Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00001A
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00:23 Welcome to Books of the Book. I'm so excited that you've
00:26 joined us for a study in the book of Acts. My name is 00:29 Mark Howard. I'm a pastor in the Michigan Conference of 00:32 Seventh-day Adventists. I live there in Gilbus, Michigan with 00:34 my wonderful and beautiful wife Stephanie and my two children 00:38 Caleb and Analise. My co-host is actually somebody very close to 00:41 me. That's right. That is my brother Jim. 00:46 Yes. My name is Jim Howard and I also am a pastor in the 00:49 Michigan Conference. I pastor a church in Plymouth, Michigan, 00:53 the Metropolitan Seventh-day Adventist church as well as a 00:56 church in South Lyon, Michigan. We're excited about this 00:59 particular study, aren't we? Absolutely. 01:01 Now before we dive into what we want to talk about today, we 01:05 want to start a precedent here in our program and ask the Lord 01:08 to especially bless the time that we spend with you. So let's 01:12 bow our heads together as we start with prayer. 01:16 Father in heaven, we're so grateful for this opportunity we 01:20 have to study your word. We understand that the word is 01:24 living and powerful and so we pray that you would bring it 01:28 alive to us and help us to understand from the word exactly 01:32 what you would have us to know, for we ask it in Jesus' name 01:35 Amen. Amen. Now today we begin our study in 01:40 the book of Acts and because there is so much to understand 01:45 leading into the book of Acts, today's program will actually be 01:49 an introduction to the book. Now the book of Acts was written by 01:53 Luke, the beloved physician, and this would be the sequel 01:58 actually to the gospel of Luke in which Luke writes a narrative 02:03 of the life and ministry and ultimately crucifixion and 02:08 resurrection of Jesus. So the book of Acts is the sequel, the 02:12 second book that he writes to a friend, Theophilus and it's 02:16 important to note that Luke has some counterparts. There's 02:20 Matthew, there's Mark, there's John. So there are four 02:23 different narratives to speak about the life and ministry of 02:27 Jesus. But the book of Acts is the only book that really gives 02:31 us a clear narrative of the beginnings of the early church 02:35 and because of that it's a very special book. 02:38 That's right. It's the only real history we have of the early 02:42 church. We have a history of Christ and his ministry but Acts 02:46 gives us the history of the early church. There's a real 02:49 benefit in that too and that benefit is that it provides us 02:54 a practical application of the theology that we find throughout 02:59 the New Testament scriptures. I mean, for example we have much 03:03 of the New Testament is a theological exposition in the 03:07 letters of Paul and the letters of Peter and what have you. 03:12 But when we come to the book of Acts we actually have a 03:16 practical application of that theology. So when you look 03:20 through the rest of the New Testament you have Romans and 03:24 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians; a lot of 03:27 letters written to churches that give instruction, give 03:30 theological expositions and yet in most of that you don't have 03:34 an actual narrative of what was going on in the early church but 03:38 we have that in the book of Acts. 03:40 That's right. We have some histories in the letters of Paul 03:42 and that sort of thing, but in the book of Acts we have a 03:44 picture, a practical application we have those letters and those 03:50 teachings in action so we get to see that when we apply the 03:54 counsel of Paul to the Corinthians or to the Romans 03:57 or to the Galatians, we get to see what it looks like in real 04:02 life in the book of Acts. And the benefit of that, Jim, is 04:07 that we have a... Let's take for instance here. When you talk 04:11 about the spiritual gifts and I'll pick on the gift of tongues 04:15 this is something that our viewers may be aware that there 04:18 are a number of different view points on the gift of tongues 04:23 that vary. What is the right view point? Well the book of 04:29 Acts gives us a picture of what that gift looked like whereas 04:33 for example if I'm reading in 1 Corinthians 14 when Paul is 04:37 explaining the gift of tongues, I don't get a picture of what it 04:42 looked like in action. But when I go to Acts chapter 2 and I see 04:45 the Holy Spirit poured out on the early church and I see them 04:49 speaking with tongues I actually get a picture of what it looked 04:53 like and now I can get a clear understanding of the theology 04:57 of the New Testament by looking at how it is played out in the 05:01 New Testament church. Excellent point. You know it's a 05:05 similar situation to another key doctrine for Seventh-day 05:09 Adventists and that's the doctrine of the Sabbath. 05:12 That's correct. And I would say that as we look 05:15 at the book of Acts we have a strong affirmation there 05:19 wouldn't you say, for the Sabbath? 05:21 Absolutely. Because again there are different viewpoints on how 05:25 important the seventh-day Sabbath is today, but when you 05:29 go to the book of Acts, you find a consistent practice, custom, 05:33 is a word that's used often and we find it in the history of the 05:37 life of Jesus as well. But for some the transition point of 05:41 the Sabbath, when the Sabbath became unimportant in the minds 05:45 of some is after the ascension of Christ. But when we come into 05:49 the book of Acts after the ascension of Christ we see a 05:53 consistent practice in the early church of worshiping and 05:56 observing the Sabbath day. Some places where we find synagogues 06:00 and some places where we don't and I bring that up because 06:03 sometimes people say well we find that practice because that 06:07 is what the Jews did and so the early church followed that 06:11 custom to reach the Jews. But we also find, for example, in 06:14 Acts 16, which we're going to come to later in our study, that 06:17 in a place where there wasn't a synagogue, in a place there 06:21 wasn't even a church yet of the Christian church, the people 06:25 customarily met on the Sabbath day by the river side. And so we 06:30 see in the practice of the early church the establishment of the 06:35 Sabbath as we've seen throughout scripture. 06:37 That's right. So this narrative is going to help us, it's going 06:40 give us pictures of the theology of the rest of the New Testament 06:43 in a very practical way. Very good. Now as we get ready to 06:48 dive into the book of Acts it's important for us to think about 06:52 the setting. Remember that Acts is the second part of Luke's 06:55 writings. So we have the book of Luke, then we have the book 07:00 of Acts. Unfortunately we don't have time to do both the book of 07:04 Luke and the book of Acts together in one whole. But it 07:07 would make sense since we can't do that that we at least go to 07:11 the end of the book of Luke and see where it leaves off and what 07:16 really is the impetus for the book of Acts. What are the 07:19 driving motivators for what the apostles are about to do in the 07:23 book of Acts and we find at least two but we're going to 07:26 talk today about two driving motivating factors that existed 07:30 and that Jesus himself gave to the early church that helped to 07:33 motivate them to do all that they did in the book of Acts. 07:38 So let's go there together to Luke 24. We invite you at home, 07:42 if you have your Bibles, to open them up to Luke 24 and as we 07:46 go through these programs we just really encourage you to 07:50 follow along in your own Bibles at home. Now in Luke chapter 24 07:55 in verse 44 we find the very end of the book of Luke some 08:00 powerful words by the Lord Jesus to the apostles, to the 08:04 disciples. It says: Then he said to them, These are the words 08:09 which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things 08:14 must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and 08:18 the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. So this is a 08:23 powerful statement being made by the Lord Jesus. He says these 08:26 are things I spoke to you. When I was with you I told you all 08:30 of this. Now, of course, this is after the resurrection, after he 08:33 has appeared to the disciples. So he is saying when I was still 08:36 with you, perhaps he's intending to say when I was walking, you 08:39 know, before my crucifixion I told you about these things. 08:42 Now he's reminding them of them but I think opening their minds 08:46 even more than they ever had been to these things. He says 08:49 that all things must be fulfilled which were written in 08:53 the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms 08:55 concerning me. Now when Jesus was going through his earthly 08:58 ministry he at times told the disciples about how he had to be 09:02 turned over to the chief priests et cetera and given into the 09:06 hands of sinful men and be crucified and raised from the 09:10 dead on the third day. And he said that more than one time to 09:13 them, but they, for whatever reason, were not quite ready to 09:17 receive that. That did not register with them and they 09:20 still were looking for an earthly king to conquer the 09:24 Romans and that's what they saw as a savior. But here we see 09:28 that they're in a better place. Now the crucifixion has happened 09:32 they've gone through their discouragement, the resurrection 09:36 has happened and now they're able to really look at how the 09:40 Bible, the scriptures, the law of Moses, the prophets, the 09:44 Psalms, all pointed to the things that happened to Jesus. 09:48 That's right. If I might interject here we read that he 09:51 opened their understanding and you're talking here about the 09:55 prominence that the scripture has. It's interesting that, you 09:59 know, there are some people today who have an understanding 10:04 that the Bible is outdated, it is not relevant and we have to 10:10 adapt the Bible to meet our current culture or current 10:14 situation. But it's interesting in this passage that the Bible 10:17 wasn't adapted but the disciples were adapted. In other words, 10:21 the Bible wasn't made to fit them, they were made to fit the 10:25 scripture. The scripture can't be broken in the words of Jesus, 10:29 right? And so it says he opened their understanding that they 10:33 might comprehend the scriptures and the implication there is 10:36 that the scriptures are the word of truth and when we don't 10:39 see light in them, it's not because there's a problem in the 10:42 scripture but with our understanding. 10:44 Wow! He was opening their minds to the fact that the scripture 10:48 was their authority and they needed to be submitted to that 10:51 ultimate authority when it came to understanding. Well that's 10:55 fascinating. In verse 45 let's look at that. It says, he opened 10:58 their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. 11:02 I wish there was more here. I wish we could see the Bible 11:05 study that Jesus gave to his disciples right here because I 11:10 believe that this is where he built the foundation of their 11:14 He gave them the evidence for his messiahship through the 11:19 crucifixion, the resurrection, all the multitude of messianic 11:22 prophecies in the Old Testament. There are some 300 prophecies 11:26 pointing to the Messiah and I'm sure he walked through those 11:29 major prophecies that pointed to his death and resurrection. 11:32 And the reason we can know this is that when we do go through 11:35 the book of Acts we find that they refer to those same 11:40 scriptures. Yeah, repeatedly. 11:41 And they give them as evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. So 11:44 this was really the meeting before the meeting, as it were. 11:48 It was that opportunity for Jesus to open their minds and 11:51 give them clarity of thought and understanding so that they could 11:54 then be able to do what they end up doing in the book of Acts in 11:58 their wonderful ministry. So if we look a little bit further, it 12:02 says, Then he said to them, Thus it is written and thus it was 12:06 necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead 12:09 the third day. That's fascinating. It says thus it is 12:13 written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to 12:17 suffer. It's as if he's saying the reason the Christ had to 12:21 suffer is, yes because we needed salvation, but in the context 12:25 he's saying the reason the Christ had to suffer was 12:27 because it is written that the Christ had to suffer. Isaiah 53 12:31 very clearly expressed that the Christ would have to suffer. 12:35 So in everything I sense something very strong here that 12:39 the Lord Jesus is doing in preparation for the ministry of 12:43 the early church in the book of Acts. He is pointing to the 12:47 scripture rather than pointing to the supernatural works that 12:51 he did when he walked this earth. He could have at this 12:55 moment really emphasized the fact that he was all powerful by 13:00 working some miracle of levitation or whatever it might 13:03 be, doing something that could not possibly be done and say 13:06 I am the Messiah. But he did not want them to base their faith on 13:10 miracles, and as we'll find out in the book of Acts, because the 13:15 devil can work miracles. Yeah, he can be deceiving. So what 13:19 Jesus was doing here was pointing them to the scripture 13:23 and helping them to see that you need a clear evidence for your 13:28 faith and not even me and all my power and glory do I want you to 13:32 put your confidence in apart from the scriptures and what the 13:36 scriptures teach. So he built that foundation and that was 13:41 the very first motivating factor for the book of Acts and what 13:46 we see in the book of Acts that Jesus gave was this 13:49 foundation of the primacy of the word of God. Well we need to 13:53 dive into a little bit more of that but before we do we need to 13:57 take a break. So join us back in a few minutes and we'll continue 14:01 our study in the book of Acts. |
Revised 2014-12-17