Acts 1:1 to 4

welcome I'm Robert breaker and today we're going to begin our verse-by-verse Bible study through Acts the book of Acts we have finished up last time all of the epistles of Paul that's right we went through the 14 books of Paul verse-by-verse and we finished up with Hebrews chapter 13 last time and I was praying about well now what now what do I do and I thought well the best thing to do is start teaching the book of Acts verse by verse because there's so much that we need to know we need to learn in the book of Acts and I thought man that that would be good now the Lord just might come soon we might not get finished but that's okay we can continue learning verse by verse I believe the best way to study the Bible is verse by verse the best way to teach the Bible is verse by verse so we finished up last time with all 14 if Paul's epistles notice I said 14 epistles of Paul some people do not believe that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews they think you know someone else did well clearly it sounds like him in Chapter 13 and so I went and explained to you how I believe Paul did write the book of Hebrews and he wrote just the first twelve chapters first and then he wrote the last chapter probably toward the end of his ministry so I gave in that teaching why I believe Paul is indeed the author of Hebrews and it just makes sense if he wrote Hebrews why it makes fourteen God always does things in the number seven so you have seven pre prison prison and seven post prison epistles and it seems to work out and work out well so I do believe Paul wrote Hebrews whoever wrote it if you don't believe that that's fine study it and let's study it together so if you haven't gone through our verse-by-verse Bible study through all the epistles of Paul you can find that on the cloud Church daughter work my website and I click on where it says Bible study verse by verse and please do this Bible study with me verse by verse through the epistles of Paul you will learn much and you will grow as a Christian I mean if you're saved this will help you to grow in the Lord and learn more about the Word of God so today we're going to start in the book of Acts now this is one of the hard books in the Bible there's actually three books in the Bible that are troublesome books for people who don't rightly divide and I'll look at those again here in a minute but as my old Pappy used to say people come to the book of Acts that he and he used to say it this way he says they hang their necks when it comes to the book of our acts they literally they're sitting there hanging they hang their necks on the book of Acts because the book of Acts is a little bit of a complicated book now it's not too complicated but the book of Acts is a book that you must understand is a book of transition I told my wife the other day I said honey um we finished up our Bible studies verse by verse through the epistles Paul we're gonna start Acts and my wife says well that's a transition book she said are you gonna keep saying acts as a book of transition it's a transitional book and I said wow you know be pretty well that puts you yes I'm going to say that and some of my other videos I say that a lot Acts is a transitional book because it is Acts is a transitional book and so as we do our study here on the book of Acts you'll probably hear me say that over and over and over and over and over again but you need to hear and you need to understand Acts is a transitional book that is it's a book of change there are things that are changing in the book of Acts and what many churches do many denominations they hang their neck on the book of Acts that is to say they they mess up they don't rightly divide the word of truth so they go to the book of Acts and they don't see the transition and so they make up their own doctrines from certain parts of the books of the book of Acts and you cannot do that you have to take acts as it's written and understand the things that took place in the beginning of the book of Acts are different from the things taking place in the end of the book of Acts and that there has been a transition there's been a change that takes place and so so so we're not doing it the way they did it in the early part of the church we're doing it the way that it's done toward the end of Kovaks and that's what we're gonna look at today we're going to understand that hopefully I'm gonna go into a little bit about rightly dividing and helping you to understand but if you do understand the book of Acts you will not fall into false doctrine every false teaching in the world every false denomination that teaches something that's not true the majority of them get it from the book of Acts and they get it from the early book of Acts and they try to force it into the church age for today and it doesn't work because later it's different in the book of Acts so you can't just treat the book of Acts like a buffet table and say well I like this and I like that and I'll take a little bit of this over here and just make your doctrine as a Christian based upon what little bit you want from the book of Acts you have to look at the entire thing and understand the transition or the change and when you do then you will understand completely the Word of God so that's what my hope is as we do this verse by verse is to explain to you the transition explain to you the book of Acts as it is and we'll see the change and how to have the correct doctrine from the Bible not taking things out of context as many do today now the book of Acts is 28 chapters the book of Acts has 1,000 67 verses it has 24,000 250 words so the book of Acts is a big book this is going to be the longest book that we study verse by verse it was written about 65 ad and it was written by Luke I'm going to talk to you about Luke because Luke wrote two different books in our New Testament but let me say this quickly about the book of Acts it is a book of history so Luke is writing historically the history of the early church and you've got to understand that history because there's a change that takes place and it's all hinges upon what the Jews did with their Messiah and the fact that they rejected their Messiah that's what made there to be a change in the book so anything before Acts chapter seven trying to take that and apply that to the church today you got to be careful because that's pre change that's before the transition took place and so in order to understand correctly how to have the true doctrine of the Scriptures how to rightly divide you need to understand the change and realize okay that's preach Ange we're the post change so we're here under this time of after the change this is our doctrine for today you'll understand hopefully as we continue this study it's not hard to understand I always say it this way if you'll just read the book and take it as face value what it says then you can't get messed up but a lot of people don't they don't read the entire book of Acts in context they they just want to take parts of it that sounds good to them and say well I just like that so I'm just gonna pretend that's my doctrine and they don't understand that pivotal point that changing point that transition point in the book of Acts so we have to understand that the book of Acts was written by a man named Luke now Luke was always with the Apostle Paul here it is I said Paul as we go into this study and as we look at the book of Acts you are going to see just how important Paul is but Paul doesn't show up until Acts chapter 9 that's when he gets saved and then from then on except for 10 and 10 and 11 which is mostly dealing with Peter from then on the rest of the book is all about Paul and so the the Acts of the Apostles plural is all about the early apostles up until about chapter not 8 7 8 9 10 11 but then the entire rest of the book is all about Paul so if you study the book of Acts and rightly divide the book of Acts and understand the book of Acts it points you to the Apostle Paul and the importance of Paul and that's what many churches today won't go along with there are many within Christianity today and I've met them and what's interesting is they're becoming more in bold they're more bold they're in Boldin in youtube to put out more videos and more and more I see on YouTube people making videos saying Paul is not our Apostle Paul shouldn't be in the Bible and they attack the Apostle Paul and they said we want nothing to do with Paul well number one you're not rightly dividing the word of truth and number two you are getting in a doctrinal mess when you leave out the Apostle Paul and number three you are showing that you have not read the book of Acts because the book of Acts puts the emphasis on the Apostle Paul and rightly so for a reason and in the Bible we find the man named Luke and we find Luke was always accompany Paul wherever Paul went Luke went with him let's go to Colossians chapter four verse 14 so the book of Acts shows us just how important Paul is and puts Paul is proper perspective and so we have to understand as Christians Paul is in the Bible for a reason and when we understand that reason it opens our eyes to more Scripture and it helps us to understand oh we need the Apostle Paul we can't say no Paul shouldn't be in the Bible we don't follow Paul like some denominations do we must understand it is about Paul and God used Paul in a mighty way God is still using the things that he revealed to Paul for us today so if you reject Paul like many do today that claim to be Christians you are rejecting much doctrine and you are not rightly dividing the book of Acts now with Colossians chapter 4 verse 14 Colossians of course written by Paul in the verse 14 it says Luke the beloved physician and demas greets you so Paul was writing this letter and he's saying I'm writing this letter he says oh by the way Luke is with me and he says Luke is a physician so Luke is a physician or a doctor and that's another thing why would a man need a doctor well if you read the rest of the Bible and you read the book of Acts it will tell us clearly why Paul traveled with a man who was a doctor because Paul had a health problem and I'm not going to go into what his problem was but he had a problem with his health and he needed a physician there with him at all times now what this does is this shows you that these people they're called charismatic sore Pentecostals they they love to go to the book of Acts to prove that they can heal and they have these signs and these wonders but yet even the book of Acts itself talks about how there were signs and wonders but Paul tells us later that they were lost now I don't have time to get into that now but you've got to be very careful to read all of the Bible and not base your doctrine on before the pivot point or the transition point you have to understand there was a change now our doctrine comes from after the change which of course would be through Paul so Paul needed a physician now if Paul was an apostle the Apostles can go around healing people why couldn't Paul heal himself I mean that's a great question isn't it Paul says in 2nd Timothy then he left somebody sick one time and yet if Paul could heal people why didn't he heal that guy you see there's a transition taking place there's a change taking place and no longer do we have signs and wonders and miracles and healings and things like that at least not as a gift given to a man yes God can do miracles yes God can heal yes God can do these things but a man doing it to another man that's something that has been transitioned out there's no men that walk around put their hands on somebody raise them from the dead like any times of the early book of Acts so those sides of the Apostles are no longer around I have a video on that entitled are there apostles today on YouTube I would suggest you watch it but in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 11 second Timothy of course the last book that Paul wrote with the exception of possibly a chapter 13 of Hebrews but the last book he's about to be killed this is his swan song this is his last full epistle that he writes and after that he's killed and in second Timothy 4:11 look who's mentioned only Luke is with me take mark and bring him with me for his profitable me from the ministry so Luke is with Paul so we look at this man who writes this book the book of Acts and he was a fellow laborer he was a companion he was a friend he was a co preacher and teacher and he was with Paul so it's important to understand the connection Paul that's so important to understand the connection of the Apostle Paul because the book of Acts tells us about Paul book of Acts ends with Paul and it's all about Paul and Luke makes that very clear in the book of Acts the reason that Paul's in the Bible so the book of Acts is written by Luke now there are two books that Luke wrote wrote Luke wrote the book of Luke his name and he wrote the book of Acts and he's writing both of these books to a specific person or a specific group now this is quite interesting because to this day there's still a debate about who on earth is this person that he's writing to and I think it's quite interesting it's some some guy or possibly it's a it's a tongue-in-cheek thing to where he's referring to everybody but there's a person named Theophilus so let's go to Luke chapter one and then we'll go to Acts chapter one and I want you to see who he's writing to and this man this is so important so important the Gospel according to Luke okay there are four Gospels in the Bible the Gospel of Matthew Mark Luke and John and as we go through we study the Scriptures we sign that we see these different Gospels the word gospel means good news so we've got to remember too that Matthew Mark Luke and John are all still in the Old Testament until Jesus dies so there's kind of an overlap in Matthew Mark Luke and John Old Testament in the New Testament starts when Jesus dies so everything is still Old Testament until Jesus actually dies and when Jesus dies on the cross according to the book of Hebrews that we finished you know before studying verse by verse that's when the New Testament starts the death so much of Matthew Mark Luke and John as you read those books remember they're still Old Testament but they're called Gospels because they talk about the good news of Jesus and they all talk about who Jesus was the Messiah the miracles the things that he did how he died was buried and rose again now in the book of Luke it says here in Luke chapter 1 in verse 1 for as much as many have taken a hand to set forth and order a declaration of those things which were most surely believed among us so Luke is writing he says there are others who've written Gospels so the others that wrote Gospels Matthew Mark and John now there might have been others but these are the ones that God chose to put into our Bible then there are Canon the scriptures so there are others who were to set forth a declaration of these things first - even as they delivered them unto us which were from the beginning or eyewitnesses and ministers of the word okay so Matthew Mark and John for eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ they saw him they were his disciples what about Luke well Luke was a disciple of Paul but Luke also wanted to write his gospel explaining it because Luke would have learned from all these men and he says I want to make sure that I write this also says here verse 3 it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to ride into the in order most excellent Theophilus now I'm going to get into who Theophilus is here in a minute but notice what he said I had perfect understanding perfect understanding Luke was a doctor you know what Paul was Paul was a lawyer all right to be a lawyer are to be a doctor guess what you have to have a whole lot of schooling you'll say his birds of a feather flock together have you ever heard that say so Paul was a very highly educated man and usually when you're like that you you seek out as companions or friends people that are like that too so you can have stimulating conversations because you've had so much learning what was Peter Peter was a fisherman probably didn't know how to spell too well who knows you know but he spent his days out in the water fishing he probably didn't have much learning of higher education so he he was with Andrew and John they were there at their own little little group of people with their own occupation Paul was different he was from an outside he was an outsider and so Paul as a lawyer has they very learned and probably very smart man would have made friends very easily with Luke who was also very learning and so we find that very interesting how he says here in verse three it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all these things from the very first so he had a perfect understanding he was a very intelligent individual Luke and God said I'm going to use him to writing a gospel and then I'm gonna use him to write the history of the early church and as we see that we find how interesting that he was a doctor he was a smart fellow so he would have had perfect understanding he would have been interested in having all the facts in order and so it's an amazing thank you so he says here of all things from the very first to write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus now he mentions a man here all right Theophilus who is that all right let me write up here this named Theophilus all right I kind of divided it up a little bit because it comes from the Greek and many people have debated is this a actual person whose name was Theophilus let me read verse 4 real quick that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou has been instructed all right so Luke is writing what appears to be the entire Book of Luke - one man named Theophilus and he's saying I understood this I am I believe this we Christians believe this verse 1 there are others that wrote a gospel like this that were eyewitnesses verse 2 but I had a perfect understanding of all things and so I thought I'd write in order to you mister Theophilus whoever he was so that verse for you might know the certainty of those things wherein thou has been instructed so some people say that the Book of Luke was written to one man named Theophilus other people say no no no look at the word in Greek and I hate to run to the Greek I had drink in college I don't speak Greek but I read and write Greek and I hate it and I do everything I came on purpose to stay away from it because I have a King James Bible amen I don't need to run to the Greek I have English but the word Theophilus is an interesting word it comes from the Greek they us they us is the word for God and filos and filos is of course the word for love or lover so if you translate literally from the Greek and again I hate to run the Greek but just to clarify this I'm not let me explain this to a lot of people will go to the Greek language to try to correct the King James Bible I never do that I never will do that I believe the King James is God's perfect inspired inerrant Word of God it's perfect and it's exactly the way God wanted us to have it in English so I don't ever try to attempt to correct the King James Bible and very seldom do I go to the Greek because I don't I don't want to I don't need to I've got it in English amen but four times like this just for explaining what other people say I thought I'd throw this up here the word Theophilus if you divided up the offs from the Greek is God and FiOS or Philo is the word love or lover so the word Theophilus means lover of God so I think that's interesting so some people have asked was there a man a one man named Theophilus one individual that Luke took all this time to write to or was Luke tongue-and-cheek saying hey by the way this this letter is for all those that love God I mean that kind of makes more sense doesn't it that or maybe it's just one man in Theophilus but his name means lover of God so either way the book is written to all those that love God so if you love God the book of Luke is written for you I meant and so this is what he says in Luke chapter one he's writing in order because he had a perfect understandings writing to Theophilus whether that's one man or less anybody that loves God either way it makes sense that they may know her spoor of certainty those things where they have been instructed so interesting interesting so now let's go back to acts Acts chapter one notice what it says in Acts chapter one as we read verse one through four now this is so so important I want you to see this Acts chapter one you see as you're reading the Bible first shows up John and he begins to tell everyone about Jesus is coming jesus is coming Jesus is coming Jesus shows up and Jesus dies for our sins is buried a resident Rosalie risen again then comes Peter and the other apostles and they come on the scene and we're told about their ministry after Jesus rose from the dead in the book of Acts we go a little farther we come across a man named Stephen and they were told about him now Stephen was a deacon we're also told about an aunt named Philip in the book of Acts and then we're told about the guy named Paul and of these people that the Bible talks about this is the guy right here that the book of Acts most mentions and talks most about so the book of Acts is is going through these different apostles but it ends up and focuses in on Paul and the reason is Luke wrote the book and route goes with Paul and Luke who's telling people now this is the reason that I'm telling you about Paul because there's a transition and from now on you need to follow Paul I'm going to show you those verses but go to Acts chapter 1 and let's read verse 1 through 4 the former treatise have I made Oh Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach okay so the former treatise okay so he calls to his book The Book of Luke a treatise so he says the former treatise what would that have been the book of Luke he said I wrote to you Theophilus so now Luke is writing the book of Acts and he's saying to Theophilus hey I wrote you that other book remember that former treatise that I wrote to you well now I'm going to write you this one the book of Acts so Luke writes two books he addresses those books to a man named Theophilus or maybe he's not talking about one single man he's talking about all people who love God either way we know that these books are inspired they're written by the Holy Spirit amen Holy Spirit use this man to write these books but it's really the words of God the Holy Spirit and these books are written now watch what Acts chapter 1 says the former treatise ever made Oh Theophilus of all that Jesus now look at the very next word began both to do and teach so the Book of Luke according to Luke himself is all that Jesus began to do I find that so neat the book of Luke is of all about what Jesus began to do so God's not done you see the book of Acts is a continuation of the Book of Luke Book of Luke is this is all that Jesus began to do but have it he had to say but it didn't stop there now God is doing this and that's the book of Acts so that's what I want you to get a hold of is that he wrote two books one was all about the Ministry of Jesus right the other book is the ministry of these early apostles but it spends most of what's written on this guys Paul so Paul must be a big deal a very big deal for Luke to say look I ain't so important that I've got to literally write another book because you can't stop with just my first book you have to understand the second book so it's not just the Ministry of Jesus you got to understand it's Paul and I've said it before it I don't have time to go into it I've got a lot of good videos on Paul versus Jesus versus Paul you know Paul versus Peter be things like this but we're going to see hopefully if we have time that Jesus ministry was to Jews and Paul was both Jew and Gentile but what Jesus preached was the gospel of the kingdom what Paul preaches is the gospel of salvation by grace through faith and so you've got all these different little differences and things that you've got on Stan it's not enough to just go to Jesus's ministry it's through Paul that we're given revelations today now I've talked about that before how Jesus Christ revealed to the Apostle Paul many things and Paul been said to the early apostles hey God Jesus Christ told me this that the other thing the only possible go on okay Wow more revelation okay Paul sure we'll follow that because we know that Jesus told you that so if all you do is go to Matthew Mark Luke and John and take your doctrine you're missing what Jesus wants you to know because Jesus began to do certain things here but it didn't end he did more with Paul there's more revelation from Jesus Christ given to Paul that is for us today so you can't leave that Paul or else you're leaving out what Jesus wants you to know for today so simple so he says here in Acts chapter 1 verse 1 the former treatise time I made aa Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after that he through the Holy Ghost had given Commandments unto the Apostles whom he had chosen so the book of Luke is all about what Jesus did until he was taken up now verse 3 to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God so he talks about Jesus's ministry his death burial resurrection and then forty days after that till he's taken up now verse 4 being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem of wait from the promise of the father which said he have heard of me so he's basically saying Luke the author of both Luke and acts that where I ended in the book of Acts I'm going to pick up there and he says there's a lot more you need to know so I'm gonna start from where I take ending and pick up from there and say now here's the rest of the story so you know I asked Paul Harvey used to say here's the rest of the story so the rest of the story is the book of Acts so you've got to have these books they're important they go hand in hand and you've got to remember what they're for The Book of Luke is all about the Ministry of Jesus the book of Acts is more about the minister Paul he does tell you about the Ministry of his early apostles but the book talks more about palled anything else and there's a reason for that why does Paul come out to be the the central figure in the book why is Jesus the central figure of the book of Luke and Paul the central figure in the book of Acts there's a reason and that's why we need to study the book of Acts that's one we need to understand so here is this book the book of Acts written by Luke he wrote also the book of Luke Meli the book of Acts is a historical book it tells history so as you read the book of Acts it's as he said in the Book of Luke you know I laid it out in order the book of Acts is laid out an order in many ways and so you're reading the book of Acts you're reading a historical book it's like a timeline and it's like this is what happened back then then this happened after this happened after that so you got to understand you're reading history so as we go through this book there might be a couple of parts that are a little boring I'll probably cover a lot of ground I won't have to stop too much I'll just read certain things but I'll also go to as many verses as I can and cross references and such but I'm hoping we make it through this book quickly but the book of Acts is a historical book now the book of Acts also here's an interesting thing if you go to Matthew Mark Luke and John sometimes they mention the kingdom of God but mostly it's the kingdom of heaven kingdom of heaven is of course of a different Kingdom than the kingdom of God the king of God versus the kingdom of heaven is one of the videos I have on YouTube and I show the difference but the book of Acts only mentions the kingdom of God never not once in the book of Acts is the term Kingdom of Heaven ever used so the book of Acts is all about the kingdom of God I find that quite interesting never uses the kingdom of heaven now the book of Acts is one of three troublesome books for those who don't rightly divide let's look at these three troublesome books now this is so important so important these are the three books that most cults use for their doctrine because they don't rightly divide the first book but many get mixed up on is the book of Matthew the next book is the book of Acts because like I say they don't understand that pivot point that transition that change from one thing to another and so they stay up before the change and try to abide by that doctrine rather than what the doctrine is after the change and in the book of Hebrews and I'll probably I'll just go ahead and write up here one another book that a lot of people really have problems with and I'll just kind of parenthesis that is the book of James so that's another one but there's real three main books that people read in the Bible and they get messed up on because they don't rightly divide and they don't see the first one is the book of Matthew again Matthew is written before Jesus died so everything in the book of Matthew before Jesus actually dies in the book of Matthew is Old Testament you can't take any of that book and say now that's doctrine for us today because that's still before the death of Christ that's still the Old Covenant not the new now there's some beautiful things in the book of Matthew some have tried spiritually applied to the church you know like like forgive and like other things but but the doctrine of the book of Matthew is Jesus preaching to Jews it's not doctrine for the church age it's for Jews so you got to get a hold of that so the book of Matthew is still Old Testament and it's going from Old Testament to the New Testament and it doesn't get to the New Testament till Jesus actually dies but yet many churches today all they do is go to Matthew Mark Luke and John and preach that and they leave out Acts they leave out Paul they leave out a lot of the New Testament and they're still in the Old Testament while they do so so you got to be careful now the book of Acts is a transitional book you got to get a hold of that transitional look there is a transition taking place from the early apostles to the Apostle Paul and as that happens as that book continues you clearly see that change and so you've got to get a hold of that now the book of Hebrews the book of Hebrews is a book telling the Jews about Jesus which of course would be the who he is and the book of Hebrews it talks about justification but really the book of Romans but justified by blood more of the atonement if you will and that's what Jesus did so the book of Hebrews if you remember that was the last book we talked about was about who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us and it really the book of Hebrews really applies more to Jews in the tribulation period and it really will be used by them now I don't have time to get into that see my video on YouTube entitled the order of the books of the King James Bible because it's so amazing you've got Matthew Mark Luke and John alright that's before Jesus dies now he dies in those books were well late in the book you know but but most of the books are before Jesus died then you get the book of Acts well after the book of Acts comes Romans through Philemon those are all the books of Paul after that comes the book of Hebrews well what happens at the end of the church age is the rapture and then after the rapture God goes back to dealing with who the Hebrews and then you've got James first and second Peter you've got all these other books and it sounds more like they're from this time purer so God not only put the books in the Bible he put them in order the order of the books of the King James Bible are on the premillennial order and if you want to learn more about that see that video on YouTube inside of the order of the books of the Bible so we have these three troublesome books and people who do not know how to rightly divide 2nd Timothy 2:15 rightly dividing the word truth they get messed up in these books but if you read your if you understand you can't get messed up in the book of Matthew because you understand most of it is Old Testament so you're not going to take and get doctrine out of Matthew and try and force it to the church age like example if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out if thy right hand offend thee cut it off that's not grace you know under the church age were saved by grace that's not grace some guy emailed not too long ago and said brother breaker I've I've got a problem with pornography he said and he said he engages and he uses pornography I don't want to go into that but I wrote him back and I said well you know you know what Jesus said if thy right hand offend thee cut it off he didn't like that too much and then I wrote it back is that I'm just joking of course that that's a great verse but that's not doctrine Lee for us today but here's what you need to do memorize 4 Corinthians 10:13 and God will always wait make a way of escape of temptation and you know a book of Job says I made a covenant with my eyes that it might not look upon a maid and I gave him scriptures but there are things in the book of Matthew the book of Matthew actually verses 5 a chapters 5 through 7 that is Jesus talking to the Jews about the rules of the Millennial Kingdom it's the Constitution so much of the book of Matthew applies way out here and it's not for this time so you got to get a hold of that understand book of Acts transitional book once you understand the transition of the book of Acts then you understand a lot but a lot of churches are wrong and messed up because they try to get before the pivot point they try to they try to get the doctrine from here and they don't understand that this is where the doctrine of the church is for today hebrews hebrews is a great book but there's some places in the book of hebrews that sounds like someone can lose their salvation but paul said we can't lose our salvation so what do you do with the book of Hebrews will when you understand the name Hebrews well it makes sense that he's writing it an early part of the church before the transition and how it can apply in the future to the tribulation what the Jews need to do if they miss the rapture now there's one more book that a lot of people have problems with that's the book of James I don't have time to get into the book of James but I ask you to go James chapter 1 and verse 1 and read it a lot of people say the book of James says in the book of James says the truth and the first thing I say is hey if you ever read James 1:1 what does James 1:1 say well I might as well go there you see the book of James is not written to you people say wait wait okay look at this James chapter 1 and verse 1 look at what James says oh Martin knew Luther he said I don't know what to do with the book of James he says it doesn't line up with the rest of the Pauline epistles he said I wish I could rip out the book of James and put it in my stove and burn it up because I don't know how to rightly divide it that's what Martin Luther confessed now I don't I don't agree with that we don't rip pages out of a Bible and burn them what we do is we rightly divide is James church age doctrine for us today we'll look at James chapter 1 and verse 1 James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad greeting all right question are you one of the 12 tribes of Israel if not then the book of James is not for you the book of James was written by James when the early apostles in the early book of Acts in a time in which Jews were still being dealt with by God and he's writing to those Jews it's not the doctrine after the transition and there's some beautiful things in the book of James sometimes I like to go James and quote it there's some things that we can spiritually apply to us but but doctrinally the book of James is written to the Jews here and it will apply way out here in the tribulation when God goes back to dealing with the Jews after the rapture so you got to get hold of that some people say I've never heard that before what have you ever read I mean I can't make that up that's what it says it's written to the 12 Jews scattered abroad which one are you which tribe are you if you're not then it's not written to you okay so back to the book of Acts and the book of Acts is a transitional book so let's get a hold of this the book of Acts a book of Acts I'll just write it here equals I always like that equals a transitional book there is a transition a transition is like a change there are some changes going on in the book of Acts and so what happens at the end of Acts and the way that they deal with people in the big in the backs and the doctrine at the end of the book of Acts is not exactly the same as at the beginning there was a change that took place so you've got to get a hold of that now people might say well a book of transition transition what is it transition from okay let me write up here some of the transition it's from Jews to Gentiles see Israel as a nation rejects their Messiah so God says okay if the Jews don't want to be saved I'll go save some Gentiles and you can't read the book of Acts without seeing that that's a change from Israel God starting out the book of Acts dealing with the nation of Israel to the church now with Paul and God is telling Paul Paul the body of Christ is the church and God revealed that the poem Paul told the older apostles they said what we didn't catch that we didn't see that and so it was a transition from Israel to the church from Peter to Paul there's a transition the early book of Acts all of the emphasis on Peter Peter Peter Peter Peter but after there's some certain transition then it's all about Paul and don't even mention Peter anymore why is that there's a transition from the emphasis in the early book of Acts on water and water baptism and how you got to get baptized in water from water to blood and how it's not water that saves it I'd rather say through believing in the blood believing salvation by faith and I guess I could put one more down here from works to grace you see that from works to grace so there's some changes that are taking place in the book of Acts that you cannot help but see if you read that book the problem is people do not read the book in context they don't follow what the book says they don't listen to the book of Acts so they want to think that the doctrine in the beginning of the book of Acts is the same doctrine in the last book of the Acts no they want to think that God's in with the same people at the beginning of Acts that he's dealing with at the end of the book of Acts they want to thank the gods using the same men in beginning of Acts that these using the end they'll they don't rightly divide so as we go through we understand it so Luke chronicles the change in the church age in acts speaks about that so the book of Acts is all about that transition that's changing now I've got a video on YouTube entitled the postponement theory I don't know if you've seen that or not if you haven't get it get it get an opportunity to watch that but what God does is this all of this is for the juice now I'm running into my little thing here let me get a little higher here so you got all this it's all for them and shoes I guess they could write that in a different color here so God is going I'll do purple they didn't show up so God is dealing with Israel as a nation under the law of Moses and dealing with the Jews John shows up and he says behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world and he he tells people he hears the Messiah he's shown up Jesus comes Jesus says I came only to the lost sheep of the house of israel so jesus's ministry is only to jews he says he sends out his apostles he says don't go anywhere but to the juice don't go to the Gentiles but then Jesus rises again he goes now going all the worlds and so they all go out in all the world and they're looking for those Jews all out the world and then Pentecost comes in Acts chapter 2 and Jews from all over the world come here and they hear the message and the message they hear is be baptized in water to receive since so there's your water baptism acts 2:38 and that's the message but that's not the message in the rest of the Bible matter of fact you've got this guy named Peter in chapter 10 and chapter 11 well let's see yeah chapter 10 and 11 well Peter comes along and he wins a Gentile to the Lord Cornelius and Cornelius gets the holy spirit by faith by believing it he gets baptized later and acts 2:38 they get Bowie's beard by being baptized in water so there's a change something took place that was different Paul comes along acts 16 30 and 31 someone asked Paul Paul how do I get saved you know what Paul says he says believe and you're saved by faith believing that's not what was preached in acts 2:38 repent and be baptized so salvation is by believing today by faith it's not by water baptized and thism see there's change but what people do is they say no no you gotta be baptized I wanted to be saying no guess what you haven't read the book of Acts because you would understand that's how God dealt with Jews but then when he went to Gentiles it wasn't by the water it was by whether or not they believed by faith now God is dealing with the church now but as soon as that rapture takes place God's gonna go right back to dealing with the Jews so God's not done with the Jews and so what we have here is we have this this parenthetical period called the church age and this didn't have to happen it's because the Jews rejected their Messiah that God said okay now we're gonna have Paul go to the Gentiles and we're gonna have this time here in which Gentiles can be saved so thank God for salvation now that's on my video the postponement theory that talks more about that you'll be able to understand more but I want you to understand that the book of Acts is a trans in a book there's some changes taking place go with me to Romans chapter 11 quickly this is one of the seven mysteries that's revealed to the Apostle Paul and Paul is in the Bible for a reason and in Paul's epistles there are some mysteries that he says behold I show you a mystery behold and he tells you some things that were given to him by Jesus Christ and these seven mysteries are so important because they're the doctrine for us today and a lot of people they say well I don't want Paul well then you're you're getting rid of the mysteries that God revealed to Paul then are the doctrine for the church today why are you doing that you see that's how cults that's how false religions get started they don't rightly divide they don't see that turning point and so they say well we're going to take our doctrine from Matthew Mark Luke and John or we're gonna go to the early book of Acts and we're going to tell everybody have to be safe by water baptism or we're gonna do know you're saved by what Paul said faith and so God gave Paul the message of salvation now Romans chapter 11 verse one I say then hath God cast away his people god forbid for I am up I also AM an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin unless I've got to skip ahead they're starting their seven what then Israel have not obtained that which he seeketh for but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded according as it is written forsake God have given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see in ears that they should not hear unto this day and David save let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back alway I say then have they stumbled that they should fall god forbid but rather through their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy so the Jews as a nation rejected their Messiah so God said okay Paul goes go preach this to the Gentiles and tell them how to get saved this way and it's also the Jews will be jealous so how come about dealing with him and not us because you rejected Jesus Christ but God is not through with the Jews and I don't have time to read all of this passage but look at verse o 24 for a bow were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature were craft Trinity nature under good olive tree how much more shall these which be the natural branches be grafted in their own olive tree God says Israel's like an olive tree and they rejected their Messiah so the tree was cut it's like John the Baptist said the axe is laid to the root so we are grafted in we are that are Gentiles we're now part of that tree but God's not done with the Jews when the rapture takes place he goes back to doing so it's like he's grafting them back into the same tree if so what does it say here in verse 26 he says hey I want you to be ignorant he said I'm going to show you a mystery for this I would not brethren that she should be ignorant of this mystery lest you should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in and then verse 26 and so all Israel shall be saved as is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob verse 28 talks about the gospel well that's the gospel that God gave to Paul first Corinthians 15 1 through 4 and as concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes but it's touching the election they are beloved for the father's sakes so God is not finished with the Jews he's going back to dealing with them after the rapture but until then there is this period of time in which a change took place and because the Jews rejected their Messiah now God says okay this is the way it's going to be until the rapture and this is the doctrine until the rapture and this is the man that I'm gonna reveal it all to a guy named Paul so you've got to understand why Paul's in the Bible and the book of Acts gives so many chapters to Paul showing us that it all points to Jesus giving Paul the revelation for us so the only true way to follow Jesus today is by following Paul now God's dealing more with the Gentiles doing during the church age today now some have asked me what does that mean that Jews can't be safe no Jews can't be saved today but they must be saved through the gospel that God revealed to Paul and that's why it says in Romans 1:16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ where his power to God in his salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek or the Gentile so Jews and Gentiles alike must come to God through salvation through the gospel that God revealed unto Paul so if you leave Paul out you're leaving out the gospel of salvation for us today what are you doing you're damning yourself and others by getting your doctrine from the wrong part of the book of Acts that's why it's so important to rightly divide the book of Acts and understand that we're on this side of the change we're not back here on the other side this is still to Jews but over here this is to us today the Gentiles now continuing on here we are now seeing something quite interesting here we are at the very end of the church age I believe where we are on our timeline up here is we're about right here what does that mean women's we're about to go at the rapture I believe that we're in what the Bible calls the days of apostasy and the Bible says the Libya apostasy which is a falling away from the doctrine many today are falling away from the truth falling away from the doctrine falling away from Paul and so the raptures got to come soon and when it does God goes back to dealing with Israel or the Jews but you know what's interesting we're already seeing in our day how God is already beginning to deal with the Jews what we just saw the 70th anniversary of the nation of Israel and I look at that and I say wow so the 70th anniversary of Israel well that's that's God allowing the Jews to get their land back in 1947 and then again in 48 the forty sevens when the UN said they could partition the land and they had a right to it in 48 when they set up their government so even in the church age God is getting the Jews back into their land so he's ready to work with them so if he's already preparing them for when he's going to work with him in the future then we must be really close to the rapture that's all I'm saying that's all I'm saying so we're now seeing Israel's the nation being back in power and they have their capital in Jerusalem again after 70 years so it sounds like the rapture must be soon so the book of Acts is a transitional book I don't have time to go into all these verses that I want to get to in the book of Acts we see what's called the signs of the those acts 243 X 512 and then I Paul talked about second Corinthians 12:12 saying that he had the signs of the Apostles the early book of Acts talks about the Apostles it's called the book of the Acts of the Apostles the last apostle is Paul I do not believe there are any other apostles matter of fact in the book of Revelation John says there have been some that were coming saying that they were apostles and they weren't what were they they were liars they were Devils they were to severs so clearly the Bible teaches that the last apostle is the Apostle Paul and all these apostles they had signs they had these abilities to heal to raise the dead and do these things do we have to have those signs today well signs were for sight 1st Corinthians 1:22 says the Jews seek after a sign all right so the cheers needed a sign in order to believe and so we had signs in the early book of Acts and even Paul did some signs but we find in the end of Paul's ministry that these signs are are and excuse the pun petering out they're fading away and there's no longer a need to have these signs and Paul tells us clearly that the signs were for the Jews and then Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5:7 we live by faith not by sight so we don't believe based upon signs that we see we're supposed to believe based upon truth based upon the scriptures based upon the evidence that the Word of God the gospel for us today is 1st Corinthians 15 one through four let's go there quickly and this is something that was revealed to Paul so if you're one of those that has a false denomination a false Christian Church with false doctrine that one loves to get their doctrine before the fizzbin point or the transition then you're not going to Paul and by so doing you're denying the gospel of salvation and so you're gonna go to hell when you die I hate to say it but it's true unless you come to Paul you're not gonna find the gospel of salvation 1st Corinthians 15 1 through 4 Paul says more of a brother and I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which also you received where you stand but which also you're safe to keep in memory what I preached in you unless you believed in vain for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures so it's all about the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how he did that how'd he do it he shed his blood so the shed blood and we're saved according to Romans 3:25 according to Paul by faith in the blood now read verse five and six and seven with me let's read all the way down verse eleven because I think this is interesting and that he was seen of Cephas Cephas Peter and then of the twelve after that the twelve that be the other apostles after that he was seen of about five hundred brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this president but some are fallen asleep that means they died seven after that he was seen of James and of all the apostles and last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time Paul says I'm the last one of the Apostles like I was born out of out of due time I should have been over here with them but I wasn't I was the last one I'm over here I'm a little I don't want to say dispensation but my little little time and in my own little job that I have to do verse 9 for I am the least of the Apostles in and not me to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God but by the grace of God I am what I am and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not i but the grace of God which was with me where therefore whether it were I or they so we preach and so believe so the Apostle Paul is saying I was born out of due season but I am an apostle and I have a job to do and my job was more than the job of the early apostles how could that be well because the early apostles only went to Israel Paul went to the entire world and God sent him to the entire world now let's go over to Romans chapter 11 who is the Apostle Paul well if you read the book of Acts and we will verse by verse you find out who he is Romans chapter 11 Paul says in verse wellis let's read verse 13 I skip this earlier as we read through this chapter says verse 13 for I speak to you Gentiles and as much as I am apostle of the Gentiles I magnify my office so God is using Paul more to the Paul tells us three times in the Bible that were to follow Paul follow Paul first Corinthians 4:16 1st Corinthians 11:1 Philippians 3:17 Paul says be ye followers of me so we're to follow Paul he is our apostle then in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 Paul says follow us well who is us who was it that ran around with Paul where there was Timothy there was Titus there was these other men but there was also a guy that we looked at who oh yeah that's right he's the author of the book of Acts a guy named Luke now go to UM second Thessalonians chapter three and so here's what we read these two other passages which Paul says to follow him but this time he says follow us 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 7 for yourselves know how you ought to follow us where we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you that's verse 7 and then also verse 9 not because we have not power but to make ourselves in a sample unto you to follow so Paul who would have been with them Luke for sure maybe some of the other men but here's two passages in which Paul says follow us so here's the thing you've got all these different denominations in the world today you've got the Roman Catholic Church and what do they say well we are the only true church we were founded on Peter and I look at the Bible and the Bible says follow Paul not Peter and I said well I can't be a Roman Catholic I look at the Church of Christ the Church of Christ says we're the true church and we believe you have to be baptized in water to get saved so if you get baptized in water while you'll go to heaven and I look at that and I go yeah but Paul says in 1st Corinthians 1 and he wasn't sent to baptize but to preach the gospel and that we're saved by the gospel so that's not water baptism saves so I hate to be a member of that church because that's not what the Bible teaches and then I look over here there's the seventh-day adventists and they say we've got to keep them all to be saved and I look at the words of Paul and Paul says Christ is the end of the law to all who believe cuz if I can't join that church and I look around Samara and then there's pentecostals stand up and says we're the Pentecostal church where they are simply God where the the charismatic so we believe in the gifts of healings and tongues and all these things and I look at Paul and Paul says tongues shall cease Paul says you know you left the guy sick Paul says that signs are for the Jews well I'm not a Jew Paul had I trouble and I so I can't remember that church because they only go to the early book of Acts they don't follow it all the way through to so I'm looking at all the Bible says and I'm looking at all these denominations here's a good one I've heard many people and I'm not against Methodists per se but there are some Methodist ministers that preach against Paul and some people contact me throw me a brother breaker I used to be a Methodist and they they tried to witness to them after I got saved and they told me well I'm just an evil man because I'm to Pauline and they said they told me that we don't believe in Paul well I can't join that church if they leave Paul out because Paul's in the Bible for a reason so I look at all these different denominations and it makes it it just makes me go oh now I get it the reason that they're all wrong and have false doctrine is they don't read the entire book of Acts to the end and rightly divide and see that it's a transitional book and they don't see that the early book of Acts was with size and was water baptism and it was all Jews going to juice it was all of industry of Peter and here the Apostles and the later book of Acts the part that we're still in today is Paul and Paul's ministry going through the Gentile world and saving people through the gospel of 1st Corinthians 15 1 through 4 now I get it so do you see how all these other denominations are so wrong I wanted to read you Romans 15 verses 8 and verse 16 it shows you clearly difference between Jesus and Paul and how Jesus ministry was to the circumcision Jesus came only to the Jews Paul while he goes more to the Gentiles I wanted to read Galatians 1 verse 11 and 12 where Paul says that the gospel that he preached was revealed to him from Jesus Christ not from me so the gospel of salvation for us today the true gospel the gospel that saves first Corinthians 15 one through four according to the Apostle Paul God gave to him so Jesus gave to Paul from Jesus to Paul this true gospel of salvation and unless you see Paul for who he is and why he is and understand oh no wonder the majority of the book of Acts all talks about Paul because the Jews rejected their Messiah now God called Paul to taken this gospel to the lost and dying world and it's only through this gospel that we're saved it's called the gospel of the grace of God he said he was it was committed unto Him I was gonna read 1st Corinthians 9 17 Ephesians 3 - you can write those down look them up there's three times in the Bible when Paul says my gospel Romans 2:16 Romans 16:25 and second Timothy 2:8 and in Romans 2:16 he says that the whole world will be judged according to his gospel so someday God's gonna judge all man based upon what they do with 1st Corinthians 15 1 through 4 and whether or not they've trusted in the blood of Christ for salvation now how are you gonna know any of this if you don't rightly divide the word of truth you have to understand and read the book of Acts in order to hear the true gospel of salvation and where it comes from it comes from Paul so there are many false denominations out there that claim to be Christians and they're all false denominations because so often they end up following the early book of Acts or Matthew Mark Luke and John but they don't come over to Roman's through Philemon and understand this is where we are today we're not back here saved by water baptism we're not back here at a time which God's dealing with Jews through signs and wonders and healings we're over here when God is using Paul and salvation is by faith not of works not of sight but by faith so I hope this has been a blessing to you we will start however Stivers Bible study through through a and even the first couple of verses the first thing we read of Jesus speaking you can't help but see a transition even Jesus says this is what John the Baptist did but this is how it's going to be later so to understand the Bible you've got to read the whole thing and rightly divide it and see where the changes and things change so this has been a bunch of tuna can't wait as we continue next week studying verse by verse through the book of Acts god bless you thank you bye-bye

Channel: Robert Breaker

Views: 38,449

Rating: 4.8531399 out of 5

Keywords: King James Bible, Verse by Verse Bible Study, Acts, Acts of the Apostles, Bible Study

Id: CeloVr5FZYs

Length: 64min 24sec (3864 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 20 2018