Lesson 2 - Acts 1

[Music] [Music] [Music] well in our introduction to the book of Acts last week one of the several reasons that I highlighted for deciding to teach this New Testament book besides the fact that the Holy Spirit led me to do so was because it forms the foundational context for an understanding who Paul is and while much more goes into Acts and only concerns Paul and we're going to spend a great deal of our study on those things there is no greater influence on the modern institutional Christian Church than Paul's epistles so I can't help but focus on Paul especially once he enters the scene in the book of Acts now Paul was perceived as problematic within the Messianic movement as early as maybe 48 49 AD by the Apostle Peter claiming that Paul could be quite hard to understand without doubt this is the same issue that led to James summoning Paul to Jerusalem for a meeting in 49 ad because of the things he's heard about Paul I mean so what is Peter mean in 2nd Peter 3:16 when he said Paul was hard to understand I mean did Paul mumble was he a poor Hebrew and Aramaic speaker they speak in circles unsolvable riddles obviously that's not Peters issue with Paul this Paul was always depicted throughout the New Testament as a elite intellectual articulate walking encyclopedia Judaica he was a persuasive orator even in the front even in front of the heads of state so what was so hard to understand about Paul's words well since Peter was an original disciple of Yeshua who was there with him as a constant companion from the beginning of Yeshua's ministry on through the time of his crucifixion his resurrection he had personally witnessed messiahs ascension up into the clouds Peter had been trained at the feet of the master can you imagine but when he heard some of the things that the relative newcomer Paul said about the various subjects regarding the meaning and the consequences when issue as Advent is savior and what Jewish and Gentile followers ought to do as a result at times they must not have sounded too much like the instructions that Peter had heard directly from the lips of Christ I mean I can tell you frankly I have similar issues there are things that Paul says and as many letters that are at times hard to square with what Christ says in the Gospels they are quite recently I had a very lively dinner conversation with a longtime dear friend who's one of the most respected prolific and widely read Christian fiction writers of our time I don't need to reveal his name he's doing well enough I don't have to give him free advertising and as I discussed with him some of the things I'm going to discuss with you he paused and he said that night paraphrases as much as taught as Paul taught him and has been a spiritual guide to him he's not sure how much he likes Paul on a personal on a gut level the Paul could be infuriating arrogant sometimes contradictive is not sounding outright double-minded on some important theological matters that concern every believer Gentile or Jew and if you don't feel some of that he said you have read all now I'm not sure I could be quite as disapproving as my friend but I have had similar reactions as I studied Paul's epistles so do I think there's a problem yes I do but the problems not with Paul problem stuff unless and until we in Christianity and totality take Paul in his Jewish cultural and religious context and understand that all of his words naturally reflect some weight flow from who he is in his Jewish context both before and after he met the resurrection Christ resurrected Christ then we're going to misunderstand his words in their intent his 13 epistle some say 14 if you assume he wrote the book of Hebrews which most scholars say he didn't and I'm an agreement with him them that he did not Paul's letters do not explain who Paul is they do not delve deeply into his cultural and religious background rather they explained what Paul did what Paul said to a wide variety of people in a wide variety of circumstances and cultural settings after his confrontation with the Risen Messiah and his conversion on the road to Damascus so where do we find out who Paul really is where do we find out how we are to understand the very structure of Paul sentences and the terms he chooses obviously that reflects his Jewish cultural background and he has a dedication to and how do we see all this would be within the understanding of his Jewish religion we find it in the book of Acts now as the Gentile church form that it progressed and the years following the death of Christ and then this eventual demise of all the Apostles we find a tug of war developing a tug of war between church leadership to determine how much Jewishness should be allowed into Gentile Christianity and how much the church doctrines ought to be influenced by the Jewish context of the Holy Scriptures not to mention the Jewishness of nearly all of its characters and writers and has been aside let me be clear that while the best technically correct term but I ought to use is Hebrew rather than Jewish I'm going to use Jewish more often because it's the more commonly used term in our day even if from a scholarly standpoint Hebrews a bit more nuanced the issue of Paul's Jewishness is why we talked about Marcion last week who about 40 years or so after the last of the original Apostles died decided that no Jewishness none not a drop should be allowed into Christianity and to try and assure that it didn't he fought back Marcion wanted to try and assure that Noah Jewishness went into the book of Acts her and rather went into his model of Gentile Christianity so he fought against using the book of Acts as instructional or historical material for Christians and he only wanted to use nine appalled thirteen letters and even then only the versions of Marcion heavily had heavily edited he was entirely alone entirely alone in his viewpoint and his arguments obviously had their long-term effect one of the things that I do to prepare my lessons is to research several of the scholarly commentaries that Jewish and Christian sources generally agree are the best clearly rising above the many other good ones and as I studied these various commentaries on Acts and as I noted the many reference sources used by these excellent commentators I found it strange that almost no mention was made of the comments written by the earliest church fathers fascinating being a natural-born skeptic I wondered why that was in finding just what these early church fathers had to say was quite a challenge for me because so much of what they had to say were in languages such as Latin that I was unfamiliar with but thanks be to God by chance I stumbled across a little-known work accomplished by Francis Martin who not only translated but also collated and correlated what many of the early church fathers had to say about each book of Acts and it is greatly added to and colored what I now understand about this pivotal New Testament book as it filled in some critical blanks now before we read Acts chapter 1 together I want to give you a quote from John Chrysostom who wrote a rather complete commentary on the book of Acts around 400 AD and what he says and only a couple of sentences gives us great insight into the mindset of the church and the Christianity in general towards this book the book of Acts in his day and in the decades that were leading up to his commentary Chrysostom says this about the book of Acts and I quoted to many people this book the book of Acts both its content and its author is so little-known they're not even aware it exists I have therefore taken this narrative for my subject both to initiate those who are ignorant and so that such a treasure shall not remain hidden out of sight in an interesting why was this Bible book so little-known in Christianity that one of its greatest leaders Chrysostom could say that even its authorship wasn't known let alone what it contained I mean after all the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were written by the same author and the Gospel of Luke was a mainstay for the Christian community long before it and other books were canonized as God inspired and then made part of a Christian Bible that includes the so called New Testament as I told you last week Luke originally created a single unified work called history of Christian origins which consisted of two volumes the gospel and the Apostles eventually these two volumes were part a and I mean essentially his two volumes were Part A and B of a total work developed by Luke but even before Marcion times 140 ad Luke's work had been divided and separated into two individual books and they circulated separately the Gospel of Luke was one book the Acts of the Apostles was the second book and what they became separated the continuity and connection of Luke's exquisite work was lost each book presented only half the story and knit me into Gentile dominated church revered the verse half didn't care so much for the second half because as Marcion was bold enough to say it out loud it was just too Jewish the book of Acts especially presented a much too Jewish pawpaw who had been remoulded by many church bishops into an apostle to the Gentiles who was very nearly a Gentile himself his Jewishness being an unimportant if not troublesome formality that need not be considered even brought up that is why John Chrysostom could say that few within the church knew that the book of Acts even existed can you match now take note of this as well since that has long been though that the book of Acts is the direct sequel to the Gospel of Luke follow me in this why doesn't ax directly follow the Gospel of Luke in our Bible then if it did we'd have that original continuity and flow that Luke intended why did the early church decide to put the Gospels in the order of Matthew Mark Luke and then insert a fourth Gospel John before then inserting acts why not Matthew Mark John and then Luke immediately followed by Acts why not I mean after all that's exactly how it's done with Paul and Peter and others when there are two parts to one letter or one complete work for example first Corinthians isn't separated from 2nd Corinthians with other books placed in between you think that was accidental is flip the coin that the Church Fathers didn't realize what they were doing by separating Luke from acts Mike there had been an agenda at work here of course there was and the result was exactly what John Chrysostom revealed at the beginning of the fifth century AD few Christians even knew that the book of Acts existed or that its author was the Luke of the Gospels or that Acts was simply Luke Park - that's why it was hidden out of sight without the book of Acts Paul could more easily be recast as a Gentile ish Jew who spoke against the Torah and against the Jewish people and he made Gentile believers the new in replaced Israel open your Bibles to Acts chapter 1 Acts chapter 1 if you have a complete Jewish Bible you're on page 13 60 Luke chapter 1 a replica loop Acts chapter 1 written by Luke dear Theophilus in the first book I wrote about everything issue was set out to do and teach until the day went after giving instructions through the Rococo dish the holy spirits to the emissaries whom he had chosen he was taken up into heaven and after his death he showed himself to them and he gave many convincing proofs that he was alive and during a period of 40 days they saw him he spoke with them about the kingdom of God at one of these gatherings he instructed them not to leave yerushalaim but to wait for what the father promised which you heard about from me for yokes and on John used to immerse people in water but in a few days you will be immersed in the Holy Spirit and when they were together they asked him Lord are you at this time going to restore self-rule to Israel and the answer you don't need to know the date you don't need to know the time the fathers kept these things under his own authority but you will receive power when the rococo dish comes upon you you will be my witnesses both in jerusalem and in all judea and sham realm samaria indeed to the ends of the earth and after saying this he was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight and as they were staring into the sky after him suddenly they saw two men dressed in white standing next to them the men said you Galileans why are you standing staring into space this yeshua who has been taken away from you into heaven will come back to you in just the same way because you saw him go into heaven then they returned the Shabak walked distance from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem and after entering the city they went to the upstairs room where they were staying the names of the emissaries were caifa yuck Oh yuck non Andrew Philip pull my bar till my mucky ow Yoko's been halfa shamone the zealot and yoda Ben Yaakov these all devoted themselves single mindedly the prayer along with some women including Miriam issue his mother and his brothers and during this period when the group of believers numbered about a hundred and twenty caifa at Peter stood up an address to sell o believers brothers the Holy Spirit spoke in advance through David about Judah means Judas in this case and these words of the Tanakh the Old Testament had to be fulfilled he was dying for those who arrested you schewe he was one of us he'd been assigned a part in our work with the money Judas received for his evil deed he bought a field and there he fell to his death his body swelled up and burst open all his inside sport spilled out and this became everyone was known to everyone in Jerusalem so they called the field and called them on which in their language means field of blood now since caifa it is written in the Book of Psalms lenses of state become desolate let there be no one to live in it and let someone else take his place as a supervisor therefore one of the men who've been among us continuously throughout the time the Lord Yeshua travelled around among it from the time yochanan was immersing people until the day usual was taken up from us one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection and they nominated two men Yosef warszawa surnamed justice and Metis out and then they prayed Lord you know everyone's heart show us which of these two you have chosen to take over the work and the office of emissary the Judas abandoned to go where he belongs and then they drew lots to decide between the two and the lot fell to Mattie ow so he was added to the eleven emissaries we have so many interesting and foundational topics one after the other in the first chapter we're going to deal with several of them now we've already covered authorship so we could easily call the Boop of the book of Acts Luke part two and like the first book the Gospel of Luke this one is dedicated to the same fellow - fi Louis now if tylose is a great word that means friend of God there are not just a few scholars who therefore say that in fact while this is a real name that was in use at that time that's verified that it could also just as easily be a general term referring to all of the new believers in Christ as friends of God now we're not going to get into the many debates about this because most of them in my opinion are specious arguments that ignore the plain wording that's before us absolute proof of course is not possible but there is no reason to think the Theia Philo's wasn't a rich benefactor who paint Luke to do his thorough research investigation into Yeshua and that all that he did and then what happened to the early movement of believers after his ascension was to be included so right away in verse 2 we see Luke's focus on the work of God through the ruach ha'qodesh the Holy Spirit and we're going to find the use of this term Holy Spirit 39 more time in acts this means that of all the uses all the uses of the term Holy Spirit in the entire New Testament the book of Acts alone contains almost half of them in fact second verse explains that Yeshua gave instructions through the auspices of the Holy Spirit to the 12 disciples he had originally chosen eleven really because Judas had committed suicide the Luke makes a strong connection not just with you hey Bobbie you home hey and the Holy Spirit but now with Jesus and the Holy Spirit so we see this great unity just oneness this tad of God expressed and understood by Luke Luke reminds his readers in verse 3 that after Yeshua arose from that rocky tomb that he presented himself to many of his followers and he left no doubt that it was he and that he was real and alive he was not an apparition and he wasn't a ghost we find record of this fact in numerous places in the New Testament here's one example in Matthew 28 8 through 10 we read this so they left the tomb quickly frightened yet filled with joy and they ran to give the news to his pal Medina's disciples and suddenly Yeshua met them and said Shalom and they came up and took hold of his feet and they fell down in front of him and Yeshua said to them don't be afraid go and tell my brothers to go to the Galilee they'll see me there then we skip down a few verses to verse 16 in Matthew 28 so the eleven Talmud and the disciples went to the hill and the Galilee where he issued it told them to go and when they saw him they prostrated themselves before him but some hesitated Yeshua came over and talked with him and he said all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me therefore goal and make people from all nations into disciples immersing them into the reality the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you and remember I will be with you always yes even until the end of the age then we get a piece of information in verse and in verse 3 of chapter one of the book of Acts that we didn't get in the Gospels after his resurrection you she was stayed around for a period of 40 days communing with and instructing his disciples why 40 days God instructed Moses on the top of Mount Sinai for forty days and now God Yeshua is instructing his disciples for 40 days 40 is the biblical number that symbolizes testing or or transition and since we know that the Holy Spirit would arrive to dwell within humans on the fiftieth day after Passover and we know that Yeshua arose on firstfruits bickering and he remained on earth for forty days then depending on how one decides to count the days from Passover - firstfruits I say it's three days that it seems probable that one week to the day after Christ ascended into heaven shad won't arrive and with it the Holy Spirit one week is seven days and seven is the ideal number and it is symbolic of wholeness or divine completion it makes sense that would be exactly seven days between Christ's ascending and the Holy Spirit arriving and it follows the biblical pattern that we saw in the Torah in the Old Testament now we get one other important piece of information what was it that Christ spent his time on mainly teaching his disciples says it was about the kingdom of God and by the way at times were going to see places in the New Testament that speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven it is synonymous with the kingdom of God and yet as we'll see in a couple more verses there were aspects about the concept of the kingdom of God the disciples still didn't comprehend it was during that 40 day period at one of these post resurrection gatherings the issue instructed the eleven that they were not to leave Jerusalem instead they were to wait for what the father promised so obviously at this particular gathering when he gave that instruction they weren't in Galilee rather Jews Jesus met with them in Jerusalem then verse four Christ says something quite interesting that has much more depth to it than meets the eye he says that although his cousin Jochen on John the Baptist baptized people in water the disciples would be baptized in the Holy Spirit now notice that with John the Baptizer was a human being John Yushu it didn't say that disciples would go out and baptized in the Holy Spirit instead of water but rather that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit now one can only imagine what this might have meant to them I suspect it was pretty puzzling so this is where we'll pause and talk about this because since these eleven disciples were all Jews and since their cultural and religious context is second temple Judaism any talk among themselves about baptizing was within the framework of course of how Jews baptized what did it mean to them first the English word baptize comes from the Greek verb but tie team right and it is a general term this means to immerse so whatever it's meant to symbolize the action physically involves immersion of something usually into a liquid and the purpose of being immersed is to take on the qualities of that liquid that person or objects being immersed into the term was regularly used common everyday term regularly used as regards the dyeing of cloth so a plain cloth is immersed into a vat dye and what does it do it takes on the qualities of that dye which is to change the cloth to a certain color now from the Jewish Second Temple period perspective whereby Judaism had become an amalgam of traditions that overlapping they're mingled with Torah Commandments regarding the God ordains act of immersion the purpose of immersion was generally to become ritually purified or cleanse there were many ways that ritual purity could be lost but immersion invariably was the way to regain that lost purity in fact immersion to regain ritual purity was not only for humans it was also for inanimate objects like cookware the preferred place for immersion of a human was a mcvane this is a ritual bath you see in this picture that had steps down into a water reservoir and then usually steps that were separated back up the water reservoir had to be deep enough that the entire body head to toe could be enveloped in wha but when a Mikve was not available a river or a springfed Lake was acceptable now I spoke about immersion as a change in status when someone or something is seeing is not ritually pure it's not usable for God when someone or something is ritually clean it becomes usable for God so it was common for a person or an object to be ritually clean then somehow made ritually unclean only to be made ritually clean again through immersion now to be clear the water used for immersion is itself only symbolic has no magical qualities to it rather by going into the water and immersing baptizing if you would it signals that you or some object is willfully changing your status from one condition into another from being someone who God is not able to use because you aren't pure enough in God's eyes so someone God is able to use because now you are pure enough in God's eyes as regards believers baptism it is symbolic of laying down our own will and submitting to God's it is death and burial of our identity and our allegiance to self and thus having our status changed so that our new identity and allegiance is Messiah so where is John a physical human being could only immerse people into physical water as a show of symbolism now through cry and without the aid of a human God would immerse a person into his holy spirit and it was not symbolic it was real and what did one obtained with immersion into the Holy Spirit power power finally praise the Lord finally the power to hear God and to obey Him to do his will even in impossible circumstances power to go forth with the good news to deliver it to others and with Christ's disciples at least the power to do miracles like their master had to stay on course let's talk about Yeshua in the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ he was the first to receive the Spirit that dwelled within and yet since Yeshua was God the Holy Spirit was as much a part of him as for his father there is only one Holy Spirit there's not many thus essentially the same spirit that was in with him Yeshua he would share with his eleven disciples and also with all who came to faith in him I think a good way to look at it is it indeed Yeshua shares his Holy Spirit he shares it with his disciples as the means to empower them to do what he did and to do what he wants them he wants us to do so what happened with Yeshua and then was a first right no it was not God is a God of patterns and all that we see happening in the New Testament he was first patterned in the Old Testament listen to numbers 11 verses 24 to 26 Moshe went out he told the people what Adonai had said then he collected 70 of the leaders of the people and he placed them all around the pin an ad and I came down in a cloud and he spoke to him and he took some of the spirit that was on him and he put it on the 70 liters and when the Spirit came to rest on them they prophesied then but not afterwards now there were two men who stayed in the camp one named Al Dodd and the other made odd and the Spirit came to rest on them they were among those listed to go out to the tent but it hadn't done so so they prophesied in the camp how about that the pattern and the precedent had already been set with the first mediator Moses where by God's Spirit that rested upon him became shared with his disciples the 70 elders and what did they do as a result of that they prophesied meaning they spoke as God directed them to others that had stayed in the tent encampment also had the spirit rest upon him and they prophesied in the camp but it was all short-lived now we see what we've talked about time and time again Yeshua the second and better mediator came to bring the Torah and the prophets to a whole new and higher level of fulfillment with Yeshua is mediator the Holy Spirit didn't just rest upon worshippers he indwells us and the effect of was not short-lived its lifelong when you and I and everyone who has trusted in Christ were anointed with that Holy Spirit it was meant to be for a lifetime we don't have to occasionally redo it now we're going to move on to verse 6 now and to another awesome topic but I don't want to leave the matter of baptism before telling you this yes it was symbolic but it is also commanded by Yeshua so that makes it vitally necessary vital it's not optional you don't get to decide it's not of the follower and one of the purposes of baptism is to make a public profession to fellow believers that you have decided to humble yourself to put down your crown to take up his cross and to join the community of believers will submerging underwater change you know water can't enter into your innermost parts but the Holy Spirit can and he will by being obedient to God to follow messiahs command to immerse and by being willing to let others around you know of your change of status you'll be changed since coming to Messiah have you been immersed have you perhaps left a faith or a denomination that was well off the mark and you want to now immerse into the truth of Yeshua and the truth of the entire Word of God not merely into the image or fantasy of whatever you used to think him to be do you want to boldly tell the father and your family and your congregation that you now know through faith in Messiah you have been grafted into the Covenant of Israel the covenants that provide for a Jewish Savior to pay the price for your sins do you want to declare that the Lord has made you prepared full of power you are now finally usable by God then be immersed and I'll be happy to talk to anyone who listened or but more about it at the end of this message well in verse 6 we see does a disciple still didn't get this kingdom god thing it just didn't not even with God himself Jesus personally teaching them about it one more reason the coming of the Holy Spirit that we see in chapter 2 is so necessary so the disciple vast issue was this question Lord are you going to at this time restore self rule to Israel you see all of Judaism was breathlessly waiting for their deliverer an anointed one to come and not only to rescue Israel from the hands of the Romans but also to restore their self rule that self rule was to come in the form of a Davidic King and the disciples well understood that Yeshua came from one of the Royal lines of David so he was qualified for that position and by the way there were many lines that came from David through his many wives but there was just a single line that came through David son of Solomon and that was considered to be the ultimate royal line meaning eligibility to sit on the throne of Israel as king so even through all that Yeshua had done not been personally the 11 still seem to harbor this notion that in his now resurrected body he was going to lead Israel and a successful military rebellion against Rome this particular expectation of a messiah was present in virtually all Jews whether they lived in the Holy Land or out in the Diaspora and since Christ had proven in every way he was the Messiah what would have been a more logical question that one of the disciples put forward to him than about Israel and self ooh the disciple didn't get it at least for this time he shook him only to die as a ransom % Yeshua's answered to their question is fascinating and it's important he didn't say no he essentially said later an acts 1:7 through a the answer you don't need to know the days or the time the fathers kept these under his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you you will be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and deed to the ends of the earth so Christ answer to the question well Israel returned to South rulers yes Israel will and by the way they had that self-rule restored to them in May of 1948 and they've been under self-rule ever since however that still is not the fulfillment of all yushua was speaking about because Yeshua's concern wasn't merely the Land of Israel having independence being led by a Jew but rather the Israel would become the core of the kingdom of God and that event is still in the future and it is what modern christianity calls the millennial kingdom so while it's going to come as a surprise to many believers it shouldn't surprise you to know that Israel and the kingdom of God will one day be the same and Jerusalem is capital of Israel also be capital of the worldwide Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ ruling on earth as king over a song but you were told they didn't need to know when this was going to happen in fact the father is the only one who knows that he's keeping it to himself so instead of receiving knowledge of when these events will happen thence they can't even fathom they will a matter of days receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them his answer also completely blows away this Christian concept of replacement theology or that the Jews no longer have a right to the Holy Land instead it all now belongs to the Gentile church another important thing that happened here is most instructional for our day and it plays into a pet peeve of mine at mourn one Jesus refocused them he refocused them from anxiously staring off into the future and instead told them concentrate on the now whatever lies ahead and prophecy is important and you know what we can count on it but we should not live our lives in Waiting mode or with today among too many believers constantly thinking about the end times while the days just whizzed by and mostly we just threaten worry about the terrible things we read about happening in the end times instead of being productive folks there are nearly daily a bevy of false prophets who send out internet newsletters they write books they try to tell you to watch out for this month or this Blood Moon because the Holy Spirit told them the destruction of the USA was coming or the Antichrist would appear or the world would enter into war or will have a complete financial class or fill in the blank with whatever could Hastur peace currently in vogue they sound so convincing but when that month or that day that occurrence passes and nothing particularly important happens they just move right on to their next false prophecy why listen to them does it make you feel more religious or does it just play into your fears so you're happy you're not alone in those fears how does it help the kingdom of God or yourself or your family to be full of fear and trembling about a future no one can possibly know because you schewe himself said you couldn't you know why these Paul false prophets continue to do this because they continue to get an audience Christ says that he has told us what we need to know about the outcome of God's plan of redemption but the whim is not for us to know rather as his devoted followers we are to get on with the business of doing God's will living holy lies caring free issuers sheep and doing whatever we can to bring the lost ones into the kingdom yeshuaa telling the disciples could be witnesses for him in Jerusalem and then Samaria and to the ends of the earth tells us a couple of important things first it tells us that Jerusalem of Judea is the beginning point it is like the epicenter of a massive earthquake and the gospel is to then ripple outwards from there it is to spread next to Samaria a place the Jews including the believers simply despised even though most Sumerian had some Hebrew blood in their veins and then after Samaria to every corner of the earth meaning to the Gentile world but no doubt to the Jewish Diaspora as well in fact I have no doubt none the sense to this point Yeshua was a hundred percent about being the Jewish Messiah who came for the Jewish people that when the disciples heard this instruction from Jesus their first thought was for who the Gentiles knew it was where their Jewish brothers of the diasporic representing more than 90 percent of all living Jews they all lived in these flora flung cities and towns throughout North Africa Asia Europe little did they understand just yet that Gentiles would become an important part of their work and that's why we're going to see so much focused on Paul who has the designated apostle to the Gentiles in just a few more chapters but telling his disciples to be a witness for him was said and understood within the common Jewish legal understanding of that term of witness a witness you see was part of the legal systems process of justice a witness carried more was far more than a casual observer to an event rather a witness was important and they carried real power they knew things a witness and the Jewish legal system was office often the accuser a witness was believed in their testimony because if they weren't truthful they could be prosecuted two witnesses whose testimony matched was typically sufficient for conviction and if the conviction was for a capital offense those same witnesses led the execution process do you want to be a witness for Christ then understand the seriousness of your office and that only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can give you the necessary authority and the necessary power to even function in that position will continue in Acts chapter one next week [Music] [Music] you [Music] you

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Id: KAkTbJTyR-8

Length: 55min 37sec (3337 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 27 2017