Acts (Session 1) Chapter 1

okay we are in the book of acts and we're in section unit one of a two unit study here now you may recall as we review the new testament we have five books that open the new testament that are like historical narratives just like we have five books of moses opening the old testament so we sort of treat the book of acts as volume two of luke or in other words a fifth gospel in a sense so that's what we're looking at and uh you may recall those of you that have reviewed our learned the bible 24 hours overview that the gospels are designed very distinctly all four gospels have a different point of view and we're dealing here with of course our friend luke and luke focuses on jesus as the son of man his humanity being a doctor that would be natural for him and so he also really emphasizes how jesus felt and uh matthew what he said and mark what he did john who he really was but luke really focuses on his humanity he writes to the greek and he and both luke and john set up their sequel because luke is going to ultimately uh follow his gospel with the promise of the holy spirit namely the book of acts john will do a similar thing he'll follow his gospel by the book of revelation the promise of his return so we want to keep in mind as we read the book of acts we're reading volume 2 of luke and so it's interesting many people regard the book of acts not the acts of the apostles as it shows up in many people's bibles but they regard as the acts of the holy spirit and it's interesting the holy spirit is very very active here obviously you may recall from john 14 at the upper room discourse jesus said but the comforter which is the holy ghost whom the father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever i have said unto you so he is going to be fr center stage here as we go forward uh his mission of course is described in john 16. he we learned something about the holy spirit we want to keep in our mind here jesus says how be it when he the spirit of truth is come he will guide you to all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will show you things to come an interesting thing about the holy spirit is that he specifically doesn't speak of himself in fact we'll notice when we see him in types old testament types as well as new testament types it's more often not he's always the unnamed servant even in in the torah there are places where eliezer is positioned as the type of the holy spirit but it doesn't mention his name in those particular passages you have to dig out what his name is and eliezer happens to mean comforter so it's natural that he would be a type of the holy spirit but the holy spirit does not speak of himself it tells us here so let's keep that in mind many people i think overemphasize the role of the holy spirit he's really his role is not to emphasize himself but rather jesus christ and so the next phase here jesus says it is expedient for you that i go away for if i go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if i depart i will send them unto you somehow there's an exclusiveness here of presence jesus had to actually ascend before the holy spirit was free to be center stage if you will in the book of acts and following so so the acts of the apostles is a title in many of your bibles and i personally regard that as little unfortunate because first of all there's only two apostles that are really featured in this book namely peter and paul and a deacon by the name of philip is also going to be very prominent so these three people peter and philip will be prominent in the front first half the first 12 chapters of the book of acts but paul will of course dominate the rest of the book from chapter 13 on to through chapter 28. and so the book of acts me strike us is a kind of a fragmentary incomplete book and there is a sense in which it didn't finish it gives us the first 40 years of the church but it's followed by the book of revelation which covers the next two thousand if you will and so the the church is in process as we are having the study uh but it has a terminus and some interesting sessions to follow it so the acts the book of acts covers 40 years the book of revelation chapters two and three will cover the next two thousand as far as the church is concerned so i want to take a quick look at this in chapter one we'll talk about the ascension and we'll get the the apostles marching orders there are marching orders too in the second chapter we have this interesting event called pentecost the feast of pentecost and the gift of the holy spirit and that gives rise to peter's first sermon and will be very surprised to discover how organized how articulate our friend peter is because he will have had the holy spirit by then in chapter three we have a lame man healed and that turns out to be a big deal that all leads to peter's second sermon which has some surprises for us and then we have peter's address to the sanhedrin and in chapter five we have ananias and sapphira and the second persecution chapter six we have the first deacons appointed and the third persecution and coupled with chapter six we're going to explore stephen's address to the sanhedrin for many people many of my scholastic friends their favorite chapter in the bible is acts chapter 7 because peter with the inspiration of the holy spirit reviews the whole old testament for us and reveals many things that you will not find in the old testament we get some new insights from our friend stephen in chapter seven and in chapter eight we have the fourth persecution this time we see saul surface here in the form of the harasser of the of the church and we have a very unusual uh episode with the ethiopian treasurer and we'll share some things that i think are not commonly known about that the second part of the book of acts will be our second unit is all about paul it starts with the first missionary journey the council in jerusalem which is a pivotal event in the book of acts and then his second and third missionary journeys and then the various outcries against him we're finally appeals to rome and that closes the book but doesn't close the story because it continues even to this day and much of our challenges this day really will emerge from our understanding of the the lessons in this in this precious book so we're going to be taking on chapter one in this session and uh let's just jump right in it's interesting that we'll see some pre-resurrection instructions here by the lord uh they're supposed to await for the empowering of the holy spirit we're gonna witness the ascension from the mount of olives where a cloud receives him and the two angels indicate a prophecy that he's going to return in like manner when he sets up his kingdom and then we're going to have an election for the replacement of judas and should it be matthias or paul there's a big debate among scholars about that and we'll deal with that when we get there so luke you need to understand was chosen by the holy spirit to write and we discover from the experts that luke's greek is the highest greek in the new testament very eloquent incredibly articulate and the grammar is extremely uh complex and elegant and uh so he it's considered one of the highest writings in ancient literature and sir william ramsey set out to disprove luke but after extensive research he discovered that he had not made one historical inaccuracy so it's the most complete accuracy a purpose of luke in writing acts was to show how it is god's intention for his millennial kingdom to include a population of believers taken from jews and gentiles during this age opening to the gentiles is the big subject that we're dealing with and both peter and paul are the prime characters here peter is going to be the minister to the circumcised that is to the to the jew and paul will be specifically designated and called to minister to the gentiles and they both mutually acknowledge that role that they're each called to we're going to discover in the book there are about seven progress reports as we go through the book in the second chapter it says that lord added to their number daily those who were being saved very important verse by the way last verse of chapter two and that is the lord builds the church he adds to their number daily it's not our job it's his job it's our job to witness but it's his job to bring them in and then the next uh progress report is in chapter six so the word of god spread the number of disciples in jerusalem increased rapidly and then we get after jerusalem we get to judea galilee and samaria that'll be in chapter nine and then then we keep having these uh progress reports speckled through the book and the fifth one will be in chapter 16 as the churches grow and are strengthened by numbers and then the word of god spreads again in chapter 19. we're interesting though what i'm getting at if you study the book carefully you'll discover everything's in seven there are actually seven progress reports uh sprinkled through the the book and uh so let's jump in with chapter one verse one luke continues you realize he's written volume one we called up the gospel of luke this starts his volume two so to speak he says the former treatise have i made o theophilus of all that jesus began to do and teach and the word theophilus of course is refers to the same guy that sponsored him uh doing the book of luke and so this is volume two of a two volume set the word theophilus means lover of god and that might have been his nickname or it might be a common name in those days it's interesting that in his gospel he's a little more formal with theophilus and here he's a little more intimate which causes some scholars to suspect that theophilus may have come to converted after reading volume one he's more intimate in volume two here so he apparently had become a believer during the intervals is the speculation from a pretty reliable source in the second century theophilus apparently was an influential and wealthy man residing in the city of antioch and he dedicated his magnificent palace called the basilica to the preaching of the gospel so he clearly is a believer subsequently and luke most likely came also from antioch he may have prolonged belonged to the household of theophilus and uh we know that he received a great kindness from him some claim that luke may have been his slave and then became a free man through theophilus it was not uncommon for a doctor to be in a slave uh capacity there and those we get that some of those insights from arnold gablin's commentary luke addressed the office as a prominent man a responsible person and his name even suggests a close walk with god and so the office belongs then in some sense in a larger sense perhaps to all the gentile christian churches luke is very clearly writing to the gentile by the way in both this book as well as the gospel because he interprets things that a jew would really know but his reader needs the needs the help there is a speculation by some scholars and i tend to lean this way myself is that luke and acts together were trial documents we know from roman law that the historical background that attends a an appeal to caesar had to precede the appellant to rome and we suspect that the office was the sponsor for those documents and so uh and so they they get luke thus gives the legal background that had to precede paul's appeal and so you notice as you look through the both books whenever there's an uprising it's always clear that it is caused by the jews not the christians and uh that's what the roman mind would be concerned on where is all this trouble coming from and uh so the other thing you notice in them throughout both books both luke and axe the romans are portrayed as not bad guys but the good guys centurion that built this the the synagogue and so forth the troublemakers are the jew jews that are uh giving the early christian church a hard time and so in acts chapter 1 luke does not include most excellent before theophilus that's why some people think he by then he'd become a believer certainly became more intimate with luke and and to do and teach in verse 1 note the order you do first you teach the second and the subject of volume 2 is the same as volume 1 of course the same writer is luke the same readers theophilus in effect and the same subject is jesus christ the subject of the book of acts is not the holy spirit it's the it's jesus christ and the holy spirit is very active very prominent but the subject the focus we want to not lose sight of is always jesus christ and so the the holy spirit obviously is prominent and we're going to learn a lot about him of course but consistent with his mission he bears testimony of jesus of nazareth and so the book of acts by the way hasn't completed it's still continuing today in effect it's a transition between the kingdom message which was rejected by israel and the church which is born here the kingdom was offered to israel and it was rejected and that opened the door to the gentiles and the story of the book of acts is all the different things that occur to fulfill god's promise to all flesh not just the jews and so so don't fall in the trap though of assuming that the promises of god to israel were forfeited that they are yet to be fulfilled that's a heresy known as replacement theology and we want to be on our guard about that and we have a number of briefing packs and materials that will refute some of those ideas now if the book of acts is a transition from the kingdom to the church then the book of revelation in effect is a transition from the church back to the kingdom and so there's two bridges that in a certain sense are an echo of one another and so uh and we've just published a book called kingdom power and glory which really focuses on our urgent need to really understand the coming kingdom something we think is undertaught in our current circumstances so get to the second verse of chapter 1 until the day in which he was taken up speaking of jesus of course after that he through the holy ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen in other words until the ascension he gave them some marching orders and want to focus on that as we go in here and uh take it when he's taken up of course that ref that refers that's four times in this chapter it makes reference to jesus being taken up and of course that's what we call the ascension and uh so to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs having been seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of god interesting he had a number of uh events that occurred during those 40 days and it always has to do with the establishment of the kingdom now this is the only place that it mentions the period of time between the resurrection and the ascension forty days of jesus was among them and the emmaus wrote and and and uh and several other other times to these disciples ten of these incidents are recorded but there are many that they were not so they're certainly not that doesn't mean it's complete but i want you to notice the focus is always jesus christ and the kingdom things pertaining to the kingdom of god and that's important to understand that focus it's right here in the book of acts but many people teaching the book fail to perceive that that's the key issue that he is going to set up the kingdom and so we'll see it now there are 10 recorded appearances of jesus after the resurrection jesus post-resurrection ministry as revealed in his appearances has even more significant bearing to the lives of christians today than does the three-year ministry record in the gospels think about that for a minute you and i are more impacted by the fact that jesus is resurrected than virtually any other fact in the gospels that's the focus and uh i like the way j vernon mcgee summarizes he says you and i do not know him today as the one who walked on this earth over 1900 years ago we know him as the one man in the glory he is up there right this moment and he is real how often the church loses sight of this fact that's old j vernon and i think he's right on the on point there moving on verse 4 and being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father which saith he ye have heard of me it's the first four verses we've just looked at are all one sentence by the way these sentences can get pretty complex but they're instructed to wait in jerusalem it were to tarry and the question is what what are they supposed to tarry for that's the question now jesus was himself was constrained as a man for example he could only be at one place at one time yet in acts jesus is free of that restraint through the power of the holy spirit and that's going to be manifest in luke chapter 12 when we get in in the gospel jesus continues to talk of his going away jesus needs to go away to allow the spirit to come we looked at that before in john 16 in our warm-up here the holy spirit is seen from the beginning all through the old testament the holy spirit is very busy however jesus does note that the holy spirit is sent in a very special and unique way to the church one of the one of the things that paul's letters try to get across and we sometimes don't understand them because we we don't understand the answer because we don't really understand the question part of what paul is trying to get across to us is the uniqueness of privilege we have in the church that is unique to the church period it'll start in acts chapter 2 and it finishes at the rapture that is his indwelling in the believer and so for a complete study of all that i encourage you to take a look at our briefing pack on the trinity we get into the subtleties if you will moving on to verse 5 for john truly baptized he's taught by john the baptist here for john truly baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the holy ghost not many days hence and so that's a not many days hence in fact 10 days to be exact 40 days have gone by we know it's 50 days to pentecost or feast of shabbat we'll get to that in the next chapter and uh now who is going to get baptized by the holy spirit the apostles 120 of them the baptism on pentecost is of the body of christ completely there's going to be a large number there we'll discover it's the it's this baptism of the spirit which places a believer into the body of believers which we sometimes refer to as the church we use the term church to to signify the body of believers we've got to be careful with that some people when they say church are talking about a physical building biblically we're talking about the body believers the mystical church if you will you want to be very precise with the use of those words now if we look back you may recall that john had predicted a spirit baptism by the lord jesus and the greatness of christ was seen in the fact that john identified people with himself with water baptism jesus would join his followers by to himself by the holy spirit and the word baptized which normally means dipped or immersed here has the idea of uniting with the word baptism is to be united with and uh john identified he had the people united with his particular preachment of repentance jesus would join as far as joining his followers to himself by the holy spirit and that's what there's a distinction there and so the lord made the same prediction of the spirit baptism that john made several times mark three more in matthew three mark one and we'll see it again in acts 11. when they therefore were come together they asked of him saying lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to israel very key challenge by the disciples by the apostles to our lord and it's widely misunderstood here at this time restore in other words is this are you now going to restore the kingdom and there are many promises throughout the old testament about the kingdom so this is a legitimate question for them to ask and this makes it clear that they did not know his plans nor were they equipped for what is coming it was a sincere question and a legitimate question it's interesting that christ taught the coming of an earthly literal kingdom throughout the gospels and the reality of this kingdom is a major truth we need to embrace and understand when we pray thy kingdom come in the lord's prayer that's what we're praying for thy kingdom come nothing in on heaven and earth is more certain than that gabriel when he announced the birth to mary back in luke chapter 1 verse 30. um points out that he is go your child mary is going to sit on the throne of david that's an earthly kingdom we're going to discover it well it's confirmed here in this verse in the book of acts we're also going to discover it's confirmed in a major council of jerusalem that's the pivotal event in the book of acts in many respects is in chapter 15 and we'll obviously deal with that when we get there and in that council james quotes amos 9 11 which points out that the tabernacle of david is to be rebuilt that's not the temple of solomon it's the tabernacle of david it's the palace of a king and that is going to be rebuilt and that's what the old testament calls for and that's what the new testament confirms in in these several places here so the kingdom of god is a phrase by the way that appears 33 times in luke's gospel 15 times in mark four times in matthew who also elsewhere focuses on the kingdom of heaven as a subset within that kingdom of god 33 times and it appears once in john and six times the book of acts according to robertson's but i want to caution you as we go to be cautious of what some people would call exclusionary truth some people will take a passage in the bible and build a fence with that verse to exclude other portions of the scripture you want to be careful of that many heresies really take that form the scripture says in second timothy 3 16 all scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for docking for reproof for instruction and so forth all scripture we find in matthew 4 4 when jesus is being tempted by satan one of the quotes he says man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god so be cautious with views or doctrines that tend to block out portions of god's truth beware of exclusionary truth and paul tells us in romans 15 4 whatsoever written before time was written for our learning that we through the comfort of the scriptures might have hope and it's talking about the old testament there by the way specifically and so watch out for that we're going to discover as we go several heresies that are very prevalent in today's uh contemporary church that are heresies now one of these is this replacement theology that somehow the church has replaced israel that's nonsense widely taught but wrong the church and israel have different origins they have different missions and different destinies and if you get confused on that you'll you'll be confused on a lot of issues very fundamental issue and god has a destiny for both the church and israel and they're distinctively different and there's also a type of viewpoint called hyperdispensationalism we're going to run into that when we get to chapter two many people teach that everything in the gospels was given to unbelieving jews that cr the christian church was born in acts chapter 2 and the only part that's relevant to gentile christians are the epistles that which follows acts chapter 2. that's a viewpoint that is carried to an extreme by some and we want to recognize that that can lead us into some strange myopia and nearsightedness in terms of god's truth and we'll try to deal with that quite openly as we go forward in the book let's get on to verse 7 he said unto them it is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the father has put in his own power that was jesus response to the question are you now going to set up the kingdom he says not for you to know the times of seasons he doesn't say he's not going to do it he just says the timing is not your business and many people miss that it they get the point that timing's not our business but they missed the point that he's confirming that he's going to set up the kingdom and that's crucial for our uh anything not for you to know now this is very similar term to what jesus said in matthew 24 no man knoweth the day nor the hour only the father in fact when you look at the parallel passage mark 13 mark is a parallel passage it's peter's version of that that meeting uh in mark 13 he it's recorded slightly differently no man knoweth the danger of the hour nor the angels neither the son but the father only you know in fact in in the mark quotation the very strange quotation because it implies in fact it asserts that there's something the father knew the son didn't at least at that moment so we need to be very cautious for reasons of their own the godhead has made the timing of the rapture of the church a mystery everything else has fits in a timeline of some kind but not not the harpazzo or the gathering of the church that means there is something the father knows that the son doesn't at least at that particular time some people feel that that was revealed to jesus when in it when john got his vision at patmos but we'll deal that with in another time but notice that jesus did not cancel the kingdom of israel the issue here is the timing not the existence of the event there are promises to israel that are yet to be fulfilled and jesus yet to sit on david's throne now jesus sent his disciples on a trip specifically sent to israel back there in matthew 10 and not to the gentiles but that's all going to change here shortly and this is all in contrast to the mission that they're about to get which is going to jerusalem and then judea first then into samaria and then to the uttermost part of the world literally in those steps and we see we'll see those steps unfold in the book of acts the kingdom message was first of all aimed at israel exclusively and john chapter 1 verse 11 points out that he came into his own but his own received him not and because they rejected them israel has been set aside for a while and how long romans 11 25 tells us exactly how long and acts as a transition between the kingdom message that we primarily see in the gospels and this peculiar message that we're going to encounter that's directed to the church and the book of revelation will be the transition from the church to the ushering in of that kingdom so marching orders this is a very key verse in verse eight of chapter one jesus says but ye speaking to his apostles ye shall receive power after that the holy ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in four places in jerusalem and in all judea which is the larger area of that area and in samaria which is further north and then to the outermost parts of the earth i want you to notice there are these four specific levels of reach if you will and that's exactly well that's almost becomes an outline of part of the book of acts and uh so jerusalem and judea that's going to be acts chapter one through seven is going to focus on jerusalem then we go to samaria in chapter 8 through 12 with some surprises along the way and then we're going to go from there to the uttermost parts of the earth and continuing 13 through 28 and acts is the outermost parts of the earth but revelation 2 and 3 gives us the span of the entire church age in advance with a surprising amount of specificity so jesus be my witness he doesn't say witness says be my witness there's a big difference be his evidence be his credentials his arguments be his ambassador it's not your job to win souls for christ that's the holy spirit your job is simply to be his witness let's understand the difference and that's one of the reasons because of the global nature of that is one of the reasons that i think tank the the coina institute is global not local and uh designedly so so jerusalem will end with the martyrdom of stephen in acts chapter 7. then there'll be a scattering of saints through judea and samaria in chapter eight then we'll have the conversion of saul to become paul in chapter 9 and then the spread of the gospel to romans and caesarea by peter in chapter 10 and then we're going to have the greeks and antioch in chapter 11 and then finally paul's world tours and arrest and arrival in rome from chapter 11 to the end of the of the book of acts so we're in what i call unit 1 which is primarily peter and philip's segment of the book so verse 9 goes on he says and when he had spoken these things while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight we call that the ascension a clout here is a by the way is a small point it's not in the mount of olives as most commonly thought it was bethany we learned that in luke 24 at the uh uh rodriguez they discussed it was which is just on the other side of the peak of mount of olives anyway while he was speaking to them he was taken up and a cloud received what kind of cloud was that see this is going to be important because this is how he's going to come back we know it's not an atmospheric cloud it's not the kind you'll find in a meteorologist you know catalog this cloud was the shekinah the cloud of god's glory very special kind of cloud we see all through the scripture and it received them out of their sight in the greek it's the second airest active indicative which literally means it took under him he seemed to be supported by the cloud in glory so there's a there's a lot you can try to dissect if you want to get into the subtlety of the greek grammar but paul adds in first timothy interesting thing here he says it it was uh from their eyes the cloud took them from their eyes it's in a blade of claws there anyway they look steadfastly toward heaven and uh they saw him slipping away from their eyes as the cloud bore him away basically and it's my own suspicion that what what the writer is trying to get across is something that's trans dimensional he didn't just move away physically uh from in altitude that he left this whole dimension it's a a trans-dimensional event but that gets into some subjects that we're not prepared to spend time on here but moving to verse 10 and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel and two men it's interesting it's always two men moses and elijah they're seen in matthew 17 i don't know this i sort of suspect it might be them because they also show up i believe in revelation 11. and uh they also may have shown up back in genesis 18. remember the lord comes with two men to meet abraham prior to going to sodom and gomorrah they were angels apparently then again we don't know for who these men are but it's an interesting possibility that maybe moses and elijah were involved just two certainly is the number of witness and maybe nothing more than that these two men moving on verse 11 which also said ye men of galilee why stand you gazing up into heaven this same jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven that's one reason the ascension is so important to us because it gives us a clue as to his return and so this same jesus and uh the same personal name assures us that jesus will always be in heaven as our personal friend and savior that that is the same jesus the personality the person is unchangeable and uh in like manners ye have seen him go and so this is an interesting prophecy because jesus is going to come as he left in a cloud when his foot touches the mount of olives there'll be an earthquake and it will split in two we learn from zechariah 14. zechariah 12 through 14 has a great deal to speak to us about in terms of the setting up of the kingdom but one of those things the mount of olives actually splits with the pressure of a foot on it and so we want to make sure we don't overlook the the plain simple truth here not overlook the teaching of one great truth that is really attacked by so-called higher critics today the lord jesus christ passed through the heavens with a real glorified human body a body of flesh and bones and went with that body to a literal palace the throne of god where he sat down and where he is now the man in ultimate glory there's two incredible miracles we discover in the bible or things that are hard for us to fully appreciate one is that god became man and dwelt among us that's that's the first big step the incarnation of christ but equally baffling if you really understand the majesty of god and the sinfulness of man it's astonishing to realize that as we speak here this evening that there is a man on the throne of god right now on our behalf and that's staggering in its implications now the denial of this fact by many in our day strikes at the very foundation of the gospel our salvation and our only hope this great truth that the lord left bodily on his own and bodily return to the father is indisputably seen in this account of his ascension and this is this is why we don't worship a crucified christ we worship a resurrected christ and that's and that's that's one of the reasons many people don't have a christ on a crucifix because it emphasizes death and obviously he did die for us but the great news is that he was resurrected which validated everything he did and means that his gift was his offering was acceptable and that becomes salvation becomes a gift from him to us there is a man right now on the throne room on the throne of the universe and we'll talk more about that throne in some surprising ways when we get to chapter 8 of acts and we also speak of the blessed hope see the second coming of the lord is is coming to establish his rule upon the earth and when he comes in like manners he went up his saints come with him he doesn't come for us we'll come with him when he comes back there it's a very key point that you'll see in colossians three and first thessalonians one else the second this ones uh and so forth the blessed hope of the church is to meet him in the air not to see him coming in the clouds of heaven these people are going to see him in the clouds of heaven and not the people have been raptured we're going to be there with him when he comes subtly but an important one not to lose sight of and so anyway they they returned unto jerusalem from the mount called olivet which is from jerusalem a sabbath day's journey and the sabbath day's journey you run into that a lot in the scripture it's a walk about three thousand feet frankly or a bit more than a half a mile and uh the top of all of it is about six furlongs or three quarter of a mile and so for what it's worth anyway verse 13 and when they were come in they went up to an upper room which where abode both peter and james and john and andrew and philip and thomas bartholomew matthew james the son of alphaeus simon zelotas and judas the brother of james not judas iscariot different judas and in the upper room now you may want you always hear about an upper room you need to understand something large groups would always meet in the upper stories why because it's the lower stories that are holding up that floor of the upper room the upper rooms were larger than the small the lower rooms and that's a an obvious thing when you think about their very simple construction but that's why they're always meeting in in not always the same room by the way but in an upper room and uh so now the disciples are listed here and you might know that bartholomew and nathaniel are probably two names for the same guy so when you start comparing some of these lists that appear several places in the scripture uh there's some apparent discrepancies not really bartholomew and nathaniel were probably two names for the same guy and there's some other subtleties we're not going to take time here i want you to notice philip is mentioned here but it surprised me to realize that that's not the philip we're going to talk so much about in the coming chapters because that's a different philip it's a philip that's a deacon not philip the apostle i'm not disparaging philip the apostle and i don't think we should make too much of the fact that we don't hear a lot of these about these guys we obviously hear a lot about peter and james and john and uh so on but but thomas was apparently very instrumental throughout india and uh from the church records uh these these went all different places and uh just because we don't see a lot of them in the book of acts is not a it's not an indictment of a lack of productivity that just happens to be what was recorded let's just make that point because we're going to get into some controversies here shortly thomas of course is the skeptic here and we know a little bit about him from the gospels but this is a wonderful verse 14. they all continued in with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and mary the mother of jesus and with his brethren now with his brethren jesus did have brothers and sisters and we have them listed in matthew 13 and mark 6 by the way and john 7 verse 5 tells us that they did not believe in him and yet after his resurrection two of them become very prominent both james and jude it's a different jude so he has two brothers half brothers technically that didn't believe in him until after the resurrection but then become very active in the church interesting guys very much so and so in fact james becomes a very very prominent leader in jerusalem we're going to encounter much about him later in the book anyway and notice something else they all continued one according prayer with the women and mary the mother of jesus i want you to notice that mary was there her reputation has now been cleared it is now obvious that jesus was the son of god and virgin born as she had claimed can you imagine having gone through her whole adult life with a cloud of illegitimately hanging over where people doubted the story and thought it was just some big ruse and yet now she's been cleared now she's been vindicated because clearly uh she jesus was virgin born and yes he was the son of god now it's interesting here mary that is jesus mother there's several there's three or four mary so jesus mother notice she is praying with them to the father they're not praying to mary i want to make that point and i think this is the last mention of her in the book with the exception of a letter that was written to her by john that we know is second john and so this is the last time we read of her and uh and it's a trag it's a tragedy to see what some groups have done to deify mary that would be embarrassing to her and and blasphemous actually and but it's a shame that many of the protestants in reacting to those abuses probably don't give her enough credit or enough attention the other way so but there is a personal letter to her by john his second epistle i believe is to her so uh uh for what it's worth now scholars are divided where the events of the next chapter chapter two happens some feel that because of this verse it happened there in the upper room that what we're going to read about the next chapter other scholars believe what happened while they both there they had their meetings though in the temple and they believe that the 3 000 people that get saved in the next chapter happen in the temple not in the upper room and there's different scholars that have different views on that not a big deal just be aware of of the different points of view verse 15 and in those days peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said the number of names together were about 120. so when you say disciples there's a whole there's quite a gang here 120. and peter stood up in the midst of the disciples now his status may surprise you because we know from mark 16 at the resurrection morning the angel said go tell peter and the disciples he is separated from the disciples because of of of the uh probably because of the things that cesarean philippi but he's reinstated of course later at the breakfast by the sea in john 21. that's where jesus gives him three opportunities to to do to confirm his faith if you will moving on um men and brethren peter speaking this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the holy ghost by the mother of david spake before concerning judas which was a guide to them that took jesus in other words judas was the the betrayer he's the one that guided the people that night and this scripture must see peter is here quoting from psalm 69 and psalm 109 and he's going to do that all in some more in verse 20 here coming so peter is very fluent with the scripture here and so he continues for he was numbered with us and had speaking of judas now he's numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out peter's referring here to the fact that the money that this 30 piece of silver ended up buying the potter's field you know all that from the gospels that was in the prophecy too but it but he goes out and hangs himself when he was hanging he hung himself but there's not a contradiction here the rope broke and he fell down the cavern and and we have this rather graphic description of the death of judas now zechariah 11 predicted the betrayal for 30 pieces of silver and that the money would end up in the hands of the potter and and jesus said if judas better for him had he not been born as you want to recount that whole event and it was a peter knees and it was known to all the dwellers at jerusalem in so much that the field is called in their proper tongue which is aramaic by the way dhamma which is to say the field of blood and uh now it's it's it's it's called that way for several different reasons because it was bought with blood money that was the event that occurred in uh predicted in zechariah 11 and confirmed in the account and also because that's where it's also called field but that's where jesus hung himself and his blood was spilled his girdle or whatever he used to hang himself apparently broke and he fell on the rocks below so it's not a contradiction verse 24 it is written peter continuing for for it is written in the book of psalms let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his bishopric let another take and uh he's quoting here from psalm 69 and also from psalm 109 and he's quoting here it's interesting enough peter's quoting from the greek version the septuagint version of the old testament but he argues in the scripture that judas's place that is his office among the group has is to be filled because they're supposed to be 12 and not 11 and he's absolutely right so some people think he's off base and i'll come back to that in a minute we know from matthew 19 that jesus himself pointed out there are 12 thrones for the 12 apostles to judge the 12 tribes of israel so 12 is the number that is anticipated with judas out of the picture peter's pointing out we need to replace his spot so we continue to restoring wherefore of these men which have come accompanied with us all the time that lord jesus went in and out among us that's one of the conditions that peter is saying it should be somebody that's been with us all these years beginning from the baptism of john unto that same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection that's peter's proposition and he sets up some criteria there it should be somebody that's been with us all these years from john the baptist on through the resurrection and there's a limited group of people that fit that that bill so he assumes it had to be someone that was there for the whole tour of duty and they appointed two joseph call barsabas who was surnamed justice and matthias so out of the candidates they picked two candidates and then pray about which one it should be they prayed and said thou lord thou knowest the hearts of all men show whether of these two thou has chosen and those they proceeded with prayer before they did this now that he may take part of this ministry an apostleship from which judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place and by the way that strange little phrase there in acts some people make a big thing of that judas goes to his own place that just may mean he was destined to go to hades or shoal or whatever some people feel maybe it's something they they try to they see in this the hint of something bigger that maybe he was a plant maybe he came out of that place to be the betrayer and so forth i don't see it that way so i can't really sell that point of view but just be aware that some people may try to make something of this phrase here and i think that's specious at best and so and they gave forth their lots and the lot fell upon matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles now uh essentially proverbs 16 33 in the old testament uh ordains the use of a lot in the old testament they often used lot cast lots to have the lord point the way that's what they do every year at yom kippur they cast a lot to see which of two goats will be the scapegoat and when joshua finally conquers the land they used lots to allocate the land to the various 12 tribes when jonah was in the storm at sea the sailors cast lots to find out who was guilty and they identified was he's following so lots are used throughout the old testament in many many ways now so now there are many scholars that argue that and there's some good scholars with this viewpoint i'm not i don't want to sound like i'm disparaging it that this was a gigantic mistake because they believed that the one god had appointed would be paul who is yet to serve we don't get when we get to chapter nine saul this aggressive persecutor is going to get converted and he's going to end up being one of the most powerful personages in the history of the church and many scholars feel that's probably the guy that should have been filling judas's spot that's their argument and they have a number of reasons they hold that view they feel that paul is really the 12th apostle not matthias they feel that they were jumping the gun by having this election and so and and indeed in the next chapter it'll speak of the 11 rather than the 12 so that would seem to support their view we also know that paul wrote 14 epistles nine of them that begin with the defense of the apostleship uh example galatians 1 1 and romans both in both the corinthian letters ephesians all start off by paul establishing his opinion he's clearly an apostle he's not one of the twelve but he's clearly an apostle that's not an issue that's not really the point of dispute now also you want to remember that back in john 20 the lord had previously breathed on them and imparted the spirit to them they weren't baptized in the spirit like they will be in chapter 2 but they were given the holy spirit in john 20. and i want you to also realize that in luke 24 the lord had opened up their minds to understand the scriptures so i don't think these guys were dummies and so um i wouldn't impugn their their actions quite so quickly when peter refers to psalm 69 25 and psalm 109 verse 8 he's not doing this on his own he's doing that by the leading of the holy spirit so that that's clearly operative here and now others and i lean to this group uh appropriate to point out that paul was clearly appointed to be an apostle to the gentiles and that really gets hammered away all through the scripture and all through paul's own writings that his calling much to his regret he really had his heart for the jew but he again and again gets corrected that he is called to the gentiles and so um there are 12 thrones to judge the 12 tribes of israel and paul doesn't seem to fit that for a number of reasons and so 12 is the number of the kingdom and you can make a big thing of that paul is a is called to the gentiles and paul could not have filled up the ranks because he could not never have met the qualifications that were listed back there in chapter one he he wasn't a believer at the time of john the baptist john the baptist had been killed before paul is converted and he also wasn't a personal witness resurrection morning he did see the resurrected christ later but it doesn't fit the he was not baptized by john the baptist he did not travel with the apostles when jesus was with him on the earth and so even though he saw the glorified christ he was not a witness of the resurrection as were the original apostles so he doesn't fit the criteria that was described to fit one of the twelve so some people think that paul was that matthias was a mistake i don't side with them i i tend to think that paul is distinctive with a whole different mission and good scholars good scholars have on both sides of that debate paul made it clear that he was not to be classified with the twelve in first corinthians 15 8 and galatians 1 and 15-24 and by the way the 12 knew that in fact they refused to admit paul into the jerusalem fellowship until barnabas came to his rescue uh in acts 8 8 9 we'll see all that take place the 12 apostles ministered primarily to the 12 tribes of israel while paul was sent to the gentiles and that's clear in his galatian letter the most of the second chapter of galatians hammers that both paul and peter agree on their respective callings peter was to the circumcised paul to the uncircumcised to the gentiles so i don't believe paul was meant to be the 12th apostle and i think peter and the other believers were in the will of god when they selected matthias and god gave his endorsement to matthias by empowering him with the same spirit that was given to the other men whom jesus had previously selected that's in acts chapter 2. we'll see that play out and so it was necessary for the 12 men to witness at pentecost to the 12 tribes of israel and also that 12 men be prepared to sit on 12 thrones to judge the 12 tribes and paul strange enough doesn't fit that category that wasn't what called what god called him to do well just go review this outline here um we're in jerusalem till the end of chapter seven and we'll get when we get to the martyrdom of stephen there's going to be a shift of gears if you will then we'll see the scattering of the saints through judea and samaria in chapter eight with some surprises there through philip and then the conversion of paul this or should say conversion of saul to be paul if you will uh in chapter nine is a pivotal event it takes fruit in chapter 12 and following so we'll call that the second unit of a two-unit study here and the spread of the gospel of the romans and caesarea will be by peter and cornelius and all that in chapter 10 and then the greeks and antioch in chapter 11 and then finally paul's world tours climaxing climaxing and his arrest in rome in rome at the end of the book at the end of this of this book so so okay we have been in chapter one looking at the ascension the marching orders the apartment of matthias in the next session we're going to address chapter two a very pivotal chapter in the book of uh acts which has the events that occurred at the the feast of weeks or more commonly called the feast of pentecost and that'll also lead to peter's first sermon and we're going to be very surprised as we study carefully peter's sermon this bumbling fisherman that always seemed to be guilty of foot and mouth disease is going to articulate elegantly ordered very articulate sermons very impressive very different you can just see the holy spirit at work in the transformation of our friend peter and with that have a closing word of prayer

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Length: 55min 46sec (3346 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020