The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering, by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." So, let's remind ourselves there, this is the second, this is the second volume. This is about, we have Jesus, he was taken up through the Holy Spirit, he gives commandments to the Apostles, okay, and so this is There's, you know, the Acts. What is this? Who is this the Acts of? This is the Acts of Jesus, the Acts of the Holy Spirit, the Acts of the Apostles. Yes, the Acts of Jesus, primarily. The Holy Spirit is sent by Him. The Apostles are sent by Him. Okay. So, He gave commandments to the Apostles whom He'd chosen. The Apostles, we get a definition. They are those whom have witnessed Christ having risen. They receive the infallible proofs, which are the scripture texts where Jesus is going to explain to them how he is witnessed to by the scriptures. So he goes and tells, he goes and explains how, hey, I'm in front of you and I can prove to you that I was going to be in front of you because this is what the Old Testament says. And then he teaches them things pertaining to the kingdom of God. So this is the new covenant administration. This is the the church in its form while we are waiting for Christ's return by growing that kingdom to fill the earth. So the kingdom of God here in this period with the new administration. Verse 4, And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me. For John shall be baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has put in his own authority. but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem in all Judea and Samaria and the end of the earth." Now you'll remember that through about chapter 8 the beginning of Chapter 8, you have the witness in Jerusalem, you have then persecution and going out into Judea and Samaria in Chapters 8 through most of Chapter 12, or all of Chapter 12. Then you have going out on the missionary journeys into Asia and Greece in Chapters 13 to 20, and now we have Chapters 21 to 28 where we have going to Rome. This is the Paul gets back to Jerusalem, he's arrested in Jerusalem, and there's the path to Rome. That's kind of how the book's been divided up. So you see, this waiting, the baptism of the Spirit, has to do with the giving of gifts, the giving of power, the Holy Spirit regenerating people, causing people to have the baptism of the Spirit. That occurs at the time of regeneration now. During this period of time, there was regeneration and then the giving of these gifts through time at different points because of the fact that there's a showing of the bringing in of the Gentiles, and that's used repeatedly to demonstrate different groups coming in to the new covenant, the kingdom of God, the visible church in this period. And so this work of the Holy Spirit to give power This is power to conquer the world. This is power to conquer the world. The power to conquer Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth. And at the same time, what we have is this question about, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And this is a similar question that gets asked back with the Olivet Discourse. And so there's this kind of equating of, okay, so when the new covenant comes, that's when the kingdom gets restored to Israel. We need to understand that there's a distinction between the new kingdom coming and the kingdom being restored to Israel. we're going to see at the end of the book of Acts, this kingdom, the kingdom, the new covenant kingdom here is present, the kingdom of God, which was in Israel and now is going to be spread out to the world. This has to go out to the Gentiles in order for there to be a jealousy by the Jews towards the Gentiles. The jealousy of the Jews towards the Gentiles, as they have the kingdom of God, results in the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. And so this is something that we're going to see. And this gets asked about in the beginning. It's talked about with it all going back out. And the idea is it all goes back out and then it comes back in. And so we're in the phase of still going back out in the terms of the gospel being used to leaven the whole earth. But we are we will see a point at which there is a turning of the Jews. But the end of the book of Acts, we're going to read it now, and let's think about this in terms of this idea of the kingdom being restored to Israel as part of the question and the kingdom of God and what's happening there. So we're at chapter 28 verse 11. Chapter 28 verse 11. So we just finished everything with Malta, and so chapter 28 verse 11 After three months, we sailed in an Alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the twin brothers, which had wintered at the island. So they're at Malta. They're leaving Malta in an Alexandrian ship. They got there in an Alexandrian ship, but it's important to remember it was a different Alexandrian ship. That Alexandrian ship was stuck on a sandbar. It's got no rudder. It doesn't have any tackle. So it's not the same ship. That ship is gone. It's a different Alexandrian ship. After three months, we sailed in an Alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the twin brothers, which had wintered at the island. And landing at Syracuse, we stayed three days. From there, we circled around and reached Regium. And after one day, the south wind blew. And the next day, we came to Puteoli. where we found brethren and were invited to stay with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome. From there, when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Three Inns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. Now, when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard. Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. And it came to pass, after three days, that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they had come together, he said to them, Men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who, when they had examined me, wanted to let me go, because there was no cause for putting me to death. But when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. For this reason, therefore, I have called for you, to see you and speak with you, because, for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain." When they said to him, we neither received Then they said to him, We neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken any evil of you. But we desire to hear from you what you think, for concerning this sect we know that it is spoken against everywhere. So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging. to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening. And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word. The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, Go to this people and say, Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn. so that I should heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it." And when he said these things, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him." Alright, so let's jump back up to the beginning of the chapter. I asked you to think about the beginning of Acts, and to think about the kingdom, and to think about Israel, and you can see the themes of the Jews and the Gentiles obviously at the end here, coming back to it. And you can see this idea of the hardening of the Jews. But some of them are persuaded, right? Some of them believe. So the hardening of the Jews is not the idea that no Jews are going to be saved until they're made jealous by the Gentiles. The issue is, as a people group, that the Jews will not have a turning so that there's a kind of controlling element that makes it so that the Jews Israel as a people group become a specifically Christian group. So there's a national covenanting that will occur. And so the Jews, Israel as a people group, distinctive from other people groups, will be preserved. And there will be a turning, so that there is a Christianizing of Israel and a covenanting. But that is going to occur late, where there's already been a vast turning of the Gentiles of the nations. And so that is what we have. Now, you should obviously continue to evangelize to Jews, particular individual Jews are going to be saved, like what happens with Paul. But the idea of that nation, and so the idea of that nation becoming a Christian nation, That is what's being talked about. So this gives us an understanding of where we are. And there's more that we're going to be seeing here in terms of how access setting things up to understand the future. And it's telling us at the close here. So Acts 28 verse 11, after three months we sailed in an Alexandrian ship. So you remember last time we had, we've dealt with two other ships in this journey so far. The first one was from the coast of Asia minor. The other one was from Alexandria. The Alexandrian ship got, it is unserviceable at this point off the coast of Malta. And now they're on Malta and they're leaving on a different Alexandrian ship. But the Alexandrian ships are not just coast hoppers, right? We're talking about larger ships. And it needed to be a larger ship so that they could add on an extra 276 people, right, as they leave to be able to go to Rome. So after three months, we sailed in an Alexandrian ship. whose figurehead was the twin brothers, which had wintered at the island. So think about this. They end up actually going much faster than if the storm hadn't happened. because they get blown, you know, with typhoon winds over to Malta, and they get onto Malta, and they get a straight shot to the Italian boot. And this straight shot from Malta on this Alexandrian ship, just in the providence of God, there's a ship there that is a larger ship that's going to Rome, and they're able to just get on it. Think about all these things coming together, And so we look at this and you think, you know, God controls history, right? God controls the things that slow us down. He controls the things that speed us up. And he's getting Paul to Rome faster than he otherwise would have gotten there and giving him that time to have those two years to be able to preach there. And, you know, we're at this point, you know, we're only about four years off from Paul getting killed by Nero. And so getting there faster, giving those two years to preach there in Rome is a significant event. But also, he would not have probably ended up in Syracuse, which is on the eastern coast of Sicily, if it had not been for this directional change. And there's extra biblical documents that talk about the church that was founded at Syracuse by Paul. And so this formation of a church there, people who get saved as a result of Paul's ministry in Syracuse. So there's also Malta is said to have basically become a totally Christian island as a result of Paul's ministry. And so you have all these people that are just getting saved as a result. So God's care for them as individuals is occurring. as a result of sending Paul over here. So think about that. God planned to save these people in Malta and in Syracuse, and God sends Paul there with this typhoon to be able to cause them to get saved. And we've read about the dramatic journey. We thought about all the drama on that ship. And those people on that ship were probably not thinking about the hand of God causing people to be saved as a result of that, and yet there they are being used to bring that about. We carry on here. Verse 12, landing at Syracuse, we stayed three days. Those three days. Three days. The Roman soldiers and the Alexandrian ship, neither one of them would want to just stay in Syracuse for no reason for three days. This three day stint is, you know, maybe after having been to Malta for that long period of time, they need new supplies and they're loading it. Maybe they've got to do trading goods and things like that that are occurring. So there's something happening here that makes it so that there's a reason to stay in Syracuse after having wintered at an island, right? They're not sitting there pining for opportunity to be off the ship, right? They've been off the ship for months. So they're trying to keep along their journey. There's a reason they're at Syracuse. Providentially, God uses those three days for Paul to be able to preach there. So landing at Syracuse, we stayed three days. From there, we circled around and reached Regium. And after one day, the south wind blew, and the next day we came to Piuteoli, where we found brethren. So now there's a church here. So in the other places, there's not churches and there's preaching going on. But here in Piuteoli, there is a church. And we found brethren and were invited to stay with them seven days. So a seven day period. And so we went toward Rome. So now there's a traveling toward Rome. So now they're going, they're going on foot at this point. Okay, so they're off the ships, now they're going on foot. And from there, when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Apiae Forum and the three ends. So these, The Appii Forum, this is in the Appian Way. The Appian Way would later have Christians that were crucified all along that by Nero. Okay, so here is this conquering moving in. It's a road that later would appear to be a place where Christianity has conquered itself, and obviously it was not. Nero's effort to stamp out the kingdom of God was unsuccessful. However, Nero's kingdom was successfully stamped out. this going, though, I cannot help but take note of the fact that Paul is traveling and he's finding, as he's going into the heart of this human empire of Rome, he is finding that there is already a presence of Christians there. The kingdom of God is already there. And so We see the kingdom of God present, and he's being encouraged by this. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. Now, let's think about this further. He's going into the capital. He's going to the heart of this beast system, right? This is Rome as an empire. It's a beast. It's a beast that's prophesied by Daniel, right? It's one of the beasts. And so, this beast system, this city of man empire, this violent empire, is a place that appears to dominate everything. Rome is called the Eternal City. Well, we know that the City of God is the Eternal City, right? But it's called the Eternal City. The City of God, written by Augustine, is about the idea that Rome is not the Eternal City. Its destruction does not mean the end of civilization. And in fact, the City of God is distinct from Rome. That's the point of the book, that he is saying that Rome is not the City of God. It is not the Eternal City. And he's dealing with this fall. And so many Americans might tie up their Christianity with America. America is not the kingdom of God. America is a tool in the hand of the king. And so is Rome. We look around and we see even things that were good in America that were put up by Christians, that were caused by Christians, that are a result of Christian civilization. We see them being torn down. Their loss is not us losing. This is God shaking off the city of man here and causing the city of man to fall. And a more pure Christianity will arise out of it, hopefully sooner rather than later. Mercy of God perhaps might cause reformation now in our time and cause us to not have to go through an increasing discipline. I pray so. But looking around at this empire, traveling to the heart of the empire, They get on an Alexandrian ship. And what's on the front of the Alexandrian ship? The twin brothers. When I first read that, I was not sure what the twin brothers would be. Is this Romulus and Remus? Or are these the patron deities of the seafarers? So almost all the commentaries, I'll just say that these are two of the sons of Zeus, Castor and Pollux, who are supposed to be the patron deities of seafarers. That is for reasons I do not know. Perhaps it's simply that the twin brothers is never a way that Romulus and Remus are referred to. Maybe it's just the context of the ship. It's basically the universal opinion. So in either case, these would be symbols of the Roman culture. this pagan city of man and the idea of the rule of these fake gods in this fake eternal city. And so this vehicle, this ship that is dedicated to these false gods is being used to bring the knowledge of God to Rome. And so the Roman system, it's army, it's government, it's trade networks, it's roads, it's ships, are all being put to the service of Christ the King. In fact, he's saying, thank you for building this for me. I will take it. Verse 14. In Puteoli, they find brethren. and invited to stay with them for seven days. And they went toward Rome. And from there, when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Three Inns. So these people are hearing about Paul, and they're going and they're honoring Paul. They're going and finding him, and they're seeking to bless him. He's on the way to be tried by the Roman emperor. Now, if you're familiar with Luther's life at all, you'll remember that Luther had a similar journey where he was called to be tried before the Holy Roman Emperor. And on the way there, he went in a cart, and he, as he was going, more and more people found out that he was on the way to Worms to be tried. And so the Diet or Court of Worms Luther is on the way, people meet him. They start giving him gifts, and they're praying for blessing on him, and there's an increasing crowd that's following after him as he's going. And he takes courage. He knows that as he goes into that city of Worms, that he is going to face an emperor, and he's going to face a false church, religious authorities that are condemning him. And he's at risk of dying, like happened to John Huss a century before, where a promise was given of safe transport. And then that was violated because it was the papist position that promises to heretics need not be kept, which is contrary to what the Westminster Confession teaches. The Westminster Confession explicitly says that that papist position that promises to heretics need not be kept is false our confession teaches that whether we're talking to heretics or pagans whoever if we make a lawful promise it's our duty to keep that lawful promise and so Luther had good reason to believe that his travel to go see the Holy Roman Emperor would be a trip to his death but afterwards instead he ends up in hiding for a period of time And in that time, when he's in hiding, he translates the Bible into German. And so that time is well used. Well, here, Paul, similarly, he's traveling to meet a Roman emperor. And he, in that time, is meeting with the religious authorities, some of whom are set against him. And he is able to take that time. And for two years, he's able to preach and teach in Rome. And we see the building of that church there. And so Some of the letters of Paul are written from that time, his later state in prison as well. But we have this time where God uses it for the blessing of the church, the building of the church. So those two things are very similar examples in a number of ways that overlap there. And so we should remember that. But think about how important these people were that gave encouragement to Luther or to Paul. Paul saw them. He thanked God. took courage. Thank God he took courage. We don't know their individual names, but Paul does. So does God. And when you do the work of helping a teacher take courage, you get the reward of that teacher. You bless somebody in their ministry, you get the reward of that ministry. Verse 16, now when he came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. Right, every time, so Paul gets handed off and he's getting good treatment because he had such a reputation. He said, You know, look, I had Paul with me. The previous centurion that had him told me about his good behavior and he handed him off to me. I've had good behavior from Paul while he's been with me. Please treat him well. And so this captain of the guard treats him well. And that word for captain of the guard is a very interesting word. There's a Greek word. It's the root of the word strategy. It refers to basically war. And if you've heard of the word strategos, it's the kind of It's the Greek word for commanders of armies or generals. And then you have this word that is similar roots that's used for soldiers. And so this this captain of the guard. is a mixture of three Greek words. It's this idea of the stratagos, the one who is a war-oriented officer, and it has this word for foot, like foot soldier, and then it has a commander or ruler over them. So this idea of the war foot commander. And so he is the commander of warriors who are on foot. This guy, he takes responsibility for Paul, and he has him, and he gives one of his soldiers to dwell with him. And so I want you to think about what that would do, okay? Initially, you think, oh, you got a Roman guard with you all the time? Well, these Roman guards had to hear Paul preach. But he also was free, and he's under house arrest, but he's able to kind of move around, and he's got to be at the house, and he's got a guard who's with him. He's able to meet people. He does this for two years. These guards, as they're rotating, the rotation of the guards are all hearing Paul teach over and over and over again. And in addition to that, the Jews aren't able to persecute Paul or to harm him because he's got a government-subsidized bodyguard. In order to kill Paul, they have to kill a Roman soldier. So the effect of this is that he has freedom, legally, to go around, preach the gospel, and he's got a guard provided for him. That is, not just a guard in terms of the actual effect of that one person guarding him, but there's the legal fear that killing a Roman soldier is going to bring more attention from the authorities than killing somebody else who might be guarding Paul. So maximum benefit here in terms of his ability to go around and to preach. So he was able to dwell by himself with a soldier who guarded him. Verse 17, And it came to pass, after three days, that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they had come together, he said to them, Men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. I didn't do anything against the Jews, and I didn't do anything against the revelation given to the Jews. the law of God. Yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who, when they had examined me, wanted to let me go, because there was no cause for putting me to death." So the Jews accused me without cause, and the Romans found that I had done nothing worthy of being put to death. But when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation." Right? He's saying, I continue to be spoken against by the Jews, even though there's no cause. And so, I appealed to Caesar, but my intention is not to go to Caesar and ask him to do some harm to the Jewish people. For this reason, therefore, I have called for you. to see you and speak with you, because for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain." So he's saying, look, the Jewish authorities are against me in Jerusalem, but I've asked to have you come because I'm talking about the hope of Israel. And that's why I'm bound in chains. It's because of the hope of Israel, which is being opposed by the leaders. So they hear this. And they must be thinking, okay, so what is this that you're thinking is the hope of Israel? Christ as Messiah, forgiveness of sins, the new covenant, which will bring in the Gentiles. What is this hope of Israel? The answer is all of those. The resurrection of the dead also. Verse 21, when they said to him, we neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken any evil of you." So there's no letter against you, there's not a letter about judgment, and there's no testimony against you, other than the fact that you've told us that these people oppose you. But we desire to hear from you what you think. So we want to hear your views. What is this that you're being judged for? For concerning this sect, concerning Christianity, We know that it is spoken against everywhere. So there's people arguing against it everywhere. So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him in his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God. Now let's think about those two ideas, the two categories. Explained. So I could explain to you the meaning of of Marxist communism. I could explain to you, communism teaches that humanity is broken into class categories based upon economics, and those have to do principally with how you get what you use to survive, and also whether you have any wealth beyond that. And there are three main categories in terms of how that's talked about now, and it has to do with the old aristocratic system, and how there's a use of coercion to extract wealth by making people do work and slaves or serfs. And then there's also the idea of capitalism with the bourgeois and the proletariat. The bourgeois are the people who own capital, and then the proletariat are the ones who have to work for their living. And Marx's theory is that just as aristocrats were using their system to coerce slaves or serfs to demand money, that capitalism is another system of extortion. where paying people to do work is evil, when you form a voluntary contract. Now I've just explained Marxism to you, okay? Not the whole of it, but a part of it. I'm not, however, solemnly testifying to you that it's true. In fact, I'm going to solemnly testify to you that that's false. The Bible says do not steal. The violent revolution to take things from the bourgeois is sin. And doing work to get paid for it's a good work. And paying laborers to do work is a good work. Honest wages for honest work, that's obedience to God. It's good. So I'm solemnly testifying to you, after having explained Marxism, that Marxism is wicked and false. Paul, on the other hand, he explained the kingdom of God and then he solemnly testified that it was true. Does that make sense? The difference between explained and solemnly testified? So one, you're helping someone to understand, and the other one, you're giving reasons for why it's true. And so to solemnly testify would probably include oath-taking. So he's swearing. He's trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets. He's trying to show what the Old Testament says. He's showing how it's necessary. He's taking the training he received from Jesus well and doing it. Now you remember at the end of Luke, Jesus does the same thing with his disciples on the road to Emmaus. So now, at the end of Acts, written by Luke, Paul is doing that. He did this from morning till evening. He was not concerned figure out simply how to get the information out in a tweet. But he was concerned to use the first meeting to get that longer hearing. Now, people need to be drawn into long-form teaching. And the church is where you have that long-form teaching ordinarily. You can also do it privately and have classes and all that. But you get people to understand what's going on. You give them the short form. You draw them in explaining how they should care. And then you seek to explain thoroughly. And so Paul does this from morning till evening. Now, could you walk through the Old Testament and prove that Jesus is the Christ? Could you explain the kingdom of God from the scriptures? You want to gain that understanding. You want to gain that. And so one of the things that we have, tools that are given to us to understand and to be able to pull those things together, we have the confessions and catechisms that have been given to us, the Westminster Confession, and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms. And so there's sections on the Church, and on the Kingdom of God, and on Christ as mediator. Those things are valuable to us for being able to do that. And they pull things together to make it easier for us. And so Paul is basically giving a systematic explanation here, but he is basing it in the Scriptures. He's explaining these things, he's testifying to them, and giving a defense of proof from the Scriptures. That's what we want to be able to do, to explain, to be able to testify in a credible, believable way that these things are true, and to be able to give a defense, infallible proofs you might say, from the scriptures. And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. So some believed, some didn't believe. That's what's going to happen as we go around. But the Gentiles, there's going to be a tendency for Gentile nations to convert, like Isaiah says, where five out of six cities in Egypt covenant with God. This idea that the nations are going to be converted to the point where there's a national covenanting. That's happened in many Gentile nations already. There's been a great apostatizing. During the time of the Reformation, for example, many countries explicitly covenanted to uphold a biblical religion. And many of those countries still have in their constitutions those covenants. And at the same time, they have fallen away. Practice is gone and we see discipline and judgment from God. And so that is what is called for. The Gentiles were going to see that, and when it comes to a head where that has broadly occurred, that's when we can expect to see that occur with the Jews. But here, individual Jews are being converted. Some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. Verse 25, So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word. Notice that this is not one word. Here's the one word he said. The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah. We were past one after the. The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers saying go to this people and say hearing you will hear and shall not understand. Seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. and they will hear it. That's the end of his one word. Okay, so what is meant by his one word? His one word, this is his one paragraph, one argument. Word is used sometimes to refer to this idea of a doctrine. Sometimes the Ten Commandments are called the Ten Words. And so you have this idea that there is words communicate information, And you can have a set, a head of doctrine, that is a single word or single point. And so that's a part of where this idea of the tradition of using the five solas or using tulip comes from, right? You have heads of doctrine that you use, you can explain. And so if I explained the T in tulip, total depravity to you, I'd be giving you one word, I'd be explaining one idea, one doctrinal point to you. Okay, so Paul said one word, And what he gives them is this text from Isaiah. And it explains that there's going to be a hearing without hearing, a seeing without seeing. And then at the same time, he also says it's hearing with hearing. but not understanding. Seeing with seeing but not perceiving. So it has kind of two idiomatic uses that are kind of different in close succession, right? Think about this. Look at the part that has seeing, right, in verse 26. It says, seeing you will see and not perceive. But down in verse 27 it says, and their eyes they have closed. And then the line below that it says, lest they should see with their eyes. So This is a great text for showing different uses of these kind of non-literal references. This isn't about seeing physically each time. The idea, initially, they see, but they don't perceive. They see, but they do not perceive. And then it's, they see with their eyes. and this idea that the eyes are closed. Well, how could they see with their eyes if their eyes are closed? We're talking about the inward eye, right? The idea of the mind, the eye of the mind. Okay, so their physical eye, they see, but they close their inward eye. And so you can even have, this also even explains out the perceiving, right? Seeing, they see, but they don't perceive. Okay, so seeing with the physical eye, they, they see it comes into their eye. And they, in the sense of perceiving, like, do they even get the sense impression into their mind? Yes, they do. They do perceive in that way. But they don't perceive in the sense of having a right understanding. And that's because they're interpreting what they're seeing with their basic beliefs. You interpret experience. Experience is always interpreted. You can't have experience as a rational being without imposing meaning on it. And so, they impose false meaning on it. So, seeing, they do see, but they don't perceive it rightly because they close their eyes to the truth. They are suppressing the truth. And in righteousness is the way that Paul talks about it in the beginning of Romans. And so then we talk about the heart not turning, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn. And there's a healing that comes from their removal of suffering and of pain and of deadness by degrees. So this idea of not seeing, not hearing, not understanding, There's a deepness to this, but the text this is pulled out of, Isaiah 6, it talks about the idea that they're not going to turn because otherwise I'd heal them. That's what God tells Isaiah. And there's a plan of God to bring destruction. And this is how the book of Acts is ending. There's this quote by Paul where he's saying, hey, you're not going to believe because if you heard and understood and turned, then you'd be healed. And it's God's plan to not have that happen and to instead have great destruction come on the Jewish people. And that's going to be manifested even with the destruction of the land and the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of Temple in 70 AD. Paul's very close to that at this point. We're less than a decade away from that. So that's being prophesied there. So what's going to happen with the turning of the Jews? What's going to happen with the coming of the kingdom, restoring the kingdom? Well, Romans 11, which I don't have time to go to, talks about the idea of an olive tree. And the olive tree has branches that are pulled off and then other branches are put on. It talks about the root and how we as Gentiles have been put in to the cultivated olive tree but the wild olive tree cultivated versus wild the ordinances and oracles of God cultivate and city man is wild the ideas that we come up with for civilization are not civilization it's wildness it's wilderness non-christian civilizations when they create cities and civilization it's just wildness and we're seeing the cultivated garden of Christian America being turned into wildness. It is already a wasteland. And so God takes those wasteland branches and he puts them onto the cultivated tree. And so we say, well, okay, am I more valuable than them? Like we tore off the cultivated branches so that these wild branches could be put on. Are we better? Paul says, remember, the branches are supported by the root. you've received the ordinances and oracles of God from the Jews, the visible church is there. And there's going to be a bringing back in of the branch of the cultivated olive tree. And he says, if the casting off of the cultivated branches was the restoration, of us, if we're forgiveness of sins, then it will be a resurrection when the Jews come back in. This idea that there's a regeneration of the earth, the blessings, the deuteronomical blessings that will be filling the earth with the living, the deadness of the curse that we see around us, right, with old age, sickness, and death. with the toil and poverty that exists, with the strife that exists. These things, there's going to be a replacing. And so you read the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah, I think it's chapter 61, there's this discussion about long life and all the prospering that comes. We have it all over the book. This is the stuff that comes as the gospel goes out and fills the earth. But this period of time, That happens, and the Jews are brought in as they're made jealous by seeing the gospel brought to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles brought in, and blessing goes and fills the earth. And that is a type that works for every nation. Every nation that falls away, there's going to be discipline, there will be discipline, until there's repentance and turning, and the blessings that go to others. Now, in history, there's this culminating point with the Jews being brought in, but there's this way in which this occurs cyclically to all nations. And so, we need to realize that the discipline that is occurring helps us to understand that these same things apply to us. So, Paul ends his verse 28, "...therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it." Well, in Isaiah chapter 6, right after the portion is quoted, it talks about the tree being cut down, but the stump being left. the idea of shoots coming from the stump. And so we need to realize that there is not a total deadness. When God brings this destruction of the city of man, he does it so that there can be life that grows up out of what has been cut down. And so this idea of the regeneration of the world, the resurrection of the world. This is the eschatology of Acts. This is what's being done for us. We're being pointed back to Isaiah to think about what's going to happen to the Jews and to think about what's happening with the Gentiles and how that's ultimately going to result in the Jews being brought in. And so will the kingdom be given to Israel again? Will it be restored to Israel? Yes, but there's a lot of things that have to happen in between. It's not right now. And so, Paul is trying to bring in the Gentiles in order to cause the Jews to be jealous. He explains that explicitly in Romans 11. Verse 29, and when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. That's good. That means some of them are fighting for the truth, as opposed to all of them rejecting. But that's what the hardness looks like. That's the hardness of the Jews, is some of them rejecting. opposed to five out of six accepting. There's this serious division. Verse 30, Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own house, his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no one forbidding him. That's true liberty. the ability to do what is right. Paul shows us how to live. He shows us what's worth teaching. He shows us how to deal with much and with little, with trouble and with blessing. And so this book of Acts is a book for us about the work of the church and how to understand what's going to occur in history as examples approved examples, the laying out. This lays out for us the systematics of all the letters and gives us a picture of it to understand how that works itself out. So next time we'll come back and we'll just start looking at the review. I'm debating with myself whether to do it in three parts or four parts. We'll be doing a review of Acts. We have gone through it, gone through the book of Luke, gone through the book of Acts, and praise God, Let's pray and I'll ask for questions. Father, we thank you for the preaching of your word. We thank you for the text of the book of Acts. We thank you for the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask that you would help us to speak these things with all confidence and no one forbidding us. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Comments, questions, objections from the voting members? Mr. Knight? Thank you for your teaching, Elder Reese. I had a couple of questions, first from your review of Acts chapter 1, 1 through 8. Can you quickly, you gave, I think, what you saw as three marks of an apostle from verses, I think, 2 and 3 maybe? I wanted to know if you could quickly review or quickly summarize those. Sure, so I'm sorry, I don't remember listing out three marks of an apostle, but if I just look at the text, you know, Jesus chose them. He presented himself alive after suffering to them. I don't know what else I would have said there He's obviously giving them his doctrine. He teaches them by the Holy Spirit. He gives them commandments. So he gives them the apostolic deposit. So I'm not sure, though. I don't remember saying specifically that there were three marks that were up there. Sure, sure. Maybe you didn't say that there were three marks. I guess my question had to, it was about specifically the infallible proofs. I wanted to just understand, make sure I understood what you were saying about that. I thought that you said that he explained infallible proofs. Maybe I wrote that down. Yeah, I think the infallible proofs, if you're going to use the word infallible, right, then you're going to be talking about the things that are from divine revelation. So you're going to have You can prove this from the text. You think about Jesus explaining how the prophets and the Psalms and the law talk about him. Those are infallible proofs. But if these are convincing proofs, which is another way of translating it, then we're talking about convincing evidences. We're talking about the signs, the miracles. And so those are two ways that I think are acceptable to understand that. I'm not sure which it is, but neither one of those is a systematic problem. Anyways, that's all. Great, great. That's how I understood it as well. Thank you for confirming that. And then my second question, when you were talking about the kingdom being restored to Israel, you said that, obviously, eventually, the end is that the Gospel will come back to the Jewish people, just as it went to the Jewish people originally. You said that the Gospel, a couple of times, that the Gospel goes back out to the Gentiles. And I was just wondering what you meant by that word, back, like back out. Yeah, so originally the Gospel was given to Adam, It's given to Noah right there. They're fathers of the whole race right the whole race came from Adam He his descendants. There's a gospel it gets it gets kind of destroyed and perverted You have Noah doing that as well. Everybody's got the preaching of the gospel out of the house of Noah and then you've got Abraham Kind of being called out right from Tara's house. And so there's there's there's there's you know, Gentile, they're part of the nations, it's just kind of pulling out. And so the Hebrews become a separated nation. And that separated nation, they don't exist as that yet there. So they become a nation, you know, at some point here in in Egypt, right? And they get called out from the Egypt from from the Gentiles is separated out. So that's, that's what I mean is the gospel was given to the world, it was then deposited into people, and then it goes back out to the world, and it comes back to the people. That's beautiful. Thank you very much. I did not. I did not. That's wonderful. Thank you for helping me understand that. And then the last thing I want to say, you mentioned the I think you were referring to. what we were talking about in terms of the benefits of the kingdom of God being people live longer and everything. And you mentioned Isaiah. You mentioned Isaiah 61, I think. You weren't sure. It's Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65, thank you. So not Isaiah 61, Isaiah 65. And it talks about the child dying at 100 and things like that, right? There's all these blessings. The restraining of beasts and so forth are laid out there. Thank you. So anything else? Great.