Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Acts Links The Ascension, The Holy Spirit, and Restored Israel
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The disciples hear Jesus promise the Holy Spirit and they immediately ask the question many of us would, is the kingdom of God arriving right now? The answer for them and us is to wait and serve in faith since the restoration of Israel with Jesus as King is on God's timeline not ours.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome And The Spirit’s Assurance
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come. And so when they had come together, verse 6, they were asking him, Lord, is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? Now, do you see where they're coming from? John taught that if the Messiah will have a baptism, it's a baptism of the Spirit, it's for all who believe they're going to be brought into the kingdom of God. So is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? We all have problems in this world, in relationships, and in our work, in our families, with our friends. But there is one problem we don't have. We don't have to face this life alone using our own wits, knowledge, wisdom, and discernment. As believers, we do not walk life alone because we have the Holy Spirit. It has been talked about by the apostles through the letters to the churches in the New Testament. We know we have the Holy Spirit. We don't have to work hard for him. We don't have to prove ourselves to earn it. The ascension of Christ and the time of Pentecost is our assurance that we have God's Holy Spirit within us, enabling us to live. So you see, whatever problems you face, you are not alone. All we need to do is look to God to help guide us. You see, many passages in the epistles and in the book of Acts are there for us to be assured of what God has done and therefore turn back to Him in thanksgiving and praise to what He has done.
Prophetic Splits And The Church Age
So just to work our way up to this, remember that there are these things that what we might call prophetic splits in the Bible, where in the Old Testament it all looks like one event. But then when you get to the New Testament, you find that, oh, that one passage is actually about two separate events, separated by a vast amount of time in between. And this, of course, is what we understand as far as the coming of the Messiah. I illustrated this by a diagram that's something like this, where you've got the mountain peaks. And if you're viewing things from the Old Testament prophets, uh everything in the pat what's called here past and future fulfillment are blended into one picture because you're looking from a distance and the mountaintops look like they're all together. But we actually find as we go through the course of time that there is a valley in between, and in between is where the church age uh fits. But that was not seen from the Old Testament. Nobody knew about it. It was technically called, as the New Testament describes it, a mystery. And so this is things that they look from the standpoint of the Old Testament prophets, but when he came the first time to suffer, they rejected him, and therefore he will have a second coming in the future where he will come to reign in glory. And between those two things we have the mystery church. So we have this concept of prophetic splits, and it's not new. There have been prophetic splits before. We have examples with you know the promise to the seed of Eve. The seed of the woman, she thought it was Cain, but now we know, you know, it's 4,000 years later that the actual seed of the woman was born. And Cain was not the Messiah, but Jesus is the Messiah. So there's a prophetic split there. You also have the promised restoration of Israel. Daniel thought that they would be restored after 70 years, but the angel told him, No, it's going to be 70 times seven, so which is 490 years. So another prophetic split. Same thing. So the same thing is true with the two comings of the Messiah, and in between these, of course, we have the mystery church, and this is where you have Jew and Gentile in one body. And that's why we're studying this because Acts chapter 2, we believe, is the beginning of this church. It started off Jewish, then it took in Samaritans in Acts 8, then it took in uh Gentiles in Acts 10, and then it takes in the disciples of John the Baptist in Acts 19. But this is a body of believers that consists of Jews and Gentiles essentially in one organism. So just this is just review.
Kingdom Questions Before Pentecost
So as we get ready for Pentecost, there are big questions that deal with the kingdom. In other words, was it at this time the kingdom was going to be restored? We'll see that the apostles are asking this question in Acts chapter 1. They expected it to come when Jesus talked about the Spirit coming. So they had an association between the Spirit's arrival and the kingdom's arrival. And so this is going to be another split. And uh this is what complicates things in the plan of God is that from our vantage point, sometimes whatever the text is describing is just one thing, but then we find out it's two things. And so that complicates matters. The Spirit, we also will learn about Jesus sending the Spirit by means of the Father, and it would be on this interesting day, a Jewish feast day, and we'll talk about these feasts today, uh, because everything is happening on a timetable. Everything is here related to a calendar. Um, and then, of course, the events of Pentecost, we'll look at it next week in detail. We'll go through Acts chapter 2 in detail today. We'll be working Acts 1. And then, of course, out of all this, we'll begin to learn about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, things like his regenerating work, his indwelling work, his baptizing work, um, his sealing work, and so forth. There's some other works we'll talk about of the Spirit. So let's turn to Acts chapter 1 and look at three sections in this chapter as we'll just kind of do a walk through.
Luke-Acts And What Jesus Continues
The first eight verses in Acts 1 are Jesus' last teaching. So it'd be interesting to know exactly what the last thing that he taught was while on earth. Then we'll look at his ascension in verses 9 through 11, and then verses 12 through 26, we'll look at the choosing of the 12th apostle. Here's the thing to try to understand as you go through a book of the Bible. Why did the author include this? Why is this section here? What is this information about? Why are we studying it? We're not just trying to say, I think it means this or whatever. We're trying to understand what the author intended to communicate. And so the information is there in a particular order, and we're supposed to discover why it's there. So not only what it says, but why it's actually there. So let's go through verse one. The first account I composed. Now, who wrote the book of Acts? Who's the author? Luke. Okay. It doesn't state that, but this is the second book that he authored. And um here he mentions a first book that he authored, written to a man named Theophilus. So what's the other book that he authored? Well, that's not a hard question, but don't think it's a trick. Okay. Luke authored the gospel of Luke. We're talking about human authors here. Obviously, the Holy Spirit is the primary author, and then a human author is the second uh secondary author. So inspiration has dual authorship always. Um the Holy Spirit and then, of course, a human author. So Luke is the human author. This the first account is Luke. This that means Acts is the second account. If you ever write a commentary on this, I encourage many of you to write commentaries, right? That's what you like to do. Um, then you you might do a Luke Acts commentary, right? Because they're companions to one another. Both written to a man named Theophilus. We don't know a lot about this man. Perhaps he was a lawyer, we don't know exactly, but perhaps this was written as a court document to help Paul in his trials, as he appealed to Caesar by the end of this book. And uh to Caesar he went. So perhaps this was a court document evidence, uh, but we're not for sure. But at any rate, he says the first account I composed about all that Jesus began to do and teach. So that's about the book of Luke, right? So if the first book was about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, what is the book of Acts about it? What is the implication of that phrase? What is Acts about? If Luke is about all he began to do and teach, then that means Acts is about what he continued to do and teach. And yet the strange thing is that he's leaving, like verse 2 says. He's leaving, he's ascending. So how is he going to continue to do things and teach things if he's not here? If he's ascended, if he's seated at the right hand of the Father. Well, because he's gonna send someone in his stead, right? He's gonna send the Holy Spirit to continue to do the things that he is doing from heaven on earth, and to teach the things that he is teaching from heaven through the Spirit on earth.
Waiting In Jerusalem And No Tarrying
So the book of Acts is widely discussed as to what the name should be uh of the of the book. I mean, it's just called the Acts, or sometimes the Acts of the Apostles, sometimes the Acts of Peter and Paul, because they're the two main apostles that are focused on in this book. Sometimes it's called the Acts of the Risen Christ because of this phrase that it is about all he continued to do and teach. Others say, no, it should be titled The Acts of the Risen Christ through the Spirit. Because it is through the Spirit. Sometimes it's called the Acts of the Risen Christ through the Holy Spirit working in his apostles. But you get the flow or the idea of what this book is about, right? That the risen Christ is not doing nothing, he is continuing to do things and teach things by means of his spirit, utilizing the apostles, of course, in the early church. And so that's what this book is about. Now, um, verse two mentions the ascension there until the day he was taken up unto heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. Now, those orders come here in a couple verses. Uh verse 4, you see the actual orders. They are, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised. Uh, what did the Father promise? What's going to arrive? Why do they need to wait in Jerusalem? Because he's going to send the Spirit. Now, did they have to, you know, cry out and long and have lengthy prayers in order for God to send the Holy Spirit? You know, this is the charismatic idea that we need to do this in order to have God, you know, pour out his spirit on us or something. Like the Asbury Revival, so-called Asbury Revival that happened in 2023 on that college campus, claimed to be this vast outpouring of the Spirit. No, the Spirit's already been poured out. And it was not happening because they were going to sit around and pray for the Spirit to come and they were doing some tarrying or something like that. It was happening on a very specific schedule. A feast schedule. If they had just sat in Jerusalem and eaten kosher at their local local kosher McDonald's, the Spirit still would have come on the day of Pentecost. They didn't have to sit around and tarry for him or pray for him to come. It was scheduled by divine sovereignty to send the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and we'll talk about why as we get into this. So those are the orders. Verse 2 concludes to the apostles whom he had chosen. But guess what? There's one guy missing, isn't there? There's one apostle missing. Who is he? Which Judas? There's two, by the way. Okay, good, good, good. Because the other guy doesn't want to be confused with Judas Iscariot. So Judas Iscariot is missing, and so by the end of this chapter, his position will be fulfilled by the 12th apostle. So we begin to ask ourselves, okay, like why are these things like the choosing of the 12th apostle included here? Why is this happening in chapter 1? Why is Luke included in his book argument? A lot of people don't think that the guy that the lot fell to, Matthias, is really the 12th apostle, right? They think who is Paul. I mean, I have so many questions about that. Like, well, why in the world did Luke describe this in his book if it was the wrong thing to do? Why did he spend like 14 verses on it? Why do we need to know? Especially since, you know, he wrote the rest of the book too, and he never came back and said, you know, that was the wrong choice. Paul was the real one. Did he ever come back and say that? Did he spend any time with him in the book of Acts? Yeah, quite a bit of time. Most of Acts 20 through 28 he spent with Paul. That's nine chapters. And yet all these all this time at Caesarea over two years he spent with him while he was in prison there. And not once did Paul say, You know, I'm really the 12th apostle. Why don't you put that in the book of Acts? Not once. See, these things are written for a purpose. And as we'll see, if we can get past that and thinking that, oh, Paul's really supposed to want, we'll we'll actually understand why it's placed here. And that means we'll actually know the mind of God. And that's exactly, of course, what we're interested in. So verse 4 or 3, excuse me, to these, the apostles, the eleven, of course, he also presented himself alive after his sufferings by many convincing proofs. This is a word that means uh convincing proofs means incontrovertible proofs. And we know of several appearances that are described uh in the gospels where he appeared in a room, you know, or whatever. They felt him, they touched him, they ate with him, they drank with him, to evidence that he was in a resurrection body. It was incontrovertible. And he did these appearances, it says over forty days. It wasn't just like, yeah, there the lat the next few days after his resurrection, for a few days he appeared. No, it was over a period of forty days that he made appearances to them. We have no idea exactly how many. Could have been hundreds, we have no idea. We only have a few references in the gospel to these accounts. In First Corinthians says, on one occasion he appeared to more than five hundred at one time. So many, many, many people saw him in his resurrection body. And what was he teaching? So this is the core. What was his last teaching? Over that period of 40 days, he was speaking of them sc uh the of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Now you think, well, he's gonna be talking about the church, right? No, he was teaching them about the kingdom, the kingdom of God. Gathering them together then, verse 4, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait. Wait for what the Father had promised. So what had the Father promised? Which he said, You heard of from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So he commanded them to stay in Jerusalem because they were going to wait for the Spirit. Okay. And what did we say the baptism of the Spirit introduces a person into? 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says, For by one Spirit we were baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, slavery free, so forth. So what the Holy Spirit, what they're waiting for him to do is to come in this baptizing ministry, this ministry which will introduce a person into the body of Christ, which is a uniqueness of the church, the baptism of the Spirit. Now, did they really understand this yet? It doesn't seem that they really understood the baptizing ministry of the Spirit and how he would be um building the church through this ministry.
John’s Baptism And Three Baptisms
So to understand why they didn't understand it, let's go back to John, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 3. And let's look at John the Baptist, who's the one who said this, right? Now, who was John the Baptist? Um technically, he was not Baptist. Uh so that's what we know. He was not a Baptist. Um actually, this is a nickname. Uh John the Baptiser is technically the way we would refer to it, not the Baptist. Uh why do they call him the Baptizer? Well, because he was baptizing people, and they consider that to be a very odd thing that this man was doing. Usually baptism was self-baptism. They had ritual baths called mikvas. You can go all the land of all over the land of Israel and find these mikvas. They're ritual cleansing baths. They have steps that go down in them. And um, sometimes they have steps going out a different direction, but sometimes they just have one set of steps. The point was to walk down into the waters for ritual cleansing and then to walk out. Sometimes they had, again, an entrance and an exit set of steps. That way you were sure not to touch anybody on your way out. Because if you touch somebody who's entering, then once again you're unclean by transmission. But uh, so you would be careful coming out and not become unclean. So this was an odd thing. Everything was self-baptism, so this was odd that he would be baptizing anybody, so they called him John the Baptizer. And he came, you see there in verse one, pre preaching in the wilderness of Judea. This was down by the Jordan River, which is down from the elevation of Jerusalem to the west. And his message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, this is a then there's this baptism, right, that he is carrying out around the district of Jordan. And you see that basically who this man was, as according to Isaiah the prophet, there in verse 3, he is the forerunner of the king. He is to prepare the way for the king's arrival. Isaiah prophesied that he would be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his path straight. So when a king would come, usually what the people, the subjects of the king would do is they would set out flowers and, you know, things like that along the path that he would enter, the king would enter on, and it would be like a joyous celebration and a welcoming of the king. So John the Baptist is going before the king to say, Hey, he's coming. We all need to prepare our hearts. We need to be ready for the king's arrival. And so this was his ministry. He was the forerunner of the king. Now John himself was dressed very oddly, right? He had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. Very different type of guy, a wilderness guy, right? Then Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. So this is the first baptism we come across in this passage. It's obviously a water baptism. We would just call it John's baptism. And it was a baptism of repentance. They needed to repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, meaning it was near, it was about to come. If they would accept their king, then the kingdom would come. This is the whole thing. But when, verse 7, he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said something no pastor should ever say from the pulpit, right? Because it's not a friendly message. And pastors are also always supposed to be so friendly and just build people up and never say anything convicting. But he said, You brood of vipers, which reminds us of the little guy in the garden who indwelt a serpent, a guy named Satan. You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not suppose you can say to yourselves, Oh, you know, we don't have to do that because guess what? We've got Abraham for our father. Because the Jews believe. Basically, that if they were circumcised as descendants of Abraham, that was enough to get into the kingdom of heaven. That was part of their righteousness that they saw as meriting the kingdom. So they didn't need to repent of anything and have this water baptism. They were already okay, in their view. But John said, I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Referring enigmatically, perhaps, to you know, Gentiles. And he says, The axe is already laid at the root of the trees, therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So this is obviously a picture of judgment, right? And verse 12, as for me, I baptize you with water. So this is the first baptism here, a water baptism for a repentance. Then he says, But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I'm not fit to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit in fire. So he just introduced two more baptisms. So how many pass how many baptisms are in this passage? Three baptisms. Baptism of water, that's John's baptism. Number two, baptism of the Holy Spirit. And number three, baptism of fire. Now we already know the fire is about judgment because he talked about that in verse 10. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees, therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So that is a baptism of judgment. There's one other baptism, baptism of the Spirit. Talking about judgment. But then he says he will gather his wheat into the barn. Now that's blessing. Bringing the wheat into the barn, bringing them into the barn is the kingdom. But he will burn up the chaff back to judgment with unquenchable fire. So we have three baptisms mentioned here. From John's point of view, the first thing that's going on is people in the nation of Israel need to undergo his water baptism. It's a baptism of repentance. If we really want to know what that's about, there's one passage that tells us exactly what it's about. It's Acts 19, verse 4. So just hold your place. And look here at Acts 19, verse 4. Acts 19, verse 4. People are a lot of times confused about John's baptism, so we might as well just uh go to the passage where Paul talks about it because the Bible is its own best interpreter, right? Acts 19, 4. Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to do what? To believe in him who was coming after him. That is, in Jesus. So what was the baptism of repentance? What was John's baptism? If a person repented and got baptized, that meant they were having a change of mind. Repentance means change of mind. They were having a change of mind about the kind of righteousness that was necessary to enter the kingdom. Well, what were the options? Pharisaic righteousness, on one hand, acquired by following the Pharisees' rules and traditions. And the other hand, believing in Jesus. To have his righteousness imputed to them. And obviously, the only one that will get a person into the kingdom is to believe in Jesus. It's Christ's righteousness that comes to the individual. So that's why John came. He came to prepare the people for the king. They needed to prepare their hearts. How could they prepare their hearts? By taking a repentance, by taking a baptism of repentance, right? Which was saying what? When you point out who the Messiah is, we will believe in him. Because we are not going to trust in the righteousness of the Pharisees. That will not fit us for the kingdom of God. But what will fit us for the kingdom of God is to believe in the one coming after him. Because righteousness is not by work, but righteousness is by faith. So it was a baptism that would prepare them for the Messiah's arrival. Now, if they did not uh prepare themselves for that, then of course they would be baptized with fire. Right? Which means they would be judged and not permitted to enter into the kingdom of God. That would be a baptism that the Messiah carried out. It's a judgment. It's a baptism of judgment. And then the other that the Messiah would also carry out is a classic old hymn. We all know. The other baptism would be the baptism that the Messiah carried out, a baptism of the Spirit, and that would usher them into the barn, which is the messianic kingdom. Now, if you caught what I just said at the very end, that this baptism of the spirit would usher one into the kingdom of God, then you understand why in Acts 1, as the apostles are listening to him teach about the kingdom of God, and he mentions the Spirit, that they were connecting the Spirit's arrival with the arrival of the kingdom. These
Times And Epochs Plus Two Spirit Comings
things were connected in their mind because John made them connected in their mind, and they were following John's teaching. So when he says there in verse 5, Acts 1, 5, he says, You heard of from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So they're thinking, not many days. Well, I mean, that's just a few days away. We know it turns out to be 10 days, right? Just 10 days. And so when they had come together, verse 6, they were asking him, Lord, is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? Now, do you see where they're coming from? John taught that if the Messiah will have a baptism, it's a baptism of the Spirit, it's for all who believe, they're going to be brought into the kingdom of God. So is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? And his answer is in verse 7, it's not for you to know. The times are the epochs, which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, and so forth. So it's not for you to know the times of the epics. Now, what is this times of the epics? I mean, it's like people just read that like, yeah, yeah, just keep going, right? Um, this phrase is used in Daniel 2, 21, and it's the total background for this, right after Ezekiel, Daniel 2. In the chapter that, you know, Nebuchadnezzar the king, he saw this statue, he's having this recurring dream, what he considered basically a nightmare. In this dream, he'd see this head of gold, right? And then he'd see on the statue the breasts and arms of silver, and then he'd see the waist and the thighs of bronze, and then he would see the lower legs and feet of iron and iron mixed with clay, and then he would see this stone that was cut out without hands, and the stone would smash the base of the statue, and it would all be obliterated at one time. And when the dream is revealed to Daniel, the meaning of the dream, the significance of it, what he described was that the head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar, the head of the first Gentile kingdom, to which God was giving supremacy the kingdom of Babylon. Second, silver, that was Medo-Persia, a two-branched empire. And then the waist of bronze of bronze and thighs of bronze, signified the third successive Gentile kingdom, which was the Greeks. Started with Alexander the Great. And then sovereignty would be transferred to the fourth Gentile kingdom, the legs of iron and iron mixed with clay, which was Rome. And these four kingdoms constitute what Jesus called the times of the Gentiles, when Gentile nations were given political supremacy over the world. And then the stone, the stone cut out without hands. This was the kingdom of God, that it would strike Gentile kingdoms and destroy them all at once and come to fill the whole earth. It's in that passage of the Bible that we had the background for times and epochs in Acts chapter 1, in Daniel 2, 20, Daniel said, Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever. For wisdom and power belong to him. He just had this dream revealed to him, and he knew what it meant. Now he's going to go tell the king. And what does he say in verse 21? It is he who changes the times and the epic. He removes kings and establishes kings. The point is that what the apostles are asking him, is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom? They're saying, Is it at this time? The times of the Gentiles are over. And the kingdom of God is coming on earth. And Jesus says, it's not for you to know the times in epoch. In other words, it's not for you to know when God is going to be done with the times of the Gentiles and bring in the kingdom of God on earth. He says, It's not for you to know that time. But he says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. In other words, here's what's happening. They're thinking, oh, he's been teaching us about the kingdom of God. Now he says the Holy Spirit is going to baptize us. So the kingdom of God must be coming now because the kingdom and the spirit come at the same time. And Jesus says, No. It's not for you to know when the kingdom's going to come, but guess what? In a few days, the Spirit's going to come. So what he's done is he's just separated the coming of the Spirit from the coming of the kingdom. And he says, the Spirit's going to come not many days from now. And as for the kingdom, it's not for you to know. It's still out there, but it's obviously not at the same time the Spirit is going to come. They had to adjust their theology, right? They had to adjust the pieces. So now we're going to have a Holy Spirit come for something unique, this baptizing ministry that he's described in verse 5. But guess what? He's still going to come in the future when the kingdom comes, and he's going to baptize Israel, just like John said. And he's going to gather the believing remnant of Israel into the barn, the kingdom. So what's happened is he said, now guess what? Just like there were two comings of the Son of Man, Jesus, guess what? There's also two comings of the Holy Spirit. That could not be seen from the Old Testament. All that you could see was that the Spirit and the kingdom come at the same time. Now what Jesus has said is no, the Spirit's going to come and do something now, and He's going to come again, of course, later for Israel and do something then. So this is why I say it gets complicated. Usually we only talk about, and you probably only ever heard in your whole life of going to church, that there's two comings of Jesus. You probably heard of that many, many times. But how many times did you hear there's two comings of the Spirit? And it gets discussed. That's what he is talking about here in Acts 1, 1 through 8. Now they're going to be empowered by the Spirit, verse 8, to be witnesses. And notice the realm, three realms: Jerusalem, which is a city, center of all Israel, Judea, which is a region, and Samaria. Ooh, Samaritans, yucky, yucky. But they're going to be witnesses there. And even in the remotest part of the earth, that's Gentiles. Right? I mean, they're dogs. Jesus said so. It's okay. You can say that. Just mean they were unclean. That was the idea. Dogs were considered unclean animals. They didn't keep them as pets in the house. So that's the first thing. The first thing is that Jesus' last teaching was that the kingdom is going to come still in the future, but the spirit is going to come not many days from now. Stay here in Jerusalem, and then the Spirit will come and baptize you. They still don't understand the church. They don't understand what they're going to be baptized into. They don't understand that. But time will tell. Okay, we would
The Ascension And A Literal Return
throw all that. Let's go to Jesus' ascension, verses 9 through 11, and ask the question: why was this necessary? Why did he need to ascend at this time? If the book of Acts is about what he's going to continue to do and continue to teach, why is he leaving? Well, he's going to do it from that position at the right hand of the Father. So Acts 1:9, after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight. So here we have an event right after he said that, and he's lifted up while they're looking on. So how how what was his rate of ascent? I mean, was it like a bullet? Um, was it really slow? Was it gradual in some sense? It had to be gradual in some sense because they were watching him ascend. So they were able to watch this event, and then while they were looking, a cloud received him out of their sight. Now it's at this point that nobody ever sees Jesus in his resurrection body on earth again. There are people that are transported to the third heaven, there are people that see visions, and so we get that. But nobody ever saw him on earth again in his resurrection body. He had just disappeared into this cloud. There were also a cloud that led Israel by day in the Old Testament and fire by night. What do you think this cloud was? It's that same cloud. It's the Shekinah glory. Okay? And he disappeared into this cloud. It's not a natural cloud, it's the Shekinah glory. He disappears into this cloud, verse 9, so now they can no longer see him. Now we don't know anything about where he went or what he did after this point, except from the scriptures. The Old Testament scriptures say that he was exalted in Psalm 110 to the right hand of the Father, and he sat down in the throne room of God at the Father's right hand. We know this from the Bible, but we don't know this by anybody empirically seeing it. Verse 10, and as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. Now who are these guys? Are they really guys or are they angels? Kind of like the two guys that were at the tomb, right? Two angels. They're two angels, and they're standing there beside them. So all of them are standing in the sky, and all of a sudden there's just two more guys in their group. I don't know if that's ever happened to you. You know, you're you're with all your friends, and all of a sudden there's two other people there. You're like, who are y'all? Uh, what are y'all doing here? But that's what it was like. And they said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you, that's the ascension, into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. So is he gonna come again? First of all, is he gonna come again? How is he gonna come again? Does this verse in this passage explain how he's gonna come again? Yeah, it tells us the manner of his second coming. He's gonna come in the same way he departed. So he went up, he was lifted up, and he was disappeared into a cloud. So when he comes back, he's gonna come back in a cloud, and then he's gonna appear here on earth. It's not that complicated. So let's ask a question then. Is the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 the second coming of Jesus Christ? You know, you have all these guys in this room, there's this violent sound of rushing wind. Then they see these tongues distributing themselves like fire, meaning very rapidly, as we know, travel, fire travels rapidly. And then they begin speaking in tongues, right? In all sorts of languages and dialects that they'd never learned. Is that the second coming of Jesus Christ? Well, that's what all millennialists say. That's what the covenant theologians who are all millennialists say. They say, this is the second coming. Some of them say that. It's a coming of Jesus by means of his spirit. But is that the same way in which he departed in Acts chapter 1, verses 9 through 11? No. So you can either agree with these theologians or you can agree with Jesus and God. But this stuff is total nonsense. And how the Christian world has ever permitted this to ever even be considered as a viable alternative is unbelievable to me. Read the text and accept what God says, or quit playing games. Just because it doesn't fit your theology doesn't mean it's not true. What's wrong then is you had to fix your theology and let the Bible explain and teach you what your theology should be. So he's going to come back in exactly the same way that he departed. And that shouldn't be difficult. Now, why is that section there? Why? Why are we told in three verses the ascension? Because he, if he hasn't ascended, he can't send forth the spirit. Look at John 16, verse 7. The Gospel of John. Everybody in this chapter, these chapters, the upper room here, not upper room, um yeah, the upper room of discourse, are you know concerned that Jesus is leaving. Where are you going? You know. Notice in chapter 16, verse 7, he says, But I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness judgment concerning sin and goes on, right? About this part of the Spirit's ministry. But see, it was to your advantage, he says it that I go away, because if I don't go away, the helper, this we know is the advocate, the spirit, he will not come. But if I go, I will send him. So that is why this is described in chapter 1, verses 9 through 11, to assure us that he had departed. So that what is going to be the explanation of the tongues on the day of Pentecost? Is it that they were drunk, like some of them said? No. The explanation is that, okay, Jesus departed. He said if he was going to depart, he would send the Spirit. So how does Peter explain it? This is a pouring out of the Spirit. That's how we know why this section is actually
Why Matthias Matters To The Twelve
here. Now, then we have this other weird section, right? This last section that talks about the choosing of the 12th apostle. Why is this event necessary? Why does this have to happen here? Why here? Why not just go straight to Pentecost? He's descended, he can send the Spirit now. Why do we have to have the choosing of the twelfth apostle here? So let's go through it. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath-day journey away, which is considered three thousand steps. When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying. That is Peter and John. If you count them, there's eleven guys here. Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, Simon the zealot, and Judas, the son of James. See, it says Judas, the son of James, too. We don't get confused and think it's Judas Iscariot. Who'd already hung himself by this point. But anyway, there's only eleven, right? These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers, who presumably now are believers. Whereas we have never seen this before, because none of them believed in him before he died and rose again. But now they are believing in him. Why are they staying in Jerusalem? Well, because he told them to, in verse 4, commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait. For what? Well, for the Holy Spirit to come in. Baptize them, right? Into this new thing we know is the body of Christ. They don't know about all that yet, but they know that he's going to come and baptize them. That's the timing issue. It was a part of the feast of Israel. They didn't have to pray for the Spirit to come or something like that. This was set in stone that according to Israel's feast schedule, the Holy Spirit would come on a particular feast day called Feast of Pentecost. So let's look a little bit at the feast of Israel. You have in the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus, a description of seven feasts, four of which are kept in the spring of Israel's calendar, and three of which are kept on the fall of Israel's calendar. Now I'm taking you through this so you can see that just as there's a first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ, and there's a first coming of the Spirit, and there's going to be a second coming of the Spirit. So there are fall feasts, a spring feast which have already been fulfilled, and then guess what? There's going to be fall feasts that are also fulfilled. And then all these things coalesce and correspond. So in the spring feast, these are all fulfilled in and around Christ's first coming. So you've got Passover. We know that was introduced in the book of Exodus, right? Exodus 12, the Passover lamb. It would be offered. And that happened at the Exodus. This is fulfilled in Christ's death. 1 Corinthians 5 7. Christ is our Passover. So he is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And he did that at the cross. Then you have the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It began technically the day after Passover, but usually they were viewed together. So you day of Passover and then seven days of unleavened bread. So a total of eight days. And this feast was to signify the separation of Israel from Egypt. Once they went out, they were supposed to live separate lives from Egypt, right? But you remember in the story, where do they keep wanting to go back to? They keep wanting to go back to Egypt. And it's a picture of the believer is to be separate from sin. So once you believed in Christ, you are under this fulfillment of this feast, and you are to live a life separate from sin. Also, 1 Corinthians 5, 6 and 7. A life separate from sin. The third spring feast is the feast of first fruits. And this was the very beginning of your harvest. The first fruits that you received, you would take those down to the temple, and they would wave the grain before the Lord. And this was the first of your crop. This was fulfilled in Christ's resurrection. He's the first resurrected from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15, 23. 1 Corinthians 15, 23. Christ, our first fruit. So he's fulfilled the feast of firstfruit. And then 50 days later, after the feast of first fruits, which was a Sunday, right? The day that Christ rose. And then you have 50 days, and that brings you to Pentecost. Now, by this point, the harvest had come in. You took your grain and they would make it into two loaves, and they would wave these two loaves before the Lord. And this was to signify ultimately or be fulfilled in Christ's sending of the Spirit. So that on that day is when the church was born, on the day of Pentecost, as signified by the sending of the Spirit. See, it was on a s it was on a calendar. It was on a calendar. Now the fall feasts have yet to be fulfilled. None of these have been fulfilled. So you had the feast of trumpets in Israel, and that would herald the arrival of the king. It hasn't happened yet. This hasn't happened yet. But many think, and I think it's going to happen at the rapture. That that will fulfill that feast. You know, when you have the rapture, you have a blowing of a trumpet, right? So forth. We'll be caught up. And this is heralding the arrival of the king. He's starting to come into history and change the world, change the times and the epics. Prepare for bringing in his kingdom. The day of atonement is the second fall feast. It's when the sacrifice for sin that he made on the cross is applied to Israel because they will believe. They will believe. And so his sacrifice will be fulfilled to them when they believe. They will be nationally saved. He will come back. That's at the second coming. And then you have the Feast of Tabernacles, it will be the last fall feast that will be fulfilled. It signified rejoicing and relaxing under your every man under his own tent. You know. Not worried about anybody who's going to attack or hurt you. You can rest, you can relax. Again, not yet fulfilled, but it's a picture of the millennial kingdom. For a thousand years, Israel will be relaxed and at rest and be able to rejoice in the Lord. So my point is to show two comings of Christ, right? Two comings of the Spirit, and two phases for the fulfillment of Israel's feasts. And all this is indicated by verse 14. I brought it up because of this, that they're praying continually and all that, but that has nothing to do with when the Spirit's going to come. The Spirit is going to come according to a calendar system that God set up with the nation Israel. So verse 15, at this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren. A gathering of about 120 persons was there together. 120 persons. Brethren, he says, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. Now that's Judas Iscariot. For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle of all his and all his intestines gushed out. It's one of my favorite pictures in the Bible. So it is for the enemies of God. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem, so that in their own language that field was called Hakalamah, that is the field of blood. And then he says, For it is written in the book of Psalms, and he quotes Psalm 68 and Psalm 109. And Psalm 109, let another man take his office. He quotes both these Old Testament Psalms and makes application to the situation, then now we're down to eleven apostles. And now we need to fill this office. You ask the question, why? Who cares? Because Jesus taught in Matthew 19, 28 that the 12 would sit on 12 thrones and rule over the tribes of Israel in the Messianic kingdom. Well, what if you don't have a person sitting in the 12th position? Who's going to rule over that, see? So Peter's thinking, well, we have to get the 12th apostle to fill this position so that when the kingdom comes, someone will be able to rule over that 12th tribe, right? And he quotes these Psalms to that effect. Therefore, verse 21, he says, it is necessary that of all the men who have accompanied us all the time, he says that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, starting with the baptism of John, which is down at the Jordan, until the day he was taken up from us. So John is the one who carried out this baptism and basically initiated Jesus' ministry. When Jesus himself went to get baptized, that's a fourth baptism. We're not discussing that one today, but it says to fulfill all righteousness, he did this, right? It was to identify with John as his forerunner, so that everybody would know that John and Jesus were carrying the same message and for the same purpose. That is, that people would repent and put their faith in Jesus. This isn't too complicated. This was the point. So people didn't think, let's go after John, and others say, let's go after Jesus. No, they were the same thing. They were both on the same team. Okay. So beginning with the baptism of John, which initiated Jesus' ministry, until the day he was taken up, that's the ascension, right? Quite a long period of time, several years, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. So it was limited on the number of people who would actually qualify to be considered, right? Quite limited. You had to be with him all that time, his entire ministry. So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas, who is called Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed, and they said, You Lord, who know the hearts of all men, one of my favorite Greek words, the cardio gonostis, the heart knower. The heart knower. He knows your heart, he knows my heart, he knows the hearts of all men. He says, Show which one of these two you have chosen. Now, are they choosing the person? Or are they saying, Lord, you choose the person and show us which one you chose? Which one? Second one. Who's going to choose the guy? Them or the Lord? Well, the Lord. So they're not choosing the 12th apostle. They're praying that the Lord would show them which of the two he had chosen to occupy this ministry, verse 25, and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. Which we know where that place is. It's the field of blood, Hakaldamah. And they drew lots for them. And this is people say, oh, they messed up. I mean, it's just by chance. No, it's not by chance, is it? We have several examples in the Old Testament of the casting of lots. Man casts the lots, but every decision is from the Lord. Proverbs 16, 33. We cast lots. The decision is the Lord's. This was a divinely approved method of decision-making in the Old Testament time. The Spirit hadn't come yet. The Spirit didn't indwell people. The Spirit didn't baptize people into the body of Christ. They didn't have that. So they had other means of deciphering the will of God. They also had the ephod and the twelve stones and the lights, the Urim and the Thumim. They have all these other ways of deciphering the will of God that we don't have today. Okay? And that's fine. So they drew lots, a divinely chosen method, and the lot fell to Matthias, and he was added to the eleven. Which means there were how many now? For all you mathematicians? 12. And then you go, you know, chapter 2, it discusses taking his stand with the 11 and verse 14 to 14, Peter taking his stand with the 11. So Peter is 1 plus 11 means 12. You know, so they consider Matthias to be a 12th, right? Luke never tells us he wasn't. But the big question becomes why is this here? Why is this section about choosing a 12th apostle placed at this point? The reason is because the foundation has to be laid before you can begin to build on top of it. The foundation of the church has to be laid first. I mean, you can't start building on top of a foundation that's not done. I mean, unless you're an idiot builder. Right? You finish the foundation, everything is right, then you begin to put the frame on, right? This is how you build a house. And the church is a household that God is building. Jesus said, or Jesus is building, he said, I will build my church. And Christ is the cornerstone, which was the most important piece, right? Because the architect would make sure not only was it square in the position they wanted it, but it had to be square and it had to be level. Because every other stone in the foundation was going to be based off how well that one stone was laid. And if it was laid, let's just say, tilted, not level, then the rest of the foundation would be faulty. So Christ is the cornerstone, and the apostles are the foundation, Ephesians 2, 20. So it has to be laid first. That's why this is here. And then people come along and say, I don't think Matthias is really a 12th apostle. It's like, are we going to try to understand what's here? Are we just going to make it up? See? Now, Paul is an apostle, right? I mean, he says this. 1 Corinthians 9 1. Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen the Lord? Yes, but he's not of the 12. He's of another class I'll call the others. So you've got the 12. They're going to reign over the 12 tribes of Israel in the Messianic kingdom. I mean, those slots are taken. Those guys were the foundation of the church, with Christ being the cornerstone. Paul is also an apostle, but he had what in 1 Corinthians 12 is described as the gift of apostles. It was also a spiritual gift, wasn't it? And he didn't receive that gift until Acts chapter 9 when he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road. And that's when he received the gift of apostleship. There are other people, Junius, Alexandrius, Barnabas, all these people are called apostles. And nobody ever tries to slam them into the 12th position, do they? Not once. Yet the Bible says they're apostles. Yeah, we know they're not part of the 12, but somehow Paul's got to get in there. Well, that's because he's so prominent. We understand he's so prominent. That's not the point, though. The point is that the foundation had to be laid.
Israel And The Church Plus Blessing Jerusalem
Now I've said all this because, hey, look, we're dealing with a lot of confused people in the Christian church that think that the church is Israel or the church has replaced Israel. They believe that Israel is currently an occupant of the land of Israel and has no rights to the land. And that that land ought to be given to the Palestinians who were there before them, which doesn't make sense because the Jews were there before the people who are now called the Palestinians, since we have so much archaeological evidence to that effect, right? I mean it's very obvious. Simple now. We have stuff from the time of David for crying outlies. A thousand years before Jesus. You know, we know that they were there coining, minting coins. So how exactly are they occupying somebody else's land? We have a lot of confused people in the church, though. This church loves Israel. Um we actually give. One of our missions is to Israeli soldiers who are believers. We give some of our money money every quarter to Israeli believers. Why do we do that? Well, because of Romans 15, 27. Look at it, what it says. Look at what the Bible says and order our lives accordingly, right? Romans 15. We'll just close with this. This is very important to see the distinction between Israel and church. Romans 15, 26. Paul's speaking about gifts that have been given. He says, For Macedonia, that region, churches in that region, and Achaia, that region, have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them, they are indebted to the saints in Jerusalem. Why? For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, and everything we share, folks, is Jewish. Our Messiah is Jewish, and salvation is of the Jews, right? So if he says, for if we Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them in material things. We're indebted to minister to Jewish believers in material things because they've given us spiritual things. That's why we do that. And plus, Genesis 12, 3 says, What? I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. Half the church is out there cursing Israel. I hope we're gonna bless Israel, right? Because that's God's plan. God says that Israel is the apple of his eye. You should love them. If he loves them. We had a psalm read the other day in here, one of my favorite psalms. Who read the one about um was it you, Ron, who read the one about exalting Jerusalem above my chief joy? What is that Psalm 13839? Talking about loving Jerusalem. Where is that psalm? If I do not exalt you above my chief joy. Where is that? Psalm 130 something. I gotta read this to you because this is once you understand what the Hebrew means when it's talking about exalting it above your chief joy, once you understand your chief joy, then you'll understand. There it is, Psalm 137. They were in Babylon and it says, Psalm 137, 5, If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. You know, your craft, whatever it is you are good at, he says, if I forget Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May the tongue, my tongue, cling to the roof of my mouth, you know, may I not be able to speak. He says, if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. What is the chief joy of every Jew? The day of their wedding. And he says, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above that day, I lose my ability to do my craft, and I lose my ability to speak. God said, I will exalt my word even above my name. That is hard to imagine. The one thing that is higher than the God's name himself is his word. Do we love him? Do we love his word? Do we love Israel? Do we love Jerusalem? Do we pray for the peace of Jerusalem? Do we love what he's done for us in this thing called the body of Christ, the church? Do we realize the magnificent grace that has come to us, these spiritual riches through the Jewish people to bless us? So we say, I want to bless Israel. I want to give Israel material blessings, especially to Jewish believers in the land. There's only 30,000 of them in the entire land of Israel and over eight and a half million people there. You think it's hard to be an Israeli soldier as a believer? You better believe it. To believe in Yeshua? As a Jew? Most Jews say, You're no longer Jewish. You're rejected by that. So they need the love. They need to know that all Christians are not the Roman Catholic Church that persecuted them for centuries and centuries. When they hear Christian, they think Roman Catholic, they think persecution. When they see the cross, they think persecution. But there are us who believe in the true words of the Bible and love the Jewish and know that He has a purpose for them.
Where To Find Visuals And Rate
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.