Survey of the Book of Acts

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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May 24, 2022

00:00: Well, good evening, everyone.
00:02: This is class five.
00:04: Actually, I'm sorry.
00:06: Yeah, class four of survey of the New Testament.
00:11: And tonight we are going to be looking at the one history book that we have in the New Testament.
00:18: And that is the book of Acts.
00:21: If you remember the Old Testament breakdown, the Old Testament was broken down into five parts.
00:26: You have law, also known as the Pentateuch.
00:33: You have the history books.
00:37: You have the wisdom literature, also known as the poetic books.
00:43: And then you have the prophets, which are broken down into major and minor.
00:51: That's our overview of the Old Testament.
00:54: The New Testament is broken down similarly, but not the same.
00:59: The New Testament is broken down first in the Gospels, which there are four.
01:07: And then the one book of history, which is the book of Acts.
01:11: As we're going to see tonight, Acts covers about three decades of history in the first century.
01:17: And then you have the epistolary works or the epistles.
01:21: And then between those you can distinguish between the Pauline epistles and the general epistles.
01:30: And then finally, we have the book, the prophetic book, one prophetic book in the New Testament, which is the book of Revelation.
01:40: So that is not to say that there aren't prophecies in other places or anything, just like in Matthew, there are prophecies and things.
01:46: But to say the type of literature, we're looking here at forms of literature.
01:52: When we do a survey, we're looking at the broad picture, the big scope sitting on top of the water tower, looking down over everything we survey.
01:59: That's the whole idea.
02:00: So tonight we have come to the point where we are here.
02:05: Last semester, we did all of this.
02:08: We have spent the last couple of weeks looking at the Gospels.
02:12: We did the Synoptic Gospels, which are Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
02:15: And then last week we did the Autopic Gospel or the Autopic Gospel, rather, which is the Gospel of John.
02:24: And so tonight we're going to look at what we could call the book of Acts or what I like to call Luke part two, because Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke.
02:41: And he is the author of the book of Acts, which means that the person who wrote the most of the New Testament, even though Paul wrote the most books, Luke wrote the most in way of breadth.
03:00: There's more Greek words in the book of Luke and Acts together than all the rest of the New Testament combined.
03:10: So just those two books make up more than half of the New Testament.
03:15: So here we go.
03:18: I knew we'd have late comers, but they're coming.
03:22: The door's about to open.
03:23: Three, two, one.
03:25: Like magic.
03:27: Hi, Corey.
03:27: Hey, guys.
03:28: Anybody else coming? Just you two? Well, I'm glad you're here.
03:33: Why don't you pull that door too if nobody else is coming? Well, you tell those guys that they have an unexcused absence than I'm listening to.
03:46: Relay the message, Corey.
03:48: Let them know it's unexcused.
03:51: All right.
03:52: So when we look at the book of Luke and we look at the book of Acts, we notice some similarities.
04:00: Most specifically, they're both addressed to the same person.
04:04: The beginning of the book of Luke in Luke chapter one, verse three says it is to Theophilus and the book of Acts also says that it is to Theophilus.
04:13: This indicates to us the recipient of the letter and also indicates to us the author because we're seeing it's written to the same person.
04:24: Now, the word Theophilus is interesting because Theophilus is a proper name.
04:36: It has the prefix theo, which means God, and the Greek word philos, which means love.
04:45: And so the word Theophilus means a lover of God, one who loves God.
04:52: And in the same way, like my son, we have a child on the way.
04:55: And right now the plan is to name him Theodore.
04:59: Theodore means gift from God.
05:02: Same prefix, theo, but the ending, the root is different.
05:07: So philos meaning love, Theophilus.
05:11: So there is a lot of debate within the community of scholars as to whether or not Luke and Acts is written to a person or rather the lovers of God, meaning the church.
05:25: So those who love God could be the church that he's writing this to, but it could also be an individual named Theophilus that is in some position of authority in Luke's writing to, because it says, he says he has compiled all these, all this information so as to give him a right account of all that has taken place.
05:50: And so it certainly has the beginning that it reads like a personal letter, but there's nothing saying that it's not written specifically to the general church.
06:00: I kind of am on the fence about it.
06:02: I have my own opinions, but they're not, you know, I don't have a dogmatic approach.
06:12: All right, so tonight we're going to look at three things.
06:16: And by the way, if you have the syllabus, I know Lance, I know tonight's your first night with us.
06:21: I can get you a copy before you leave of the syllabus.
06:24: That way you know what we do each week.
06:26: If you decide you want to start coming regularly, you'll know what's coming up.
06:29: And this is an eight week course.
06:30: Tonight is week four.
06:31: So we have four more classes to go.
06:35: And each week we have an outline of what we are to read and what we are to prepare for.
06:41: And everybody has their book to read.
06:45: Yes.
06:46: You what? Need a syllabus? When we take our break at the hour mark, I'll get you both one.
06:51: It's right on my computer.
06:53: All right, so tonight we're going to look at three purposes.
06:57: We're going to look at three subjects.
06:59: We're going to look at the authorship and purpose of the book of Acts.
07:03: Of course, we've already talked about the author.
07:05: Primarily look at the purpose of the book of Acts.
07:07: Number two, we're going to look at theological insights, which we do that each week.
07:12: And then number three, we're going to look at difficulties and controversies.
07:16: So that's our outline, authorship and purpose, theological insights, difficulties and controversies.
07:30: All right.
07:32: In the book Introduction to the New Testament by Douglas Moo and D.A.
07:37: Carson, this phrase is used, this quote, Acts is a whirlwind tour through three decades of church history.
07:50: Acts is a whirlwind tour of three decades of church history.
07:53: The story moves through various areas, including Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Rome.
07:59: And it focuses on two main figures.
08:02: Who wants to be the, who wants to be the church or not the church, the class smarty pants tonight and tell me who the book of Acts is revolving around.
08:11: Two individuals.
08:12: And you can't say Jesus.
08:13: Of course it revolves around Jesus, but that's not the answer because I'm thinking of two specific men.
08:18: Corey, who is it? Yeah, but not in that order, right? Peter and Paul, right? So the book is centered around two specific ministries.
08:27: Now what's interesting is we know there are other ministries happening and we get a glimpse such as the ministry of Philip and we know the other apostles are doing things historically.
08:38: We know like Thomas goes to the East and takes the gospel into India and places like that.
08:44: So we know that other things are happening, but the book of Acts specifically deals with two primary focal points.
08:53: Chapters 1 to 12 is focused around the ministry of Peter, but then beginning at around chapter 13, we have somewhat of a shift in focus and it from chapters 13 to 28, there's a focus on the ministry of Paul.
09:14: Now, again, like I said, that's not to say there aren't other people, but these two dominate the story.
09:21: And this makes sense because as we're going to see, there is a distinction between Peter and Paul, which Paul actually tells us in Galatians chapter two, that would make this make a lot of sense.
09:37: Can you guys remember off the top of your head, what would make these two key figures important to distinguish in early church history? Maybe I'm asking this in a difficult way, but see what you come up with.
09:51: Thank you for a moment and say, okay, what was you going to say? Yeah, I saw your hand.
09:59: Well, and we can talk about that in the sense that, um, I would say it's the, all the apostles, the Bible says the, the, um, the, uh, the Bible says the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ, Jesus being the cornerstone.
10:16: Um, but certainly Peter represented the apostles, but what we do know from Galatians chapter two is that Peter had a very specific ministry to the Jews and Paul had a very specific ministry to the Gentiles.
10:28: I read the passage to you.
10:30: This is Galatians chapter two, verses seven and eight.
10:33: It says, uh, this is Paul writing.
10:36: He says on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter has been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked through me for mine to the Gentiles.
10:52: So Paul saw himself as the counterpart to Peter.
10:55: Peter had a specific ministry to the circumcised, which was the Jews.
11:00: And Paul saw himself as having a specific ministry to the uncircumcised, that is the Gentiles.
11:06: Now, that is not to say that Peter never preached to Gentiles because we know he did in Acts chapter 10, he preaches to Cornelius, who is a Gentile.
11:12: And that's not to say that Paul never preached to the Jews because we know that every city he went into, he went to the synagogues and he preached in the synagogue.
11:19: So certainly both are true.
11:22: But according to Paul in Galatians 2, 7 and 8, there's a very specific ministry given to Peter to the Jews and given to Paul to the Gentiles.
11:36: Now, when we talk about the purpose of the book of Acts, I want us to think for a moment about another verse.
11:46: If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Acts chapter 1 and verse 8.
12:03: Years ago, I did a series of teaching through Acts and I entitled it, I entitled the series Beyond Our Borders, because I believe the book of Acts was about that.
12:13: It was about going beyond the borders of Israel and the gospel going to all the nations.
12:18: And we see this in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, when Jesus is speaking to his apostles and he gives them the missionary commission, where he says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
12:43: That one verse becomes the theme of the entire book of Acts because that is what we see.
12:49: It begins in Jerusalem and then the church is pushed out of Jerusalem as there begins to be conflict within the city.
12:58: The church begins to move out into the surrounding area of Judea.
13:02: Then it moves into Samaria and we actually see little miniature Pentecost moments where we see the major Pentecost moment happen in Jerusalem.
13:11: We see little miniature moments of Pentecostal experience where they're experiencing gifts and they're experiencing miracles that are happening in these other places.
13:19: And when the gospel is moving out into these other places, we see God working through the spirit and again to the end of the earth.
13:26: Where does the book end? It ends in Rome, right? So all the way from Jerusalem, all the way to Rome, and it's this story of the expansion of the power of God through the early work of the apostles.
13:42: And sometimes again we think like the book is about Peter or the book is about Paul.
13:50: Really and truly the book of Acts is about the Holy Spirit because where the gospels tell us about the work of Jesus and John 15, what did Jesus say? I go away and I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit.
14:04: I'm going to send you the comforter, right? The percolators, the one who will come and walk alongside of you.
14:09: And when he comes, he is going to abide with you forever.
14:16: And that is a blessed promise that we have as to be part of the new covenant, that we have the Holy Spirit who abides within us and he walks within us and he leads us and we see the power of the Holy Spirit building the church from the ground up.
14:33: Starts out with, was it 120 people in the upper room? Then 3000 people get saved in one day at one sermon from the book of Joel of all places.
14:45: Peter preaches 3000 people get saved and then it says and the spirit was adding to their number daily.
14:52: As people were being saved every day, people are being saved, people are being changed, people are being converted by the power of the spirit.
15:00: So the book of Acts is all about the spirit and the power of the spirit.
15:07: So as one says, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is the gospel of Jesus.
15:12: Acts could be called the gospel of the spirit.
15:14: The good news, the spirit has come and has empowered believers and unleashed them upon the world.
15:23: Now we talk about purpose, purpose in the book.
15:30: That was sort of the overview, but I want to want to dive in a little further.
15:39: Because we know we mentioned earlier, Luke wrote Acts.
15:44: Luke writes Acts as a historian.
15:47: That's important to understand the closest thing we have to a historian in the in the New Testament is Paul is Luke.
15:55: And and then if you if you if you want to say Paul is the church theologian.
16:01: Luke is the church historian.
16:05: I want to read you a quote now.
16:07: I read this quote in a previous class, but I always repeat it for this class because it's important.
16:13: I read this when we studied the book of Luke.
16:15: I want to I want to read it again now.
16:18: This is about William Mitchell Ramsey.
16:25: He was Oxford University's first professor of classical art and archaeology, and he originally accepted the German scholarly thesis that Acts was a second century work that was filled with errors.
16:39: That was his assumption because that's what he was taught in college.
16:43: He announced that he was going to prove that.
16:47: However, research into ancient literature and research on the ground in Turkey forced him to recognize that Acts was actually an accurate report written within the first century.
17:01: At dig after dig spanning 15 years, he accumulated evidence supporting Luke's accounts, but none detracting from them.
17:11: Overwhelmed by his findings, he became a citizen.
17:16: Our hypothesis is that Acts was written by a great historian, a writer who set himself to record the facts as they occurred, a strong partisan indeed, but raised above partiality by the perfect confidence that he had only to describe the facts as they occurred in order to make the truth of Christianity and the honor of Paul apparent.
17:39: This again was an unbeliever who set out to disprove what the Bible had to say, and instead of disproving it, he himself came to conclude that not only is it true, but it was written by a historian par excellence, and that is Luke.
17:57: So this calls into question then, well, when did Luke write this? And we don't know the answer to that, but we do know a little bit based on what is in it.
18:07: We know that it came after Paul's house arrest in Rome because that is mentioned in the book.
18:14: Some date it after AD 70, but anybody who's ever been in my class very long knows that I don't accept that because I believe all of the New Testament was written before the year 70.
18:28: And here's the thing, I think Luke as a historian would have certainly included the destruction of Jerusalem if he was still writing after AD 70 occurred.
18:39: The fact that it's not in the book is to me a massive red flag.
18:45: So that would mean that I believe that Luke wrote this in the mid-60s, and it ends rather abruptly with Paul still alive in Rome, which means that would have been around 62, 63-ish maybe.
19:00: So we're seeing a mid-60s dating of this writing, and it does not give us an account of the death of Paul.
19:13: Many people find that to be disconcerting because they want to know how Paul died.
19:18: There is no exact determination of how the apostles died.
19:23: There are traditions.
19:24: There's nothing wrong with traditions as long as we understand that traditions are not scripture.
19:29: And so we can ask the questions and answer them based on what does tradition say.
19:33: And tradition says that Peter was crucified upside down.
19:37: Many people take that as gospel truth.
19:39: I think it could be true, but I don't know for certain because again, it's a traditional understanding of how Peter died.
19:46: I do believe Peter died as a martyr, because that makes sense about when he died in the time frame.
19:53: But Paul was a Roman citizen, and one of the benefits of Roman citizenship was that you did not have to be crucified.
20:02: Roman citizens were not crucified, but they were beheaded, and so there is a very good chance that Paul was not crucified, but rather that he was beheaded for his faith.
20:15: I'll read you a quote from a commentary.
20:17: It says, there are a few different Christian traditions in regards to how Paul died, but the most commonly accepted one comes from the writings of Eusebius.
20:24: So there is some early church writings.
20:26: It's extra biblical.
20:29: And early church historians, Eusebius claimed that Paul was beheaded at the order of Roman Emperor Nero or one of his subordinates.
20:37: Paul's martyrdom occurred shortly after much of Rome burned in a fire, an event that Nero blamed on the Christians.
20:44: We've heard of this story that Nero had actually caused the fire himself and used the Christians as a scapegoat.
20:50: That would have made sense as the proper timing for the death of the Apostle Paul, and Eusebius writes and says that's what happened.
20:56: So the closest thing we have to a historical record is from a later church leader.
21:03: Did you have a question? I'm sorry.
21:05: I thought your hand went up.
21:07: Okay.
21:08: Just thinking.
21:09: Okay.
21:11: The fact that Luke does not mention the death of Paul indicates that he likely wrote prior to that event, as I said, giving us a mid-60s date.
21:20: Now, when it comes to the purpose of Acts, we have this from the author himself.
21:23: And if you have your Bibles open, just look again with me at Luke chapter one.
21:30: I'm sorry, Acts chapter one, verse one.
21:36: He says in the first book, O Theophilus, I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen.
21:49: So the writer of Acts refers to his previous book, which is the Gospel of Luke.
21:55: He says, I gave an account about Jesus.
21:57: So his purpose seems to be to provide an orderly account of this same, in the same way to the early church.
22:06: So Acts begins the historical record of 2000 years of church history.
22:12: By the way, if you take my church history class, which will probably be the next, I think that's the next class, isn't it? Church history will be after we have the new baby.
22:23: We won't have another class until after the baby's born.
22:26: The next class will be church history, and we actually begin church history with a short overview of what happens in Acts, because Acts begins church history.
22:36: Church history begins at Pentecost and explodes from there.
22:39: Now, one might argue, well, the Old Testament is the church, you know, but from the perspective of the New Testament, church history begins at Pentecost.
22:49: All right, let's look at some theological insights.
22:53: We'll move now to that.
22:55: Let me give myself some room on the board.
23:07: All right, so in the book of Acts, we have certainly some theological, many theological considerations to make, but here's the most important one.
23:20: I'll write it on the board.
23:25: Acts is a bridge.
23:31: Acts is a bridge.
23:38: Here's what I mean, and this is actually in your commentary.
23:42: If you read your commentary in the introduction to it, this is what it says.
23:46: Acts is a bridge not only between the life of Christ and the Christ life taught in the epistles, but it also is a transitional link between Judaism and Christianity, between law and grace.
24:00: Acts becomes the bridge between, really, between two covenants, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and because Acts is historical in nature, it does not provide as many direct theological propositions as does the books like Romans or Hebrews, and that is where the biggest disputes come.
24:27: I'll throw these two words out there because these two words are very important.
24:43: Understanding the difference between prescriptive and descriptive is very important when you are studying the book of Acts because many people see what happens in the book of Acts, and they say, oh, that must mean we are supposed to do that, and that's the way it's supposed to be for all time, therefore prescriptive, rather than saying this is what was happening at the time, and therefore it is descriptive.
25:10: Here's a good example.
25:13: First century church, basically everyone gave their money to the church, and the church fed the people as needed, and they were basically living in a communal society.
25:25: Why do you think that was? For the church, but why do you think the early parts of Acts, that that was the way it was handled? Well, that even happened after the deacons.
25:45: We see the deacons beginning about Acts 6.
25:55: Okay, all right, and certainly that's true.
26:03: You're kind of getting where I'm at.
26:10: Wasn't the church the first ones who thought of the banking system? Well, that's not, I'm not going there.
26:16: I'd have to, that might take us down a different road.
26:21: The simple, what I'm looking for is the early Christians were separated from family, from economy, from financial security, all because of their faith in Christ, and so what does the church do? It comes together, and it supports those in the church, and this is everybody, so the church becomes a place where they are supporting one another.
26:46: Now, as we go through the book of Acts, we don't see that in every place.
26:51: We don't see communal living in Ephesus necessarily, or in Corinth, or in places like that, but we do see it in Jerusalem.
26:59: Why? Because there is a social stigma for following Christ that is dividing families, and dividing people from their jobs, from their security, from their family, and the church steps in and becomes the communal protection for these people, and feeds them.
27:14: In the book of Acts 6, it tells us that the Hellenistic Jews weren't being fed properly in the daily feeding.
27:21: What do we get from that? They were having to feed these people every day, so they picked six men, the original deacons, which is what you were talking about, Corey, because they had to feed them.
27:35: Now, some people take that model, and they say, that's the way church is supposed to be forever.
27:42: The church is basically a communistic society, and I got to tell you, if there's one thing you want to get my goat, tell me that Christians are supposed to be communists, because I might come out my chair.
27:51: That is not what the Bible calls us to.
27:55: The Bible does not call us to communism.
27:57: Karl Marx was nobody's savior, but he certainly has had many people killed.
28:02: Here's the thought behind this.
28:04: One thing that we have to understand from the early church's exercise of this leadership was everything was voluntary.
28:13: We know this from the story of Ananias and Sapphira, because when Ananias and Sapphira sold their property and gave a portion to the church, they didn't give all of it, and some people say, see, it was required that they give all.
28:25: No, it wasn't, because Peter says specifically in that passage, your property was yours to do with what you would.
28:33: You could have sold it or kept it.
28:35: You could have gave us half the money.
28:37: You could have given us all the money, but because you lied to the Holy Spirit, that's why you're condemned, not because you didn't give the money, but because you lied.
28:49: That's right.
28:50: Yeah, yeah, he did, didn't he? And he said, did you sell it for all of this? And he said, yes, he lied.
28:55: And he says, how can you lie to the Holy Spirit? You're lying to men.
28:59: You're lying to God.
29:00: And he dropped dead right there.
29:02: By the way, when people talk about being slain in the spirit, that's just be careful what you wish for.
29:10: Ananias was the first man to be slain in the spirit, followed very quickly by his wife.
29:15: The first man to be slain in the spirit, the point is not everything in the book of Acts is meant to have an all time prescription for the church, but it's descriptive of what is happening at that time.
29:26: And therefore we another good example is the issue of tongues.
29:31: And we're going to talk more about tongues later because there's only three books of the Bible that talk about tongues.
29:37: Acts, first Corinthians and a portion of Mark.
29:40: And that's debatable.
29:41: I kind of hold that up like a half, two and a half.
29:45: So the people who make their arguments generally that every Christian should speak in tongues, and typically these are our Pentecostal friends, the people who make their arguments that every Christian should speak in tongues almost always take the book of Acts as fully prescriptive rather than descriptive.
30:05: It's telling us what we are to do rather than telling us what they did.
30:10: That's a big distinction.
30:13: Acts represents a transition in time between one covenant and another covenant, and therefore not everything that happens within that transitional period of time is meant to be for all time.
30:25: Go ahead.
30:26: Yeah, I grew up in Missouri with a lot of Amish Mennonites.
30:30: Sure.
30:31: And the church owned the farm, owned the property.
30:35: If you in all the land in the community, it was owned by the church.
30:41: Yes.
30:42: And now they did a lot of that for tax evasion.
30:46: I didn't know that, but okay.
30:49: Church lands were not taxed.
30:51: Oh, okay.
30:51: That makes sense.
30:53: But, you know, did they get part of their doctrine from this as well? I'm sure.
30:59: I'm sure.
31:00: There's also the Mennonites, or rather the Amish are a form of Mennonites, are what were known as the part of the radical reformation.
31:11: And it came out of, it actually, if I remember correctly, came out of the Zwingli movement, which he was one of the three major reformers.
31:21: You have Martin Luther, John Calvin, York, Zwingli.
31:23: And the followers of Zwingli became the Anabaptists, and they became known as the radicals.
31:32: And those radicals, one of the things that they did not believe in was they did not believe in any type of connection between church and state.
31:40: Therefore, they wouldn't serve in military.
31:42: They wouldn't serve in any government position, things like that.
31:45: And that is really what gave birth to, and they based it on some of what they see in Acts.
31:49: But again, there's nothing in Acts that forbids anybody from serving in military or serving in a position of authority.
31:55: In fact, there are times when Paul preaches the gospel to people in authority.
32:01: So the idea is, I don't agree with their position, but I think a lot of it has to do not only from their interpretation of Acts, but also from some of what they were dealing with during the 17th century, and 16th, 17th century, as they were sort of dividing from the reformers and becoming their own thing.
32:22: And there's a lot more to that.
32:24: But like I said, in our history class, I talk about the original Anabaptists.
32:30: I really respect a lot of what they were trying to do.
32:34: But I think that they just took a few left turns that I wouldn't take, went some directions I wouldn't go.
32:41: And one of the ones is that a Christian can never...
32:45: Christians always have to be passive.
32:47: That's one thing, absolute passive.
32:49: Can't serve in any government function, can't serve in military.
32:53: And again, the whole communal living thing would be part and parcel of just that whole sort of getting away from the whole coming out and be separate.
33:03: They take that as being not engaging with the world.
33:07: Unless they want to sell a table for $1,000.
33:12: I always joke, I would say, there's a comedian who makes a funny joke.
33:17: He visited the Amish and he says, you know, I went to the Amish people and I tried to take a picture and they said, please don't take a picture because we don't want our pictures taken because it makes us feel a sense of pride.
33:25: He said, no, selling a table with no chairs for $1,000 makes you feel a sense of pride.
33:32: He said, don't tell me you don't feel pride.
33:35: You just told me about that barn you put up in one day.
33:39: Everybody has pride.
33:41: They just show it different ways.
33:43: Sorry, didn't mean to go off on it.
33:44: Went to the left turn there.
33:47: All right.
33:48: So getting back to the transition between the covenants.
33:52: So the transitional period, if we want to call it that, would have lasted about 40 years.
33:59: It would have lasted between 30, which was the time that Christ, around the time of Christ's death, burial and resurrection to the time of the fall of Jerusalem.
34:07: And that that needs to be understood from a timeline perspective.
34:11: If Christ dies around 30, and I know it's 30 to 33 ish, and Jerusalem falls in 70, that makes a 40 year period where the new covenant has already been inaugurated.
34:37: Understand I'm not saying there's not a new covenant.
34:39: There is the new covenant is inaugurated in what the blood of Christ.
34:42: Right.
34:43: So the new covenant has already come.
34:46: But there is this transitional point, this bridge where there are still people functioning in an old covenant understanding.
34:55: And we know this because remember when Paul is going and he's preaching and he talks about the coming of the Holy Spirit and the people that he's preaching to says, we don't know anything about the Holy Spirit.
35:05: We were baptized by John, but we don't know anything about the Holy Spirit.
35:09: That's because they were still essentially functioning in an old covenant perspective, because John was the last Old Testament prophet.
35:18: The John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet.
35:21: So those who were essentially ministered to underneath his ministry were still being ministered to in an old covenant context.
35:29: Christ comes, brings the new covenant.
35:31: And now there's this bridge.
35:32: The book of Acts represents this bridge between the covenants.
35:38: And I would say the final act of God's revelation from the old covenant came in 8070 when he brings destruction.
35:50: And I don't believe Jerusalem's ever going to be rebuilt.
35:51: By the way, we can have a conversation about that when we get to revelation.
35:54: But I don't believe there's going to be another temple.
35:56: I believe that has been done away with and it's over.
35:59: I think the next thing on God's prophetic calendar is not the building of another temple, but the coming of Christ.
36:05: But that we can debate that another time, but that's this is ending that administration and we are now under the new covenant.
36:14: So.
36:16: This transitional period, but oh, by the way, if you want a verse for that, Hebrews 813.
36:23: Says this in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete is growing old and is ready to vanish away.
36:33: All right.
36:33: Now, when is Hebrews written right around here? What does the new covenant do? According to Hebrews 813, Hebrews 813 says the new covenant makes the old covenant obsolete.
36:47: And so the old covenant is doing what it's getting ready to vanish away.
36:53: And when does it vanish away? In the fall of Jerusalem.
36:57: So there.
36:58: So, so that's just a verse to kind of bring it all into perspective.
37:01: Hebrews written in the sixties as well.
37:04: Yep.
37:07: Think of it this way during the time of Christ and during the time of Acts, there's still a temple.
37:13: There's still sacrifices.
37:15: There are still people going to the temple annually to have their, their celebrations.
37:20: All of that is still going on.
37:22: That ends the coming of emperor Titus as he does exactly what Jesus said he was going to do.
37:30: He leaves not one stone left upon another and Jerusalem is cast down and the old covenant is put away.
37:47: Now what's funny.
37:48: You mentioned Matthew 24 earlier.
37:50: I do believe, and maybe this might be a little different from how you guys are interpreting it.
37:54: And we can talk about this another time.
37:55: I do believe Matthew 24 does prophesy the destruction of Jerusalem.
38:00: Jesus talks about the, um, the, the, when he says this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
38:10: Well, what's a generation according to Jewish teachings, 40 years.
38:16: So a lot of people think Matthew 24 is about his return in the future.
38:19: I think this was about the judgment of Jerusalem.
38:22: If you want more information on that, I would encourage you to read the book, the last days, according to Jesus by R.C.
38:29: Sproul, the last days, according, and that is available by audio book.
38:32: If you're one of those people who likes to drive and listen, like I do, uh, the last days, according to Jesus, R.C.
38:37: Sproul gives a very good explanation of Matthew 24 in relationship to revelation and how he understands its fulfillment in AD 70.
38:45: This is also known as partial preterism.
38:47: And that is the position that I teach when it comes to the book of Revelation.
38:51: Um, which you'll find out when we get there in a few weeks.
38:56: All right.
38:57: So once we recognize acts occupies a transitional point in history, certain things become evident.
39:04: The signs and wonders which accompany the ministry of the apostles was not necessarily meant for all times.
39:09: This transitional period is marked by miracles, which are affirming the spirit's work.
39:15: This is why this age is often referred to as the apostolic period.
39:21: By the way, if you want to look at church history, just very briefly, you say the first century, um, makes up the apostolic period.
39:41: The second and third centuries make up what we call the early church or the, the typically the writers from that period are referred to as the early church fathers.
39:57: So you'll like you CBS and people like that, they all their their whole volumes of writings that come from those first two centuries after the church was established.
40:06: Some of those men who knew the apostles directly, some of them are disciples directly of the apostles.
40:11: And we have the writing, which is amazing that we have that most people never read that.
40:16: Most people have never looked into that at all.
40:18: So the second third century known as the early church fathers, then in the fourth century, something very important happens what the conversion or supposed conversion of a man named Constantine, right? So the marrying of Christianity and the powers and the and there is a there is a shift at least in the ability to worship Christ legally.
40:44: Yeah, legally and openly.
40:46: So we have in the fourth century, the beginning of legal religion, legal Christianity, and then it becomes well, it becomes required.
40:59: It goes, it goes quickly from being illegal to legal to being required.
41:03: And then you get the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, which lasts through the Middle Ages.
41:13: You can take this down all the way to the time of the Reformation.
41:18: This is what is known as the medieval period or the Middle Ages.
41:21: Now, I'm glossing a bunch at that point, but you get to the 16th century.
41:27: And what happens a little monk named Martin Luther begins to change the world.
41:34: Now, are there other people in here? Yeah, you've got John Wycliffe, John Huss.
41:38: You get up here in 1058.
41:40: You've got the schism between the East Church and the Western Church.
41:43: You go a little further.
41:44: You can talk about the introduction of Islam and how that changed the church and how things began to happen with things like the Crusades and the Inquisition.
41:51: There's a lot in there that I left out.
41:52: But the point is, you see, this period here is called the apostolic period.
41:57: That's the Book of Acts.
41:58: That's that.
41:59: That's how that relates to everything else.
42:02: And that's a unique period in history.
42:05: People ask me sometimes, why do you think there were only miracles then? Because I think this is a unique period in history.
42:10: I'm not saying miracles don't happen now.
42:11: But the time of signs and wonders and miracles accompanied the apostles.
42:16: They had the signs of the apostles.
42:20: And I don't think that this is why there's a new group out there.
42:23: You've probably heard of NAR.
42:25: NAR is the New Apostolic Reformation.
42:29: And this is a group of hyper Pentecostals who believe that they are the new apostles and that they're having a reformation of gifts and they have the ability to raise the dead and heal the blind and all that.
42:39: They're not doing it, but they're saying they're doing it and they're not.
42:44: If anybody was out there raising the dead or healing the blind or anybody else, he'd be the most famous person in the world.
42:49: And it just ain't happening.
42:52: From the work, from what I understand, if we saw anybody doing that, we would have to actually question if they weren't the Antichrist.
43:00: Because the Bible talks about the Antichrist being able to raise the dead and stuff like that as well.
43:04: Well, yeah.
43:05: And there would be a lot that we would have to consider when it comes to if we did see somebody that had supernatural gifts.
43:16: Not that I want to get into Revelation right now, but in Revelation, it does talk about the beast and being able to do miraculous things.
43:24: So, yeah.
43:27: So like I said, getting I do believe that there's something unique about the apostolic period and about the time the apostles lived, that they had unique abilities.
43:39: And we see that not only in not only in things like the gift of tongues, but in the gifts of healing.
43:49: I mean, what was it? Paul was preaching to a man, fell out a window and he raised him from the dead.
43:55: And everybody was like, yeah, that's normal.
43:57: No, it's not normal.
43:58: It was it is not normal.
44:02: None of the things that were happening were run of the mill.
44:07: All right.
44:08: So I want to give you just a few extra theological insights.
44:15: You may want to write these down if you if you you don't have to you don't have to write them word for word, but just a few thoughts.
44:22: We do have a picture of early church worship in Acts chapter two, verses forty two to forty seven, a picture of early church worship.
44:31: And Acts two, forty two to forty seven.
44:38: In fact, I love that passage because it talks about how the church worshiped, how in fact, let's just look at it.
44:45: Go to Acts two, forty two to forty seven.
44:59: It says in verse forty two, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers and all came upon every soul.
45:11: Many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common.
45:17: And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.
45:23: So we talked about earlier and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food and glad with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.
45:34: And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved.
45:39: So we see a picture of early church worship.
45:42: It was daily.
45:44: They were worshiping together.
45:46: Isn't it sad? And I don't want to break off into a sermon here, but isn't it sad that in 2022, we have to beg people to come to church once a week.
45:55: And we have to hope and pray that people are actually going to get out of their house and go to church.
46:00: And there in the first century, they were gathering daily to worship.
46:05: They had been changed.
46:09: We also see a transition.
46:10: I'm not going to read every verse, but I'll give you a few.
46:12: I'll give you what to write down.
46:14: We see a transition from the Sabbath to the Lord's day.
46:17: We see this in Acts, chapter 20, verse seven, and in first Corinthians, 16 to where they were meeting not on the Sabbath day, but they were having their special meeting time.
46:29: Even though they were worshiping daily, they were having a meeting time on the Lord's day.
46:33: Now, why do we call it the Lord's day? Sunday, but it's also something significant happened on that day.
46:45: Resurrection, right? Keep this in mind, old covenant, new covenant.
46:50: The old covenant is commemorated on the seventh day with arresting from work, which celebrates what God's creation, where he rested from his works.
46:59: The new covenant is celebrated on the first day of the week because Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week.
47:07: That is the that is the distinction between the two.
47:10: We I've heard people say we should worship on Saturday because that's the Sabbath.
47:14: Yes, that is the Sabbath.
47:16: But that is not where Christians have ever worshiped.
47:19: And that's not where we're called to worship.
47:21: And the seventh day Adventists get mad at me when I say that, but they got to get in line.
47:25: I got a lot more people mad at me than them.
47:27: But the idea of meeting on Saturday to fulfill the old covenant law is again, going back under this and we're not there anymore.
47:37: The old covenant has been made what obsolete.
47:42: And we are part of a new covenant with a new day.
47:45: When we got new everything, we have a new sign of entrance.
47:48: The old covenant had circumcision.
47:50: We have baptism.
47:51: We have a new feast.
47:52: The old covenant had the Passover.
47:54: We have the Lord's Supper.
47:55: They had a different day.
47:57: They had the Sabbath.
47:58: We have the Lord's Day.
48:01: All of those things were seeds.
48:04: Circumcision was a seed, circumcision of the heart, which represented regeneration, which would come in the new covenant.
48:11: And we picture that in baptism.
48:13: The Passover was a seed, which represented the Israelites being delivered from Egypt.
48:19: Later, Jesus would take the bread and the cup and he said, this is my body, this is my blood.
48:24: And it represents what? Not deliverance from Egypt, but for deliverance from sin.
48:28: The seed becomes the fruit in the new covenant.
48:33: The same with the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.
48:35: Now, are there genetic connections between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day? Yes, but they're not the same.
48:41: I did a debate on this, by the way.
48:42: That's why I get a little get a little excited about it.
48:44: I did a two and a half hour debate with the Presbyterian over why Sunday is not the Sabbath.
48:49: It's the Lord's Day.
48:50: And there is a difference because I do believe there is a difference.
48:55: All right.
48:57: We see the first Christian martyr Acts chapter seven.
49:01: Who is who? Who's first Christian martyr? Stephen.
49:05: That's right.
49:07: We see the loosening of dietary restrictions in Acts chapter 10.
49:12: Which everybody like me, who enjoys their weekly pork sandwich will give a hearty amen because the dietary restrictions were loosened.
49:22: By the way, the book of Mark actually tells us Jesus made all foods clean.
49:29: And that was recognized by Peter in Acts chapter 10.
49:33: But it doesn't say Peter made the foods clean.
49:35: It says Jesus did.
49:39: We also see the first use of the word Christian in the book of Acts.
49:43: It is in Acts chapter 11, verse 26.
49:46: And it was a derisive term.
49:48: Acts 11, 26.
49:49: It says they were first called Christians at Antioch.
49:53: And the word Christian there was a basically like an insulting term, saying they believed they were little Christs.
50:04: Yeah, yeah.
50:09: That's not to say that we shouldn't call ourselves Christians, but just understanding the history of the term.
50:16: We also see the conversion of one of God's greatest enemies in Acts chapter nine.
50:22: Saul of Tarsus.
50:25: Saul was an enemy of the church, and God converted him, demonstrating to us the theological principle of election.
50:34: Because Paul did not choose Christ.
50:37: As many people say, you have to choose Christ.
50:39: No, Christ chose him.
50:42: Christ blinded him and Christ saved him in a lot of ways without his approval, without asking him anything.
50:49: He just simply intervened in his life.
50:53: And he went on to become the greatest missionary.
50:59: And I would say outside of Jesus Christ, the greatest preacher the church has ever had.
51:09: Last, before we take our break, interesting theological note.
51:15: The word love is never used in the book of Acts.
51:19: As much as we talk about the love of God and the love of neighbor and how Christ has called us to love one another and to love our enemies.
51:29: The book of Acts never once uses any of the Greek forms of the word for love.
51:35: John uses it dozens of times, but it is not included in Luke.
51:42: I believe this tells us something about modern evangelistic methods, because what is the book of Acts? It's the spreading of the gospel.
51:49: It's the spreading of the church.
51:50: It's going out into the world.
51:52: And the modern evangelistic method is to go tell everyone Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
51:57: That's the way we're supposed to evangelize.
51:59: That's not the way the early church evangelized.
52:02: The early church evangelized by calling people to repentance and faith, to turn from your sin and turn to the only one who can save you.
52:10: Act 17 actually should be our example for evangelism, because Paul goes into the midst of the philosophers, literally into the belly of the beast.
52:20: And he says, this God, whom you do not know, I proclaim to you today.
52:25: And this God tells every man everywhere to repent.
52:31: He's called all men everywhere to repent.
52:33: So does that mean there's no love in Acts? No, there's love all over Acts.
52:37: It's just the word is not there.
52:39: And it's interesting when we consider modern evangelistic methods.
52:43: All right, we're going to go ahead.
52:46: You said, you know, God called all men to repent, but is that the father or Jesus? No, no, no.
52:55: Let me, I actually said it wrong.
52:58: God commands all men everywhere to repent.
53:00: And that is what the text says, Acts 17.
53:02: The point is this, God does command all men to repent, but no man is able to repent unless he is enabled by the spirit, by the spirit.
53:12: And so you say, was it fair for God to command a man to do something that he cannot do? God is not keeping him from being able to do it.
53:21: And this is an issue of when we talk about Calvinism, understanding the inability of man.
53:26: The inability of man is a lack of desire.
53:29: He doesn't want to come.
53:32: The unbeliever does not want to come.
53:34: And the only thing that would cause the unbeliever to want to come is the spirit of God that draws him in.
53:42: Yeah.
53:43: All right.
53:43: So let us take a five minute break.
53:46: Go use the restroom, do whatever you need to do.
53:48: They're down the hallway.
53:49: We'll start back in just a bit.
53:55: We had Alan and Nancy have done the whole two years and did every paper and everything.
54:01: And, you know, so we're on our we're on our third year of the academy.
54:08: So.
54:09: All right.
54:10: We're going to finish the book tonight, the book of Acts, with the last 20 to 25 minutes by looking at difficulties and controversies, because acts is a unique historical work with no others containing the same material.
54:28: We don't have the same issues of harmonization that we did with the Gospels.
54:35: Remember when we talked about the Gospels, we said some of the hard part of interpreting the Gospels is you have four Gospels, which gives us four pictures of Jesus's life.
54:45: And sometimes some of those pictures intersect.
54:47: And there seems to be some differences and you have to harmonize those differences.
54:51: We don't believe there's contradictions, but we have to have to deal with, you know, one says there was two demoniacs.
54:56: One says there was one.
54:57: One says the man's daughter had died.
54:59: The other says she was still alive.
55:00: You know, there's things where we have to deal with that.
55:03: We talked about that a lot in those classes.
55:06: The book of Acts, we don't have the same problem because there's only one book of Acts.
55:10: We don't have four books of Acts like we have four Gospels.
55:14: But what we do have is we do have some events that are mentioned in other books that we have to harmonize.
55:22: And probably the one that is the most relevant is the book of Galatians.
55:29: Galatians is the first letter written by Paul, and it was probably one of the first letters of the New Testament that was written.
55:38: I would say it's the second.
55:39: I think the book of James came first, but Galatians would have been shortly thereafter.
55:45: And Paul recounts his life in Galatians, and he mentions things that are not in the book of Acts.
55:53: That again is not a contradiction, but it is an omission by Luke.
55:57: Luke does not give us a full biography of Paul.
56:01: He doesn't intend to, but understand there is a portion that seems to have some relevant crossover.
56:12: And I'll let you look at both, and you can kind of get the idea of what I'm saying.
56:17: Turning your Bibles to Galatians 1.
56:19: Actually, I'm going to have two people read.
56:21: Billy Ray, would you read Galatians 1, 15 to 18? And Lance, would you read Acts 9, 18 to 26? We're going to start with Galatians.
56:39: Lance Cunningham Galatians 1, 15 to 18? Yep, Galatians 1.
56:42: We'll let everybody get there.
56:43: Galatians 1, 15 to 18.
56:48: Go ahead.
56:52: When he who had set me apart before I was born, who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.
57:10: But I went into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
57:13: Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him for 15 days.
57:25: All right, I'm writing it down.
57:27: In the book of Galatians, Paul accounts it this way.
57:30: He says, after I got saved, I went to Arabia and then Damascus.
57:36: It was three years and I went to Jerusalem.
57:40: Right? That's what he just read.
57:43: Now, Lance, if you would read Acts chapter 9, beginning at 18 to 26.
57:56: He immediately fell in scale and had received sight forthwith.
58:08: And when he had received me, he was strengthened.
58:15: Then saw certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.
58:29: Okay.
58:30: And straight away he preached Christ in synagogues and he is the Son of God.
58:39: But all they heard him, all that heard him were amazed and said, is not this he had destroyed them, which called on his name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intended that he might bring them both into the chief priests.
59:16: But Saul insisted the name Saul increased it more in strength and founded the Jews, which well at Damascus proving that this is very.
59:47: And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him, but they laid away.
01:00:01: They laid away what is known as Saul and they waited at the gate.
01:00:09: They not to kill him.
01:00:12: Then they, then the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall of the basket.
01:00:24: And when Saul was come, Saul was come to Jerusalem.
01:00:30: He joined himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was insightful, but Barnabas took him and both him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how he had seen the Lord in the way that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
01:01:05: Awesome.
01:01:06: Thank you.
01:01:07: So in that account, we don't hear about Arabia at all.
01:01:13: We hear, by the way, I said, this is Galatians.
01:01:16: This is Acts and Acts.
01:01:18: It says he was baptized.
01:01:19: That was after the scales fell off his eyes.
01:01:21: He was baptized after a certain number of days, he was in Damascus.
01:01:25: And then the next, we see it again, the term many days, certain days and main days, both youth.
01:01:30: And it says he began to stir up a problem in Damascus.
01:01:34: They let him down in a basket through a wall and he went to where? Jerusalem.
01:01:39: So what acts gives us in like eight verses is actually several years, according to the book of Galatians.
01:01:49: That's the part that has to be harmonized, because we are told he is three years in Damascus and that's after he's gone to Arabia.
01:01:59: I always call this Paul's seminary training.
01:02:02: Because we don't know what was going on when he went to Arabia.
01:02:06: We don't know what was going on during that three year period.
01:02:09: But we could conjecture this and stay with me, because again, it is conjecture.
01:02:15: This is opinion and opinions are like, you know, nostrils.
01:02:19: We all have them and they all smell.
01:02:21: Yeah.
01:02:24: The apostles who walked with Jesus, walked with Jesus for three years.
01:02:29: The moment they met Jesus to the moment of the death, burial and resurrection, they were with him for three years.
01:02:33: Paul didn't have that.
01:02:35: But after Paul gets saved, according to the book of Galatians, he spent three years doing what he doesn't tell us.
01:02:44: Could it be that he is being ministered to and being trained in the same way the apostles were possibly, maybe in a way that was supernatural, maybe in a way that was spiritual that we don't know.
01:02:54: And again, I'm conjecturing some of the ideas.
01:02:57: There's a three year missing period in here and it's right here.
01:03:02: It literally is defined as many days.
01:03:04: How many days? That many.
01:03:08: So that's what has to be harmonized between Galatians and Acts, because we don't have another book of Acts to harmonize, but we have Paul's own narrative of his life.
01:03:16: And his narrative is, I went from Arabia to Damascus.
01:03:20: I spent three years and then I went to Jerusalem.
01:03:23: Here is I was baptized.
01:03:25: Nothing is mentioned about Arabia.
01:03:28: Damascus is mentioned.
01:03:29: It's surrounded by the concept of many days.
01:03:32: Then he's let down in a basket.
01:03:34: Then he goes to Jerusalem.
01:03:35: So the same thing is happening.
01:03:37: But from what is being telescope, the story is being expanded in Galatians.
01:03:44: So that has to be harmonized.
01:03:45: That's that's one.
01:03:47: Another thing that has to be harmonized is Paul's own account of his of his of conversion, because in Acts chapter nine.
01:04:00: Verse seven, it says that the men who were with him heard a voice, but they saw no one.
01:04:06: But in Acts 22, when Paul is recounting the same story, it says they heard not a voice.
01:04:15: And so the the the argument of contradiction comes up.
01:04:19: Did they hear a voice or did they not hear a voice? Because again, I'll read it to you.
01:04:23: Acts nine, seven says this.
01:04:24: And the man which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
01:04:28: That's Acts nine, seven.
01:04:30: But actually to Paul is recounting the story.
01:04:33: And he says this.
01:04:34: He says, and they that were with me saw indeed the light and they were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake unto me.
01:04:41: So is this a contradiction? Go ahead, Corey.
01:04:47: That's right.
01:04:49: The terms that are being used here in the Greek is the difference between hearing and understanding.
01:04:54: So it's obvious the men heard something, but they did not understand what they were hearing.
01:05:01: And that's what that's the way that I've always understood it.
01:05:03: And I think that's the correct way is that when Paul is speaking in Acts 22 about what happened, he says those men didn't hear it in the sense that they didn't understand what was being stated.
01:05:13: Yes.
01:05:21: Yeah.
01:05:22: That's a different, that's a different book, but yeah, stop.
01:05:27: I don't think, I think that's a different, I don't, I've never heard those two put together.
01:05:32: I'd have to, I'd have to look into that more.
01:05:34: I've never heard anybody say that the calling up to the third heaven was his conversion experience.
01:05:39: I'd have to look into that further.
01:05:41: And I, it's interesting.
01:05:42: I never heard that as a, as a potential understanding of that.
01:05:51: Okay.
01:05:57: I don't know that I would put those two together, but that's interesting thought.
01:06:00: I just, I've never, I've never thought of connecting those.
01:06:04: All right.
01:06:05: So as I was saying, these are the types of difficulties that we have to look at because we're looking at a book of history that's giving us historical information.
01:06:14: And sometimes the question of how these historical accounts line up become the, the point that we are having to study and having to determine.
01:06:24: But the most important thing, as I've said from everything tonight, and this is where I will begin to draw to a close.
01:06:31: The most important thing that we have to understand about the book of Acts is that it is a bridge.
01:06:35: It is a transitional work.
01:06:36: It takes us from the old covenant to the new covenant.
01:06:40: And we see this modeled in the transitions that were made by the people involved.
01:06:44: Common men became empowered evangelists.
01:06:46: Fishermen became apostolic guides.
01:06:49: A hater of the church becomes its most powerful ally.
01:06:54: All of this is transitional.
01:06:55: All of this is change.
01:06:58: Acts is about a great period of transition.
01:07:02: Jesus told his disciples this transition would come in John 16, 7.
01:07:07: He says, I tell you the truth.
01:07:08: It is of advantage of you.
01:07:10: It is, it is to your advantage that I go away.
01:07:13: Or if I do not go away, the comforter or the helper, the paraclete will not come to you.
01:07:19: But if I go, I will send him to you.
01:07:22: Acts is the fulfillment of that promise.
01:07:26: Jesus said, if I go away, I will send you the Holy Spirit and acts fulfills Jesus's promise.
01:07:35: I want to read to you a quote from John MacArthur.
01:07:44: As the first work of church history ever penned, acts records the initial response to the great commission.
01:07:52: It provides information on the first three decades of the church's existence, material found nowhere else in the New Testament, though not primarily a doctrinal work.
01:08:01: Acts nonetheless emphasizes that Jesus of Nazareth was Israel's long awaited Messiah, shows that the gospel is offered to all men, not merely the Jewish people, and stresses the work of the Holy Spirit mentioned more than 50 times.
01:08:16: I want to stop the quote for a minute.
01:08:18: Remember earlier I said there's one word not used in acts is the word love.
01:08:21: Love is never used in acts, but the Holy Spirit is mentioned over 50 times.
01:08:28: Acts also makes frequent use of the Old Testament.
01:08:32: Acts abounds with transitions from the ministry of Jesus to that of the apostles, from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from Israel as God's witness nation to the church comprised of both Jew and Gentile as God's witness people.
01:08:44: The book of Hebrews sets forth the theology of the transition from the Old Covenant to the New, and acts depicts the New Covenant's practice outworking in the life of the church.
01:08:54: Hebrews tells us what the New Covenant is, how it replaces the Old Covenant and makes it obsolete, and acts shows us the transitional point of what that looked like.
01:09:04: The book of Acts is a bridge and it's going to take us to our next portion of study.
01:09:12: As we gather again next week, we're going to begin a two-part or two-class study on the writings of the Apostle Paul.
01:09:20: We're going to look next week at, I believe we do Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
01:09:31: I think we do to Colossians next week, but I'll look at you.
01:09:35: It's in your notes.
01:09:36: What does the note say? It's in the syllabus.
01:09:44: Romans to Colossians.
01:09:45: I was right.
01:09:45: Okay.
01:09:46: I like being right.
01:09:48: All right.
01:09:48: So next week we're going to do Romans to Colossians.
01:09:51: The syllabus tells you what you need to read.
01:09:53: Don't forget to do your reading.
01:09:55: That will help you be able to participate in class.
01:09:58: Any questions? Yes, sir.
01:10:01: Two actually, but right there in Galatians, that three years, there's a Spurgeon quote.
01:10:07: We must sit at the feet of God and learn before the disciples, which I guess is a reference to that three years.
01:10:14: It could be.
01:10:15: Yeah.
01:10:16: Yeah, absolutely.
01:10:17: What you erased, fourth century starting at, I mean, I'll do my homework in Daniel in phase two, and that's the statue, that iron starts right there about the fourth century, the legs of iron, before that was the Medes and Persians, and then above that was Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon.
01:10:38: But that's fourth century BC.
01:10:40: Yeah.
01:10:41: But isn't that the Gentile nations beginning until Christ's second coming? I would interpret that a little differently because Daniel actually gives us the interpretation.
01:10:53: He tells us the gold is Nebuchadnezzar, that's Babylon.
01:10:57: Well, the silver is the Medo-Persians.
01:11:04: And then after that is the Grecians and then the Romans.
01:11:08: All of that took place before the coming of Christ.
01:11:11: So that would have all been before Christ.
01:11:13: Until the second advent, well, Gentile rule, I guess.
01:11:22: Yeah, but that's not the fulfillment of that prophecy.
01:11:25: The prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel four, I think it is, Daniel three, Daniel four, where he talks about the statue and what he saw, that was actually building to the time of the Romans, which is who were in power when Christ comes.
01:11:45: So that's after the Medes and the Persians.
01:11:47: It goes from the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans.
01:11:55: So I do believe we're in the times of the Gentiles.
01:11:58: That's from Romans chapter 11, when it talks about the times of the Gentiles.
01:12:02: But that's not connected.
01:12:03: I wouldn't connect that to the Daniel prophecy.
01:12:08: I see.
01:12:13: I see what you're saying.
01:12:14: Yeah.
01:12:15: All right, guys, anybody else? All right, well, let's pray.
01:12:19: Father God, I thank you for your word and for your truth.
01:12:22: I pray, Lord, that this has been useful.
01:12:25: If nothing else, Lord, for us to see that you have always been in work in history, especially in the work of bringing about your transitions from one to the other, transitioning from the old covenant to the new covenant.
01:12:37: Lord, we are so grateful to be new covenant believers, because Lord, as we are in the new covenant, we have the benefits and blessings of looking back to what Christ has done, not having to look forward and waiting, but Lord, having looking back and saying, we know what was done for us.
01:12:53: Our savior has died for us, and we do look forward to his coming.
01:12:57: But with the expectation that when he comes, uh, the work for our sin has already be taken place and we have a savior and we are thankful for that savior.
01:13:08: We're thankful for the Holy Spirit who indwells us, who now goes out into the world.
01:13:12: And I pray, Lord, that we would be used of you by the power of your spirit to reach men and women for Christ in Jesus name.
01:13:21: Amen.