Introduction to Acts – The First Christians (Part A)

He wrote this book of Acts about 30 years after Christ ascended to heaven.

And it covers a span of about 32 years. We have about 32 years of history from Acts chapter 1 to Acts 28. Acts chapter 29 is us. The book of Acts doesn't end.

The Acts of the Holy Spirit and the actions of the believers are still going on through the believers down through history. 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. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Acts chapter 1 as he begins his introduction to this book. If you have your Bibles, please turn to the book of Acts chapter 1. If you're unfamiliar with the book of Acts, it comes right after the Gospel according to John. If you're unfamiliar with the Gospel according to John, we will take verses 1 through 3. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up, after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his sufferings by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. This is an introduction to the book of Acts.

It's going to be a long ride and hopefully an exciting one. Likely, when this document was penned, there was no title. The earlier manuscripts suggest that it's just Acts, the Acts, A-C-T-S, not A-X or A-X-E. The Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the Holy Spirit, meaning the actions, the actions that the apostles engaged in after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. That word apostles, plural that is, in the New Testament occurs more in this book of Acts than all the other New Testament books put together. And it is mainly about Peter and Paul.

Of course it has others too, but they are the focus of what the Holy Spirit was doing through the apostles. Luke, he does a great job balancing Peter and Paul so as not to create a spirit of competition between the two servants. Of the 18 speeches that are in this book, we have one by Stephen, James, Gamaliel and Tertullius.

Each of them have one speech. The remaining 14 are divided equally between Peter and Paul, both having seven addresses. Both Peter and Paul did healings. Both were miraculously delivered from jail after being arrested. Both were treated as gods by the pagans.

Of course they pushed back on that. Both gave bold witnesses to the authorities and both of them confronted false prophets. And so again Luke presenting this gospel was saying Peter was certainly a man of God, so was Paul. That hounded Paul throughout his ministry.

There were those that would just take cheap shots. You're not really an apostle. You're not one of the twelve. You're self-appointed and he had to deal with that. And Luke helps him out by demonstrating that he was very much an apostle of Jesus Christ. One hand picked by Jesus Christ. And so again Acts tells us what happened immediately after Jesus ascends to heaven. In the first verse, Acts chapter 1 verse 1, we read, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. And then verse 2, after he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen. And then verse 8, and you shall be witnesses to me. That is a great overview of what's going to take place in this record that we have. If there were the ability to have put this on film, it would be amazing.

We could watch it, but we don't have that option. We read it and it is an account of these things that really took place, showing us how the first Christians conducted themselves before and after Pentecost. And for those of you who may not be familiar with Pentecost, it was that day that the church was truly born. Christianity was in place. The church is born in the power of the Holy Spirit and will remain until he who restrains is removed out of the way. Then Antichrist comes on the picture and the church is not here. We'll come back with Christ. Then we have tribulation converts who are martyred for their faith. Well, Matthew chapter 28, Jesus said, Go, therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Amen. A very simple ending to the Gospel of Matthew with so much power in that we shouldn't lose sight of those words that Christ said to those men on that day. Go make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

These are reasons why we believe in a triune God and then teaching them to observe, teaching them to do it of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. And that's what this Acts of the Apostle, Acts of the Holy Spirit singular is all about. This book was once the template for the Calvary Chapel movement.

There have been wanderings from it. And may we never wander from it. May this always be where we look to see how we conduct ourselves as an assembly and as individual believers, not ruling out the rest of the scripture, of course. That would be devilish, including the rest of the scripture. That's what makes the book of Acts flow.

It doesn't go forward without the rest of the Bible. It takes it all in and it shows us to Christians believing and practicing as best they can. This book improves the understanding of our assignment, our service to Christ, especially as an assembly.

But again, not limited to an assembly. The Gospels teach us about God. Jesus said, He who has seen me has seen the Father. And you look at the life of Christ, you learn about God. The Gospels teach us about our Savior and ourselves. The epistles, the letters that are written, they address our struggles as Christians in this fallen world and our flesh in the church as believers.

All of the letters are written to put out fires. Unfortunately, that's what it takes to move the church forward, addressing the problems and the strength of the Spirit based on scripture. From the revelation of Jesus Christ, we learn God's final plan for this world. Plans, plural. But then this book, The Acts of the Apostles, demonstrates not only our mission, but our methods.

And the pattern is for us to take advantage of. The recorded birth of Christianity and the blood-bought church is seen here in action. Imagine, after reading the Gospels, the resurrection of Christ, imagine coming to the end of the Gospel of John and going right into the letter of Romans or right into the revelation of Jesus Christ. You'd be perplexed. You'd be very perplexed. Nothing would tie together. The birth of the church and the work that took place in its beginnings would just be foreign and you would just be at a loss.

And you wouldn't, how would you appreciate it? Well, there are many Christians that skim over this book or skip it all together and it is not to the benefit of that individual or that assembly. From the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospels right into the letters of the apostles would be a strange leap, an unnecessary thing.

And the Holy Spirit said, let me prepare you for those letters and tell you how we got some of these churches and what was going on in the lives of those men who wrote those letters and the lives of those men and women who received those letters. Much of Christendom in dread of fanaticism has turned away from this book. Well, because some have taken the sections of this book and abused them. And I know for myself, before I became a Christian, I look at wacko Christians and say, if that's what it means to be a Christian, keep it. They did more damage to their witness and testimony of truth by their hysteria and unfounded behavior, poor doctrine, if any at all, just by, you know, sort of just emotional rush that they felt they had license to exercise from reading certain passages of this book of Acts and other sections.

And they're wrong. As W. Tozier said, the Holy Spirit is not the cause of insanity, but the cure. And there are just, you know, in the days when the old King James was dominant, Christians would sort of, some Christians or professed Christians would sort of justify their wacky behavior. Well, God, we're a peculiar people.

No, that's not what it means. You're not an oddball people. You're not a weirdo church. Well, there are weirdo churches out there. That's their business.

In my position, this is my business. And don't think that you're going to just, you know, make all of these great converts to Christianity by acting like a lunatic and blaming it on the Holy Ghost. So, anyhow, maybe, have you all ever met any of these Christians?

I mean, I've had my share. Anyhow, much of Christianity because of that type of fanaticism has turned away from this book, unfortunately. And in doing so, they've missed great principles of our service to Christ, of Christianity, the church. And this, in many circles, is the most misunderstood New Testament book of all. And it should not be. There are those that would rather read Revelation than come to the book of Acts.

That's backwards. We appreciate the revelation of Jesus Christ in the seven churches because of the book of Acts. You get more out of it.

Let's not leave this a buried treasure. I can give you some examples of just two lessons that are right on the surface from this book. Recruiting people to join the church. The first Christians did no such thing, and they were fruitful.

They did not recruit anyone. They witnessed Jesus Christ. They let the Holy Spirit take it from there. Acts chapter 2, verse 47, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. They left it with God. They trusted God.

Because if you put it together in your own strength, you've got to maintain it in your own strength. Look at Islam. Islam took over the world with the sword, and they maintained their religion with the sword through violence.

We're not that way. It's truth. It is the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not truth without the Holy Spirit. It is the truth of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. And you will be my witnesses of all that Jesus begun both to do and to teach. And this, of course, with the dunamis, the dynamite of God the Holy Spirit.

The early church did not seek approval from the government, from the culture, from media, from false religions. It proclaimed. It made a proclamation. This is truth. And it was a take it or leave it deal.

And it is to this very day. This is the truth of Jesus Christ. He's not looking for you to embellish it, to take away from it. This is it.

You take it or you get left behind. Acts chapter 5. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Incidentally, apostles I mentioned showing up 30 times of the 59 times in the New Testament in the plural. In the book of Acts, it is only in the plural.

It is not singular. And the idea is that these apostles, the 11 and then, of course, Matthias and Paul, they were united. That's the position of the Holy Spirit that Luke was able to preserve for us. I mentioned to you we ought to obey God rather than men. Shallow false Christianity is not that way. Shallow Christianity is looking to the culture, looking to the world. How should we behave? What can we do so that you can accept us, so that you can like us? I'm not interested in getting the world to like me or the church.

I'm interested in being used by Christ to bring the message and let him do the rest. And that is quite liberating and it is very powerful and it comes from watching the disciples of Christ, those first Christians that we have in the New Testament. Vance Habner in 1974, he was in it when he wrote, you know, the title of the book escapes me.

I think it's the shadow of death or something to that. He wrote down about the loss of his beloved wife Sarah. And he just makes this comment in one of the chapters. He says, the new hilarious is when he was really feeling alone and just trusting God. He says, the new hilarious brand of Christianity is only a better way to have a good time. Fun seems to be the objective, but wrestling with powers and principalities doesn't sound much like fun.

I hope you younger Christians heard that, but just in case you did not, I'm going to reread it again because it is especially for you. It says again, Vance Habner, the new hilarious brand of Christianity is only a better way to have a good time. Fun seems to be the objective, but wrestling with powers and principalities doesn't sound like much fun. It's not. It's combat. It's a contest to struggle for real souls and real lives. And it's going to hurt. And your heart's going to break if you are a Christian and fighting over lost souls and the work that Satan does.

But you're also going, your heart will also rejoice over the victories and the presence of God in your life. The author, Luke, known as the companion of Paul, the beloved physician. That Paul would call him a beloved physician must have mean that Luke, first off, had no hypodermics to stick you with. I mean, he just was a beloved physician. He would just have philosophy of medicine, but never hurt you.

I don't know about you, every time you go to the doctor, they hurt you more. Anyway, just a little humor there, very little humor. Luke, chapter one, Luke wrote the book of Acts. He wrote the gospel according to Luke.

And the early Christians did not, there's not much to debate about that. When he wrote the book of Acts, he started out by telling everyone how much effort he put into looking into the facts that he was about to present, the interviews that he conducted. And he says, it seemed good to me also, Luke chapter one, verse three, having had a perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus. You see, this letter to this gospel of Luke was addressed to a man named Theophilus and so is the book of Acts. Now the name Theophilus means lover of God and there are variations to it. And some believe maybe it was sort of a code writing to just lover, Christians in general, but I don't take that position. I believe it was a man named Theophilus who was a part of Luke's life.

And I'll come to this and back to it very, very quickly. But this man, Luke, this physician, this medical doctor, Luke, far as we know, he never saw the Lord Jesus Christ. He became a convert after. He wasn't around when the early chapters of Acts were taking place.

At least we have no evidence of that. We have evidence or pointers that suggest that he was converted after. He wrote this book of Acts about 30 years after Christ ascended to heaven. And it covers a span of about 32 years. We have about 32 years of history from Acts chapter 1 to Acts 28. Acts chapter 29 is us. The book of Acts doesn't end. The Acts of the Holy Spirit and the actions of the believers are still going on through the believers down through history.

There's a nice parallel about that when you get to the seven churches in Revelation. These were troublesome times because of the transition. That transition from Judaism to Christianity, from looking for the Messiah and his arrival, his being murdered, and his rising again, and keeping Judaism out of Christianity was very difficult.

I mean, physically, they were violent over these things. They would try to kill Paul on several occasions. Not only just the Jews who practiced Judaism, but the Judaizers who tried to mingle Christianity and Judaism, thereby reducing Christianity to a sect. As a matter of fact, when up in Antioch, they came from James, as Paul later said to spy out our liberty, Peter and Barnabas succumbed to the Judaizers, to their influence.

And their influence was this. If you want to benefit from the cross of Christ, you've got to become a Jew. You've got to be circumcised. You've got to practice the Sabbath.

You've got to go down to the temple. And Paul stood up against all that. And when Peter and Barnabas were giving in to them, and Paul said this several times before, Christianity would have died that day had Paul not stood up to his beloved friends, Peter and Barnabas, and set them straight and not yield, as Paul said, for an hour.

We didn't yield for an hour, which means we didn't yield for a moment. We didn't give in. This is Christianity. We know what we believe. We believe what we know. And we're not apologizing for it.

We would love you to join it, but we're not joining you. And to this day, that is our message. And if you want to go out there and share your faith with somebody of another religion and you think that you can sort of mix them together, you've abandoned Christianity. Because it is intolerant of any other Savior or any other God or any idea about our God that does not come from Scripture. And so the Reformers, many of them who gave their lives, to say Scripture alone is our authority for our spiritual beliefs and our behavior before God. Scripture alone.

And hopefully you and I are upholding these things because they are true. We look at the book of Genesis and it tells us a story of how mankind came to be and how man established a relationship with God or refused, as the case might be. Well Acts tells a story of how the church came to be and how the Gentiles were brought into this relationship with the God of Abraham and the God of Moses and the God of Jeremiah and Isaiah and all of the Old Testament heroes. Acts tells a story of how the church came to be and how it is to remain and how the church is different, distinct, as I mentioned, from Judaism and paganism and heathenism and anything else that is out there. It tells a story of its relationship with the Holy Spirit as promised by God through Jesus Christ. We haven't even started on the verses yet.

It's just an overview from what's in there. And after all these years of being a Christian, I still get excited over the book of Acts. To preach it is an added benefit. This church, the church had Messiah and has Messiah. We call him the Christ.

It's a Greek translation of the Jewish word Messiah. The Anointed One. We have him. The synagogues of Paul's day did not. The synagogues today do not. They do not have the Messiah. They have missed him.

We have him. And the beliefs are irreconcilable. Though we've come out of Judaism's Old Testament, our beliefs are irreconcilable. Unless they accept Messiah, they don't have it. Judaism, as I mentioned, demands circumcision and Sabbath keeping to receive salvation and other things. The Gentiles just would not have received that.

It would have been a stumbling block for them. And God pointed this out to Paul. And Paul wrote a document. He documented this from Romans and Galatians and Hebrews.

He was fierce in his presentation. That's this transitional age that Luke is also part of. He was there with much, through much of what Paul went through. And the first Christians, they realized this. And they began to listen and trust God. Maybe when you started out being a Christian, you were trusting God.

But as the years have rolled by and you've taken so many hits and hurts, that trust is not so hot anymore. I encourage you, go get wood and put it on whatever fire you've got left and stoke that fire. And don't give in to your flesh that wants to come up with an excuse to have your faith die down because it's a lie. And your flesh will accommodate you. I fight this like you do.

I have my moods too. 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.