2nd Intro to the book of Acts

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/18/2017 7:18 AM

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  2^nd Introduction to Acts

            In today’s SD I have decided to begin to quote a sermon from John MacArthur given in 2014 as he began to teach and preach the book of Acts in his church.  I will break up this sermon in different parts until it is all complete and by then I am hopeful that my commentaries will come in and we can began to look at the first chapter of the book of Acts.  I remind you of a couple of things, and that when I quote a sermon from John MacArthur the grammar may not be correct as the words that he speaks are the words that are written down and put on his website.  Next I want to say that this is the second time that he has preached through the book of Acts, similar to the gospel of John.  At this time he was preaching through the gospel of John in the morning and then the book of Acts in the evening.  So the following is the first installment of his first sermon on the book of Acts from 2104.

“Well, we’re going to open to the book of Acts, finally, and I’m going to at least read Verse 1.

I do confess to you that I am a firm believer that if you understand the overall significance of a book, you can navigate it.  I don’t know how you are if you ever use a Google map, but when pop up a Google map on your iPad or whatever it is and you want directions, if you’re like me, you want to see the whole picture first.  I want to know A to Z, and then I can get down into the details and kind of track along with that if I have some kind of sense of where I’m going.

I think that works really well in studying the Bible, especially when you approach a new book, to get some kind of an overview of the whole thing, to pull back and get the full picture.  Now in reading Verse 1, you’re going to get enough for us to get started.  The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach.  Luke is referring – Luke is the writer, the historian.  He’s referring to his gospel, the Gospel of Luke.

That was the first account that he composed and sent to this gentleman named Theophilus, which means “Lover of God.”  And first volume of history was about all that Jesus began to do and teach.  That’s a very important verb.  Luke wrote Volume 1, the Gospel of Luke, about all that Jesus began to do and teach.  The Book of Acts is Volume 2 about the continued doing, if you will, and teaching of Jesus.

The gospels, you might say in one sense, tell the story of the finished work of Christ.  You do remember that he said in his high priestly prayer in anticipation of the cross in John 17:4, “I have finished the work you gave me to do.”  And then on the cross, according to John 19:30, just before he gave up his life, he said, “It is finished.”  So it is true that the first volume, the Gospel of Luke, and for that matter, all the other gospel writers, tell us of the finished work of Christ.  The long awaited sacrifice for sin that satisfied God fully, he offered.

By the sacrifice and offering of himself, he saved forever those who believed, and of course, he secured their redemption by his resurrection from the dead.  Now nothing can be added to the finished work of Christ.  Nothing.  It was satisfactory to God, and so God raised him from the dead to validate his satisfaction, and then God gave him a name above every name, exalted him to his right hand, gave him the name Lord, restored him to complete exalted heavenly glory, and even added a new dimension now as the savior because he had offered personally the sacrifice.

And so he would then purchase with that work a vast array of redeemed people throughout all of human history who would forever praise and honor and glorify him.  This is the work that Jesus finished, but there also was the work that Jesus only began.  The work of redemption he finished.  The work of doing and teaching he just began.  The work of proclaiming the gospel, teaching the kingdom, and living the kingdom he only began.

You might say he began in his ministry to collect the elect.  He began to collect them, small group they were as we reminded in our study on Sunday morning in John 6.  He began to collect the elect, but he only began that.  By the time he ascended into heaven, there are just a few.  They’re all in one tiny little country in the midst of this globe.  A hundred and twenty gather in the upper room in Jerusalem, and several hundred more in Galilee, and that’s the beginning.  That’s what Jesus began.

So Acts, as Luke continues to write, is the story of what Jesus continues to do and teach.  This is Volume 2, although it’s the first book of church history, it’s Volume 2 of the New Testament history of redemption.  And if you will, it could be said that it’s actually Volume 3 because the first volume of redemptive history is the Old Testament itself.  Acts continues the story, the story and the long process completing God’s redemptive work through Christ.

So Luke says the first account I composed, the Gospel of Luke.  The Gospel, which like the other three Gospels, tells the story of, listen, of the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.  The Old Testament gives the prophecies of the coming of Messiah, and the Gospels give the record of the realization of those prophecy.  The plan of God promised in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament. 

God brings the chosen redeemer to save Israel and the nations that was promised throughout the Old Testament.  So Luke’s Volume 1 is very, very important.  Let’s go back to Luke 1 for a moment, and let me read the first four verses so you understand something about Luke’s writing.  By the way, if you ever have the opportunity to listen to the messages that were preached from this section when we went through Luke, you’ll find them very instructive.

So Luke writes, “In as much as many have undertaken to compile account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses of servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”

Now I just want to grab one phrase, the exact truth.  Luke is a fastidious historian to start with from the human view.  He’s a meticulous historian.  And you add to that, of course, that he’s inspired by the Holy Spirit, and he sets off to write, and in Luke’s mind, he doesn’t know this will be called Luke, and he doesn’t know Volume 2 will be called Acts.  He writes one great, long history, and the goal was exact truth.  To provide absolute certainty of the facts of redemptive history, to provide full assurance to believers, like Theophilus and others, that God’s promise of salvation was being fulfilled. 

The prophecies in the Old Testament that came through the prophets to whom he refers as eyewitnesses and servants of the word, those prophecies were precise and exact and identified places like where he’d be born in Bethlehem and details about his life and details about his death.  So Luke wants to write a history to show that all the precision of the Old Testament that pointed toward Christ was fulfilled with the same kind of precision.

So Acts then continues the story of the exact truth of God fulfilling Old Testament prophecy with the coming of Messiah, and then after Messiah’s resurrection and ascension, God continues to fulfill the story, and Luke writes with the same precision.  Why?  To provide certainty.  To provide certainty so that you may know the exact truth about the things you’ve been taught so that you may know. 

You’ll remember that at the end of this book of Luke, as Luke signs off, Jesus opened their minds to understand the scripture, and he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.  You’re witnesses of these things, and behold, I’m sending forth the promise of my father upon you, namely the Holy Spirit.  Stay in the city until you’re clothed with power from on high.” 

And that is how Volume 1 ends, and Volume 2 essentially begins with the arrival of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is promised in the book of Luke and comes in the book of Acts the way the Messiah was promised in the Old Testament and came in the book of Luke.  This is an exact and precise history.  The early readers were being taught then essentially that the apostles and the prophets spoke the truth.

Luke writes to give them assurance.  The Holy Spirit would come and the work would continue.  Luke writes with certainty about Christ from his birth to his ascension in Volume 1, and he writes with certainty from the ascension to the coming of the Holy Spirit to the gospel being proclaimed to the world for the establishment of the church. 

That’s just kind of a broad overview.  As in the Old Testament, all that is going on in Luke and Acts is being done by God.  I told you God is the sovereign power behind all of redemptive history, and the spirit works the will of the father, and the son does the will of the father.  God is at work redeeming his people in the Old Testament and in the New.  An interesting little note.  Luke loves to use a particular word in its death in the Greek language, and it means it is necessary.  Luke uses that word 40 times in his writings to affirm to us that it is necessary that this happen.

It is necessary that this happened.  It is necessary Luke records in his Gospel because the Old Testament profit said it.  It is necessary, Luke says in the book of Acts, because Jesus predicted it and promised it.  So Acts is Volume 2 of Luke’s history, and the first volume of the history of the church written to give believers an exact account so they could have confidence that God is still fulfilling his redemptive promise.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Moses caught it and it became a rod” (Exodus 4:4).

Today’s Bible question:  “Why did Saul of Tarsus go to Damascus?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/18/2017 7:25 AM