Chapter 1

We know from the first three verses of this book that this is volume two of the Gospel of Luke. Luke is the writer of the third Gospel and the second volume deals with the book of Acts. The book of Acts is actually the written history, the sacred history of the early church before the canon of scripture was completed. There are many things in the book of Acts which are doctrinal and which are just as true today as they were in the day in which it was written, and there are certain things in the book of Acts which would never occur again because these things actually look the place of the Canon of scripture before the Canon was completed. The place of Acts in the New Testament is to give us a history of the early church before it had a Bible. Many of the New Testament epistles were already in circulation, most of them were not. Many times when we read about the believers in the book of Acts searching the scriptures they were actually studying the Old Testament scriptures because as yet they did not have the New Testament. The style in the Greek of Acts is exactly the same as the style of Luke. There is no question as to the fact that Luke wrote both Acts and the third Gospel.

He wrote this somewhere between 61 and 63 Al). He was writing Acts while Paul was writing the four prison epistles. Luke was with Paul and both of them were writing at the same lime.

Verse 1— a Classical Greek prologue. This is actually the Attic Greek principle involved and it is not the same as the usual Koine Greek. Luke, by the way, was one of the great educated men of his day and this is quite obvious from the Greek of the first three verses.

“The former treatise” is a reference to the Gospel of Luke; “have I made” is an aorist tense indicating the time when Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke; “0 Theophilus” is a vocative referring to a person in the Roman empire. We know exactly the status of this person because of the phrase in Luke 1:3. “most excellent.” He was a knight of the Roman empire. At the lime that Luke was writing the knighthood of the Roman empire was made up of many hundreds of men who were not simply millionaires but who had tens of millions of dollars, sometimes even hundreds of millions. Theophilus was a knight because of the phrase “most excellent” found in the third verse.

“of all that Jesus began” — this is the key to the Gospel of Luke as it relates to Acts. The completion is the story of Acts. Notice the order here. With us it is teach, learn and do: but with Jesus it was “do and teach.” Both of these are present active infinitives and the order is extremely important. Before Jesus could teach He had to first of all do. This refers to miracles, all of the acts of healing, to every supernatural act performed in the power of the Spirit by Jesus Christ, and He had to do these things in order to get a hearing. This is the principle which is given in Isaiah. that the Messiah would come with signs to Israel. These signs are the various miracles, acts of healing, and as He performed these signs then people would listen to Him. In order to get a crowd, in order to get a hearing. He first of all fulfilled the signs and the miracles. So first of all. with Jesus it was do and teach. With us it is teach, learn, and do. The performance of divine good is based upon understanding the filling of the Spirit, the categories of doctrine, their application. When you have two infinitives together the last one is the whole purpose. The purpose of doing was to get a hearing. The great thing is the message, not the miracles. The miracles will alleviate suffering for a few moments but it is the teaching of Jesus which results in eternal life and great repercussion as far as time is concerned.

Verse 2 is a transitional sentence. It is still a part of the prologue. “Until the day in which he was taken up.” This transition is the transition between volume one and volume two of Luke’s writings. “Until the day” is a reference to the ascension. This is the last day covered in the book of Luke; this is the First day covered in the book of Acts. Aorist tense: point of time of the ascension. Passive voice: the humanity of Christ was lifted up by the power of God the Father, the author of the divine plan. The passive voice indicates that He did not propel Himself in His humanity.

“after that he had given commandments” — there were many commandments that Jesus gave after His resurrection. Remember that Jesus spent forty days on the earth after He had been resurrected and during that time He briefed born again believers in the vicinity of Jerusalem. But there were two commandments that were more important than all of the others put together and these are the two that God the Holy Spirit led Luke to discuss in Acts. The First is found in verse 5 and has to do with the doctrine of the baptism of the Spirit. It is vitally important that every believer understand the baptism of the Spirit because this is how the Church is made, this is when the Church began, and this is the whole key to positional sanctification. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation to enter even believer into union with Christ. Therefore Jesus made a specific promise with regard to the baptism of the Spirit. It is also necessary to understand this because in 70 AD the Jews are going into the fifth cycle of discipline, they will be scattered throughout the earth until the second advent of Christ. Therefore, there must be someone or some organisation to replace Israel as custodians of the truth and disseminators of the gospel. So on the day of Pentecost the body of Christ will begin. The secret to the body of Christ is the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby every believer, whether he is formerly a Jew or a Gentile, is entered into union with Christ. So this as the First thing that was emphasised just before the ascension.

The second factor which was emphasised was the ministry of every believer on the earth, and this is found in verse 8. This has to do with the fact that every believer is in full time Christian service.

“through the Holy Spirit” — dia plus the genitive connotes instrumentality. It reminds us that during the course of His earthly ministry the humanity of Christ was sustained by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the humanity of Christ was indwelt by the Holy Spirit and during His entire ministry Jesus Christ was Filled with the Spirit. “Through the Holy Spirit” is a reminder, then, that all the time that Christ was on the earth He was sustained by the Holy Spirit. He did not depend upon His own divine attributes and He did not use His own divine attributes independently of the plan of the Father.

The doctrine of the sustaining ministry’ of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ

1. The ministry of the Spirit was prophesied in the Old Testament — Isaiah I 1:2.3. 42:1. 61:1,2.

2. The Holy Spirit was given without measure to the humanity of Christ — John 3:34. This is another way of describing the Filling of the Spirit. Not only did the Holy Spirit indwell Jesus Christ but He Filled Him perpetually. The only thing that breaks the Filling of the Spirit is actually sin in the life.

3. The Holy Spirit is related to the baptism of Jesus in a special way — Matthew 3:16. This was the ministry of the Spirit in the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

4. The Holy Spirit is related to the earthly ministry of Christ. By comparing Matthew 12: 18; 18:28 we know that every miracle He performed, every message He gave, every thing that He did, He did in the power of the Spirit.

5. The ministry of the Holy Spirit was discontinued on the cross. When Jesus Christ during the last three hours was bearing our sins the ministry of the Holy Spirit was discontinued. Jesus said. “My God, My God” — the second ‘My God’ is addressed to the Holy Spirit — “why hast thou forsaken me?” The answer: Christ was made sin for us — 2 Corinthians 5.21. The Father can only judge sin, and He did at the cross; the Holy Spirit can have no fellowship with sin, so the Holy Spirit forsook Jesus Christ at the cross.

6. However, the Holy Spirit had a definite part in the resurrection of Christ — Romans 8:11: 1 Peter 3:18. The Holy Spirit actually raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

7. The present ministry of the Holy Spirit in relation to Christ is different. Now, instead of indwelling the humanity of Christ the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to indwell the believer to glorify Christ — John 7:39 which tells us that, first of all, the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified. But after the cross Christ was resurrected, He ascended, was seated at the right hand of the Father, and in His humanity that is the beginning of His glorification. Ten days after Christ was seated the Holy Spirit came to the Church on the day of Pentecost and now the Holy Spirit actually indwells every believer — John 16:14. The ministry of the Holy Spirit at the present time is to glorify Christ and He does this through indwelling of every believer — 1 Corinthians 6:19,20.

“unto the apostles whom he had chosen” — who did the choosing? Jesus Christ. This is an aorist middle indicative. The word to choose is an aorist tense and this means that the appointment comes in a point of time which is divorced from time and perpetuated forever. In this case the apostles are appointed by Christ and they are perpetuated as apostles. The middle voice here is reflexive, and that means that this is strictly the decision of Jesus Christ.

“Whom he hath chosen”

1. This verb emphasises the divine prerogative in the selection of apostles and anticipates the great failure of believers at the end of the chapter.

2. The selection of the twelfth apostle to replace Judas is me prerogative of divine sovereignty and not the

privilege of believers’ election. All of the elections in the world are not going to make an apostle out of Matthias.

3. In other words, the election of Matthias in Acts 1:24-26 is a farce.

4. Paul, not Matthias, is the twelfth apostle — I Corinthians 15:7-10; I Timothy 1:12-16.

5. This verb, “he chose,” emphasises the sovereignty of Christ in the selection of apostles.

6. An election cannot give Matthias the gift of apostleship am more than calling a person [calling a pastor] can make the person a pastor.

7. All spiritual gifts are the sovereign decision of Jesus Christ [Ephesians 4:8.1 11 and given at the moment of salvation today by the Holy Spirit — I Corinthians 12:11. Both the second and the third persons of the Trinity are involved in spiritual gifts. Jesus Christ makes it possible for spiritual gifts to exist in the Church Age by His departure. In that sense He gives them. The Holy Spirit also involved because He is said to actually distribute them at the point of salvation.

8. Jesus, in His departure from the earth, made provision for spiritual gifts, including apostleship to the Church.

9. These gifts in the mechanics are specifically distributed by the Holy Spirit — I Corinthians 12:11.

Verse 3 the post resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. “To whom also” — Jesus Christ is not only involved in appointing apostles, He also is involved in briefing believers in Jerusalem in those days before the Church began. We know the exact time. Jesus Christ rose on the firstfruits. He died three days before on the Passover. In fact, the whole schedule of the death, resurrection of Christ and the beginning of the Church is given in the feasts. The firstfruits occurred on Sunday. It bothered the Jews because Sunday was the first day of the week and the Sabbath was their big day, and every Sunday once every year they celebrated the firstfruits. It always occurred on the same day, Sunday. The next feast after that was exactly fifty days away, and fifty days is simply the word “Pentecost.” Fifty days away you have a Sunday again. The resurrection took place on Sunday; the Church started on Sunday.

There was a doctrinal basis for all of this. In six days in the days of the restoration of the earth God worked. He provided in six days everything that man would need in innocence and He rested on Saturday, the seventh day, simply because there was nothing else to do. This is a picture of the work of Christ on the cross. On the cross Christ did the work and we rest in that. Our rest is faith — “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.” Now Sunday is the first day of the week and we worship or rest on the first day of the week, and this is a picture of faith-rest in the Christian life. As a result, in the next six we produce, and the point is that we produce on the basis of grace or we produce on the basis of the faith-rest technique. Jesus Christ rose on Sunday. He was on the earth after His resurrection forty days. Then He ascended. There were then ten days before the Church began, and it was sometime during that ten days that they had the election of Matthias.

“he showed himself alive” — this is during the forty days. “Alive” is a reference to the resurrection and the word is a present active participle. The present tense is linear aktionsart and that means that He kept on staying alive in His humanity, in fact His humanity could no longer die.

“after his passion” — the word passion doesn’t mean passion at all, it means after His suffering and it refers specifically to the cross; “by many infallible proofs” — these infallible proofs are then given.

“being seen of them forty days” — He was alive on the earth in His resurrection body for forty days, and being seen reminds us of the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ, many of which are recorded in the scripture.

There are three categories of resurrection appearances

1. We have the resurrection appearances up to the ascension, eleven are recorded in the Bible. For example, He appeared first of all to Mary Magdalene. His second appearance was to the other women who learned Bible doctrine — Matthew 28:9.10. Then, finally on Sunday afternoon He made His third appearance and that was to Peter. Later He appeared to a couple of believers on the road to Emmaus, people whose names are not known to us. In any generation there are many, many believers whose names are not known; believers who learn doctrine, believers who keep their eyes on the Lord, believers who apply doctrine to experience, believers who have great unseen production. Then He appeared to the ten disciples. Thomas wasn’t there — Mark 16: Luke 24: John 20. Then He appeared the eleven and then to seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee, then to 500 believers at once, and then to His step brother, James. James was an unbeliever until the resurrection — I Corinthians 15:7 cf. Acts 1:14; Galatians 1:19. Finally, there was the appearance at the ascension — Acts 1:3-11.

2. The post-acsension appearances. There were five. He appeared to Stephen, to Paul on the road to Damascus, to Paul in Arabia, to Paul in the temple, and He appeared to John on the island of Patmos.

We are studying in Acts that period of time just before the ascension. During that time Jesus taught many things and two of the promises are recorded because they arc the two most important. The first of these promises is found in verse 5 and it has to do with receiving power to witness. It has to do with the ministry of the Holy Spirit for the Church Age is executed entirely by the Holy Spirit. Since this is different from any previous dispensation never before in the history of the human race were all believers indwelt by the Spirit. Here is something new and therefore Jesus must brief them on this particular operation. Only a very few people in the past had the Holy Spirit for any reason whatever, and they could lose Him.

The doctrinal significance of the resurrection

When Christ went to the cross He was the unique person of the universe, he was God and He was man in one person forever. He is coequal with the Father and with the Spirit and yet He is different from the Father and the Spirit in that he is true humanity. Yet he is different from all true humanity in that He is perfect and He is God. So Jesus Christ who hung upon the cross is unique.

When He hung upon the cross he was deity. He had sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love. eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. He was also true humanity and minus the old sin nature. He was indwelt by the Holy Spirit for the First three hours and He also had a human spirit and a human soul. When He hung upon the cross in the last three hours our sins were poured out upon Him. Obviously now the deity cannot die. Deity cannot die because deity is sovereign and sovereignty is not subject to anyone or anything. Deity cannot die because deity is eternal life. Deity cannot die because of immutability, deity cannot change. Deity could not hang upon the cross because deity is omnipresence and omnipresence cannot be reduced to one point. So it is quite obvious that the deity of Christ could not and did not die. That is what He had to become true humanity. But during those last three hours the sins of the entire world were poured out upon Christ and when they were the Holy Spirit left. Jesus said: “My God [the Father), my God (the Holy Spirit), why hast thou forsaken me?” The answer is 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him. who knew no sin. to be sin for us. that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” When He was made sin for us the Father judged Him. and therefore forsook him [spiritual death. and the Holy Spirit forsook Him. So that our sins were poured out upon Him and He died spiritually. All of our sins were judged at that point, they can never be judged again. It was His humanity that died spiritually.

Three hours later when all of this had been accomplished then Jesus said. “It is finished.” Mission accomplished. He came to save the world, he provided this salvation through dying for our sins. and once this mission was accomplished He declared it. Then. after he declared it was Finished, immediately He came back into fellowship with the Father. While bearing our sins He cried. “My God.” but once it is over then He says “Father.” “Father, into they hands I dismiss my spirit.” and he dismissed His spirit. In other words. He died physically. So Christ died twice on the cross. First He died spiritually, bearing our sins. Secondly, he died physically, and when He died physically His spirit went into the presence of the Father. His soul went to Paradise, and His body went into the grave.

Now from that particular point Jesus Christ rose again. But when we are talking about resurrection we are talking about the humanity of Christ. Deity did not die: deity is not resurrected. Then we are talking about the humanity of Christ forty days on the earth, and then we are talking about ascension. The humanity of Christ ascended into the presence of the Father and this was the first time that any member of the human race has ever been in the third heaven. Until that time all of the Old Testament saints had gone to Paradise. Abraham’s bosom. and there they had resided until this time. Once Jesus Christ ascends into the presence of the Father then we have this very significant and wonderful fact. humanity as represented by Christ is accepted by God. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and this is higher than all angelic creatures. For the first time in the history of the human race a member of the human race. a human being, is higher than the angels. Jesus Christ coming into the world was created lower than the angels and when he was seated at the right hand of the Father He was made higher than the angels.

During the time that Christ is seated there His enemies are being made His footstool, this is occurring all the time that we are in the Church Age. Even time a person is born again it resolves the angelic conflict and eventually the number of people in the Church Age will equal the number of demons operating under Satan on the earth. When that occurs then the Church will go to be with the Lord. The ascension is based upon resurrection. Christ had to have a different body than the one with which He came into the world.

“and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God”— what is the kingdom of God? There are actually three kingdoms on the earth at the present time. The first is the kingdom of God. The second is any national entity divine institution #4. Thirdly, there is the kingdom of Satan which takes many forms: religion, internationalism, etc. The first two are recognised by God and the third is in conflict with God. Divine institution #4 is made up of X number of believers and unbelievers. The kingdom of God today is made up of anyone who is in union with Christ. This is the Church universal, the invisible body of Christ. This is what will be mentioned in verse 5 where it says, “John baptised with water: but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” This is the kingdom of God. and during those forty days what Jesus was primarily doing was not making appearances but teaching, he briefed. He taught them about the kingdom of God. In other words. He taught the Church Age.

Verses 4-8 begins the post-resurrection ministry of Christ.

Verse 4 “And being assembled together.” Notice that whenever the Church was taught, even before it was the Church, there was always an assembly. Jesus is teaching that assembly for forty days. but after He leaves there will be a gift. He leaves one category of gift. the pastor-teacher, and that is to carry on the principle that when believers are assembled there are those who have the gift and can teach them.

“he commanded them” the Greek word for command paraggellw. Aggellw, from which we get our word “angel,” simply means to announce or to tell. Par is para and is the preposition of immediate source. So to announce from the immediate source is actually the word here. This is a little more than simply giving a command, it means to teach and command. The command comes from the immediate source of doctrine.

“that they should not depart from Jerusalem” in all of this briefing He kept saying, “Stay here.” The Church has to begin in one place and it will begin in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place of cursing, the place of the crucifixion, and cursing is always turned into blessing in God’s plan and cursing will be turned into blessing on the day of Pentecost, the Church will begin in the place where the curse occurred, where Christ was made a curse for us on the cross.

“but wait for the promise of the Father” the word “promise” is in the singular even though it involves many promises because they all pertain to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will do certain things for them and thereafter when any person is born again that person will receive five things immediately from the Holy Spirit. So “the promise of the Father which ye have heard” takes into consideration all of the teaching that Jesus did during that forty days. Why did Jesus stay that forty days? Because during that forty days He covered the whole realm of doctrine necessary for the beginning of the Church Age.

Two facets of this promise arc given. The first is given in verse 5. the second in verse 8.

Verse 5 a contrast of baptisms. We have here two categories of baptisms. We have ritual baptism, and ritual baptism always involves water, in a ritual baptism water always represents something. For example, in the baptism of Jesus the water represented the plan of God for them incarnation. When Jesus went into the water he said in effect I will go to the cross. In reality, water in the baptism of Jesus represents the cross. Then in the baptism of John. John baptised with water. The water in the baptism of John represented the kingdom of God and when people believed in Christ they were entered into the kingdom of God. Then. thirdly, the baptism for the believer in the Church Age. Here the water represents Christ. When you go into the water it represents Christ in His death. Identification with air is identification with Christ in His resurrection. So the water actually represents current and retroactive positional truth.

We also have some real baptisms. The Greek word to baptise means identification, and there arc four real identifications found in the scripture. The first is the baptism of Moses in I Corinthians 10:2. The Jews were identified with Moses. Moses was identified with the cloud as they crossed the Red Sea. in Matthew 20:22 we have the baptism of the cup in which we have the drinking of the cup. This cup is filled with the sins of the world. At the cross Christ drank all of the sins of the world and they were poured out upon Him and judged. It is a real baptism. Christ really was identified with our sins. Then there is the baptism of fire mentioned in Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16. and the baptism of fire takes place at the end of the Tribulation. Finally, there is the baptism of the Spirit which is mentioned in verse 5 and the baptism of the Spirit is one of the five things that happens to every believer at the moment of salvation. At the moment of salvation it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to enter us into union with Christ.

John is the herald of the First advent and the only ritual authorised in John’s ministry was water baptism.

“For John truly baptised” aorist active indicative The aorist tense indicates even act of baptism performed by John. But lie baptised “with water,” water representing the kingdom

“but ye” here is the contrast now. The word “ye” is you all, plural “shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” The word baptise means identification, and this starts back in Homer’s Odyssey in which baptised was first used in 900 BC. When Jesus said “but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit” he is referring to an actual identification. This is in the future tense and means that the baptism of the Spirit had not taken place as yet. This is very important because the Church cannot begin until the baptism of the Spirit begins. There is no church unless you are entered into union with Christ. Never once in the Old Testament anywhere under any circumstances is the baptism of the Spirit mentioned. Then, this is in the passive voice. Voice in the Greek always indicates the relationship between the subject and the verb. In this case the subject receives the action of the verb which means the moment we believe we receive the baptism of the Spirit. We do not do something to get it, we do not work for it, it is something that God does for us. Actually, it is something we cannot feel even.

“with the Holy Spirit” is not with the Holy Spirit, it is really “by means of the Holy Spirit” we have the instrumental case here. The Holy Spirit is the instrument of the baptism. You are not baptised into the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit baptises you into Christ. Connect this with I Corinthians 12; 13. “For by means of one spirit are we all baptised into one body.”

“not many days hence” was actually ten days.

The doctrine of the baptism of the Spirit

1. The baptism of the Spirit did not occur in the Old Testament or any previous dispensation future tense of baptizw in Acts 1:5.

2. The baptism of the Spirit was prophesied by John in Matthew 3:1 I: Jesus in Acts 1:5. However. He prophesied it in another way in John 14:20, “I in you. and you in me.”

3. The mechanics of the baptism of the Spirit — I Corinthians 12:13.

4. The baptism of the Spirit is the basis of unification among believers — Ephesians 4:3.

5. The implications of the baptism of the Spirit are given in Galatians 3:26-28. Principle: All social distinctions are destroyed.

6. The baptism of the Spirit begins the Church Age. Cf. Matthew 16:18 says the Church is future: Acts 1:5: 2:3 actually took place, doesn’t say so: Acts 11:15-17 — key verse, says the baptism of the HS took place on the day of Pentecost — I Corinthians 12:13. “One body” is the body of Christ Colossians 1:18.

7. The baptism of the Spirit is the basis for positional truth Ephesians 3:1-6.

8. The baptism of the Spirit is not an experience. Aorist tense of I Corinthians 12:13, once and for all, plus the phrase “we all,” not just some.

At most there were 120 people who saw the Lord Jesus Christ launched into space. Just before He launched Himself into what we call the doctrine of the ascension He had several things to say which are of extreme importance to us. In the pre-ascension briefing there are only two things that are mentioned. One of them is found in verse 5 and that deals with our union with Christ, the baptism of the Spirit. The second, also connected with the Holy Spirit. “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you” is a reference to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit leading to the filling of the Holy Spirit and this is the basis of witnessing.

Verse 6 — “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’’ This is ridiculous . Jesus has just talked to them about the baptism of the Spirit, the means whereby a new kingdom will be developed. The baptism of the Spirit forms a new kingdom. In the Church Age we have a kingdom on earth but it is a kingdom made up of believers. These believers all have one thing in common, they are all in union with Christ. This is the body of Christ and so obviously this is a different kingdom. This kingdom must exist because during the Church Age the Jews are under the fifth cycle of discipline. They are scattered, they are not restored. The Church Age is the age when the Jews are scattered, when they no longer have responsibility for the Word custodianship of it or responsibility for its dissemination. So they ask a silly question. At this time they are under the fourth cycle of discipline in which they are under the domination of the power of Rome. They want to get out from under the power of Rome, they want to go back to their wonderful days when they were independent.

Verse 7 — “it is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” The word “times” is xronoj from which we get out English word “chronology,” and it means a succession of events, one event after the other. Usually xronoj is connected with the history of Israel under its cycles of discipline. The Greek actually says “it is not from you to know the times.” “From you” is a genitive of source and it indicates that the ignorance of the disciples to understand the upper room discourse is hurting them now. In other words, you don’t have this information in you. It is available but you don’t happen to have it in you. It is “not from you to know.” Yet we have a detailed teaching of this in Matthew chapters 24 and 25. There are detailed teachings of this in the book of Isaiah. There are many passages of scripture, beginning with Leviticus chapter 26, that teach the times. And they should know the times, they should understand the times. They should understand that they are right here in this transitional period and when this transitional period is over the Jews are going to be scattered throughout the world. So “it is not from you to know", which is another way of saying they are ignorant. They should have this information, they should understand that the kingdom of Israel will not be restored. They will be scattered throughout the earth and will remain scattered until the second advent, and when Christ returns to the earth they will be regathered. They did not understand the times and because of this they were not oriented or prepared for the coming of the Church Age.

The second word is “seasons.” the Greek word kairoj which means an epoch or a period of time. Xronoj is a succession of events but kairoj is dividing them down into sections. The disciples should understand by now the four sections of time, or the four dispensations: The Age of the Gentiles Genesis 1-11, the period when there was one race in the world, the Gentiles; the Age of Israel which was interrupted by the cross, resurrection, ascension and session; the Church Age. By now the disciples should begin to understand the age of the Church because for three years Jesus has been periodically briefing them on things pertaining to the Church Age. But they didn’t get it and as a result they are not prepared for it. After the Church is the Jewish Age is completed and then Christ returns, and then we have the Age of Christ or the Millennium. They don’t understand the Church Age, yet they should. They are going to start the Church Age and will be the nucleus and have to know what they are doing.

“which the Father has put under his own authority?” The word “power” is authority here.

Verse 8 — “But ye shall receive power.” This power is actually inherent power, dunamij. They are going to receive inherent power. The power they are going to receive is the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit who will indwell them. “Ye shall receive” is future tense indicating that this power and the reception of it is ten days away.

“after that the Holy Spirit” is come upon you: ye shall be witnesses unto me” — the impact for Christ comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. They will be witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. The area of witnessing is given and this is also an historical sequence. First it will start in Jerusalem, and one of the purposes of the book of Acts is to show us that the Church did not begin all over the world, the Church began in one spot. With the beginning of the Church in Jerusalem there is a problem. In Jerusalem from the day of Pentecost we have Church Age believers and throughout the rest of the world we have Old Testament believers. And for awhile you are going to have Old Testament saints and New Testament saints living in the same world. The book of Acts shows how eventually what started in Jerusalem went throughout the entire world and there are no longer any Old Testament saints, they are phased out.

It starts out in Jerusalem. Then this thing will spread “in all Judea,” the southern kingdom. Then it will go to the hated place, Samaria. When we get to Acts chapter eight we see the gospel going to Samaria. Then before too long we get into “the uttermost parts of the earth” by the end of the book of Acts. So this is the historical sequence from starting in one spot and moving the Church throughout the world.

Verse 10 — they stood there with their eyes bulging: “two men stood by them in white apparel” two angels have joined them. The words “two men” is actually “two persons.”

Verse I I — “Which also said.” Now they bring them down to earth: “ye men of Galilee” — what stranger could walk into a crowd and tell they were all from Galilee? How did they know they were from Galilee? They were angels and they had been sent to brief them.

“this same Jesus” — Jesus is the title of His humanity, it was the humanity of Christ which ascended: “which is taken from you [ascension] into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

Verse 12 — they were standing on the Mount of Olives looking up. Jesus will be returning to the same place Zechariah 14:4. He is not coming back today and they might as well get down and start learning some of the things which are necessary so that they will know how to operate during His absence. The Church Age is the period when Christ is absent from the earth. Now, everything that Jesus wants us to know we have in the Word of God. I Corinthians 2:16 says the Word of God is the mind of Christ. This is our instructions during His absence.

Verse 13 – “where they abode” is in the imperfect tense which means that they probably resided here. There is a list of the people present, the eleven apostles to Israel and they are appointed apostles to the Church. Peter is mentioned first because his leadership is obvious. Thomas is mentioned, even though he totally failed 40 days before in the matter of the resurrection. This did not keep him from being on the roster of apostles. To each of these is given apostleship, the gift of absolute dictatorship for the next 50 years or so while the Church is being established. There are to be 12 apostles. Obviously someone had to take the place of Judas and the big question is who is going to be the replacement. This is a sovereign choice of God the Holy Spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 12:11. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to appoint spiritual gifts. The twelfth one is not even saved yet, and for five more years he will not be saved, but there is going to be an attempt to elect a replacement.

Verse 14 – “These all continued with one accord.” This means they were in harmony with one another and were all in fellowship with God. There were 120 of them and they were well equipped to spend the next ten days. The resurrection is on the feast of the firstfruits, and there are fifty days between the firstfruits and the next feast which is Pentecost. For forty days the eleven disciples and the others are gathered together in the upper room and they are in harmony with one another, which indicates that they stated out in fellowship. According to John 20:22 they were given the Holy Spirit, so they are controlled by the Holy Spirit. Yet in spite of that of that they get into a sin which is fantastic because it doesn’t depend upon the filling of the Spirit or their walk with the Lord, it depends upon their knowledge of doctrine. So there is an area of sin into which people fall through ignorance of Bible doctrine.

“and his brethren” – the four brothers of Jesus, mentioned in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3.

Verse 15 – “Peter stood up.” Peter is the presiding leader in the roster of disciples given in verse 13; “in the midst of the disciples” – the word “disciples” is used for 120 people here. Then there is a parenthesis which tells us how many people were involved in this operation.

Verse 16 – Peter’s speech was based on scripture. But when we start praying for the will of God and are ignorant of doctrine we are going to wind up out of the will of God. There is no substitute for knowledge of Bible doctrine. The will of God is declared through the Word of God.

“Men and brethren” – because there were ladies present and they were included in the “brethren.”

“this scripture” – there is going to be a dissertation on the Word; “must needs have been fulfilled” – that is, it is necessary to fulfill a scripture from the Old Testament.

“which the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David spoke before” – this was a prophecy from David. David was a king but he was also a prophet, and many of the Psalms which David wrote contained prophecy.

“concerning Judas” – Peter is right in this part of his interpretation; “which was a guide to them that took Jesus” – the word “guide” is used in the sense that he guided the soldiers to where Jesus was in order to betray Him, but the word means “traitor.”

Verse 17 – “For he was numbered with us.” This is a foreshadowing of what we have today. Always among born again believers there are a certain number of unbelievers numbered with them, identified as Christians though they are not Christians because they have not accepted Christ as saviour; “and obtained part of this ministry” – so that Judas was actually identified with the twelve when they went to Israel as apostles and he actually had a part of their ministry. This means that the miracles performed in Matthew chapter ten were also performed by Judas.

Verse 18 – “Now this man purchased a field.” This is what happened to the money that was used for the betrayal. Judas became conscience stricken. Then he tells how Judas died. There are two accounts: one that he hung himself and the other that the rope broke. Apparently it was some time before it was known that Judas had hung himself and the rope rotted, he had been hanging so long that he simply broke asunder. This was one man who was never taken down, he had no friends, no loved ones, no one who cared, he had the respect of no one.

Verse 19 – “And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem.” Everyone knew about Judas but no one cared for him.

“insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama [Aramaic], that is to say, The field of blood.”

Verse 20 – Now Peter quotes the scripture for which he has in mind for this message. “For it is written” – at this point he cites scripture which is to be used in this regard, and he is going to quote from two passages. The first is from Psalm 69:25—“Let his habitation be desolate,” and the second is from Psalm 109:8—“and his office let another take.”

“Let his habitation be desolate” indicates that the Potter’s field was a place of desolation and no one has any regard for Judas; “let no man dwell therein” means that there is now a vacancy among the apostles, the eleven, there should be twelve.

Verse 21 – Peter suggests that they fill the vacancy right away. Peter gets into error because the appointment of the twelfth apostle is strictly the appointment of God. In 1 Corinthians 12:28 we see that the fact that there would be apostles was the sovereign decision of God the Father. In Ephesians 4:8, 11 the sovereignty of the Son is involved in spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12:11 it is the sovereign ministry of the Holy Spirit to actually select who is involved in apostleship.

The word “wherefore” means “Which of these people.”

Verse 22 – “must one be ordained.” There is no word for ordained in the original, it is the word to become. It is “it is necessary for one to become a witness with us with regard to the resurrection.”

Verse 23 – the nominating committee. Everything is done decently and in order, and this is highly commendable. The only problem with it is that the sovereignty of God is not in it at all. Now there is a ballot and there are two men on it.

Verse 24 – the beautiful and useless prayer.

“show which of these two though hast chosen” – this is where they have gone astray. God hasn’t chosen either. They recognize that it is God who does the choosing and yet they are voting to choose themselves. In other words, they are superimposing their volition on the sovereignty of God, and this is a most ghastly sin. They are out of fellowship at this point and when people are out of fellowship they are tremendously inconsistent.

Verse 26 – the futile election. Matthias is numbered with the eleven apostles and said to be the twelfth. Note 1 Corinthians 12:11, “as he [the Holy Spirit] desires.” 1 Timothy 1:12—this verse emphasizes the fact that Christ put Paul into the ministry. 1 Corinthians 15:7ff, all of the apostles had to be a witness to the resurrection.