E 25
Acts Chapter 1 to 11 Review
short review of Acts 1 to 12
Matt 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
"I will build My Church" Why? Lu 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
He came to "to seek and save that which was lost". Four thousand years the world had waited for a Saviour. Ro 5:6 ¶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
At just the right time God sent His Son. (in due time...)
Jesus began His ministry at age 30. His message was 'I am the Messiah, the Son of God. I have come to deal with the sins of the world. Believe this and you will have eternal life'.
In His own way He said, 'Refuse to believe this, and I will not condemn you...because you are condemned already. '
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
He was speaking to His generation. He was speaking to the common people living in the north of Israel... Nazareth, Capernaum, Cana and the area called Galilee.
And He was speaking to the leaders of synagogues.
Then, on special occasions, He walked to Jerusalem and did the same thing there and in the surrounding area called Judea.
He touched a lot of lives, made many disciples but also made a number of enemies.
At just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. His death paid for their sins. But did He touch enough lives? The burden was on His heart. He was not willing that ANY should perish.
2Pe 3:9 ¶ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
He wanted all to come to believe He was the Christ, the sacrifice for their sin'. He wept when He considered the thousands of people in the city of Jerusalem. Mt 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
He wished for all of them to come to faith. But it was not happening. The majority of them were headed into an eternity without God. The majority of them were not even believers like those of the Old Testament era. And what about the Old Testament 'method' of being saved? If it worked for them... Why did Jesus have to come and die at all?
That's the thing. It did not work for them. Not for any of them. Not even for father Abraham. The old Testament believers were all dead, but they were not in heaven. They were in Paradise ... but they were not in heaven. Why were they not in Heaven? Because Jesus is the door and the door was closed until the payment for sin could be made. Only then could He say 'It is finished'. The moment He said those words, He died and left the crowd of onlookers. Where did He go?
We get a straight answer from His words to the last person who placed faith in Him.
Lu 23:43 And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Jesus spent the next three days in paradise... In the center (heart) of the earth. Mt 12:40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Abraham was there waiting. So was a man called Lazarus. So were thousands of others who had believed in the coming Messiah. So also was the believing thief who died with Jesus. So also were millions of babies and children that died in the flood of Noah's day.
In plain view was a rich man who saw Lazarus every day. His sin was not only the fact that he was cruel and hard-hearted toward the poor. His sin was that He was not a believer in the coming Messiah.
So there he is...able to see Abraham and the many waiting believers. He might have been able to see the first Martyr, Abel. He likely rubbed shoulders with Cain, Abel's brother.
And then,from his vantage point in hell, the rich man suddenly witnesses an incredible commotion in Paradise. Jesus has arrived!
Thousands of people in Paradise had believed in a coming Messiah, a Saviour. Now they are hearing that His saving work, his payment for their sin... was finished. What excitement. What Joy!
What weeping and wailing for the other group. The disobedient. The ones who knew better but chose to exclude God out of their lives.
I Peter 3:18 ¶ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah,
Three days later Jesus rose from the dead. He left the heart of the earth, Paradise, and appeared to Mary.
John 20:17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’"
She wanted to cling to Him. He told her that He must leave immediately and go to the Father in heaven. He was going to take millions of Paradise residents with Him. As a matter of fact, some of them had already come out of their graves and were appearing to people in the city of Jerusalem.
Matt. 27:51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
So Jesus came to seek and save the lost living in Israel. Most rejected Him. But during his 3 days in the center of the earth, He saved all of those waiting in Paradise.
But now that He was alive, and Salvation's plan in place,... He wanted to save the rest of the world. He gave this impossible task to His church.
He had built His church for this very reason. John prepared the 'building material'. John preached that Jesus, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world would be appearing shortly. Many repented of their sin and believed the message and they demonstrated their belief by being baptized by John.
Jesus came and called these very people to follow him. He referred to them as disciples. Then he gathered his disciples and chose 12 of them to be called apostles.
Lu 6:13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians, 1Co 12:28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
Jesus gave them the impossible task of going into all the world with the salvation message. Impossible, that is, without God's help. “ You will receive the ability to do the job” (Lu 24.49), He said.
This brings us to the Book of Acts. It opens with the final words of Jesus', His ascension into Heaven and the instructions of an angel.
The amazed disciples, gazing up at the disappearing Jesus, had been given their orders. The first order was easy. Wait.
But waiting was not easy for Apostle Peter.
The small church had been told that they would receive the power to go into all the world. But they had no idea what form that power would take or how long they would have to wait.
But when nothing appears to be happening, it seems Peter is trying to figure out why. Then it occurs to him that there are only 11 apostles. And he remembers a scripture which indicated that number 12 needed to be replaced.
Psalm 69:21 Instead, they gave me gall for my food,
and for my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 ¶ Let their table set before them be a snare,
and let it be a trap for /their/ allies.
23 Let their eyes grow too dim to see,
and let their loins continually shake.
24 Pour out Your rage on them,
may no one live in their tents.
26 For they persecute the one You struck
and talk about the pain of those You wounded.
27 Add guilt to their guilt;
do not let them share in Your righteousness.
28 Let them be erased from the book of life
and not be recorded with the righteous.
And so we see the purpose of the book of Acts; To see what God was about to do with imperfect believers.
The Spirit comes down onto them and they receive power. Abilities. Why do they need special abilities?
They would need to be able to speak foreign languages and there was no time to go to language school. They would need to have a way to back up their message that Jesus is the Saviour, God in the flesh who died for them, was buried, rose to new life and is coming again. That 'way to convince others' was to show miraculous signs.
The first sign was the gift of languages. Thousands believed. The church family grew from a few hundred to a few thousand. They rejoiced together. They spread the word together. They all their meals together. Every day.
Many of the new believers were from out of town. They did not want to go back home. So the new local believers took them in. The local believers willingly shared everything they had. The out-of- town believers sold their homes and gave the money to the church.
Life was great... But they were not spreading out to the rest of the world.
Then Deacon Stephen preached a message which changed that. His message angered the unbelievers to the point that they killed him. Then they proceeded to attack any others who believed like he did. The result was the church was scattered. Acts 8:2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.
4 ¶ Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
God had plans for one of the main enemies of the church, Saul.
God said to the one who was to baptize him, “…he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel”.
But Saul needed more than salvation. He needed training. And he needed to be trusted by the rest of the church. That would take time. Saul was advised to go home and wait until he was called.
During this time of persecution the work of the apostles is very different from what it had been following the day of Pentecost. We read, And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Acts 8:1
The church in Jerusalem went from multi-thousands down to 12. The Apostles' work changed from local to rural. Somehow they would ‘shepherd’, or pastor the church (churches) from small group to small group.
Samaria received the gospel. 8:5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
Gentiles received the gospel. Ac 11:18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."
Believers scatter into Syria and into Asia minor. Ac 11:19 ¶ Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
The church in Antioch grows dramatically.
21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,
24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
Barnabas decides that it is time to call Saul. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
Jesus had said, Matt 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
The church in Acts, at this point, is busy doing what Jesus commanded. They are obeying.
And this brings us to chapter 12.
Matt 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
"I will build My Church" Why? Lu 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
He came to "to seek and save that which was lost". Four thousand years the world had waited for a Saviour. Ro 5:6 ¶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
At just the right time God sent His Son. (in due time...)
Jesus began His ministry at age 30. His message was 'I am the Messiah, the Son of God. I have come to deal with the sins of the world. Believe this and you will have eternal life'.
In His own way He said, 'Refuse to believe this, and I will not condemn you...because you are condemned already. '
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
He was speaking to His generation. He was speaking to the common people living in the north of Israel... Nazareth, Capernaum, Cana and the area called Galilee.
And He was speaking to the leaders of synagogues.
Then, on special occasions, He walked to Jerusalem and did the same thing there and in the surrounding area called Judea.
He touched a lot of lives, made many disciples but also made a number of enemies.
At just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. His death paid for their sins. But did He touch enough lives? The burden was on His heart. He was not willing that ANY should perish.
2Pe 3:9 ¶ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
He wanted all to come to believe He was the Christ, the sacrifice for their sin'. He wept when He considered the thousands of people in the city of Jerusalem. Mt 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
He wished for all of them to come to faith. But it was not happening. The majority of them were headed into an eternity without God. The majority of them were not even believers like those of the Old Testament era. And what about the Old Testament 'method' of being saved? If it worked for them... Why did Jesus have to come and die at all?
That's the thing. It did not work for them. Not for any of them. Not even for father Abraham. The old Testament believers were all dead, but they were not in heaven. They were in Paradise ... but they were not in heaven. Why were they not in Heaven? Because Jesus is the door and the door was closed until the payment for sin could be made. Only then could He say 'It is finished'. The moment He said those words, He died and left the crowd of onlookers. Where did He go?
We get a straight answer from His words to the last person who placed faith in Him.
Lu 23:43 And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Jesus spent the next three days in paradise... In the center (heart) of the earth. Mt 12:40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Abraham was there waiting. So was a man called Lazarus. So were thousands of others who had believed in the coming Messiah. So also was the believing thief who died with Jesus. So also were millions of babies and children that died in the flood of Noah's day.
In plain view was a rich man who saw Lazarus every day. His sin was not only the fact that he was cruel and hard-hearted toward the poor. His sin was that He was not a believer in the coming Messiah.
So there he is...able to see Abraham and the many waiting believers. He might have been able to see the first Martyr, Abel. He likely rubbed shoulders with Cain, Abel's brother.
And then,from his vantage point in hell, the rich man suddenly witnesses an incredible commotion in Paradise. Jesus has arrived!
Thousands of people in Paradise had believed in a coming Messiah, a Saviour. Now they are hearing that His saving work, his payment for their sin... was finished. What excitement. What Joy!
What weeping and wailing for the other group. The disobedient. The ones who knew better but chose to exclude God out of their lives.
I Peter 3:18 ¶ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah,
Three days later Jesus rose from the dead. He left the heart of the earth, Paradise, and appeared to Mary.
John 20:17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’"
She wanted to cling to Him. He told her that He must leave immediately and go to the Father in heaven. He was going to take millions of Paradise residents with Him. As a matter of fact, some of them had already come out of their graves and were appearing to people in the city of Jerusalem.
Matt. 27:51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
So Jesus came to seek and save the lost living in Israel. Most rejected Him. But during his 3 days in the center of the earth, He saved all of those waiting in Paradise.
But now that He was alive, and Salvation's plan in place,... He wanted to save the rest of the world. He gave this impossible task to His church.
He had built His church for this very reason. John prepared the 'building material'. John preached that Jesus, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world would be appearing shortly. Many repented of their sin and believed the message and they demonstrated their belief by being baptized by John.
Jesus came and called these very people to follow him. He referred to them as disciples. Then he gathered his disciples and chose 12 of them to be called apostles.
Lu 6:13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians, 1Co 12:28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
Jesus gave them the impossible task of going into all the world with the salvation message. Impossible, that is, without God's help. “ You will receive the ability to do the job” (Lu 24.49), He said.
This brings us to the Book of Acts. It opens with the final words of Jesus', His ascension into Heaven and the instructions of an angel.
The amazed disciples, gazing up at the disappearing Jesus, had been given their orders. The first order was easy. Wait.
But waiting was not easy for Apostle Peter.
The small church had been told that they would receive the power to go into all the world. But they had no idea what form that power would take or how long they would have to wait.
But when nothing appears to be happening, it seems Peter is trying to figure out why. Then it occurs to him that there are only 11 apostles. And he remembers a scripture which indicated that number 12 needed to be replaced.
Psalm 69:21 Instead, they gave me gall for my food,
and for my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 ¶ Let their table set before them be a snare,
and let it be a trap for /their/ allies.
23 Let their eyes grow too dim to see,
and let their loins continually shake.
24 Pour out Your rage on them,
may no one live in their tents.
26 For they persecute the one You struck
and talk about the pain of those You wounded.
27 Add guilt to their guilt;
do not let them share in Your righteousness.
28 Let them be erased from the book of life
and not be recorded with the righteous.
And so we see the purpose of the book of Acts; To see what God was about to do with imperfect believers.
The Spirit comes down onto them and they receive power. Abilities. Why do they need special abilities?
They would need to be able to speak foreign languages and there was no time to go to language school. They would need to have a way to back up their message that Jesus is the Saviour, God in the flesh who died for them, was buried, rose to new life and is coming again. That 'way to convince others' was to show miraculous signs.
The first sign was the gift of languages. Thousands believed. The church family grew from a few hundred to a few thousand. They rejoiced together. They spread the word together. They all their meals together. Every day.
Many of the new believers were from out of town. They did not want to go back home. So the new local believers took them in. The local believers willingly shared everything they had. The out-of- town believers sold their homes and gave the money to the church.
Life was great... But they were not spreading out to the rest of the world.
Then Deacon Stephen preached a message which changed that. His message angered the unbelievers to the point that they killed him. Then they proceeded to attack any others who believed like he did. The result was the church was scattered. Acts 8:2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.
4 ¶ Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
God had plans for one of the main enemies of the church, Saul.
God said to the one who was to baptize him, “…he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel”.
But Saul needed more than salvation. He needed training. And he needed to be trusted by the rest of the church. That would take time. Saul was advised to go home and wait until he was called.
During this time of persecution the work of the apostles is very different from what it had been following the day of Pentecost. We read, And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Acts 8:1
The church in Jerusalem went from multi-thousands down to 12. The Apostles' work changed from local to rural. Somehow they would ‘shepherd’, or pastor the church (churches) from small group to small group.
Samaria received the gospel. 8:5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
Gentiles received the gospel. Ac 11:18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."
Believers scatter into Syria and into Asia minor. Ac 11:19 ¶ Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
The church in Antioch grows dramatically.
21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,
24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
Barnabas decides that it is time to call Saul. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
Jesus had said, Matt 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
The church in Acts, at this point, is busy doing what Jesus commanded. They are obeying.
And this brings us to chapter 12.