The Historical Value of Acts
Bible Study Time 6-24-07
Bible Study Time 6-24-07
As we study the Bible rightly divided, we should be ever mindful of the significance of the book of Acts. It provides not only a historical link between us and the believers of the ancient world, but it also provides a significant historical link between us and the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus. The book of Acts is our connection to the past.
It’s hard to image believers today trying to make sense of a passage such as Matthew, Chapter 10, without the information that is available to us in the book of Acts. In Matthew 10, the Lord Jesus was planning to send out His twelve apostles to do mighty miracles as they went preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Matthew 10 says that:
Matthew 10:1, 5-7 (NKJ)
1 . . . when (Jesus) had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.
6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
How very different it was to serve the Lord at that time as compared to today. It’s hard for us to even imagine a scenario in which we would be commanded by the Lord to preach the gospel only to Jews. Such a thought is completely foreign to our way of thinking. Well, one of the reasons we do think so differently is because of the events that took place during the Acts period, and those events were faithfully recorded for us by Luke in the book of Acts.
In Matthew, Chapter 10, the Apostles went out preaching only to the Jews, and they also went out preaching a different message than we preach today. They did not preach that Christ died for ours sins. That’s obvious because Christ had not died yet. They did not preach that Christ was going to die for our sins. We know that because when Jesus explained to the Apostles that He was going to be killed and then raised from the dead in Luke 18, his disciples understood none of these things.
The message of those who went out in Matthew, Chapter 10, had nothing to do with the cross of Jesus Christ. Their message was simply that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Well, how did believers get from those circumstances to where we are today? As it turns out, God called Luke to shed some light on that very question in the book of Acts.
Matthew, Chapter 28, is another interesting passage. It records what many people regard as the Great Commission, and some think that this passage marks the great divide between the Jewish ministry of the Apostles before the cross and their ministry to the Gentile nations after the cross. However, if we study the book of Acts, we see that this is not the case.
When Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” the disciples never thought that Jesus wanted them to do that right away. In fact, they probably accurately understood Him to mean that they should do this after His return to set up the kingdom. During the kingdom, the nation of Israel will serve as a nation of priests who will minister to the Gentile nations.
But after the events of Matthew 28, Peter actually preached his first message on the Day of Pentecost, which was 50 days after the Passover celebration at which Jesus was crucified. For forty days they were with Jesus, and in the remaining ten days, they waited in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit. They did this because that’s exactly what Jesus had told them to do. Luke says in Acts, Chapter 1, that the Lord:
Acts 1:3-5 (NKJ)
3 . . . presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me;
5 "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
So the Lord Jesus wanted them to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and when the apostles were finally baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts, Chapter 2, Peter spoke up and specifically addressed the nation of Israel. He started off, saying:
Acts 2:14 (NKJ)
14 . . . "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.
Then later, he said:
Acts 2:22-24 (NKJ)
22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know--
23 "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
24 "whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
This was a message that was specifically to the Jews, and it was still in keeping with the instructions given in Matthew, Chapter 10, not Matthew, Chapter 28.
After this, the Apostles continued to share the gospel only with the Jews, but in Acts, Chapter 9, the Lord called the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, and He called him to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. God told Ananias that Paul was a chosen vessel of God who had been called to bear the name of the Lord before Gentiles, before kings and before the children of Israel.
Obviously, one of the biggest changes in all of Jewish history was about to take place. God was getting ready to offer His salvation to the Gentiles, and to prepare the way, God sent Peter, the chief spokesman for the Apostles, to share the gospel with a man named Cornelius.
Cornelius was a devout man who loved the Lord, but he was an uncircumcised Gentile. When Peter got to Cornelius’ house, he told Cornelius that according to the Law, Jews were not allowed to associate with Gentiles. But when Peter started sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with Cornelius, Cornelius was baptized with the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues. It appears that Peter was really taken back by this because at this point he asked:
Acts 10:47 (NKJ)
47 "Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"
When Peter got back to Jerusalem, he was called on the carpet for having witnessed to a Gentile, but they were satisfied when Peter explained to them what had happened. So, in spite of the fact that Jesus had told the Apostles to go out and make disciples of all nations, it was not going to be an easy task to get a believing Jew to actually go out and share the gospel with the Gentiles.
The Old Testament scriptures had always predicted that the Gentiles would be blessed with Israel when all of the promises were fulfilled. From the very time that God first called out Abraham, God promised Abraham that in him all of the families of the earth would be blessed, but who was it that was going to go to the Gentiles with God’s message of salvation? Of course, the man that God called to do this was the Apostle Paul.
In Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul said:
Galatians 1:15-17 (NKJ)
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,
16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Some people think that Paul may have gone right down to Mt. Sinai. Being a Pharisee and loving the Law as he did, he had some real thinking to do. God had called him as the Apostle to the Gentiles but He had just gone through a life changing experience, and he really needed to sort through some things. Actually, this worked out great because God had a lot of things to show Paul.
No doubt, while Paul was there in Arabia for three years, God began to show him one Old Testament passage after another which confirmed that Jesus really was Israel’s promised Messiah. The more Paul studied the clearer it became.
It was no doubt at this time that Paul began to see that no one can ever hope to be saved by keeping the Law of Moses. Even the Old Covenant declared that the salvation of Israel would depend upon the establishment of the New Covenant and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Paul must have also seen at this time that even Abraham was saved by faith before he was circumcised and before the Law was ever given.
It was also here that Paul began to see God’s plan for bringing Gentiles in to be blessed with Israel in Israel’s New Covenant program. In Romans, Chapter 15 alone, Paul quoted five Old Testament passages to prove that God had always planned to save the Gentiles in connection with Israel’s kingdom.
In Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul told about his conversion and then said:
Galatians 1:18-19 (NKJ)
18 . . . after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.
Paul must have been encouraged when he realized that God had already paved the way for him to go to the Gentiles by sending Peter to witness to Cornelius. At least Peter was probably going to be open to what God was calling Paul to do. Cornelius was not a Jew and neither was he a convert to the Jewish religion, but there was no denying the fact that Cornelius had received the Holy Spirit when he believed in Jesus Christ.
After Paul met with Peter in Jerusalem, Paul went back to his hometown of Tarsus and stayed there several years. Then one day Barnabas come looking for Paul, and Paul ultimately joined Barnabas in Syria of Antioch were many Gentiles had already come to know the Lord as their Savior. After a short time, Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the central part of what is now Turkey.
Luke records in the book of Acts that in every town, Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue first to give the Jews a chance to accept Christ as their Messiah. This was in keeping with what Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans, Chapter 1, where he said:
Romans 1:16
16 . . . I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Well, how could we begin to understand what Paul meant by this last phrase if it were not for the historical background given in the book of Acts. The book of Acts clearly shows Paul going into the Jewish synagogues first in every city to explain that Jesus really was the Christ.
But then as we come to the end of the book of Acts, we see Paul arriving in Rome as a prisoner. True to his calling at this time, Paul first called a meeting with the Jewish leaders in Rome. He preached the Lord Jesus and showed them from the Law and the Prophets that Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Jews. When the Jews in Rome refused to accept Jesus as their Messiah, Paul said:
Acts 28:28 (NKJ)
28 "Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!"
This was not the first time that Paul said something like this, but it was the last time. After this, Paul revealed the details concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ. He said that this is a new body of believers in which the Gentiles are fellow heirs with the Jews, of the same body with the Jews, and are partakers of God’s promise through the gospel with the Jews.
In Ephesians, Chapter 2, Paul wrote to the Gentiles, saying:
Ephesians 2:11-16 (NKJ)
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands--
12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
In connection with this great revelation, Paul said:
Ephesians 2:8-10 (KJV)
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
What a difference between the ministry of the apostles in Matthew, Chapter 10, and the ministry that God has given to us today as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ. How did Christians get from there to here? We can find the essence of that transition recorded in the book of Acts.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
It’s hard to image believers today trying to make sense of a passage such as Matthew, Chapter 10, without the information that is available to us in the book of Acts. In Matthew 10, the Lord Jesus was planning to send out His twelve apostles to do mighty miracles as they went preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Matthew 10 says that:
Matthew 10:1, 5-7 (NKJ)
1 . . . when (Jesus) had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.
6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
How very different it was to serve the Lord at that time as compared to today. It’s hard for us to even imagine a scenario in which we would be commanded by the Lord to preach the gospel only to Jews. Such a thought is completely foreign to our way of thinking. Well, one of the reasons we do think so differently is because of the events that took place during the Acts period, and those events were faithfully recorded for us by Luke in the book of Acts.
In Matthew, Chapter 10, the Apostles went out preaching only to the Jews, and they also went out preaching a different message than we preach today. They did not preach that Christ died for ours sins. That’s obvious because Christ had not died yet. They did not preach that Christ was going to die for our sins. We know that because when Jesus explained to the Apostles that He was going to be killed and then raised from the dead in Luke 18, his disciples understood none of these things.
The message of those who went out in Matthew, Chapter 10, had nothing to do with the cross of Jesus Christ. Their message was simply that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Well, how did believers get from those circumstances to where we are today? As it turns out, God called Luke to shed some light on that very question in the book of Acts.
Matthew, Chapter 28, is another interesting passage. It records what many people regard as the Great Commission, and some think that this passage marks the great divide between the Jewish ministry of the Apostles before the cross and their ministry to the Gentile nations after the cross. However, if we study the book of Acts, we see that this is not the case.
When Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” the disciples never thought that Jesus wanted them to do that right away. In fact, they probably accurately understood Him to mean that they should do this after His return to set up the kingdom. During the kingdom, the nation of Israel will serve as a nation of priests who will minister to the Gentile nations.
But after the events of Matthew 28, Peter actually preached his first message on the Day of Pentecost, which was 50 days after the Passover celebration at which Jesus was crucified. For forty days they were with Jesus, and in the remaining ten days, they waited in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit. They did this because that’s exactly what Jesus had told them to do. Luke says in Acts, Chapter 1, that the Lord:
Acts 1:3-5 (NKJ)
3 . . . presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me;
5 "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
So the Lord Jesus wanted them to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and when the apostles were finally baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts, Chapter 2, Peter spoke up and specifically addressed the nation of Israel. He started off, saying:
Acts 2:14 (NKJ)
14 . . . "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.
Then later, he said:
Acts 2:22-24 (NKJ)
22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know--
23 "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
24 "whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
This was a message that was specifically to the Jews, and it was still in keeping with the instructions given in Matthew, Chapter 10, not Matthew, Chapter 28.
After this, the Apostles continued to share the gospel only with the Jews, but in Acts, Chapter 9, the Lord called the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, and He called him to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. God told Ananias that Paul was a chosen vessel of God who had been called to bear the name of the Lord before Gentiles, before kings and before the children of Israel.
Obviously, one of the biggest changes in all of Jewish history was about to take place. God was getting ready to offer His salvation to the Gentiles, and to prepare the way, God sent Peter, the chief spokesman for the Apostles, to share the gospel with a man named Cornelius.
Cornelius was a devout man who loved the Lord, but he was an uncircumcised Gentile. When Peter got to Cornelius’ house, he told Cornelius that according to the Law, Jews were not allowed to associate with Gentiles. But when Peter started sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with Cornelius, Cornelius was baptized with the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues. It appears that Peter was really taken back by this because at this point he asked:
Acts 10:47 (NKJ)
47 "Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"
When Peter got back to Jerusalem, he was called on the carpet for having witnessed to a Gentile, but they were satisfied when Peter explained to them what had happened. So, in spite of the fact that Jesus had told the Apostles to go out and make disciples of all nations, it was not going to be an easy task to get a believing Jew to actually go out and share the gospel with the Gentiles.
The Old Testament scriptures had always predicted that the Gentiles would be blessed with Israel when all of the promises were fulfilled. From the very time that God first called out Abraham, God promised Abraham that in him all of the families of the earth would be blessed, but who was it that was going to go to the Gentiles with God’s message of salvation? Of course, the man that God called to do this was the Apostle Paul.
In Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul said:
Galatians 1:15-17 (NKJ)
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,
16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Some people think that Paul may have gone right down to Mt. Sinai. Being a Pharisee and loving the Law as he did, he had some real thinking to do. God had called him as the Apostle to the Gentiles but He had just gone through a life changing experience, and he really needed to sort through some things. Actually, this worked out great because God had a lot of things to show Paul.
No doubt, while Paul was there in Arabia for three years, God began to show him one Old Testament passage after another which confirmed that Jesus really was Israel’s promised Messiah. The more Paul studied the clearer it became.
It was no doubt at this time that Paul began to see that no one can ever hope to be saved by keeping the Law of Moses. Even the Old Covenant declared that the salvation of Israel would depend upon the establishment of the New Covenant and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Paul must have also seen at this time that even Abraham was saved by faith before he was circumcised and before the Law was ever given.
It was also here that Paul began to see God’s plan for bringing Gentiles in to be blessed with Israel in Israel’s New Covenant program. In Romans, Chapter 15 alone, Paul quoted five Old Testament passages to prove that God had always planned to save the Gentiles in connection with Israel’s kingdom.
In Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul told about his conversion and then said:
Galatians 1:18-19 (NKJ)
18 . . . after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.
Paul must have been encouraged when he realized that God had already paved the way for him to go to the Gentiles by sending Peter to witness to Cornelius. At least Peter was probably going to be open to what God was calling Paul to do. Cornelius was not a Jew and neither was he a convert to the Jewish religion, but there was no denying the fact that Cornelius had received the Holy Spirit when he believed in Jesus Christ.
After Paul met with Peter in Jerusalem, Paul went back to his hometown of Tarsus and stayed there several years. Then one day Barnabas come looking for Paul, and Paul ultimately joined Barnabas in Syria of Antioch were many Gentiles had already come to know the Lord as their Savior. After a short time, Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the central part of what is now Turkey.
Luke records in the book of Acts that in every town, Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue first to give the Jews a chance to accept Christ as their Messiah. This was in keeping with what Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans, Chapter 1, where he said:
Romans 1:16
16 . . . I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Well, how could we begin to understand what Paul meant by this last phrase if it were not for the historical background given in the book of Acts. The book of Acts clearly shows Paul going into the Jewish synagogues first in every city to explain that Jesus really was the Christ.
But then as we come to the end of the book of Acts, we see Paul arriving in Rome as a prisoner. True to his calling at this time, Paul first called a meeting with the Jewish leaders in Rome. He preached the Lord Jesus and showed them from the Law and the Prophets that Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Jews. When the Jews in Rome refused to accept Jesus as their Messiah, Paul said:
Acts 28:28 (NKJ)
28 "Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!"
This was not the first time that Paul said something like this, but it was the last time. After this, Paul revealed the details concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ. He said that this is a new body of believers in which the Gentiles are fellow heirs with the Jews, of the same body with the Jews, and are partakers of God’s promise through the gospel with the Jews.
In Ephesians, Chapter 2, Paul wrote to the Gentiles, saying:
Ephesians 2:11-16 (NKJ)
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands--
12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
In connection with this great revelation, Paul said:
Ephesians 2:8-10 (KJV)
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
What a difference between the ministry of the apostles in Matthew, Chapter 10, and the ministry that God has given to us today as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ. How did Christians get from there to here? We can find the essence of that transition recorded in the book of Acts.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
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