Acts part 1- Laborers' Podcast

Welcome to the Laborer's Podcast. Thank you for joining us tonight. We are going to be doing

Acts part one. Looks like hopefully chapters one through six. Hope you can stick around.

Welcome to the Laborer's Podcast which is a part of the Truth in Love Network.

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Now let's join our laborers for tonight's broadcast. I'm thankful that you guys could be with us.

I'm thankful for my brothers that are here tonight. Taylor. Taylor. I'm already messing up.

Tyler with Brendal Word Podcast who's blowing up Rumble, blowing up Twitter.

You guys need to check brother Tyler out. He's doing a great job. Brother Matt who's been working hard on Third Shift.

We are so thankful that he's able to be with us tonight. Jay the Reform Recon. Recon. I do that every time.

Recon. Recon. American Sniper and Reform Recon. Is it

Pecans or is it Pecans? That's what I need to think. Is it crappy or crappy?

Brother Claude Ramsey the Happy Calvinist the

Here I Stand Theology Podcast and you've got some good interviews coming up I believe.

Yes. I've actually got Daryl King and Mark Ryan from Second Reform coming up in early

September. Maybe the second. I'm still messaging with him right now even as we speak and a big surprise interview that I'm super excited about.

He just got back with me today. Let me look up the date. Sam Storms.

Oh. I'm excited about that. September 19th. So we're gonna be talking about the book

Kingdom Come. It's a fantastic book. He's Mr. Allmill as well?

Mm -hmm. Okay. He can't claim King of the Post or the Allmills I should say.

That's our buddy Keith. That's right. My apologies to His Majesty. I need to get that book on my reading list don't

I Claude? It's really good. I'm serious it really is and he is he's a phenomenal he's a phenomenal preacher and teacher in and of itself you know you lay it you put continuation cessation aside he's he's still good so I appreciate him in his ministry.

So I want to let everybody know that the comment lines as always are open because we are live tonight and you can give us a critique a question we'd love to try to answer your questions if we can.

Before we dive into the book of Acts I can't remember if this is Claude's video or Tyler's video but we do want to remind you of the

Labor's Conference coming up April 26 to 28 in Knoxville, Tennessee at Rep Ramada Baptist Church 2024

Empowered by the Holy Spirit. That's going to be the theme topic. Seating is limited so please go to the website

Labor's Conference dot com and register let us know that you're coming because seating is limited and check out if you're friends with Brother Matt on Facebook or any of us actually because we try to share them he's he's what would you call them it's not a raffle or fundraising items that's that's very good very good fundraising items that you can take advantage of if you're going to be in the eastern

Tennessee area we'd love for you to check those out so watch this little video about the upcoming conference.

Great job on that Tyler very smooth I like that. All right let's jump into the book of Acts I know when it comes to the book of Acts there can be some controversy some of us talk about interpreting the book of Acts looking at the book of Acts we want to look at it more historically than we do practically we don't want to build all of our doctrine based on what we see in Acts some people look at it that way some people think oh you can learn some practices and doctrine in the book of Acts it's not all just historic and then kind of the path that I took for the podcast guide this evening in the book of Acts you know how there are there's sayings out in the world that that are common to us and people say well that's in the

Bible right well no there's certain things in in each of these chapters that that we go back to and we say we want to model this we want to do this but I want to hear from you guys and see if you guys use these passages the same way as other people do and you'll know what

I'm talking about as soon as we jump into this first one is it is it more descriptive instead of prescriptive or do you see it as a model so how do you look at these verses of these questions that we pull out of these verses so let me let me read the first few verses we'll start in chapter 1 chapter 1 verses 6 through 8 and God's Word says so when they had come together they were asking him saying

Lord is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom of Israel he said to them it is not for you to know the times or epochs which the father has fixed by his own authority but you will see power when the

Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all

Judea and Samaria and even the remotest part of the earth so if you will kind of catch what

I was saying earlier we oftentimes use or hear people use this as a model of our missions planning our evangelistic planning how do you guys see this passage of Scripture is this a model for us as a church we take this as our missions model seeing the different layers the different realms what do you guys think let me ask you something are you asking in specifically with verse 8 is that is that we're referring to yeah yeah yeah verse 8 absolutely gotcha where you have there being his witnesses and you start in Jerusalem and you work your way out so you get out to the entire world a lot of people use that as a model okay um

I mean I can I can jump in here first if nobody else wants to last chance okay

I'll go ahead and say so so I would agree that acts is primarily a descriptive book not a prescriptor book that now that doesn't mean that we can't take principles and things like that out of it right so I would agree that hey we do we are called to take the gospel to the nations

I 100 % agree with that but I wouldn't necessarily say well we need to do everything exactly as the early church in the book of Acts did right so I don't know if that answers your question or if I need to expand a little bit more or is that good enough

I usually go on for a long time so I'm gonna try not to do that I would agree I would agree with you the principle the principle is there we see it encapsulated in verse 8 like you mentioned right we should be we be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth you said descriptive yes it is a descriptive narrative with principles to be drawn and discriminately or discerningly maybe is discerningly word discerningly applied that Jerusalem Judea and Samaria typically has probably in all of our lives been you know been basically saying at home you know then your city then your state so on and so forth there's been all kinds of allegories that have been made there but I would

I'm an agreement there with Jay there to the principle is there and we what we do have is as it being descriptive telling us what was taking place

Jesus promised that he would send the Holy Spirit and that the

Holy Spirit would empower believers to be witnesses under him the gospel itself doesn't have any power based on the person who communicates the gospel the gospel itself is power of God and salvation it is made alive and quickened by the

Holy Spirit oh you know that's why we must be I believe a close attention to the to the text that the description as if given as Jesus has already communicated in the

Gospels in Luke gospel primarily you know in this the book of Acts is just a continuation

Luke picks up exactly where he left off after 24 of Luke Acts 1 it's literally a continuation of Luke's account with the author so in what

Luke does in making a really account of the gospel in the person work of Jesus Christ Luke continues this here and he goes from he goes from the life death burial resurrection of Jesus to the promise of this the sending of his

Holy Spirit and then we see the outworking of the Holy Spirit throughout the furtherance of this book itself that's good we just as always in the context we got a look back to verse six where he they asked him a specific question and he this is an answer to their question he's not just given this kind of as a general statement so they're kind of focused on the kingdom of Israel he's saying that's not for you to know but you're gonna be empowered by the

Holy Spirit to be my witness to take my kingdom out to everyone so I think in the context this is it's a little bit different from us obviously like the other guy said we can take principles but this is kind of the foundation the very beginning of the gospel going out not only to the

Jews but to the Gentiles as well and also we can look at I'm definitely don't

I'm not up on my original languages but I did read a little bit that the word we get witnesses from is the same word that we get the word martyr from and if we kind of look at it in that sense we can go over Acts chapter 8 and verse 1 it says and Saul approved of his execution talking about Stephen and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea Samaria except the

Apostles so it was through execution and ultimately martyrdom of some that the gospel was spread to these areas that are talked about here in Acts 1 so I think we again we can take the principles but we've got look at the specific context of Jesus's statement there to his

Apostles yeah kind of what he was getting at directly speaking to them yeah and I think this kind of harkens back to some of the conversations that Christ had with the disciples through the last through the last couple years you know we go back to James and John shall we call down fire from heaven you do not know what spirit you are of and then they come back with their mom a little bit later that one of us had your left and one of us that you're right and Jesus asks are you able to drink of the cup are you able to do what is required to sit there and you keep getting these little things like that to be first you must be last to be you know and then we get here and it's again it's the same kind of question are you ready to roll with an iron rod right here on earth and make

Israel the center again and I don't think that's like like we've talked about that's not for them to know when when when is the

Millennial Kingdom coming when is the endgame is it now apparently not

Jonathan Edwards I think painted a beautiful picture of this not just in reference to Israel but I think to the individual believer that if you can see your life as a river and you could look down down the river and see where God will call you where you will go you may not be encouraged because you will see all the obstacles all of the rapids all the things

God has not brought you through yet and I think in that sense it's probably for our benefit that we don't have the whole picture yet because while we're not told how we get there we are encouraged by God that you will receive power when the

Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses now Tyler let me let me ask you a question actually because you said something and we're starting to play around with eschatology here a little bit so it's always dangerous waters depending on who you're talking to okay would you would you say that they are asking about the consummation of the kingdom

I think they're asking about the consummation in the sense that they're conflating deliverance from Rome right with the the

Messianic kingdom right okay the kingdom that they were looking for was not the kingdom that Jesus brought correct they were looking yeah okay we're more on the same page tonight

I mean not that I doubted whether we were the same page or not I'm just testing the waters here

I could have been a little more clear on that so no you're okay you're okay I was just curious that's it back to you

Rob well I think you would I feel like we'll definitely dive into that more when we get to the chapter three question

I really think definitely so what I hear you guys saying and I'm on board with how you were describing this that it was that it's descriptive so we don't have to unnecessarily put a burden on ourselves as a as a local church so you know put your elder pastor hat on for a second we don't we don't have to unnecessarily put a burden on ourselves and say this has to be our model we need to have a ministry for our home for our state for our country and for missions if if we're not geared in that or have the funds or ability to do that this is just this is more descriptive so as a pastor to elder leader in a church how would you how would you formulate your evangelistic missions model well what principle would you draw out of this if you're trying to develop something to get your folks engaged in ministry evangelism missions what we do at Reformation is proclaim this share the gospel with your family share the gospel with your friends when you go to Walmart share the gospel when you're at work at Home Depot share the gospel share the gospel everywhere because again the gospel is the power of God unto salvation the gospel doesn't have to be tailored or isn't tailored to you you don't take a different approach to prop gospel proclamation to tribes in Africa any different than you take the gospel proclamation on the streets in Knoxville Tennessee the gospel is the gospel so that the the undue pressure that I think that and I'm gonna

I'm gonna throw out a denomination here the the IFB's right the

IFB you know basically that's the emphasis if you're not winning souls then you ain't you're in sin right you need to do this that's what they hear all the time you need to do this you need to do this you need to do this and it's not possible and again it's an undue burden that is placed on the people of God when they have to gauge their success or failure as a

Christian by how many people that they've won quote -unquote one to the

Lord when the Lord is the one who wins people unto himself anybody else just leaves three chick tracks out while you're out in public today so has everybody here seen so Tyler men or Taylor mentioned chick tracks has everybody read chick

John chicks tracks I've heard stories I have not oh yeah you need to look them up so that you're oh yeah so so I've never seen them again

I'm the foreigner here so I probably familiar with them but some people pointed me in the right direction or I guess the wrong and I was like well this is this is one way to do they were they were the primary thing in the 80s and 90s

I think I'm a lot of Christians but yeah there's yeah again it's hardcore

I've be yeah yeah they're still around here

I'm yeah one of our recent outing downtown had a guy where are you at Matt I'm in Knoxville oh man

I'm with a bunch of Southerners in here like our buddies Matt actually

Matt actually started the hero stand theology podcast with me yeah

Jay aren't you in Florida aren't you like further south and all of us together

I have I have said this before okay so I'm in Miami all right and so there's a point where you start heading so far south that you're actually heading north okay that's what's happening like I would say right around once you get past Orlando you you're heading north buddy you're no longer heading south you guys that are watching don't forget to leave a comment ask a question just let us know you're watching we would love to be encouraged by you thank you for your support let's jump on the question number two chapter number two verses 44 and 45 and God's Word says there and this is another tough one where people have a hard time understanding and maybe misapply and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need so how do you how do you see that verse what did it look like in the first century that to your ability to understand it and is it applicable to us in what way well

I think in some ways this might be a sort of indictment to the American Church in some ways when we have we are very well to do financially as a nation as communities oftentimes as churches but we're all but we often don't have that same unity that we hold all things in common now that we have all money in common but we have all things in common the where of one accord as the

King James puts it that is such a hard sell for us these days you know this week's episode of Bread of the

Word taking a pause from Joe to talk about Philippians 2 adopt the same attitude as Christ Jesus make my joy complete and have the same mind among all of you and so there's this picture of unity that I see in Acts chapter 2 regardless of historical context you see this unity of believers that they hold all things in common that they have their of one accord but also said that as they sold their possessions in the property and distributed the proceeds to any that had need that they were in a position to give generously to give sacrificially and whatever that may look like today

I think there is a practice there is a practical component to giving sacrificially to people in need in our communities and sometimes

I think we lose sight of that I think sometimes this text kind of stares us straight in the face

I'm I'm I said this is something that I've been thinking a lot about this week with just how much disunity there is in the church today on Twitter slash

X between that and between the local church and I'm I'm constantly reminded of that beautiful verse in Song of Solomon chapter 2 let me see you then the voice of Christ to his bride let me hear your voice let us have communion with Christ let us be united with Christ does anyone else

I was gonna say as far as the part about selling and distributing to the media again

I agree completely with Tyler I think there's a definite application for us today but at the same time

I think we need to again look at the context so we can go back in chapter 2 to verse 9 and we can see that these people were most of these people weren't local they were coming from other areas so most likely when they got there they were without a job they were without a way to provide for themselves so there really had to be a reliance on the church and most likely these people as they were converted were some stuff

I read we're gonna be staying in that area to to learn about the faith before they were sent back to their home so they were gonna be there for probably an extended period of time most likely with again no job no source of income no home so really out of necessity that the church took care of them which obviously is a good thing what they should have done but I think we again we have people with need in our midst

I don't think it's necessarily the same as this contact and we do see principles do that this selling and giving was voluntary

I think sometimes we have that idea that it's we have to which

I think if we're in the right spirit that it's something we're we're gonna want to do it's a gift to others to help support those in need but we also see in Scripture I think in somewhere talked about the poor will always be with so at the reality there's always going to be poor people and people in need so that's not a distinction that that Christ eliminated or that that distinction wasn't there then it would be incumbent upon us to do the things necessary to wipe out those things so obviously there's principles in Scripture to take care of the orphan the widow the need

I think this is a special context of people coming from out of to be there for a period of time and really be reliant on the local for their survival so are you telling me that the early church wasn't a proto -communist organization well

I was gonna throw that out there that's one of the two misconceptions that I hear sometimes this is this would be a passage to support more socialistic ideology and then the other one would be well the church needs to be more like a you know a commune where we we have our own property live on the same property everybody pulls all their money together how do you defend what it's really saying against those two misconceptions so I would pastorally number one

I would say just based on what you just said they're taking the the last thing you said and addressing that first I think history teaches us that that is not what the scriptures teaching more you know our more recent history the cults that have come up that's exactly what they do right

I mean it the the Heaven's Gate cult Manson right

Koresh all of these cults take take that this passage and it's this passage part of what they're they're they're teaching is based on and you know like David Koresh says you know said such foolish things that communal living was so much so that I don't know if you all have seen that documentary on this is about the

Waco yeah I mean they I mean they they took it to absolute extremes so much so that Koresh actually told one of his followers well it was the teaching to all of his followers that nobody was to even have the men weren't to have sex with their wives that he was going to take on the burden of sex for everybody yes yes so but we see this warping misconception of this idea of communal living when again contextually like Matt mentioned there's a specific context right and from for me pastorally the the context is the local church and I think wisdom teaches us and wisdom should instruct us and it more so than even our emotions and our wants certainly we want to help everybody we can certainly want we want to do good to everybody we can but practically the local church is a community of believers that is designed and informed so that we can if you would have it focus the resources that God provides to the local congregation on the congregants of that congregation to care for them because we can't we can't help the world right

I mean you know back in the a in the 80s that song we are the world right that was a big thing

Oh everybody was united around that we are the world we are the children right we we are the ones that make a brighter day so let's start giving right but we can't we can't help everybody and we need to be discerning enough as believers and when we look at passages like this to see this was a concentrated focus of God's resources to God's people in this local region in this local in Jerusalem itself at that time so I think we can rightly take and apply that to the local church and not be so confounded and disheartened when we're not able to do all the things we want to do so can

I pose a question there yes sir do you think that there's a part of the reason that we kind of overcompensate with this passage and we get these janky ideas of what that community means for us because of how detached we've become recently with ideas like community and fellowship are you saying like do we over do we overcompensate

I mean are the some of these ideas of like the commune and the socialism from like the the progressives do you think that part of the reason these ideas are persisting is trying to overcompensate from how disconnected people are today

I think so I would say I think so to some extent and you know speaking of which one of the saddest things that I see sometimes in churches is that there's no real sense of family yeah you know what

I mean it's kind of like we see each other on Sundays and everybody goes their own way now

I'm fortunate not to be in that situation but I've experienced it and it's funny because even when

I was still an early very early believer and I experienced the first for the first time what it was like to truly love one another inside the church not just like hey say good morning to some random guy out of like 500 people and then never see him again you know what

I mean like yeah there's there's there's you get a sense for what what the

Bible really is teaching as a whole like total scriptura right like yeah and it's really sad to see how so many people think that their relationship with Christ is entirely personal

I'm not saying it's not personal but they think that it's entirely personal so the to the point that when they go to church they don't even know people there you know what

I mean like they know their pastor the pastor may not even know them but they know the pastor but they don't they don't know anybody in that church and they don't know them and they don't they definitely don't serve there yeah

I think we we do have to take a principle out of this right and again it is descriptive not prescriptive so it's we're we're not going to see this everywhere in every church but I do think that there should be a some kind of unity right like if the pastors at the very least if the pastors don't know your name and you've been going to the church for a year there's a problem there's definitely a problem and you tell me good if I could bag on my generation for a brief moment

I have autism and part of what that means is that I've had some added difficulty navigating social interactions and conversations

I was in a good amount of therapy as a child learning how to start conversations and conversations maintain conversations and so a lot of that's kind of ingrained in here that and I don't see that with a lot of people in my age bracket especially in the church and it it's sad that we've we've we seem to have lost that communal aspect but yes it's it's almost entirely internal I'll be

I'll be 25 a little bit later this year and as weird as this seems the older I get the less

I want to go to do the events and the more I just want to sit around and talk yeah so so that word community right it's part of the that's the root word of communication right it's people actually being in unity and discussing and talking and you're right

Tyler that is very very important unfortunately

Tyler to some extent my generation I'm a millennial I don't know 25

I am too so okay but you're you're at the tail end of that so you fall somewhere in between I guess but but at progressively right like as we see even like you know

Gen Z I think it is right that's the next one after that how much and and the internet is not a bad thing by the way

I'm about to bash the internet but it's not a bad thing I mean look I get to talk to you guys and I would have never met you guys otherwise so I'm used appropriately like the internet is a blessing from God absolutely but as we so often do as human beings we pervert and corrupt the gifts that God gives us to the point where like you know tik -tok is popular because you get a quick little you know dopamine dopamine fix right for like a five second video and then you can move on to the next thing people don't know how to talk to one another you know because it requires attention it requires care it requires love and we live in a very loveless very selfish society right and so the internet is being abused in that way like think about how many people watch this podcast

I'm not trying I love this podcast but how many people don't watch things like these because they're like it's too long mm -hmm right you know what

I mean like it's too long they just want okay give me the spark notes right give me the bullet points because they just want to move on and then we wonder why people so many people are depressed and sad and lonely and the the church is supposed to be the opposite of that amen but so much of that has come into the church because what's happening is is that instead of us influencing influencing the culture the culture is influencing us right and I feel for you

Tyler because to some extent to some degree I've seen what you're describing and it's like you're saying

I just want to have a conversation I don't you know events are fine right we can go and do a field day that's fine but at the end of the day we're not gonna have deep conversations about life about God what's the point you know like and I've been in those situations where like you've got the little clicks at church and they all go to like play golf together or you know whatever it might be but man like aren't we

Christians like are we supposed to be passionate about God like yeah and it's it's something that really

I don't know how else to describe it but it's a poison in the church currently I'm a big believer in the giving of our time and not just our money yeah absolutely yeah what is every what is every stereotypical businessman say about time time is money time is money

I think that just gets more true with the culture we're in with all the rushing and all the go go go go go and investing time in people is so out of out of context so controversial and I think it becomes that much more meaningful yeah especially in the body of Christ to invest in each other to visit the sick to pray with the lonely well and Tyler you often do this and I'll take the time to do this

I appreciate our group that we have it and the brothers that God has brought together amongst us that we invest in each other as as much as we can we invest each other in the in the small ways that we can we we share with one another our burdens we pray for one another we ask questions about scripture and we love one another and so I'm appreciative of that investment that you guys put in me and I'm able to put in you it's such a blessing from God I'll put my two cents worth on on this passage and we'll move on to the next one

I think really to help us not take it out of context and to get the prescription out of it is look at what it doesn't say and look at what it actually does say if you're in verse 45 it it doesn't say that they sold everything everything that I had put it in one pot it doesn't say that it just says and they began selling their property and possessions it doesn't say all of them and it doesn't say they put it all in one pot but what it does say is that everybody that had need was taken care of as anyone might have need they shared it with all of they did not redistribute wealth that's right that's right they took care of their people all right so here's here's a could be controversial passage that goes back to maybe the eschatology conversation as I was looking at it chapter 3 verse 21

I'll read it quickly whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which

God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times so the question is explain the restoration of all things and I think that's gonna look different from a different eschatological perspective maybe this is just a little bit the context this is

Peter's part of Peter's sermon to them they had just somebody couldn't walk they they raised him up and he was able to immediately walk and they they put this wrong emphasis wrong almost worship towards Peter and John and they were like whoa it's all

Jesus it's in the name of Jesus and they started pointing Jesus and he shared the gospel with him and started preaching to him of course he he blasted him put him on blast for they were the ones who yeah but then he talks about this this restoration evolving what do you guys think about that I am

I am immediately reminded of 1st Corinthians 15 for he must reign until all enemies are put under his feet and Revelation where it says behold

I am making all things new I yeah

I mean I can't avoid the eschatological implications of this passage and I'm you know

I know we're gonna agree to some extent disagree to another extent I don't know what everybody's position is here

I know that that Claude and I have had those conversations sometimes fun conversations interesting conversations but you know

I am post -millennial and you know I'm not gonna I'm not gonna deny it right like it's when

I read this this I do believe that this is a reference to Christ's current reign where he is currently restoring this world right where he is redeeming this world so you know take that for what you will

I'll let you guys have a go at it and knock me down or whatever you got to do

I'm I wouldn't knock you down at all but I would say contactless look at the context and this is not arguing one way or another

I mean the scripture the plain reading of the text is the first principle of hermeneutics right if so if we go back to verse 17 yet now brethren

I know that you did it in ignorance right because he's speaking like Paul like Rob said he put him on blast as did also your rulers but these things which

God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets that the Christ would suffer he has thus fulfilled repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the

Lord and that he may send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before so he's speaking here about how what

Christ did that Christ came right that Christ suffered crucified dead buried and in verse 21 there's the comma after before the continuation of the statement whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things comma which

God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began I mean even if we we don't we don't even have to just looking at the plain context what what

Peter is saying right that's Peter speaking on Solomon's portico he simply he simply reminding them that Christ came that Christ ascended whom the heavens received right until the restoration of all things that that moment in time when

Christ does come and all is restored so he's pointing them to the the fact not not any assumption but the fact of Christ coming the fact of Christ ascension and the fact of the matter that one day all things will be restored and renewed

I don't

I don't know how quickly anybody can pull up a Greek or knows Greek I certainly do not well that passage 20 and 21 the word until in English okay so 321 yeah we recognize that word until as meaning this restoration is happens after until unto our

Cree is the word and yes from understanding from understanding that word is kind of it doesn't mean that it's an event that happens after but it's describing the time period in which the raining happens through the it's through the idea of a terminus what is a terminus

Tyler or Matt yeah so this this period of restoration

I kind of go with what what

Jay was saying it's it's going on right now it started with with the Jesus coming and he said the kingdom of heaven is a hand and he is this period of is is happy now or or restoring or redeeming

I mean that's that's why you know Elijah the forerunner Elijah came to it to announce it and that's why he came and all the prophets spoke of Jesus and all the you know

Jesus spoke to them on the road to Emmaus that everything in the Old Testament spoke to him and all the everything is is pointed to Jesus he is the restoration and he is redeeming and so that's that's kind of how

I was looking at it and of course I don't I don't want my post meal perspective to to blur the correct interpretation here and that's why

I was just that's why I was just leaning on the plane plane reading of the text and looking up that word that that word

Akri is a it's a conjunction right joining so in in it refers to a terminus a end point

I mean if we go by the Greek on that the plane in the if you can have plain reading of the text in the

Greek right you don't know you don't know what I'm saying so but if we go by that and we go by the meaning the authors intended meaning right we see that this is speaking of until at that in point that's a restoration of all things yeah we can agree with with the over the like you're saying the plane reading

I think the the presuppositions and implications is what we're talking about where okay like this is where we're gonna differ like the timing right like when is that until right and what's happening in the meantime those are like questions that are outside that text itself but they're good to some extent you know if we're thinking of other passages and we're thinking through our you know post -meal pre -meal omil lens we're going to answer that question differently

I was just wondering if we could gather from that particular word was you were talking about the meaning of it is an end point so is is the end point when everything is restored so like it's being restored and we get to that end point like Jay quoted 1st

Corinthians 15 and the last enemy is death or does the there's the end point and then after the end point you have the restoration well

I think restoration there in consummation are synonymous right and that's a that's a different point in time right right that's the and that's you know seeing it in the in the context it's a point in time right we would say it's more gradual you would say it's in a moment essentially yeah in a moment at the twinkling of an eye at the last

Trump the Trump of God shall say home that the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible and we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with him in the air and so shall we ever be with the

Lord that was a that was a conflation of 1st Corinthians 1550 through the end of the chapter and 1st

Thessalonians I recognize that conflated am I just wondering why I recognize that but well listen we could talk about the rapture change there what what rapture this this will probably be our last one and we'll have to carry five and six over to the next one but chapter 4 verses 27 through 33 and God's Word says we're truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant

Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever you had your hand and your purpose predestined to occur and now

Lord take note of their threats and grant that your bondservants may speak your word with all confidence while you extend your hand to heal and signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant

Jesus and when they had prayed the place where they had gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak the

Word of God with boldness so what did the Holy Spirit do here in this passage and is this something that we should expect to see today the same scenario oh boy we kind of we address that early on right by by making the the disclaimer that the book of Acts is a historical descriptive narrative account of what took place not necessarily to infer that everything that was done we're not trying to read it

I think that's a that's a challenge that many are faced with that they that people feel the need to recreate

Pentecost and to recreate the book of Acts God doesn't need a sequel we all know sequels are typically horrible we're not trying to make you know to do this again but what we do see is that these things took place and Matt I'm so thankful for him as a brother in Christ and like he mentioned earlier the importance of context right he he uses that term and that is so very important because when you look at this passage in context he said now

Lord look on their threats grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word now who are the servants it's the

Apostles how do we know the signs and what who who did the signs and the wonders in the book of Acts the book of Acts tells us early on in the first chapter many signs and wonders were done by the hands of the

Apostles and we see this we see this carried out right and certainly the

Apostles and their close associates are connected it wasn't just Apostles that did the signs and wonders in the book of Acts but it was their close associates now how does that disassociate us because we are not nearly close associates we don't know them yeah we haven't you know had them breathe their stinky breath on us well and I think that's why the the passage in 1st

Corinthians and in Hebrews chapter 2 are so important where 1st Corinthians says these things are done according to the will of the

Spirit and Hebrews chapter 2 says according to the will of God so it's not something that we we can drum up ourselves something that we can try to duplicate sequel replicate but it's if it happens it's because it's the will of God and and and nothing more or nothing less nothing from us it's his will for his purposes that's right and I so appreciate what you had to say right there about that passage

I think it for me it's key to look at their prayer ultimately they were simply praying for the boldness speak

God's Word they weren't necessarily praying for the place to be shaken or anything great as a result right they were praying for boldness and through these acts the

Holy Spirit they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were given the ability to speak the

Word with boldness so their their prayer was answered and yes that these miraculous things happen as a result yes that that wasn't what they were seeking after they were speaking after praying for simply for boldness to preach the

Word amen and I definitely think that is something we can carry over yeah definitely absolutely and I'm sorry that my mind it's just this is where my mind has been for the past while having this conversation doing a podcast on it and thinking about these things but going back to the the passage that we were just at in chapter 3 and Peter's sermon where he raised you know he raised the guy who couldn't walk you and it says the crowd marveled yes why if if it's supposed to be normative it should just be like everyday occurrence it so why did they marvel

I just found that an interesting question to contemplate I think this is a this is a good place to start we don't have time to go on any further anybody else have any last thoughts on chapters 1 2 3 4 something you didn't get to say

I'll keep it to myself for now that'll be part 2 well partially part 2 that'll be cool that'll be cool hang on to that and bring it to us next time

YouTube brothers down on the bottom Matt and Jay I know you are not always able to be with us so I would love

Matt if you were to share the gospel with us and when he finishes Jay would you mind to close us in prayer the gospel simply is the good news of who

Jesus was and what he did and how benefits of that are given to those who believe we begin by realizing who

God is and who man is we realize that God is perfect and holy and righteous and man it's just the opposite that we are sinful and wicked in our nature because of the sin of Adam and Eve of all we are all born with a sin nature we're born as enemies of God separated from him and with no desire for God and no ability to seek after him or to reconcile that relationship and because of that we deserve death we deserve spiritual and physical death because God is holy and righteous we deserve to be judged for sinning and rebelling against him but he is also a loving and merciful

God and in that love and mercy and his graciousness he alone provided a way for sinners to be reconciled to himself and the way that he did that was to send his one and only son

Jesus Christ be born of a virgin to live a perfect life that no one else did as if he was fully

God and fully man never once sinning and because of that perfect righteousness he was willing and able to be a substitute for those who couldn't stand before God on their own he willingly went to the cross for the sins of his people suffered that wrath of God to satisfy that wrath of God on behalf of his people after he died he was buried for three days and rose again as he said he would send it to heaven sit at the right hand of the father where is that today reigning and ruling over all things and we're told for those who put their faith in him who believe upon Christ that we will be saved and when our time comes when we all die we will stand in judgment for those who have placed their faith and trust in Christ and no faith in their works of their own when

Christ looks upon us he would no longer see our sin and our evil deeds he'll see us covered in the righteousness of Christ but unfortunately for those who reject

Christ they will still stand in judgment so our plea for you today for those who have not is to turn to Christ trust in him and who he was and his work alone as the only way of reconciliation to God the father never gets old you want me to go ahead and close up yes yes

Lord God we are imperfect people serving a perfect God to the best sort of ability

Lord and at the end of the day Lord all we're doing is nothing more than our duty but we thank you that you find these filthy rags worthy not because of our own righteousness

Lord but because of the righteousness that you have given us through your son Jesus Christ Lord we are humbled to be your servants and we are grateful that we can we can know that you that you have adopted us into your family that we can be called children of God again nothing good

Lord you know our thoughts you know our personal lives you know what we are capable of Lord and it's because of your son that we can be here together as brothers proclaiming a wonderful God it's because of you and so Lord I pray that this conversation is a blessing to to everyone that has been a part of it to everyone that has listened that it glorifies your name

Lord because ultimately that that's what we're here for Lord to glorify your name I pray that that we take these things that have been discussed to heart to consider them to think about them to pray over them that it might draw us nearer to you

Lord father give us more of your grace give us more of your mercy that we so dearly need thank you for forgiving us thank you for calling us in Jesus name amen amen amen thank you brothers

I appreciate it so much and thank you all for watching the labors podcast we hope to see you real soon thank you for joining the laborers podcast remember