The New Testament Church Part C
Taped by John Greene, transcribed by Mary Kay Lynd
Bible quotes are from NKJV unless otherwise stated.
We're going to continue on in Acts Chapter 1. We're going to start in at verse 9. We've already laid out a foundation of this particular chapter and the upcoming events. Verse 9 is going to be an interesting verse to a degree because its also one that is not totally understood. But we'll look at what the scriptures say so we can get a better understanding.
Verse 9 says: "Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Jesus was gone, taken up! vss 10-11 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."
Now that's pretty much self-explanatory or let me just say this. It should be explanatory all by it what it says. But somehow we have to twist everything and we have to do things to the Scriptures that just should not be done. But we'll put a little context here. Turn back to John Chapter 20. A little situation that takes place, an event that is clearly written in scriptures, Mary Magdalene sees Jesus. What we commonly call the ascension must be completely and totally differentiated from what is the ascension. Because if we don't have an understanding the difference between what is called the ascension and what actually is the ascension then we begin to mix up some details of both and arrive at unsound doctrine. Now I realize that perhaps that sounds like a little double talk. Let's take a look and we'll se that its really not.
Vs 11 But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb." verse 11 in John Chapter 20. She's weeping outside the temple "Vss 12-13...and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." Now she doesn't know what's going on. She came to the tomb, she sees her Lord missing. She doesn't know what is going on! Vss 14-15"Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?..." The second time a question. She so loved Jesus that her eyes are filled with tears. She's sobbing because of the respect and love she had for Jesus, and she is now being upset by the fact that His body is not there. She's not thinking about deep theological discussions. She's not thinking about what she was taught. She's not thinking about anything other than the fact of what she can't see. And she can't see His body. She's now talking to Jesus, whom she doesn't recognize as Jesus. Now a lot of that is emotion and we can go into a lot about women's emotions and how sometimes women get a little emotional and they can't see a few things. Well that sometimes is the case. But its not strictly for women only because I've seen men do the same thing, being so emotional they can't see what is really happening. But here Jesus asks her the same question the angels did "Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" So Jesus says who are you looking for? He knew. It was not a question of one of those things that he wanted to know the answer because he needed to know what it was.
He already knew the answer but he wanted to bring her to a position of understanding. Vs 15 "...She, supposing Him to be the gardener," Now isn't that interesting? He's the gardener to her. She's so distraught, so emotional, tears filled her eyes, she can't really see. Now think about this, any of us with tear-filled eyes would have a hard time seeing. So let's not get too heavy on this poor woman who is distraught because it is a normal situation to tell you the truth. And that's exactly what we are going to see here is the truth. Vs 15-16..."Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him, "Rabboni!" (which is to say, Teacher)." Now look at what Jesus says!! Remember what we're doing here is trying to show the difference between what is called the ascension and what the ascension really was. Vss 17-18Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, "I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God."' Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her." What things? He just said that He was ascending to His Father and to their Father, to his God and their God. He was ascending. Before Jesus ascended to the Father he could not be touched. He had not been given a glorified body. He doesn't have a glorified body yet. Therefore he can't be touched here. That's why he tells Mary "Do not cling to me. Don't touch me. Don't grab ahold of me." If you think about that, why would Jesus say that? Well Jesus did not want this distraught woman to be even more distraught when he was grabbed ahold of by her and there was nothing to hold onto. That would have really blown her mind. Jesus loved Mary.
Look at the context, I mean let's put some common sense to what is actually written. Now, if you look at verse 19, it says "Then, the same day" This is the same day that Jesus tells Mary don't cling to me, don't touch me, don't hold onto me, "the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." That same day he appears to the disciples. If you read on down he says, "When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." And then it goes on and then we have the famous incident where Thomas isn't there and then he comes and he says well I don't believe you, you know we've got all of that in the rest of this particular chapter. But the thing to see here is that Jesus, in the same day, has ascended into the heavens to the Father, has a glorified body, and now returns, and for the rest of the 40-day period that he's on the earth he has that glorified body.
Remember the Son of God is fully God but he also was fully man when he walked this earth. And so, as a man risen from the dead, he needed a new tabernacle and we're going to be just like Jesus. That same Jesus who was raised from the dead and that same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us. We don't know exactly what we're going to be looking like but we know that we're gonna look like Jesus. We're going to have a glorified body like Jesus at the resurrection. And we know from 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection and how Paul describes some of the details and that Jesus is the first fruits of that resurrection. So the ascension that means something is right here in John Chapter 20! This is the ascension where Jesus is taking, according to Ephesians 4, all those in Abraham's bosom. He takes them captive and brings them up into the heavens. And we know according to Colossians 2 that there is this great meeting in the middle of the second heavens where there is an open show made of the devil.[Click here, for Jesus' victory!] You see Jesus had set it up to show that the devil is really a whipped upon, a defeated foe and he embarrassed, publicly displayed according to Colossians that embarrassment of defeat before all the angels and before all those saints who were in Abraham's bosom, and He brought Abraham's bosom to heaven. And we know according to Revelation Chapter 2 that Paradise is located exactly where it is located, in heaven.
Now the reason that we see all of that is you go back to Luke where the thief on the cross is told "Today you will be with me in Paradise." Well the day that Jesus died, the moment that Jesus died, we know he descended into hell. Now, what can we conclude from that? In hell was located Abraham's bosom. That was commonly known as Paradise until Jesus led Paradise and Abraham's bosom to heaven. That's the ascension that takes place here. That's why Mary is told, "Do not cling." Now, going back to Acts Chapter 1, what we have here is Jesus being taken out of sight of the disciples. Most people will tell you this is the ascension. Well, yes, He is ascending on a cloud into the heavens and He is disappearing out of sight, but the actual ascension that was done in full power by the Holy Spirit through the living Christ who had a glorified body, that ascension, all those things took place where the devil was made an open show, that happened just moments after Mary looked Jesus in the eyes and said "Rabboni." That's why I said we needed to draw that distinction between which is really the ascension and what is commonly called the ascension. Otherwise you are going to have a really serious problem in putting some of these scriptures together. You're going to have some things that just are not going to fit. And we don't want that to happen. We know that all Scripture fits together. We know that there are no contradiction in the Scriptures. We know that the Scriptures are logical and true, and there's not one single Scripture that is wrong, that is in error. Now man has translated a few and man has interpreted a few incorrectly, but the Scriptures themselves are not incorrect.
Now, all of that said and done, we go into the next section of Acts Chapter 1, which is where we now find 120 disciples. These disciples, after seeing Jesus ascend on a cloud, they obey Him. Notice that Jesus said to wait in Jerusalem until they are endued from power from on High. So where did these disciples go? Verse 12 says, "Then they returned to Jerusalem." They're obeying Jesus. Because they're in obedience to Jesus, there are some excellent things that are going to happen to these disciples. There is nothing that is beyond God, He is truly able to do through a body anything, when that body is in obedience to God. And we're going to see that God is going to pour out His power as prophesied by Joel and we're going to see that these disciples, which are our example and which are in our history of the church as it began to blossom and grow because in just a few short days from the time that the disciples see Jesus ascend on the cloud to the time that the Holy Spirit is poured out is 10 days. In obedience to God they're going back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a Sabbath's day journey away. Now that's interesting because they're still learning, notice that they're still thinking according to pharisaic computation. The Pharisees had determined and of course taught, the period of time when the Talmud was being written, the Pharisees determined how far you could walk and still be legally doing no work on the Sabbath. [Legalism is exercising the truth, and twisting what isn't said, to do evil justifying their evil actions.] They were really a stickler for the law.
When you think about it, these guys had taken the law and twisted it so much that they didn't even obey their own law because they would set up some clothes in one house and they would walk to one house, which was within that legal distance on the Sabbath, according to their own definition, and then they would walk from that house to the next house claiming well they had finished the walk when they walked to that house. And so the next leg of the next house didn't count but for that moment. So they could walk seven, eight, nine particular times in that particular day, the Sabbath period, and break their own law because they only walked the Sabbath's distance. And so its interesting that Luke records that according to how the Pharisees think and giving this aspect that the Pharisee's doctrine was called leaven by Jesus in Matthew Chapter 16 and one of those doctrines about Jesus returning was just debunked just a few verses ago when Jesus said in verse 7 that it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
See there are some things that we can ask God about and He wants to give us an open understanding of it, He wants to give us that insight, but there are other things we ask God about and God says, "Now wait a minute. You're stepping out of the area that I gave you. You're stepping out of the sphere I gave you. You're beginning to put yourself into the wrong position." And sometimes we as human beings put ourselves in the position of God in this place where He is suppose to be. The Pharisees learned how to really do that and the disciples need to get rid of every single bit of ugly, dirty, rotten teaching that is still a statute in their mindset. When we come to Jesus Christ after repentance and bring him into our lives we have to admit to ourselves that we are stupid. We have to come to the realization that when we come to Jesus we've got problems with what we believe. And therefore, from that point on, we have to allow the Scriptures to say what they say and we adjust our thinking according to what the Scriptures say, not think that what we know is more important or better than the Scriptures. We've got to remove all of that bias, all of that which is what exactly is going to happen over the next few years to these disciples. Because they are certainly going to get stomped on and persecuted and kicked around until finally they are going to be vessels that the Holy Spirit is going to know no boundaries with, which is the kind of vessel that Jesus wants us to be today, a vessel of honor! Paul put it this way, that in a great house there are many kinds of vessels, vessels of gold and silver and wood. And we can actually determine whether we're a thirty fold Christians, sixty fold, or a hundred fold Christian. We have in our control that ability which is scary if you start thinking about it because that is when we get to playing god and that's what hinders and sometimes destroys people if we do that.
The disciples, there are 120, they are back in Jerusalem. Vss 13-14"And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying:" And it gives the names of a few disciples, "Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James." And these all continued with one accord..." These all continued with one accord. They had one purpose, God's will. They were in obedience to God. They are listening to Jesus and His final instructions. They know that they're supposed to wait in Jerusalem until they are endued with power from on high. They know that the Lord himself gave them specific instructions and reasons that they weren't suppose to do anything else. But there were some things He didn't explain to them because they would not have understood the explanation. We know that Jesus had corrected them or upbraided them according to several Gospels. I believe that Matthew shows that and I believe Mark shows that. They needed correction. It would be just before He had ascended in the cloud. Now, because of that correction, these disciples now had the same mindset. They had the same goal. They want what God wants in their lives. They had just spent 3 ½ years with Jesus and now He's gone. 43 ½ days before this point He was telling them He was going to be crucified. Three days later, after a mock trial, he rose from the dead.
Think about that 40-day period when he was appearing to some of them over and over again in different locations. These are the men that Jesus is handing the reins of the church. These are the men to whom the church is going to either make it or not make it. So they only knew one thing to do and that was to obey God. How do you obey God? One of those things is what they say here. They had the same purpose. The other thing is also found here. They prayed. They prayed together. Verse 14 says "in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers." How ironic. Notice that it says His brothers. And remember back several times in John where His brothers and in Mark they came to Him and they wanted to have Him locked in an insane asylum because He was beside Himself? They were trying to prove otherwise who He was. But now we see that His own brothers knew who He was, and they're part of this 120, which I find totally amazing to know that when we begin praying for family members and whatnot and friends, and we can know that God's gonna get ahold of them and we do what we need to do standing in the integrity and truth of God's Word. Then and only then does the Lord have a chance of getting hold of them.
Shame on those of us who have been showing a hypocritical attitude and compromising the truth of God's Word, and then at the same time calling ourselves Christians. Its no wonder the people in this world don't want to have anything to do with Jesus because of the hypocrites. And, to an extent, you can probably technically say that we are all hypocrites. But I'm not talking about the technical point; I'm talking about the attitude of the heart. I'm not talking about the person who falls into sin, and then is washed in the blood of repentance and gets up and then goes and sins no more. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the individual that claims that they're a Christian and does everything else but. The world looks on that aspect and says, "Gee, if that's Christianity I'm already better than that. I don't want to have anything to do with it." Because there are a lot of people in this world that are good people, and still they are going to go to hell, because they rejected Jesus Christ.
So they're in one accord. They're all in prayer. They're wanting to obey Jesus. They're in Jerusalem. They're in one location, the upper room. Now this is going to make for the possibilities of a genuine outbreak of revival. Because they're already rearing to go. Somebody can say "Well, yeah, they're in fear." Well, that may be somewhat true. But it has no relevancy here as to what's going to happen. What we have here, is we have 120 people wanting to do God's will and then they get to doing that.
Vss 15-20"And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, "Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus; for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry." (Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out. And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem; so that field is called in their own language, Akel Dama, that is, Field of Blood.) "For it is written in the Book of Psalms: "Let his dwelling place be desolate, And let no one live in it'; and, "Let another take his office.'" So here we have amongst the 120 who are in obedience to God, who are following God's will, who are desiring for the very things of God to come to pass. They're there waiting for the Promise of the Father. They're there waiting because Jesus said, "you will be endued with power from on high." They're there waiting because Jesus said "And you shall be witnesses after the Holy Spirit is come upon you." They're all there waiting in prayer and supplication together in obedience to God. Now when we have such a tremendous desire to obey God you're not going to have God showing confusion. God doesn't work that way.
God doesn't play games with His people that are on fire for Him wanting to do His will altogether in one accord doing His will. Now I say that because there is some teaching out there that this is not the twelfth apostle that is going to be chosen. Some people have actually twisted this part of scripture. They say well this is man's will. No it isn't. This is God's will because they're in God's will. They're doing God's will. They're in obedience to God. Peter quotes Scripture and he says exactly what God wants to have said. Now here's another thing that needs to be stated too. There is a group of people out there called Pentecostals, and I admit that am one, but that's as far as I'm going to admit at this point. Because they's a group of people in the Pentecostal area that are obnoxious, arrogant, self-fulfilled egotists. They think they're better than those who do not have the gift of the Holy Spirit. They somehow think that they're better than other people, somehow able to do more because God has given them the precious gift of power that Jesus had. And the reality is simple. The only thing that makes a Pentecostal any different is that they were in obedience at one time and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. But I'll tell you this much, a friend of mine used to say that the gift of the Holy Spirit without God's Word and discipline brings you to the pigpen every time. And what is arrogance? What is egotism? What are those things but filled with self? And self has nothing to do with the work of God. I've got some very dear friends, they aren't filled with the Holy Spirit, very dear friends, and God can move on them. He's not able to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit through them because the gifts of the Holy Spirit we'll find out can only come when one has received the gift of the Holy Spirit. These people without the gift of the Holy Spirit being given to them are in one accord. These people without the gift of the Holy Spirit are in obedience.
These people without the gift of the Holy Spirit are obeying God and being led by the Holy Spirit to do God's will. Because God's Spirit only guides us into all truth, into all righteousness, so these people here, are being obedient without having the benefit of having the Holy Spirit. The new birth brings the indwelling Holy Spirit. So the differentiation that I'm trying to make is this, the Holy Spirit will allow the power of the Holy Spirit into one's life according to the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the purpose of those nine gifts of the Holy Spirit is to empower the believer to be a greater witness than ever before so that the commission to go out and make disciples of all nations will be accomplished. So the commission that God said we are to be about, that is the commission to the church. The church's responsibility, which we've already looked at, that commission, must be done. That is what has been given to us as a responsibility and we are going to be accountable to whether we do that.
Now, on the other side, I know I'm being hard on Pentecostals at this point, but let me put it on the other side now. For the person who has not received the gift of the Holy Spirit that person, if they know that the gift of the Holy Spirit is for them, and is available to them, when they come into agreement with the Scriptures, when they come into agreement with God's will, when they come into agreement with God in obedience to His Word, and that person decides that they're fine just the way they are, then that person all of a sudden steps into a different area. That person steps into an area of disobedience and they no longer are fine! And it's those people that have taken ahold of the thought process for much of the teaching that has come out in the last century about the Holy Spirit. And sadly to say it's not the truth. The truth is what we see here in the Scriptures. Peter's standing up and he's proclaiming what he's been told by the Holy Spirit. The truth is they need to get the twelfth apostle. They're in obedience to God. They're acting according to God's Will and they are going to now obey.
In their obedience, they begin to establish criteria for selecting an apostle. Notice this is their choice, their criteria, this is a personal choice that Luke recorded for our benefit.
Vss 21-26 "Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection." And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said," Isn't that terrible? They prayed it said. They're continuing in obedience, prayer. "You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place." And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles." Now notice that they're talking about several things here. The twelfth apostle is an apostle here who has seen Jesus, was with Jesus from the very beginning. Because some people will come along and say well this particular passage of Scripture rules out the possibility of any other apostle. No it doesn't. But I don't want to get into that. What I want us to see here is that Matthias is selected by God as the twelfth apostle. The casting of lots came from the Ummim and Thummim [Exodus 28:30] of the Old Testament. It was a procedure that garnered God's Will. It was not gambling as some have made it out to be. This is in consistency of the Old Testament. It is in consistency of the truth of what God wanted to have accomplished. All of this going on, the disciples using criteria, they decide that the criteria to be numbered with the original eleven, because remember the twelve apostles are going to sit and judge the twelve children of Israel. These twelve apostles are going to be in the gates of Jerusalem, three names on each side of the gates entering the New Jerusalem. These twelve apostles are very important. It is important to see that just like all of them, notice that there's the baptismal charter from that day and he was always there. He had been with them. He was probably one of the seventy there were sent out. We don't know. That would be speculation but it is possible.
What we have here is God's Will being done. The foundation that is laid. This is Acts Chapter 1 and it is important for us to see what the Scriptures say and not what we try to make them say. The Scriptures are genuine, they are real, and there is no contradiction in them. But when we play games and when we get off into disobedience, we get into the flesh, and we start twisting a few scriptures to fix ourselves so that we can think of ourselves as being obedient when in actuality we are like the Pharisees and we're disobedient. We start getting into those areas, we begin to know and make void many Scriptures and we're actually walking in complete disobedience. Although we may look like we're a Christian and we may talk the Christian language but as Isaiah said, "People, their hearts are far from God. They call them God's people but their hearts are far from God." And we've got to watch out for that. But this is the foundation for the Holy Spirit to fall. And we're going to see that in this next section.