Introduction to Acts – The First Christians (Part C)

The kingdom's laws are beautiful to its citizens in its final state. The king's judgments are binding on those whom he judges.

We're not left here to enrich the world's system. We're here to proclaim truth to people in the world, and we're here to build each other up so that we can continue to preach the truth to the world. And we have a responsibility to uphold the church, the body of Christ, the church that upholds the truth of Christ. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Acts.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with his continuing introduction to our study of the Book of Acts. Theophilus was likely an individual who had a high position in government, was a man of some means, and he knew Luke. Perhaps Luke was his physician.

You could have a lot of conjecture there. The point is he writes him now and he uses that personal pronoun, I, where he says, the former account I made, O Theophilus. This is indicating a warmer relationship because he's dropped the title, Most Excellent, and he just says, O Theophilus. There's a term of endearment in that. O Theophilus. There's a nearness. There's a warmness.

There's a friendship. What has changed? Well, Theophilus got the Book of Luke as we know it. That's who it was addressed to. That's why I just read again Luke 1 verse 3 where he says, I put an orderly account together for you, Most Excellent Theophilus, and now he writes a second account, the former account I made, Luke's Gospel, O Theophilus. Theophilus has become a believer. He's not caught up on, I am most excellent.

He's humbled now. We don't know what transactions occurred between the two in between the writing of Luke and the writing of this Book of Acts, but there must have been some because there's a change in the tone. Why doesn't he still call him Most Excellent Theophilus?

Again, that would account for it. He says of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Now Luke put a lot of work into the Gospel of Luke and he put a lot of work into the Book of Acts and he's getting this word out.

He's getting it to this man because it is what Jesus began to do. Acts is the story of beginnings. Everything in Acts is the beginning of for the church and the continuation of too. Nothing is finished.

It's an ongoing story for us. Leviticus chapter 6 verse 12, when I mentioned about the fire in the heart of the believer, this was the rule for the tabernacle of the Jews in the wilderness. The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not be put out and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offerings in order on it. The fire is not to go out.

It is it paralleled by the heart of the believer. The fire in our heart for truth, for God, for serving him, it's not supposed to go out. We're supposed to chop the wood and haul it.

We're supposed to maintain the fire. He'll do his part. God will, but we have our part too. There is this unfinished work of proclaiming the finished work of Jesus Christ, the finished work of salvation. It's finished.

It's done. Of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, we are to continue proclaiming these things. Matthew 28, again, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. We notice in verse 1 that the doing comes before teaching. There are some that are just so eager to teach them, but they're not doing, and one of the things they're not doing is waiting for the Lord to put them in a position of teaching.

That is a divine prerogative. What Jesus began, of course, was teaching us about God, about love, about grace, about truth, about judgment, doctrine. It sums up what he begun. There's more. There are the details, and they're very important details.

They're not insignificant at all. He practiced. Jesus did what he preached. The best preacher, the best pastor preaches better than they practice. No pastor can live up to the standard of scripture. No Christian can, but it's the pursuit of that standard that knocks hell down. It's just chasing righteousness that makes the difference.

It makes all the difference. Go to a place where it's not practiced. Go to a place where Christianity is not allowed.

You don't see the pursuit of Christianity in North Korea, do you, and many other places, and so it does matter. Don't be discouraged because you can't see. No soldier on the battlefield sees the whole battle. That's for the generals.

He sees what's right in front of him, and his position can be totally wiped out, and they still win. Don't be knocked out of the fight because it seems like you're not getting anywhere. Keep moving forward. That alone will just, it beckons the strength of the Holy Spirit in your life. Christ practicing what he taught, and what Jesus did and taught did not end with the departure of Christ to his father. When he ascends to heaven, that's it. You guys are on your own. I gave you some rules now.

Just go do them. That's exactly what did not happen, and Acts is telling this story. Acts chapter 1, verse 8. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me. Now the thought is, okay, I'm going to receive this power so I can get a new car, so I can get, and of course that's the prosperity teaches, which isn't very prosperous at all.

It's quite the opposite. This power is not to show off. Oh, look at me. I can speak in tongues. You can't, as some will like to do. This is power to be witnesses of Jesus Christ. That's the power I want. Would you rather lead 10 people to heaven or show 10 people you can speak in tongues?

It's a very simple thing. I'd rather, I mean, this is, you know, there's much joy in heaven when one sinner repents and converts, not when one Christian starts, you know, demonstrating he's got some power. The power that I want is the power over my flesh. The power that I want is to be like Christ.

The power I want is that the Holy Spirit will be comfortable with using me. We read of God coming to visit Abraham. We don't read of him coming to visit Lot. Rescuing Lot, yes.

Dining with Lot, no. I want the Lord to be comfortable in my heart. And so, verse two now. Oh, look at that.

We made it. We're only getting up to verse three. He says, until the day in which he was taken up, after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandment to the apostles whom he had chosen. That phrase, taken up there at the beginning, until the day in which he was taken up, it occurs four times in this chapter. Three of them are the identical Greek word. All four mean the same thing. The emphasis is on the miraculous, that Jesus was alive and that he was miraculously taken to heaven as though he was God, because he is.

That's why. It was a demonstration, a further demonstration of his deity, thus the many infallible proofs. I mean, they were just getting one demonstration after another until their heads were spinning. The direct teaching of Christ ended with his ascension from the Mount of Olives to heaven, visibly before his apostles. But the Holy Spirit would soon be available to continue what Jesus began to do. This was his plan, so that when Jesus went to the Father, the work continued. John's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 8. And when he, notice the personal pronoun, the Holy Spirit is not a it, he is a person. When he has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. How is he going to do that? Through the church, through the believers.

Don't get, don't do that. Well, the church is anywhere. Yeah, there's the universal church, and it is a wonderful thing, but there is the local church, and it is just as wonderful and just as powerful, and it is exactly what Paul had in mind in Acts, chapter 20, when he talks about savage wolves coming into the church, not sparing the flock, the church that God bought with his blood. So, when they start that backpedaling on the assembly, they're actually helping the devil, because Christ ordained both. The universal church, so that I can go to take a flight, and I sit next to somebody from another country who's a born-again believer, and it's like we've always known each other when we start talking about Jesus Christ. We've never met before, we've never been in the same church, we'll probably never see each other here again.

And then there is the local assembly. That's where the blood and guts are, because see, when I get off that plane with that believer, I don't have to put up with him anymore, and he doesn't have to put up with me. But when we go back to the church, now we have people who have meltdowns, who've got this problem, who've got that problem, but they still love the Lord, giving you a chance to exercise grace, a chance that I don't really look forward to sometimes. I'd rather show kindness to the unbeliever than show it to my fellow believers, because that nitwit should know better.

Did that sound aggressive? Anyway, the Holy Spirit, he said, would convict the world of sin, of sin because they do not believe in me. That's where we come in, to point this out to the world. Your sins are on you. You're guilty before Christ, because you don't believe him.

Me, on the other hand, I believe him. I may be just as goofy as you sometimes, but at least I'm forgiven, because I know who the Lord is, who the King is, who my Maker is. He says of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more. The Holy Spirit is picking up the work of Christ, because Christ has gone to be with the Father, the Holy Spirit has been given of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The book of Revelation details much of this, not only the book of Revelation. He says here in verse 2, after he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles.

There's a double truth here. He gave commandments to the apostles during his earthly ministry until he ascended. He continued to give commandments to his apostles in their earthly ministry through the Holy Spirit, and that's how we got the New Testament. If Christ weren't ministering to his apostles, we wouldn't have a New Testament. How could they write inspired words if they weren't inspired?

Who was doing the inspiring? When Paul says all scriptures, God breathed. That's because Christ gave the Holy Spirit. And so what Jesus began, the Holy Spirit continued through his servants. This was God's plan. It is still in effect, and the first Christians knew it.

It was their foundation. This is how we received the New Testament through the apostles is how we received the Old Testament through the prophets. Ephesians chapter 2, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, that would be old and new.

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. You can't get the Old Testament prophets out of the New Testament. Jesus, I didn't come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. And the fulfillment requires that we recognize that God spoke through men before the coming of the Holy Spirit. But this is all different now. Now men need the power, not of the Spirit to come upon them at special times like Elijah and Mount Carmel, but we need Christ all the time to be able to witness that he is the one that the prophets spoke of.

This is a whole other level of interaction. As Jesus promised it would happen after he ascended. John 14 verse 18, I will not leave you orphans.

I will come to you. Verse 26 of John 14, the Helper, that is the Paraclete in the Greek, the one who comes alongside to comfort and to help. The Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Otherwise, how do we have the gospel? And there, the Holy Spirit. He is the substitute presence on earth for the bodily presence of Jesus Christ.

This is a distinction that we must never give up. When we speak of the Holy Spirit, we're speaking of God. God the Holy Spirit. He's not God. He's not the Holy Spirit and angel.

He is equal in the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is not to be an optional extra. Okay, you know, I like the doctrine. I want to talk all about, you know, salvation and end time story, but I really don't need the Holy Spirit.

I mean, I'm good. You don't understand the Holy Spirit. If that's your response, that's actually kind of spooky.

Again, another quote, this one from A. W. Tozier. If God were to take the Holy Spirit out of this world, much of what the church is doing would go right on and nobody would know the difference. Because, listen, I have a good idea. Yeah, well, is it God's idea? It's a good idea. We don't have to pray about this.

It's a good idea. Well, that's what Tozier's talking about and that's what Christ is talking about. As many of us are the children of God, these are led by the Spirit of God. I don't, I wouldn't want to, you know, in this church, we feel led to do something. We go about it to see if the Lord is in it. Sometimes we have to start it to find out he's not in that and we stop it right away.

Sometimes we find out he was in that. Good job. Good job.

You got one. John 16, verse 16. A little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while and you will see me because I go to the Father.

That sounds like it doesn't make any sense. You will see me, then you won't see me, but you will see me because I go to the Father. Well, in the first part of that verse, Jesus talked about literally seeing him. In the second part, he talks about seeing him, which spiritualize, and that is that relationship with the Holy Spirit and the two or the three we should say are inseparable.

Almost done. He says here in verse two, whom he has, whom he had chosen. That is the 11 apostles, of course. Matthias, we'll get to that, an indirect choice. The apostles ended up putting God in a spot. They had a good idea. Peter even had scripture.

I know I'm getting ahead of it, but I like to do this sometimes and this is one of them. A lot of commentators believe, you know, Matthias was an apostle of Jesus Christ. My position is he was an apostle of the apostles.

But what's Christ going to do? Badmouth Matthias? He was a good man. He was certainly worthy. He just wasn't the choice. But they put him, the Lord, you know, hey, we've got to find a replacement for Judas because the Bible says let another take his office.

Let's vote on it. And they cast lots. Well, that was the beginning of, you know, the clue that, you know, this is not New Testament. They didn't wait for Pentecost. You know, Peter taking the lead. It was good things and bad things about it. The bottom line is God then said, okay, Paul is my 13th choice of an apostle. You had the 12. Judas, of course, forfeited his position and God picked Paul.

You know, just fun. We'll get to that, one of these before 2022, I'm sure. Verse 3, to whom he had presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Jesus showed himself to his apostles after, of course, the crucifixion. And just a reminder, we need no, we do not need to sensationalize our faith.

It's like painting gold. It's, you ruin it. Just let it be the faith that it is.

It is sensational enough. It will, what is the role? What is my, it is to save souls, to reach the lost, and to be fit, to be used to reach the lost. I don't, we sing a song, pass me not, O gentle Savior, while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Why would he pass us by? Well, maybe because he's doing a work in us, or maybe because we've messed things up so much he can't use us. And this is going to take you thinking it through a little bit.

Don't be afraid to think as a Christian. If you're leading with your feelings, you're leading with your jaw. You know what that means, boxing?

Stick your jaw out, you know, see what happens to you. Anyway, it'd be a lullaby song. These, to whom he presented himself alive after his sufferings, throughout the apostles' ministry, they never lost sight of his sufferings. They made sure that we understand that the cross speaks of his sufferings. Now, suffering does not always come directly from one's sin.

All sin produces suffering. We gather before a living Christ. He is not 2,000 years ago.

He's here right now. And if Jesus were not here today, there would be no Christian faith. This is not the case with Buddhism. It is not the case with Islam and all the other religions. You don't have to have a personal relationship with Buddha to be a Buddhist. You don't have to have a personal relationship with Muhammad to be a Muslim. They have their belief system.

And ours, we have ours. And ours says you've got to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You must be born again. And those others, they're dead, they're gone, and they are judged. Jesus is alive, and he is the judge.

And these are distinctives that we must, again, never cave to. If people don't like it, that's them. I don't need to ask you, do I like vanilla ice cream? I know what I like, and I know what I believe, and I don't need someone to say, yes, you like vanilla ice cream to like it.

I have a list of you who like okra, incidentally, just saying. So funny, people will food fight very quickly. Anyway, but many infallible proofs demonstrated by acts of bravery throughout the book of Acts. You know those apostles, they could have walked away from danger. Almost every one of them was martyred to death. To be a martyr, you can survive being a martyr.

You can just suffer, be tortured, or you can perish. And what we understand mostly from church history and some from scripture is that they were all murdered, the exception of John, it seems. All of them could have simply said, I did not see the risen Christ. People may die for a lie, but they don't believe it's a lie. They die for a cause, a system of beliefs. The world can die for a cause or a country or for their comrades.

Many troops have died for their comrades, not believing the war they're fighting, but this camaraderie they have. Well, these disciples, they didn't die saying, well, we didn't see him rise, but we're going to stick to our point. They would have been offended at Christ for putting them in a situation where their life was on the line or they were presented with torture unless he did rise.

One of the greatest proofs for our faith is the foundation of the apostles suffering for a messiah that they had witnessed alive again. Peter talked about it. We did not follow cunningly devised fables. In 2 Peter chapter 1, John said, we did not follow them.

We handled him. We saw him. We were with him in 1 John chapter 1, 2 Peter 1, and 1 John 1. And being seen by them during 40 days, no less than 10 and maybe more appearances of Christ, there was only one non-believer that saw the risen Lord that we know about, and that was Paul.

Paul was a non-believer when he first met Christ. And speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God, not speaking of things concerning Caesar, social ills, or other things, the kingdom of God, it exists independent of man's surrender. The kingdom of God will be there no matter what people do. It needs no atheists or agnostic or activists or court or scientists to approve it.

It is there. And they all will find out. Hopefully, they'll be saved before they do. His kingdom is the only government that will ever succeed. And the kingdom's laws are beautiful to its citizens in its final state. The king's judgments are binding on those whom he judges.

And we're not left here to enrich the world's system. We're here to proclaim truth to people in the world, and we're here to build each other up so that we can continue to preach the truth to the world. And we have a responsibility to uphold the church, the body of Christ, the church that upholds the truth of Christ.

Let's pray. Our Father, it is remarkable not only that these events took place, but that you've preserved them. And we are very grateful that you have made it possible for anyone to come to you and just come by faith. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston, of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply visit crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Acts, right here on Cross Reference Radio.