The Word of the Apostles as the Foundation of the Movement

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Why do we believe the Bible? Why should we trust what the apostles recorded? Why should we think of that as authority from God? Why should we interpret lordship of Jesus?

Why should we interpret that as adherence to what the apostles taught and wrote down? You ever think about that? Welcome to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch.

I've heard crime scene experts say that eyewitness testimony is subject to some personal interpretation and can therefore sometimes be unreliable. But today, Pastor J.D. shows us that the testimonies of all the disciples all point to the same rock-solid evidence. It's part of our study in the book of Acts titled Scent.

If you've missed any of our previous messages in this series, you can listen online free of charge. Pastor J.D. titled this message, The Word of the Apostles as the Foundation of the Movement. Are you surrendered to Jesus as Lord, willing to go where every teller should go and do whatever he tells you to do? I mean, it's easy to kind of say that, but what does that actually, I mean, does that mean that if he shows up in a dream and he tells you something to do that you will do that?

Well, yeah, I certainly hope that you would answer yes to that question. But the way that the early church applied the lordship of Jesus, hear this, the way they applied the lordship of Jesus is by being devoted to the apostles' teaching. That's the way they applied it. Remember that phrase a couple weeks ago from Acts 2? They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching? That's how you apply the lordship of Jesus is you become devoted to what the apostles taught. What the apostles taught is called the New Testament.

So I want to deal with a really basic but very important question this weekend and not skip over it, and that is why do we believe the Bible? Why should we trust what the apostles recorded? Why should we think of that as authority from God? Why should we interpret lordship of Jesus? Why should we interpret that as adherence to what the apostles taught and wrote down?

You ever think about that? Sometimes, I'll be honest with you, I get bewildered when I hear Christians try to defend why they use the Bible as their authority, and I can almost understand why skeptics won't take us seriously. You ask a lot of Christians why they believe the Bible and they'll be like, well, because it's the word of God. Why do you believe it's the word of God? Well, because it says so. Well, why do you believe what it says? Because it's the word of God.

And you're like, uh, you know, you can just almost hear the skeptics saying you really have no reason at all to believe what you believe other than that's what your parents taught you. Well, today I want to try to show you why we believe the Bible is the word of God and why it was the teaching of the apostles that was the foundation of the movement. And I'll show you that from the last half of Acts 1, which we skipped over for a couple weeks and want to come back to. Let me read the last half of Acts 1 to you, starting in verse 12. Then they returned, they being the apostles, returned from Jerusalem, from the Mount, for to Jerusalem, from the Mount called Olivet, where Jesus had ascended from. And when they'd entered, they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and the rest of the apostles and disciples, whose names I won't mention, minus Judas, of course. Verse 14, all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. If you ever wonder, by the way, why we do not believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary, that is why right there, because Jesus had a bunch of brothers. You know, they were half brothers to him because they were the sons of Mary and Joseph, but how could he have a bunch of brothers if Mary was a perpetual virgin?

Duh. Okay, so that's why, in case you're curious about that. Verse 15, in those days, Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of the persons was in all about 120. So you got 11 apostles and 109 other people. And they said, verse 16, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus, for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. Verse 18, now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. Isn't that an edifying verse? You want to put that one on your memorization list. By the way, whenever I sign a book, you know, like a book that I've written, a lot of times I'll write Acts 1 18 as one of my life verses, just to confuse people.

Just so they get back and they're like, yeah, whatever. What does it mean? Verse 19, and it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the field was called in their own language a keldama, which in Aramaic means the field of blood. For it is written in the book of the Psalms, chapter 69, or Psalm 69 to be exact, may his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it. And Psalm 110, let another take his office. Verse 21, so Peter said, one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, starting with the baptism of John, going all the way through the death and resurrection, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. Verse 23, and they put forward two, Joseph, who was also called Barsabbas, who was also called Justice, guy's got some name issues here, can't just pick one man, go with it, but he's got three names.

And then this other guy who has just one name, Matthias. And they prayed and said, you Lord, you know the hearts of all, show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and this apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go as to his own place. And so they cast lots for them, means they rolled the dice and the lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles and the other guy said it was an honor just to be nominated, okay?

So here's a question, why is this story in there? Is it to tell us how we ought to choose a successor, is that why? Is it trying to tell you that, hey, if I'm not pastor anymore, you get a couple guys, roll the dice, see which one God chose, is that how you're supposed to pick a girlfriend, you just kind of roll the dice, you're like, oh, number seven, that's the seventh girl I've met, boom, I gotta ask you out, no. There's a lot of stuff in Acts that we say is descriptive, not prescriptive, it describes what happened, not prescribes what we ought to do.

There's nowhere in the Bible, anywhere else in the New Testament that tells us that's how we ought to go about decision making, it's describing it for us. So it's not there to tell us how to pick successors. It's not there to introduce to us this pivotal character, Matthias.

You know how I know that? He's never mentioned again, never, nowhere in the Bible is his name ever brought up again. So why is it in there? I believe that it's in there to show you, listen, it's in there to show you how the apostles viewed themselves and how they viewed the scriptures, both the Old Testament and what we would now call the New Testament, the scriptures they would write, and it demonstrates for you right at the beginning of Acts why the Bible is gonna become the authoritative divine guide for Christians. So here's what I wanna do, I wanna show you four things about this passage that support that. Number one, I'm gonna show you how the apostles saw Old Testament scriptures. Number two, I'm gonna show you the authority that the apostles assumed for writing new scriptures, which is gonna be the New Testament.

Number three, I'm gonna show you the resolution to an apparent contradiction. And then number four, I'm gonna give you a reason for skeptics to consider the apostles' bold claims to authority. So number one, how the apostles saw Old Testament scripture. All right, I'm gonna give you two things, two ways they saw Old Testament scripture you can see in this passage. Letter A, they saw them as authenticated prophecies about Jesus. That's how they saw the Old Testament, as authenticated prophecies about Jesus. In Acts 1 16, Peter quotes a psalm, and he says, brothers, the scriptures had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas. And then he goes on to relate what was predicted about Judas. The apostles saw the whole Old Testament as a book written by the Holy Spirit predicting the coming of Jesus. Bible scholars tell us there are close to, or not close to exactly, 322 direct prophecies that describe for us the character and the nature of the Messiah, details specifically about his life, his birth, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, and the fulfillment of these prophecies helped prove to them that Jesus really was from God. They were like a divine signature that could not be forged.

Because it was God's signing beforehand, this is what it's gonna look like. Jesus had not sick signs to identify him, but 322. Scripture says, for example, in Micah 5 2, that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, that happened. In 2 Samuel 7, that he would be of the tribe of Judah and from the lineage of David, that happened. That in Zechariah 11, he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and that silver would be used to buy a potter's field, that happened. That he would be preceded by John the Baptist, Malachi 3 1, that happened. That he would die by being pierced through and that he would die as a substitute for other sinners. Isaiah 53 5, that happened. That he would be raised from the dead, Psalm 16 10, that happened. All these things are God's way of authenticating, that's my guy, that's the one I've said.

I've heard it said before that the mathematical odds of all that happening by coincidence is something like covering the entire states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia in quarters. Painting one of the quarters, or two and a half feet deep by the way, two and a half feet of quarters over the entire three states, painting one of them purple and then taking a blind man and catapulting him in from somewhere like in Maryland, the odds of him picking that one correct quarter out of the entire three states of two and a half feet deep quarters, you have the same odds of all 322 prophecies happening to coalesce upon Jesus Christ randomly. So it was authenticated prophecies about Jesus. Here's the second thing, letter B, as words from the Holy Spirit. They saw the Old Testament as words from the Holy Spirit. Look again at Acts 1 16. Peter quotes a psalm written by David, but he says it was the Holy Spirit's words. Now, which is it? Is it David's words or is it the Holy Spirit's words?

Yes. How could something you say simultaneously be the word of God and the word of men? How could it be simultaneously be David's words and the Holy Spirit's words? The analogy I've used with you before is when my kids were learning to walk, you know, a toddler, they kind of, you know, the first two or three steps they're taking, they're shaking everywhere and they're falling over. So I would hold their hand and I'm walking along beside them. It is their feet that is taking the steps, but it is me that controls where they go. So in a sense, it's them walking.

In another sense, it's me walking. That's what the Holy Spirit is doing with the Bible. It is the men who are speaking, but it is the Holy Spirit that is guaranteeing that they are saying exactly what he wants them to say. So how could, listen, how could fallible man produce an infallible document?

That's how. You see, I hear a lot of people say this, like a lot of people. Well, the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles, gave them like God thoughts, you know, but they were fallible men, so they got a lot of stuff wrong when they were writing it down. So the divine parts, the inspiration of the Bible, that's inherent, but the human parts, they're fallible. Well, think about Jesus, right?

Jesus was called the word of God and Jesus was what? Fully God and fully man. Did the fully man part of him make him fallible and sinful?

Not hardly. The divine part made him perfect so that fully God plus fully man equals fully perfect. Well, the same way the Bible is fully man plus fully God and the product is fully perfect, it's not that the Bible writers were themselves infallible.

They were not. It's because they wrote under the influence of the Holy Spirit that the product they gave forth, the Bible was infallible. Here's how Peter said it in 2 Peter, prophecy never had its origin in the will of man.

Not one word of that came from the heart of man. It all came as men were carried along, Pharaoh in Greek. The word Pharaoh carried along by the Holy Spirit. It was the word they used when a ship would be, you know, being driven by the wind, right?

So the wind is kind of blowing it where it's going to go. The Holy Spirit was moving these men along so that what they wrote was according to the exact destination that God had intended. Now, that didn't mean that the Bible doesn't sometimes speak with human conventions of speech, estimations, metaphors, figures of speech, just that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction and instruction and righteous, 2 Timothy 3.16, that the law of God is perfect, reviving the soul, Psalm 19, that not one word of it can be broken, John 10.30, that sooner would heaven and earth pass away than one jot or tittle from God's word ever not come to pass or ever be found wrong, Matthew 5 18. Because the apostles saw the Bible as divine, their opinions about things ceased to matter. They quit speculating about their opinions and they started to say, what does the Holy Spirit say? And because they saw the Bible as divine, they devoted themselves to it.

Here's a quick question for you. Is that how you feel about the Bible? Do you feel the liberty to put the Bible on trial and accept certain parts of it and reject certain others? It astounds me how many believers feel the liberty to just opt out of like 10% of the Bible that they just don't really find convenient for them. If it is the word of God, then you adhere to it, all of it. Now, properly interpreted, yes, but you adhere to all of it.

If Jesus is going to be Lord, he's going to be Lord of all. And if you're the kind that feels like you can pick and choose what parts of the Bible you get to follow, which ones you don't, then I don't think you understand the concept of lordship. Look, it's either from God or it's not. If it's not from God, then choose your own way. If it is from God, then you better surrender to what he says, right?

If it's the word of God, you devote yourself to it. That's why when I get up here, very little, I'm not trying to tell you eight things that make the Greer family happy. I'm not trying to tell you my life secrets or be your life coach. I hate it when a pastor calls myself that.

I'm not your life coach. I'm the guy who stands up, opens the Bible, and yells at you for 45 minutes. But I'm just trying to tell you what God's word says because that is the word we devoted to because it is the word of God. And what you people need is not the word of men. You need the word of God, right?

All right, number two. Number two, the authority the apostles assumed for writing new scripture. So we see how they saw the old stuff. Now, number two, the authority they assumed for writing new scripture. Peter says, verse 21, the men who accompanied us during the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, starting with the baptism of John, going all the way through the resurrection and ascension, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.

Now, listen closely. Peter feels like they need to replace Judas because Jesus had declared that 12 apostles would be his authoritative representatives. And since Judas was gone, because he betrayed, you know, and left, they needed a new 12th man.

Texas A&M, right? There you are. They needed a new 12th man. The number 12 was important because it corresponded to the 12 tribes of Israel. These guys, and these guys were like the new Israel, right? So these guys were supposed to be the official authoritative representatives of Jesus. And the requirement was that they had to have been with Jesus from the very beginning, from the baptism of John, all the way through to the end. Now you say, well, where did Jesus say that these apostles were going to be the official authoritative representatives? Great question.

Several places, I'm only going to give you two. John 14, 26, the helper of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, watch this, speaking to the apostles, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you. So there's your promise. It's not going to be these guys sitting around going, what did he say again? I don't know. I can't remember. No, I'm going to bring it to you infallibly so that you can write it down exactly as I intended it for it to be understood.

All right, here's another one. Matthew 16, 19, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. These apostles had Jesus' authority to declare his judgments and record them authoritatively. So that all the books in the New Testament, listen, all these books are either written by an apostle or they come out of what we call the apostolic community. And what I mean by that is Mark, Luke, these guys are not apostles, but they traveled with apostles and their writing comes out of the apostolic community so that the apostles verified that what they were saying was an accurate record of what Jesus had taught.

Right? Same is true with Paul. Paul, you know, who would come along a little later. Peter would say this about Paul. This is one of my favorite verses, things that Peter ever said. It's one of the last things he said in the second Peter. Our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him. As he does in all his letters when he speaks, there are some things in them that are hard to understand. Did I make you feel better? I'm like, oh, you too. I mean, I can just see Peter looking at you, reading Romans 9, like what in the world are you talking about?

I feel like that half the time. And he says, the ignorant and the unstable twist them to their own destruction just like they do the other scriptures. What did he just call Paul's writings? Scripture. He's thinking of Paul's words as scripture. Now, that's two things you got to learn from that verse. One, he sees Paul's words as scripture. Number two, you got to get the humor of Peter saying Paul is hard to understand. Have you ever read the book of second Peter? There's a reason I've never preached on second Peter in this church. And that's because it's right up there with Revelation, like I don't know what in the world you're talking about half the time, Peter. And so I just find it humorous. That's seminary humor.

Sorry about that. What I'm trying to show you, I'm trying to show you that at the very beginning of Acts, the apostles have taken on the responsibility because of the promise of Jesus to speak and write authoritatively on Jesus. And from that point on, whenever they speak or write about Jesus under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what they write is considered to be the words of the Holy Spirit, the very words of God, which is why we trust this book. And it's why we build everything we do on it because of the promise of Jesus. Number three, number three, the resolution of an apparent contradiction.

Whenever people say the Bible contradicts itself, my response is always, okay, why don't you show me an example. And there's this awkward silence where they're like, well, I can't really think of one right now. But I know there's a lot of them. I'm like, well, just pick one.

And we stand there for two or three awkward minutes. And it basically comes out, they've never found one. They don't know about one. They just heard that somewhere. And they're just saying that.

Nine out of 10 times, that's what happens. On that one out of 10 times that they actually produce a contradiction, three out of four of those times, this is the one they come up with, the one that's in Acts chapter one. So why don't we talk about it for a minute? Here's the supposed contradiction. Matthew 27 says that Judas died by hanging himself. But in Acts one, it says that he died by falling off a cliff and having his bowels burst out.

Okay? Matthew 27 says that the money that Judas earned for betraying Jesus, he threw back into the temple and discussed, and the Jewish authorities used it to buy a field. But when Peter retells the story in Acts one, he says that Judas bought the field with the 30 pieces of silver.

So which is it? Did he die by hanging or did he fall down and have his bowels burst out? And did he give the money back or did he go buy a field with it? Clear contradictions, right? Not necessarily. When you hang yourself, you weren't expecting to learn this at church, when you hang yourself, if your body stays that way for a long time, the body swells up. And evidently, eventually, the branch broke and he fell down and his abdomen ruptured and his guts spilled out. Or, I've been to that area, scholars say that the area is really rocky and hilly, so maybe the branch that he hung himself on overlooked a small cliff and when he hung himself, the branch broke and it happened, right? So they both kind of happened.

It's not a contradiction. It's just two different eyewitness accounts of the same thing. One guy saw Judas' body dangling from the branch and he hung himself.

Another guy found him after he'd done it. So they put the two together and you got a fuller story than you do with one account. With the money situation, one writer says he threw it back, another one says he bought the field. What probably happened is that Judas threw the money back and the Jewish authorities bought the field with it, like Matthew says. But when Peter tells a story in Acts, he just shortens it to say Judas bought the field, since the money that he earned from selling Jesus was used for that purpose anyway. So it's not really a contradiction.

It's just different. Whenever you have eyewitness accounts, you put them together and you get a fuller story. That's what's happening here. Now, that is just one resolution to a supposed contradiction. But I will tell you that I have looked at these supposed contradictions for years, hundreds of them, and just about every single time with a little study and a little work, you find that they harmonize.

And there's a plausible way to resolve it. So don't just write that off and don't believe what you hear just because people are too lazy to get in there and figure out what's actually being said. Don't be gullible.

Don't be naive. Study it out for yourself. Number four, a reason for skeptics to consider the apostles' claims to authority. Let me give you a reason for skeptics to consider the apostles' claims to authority. Now, if you're one of those skeptics who say, a lot of us don't believe the Bible because it claims to be the Word of God. A lot of people have claimed that over the years.

Muhammad and Joseph Smith, David Koresh, you remember that guy? They've claimed to speak the Word of God. So I'm just not going to believe the apostles when they say they're speaking the Word of God. If that's you, that's fine.

Really. Because there's another reason for you to consider their claims. Look at what Peter claims there in Acts 1. Acts 1 21, 22, he says, we got to find somebody who was an eyewitness to the life, the ministry, the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

They can't have heard about it. He's got to be an eyewitness. These accounts point to something miraculous happening. And be sure to join us tomorrow when Pastor JD Greer gives us four reasons that we can confidently know that the Gospels are true. You're listening to Summit Life.

If you happen to join us a little late today, you can hear the entire message by visiting us online at jdgreer.com. So Pastor JD, the Book of Acts tells the story of the early church, often following the steps of the apostles like Peter and Paul. But they aren't really the main characters, are they? I remember my pastor growing up, you know, saying that the Book of Acts was wrongly named in the Bible. We call it Acts of the Apostles when it should be the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

Because really, Acts doesn't have a main character. I mean, Peter is sort of prominent in the first chapters and Paul is definitely prominent in the last chapters. But when you really get down to it, the actor in the Book of Acts is the Holy Spirit. He's the one that's building the church. And the good news of that is that that same Holy Spirit that was at work in the Book of Acts is now at work still through us. And just like he empowered Peter and Paul and James and John, and that same spirit is now with you and ready for you to access his power. Because this study is so important, we've created a new Bible study to go along with it.

It comes in two parts. Right now, you can get part one that covers the first eight chapters of Acts, and then part two will be available in June. It'll help take you deeper into the truths of Acts and uncover the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. To help you get a better understanding of how you can be more in tune with the Holy Spirit, we'd like to send you an exclusive new resource released this week and created by our Summit Life team that's based in our study of Acts. It's volume one of a personal Bible study called Scent, the Book of Acts. It's more than just a book study too.

It's actually designed to help you discover your own personal role in the Great Commission. We'll send you a copy as our way of saying thanks for your support of this ministry. Ask for Scent, the Book of Acts study guide, when you give a suggested donation of $25 or more today by calling 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or go online and request your copy at jdgrier.com. Or if you prefer to write, you can mail your donation. Our address is JD Greer Ministries, P.O.

Box 122-93, Durham, North Carolina, 277-09. And be sure to include a note asking for the study Scent, the Book of Acts, volume one by Pastor JD. I'm Molly Bidevich inviting you to come back tomorrow when Pastor JD continues our study about the word of the apostles and the birth of the church. Confidence is brimming as we see God literally create his church before our very eyes. That's Thursday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.