Okay, we are on page 213 of your framework books. We're going to finish up, we're going to go to John chapter 21 first and kind of finish up with Jesus' last moments on earth before he's sent into heaven. Pick up the book of Acts, and Acts chapter 1 through 7 is kind of what we're looking at tonight. That's kind of like the early days of the church, you know, the days, months right after Jesus' ascension. And then in chapter 7 and 8, we get into some persecution where Paul, one of the Pharisees, one of the people that are coming against the Christians in those first chapters, then he kind of swings into some persecution and, of course, gets saved. And the rest of the book is about Paul and his ministry. Let's bow our heads, I'll pray, and then we'll get started. Father, we come to you tonight in the name of Jesus. We do thank you for the chance to look into your word. We thank you for the freedom that we have in this country to proclaim the truth. We ask that our hearts may receive it, but also, Father, that it empower us and inspire us and give us direction to live a godly life for you at this time in history. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's look on page 213. First, I just want to introduce the book of Acts. Then we'll go back to the last chapters of the Gospels and see what happens. The book of Acts is about the Church. It's called the Acts of the Apostles, what the Apostles do as they set the Church up. It's a huge book because it's that hinge book. It's a pivotal book. And we're going to really see it strong as we go through these early chapters of the church is a Jewish church. The all the apostles are Jewish. I mean, I'm not sure how your mind works, but my mind, it's like when I turn the page, you know, at the end, last chapter of John, turn the page. And now we're in, in the book of Acts. We're now talking about Gentiles. We're now in the church. It's now just like it is today, but really nothing's really changed. In fact, Luke actually overlaps his books. The first event in the book of Acts actually are the last events in the book of Luke. And just kind of continue, so you've got a Jewish group there at the end of the Gospels, and as the book of Acts begins, it's still Jewish. And those converts, although they're from different countries, they're still Jewish converts. And so they think Jewish, they believe Jewish, They don't all renounce the Passover. They all don't stop going to the temple. In fact, the church begins to grow in the temple. Where the Dome of the Mosque or Dome of the Rock stands today on the site of the Jewish temple, that temple mount was where the church started. That's where they were evangelizing. That's where they were meeting. I'll show you some diagrams that we can go on. They were meeting there. It's amazing. And so they just kind of became a Jewish Christian church. It's not going to be until later on When the church moves up to Antioch, which is a great story, that they begin to realize, well, now listen, we're outside of Judaism. And they had to begin to realize that the gospel is going to be able to go across culture bounds. And then those issues come up. Do you have to follow the law of Moses? Do you have to be circumcised? Do you have to avoid certain foods to be this Christian, to follow the Messiah? And these are, for us, they're not issues. I mean, sometimes they become issues, I suppose. But for the early church, these were the doctrinal issues that they're going to have to struggle through. And you can sense their struggle as they do that, as they go through here. On page 213, some things about this. The first verse I've got right there, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Of course, that's kind of a good summary verse of the book of Acts. As the apostles begin, we're going to realize that they're going to ask, are you this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel? They're thinking Jewish, they're thinking kingdom, they're thinking Messiah. And Jesus has to kind of hold them back and say, no, we're starting this church age. Of course, he didn't call it the church age, and they don't think about it that way, but that's what he says. You're going to be my witnesses. The kingdom is not going to come right now, but you are going to be my witnesses in Judea, of course. They're Jews. Samaria, well, they're part Jews. And the ends of the earth, it's like they're going to go to the Gentiles, and thus that's where we are at in history. We are living in that verse, waiting for that to be fulfilled. Obviously, the author of the book is Luke. It was written around 62 AD. This is a good date. This would give the time of the writing of the Book of Acts right after the Book of Luke, right while Paul is in prison and getting ready to get out of prison, that first imprisonment. Now, Paul is, of course, going to be arrested later and then executed, and we get that out of 2 Timothy and other places in church history. But this right here is going to leave Paul in prison. If you go to page, if you don't mind, go to page 14 of the framework book, and you're going to see there, again, something that's important to me. It may not be important to you. You may say it doesn't really matter. But so many times we run into, in this age, we live in an age of skeptics and people don't believe the word of God. And even within seminaries and churches and from the open, there's not a lot of sometimes support for the scriptures. And one of the things is, well, the book of Acts was written many, many years later. It's kind of just stories handed down, trying to attack what I would call the documents of the Christian faith. If you can destroy the documents of the Christian faith, you can destroy Christianity. Just like if you can stop teaching or get people to stop teaching the word of God, you can destroy or you can recreate Christianity whenever you want it to be. But as long as we've got a Bible, we believe it's the documents of the early church. And as long as we teach that to the people, we can hold the straight and narrow and keep the truth going. But anyway, page 14, I've got 14 things written down right here. We'll breeze through them very quickly. We did this many months ago when we started. But there's 14 reasons, internal reasons, why the Book of Acts had to be written before 70 A.D. Now remember, beginning in 66 A.D. We can go back to 66 A.D. That is when the Jews began a revolt in Jerusalem. They went over to the Citadel, where Herod had his palace and the Romans had one of their bases, and they began to attack it and drove the Romans out of Jerusalem. That caused the Romans to send in some legions, and they began marching through Judea, marching through Israel, down into Judea, towards Jerusalem, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, until 70 AD. Jerusalem didn't fall. And so these were major events. And in 66 AD, the Jews began a revolt. The Christians, of course, would have then left, as we've talked about before, would have left the land of Judea and gone away, as Jesus told them to. And all these relationships would have been strained. The Romans, the Christians, and the Jews. You have to remember that. The Jews are rebelling against Rome. Many of them are what they consider kind of associated with the Church. Rome is now going to destroy and try to annihilate Judaism. You don't pick any of that up in the book of Acts. In fact, Paul is in Rome as the book of Acts closes with Jewish believers coming over to visit him under his house arrest. He's a Christian preaching Christianity to Jews. in Rome. Does that sound like 66, 67, 70 A.D.? I mean, it doesn't even give a tinge of that. Here's some other reasons. One, there's no mention of the fall of Jerusalem. Well, you say, well, that's, they could avoid that. Yeah, but what a temptation. If you're fabricating a book, now listen, the author of the book, Luke, says he wrote it as things were happening, or he recounts history. If he's lying and it's not written by Luke, it's written by Mattathias in 135 AD or 200 AD, it's a fabrication, then where's his integrity? Why wouldn't he come back if he's creating this character called Paul? What a great idea! Have Paul prophesy the fall of Rome or fall of Jerusalem. Or have some kind of hint that while these were supernatural creatures or supernatural men that had supernatural revelations, there's not even a mention of the fall of Jerusalem. giving the impression the author of the book of Acts, Luke, has no idea the fall of Jerusalem is coming. Next, there is no mention of the burning of Rome. Interesting, is it not? Nero began his persecution in 64 AD. He began, you know, killing the Christians. That's when Peter gets killed. That's when Paul gets executed. There's no mention of the burning of Rome, and even Roman historians record this persecution. No mention of Peter dying. I mean, Peter's one of the leading apostles. He's the man that Jesus was counting on in many cases. He's going to be executed in 64 AD. Why not mention it? There's no hint of deterioration of the Roman-Jewish relations. I mentioned that. There's no hint of deterioration of the relations between the Romans and the Christians due to Nero's persecution. They're still all moving freely in Rome. Galileo's judgment set a precedent that would legitimize Christianity during this time. In other words, at 62 AD, Paul records this in an axis recorder while he's in Corinth. from over in Greece made a declaration that this is a religious matter. I'm not going to make a judicial decision on your religion. It's a debate between how you are interpreting your scriptures, the Jews versus the Christians. The Jews came before, remember, were quoting scripture. He goes, this is an interpretation of scripture. This is an interpretation of your writing. This is not something the Romans are going to waste their time with. Go your way. And that made Christianity, that was a huge, we'll see when we get there, that was a huge move for Christians because the courts ruled on that day, Christians and Jews are the same. You've got the same book, you're arguing about your scriptures. If he's the Messiah, if he's not the Messiah. That's not a Roman debate. You go decide that in your seminaries. Next case. And the Jews were forced to have, under Roman law, to accept Christians as part of them. And of course they continued to argue, they continued to persecute the Christians and things began to happen. But by the time Nero comes in 64 AD, Christians became public enemy number one in Rome. Completely overriding that case over there in Corinth. Number six, no hint of James' martyrdom. Now look how close we're getting. James was pushed off the Temple Mount in 63 AD by the Pharisees. They pushed him off the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. He falls down, it's one of those great holidays. They wanted James to go up and pronounce that Jesus Christ was not the Messiah, was not the soon-coming King. He got up and instead of saying that, he said Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the only means of salvation to some of that effect, in which case they pushed him off the Temple Mount. You would hope that he would die, but he didn't. He just laid in a heap and they had to come beat him with clubs. This is James, the author of the book of James, Jesus' brother, or if you want to get real religious, his step-brother. There's no hint of his martyrdom by the Sanhedrin in 63 AD. So why not mention that? The Sadducees are portrayed as still having authority because when Paul, at the end of the book, Paul is going to be taken as a prisoner to Rome and he's going to appeal or stand before trial of the Sanhedrin. Remember, that's when Paul is brought before the Sanhedrin, he being a Pharisee. The Sanhedrin is made up of two groups basically, the Sadducees, the Liberals, and the Pharisees, the Conservatives. The conservatives believe in the resurrection and the authenticity of all of Scripture. The Sadducees don't believe in angels, don't believe in resurrection, and they only accept the first five books of the Bible or some portion of the Bible, something like this, and they pick and choose what they want. Huge division there in the Sanhedrin. It's the Supreme Court of Israel. And Paul is brought before them, the Romans allow him in Jerusalem, he's brought before them because they are the ruling body of Jerusalem. And Paul simply makes one statement, his opening statement, I stand before you today because of the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees are adamant about the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees say it's ridiculous. It's not even a true doctrine. And he says, I'm here on the trial for the resurrection of the dead. End case. A fight broke out. The Pharisees started saying, he sounds like he knows what he's talking about. I see nothing wrong with this guy. This guy's been terrible. They started pulling on him and a revolt broke out in there amongst the Sanhedrin. Have you ever seen that on the Senate floor? And the Romans kind of come and go, what is going on here? And they have to call out to save him from the mob of the Sanhedrin. So, the book ends, or those are the last chapters, with the Sanhedrin still having authority in Jerusalem. Number eight, Acts never mentions Peter ever being in Rome. And so much of church history is based on the idea that Peter went to Rome. Acts doesn't even mention it. Peter died in 65, John died in 96, and they both seem to be alive in Acts. In fact, no details are given about any of them except the death of James, not James, Jesus' brother, but James, John's brother, who was killed early in the book of Acts. Don't we want to know how the apostles died? If you're writing in 100 AD, aren't you going to have a temptation to go back and write about how some of them died, especially some of the martyrdoms that they faced? No mention. They're both living. In fact, John is mentioned very little about the Apostle John. He's still living in Jerusalem in the Book of Acts. Not really doing much though. It's kind of like a local, you know, a pillar of stability there in Jerusalem. We find out John, his major ministry is going to come later in Ephesus in Asia Minor when he writes John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, Revelation. There's still Gentiles in the synagogues, which is very interesting because if you're a Gentile and it's after 70 AD, One, there's not going to be a whole lot of synagogues out around the Roman Empire, let alone Gentiles saying, hey, can I join your synagogue? After the Romans have come against them. And yet, you're going to see every time Paul goes to a synagogue in the book of Acts, he's going to talk to his brothers and the God-fears. When he addresses a synagogue congregation, he'll address the God-fears, the Gentiles, and his brothers, the Jewish people. Which is very interesting that we have a lot of Gentiles coming into the synagogue. The temple is still standing. There's no indication it's fallen. Temple services are still functioning. There's a constant tone of normal life. One of my disappointing things, especially when I was younger and I read through the Book of Acts and I get those last, that last chapter. How many of you guys have ever read the Book of Acts? You get those last chapters and it's kind of like, that's it? It's like, I mean, and the climax, the point is, and Paul was still under house arrest and talking to the Jews and told them, They've got a hard heart and they need to repent. That's it. It's like, oh, I mean, the great writer Luke, he writes the whole book of Luke, the whole book of Acts and ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome, talking to Jews who are just coming to check this Christian thing out. They're not mad. They're just saying, I don't know if I understand that or not. He says, you guys got a hard heart. You got to open it up. That's it. It's like, what a terrible ending. I mean, especially when you read, and that's when you get into church history, those next hundred years, most often people are mesmerized by what takes place after 62 AD. Because now things start to happen. Rome burns, I think Nero burns it, he starts putting Christians in the Colosseum, you know, then you've got getting martyred, and then Peter dies, and then Paul's exegete gets his head cut off, and now we're into 70 AD, the Roman Revolt, and then John's the only apostle left, he's writing all his literature, the book of Revelation, John's got disciples, we know the names of John's disciples there in Ephesus, Polycarp, Papias, Ignatius, and they're out starting, even John writes in the first chapters of Revelation, he writes to some of his own disciples, the pastor of the church of Pergamum, the pastor of the church of Thyatira, he's writing to his own disciples, and we know their names, we know the disciples of those disciples, it's like, there's some exciting things right there. I'm excited about it. Number 12, there's a comment on number 13, Acts ends as if the events at the end of the book are still occurring, and I just said that. And number 14, nowhere in the book does the author try to predict any of these key events or give Paul credit as a prop of these things. You think if someone's lying and just making a book, you should definitely try and tap into some of this knowledge that you know. It's not even there. I think right there, that information right there, when you lay that information over the book of Acts, I think it's impossible to come and say, well, we think the Book of Acts is not written before 70, it's a fabrication. Say, how can you say that? Fabrication of what? They're not even going to do a good job of lying, if they are. Okay, let's go back to page 213. Now, along that same line, the earliest manuscripts that we do have of the Book of Acts, you know what manuscripts are, they're copies of the copies of the copies. And the oldest, most ancient ones we've got are the Chester Beatty papyri, contains part of Acts, was written around 250 AD. Also, we've got other, now here's the thing, we've got other early church writers, like Origen, people are going to be quoting from the Book of Acts, but it's actually having a manuscript of the text itself. These are them, 300 AD, we've got some more from 300 AD, and that's the oldest manuscripts of the Book of Acts that we've got. For example, the John Ryland manuscript, we got a portion, a very small portion of the book of John dated to right around 111, 117 AD. John would have written that in 85 AD. And so now we can count 85 AD to say 110 AD. Well, you're talking 25 years and we've got a portion of that book that he wrote found in Egypt when Paul wrote it in Asia Minor. I mean, it's gone all the way across the Mediterranean Sea. and we still find it, which is very, very, very early manuscript for something like this. Next. The audience is Theophilus, we're going to see this in a minute, a believer who has also received the Gospel of Luke so that he might know the certainty of the things that he had been taught. And Theophilus, we've introduced him before too, he appears to be someone in Rome, someone that has an upper standing in society. He must have some kind of finances. He may be the one financing Luke. in his research. Because realize Luke has just been following Paul around. And you can see in the book of Acts, when it starts talking about where it goes, Paul did this, Paul did that, Paul went here. And then all of a sudden it switches from saying Paul did this or they went, from the third person, it switches to then we went. You can see when Paul passes through Troas, the pronouns change and it becomes we. And that's, you can see right where they pick Luke up. And from that time on, he's just recording events as they're happening. And so how did he do that? Possibly Theophilus has funded him to go off and do this research, write this book, or write this information down. But nonetheless, the book is dedicated to Theophilus. And I do not think, I mean, you just take a very elementary approach to this, that Luke really liked Theophilus, and he spent his entire life writing some notes for Theophilus so Theophilus could have some notes back there in Rome. I think he's writing it for Theophilus, but he's writing it for a a bigger audience. He's writing it for Theophilus and the audience that Theophilus wants to reach. Think about it, whatever you want to do with it. The purpose is to record and communicate the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem throughout the Roman world. Here's the chapter breakdown. Chapters 2-7, in my mind, we're going to get up through chapter 7 or at the end of chapter 6, we'll see what happens. That is in Jerusalem. And remember, chapters 2-7, that is not just a Jewish church, that is a church in Jerusalem. function on the Temple Mount while the sacrifices are going on. I mean, it just boggles the Gentile mind in the Western world. Well, it boggles my mind here in Idaho. Judea and Samaria, then Acts chapter 8 through 12 is how the gospel begins to spread outside of Judea. It goes up into Samaria. That's where you're going to see Peter and John getting involved, doing a little bit of traveling in Judea. But then, of course, By chapter 13, you've got Paul coming on the screen. I mean, what a genius. What an empowered person. I mean, spiritually gifted, obviously, but a man of strong will. He could have been one of the greatest rabbis of history. Even his teacher is mentioned, Gamiel, is mentioned in the Book of Acts. Very wise individual. So Paul would have just, he was right there. Some want to discuss if he was on one of the members of the Sanhedrin. I don't think so. It's an interesting debate if Paul was on the Sanhedrin. I think a good bet would be that he would have someday been on the Sanhedrin. He was probably headed towards the Sanhedrin. That's the kind of person or quality of training and the mental ability that Paul had. I don't think he's on a sand heater yet, but he was very, very influential. Dealing personally, Paul, or Saul, was dealing personally with the high priest. He received personal letters from the high priest to go off and expand his persecution. Again, very, very instrumental. And you can see some other things right there about who they're reaching and who's doing the main focus of the ministry there in the chart. There's a little outline there for you. You can just see the bottom of the page. That's kind of what we're going to try to get through here tonight. Jesus' instructions and ascension, the choosing of Mattathias, which is one of those parts of the scriptures that just doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand why it's in there. Obviously, it should be. It's right. It's like, you never hear of Mattathias again. Mattathias, they like draw straws, you know, they kind of, you know, draw cards, you know, roll some dice, and say, now you're a disciple. You're one of the twelve. And that's the high point. He's done. I mean, that's it. I mean, but yet it's in the scriptures, so you've got to take it serious, but yet, what was the point? They just waste this half a chapter, and then nothing becomes of it. They quote some scripture. Again, I'm being facetious, but I haven't really figured out what the point of that is, because clearly, the man doesn't replace Judas. I mean, maybe, but he didn't do anything. Nonetheless, or it's not recorded anymore. But what is recorded in Acts? Not a lot. The coming of the Holy Spirit, which is an interesting day. Peter's first sermon is what a change. You know the story of Peter. He's denying Christ, he's calling all these dumb ideas and Jesus continues to correct Peter, then all of a sudden Peter figures it out. Obviously, the Spirit of God had come on him, but it's really interesting when you hear Peter preach, and you can read through those, that the things that Peter is saying, he's not just re-quoting Jesus. He's not just saying things that Jesus taught him how to say. He's pulling, he's a new event that's just happened. Epistemologically, a new phase has just begun. They've just moved into a new age. And Peter has to have the ability to observe this event, draw the Old Testament Scriptures, bring them forward, put them in context, and preach it as relevant to the event right there. And they didn't have a class on how to do that. Jesus didn't teach how to do that. How did he do that? I mean, just an amazing job of preaching and putting things together. Then they have the lame man healed. We've got a series of miracles and a series of arrests. You're going to have, in a sense, three arrests. And three releases, with the second release being done by the angel. They're going to appoint some deacons, because they're going to start getting some organization. Then, of course, Stephen's arrested and killed by the Sanhedrin with Paul's direction. And that kind of ends that phase. We move into the next part. There's the rest of the Book of Acts there. We're not going to look at that right now. Here's a map. Hopefully we'll want to use this map tonight. Very interesting map. I mean, again, we want to understand this. We've always heard these terms on the day of Pentecost. There are people from Cappadocia, Babylon, Egypt, from all these places. Cappadocia, where are these places at? Well, here's where they're at. And two that I point out on this map of being very interesting is Cyrene in North Africa and Rome. Because from those two places, again, you can question me on this, you can think, but those two places In the book of Acts, and throughout the epistles, they begin to evangelize and have very good doctrine. For example, the Corinthian church, they crash and burn in several ways. And yet Paul's right there trying to help them. The church of Rome, for example, we went through the book of Romans many years ago, five, six years ago. The book of, the city of Rome. They never received an apostle. I mean, Lusitano church history says or tradition says that Peter started the Church of Rome, but Peter didn't get to Rome until the end of his life. By the time, Rome had one of the earliest churches. In fact, if you read the letter of Romans, Paul is giving them his doctrine for approval so he can come visit them to collect money to go to Spain. Do you understand what I just said? Paul, when he writes the Church of Corinth, he's correcting them. He's saying, I am an apostle, I am your apostle, you are messing up, you need to listen to me, I've got some kind of authority, and the whole debate was if they should listen to him or not. When he writes the Church of Rome, of course he writes an apostle, he writes authoritative, but he lays out, that's why we love the Book of Romans, he lays out his doctrine, all of his doctrine, starting with with the gospel, the power of God, talking about people who don't know God, don't believe that there is a God, and moving right on through the Jewish race and all the way through salvation, and it brings up the application at the end of the book, and nails it off, and has Phoebe deliver it, a woman, and the last chapter she says, I want to visit you, I've tried many times to visit you, but I hope to visit you so you can send me on my way to Spain. And the idea of send me on my way to Spain, isn't just having a little breakfast club get together and send them to Spain. That means I want to get finances and get finances to Rome, and then I want Rome, I want your church to send me to Spain to evangelize Spain. But the reason he sent his letter then was to get, this is what I'm going to be teaching. It's like a presentation of Paul's doctrine. Anyway, why am I going off on that? It's just interesting. But Rome is going to start a church. Who starts the church of Rome? It's going to be Acts chapter 2. The people that were there in Jerusalem for Pentecost are going to go back home to all these places, and they are going to start teaching about the Messiah in their synagogues in Rome, and that is going to grow, and the Gentiles are going to come into it. It's going to start in the church right there in the synagogue. Cyrene is another example. By the time we get too far into the book of Acts, you're going to have Cyrene. If you notice, between the word Cappadocia and Jerusalem, There's a little city right there on the corner. It's called Antioch. It's right between Cappadocia and Jerusalem, right there on that dotted line. You know Antioch? That's where all of Paul's missionary trips come from. It's out of Antioch. But notice Antioch is not mentioned here. Antioch is good. It says very clearly in the book of Acts, some believers from Cyrene go to Antioch and begin to preach and start a church, but something strange happens in Antioch, and that is it spreads outside the synagogue and Gentiles start taking hold of it. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And that's where you're going to get the book of Galatians from. It's because, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's like, this is going crazy. And we've got Gentiles coming. Where do we put the Gentiles? There's more Gentiles than Jews. And they're just, they're not even circumcised. Look, they're already off ministering and starting churches and preaching. You're not even circumcised. Come back here. And it's like, they lose control. The Jews lose control of the church in Antioch. But where did Antioch come from? It comes from Cyrene. Which is, I mean, that's exciting stuff, because the people that were there on the day of Pentecost go over to Cyrene, and the synagogue becomes believers, they hear the message, they actually begin to engage in ministry before they've even heard an apostle tell them what they're supposed to do. Again, there's great confidence, there should be great confidence in the proof of the Word of God in the heart of a believer with the presence of the Holy Spirit. You mix those things together, a believer with the truth of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, things begin to happen. And there's Rome and Cyrene. Now again, they all stayed after. Now there are examples, and we'll see them, of churches failing miserably because they get off of the Scriptures, or they get too crazy with the Spirit, or they begin to exalt man instead of following Christ. All those examples are here, but there's just two examples, and I think it comes out of Acts chapter 2 coming out on the day of Pentecost. Those are exciting things that are yet to come. Page 215. Page 215, there you've got your Temple Mount. And this is where, I'm afraid of what the Gentiles want from me. Bless God, it happened in a church right here in Arlesburg. It happened right here on the Temple Mount, right where the Dome of the Rock's at right now. That's where it all began to happen. And you can see the Temple Mount kind of right here like this. This is the outside wall. Here is an entryway right here. It's called Gordon's Arch right up there. You can enter there at that time. You can still walk in there at that time. We can. Only Moses can go in there now. We have to go in this gate right down here called Robinson's Arch. You can see it right there. It's at the very end. It's like a little ladder coming down here like this. That's the way we would go in today. It's changed a little bit. Western Wall is right here. Now here is the temple right here. Facing east, the Ark of the Covenant would sit right here, right where the Dome of the Rock is sitting on there right now today. Here's the altar of Herlock, it would be sitting right here. Now if you look at this, you can see the different courts that are all written there. There's another platform, this sits up on another little platform here. And right here there's, right there I'm going to put a bunch of pillars. This is actually called Solomon's Colonnade. But this whole area kind of running around in a sense is called Solomon's Porch. But this right here is Solomon's Colonnade. This is actually probably the place, this is a mistake I think I've got in the book. It's the very first thing you have Solomon's porch, that all would be included in that area. But I think really down there where you've got some stairways, you can still see these stairways here coming up. They'd come up underneath, I'd go up the stairs through a gate, and then you'd come up onto the surface of the temple, come out here like stairs coming up onto the surface. The disciples were preaching, a lot of these were taking place right down here in Solomon's colony. You can see the gate, beautiful, right out here. It would be out in the front here. We're an entryway coming in by the altar of the Gate Beautiful. That's where the disciples heal the man on Gate Beautiful. They're just right out in front of the altar burnt offering right there. There's other things you can see. But anyway, can I get a picture of that? You understand that? Okay. Well, let's go, please. I'm going to shut this now, this book, and go back and go to the scriptures. It's kind of an introduction to what we're doing. I'm not sure if I'm going to use that again. All right, let's see. Go to John chapter 21. I just want to read through some of these things. Look at John, Matthew, and Luke. We're not going to teach through this all, but we know Jesus was resurrected. We know Jesus appeared to many people on the day of resurrection. The women of the tomb, the disciples. You mentioned in the afternoon on the road to Emmaus, they come running back to Jerusalem. Jesus appears to them again. He's going to appear to the ten disciples without Thomas being there. The lady's going to appear with Thomas there. Now, remember what the women were told. The women were told, and Mary Magdalene was told, go tell what? Go tell my disciples to go to Galilee. And so we got in the books now, and at the end here, they're going to eventually meet up north in Galilee. And Jesus is going to give them some instruction. Here we go. John chapter 21. After Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. That's the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way. Now you're going to get the name of all the disciples. They're all listed there. John's giving you the details. Again, John was written around 85 AD, about 55 years after the events. But notice what he says right here as he writes this. It happened this way. He says, I remember who was there that day. And they're out fishing just like they were earlier. They got into the boat. But that night they caught nothing. I mean, what did they do? Did Peter decide this ministry thing is not working out and went back and got a daytime job, or in this case a nighttime job? Some of these guys in the boat with him are not even, they've maybe never gone fishing before. Do you understand? They may have. I mean, they're not fishermen. I mean, what are they doing? Peter's a leader and they're following Peter to, I don't know where. They're out here fishing. No less. Early in the morning, he stood on the side of the shore. You can hear right here. He goes out, have you got any fish? No, no, we didn't catch anything. He said, well, there's some fish over here. Catch them over there. I can see them over here on this side of your ship or your boat. Jesus is up there cooking fish already, waiting for him. They get a huge amount of fish. They realized it was Jesus all of a sudden. Again, he's already appeared to them several times, but now they realize this man on the shore is Jesus. And Jesus takes Peter aside and begins to talk with him. He asked him three times, do you love me? And Peter says, yes. And he says, feed my sheep. And I'm not going to teach through all of this, but I will point these things out. One, the idea of feed my lambs or feed my sheep. That is nothing other than teach them the truth. I mean, feed means give them the truth. You can see it throughout the use of the word, throughout the Old Prophets and the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament. Feeding the sheep means teaching them the truth. It comes back to this. A believer with the Spirit of God, knowing the Word of God, changes everything. It's that simple. And if you're a believer, you've already got one of them. If you're a believer, you've already got two of them. Because Paul says, to be a Christian, you've got to have the Spirit. You've already got the Spirit. If you're a believer, you've got the Spirit. You've got two out of three. There's only one thing missing. Teaching of the Word. I mean, that's what we do. We teach the Word. And as you're combining the Word with the Spirit, the believer who's already present, great things happen. And he tells Peter three times, feed my sheep. Feed them. They can do it on their own. They're my people, they're my children, they're now sons of God, empowered by the Spirit. Give them the truth and get out of the way. Well, he doesn't say get out of the way, he just says feed them. Another thing to notice here is that, again, sometimes I've made a big deal about this, and other times I've read commentators who boohoo this whole idea, but you probably already know it. But in verse 16, or verse, for example, verse 15, Jesus said to Simon, Simon said to John, do you truly love me? The word love is agape, God kind of love. Now what are you going to do with this? God kind of love, that means the unlimited love. I love you based on who I am, not on who you are and what you can do for me. We may not even have a relationship. I just love you because I am who I am. And we love people that way too. Yes, Lord, Jesus says, you know that I Love you. Now, the word Peter uses is the word phileo. I'm just telling you this. Some commentators will say, don't make a big deal about it. But in my English Bible, it's love and love. But in the Greek, it's clearly agape and phileo, which would then mean... What do you do with phileo? Some would say phileo is a lesser type of love. Because it's not that agape, the God kind of love. But phileo is a friendship. It's a friendship type of love. And is that less or is that better? Again, I'm just throwing this at you because I think sometimes, at least I've taught it pretty strong sometimes, and I'm not kind of afraid sometimes now, but the philela means relationship. It's like, love, I don't agape you, we're friends. Jesus, do you love me with that God kind of love with no commitment and you're just here doing it because of who you are? No, I thought we were friends. Maybe. Okay, no, that's Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Next, verse 16, Simon, he asks him again, do you love me, agape? Yes, I love you, phileo. Take care of my she. The third time he says to him, Simon, son of John, do you phileo me? Now Jesus switches to phileo, and I just wish John, you know, they'd do it the same way. And do you love me, phileo? And now Peter responds again, you know that I love you. Now, next thing, he says, feed my sheep, and tell them a little bit, this is interesting here, because this is all going to play out in the book of Acts. I'm dragging my feet here, sorry. Feed my sheep, he says it a third time. I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old, very important, old is a key word for Peter, when you are old, meaning you're going to get old. You will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Again, you can do what you want without trying to figure it out, but I think that's representing your saying is you're going to be an old man. You're going to be so old that when you get dressed, someone's going to have to help you get dressed. You're going to have to have some assistance. You're getting that old. But when you get that old, your death is going to be, you're going to be taken to some place you don't want to go, which was going to be in Rome. He's going to die according to church tradition. He's going to be crucified upside down. But you see in there, it talks about being young and being old. It talks about getting dressed, someone helping him getting dressed. He's going to live that long that he's going to have to have assistants getting dressed. And the end of his life is going to be not what you want. You're not going to get to die in your sleep. Jesus said this, right here, verse 19. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said, follow me. I think it's interesting. He gives him the details and a snapshot of what I'm going to have to do, what your life is going to entail. And then it says, now follow me. This is where we're going. I think it's kind of neat. But Peter, even again, remember John's writing the book. I think there's a little bit of robbery between them. I don't know. But I mean, here's how it all ends. I mean, that'd be a great way to end the book right there. So follow me. That's a good ending. But wait, no, I got to say one more thing, John says. Peter turned and saw the other, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was following them. Of course, John, Jesus, and Peter have this moment on the beach together. There's John right there. Listen. This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, Lord, who is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he asked, now again, did Peter understand what Jesus was saying? That he was talking about how, what direction of his life? I think so. Because Peter says, wow. That's a neat trick. He says, we do that for J. Abramendel, those card tricks. You know, you have birthday parties or slumber parties or something, you know, like kids get together. I teach junior high, so I see this all the time. And they'll have a little card game, you know, and they're going to, like, pick a card and they tell each other's futures or something, you know, the card. I know you shouldn't do this. It's all demonic activity and stuff like that. But I'm a public school teacher. What do you expect? And so they're doing this thing and they're, and they, you know, and as soon as they get in the thing and you're going to have four kids and you're going to have a lot of money or, you know, all this kind of stuff. Okay, well, what's the next question? Oh, hey, hey, do me, do me. And then they do, that's what's happening right here. Jesus just got, they're not doing card tricks, but Jesus just got done telling Peter, this is your future. This is what, follow me. Well, Peter turns around, instead of thinking about it or contemplating it or taking it to heart, he says, Lord, who, oh no, no, wait. Verse 21. When Peter saw him, saw John behind him, he asked, Lord, what about him? Do that to him. Tell him what's going to happen to him. And Jesus said, I'm not doing card tricks. He said to him, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? But you must follow me. Peter's just been told, you're going to live to be an old man, and you're going to glorify me in this type of death. So I'm going to make it, huh? All the way? Yeah. What about John? Is he going to make it? And Jesus says, that's none of your business. He says, if I want to live until I come back, that doesn't matter. You follow me. There's that typical moment of Jesus and Peter. Jesus gives Peter a compliment and Peter blows it. You know, it's like, you are the son of God, you know, the one that, you know, and then Nixon, he goes, you're a saint. Calls him a saint. You know what I'm talking about, Matthew 16. If I want to reign. Now, verse 23, because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die. He only said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testifies these things. You've got John ending his book right there. Again, John ended living to be 96, 98 years old, lived up until the turn of the century. All the other disciples were dead by 70 AD. John is going to live almost another 30 years or longer than that. That's the end of the book of John. Go to the book of Matthew. And you all know the end of the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 28. It's the resurrection. We've read that last week. Verse 11, the guards report about how they try to get out of their responsibilities. And verse 16. Now we're in Galilee. Jesus says, I want you disciples to meet me in Galilee. So here we are, chapter 28, verse 16. Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. Again, I can't tell you off the top of my head what mountain that would be. There's different traditions and churches and which mountain they went to. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Now, that's interesting, is it not? It doesn't say there's 150 disciples there. It says, then the 11 disciples went to Galilee on the Mount. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. I mean, apparently there's 11 there, and some of those 11 are, I don't know if this is really him. I mean, again, what a great way to end the book. Then, again, you see the humanity in this whole thing. Again, if you want a testimony, is this authentic or not, if this was a forgery, you would not end the book that way. The eleven disciples are here to start the church. I don't know. I don't know if I'm in all this or not. They're still kind of, we're still doubting it, questioning this whole thing. Which kind of makes you wonder what Jesus looked like. I mean, again, we talk about that resurrected body. How much does it look exactly like Jesus? I mean, do they not recognize him? Is it spiritual? What's going on here? Yeah, I mean, it's a physical resurrection, but I mean, it's some kind of a spiritual veil. Verse 18. Then Jesus came to them and said, and here's the verse, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That's good news. Therefore, because of that fact that I have it all, go and make disciples of all nations. He's beginning the church age. This is what they're supposed to do. Go make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And teaching them, notice that word again, baptizing and having the, the baptism would be the ritual entrance, you know, the initiation event. Again, you can do what you want with baptism. I've got my own teaching on baptism, but we're not going to talk about that right now. I mean, I don't think you're saved by baptism, I think it's important, but I mean, you know, just so you understand a little bit, I'm going to get about five people come talk to me after class now. That's fine, that's fine. I mean that in a positive way. Well, not really, but I mean, please don't talk to me. If you want to talk to me, come talk to me, but I have to be negative. But, I'll paraphrase the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, in other words, they're in this unit right here. And then, of course, the word I'm looking at right here. And teaching them, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And again, obey everything. What, I mean, is that now dietary laws and how to, you know, do certain things? I mean, that teaching, if you go back to Romans chapter 1, Paul talks about the Romans having been obedient to the faith. They were obedient to the faith. And what? They heard the message and they believed it. Belief is an act of obedience. But nonetheless, we can talk about that again later. He says, May everything I command you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. So ends the book of Matthew. Now we go to Luke. Luke chapter 24. This is only three verses and we're in the book of Acts. Luke chapter, this is a good way to make the transition, because now Luke is going to begin writing the book of Acts, and notice it's almost repetitive, because the opening events in Acts are the closing events in Luke, I believe. Verse 50, chapter 24, verse 50, when he, I'm in Luke chapter 24, verse 50, when he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, Now, I just want you to notice the resurrection takes place in Jerusalem. They end up in Galilee. Both John and Matthew account for that. That's where they're supposed to go. I talked about events up there in Galilee. But now they're back in Bethany, which is just on the other side of the east side of the Mount of Olives. They're back in Jerusalem. When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, He left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. So ends the book of Luke. Okay. Again, notice Bethany. That's going to be the vicinity of where he's going to be ascending. And now we go to Acts chapter 1. And Acts chapter 1 doesn't begin necessarily on the Mount of Olives, but it does begin during that 40-day period. Jesus is going to be on the earth after his resurrection, as we know, for 40 days. And then 10 days after his ascension, the Holy Spirit is going to come on the day of Pentecost. So this is after 40 days of being on the earth with his disciples, being in Jerusalem, catching up with them on the road to Emmaus, appearing to James, appearing to different places. Going up to Galilee, talking to him there. He was on a mountain with him. He was on the shore of Galilee with him. Now they're back in Jerusalem. That all took place during these 40 days. Now we are in, during those 40 days, Acts chapter 1. Here we go. In my former book, the book of Luke, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach. I mean, didn't write about everything Jesus did. They used the word began to do and teach. The book of Acts is very clear that the Acts of the Apostles have the emphasis on the Holy Spirit working in the Apostles and the believers in the Church, but all of that is a continuation of the work of Jesus Christ, the work of the Messiah. What did he begin to do and teach? Until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, he had chosen After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive." Luke begins telling the Apostles many convincing proofs. And I think it's safe to say Luke was not one of those who saw Jesus alive. Do you understand what I'm saying? He would have heard the report. He's recording the historical events. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. One of the things that is an emphasis about this whole thing is the kingdom of God. And again, now we're going to have to define that, but we're not going to. But the kingdom of God. And again, the Jews, they're listening to them, are thinking about a kingdom on earth, as do I think the kingdom of God is coming to the earth. Jesus is going to return to the earth. Again, now we're in eschatology and people can disagree with that. But, verse 4, on one occasion, now this is not the day of the ascension necessarily, this is on one occasion. It could have been in Galilee. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised. Maybe they were eating up in Galilee, or maybe it sounds like they were probably in Jerusalem when he said this. But nonetheless, on one occasion, they're eating somewhere, and he says, Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised. We have now in this, and Peter is going to mention it too, We're going to mention a gift, a promise gift, and it is the Holy Spirit. And this gift and this Holy Spirit promise, it was promised in the Old Testament. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's a promise of coming. I'm going to do this very quickly here. I think we got off on this a few weeks ago. I'm not sure I'm going to erase some things here, so I'm going to go from the high end. And as always, the things I say, you don't need to accept. You've got to keep thinking. But for me, this ties these things together. And I'm going to try to draw this here. Oh, I did it. It's a line. Okay. Here is the crucifixion. This is the Old Testament. The Old Testament had promises. We, in the church age, are living in an age where we have received the promises of the Old Testament, but not exactly in their fullness. Because then the old peasant talks about a day in the future where the Holy Spirit was going to be poured out on all people. Where the Messiah was going to come. The Messiah was going to set up his kingdom on the earth. And it was a great day. The Jews were going to be part of it. These are old peasant prophecies. Now, this in my mind has not yet happened. But yet, after the resurrection and the ascension, on Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit is going to be sent on the believers. It's part of this age that has been given to the believers here for the final days of this period right here, which we call, now I call, the Church Age. Do you understand what I'm saying? These promises about the Holy Spirit, and that's what Jesus said, I'm going to read this to you again. Do not leave Jerusalem. Wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit." When he says, the father promised, again we can see, and the first place Peter is going to go is to the Old Testament. This is that which was spoken to the prophet Joel. What is? This event right here is the fulfillment of that, but yet A lot of those things in there are still in the future. In other words, this is just something that we got. During this age, the fulfillment of the ages has come upon us. We've got the Holy Spirit. We've got it ahead of time for this age. But there's a greater day coming of the greatest manifestation, the taking back of the veil, if you will, the coming of Messiah to the earth. Again, you can do what you want with that. But nonetheless, he talks about the gift and the promise. He says, I do not want you to leave Jerusalem. Isn't that not interesting? He told him, Matthew, to go into all the world and preach the gospel, make disciples of all nations. Now he tells them, but that's the goal. But don't start until you've got the Holy Spirit. Don't start until I can give you this. OK, verse six now. So when they met together, they asked him. I mean, you make statements like that, the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promise. Oh, they're thinking, they're thinking like I'm thinking right here. the Messiah, the age of the Kingdom. The Jews are back in power. Jesus is ruling Iran. The Messiah is ruling from Jerusalem. It's the Golden Age. Lord, are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel? Is it now? Now, Jesus' answer right here, and again, there are different theologies right here. For me, we're on one of those pivots right here, theologically. Eschatol, it's like, what you do with this is going to determine a lot of how you're going to go in the future on these verses. When they say, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel, Jesus does not say, yes. But he doesn't say, no. He doesn't correct them. Maybe he's being nice. Maybe since that whole death and resurrection thing, Jesus kind of mellowed out a little bit. He's not so judgmental and critical. Well, no, I don't think so. Read Revelation chapter 2 and 3. You've still kind of got the edge. If they've got bad doctrine, do you think Jesus is willing to cross the line and correct their doctrine? I think so. But Jesus doesn't say no, but he doesn't say yes either. Basically, what I think he says, you can read it yourself. I think he says, not yet. And that time is above your pay grade. You guys are still junior disciples. That's not for you to know. And then he tells them instead what they're going to do. In other words, I think his answer, you can decide, his answer is, yes, but not now. Before, we're going to do this. In other words, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Not yet. But instead, we're going to do this. This is above your pay grade. This is what I hired you for. I hired you to do this. This is none of your business. You don't need to know this. That's what I think he says. Here's his answer. He said to them, after they said, Are you at this time going to restore the King to Israel? It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. In other words, it almost seems like it's planned. It's just not yet. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Okay? After he said this, he was taken up before their eyes, before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. Now, I'm not going to go there right now, but you go back to Matthew, and just 40 days before this event, 43 days, because he had the three days in the grave, 43 days before this event, Jesus stood in front of the high priest, and he says, tell us plainly who you are. He went back to a verse in Daniel that talks about one like the son of man who came in the clouds of glory and was given authority and power and rule and his kingdom will be a kingdom that will never end. And he says, tell us plainly, he says, alright, someday you'll see me coming in the clouds of glory. And the high priest tears his garment, that's enough, this guy's got to die. He just put himself in the position of the Messiah coming back in the clouds of glory to judge mankind and to set up that kingdom that was prophesied in the book of Daniel and throughout the Old Testament. Coming in the clouds of glory. See the arrow? Got it? Okay. Now watch this. I may be too big of a deal about this, but just watch this. Jesus is a great teacher. He can communicate verbally, but he's got a lot of visuals he can use also. Are you, this guy, going to restore the kingdom of Israel? Well, verse 9. After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hit him from their sight. It's this one. There's clouds. When he comes in the clouds of glory, now there's clouds here. In other words, you understand what I'm saying? He told, just 43 years, I'm going to come back in the clouds of glory. Then he starts kind of like, well, where's this all going to work? He says, watch this. Boop. Wrong way, guys. But that doesn't mean this isn't going to happen. It just means I'm going up. Now here's the kicker right here. Verse 10, they were looking intently up to the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them, angels. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand there looking into the sky? Now, I don't mean, I mean, give me an angel, don't give me an angel attitude. I mean, you see right here, it's like, I mean, I mean, just, if an angel comes, I would hope they'd say something besides, you know, what are you going to just stand in the sky for? Get to work! Or something. They said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? Because they were supposed to be, this is it. Don't be looking for him to come back. You've got something to do. That's what they're saying. Why do you stand here staring? Waiting for him to come back? Because he didn't come back until we do this. This same Jesus, notice, this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him They see the arrows, that's why the arrows are important. The same Jews you saw going to heaven, the same Jews will come back the same way that he left. And that's Zechariah 14. Now verse 12, Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives. Again, we know from Luke, on the other side of the Mount of Olives, which is towards Bethany. Bethany is 1.9 miles from Jerusalem. This, though, a Sabbath-day walk from the city, which would be about three-quarters of a mile. So you kind of understand what I'm saying? Yeah, Bethany here, Jerusalem's here, Mount of Olives in between, there, right, kind of, you know, right there. I just like the detail. They're not making fables up there, they're giving you actual mileage and details. I mean, we know it was 43 days after the crucifixion, 40 days after the resurrection, we know they're three-quarters of a mile from Jerusalem. When they arrived, they went upstairs, They're in the city, upstairs to the room where they were staying, which may be the upper room where Jesus has been appearing to. And we kind of have a real good general idea of where that's at. I could talk more about that building when we get into some archaeology, but we may know where that building is because of just a few stones that are left that have been used to build back into that building. But that's another story. Those present were, here you go, Peter, John, James, and you have the names right here, and they are all joined constantly in prayer, along with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, was with his, and with his brothers. Paris, James, and Jude, they got saved during this, because, you know, they saw Jesus come back from the dead. In those days, Peter stood up among the believers, a group numbering about 120. So that may mean there's about 120 on the Mount of Olives when he goes up there. Maybe several people saw him, more than 11. And now Peter takes charge right here, and you can read this yourself right here, but basically he says, you know, he quotes a couple scriptures, says, hey, this place has been, you know, for Judas has been left desolate. We need to get somebody in here. We want someone who's been with us from the beginning, which is really interesting because that means they could go back three years, three and a half years back. And when first, when Jesus met John and Peter down there with John the Baptist down on Bethany on the other side of the Jordan. There were some others that were kind of hanging around, and they'd kind of been with them the whole time, just hadn't been called up to the front ranks. And so they said, we've got to find someone. They put a couple of guys forward, and they, verse 23, so they proposed two men. They've got to find someone to replace Judas. Joseph called of Bersabbas, also known as Justice, and that of Thias. Then they prayed, Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over. this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go to where he belongs. Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Mattathias. So he was added to the eleven apostles. I don't know. I mean, you can say that was really a great idea, and I could go with you on that. Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit? I mean, the Holy Spirit hasn't come yet. They're supposed to be in Jerusalem just waiting. But it sure is a lot more fun to look at this as kind of like a knucklehead move. I mean, they're supposed to be waiting in Jerusalem, but man, we've got to get twelve guys. But Jesus was worried about 12 instead of 11. I mean, he could have took care of that. He had 40 days. Do you know? They don't have the Spirit yet. And then they're going some old test routine of casting dice or casting lots. And they said, God, wherever you want, A or B. You ever done that to God, too? It's like, OK, God, I don't know if I should move to Florida or California. You choose. Anywhere you want to go. as long as it's Florida or California. I mean, I don't know. I'm not teaching that. I'm just saying. There's just several things. You look at that and it's kind of like, I don't know. I'm not real convinced this was a great idea. But they cast lots, and the lot fell to Mattathias, so he was added to the eleven apostles. And that's the highlight right there. That's it. Nothing happens. I mean, in a sense, especially when you see chapter 2. If nothing else, you've got to contrast. This is the disciples before the Holy Spirit. Taking two men, rolling some dice, going, hallelujah, we've got direction from God. Turn the page, the Holy Spirit comes, and look out. It's now a mob scene. And they're going to have 3,000 the first day, 5,000 will be added later. The preachers are going to start believing. Miracles are happening. They've got people lined up in the streets. It looks like Jesus' ministry on steroids. I'm serious. Jesus was going around healing all the sick and the blind. People were following him. These massive people following him. Now you've got They don't know which street we want to go to. Just pick a street. There's disciples that are healing right now today. It's anywhere. It's a madhouse. And the Sanhedrin realizes, you know, it's like squishing the grape or whatever. That's a good example. I mean, you've got everything in one place. That's a bad example. Give me an example. You know, you smash something, it splatters everywhere. That's what happened. They crushed Jesus, and boom, it's everywhere now. And you've got now a madhouse. If you could see Jerusalem, if we could see Jerusalem in these days, I mean, it had to be just bizarre. I mean, everybody's getting healed, and Peter's shadow is going by people who are getting healed by Peter's shadow. The Sanhedrin say, don't do this, stop doing this. The high priest comes out, we've already killed Jesus, we'll kill you too. They put him in prison, the angel lets him out, they're out preaching again, and they say, come back here, we're trying to punish you. We're not done preaching yet. It's like, who's in control here? It's just a mockery of the authority. In fact, they even quote, Peter eventually even quotes Psalm chapter 2, why do the heathen rage? But, nonetheless, I'm going to have to quit with that. Obviously, I didn't get very far. We'll begin with Chapter 2, next week of Acts, and there's something that happens in there called tongues. Two weeks, thank you, thank you. So, be careful, you may want to skip next time because we'll talk about tongues. That's always creepy. I will tell you a couple things as we prepare for this. One, don't raise your hand. Have you ever heard that it was said that tongues, because we all know it's probably passed away, but tongues was used in the early church to preach the gospel. Don't raise your hand. That's prominent. That's John MacArthur style teaching. I love John MacArthur. I've got a bunch of his books. But tongues was used to preach the gospel in foreign countries. It never happened. One, it didn't need to happen because they spoke Greek. Paul would go many times to go to a village. Have you ever sat in a study school class? Still don't raise your hand. If I sat in a study school class, well, Paul would go to like a village where they didn't know his language and he would just turn on the gift of tongues and he'd just start speaking a language he'd never heard before. And they'd hear the gospel and they'd repent and get saved. just like Acts chapter 2. Well now, one, I know you don't know church history, and two, I know you've never really read Acts chapter 2, you just heard somebody tell you what it says in Acts chapter 2, because they did not speak all these languages, go back and read it now before you come back next time, it says they heard them all speaking our own language. In other words, it wasn't, and y'all been to Sunday school? You see the little picture of Peter standing here with a little fire on his head? And a group of people standing around, because Peter is now speaking Egyptian. And then over here is Thomas. He's speaking Cappadocian. And there's a guy over there speaking Babylonian. And all the people running around are pagans. They're not pagans. All the Jews are running around going, where's my group? Where's my group? Oh, over here. And they find their group, they stand in a circle, and they hear the gospel, and they get there. And then what happened? the disciples, the apostles, are all going to begin speaking as the Spirit gave them the words, dialect, but what the people say, and this is like four times, we hear them all speaking our language. I hear all of you speaking my language. And the word, as you know probably from studies, is the word dialect. Not just English, but Midwestern Iowa English. Y'all, here, did you know there's an Isaiah? But it's like, and the thing, it's a sign! It's Isaiah, it's a fulfillment of a verse in Isaiah, and Paul addresses it in 1 Corinthians 14, because remember what a sign is for? A sign is something weird, something strange, to cause the people to step back and go, what does this mean? The multiplying of the bread was a sign. The Jews didn't get it. They wanted more bread. He says, did you come for the sign or did you come for more bread? We came for more bread. Just forget it. You were supposed to ask. This was strange. We've never been on the side of a mountain before with no food and all these people and someone just starts handing us food. That was weird. You should have said, what does this mean? But they did. On Acts chapter 2, when they hear all those speaking, I hear them speaking this. They're speaking my dialect. It's a Grecian dialect from northern Macedonia. No, they're not. It's Egyptian. Oh my gosh. This is weird. We hear all of them speaking our own dialect. And they say, what does this mean? It was a sign. For the Jews, something's just happened. On the day of Pentecost, celebrating the day of the giving of the law and the harvesting What does this mean? And it began a whole series of events. It's got nothing to do, well this is me teaching, nothing to do with most of the corruption that you've seen in the 1900s. Both charismatic corruption and denominational B.B. Warfield corruption. Almost slipped there. It's something different. Not different, it's something very Now, you either don't come back or do come back. No one ever got saved, even in Acts chapter 2. When did they get saved? When it says, Peter lifted up his voice and he began to preach the gospel. It was a sign, they heard it, but they heard they were speaking the glories of God. They're just talking about God. They're speaking about God. What does this mean? If it was preaching the gospel, it didn't work very good. I've done that before, preached the gospel. What do you mean? I just preached the gospel to you. I didn't understand it. But Peter lifts up his voice, 3,000 people get saved. Not because they heard tongues, but because they heard preaching. The reason they listened to the preaching was because of the tongues. That was weird. What was that? And it wasn't babble, babble, babble, babble, stammer, stammer. It was like the disciples were doing whatever they were doing, but the people heard even the word in there is an elegant form of their dialect in my language. These guys are not babbling. This is a very trained, professional speech. In my language. No, it's not. It's in my language. The politicians speak like this. I mean, good politicians. I'm going to quit. I'm losing my role. I'm going to pray, and we won't be here next week, but thank you. I do appreciate you coming. Father, thank you for your truth. We thank you for your word. We may again hear it, and we may respond to it correctly. Father, we may have around us teachers and people with insight that will lead and guide us into your truth. Again, we thank you for the many things you've done for us, and we pray for our country, and we pray for our churches in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. Have a good week.