One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer--at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. "Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ[1] would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you--even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.'[2] "Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.'[3] When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

(Act 3:1-4:4 NIV)

If we were the kind of people who take notes when lessons were presented, then we would probably like, as a courtesy, an outline that we could fill in on the way. It would also serve as a useful tool to keep us all on the same page, and means of determining when I have seriously gone off track. Because it is going to be so easy to get off the subject in this section, I’m going to let you in on the general outline that I’m following so that we can all stay focused. Basically what I see here is three things: a miracle, a sermon, and 2 responses, one good, and one bad. If this were a movie, I’d try to build the plot and your excitement and spring the “WOW” finish on you at the end, but let’s not do that this time. Instead lets take a look at this event and I promise not to pretend I didn’t just read the whole story to you, or that you don’t have a copy open in front of you, destroying any attempt I could make of suspense.

In verse 43 of the last chapter, Luke says:

Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. (Act 2:43 NIV)

So what we’re dealing with here is a time when the Apostles were doing many miracles and:

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. (Act 2:46a NIV)

the Church was often going to the temple. We see later, in chapter 5, that

Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they [the apostles] never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Act 5:42 NIV)

Armed with those bits of knowledge, we can only conclude that this event that we’re looking at here in Chapter 3 was not particularly significant because of the miracle or the sermon (thought the man healed my have disagreed with us). I believe what we’re looking at is a fairly typical example of what the Apostles were doing in the first years of the Church. So that brings up the question of why did Luke choose to detail this event and not any of the others? I think we can find the answer to that question beginning in Chapter 4. Peter and John went to the temple, like they always did. Peter healed somebody, again. He preached another sermon to another gathered crowd, but this time they got arrested and had to spend the night in jail.

So, let’s look at a typical day in the life of an Apostle of God and see what we can learn from their example. Item number one on the outline is a miracle, and if we’re going to call this a typical miracle, we would do well to look at it so we can see what was going on in those early days. First let’s take a look at who the recipient was.

Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. (Act 3:2 NIV)

It is important to note 2 things about this man, he was lame to the point where they carried him to his spot at the gate, and that he had been that way since he was born. Also this man had picked, or had picked for him, a really good spot. In those days, there were not a whole lot of job options open to people who were lame. They did have wheeled chairs, but only the extremely rich would have had them, and they weren’t like our wheel chairs today at all, they would have required several strong men to make them mobile in any setting other than a smooth inside floor. The disabled were burdens. Nobody had enough to eat, and theirs was a mouth that couldn’t work. It was expected of them to go out and beg in order to earn their keep. At the same time, that worked in Jewish societies pretty well because of these things called alms. Alms were, and really still are, a part of the culture of the Orient. Taking care of the poor was seen as a lovely way to please God, especially in the culture that we find here in Judea under the spiritual leadership of the Pharisees. This guy had taken up a spot at the Beautiful Gate at the temple. This was the main eastern gate that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the Court of the Women. This was on the way into the temple proper, and as far as someone who was unclean was allowed to go. Prime begging real estate for all the goodie-goodies. And we see that expectancy show up in his actions. He saw Peter and John, and asked them for some alms,

Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

(Act 3:4-5 NIV)

Expecting something from them. I don’t know why but this scene reminded me of something that Jesus said once:

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (Mat 6:5 NIV)

It seems like this beggar was expecting this sort of behavior because he looked up expectantly when they commanded his attention. In a culture of people who were all about the show and outer appearance, it was probably not an uncommon occurrence for people at the gate of the temple to try to be showy about how Godly and spiritual they were. I hear of this very thing happening all the time on TV. Talk show hosts and various other stars just throwing money around, which is good, but they’re filming it so the whole world can see what a generous, kind person they are. Jesus says that the publicity is their whole reward and they shouldn’t look at God for anything else. When Peter and John commanded, “Look at me,” this guy was probably thinking “Oh, goodie… that means I’m getting a bunch today.” But that’s not what happened. So, if we go back to the outline thing again, we see this man was so lame that he had to be carried to where he was located, he was like that since he was born, and he was totally not expecting what happened next.

Frankly it’s easy enough to “blah, blah, blah” over the miracles in the bible. Too much has been made of them and too many charlatans on TV have come along with so many phony miracles that you can get over stimulated. The other side of the coin is just as dangerous, because the bible really does not make much of these miracles at all. They are mentioned and then immediately there is a message from God afterwards. The message is really what God wants to emphasize, the miracle is just to get our attention. That is exactly what has happened here. The man who was lame from birth was expecting money. Peter grabbed him by the hand and lifted him up and he walked into the temple with them. Walked, leaped… all those things that he had never done before. Apparently even the knowledge of how to use those newly restored muscles came with the miracle, because it took me a few years to learn how to walk, and this guy just started doing it. And at some point, while he was jumping about praising God, the people in the temple finally recognized who this guy was.

As a regular at the temple people would have seen this guy day in and day out. This was where you came to pray and make sacrifices and you had to pass by this guy to do it. Some of them would have know his story and those few would have been tossed their information into the rumor machine that would have flashed over, producing nearly instantaneous knowledge to the whole crowd of people. Peter and John went back out to Solomon’s Porch outside with this guy was holding onto them. Everyone saw this, and followed them out. Now we’ve got a very attentive crowd, in fact my version says they were “greatly amazed.”

Peter’s response to this great amazement is priceless. While I would have been stammering over “yes God is good, and he’s blessed me greatly and I was just so sympathetic to this poor man…” Peter begins rather boldly,

When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? (Act 3:12 NIV)

Why does this surprise you? How’s that for a question? I guess it was an honest question, though. They were at the temple of the Most High God who had parted the sea. If that wasn’t enough, by this time, I’m sure everybody knew that Peter and John were disciples of Jesus, and how many miracles surrounded His ministry? And why do you stare? Were they trying to figure out how the magician did the trick? Now watch this, guys. We talked about this last week with another of Peter’s sermons. Watch how Peter just lifts Christ on high.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. (Act 3:13-16 NIV)

Wow. Once again we see the contrast, Holy Jesus, evil man. The audience for this is equally amazing. These were devout Jews at the temple. They had come at the time of prayer bringing the evening sacrifices. They had given money to that beggar, and they had followed the Law just like their fathers had and just like their fathers had all the way back to Abraham. It would be the same crowd if we were to go into any of these old churches around the world that have gone completely apostate and preached a barn- burner. The subject matter, too, is amazing. “You delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilot,” do you know where they’re standing? The people who engineered that scene with Pilot and Barabas were the people who were in charge of that building. They were still around and these people were there on that day, too.

But then we see Peter’s heart.

"Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, (Act 3:17-19a NIV)

We went line by line through a sermon last week lets not do that again. Let me just lay out the points he makes.

Repent and Turn to God so that your sins might be forgiven. Repent and turn so that times of Refreshing may come from the Lord, and that times means Epoch, so we’re talking about an age of Refreshing. Turn and repent so that Jesus can be sent. But wasn’t he already sent? Yes, but He must be received by heaven until the times (epoch) of restoration of all things, which God has spoken has spoken of through prophets since the world began. How’s that for Christ centered motivations. Repent and turn to God so that the events described in Revelation might come about. Which would be a good idea for you guys, because Jesus was the Prophet Moses talked about in Deuteronomy, and God said that whoever will not hear Him shall be utterly destroyed. So how’s that?

When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways." (Act 3:26 NIV)

I’m not sure that would make a real good bumper sticker, but God came to bless you by turning you away from your wicked ways, so that you won’t be utterly destroyed on the last day.

Friends, how much like these Apostles are we? I haven’t healed anybody, sure… but I have had gathered crowds and microphone to boot. I don’t have a temple to go to everyday, but I do go to that place where people serve money 5 days a week. What testimony are we leaving this world with? God is great, but social acceptance is better? That the Bible is absolutely the truth and that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, except tell people that He is the Christ. I am preaching this to my shame. I am a coward when it comes to sharing my faith and considering what my God has done for me, that’s despicable. Peter stood up in the temple, in the place where the enemies of Christ called their office, and preached that they were the enemies of Christ and that they needed to change that. We can’t even accuse Peter and John of ignorance of these things, because it was from these people that they and the rest of the disciples were hiding when Jesus first appeared to them. Where is our boldness? Where has the church gone? Is our mission now potlucks? Not that potlucks are our thing, but where is the focus of most professing Christians? It is unfortunate that in the country at this time, the answer is not the Gospel and it should be. Christ has given us a message. That message has power and is backed by the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ themselves. And we can see that it was of primary importance to Peter, so much so, that the miracle that he was a part of was only an opportunity to preach to crowd.

The enemies that Peter mentioned were there, and this time they heard and came over to see what was happening. The Sadducees hated Jesus and His followers because what they preached flew in the face of what they believed. Jesus was back from the dead, there WAS a resurrection, they were wrong and they thought to end that embarrassment by killing Jesus and imprisoning His followers. For their boldness, Peter and John got tossed in jail and we’ll look at what happened to them next time. For now let me close with this.

Today, the religious leaders in our country say that human intellect is the ultimate reality. They say that God is dead because He was never alive in any other location than in the imagination of men, and now because of they’re great enlightenment, we can finally hold a funeral for the Ruler of the Universe. Jesus rose from the dead, proving that He was that God that they say isn’t there. He has sustained His church through 300 years of a sustained attack by humanists, modernists and the philosophers of the West, and they are beginning to get frustrated. They have switched tactics from reasoning, to political action and they’re winning. They’re going to continue winning because the Church has conceded the only ground that it had to stand on and that is the reality of a risen Christ. When the mainstream churches lost that, the war was over… we are now merely negotiating with our victors where we might still be allowed to go. Could we please have some prayer in the schools… no, alright… what if the children lead it, OK for now… but we’ll be back in a year to contest that.

Already they have stopped pretending that they want anything else but the utter destruction of the church and the God it represents. It is not inconceivable that within our lifetimes, they will get the OK to commence with their plans. We need to figure out today, if we’re going to be able to still be a follower of Christ then, and pray that the Holy Spirit will begin the process of making us bold, today… while there is still time.

Let us pray:

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "

'In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above

and signs on the earth below,

blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved.'^[3]

"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,^[4] put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:

" 'I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave,

nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence.'^[5]

"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,^[6] that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,

" 'The Lord said to my Lord:

"Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet." '^[7]

"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call." With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

(Act 2:14-47 NIV)

I can’t help but think of what an amazing day this must have been for the devout that had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem this year. This had to have been the 2 weirdest months of their lives. 50 days ago the sky had turned dark in the middle of the day and the rumor mill would have had stories of people seeing their dead relatives walking around again. This as a culmination, so they had thought, of a 3 year series of intrigue involving the top religious leaders, political figures and some amazing miracles surrounding a young man from Galilee of dubious origins. Probably some were anxious to be getting on the road so they could tell everybody back home about it. With the final day before them, the last feast until fall, they brought their sacrifices to the temple. It was the third month of a brand new year, the wheat harvest had come in, the fruits were arriving. If there were people like me in the crowd, there would have been thoughts turned towards the coming year and the journey home. For some it would have meant a long boat ride, for some camels… for others, they were already home and it was about time the people went back to where they came from.

Alright, this is a lot of creative license, I’ll admit. None of this is essential to what I’m going to teach, so don’t get too involved with the picture. But I want you to get into the habit of thinking of the people in these stories as being real, because they were. It was just men and women doing men and women things in a real town called Jerusalem. Put yourself there in that crowd on that day, and now watch as a group of people from the boonies come rushing out of a house with the sound of a violent wind and begin speaking to you in your native language, which you know they don’t speak, and besides, the guy standing next to you speaks Arabic, and he’s hearing it in his language, too. Maybe you would have been in the “whatever could this mean?” crowd, maybe you were in the “new wine” crowd. Maybe you were struck dumb and couldn’t manage 2 coherent thoughts in a row. In all of this, a single voice emerges above the others and begins by addressing you with a word of warning.

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!

(Act 2:14-15 NIV)

(From my years of drinking I can say that the only people who you will hear exclaim that it is ridiculous to think they are drunk based solely on the hour of the day are people who are habitually sober.)

And now that Peter has our attention, Having directly addressed the scoffers among us, he begins with the Bible

'In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above

and signs on the earth below,

blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

(Act 2:17-21 NIV)

By quoting these verses from the prophet Joel, he is immediately identifying with his audience. These were Jews waiting for the messiah to come. The Jews were very good at educating their youth. Synagogues were established in exile to make sure that the knowledge of the Old Testament wasn't lost through the generations. The crowd would have instantly known this verse the way we know when someone is quoting Revelation. Remember, people in this crowd were probably there on the day Jesus entered Jerusalem shouting "Hosanna in the Highest!!" They were familiar with prophesy in the same way we're familiar with prophesy. Some of us more than others, but we ALL know when we hear it.

and then again, the plea:

"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

(Act 2:22 NIV)

Again, let me emphasize that NOBODY in this crowd was at all confused as to what Peter was talking about. All of the problems of relating to the crowd and putting the Bible in context were entirely absent at this moment. They knew the players, they knew the circumstances, they knew the scriptures. Peter could speak to them on an intimate level that I don't think I could recreate. Some in this audience would have been there on the day the Sanhedrin worked up the crowd to shout "Crucify Him!!" NONE of what he said next would have lost ANY of its impact.

This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,^[4] put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

(Act 2:23 NIV)

People of Israel, Let's talk about prophesy... This man Jesus, God revealed Him, you knew Him, God delivered Him, you killed Him. The greatest crime that man commits against man is the death of an innocent, yet even the youngest of children are born in sin... Jesus wasn't. The greatest crime that man commits against God is open, armed rebellion. When man had God in his hands, he murdered Him. Peter addresses this audience and presents them with the evidence that they are guilty of the 2 greatest crimes man is capable of committing. Is God defeated then? Has man doomed Himself? Is there now no hope? Remember, God is in charge here, and He's an infinitely wise and powerful God, He's not going to leave a little thing like sin out of His plans, in fact... He's going to include it and use it to His purposes.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

(Act 2:24 NIV)

and then he quotes Psalm 16:

David said about him:

" 'I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave,

nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence.'

(Act 2:24-28 NIV)

The interesting thing that I found in my studies this week is how odd I thought the choice of scripture was. The quote from Joel appears to me to be talking about the Last Day that hasn't happened yet, and when I read the quote from David, I was just sure that David was talking about Himself. I guess it was the use of the first person. Peter correctly points out to us how ridicules that thought is, though... check this out....

"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.

(Act 2:29 NIV)

David was dead, you could go to his grave, This Psalm can't be talking about him.

But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,

" 'The Lord said to my Lord:

"Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet." '

(Act 2:30-35 NIV)

Joel, David... what was Peter talking about? Why even bring it up... There was this movie that I saw way back by Monty Python. The movie's title was "Life of Brian." If you haven’t seen it, don't... it’s filthy, but it did see a lot of reaction from the Christians in this country and in Europe because it was seen as a blasphemous portrayal of the life of Jesus. I saw an interview with Terry Graham, who was the director, when they asked him about that. It was interesting what he said. They had, in fact, started out to make a movie to make fun of Jesus, figuring they had made fun of everything else. So they each took a copy of the Bible home and were going to meet back with some material. In the end, Graham said, they discovered that what Jesus had said was really amazing and they really couldn't make fun of it, so they decided to do a movie on the times surrounding Jesus. So they started off the movie with the Three wise men coming to Brian's manger and giving his disrespectful mother the gifts which she rudely takes. They leave, only to come back and take back the gifts because they see the real King of Kings in the manger down the street. Brian is even seen overhearing Jesus' Sermon on the Mount... but he ends up being mistaken for the Messiah by a crowd that just won't listen to reason. It’s quite funny. And though it really wasn't that bad, the times really were like that. People claiming to be messiah had already come and gone, some requiring Roman intervention in the form of soldiers. The literature of the time was full of Messianic messages of deliverance. Specifically, they were waiting for the throne of David to be retaken and the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord to arrive and sweep all the gentile, read Roman, nations unto Judgment.

Peter quotes David to them, and tells them that David was expecting the Christ to rise from the dead as well. That would have blown them away. I didn't even recognize that when I read it the first time, and I know about the Resurrection. Again, he quotes David and says that David was expecting the Lord to ascend into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father until He had made Jesus' enemies a footstool for His feet. The whole Old Testament points to the day when the Christ would suffer. Isaiah said, "By His stripes we shall be healed." Even Joel shows that events had to happen BEFORE the Great and Terrible day of the Lord. Peter points out that Jesus was the Christ that David was looking forward to, that He ascended the way that the Prophets said He would, sat down at the right hand of the Father just like David said He would, and just like Joel, and a bunch of others, said He poured out His Spirit on us, which you are now witnessing.

Ultimately, Joel prediction will be fulfilled on THE LAST DAY, if you'd like more details on that day open your Bibles to the book of Revelation and read all about it. But if you read the prophesy carefully, you will see that in it is a progression of things that will come in the last Days, which will be initiated by the Holy Spirit being poured out, which started on the day of Pentecost and continues to this day.

But really, this is not the main point, this is all just context. Remember, "The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things." It takes a little work to get at the main thing in this case, but only because so much time and space has passed.

"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

(Act 2:36 NIV)

this is one of those clever sayings that I love so much, "if you see a therefore in the Bible, find out what its there for." All of this context is just there to show the crowd these two points.

1) God made Jesus both Lord and Christ.

2) You killed Him.

Here we have the first Sermon of the First Church of God, Jerusalem, and look at it.

It’s all about the Bible. Peter's points are made entirely from scripture. He didn't even mention the fact that He was speaking in a common tongue or that there were flames on His head or that, I'm a man of God, can't you hear the noise. This had to have been a very sensory loaded event, but Peter doesn't even seem to bring the subject up except to point out where this is just a fulfillment of prophesy. And when he wants to back up what his interpretations of those scriptures are, he quotes the Bible.

It’s hard hitting. Peter doesn't pull any punches with this crowd. He stands there accusing everybody within hearing distance, in their own native language, that they killed the Promised One, the one they were waiting for. He mentions it in the beginning to set up his point, and then in conclusion, he mentions it again.

It was Christ exalting. The whole sermon was about Christ. How He was predicted. How He fulfilled prophesy. How He was Lord.

Is this our message to the world? That God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Have we fallen in love with current trends which tell us that whatever you do, don't accuse people. Don't tell them that they've "sinned", you might offend them. When we talk to people do we mention that Jesus is Lord and therefore we are required to serve and obey Him? I know we always mention the Christ part and how we can be saved, but from what? Have we mentioned that their sins have crucified and murdered the only Son of God? Do we mention that we are living in the last days, and there are no more chances after this? And what are our theories on all this? I mean, we certainly can't accuse Peter of having an off day; he was still being enabled by the Spirit to speak to the crowd in their native tongue...

When the people heard this,

(Act 2:37a NIV)

The same people who were wondering what this can all mean, were the same people hearing what Peter was saying. No, this is the sermon that the Holy Spirit spoke. If you've ever asked the question "What would Jesus preach?" then here's your answer. He went up to heaven, sat down at the right hand of the Father and poured His Spirit out on the 120, and this is what at least one of them spoke in response. The truth of God is not an easy truth to hear. Its full of man being totally undeserving of even the air that we breathe and how we are completely powerless to change anything significant about ourselves and our surroundings. Contrast this to what the TV teaches every time it has anything of import to say. The prevailing philosophy of the day is how you are a beautiful little snow flake that is deserving of every happiness. We're taught from birth that we are entitled to... whatever. When we get to the touchy feely part of every film or story, we're taught that with enough of whatever ingredients are being highlighted, courage, love, determination... even some nameless faith, then YOU can accomplish it, whatever IT is. We're talking polar opposites. It wasn't any different in Peter's day. The men that Peter was speaking to were rule keepers. They were good people, honest, God fearing people and Peter accuses them of the most heinous Murder. Do we have the courage to stand up and say: "Men of Myrtle Beach, GOD has made this Jesus, who you, by your continual pursuit of your own pleasures and your open rebellion against the almighty, have crucified, God has made Him both LORD and CHRIST.

And these people were cut to the heart (verse 37) and they asked the 120 "What should we do?" We see that at least 3000 people had no questions about their need for savior. Peter's sermon had slammed them to the ground. The power of the Holy Spirit had shown these people that they weren't on any kind of solid foundation with their own righteousness and they asked the only honest question that can come from Biblical preaching... when confronted with the awful reality of the enormity of my sin, the very blood of Christ on my hands, what then am I to do?

"Accept Jesus into my heart?"... no.

"Pray this little prayer?"... no.

"come to our church?"... no.

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call."

(Act 2:38-39 NIV)

This is the promise, the one given to the whole world. Repent and be baptized, in Christ, for the forgiveness of sins (not personal enhancement), and you shall receive, as a free gift to you, the Holy Spirit. God has given us nothing less than Himself. Why are we trying to add to that or, worse, subtract from that?

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

(Act 2:40-41 NIV)

Not a bad number, but considering the city had over a million people in it, and God Himself had shown up in the form of tongues of fire, I'm not sure if that number was meant to impress us.

Verses 42-47 really should be handled on their own and not thrown onto the end of this lesson, but this is kind of a high altitude tour of the book of Acts and I can't slow down enough to really do this section justice. So let me just say this:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

(Act 2:42 NIV)

Saved people go to church. They go there because that's where other saved people are. I don't want to stretch the point to far, but up to this point in the text its been all "God did, God did, God did". Now we see "They did". I believe that the natural response of the new creation is to search out other new creations so they can be together and together feed on spiritual food, which is the Word of God. Theirs was everyday. In China, it’s whenever they can meet, usually as often as possible. For us it’s Sunday morning, Wednesday evening and Friday night.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

(Act 2:46-47a NIV)

We've been called to pass on a message, not hand down a judgment. Peter accused, but mostly he lifted up Christ. He did point out the awfulness of their crime, but then He pleaded with them to turn. Remember, were it not for the grace of God, we'd all be going to Hell, too.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

(Acts 2:47b NIV)

This really is the more impressive bit of information. Daily the Lord added.

Preach the Word, Love the Brothers, Praise God, be nice...

Preach the Word, Love the Brothers, Praise God, be nice...

Preach the Word, Love the Brothers, Praise God, be nice...

I think if we could get that down, we'd be all right.

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues^[1] as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." (Act 2:1-13 NIV)

When I was looking at the NIV for a reference as to what you guys were going to be reading, I saw that it starts this chapter different than my version. Mine says “had fully come,” yours just says came. I wondered about that so I looked at the text using this bible software I’ve got and noticed that the KJV has the Greek rendered that way as well, but none of the other major versions do. I thought that was odd, so I checked out the Strong’s number on the word, which is the only means of getting at the original language that I have, and noticed that the word has an odd definition. Here it is:

συμπληρόω

sumplēroō

soom-play-ro'-o

From G4862 and G4137; to implenish completely, that is, (of space) to swamp (a boat), or (of time) to accomplish (passively be complete): - (fully) come, fill up.

Thayer’s Greek Dictionary has it as to be full completely, as in the hold of a boat or completely fulfilled in time. I thought that was an interesting choice of words, considering how the holiday of Pentecost was celebrated. Hold you finger here in the text and we’re gonna go back to Leviticus 23, starting in verse 15.

This day that we call Pentecost is the Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. It was held on the 50^th day after Passover, so it was called “50^th Day”, which, in Greek, is Pen-tay-kos-tay.

" 'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. (Lev 23:15-16 NIV)

I did a bunch of research on the internet on how Shavuot was celebrated and it made me catch something in the phrasing that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

We had a Christmas tradition in our house growing up that has now carried over to our children. I think I called it the Christmas box, or something. It was a box with 25 drawers, each with a number on it. Starting on the 1^st of December we would open up the drawer for that day and it would have a small gift in it. Usually candy, but it could be a matchbox car or a marble or whatever. We used to count down the days till Christmas had fully come. And that’s exactly what devout Jewish males were supposed to do starting the day after Passover. They were to count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath.

So when the day of Pentecost had fully come, there they all were, together in the same place. Now remember, up to this point they are still acting on an Old Testament mindset. I’m sure that all 12 of the Apostles doing what good Jewish boys are supposed to do during this time, I’m sure that the evening before, they had reached 50.

Outside, a few verses later, you see much of the same thing. There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jew from every nation under heaven. Shavuot was one of the three temple days in the Old Testament calendar. The first is, of course, Passover. You were required to go to wherever the priests had set up the Bronze Altar to bring your sacrifices to God. On Passover it was a lamb. On the day after the Sabbath on that week, it was a first fruit offering, probably of barley… Then count off 50 days and bring more sacrifices and the first fruit offerings of wheat and whatever. At the time of our story the temple is where the sacrifices are brought to, so every Jew was required to make the trip to Jerusalem during this time. To this day, the population of Jerusalem nearly doubles at Passover as the devout come for their pilgrimage. It’s like Times Square on New Year Eve with religious connotations. Outside the room that we find the 120 men and women, the city of Jerusalem is filled to the brim with people from all over the world. Take a look.

(verse 9) Parthia, Mede, Elam were all in what is now called Iran… and it’s the same people living there now, the Persians and Medes. Mesopotamia is the region “Between the Rivers” of the Tigris and the Euphrates, what is now called Iraq. Judea we know, Cappadocia is a city in Samaria, Pontus is a little north of there and Asia is what we now call the Middle East… Saudi Arabia, Yemen… Kuwait, Abu Dabai, Dubai. Phrygia and Paphylia were cities in what is now Turkey. Egypt and Libya we know, Cyrene is just a little further than that. Rome is of course in Italy, and here Luke mentions that proselytes, or converts to Judaism, had come from there also, Crete is an Island in the Mediterranean and my MacArthur Bible says that the Arabs were from South of Damascus, which would make them Syrians and Jordanians.

All of these different nations were there, from every corner of the Roman Empire, in town for the Holy Day. There would have been a million people teeming in the city with the cries and cacophony of a hundred different languages. It was also the time when the first grapes came in, and new wine was on the shelves and in the markets. The vegetables were in and fruits were starting to appear and the celebration was on in the place to be, Jerusalem the Holy City.

I think its important to note that there were Jews from every nation there because the Jews had been flung to every corner of the world. God had used the Assyrian to take capture the Idolotrous Northern Kingdom of Israel, now called Samaria over 500 years ago. The Southern Kingdom of Judea had gone Idolotrous and been taken away some 400 years ago. These Jews were spread to the furthest reaches of the empires that they were captured by as we could see in the book of Ester.

The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those seeking their destruction. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them. (Est 9:2 NIV)

The Persian Empire was huge and they were in all the provinces. From history we know that they were all over the Greek Empire as well, and here in Luke we see that the whole Roman Empire had devout Jews in it. God had dispersed them, they’re still dispersed. And like today, only a small part of them had returned to Israel. Nehemiah said there were about 50,000 that came with him. There were a few that were already there, more came after him, but for the most part, the bulk of the Jews in the world did not live in Judea. They were still required to make sacrifices though, so the devout would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the holy days, and then return to their lands.

So what we have is the equivalent to 4^th of July Weekend here in MB. Tourist, religious tourists, were in town by the droves. This years Holy Days festivities were marked by a certain sense of oddness surrounding the rather unpleasant death of an itinerant preacher by the name of Jesus. Remember that when He entered into Jerusalem 60 days ago, the whole city had turned up to cheer His entrance. A lot of these tourists had started to arrive then and hadn’t started the trip home across the know world just yet. This would have been an interesting year, and you know how rumors and talk goes. The talk of the town would have been Jesus, and the drama of the Sanhedrin pushing ole Pilot around to get Him killed, and didn’t you hear… 3 days later His tomb was empty… yeah, I heard that the disciples stole the body… yeah, right how many guards were there… still, what else could have happened… don’t know… hey, what’s the noise?

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. (Act 2:1-3 NIV)

120 men and women were sitting in an upper room on the 2^nd high holy day of the Jewish calendar. They were all of one accord, which I bet made a remarkable contrast to the world outside of them at the time. Native born Jews, raised in the area, all asking themselves some remarkable questions about life, and death and what it all means. It was noisy outside, and I’m sure that inside the heads of those 120 it was pretty noisy there as well… and out of that came the sound, like the sound of wind in a hurricane. Do you think you would have jumped? I think I would have. I’m not entirely sure what I would have done when it looked like I was on fire… great sounds and sights, overwhelming the emotions and senses… but remember Elijah? He saw great sights as well, fire and earthquakes and great rushing wind… but God was not in the wind, or the fire or quake.

And… in addition to the wind and the flames… the Holy Spirit filled them. The Holy Spirit had filled people before, but not like this. Now He had come to live with men. Now he was here to stay. The great kingdom of Heaven had been claimed in the hearts of those men and women, a bridgehead had been established and now the curse of the ages had been reversed. Man had spent 4 thousand lonely God deprived years away from the Garden when God had walked with us in the cool of the evening. God had come to walk with them for 3 years and die for them. Then He had left and He sent the other person of the Trinity to live among the redeemed people of earth. Immanuel, God with us.

There was yet another curse being reversed, at least temporarily. When God had seen us gathering at Babel to build a mighty tower in our own name, He had scattered us by confusing our languages. If you look at the first Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, the word in that story of Babel is the same word used here in verse 6. Again we have a confused crowd, and they were confused… they had been confused for 3000 years. They were so confused when a group of Galilean hicks came running out of a building speaking a language that was common to them all, the only explanation they could come up with is that they had been in to the new wine. And what was it that they were hearing… why, the wonderful works of God. Well… what else would they be speaking. How many times have you just been knocked over by the awesome power of God that you’ve just wanted to shout it to the world? They were shouting and the miracle is, the people heard them just like in the beginning when God created us for His glory, with one tongue and one nation to praise His mighty works. This here is the picture of perfect humanity. Speaking everyone’s language and proclaiming the Glory of God in the Highest.

This is the birth of the church. The first thing they did was proclaim the mighty works of God. I guess we can say that’s its not really a fair comparison, cause they already had a building… but it was just somebody’s house. I suppose we could say that they had even spent 10 days in a planning session determining hierarchy. Perhaps they had come up with some growth strategies and had begun to organize some teams. Maybe. Whatever their plans were though, ended with sound of a rushing wind. When God Himself descended upon the group that could now properly call themselves The Church, the first thing they did was run outside and proclaim the wonders of God till the crowd thought they were drunk.

Let me ask the question. Do you think that anyone in Myrtle Beach has ever thought that about our church? Have we ever, even as ourselves been so worked up over how great God is that people have begun to wonder if there was anything special in the bean casserole? Has anyone even thought that we were weird?

We’re going to see this theme over and over again in this book. God Himself gets involved in visible ways, and what we see is an outpouring of people proclaiming His wonders. I’ve never read the Purpose Driven Life, but I do know what our purpose is. We were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is why you have a mouth and don’t absorb food through your skin like worms do, so you can proclaim His wonders. If your not doing that, you’re not doing what you’re supposed be doing, regardless of whatever other achievements you’ve made. And if you’re using that mouth to curse Him, woe to you my friend. I wouldn’t want to be there when you meet Him and, if you were smart, you wouldn’t either.

The church has been borne on the backs of men and women, like the 120 and like us, who have dedicated their lives to proclaiming God’s greatness to the world. That great cloud of witnesses stands around us bearing scars of a million different deaths to bring the good news of Christ to you. What are we doing?

I mean really, what are we doing? Are we here tonight because we like the food? Are we here for the fellowship? Are we here for the studies? Or are we here to proclaim the greatness of God and His wonders. Do we go to work to proclaim the greatness of God and His wonders? Do we eat, do we sleep, do we play to glorify the God of our salvation?

Or are we rejecting Him? Has the death of God Himself meant nothing to us, to me? Worse yet… are you still in your sins proclaiming your own goodness? Are we so arrogant to think that we are worthy of praise, when the one who gives us each and every breath has decided to give Himself up to death, so that if we believe in Him we could live?

I don’t think those 120 would have thought so, and we’ll see what it was that the crowd was hearing next week, because Luke recorded the words of Peter’s speech and we’ll take that apart and look at it. They were moved by the Holy Spirit to tell everyone who would listen, and a bunch who wouldn’t, that Jesus Christ was God and that He had loved them so much, He gave Himself up for them. Do you still not believe? If you believe do you still not trust? If you trust, are you still silent? Is there even a possibility that we could be marked out as those crazy Jesus people. Are we in Southstrand to become a forgotten footnote in an expansive story of the Glory of God? Or are we to do deeds that shall be remembered for all eternity.

And what of you, unbeliever, are you still proclaiming your own glory. Has the story of your life been the story of “I?” I promise you this, when God does something, He does not share His glory with anyone. He has not worked to glorify you, but only to glorify Himself. Are you still trusting in your own salvation? Have you been looking to your own wonders, your own greatness? That’s not of God. Trust in Jesus and His greatness, none other is worthy.

Prayer:

The Book of Acts

The Book of Acts

Lesson 1: Intro

It has been circling around my head for about a year now that someone should go through the book of Acts with our church. The landscape of American Christianity has been painted with so much “Church-Growth” how-to’s and methods, that it’s tough to keep a clear head about what a church is even about anymore. Questions of “what are we supposed to be doing as a church?” and “What can we do to make our church grow?” are so common in Christian circles that there is an entire section on the subject at your larger Christian book stores. As Southern Baptists, we are particularly susceptible to this mentality, as Pastors like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels continue to influence the top echelons of our denomination.

The question that we as followers of Christ should always be asking ourselves is, as always, “What does God have to say about this?” And of course, for the answers to that we must turn to our Bibles. Once again, we find that God has already anticipated our questioning and set out His principles on the subject. This brings us to the book of Acts.

I have planned a series that will take us through the whole book of Acts. In planning this series I’ve spent a lot of time trying to decide what I wanted it to be. In the end I used an old Puritan trick of defining what it is not so that I could understand what it is, and I’ll share that thought process with you.

I do not want this study to be overly doctrinal. As most of you know, I have no problem with going in deep and wrangling over meanings of individual words for hours… but that is not my intent with this study. I have no intention of getting bogged down in minute details, I’ll focus on the main story. The other issue with that, is the book of Acts is just a lousy place to pull doctrine from. There are so many unique events inside the book that never happened again. Unique people, offices, circumstances… it was the beginning of the church and lot happened then that just didn’t happen at any other time. It also wasn’t written as a doctrinal work. It is primarily a history of the events that took place in the middle of the 1^st century, immediately following the ascension of Jesus into heaven.

With that thought, I’m going to also avoid all the controversial topics in the book, of which there are several. In fact I’m going to attempt to fly past them so fast that you won’t even have time to focus in on them. There are certain subjects that people have made too much of a big deal out of from this book. I believe that you’ll find, as I have, that they are not even the main points of the sections in which you find them. I don’t think I will have any difficulty in distracting you from those controversies, because the meat of the story will be enough for us to chew on by itself.

I also don’t want this study to drag on. I’ve got the first 9 lessons planned. It will get us through chapter 9. At that rate, it will take 28 lessons, and thus half a year to go through the whole book of Acts. If I can, I’m going to speed that up, but my first priority is to make sure I don’t bite off more than any of us can chew on, so I’m not sure. Because of this, I’m not going to carry over lessons. If I can’t get through the material, then that’s my fault and you all shouldn’t be punished for my incompetence. I currently have 9 lessons, which will carry us through 9 weeks and I promise that at the end of 9 weeks, we will be on chapter 10. If at that time, we all decide that we’ve had enough… then we can end it there.

OK, enough of what I don’t want it to be. A pet peeve of mine are things that are defined by what they are not. Now that I’ve cleared away what this isn’t, allow me to share with you guys the goal of these lessons, so that we can all at least have an idea of where I am aiming. The book of Acts details the events and people of the beginnings of the Christian religion. It contains so much that is practical, so much that is inspirational. Chapter 11 of Hebrews contains a “Hall of Faith” if you will. Just a whole chapter devoted to those heroes of the faith that have come before us. It ends with this sentiment:

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Heb 11:32-40 NIV)

And the very next words are this:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Heb 12:1 NIV)

This book contains many of that cloud of witnesses. It is my hope that we can all be inspired to greater things in the service of our great God. That we might look to their example, and pray that God would work these things in us. That we might find where our church is weak, that we would be able to pray much more specifically for God to strengthen it. It is my prayer that we would find the answers to those questions of what we are supposed to be doing as a church that God has so graciously provided for us.

Now we’re all on the same page, or at least looking through the same book. Let’s look at the book of Acts itself. The full title of Acts is “The Book of the Acts of the Apostles.” It details events that took place from the later part of May around the year 30AD until 60-62AD. It was most likely written between 62-64AD by a Greek named Luke who was the Apostle Paul’s personal physician. Now that I’ve said that, one of 2 questions should immediately come up in your mind, depending on your persuasion. “How do you know that?” and/or “Who cares?” Let’s address the first one, because its easy. The book of Acts starts with the Apostles witnessing the ascension of Jesus. We know this occurred 40 days after his resurrection. “How do we know this?”

After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (Act 1:3 NIV).

So let’s go backwards…

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) (Luk 2:1-2 NIV)

We know that Caesar Augustus took his first census while Quirinius was governor between 6 and 3BC, the most likely being 3. Chapter 2 is the section that everyone who has seen Charlie Brown Christmas is familiar with. It’s the one that Linus read at the pageant about the birth of Jesus. So Jesus was born between 6-3BC.

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. (Luk 3:23a NIV)

So Jesus started his ministry from 24-27AD. From the gospels we know that Jesus died on the third Passover from when He started His ministry, so He died at Passover, which is pretty close to the date of Easter, between the years of 27-31AD. Count forward 40 days… viola, late May around the year 30AD.

Now, the second questions should be going through everyone’s head… “Who could possible care about that?” Well there are 2 answers, because we have 2 kinds of people here tonight.

The first answer is for those of us who have put our faith in this Jesus described here in the text. And allow me to say, quickly, those of us who have put our faith in THIS Jesus, the one described here in the bible. Not a Jesus that we have crafted from our own understandings or has been taught to us by the traditions of men… well intentioned as those were. But the real man who lived during these times, who really died like the bible said He did, for the reasons that the Bible says He did, in the manner that it says and that literally rose from the dead, just like the Bible says. I keep repeating that for emphasis. The Bible itself makes the claim that it was written by God Himself and was the account that He wanted us to know about Him and His work here on earth. When God tells us something directly, and we believe something else… it’s akin to believing the gossip when the person in questions comes directly to us with their story.

For those of us that fall in that category. It is of the utmost importance that we know times and dates and circumstances surrounding the texts we study. These were real people writing to other real people in real time periods. The books of the bible were first written in those historical contexts, and to ignore that would be to come to an ancient text with a modern understanding… a sure recipe for misinterpretation. Besides that, knowing the time periods surrounding the text just brings the story to life. It stops being boring words written on plain paper and becomes a time machine to put us into contact with those who it was written to and by. The more you study your bibles, more you will benefit from them…and so I’ve laid out our context for the study and I’ll keep coming back to it.

The second answer is for those who have not put faith to those words of our Lord “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” As politically incorrect as those words are. When I was an unbeliever, I had this picture of the Bible that you may share. I thought it was this horribly cryptic thing that was shrouded in so much mysticism that no man could ever unravel it. Words like “Fairy Tale” and “just a story” were what I used to describe it to Christians who didn’t know any better. Those were the thoughts of a prejudiced and unstudied man.

The book of Acts is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke, we went over that a few weeks ago, so I won’t belabor the point, but they were both set out as an “orderly account” (Luke 1:3). Certainly, these 2 books (and all the rest as well, but I’m not focusing on those right now) utterly fail as a fair tale. Fairy tales are purposefully vague and mystic so that they can’t be pegged to actually events, you know… a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Luke includes dates, time periods, names of rulers, cities and towns in their proper layouts and geographical positions. It is also entirely devoid of art. In the 2 books, miracles are presented without explanation or any attempt to ascertain the ways and means. They are simply presented as facts and then the story moves on. Any trial lawyer will tell you that witnesses who were really there tend to present their stories in similarly banal ways, it’s the ones who are making stuff up that elaborate… (“See, what had happened was…”).

In fact, don’t take my word for it. Sir William Ramsey, the father of modern archeology, had as his specialty the period of the first century Middle East. He started out refusing to look through the books of Acts, though he knew it detailed his time period. His studies eventually brought him to a subject that Luke wrote about, and so he picked it up and read it. He was so amazed about what he found there that he completely changed his opinion, and stated the Luke was a historian of the first rate. This from a man who had read all of the other historians of the time period and whose textbook on the subject is still required reading in archeological schools. Even the Smithsonian recognizes that the Bible is THE most accurate ancient document we posses today. It is even the only ancient text that contains all of the names of foreign kings spelled correctly.

I only mention this because, like me, you may have another view of what the Bible actually is. John Bunyan wrote a book entitled “The Holy War” which was an allegory about conversion. He said in it “that [over] Ear-gate the Lord Will-be-will made one old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow, captain of the ward at that gate, and put under his power sixty men, called Deafmen”. If you’re going to continue to reject the Bible, and certainly that’s your right to do so, then I want you to at least reject it for what it is. The Bible is not a collection of myths or fairy tales handed down through the ages, it’s simply too precise for that. If you continue to reject it, know that you are rejecting a history book, written as a history book by people who were eyewitnesses to the facts. Maybe that will change your opinion, maybe it won’t. Either way, I’ve said enough about the book, its time to actually turn to the text and see what treasures we can find there.

When I originally had this lesson planned out it was titled “Farewell to a Friend.” That’s still a lesson I’d like to teach someday, but I basically did it with everyone here at Jan’s house a few weeks ago, so I’m going to focus more on the second half of the chapter and on the individuals who were left behind, so to speak. While I was studying, a better title came to mind, namely “What a Difference a Chapter Makes” and I think that will help get us all focused in the right areas. The book of Acts is full of transitions and none more startling than this first one. Look with me.

To review. Luke starts us out with Jesus speaking to His disciples on the Mount of Olives. He tells them to go to Jerusalem and wait for the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” which we’ll see next chapter. They’re confused and still not quite getting what’s going on and one enterprising soul asks if Jesus is going to restore the kingdom to Israel. Jesus replied, saying (verse 7) “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” And again told them to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit would descend on them and give them power. I do want to point out this. It will be really important for us to keep this in mind when studying the rest of the book. Jesus said (verse 8) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We all know that the great commission is “Go and preach my name to the ends of the earth” and we see that here in the last words of Jesus. Be my witnesses, and to do that you will receive power. The very next verse has Jesus ascending into heaven while they watched. If this was a movie the music and the wind would pick up, there would be some sort of rousing, slightly sad classical tune written by John Williams. Jesus would rise up to the clouds and the camera would focus in on the faces of those standing there and the words “Be my witnesses to the ends of the earth” would be ringing in the air. Transition number 1, and it’s a doosy. I’m sure they all were at least thinking, “OK, now what?” because 2 men dressed in white appeared and said:

"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." (verse 11)

Oh, yeah… right… go to Jerusalem. Let pick up the story:

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the believers(a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus-- he was one of our number and shared in this ministry." (With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) "For," said Peter, "it is written in the book of Psalms,

" 'May his place be deserted;

let there be no one to dwell in it,'

and,

" 'May another take his place of leadership.'

Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection." So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles. (Act 1:12-26 NIV)

A lot could be said through all of this, but I’ve burned up all of my time with the intro, so I’m going to call your attention to only one aspect of this section. Keep in mind, especially through the early chapters, the thought of transitions. We just transitioned from Jesus being on earth to Jesus not being on earth. Now here we see the Apostles acting very “Old Testament-y.” The idea of casting lots was set up in Exodus, actually and there were 2 holy relics that were used for the process called the Urim and Thummin and they were part of the priestly vestments, you can check that out in Exodus 28:30 if you’re interested. This section is the last time the process of deciding by lots is ever mentioned in the Bible. From now on, all decisions would be made by following the Holy Spirit, but we haven’t gotten there yet… that’s chapter 2. For now, we find men and women, about 120 in an upstairs room, possibly even the same room that they had the last supper in, doing the only thing they have been taught.

What a difference a chapter makes. The word that I have written in my notes on their actions up to the end of all this is “aimless”, though I don’t know if that’s entirely accurate. They are moving with purpose, they just don’t exactly know what they’re supposed to be doing. Jesus said wait, so they’re waiting. Of course in the middle of waiting Peter decides that 12 is an important number and they should pick a replacement. I just love Peter, I don’t want to be guilty of putting thoughts into his head that weren’t his, but we should keep in mind that the time from when Jesus rose to the day of Pentecost, which is the Latin name for “The Feast of Weeks” held on the 50^th day after Passover, was 10 days. Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, who He had already told them would bring them power, guidance and even comfort, and Peter couldn’t make it 10 days without standing up in the midst of the brethren.

So questions… was 12 an important number for them to have? Was casting lots for their replacement the most appropriate thing to do? Shouldn’t they have just waited for Paul to replace Judas? Don’t worry, it’s appropriate to ask these things because these Apostles are just men like us, and even the best of men are, at best, men. What they did wasn’t wrong, but perhaps it was a bit pre-mature and certainly we can disagree on this point. The replacement that they picked was Matthias, but he and Barsabbas were never heard from again. The bible doesn’t speak of them, history doesn’t record their passing. We don’t know if they were good replacements or not. So repeat after me… “The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.”

Its plain from the text that these 120 men and women were operation under and old understanding. This is not only forgivable, but to be expected. The Holy Spirit would come in chapter 2 and change everything. These confused men and women would become driven and focused on spreading the news to all the earth that Jesus was alive and that He had made for us a lasting peace with God. No more were men to be afraid of death and its power for Jesus had defeated it. No more had men to fear that they had rebelled against their creator, for that Creator’s own Son had willing taken their just punishment on Himself. But that’s chapter 2, and what a difference a chapter makes. Here in chapter 1, we have men and women doing the best they can with the knowledge they have.

For homework, I would ask all of you to look at chapter 2 and the change that takes place. This is, in my opinion, the greatest transition and transformation in the history of the world. 120 men and women go from Old Testament mentality to a completely new way of operating. They go from an upper room in hiding to outside their door and preaching. They go from lots, to being led by the Holy Spirit. They go from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Today we sit in this room as participants in the movement these men and women started, thousands of miles and thousands of years away from these events. The process, the change, took 10 days. The question you need to ask yourselves this week, is there any force on earth that could have accomplished this. If you find yourselves having trouble coming up with an explanation, may I suggest that the answer you seek is not on this earth, but is in fact, still in the heaven He ascended into. Let us pray: