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You have given me six Thursdays to be with you, and I propose, God willing, to spend them in studying certain subjects from the Acts of the Apostles. There are six major parts to the Acts of the Apostles, and it is my purpose to take one of those parts each week and to examine with you one or two or possibly three, of the leading ideas to be found in each several section as we study them section by section each week. Now, just in case you would like to do some homework, I will at this juncture point out what the six major sections of this book are.
For Luke himself has divided his narrative by a very simple device into six parts, and we shall be following Luke's own division of the material. So the first part that we shall be considering this evening goes from chapter one verse one to chapter six verse seven, where Luke sums up the first stage of the great triumph of the gospel with the words, and the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
That is section one. The next great part of his work goes from chapter six and verse eight to chapter nine and verse thirty one, where again Luke pauses to mark the great progress of the gospel by telling us, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace being edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost was multiplied. And already we begin to see from Luke's chosen vocabulary the multiplication of the work of God and its increase and its resultant edification.
For one of the things we shall derive from the study of this book is a sense of the tremendous growth and irresistible progression of the work of the Lord under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The second section, therefore, going from six eight to nine thirty one and the third from nine thirty two to twelve twenty four Where against the background of Herod's attempt to persecute the church and to stop its progress, Luke records twelve verse twenty four that the word of God grew and multiplied, Herod and his persecution notwithstanding.
The fourth major part of the work then proceeds from chapter twelve and verse twenty five to chapter sixteen and verse five, where Luke says, so the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. And if you have been pay- if you have been paying close attention, you will have noticed that these refrains that Luke stands in his text here and there may not only record the increase of the work of the Lord, but they alternate between telling us about the spread of the word of the Lord and the increase of the church of the Lord.
The one thing, of course, is directly related to the other, and the chief method still to this day by which the church of God increases is the increase of the word of God. That simple observation carries the potential of a half a dozen sermons within it. But we are looking at the sections of Luke, and the next great section goes from sixteen and verse six to chapter twenty, sorry, chapter nineteen and verse twenty. Where against the background of the great riot in the theater at, uh, uh, uh, uh, or, sorry, uh, against the background of Paul's long work in Ephesus that was so soon to be disrupted by the great riot in that city of Ephesus, Luke tells us, nineteen verse twenty: so mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed.
And that emphasis on the irresistible progress of the word and work of the Lord continues, of course, through the final stage of the book and reaches its triumphant conclusion in chapter eight, twenty eight and verses thirty and thirty one, Where Paul abode two whole years in his own high dwelling and received all that went in unto him. In spite of the fact that in that higher dwelling he was under house arrest, and virtually therefore imprisoned. Nevertheless, he proceeded preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, none forbidding him, or at least as the Greek has it, none preventing him.
Whether they forbade it or not was another thing, but they didn't stop him, and he went on doing it. Whose example follow, of course. But these are the six major parts, then, of this book of history, and I propose to take one of those sections each week and draw from it one or two of its major idea. Tonight, then, we are to think together of the first major section of the Acts of the Apostles. Let us read a portion of the Word of God by way of introducing ourselves to the topic. Chapter two therefore, of the Acts of the Apostles.
Chapter two and verse fourteen: But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye men of Judea and all you that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and give ear unto my words. For these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which has been spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Yea, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days will I pour forth of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord come, that great and notable day. And it shall be that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay, whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
For David saith concerning him, I beheld the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover, my flesh also shall dwell in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou madest known unto me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of gladness with thy countenance. Brethren, I may say unto you freely of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us unto this day.
Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne, he, foreseeing this, spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth this which you see and hear. For David ascended not into the heavens, but he himself said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.
Let all the house of Israel, therefore, know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. God give us good understanding of his holy word. There are many ways of reading the Acts of the Apostles, and multitudinous, I suppose, are the lessons that can properly be drawn from the study of this book.
I, for my part, would not wish to disturb your favorite way of looking at the book, nor certainly to question the lessons that you have been taught therein. One way of looking at the book, of course, is to regard it simply as a history book, that is giving us the story of the spread of Christianity from the upper room in Jerusalem via Judea and Samaria, and then to the outermost parts of the earth, symbolized for us by the arrival in the capital city of Rome, the capital city of the Roman Empire, of Paul and the gospel.
That is not only one way of looking at it, it is a very valid way of looking at it. And if you are geographically minded, then you doubtless have already made out for yourself your own homemade map, or if not that, looked it up in the back of your Bible and seen maps made of the geographical spread of the gospel, along of its historical spread. These are profitable things, and they move our hearts still, do they not? To long for the day when the gospel shall have infiltrated into every nook and cranny of this habitable earth. It's spread a long way, not yet every tribe with the gospel in its own language, and still some places to go, even in this late generation.
So that a study of the book from its historical and geographical angle would certainly remain a profitable study. But in addition to telling us of the spread of the gospel geographically, Luke points out to us in his work that as the gospel spread, it met certain problems in each of the area where it was preached. And as the early church met these problems and relied upon the Holy Ghost for his guidance in the solving of those problems, Christianity itself grew and was formed.
You will be aware, won't you, that Christianity in its original state was Judaism. Every man among the apostles a Jew, and all the believers at one stage Jews. And when we meet them in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, they're still very God-fearing, godly Jews, going up to the temple at the hour of prayer and doubtless taking part in its services. Christianity began as Judaism. Of course, it didn't remain Judaism. Then you say, well, how did it develop? And when did it stop being Judaism and become Christianity?
Well, that's a very interesting question. It didn't sort of happen in the way that we put the clocks back and forward. You know, suddenly we see to our surprise there's a notice in the paper or over the radio that next Sunday morning at two o'clock you will cease winter time and go over to summer time. And of course, all dutiful citizens, except one or two, managed to remember and turn their clocks forward an hour, or else look very embarrassed when they turn up at the meeting on Sunday an hour too late. Uh, Christianity didn't happen in that way, did it? There didn't come an announcement from heaven saying two o'clock next Sunday you shall stop Judaism and begin Christianity. Well, then how... how did Christianity start?
And if in the early days the Christians were still going to the temple and still behaving as ordinary Jews, it becomes a matter of exceeding great interest to see whatever made them start doing things differently. But then, of course, if you ask that question, you'll soon have to ask another question, and what is the difference between Judaism and Christianity anyway? Why did Christianity bother to be different? Why couldn't they go on just being Jews? Because, after all, any schoolboy could see it if he read his Old Testament and then read his New Testament, that there is a tremendous lot in common between Judaism and Christianity.
So why couldn't they go on being the same thing? They didn't go on being the same thing. Presently, Christianity began to diverge from Judaism. Eventually, the gulf became fixed. What was it all about? That we shall see as we proceed. But this we might observe from the very beginning, that if we will allow Luke to show us the point at which Christianity diverged from Judaism, we shall be discovering the essential nature of Christianity.
We shall be discovering things so fundamental, so vital to Christianity, that Christians couldn't compromise those things and still be Christian. And therefore, when Judaism disagreed or refused or rejected what the early Christians had to say, then, regretfully enough, the early church had to diverge from Judaism and became distinctively Christian. And I repeat, if we will observe the point of departure, where they diverge, we shall begin to discover those things that lie at the very heart of Christianity and make Christianity Christianity.
Indeed, it is not merely at one point that Christianity diverged from Judaism, but a whole succession of points. And we shall find that Luke has so arranged his narrative that the first four sections of his book cover four major areas in which the early church diverged from Judaism. But then, of course, the early church didn't only diverge from Judaism. Presently, the Christian missionaries came across from Asia into Europe and came across to Greece and to Rome, into the big, big, big world of Roman imperialism and Greek culture.
And there, of course, they met philosophy, and there they met politics, and there they met, uh, spiritism, and there they met a thousand and one different religions. Once more, Luke shows us very carefully by selecting certain occasions. He shows us the difference, not only between Christianity and Judaism, but the difference between Christianity and spiritism. Christians talk of being led by the spirit, don't they? But so did the ancient world. They got led by spirits too. And what's the difference? People needed to know then, they still need to know.
And Christianity is shown us as differing not only with, um, spiritism, but, uh, Roman politics, and Jewish politics for that matter. And the early Christians were very careful to point out that Christianity was not a form of politics, for the world needed to be told that then, and they still need to be told it. And Christianity had to be compared with the Greek philosophies, so that we could all see what they have in common, and yet how distinct Christianity is even from Gentile philosophy.
We still need to be told it. And thus it is therefore that Luke goes through his book showing us not only the spread of Christianity, but what Christianity is, how it began and what it became. You say, why should I be bothered to find out what Christianity is? Well, of course, in the ancient world, people demanded to know anyway. The world into which Christianity was born was a world that had a thousand and one religions. And I dare say, when people, as particularly of the educated sort, heard of Christianity, many of them shrugged their shoulders and said, what, well, not another religion.
Goodness me, we've got ten thousand and one already. Not another one, do we? Why should you need another one? Well, what then do you stand for? And why must you be different from the Jews? Well, there's another reason, not only did the ancient world need to know, but we even as Christians surely need to be reminded from time to time of what is essential Christianity. What are those things about Christianity that we may never compromise?
Because if we compromise them, we are ditching Christianity itself. We live in an age when the mood worldwide is to blend religion. And Christendom itself is to be heard in many quarters suggesting that we Christians should give up the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ our Lord. Rather proceed by selecting the best out of every religion and putting them together and making a world religion. Days will come when that argument will bring with it a tremendous power of cogency.
As men will argue, but look, hasn't religion, religious strife been the source of much pain and sorrow and persecution and death and division in this world? And therefore, isn't it only the logical and proper thing that religions should drop their distinctive facets and all join up to become one great world peace-loving religion? And in those days, should you live to see them, the men and women that dare stand out for the distinctives of Christianity will find life less comfortable than they would wish it to be. And of course, history has already taught us many serious lessons on this matter, hasn't it?
For if we look back through our history of Christendom, we shall remember there have been great periods, centuries at a time, when what went under the name of Christianity wasn't Christianity at all. Instead, Christianity had slipped back very often into a form of Judaism from which it originally came, and alas, on other occasions, slipped back into the paganism from which, uh, it had been converted. And I have not time now to cite the examples to back home my thesis.
But if you were interested to discuss it afterwards, let's do that. It is therefore an exceedingly practical and fundamental thing that looks out at us from the pages of Luke's history. And tonight, as I say, I take the first section, and I want to suggest to you what is its leading theme. It will be one of those things that distinguishes Christianity from Judaism. Then pray. What was the first thing? And by that same token, what is the fundamental thing that distinguishes Christianity from Judaism, and indeed from all else?
And you will find it in the words we read in chapter two and verse thirty six stated explicitly, let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified. The first major thing between Christianity and Judaism is that Jesus is Messiah, and that Jesus is law.
On this basic rock, Christianity is built. Let's briefly think for a moment, therefore, what Peter means when he says that God has made him Lord. Lord in what sense? In what sense is Jesus Lord? He's Messiah. That, of course, Israel denied then and denies to this very present day. But God has made him both Lord and Messiah. What Peter means, we may deduce from the Psalm he quotes in verse thirty four: For David ascended not into the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.
Here Peter was showing himself a very apt scholar of our Lord himself. For it was our Lord himself that had quoted this verse, first of all to the Sadducees, and then doubtless very often to his own disciples, because it is one of the key verses of the Old Testament. And you will remember the question he attached to it when he reminded the Sadducees of it. He said, what do you think about the Messiah? Whoever the Messiah is, leave that for the moment. But the Messiah, when he comes, who will he be? What do you think about the Messiah? And when the Messiah comes, whose son is he?
And they said he will be the son of David, which in its way was perfectly true, but by itself would have meant that he was nothing more than human. And immediately our Lord picked them up and quoted to them this verse: Well, if he's simply the son of David, if he is simply human, then how is it that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord? In the Middle East in ancient times, and still there more than here, the distinction between father and son is a very, very big distinction.
And in those ancient days, the teenager didn't walk into the home, kick his shoes off, and say, hello, pop. Fathers, uh, expected a great deal of reverence from their son, and there's one thing a father would never have said to his son, a father would never have said, my lord, to his son. Yet David is heard speaking to God and speaking about God, and David describes the Messiah in these terms, my Lord. God, Jehovah, the Father, the Lord said to the Messiah, said to my Lord, says David.
If David, therefore, speaking by the Spirit, called him Lord, how do you say that he's simply David's son? The use of that verse goes back to our blessed Lord himself in all the wonder of his self-conscious deity. This is no invention of the church. Oh, for those wonderful moments when God's own incarnate son, author of that Old Testament, stood here on earth and explained to us men and women what was implied in it. Oh, the exceeding marvel, more than ever we might have dreamed or hope.
Calling our attention, and the attention of Sadducees included, to this wonderful fact that the Messiah is more than David's son. He is David's Lord. He is indeed God's son. It's this that is the central foundation of true Christianity. You, I hope, will not count me a gloomy Jeremiah. There is something glorious in being a Jeremiah, isn't there? I'm pointing out to you that Christendom has not always been faithful to the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Alas, in many a theological seminary, one of the early things the students learn is to question the authority and the deity of Jesus Christ on. We would be Christian. Then we make it our first business to get hold of this prime distinctive thing.
Christianity is built on the conception of Jesus as Messiah, Son of God. Well, of course, as I repeat, this is a matter of being narrow-minded? Why must we insist on it? For this very good reason, as Peter subsequently told the Sanhedrin, and the high priest included. You builders have been treacherous men. You've attempted to build a temple of this nation. Only will your religion go astray if you reject that foundation, but man's salvation will be forfeited. For there is no other name under heaven given amongst men.
Whereby we must be saved. Be called a bigot if you have to be. But if you love men so, because there is no salvation in any other, you must stand uncompromisingly over the deity and the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You will say to me, but Mr. Preacher, you rightly said you were going to pick out just one of the themes from this first section of the Act.
Surely there, there are others. Are there not more important things? Surely the first section of Acts concentrates on the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Isn't that the major thing? Well, of course, in a sense, you're right. Far be it from me to speak even a comma to detract from the importance and the majesty of the Holy Spirit, or to say anything derogatory to his deity and his all important.
Indeed, I should want to emphasize with all the breath in my body that the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was an event unique in the history of the world and unique in the history of redemption. There had been nothing like it before. On that day he came, came to reside, came in a sense that he had never come before. Many times had he visited our world and clothed himself with this man and with that woman and used them as his servants. Many times had he visited.
On this occasion, he came to reside. He came at Pentecost. But even as we say that, the blessed Holy Spirit will not be grieved. When we point out what scripture itself says, that the coming of the Holy Spirit was not an end in itself. The coming of the Holy Spirit was for a purpose. Our Lord Jesus had told the disciples, and we have the record of it in John chapter sixteen, that when the Holy Spirit was come, he would do two things. He would convict the world, and he would glorify Christ before the believer.
He would convict the world of their sin in not believing on Jesus. He would convict the world that Jesus was right. That he'd gone to the Father and demonstrated he was right. He will convict the world of the judgment of this world that the Prince of this world has been judged for what seemed a defeat at Calvary and a triumph for Satan, had by the resurrection been deter- been turned into a triumph for Christ and a defeat of Satan. The Holy Spirit's coming would be for that very purpose, to convict the world of these things. And his second purpose would be, as he came, that he might glorify the Lord Jesus.
That is why he came. See him doing it? I said reverently he'd not been here five minutes before he went direct to his task of glorifying the Savior. Before he filled the apostles and others with his gifts, and as they spoke to the people, and the people came inquiring, what was this thing? And learned it was the pouring out of God's spirit. Then they were told, why was the spirit poured out, and to what end was he poured out? The answer was this, no, assuredly because of what has now happened, that God has made Jesus Lord and Messiah.
That is his first purpose. We who are called, as this book tells us, to be witnesses to our Lord, we recognize at once that the Holy Spirit comes not to help us. He comes to control and to organize that witness. And if we submit ourselves to him, then the first thing he will lead us to do in our witness for the Lord, and the prime topic of that witness will be that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah.
If then we have considered what is the major topic of these early six chapters, let me now briefly run over to you the flow of the argument in the first three. of these chapters. Let me point out to you a thing that Luke has done to make it easy to get our minds round his writing. Look with me, if you will, and if you're in danger of going to sleep at this point, it will wake you up actually to look at the page and help you to stay awake for the next fifteen minutes. Ah, Luke, uh, Acts chapter one.
let's look at, uh, verse six of Acts chapter one. Where Luke records a question which the disciples asked of our Lord during the forty days. They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know times or seasons. We notice the question. Is it at this time that you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
They were not told at what time that would be. But now let's look at chapter three, if you will, verses nineteen following, where Peter is bringing to his climax the lesson to be deduced from the healing of the lame man, and he calls on Israel to repent, verse nineteen, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, that he may send the Messiah who have been appointed for you, even Jesus, whom, says he, the heavens must receive until the times of restoration of all things which the prophets have spoken, or which God has spoken through his holy prophets.
You notice that, don't you? Uh, the reference of the apostles to the question of restoration. Is it at this time that you'll restore the kingdom to Israel? And you will notice how Luke brings that idea to its head and fulfillment and climax in Peter's sermon. The time is coming when God will restore all things that he ever promised through the mouth of his prophets. It is important to see that Luke hasn't been wandering from the point. He's setting out his program, and what he has to say in between those points, all of it bears upon that question. You see, sometimes, indeed in some commentaries, though I better not name them, the apostles have come in for a great deal of stick.
They do on the quiet now and again, don't they? From all sorts of preachers, let alone lay people. Poor old apostles, what they didn't know was terrible. But anyway, they come in for a great deal of stick. Just listen to them asking the Lord such an infantile, narrow-minded question. We would have known better, wouldn't we? I mean, the Lord risen from the dead, and Pentecost about to burst upon the world, and the gospel going out to the Gentiles, and these poor little narrow-minded apostles asking you, Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Oh, dear me, how narrow-minded can you be? And thus, with an apology for the early apostles of Christianity, we pass on to those that have understood Christianity much better, namely us.
Well, that's one way of interpreting the thing. It isn't perhaps the s- the best to jump to that conclusion that the apostles didn't know what they were talking about. How did they ever come to ask the question, is it at this time thou wilt restore the kingdom to Israel? It wasn't such a stupid question when Peter, by the Holy Spirit, subsequently told the whole nation that one day everything will be restored, not only the kingdom to Israel, but all the rest of the things that are to be restored. How did they come to ask the question? Well, first of all, because they did believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
They believed that even before he went to the cross. And you will remember this sadness with which the two who journeyed to Emmaus had recounted to the stranger how their hope had been so bitterly dashed. We trusted that it was he that should redeem Israel. But his death had seemed to them to wreck all their hope. But now he was risen. They had seen him go at Calvary and buried in the tomb, now he's come back again. Wonder of wonders.
The Messiah had returned. Hadn't he said before he went away, I shall not leave you orphans, I come to you. You say, how do you mean he returned? He hadn't gone anywhere. Oh, hadn't he? Where had he been then? If you think he hadn't gone anywhere, then I respectfully ask you to think again. Since his death at Calvary and his burial, his commending his spirit to the Father mean he hadn't gone anywhere and was still hanging around Jerusalem.
Here he was come again. But the reality of that they couldn't doubt, for as he moved among them forty days, uh, he gave them many infallible proofs that he was alive. He'd come again. Then he was the one that would redeem Israel after all. You don't do that, must you? If he's the one that's going to redeem Israel, and you really believed he was, the next question would come very quickly to your lips, wouldn't it? Well, well, now you are the one that's going to redeem Israel.
Well, Lord, when are you going to do it? If you didn't ask that question, you could be taken almost from an unbeliever, couldn't you? Didn't you think it was going to be done? When are you going to r- r- restore Israel? Well, of course, it was a sensible question, because if Jesus Christ the m- was the Messiah, the king, you can't be a king and not have a kingdom, can you? It wasn't merely that. But one day when he came, and you notice he didn't stay with them all the time.
He would come, and he would suddenly disappear. One day when he came, it must have been exciting days to live through, don't you think? Fancy thinking tomorrow, now this is breakfast time, you know, before supper the Lord may have come again. Reminds me if I thought that today I should have been a bit better behaved, and uh, he might actually come through the wall. One day when he came in like that, he said that they were to wait in the city until he sent the promise of the Father on them. It must have been electric. But the great promise of the Old Testament, all those vast promises of the restoration, everything a Jew had hoped for.
You'd wait in the city until you get the promise of the Father. Well, they knew their Old Testament better than we do. Of course they are. Why do you wait? And is that going to be the time when you restore all the kingdom to Israel? Will that be your second coming? For all they know these constant comings, well, one of them might turn out to be the, the great coming. How would you know? And so they asked him, is it at this time?
You will notice, won't you, what they asked. They didn't say, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? That was taken for granted. The Greek that Luke uses makes it very clear what the question was. Yes, you're going to restore Israel, that we know, but Lord, is it at this time you're going to do? And you will notice what he didn't say in reply, won't you? He didn't say, don't be so silly, when I'm never going to do that. He simply said, it's not given you to know the time when. Oh, but you say, yes, he did contradict it, you see. They were expecting the kingdom to be restored to Israel, and he told them something quite different.
He said, don't bother about Israel. Go and preach the gospel, and you'll be my witnesses till the end of the earth. But do you suppose that has nothing to do with Israel? Let me make up a little analogy. Some things, some such things help sometimes. I take you back to the Second World War, and down to some port in northern Scotland, maybe. And here are the ships of Her Majesty's Navy lined up. These are the ships that normally have gone on the run to Russia. And here they stand by the quayside, and they're being loaded with all sorts of things.
And the ship's boy sees the commandant in chief coming down the quayside, so he salutes him. Says, sir, is it on Friday that we're going to Russia? And the commandant says, it's not given to you to know the time. You get on with your job and load this ship. What would you suppose the commandant meant? Don't be so silly, we're not going to Russia? What do you suppose he meant by saying, get on with your job and don't you worry about the time? You get on with your job and load the ship. Wasn't the loading of the ship preparatory to going to Russia? And then the disciples asked, are you going at this time to restore the kingdom?
Our Lord says, it's not given to you to know the times, but what you will do is this, gentlemen. And what was that? You'll go and be my witnesses, and you'll start here in Jerusalem. Why in Jerusalem? Why? Because chapter three will tell you why. Before the time of the restoration of all things, Israel must repent. There can be no restoration of all things. Heavens must receive him until that time. Repent therefore. If Israel is to be saved, Israel must repent. And if that's coming happened and they were not ready, what disaster it must be for Israel.
I've given you to know the time when the restoration will take place. You go out and preach. And God in his mercy will bring them to repentance. And not only Israel, but Isaiah the prophet had said that all the nations would hear. Go out and preach to all the nations. Men might be given a chance to repent and believe, and to find the Savior, and thus be prepared for his coming again. And his glorious reign. Because you see, you can't believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
Unless you can also show what God's program is for him to have his kingdom. What's the good of trying to prove to a Jew that Jesus is the Messiah, and the Jew turns around to you and say, all right, Messiah is the king of Israel, but where's the kingdom? Don't see any kingdom around here yet. Look at all the evil in the world. How do you say Jesus is king? Well, if you believe he's king, you better have some notion of when he's going to set up the kingdom, mustn't you? And therefore was what the apostles asked. And as they were asking, is it going to be at this time?
He said, n- no, in effect, it's not given to you to know the time. But at that moment, he was taken from them. And as they watched him going, this was a new thing. For a bit too, when he'd come, he just appeared. And then at the end, he just disappeared, gone through the will door, gone through the walls. They know not how, he just suddenly disappeared instantaneously. But this day he didn't disappear instantaneously. Instead, deliberately and very slowly, he brought them out to Bethany and was gently lifted up and parted from them, and it happened so slowly that they saw him go and they watched with wonder as he gradually went up until a crowd received him from their sight, and he passed, we know not how, into that other world.
What'd he do that for? It was an answer to their question, of course it was. The restoration of the kingdom could not possibly happen until his second coming. What would his second coming be like? Would it be like this kind of thing that has been happening these forty days, suddenly there? No, not like that. And the angels explained how that second coming would be. This same Jesus shall so come. The second coming will be not an instantaneous thing coming through the door, and there he is. The second coming will be staged as the ascension was staged, and every eye shall see him.
It will be like the lightning that goes from one end of the earth to the other, and all shall see it. Same Jesus shall so come, in like manner as you have seen him go, then shall the kingdom be restored. Meanwhile, get on with your witnessing. How would you witness that Jesus is the Messiah, if you were given the chance to a Jew? There's not many of us that meet Jews, but I s- spy some who meet Jews, that's all, yes. One of these affluent businessmen.
I housed it before me. How would you witness that Jesus is the Messiah? Interesting to watch how Peter did it, isn't he? First of all, of course, he called upon the witness of the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. Well, then, as the Jews couldn't make head and a tail of it, whatever did it mean? First of all, Peter pointed out to them the implications for the prophetic timetable. The coming of the Holy Spirit. This is that, he said, which was spoken of by the prophet Joel. And with all deference to those who disagree with me, let me have the boldness to say what I think Peter meant.
I think he meant exactly what he said. This is that. For in the last days, I will pour out my spirit. And the coming of the Holy Spirit pinpointed our position in the prophetic program. We are in the last days. Now, but we've not arrived at the end yet, have we? And Peter goes on to quote his journal to the effect that the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before that great and notable day occurs. We are in the last days, but we are, thank God, before the great day of judgment preceding our Lord's coming.
Well, if that's where we are in time, and this is what the prophet meant, then here is the evidence of the Holy Spirit being poured out. But how do you prove that Jesus is the Messiah? There are, says Peter, the evidence of the miracles of his life, this man approved of God among him. By the miracles that he did. Evidence number one. Evidence number two is going to be his resurrection. And then, of course, there's something that you have to say before then, isn't there? Because if you're talking to a Jew, it's no good proving that the Messiah has risen again.
That doesn't get you very far. Because most Jews weren't expecting the Messiah to die to start with. And if the Old Testament didn't prove and didn't say that the Messiah was going to die, it's no good proving that Jesus rose from the dead, because that's beside the point. If scripture doesn't say that, first of all, Messiah was going to die. So, first of all, Peter's got to prove to them from the Old Testament that, yes, according to the Old Testament, Messiah had to die. He takes David's psalm, Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption. I may talk to you about David, said he.
David's here. He has gone to corruption. Therefore, David was talking about somebody else, namely the Messiah, that he was not left in the grave, and God has raised him from the dead. The Old Testament preached that he was to die, and die he has, but be raised again. I say that's all very well, Peter, you'll see, but Peter, my boy, you say Jesus is the Messiah, but isn't that a little bit absurd? Messiah, now take it in, Peter, what you mean by Messiah, Son of God, Messiah, the one to whom God shall give the government of the whole earth.
You say Messiah? Where is his kingdom then? Where is there any evidence of his rule? How can you be Messiah without having a kingdom? Do not the nations do exactly as they please? Isn't the world filled with its hitmas of one color or another? You say that Jesus is the Messiah if he hasn't got a kingdom. I don't know what your answer to it would be. Peter's answer was plainly this, simply this, but look at your Psalm one hundred and ten, for it's Psalm one hundred um and ten that maps out the program for Messiah's coming into his kingdom, when it says, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your.
You see what the Psalm is saying? There was a time when God's Son was not at the right hand of God. Why not? Because he came here for our sake. There came a time when, by divine decree, he was invited to ascend and sit at the right hand of God, and that is done at his resurrection and ascension. Then the Psalm indicated that between that ascension and his coming in power and great glory, there was to be an interval. Sit at my right hand until... and make thine enemies thy footstool.
There it was in Old Testament scripture, no invention of the Christians, but plain and prophetically set forth the program. Messiah has risen. The Old Testament will tell you that between his rising and ascension, there has to be a period before he comes and puts down his enemies. In that period, we stand looking for his coming again. Oh, what a lovely thing. For earth has no hope without him. In chapter three we are given a foretaste of what it should be when the king comes.
Oh, how lovely. Peter and James went up to the temple to pray. There was a man set outside. He was lame from birth. The vivid, vivid picture that is of our world, isn't it? On the one hand, men would raise a temple to praise God the Creator, and on its very doorstep are the maimed, the lame. It is evident that creation has gone wrong somewhere, isn't it? And how shall creation praise her God unreservedly?
While the mysteries of pain and misshapen creation remain everywhere around us. We're going on like it forever. What else have you got? Don't you start preaching to me about being good. I know all about being good. What about the wrecks of creation itself, the malformed in the womb, the mentally retarded, the crippled. Just being good won't do much about that, will it? What hope is there?
One day creation will praise her God without reserve, free from her bondage to corruption. All of his hope. There's hope in only one person. Let no fear of being called bigot or narrow-minded make you afraid to proclaim it. This is the only hope the world has got. To save our creation, to refashion it, to release creation from her bondage of corruption and set her free into the glory of the children of God.
And as a specimen of what one day shall be done on the grand scale, Christ to his apostles gave that man perfect healing in the presence of all. So though you see him kicking and dancing into the temple to praise his God, he had first reached powers of the age to come, what should be general when the heavens at last then cry back again, and God restores instantly the powers of heaven. Then we shall laugh for joy. And I praise God beyond measure.
And it all depends, for there is no salvation in any other manner. It all depends on this distinct, fundamental fact to which the Christian church is called, now see this, is a noise.
