The Book of Acts

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Short Summary
The discourse provides an overview of the Book of Acts, highlighting its division into three parts covering the early apostolic work, Paul’s missionary journeys, and his house arrest in Rome. It emphasizes key events such as the resurrection proofs of Jesus, Pentecost and the gift of tongues, the rapid growth of the early church, the election of deacons, Stephen’s martyrdom, Saul’s (Paul’s) conversion, and the spread of Christianity amid persecution. The speaker also reflects on symbolic meanings behind numbers and events, the challenges faced by the apostles, and the broader historical and spiritual significance of these narratives.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse on the Book of Acts

Introduction and Context:
– The discourse begins by connecting a hymn about Jesus to the Book of Acts, highlighting how Acts focuses on Jesus but primarily records the apostles’ public preaching about Him after His resurrection.
– The speaker is inspired by the remarkable success of the apostles, which he attributes to God’s providential guidance.
– The Book of Acts, authored by Luke, has 28 chapters and follows his Gospel of 24 chapters. The structure and sequence can be challenging to remember, so a broad outline is helpful.

Broad Outline of Acts:
Chapters 1-12: Early experiences of the apostles spreading Christianity.
Chapters 13-20: Three missionary journeys of Paul as a chosen vessel.
Chapters 21-28: Paul’s house arrest and journey to Rome, where the book closes after two years under house arrest.

Acts 1 – Jesus’ Ascension and Apostolic Mission:
– The discourse reads Acts 1:1-3, addressing Theophilus (possibly a person or symbolic name meaning “lover of God”).
– Jesus gave many “infallible proofs” of His resurrection before His ascension (Acts 1:3).
– The speaker notes 13 recorded proofs of the resurrection, including appearances to individuals and groups.
– Notably, Paul cites an appearance to 500 people at once in 1 Corinthians (not in Acts or the Gospels), likely in Galilee.
– The resurrection appearances provided strong eyewitness testimony.

Miracles and Healing:
– Miracles and healings accompanied the apostles and even some deacons, validating Jesus as the Messiah and the truth of His resurrection.
– This contributed to rapid growth in early Christian numbers.

Key Themes in Early Acts:
– The apostles questioned Jesus about restoring the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6), but He replied it was not for them to know the times.
– This links to Acts 3:21 about the “restoration of all things”—the kingdom would be restored when Jesus returns.
– The recent reestablishment of Israel as a nation is seen as evidence that restoration times are near.
– Jesus instructs the apostles to be witnesses “in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8), a pattern that unfolds in Acts.

Pentecost and the Gift of Tongues (Acts 2):
– 120 believers gathered at Pentecost; the Holy Spirit was given, enabling them to speak in various languages.
– The crowd, comprised of Jews from various lands, heard the apostles speaking in their own tongues, validating the event.
– Peter explains the event using Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:17).
– About 3,000 people were baptized that day (Acts 2:38), marking a spectacular start to the Gospel age.
– The numbers 120 and 3,000 are seen symbolically: 12 (apostles) times 10 (earthly number) for the 120; 3 (atonement) for the 3,000 baptized.

Acts 3: Healing at the Temple:
– Peter and John heal a man lame from birth at the Temple’s ninth hour of prayer.
– This healing was public and undisputed, providing an opportunity for Peter to preach, leading to further conversions.
– The ninth hour (3 PM) is symbolically tied to Jesus’ death on the cross, representing atonement.

Opposition and Growth (Acts 4-5):
– The Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, arrested the apostles but could not stop the growth of believers, which reached about 5,000 men (not counting women and families).
– The apostles were beaten but rejoiced for being counted worthy to suffer for Jesus’ name (Acts 5:41).
– The story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) emphasizes the seriousness of honesty and godliness in the early church; both died suddenly after lying about their donation.
– This harsh judgment parallels Old Testament punishments and serves as a warning to the early church.

Further Persecution and Divine Protection:
– The apostles faced repeated imprisonments and opposition but were repeatedly released or escaped, sometimes by divine intervention.
– Gamaliel, a respected leader and Paul’s mentor, advised caution in dealing with the apostles, suggesting they might be acting under God’s authority.

Election of Deacons (Acts 6):
– To serve the growing community (possibly over 10,000 people), six deacons were appointed.
– The first three had Grecian (Hellenistic Jewish) names, the last three more Hebrew, representing cultural diversity within the church.
– Stephen, a deacon, was gifted in preaching and healing, effectively acting like an apostle.

Stephen’s Martyrdom (Acts 7):
– Stephen gives a lengthy testimony recounting Israel’s history, accusing his listeners of resisting the Holy Spirit.
– He becomes the first Christian martyr, stoned to death with Saul (Paul) consenting and holding the garments of the executioners.
– Stephen’s final prayer asks God not to hold this sin against his persecutors, a prayer that foreshadows Paul’s later conversion and forgiveness.

Saul’s Persecution and Conversion (Acts 8-9):
– Saul aggressively persecutes Christians, causing believers to scatter and spread the Gospel to Judea and Samaria, fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy.
– Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus is a pivotal event.
– Ananias (a faithful Christian, not the deceased Ananias) is sent to heal and baptize Saul.
– After three years of ministry in Damascus and Jerusalem, Saul is threatened and escapes to Tarsus.

Early Church Persecution and Growth:
– James, brother of John, is killed by Herod, marking the first apostolic martyrdom by Roman authority.
– This signals two persecution phases: first by Jews (33-73 AD), then by Romans (later periods).
– The Book of Revelation references a period of intense persecution (“10 days”) but promises no “second death” for faithful Christians.

Paul’s Missionary Journeys:
– Paul undertakes three missionary journeys, often with Barnabas.
– The first journey represents the expansion of Christianity during the first four church periods.
– The second corresponds with the Reformation era.
– The third represents the harvest period, the final gospel proclamation before Christ’s return.
– Paul’s ministry includes hardships like being stoned and left for dead, paralleling Stephen’s experience.

Concluding Remarks:
– The speaker encourages further study of the missionary journeys and the overall narrative of Acts.
– The growth of the early church, the spread of the gospel, the fulfillment of Jesus’ promises, and the evidential miracles demonstrate God’s sovereignty.
– The discourse closes with thanks and encouragement to appreciate the Book of Acts as a record of the church’s foundation and expansion.

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Key Bible Verses Mentioned:

– Acts 1:1-3 — Introduction and Jesus’ resurrection proofs.
– Acts 1:6-8 — Question about restoring the kingdom and Jesus’ commission.
– Acts 2:1-4, 15, 17, 38 — Pentecost, speaking in tongues, prophecy from Joel, baptism of 3,000.
– Acts 3 — Healing of the lame man at the temple.
– Acts 3:21 — Restoration of all things.
– Acts 4:1-4 — Sadducees arrest apostles; growth to 5,000.
– Acts 5 — Ananias and Sapphira’s judgment.
– Acts 5:17, 41 — Persecution and rejoicing.
– Acts 6 — Election of deacons including Stephen.
– Acts 7:51-60 — Stephen’s speech and martyrdom.
– Acts 8-9 — Saul’s persecution and conversion.
– Acts 12 — James’ martyrdom.
– 1 Corinthians 15:6 — Jesus appearing to 500 people.
– Joel 2:28-32 (quoted in Acts 2:17) — Outpouring of the Spirit.

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Summary Keywords:
Book of Acts, apostles, Jesus’ resurrection, infallible proofs, Pentecost, Holy Spirit, tongues, Peter’s sermon, early church growth, miracles, healing, Ananias and Sapphira, Stephen, martyrdom, Saul/Paul, missionary journeys, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Gentiles, kingdom restoration, persecution, baptism, election of deacons, church expansion.

Transcript

The Book of Acts. Well, we talked about Jesus in the hymn that just preceded. I love the words of that hymn. Sometimes I have the opportunity to have a zoom service with brethren in Africa and I very often choose that hymn. It’s inspiring to me.

But it does belong to the Book of Acts because it’s all about Jesus, and in the Book of Acts, what we have is the first opportunity for the apostles of Jesus to go out publicly and speak about him, and what they did and how successful they were is just remarkable to me. Just remarkable.

I think I know that God provided the opportunities and the circumstances to promote them. The Book of acts comes in three parts now. It’s got 28 chapters. The book of Acts is written by Luke, who wrote another book just before this of 24 chapters, and with the four Gospels we kind of remember the order and sequence of events to some extent.

But the book of Acts, 28 chapters, that’s a little more difficult for me to keep in memory. So if I have a broad outline of it, that helps me. So here’s a very broad outline indeed. We have 12 chapters to deal with the early experiences of the apostles as they went out and taught about Christ and introduced to to the entire world the doctrine of Christianity, and then in the next eight chapters we have three missionary tours of Paul in which Paul, as a very chosen vessel was sent out three times.

And the third time he came back and he found himself under house arrest, and that rest lasts for eight chapters until he finally arrives at Rome, and at Rome he spends two years under again house arrest, and that’s where the book closes. So we’re going to go through the narratives today.

We won’t be able to get in detail through all of them, but at least maybe fix in your mind the concept of how the Book of Acts and what it reports flows, and we’ll see some pictures along the way embedded in these various activities as well. Now, in the first three verses of Acts that we’ll read now, we find the introduction and what the burden of the apostles is going to be. The former treatise have I made O Theophilus. Now, I’ve read that Theophilus might be a person, and I’ve also read that because of his name, he’s talking about Theo God, that it might be just kind of a made up designation.

I don’t know the answer to that. I’ll you tell me, figure it out and I’ll be happy to know. But it says O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Until the day in which he was taken up. After that, he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandment unto the apostles whom he had chosen.

Now we’re going to read about that taking up in this first chapter in verse three, to whom also he showed himself alive and after his passion by many infallible proofs. Now, I like that expression. Many infallible proofs that Jesus was taken up into heaven and was raised as our Savior. Now, for the apostles who actually saw this, there’s no doubt that sometimes people in retrospect might have occasion to doubt whether this was really as reflected in the account this really happened. So we’d like to.

My goodness, did I shift already? That’s what I want. Anyway, those are the various occasions when Jesus did give testimony to who he was and that he was raised from the dead. Now, we have 13 items listed here. We’re not going to go through all of them.

Two of them, we don’t have the name Jesus in, but on those two occasions, we. We have something that was terribly, remarkably evidential. We had, in the very first one, two angels at the tomb, and they saw the. The people that were keeping the tomb saw the two angels.

They were shaking in fear. The stone was rolled away and they just fled, and so later they had this testimony about the tomb. Now, it always amazes me that when they gave this testimony to the Jewish leaders, the Jewish leaders said, okay, we’ll pay you to keep quiet. Well, I would think.

Really? You mean the angels came? You saw that this person that. We were unsure who he was. Whoa, okay, we better.

No, that didn’t mean anything to them. Okay, but then you have in verse number three, Peter and John that came to an empty tomb. They didn’t see Jesus. They just saw he was gone. But in every one of the other occasions, Jesus literally appeared to people.

And on one occasion, you’ll find at number 10, he appeared to 500 people. Now, that’s not recorded in the Book of Acts, per se. It’s not recorded in the Gospels. But that’s recorded in the Book of Corinthians where Paul said, there’s some among you that don’t believe in the resurrection. How is that possible?

Because we know that Jesus was raised from the dead and he even mentions 500 people at one time saw him. That’s an incredible testimony, and Paul said, you know that most of those are alive to this day. Now, where did that actually happen? Because we don’t have that record in the Gospel accounts itself.

My opinion is reflected here, that that was at the in the Galilee region and it was on a mountain, and I think it doesn’t tell us in the record of Luke how many people saw him, but I think that was the occasion on a mountain. So this is remarkable that not only did he appear to all of his disciples, so that every one of them had firsthand testimony that he was raised from the dead, but that 500 people could affirm exactly the same thing. Now, beyond all that, when the apostles go out, they’re going to go out with miracles, time after time after time and healing. Now I at one time thought maybe the healing that the miracles would be would only by the 12 apostles.

Turns out that’s not true that among the deacons that were elected, they also did healing, and so people had a avid evidence that Jesus really was the Messiah and was raised from the dead, and this is why the numbers grew by leaps and bounds. Okay, with that in mind, we’re going to go through the various chapters that are the first set of chapters that deal with the activities of the apostles in general. Now number one, we just read in the first chapter that there were many proofs, and we listed all those proofs of his resurrection in verse number six.

Before Jesus leaves, they have one last question for him, and this is the question that was burning on their minds for a long time before the apostles came with Jesus into Jerusalem for the last week of his experiences. In Luke 19, it says that Jesus took them by the side and he knew that they were expecting the kingdom to be appearing soon, and you know what he did after that? He rode into Jerusalem and people proclaimed him Hosanna.

And so you might think, there’s the kingdom, he’s going to be king now. So Jesus took him aside and gave him a parable, the parable of the nobleman that had to go into a far country to receive a kingdom and then to return. They had no idea what he’s talking about. In John 14, a few days later, when they had the Last Supper, Jesus said, I’m going to go away. They had no idea he was leaving.

They had no idea where he was going. Thomas even said, we don’t know where you’re going. We don’t know how to find you when you go there. But Jesus said, I’m going to go away, and then I’ll come back and receive you to where I’m going to be. So this was all news to them.

And by the way, that impresses me that we have a very positive way of declaring that there was no heavenly calling before the Gospel age. Because they were entirely void of the concept of going out to heaven until Jesus clarified it for them in that same chapter. Oh, in verse six, before Jesus left, they had this one Last question, verse 6, Acts 1:6. When they were therefore come together, they asked of him, saying, lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel, since now you’re resurrected and now you’re here? And his answer was, it’s not for you to know what time that’s going to be.

Suppose he had told them, well, yeah, that’ll be about 2,000 years away. Oh. Oh, my goodness. Okay. That would have been a little discouraging, I think.

So it’s good that he didn’t give them any hint as to how long it would be. But the point was that the angels told them, he’ll be back. But this verse, whether you restore again the kingdom to Israel, I think is a key to me for understanding something that Peter said later. That’s a text that we all know very, very well, and that’s Acts 3:21, whom the heavens must receive until the times of restoration of all things. Now I use the word restoration.

My King James Bible would say restitution. Most new renderings would say restoration, and I think it’s because Peter is reflecting in his speech on that occasion what he learned from Jesus on this occasion, and that is, he’s not going to restore again the kingdom to Israel until he comes again, and therefore, when he comes again, he will restore the kingdom.

Has Israel been reestablished and restored as a nation? Yeah, they have. Is this an evidence of the fact that we’re in those times of restoration? Yes, it is, and through Israel, of course, the whole world of mankind is going to be blessed.

So when we see stunning things happening in Israel these days, like October 7, 2023, I was stunned. I was surprised. Another brother told me, something’s going to happen this year. He had good reasons for it. I now think he’s right.

But I was surprised, and it has my apt attention, because Israel is the foundation for the beginning of the kingdom. Okay. Later in verse eight, we find out. Let’s see.

Oh, yes, verse eight. Jesus said, you’re going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, and when we go through the book of Acts, we’ll see that the apostles started in Jerusalem, and then they were taken by the scribes and Pharisees and afflicted, and so many of the brethren fled, and they went throughout Judea and took the message.

Then we’ll See, a little bit later that Philip went to Samaria and took the message there, and then Philip after that, talked to the Ethiopian eunuch, which comes from the uttermost parts of the earth. So the nature, the sequence that Jesus gives here is the sequence that the later narratives do unfold. In verse 15 of chapter one, we see that there were 120 people gathered together at Jerusalem before Pentecost that were believers in Jesus. Now, I think if they were in Galilee, the numbers would have been substantially higher.

We already mentioned 500 people in Galilee that saw Jesus, you know, as a raised being, because Galilee is where Jesus did most of his ministry. But in Jerusalem, you had at least 120. Why that number? Why is it given? Well, you know, when I see a number, I always think there’s a meaning to it.

What is the meaning? I would just suggest that here 12 is the spiritual number, just like 10 is an earthly number, and so here we have the 12 times 10 from earth. The 10 comes the spiritual class that are going to be drawn out from here forward, starting with this small group of 120, and in verse 23, we have the election of Matthias as an apostle.

I know that’s disputed by the brethren. Is that right or wrong? I have various opinions on that. We’re not going to talk about that too much. But it appears that the disciples recognized Matthias and accepted him.

And in chapter two, and we go forward, the gift of tongues was given, and I think that resided in all 12 of them. Let’s go down now to chapter number two. This is where Pentecost comes into the scene. Chapter two, verse one.

The day of Pentecost was fully come. They were with one accord, in one place, and you know the narrative. You know that in the Pentecost day they were gathered in the morning, I think, at the Temple Mount. You know, there were three times when all Jewish men had to gather at Jerusalem every year.

That was for Passover and Pentecost and then the feast of Tabernacles. So you had a lot of people gathered together at this time. They were from foreign lands, they were Jewish, but they were from foreign lands, and so the gift of tongues was given to the disciples, and all of these people heard the Galilean apostles speaking in these other various native languages.

So that was a remarkable testimony for what was happening. When you go down to verse 15, you’ll find out that Peter says it’s the third hour of the day, and therefore this speaking in tongues is real. It’s not drunk, you know, misbehavior or something. This is real third hour of the day.

Why does he mention that? Well, it’s testimony that it was early in the morning. But that tells me something. Third hour of the day is when Jesus was put on the cross to die. Here’s the first testimony.

Public witness of the Holy Spirit that was pending that Jesus said would come and they would be witnesses of him throughout. Now, in my opinion, the time when Jesus was on the cross is symbolically meaningful. He was put on the cross the third hour. He died at the ninth hour. The third hour would be what we would call nine in the morning.

The ninth hour would be what we would call three in the afternoon. That means he was on the cross for six hours. That’s not a coincidence. It was 6,000 years of sin and death that he’s atoning for by those six hours of hanging on the cross. But he was put on the cross rather than stoned, for example, because he had to redeem the Jews from the curse of the law, according to what Deuteronomy and Paul says about that.

So I think the ninth hour represents for us the time when the Jewish people are going to be freed from their burdens of sin, and here on this third hour, they were all Jewish. When you go a little farther and you go into the conversion of Cornelius, you’re going to see twice mentioned the ninth hour of the day when Cornelius was visited by a messenger that said, I’m going to send somebody to tell you about Jesus. That ninth hour does pertain to all of the rest of mankind, including the Jews. But the ninth hour is when he actually died on the cross.

He had to die for Adam and every single one of us Gentiles or Jews. So I think it’s meaningful when these numbers of hours are introduced, it’s reminding you that on Pentecost, only Jews were there, and at Cornelius, it expanded to the gentiles.

In verse 17 of chapter two, we have a quotation from Joel, chapter two, about the holy Spirit, and we know that that passage is going to apply in two ages, not only to the Gospel age, but to the thousand year kingdom as well. In verse 38, there were baptized 3,000 people. I’ve been at a lot of baptismals before. I’ve never seen 100 people baptized.

I’ve never seen a thousand people baptized. Have you ever seen 3,000 people baptized at one day? This is Pentecost. Talk about a stunning beginning to the Gospel age. There were only 120 meeting together.

And because of the gift of tongues and because people thought These people are crazy. That led Peter to give a speech and that speech implored them to recognize that Jesus was raised from the dead only 10 days earlier. He had ascended. This is very vibrant. They all knew what had happened.

They all knew what was going on. They knew the testimony that Jesus had been raised, and now 3,000 of them come forward and say, then let me join with this group. Now I do wonder in my own mind, have they been all been spirit begotten at this time? I’m not sure.

But you had 3,000 people enter in at any rate. 3,000, is there a meaning to that number? I always wonder. Well, the number three is the number for the atonement and redemption, and here’s the first large group of people that are receiving the atonement and the redemption.

Okay, going to go on a little further. That’s the third chapter. Third chapter, they come up to another notable event. This is where Peter and John go up to the temple, and by the way, you know, how are you going to find a meeting place for 3,000 people that have come into the church in Jerusalem?

It would be a big, big hall. But I think what’s going on in the early church is they’re oftentimes coming to the temple, Solomon’s temple, okay, it’s rebuilt its Herod’s temple, but the temple that was reconstructed and they’re using the facility there to gather and fellowship and worship. So on this occasion, Peter and John are coming up and it’s the ninth hour, the hour of prayer, and they find a man there who’s been lame from birth and he’s a well known person. Later we find out he’s over 40 years old and he was lame from his mother’s birth. I think this also is a picture of Gentiles.

I’m not saying this man was a Gentile, but I think he’s a picture of the Gentiles who have all been lame from birth, from the time of Adam’s sin forward, and notice again that the hour that’s referred to, it’s the ninth hour of the day. So they heal him, and this is remarkable because nobody can dispute that this man was healed by God’s power. Somebody that they all knew was a beggar that had never been able to walk in his entire life.

So this gave the opportunity for Peter to speak again to the crowd, and as a consequence there were even more people that joined the church. Now you see in chapter four, going to turn to chapter four. We now have for the first time the beginning of a Resistance, chapter 4, verse 1. As they spake unto the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees.

Now you remember the Sadducees were the actual leaders of the temple. Now there were Pharisees and Sadducees, but the Sadducees had the upper hand, and you know that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. It’s common knowledge. So this concept that Jesus was raised is vibrantly against everything they believe.

So the Sadducees, who are the leaders, being grieved that they taught the people, they laid their hands on them and put them into the hold until the next day. For it was even time by this time. Howbeit verse 4. The number of them that believed was now up to 5,000. Now it more than that.

Now it said 3,000 were baptized in the day of Pentecost. Now we’re 5,000 men. Doesn’t talk about women. So add women into that. Can you double the number?

And of course, those are people that often had families, and so you have even more, but you’ve got, you. You got. Do you have 10,000 people that are associated with the church? Well, this is remarkable.

Just a few days later. So things are growing exponentially. It’s just a remarkable way that God overruled and blessed the effort of the disciples. Now it turns out when these disciples were arrested, they weren’t beaten. The next day they’re going to be let loose and they’re going to be told, by all means, stop talking about Jesus.

Well, if you were one of the apostles, you know what you would do. You’ve just had 10,000 people come into the truth and you’re not going to stop talking. So they’re going to keep on going. But they were not beaten yet. Okay, now we get to chapter five of the Book of Acts, and we have an unfortunate experience.

This is Ananias and Sapphira, and these were two people that probably were among those that were baptized, I would guess. I don’t know for sure, but they certainly found themselves feeling that they were part of the Christian community, and you notice in verse 12. Oh, excuse me.

No, I’m going ahead of myself in Ananias and Sapphira, you know the narrative. You know that Ananias and Sapphira said, we are going to do what a lot of other people did, that is, we’re going to sell our property and give it to the community of Christians, and so they claim to have done that, and Peter realized they really didn’t do what they claimed. So he asked Ananias, is that what you did?

He says, yeah, yeah, that’s what he did, and Ananias fell down dead at his feet. Now, this is pretty strict, isn’t it? Pretty strict. How many people have said untruths that never suffered death because of it?

Everyone, probably. So this was very strict. But I think it was noteworthy for the Christian church to tell them at the outset, you have to abide by the principles of godliness. Now you know what happened. A little bit later his wife came in and Sapphira said the same thing.

And she dropped down at the feet of Peter as well and died. I don’t know how they died. Did they each have a heart attack? And God knew it was time. Just right.

Did God strike them down? I don’t know, but. But it was overruled by the Heavenly Father. It wasn’t Peter’s fault. It wasn’t Peter’s judgment.

It wasn’t his decision. This came from God. Did you ever have something else that was very, very intense early in the Jewish age? You did you go back to the Book of Numbers, you’re going to find numbers 1532. I don’t have time to read it.

But you go back there that there was, after the Sabbath day was given to the Jewish people, there was a man that went out and gathered sticks on the Sabbath day. They said, wait, wait, you’re not supposed to be doing this. Yeah, mind your own business. He’s going to do what he wants to do. So they go to the Lord and say, they put him in ward, they kind of arrested him.

And they asked God, what do we do with this man? They didn’t decide. God said, he will be stoned to death. Okay, if I was stoned to death, every time I said an untruth, I wouldn’t be standing before you today. I don’t lie.

But I do remember, even when I was a boy said something I shouldn’t have said, and I regret it and remember it to this day. But the point is, this was a mistruth that was severely punished. To tell the Jewish people at the beginning of this situation, it’s important for you to keep the law of God. So these are very intense things.

They didn’t continue to happen, but they happened to begin the experiences of the church and inform them how important it was. Okay, in verse number 17, we have another indignation. This is Acts 5:17. Then the high priest rose up before them all and they were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them into prison. The second time, they’d been arrested.

First time, they were not punished too much. They stayed overnight in jail, and they were released the next day. This time they’re going to be punished, but this time, Gamaliel, who was a mentor for the Apostle Paul, said, you better be careful what you do with these men. Finally, somebody in the leadership role that has a little apprehension about all the things that are happening and all the testimonies of what’s going on, that maybe. Maybe they should be a little bit cautious that maybe these people are representing God after all.

So they said, well, okay, it wasn’t much of an agreement, so we’ll let them go. So what do they do? They beat them, and then they let him go. Okay, that doesn’t sound like really the right spirit. But in verse 41, they were beaten before they were let go.

Verse 41, they went by rejoicing. Verse 41, they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. So the next time you suffer consequences of your faith, the next time you do that, rejoice. This is a privilege to rejoice for your faith under any circumstance. Okay, go on.

Number six. We’re going to get to the election of deacons. We have a large group of people, 10,000 people, maybe more. Maybe that’s a little exaggeration. I don’t know.

Have thousands of people in this Christian community, and now we need some make sure that everybody is properly served. It’s kind of a communal activity. After all, people have sold their lands, given their money, and so it’s a community that should take care of everybody. So they elect six deacons to help in this work, because the apostles are busy spreading the word of the truth.

And in these six deacons, we have the names given to us in verse five. Now, recently, we’ve been studying the Book of Acts in our class, and somebody brought to my attention something I didn’t know, and that is that the first three of these names are Grecian. The last three are more Hebrew, and the one in between is kind of mixed. That’s interesting. So they selected these deacons to kind of appeal to both groups of people.

Now, by Grecians, we don’t mean non Jews. We mean Jews that really were more Romanized and Grecianized in their culture, but they were still Jewish people. Okay, let’s see.

In chapter six, verse number nine, there arose in the synagogue libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those of Cilicia and Asia, disputing with the very first deacon that they had elected. This is engaging to me that Stephen was so vibrantly able to go out and speak almost like one of the apostles. Now I have an opinion that probably these deacons, at least some of them would have been among the 70 disciples that Jesus had selected earlier. Probably weren’t new to the fold. I don’t know, we don’t have the names of them.

But I suspect that Stephen had some experience going out and speaking on behalf of Jesus because He sent the 70 disciples to do that. Later in the book of Acts, we’re going to find out something surprising, and that is that some of the deacons also did healing. But you know, the 70 disciples were given that power to do as well. Not just the apostles, but Stephen was very, very gifted. None of the apostles had been so taken and treated like Stephen was.

But Stephen was so earnest and good at what he did, they arrested him, and so in chapter seven, what we have is the account of Stephen and his testimony before the council, and he talks about Abraham, about Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses, and then in chapter 7, verse 51, he realizes his crowd is not appreciating his message or his suggestions, and so he says, verse 51.

You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do ye. If I went into a church and I had the opportunity to speak something about the truth, I would never say that. Never. But we have a situation where 10,000 people have recognized the evidence, where the evidence is all around them, where Stephen is speaking and he realizes they’re not listening to his words, and he gives up.

You stiff necked and rebellious people, you know what happened next. Stephen suffered martyrdom. He’s the first Christian martyr that we have a record of, and you know who was there? That was the apostle Paul.

Now, I think that Paul did not throw a stone because it says he was actually a young man. I wonder if that means that Paul was actually younger than the other apostles. I kind of think so, but I’m not sure. You correct me and tell me the facts if you know them better. But it does say in verse 58, they laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet whose name was Saul.

He’s called Paul later on, and they stoned Stephen, and notice what Stephen says in verse 60. He kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, lord, lay not this sin to their charge. When he had said this, he fell asleep now some brethren might think maybe he was too generous in this.

I don’t think so. I think God actually respected that request. You remember who the young man was, Saul. Did God not lay that to his charge? Did God call Paul later to be one of the apostles?

He did. I think that Stephen’s dying prayer was responded to. Now Paul was extremely capable speaker. Now once later Paul says, people say of me that something about my, my wordage and verbiage and I don’t quite understand that because Paul was a dynamic speaker when he went out and spoke. He was with Barnabas on their first missionary tour.

And that’s when people thought they were, they were gods, and they, they said, well, Barnabas, he’s probably the, the bigger built man and older man. He must be Jupiter and Paul must be Mercury because he’s speaking so well. He was really a good speaker. I kind of think Paul is the replacement for Stephen.

And when Stephen said so, by now they’re both together, they’re both up there, and I think Stephen told Paul, you did a good job, and I think Paul told Stephen, thanks for forgiving me. Now you know that Jesus is recorded to have said, reported to have said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. That’s spurious.

That’s not accurate. I don’t remember what the text is right now, but I checked it out. It is considered to be spurious. So was Stephen nicer than Jesus? No, I think Jesus was just recognized that God was not going to forgive the Jewish nation for what had happened.

He was willing to have it done. He could have saved himself, but he knew that this was necessary. But he knew that judgment was going to come upon Israel. There was no question about that. So he didn’t utter those words.

But on behalf of what I think ended up to be Paul, these words of Stephen did take root.

Chapter eight. Here’s Saul again. He’s going to go out and start persecuting people, and this is the narrative that finally is going to lead Saul to repentance. Chapter eight.

Excuse me, we’re in chapter eight. Yeah. Saul was sympathetic to the death of Stephen. He was consenting even though he didn’t throw a stone, and I think God overruled that.

He wouldn’t have thrown a stone, and then because of his service, because of his persecution of the church, they were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Well, you remember what Jesus said. You’re going to be take my word from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and so that happened.

And we’re going to have to skip a lot. My goodness, time’s going by so quick. Okay, so, and I’m going to skip down to the Next 1. Chapter 9 is where Paul is converted.

And when Paul was converted, Paul was in Damascus, near Damascus. He went to Damascus. Ananias, who by coincidence is the same name as the Ananias who had given a lie and was struck down dead. Ananias here was a good Christian believer. He helped Paul.

And God, through an angel, told Ananias to go assist Paul, and so the ninth chapter is all about this, and then we’re going to go on to chapter 10. This is the induction of Cornelius the Gentile, and then chapter 11, we have the report of Peter about his interface with Cornelius.

And then in chapter 12, we’ve had another death of an apostle. This is when Herod kills James with the sword. So this is the second one to die. Now, I’m going to suggest that in these two martyrs, Stephen and James, the first one was killed by the Jewish people, and the second one was killed by a Roman leader. I think this is indicative of what’s going to happen to the entire church.

And that is the first period of the church, from 33 until 73, 40 years, would be persecuted by Jewish people, and the second period of the church would be persecuted mostly by Romans, and in Revelation, it talks about the 10 days of persecution, of difficulty, from 303 to 13. He says, but don’t worry, you may suffer the first death, but you’ll never suffer the second death, and for 10 days you will have persecution. Now, that was brutal.

And I kind of think that these two deaths represent those two periods of the Church when there would be martyrdom for the Church. We’ve got to go on. Here’s where we’re talking. This is the narrative, a map about where Paul went when he was converted. Now, you find Damascus on the map there.

There’s a lot of lines there. We can’t talk about all of them. But let me just explain what happened, and this is not clear from the narrative in Acts, you have to. You have to include Galatians and Corinthians.

But the narrative is that when he was. When he left Damascus, when he. When he was converted, he went to Damascus. He left Damascus and went into Arabia, and then he went back to Damascus and for three years began preaching, and at that, after three years, he was brought back down to Jerusalem.

He was let down over a wall because they threatened his life. Well, that tells you something. Of all of the apostles, he’s the one that they threatened his life before the others. That again expresses how good Paul was at publicly speaking about things, and then after that, he came to Jerusalem.

He wasn’t well received there because he was so prolific in his speech that the Jews persecuted him. So he went up to Tarsus, where he came from, and then later Barnabas would go up to Tarsus and bring him to Antioch. Okay, that’s. Now we go through the three missionary tours of Paul and we’ve got zero minutes left, so I think we’re okay.

Thank you. He’s being generous to me, so I’ll just show you a map of where he went. These are the first two journeys he went with Barnabas across down the sea to Cyprus, and I could point this to you, but you don’t have to walk over there.

Oh, okay. I’m sorry. I’ve hit a button and I’ve done something wrong.

Okay. Okay. See if I can do this. So he’s going to go down here to Cypress, then up here, then through here, and then go back again, and on that last experience at Maestra, before he goes to Derby, Paul is going to be stoned and left for dead.

I think Paul later recognized that that was because he was able to experience something the way Stephen experienced it. Do you think Paul, after his recovery from that, was sorry he had endured that, or grateful to the Lord that he felt like he was maybe atoned for, you know, in some respect from what he had participated in earlier? I think the second one. Okay, now our time is really going, so we’re just going to have to pass this by. But I will say this.

I would just give you this suggestion. You can study it later. I’m going to suggest these three missionary tours. Take us through the gospel agent picture that. The first missionary tour of Paul and Barnabas represents the expansion of Christianity in the first four periods of the church.

And the fourth period under Thyatira was when the church was persecuted more deeply than ever before. Volume two even says 50 million people lost their lives. I don’t know if that number is true or not. I checked it out on the Internet. I found the same number.

I still dispute it. I shouldn’t say dispute, question it, but it could be millions and millions of Christians lost their life. Anyway. I think that’s the first, fourth period of the church. The second missionary tour, I think that’s the Reformation forward.

And the third missionary tour I’m going to suggest is a picture of the harvest period in the second adventure. Okay, we can’t talk about all of those I’m not going to talk about that. We’re going to close. We thank you, Brother Tang. Thank you.

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