WWUTT 1021 Introduction to Acts?

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The Book of Acts, or more broadly the Acts of the Apostles, is the story of how the church began, how the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ made it to the whole world, when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Well, I had some allergies hit me over the weekend, so if I sound a little bit congested, that would be the reason why.

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But I think I have enough stamina in my voice to make it through a 20 -minute Bible lesson. We'll see. Today we start a brand new study in the

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Book of Acts. I didn't want to miss my introductory lesson into the Acts of the

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Apostles. Mark Dever shared this little factoid over the weekend. This is fascinating. 470 years ago yesterday,

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John Calvin began preaching through Acts. That was in 1549. The series concluded in March of 1550.

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Boy, he was whipping through that. I mean, that was what, six or seven months or something like that he would have spent in Acts? You compare that to somebody like John MacArthur or Martin Lloyd -Jones, they would have taken several years in the book.

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But John Calvin whipped through it rather quickly. Now when we were going through John, that took us about 11 months.

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Acts is longer than John, but whether it'll take us longer, I don't know. It's paced a little bit different than John is, but we'll talk about that.

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We'll go through the background of the Book of Acts, who wrote it, who it was written to, what we can expect as we go through this study, all that good stuff.

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Let's begin with a reading here. We'll do Acts 1, starting in verse 1 and reading through verse 11.

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Here's what we read. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the

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Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

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And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the

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Father, which, he said, you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the

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Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him,

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Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them,

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It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

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But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

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And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

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And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said,

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Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

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So there we go. There's our first eleven verses to the Acts of the Apostles. This is a very unique book in the

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New Testament, as it is the only book that Chronicles talks about the adventures of the apostles, whom

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Jesus had chosen and appointed to go out and spread the gospel with the world.

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The book of Acts is an adventure story. If you're looking for a genre of literature for Acts to fit into,

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Acts would be an adventure. And we have all kinds of exciting events talked about all the way through this book.

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Of course, the persecutions that came upon the apostles, but you've got miracles that they performed, they're being arrested, there's narrow escapes, there's imprisonments, there are beatings, there's riots, entire crowds of people attempting to afflict those who are preaching the gospel.

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You have resurrection from death. There's a shipwreck. There are scenes that include political figures.

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There's trials and there's rescues. That's just talking about a few of the things that we're going to read about as we go through Acts.

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There are a multitude of characters throughout this book, but it centers around two in particular.

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Do you know who they are? What two characters are most focused upon in the book of Acts?

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Peter and Paul. Peter is a central character from the very first chapter.

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Paul really comes in more prominently at about chapter nine, and then we'll take up most of the rest of Acts after that.

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But the writer of Acts does parallel the things that happened to Peter and Paul.

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They go through some similar things, even if they might not be going through those things together. And the writer also means to demonstrate to us that Peter and Paul share in the sufferings of Christ.

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The things that they went through was also what Jesus went through. But they go through these things, affirming that the testimony that they are sharing is real.

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They wouldn't be preaching the gospel and facing these kinds of persecutions if they had not really seen

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Jesus crucified and risen from the dead, which was exactly the gospel that they proclaimed. Paul, in particular, was a rock star among the

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Pharisees, and he gave all that up to become a persecuted apostle for the cause of Christ.

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Now, as we see these events unfold, there is a pattern. Although there's a multitude of stories in the 28 chapters of Acts that we have, it follows this basic kind of pattern.

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You will see various Christian leaders rise up, not always apostles, like in the case of Stephen, for example.

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He was a deacon. You have the speech of Stephen in Acts chapter seven, and it concludes with him being martyred. He becomes the first martyr.

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So there are some figures in this story preaching the gospel that aren't even apostles.

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So it's not entirely centered on the apostles, but it's certainly the ministry of the apostles that becomes the gospel that is shared.

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And so anyone else that becomes a believer and therefore a herald of the gospel became that way because of the testimony of the apostles themselves.

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So you see various Christian leaders rise and preach the gospel. That's usually how a particular story or narrative will begin.

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And then you will see listeners being converted and added to the church, and it's signified in various different ways.

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You have baptism. It might be signified in some sort of miracle that is performed or a person simply repenting of sin and following in the way.

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And we'll see that as we go through our reading of Acts number three. After that, we will see opponents rise up against the sharing of the gospel.

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Sometimes they're Jewish, the Jewish opponents to the preaching of the gospel in their cities, wherever there would be a synagogue.

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But sometimes they're also Gentile, and they would end up persecuting the Christian leaders.

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And then number four, God intervenes to rescue those leaders out of the afflictions that they are in.

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So the gospel may continue in advance and also to protect the church from those that are trying to destroy it.

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You see the Holy Spirit at work all the way through the book of Acts.

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So let me repeat those four things again. Here's kind of the pattern of the narrative as we go through reading these stories in Acts number one,

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Christian leaders rise up to preach the gospel. Number two, you'll see listeners converted and added to the church.

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Number three, opponents will then rise up to persecute those who are preaching. They might be

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Jewish or they might be Gentile. And then number four, God will intervene to rescue those leaders and defend the church from those who are attempting to persecute it.

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The book of Acts is an expertly written book. It is incredible in its

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Greek. And there are some scholars that have said between the books of Luke and Acts, this is like the best

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Greek that you'll read in the New Testament. Our author is the physician

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Luke. Now, the interesting thing about that is Luke is never identified. He's not identified in his gospel.

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He doesn't identify himself. He doesn't begin by saying, hey, Luke, I'm Luke, the physician, and I'm writing to you an account of the gospel.

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He never says that, nor does he say that even at the start of Acts. So how do we know that Luke is the writer of Luke and Acts?

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Well, this actually comes down to us through church history. Irenaeus being the first to speak of this in the second century, saying that the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were written by the same person.

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It is the physician Luke. How do we know that Luke is a physician, by the way? Well, it's because of what's said in Colossians 4 .14.

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As the Apostle Paul is telling the church in Colossae, all of the different people in among the missionaries that are giving greetings to the

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Colossians, he says, Luke, the beloved physician greets you, Dr.

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Luke. So that's why we've come to call him Dr. Luke, and it's because of his advanced education.

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That's probably why the Greek is so meticulous in Luke and in Acts. We've got events that are written about here in such great detail, unlike anywhere else that we see in the entire

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New Testament. Now there are some that have said that Luke even uses physician language, like he'll talk about health and disease and cures and things of that nature.

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Not really. There's a couple of occasions where that happens, but in his narrative telling, there's really nothing about the way that he tells a story that would bear the marks of somebody who would be a physician, who would be a doctor.

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You're not looking at that going, ah, he knows how to cure somebody, something like that. Nothing in Acts communicates that to us.

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Further regarding the name Luke, he is only mentioned three times throughout the

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New Testament. Paul mentions him to the Colossians, and then in his final letter to Timothy, in 2

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Timothy chapter four, he's talking about those who have deserted him and says to Timothy, don't count it against them.

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But he says, Luke alone is with me. So Luke is the only one who is there as the apostle

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Paul is in chains. And then in Philemon 124, well,

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Philemon is only one chapter, but in verse 24 of Philemon, Paul mentions Luke there as well, because the letters to the

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Colossians and to Philemon would have been delivered at the same time. So he also says to Philemon, hey,

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Luke says hello. So we know that Luke was part of Paul's missionary group, but we come to understand that Luke was the writer of the gospel of Luke and of the acts of the apostles because of what has been handed down to us in church history.

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There's actually very little that said about Luke in the in the New Testament. Like I mentioned, there's only three occasions where his name even comes up.

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But we know that he was a Greek. He was not a Jew. He was not a Jewish convert. He was Greek. How do we know that?

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Well, because Luke is a Greek name, right? Well, yeah, that's one of the evidences. But even more specifically, in Colossians chapter four,

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Paul makes a distinction between those who are with him who are part of the circumcision group, meaning that they're

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Jewish converts. And then he talks about those who are with him who are among the

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Greeks. And Luke is is mentioned among those who are Greek, not among those who are of the circumcision group.

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So we know that Luke was a Greek man who became a

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Christian because he heard the gospel proclaimed. And then he becomes part of Paul's entourage, if you'll excuse the crudeness of the word, his missionary entourage.

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In fact, he even writes of himself in the book of Acts, not by name, but rather in the collective we.

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So as he talks about missionaries with Paul going from one location to the next, he'll use the pronoun we.

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We went here. We went there. That starts at about Acts chapter 16. So that's the approximate time that Luke started traveling with Paul and preaching the gospel.

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And he's writing about these things throughout that whole that whole ordeal. He becomes the one that starts writing about the mission of the gospel to the world.

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Again, Luke is the gospel. And then Acts is the story about how the gospel made it to the whole world.

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And in both letters, in both parts, part one, the gospel, Luke chapter one, Luke is writing to a man named

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Theophilus. Here is how we read the start of Luke one in as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us.

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Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us.

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It seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you, most excellent

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Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.

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So there Theophilus is addressed at the start of Luke's gospel. And then we have Theophilus addressed here in part two in Acts chapter one.

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In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up.

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So here's how we understand the gospel of Luke. Luke is the gospel the way that Paul preached it.

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Matthew's gospel is the way that the apostles preached the gospel to the Jews, because Matthew was written primarily to a

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Jewish audience. Mark, although he's not as advanced a writer as Matthew is, and you can tell that in the narrative, even reading it in English, you can tell there's distinct differences in the authorship between Matthew and Mark.

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So though Mark is not as good a writer, he's basically writing the gospel that the apostles would have preached to Gentiles, the way it would have been preached to Gentiles, specifically the way

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Peter preached it, because John Mark was kind of an understudy of Peter. Luke is the way that the apostle

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Paul preached the gospel, since Luke was part of Paul's missionary group.

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And then you have the gospel of John, which was written after the destruction of the temple in 70 A .D.,

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in which John is expounding upon some of those things that had become tradition in the sharing of the gospel to the church, based on what we have in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, what has been preserved for us in canon.

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So we have Luke writing to a particular person, chronicling the gospel itself, the things that Jesus said and did.

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That's what we have in the gospel of Luke. And then you have the mission of that gospel that Jesus preached going to his apostles, which then went to the whole world to preach throughout the land.

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Now, who is Theophilus? As we read this in Acts 1 .1 in the first book, O Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.

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Who is Theophilus? We don't know, although there's a pretty good possibility that he was somebody of importance, but not of such great importance that there would be some sort of Roman record of him.

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So he may not have been some sort of higher, upper echelon Roman official, but he was somebody who was rich and maybe someone who even hosted a church in their home.

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Very common for us to see the sproutings of the early church began in people's homes.

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And so Theophilus may have been one of those who hosted a church in his home. Now, there's another theory about Theophilus.

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I don't think that this argument is necessary to make, but I just want to make you aware of it and let you know that it's out there.

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It's possible that Theophilus is not is not anyone at all, that he's a name

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Luke used to rather write the gospel of Luke to all of his audience.

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Anyone who is a God fearer, a Jesus follower who would become a Jesus follower. He wrote

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Luke to them. Why does he then use the name Theophilus? Because the name

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Theophilus means lover of God. And so a person who is reading Luke with joy would be someone who loves

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God and someone who reads Acts and is awed by the ministry work of the Holy Spirit to take the gospel to the world would likewise be someone who loves

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God. So it's possible that Luke chose that name for that reason. Now, if that is the explanation for who

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Theophilus is, we shouldn't take that to mean that Luke was being dishonest, that he was dishonestly naming somebody that he wasn't actually writing to.

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It was it was a writing device. It was the way that he chose to write his introduction to these two parts, to Luke and to Acts.

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But like I said, I don't think that this is an argument that's necessary to make. It's just a theory. I don't think it's necessary for us to say, hey, it's possible

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Theophilus wasn't anybody at all. It was just a name Luke chose to kind of name anybody who would love

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God, who would who would read these works and see the power of God working in the spread of the gospel.

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So it's not necessary to make that argument. But just to let you know, it's out there in case we're struggling in some way to define or describe who this

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Theophilus is. Now, when was the book of Acts written? That is a question that is up for debate as well.

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But I'm pretty firm on believing that it was written sometime around 62 or 63 AD. I think it would have had to have been before Peter was martyred.

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And it was certainly before Paul was martyred. The book of Acts ends with Paul preaching in Rome in his first imprisonment.

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And it seems highly unlikely, given Luke's attention to detail, that he would leave off what ultimately came of Peter and Paul if this had not been written before their martyrdom and certainly before the destruction of the temple in 70

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AD. So I'm pretty firm on that. Early 60s is when Luke and Acts were written.

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And you also have to understand the intention of why Luke was writing this again. The gospel of Luke is the gospel.

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And then Acts is talking about how the gospel made it to the whole world. How does Acts end?

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It ends with Paul in Rome. Why is that significant? Because Rome was the capital city of the world.

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If you got the gospel to Rome, if an apostle got to Rome preaching the gospel, then it could be concluded that the gospel got to the whole world.

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From there, it would just go out absolutely everywhere. Certainly the gospel was there before Paul got there.

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But there had not yet been an apostle who had made it to Rome. There was already a church there in Rome.

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But an apostle had not yet come preaching the gospel. Those that had ended up in Rome and had planted the church came from Pentecost and they migrated back to Rome, started the church.

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Then you had some Gentiles that became saved. But there was not like a huge Christian population there in Rome until Paul got there and then started preaching the gospel.

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And he went from there on to Spain and then came back through. And that was when he was arrested the second time and ultimately martyred.

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So even that event in particular, Luke does not chronicle that Paul went from Rome to Spain.

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And that seems like something else that you would at least make some sort of footnote mention of. After this, Paul went to Spain.

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Then he came back to Rome and he was martyred. But Luke doesn't mention any of that. And again, I think that's a strong argument for an early 60s writing of both the gospel of Luke and the

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Acts of the Apostles. So that's our introduction. There's our introduction to Acts. And as we read in our reading today, you have

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Jesus preparing the apostles to go out and witness. And then what we're going to have next in chapter two is the witness in Jerusalem.

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Up next, when we get to chapter six, we'll have the witness beyond Jerusalem, because note what

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Jesus said to his apostles here at the very beginning, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, the outlying regions, and then to the ends of the earth that it's even going to go out to the

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Gentiles. So then you have the witness in Cyprus and Galatia, starting in chapters 13 and 14.

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There's the Jerusalem Council, a very significant gathering or congregation in Acts chapter 15.

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Then you have the witness that goes to Greece chapter 16, 17 and 18. There's Ephesus.

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And we spend quite a bit of time in Ephesus chapters 18 through 21. Then you have

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Paul's arrest in Jerusalem, the witness in Caesarea, and then finally his witness in Rome. And so that's our layout of the book of Acts.

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And we'll jump right into dissecting these early verses tomorrow. Let us conclude with prayer.

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Our heavenly father, we thank you that in the fullness of time, what you had foreordained in the giving of your son and the spread of the message of his gospel to the world, that it has come to us.

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And we have come to believe this message that Jesus died for sinners, according to the scriptures, that he was buried and rose again on the third day, according to the scriptures, that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

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May we behold and love the presentation of the gospel that we have here in Acts, seeing the work of the

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Holy Spirit in your purpose to bring sinners as saints.

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And we ask that you would bless this time of study, however long we're going to be in this particular book, that we would see and behold the power of God all the more.

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And how you are working all things together for good, for those who love God and are called according to your purpose.

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We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt

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.com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our