Book of Acts - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-7 (12/15/2002)

The scripture tells us, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit.

The little phrase, do mind, rather interesting.

Those that are carnal cannot think of the godly.

They just cannot think of the godly. So you see, it is all in the mind.

By the time it gets to the doing, it's past tense. Mary Ann gave me a good definition of the flood.

We were speaking of that last Sunday. She says the flood was a local flood.

We were the only planet involved. All right.

Matthew was written to the Jew. Mark was written to Jesus as a servant.

Luke, the son of Adam, spirit -filled. And John, Jesus, the son of God.

Joy, why do we have Acts as Acts? Why did they call it Acts?

All right. Well, I'll get around to that.

Roger, why is it called Acts? Well, that's true.

But we're still looking for something else. Greg, you're stopping short.

David? Well, it's called

Acts. It's a rendering of what

Jesus did for the apostles after he entered into heaven. That's right.

It's what he did and is now doing in his sheep.

It's the story of Jesus. Now, we have different characters that are performing it.

The miracles did not prove the deity of Jesus.

The miracles did not prove the deity of Jesus, the Christ. They only proved

God was with him and with Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Elijah.

What was the one thing that proved his deity, Roger? All right, the resurrection.

Greg, go to John 7 .39, if you will, please. Now, this is the

Acts of Jesus the Christ. It was his resurrection that proved his deity.

And when you find John 7 .39, we'll home in on something else.

All right. So, he promised, the promise of God the

Father was the Holy Spirit. Now, they knew nothing of the Holy Spirit.

Had not yet come. He had not yet appeared. Now, go to John 20 .22,

Greg. All right, breathe.

The word breathe. As it's presented to us here, it's used only one other time in the

Bible. Where do you suppose that is? That's right.

The breath of life. He breathed on Adam. And here he breathed on the

Holy Spirit. There must be a connection. Just as he originated the original,

Adam, it's only fitting that he would originate the new here.

And that's the Holy Spirit. Now, Jesus breathed on them, and they had not yet received it.

David, tell me why, it's not a discrepancy, but why did he breathe on them, and they still didn't receive it?

Well, I don't think they received him, so I don't know.

All right. There must be some importance to it, or he wouldn't have done it.

Roger, do you know why? All right.

First of all, Greg, he had to do it while he was here. That's right.

Now, they don't understand anything in the future, but he does. So he breathed on them.

If he had not breathed on them, David, what would have happened? So while he was standing there with them, the

Holy Spirit was within Jesus. He was abiding within Jesus Christ, the man.

Yes. So when he breathed on them, my theory is, I don't know what my theory is, but it was showing

David that same spirit that would come upon him after he was gone was within him right then and there, and then he breathed on them, and it proved to David that it was the same spirit, the spirit of Christ.

It's his own spirit. All right. From the apostles' viewpoint, he just breathed on them.

Now, how he did it, I don't know, but they understood that he breathed on them, and that's all they knew. But we get over in Acts, and we find that the

Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. If he had not breathed on them, they could not have received the

Holy Spirit when it came. But we'll get to that. So here, his breathing on them made it possible for them to receive the

Holy Spirit. Now, Luke 24, 49,

Greg. All right, so he's charged them to stay in Jerusalem.

Don't run off anyplace else. Just stay right here until the power comes upon you.

Now, it's power that's coming at Pentecost. In Acts 1, 8, we find,

But we shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in all the

Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth. Now, Greg, go to Matthew 3, 16 and 17.

All right, now, we know that the Holy Spirit is with him. It came in visible form, and he and John saw it.

I don't know if anyone else did. But it's important to note that Jesus did no work until after this.

Now, I don't know whether he could have before, but this was the coming. In John 3, 34,

Greg. All right, so we have

Jesus. We have the Holy Spirit in him, on him, without measure.

What's that mean, David? Fully, complete. No lacking.

Now, at the same time that it proved Jesus, his baptism proved his deity, but this is preparing him.

It gets him ready. We don't have to attain a certain degree of holiness to receive the

Holy Spirit in our lives. Thank goodness. All things pertaining to life here on earth are given by the providence of God.

Do you believe that? How many believe that?

What is it that you believe? All right.

Do you realize what you're saying? What did someone say back there?

All right. But all things pertaining to life. Now, David, what does that mean?

Give me an example. That's right.

Do you realize, are you cognizant of the fact that you come into Ruth's teaching before the wedding?

It couldn't have been any better. See how God works?

Now, when it comes to giving us things, we have everything that we need. We still have to work for it, but we have it.

So stop praying for things. All blessings are spiritual.

Things in this world are promised, but the blessings are spiritual when you receive and when you're promoted in your work.

The blessing you receive is how much closer and how much more information did it give me concerning God?

Not that you get a bigger paycheck. I wish we could get that turned around.

Yes. That's right.

That's right. All blessings are spiritual. All growth is spiritual.

Everything you know about God is spiritual. The manners of a good and godly teacher ought so to be framed that he speak first with his life, then with his tongue.

Otherwise, he should differ nothing from a stage player.

Now, we've come to Acts 1 .1. The former treaties have

I made, O Theopolis, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

I can't tell who's sitting on the back row. Who? Who? No.

That's all right as long as I know who you are. I take it that's clearance with you.

What is the former treaties that he talks about here? Clarence.

All right. Who wrote Acts? David. All right.

He's talking here the former treaties was the book of Luke. And you're right,

Clarence. Two. Until the day in which he was taken up after that he, through the

Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles. Now, the apostles.

Tell us again, Greg, who they are. Not by name, but what is an apostle? All right.

One sent forth with orders whom he had chosen. All things that he did, he did by the power of the

Holy Spirit. He worked in his followers then, and he continues to work in them now.

Turn to Philippians 2 .13, if you will. This is a verse that I want you to remember forever.

Philippians 2 .13. For it is

God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

You thought you did it. You didn't did it. He did it. Everything.

So, David, that takes it all out of my hands. What am I responsible for? Yes. Because I do what

I want to. All right. Three. To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible truths, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Passion. What is his passion? Greg, what was his passion?

As it's used here. All right.

It comes from the word patho. That comes from the word patho, which came from the word pinto.

After his suffering on the cross. Now, Joy, what was his suffering?

That's it. It was not the spirit. It wasn't the nails. It wasn't anything that caused him to bleed.

It was his separation from the father. Jesus was separated from God.

Remember that. Royal power, kingship, dominion.

Rule, not to be confused with the actual kingdom, but rather the right of authority to rule over a kingdom.

Now we see that the sum and total of the gospel is made up of these two things, two parts.

The doctrine of Christ and of his acts. Here we must note that those which have only the bare knowledge of the gospel do not have salvation.

Now, all of those that just know about it don't have it.

Four. 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.

In 2 Peter. Well, Greg, turn over to that. 2 Peter 1 .3.

All right. Referring back to what we said a while ago, I cannot say it enough.

All things pertaining to life here on earth are given to us. More to some, less to others.

Don't waste your time praying for things. It seems like we get caught up in that, and when it happens, we just are overjoyed.

We're missing the boat. All blessings are spiritual. The only growth we make is spiritual.

In Ephesians 1 .3, bless, be the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

So, you see, we have scripture for it. Five. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the

Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now, in the

Greek, it reads a little bit different. For John truly baptized, and in the

Greek, it says, in water. But you shall be baptized, it's a passive verb.

And what does passive mean, David? That's right.

Baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence, the Greek says, but ye in spirit holy, not after many days.

Now, again, I want to give you and make sure that you have the definition of baptism.

Who remembers baptism? Alright. That's it.

Baptism means placing into. Greg says it's placing into the new environment in relation to its old environment, it has changed.

Didn't change your looks, your appearance, or anything. But something changed in you. This act was done to you, not by you.

You can't perform it upon yourself. In this case, it was the Holy Spirit which does the moving of us into Jesus Christ while he is here on the cross.

You remember in Romans 6 and 3, know you not that as many of us as were baptized in Jesus Christ were baptized into the

Spirit. Baptized Spirit into his death. Not water baptism, there's no water in that verse.

Now, there is a word, there's two words in the Greek. And we're not to confuse them.

The first one is bapto. They give a clear example of the meaning of baptism in the text of the

Greek poet Nicander. He lived about 200 B .C. I want to read it to you.

He gave a recipe for the making of pickles. You'd never think that was going to teach us baptism, but it does.

It's helpful because he uses both bapto and baptizo. He says, let me find it.

It says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be dipped, bapto, into boiling water and then baptizo into the vinegar solution.

Both verbs concern the immersion of a vegetable in a solution.

But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptism, that vegetable produces a permanent change.

So you're not dipped, you're baptized. And the baptism baptized into Jesus Christ on the cross.

Why did we have to go into him on the cross, David? That's the death that separated us from Satan.

When used in the New Testament, this word most often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water baptism.

Mark 16, 16, he that believes and is baptized, no water, shall be saved.

Christ is saying that mere intellectual assent is not enough.

There must be a union with him, a real change, like the vegetable to the pickle.

It was changed. Six. When they, therefore, were come together, they asked of him, saying,

Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?

Now, the word ask is epiroteo, and it means to address one with a request or demand.

And they demanded of him that he establish his kingdom now.

The establishment of his earthly kingdom was the uppermost thing in their mind.

Now, we cannot condemn them. They didn't have the Holy Spirit. We have 2 ,000 years of history behind us.

But at the same time, it looks like they could have caught on. But the

Holy Spirit had not come. Their rudeness is marvelous. That when being instructed for three years, they showed no less ignorance than if they had never heard of it.

They dreamed of an earthly kingdom which should follow with riches, delicacies, and peace.

And while they set the present time to the restoring of this kingdom, they desired to celebrate the battle so before they could work, they'll have the payment.

That's not the way it works. They're also greatly deceived in that they limit

Christ's kingdom. They limit it to the carnal.

There's another fault in this question, namely that they desire to know those things which are not for them to know.

Now, they hoped for the restoring here at the coming of the

Messiah. And as soon as the apostles saw their master risen from the dead, they knew it was imminent.

They knew it was coming. They straightway began to think, now is the time.

Well, let's take one more verse, Acts 7. And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the

Father hath put in his own power. Now, it's interesting to see the words that he used.

Has put. What's that mean, Greg? It's already been done.

God's the only one. God the Father is the only one who knows. It's already fixed.

It is not a subject for discussion at that time or now. He hasn't revealed it to anybody yet.

I would caution you to pay attention to the present -day prophets. They all have some sure -fired method for showing you when the

Lord's going to return. Our business is to be ready.

To have all our work finished each day. Leave nothing until tomorrow.

Trust the Lord to guide you in the way that he has ordained for you.

You believe it's ordained, Greg? In Psalm 1611,

But the whole disposing of it is of the Lord. I want to be sure that you understand that verse.

Proverbs 6 .33 The lot is your lot in life.

Is cast. Means it's fixed. And it's put in motion. And into the lap.

You remember Grandma used to go out and gather the eggs and fold up her apron and put them in a giant pocket?

That's what this lap is. Only this one is closed. There's nothing can get in.

So your lot has been fixed. It's been set in motion. And it's closed.

But the disposing of it is of the Lord. We're going to stop here.

Acts 1 .8 Are there any questions that you have thought of?

No questions. Alright.