2015 6-14 ‘Introduction to the Book of Acts’ (Selected Scriptures)

“INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF ACTS”

I. Introduction
Imagine it is the year 61 – not 1961, but 61. Imagine that you are living in Antioch – not the Antioch in Illinois just across the state line. There is no Antioch in Illinois. There is no Illi-nois either. So you will need to imagine that you are living in ancient Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It is 61 A.D. and your city is already three hundred and sixty-two years old.

You’ve heard there’s a new shipment of books down at Barnes and Noble. (I guess that should be a new shipment of scrolls down at Barnabas and Nabal.) There’s real excitement about one of those new scrolls in particular. It’s the second volume of a new two-volume work by a local physician, a young man who was born and raised right here in Antioch. His Greek name is Loukas; in Latin it’s Lacianus or Lucius, but most people know him simply as Dr. Luke.

These writings of his are causing quite a stir. The first book in this two-volume set was all about a Jewish rabbi who was executed by the Romans down in Jerusalem about thirty years ago. It’s being called good news – “a gospel.” It’s actually a biography of this Yeshua ha Mashiach, the one that a few of the Jews have been saying is the promised Messiah of Israel. Oddly enough, a number of the Greeks have come to believe that as well. They have been calling Him Ieosus Christos.

This new second volume in Luke’s series isn’t a biography at all. It’s a running history of both the Jews and Gentiles who have come to believe that this Yeshua, this Ieosus, is really God’s Son. It’s called “The Acts of the Apostles.” It’s all about how belief in this Messiah, this Christ, is even now spreading throughout the entire empire.

You’re excited about this second volume of Dr. Luke’s work because you’ve heard the first volume of his work – “The Gospel of Jesus Christ.” It is still being read throughout the city. So you know that the good doctor is a respected scholar, and whatever he has written will be worth the time it will take to read it, or at least to hear it read. Of course, you can’t afford to buy your own scroll because each one is copied by hand and is outrageously expen-sive. So you’ll have to find someplace where this second volume of Luke’s work – this Acts – can be read publicly.

But that’s all right. You don’t mind at all. That’s because it was at a public reading of the gospel that you first heard of Yeshua. And it is how you came to repentance and saving faith in Him. Antioch is a pretty big town, but you assume that you’ll be able to find out where this new work is being read, and that you’ll be able to go and listen to it.

Okay, I admit it. I made up the story about the guy living in Antioch. But you get the idea. Dr. Luke’s books (both volumes) did penetrate deeply into the Roman Empire. They had a tremendous impact. They still do. And why not?
Dr. Luke penned the words, but the Holy Spirit of God gave him the words.
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II. Review
Since I became pastor here at LBC, we have done verse-by-verse expositions of Revelation, Romans, Colossians, Philemon, and Luke. We’ve done different sermon series’ on heaven, on prayer, on the seven churches of the last days, on the twelve apostles, and recently, Jesus’ last words from the cross. We’ve also studied a number of one off topical sermons on a variety of subjects.

But regardless of the format, the purpose has always been the same. We want to know what God’s Word says and we want to know what God’s Word means. We want to know what God says so that we can obey Him. And that is the motto of Lighthouse Bible Church – “To know God’s Word…to do God’s Will.”

Now, as we embark on our verse-by-verse study of The Book of Acts, our intent will be the same. When we study verse-by-verse, we learn Scripture just as it was given. It is far more difficult to take something out of context and misapply it because whatever verse or passage we’re studying is already in the context in which the Holy Spirit of God gave it.
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III. Text
In the oldest manuscripts the book is simply called “The Acts.” As has already been said, its author is Luke, the same Luke who gave us the third gospel. This fact becomes clear when we read the first few verses of the gospel followed by the first verse of Acts.
*Luke 1:1-4
1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us,
2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us,
3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theo-philus;
4 so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.

*Acts 1:1-2
1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach,
2 until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.

Let’s begin by answering a few questions that arise whenever we start any new book.
Who was Luke?
He was a Gentile, a Greek by birth. In Colossians 4:14 Paul calls him “beloved physician.”
In Philemon 24 Paul says that Luke is one of his “fellow workers.” In 2 Timothy 4:11, shortly before Paul is executed, he says, “Only Luke is with me.” So Dr. Luke was not only a Christian, he was also a man of courage and a man of character. When others had fled from Paul for fear of their lives, it was Luke who stayed with him.

Here’s the next question –
Why would God use a Gentile to record the establishment and early history of the church?
The answer becomes clear when we remember that the nation of Israel, as well as most of the Jewish people had already rejected Jesus as their promised Messiah. Therefore, God would send the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ out to the Gentile world and the church would be born. Then, in His magnificent sovereignty, God would use a Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, whom He renamed Paul, to become the apostle to the Gentiles. And He would use one of Paul’s Gentile companions, Luke, to write the gospel that was aimed squarely at the Gentile world.

In the beginning the new Christians were nearly all believing Jews. But as time went on the church – as it is today – became nearly all Gentiles. So it should be no surprise that God would use a Gentile to write the history of the church. And it should be no surprise that both “The Gospel of Luke” and “The Acts of the Apostles” were initially addressed to another Gentile, Theophilus.

Just as Matthew and John were eyewitnesses to the events they recorded in the gospels that bear their names, so too, was Luke an eyewitness to many of the event he recorded in Acts. He joined Paul on the second missionary journey, they spent time together both in and out of prison, and Luke remained Paul’s loyal friend until the apostle was martyred in Rome.

Here’s another question –
What is the content and scope of Acts?
In the first verse of Acts Luke says that his gospel was about “…all that Jesus began to do and teach.” Acts tells us of the continuation of what Jesus is doing and teaching. But Acts isn’t about Jesus directing things from earth. Rather, it is about Him directing things from heaven in the Person of His Holy Spirit. This is seen throughout the book as Jesus’ Spirit fills, guides, comforts, sustains, and encourages His people. Consider just a few examples from the first three chapters.

In Acts 1 the apostles needed to replace Judas.
*Acts 1:24-26
24 And they prayed, and said, “You, Lord, who knows the hearts of all men, show which one of these two (Joseph and Matthias) You have chosen
25 to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”
26 And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was num-
bered with the eleven apostles.
In Acts 2, on the day the church was born, Jesus sent His Spirit to indwell believers.
*Acts 2:1-4a
1 And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
4a And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…

In Acts 3 the Holy Spirit used Peter to heal a beggar who had been lame since birth.
*Acts 3:6-8a
6 …Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!”
7 And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened.
8a And with a leap, he stood upright and began to walk…

The presence of the Lord Jesus is seen again and again throughout Acts. Just as He directed His church from heaven in those first days, so too does He direct His church today. And just as Satan did his worst to hinder the church from its first days of existence, so too does he work to hinder the church today. In our study of Acts we will see that as well.

That brings us to another question –
How is the Book of Acts divided?
The book is essentially a history of the transition from Judaism to Christianity. Therefore it can be divided into three specific sections.
• The first section is Acts 1-7. These chapters chronicle the birth of the church, its beginnings in Jerusalem, and the testimony to Israel that Jesus is indeed the Jewish Messiah. In Acts 7 Stephen is stoned to death and that testimony comes to a close.

• The second section is Acts 8-12. This is where the actual transition begins. The gos-pel goes out to Samaria, Saul of Tarsus is converted on the road to Damascus and becomes Paul, and Peter begins to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

• The third section is Acts 13-28. These are the chapters that are probably best known to most Christians. It is in them that Paul takes his three missionary journeys and establishes the churches that will be the recipients of his letters. We will go with him and his companions to Antioch, Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus, Rome, and numerous other places before he goes to Rome for the last time, where Dr. Luke’s record of the early church ends.

This is the very order of things that we will see Jesus give His disciples before His ascension to heaven. In fact, it is the last command that He will give them.
*Acts 1:8
8 “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Jesus’ witnesses began their mission where He was crucified. Since then God’s people have continued to witness to a lost and dying world. We are privileged and blessed to have a part in the work that will continue until the Second Coming. Think of Chuck Sweetman right here in Walworth County, David and Carol Beakley in South Africa, Zhenya Prosyannikov in Siberia, as well as the Bransons in Hungary, the Horsmans in Alaska, and the Tolivers in Texas. The gospel is still going out “…to the remotest part of the earth,” isn’t it?

And think about yourself. You are privileged and blessed to have a part in the work of the church. The question for you today is, “Are you doing it? Are you actively engaged in it?” The Book of Acts is about God’s people (His church) who obeyed Jesus and went out and witnessed to the truth.

Here’s yet another question –
What are some of the key passages and verses in Acts?
Acts gives us the reiteration of some of Scripture’s most important doctrinal truths. Among those truths is Jesus’ true identity, His bodily resurrection from the dead, the need for per-sonal faith in Christ, the call to genuine repentance, the forgiveness of sins, and the indwel-ling Holy Spirit of God.
*Acts 3:13-19 (Peter speaking)
13 “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered up, and disowned in the pre-sence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.
14 “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
15 but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.
16 “And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him (the lame beggar) this perfect health in the presence of you all.
17 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also.
18 “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth all of the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
19 “Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

Two chapters later one of the greatest truths to be found anywhere in Scripture is driven home by Peter.
*Acts 4:12
12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under hea-ven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”

Isn’t that precisely what Jesus said about Himself in John’s gospel? Do you remember His answer when Thomas asked the Lord how to get to heaven?
*John 14:1-6
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
4 “And you know the way where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

We often think of Acts as little more than a history book. So we look elsewhere for doctrinal truth, but Acts 4:12, which says “…there is no other name under heaven…by which we must be saved” is as powerful a doctrinal truth as can be found anywhere in the Bible. And what about this essential truth given to the Philippian jailer?
*Acts 16:30b-31a (Paul and Silas speaking)
30b (The jailer) said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31a And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved…”

Rich, pure, sound doctrine! Since one of the recurring themes of the book is the obedience of God’s people, many the key verses in Acts address that issue. Luke has told us what God wants us to know about Jesus in the gospel. In Acts he tells us what God wants us to do with that knowledge.

In Acts 2:14-36 Peter preached the first sermon ever preached in the church. In it he drove home the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. In v. 21 he quoted the Prophet Joel and said, “…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In v. 32 he said, “This Jesus God raised up again…” And in v. 36 he said, “…let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified.” What was the result of Peter’s preaching the truth?
*Acts 2:37-38
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The result of that was that they believed, they received, they were baptized, and they became the first members of the Church of Jesus Christ. They did precisely what you and I are called to do today. They obeyed God! They “did church.”
*Acts 2:41-42
41 So then, those who had received his word (truly believed) were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Last Sunday David Randle of Jews for Jesus reminded us that one of the great lessons we can learn is this life has been around for at least four thousand years. Do you remember what it was? “When God tells you to do something, do it!” God will tell us a great deal in The Book of Acts. As we work our way through Luke’s second book, we’ll expand upon each one of these, but for now I’ll just mention two of the most important truths God has for us. They are, “God is sovereign” and “the Glory is the Lord’s.” These two truths – and how they apply to our lives – will be seen again and again.

The first of these important truths is that God is sovereign in the affairs of men.
*Acts 4:18-20
18 And when they (the Sanhedrin) had summoned them (the apostles), they com-manded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge;
20 for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard.”

*Acts 5:27-29
27 And when they (the temple guard) had brought them, they stood them before the Council (the Sanhedrin). And the high priest questioned them,
28 saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
29 But Peter and the apostles answered and said, “We must obey God rather than men.”

The second of these most important truths is that the glory belongs to God; it does not belong to men.
*Acts 12:21-23
21 And on an appointed day Herod (Antipas), having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them.
22 And the people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not a man!”
23 And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Listen, there is a path that the Lord has marked out for His church on this earth. That path begins in Acts. As we walk along we will gain a clearer understanding as to why the world in which we live is in such dire straits. It has rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. But those of us who have received Him are God’s remnant. We are called to follow Him and to obey Him.
As we do, He will build His church. And He has promised the very gates of hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:15-18)

When the Philippian jailer asked what he had to do to be saved, Paul and Silas told him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved (Acts 16:31).” It was no more complicated than that then. It is no more complicated than that now.
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IV. Conclusion
It has been said that we cannot truly know where we are if we do not know from where we have come. The church in these last days had its beginnings in The Book of Acts. It is from where have come. Why do we do what we do? We do it because the early church did it. We preach, we pray, we sing, we give of ourselves and our resources, we share in the Lord’s Supper, and we have fellowship together as only brothers and sisters in Christ can. It all started in Acts.

The Old Covenant of law-keeping transitioned into the New Covenant of grace and faith. Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts 9 was an example of that transition. He went from one who tried to work for his salvation to one who knew that righteousness comes through faith.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

A second example of the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant was Peter’s vision in Acts 10 where God put an end to the old Jewish dietary laws.
Acts 10:13-15
13 And a voice came to him, “Arise, Peter, kill and eat!”
14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.
15 And again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

The fact is that God does amazing things through ordinary everyday people like you and me.

Through the power of His Holy Spirit God took a group of fisherman and used them to turn the whole world upside down. By the standards of their day they were an uneducated and unsophisticated bunch of ne’er-do-wells. But Revelation 21:14 tells us that their names are written on the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem in heaven.

Through the power of His Holy Spirit God took a Christian-hating murderer – Saul of Tarsus – and turned him into the Apostle Paul, who became an evangelist and church-planter, and the author of nearly half of the books of the New Testament.

And through the power of His Holy Spirit God can do amazing things through you as well. Are you willing? Ask Him for guidance and direction. And when He opens doors for you, be willing to walk through them. And when He tells you what to do, do it!

That’s what His church has done for the last two thousand years. But during those two thou-sand years men have also added to it, taken away from, and in far too many cases virtually perverted it. Yet the true Church of Jesus Christ still stands. And it will until He comes to take us home. In the meantime His Great Commission continues to guide us and direct us.
*Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

~ Pray ~