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You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller. It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk. Now, here's Pastor Miller.

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Good to see you. Maybe seated and a buckle up because we got a fly tonight. We are in a series of Flight 66. If you're new to our church, we're going through the Bible from cruising altitude. And we've been, we started in the book of Genesis. We've been trying to go about a book a week and flying through the Bible. And we are sitting by the window and we're looking out over the beauty of God's word at a cruising altitude. I love to study the Bible like we're doing on Sundays, verse by verse, going through a book like 1 and 2 Peter. I love doing that. Since I've been here in our church, we've been through the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. We've been through the book of Ecclesiastes. We actually went through the book of Acts 91 weeks through the book of Acts. And I'm going to try to do it in about 35, 40 minutes. And I and I thought, man, you guys already got it down. You paid attention to everything I taught the last time. But I love to get down into the weeds and go through the word. I mean, there's times I've preached an entire message on one word. The Bible is that rich. But every so often I love to just pull the controls up and get way above it and just look at the grand landscape of the Bible and to see the whole Bible unfold in its glory and majesty. The Bible is one book in 66 books. And tonight we're going to look at the book of Acts. Are you ready? I think that the book of Acts has been wrongly labeled in many Bibles. It says the Acts of the Apostles. I think it should be the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles and through the Church. Because the Holy Spirit is still working today, and that he is still acting today. But this is a tremendous book. And I don't want to get bogged down into too much of it at the very beginning, so I'm going to jump right into a couple things from chapter one, and I want you to see it because I think the theme is set for us. In chapter one, we see the former treaties have I made O Theophilus. Now, where did we hear that name before? In the Gospel of Luke. Luke was writing to a man by the name of Theophilus, and he was making a case of all of the experiences that he'd had with Jesus and laying out all of his account of the gospel that he had researched it out. And I believe that Luke did all of that research while Paul was in prison at Caesarea. He interviewed people who perhaps had been healed by Christ. And Luke began to build out an understanding. And of course, then we all know that Luke didn't just come up with it on his own. The word of God was given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So he was moved by the Holy Ghost to write the Gospel of Luke. But now he's writing the book of Acts. And who was Luke? Luke was a Gentile. In fact, he's the only Gentile writer in the New Testament. And he's writing as a Gentile. Luke was a doctor by trade. And Luke was a man who joined up with the Apostle Paul around Acts chapter 16. And you'll notice as you read through the book of Acts, you'll see all the way through the book of Acts, the writer is saying, and they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then all of a sudden in Acts chapter 16, he said, and then we, and then we, and then we, he had joined the team, and he was with Paul. And we know this, that when Paul went to prison, finally, for the final time in Rome, and was about to be executed, and he wrote the book of 2 Timothy, he said, Everybody forsook me. Only Luke is with me. And I believe that Luke was an answer to prayer that Paul prayed. Three times he said, Lord, I've got a physical thorn in my body, in my flesh. Would you remove it from me? And the Lord said, No. Three times he prayed for that. And then the Lord finally said, Paul, I've given you this thorn because in your weakness then I'm strong. And you've been given so much revelation that you would be puffed up. If I didn't humble you. But in your weakness I will be made strong. And my grace is sufficient. And part of the answer of God's grace in Paul's life was a doctor who took care of him. And I love the fact that Luke, as an answer of God's grace, was with Paul all the way to the end. And God's grace goes with us all the way to the end. Amen. So he's writing to Theophilus, and notice what he says. He said, The former treatise that I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Now that's important. Because in the book of Luke, he is writing in that gospel of everything that Jesus began to do and teach. But now he's going to write about what Jesus is going to continue to do and teach through his body, the church. I wrote about what he did in his earthly body, in his human life, but now I'm going to write about the things that he's continuing to do through his body, the New Testament church. And he's writing about this in chapter one. And notice what he says in verse number four. And being assembled together with them, Jesus commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, Ye have heard of me, for John truly baptized with water, but ye should be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked Jesus, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time, now this is a critical question. At the beginning of the book of Acts, Lord, will at this time you restore the kingdom to Israel? That's a huge question. What the disciples had followed Jesus in the beginning, they had followed him because he was Messiah. They believed on him as the Messiah. They believed that he was the one. They saw the baptism. They heard the voice from heaven. This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. So these disciples were following Jesus Christ, knowing that he is to be king. And they were devastated when he was crucified. The Messiah was crucified. Maybe he wasn't the one. And by the way, even his forerunner, mentioned here, John the Baptist, who was the forerunner for Christ, who was saying, Behold, the Lamb of God was taken away to the sin of the world, there's coming one after me that I'm not worthy to lose his shoes. John was promoting and pointing to Jesus. He was the road sign, a voice crying in the wilderness, make way. And he was preparing the way for the Messiah. Even John saw how the Lord Jesus was conducting himself in his ministry and said, Is this really the one? Is this really the one, or should we look for another? So there was a lot of doubt among the disciples because here's here, and we're going to see this later in the book of Peter in our study. They were ignorant of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. They were ignorant that Jesus Christ did not come in his first coming as the magnificent Messiah who was going to reign. He came as the suffering Messiah who was to take away the sin of the world. That he had to go through suffering before his glory. So after his resurrection, now they're thinking, okay, you've come, you were humble, you died, you promised us thrones. Now that you've risen again, is this when you're going to take the throne? Is this when you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Are you going to establish that long-awaited kingdom that has been prophesied by every prophet? From Isaiah to Malachi. Are you coming to rule and reign? And of course, Jesus answered it in a very straightforward way. Verse 7. He said, It's not for you to know the times. Or the seasons. Which the Father hath put in his own power. Lord, are you going to do it now? It's not for you to know that. But what do we do? He said in verse number eight. But ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and in the uttermost part of the earth. Now, Acts 1.8 is not just a memory verse, it's really the table of content for the book of Acts. It's the outline of Acts. How the gospel goes from Jerusalem to Rome. And when it gets to Rome, it's eventually going to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. And so Paul is going to play a huge part in that. But until then, we have to go through a transition. Everything that we have taught in Flight 66, everything we have taught through the Old Testament, has all been about God's preparation and plan for Israel in the coming kingdom. Is that right? I mean, how many times do we go through the minor prophets and they're talking about God's going to restore the kingdom to Israel? God's going to restore the kingdom to Israel. God's going to restore a kingdom to Israel. God has these unconditional covenants that there are going to be a people of the Jewish people in this land. Descendants of Abraham, descendants of the Jews are going to be in this land, and there's going to be a Messiah to reign over them, and everything is pushing towards that thing. And by the way, that's going to happen. That is going to happen. But everything has been pushing to that. But here's the issue. The Jews have finally, once and for all, rejected their Messiah. And Paul's going to write about this later, but God is going to put Israel aside. He's not going to cast them away. He's going to set them aside. He's going to put them in blindness. And God is going to do a work through a mystery program that has been hidden in God from the ages before. It wasn't as a plan B. It was God's plan. And he was going to, Paul's going to write about it in Ephesians chapter 3. The mystery program that God has is the New Testament church that is going to preach the gospel to Jew and Gentile. It's going to be a whosoever will may come. And I want to tell you, it is vitally important that you understand how to rightly divide the word of truth so that you can differentiate between what God has promised to Israel and what is their conditional and unconditional covenants and what God has promised to the church. And that God has a different relationship and process and program for Israel and for the church. And when you get those things contorted, you will contort a lot of doctrines in the Bible. You'll create a lot of confusion and about salvation. This is where a lot of people get mixed up about salvation and they bring the law and the works into salvation. People get messed up about our relationship to Jesus Christ and his relationship to us and the Jews. People right now are saying that Israel is not really Israel and that they're the synagogue of Satan and that they should be completely eradicated from the earth and that we are now God's chosen people and all those things. And they've mixed these two messages that God has with Israel and God has with the church. And then we get really cattywampus on end times. Because God has a different plan for his bride than he does for his chosen nation, Israel. 100% it's in the Bible, it's in black ink on white paper. And you can read it. Now, none of us are absolute experts on all of those things, but it's very, it's very understandable that God has a different program for Israel than he does with the church. And there's going to be a very deliberate transition. A transition between God's work with Israel and the Jews and the bringing of the Messiah and to bring redemption. You have to remember this. One of the major reasons why God chose Israel was for the plan of redemption. And now that has been accomplished. And the Jews have rejected him. He came to his own, and his own received him not. So in that rejection, there is a transition as God sets Israel aside for a later date. I'll deal with you later. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is going to go throughout all the world. And I'm going to reconcile the world unto myself, Jew and Gentile. And I'm going to bring Gentiles into a covenant blessing through a Jew named Jesus. But they will not replace Israel and my promise to them as a nation. They're going to be a separate work. And so here's the issue. So many people make a ton of doctrinal error in the book of Acts because they miss the transition that God is making from the Jew and Israel to the whole world and the church. And if we miss that, you create a firestorm of confusion in the church and false doctrine and false teaching and misunderstandings about many things that come from the first seven chapters of the book of Acts. So I want to just tell you, in the first seven, in the first seven chapters, you are on Jewish ground. You're dealing with Jewish disciples in Jerusalem, and God is doing signs and wonders in Jerusalem that are signs to the Jews that Jesus Christ was in fact their Messiah. And many will believe. Now, let me explain this to you. So, in the transition of this book, you're going to go from Christ's earthly ministry to Christ's heavenly ministry through his church. You're going to move from a primarily Jewish audience to Gentile inclusion. And this is what's really difficult in the book of Acts. You have to flip your mindset because we've just been through all of these books in the Bible, and one of the things that the church is really good at is thinking Jewish. Because we studied the Old Testament, we understand the life of Abraham and Isaac and David, and we see God's dealing with the Jews. We kind of understand how God worked with his covenant people, how he led them from Egypt in the wilderness, into Canaan, the conquest of Canaan, the captivities. We've understood all that. And we we're exasperated with the Jews, but we kind of understand how to think like the Jews. But in the Romans, in the book of Acts, we have to flip from a Roman mind or a Jewish mindset to a Roman mindset. And you're going to have to think a little bit more Roman in this book because Paul was a Roman citizen. Paul thought Roman. In fact, Paul's going to be called Paul. Now I know that we as believers like to talk about how he got saved and God changed his name to Paul. And I think there's a good type of that. When we get saved, there's an old man, and I think we see that through the scripture, and there's no damage done to be able to apply that type. But you also have to understand that every Jewish boy had two names. If you go to a brisk, you go to the bar mitzvahs, you go to that, there's a name given to a young man that among the Jews he would be called, in this case, he would be called Shaul. But among the Gentiles, he would be called Paulus. So one of the things that you see is early on, he saw, because he's a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He's a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He's in Jerusalem working in agitation against the church. But then he gets saved. He gets brought into the work of God. He's still Saul for a little bit. He's with Barnabas and he's doing ministry there in the Church of Jerusalem. But then he launches out into a ministry with the Jews, and immediately his name becomes Paul. Why? He's in the Gentile world. And he is the apostle to the Gentiles. And he's known as now Paul because that's a Gentile name. So you're going to see the transition from Jewish audience to Gentile. You're going to see the transition from Jerusalem to all nations, mainly headquartered in Antioch. You're going to see the transition from Peter being the primary man to Paul being the primary man. You're going to see the Bible transition from an Israel-centered ministry to a worldwide church ministry. And because Acts records this period of transition, it has to be carefully studied so that you do not assume that everything that happened historically in Acts is automatically prescribed as a normal pattern for everything in the church age. So let's just take, for instance, okay, so we're in chapter 1. In chapter 1, they're looking for the kingdom. Now remember, Jesus had promised 12 thrones to the apostles to reign in that Jewish kingdom. Twelve tribes, 12 apostles to reign in the kingdom of the Messiah over the Jewish people. And now one of the apostles is dead. Judas hung himself. So one of the things that you see in the book of Acts, chapter 1, right away, is you see them have to say, they go to the book of Psalms, and we have to take over his office. We need to elect another apostle to take that position because remember, they're in a kingdom mindset. Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? It's not for you to know that. You just go to Jerusalem and you wait until you get in due with power. So that's what they did. So in the meantime, what do they do when they get to Jerusalem? They need to get the 12th apostle. So they have a runoff and there's a vote, and they they came up with the criteria. What was the criteria for them to make sure that somebody could be an apostle? There were really three things here. Number one, they had to be somebody who had been a part of Jesus' ministry and seen and walked with Jesus during his earthly ministry from the baptism of John. Okay. Number two, they had to be an eyewitness of his sufferings, and an eyewitness of the Lord Jesus in his resurrection. So if they were if they were qualified, that they had accompanied with Christ in his earthly ministry, had been with him in that baptism of John, had been with him in his earthly ministry, seen his suffering, and then witnessed his resurrection, they would be a candidate to be an apostle. So they came up with two men, Justice and Matthias. They cast a vote, and the vote went to Matthias, who took the place of Judas. So now they have twelve. And what are they preparing for? They're preparing for Christ to come and set up the kingdom. Right? That's what they're expecting. They asked that in Acts chapter 1, verse 6. Well, you at this time. So they have the election. Not only did they prepare for this with an election of another apostle, but they also spend time in prayer. So now they gather together with 120 of the disciples in an upper room and they're praying. They had a 10-day prayer meeting. Interesting to note that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was in that prayer meeting. And why that's an interesting thing to note is that none of those people were praying to her. She was praying with them. So that's just a point. So they're all there. They're in prayer. They're waiting obediently to the Lord's command to tarry in Jerusalem until they're in due power. Now, Acts chapter 2 is when the day of Pentecost fully came. So Penta being 50, so 50 days after the resurrection, here they are in the upper room. They're gathered together. Pentecost was an old feast that was established back in the Jewish law in the book of Exodus and Leviticus. Pentecost was a time where they took the two loaves. It was the only one of the feasts where they were allowed to mingle leaven into the loaves. These loaves were made, they were covered with oil, and they were baked in the fire, and they were waved before the Lord. Okay? It's the Old Testament picture of the Lord baptizing these loaves into one body. And the leaven, speaking of the Gentiles, Gentiles are going to be put into a body with the Jews. And you're going to see two loaves, and you're going to see in the book of Acts two baptisms of the Holy Spirit. One in Acts chapter 2 on the Jewish believers, and one in Acts chapter 10 on the Gentile believers. And the Lord baptizes both of those people into one body, the church. They are put together in the loaf. Listen, that's what we all are. We're all in the same loaf. That's why we break bread when we come to church, right? That's why we had pizza tonight. So in Acts chapter 2, they're in Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes upon them, baptizes them into one body. And understand this. Now, everybody look at Acts chapter 2 very quickly, because I want you to see this, and we're going to fly through the book. Look at Acts chapter 2. Verse number 2 Suddenly there came from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind. It filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now I want to tell you, so many people have abused this as a pattern for the New Testament church today. But I want to make some things very clear about this. Watch this very carefully. Now let's let's look at what the Scripture says. Let the Bible speak for itself. They were dwelling at Jerusalem in verse 5. They were dwelling at Jerusalem who? Jews. Devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now, when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? How hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? And then the Lord lists all the places that they were from Medes, Mesopotamia, Rome. They were from all over the world. And people who came, there were Latin speakers, Greek speakers, there were there were Arabic speakers, or whatever other nations, people were there. And they heard the glorious works of God in their own language. Now, tongues is mentioned in the book of Acts three times. Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 10, when Cornelius got saved, and Acts chapter 19. There were some disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus in Acts 19. Paul heard them preaching. He went to them and said, Hey guys, let me ask you a question. Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? Because they were preaching about the coming of Jesus, that there was one coming who was going to be Messiah. And they said, Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And they said, We've never even heard of the Holy Spirit. And he said, Under what were you baptized? They said, Unto John's baptism. Now listen, John's baptism was a baptism pointing forward to the coming Messiah. The baptism that we have now is pointing back at the Messiah who came, died, buried, crucified, rose again. So John's message was pointing forward. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets pointing towards Jesus. So these Ephesian believers in Acts 19 were still believing the message of John that there's one coming. You say, how do you know that that's what they believed? Because right before that, in Acts 18, there was a guy named Apollos who came, who was very fluent as a speaker. He was an orator. He came from Alexandria. He had heard where some of the disciples of John had preached the gospel down there and had told that there's a coming of Messiah, and the Messiah's here, and they believed, Apollos believed. And when he came to Ephesus, he had to go into Aquila and Priscilla's house, and they had to sit down and they had to say, look, you're close. But you're missing it by this much. And they taught him the way of the Lord more perfectly or more completely. It's not that he is coming. That was the message of John. You're preaching the right message. He's coming. But let me just tell you, the message is added to He's here. And he came and He died, he's buried, he rose again. And Apollos had to get the message right. He had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as one who was going to come, but had not necessarily understood the whole message completely. So when Paul confronts these men about the Holy Spirit, these were believing Jews and yet perhaps unbelieving Jews who were not completely with the message yet. And when they heard Paul's message, they received Christ, they were baptized, and they spoke in tongues. Now, three times in the book of Acts, tongues are mentioned, all three times in the book of Acts where tongues are practiced, Jews are present. You see, now why is that important? I don't have time to go through. You can write these references down. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 24, the Bible says that tongues are for a sign. I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 1 24, the Jews require a sign. 1 Corinthians 14 24, in the great tongues chapter, when Paul was explaining to the church of Corinth how they were wrong on this spiritual gift, he said, Look, guys, tongues are for a sign. Now who required a sign? The Jews. Tongues are for a and then he says, and it's not for those who believe. It's for those who don't believe. So we're not in the church trying to convince other people that we're more spiritual and that we have the Holy Spirit. We're not trying to convince believers of the Holy Spirit. We have that gift was given for unbelievers to hear the gospel. And he talked about if somebody's in the church and they're going to speak in tongues, fine. That's fine. If they're going to speak in a different language, by the way, tongues are always a natural-born language. People heard them not in some gibberish. They heard them speak in a tongue wherein they were born. So I would be speaking in English, and some way it would hear me in Russian. And the Holy Spirit would be, would be giving that to them so they could hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. In every case, you see tongues being used in the book of Acts three times. Jews are present and people are saved. Every time. Because it was a sign to the unbelievers, and it and people were being saved. Okay? Now there's been a lot of confusion about that because we were in a period of time when the Holy Spirit came as a sign that Jesus was the Messiah and that Jews, you missed your Messiah. Now the Holy Spirit, like He promised, is here. And He told you that these would be the signs following of those who believe that they would speak in other tongues. And not only that, the book of Isaiah clearly laid that out. We went through that in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah clearly talked about in Jerusalem, you're not going to believe, and you're going to hear people in foreign languages in your city telling you about your Messiah. And this is a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy to the Jews. So that's one of them. The second thing that you'll find is that later the Bible says that these people sold everything that they had, and all the believers in this time had all things common. So they sold everything they had, they brought it to the church. This is where Ananias and Sapphira got in trouble. But they sold everything that they had, they brought everything to the apostles, and the church had all things in common, so that nobody had need. And there are people who abuse that saying, hey, this is why Jesus was a socialist. Well, later, Paul's going to come along and say, hey, hey, hey, if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. Alright? Let every man work with his own hands. Not that we shouldn't be givers and faithful, but you understand, they were living in kingdom principles. These were Jewish people in Jewish ground who God was giving signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit, that they had missed their Messiah and that they were getting a foretaste of the kingdom life. That they were being able to be in a place where their needs were being met collectively as the people of God. And now people have abused that to make that a practice in the New Testament church. And that the church should support communism and socialism and those kind of things. And that's not true. And by the way, if that's the case, that that is supposed to be practiced in the church, then none of us would be alive to see it. You say, how do you know? Because anytime somebody lied to the Holy Spirit, God struck them dead. When's the last time you came to church and somebody lied to the Holy Spirit? Got convicted of a certain and said, Man, you know, Lord, I, yeah, I'm gonna do that. And they weren't telling the truth. And they just fell out. And we just carried them out and buried them like it was a normal Sunday. Now, why did Ananias and Sapphira pay that? Because that was a severe penalty in kingdom, in kingdom mentality. That was a that was something how the Lord's gonna rule with an iron fist in righteousness in that time. And so there are things that happened in the first seven chapters of the book of Acts that are that are critical in transition as the Lord is moving away from the Jews to the Gentiles. Now let me tell you the pinnacle of all this. It's in chapter 7. Look at chapter 7 very quickly. In chapter 7, you find a gathering. The church is growing like leaps and bounds. Thousands and thousands are being saved, people are being multiplied. And in Acts chapter 7, you see Stephen brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council. By the way, the same Jewish council who had condemned Christ to die. Now Stephen stands in front of them, and Stephen is going to give the longest sermon recorded in the book of Acts. And Stephen is going to preach before them, and as he preaches, he retells the entire Jewish history. He tells them about how the patriarchs. He talks about Abraham. He goes all the way back. And he starts with Abraham in verse number two. Hearken, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. I mean, listen, he goes all the way back to Abraham in Mesopotamia when God came to him and called him out and he went out. And then Isaac and then Jacob and he goes all the way through. He mentions Joseph in this passage of scripture. He mentions um, he mentions uh Moses. He goes all the way through the entire Jewish history. And he talks about in every case. Listen, you guys rejected the message just like you did with Joseph. He came to his brothers and he warned his brothers and they rejected him. He went down in his rejection into the land of the Egyptians. During his rejection, he went to the Gentiles. What did he do in the Gentiles? He was believed on among the Gentiles. He was elevated to a position of power among the Gentiles. And there he treasured up all the corn. And during that time, what happened to his brethren in their rejection? They went through great tribulation and famine. And what happened to them? They came out of famine into the land of Goshen and they knelt before the one who they rejected. And he restored them and reigned over them in that land. He said, Now let's talk about Moses. Moses came to his brethren and he wanted to rule over them. What did they do with Moses? They rejected him. Moses goes out to the Gentile land. He becomes a shepherd. He's a shepherd out in the Gentile wilderness. And what does he do? Just like Joseph, Joseph took a Gentile bride. What does Moses do? He takes a Gentile bride. And while Moses is out in Gentile land with his bride, what happens to his brothers back in Egypt? They go under heavy taskmasters in tribulation. Their cry comes up before God in tribulation. What does God do? God sends Moses to them again. They believe on the guy that they rejected, and he delivers them from their oppressors. Listen, this is an Old Testament replay of what's going to happen when the Jews rejected Jesus. He's going to go into the Gentile world. He's going to be believed on in the Gentile world. He's going to acquire a Gentile bride in the Gentile world. And the Jews are going to go through one day heavy tribulation. They're going to go through great suffering. They're going to cry out for salvation. God's going to send the one that they rejected back. They're going to look on him whom they pierced, coming back in glory with his bride. And then Christ is going to reign over them. And Stephen preaches this to the Sanhedrin. And then he has the audacity to say to them, As your fathers did, so do ye. Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. They didn't like to hear that. So they stopped their ears, they stomped him down, and they gnashed on him with their teeth, and they stoned him. And when he was dying, Stephen looked up and saw Jesus. And what was Jesus doing? Standing at the Father's right hand. Why was he standing? Because the Bible says that after he died and was resurrected, he ascended into heaven and sat down. But now he's standing. Why is he standing? For two reasons. Number one, he is standing, if he is believed on, because it was alluded to in Acts chapter 6, that if we believed, God would send his son from heaven and he would establish his kingdom. But he was standing as a witness against them that day. He was standing as a witness against Jews. And let me tell you what happens. As soon as they reject Stephen, they have sinned. What did Jesus say in Matthew chapter 12? He told the Pharisees when they condemned him of being a man full of the devil, he said to the Pharisees, He said, You can sin against the Father and it'll be forgiven you. And they did that. When they killed a man sent from God whose name was John. You can sin against the Son, and it will be forgiven you. When did they do that? Mount Calvary. But if you sin against the Holy Spirit and blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven you. When did they do that? Acts chapter 7. Was the full rejection of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who was sent as a blatant sign to the Jews that they had crucified their Messiah and that Jesus was in fact risen and had sent the Holy Spirit. They were doing amazing signs and wonders to prove the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did they do? They rejected that. And what happens immediately? Acts chapter 8, look at it. Acts chapter 8. There was a young man there named Saul, who was holding the coats, and then Saul consented to Stephen's death. He began to persecute the church. What happens to this church of Jerusalem? Now understand, Josephus, the historian, says there are about a hundred thousand members at this time in the New Testament church in Jerusalem. I mean, it's no wonder. They had 3,000 saved in Acts chapter 2, 5,000 saved in Acts chapter 4. Then the church multiplied. I mean, that's 8,000, then you multiply, and that's just men, then you multiply that. If you just multiply that by two, that's 16,000. And then the Bible says it was added to daily, such as should be saved. So thousands and thousands of people are in the New Testament church, saved and baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit. Church is booming. Saul starts breathing out threatenings against them, and what happens? It finally moves the church away from Jerusalem, and Philip goes to Samaria. Look at verse number four. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad, the persecution scattered them. They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. So there's this huge bonfire of revival happening in Jerusalem. And God uses persecution to kick the embers out and spread the fire. The first place it goes after the Jews fully reject in chapter 7, the first place you see it going is to the Samaritans, half Jew, half Gentiles. Also in Acts chapter 8 is an unusual man whose name we do not know. We just know that he was an Ethiopian eunuch. He was the treasurer, he was the CFO of Ethiopia under Candace the Queen. He had come to Jerusalem to, he had converted to Judaism, he had come to Jerusalem to worship. He's on his way home, but he's reading the Jewish scriptures because he is just still lost. And God interrupts a citywide revival in Samaria, sends Philip out to the desert to reach one man. He says, Go out in the desert and find this man. Join yourself to that chariot. So he goes and he's running next to the chariot. I love this picture. He's running next to the chariot. Guy's sitting up there reading the book of Isaiah. He said, Hey, you understand what you're reading? And the guy's like, No. How can I accept some man should guide me? I mean, I need a rabbi. And Philip said, I can tell you. So he said, Come on. So he joins himself to the chariot. Gets up in the chariot. He says, Okay, I'm reading Isaiah 53. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. By his stripes we are healed. He had laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Who is this talking about? Is he talking about himself or some other man? And Philip said, Let me tell you about that, some other man. And he started at that same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And right there the guy said, Whoa, I want to get baptized. And Philip says, Nope. Only if you believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then thou mayest. And he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He made a confession with his mouth, salvation, went into the water, and got baptized. And went on his way rejoicing. So here's what you understand. He's a man of where? Ethiopia. Then in Acts chapter 9, you see the beautiful conversion of the Apostle Paul, who was Saul Shaul of Tarsus. He was an Asian, he was from Asia Minor. So Paul was Jewish, he was Middle Eastern, he would be Asian, classified, and he gets saved in Acts 9. Miraculous salvation. He meets the risen Savior and he gets born again. Acts chapter 10. Cornelius the Italian gets saved. So in Acts 8, you have the half Jew, half Gentiles, then you have a black man from Ethiopia, an Asian man from Asia Minor in Saul, and then you have a white guy from Italy who gets saved. And you see the gospel transition from the Jews and the Jewish ground in 1 through 7 into Gentile world, into all the creatures of the world in Acts 8, 9, and 10. You see Peter in Acts chapter 11. You see Peter coming back to tell the believers in Jerusalem that the Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit like we have. And they're all kind of like, what? And he's like, Yeah, man, I went to Cornelius' house and I was telling him about the story, and all of a sudden the man, the Holy Spirit just interrupted, came upon them when they believed. They spoke in tongues like we have, they was a sign to us that they have received the Holy Spirit just like we have. It was amazing. And they were like, You ate with those people? And he's like, Well, yeah, they offered dinner. What did you guys have? I don't know. It's something called bacon? They're like, What is it? He goes, I didn't ask, but it was amazing. And they're like, Peter, what? He said, The Lord told me to. He showed me unclean animals. He told me to rise, kill, and eat. I'm like, no, Lord, I've never eaten anything unclean. He said, Rise, kill, and eat. Don't say no and call me Lord at the same time. So I went and I ate, and it was amazing. I love bacon. And it caused massive controversy in the church at Jerusalem. They're like, you cannot believe that you just did that. To the point that Peter even backed away and was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we probably shouldn't let them in the church. Then you see Peter arrested, James is beheaded, Peter's arrested, and you see Peter miraculously delivered from prison by the prayer of the church in Acts 12. And that's the last time you see Peter. He comes to the prayer meeting, knocks on the door, they're like, hey, we prayed for you to go to prison, but we don't believe it's really you. I love that story, by the way. James died, Peter was delivered. We don't always understand why God delivers one and not the other. But God's work is always perfect. And I also love the fact that Peter was delivered when the church prayed. The church prayed, and God sent an angel to live to deliver Peter. Peter shows up at the prayer meeting, and then Peter wanders out into the dark, and that's the last time you see Peter, and the Bible transitions. Peter was the apostle to the Jews to the circumcision. You can read about that in Galatians 2. And the Lord had made Paul to be the Gentile of the Apostle to the Gentiles, and you see Paul take place in Acts chapter 13. And the rest of the book is Paul on his missionary journeys. Everybody with me so far? And you have to rightly divide God's working with the Jews and God setting them aside and God turning his full attention to the glory of the church. That the church would bring glory to him. And all through the book of Acts, Paul in Acts chapter 13 takes the gospel for the first time on his own into a missionary journey. And Paul is sent up to Antioch to minister in that church in Antioch. And he goes to Cyprus and then up to Asia Minor and then back to Antioch. He takes Barnabas with him. He's learning. And he establishes churches in Antioch of Pisidia, a different Antioch. He established churches in Iconium, in Lystra, and in Derby. Remember when he got stoned in Lystra? Paul was stoned and left for dead. What does he do? He just gets up, shakes it off, and goes right back in the city to preach. By the way, that's where Timothy got saved. Timothy's introduction to the ministry was a guy getting stoned for preaching Jesus. And we often wonder why Timothy had a spirit of fear. But he did have a spirit of fear. He had a nervous stomach. Paul even told him in 1 Timothy 1 drink. No longer water only, but a little wine for your stomach's sake. And listen, Timothy, I know you're going to the gym to work out some of this stress and anxiety, but bodily exercise profits little. Exercise yourself rather to godliness and all that. And then in chapter 2 of 2 Timothy chapter 1, he says, Timothy, God, remember the gift that is in you. Stir it up. God didn't give you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, a sound mind. Be not ashamed of me, his prisoner. Be not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here was Paul in prison unashamed, Timothy in the pulpit ashamed. And Timothy said, Lord, why are you not ashamed, Paul? And he said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which he committed to me against that day. Hey, listen, the same God that saved me brought me out of those stones. And I went right back in that city and preached, and a great revival happened. Listen, just get busy for God. If they stone you, what's going to happen? You're going to go to heaven. I've already been there, I've seen that. Got the t-shirt. Can't tell you about it. But it's amazing up there. We got nothing to lose. Live wide open for Jesus. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was Paul's attitude. That happened at Lystra. Paul has to interrupt that first journey in Acts 13 and 14 to come back to Jerusalem in Acts 15 for the big council. Because all of this stuff is happening. This is where we get one more glimpse of Peter. But this is all this stuff is happening at the Jerusalem church because they're afraid. They've heard all these things about Paul going to the Gentiles and the Gentiles getting saved, and they're just wanting to put the kibosh on all that. And these guys all have to stand up and give account that this is the work of God, that God is sending the gospel to the Gentiles. And there was a lot of racial tension. There was religious bias. There was things like wait a minute, time out. We're Jews, man. We know the Holy Scriptures. These Gentiles don't know anything about the Scriptures. These are fornicators. These are slow bellies. These are the people who have like, man, meat for the belly, belly for the meat. Like this are people who are wicked. They're uncircumcised. Like these are whoremongers. These are terrible people. We're Jews. I don't want to go to church with them. They dress different. They look different. They talk different. The only thing that we like about them is bacon, but we can't eat that. And there were some serious issues. Like, hey, listen, we're Jews, man. We we we worship God in holiness and reverence. We we know how to worship God. When we come before Him, we have a certain liturgy that we follow. We read the scriptures, we sing the hymns, we there are things that we do in our worship. These people don't know how to do that. And they had to work this out at the Council of Jerusalem to say, hey, God's in this. And these Gentiles have the Holy Spirit like we do. And we need to reach them with the gospel. And we need to pray for them. And we need to be in unity with them. That was a difficult thing for the Jews, by the way. I've seen that happen still in a lot of churches. And we're like, wait a minute. Um are you sure that those people really are saved? Why? Uh they're really not like me. Well, give them a little while, let the Lord work in them, and uh see if if they if they're still like you. Maybe we don't really want them to be as critical. Right? Are you everybody with me on this? This was the problem at Acts chapter 15. And and it wasn't a free-for-all, like, hey, the church is allowed to do whatever it wants. That's not what all what the Lord was doing, but God was transitioning away from his work with the Jews into the Gentile worlds where you, listen, let me ask you a question. Seriously, I want to answer, I want you to think about this for a minute. You read the epistles. You read the epistles. What church would you have liked to have been a member of? Corinth? Um the church at Thessalonica? They were a persecuted church. They were a poor church. They were a suffering church. Uh what church? Every one of those churches had problems. The only epistle that Paul did not write to fix a problem was the book of Romans. Every other one he had to address problems in the church. Hey, tell those two women to stop gossiping, please, and get along. Right? Hey, I mean, Paul's hadn't fixed problems. So the church was not just given license to do whatever it wanted, but there was going to be some nuance in the church now to where the church was going to have people who didn't, there were gonna be people who were in Athens who had been worshiping idols, that were gonna hear Paul preach about the unknown God, and they were gonna believe on Jesus, and they were gonna come to church, and they were gonna be people who needed to be grounded and discipled and trained. And the disciples were really struggling with that. So then Paul in chapter 15 through 18 goes on his second missionary journey. This is where he takes Silas. He and Barnabas have a really big falling out over John Mark. And that's a whole different story, and we'll just fly through this. But he goes on this second journey. Now, it's interesting because Paul wants to go one direction, and God keeps closing the door. God's like, no, you're not going to Asia. You're not going to Asia. You're not going to Asia. You're not going to Asia. And I'm thinking about, I look at those cities that Paul passed, millions and millions of people that Paul was walking past, and the Holy Spirit's like, nope, not here, not here. He had something else for him to do. So he goes over to a place named Troaz. Paul goes to sleep. He has a vision of a man in Macedonia saying, Hey, come over here and help us. So he gets up, and this is where the we chapter starts in Luke chapter 16, where he meets Luke. But Paul gets up and he goes over to Philippi. And it's funny to me that when he gets there, he had a vision of a Macedonian man, but he gets there and he meets a woman. And she's not even from Macedonia. She's from where he just left. And so he goes over there and he meets her. She gets saved and starts this great work. And then Paul gets thrown into prison and the Philippian jailer comes in. What must I do to be saved? And Paul goes to Philippi, then he goes down to Thessalonica. He's only in Thessalonica for three weeks. And man, he gave them, he's only there for three Sabbath days, but he gave them the whole counsel of God. He ministered day and night with them to ground them. And he taught them everything from the beginning of the scriptures all the way to the coming of Jesus Christ. Then he goes down to Berea. Then he goes to Athens, and this is where he ministers up on Mars Hill. Then he goes to Corinth, into that city fully given to fornication. And Paul starts a church there. He spends a lot of time there. You see all of these great things happen. Paul in Corinth stays 18 months establishing a church in a city given over to fornication. Comes back home and gives a report. Then in chapter 18 through 21, Paul goes on his third missionary journey. He travels again up to Asia Minor and Greece. The major emphasis is he goes back to Ephesus because God was doing a work in Ephesus. He goes back there and he spends the most amount of time in one place. Paul spends three years in Ephesus. And Acts chapter 19, verse 20 summarizes the impact that he had. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. I mean, it shook the temples of Diana. God's word prevailed in that idolatrous city. It was, it, it, it, it destroyed the idol making industry at the time. Enough people got saved that the economy of sin started to notice. Less people were buying the idols. The silversmiths were angry because people were getting saved and going to church and not to the temple and putting money in the pockets of the wicked. By the way, that's what should happen to the churches. There should be such revival in churches like this that it should be felt in the bars around Fort Collins, in the microbreweries around Fort Collins, it should be felt in the drug houses of Fort Collins. It should be felt in the sin should diminish when the light increases. That's what should happen. People were not just coming to church. The gospel was transforming cities. I want to tell you, I drive this city oftentimes at night, and I just pray, God, give us this city. I want to conquer Fort Collins for Christ. Give us this city. Chapter 20, Paul says farewell to the Ephesian elders. That's a great chapter. I got to hustle. 21 through 26. Paul is now a prisoner. He's arrested, and Paul is going on in chains. Paul is chained, but the gospel's not chained. So Paul is in prison and it gives him opportunities to witness before Jewish crowds. He witnesses before the Sanhedrin. He goes before Felix. He goes before Agrippa. He's witnessing to Roman soldiers that he's chained to every day. Eventually, people in Caesar's own household are getting saved. Paul has infiltrated the fortress. And people inside, he's a covert agent for Jesus Christ. And man, it is, it is he is marking his territory in Rome. Paul over and over again repeated his testimony. Can I tell you something? One of the most powerful things that you have is your testimony. Never be ashamed of your testimony. Remember when Paul came to that island after the shipwreck and he got bit by a snake and he shook it off, and they were like, man, this guy must have been a murderer. The sea couldn't claim him. He comes up here and a snake bits, and this guy is a bad dude. And Paul shakes it off, and then he doesn't swell up, and they're watching him, and he goes, Let me tell you something. I was a murderer. But let me tell you what happened. And he preaches, and the whole place of barbarians get saved. Don't ever back away from your testimony. We don't glorify sin, we glorify Jesus Christ who saved us from sin. This is what Christ has done for me. This is who I was, this is how I met Christ, and this is what Christ has done for me. That's what you need to be doing with your life. You need to meet people and tell them, this is what I was, this is how I met Christ, and this is what Christ has done for me. Share the gospel. Chapter 27 through 28 is Paul's journey to Rome. Paul has made a constitutional appeal to Caesar. He's now sent to Rome. He comes through that famous storm and shipwreck that we just talked about, and the Lord saves him. And finally, he makes it to Rome. Paul gets there. It's an arduous journey. And then Acts just ends so strangely. It just ends in chapter 30, or chapter 28, verse 30 and 31. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. And then it just ends. The end. Now I personally believe that Luke intended to write a third book. But with the events that took place right after this, because this is about 63, this is about 61 or 62 A.D., Paul is going to be eventually released on his appeal. He's going to be able to go, perhaps maybe to Spain, where he wanted to go, and I don't know all that he went because the Bible doesn't record, but Paul has some other ministry and then eventually is rearrested, brought to Rome, and then executed. Shortly after that, Peter is executed. Shortly after that, Nero declares war on Christianity when Rome burns and the great persecution comes. And so I believe perhaps maybe even Luke perished in that persecution. I don't know. But I believe also, that could be the historical sense of it, but I believe the biblical sense of why it ends like that is because Acts is not just ultimately the story of Paul. It's the story of the gospel going from Jerusalem to Rome. And now Acts 29, in a sense, is still being written because we're writing it. The Holy Spirit is still working through his church in places called the uttermost. Here we are in the uttermost parts of the world. Who'd ever thought that a bunch of heathens like people in NoCo could come to Christ? But they can. Amen. Alright, so I'll finish this and I'll be done. This is just a practical thing, and I'll give you. Here's what we get from the book of Acts. First of all, you and I are to depend on the Holy Spirit. We depend on the Holy Spirit every day. The Great Commission cannot be accomplished through human strength. If you receive the Holy Spirit and are living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you will be witnesses. You shall be witnesses. Pastor, how do I know that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit? My life is a witness for Christ. Depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. Number two, proclaim the gospel. I mean, I love coming to church and preaching the word of God, but I'm going to tell you something. They out there need the gospel. We need to go proclaim it everywhere we go. Number three, we can learn from the book of Acts, expect opposition. Anytime you start to do a work for God, expect Satan to oppose that. I've never understood why people say, man, I'm going to do something for God, and then we get so discouraged that it doesn't go easy. It's like we have a cross to bear. It's like we have a crucified life to live. It's like we have an enemy. Huh? And then we wonder, like, oh, it's so hard. It was made to be hard. Expect opposition. The gospel always produces resistance. But I will say this, number four, see obstacles as opportunities. Every time there was persecution, it scattered the church. Everywhere the church went, they preached the word. Everywhere they preached the word, multiple disciples were multiplied. Prison gave Paul an audience that he would have never had before. A storm put him in an island he would have never been on before. Chains eventually took him to Rome. Number five, God can use what appears to hinder the mission to advance the mission. So keep the gospel moving. And then lastly, let me just say this. The book of Acts leaves us with this. It's not simply, hey, what did the early church do? It is, hey, what are we doing with the gospel that was handed to us? They took it from Jerusalem to Rome. Our job is to take it to the uttermost part of the earth. There are still nations who have never heard the gospel. There are still people right here in Fort Collins who have never heard the story of Jesus. And if they're going to hear it, how shall they hear without a proclaimer, a preacher? And how should they preach except they be sent? We got to get the soul out of the shaker. Right? Amen. Okay, that's the