Acts 4
Five thousand saved verse 1- 4
And as they spoke to the people the priests – captain of the temple
Sadducees came to them
being grieved that they taught the people
and preached through Jesus the
resurrection from the dead
And they laid hands on them – and put them in hold unto the next day
for it was now eventide
Howbeit many of them which heard the word BELIEVED
and the number of the men was about five thousand
Peter and John confronted by religious leaders verse 5- 7
And it came to pass on the morrow that their rulers – elders – scribes
Annas the high priest – Caiaphas – John – Alexander
and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest
were gathered together at Jerusalem
AND when they had set them in the midst – they asked
By what power – or by what name – have you done this?
Peter’s answer to their confrontation verse 8- 12
THEN Peter – FILLED with the Holy Ghost – said to them
You rulers of the people and elders of Israel
IF we this day be examined of the good deed done
to the impotent man
by what means he is made whole
BE it know to you all – and to all the people of Israel
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
WHOM you crucified
WHOM God raised from the dead
EVEN by HIM does this man stand here
before you whole
This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders
which is become the head of the corner
Neither is there salvation in any other
for there is none other name under heaven
given among men
whereby we must be saved
Religious leaders amazed verse 13- 18
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John
and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men
they marveled and they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus
And beholding the man which was healed standing with them
they could say nothing against it
But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council
they conferred among themselves saying
What shall we do to these men?
for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them
is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem
AND we cannot deny it
BUT that it spread no further among the people
let us straitly threaten them
that they speak henceforth to no man in this name
And they called them
and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach
in the name of Jesus
Peter’s answer to their restrictions verse 19- 22
BUT Peter and John answered and said unto them
Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
to you more than to God – judge you
FOR we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard
SO when they had further threatened them – they let them go
finding nothing how they might punish them
BECAUSE of the people
For all men glorified God for that which was done
for the man was above forty years old
on whom this miracle of healing was showed
Believers pray for courage verse 23- 30
AND being let go – they went to their own company
and reported all that the chief priests and elders
had said to them
AND when they heard that
they lifted up their voice to God with ONE ACCORD
and said – Lord – YOU are God
which hast made heaven – earth – the sea
and all that in them is
WHO by the mouth of your servant David has said
Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up
and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord – and against HIS Christ
FOR of a truth against YOUR holy child Jesus
WHOM YOU hast anointed
both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel were gathered together
FOR to do whatsoever YOUR hand and YOUR counsel
DETERMINED before to be done
AND NOW – Lord – BEHOLD their threatenings
and GRANT to YOUR servants
that with all BOLDNESS they may speak YOUR word
by stretching forth YOUR hand to heal
and that signs and wonders may be done
by the NAME of YOUR holy child Jesus
Believers refilled with Holy Spirit verse 31
AND when they had prayed
the place was shaken where they were assembled together
and they were all FILLED with the Holy Ghost
and they spoke the word of God with BOLDNESS
Believers shared their wealth with each other verse 32- 37
And the multitude of them that believed were of
ONE HEART and of ONE SOUL
Neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed
was his own – BUT they had all things COMMON
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus
and great grace was upon them all
Neither was there any among them that lacked
for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them
and brought the prices of the things that were sold
and laid them down at the apostles’ feet
and distribution was made unto every man
according as he had NEED
And Joses – who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas
(which is – being interpreted The son of consolation)
a Levite – and of the country of Cyprus
having land – sold it and brought the money
and laid it at the apostles’ feet
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. (1278 “grieved” [diaponeo] means manage with pain, troubled, displeased, offended, be irked, be disturbed or greatly annoyed)
We have to remember that the Sadducees didn’t believe in angels or resurrection. They were leaders in the Sanhedrin. So the disciples were teaching things that they didn’t believe in and the people were listening to them. It was very disturbing.
The religious leaders put them in jail overnight because they didn’t like their message and the response of the people. It is said that five thousand men believed what they were teaching. So we have many families joining the church. One of the keys to filling the church was to reach men.
Are we irking people today because we present the truth of the Word of God? We find that those who witness in Muslim communities during some of their holy days there are many who are disturbed. They have them arrested. Even when there is freedom of religion here in America, it seems that only those who preach the truth of the Word of God are arrested.
Our son went to a Mormon holiday celebration to witness to those who were coming to the occasion. They were on a public street and they still wanted them to stop. In fact, the next year when they went back the Mormon tried to buy the street around their festival to stop his group from witnessing.
Today it is getting harder and harder to get people from our Bible believing churches to even pass out flyers regarding DVBS or special meetings. They seem to be afraid to confront our culture with the truth they say they believe.
It seems that many people who call themselves Christians want everyone around them to have whatever belief they want to have as long as they don’t stop them from believing what they believe. That is not what the Bible teaches.
We have the only truth that will cause individuals to spend eternity in heaven. We have the “good news.” We are the only ones with the “good news.” It might get to the point when those who teach the exclusive truth of the Word of God will be arrested because we are not tolerant of others beliefs. That is what happened to Peter and John and it should happen to us if necessary.
CHALLENGE: Our purpose should not be to hurt people we meet but it should be to tell them the truth of the Word of God no matter what.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said to them, You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel (4130 “filled” [pletho] means to be or become generous supplied with, make happen, to filled up, satiate, or to be wholly imbued)
DEVOTION: Remember that Peter was the one who denied Christ to a servant girl. He was the one who told Jesus he couldn’t die. He was the one who Jesus told to “get you behind me Satan.”
Peter was a man who didn’t seem to have a lot of courage. He would rather change the LORD’S plans rather than have HIM complete them. He would rather fight to save Christ than to let HIM go to the cross. He would go out and cry bitterly for his denial of the LORD.
Now he is standing before the religious leaders ready to give them a message from the LORD. What made the difference? It was the filling of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit gives us boldness we need to face a world that is against our message.
The filling comes many times on believers. It comes through times of confession and prayer. It seems that during the prayer time there needs to be an asking of God for the filling of the Holy Spirit for a special purpose.
The purpose for the filling of the Holy Spirit was to give boldness to present the message of God to those who don’t believe. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not for us to brag about but to allow the LORD to use us to reach others.
We have many in the church today who brag that they have been filled with the Holy Spirit and even able to speak in an unknown tongue. That is not the purpose of the filling. It is to reach the lost with the message of salvation.
CHALLENGE: If you are going to ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit make sure it is for the purpose of reaching others with the message of Christ. This includes instructing those who believe to be proper witnesses for the LORD.
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: 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to more than to God, judge you. (191 “hearken” [akouo] means hear, give audience, to attend to, consider what is or has been said, to find out, to pay attention to and obey, or receive news)
DEVOTION: Boldness is what Peter had under the direction of the filling of the Holy Spirit. He was confronted by the religious leaders. They told him not to preach or teach about Jesus. They were direct in their command. They threatened him. They were serious about what they would do to him if he continued.
His reply has to be our reply too. He told them that he had to listen to what the LORD told him to do. He said that it was more important to listen to God than to listen to them. He was not being disrespectful but he was being honest. God came first in his life.
He also stated that he was only going to speak about what he had seen and heard. That is all any of us can do. We have to take the knowledge we presently have from the LORD and share it with others. It is only our personal testimony not someone else’s testimony that we can share.
As we grow in our knowledge of the Word of God and Jesus Christ we can share new truths we have learned. Our responsibility is to never be satisfied with our present knowledge of the LORD. HE wants us to come closer each year of our life. HE doesn’t want us to be satisfied with what we have done in the past or in the present. HE wants us to do more in the future for HIM until HE takes us home or returns for us.
Growth to share with others is what it is all about in our life in Christ. We are not to be selfish or lazy in our relationship with HIM. Tell others what HE tells you.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. (3954 “boldness” [parrhesia] means frankness, bluntness, assurance, confidence or cheerful courage)
DEVOTION: The Jewish leaders did not like Peter and John healing the lame man. They arrested them. They told them not to teach about Jesus. Peter preached a sermon to them. They both said NO to the leaders request to stop talking about Jesus.
One of the things that amazed the leaders was the confidence Peter and John had when they talked with them. They knew that they were only fisherman with no education. They knew they had been with Jesus.
The word we highlighted and underlined today appears three times in this chapter. After Peter and John returned to the other disciples they had a prayer meeting to praise the LORD. They asked that they might be courageous when facing those who opposed the message of Jesus Christ. They wanted the LORD to continue to give them power to heal.
When they were DONE praying the place was shaken. They were refilled with the Holy Spirit. (Remember that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit comes once at the point of salvation while the filling happens many times through our Christian life. Sin causes us to lose the filling not the indwelling.) Why did they need to be refilled with the Holy Spirit? It was so that they could preach the Word of God with courage and confidence.
The early church had many occasions where the people got together to pray with one accord regarding the growth of the church. They gathered each day to worship the LORD. Each day they were sharing their possessions with each other. Each day they were encouraging one another.
What changed? We need to pray for bluntness and confidence in our present day. We need to witness for the LORD with power from the Holy Spirit. The church needs to be praying for outreach to their communities for the LORD.
Many churches have no visitation program to reach the community. Many churches are not even praying for souls to be saved. Many new Christians are not being taught how to witness to others. These things need to change.
It used to be that each church or a group of churches got together and invited an evangelist in to reach their community. Has that time passed? Can we still reach our communities for the LORD? Does HE still give us the filling of the Holy Spirit to speak with confidence? We will one day stand before HIM and give an answer for our communities.
CHALLENGE: Pray for boldness in your personal life and in the life of the church you attend. If there is no desire to reach the neighborhood find a church that has that desire or cause the leadership in your present church to have a vision for reaching the lost.)
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Lifted up their voice in prayer verse 24 – 31
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
Temple verse 1
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Quote of David verse 25- 26
Word of God verse 31
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
God raised from the dead verse 10
Lord verse 26, 29
Hand and counsel determined verse 28
Signs and wonders verse 30
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
Jesus verse 2, 10, 13, 18, 27, 30, 33
Resurrection from dead verse 2, 33
Christ verse 10, 26
Jesus Christ of Nazareth verse 7, 10
Crucified verse 10
Raised verse 10
Head of the corner verse 11
Salvation comes in name of Jesus verse 12
Lord verse 24, 33
God verse 24
Creator verse 24
Holy child verse 27, 30
Holy child Jesus verse 27, 30
Anointed verse 27
Lord Jesus verse 33
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Holy Ghost verse 8, 31
Filled with Holy Ghost verse 8, 31
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
God verse 19, 21, 24, 31
Glorified God verse 21
Creator verse 24
Lord verse 26, 29
Word of God verse 31
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Heathen verse 25
Kings of the earth verse 26
Rulers verse 26
Herod verse 27
Pontius Pilate verse 27
Gentiles verse 27
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Crucified Jesus verse 10
Threatened verse 17, 21, 29
Not speak in name of Jesus verse 18
Not to teach Jesus verse 18
Heathen verse 25
Imagine vain things verse 25
Rulers against Lord and Christ verse 26
Threatenings verse 29
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Teach verse 2
Preach verse 2
Believed verse 4, 32
Power verse 7, 33
Filled with Holy Ghost verse 8, 31
Salvation verse 12
Saved verse 12
Boldness verse 13, 29, 31
Miracle verse 16, 22
Speak what seen and heard verse 20
Glorified God verse 21
One accord verse 22
Servants verse 29
One heart verse 32
One soul verse 32
All things common verse 32
Grace verse 33
Needs met verse 34, 35
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Priests verse 1
Captain of the temple verse 1
Sadducees verse 1
Rulers verse 5, 8
Elders of Israel verse 5, 8, 23
Scribes verse 5
Annas the high priest verse 6
Caiaphas verse 6
John verse 6
Alexander verse 6
Kindred of the high priest verse 6
Jerusalem verse 6, 16
People of Israel verse 10, 27
Council verse 15
Chief priests verse 23
David verse 25
Church (New Testament people of God)
Five thousand added verse 4
Preaching in the power of the name of Jesus verse 7
Peter verse 8, 13
Preachers filled with Holy Spirit verse 8
Healing of impotent man verse 9, 14
Preached salvation verse 12
Preached with boldness verse 13
John verse 13
Peter and John verse 13- 22
Unlearned and ignorant men
Took knowledge of them
Had been with Jesus
Teach things seen and heard
Miracles happened verse 16, 22
Threatened by unsaved verse 17
Obedience to God rather than men verse 19
Individual testimony to share verse 20
Lifted up voice with one accord verse 24
Prayer necessary verse 24
Filling of the Holy Spirit necessary verse 31
Sharing possessions to needy verse 32, 35
Apostles verse 33, 35, 37
Witness verse 33
Joses (Barnabas) – Levite verse 36, 37
Money given to ministry verse 37
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
31 As a sign of God’s approval, Luke tells us that “the place where they were meeting was shaken” (cf. Exod 19:18; Isa 6:4) and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (cf. comments on v.8). And with such motivation and divine enablement, their prayer was answered; and they “spoke the word of God boldly” (parrēsias, “with confidence,” “forthrightly”). (Longenecker, R. N. (1981). The Acts of the Apostles. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts (Vol. 9, p. 309). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
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The place was shaken (ἐσαλευθη ὁ τοπος [esaleuthē ho topos]). By an earthquake most likely as in 16:26, but none the less a token of God’s presence and power (Psa. 114:7; Isa. 2:19, 21; Heb. 12:26f.). Were gathered together (ἠσαν συνηγμενοι [ēsan sunēgmenoi]). Periphrastic past perfect passive of συναγω [sunagō]. They spake (ἐλαλουν [elaloun]). Imperfect active indicative, began to speak, after being filled (ἐπλησθησαν [eplēsthēsan], aorist passive indicative) with the Holy Spirit. Luke uses the very words of the prayer in verse 29 to describe their conduct. (Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Ac 4:31). Nashville, TN: Broadman Press.)
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4:31. The Lord’s answer to the believers’ prayer for boldness was preceded by a shaking of their meeting place. The answer also included a supernatural filling with the Holy Spirit (cf. v. 8). When Luke, as here, used a verb form to refer to believers being filled with the Spirit, he usually said the filling was bestowed sovereignly by God. This is in distinction to the imperative in Ephesians 5:18 which states that Christians are responsible for being Spirit-filled. (Toussaint, S. D. (1985). Acts. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 364). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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God’s answer was to shake the place where they were meeting and to fill the people once again with the Spirit of God (Acts 4:31). This gave them the boldness that they needed to continue to serve God in spite of official opposition. This was not a “second Pentecost” because there cannot be another Pentecost any more than there can be another Calvary. It was a new filling of the Spirit to equip the believers to serve the Lord and minister to the people. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 419). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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Ver. 31. And when they had prayed, &c.] Either while they were praying, or as soon as they had done; for sometimes, as here, prayer is immediately heard, and an answer is returned, whilst the saints are speaking, or as soon as prayer is ended: the place was shaken where they were assembled together; which, whether it was a private house, or the temple, is not certain: the latter seems more probable, because their number was so great, that no private house could hold them; and since this was the place where they used to assemble; this was now shaken with a rushing mighty wind, as on the day of Pentecost, and was a symbol of the divine presence, and a token that their prayers were heard, and an emblem of the shaking of the world by the ministry of the apostles: and they were all filed with the Holy Ghost; with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, even with extraordinary ones, such as speaking with divers tongues, as before on the day of Pentecost; see ch. 2:4 and this was the case not only of the apostles, but of the other ministers of the word, and it may be of the whole church: and they spoke the word of God with all boldness; that is, the apostles, and preachers of the Gospel, spoke it with great freedom, and without fear, not only privately, in their community, but publicly, in the temple: this was what was particularly prayed for, and in which they had a remarkable answer. (Gill, J. (1809). An Exposition of the New Testament (Vol. 2, p. 177). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together.
The answer to their prayer was instantaneous. The Holy Spirit was present in power, and the whole meeting place shook. The shaking of that house was symbolic of the shaking now taking place in the house of Israel. The whole nation trembled on the brink of a Millennium or an Armageddon. Old ideas, systems, theologies, prejudices, and power structures in Israel were being shaken to the very foundations by the proclamation of the name of Jesus. Many were fleeing to God’s new house, the church. Others were determined to shore up the tottering old house at all costs. One only has to look at the Talmud and at rabbinic Judaism to see how they did it (see John Phillips, Exploring the World of the Jew [Chicago: Moody, 1981]). When the old house collapsed with the destruction of the Temple, they built another in which ritual law was replaced by rabbinic law and from which Christ was to be permanently excluded.
b. The Spiritual Sign (4:31b)
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
No mention is made of tongues in connection with this filling of the Spirit. Indeed, tongues are rarely mentioned in Acts at all (except on several key occasions) and only once outside the book of Acts. The filling of the Spirit is to enable us to speak the Word of God with boldness under the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit Himself.
Again there was an instantaneous answer to prayer. They prayed for boldness to speak the Word; it was given at once. We need never doubt that such a prayer will be given top priority in heaven. (Phillips, J. (2009). Exploring Acts: An Expository Commentary (Ac 4:31a–b). Kregel Publications; WORDsearch Corp.)
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23–31 When the two returned to their people and reported what had occurred, the first reaction of the church was to raise their voices together in prayer to God. But it was not primarily a prayer of triumph, celebrating the release of the disciples, but a prayer for courage and strength against expected, prophetically foretold, opposition. The quotation is once again from Psalms (2:1–2). When the believers prayed about the Jewish king Herod meeting with the Roman ruler Pilate, and the Gentiles conspiring with Israel (27), it is clear that they felt that everyone was against them as everyone had been against Jesus. Oddly, however, they didn’t pray for the defeat of the evil forces, or for their own safety, but rather for boldness and for the hand of God to heal and perform signs and wonders. Their answer came with the awesome shaking of their meeting place and the granting of their request to speak boldly. (Gempf, C. (1994). Acts. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., pp. 1074–1075). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press)
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And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. —Acts 4:31
Most people almost by instinct think of the Christian church as some tremendous institution that has existed in the world for a long time, with magnificent buildings, a powerful hierarchy, different orders—popes, bishops, archbishops, deacons—a great system that the state recognizes and uses when it suits her. That is what people think of Christianity; it is virtually a branch of the state, and it is characterized by considerable pomp and ceremony.
Then there are those within this great institution who seem to be spending most of their time in refined philosophical and theological disputations. Ordinary men and women do not know what they are talking about, and yet the theologians go on doing it; they live in some rarefied atmosphere. They bring out wonderful terms and concepts, and you are given the privilege sometimes of watching them on the television, and there is all this—something—but what?
Now all this has happened before under the old dispensation, the Old Testament. There had been a religion, and we can trace its origin, but the record shows us how it turned into something that was the exact opposite of what it had been at the beginning. When our Lord came, His greatest fight was with the religious authorities. The people who should have been foremost in giving Him a welcome, believing His message, surrendering themselves to Him, and following Him were the very people who rejected Him and incited others to do so. The religion of the Jews had become so hardened, fossilized, and institutionalized that it became the greatest enemy of the Christian faith.
This rejection by institutionalized religion still goes on, and I suggest that what is known as “Christendom,” what the average person thinks of as the Christian church, is about as far removed from the church of the New Testament as can possibly be imagined. But why is all this important? It is because, according to the New Testament record, in the teaching of the apostles we are given the only truth that can save a man or woman. It does not make much difference what view you take of many of the things that are in the world. I am one of those who happens to think that it does not matter very much how you vote in a general election—it comes to much the same thing in the end. We make a great deal of fuss about such issues, but they are not vital.
But the claim that the Christian message makes is that our reaction to it not only determines what happens to us in this world, but it determines our eternal destiny. Our attitude to the Gospel leads to consequences that we will never be able to undo. This Gospel claims to be a message from God, not from man, and it is not, therefore, a matter for our opinion but for listening to what the almighty God Himself has said to us. It is indeed most urgent that we should be clear about this message that the world needs today above everything else.
Now we have seen that Christianity is not just a system of philosophy or a point of view. Nor is it a matter of moral behavior or one’s view of ethics. No, Christianity is supernatural; it is miraculous; it is the action of the living God among men and women. Furthermore, Christianity is not merely an experience. There are many people today who say that it does not matter very much what people think as long as they have had an experience that does them good and makes better people of them. But we cannot accept that. Now I do agree that experience is essential: It must be since, by definition, Christianity is the action of God upon us. There is an important subjective element in the Christian faith, and, I repeat, if you and I have no experience—I do not care how slight it is—if we have no experience at all of God dealing with us, then we are not Christians. Christianity is the activity, the power, of God. We must have some experience. It may be inchoate; it may be partial and very small, but it must be there. Otherwise our faith is merely some arid, intellectual belief that is of no value.
But I am equally concerned that we do not take up the position of saying that it does not matter what leads to the experience as long as we have it. The amazing thing about this record in the Bible is that there are two sides to it. There is the subjective, the experimental, the experiential side, but there is also the objective side. It is this grand objective emphasis that I am anxious to hold before you now.
I have been emphasizing the historicity of what happened, and I am compelled to do this because that is the emphasis we find here in these early chapters of the book of Acts. Further, historicity is the answer to the psychological attack upon the Christian faith. The way you test the validity of an experience is to ask on what the experience is based. There are many agencies that can do people a lot of good; it is no use denying that. Many of the popular cults can do people good. Otherwise they would never succeed. Psychotherapists and doctors can help people by suggesting various causes and remedies for their troubles. There are many agencies that make people feel much happier, including drugs.
The charge is that we Christians emphasize experience. “You are just fooling yourselves,” people say. “You’ve merely experienced some kind of autosuggestion, and it makes you feel happier and brighter. You sing and enjoy yourself. You work yourself up into some happy mood, avoiding the facts, running away from them, giving yourselves a psychological boost, and then go home feeling a little bit happier. But the problems come back, and you are in trouble again. So you return for another dose. The church is a dispensary giving out soothing drugs. It’s all right,” they continue. “We don’t want to be critical. As long as your religion makes you better and happier, carry on, but don’t expect us to join in with you.” That is their argument. Religion is all right for people who have a temperamental or psychological makeup that is susceptible to religion, people with a religious complex.
But we deny that because Christianity is not merely subjective; it is equally objective, and the subjective element arises out of the objective. The answer to the psychological charge is these historical facts and events. This truth has already been brought out by the astonishing prayer offered by the early church, and it is brought out equally by the answer given to that prayer.
Notice these apostles. The proof that they did not merely have some subjective experience is that in their trouble they did not try to comfort themselves by some sort of autosuggestion; they did not merely utter pious hopes and aspirations. No, they started with great objective facts—God the Father, God the Creator. They did not look in upon themselves and their own experience; they looked out. “They lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is …” We have considered that prayer. Like the psalmists, they started with God the Creator, and then they reminded themselves that God is the one who controls history.
In trouble, the people of God, even in the Old Testament, recapitulated their history: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God of Moses, God of the children of Israel, God of the Red Sea.” History! Events! This is the only basis for faith. They were not fooling themselves. They said, “We believe in this living God who has given proof that He is a living God; our history is full of this story.”
The element of prophecy, too, was always important. In their very prayer here in Acts 4, the believers realized that David was prophesying the coming of the Messiah. They attached great significance to prophecy because it can be checked. Here were men writing eight hundred years earlier, and what they said would happen did happen. That is not persuading yourself; that is not autosuggestion. That is objective record, written down in considerable detail.
Then the believers talked about God the Son and about the things that they had seen and heard (Acts 4:20). They did not have a magical formula to make people happy. They just reported. They were witnesses to this person, and we have considered the great importance they placed on “Jesus and the resurrection.” We have seen that “with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection.” All these things accounted for the faith and assurance of the believers.
Yes, but I have still one more fact to put before you. These verses speak of God the Father, God the Son—and also of God the Holy Spirit. “When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Now this is not the first time we have come across the power of the Holy Spirit as we have studied these early chapters of the book of Acts, but here it is again in the very context of this prayer. The Holy Spirit is a vital and an essential part of Christian preaching. Christianity is Trinitarian through and through. That sounds strange, does it not? But the way we differentiate between Christianity and every other religion or cult, or anything that pretends to be Christian, is by asking: Is it or is it not Trinitarian?
Now all this is not something that can be understood. If Christianity is miraculous and supernatural, by definition, it cannot be understood. I am sorry, Mr. Modern Man, even your great brain cannot understand miracles, and the sooner you realize that, the better. If the Gospel were something that you and I could understand, it would not be “the blessed gospel of the glorious God”; it would be a philosophy that we dissect and apprehend. This Gospel meets you at the very beginning by saying, “Take off your shoes!” That command came to Moses at the burning bush, and the same command was given to Joshua (Josh. 5:15).
We are all so clever; we see a phenomenon, and we bring our great minds to bear upon it: “I will now turn aside for a moment and examine this great phenomenon,” said Moses. Modern men and women want to do that. They want to analyze God and understand Him, and they say, “I’m not going to believe a thing unless I can understand it.” All right, my friend, you are not saying anything very original; people have said that from the very beginning, and that is why the world is as it is today. Men and women cannot understand themselves, but they are still foolish enough to say that they want to understand God and the miraculous and the supernatural! Because they cannot, they reject it, and their world becomes an increasing hell. Oh, the folly of modern humanity’s confidence in its own intellect! I am here to preach to you a miraculous and supernatural Gospel, a Trinitarian message. Understand it? Of course not. Neither can I. I simply stand back with the apostle Paul and say, as I have said so many times before, “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh …” (1 Tim. 3:16). And I say the same about this great doctrine of the blessed holy Trinity.
What does this doctrine mean? It asserts a triune God; it asserts that there are three blessed persons in the Godhead—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. My business now is not to give you a nice comfortable feeling; it is not to enable you to forget your problems and troubles and trials for an hour or so. No, my business is to declare to you the truth, to declare what has been revealed. The three persons of the Trinity are coequal and coeternal; they are from everlasting to everlasting. But I want to emphasize as simply as I can that you and I are not just asked to believe this from the mouth of a preacher; we are asked to believe it because of the way in which these persons of the Godhead have manifested themselves in history. The Trinity is not known in experience only, but it is an objective revelation that took place in history. The three persons have made themselves known.
This revelation is to be seen first of all in the Old Testament. The Old Testament mainly, though not exclusively, reveals the activity of God the Father. As we read of the Creation, the Flood, the new race in Abraham—all their vicissitudes and everything that happened to them and to the other nations with respect to them—we see that God is all the time bringing His great purpose to pass.
Then we come to the four Gospels, and we look mainly at God the Son. “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law” (Gal. 4:4–5). In the pages of the four Gospels we are not confronted by a theory but by a person, a concrete person who has entered into history. This is God the Son manifesting God in the flesh. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Our Lord said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). The invisible became visible.
Then here in the “Acts of the Apostles,” as it is called, we are mainly looking at the activity of God the Holy Spirit. His work is as essential to the Christian message as the activity of the Father and of the Son. What is the teaching concerning the Holy Spirit? Let me summarize it. The Holy Spirit had acted in the Old Testament. We cannot read the first verses in Genesis without coming upon Him and something of His activity. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:1–2). The three blessed persons are involved in the whole story of the earth and the human race. The Holy Spirit was there taking His part in creation.
But the Holy Spirit’s other great activity in the old dispensation was leading men to write the holy Scriptures. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God”—is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). Read the accounts these Old Testament prophets give of how they received their message and how they came to write it, and you will find that they always say that “the burden of the Lord,” “the Spirit of the Lord,” came upon them. They were taken up. A divine afflatus took hold of them and possessed them, gave them a message, gave them understanding, and gave them the ability to write. They all disclaim that they were the authors of their messages. The great teaching is that it was the Holy Spirit, and He alone, who was the author of the holy Scriptures. They are the Word of God, and He is the agent in inspiration. This truth, of course, comes out particularly in the question of prophecy. The apostle Peter, in writing his second epistle, his last letter to the churches, puts this idea into those well-known words: (Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (2001). God the Holy Spirit. In Courageous Christianity (1st U.S. ed., Vol. 2, pp. 175–180). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books)
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FROM MY READING:
Prayer is thus to be the defining discipline and practice of those who believe in Jesus. It is their lifeline to the Father, their sacred chamber for communing with Him, the umbilical cord of their sojourn in the womb of the earth, and the spiritual IV by which the Lord drips life-renewing power for love into the veins of their souls. (The King Who Moves Mountains by T.M. Moore)
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1 John 2
If we keep His commandments and love our brothers, we walk in fellowship.
INSIGHT
It is sometimes difficult to know if we are in fellowship with the Lord. We erroneously tend to rely on our feelings to gauge our relationship with Him. If we “feel” spiritual one day, we think we are in fellowship with Him. If on another day we do not “feel” spiritual, we assume we are not in fellowship. John helps us with this dilemma; he describes fellowship for us. If we are keeping the LordÕs commandments and loving others, we are in fellowship whether we “feel” in fellowship or not. Do not let your feelings deceive you and encourage you to sin. (Quiet Walk)
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The dispensationalist sees a broader purpose in God’s program for the world than salvation, and that purpose is His own glory. (p. 106)
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Thus as stated in chapter 1, the unifying principle of covenant theology is, in practice, soteriological. The unifying principle of normative dispensationalism is doxological, or the glory of God. (p. 107)
In progressive dispensationalism, the overall purpose of God has shifted from a doxological to a Christological purpose. This better fits the progressives emphasis on the Messianic and unified concept of kingdom and Christ’s present rule in heaven on the throne of David. (p. 106-7) (Dispensationalism by Charles C. Ryrie)
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THE WITNESS
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. 1 John 5:10
First I am to receive the witness of God, and only after that am I likely to have the evidence and the witness within myself. The Lord Himself said, “If any man will do his [God’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17). So if you want to be certain, believe first, and then you will be certain.
So this question of order is a vitally important one. Believe God, and then have the belief within yourself. To reverse the order would be insulting to God. Someone may say, “Well, I will only believe if I have proof.” But God says, “I ask you to believe because I am speaking”; so not to believe is dishonoring to Him. To try to insist that you must have proof is to detract from His glory. So first I must believe because God is the witness; and if I do, then I shall have the witness of the Spirit within myself.
The other practical thing, of course, is just to learn exactly what believing His evidence means, and here John puts it in a very few words: “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” Oh, what important words these are; what an important word is that little word “on”! John does not mean us to say, “Well, on the whole I am satisfied with the evidence, and I am prepared to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God.”
That is not it! “He that believeth on the Son of God…” Such a person has abandoned himself to Him. He has surrendered to Him. You may not realize the full implications of the statement, but you hand over your whole life into the strong arms of the Son of God. And you will very soon have the witness. You will know who He is, and all your uncertainties will have gone. Jesus is not only the Christ—He is the Son of God, the Messiah, the deliverer of the world.
A Thought to Ponder: First I must believe because God is the witness; then I shall have the witness of the Spirit within myself.
(From Life in God, pp. 88-89, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones).
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Zechariah’s Visions: Joshua and the Branch
“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.” (Zechariah 3:1)
Joshua is pictured standing before the face of the angel of the Lord, who (as before) is the Second Person of the Godhead. Satan is there to “resist” (the same word) the angel of the Lord. “Satan” is a title—a noun to describe the character of an adversary. The Hebrew term satan appears 30 times in Scripture, sometimes applying to human adversaries as well as that chief angelic being.
In this vision, Joshua appears in “filthy” clothing unfit to come before the presence of the Lord—a picture of the human sinful condition (Psalm 14:2-3; Isaiah 64:6). But, since Joshua is a “brand plucked from the fire” by the Lord Himself (Zechariah 3:2), Joshua has the filthy garments taken away and a change of clothing given.
Suddenly, the scene shifts as the angel of the Lord announces the promise of the Lord of hosts: “I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day” (Zechariah 3:8-9).
Many previous prophetic promises must have passed through Zechariah’s mind as he heard these words. Jeremiah spoke of a “Branch of righteousness” (Jeremiah 33:15-16). Isaiah promised the son who would rule the world (Isaiah 9:6-7). Even Hanani the seer spoke of “the eyes of the LORD” that would “shew himself strong” (2 Chronicles 16:9). These visions were given to encourage the returning remnant (and us) to reset their focus on the timeless promises of the everlasting God.
(HMM III, The Institute for Creation Research)
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