intelligible way into the hearts and minds of our listeners help us to carry these things with us even as you carry us if we're suffering Lord from hurt from defection from disaffection from accusations from bitterness and feeling like giving our purpose to remember that you want to sort of place the defectors and get up and carry on in the power of your spirit we are not sufficient for these things but you are Lord Jesus show yourself to us by your power for your glory sake amen you [Applause]

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Length: 55min 14sec (3314 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2017