The New Testament Church Part A
Taped by John Greene, transcribed by Mary Kay Lynd
Bible quotes are from NKJV unless otherwise stated.
Praise the Lord. This is coming from the quietness and comfort of my own home. So you're not going to hear any crowds in the background but you may hear the voice of my son and on occasion my wonderful wife. Grab your Bibles and turn to Acts Chapter 1. We're going to put together a series here and I would hope that as we go through these scriptures what we're going to do is debunk a lot of the trash that's out there, the stupidness, the idiocy, and just look at what the Scriptures say. I mean what should be important to each and every one of us who study in the Word. Not what somebody thinks, not what somebody has for an opinion, because opinions are only as good as the truth from which they are based. And there's a lot of foolish talk things already in the world. We don't need anymore, especially coming from the church world. We have every manner of extremism. And let's just hope that as we start Acts Chapter 1 that we eliminate some of those extremes and just see what the Scriptures say. Obviously one of the points of this series is going to be revealing what the truth is about the Holy Spirit. What do the Scriptures say? So in all of this that we're going to look at and we'll try to tie some things in, it's by no means extensive, it's by no means perfect and complete. I've got plenty to learn and I'm sure you have too. I don't know it all. The Lord's still working on me. But I do know some things. He's already shown me a number of things. And so I hope to share some of the things in Scripture as I see them.
In verse 1 it says, "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2until the day in which He was taken up." What he's talking about is clear, if you turn back to Luke Chapter 1 you're going to see something very simple, you're going to see the organization, the understanding, the depths of search, and research that Luke did, all because he loved somebody by the name of Theophilus. In Luke Chapter 1 verse 1 it says, "Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed." So we see in both Luke 1 and Acts 1 that Theophilus is the heart and concern of Luke. Luke wants to make sure that Theophilus has a consistent and factual understanding of the things that have come to pass. Luke makes it clear that there were a number of people that have already set together some narratives. Theophilus somehow is getting a mixed bag. He's getting some stuff that comes from a variety of different sources and it's obviously caused him a bit of confusion and Luke cares about Theophilus and decided that he was going to look, to research, to place together information that would help Theophilus. That's what the reason for Luke was, because as we see in Luke 1:3 that God had already ordained and put Luke from the very beginning. Luke was a slave. That's why he's a doctor. Only doctors came from slaves in those years in those days of this earth. Luke made sure that everything he researched, everything he saw, he put it all together in an orderly account for his friend Theophilus that Theophilus might understand in all the certainty of these things.
Now going back to Acts Chapter 1 that's where Luke starts off the book of Acts, telling us of his friend Theophilus, that he's going to continue. You see Jesus began to teach and do many many wonderful things. Jesus did so many things it's incredible. You know John tells us that the books could not be written to record all the things that Jesus did because He just did so many things. Luke confirms that, Luke tells us that Jesus began to teach and do many many wonderful things. And He didn't stop until the day that He was taken up into the heavens. That's important. After He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, when He was taken up that was the finality of the bodily action of Jesus Christ on this earth for His interaction with man in that time frame. He no longer was going to work directly with the disciples. And this is where Luke wants to make sure that he begins to tie these things together for Theophilus so that everything that Theophilus hears and sees is going to come because it's based on truth, it's based on fact, it's based on eye witnesses. And one of the things you're going to see through the entire book of Acts, there's going to be pronouns used like us and we and many many different statements, and I may not go through it extensively to show you that, but you'll see in a number of different locations as Paul is going on there are so many different locations and the pronoun is used like us. Luke was right there with Paul. Luke was right there with Barnabus. They were there. They rolled up their sleeves and got in there and did the work of the Master. They saw, they did, they were used by God for so many things. So it's important to see that. And that's what Theophilus is getting for his information.
Before Jesus ascended into the heavens, what we call the ascension, before that happened, He had given commandments to the apostles, those that He had chosen, the eleven, to leave into their hands the leadership of the church. He had already ordained those eleven. He had already chosen them, and He sent them as apostles to be the pillars in the church. So verse 3 says, "to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." So we know from the time that He was crucified and rose again, from the time He rose again to the time He was taken into the heavens, there was a 40-day period and that there were many infallible proofs that He was alive. He was no longer located in that ground. He was no longer located in that cave that Joseph of Arimathea so lovingly offered and presented for the disciples to bury Jesus. Jesus wasn't there! Jesus was alive. And the disciples were seeing proof after proof after proof that Jesus was alive. One of the important things to hear that Luke seems to feel for Theophilus to see is that there is no question that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. He suffered and died at the hands of the high priests and on the third day He rose again. He rose alive. He wasn't just rising in spirit, but He had another body. We know that because of times you can go back in the gospels and see after He rose the time that He was hugged. He ate fish. He ate bread. His body worked the same as your body and my body works. And so he wants Theophilus to know these things about Jesus.
Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, the apostles are now handed the keys to the kingdom. They are now handed the responsibility of the kingdom. They're now handed all these details and in these details, we're going to see some very interesting and wonderful things. "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father." The promise of the Father is something that Jesus commanded them to wait for! Now again keep in mind that Luke is the author of the book of Acts and he's also the author of the book of Luke. Those two books work hand-in-hand together because Luke is the same person that wrote both of them. I don't know of any scholar that questions that other than the heretics that question everything. Go back to Luke Chapter 24. We're going to see what exactly is being talked about here by Jesus. The promise of the Father! In Luke 24 you see in verse 49 the end of what we know as the commission. Jesus tells his disciples is Luke 24:49. It says, "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you." "the Promise of My Father." Now that's important to see! Jesus is going to send the promise of His Father. Now what do we know from that statement? First off this is Jesus talking and He's the One sending the promise. Jesus is the One sending the promise. But He says, "but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." Now we can't just from this one statement make the connection yet, but we will make the connection. Here it says that they are to wait until they are endued with power from on high. Where is their enduement coming from? Where is this power coming from? The power that is from on high? First and foremost we are going to see as we go through Acts that that power comes from the Promise of My Father. So it's going to be important for us to understand what is the promise of the Father. What is that promise? Because within that promise, we're going to see the link of power from on high, heavenly power, power of God. There is a clear and distinct link on that.
Before we go any further though, let's look back at the beginning promise that I know of and we'll find that in Matthew Chapter 3. Come back to Matthew Chapter 3, and we will see something. In verse 3 we see the quote by Matthew that talks about the prophet, John the Baptist. He quotes Isaiah. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness; prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." We know that this refers to John the Baptist. That's how Matthew applies it and that's where the reference is. There's a clear linkage that John the Baptist had a position, and he had the responsibility, and the accountability in that position as a prophet. He was to prepare the way for the Lord. So in preparing the way for the Lord, it's perfect for us to look at and see what it was that John the Baptist understood. Drop down to verse 11. John makes a very clear statement. He says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance." What's he talking about? Those people that come to God repenting of their sins, as an indication of them repenting of their sins, John baptized them with water. This was an identification with the Father, with God in heaven, that they were right with God, that they had made a commitment to God, that their relationship with the Godhead was absolutely intact, and John preached repentance with a clear indication that water showed that the individual had repented. And something that has to be very real, it's got to be public, it can't say that you love Jesus and you never ever talk about him, never dare to look somebody in the eye and tell them that you love Jesus. It's not a silent thing. And John was preparing the way for this to happen. It goes onto say, "but He who is coming after me is mightier than I" John clearly makes the distinction that he is not the Christ, and we see that also in John 1. John the Baptist makes clear that he knows his responsibility, he knows his authority, and he knows who he is in God. And he is only a prophet. Not that that's anything short, not that that's anything that should be belittled, but he knows who he is in God. He knows he's not the Christ, and the Christ is coming after him. He knows that he is not able or worthy to even carry his sandals, but look what he says. In preparing the way for the Christ to come he says about the Christ, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Now that's taken from the Byzantine Text because as you probably have discovered I'm reading from the New King James Version which was the Byzantine manuscripts. Some of the other manuscripts do not have that with fire, but in the other synoptic Gospels it is found. Does that mean it's not there? No. The Textus Receptus had it, and many of our more reliable manuscripts, I don't want to get into Textual Criticism, but there are some texts that are more reliable than other texts. The New Kings James version was taken from the Byzantine which was a confirmation of the Textus Receptus was absolutely correct and we have John the Baptist telling us what Jesus was going to do, that He would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
And coming back to Acts Chapter 1 you see that this is exactly what Jesus is talking about here, the promise of the Father. The Father Himself has promised. He promised through many many other different prophets, and we'll get into exactly how we're going to connect this in together, but understand that we can't take just one Scripture out of context. It has to be in context. It has to be looked at and the comparison of other passages of Scripture and how they are used. You know one of the things that I hear today, and what I see across the internet, and I read in books is that the book of Acts is not good to make doctrine on. And I'm thinking wait a minute! Why is the book of Acts any different than any other book that we have in our Bible? What makes it less of a book? Well to answer that question you have to first understand what the word doctrine means. It comes from the Greek word didache/didach or teaching. Doctrine is just teaching. Teaching what? Well anything you teach is doctrine, whether it's your opinion, or it's somebody else's opinion, or it's right from the Scripture, it's doctrine. Some people think the doctrine of their heart is more important and more valuable than reading what it says right here in the Bible. And one of the things that we have for a serious problem is taking books, like the book of Acts, and saying that it's not valuable for doctrine. No book is valuable for doctrine unless we take the volume of the book and study it in context making sure that it's referenced and cross-referenced and rightly divided from the context of the original passage. That's just pure common sense! That's what we would call sound hermeneutics. Just look at what the Word says! Stop reading into the Word of God, what you think it should say. Stop reading into the Word of God, what you have believed. But each and every day, when you read the Word, read what it says. That's it. The book of Acts, sure it's the history of how the Holy Spirit worked in great men of God ,and some not so great men of God. It's how the Holy Spirit worked in the New Testament church. And guess what? We're in the New Testament! Jesus commanded them not to depart Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. He commanded them to stay where they were until they received the promise of the Father. Now if Jesus is saying that, shouldn't that be a little bit important to us? Shouldn't that be a little concern?
Then you are going to have those who say, "Wait a minute, this doesn't mean this it doesn't mean that." Wait a minute. Look at what it says. "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father." Then you've got some that will tell you, "Well wait a minute, yeah Acts says that, but it's not for you and I!" Huh? Yeah I've heard many people say, "Yeah, it's only for those eleven apostles." Okay, let's debunk that one too! Let's go back to Luke Chapter 24. Let's keep in the spirit of what Luke is saying. Luke 24 starting at verse 46. This is when He opened up their eyes of understanding so that they could comprehend what He was talking about in the Scriptures. They now are being told by Jesus, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things." Here we have the great commission, the commission that Jesus gives to the eleven disciples. What are they supposed to do? Preach in his name about the remission of sins, preach in His name that those sins can be forgiven because the word remission is forgiveness same word aphesis/afesiV I believe the word is. I'd have to look it up to get a clear understanding, but you can look it up yourself. Remission of sins, forgiveness of sins must be preached. But how do you get forgiveness? Through repentance. And it's got to be preached where? To all nations beginning at Jerusalem. The commission is to preach the Word, preach the Word, preach the kingdom of God, preach the things that Jesus gave them to preach. And it must be understood that remission of sins comes through forgiveness when one repents, the washing away of the stains that come when the repentance actually takes place in the person's heart. This is part of the commission.
Now we'll step out of Luke for a minute because we have an understanding of what the commission is according to what Luke says. Let's look over at Matthew Chapter 28 to get a little more of the commission, and it's important that the commission we understand is in several locations. And we'll bring it back to Acts Chapter 1. Starting in verse 18 it says, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen." Notice that phrase in there in verse 20. "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." If Acts Chapter 1 is only for the apostles, the eleven, as some would try to have you believe, then why is it that Jesus in the commission is telling them to teach everything that they have been taught to everybody? To make disciples everywhere? Well, the answer to that is quite clear! Acts Chapter 1 is for all of us. It's no different. The accountability of this commission will come at a certain time frame, and there are going to be many people across this land, especially here in the United States, and I speak about the United States in love because that's where I live, and proud to be an American, but there are people in pulpits that are not preaching this truth. They're lying to people. They're deceiving people. They're twisting people to be what they want people to be. So today they'll have to have the need to never ever ever go hungry. Yeah I said that. Some people actually twist the Word of God, so that they can keep their deacon happy with dropping in $100 a week in tithes so that they can keep sister so-and-so dropping in her $150 a week while she's living in adultery. This Word is a serious Word to all of us. It must be seen as it is written. No different than any other person, you, me, all of us, we're all in the same accountability the same boat. This commission is to all of us. Jesus makes it clear. What you have heard from Me. What did they hear? They heard this commission. Luke has already set it up. We've already read that. What did He do? He preached and He taught many things pertaining to the kingdom during those 40 days. There was confirmed from the whole time of the 3-½ years of public ministry that He was with these disciples.
We're going to find out a little bit later in this particular chapter that they are 120 disciples not just 11. Look at what Jesus goes onto say, "For John truly baptized with water." Oh yes he did! John baptized with water as a clear indication of the individual's repentance to the Father. You see John made sure that they brought forth repentance worthy of the Lord. Not fake!! He chastised the Pharisees that came. Remember that. He chastised the scribes that came. He made an open show of those people. He called them what they were, brood of vipers. Because they wanted to come the easy way. There's only One Way to come to God, One Way only. You go back to all the different covenants that are in these words written in this Bible, and you'll find in every covenant there's only one way to come to God, and that's having a right relationship with Him. That's genuine repentance; knowing He is God and we are His creation. There's only One Way. The Pharisees and scribes didn't want to come that way. John called them a brood of vipers. Jesus refers to John baptizing in water. John the Baptist, as we already talked about, prepared the way for Jesus. He opened up the way to show the truth of what the gospel's all about so that Jesus could come right along and continue on what He had to preach and teach. John only baptized with water. That was a clear identification for the individual, identifying with God that they had genuinely repented of their sins. But look at what Jesus added, "but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence from now." You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus is calling what is going to happen in Acts Chapter 2, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are many things that we can call what is going to happen, because there are many different phrases used in here, and we must make sure that we have a distinction, the understanding of each of those phrases. This one Jesus uses, baptism of the Holy Spirit. Many Pentecostals use that phrase, and they don't even know what they're talking about. Many people love to use that phrase from the Calvinistic world and they don't know what they're talking about. Let's just look at what it says in the context of what it says. OK? If we can do that, we're going to have a good understanding of what Jesus is talking about. We are going to have a good understanding of what the Scriptures are saying.
The truth is that we are getting close to the end of this tape. So as we're getting close to the end of the tape, I want to wrap this up a little bit, so that we can just keep this part, and then we'll build upon this on the next tape. Jesus baptized, because remember we already showed you that Jesus is the one sending the promise of the Father. So we see the baptism of the Holy Spirit also called the promise of the Father, and we see that the promise of the Father is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit by Jesus. Those two phrases are used, and we'll see furthermore that Peter uses something else, and so does Joel. I prefer to use the topic phrase that Joel uses, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into a believer's life. It seems to me in the realm that I've worked in, and the sphere of influence that I've been in, that is the most understood and not misunderstood way of saying it. But that's okay. We're going to make these all clear. Jesus taught the things of God. Jesus taught the disciples the different things pertaining to the kingdom of God the last 40 days before he ascended, and what He is saying now in Acts Chapter 1, this is the last part of the commission. Don't let people tell you what the Bible says unless they're looking at the Bible, and they're doing it properly in context. And listen, when you read your Bible, read what it says! Don't read your own beliefs into what you see. Read what it says, and if by chance it challenges what you believe, then praise God. Do some study. Dig a little deeper. Make sure that what you believe isn't wrong. Make sure, test it. Because if you know what you know, and you believe what you believe, if it's of the truth, if you test it, it's still going to stand. But if it's not true, if it's not correct, then you need to change your position, you need to change your opinion, you need to change what you believe, and make it line up with what the Word of God says. All right? Is that okay with you? Good. Amen.