The Acts of the Apostles chronicles the history of the early
Christian church. With humble origins and a congregation consisting of the
lowest members of society, even slaves and outcasts, the faith would be grown
by the actions of the Spirit of God working through humble, and in Paul’s case,
humbled men, and women. Sadly, Christianity would eventually adopt even more
oppressive measures against other religions than the heathen ever dreamed of as
unsaved people creeped into congregations and installed themselves in high
positions. Institutional Christianity would become a tool of the state and in
some cases, the state would become a tool of Christianity. But, true Christian
belief would always exist alongside the errors of the state-church whether those
errors were expressed in the empires and kingdoms of Europe or as the de facto
state church of the United States of America. Not conforming to the established
institutional church governed by the tares of power-mad and self-righteous
bishops, popes, patriarchs, pastors, and other high officials the humble
church, the true body of Christ, would live and struggle throughout history to
serve Christ and to obey in simplicity His commands. This is the story of the
beginning of that church, the true church of God without even a building set
aside specifically for church services until late in the second century,
without a protector among the powerful, and without human power to grow and
expand, completely dependent upon the Spirit of God to add such as would be
saved to it. You and I will try to understand its foundational doctrines before
Greek philosophy and Roman pragmatism coupled with superficial belief created
two churches, those of the tares and the wheat.
Luke’s gospel ends with;
Luke
24:50 ¶ And he led them out as far as to
Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them,
he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshipped him, and returned to
Jerusalem with great joy: 53 And were
continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
The Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke the
physician, beings with;
Acts,
chapter 1
Acts 1:1
¶ The former treatise have I made, O
Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after
that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he
had chosen: 3 To whom also he shewed
himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them
forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4 And, being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the
promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Remember Luke’s introduction to the gospel he wrote to Theophilus?
Luke
1:1 ¶ Forasmuch as many have taken in
hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely
believed among us, 2 Even as they
delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and
ministers of the word; 3 It seemed good
to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first,
to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those
things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Who was Luke? He was the physician who accompanied Paul.
Colossians
4:14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
Luke and Lucas are the same person, being two different forms of
the same name as Timotheus and Timothy.
Philemon
1:24 Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas,
my fellowlabourers.
Luke wrote in an educated style and did the work of an historian.
When someone says they have studied, for instance, the American Civil War or
the history of the Federal Reserve Board in our time they usually mean they’ve
read other people’s opinions and accepted those opinions if they agree with
them, rejecting those they don’t. But an historian regards eyewitness accounts,
testimonies and writings as paramount to getting at the truth, not just someone
else’s opinion.
He or she collects many testimonies and sorts through them,
considering what has been confirmed by other eyewitnesses. We believe that this
was all done under the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom
given to Luke by God, to give us what God wants us to have.
The twin doctrines of inspiration and preservation are very
important to our faith and are usually discounted by those who do not believe.
2Timothy
3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect [for
perfect as complete see 2Chronicles 8:16; Colossians 4:12; & James 1:4], throughly furnished unto all good works.
Psalm
12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times.7 Thou shalt
keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
First, God gave wisdom and understanding to the men who wrote our
Bible and then to the churches that preserved those writings down through the
centuries, filtering, eliminating, and consolidating what was written.
Preservation means that the action of God was not limited to the original
autographs like fundamentalists and evangelicals like to believe. In fact, God
did not elevate the original autographs. When the king destroyed the originals
of what Jeremiah wrote we have this;
Jeremiah
36:32 Then took Jeremiah another roll,
and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the
mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had
burned in the fire: and there were added
besides unto them many like words.
So, no one knows what those originals said and it’s really not
important. What we have is what’s important.
First, the Bible is given by inspiration and just what is that? It
is not word-for-word dictation.
Job
32:8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
What is understanding? Words linked by and are typically synonyms.
1Kings
4:29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the
sand that is on the sea shore.
And so, inspiration is also wisdom.
2Peter
3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written
unto you;
Often these words were written down by a third party, an
amanuensis, as the giver of the words spoke them, moved by the Holy Ghost, the
very mind of God.
2Peter
1:21 For the prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man: but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Now that Luke feels his understanding is perfect or complete (see
Colossians 4:12 for a definition of perfect as complete) on the entire matter
of what happened he writes to an acquaintance or friend named Theophilus.
Acts
1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began
both to do and teach,
Theophilus is a
name that means, “lover of God.” While Luke was writing, perhaps, to a Roman
official who was a Christian by the use of the epithet most excellent the Holy Spirit was writing to all believers. This
account is for you.
Verse 2 is a very important theological statement and needs to be
considered carefully. The three parts of the trinity that is God; the Father,
the Word or Son, and the Holy Ghost operate together in unity but at the time
of the gospels operated physically independently which God can do but we
cannot. If our soul, body, and spirit are separated we are no longer
biologically alive. It is valuable here to review what has been said before
about the three parts of God that are one and yet can act independently
although with one will and purpose.
God is composed of three parts, as man and woman are;
a body, a soul, and a spirit.
1Thessalonians
5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God has a soul, the seat of self-identity and will.
Psalm
11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but
the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
This is God the Father, sometimes referred to just as
God in the New Testament. He is invisible to us. As John says in John 1:18 and
in 1John 4:12 no one has seen God, presumably God the Father, at any time.
Every act of God’s will originates with Him.
God has a Spirit, how He moves throughout creation and
acts on it and in it.
Genesis
1:2 And the earth was without form, and
void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters.
Romans
8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in
the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
This Spirit is called the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.
1Corinthians
12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand,
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no
man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
John
14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him;
for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you…26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
The Holy Spirit in its function, the Holy Ghost in His
identity, is the mind of God and also God.
For contexts where the Spirit of God or the spirit of man can be synonymous
with mind please see the following;
Romans
8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind
of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
1Corinthians
2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may
instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ.
Ephesians
4:23 And be renewed in the spirit
of your mind;
Philippians
1:27 Only let your conversation be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be
absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the
faith of the gospel;
2Timothy
1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit
of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
God not only has a soul and a mind but has a body, His
person, whom man can see, and has even touched, as God in the flesh, called the
Son of God.
Hebrews
1:1 ¶ God, who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the
worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of
his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Colossians
1:
13
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son:14 In
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:15 Who is the image of the invisible God…
Of course, an image is the likeness of someone, what
he looks like.
Genesis
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth.
Genesis
5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty
years, and begat a son in his own likeness,
after his image; and called his name
Seth:
Exodus
20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth:
(Refer back to these verses when someone insists that
the image of God is man’s ability to discern between good and evil, which is
nonsense, as Adam was made in the image of God but did not taste of the fruit
of the knowledge of good and evil until he fell).
Jesus Christ is also the Word by which all things were
created. Read the first 18 verses of the Gospel According to John. God’s mind
formed creation and God’s Word spoke it into existence, bringing forth the
light, which He is.
Genesis 1:3 ¶ And God said,
Let there be light: and there was light.
One stark difference between man and God is that God’s
three parts can act independently of each other and still be one God.
Deuteronomy
6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is
one LORD:
Mark
12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first
of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Matthew
28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost:
2Corinthians
13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you
all. Amen.
1John
5:7 For there are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Christ is then that bridge between God and man, fully
God and fully man, without whom the believer in God would be in the same
predicament as other religions where their god is so distant from man that
there is no connection, no compassion for man’s suffering, no understanding of
the human heart, fears, and affections.
God reveals Himself to special select people under the
Law and to all believers under Grace.
Amos
3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
John
14:26 But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto
you.
(To deny this is to say that the so-called ‘Great
Commission’ of the end of Matthew does not apply to every believer but only the
Apostles).
The Lord Jesus Christ, while walking in biological flesh on the
earth, also had a human spirit, a human will, being fully man and fully God.
This spirit also manifested itself to us.
Luke
22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be
willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
There was a great argument in the Roman Empire’s church regarding
whether Christ even had two natures. Some focused on His divinity while others
His humanity. The issue was somewhat settled at the Council of Chalcedon in
451AD in Bithynia in Asia Minor, in what is the country of Turkey today. It was
understood that Christ was one person with two natures, divine and human, God
in the flesh. This does not mean that they just figured that out but that they
declared the other ideas as incorrect.
It is said here that Christ gave commandments to the Apostles
through the Holy Ghost, the very mind of God, His Spirit in its action, but the
Holy Ghost, referred to as He, in His identity. The Bible seems to suggest, if
I have this down correctly, that we have a soul, the “I” or sense of self-awareness,
our consciousness. We and many animals exist and we and they know we exist, an
absurdity if evolution were true. This self-awareness is limited to humans and
creatures that are not merely driven by electro-chemical impulses or are
biological machines but creatures that are aware that they are themselves and
not another. It is the seat of our will, our will flowing from it.
For animals that have souls see;
Numbers
31:28 And levy a tribute unto the LORD
of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both
of the persons, and of the beeves,
and of the asses, and of the sheep:
Job
12:10 In whose hand is the soul of every living
thing, and the breath of all mankind.
For the soul as the seat of our self-awareness, our consciousness,
and our “I will” see that the soul does things. In Genesis 37:4 a soul is said
to bless someone. In Genesis 42:21 a soul can experience anguish. In Leviticus
4:2 a soul can sin. The soul can do evil and experience tribulation and anguish
as per Romans 2:9. My soul is basically what I am. It is the “I”. It can
experience the death of the flesh and then suffering in Hell. See Psalm 49:15;
86:13; Ezekiel 18:4; Revelation 16:3; & Luke 16:19-31, Acts 2:27.
Our spirit is our mind, as shown before, but it is more than that
as it is our also our heart, emotions, without which no rational mind can
function, and our talents and inclinations given to us by God or tarnished by
the fall of man.
Deuteronomy
2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not
let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart
obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.
Psalm
34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
The phrase the comes after a colon often helps define what went
before it.
Psalm
51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
As for talent and skills given by God through things like
practice, apprenticeship, and learning unless you believe that Bezaleel woke up
one day and suddenly knew how to do marvelous works.
Exodus
31:1 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, 2 See, I have called by name
Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: 3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God,
in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of
workmanship, 4 To devise cunning works,
to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, 5
And in cutting of
stones,
to set them, and in carving of
timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. 6
And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of
the tribe of Dan: and in
the
hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all
that I have commanded thee;
If you want to be wise
hearted get to work. Wise hearted
first, then wisdom from God. God searches man and woman’s mind, heart,
inclinations, sin-nature, and all of the things that make up what we are.
Proverbs
20:27 The spirit of man is
the candle of the LORD,
searching all the inward parts of the belly.
