Acts Reflections. What was that?

Good morning. We are going to be taking a look at the verses Jim read for us, and actually with that as more of a theme rather than stepping our way. No, we are not beginning the Book of Acts all over again. And no, we're not going to cover the entire Book of Acts this morning.

You'll be glad to know that. I will, however, want to make a few comments about something a little bit more time relevant for us. and that we just had Black Friday. And just a few things to remind you of that Black Friday where they say door busters, they don't really want you to bust the doors. They really don't want you to do that at all. That's just euphemism. Another thing, some people might think, most of all, I'm thankful for the great place we have in line celebrating Thanksgiving just in order to be able to celebrate Black Friday.

But I also want to remind you about the most important Black Friday that ever was. Yes, the most important Black Friday that ever was. Only one Black Friday offers eternal savings. Only one, and it's the one where Christ was on the cross and the day turned indeed very black. But it was the best Black Friday ever and will never, ever be topped.

Now, let's step into our Acts passage here. Central to the passage that Jim just read for us, it says, but you'll receive power. This is Jesus speaking to the eleven. there on the backside of the Mount of Olives, but you will 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. One of the things to look at here is where he said that they were going to be witnesses.

Now there might be a few different surprises here with regards to the apostles. One, do you realize that the apostles were apostles before they were apostles? Yes. They were apostles prior to the time when they were apostles of the church. Matthew 10, 2-5 says, now the names of the twelve apostles, and so here's this word, and that word apostles means special messengers, and the names are these, and it begins to list then the original twelve appointed and selected apostles, beginning with the first is Simon, who is called Peter, who is also called Cephas, and Andrew his brother, and it goes on to list all of them on down to Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Christ. So the apostles had been apostles before, and this was actually a couple of years plus before the day of Pentecost when they were apostles to the church. So then in Matthew 10, 5 through 7, these twelve Jesus sent out, and that's the verb form for apostle.

He sent them out as special messengers after instructing them, do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So their first special messenger apostolic assignment was go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Do not go to Samaria and do not go to the ends of the earth. Don't go to those other places, but go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

In Luke 10.1, where it lists the 70, and the 70 was very likely where Matthias, the one who replaced Judas, was selected, and it says in Luke 10.1, now after this the Lord appointed 70 others Matthias very likely being among them, and sent them the exact same word, the verb form of apostle, in pairs ahead of him in every city and place where he himself was going to come. Where he himself was going to come, Matthew 15, 24, where he said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then when we get to Acts chapter 1, right after the passage that Jim just read for us, Acts chapter 1 lists the twelve apostles. This is again the word for special messengers, including the newly appointed Matthias, the one who replaced Judas. gathered there in Jerusalem, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, and they were praying continuously, it said. And as they gathered, it was not only the apostles, soon to be the apostles of the church, also gathered with them were the women and Mary, Jesus' mother, and all four of Jesus' brothers, including ones you will recognize, James and Jude, the authors of the New Testament books by those names.

What is astounding is John 7.5 tells us that Jesus' brothers, all four of them, hated Jesus and did not believe.

It was as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15.7 when James saw the Lord Jesus resurrected. He and all the others were radically changed that day from ones who hated their brother and wanted him dead to ones who believed and were eternally saved.

So you have the listing there in Acts 1, actually the last listing of the twelve apostles. So can you imagine, just put yourself in the position of witnessing and being there on that day, even if you can, put yourself in the apostles' shoes. On the day of Pentecost, it had been less than two months. For us, this is like the beginning of October, that period of time from where we are now. Less than two months since the disciples who have now been turned into church-age apostles had seen Jesus crucified, buried, and resurrected.

And did they understand all of what was happening? Not even close. They were completely baffled by everything that was happening, and even horrified. at all that took place, especially with Jesus' crucifixion, and the resurrection, they just could hardly believe it. In some cases, you'd say they didn't believe it.

It had been less than two months since Peter had been there in the courtyard of the high priest and sworn, I do not know him. The disciples had hidden themselves behind locked doors. for fear of all the others that were out there, the Jews. Only two months, not even two months earlier, had this taken place. What is astounding, amazing, can you imagine this revolution in your head?

The day of Pentecost, the apostles openly proclaim themselves as witnesses. These people who were horrified by Christ's crucifixion, these people who hid themselves behind closed doors, and we have to add to that Thomas, who even with ten other disciples telling him, we've seen Christ crucified, he says, nah! I'm not believing a bit of it. Not until I see it and touch it for myself. Otherwise, you guys are full of it.

They now become witnesses of these very things that they themselves didn't believe less than two months earlier, much less understand. What they knew that day, however, and what they came to know in the days and weeks and months and years and decades to follow were two very different things. These are the discoveries that they've shared with us in the form of the New Testament. Amazing and astounding things. Quick example, the Apostle Paul, when he wrote Romans, as we're going to look at later, only three years before he got to Rome, did not reflect the things that he learned and wrote about when he got to Rome just three years later.

As believers have looked at the book of Acts, many have even taught and had great misunderstandings about the book of Acts itself. Oh, here are all these people, they're speaking in tongues, and we've got to do that too. Or, you know, see the apostles, they went and healed people, we've got to do that too. And by the way, we've got people who call themselves apostles, right? So we have all sorts of people who misunderstand that.

They misunderstand the distinction and the great difference between Christ and the church. which the Bible makes very clear, but many, almost intentionally it seems, misunderstand those important distinctions. For us, however, it is God's intent that we come to understand some very important but basic truths about the book of Acts, including that it is a huge transition.

Things about Christ and what Christ intended to do. Do you know that all the things that Jesus said in the Gospels, and He said many things, I mean, people even have red-letter Bibles. Even some will say, oh, I only read the red-letter part, because that's what Jesus said. Most of what He said was intended for Jews in the land of Israel before the end of the law. So what Jesus said isn't necessarily directly aimed at you and me. It doesn't mean there aren't things to learn. There's very much to learn.

But what would Jesus do is not a very good question to ask. The distinctions between the church and Israel become crystal clear as we go through the book of Acts. And we see Paul approaches the Jews, but the message that he gives them, they don't want to hear in great part. You have on page two a chart, and we're not going to go through all of it, although I could invite you to do so on your own time.

There's a lot to absorb there, and we're not going to try to address it all. But we will take a look at some things. We want to see that the book of Acts is a time of huge transitions. And some of those will point out, you'll see the timelines that we say 20 to 68 AD.

And one of the things we see happen in the middle of that is the beginning of the stewardship principles of law and grace. The principle of law is effective through the Gospels and ended by Christ's death on the cross. and the implementation of it there on the day of Pentecost. Christ died on the cross not just to die for your sins and mine, as important and absolutely essential as that is, but Christ died on the cross also to put an end to the law for you and for me. The beginning then of the principle of grace This is why the Apostle Paul could write to the church at Rome and say, chapter 6, verses 14 and 15, twice, you're not under law, you're under grace, you're not under law, you're under grace, right? And he continues in the book of Romans and Galatians and on and on to spell out all the different ways using different language of the ways we're not under law, we're under grace.

Also find in here a great distinction from the Gospels on into the book of Acts, continuing message of the gospel of the kingdom. What is the gospel of the kingdom? It is not the same as the gospel of Christ died for your sins was buried and rose again. That we call the gospel of substitution. Christ died in my place. The gospel of the kingdom is spelled out from Genesis all the way into Revelation. The gospel of substitution, Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again, is also from Genesis to Revelation.

But the distinction between those two is often overlooked. We don't want to do that. So also what we see in here and we'll look at next is a progression of identification through teaching. Here you'll see in the next slide, and this is again part of that chart that's shown on page 2, what we find is the first in sequence, time-wise, that the Apostle Paul wrote was Galatians.

He wrote 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and then Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, all before he made the journey to Jerusalem. We mentioned that Romans was written about three years before Paul began to write Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians from Rome. And so one of the things we find is starting with the book of Galatians and earlier on in those books before the Apostle Paul went to Jerusalem, we find in there our identification The believer's identification with Christ in His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, those things are taught. Even in the book of Romans, what do you find?

Chapter 6, the first ten verses were taught about identification, even baptism into Christ. Identification with Christ, baptism into Christ, so that we are identified with His death, His burial, and His resurrection. Those things are taught, but three years later, Paul begins to write about something that we had not heard about before. Your identification with His ascension and seeding, your heavenly citizenship is then taught. Those things are taught anew once Paul gets to Rome, and we see them in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and even 1 Peter begins to say, some of those truths. We're dead to sin and alive to righteousness. So one of the things we see is the earlier letters of Paul before he gets to Rome. They talk about, we've been crucified and buried and raised with Christ, and those things are taught. And then, in the letters written from Rome, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, we finally see in those that the believer is in Christ, also in the ascension and seeding.

Those things are taught anew. Can you imagine? Put yourself in the place of the apostles learning these things. Paul writes this phenomenal book of Romans, but the believer is still here. He writes Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. And look where our citizenship lies. Look where we are seated. There in the heavenlies with Christ. Can you imagine the aha moments that the apostles had? Wow! I never knew that. They were learning all the way along. They were catching up with things over time, they were actually true from the very beginning. So one of the questions we could ask, what happened to all these apostles?

You see, one of the things that happens is we look at the New Testament and we easily pick up, here's the Apostle Paul, he is the apostle to who? We'll say, well, he's to the Gentiles. And what does he do? He goes into the Gentile lands. And who does he see first? He goes first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, even in the Gentile lands. And we often think, well, OK, well, that's the way it stayed. And all the rest of the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. But actually, there's a surprise there. What happened to the apostles?

So that's a question we want to explore. We know what happened to Judas, Matthew 27, 3-10 spells that out. He betrayed our Lord and he didn't repent in a way, he had remorse to the point where he took his own life. To James, the brother of John, so here we have James and John as somewhat bookends. Here they are brothers. James is the first one of the apostles to die, a martyr's death, and the only one whose death is actually recorded in scripture.

In John 21, 18 and 19, our Lord says of Peter's death, But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now by this, he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. So Peter's death is spoken about ahead of time, but not the fulfillment of it. And we'll talk about that shortly. There is, however, a big surprise in Acts in the New Testament.

We think of the apostle Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. Was he the only one that went to the Gentiles? The answer is no. As a matter of fact, what we'll discover as we look at it, James, the one we just spoke of here, John's brother, is the only apostle to die in Israel. All the rest of them, for every record we have, died elsewhere and often way, way far away from Israel and all in Gentile lands. Notice that Jesus said to the eleven, okay, you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.

Now one of the things to realize is the records we have vary in their reliability. We do have some record of every single one of the Apostles, and in some cases the record is conflicted and a bit hard to tell what exactly is the case. In other instances we have very good records, very good confirmation as to what actually happened. So we'll step through each one. The first one was with Peter.

While there is the claim that, particularly among Catholics, that here's Peter who went to Rome and was a bishop in Rome for 25 years, and actually there's no historical record to support that, not even the Bible supports it. There's no record in the Bible that says he went to Rome and was bishop for 25 years.

We have a written account that it says he was crucified there, although some dispute that. upside down under Nero, which would explain why he would be stretched out. And the account goes that he did not wish to be crucified as the Lord had been crucified, so he requested to be crucified upside down, with which they complied. The Apostle Paul is thought by many scholars to have gone to Spain. He expressed in Romans 15 that he desired to do so.

The accounts that we have outside of scripture have his life ending in Rome, when we have them, beheaded about the same time as Peter. This Mamertine prison is where it's possible even some of you have been there or at very least heard of it, is a place that would have been Paul's last prison home, the last place that he was before he died.

What you see is the entrance there marked in the ceiling. They had a hole in the ceiling. They just dropped people down in because they were going to be crucified anyway. They didn't worry about whether that drop ended up with them healthy and well or not because they're going to be crucified or otherwise killed soon. And so this was a terminal prison. This is the last place you're going to go. This is where it is believed that the Apostle Paul was last imprisoned before he was beheaded.

We have Andrew, who is Peter's brother. Traditions have Andrew traveling to spread the gospel in Scythia and in Asia Minor, which we have as the west end of Turkey now. This is in the area of Ephesus and Pergamum and, you know, Smyrna and those places. and finally to Greece, where he is reported to have been crucified. Another one crucified. So this is Andrew, Peter's brother.

We have Thomas the Doubter. Yes, Thomas the Doubter. Rather amazing. Thomas the Doubter, who did not believe the other ten disciples. When they said, we have seen the Lord, and he said, nah. Did Thomas end up believing? I mean, really believing? I think the answer is clearly yes. Thomas' doubts did come to an end.

He is reported to have preached the gospel and taught in the area east of Syria. And one of the things that you're going to see, I've got several maps that showed this Parthian Empire, right in the middle of the map. That was the empire that's unnamed in the New Testament, but it was immediately to the east. It was the empire immediately to the east of the Roman Empire. Why? And you're going to find several of the apostles went there to the Parthian Empire. Here is a very good reason why they would do that.

Where was the largest congregation of Jews? Oh no, you don't need that. Okay, where was the largest congregation of Jews? outside of Israel, all in one place, who spoke the same Aramaic language that was spoken as the common language in Israel. And that is, in what was old Babylon and Persia, they spoke Aramaic, and the apostles already knew that. They could go there without having to learn any languages, without having to adjust any cultures.

So several of them went to Parthia, and Thomas immediately went there, and then went to the Madras area on the east coast of India. I talked some years ago to a guy by the name of Dr. Fox, who had been a missionary to that area of India. And he says, yes, the people over in that area who are Christians talk about how Thomas brought the gospel to them. So it's confirmed not only by the written accounts that we have that are ancient, but by the people who live there now. They all say, yep, Thomas was the one who brought the gospel here. Can you imagine he went that far? This is the guy who didn't believe, right? Amazing. Here is Philip.

Traditions tell us that Philip was instrumental in the salvation of the wife of the Roman proconsul in the city of Hierapolis, who retaliated by having him cruelly put to death. The governor was so upset that his wife was now a Christian that he had Philip put to death. And what's been very interesting, this is Hierapolis, this is the place where the hot water came from for Laodicea, that was across the valley where they got lukewarm water. And upstream was where they had nice cold water, that's at Colossae, where the letter was written to the church at Colossae. We call it Colossians, right? It was that place where Philip converted the wife of the governor to become a believer in Christ.

Can you imagine? You're going to get to meet her someday. And the governor was very upset and he immediately sent out orders that Philip would be killed. And what's been amazing is just about six years ago, Herapolis, and you can go there and see the remains of it now, Herapolis is the place where it has been confirmed This is the Apostle Philip's tomb. It's the place. He was there, the account is true, and that's where he was buried.

Matthew, author of the gospel by his name, he's also called Levi, reportedly preached the gospel in Parthia. This is the Parthian Empire, the empire to the east of the Roman Empire. is said to have been killed with wooden stakes in Ethiopia. The account says that he screamed out the gospel as they were driving stakes into his body. And he died there. By the way, he didn't go there alone. Bartholomew is credited with spreading the gospel in India, Armenia, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Accounts of his death vary, but Armenia being one of the locations.

James, the son of Alphaeus. Now, one of the things we find is the most common name for women in the New Testament is Mary. About one in five women in Israel is named Mary. When it comes to the men's names, James, as we call it, is the common name. Actually, it comes originally from the Hebrew, which we call Jacob.

One of a few by that name in the New Testament, he went to Syria and is reported by Josephus to have been stoned and then clubbed to death. If a stoning was not successful, they would just take a club and finish people off. That happened to James, and also James, Jesus' half-brother.

Simon the Zealot, this is the one who was socio-politically active in favor of the Jews. He's Simon the Zealot, said to have been killed in Parthia again. Here's another one who goes to Parthia, but he was killed there, not just went there, for refusing to sacrifice to the Parthian sun god.

He proclaimed the gospel, but gave his life for refusing to compromise. Here is Matthias, not mentioned either before or after his selection in Acts. He's said to have gone with Andrew and also with Matthew to Ethiopia But rather than being killed with stakes, he was burned to death. He gave his life as a testimony.

Here is John, the Apostle John, as far as we know, the only apostle to have died a natural death. Even that seems to have been by a miracle. Accounts outside the Bible say that he reportedly survived boiling in oil, so therefore was exiled to Patmos.

Tradition says that he cared for Jesus' mother Mary, which of course has some biblical basis. He's last mentioned in the New Testament there in Acts 1 and of course in the following sections where he's with Peter shortly thereafter. This by tradition is the home of John and Mary in Ephesus. It is rather doubtful that it was ever the home of Mary, but so that's a tradition. It may have been the home of John who did live in Ephesus for something like the last two decades of his life with the exception of the time he spent in Patmos. John is said to have spent his last years in Ephesus, except for a time of exile on the island of Patmos under the reign of Emperor Domitian.

There are actually a few other traditions about John we won't have time to go into. But one of those was it said when John was elderly, they would have him come to speak to the churches. And what they would do is they would help him up from sitting in the back. They'd bring him up front. And he would say, love one another, and then they would help him sit down.

John, his life ended in about 96 AD and died, from every record, a natural death. This is the view from the cave, which is traditionally where John was exiled on the Isle of Patmos, and may very well be the actual cave where the Book of Revelation was written. We have one other question here, however.

Did the apostles take the gospel to China? Bible story depictions have been found on Eastern Han Dynasty tombstones in China, dating actually very precisely to 86 AD and actually sometime afterwards, according to China's Professor Wang Weifeng. and more than a half dozen different engravings of different Bible stories, including New Testament stories. And this one may be a little hard to decipher, but it actually gives the nativity. What we're about to celebrate here is Christ's birth. It gives the nativity on a Chinese tombstone. And there have been over a dozen such tombstones exactly from that era. There's also been a pot discovered from that area and from that era that shows two fish and five loaves.

I wonder where that story came from, right? So, it's, from any record we have, not clear at all that any of the apostles went to China, although that's possible, we just don't have record of it. But somebody immediately following the apostles while John was still alive ten years before John died they brought the gospel to China enough so that people knew Bible stories and recorded it on things all the way from things in the Old Testament from the Garden of Eden in the fall on into the New Testament including the Nativity well so this is what has happened to the Apostles Question, did the apostles cheat?

Did they have special advantages that you and I don't have? What do you think? Do we look at them and say, yeah, but they're an apostle. I mean, they had all kinds of special privileges. They could go and do miracles. They saw Jesus. I mean, they had a special, special situation. And I don't have that. Well, let's ask some questions.

Can you have absolute assurance that you're saved eternally just like the apostles? Yes, absolutely. Are the apostles identified with Christ in a way that you and I are not? No. Your identification with Christ and his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding is exactly the same as the apostles. They had nothing over us on that. Can you walk in fellowship with Christ? Can you walk in the Spirit? Can you behold Christ? Can you depend upon Him just like the apostles did?

Absolutely. Can you run into the throne room of heaven and run into the lap of the Father, Papa? Abba, as Romans and Galatians says, just like the Apostles did, and just like Paul the Apostle wrote, yes you can. By Christ you have privileged access into the throne room of heaven. And the Apostles had nothing over what you have. Yes, you. Do you have God's undivided attention, just like the Apostle? Do you know you have God's undivided attention all the time?

He's got all the time. He doesn't look down at his watch and say, you know, I'll give you two minutes. You know, you got to get it out, spit it out, because I got to move on. He's not doing that. You have God's undivided attention because He is infinite. You have that privilege. And he's not distracted, and he's not worried about the next person he has to move along to. You have his undivided attention, just like the apostles did.

You were chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world, just like the apostles, right? You are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Was there any different from the apostles? No. He chose us, you and me, in Him, right along with the apostles, from the foundation of the world. Before He said, let there be light, He chose you and me.

Will you be taken up with Christ in the twinkling of an eye when the Father tells the Son, go get your bride, just like the apostles? Yes. When the moment of the rapture occurs, that You and me and the apostles will all be within that twinkling of an eye, face to face with the Lord. They get no front seat to the rapture, right? You and I will be right there with them. Will you have a special name that only you and Christ will know, just like the apostles?

Yes. Yes, you and me. Isn't that wonderful? The apostles don't have it over on us. Were they given special privilege? Yes. Were they given huge responsibility and honor? Were they entrusted with much? Yes. Paul wrote about the unfathomable riches of Christ that he was entrusted to convey. But there are so many things that you and I have just the same as the apostles, and they're wonderful. They're marvelous things. Now, a few final words here.

It is rather strange for me to ponder that a week from tonight we're going to have a party and we're going to celebrate Jesus coming and Nancy and I going. Right? So that's a little strange. But anyway, I guess it's okay. Nancy and I have most recently had this house that we're moving out of and it is rather strange because a lot of things are missing, you know, and actually we've got more things that need to be missing because we're moving into a very small place. It's 1,100 square feet and it's already partly furnished. So we have to get rid of a lot of stuff. And so that's been, you know, a lot of effort into that. It's funny, you know, accumulating things seems to be most people's occupation.

For us in recent weeks, it's been the opposite. So one of the things that it has been for us is kind of a living in two places. We're kind of living here, meanwhile getting ready to live there. And it's been kind of a different mindset for both of us to adjust to. But when you think about it, all of us are called to live in two places.

There's a living here, but a living from there with the Lord, there where we're seated. There where we have our citizenship. There where we are with Him. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, as we live here, for whatever time you have for us, You call us to live from there. There we're seated with you. There where we have our citizenship with you.

And Lord, we just would pray as we look at the lives of the apostles that we would learn from them, certainly for what they've revealed, but also for what they lived. And also as they've revealed the marvelous place and position and position, excuse me, possession and privilege. that we have because we, like them, are in Christ, saints in you. We thank you for those awesome and marvelous and wonderful things that it takes us a lifetime to begin to catch up with, but it'll take forever for us to be learning all about because you're going to be showing us the unfathomable riches of your grace, on into eternity and the rolling ages to come. We give you thanks, Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, Amen.