Q&A 8: The transition from the ministry of Christ to the ministry of the apostles
Vern Peterman · Feb 21, 2010
Questions & Answers, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926155191670

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

What I wanted to cover, because last week was a question about, you know, Paul and James and how James, a lot of people read it and go, it seems so legal, you know. And one of the things we wanted to surface was that while James was a Jew, writing to Jews, and as we'll cover this morning in a little more detail, very early in the process of revealing things to the New Testament, basically the first New Testament book, James said things, including starting with verse 2, that were actually quite contrary to the Law of Moses, and so he was not pushing the Law of Moses on them. And people often tend to misunderstand that. That having been said, let's look at a few things of history.

Here's Paul's first missionary journey, Acts 13, 14-16, and then right after that he wrote to the Church of Galatia about how he was not under the law, right? The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 is right in here. Here's a letter of James to Jewish Christians, was written about 45 AD, so either before Paul went on his first missionary journey, or while he was on his first missionary journey. Somewhere in that band of time. But James wrote before the letter of Galatians was written, and he wrote before they had the Jerusalem Council. But by the way, there at the Jerusalem Council, Acts 15, where they said, you know, we're not going to put the Gentiles under the law, James was the last one to speak. And he said, yep, that's what we ought to do. So I think that's important for people to keep in mind as they're reading the book of James.

Here is the family tree of Jesus, and let's see. What this shows, a lot of detail, almost too much, but here's Jesus with the red bracket, rectangular on his name. Just to the right there is James, his half-brother in the sequence. And actually what's interesting is a lot of the lineage of Mary and Joseph's family continues on for two or three generations past. We have information about at least some of them. So real interesting. Yeah, here's the, here's Jesus and then James the Righteous, or James the author of this letter. Actually, Jacob, Jacobus, Yaakov, is the one there. And then Jude is the author of the book of Jude, okay? Okay, now, that's one.

The other one we want to switch to is one you have on page three of your handout. With that, turn to the handout. The handout is two pages of text, a chart that we'll be spending some time on that is on the screen as well, and then there is a bunch of supplement. We probably won't get to it all today, but at least it's available in print if someone wishes to pursue it.

One of the things we want to get across is, and a lot of people don't understand this, people are inclined to read the Bible kind of like it's flat, like everybody knew everybody and nothing happened in sequence. The reality is, you think about it, here are the disciples, Jesus has just risen from the dead. Did they believe it at first? No, they didn't get it. As you proceed through the Book of Acts, and we're going to see shortly, what you find out is that these guys are having lightbulb moments again and again. They're going, Oh! Oh! Oh! And so it's happening constantly with these apostles.

They didn't just, you know, oh look, Jesus died for our sins and he's going to rise again, don't worry about it. Everything's cool, you know. They didn't just do that. What happened is they had lightbulb moment, after lightbulb moment, after lightbulb moment, and it went on for decades. That's what we're going to see here, okay? Now, here is the key.

This big picture principle of what's called progressive revelation. God revealed things over time. So, in God's working with mankind from the sixth day of creation until the completion of scripture about 96 AD, there was a progression in God's covenants and stewardship and revelation to mankind. In that progressive revelation, mankind was given more spiritual information because? Let me make three points. One, time passed and key events and personalities came along so that there was more to record. More happened and more things were revealed. So that's one reason to continue to write scripture.

Secondly, God made promises or established covenants and stewardships that were recorded. Promises that weren't made before, right? He made a promise to Abraham that relates to the Jews today, right? But until Abraham came along, there wasn't anybody to make a promise to, right?

So things are revealed progressively. The next one, God held people responsible for what was revealed. That was the third one. So all scripture is profitable, and even things that happened in times before, when God dealt very differently with people than he does now, and are given for our instruction.

And that's Romans 15.4 and 1 Corinthians 10.11 that we looked at. Someone's back here. Those two passages said, these were written for our instruction, referring to Old Testament passages.

When we study scripture, it's important we not study scripture as if it were flat, that is, if all truth were revealed at once, and all people had everything revealed to them all the time. We must also be careful not to read things back into past times that do not apply. Let's ask this question. was Noah in Christ.

He was not. It's true of believers in the church age. It is not backwardly applicable. So, key point. One reason the Revelation is progressive, I'm looking at the last sentence in that paragraph, is that truths are often revealed at a particular time because the time has finally come that what is revealed is true for the people of that time.

For example, Romans 7, 4-6, but now we have been released from the law. Was Moses released from the law? No. Was David released from the law? No. Was Joshua? No. wasn't released from the law. But, the time came, and who was released from the law? Who was released from the law? Pardon?

The church. The church, which includes Jews and Gentiles that believe that the church was not until Acts 2, when Christ ascended. Those in the church are released from the law. Now, Here's a point where people get confused. A lot. So hear me out on this. Be patient with me. Persevere. Bear with me.

Here's where people get really confused and there are people that are heads of seminaries and have doctorate degrees and they're confused. Because they look at Jesus' ministry on the earth and then They take the things that Jesus said and just carry it right over into the church and don't understand that Jesus had a very specific and particular ministry to Israel who was under the law or under grace? Under the law.

And that's why you start off in the Sermon on the Mount. You know, you've heard that it was said, but I tell you, and every time Jesus says, but I tell you, he points back to the law of Moses. So people, you'll have all kinds of teachers today. In church, it's teaching and serving on a mountain, like that's just straight applicable to you.

They don't discern the difference. And let's take a look at that. You have in the middle of that page, Christ's ministry. Christ's focus is earthly ministry upon the Jews, specifically that ethnic group, as well as that of the disciples, who were Jewish, during his time of earthly ministry.

Matthew 10, 5-6, he sends the disciples out two by two and he tells them, go ye unto all the world in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, right? No. Matthew chapter 10, he says, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And by the way, that's an Old Testament phrase, okay? Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Do not even go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Don't even go there, okay? And then in chapter 15, Matthew 15, Jesus says there, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus' ministry and the things that he said were intended only for the Jews, and specifically the Jews in the land of Israel. The only times that Christ traveled outside of the land of Israel, and he didn't go very far, during his earthly ministry, was to enter land that was originally intended for Israel. What happens when the Jews entered the promised land, and they were supposed to take over the land from the Canaanites, right? Drive out the Canaanites and the Philistines and the Trilobites and the Muscovites and everything else, and all the Mosquitobites, right? They were supposed to drive out all those people, right? But did they do it all? No. And so what happened when Jesus went up to Tyre and Sidon, He went into a land that the Jews were supposed to have taken, but they never did. They were supposed to have taken, but never did.

That's the only time during His ministry where He went outside of the land of Israel. Only during the last part of Christ's ministry on earth did he begin to make any reference to the church, and most of that did not begin until the day right before his crucifixion. Until the week before his crucifixion, that was the time when he started, in any significant degree, talking about the church. So the disciples, I mean, the disciples in the week before he's going to be crucified, do they understand he's going to be crucified?

No. Do they understand he's going to be resurrected? No. And so basic stuff they didn't understand. He started talking about the church, and they didn't understand what he said until later. So you can imagine, here's the disciples years later, and now all of a sudden they have these light bulb moments. Oh, that's what he meant! What was I thinking, you know? Why didn't I think of that? You ever hear those words? Right?

John 14, 26, But the Helper of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things about the church, and bring to remembrance all that I said to you. That's when they have those light bulb moments. Oh, that's what he was saying. I wondered for years what he was talking about and now I finally know, right? Isn't that interesting? Okay, let's look at page 2 then. Sure. Yes.

We will talk about that in a little more detail later, because there are some things that are said in hyperbole in the Gospels that are frequently not understood. Some of them are things, unless you hate father and mother, which he really didn't want you to hate father and mother, but as a relative statement, the love for father and mother, which would be natural and good, would seem like hate. It's that kind of state. It's not intended to be looked at as, you know, heaven forbid, we wouldn't want them to understand. You know?

Now, in the Acts of the Apostles, here Acts begins with Christ ascended, the twelve apostles, including the replacement for Judas, Matthias, listed, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, mentioned by name for the last time. Acts chapter 1, that's the last time she's mentioned. They were all waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. Though the church was begun in Acts 2, there was a great deal to learn and develop through the course of about three decades to the end of the book.

Before I begin, think about this. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, delivers a powerful message, doesn't he? Ever read through that? I mean, it's just, 3,000 Jews are shocked Peter delivered a verbal punch in the nose. He says, you know, God sent the Messiah and he got children! You know? So I mean, this was a verbal punch in the nose. So here's Peter.

Do you realize that it had only been less than two months before he stood there in the courtyard and said, I don't even know that guy. I don't even know that guy. And he hadn't a clue what they were doing. So here's a guy who has begun to be radically changed, but does he understand everything yet? Nah. Not even sorta.

The Holy Spirit will teach him all things that he needs to teach others, and bring to remembrance everything he needs to know. So as we go through this, here's Acts 2. The church began and 3,000 were added to the church in that day. That's when Peter delivered the verbal punch in the nose. God sent the Messiah, this was the one promise for centuries and millennia, and you killed him! Which of course made him feel warm and fuzzy inside, right? Okay.

Acts chapter 9, Paul turns from passionate enemy of the church to a believer. And by the way, Paul's intent, he wanted every Christian dead, if at all possible. He was extreme. He wasn't just, you know, I'm not real fond of the Christians, He was intense. He says later on in Acts, he says, every chance I had to vote, I voted for death. That's what he wanted. He wanted every Christian dead. And so here's a guy who turns around from passionate enemy of the church, wanting death, to a believer.

Acts 10. And interesting, Paul is not the one who gets to introduce the gospel to the Gentiles. Peter is, Acts 10. Peter tells the gospel to the Gentiles for the first time. They're in the house of Cornelius in Caesarea. And then Acts 13 and 14, Paul's and Barnabas' first missionary journey. Acts 15, which we made reference to here, is the Jerusalem council setting aside law for the Gentiles.

It is the last mention of Peter, interestingly enough. It is not the last mention of James. James is mentioned just when Paul gets done with his missionary journey, third missionary journey, and is about to make the trip to Rome. James is mentioned once more. But this is the last mention of Peter in Acts 15. 1539-1822, Paul's second missionary journey.

1823 to 2116, Paul's third missionary journey, and Acts 27 to the end, Paul's journey to Rome. There was a series of parallel transitions throughout the approximately three decades that are included in the Book of Acts. One thing to remember, Acts is about three decades long, right? So it's a book that covers history Luke is deliberately selective of events that took place over about three decades. One, there is a transition in the understanding of the apostles regarding the church. What kind of transitions can you think of regarding the church? Did they understand what the church was when Jesus was crucified?

Not a clue. Acts chapter 1, Jesus is ready to ascend, and what do they ask him? Is now the time when you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel? What were they thinking? They were thinking, man, Jesus is going to come right after Romans! We're going to love it! Hey? He says, not yet. So were they thinking millennium? Pardon? When they thought Jesus was coming, were they thinking millennium, or just he's going to come? They were thinking the Millennial Kingdom.

That's what they were looking at. They said, man, is now the time? Is this the time? This is the time the prophets have been talking about for ages and ages, for centuries. We've been reading about it in the synagogues since we grew up. Is this the time?

No. You guys are disappointed. Yeah. Huh? I mean, they're going head scratch, you know. This is a major head scratch moment. What's that? Yeah! It was a mystery. They had not a clue. So they were going to yet find out the answer to that question, weren't they? There's an understanding regarding the church. This had not been revealed before.

Secondly, a transition in the geographical center of teaching and evangelism starts in Jerusalem. By the end of the first century, things started to shift towards being centered actually in Rome. It is a major center of Christianity. transition in the message from within Judaism to expression among the Gentiles. It started off, I mean, the apostles, okay, we finally got to figure out there's this thing called the church. Ten years go by before it goes ding, light bulb, oh, the Gentiles are supposed to be a part of this too. Brand new idea.

Transition towards less mention of the gift of tongues, none recorded after 55 A.D. We have no record of the gift of tongues being expressed in the church after 55 A.D. Transition toward fewer miraculous apostolic error expressions. By Hebrews 2, 3 and 4, and that was in the middle 60s A.D. Well, I imagine living back in the 60s. No, anyway. In the middle 60s A.D., here is the book of Hebrews speaking of what the apostles did miraculously in the past tense.

The next one, and these bullets are separated for a couple of reasons. One, they're a little more complex. A transition, at least in the focus of Acts, from leadership as public spokesman by Peter to leadership as public spokesman by Paul. The general public spokesman was in the earlier times Peter, and then shifting more to Paul. Next one, a transition toward more New Testament letters among the believers, all of Paul's church epistles by 61 AD, as well as wider and wider distribution of those letters.

Paul writes to the church at Colossae, and he says, have this read also over nearby city. It was Colossae and Laodicea and Heropolis. I have the letters read in these different communities there. And the letter I wrote to Laodicea, which we don't have, had that read as well. The next one.

Transition from identification truths introduced in 49 AD, that's with the Book of Galatians, in Christ, baptized into Christ, united with him in death, burial and resurrection, to the believer being sealed and having citizenship in the heavenlies by 61 AD.

A transition into rapture is a doctrine expressed in the end of the Gospel of John. And one of the places that comes up, Jesus says, behold, I go to prepare a place for you. and I'll come back and take you to be with me." This is his telling them about the rapture, which they had not a clue what on earth is he talking about.

Because one of the things we mentioned is that's the sort of thing that a bridegroom would say to his bride-to-be when he was going off to prepare a place. Which makes sense once you understand that the church is the bride of Christ, right? They were clueless. They thought, what's he talking about? He's crazy. He's talking about like he's the bridegroom and we're the bride. I don't get it.

But he first started talking about the rapture then. Finally, to the doctrine explained. It is 1 Corinthians 15, which we just got through studying. 1 Thessalonians, especially 4, 13-18, although the rapture is in every chapter. And to a doctrine ingrained in the Book of Revelation, it does not explain the rapture at all. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure it even describes it. It describes, as John does the identification truths in the Gospel of John, it describes the result. the result.

And finally, a transition and revelation of the various mysteries, truths not previously revealed, but now revealed, Colossians 1.26. So let's look at the chart on the next page, which you also see on the front here. If you look at this timeline, in this colored chart that is on there, this timeline goes from 20 AD, and at that point in time Christ is, you know, in his early to middle 20s until about 68 AD. And if you look at that, you think about this, Christ is in his early to middle 20s.

He's hanging around Nazareth being a carpenter. As far as we know, he'd not met any of the disciples. He'd not, you know, done any miracles. As far as we know, as far as we know, he'd not gone and fed the 5,000 or walked on water or any of that. He just was a carpenter in a little tiny podunk camp. And that's all we knew about it. Yeah, that's right.

And so then, but what you find is going into that, here we have John 129 and 36, and then in chapter 3, 14 and 15, we have the gospel of substitution has been taught and has been declared. Behold the Lamb of God, as John the Baptist said twice in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here is the gospel of substitution, Christ died in our place. That comes from Isaiah 53. It's not proclaimed boldly by the apostles, that's the solid red line that goes all the way across, most of the way across the page there. And so that gospel of substitution is proclaimed from the earliest part of Jesus' ministry, even from the words of John the Baptist, all the way to the end of the book of Acts, and of course afterwards.

Separate from that is the gospel of the kingdom, which is, by the way, not the same as the gospel of substitution. The gospel of the kingdom, something mentioned throughout the book of Matthew, and the Gospel of the Kingdom is specifically something targeting the Jews. Specifically something targeting the Jews. Do we know what that is? Yes. The Gospel of the Kingdom is... Let me address that quickly. We went over this in more detail in our Sermon on the Mount elective, but it goes like this. Did the Jews expect that there was going to be a kingdom? Yes.

They expected that there was going to be this coming kingdom. As a matter of fact, their belief was that there was a coming kingdom preceded by a seven year period of tribulation. They knew it was seven years in the book of Daniel. They expected that things would get worse and worse and worse through this seven-year period of tribulation.

They had a name for the Antichrist, which was Armilus. Then they said the Messiah will come, as described in the book of Daniel. The Messiah will come at the end of that time, and then, rather than the Millennial Kingdom, because that thousand year figure had not been revealed, that was only revealed in Revelation chapter 20, which hadn't been revealed yet. So here are the Jews, what they said is the Messiah will come and reign for a long, long time.

They didn't know how long. And so that's what they're expecting. What was news to them and what Jesus talked about a lot was not everybody who's Jewish is getting in. And to them, that was a shock. What? I mean, it was, you know, and people don't understand this. It's just, you know, strive to enter the narrow gate. Enter is the issue, okay? The Jews strive to enter the narrow gate. I'm already Jewish. Of course I'm getting in, right?

And he's saying, not so fast. And then later on in the Sermon on the Mount, what does he say? He says, even those who say, Lord, Lord, Lord twice, right? And do this and this and this, he'll say, I never knew you. Entry is an issue, but the Gospel of the Kingdom is, here is Jesus, who is the King of the Jews. Do you receive him as that? Unless you do, you're not, as a Jew, getting in. That, to them, was shocking. They were stunned to hear that. They were baffled. Now, so the bad news, the un-gospel of the kingdom is not all you Jews are getting in.

But the gospel of the kingdom is, here's the king. Do you receive him as your king? If so, your entrance into the kingdom is assured. The gospel of the kingdom. He went around preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Starting early in the ministry and all the way through. So you're saying when he was preaching he was saying the belief in him? Yes.

As the Messiah. As their Messiah. and here's the key thing to notice you notice I have in the bottom of this chart this red line which is the gospel of substitution and then the green line which is the gospel of the kingdom the Jews throughout the book of Acts from early on Acts 3 all the way to the last verses of Acts in chapter 28 The Jews continued to get the message of the gospel of the kingdom. When Jesus was there, he was saying, I'm the king, and you need to believe and receive me in order to enter the kingdom. So, you know, in the trials, they kept saying, are you the Messiah? Yes. And you're saying he told people all along that he was the Messiah? It was kind of a silly trial stick. Are you claiming to be the Messiah? I know he said that at one point. He said, we've been in the synagogues every week here.

Yeah, but what you look at, you hear these references in Acts, Acts 3, Acts 8, Acts 14, Acts 19, and the following pages detail the preaching of the kingdom throughout the book of Acts. The preaching of the kingdom was continued throughout the book of Acts.

And let me ask you why? Why didn't they just say, forget it, we're now in the church and we don't need to preach the kingdom anymore? Pardon? That figured it all out? Yes, they're still figuring things out. That's one good point. But what's another reason why they would continue, even later on when you think they finally got it figured out, they're still preaching the Kingdom of the Jews. Why? Because they were Jewish. What's that? Because they were Jewish. Because they were Jewish.

Think about what's going to happen to the Jews The book of Acts ends a little after 60 A.D. or about 60 A.D., right about there. And what's going to happen in 10 years? Absolute destruction of Jerusalem. Absolute destruction of Jerusalem. They were given warnings. by Jesus when he preached only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel the gospel of the kingdom and then when the apostles took over they went and started preaching you know you got to believe and then you'll be saved but they continued all the way to the last verses of Acts to keep telling the Jews you better repent and turn your head around and understand that Jesus is the Messiah or it will have serious consequences and it did They also had, you see below that, tongues, tongues, tongues. They also had tongues, and what Paul reveals, and we went into more detail about in our study of 1 Corinthians 12-14, especially chapter 14. What tongues was to be was a sign of warning, especially to the Jews. So the Jews had tons of warnings, multiple tons of warnings, and they also had the continuing preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom directed to them. And what you see in the pages that's included in your handout as a supplement, because we won't have time to go through it all, is that the Jews continued to have the Gospel of the Kingdom and the of Acts period.

Okay, now, let's step on up. In the line right up above that, it says Stewardship Principle Law. This is about the middle of the page on the left. Stewardship Principle Law in the Gospels. Stewardship Principle Grace, once you step into Acts chapter 2 into the Church period.

And that's another thing people don't understand. They step into the Gospels It is like the end of the Old Testament. The Gospels are not... people talk about Kingdom Living Heavens. Saints, what are they reading? It is not for the church. He said, it's only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And so that stewardship principle changed there. Now, right above that, and more to the middle, you will start seeing referred to as the identification truths and related truths, when did they begin to be taught so far as we have any record? The identification truths. With what book?

Galatians. Galatians is the only time they begin to be taught in any explanation. You can find them in the Gospel of John. But that's only because you've read Paul's letters and then can go back and say, oh, I see it now. But not because it's explained in the Gospel of John. It's not.

Galatians, 49 AD, was the first letter that we have that indicates any understanding in any in-depth degree of the identification truths. Even with that, there's identification in in crucifixion, burial, and resurrection only at the start. The letters that are written, Galatians 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians, reveal those first three identification truths and nothing more.

Romans, great book, 16 chapters, flagship of the epistles, the believers still on earth. We've been studying through 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Phenomenal books that believe are still in the earth. It is not until you get just past 60 AD, Paul is under house arrest in Rome, that you find teachings, you are seated with Christ in the heavens. 30 years roughly, three decades have passed since Christ was Crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended and seated. And now after 30 years has gone by, then you have the teachings that the believer is seated in heaven. Then you have the teachings that the believer has a heavenly citizenship. Then you have the teaching that the believer is to set their mind on things above.

Only then. So now, one of the things that I've done is to insert James The name James, that's the book of James, in the middle towards the top. You see that there? It's also there on the front. It's sticking right out in the middle of that section. See it?

Now, here is James. He's writing basically the first New Testament letter that we have any record of. May well have been others, but the first that we have record of. What does James know in terms of all these other truths? He doesn't. He doesn't. He wrote before there was this Jerusalem Council and they all concluded, let's not put the Gentiles under any law of Moses. He wrote before there was any record of understanding of, do you know you're in Christ? Do you know that you've been baptized into Christ and united with Him? He wrote before that. That understanding was not there yet.

Does it mean that James is not inspired? No. Does it mean that James is not true and not scripture? No, that's not the case. What it means is, as we read through this, the apostles, apparently even Paul, had a progressive, greater understanding of these truths. I'm a little bit confused. They're preaching the gospel of the kingdom all the way to Acts 28. That's correct. What does that mean? I mean, if the Jews believed the gospel of the kingdom, they weren't in the church. Or were they? I guess I don't understand that.

Here's the thing. The gospel of the kingdom continued to be preached. even though they were going there and also telling about the gospel of Jesus. But the Jews had, aside from believing that Christ died for your sins, the Jews had, and still have, an issue out there. And that is, you guys need to understand, this is not just Jesus who died for your sins, but this is Jesus, your Messiah. whom you, as the chosen people, even if they're saved as Christians, you need to recognize that this is the Messiah that God intended. So that's even truer. There is a sense in which there is value in them seeing that.

However, it's too late to save them since 70 A.D. Right now, what's sitting on the Temple Mount? You've got these two mosques, and it's under the rule of the Muslims. The Muslims rule the Temple Mount. The closest the Jews can get to it is up at the the Herod's Temple Mount. And that's it. So, now there is value in them seeing and understanding that Christ is the Messiah, who are Jews and who are of the Church. However, it's too late for this. It's too late for this time frame. The Apostles were saying what they ought to have said. They were doing what they ought to have done. and they continue to preach the kingdom all the way through. Here's Paul in Rome, chained to a Praetorian guard, and he's still preaching the kingdom to the Jews. He's preaching the gospel to the kingdom, and the way it says it, right there in Acts.

The rapture and after the end of the millennium, will they start to go back to teaching the gospel? Here's what it amounts to. this importance of the gospel of the kingdom will be extremely important during the tribulation and because the church will be out of the picture and it will be suddenly back to the issue of Jews and Gentiles and it will be suddenly back to temple rebuild, restoring the sacrifices, all the issues If you look at the circle on the mountain, it was applicable to those people there, and it will be applicable into the tribulation period.

Because it's about entry into the kingdom. It's about, look Jews, here's how you're going to get into the kingdom. And it will be back to the law. And here's one of the things that will happen when they get into the kingdom, which will be because they believe, right? When those Jews who go into the kingdom get into the kingdom, they will have the new covenant promised to the Jews, fulfilled in their lives.

Jews, this is mind-boggling, Jews will have the Holy Spirit with them all the time. to know and live out the law by the Holy Spirit's power. So here we are as Christians, Christ died that we might die to the law, among other things. He died that we might die to the law and not be under the law, but for the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom, their salvation, which would be by faith. will bring about the Holy Spirit's indwelling in them to live out the law and to know the law, and even better, if you will, than we have it here.

I have to stand up here and teach you, and believe me, I don't feel like that's a painful obligation, but I have to stand up here and teach you, because that's the way God's designed it, that Jews won't even need to have somebody teach them. Because the Holy Spirit will bring the law to memory in the one new kingdom. So isn't this an amazing thing? The Lord has glorified that we be entirely apart from the law in the church. But the Jews in this coming kingdom will be entirely under the law and know it by heart and live it out by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wow! Amazing stuff! Okay. Let me read here Acts 28.

This is the last couple of verses. And he, Paul, stayed two full years in his own rented quarters, I'd say he was under house arrest, and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness unhindered. The Jews that came, the kingdom of God. Everybody concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it even comes out in Paul's letters, and is frequently, I would say, kind of bleached out in a lot of our translations. I've mentioned here previously that Ephesians, starting with Ephesians 1, 10, has the D-Messiah, definite article, 23 times, starting with Ephesians 1, 10.

And I haven't found any major translation that brings that out. all things will be summed up in, and not just summed up in Christ, Ephesians 1.10, all things will be summed up in the Messiah. HaMashiach. The Jews read the definite article in front of Christ, and they said, Messiah! They saw it. They heard it. That's what it meant to them. It's the exact same pair of words the high priest says to Jesus. Are you THE Christ? Are you Hamashiach? Yah. Yah.

So, the key point here as we read through the New Testament and even as we're reading through 1st and 2nd Corinthians is to get the idea of progressive revelation. Here you've got identification truths right here in 1st Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians. You've got, we're under grace and not the law, 1st and 2nd Corinthians. You have not yet gotten, it's going to be half a decade, you've not yet gotten the teaching, you're sealed with Christ in heaven. So far as we have any evidence, they didn't understand it yet. It wasn't interesting. Why did Paul wait, if he knew? Why did Paul wait until he was under house arrest to start writing this stuff?

Very interesting, isn't it? But it's important for us to understand, it's just like Jesus told the apostles. He says, look, I'm here to take care of the Jews. Initially, I'll send you out to the Jews, but then I'm going to send you out to the Jews and the Gentiles and everybody, and you're going to have to learn all this stuff fresh. And, not only are you going to have to learn all this stuff fresh, but you're going to call to mind, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you're going to recall the things that I've told you, and they will suddenly make sense. And you're supposed to go and teach and tell people that, as things are revealed. Imagine three decades of light bulb moments. Ow! Now I get it. That's why he said that. Heavens, why didn't I think of that? Okay, make sense? Cool? Questions? Exasperations? Yes?

Jerusalem and the Temple is in Israel, right? The Temple site, yes. So how does that... They don't have control over their own temple? No, the Muslims control the Temple Mount. The Jews only have access to the Western Wall. They can go around the thing, but that's as close as they can get to the old Temple Mount, is the Western Wall. So Muslims who are not Jewish, tell the Jews what they're supposed to do?

Yeah, oh yeah. On the Temple Mount, well, here's for instance, in the last few years, the Muslims have gone out there just like with Bako. start digging up stuff on the Temple Mount and just throw it away. So the Jewish archaeologists go out there and sort through the stuff that the Muslims have dug up. There's pieces of pottery and coins and things like that in there. But the Jews, the Muslims will not allow the Jews or the Christians to go on the Temple Mount and do any excavation, even of areas that are just walking areas.

I mean, in here, what if some Muslim came in and said, we're taking over Washington? Well, one of the reasons that it is, is because of all the international pressure on the Jews. and also because people know that if the Jews said, hey, we're taking over the Temple Mount, you're Mosque of Omar, that's toast. I mean, they could go in there, you know, they've got planes, they can go in there and just BAM! The Mosque of Omar is dust, right? They could just blow up the smithereens in a minute, you know?

But, they know that that would set off a powder keg because this is like the third most, you know, important holy site for Islam, even though the historical basis for Muhammad having anything to do with that site is highly questionable. So, yeah, right now it's under the Muslim... When was those mosques built and stuff? Oh, the mosques were...

See, Muhammad died about 632 And the Muslims just started going in three directions. They went into North Africa, they went into Europe, and they went off into Asia, militarily. And as soon as they got to Jerusalem, they took over and started building mosques immediately. But it's highly doubtful that, contrary to their mythology, highly doubtful that Muhammad ever went there.

No, they also have a different account. That's the place where Abraham offered up Ishmael. Different account, of course. Yes. But the other thing to remember is that Islamic holy books were written a great many centuries after the original events. The New Testament had been completed for 500 years, completed for 500 years before Muhammad began to write. So Islam is very late in the process. The likelihood that things are historically accurate is slim. Other questions? Thoughts? perturbations, exasperations, anything else? OK. All right, well, thanks for your patience. Just an afterthought.

The apostles wrote much of the New Testament, but there were some who were not apostles. Where were the ones who wrote in the New Testament who were not apostles? Jude. Jude was one. And who else? Pardon? Well, Matthew was an apostle. Did you know who was one of the apostles?

Dr. Luke. Dr. Luke wrote over a quarter of the New Testament between the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, which is really kind of part one and part two. And he was a Gentile medical doctor, quite possibly, not certainly, from Philippi. One of the reasons why I say from Philippi is because in the book of Acts when you get to Philippi, he uses local names, local linko, and then all of a sudden he disappears for a while. It's like he hung around. You know, it's kind of like it's old home week for him. And he hung around while others took off. It seems like he stayed there. So anyway, just some clues. Who else? Pardon? How about James? James was not an apostle, right? He was a prominent elder in the church at Jerusalem, but not an apostle. There was also more than one James who was an apostle, but not the one who wrote this book.

Mark. Now, one of the things you'll find with these people who are not apostles. They were either brothers of Jesus, Jude and James, or they were associated with an apostle. Mark was associated first with Paul, but ultimately with Peter, and so there was an association there. Luke was associated with Paul. So there is, for each one of these guys who wrote scripture but were not apostles, they had a position of an apostolic sponsor, if you will. An apostle who was alongside them as they wrote, so to speak.

You know, with Timothy it's interesting, he never actually independently wrote, although as we're going to see this morning in 2 Corinthians, he is credited as a co-author, I think probably the most likely way of putting it is that he was probably a scribe, writing as was dictated to him, and so Paul several times Lord, as we look at these things, we pray that you would give us understanding and insight as we study through your Word, as we read the books that are written, that as we have light-bulb moments, we would understand that the apostles were having light-bulb moments too. And that you over time progressively reveal through these men and those who Worked alongside them. Every truth that you intended for us to have. We thank you for that. We thank you for your faithfulness. We pray in Jesus' name.