The Book of the Three Preachers / The Book of the Three Cities (Acts 6:8–9:31; 9:32–12:24) (Panels 2–3)

As we indicated the very first night of our study, we have divided the book of Acts into six panels, each of the panels being concluded with a summary statement. And our session last night we looked at the first panel, which on the overhead we’ve entitled the church founded in Jerusalem. But the basic idea that we got out of the panel after we studied it was that the panel presents to us the reality that the church began as a dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem. The number of converts was multiplying very rapidly. And then the church encountered problems, not problems that it didn’t overcome, but problems nevertheless. And so we are left, so to speak, after panel one somewhat on the edge of our seat. Will this movement within Israel at this point continue to go forward? Or will the problems multiply sufficiently to create a serious difficulty?

That brings us tonight to panel 2, which we believe extends from Acts chapter 6 verse 8 to the summary statement that is found in Acts 9:31. Before I show you anything else on the overhead let me make some introductory comments about this new panel or new section of the book of Acts. It seems to me that a number of important firsts occur right at the beginning of this section. For example we have right at the start of this unit of Acts the very first Christian other than the Apostles to whom miracles are attributed, namely Stephen. We have, maybe this is something we could easily overlook, the first non-Apostolic speech in Acts by a Christian. For that matter we have the first non-Petrine speech in the book of Acts. So Peter has been the speaker of panel 1 and we have a new speaker at the beginning of panel 2.

We have the very first vision of the risen Christ after Pentecost or since Pentecost. And of course it is Stephen who looks up into heaven and sees the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. We have of course the first martyr, the first death for the name of Christ. And we also have the very first suggestion in the book of Acts that the temple and its worship can be and will be set aside. In fact the accusation that is brought against Stephen, you recall, is that he predicted that Jesus would destroy this holy place and change the customs delivered to us by the fathers. And then in Stephen’s own defense before the Sanhedrin in chapter 7 verses 47 to 50 he seems to confirm that the temple is dispensable by reminding his audience that God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands and so on. So there are a number of items here that are new departures for the book of Acts. And this is one of the ways in which we can recognize the beginning of a new unit.

Now Stephen’s speech is obviously very important for the author of this book. And as you know, and we’re assuming something here too, with the speech of Stephen as you know he traces Jewish history. But in particular he traces the way in which the nation of Israel has repeatedly rebelled against God. And he brings everything to a climax in his final words. And here I’d like to have you turn to Acts chapter 7. The climax of Stephen’s speech occurs at verse 51. Let’s read it. We may be familiar with it but this is the bottom line.

You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.

So notice that the present generation is indicted for being just like the generations that preceded it, rebellious against God and against his purposes for the nation. Now this is very important, I might add, for a reader like Theophilus. Remember we have suggested that the purpose of the book of Acts is to show that the Pauline mission to the Gentiles is a legitimate extension of the work of Jesus Christ who Himself is the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes. Now what Theophilus learns from the speech of Stephen is that the present opposition to Christ that he encounters among Jewish people is not new. It’s an age-old phenomenon that has repeated itself over and over again in Jewish history. This helps him to understand that there is a rationale behind the kind of opposition that he encounters among the Jews.

Now along with his speech I think that Stephen is also giving us a fairly extensive amount of typology. In fact one of the older commentaries on the book of Acts by R. B. Rackham said of the speech of Stephen that Stephen was all the while he was giving this speech and all the while that he was recounting the rebellion of Israel, that he is also preaching Christ to his audience through the typology of his material. Let me therefore try to illustrate this from the overhead. Now on the first line up here we have given an overview of the history of Christ as a deliverer as we know it to have occurred and to be yet to occur in the future. The high points being His first advent when He’s rejected, then a period in which He is glorified and fruitful among the Gentiles, His second advent which is at the time of and following the tribulation, the establishment of the kingdom.

Now a portion of the speech of Stephen is devoted to the experience of Joseph who is also rejected by his brethren and sold into Egypt. But while he is in Egypt he is exalted. When the time of trouble comes upon his family. And what is very significant here, we’ve got a little Greek here. The Greek is exactly the term that is used for the Great Tribulation. So that it is able to pick up the idea in our English Bibles it’s great trouble. But the instructed reader of this, particularly an instructed Christian reader such as Theophilus, would pick up the idea. Then here was this rejected figure in Jewish history who succored and assisted and preserved his family during a period of Great Tribulation. The implications of that in terms of typology are manifest. Finally on their second trip he’s revealed to his brethren and they recognize him for who he is.

Then of course there is a section in the speech of Stephen which focuses on Moses the deliverer. He is miraculously and divinely preserved at birth. But in manhood he is rejected by his people. When he thought, says Stephen, that they understood that God by His hand would deliver them they did not understand. However, and he is driven away into the land of Midian. But in the land of Midian he is fruitful because he has sons there. And then in a time of severe trouble for his people he is sent back to them, commissioned to go back to them at the burning bush. And he does in fact return and he does in fact deliver them from their bondage in Egypt.

Now in addition to these two elements of the typology I think there’s something else that happens toward the end of Stephen’s speech. Christ is a prophet like unto Moses. And once again there are some very striking similarities to Moses in his prophetic career. Moses worked miracles while he was delivering the people from Egypt. He was in the midst of the ecclesia. We will need to translate this for purposes of an English version by some words like congregation since it was frequently used in the Old Testament of the congregation of Israel in the Greek translation. But any Christian reader reading this would recognize this as the standard word for the Christian church, the ecclesia. And he spoke prophetic oracles. And we think here of the revelatory role of the Lord Jesus Christ for the Christian church. And then he goes up into the mountain to be with God and to receive God’s word. And he is rejected by his people on earth. Once again the analogy to the experience of Christ who has gone to the right hand of God while His earthly people reject Him. Where is He? He’s dead. He’s not risen. That sort of thing.

So all through the speech it seems to me that there are two things happening. At the surface level there is the recounting of Israel’s history of rejecting the deliverers that God sends to that nation. Beneath the surface there is the typological element showing that in repeatedly rejecting their greatest men they are in type forecasting that they will reject the greatest of them all, which is the Son of God. So that this two-fold chord, this double strand within the presentation, makes the indictment that much more effective, that much more powerful for its hearers.

Now there is another aspect of the story of Stephen that I think is equally interesting. And that is the godliness of this first Christian martyr. Please do not be put off by the abundance of Greek words on that overhead. You don’t need that. Now they explain to you in a moment what that’s all about. What we really discover about Stephen who delivers the speech is that first of all he is a bold witness of course. But secondly he is a courageous but forgiving martyr. And when he prays for those who are in the process of killing him he is obviously reflecting the very spirit and the very activity of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who likewise prayed, Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Now there’s a sense I think in which in this brief narrative about Stephen’s martyrdom we can almost see Stephen as a prototype of the Christian life. So that’s what this overhead is supposed to illustrate. First of all earlier in the story of Stephen we are told that he was full of the Holy Spirit. You can’t read that but that’s what that says. Now this is the second of two phrases that are used in reference to the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. One of these as we pointed out last time describes the actual event of filling. And we have suggested that when that particular expression is used the idea is that the Holy Spirit comes in, takes over the vessel and speaks through them. Almost what we would call inspiration. But there is another expression that is used where it is not an event but a condition. And one of the conditions for the deacons who are chosen to meet the problem that occurs in the distribution to the Hellenistic widows is that they should be full of the Holy Spirit. Here I think we have a phrase that expresses the fact that the Holy Spirit permeates and manifests himself in and through the life of the individual. So in that sense we would say that as Stephen was a man full of the Holy Spirit, a man who was spiritual in our sense of the word.

Now we see him in two capacities here. First in his testimony capacity he looks upward to Christ and he sees Him at the right hand of God. And he bears testimony to people. Fixing his eyes on heaven and he said, Behold the Son of Man, and etc. The entire testimony. There is a sense in which typologically speaking we do the same thing. We are to look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before Him sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. We are to see Him there spiritually and we are to bear testimony to the reality of His present exalted position. Though we don’t do it literally, we don’t see Him literally. Yet spiritually we conform here to Stephen.

Then in his trouble we see him doing two things. He says in his prayer to God, Receive my spirit. That’s what this Greek phrase means. And then he says in his prayer to God, Do not charge them with this sin. What is he doing? Well first of all he’s yielding himself to the will of God and committing his spirit into the hands of God. He’s trusting God in the midst of his difficulties. Secondly he is breathing a prayer of forgiveness toward those who are causing the difficulties. Once again this is the model for us in our times of trouble. We often can, particularly if we are walking with God and can perceive that our troubles come at least in part because we are walking with God, we can do two things. We need to do two things. We need to commit our situation to God and trust Him to bring the outcome that is proper. And we need to have a spirit of forgiveness toward those who are causing the difficulties that we are encountering.

So there is a sense in which kind of masterfully I think Luke captures in the person of Stephen the essence of discipleship. In the final scene of his life we see the spirit and attitude of one who is both a testimony to men and an example to men in the midst of trouble. Please remember this, that Stephen comes to the fore because the Apostles want to give themselves to the ministry of the word and to prayer. You remember when the problem about distributing to the Hellenistic widows arose the Apostles say it is not appropriate for us to leave prayer and the ministry of the word to serve tables. Choose out somebody to do this and we will give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So they recognize their responsibility was disciple building. Right here is one of their disciples. And I would suggest to you Stephen is a very powerful testimony to the effectiveness of the prayer and the ministry of the word to which the Apostles dedicated themselves.

If we want to see people become real disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ it’s going to take two things. It’s going to take dedication to prayer on their behalf and it’s going to take ministry of the word. That particularly I speak here to leaders. The leaders must give themselves to these two things if they wish to reproduce in other people the spirit and life of the disciple. I would say if anybody through prayer and the ministry of the word produced disciples on the order of Stephen that God had answered their prayers and blessed their ministry in a very, very special way. So Stephen kind of gives us this prototypical look at the Christian life.

With this introduction therefore I think that we can move to a consideration of what we’ve called panel 2 as a whole. You will notice that on my overheads I call it book 2. That’s because us teachers fluctuate in our terminology back and forth and from one year to another. We can’t decide whether we prefer to call it six books in Acts because that by the way was the way in which it was traditional to break up the work of historians like Josephus into books and then into subunits within the books. Or whether the term panel which originates with Turner is the right word. It doesn’t matter what matters is that whatever term we use of it we see the integration that is actually occurring.

We could therefore call book two the book of the three preachers because side by side we have the story of three men who preached. We could also say that book two in some ways seems to revisit the geographical emphasis of Acts 1:8. Now we have said that this is not a thematic verse for the reasons that the book of Acts does not really trace the spread of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Nevertheless it’s an important verse. And what we see is that in the first unit of book two the activity is in Jerusalem. And the second unit of book two the activity is in Judea and Samaria. And in the third unit we get an anticipation of God’s work to the uttermost parts of the earth in two ways. First of all through the conversion of the Ethiopian who is on his way away from Jerusalem to a distant point in Ethiopia. And also through the conversion of the great apostle to the Gentiles, Saul of Tarsus. For he is a chosen vessel to me to bear my name among the Gentiles. So we get an anticipation of the further spread of the gospel outward into the Gentile world.

Notice that we can also kind of hook the three preachers together through two major converts who appear in book 2. Simon Magus of course was Philip’s convert. But Philip would never have been in Samaria to convert him if it hadn’t been for the testimony of Stephen and the outbreak of persecution at the time of Stephen’s testimony. As we’ve already said while Philip converts the Ethiopian eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch represents the type of person who will be most responsive to the ministry of the Apostle Paul. He is clearly in the narrative about him, he is clearly what we would call a God-fearer. He is a Gentile who is not completely joined to Israel. He’s not a proselyte. But he is a man who’s attracted to the religion of Israel and attracted to the Scriptures of Israel. And wherever Paul goes on the mission field Paul is going to encounter people like that. And he’s going to have a fruitful ministry among the God-fearers who already have been under the exposure to the Old Covenant and to the Scriptures of the nation of Israel.

So there is a sense in which the Ethiopian eunuch is himself a kind of a bridge between Philip the evangelist of Judea and Samaria and Saul the evangelist who will go out into the Gentile world. The book ends when Saul gets off of the scene in Israel and departs to Tarsus. We’ll come back to that in a moment in another overhead. Now please notice also that this book, this unit, this panel of Acts is more or less driven along by the impact of the persecution that surrounded the testimony and martyrdom of Stephen. So the persecution explodes. Stephen is martyred. Everybody but the Apostles, that may mean all of the leadership or it might even mean all of the membership of the Jerusalem church, is scattered from Jerusalem except for the Apostles themselves.

So as a result of Stephen’s martyrdom Philip is driven to Samaria. And we are first introduced to Saul in connection with the martyrdom of Stephen. And God is doing a little driving of his own here. And though Saul for the bulk of the first two sections is breathing out threats and slaughter against the disciples he finally is goaded as it were into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and converted. And when the great enemy of the Christian church in this first major persecution is converted and when he vanishes as it were from the scene when they sent him to Tarsus, we then come to the place where the persecution ends. And you would probably be well advised to turn back to the summary statement that is found in 9:31. So just glance in your Bibles at 9:31. After all of these events we come to a real stopping place not only historically but also in the unfolding of the book of Acts.

Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit they were multiplied.

So the difficulties, severe as they were, did not diminish the fruitfulness of the gospel but rather multiplied it. And the problems rather than depressing Christian growth increased Christian growth. So that then the churches were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and were multiplied. And with that the book climaxes.

Now let me just say a few concluding remarks about this particular book and then we’ll open it for questions. We’ve already suggested that in a real sense Stephen, the first of the three preachers here, is an ideal product of the ministry of the apostles. Here’s the kind of disciple that most recapitulates the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit imparted by the Apostles. We also should note that he becomes the bearer of the Apostolic message but now with a slightly new note attached to it. If you read the speech of Stephen you will find that his condemnation of the guilt of Israel is even stronger than the condemnation found in the sermons of Peter. This is, I think you will agree, that the tone of the speech is more highly critical of the nation and incorporates the entire nation this time rather than simply the generation to which Peter addressed himself.

Furthermore within Stephen’s speech there is the first indication that the worship that is going on in the Jewish temple is dispensable. That God doesn’t need the temple. In fact apparently though they no doubt garbled his statements apparently Stephen does in fact predict the changing of the mode of worship, the destruction of the temple which of course Christ had already predicted. The changing of the customs of Israel which anticipates in a very real sense what happened eventually. And why under the ministry of the Apostle Paul the Old Covenant is set aside completely and a new form of worship apart from a temple, apart from a sacrificial system, the form of worship presented in the book of Hebrews is the replacement that God has for the ancient mode of worship. But Stephen becomes the first person to offer us hints of the direction in which God is moving on that front.

Please notice another fact about this book. And this relates to the central portion of the book. The evangelization of Samaria can be called a carefully controlled movement away from Jerusalem. Notice how we want to put that because the conversion of Samaria is a carefully controlled movement away from Jerusalem. It is perfectly true that now the gospel is being preached for the first time apparently since Pentecost in Samaria. And it is perfectly true that the Samaritans are able to be saved in the same way that the Jews were able to be saved. But something a little different happens here. When they believe they’re obviously saved and then they are baptized. But we’re told that the Holy Spirit did not fall on any of them at this point. What happens? Well Peter and John come down from Jerusalem and through the mediation of the Jerusalem Apostles the Holy Spirit is given.

Now personally I think that manifests the wisdom of God. If God had poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the Samaritan converts the spirit of Samaria was a spirit of religious rivalry with Jerusalem. Gerizim was the opponent of the worship of God that went on on Mount Zion. And it might have created a schismatic spirit within the Samaritan community. But notice that God insists that if the Samaritans receive the Holy Spirit they will receive it through the mediation of Jerusalem. Remember that when Jesus confronted the woman at the well in Samaria she raises the religious issue that all Samaritans thought of. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. Maybe she waved in the direction of Gerizim. But you people say that Jerusalem is the place where you ought to worship. But who’s right? At this point in the narrative she’s probably trying to deflect his attention from her sordid life which he has just revealed to her. But Jesus answered, You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship because salvation is of the Jews. Did you notice there’s no suggestion well it’s all right to worship at Gerizim and it’s all right to worship at Jerusalem. And he does later say it doesn’t matter where you worship God neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem. But if it’s Samaria versus Jerusalem, Jerusalem must win because that is where God had established his worship. And it was from the Jewish nation that salvation would come not only to the Jews but to Samaritans and to people all over the world.

So in this story what we really have is God insisting that the benefit of the Holy Spirit be bestowed through the mediation of Jerusalem. Humbling if you want to put it that way the pride of Samaria as Samaria turns to God. Now there is in connection with this an extremely interesting contrast which I want to point out by means of another overhead. Philip the evangelist of the middle section of book 2 has two converts who play a fairly significant role. In other words Luke tells their conversion story in some detail. The two converts are of course Simon, if you can see that, can you see that? You’re wearing his name on his sleeve. And the eunuch.

Now when you look at these two men you find that they are a veritable study in contrast. Simon is a Samaritan of mixed ancestry, partly Jewish we would assume and partly Gentile as the Samaritans generally were. The eunuch a full-blooded Gentile as far as we know. Simon had been in his pre-conversion period a tool of Satan, dabbling in magic, using sorcery to delude the Samaritan nation. The eunuch in his pre-conversion experience was a worshiper of God, had been up to Jerusalem and was reading the Scriptures on his way back from Jerusalem. Simon was influenced by the miracles that he saw Philip performing. In fact that led to his significance in the story. The Ethiopian eunuch is saved without miracles. No miracle was done until after he was saved and then Philip is snatched away. That was the only miracle in the story. Both men are baptized. But after his baptism Simon commits a sin which has given his name to this sin, simony. He trying to buy influence or position or power through money.

And let me just pause here although we’re going to discuss the issue of salvation in the book of Acts on the last night. We want to spend a significant period of our evening on Saturday night doing that. I think it is perfectly clear that Simon is a saved man. Please pick your Bibles up at this point and look once again at Acts chapter 8 verse 12. Speaking of the Samaritans in general, But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed and when he was baptized etc. The first verse says these people believed and were baptized. The second verse says Simon also believed. Were the people in verse 12 saved? Of course. Was Simon saved? Of course it says so here. This isn’t Simon saying that he believed. It’s Luke saying he believed.

Now if there is anyone who thinks that if a person gets saved and commits a sin like this that they prove thereby they are not saved, let me ask you to think again. People who are newly saved often do horrendous things without realizing in many cases how serious those things are. Please recall that this man is a converted magician. He has spent his life making money through his so-called magical power. Now he’s a believer in Jesus Christ and he sees this amazing power that the Apostles are able to perform bestowing the Holy Spirit on people. He thinks to himself this is real power. I would really like to have this power. And in the old days you could do it with money. Why not with money? And Peter rebukes him. Peter does not say that he is unsaved. Peter says first of all that he sees him. He says your money go with you to, I think our English version has perdition does it not? Is that what we have in the New King James here? Yes. You’re okay that’s much better. I think the old one had the idea of perdition but the phrase that is used here involves the word that means ruined. And it has been pointed out that the verbal phrase has been found in the Greek papyri in the sense of head for or be destined for. May your money head for ruin along with you. You’re headed for ruin, not for hell but for moral and spiritual disaster.

And then he tells him you’re in need of verse 22 to repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. So he is telling him you’re in bondage to this sin. Ask God to forgive you for it because I see that you’re headed in the wrong direction. And I’m impressed by the fact that Simon says, Would you pray for me that none of the things that you said should come upon me? So what I think we have here is a very young convert with very little understanding of right and wrong. His whole life prior to the moment of conversion was a mess and satanic influence no doubt. And he doesn’t understand how holy and special is the privilege of bestowing the Holy Spirit upon others. And he thinks along the old fault lines and thought patterns and thinks I want to buy this because this is for real. This is good. And Peter says you’re badly mistaken. And that attitude is going to lead you to ruin unless you repent. And I think that he indicates he has virtually repented when he says would you please pray that I will not come to the bad end that you have warned me about.

So though he was baptized yet there was a blind spot here, a gigantic blind spot that led him into a serious sin. But by contrast with this the eunuch is baptized. He goes on his way rejoicing. So that in every way the two men are contrastive. Now it seems to me that the writer is deliberately doing this. What is Simon really doing? We’ve suggested that the reason that God allowed the Apostles to come down there in the first place was because he wanted Samaria to recognize Jerusalem as the source of God’s purposes and the Jerusalem Apostles as having authority in the church. Now Simon wants to be an independent distributor in Samaria just like Samaria has always been since its history began an independent center of worship in rivalry with Jerusalem. And God wanted, it was a wicked idea for Simon as suggested. But on the larger scale only the Jerusalem Apostles will be allowed to bestow the Holy Spirit in this new area because Samaria needs to learn the primacy and significance of Jerusalem in God’s plan of salvation.

Whereas, and this is an irony, the eunuch represents what should have been the spirit of Jerusalem as we see increasingly. But what is the eunuch doing? He’s worshipped God and been to the Jerusalem temple. He’s driving back in his chariot and what is he doing? He’s reading the Scriptures. And what is he doing with the Scriptures? He’s asking himself questions. What does this mean? And then God sends him Philip who takes the very Scripture that he’s reading and presents Christ to him. That’s what should have been able to be done in Jerusalem with their own scriptures before them with the Apostolic testimony directing them to understand the scriptures. They should have been able to see that the prophets were speaking of the one who was so recently been crucified and raised from the dead. So these two men can look very sharply contrasted here. And what we actually discover is that the Ethiopian eunuch is exactly the spirit that Paul himself will encounter on the mission field. And this type of person will frequently be won to Christ through the ministry of the great apostle to the Gentiles.

Now before we have a brief break how about questions over some of this or any of it? Yes sir, where he asked him to amend. What do we understand that to mean? Well I think it meant that he had to decide that what he had done was sin. That he did not want to do it again. He wanted God’s forgiveness for it. That touches a little bit on the issue of when we come to Saturday night’s discussion of salvation in the book of Acts. We’ll have to deal with issues like repentance and forgiveness, the sin of simony, the sin of the Spirit and so on. But basically that’s what I would understand him to have understood. That what you’ve done is wrong and you need to go to God with the recognition that it’s wrong and get his forgiveness. That implies you’re not going to want to do this again. Now that doesn’t prevent him from doing it again. And we all know that we oftentimes repent of our sin, get God’s forgiveness and we do not intend to repeat it again. And we do right. And repentance is something that all of us do or should do every day of our lives since we all sin on a daily basis. That may be something we’ve said we shouldn’t have said, something we did we shouldn’t have done. Repentance is appropriate at every juncture and a prayer for forgiveness or confession of sin is appropriate.

What is being advised to Simon it seems to me is no more than would be advised to any Christian who has committed a sin and who is confronted by that sin. Go ahead. Oh good, my parents. He said that our whole life. Yes and that’s very good. Right that in fact I think I use it in absolutely free. And yeah that’s exactly it. That our whole life is a life of repentance. Because if it’s not repentance we get out of fellowship with God and stay out of fellowship. So one might say we’ve all read the story of Simon so negatively. One might say that this is a very positive story from some points of view. Here’s a guy that is barely out of the waters of baptism and he falls flat on his face. So much for you Simon says the Apostle Peter. No, repent. Ask God for forgiveness. And Simon says pray for me please. That’s a great conclusion. Right? So nothing negative about this.

Right in the back there. Yes which would tell us although it’s not explicit here as certainly is to be assumed which tells us that even when we have the Holy Spirit we’re not immune to serious falls. Yeah that’s a very good point. Yes if you know what that means. A highly probable conclusion. And that reminds me. As you know there are only two places in the book of Acts where this particular noun is used. The other is I think chapter 25 somewhere. Paul is in a polis in typically. Now and there it clearly means death because a Roman governor is talking about it. But only the majority text has that use. Let’s drop perdition out of the other texts. That’s the kind of inside joke. Don’t worry if you don’t understand that. It’s not important at all.

Many times you spend half your time defending new converts against Christian sharks. Oh well they obviously have not. Say goodbye. But the question that that’s the kind of question is the purpose of Acts is to verify the whole mission of the working person from right as you always hold us accountable for every section. We have to find how has this movement forward. Well this way. First yeah uh-huh. That starting with the explosion of persecution at the time of Stephen we find the gospel more or less thrust out of its environs of Jerusalem spreading to Judea and Samaria, converting a man on his way to Ethiopia and converting another man who will carry it even further. That’s right. Right. That we suggested that the title here would be the church expanded from Jerusalem or right. What this shows is God is pushing the gospel out of Jerusalem and onto the highways and byways leading away from Jerusalem.

Find a way. We’ll show you after our break an overhead where what we really have here are some terrific road stories. So the Ethiopian eunuch is going south away from the land of Palestine is converted. Paul is going north to Damascus and is converted. God is moving now on the highways leading away from Jerusalem. So does that do it good? Let’s take about five or six minutes and come back and see if we can finish up.

We’re taking our last look at this. This is the organizational structure we kind of want you to recall from book two. And I have one discussion that serves as a kind of a footnote to our consideration of book 2. As we suggested that at the very end of our first period we can think somewhat geographically as we work our way through this book. There is the gigantic explosion at Jerusalem resulting in the expulsion of the gospel through many hands and hearts. And we have of course the movement of Philip himself up to Samaria and then his movement southward to Gaza and then the movement of the Ethiopian eunuch even further south as he continues his trip to Ethiopia. And then of course there is Saul who is an agent of the persecution traveling outward and trying to extend the persecution to the city of Damascus. But before he is able to do that he is intercepted by the risen Christ. And when he does get to Damascus he’s already a converted man and then becomes a preacher of the very faith which he had so vigorously sought to destroy.

There’s also a kind of a backward thrust to this. Notice that we don’t know whether in going from Samaria down to Gaza Philip actually returned to Jerusalem. But at least he passes it geographically speaking. And while the Ethiopian eunuch goes south Philip is removed to Azotus and he travels north on his preaching ministry. And we find him stopping at Caesarea. In the case of Paul we have him going to Damascus but stirring up so much opposition to himself that he has to be secretly taken out of the city. He returns to Jerusalem. He’s only reluctantly accepted by the Jerusalem church after the Apostle Barnabas testifies on his behalf. But even at Jerusalem he stirs up further problems. So they take him down to Caesarea. And the viewpoint of the text is that they bring him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus. Very artfully the author has managed to allow his two last figures to end their career at Caesarea. You see that geographically speaking. And where does the great event of book three occur? At Caesarea. So we’re getting ready for that event.

Now I want you to notice that book 3 is a book that basically begins with two miracles and with what and is followed by what is really one of the most important stories that Luke tells anywhere in the book of Acts. The first of these miracles is a miracle of healing that Peter performs on a paralytic. The second is a miracle that Peter also performs in raising a woman disciple whose life has been filled with good works, whose death the Christians in her city just simply refused to accept, and whose life in fact is extended by the intervention of Peter’s miracle. Now there are two things we ought to observe about this. Peter’s been out of the story here except for his appearance in the middle of book 2 where he is the agent in bestowing the Holy Spirit. But the first thing that we learn is that Peter’s continuing ministry as an apostle is still being accompanied by the power of God. So that the miracles that he’s able to perform reveal that God continues to work through him. But there is a second aspect of these miracles which I think is equally important. That they are kind of pointers. That’s the purpose of the arrows here. They are kind of pointers to the miracle that will occur in the household of Cornelius as a result of Peter’s ministry.

There first of all in the miracle that he performs on Aeneas you will notice that the key phrase there is that God heals Aeneas. That Aeneas is now a man who can move freely as a result of the miracle that has been performed. Let’s take our text and look for just a moment at chapter 9. Chapter 9 verse 34. Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. This is the healing of the paralytic. Do you remember in the Gospel of Luke any healing of a paralytic? Yes early on. And what is the key lesson to be drawn from the healing of the paralytic in the Gospel of Luke? Remember they let him down through the roof. And what does Jesus say to him? Now first your sins be forgiven. When they object to that he says which is easier to say your sins be forgiven to you or rise up and walk? So the paralytic manifests the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive sins. I want to suggest to you that the Aeneas story recalls that original story and points forward to the fact that one of the miraculous benefits that Cornelius will receive in his household as a result of the preaching of Peter is forgiveness. Turn over to chapter 10 verse 43. To him all the prophets witness that through his name whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. And this is the end of the sermon as you are no doubt aware because the next verse says while Peter was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the word. So forgiveness is bestowed as a result of the ministry of the Apostle Peter in the household of Cornelius.

To Dorcas however is given renewed life. She’s raised from the dead. Now look at chapter 11 and verse 18. After concluding his account and defense of his actions in the household of Cornelius we read this conclusion to his encounter at Jerusalem. When they heard these things they became silent and they glorified God saying, Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. I will say more about this when we get to the salvation section on Saturday night. But notice that there is not an explicit reference here to eternal life. I have argued in Absolutely Free that the doctrine of repentance is never connected with the receiving of eternal life. However in the story of the prodigal son when the prodigal son returns and when he is once again back in the fellowship of his father his father says this, My son was lost and is found, was dead and is alive again. And what I want to suggest about repentance, what we do suggest in fact in Absolutely Free and if we’re going over the book of Acts in bite nights I don’t think I can get into that too deeply. But the point in repentance is that by repentance we get back into communion with God. And we can live the life that God wants us to live in fellowship with Himself.

Now it’s interesting that the thing that Peter is charged with here by the people of Jerusalem is that he went into an uncircumcised man. Not that he preached the gospel to him but that he went in and ate with him. He went in and had fellowship with an uncircumcised Gentile. But that’s what God wants to do with uncircumcised Gentiles. He wants to have fellowship with them. That’s the point of this. And God therefore has granted to Gentiles both repentance and faith so that they may indeed enjoy life in the fellowship of God. So that’s the way I would understand what is going on here. And the two miracle stories that precede the account of Cornelius and his conversion are miracle stories that anticipate the benefits that will be bestowed upon Cornelius.

Now let’s look at another map. In a way we could say that book 3 is the book of the three cities. If we call book two the book of the three preachers we might call book three the book of the three cities. There are three cities that are at the focus point of the narrative in this unit of the book of Acts. The first of these of course is Caesarea. This is where the pathway of Paul and the pathway of Philip end at the conclusion of book 2. The opening story of book 3 is the conversion of Cornelius at Caesarea. We also discover that there is a major role for Antioch in this book. And there is also a major role for Jerusalem. Let us look first of all however at the Caesarea episode. Peter obviously leaves Jerusalem and he is preaching the gospel beyond the kind of confines of Jerusalem. He comes to Lydda where he heals Aeneas. He is summoned to Joppa where he heals or raises Dorcas from the dead. Then he is summoned to Caesarea where he also grants eternal life and salvation. God grants it through him to Cornelius. And then he returns to Jerusalem in order to give his report.

Next we discover that there has been a movement of God all the way to Antioch. So that those who were scattered as a result of the persecution of Stephen went all the way up to Antioch. By the way Antioch was a significant city in the Roman Empire. There were probably about five hundred thousand people in Antioch. It was a center of trade and commerce. It was a transshipment point for goods that came all the way from Parthia and were transshipped to Rome. It had one of the most active mints in the Roman empire. It was a very significant city. It was the resident city of the governor of Syria just as Caesarea was the residence of the procurator or the official who ruled in Judea and Samaria. So this is an important city. It is evangelized and there is a stress in the text on the evangelization of Greek speaking Jews. Then we discover that Barnabas comes down there and is pleased at what God is doing and contributes to the ministry there. Finally Barnabas decides that he knows just exactly the right man to assist him in the teaching at Antioch. And he gets hold of Paul. And Paul and Barnabas teach the Christians there. And the result is, this is not an insignificant piece of data for Luke, the result is that the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

It’s very striking that it was under the ministry of Barnabas and Saul that men acquired the name of Christian. I would say that this is a striking example of the prescience of Luke about the future or his inspiration about the future. Please remember he’s writing as a contemporary of these events. One of the hardest things to do is to write about contemporary events and to figure out where they’re heading because they almost always head in some other direction than you’re guessing. But what is anticipated here is that Christianity will virtually take its character from the ministry of these two men. And notably since he becomes the hero in the latter part of the book, notably Christianity will take its character from Paul. Gentile Christianity which means Christianity right here in Glide back in Dallas Texas, all over the United States, wherever there is true Christianity it is a Pauline form of Christianity. This is not to say that the ministry and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ are not relevant anymore to the Christian church. They most certainly are. The synoptic Gospels in my judgment are relevant documents that teach us the essence of discipleship as that was taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. So that his teaching in the synoptic Gospels is foundational for the Christian life just as his instruction in the Gospel of John is foundational for the doctrine of salvation.

But we all recognize do we not that we are greatly assisted in developing the implications of the fundamental teaching of Christ about discipleship by the epistles of the Apostle Paul. That he gets down to cases for us. He shows how these principles work out in ordinary life and in our church life and in our personal lives. And so there is a sense in which Christianity today is the religion of Christ but the religion of his teachings both personally while on earth and his teachings as the risen Christ through his chosen apostle the Apostle Paul. And I think that in talking about the Christian name coming to Antioch for the first time as a result of the ministry of Paul that Luke is forecasting the future of Christianity with an amazing, amazing degree of accuracy.

Now you will notice that Paul and Barnabas return. I think I have too much here on the top here. Let’s get off Peter. The spirit in the Antiochene church is a spirit that Paul manifested for the rest of his life. A spirit of concern for the poor Christians in Judea and Jerusalem. And so Paul and Barnabas are the agents of the generosity of the Antiochene church and return to Jerusalem. And in this way Luke gets the narrative back to Jerusalem just in time for a new explosion of persecution here under Herod Agrippa. And Herod Agrippa locks up, after murdering the Apostle James he locks up the Apostle Peter. Only he is made to realize that his guard system and his prison system are not adequate to hold a man that God wants to be free. And the story as you know is a very interesting story. How Peter is awakened by the angel and the chains just fall off. The door is opened. He walks by the guards who seem hypnotized. And he gets to the great big gate. Then he’s probably thinking I’ll never make it past that. It opens of its own accord and he’s out in the city. Meanwhile the prayer meeting is going on in which the Christians are praying for his deliverance. But when he knocks at the door and the little servant girl comes and says it’s Peter they say you’re crazy. The answer to their prayer is standing outside. They think the gal who announced it is nuts. But when she insists on it they invite him in and they’re amazed at what God can do. The maximum security arrangements of Herod Agrippa were ineffectual in restraining the Apostle who is the agent of God’s message.

The import of that is obvious isn’t it? Paul said one time that he was bound but he said the Word of God is not bound. You cannot imprison the Word of God. Dick has been telling me about the amazing way in which over in Russia during the communist regime they failed even though atheism was the official religion. They failed to restrain the Word of God and now it’s popping out at the seams. You can’t stop the Word of God. Now what is interesting here is that this leader of Israel goes down to Caesarea by this time a significant city in the narrative of Luke. And in Caesarea he gives what he regards as a splendid speech. And whether by flattery or otherwise the crowd acclaims him for his magnificent speech and they say these are not the words of a man but they’re the words of a god. And he is stricken by God with a fatal disease and dies as a result. Look at chapter 12 if you will and verse 23. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. But the Word of God grew and multiplied.

So the man who had tried to lock up God’s messenger is struck down because he does not give glory to God. His body falls prey to the worms of corruption and death. And the Word of God which he had tried to hinder goes on unhindered. And not only does it not fall into corruption but it grows and multiplies. And with this we conclude book 3. Israel’s head is stricken in the judgment of God and the Word of God continues to move out. We know this from a historical point of view that things have changed in Jerusalem because when Herod executed the Apostle James the reaction of the populace is positive to that. Whereas in the earlier sections of the book of Acts the Sanhedrin was afraid to touch these men. Now the execution of an apostle is a popular act and the king is emboldened to plan the execution of Peter. The atmosphere in Jerusalem is decidedly more hostile. And no wonder therefore that the Word of God is beginning to move out beyond the confines of this rebellious nation.

Ok let’s close in prayer. And Lord willing on Friday night we’ll pick up with book 4 and as far as we can go in book 5. Let’s close in prayer. Father we thank You for Your marvelous word which is not only the supernatural regenerating agent of the salvation of each and every one of us but which also moves around the globe without concern for human barriers or for human enemies or for conditions or circumstances. Because wherever You want Your work to go it goes. And wherever it goes it bears fruit. And we’re grateful for this and we’re grateful for the opportunity to have seen this brought before us in this remarkable book of church history. We pray that we may as individuals have a new confidence in the power of Your word and Your power to spread it. And that even when You remove some of Your servants from the scene You raise up others to take their place. We thank You that You are a sovereign God sending the wonderful message of Your saving grace to all men everywhere. And we pray that You will make us instruments of that in the degree and to the measure that You desire. And we ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.