Bible Study on Acts 1, verses 15 to 26, he was numbered with the eleven apostles

 

Acts 1:15 ¶  And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) 16  Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. 17  For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. 18  Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. 19  And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. 20  For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take. 21  Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22  Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. 23  And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24  And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, 25  That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. 26  And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

So, the early Christian church begins with a few dozen people, a hundred and twenty as the text says. Peter is quoting or alluding to prophecy in the Old Testament, also teaching us how to view certain passages in their prophetic significance. Read Psalms 55:12-13 and 109. Read Matthew 27 about Judas’s physical end of life.

Peter, in verse 20, takes Psalm 69:25 and 109:8 combining them for a prophetic statement about Judas guided by the Holy Spirit. Word substitution between Old and New Testaments gives us the meaning of Bishoprick as the office held with Bishoprick being the office of a bishop, what we call a pastor today.

Psalm 69:25  Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.

Psalm 109:8  Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

Now, Peter is trying to replace Judas as an Apostle. This is very interesting because we are only told about twelve Apostles, the women who supported them, plus an unspecified number of disciples throughout Jesus’ ministry but here Peter names two who were disciples all along. They cast lots for which one will replace Judas Iscariot, Joseph “Barsabas” Justus or Matthias. Acknowledging that God has sovereignty over chance and that there is no randomness in the universe they know that when they cast lots God controls the outcome. They may have used pebbles, a potsherd, or a piece of wood as we would today roll dice or flip over cards or flip a coin. They may have put names in a pot and drew them. But, the Bible teaches that the outcome of all such things is in the hand of God. That’s kind of tough for a modern person to wrap their minds around. Go ahead and flip a penny. The result is an act of God? It boggles the mind but just read the book of Job carefully.

God allowed the Israelites to cast lots in certain situations to determine His will. See Numbers 26:55; 33:54; 34:13; 36:2; Joshua 18:6-10; 1Chronicles 24:5, 31; 25:8,9; & 26:13,14. In addition, heathen also cast lots to determine the will of the gods. See Jonah 1:7.

What does this say about the ideas of chance and randomness in reality?  A person reading the Bible carefully could easily say there is no such thing as randomness or luck, as all events are from the hand of God either by His direct will or by His permission.

Judas is referred to by John as the son of perdition.

John 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Paul refers to the Antichrist, the Beast of Revelation, which are John’s terms, as the son of perdition. Some commentators imply that Judas will be resurrected in the form of the Beast.

2Thessalonians 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

They will see this reference to his own place and suggest that he will be the Beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit in Revelation 11:7 and 17:8. We will not know if this is so until the end so there is no point in spending too much time on such speculation.

Bible Study on Exodus 9, verses 1 to 7, Let my people go

 

Exodus 9:1 ¶  Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2  For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 3  Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 4  And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 5  And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 6  And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 7  And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

Moses is now told to threaten Pharaoh with a great death among all of his cattle. A murrain (mu-wren) is an infectious disease among animals and the Hebrew word murrain is translated from, transliterated as “deh’-ber,” is used most of the time for the English pestilence in the Bible. Again, too, nothing will die that belongs to the people of Israel. Still, the Pharaoh remained stubborn. Wonders continue as there was first the rod turning into a serpent, surface water turned to blood, infestations of frogs, lice, then flies, and now a great plague among the cattle of the Egyptians.

Remember how during the time of the great famine Joseph arranged for the Egyptians to sell their cattle to the government in exchange for bread and the Pharaoh wanted Hebrew men to watch over his cattle in Genesis 47? 

Verse 3 gives us a definition of cattle in the Bible which is much broader than our modern consideration of beeves or cows and bulls only.

It is interesting how this happened right after Moses’s expressing of a concern about sacrificing that which was unpleasing to the Egyptians in front of them and I spoke of how they held many animals as representing gods. This is an attack on the Egyptian food supply and on their gods showing that Jehovah God, the creator of all mankind, has power over disease, a power these gods are helpless in front of. For a side note, Augustine of Hippo, the great Christian leader of the fifth century AD, also wrote in his City of God how the gods of the Romans were helpless to save them from the calamities they faced throughout their history.

Bible Study on Acts 1, verses 12 to 14, the mount called Olivet

 

Acts 1:12 ¶  Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey. 13  And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. 14  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

 

A sabbath day’s journey, according to John Gill and Matthew Henry, was about 2,000 cubits from any town. The restriction from traveling on the Sabbath is found under the Law.

 

Exodus 16:29  See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

 

The distance one could travel based on tradition was based on the distance from the ark of the covenant the Hebrews were to walk crossing the river Jordan.

 

Joshua 3:4  Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.

 

Like modern Christians the Jews were always looking for loopholes in the Law.

 

These events transpired on the hill called Mount Olivet or the Mount of Olives where David ascended mourning at Absalom’s rebellion in 2Samuel 15:30. It plays a significant part in the end of history as per Zechariah 14:4 when Christ returns. Jesus sat on it when he talked about end times in Matthew 24. It is where He was arrested before His crucifixion as per Matthew 26:30 with the Garden of Gethsemane at the base of it. So, interestingly, God’s king ascends Mount Olivet in mourning, Christ speaks of the end of history from it, is arrested on it, and ascends from it, and will land on it.

 

The eleven remaining Apostles and the women, along with Jesus’ mother, Mary, pray together in a upper story of a house that was one of theirs or was provided for them by someone. Either Jesus’ brothers are referred to specifically here or it is a reference to His followers as brethren. There were no buildings specifically set aside for church worship until late in the second century.

Bible Study on Exodus 8, verses 20 to 32, swarms of flies

 

Exodus 8:20 ¶  And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 21  Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. 22  And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth. 23  And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be. 24  And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. 25  And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. 26  And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? 27  We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us. 28  And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me. 29  And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will intreat the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to morrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD. 30  And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD. 31  And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one. 32  And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

The rod turning into a serpent, the surface water turning into blood, the frogs, the lice, and now the flies. Baalzebub, a god of the Philistines at Ekron, referenced in 2Kings, chapter one, is the lord of the flies. In a play on this god’s name, we get in the New Testament Beelzebub, the lord of the house, whom Jesus called the prince of devils in Matthew 12:24. In Luke 11:18 we get, by virtue of parallel phrasing, the information that this god is Satan himself.

Matthew 12:24  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

Luke 11:18  If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub.

The Egyptian god of the flies was Kheper or Khepri according to some, pictured with a man’s body and a fly’s head, although some authorities name another god. God insulted and judged the Egyptian hierarchy of gods in these plagues as noted previously.

            It is a matter of common sense to believe these things did not afflict Goshen, where the Hebrews lived, but that exemption from suffering is only mentioned here first as a sign of God’s power in dividing His people from the rest. He had a reason for doing so here which He might not have in a natural disaster now when churches and Christians suffer along with the heathen.

Pharaoh is now willing for the Hebrews to have a time of worship within his territory but when Moses persists he agrees that they go into the wilderness, only not too far. But again his heart is hardened and he goes back on his willingness to let them go.

When Pharaoh offered that the Hebrews sacrifice to their God in the land Moses declared that the sacrifice they would make to the Lord was the abomination of the Egyptians and that they would attack the Hebrews for doing so in their presence. This was his excuse for why they needed to journey into the wilderness. The Egyptians held several animals as sacred, for instance a cow for Isis, and it must be remembered that much later when the Romans ruled Egypt a Roman official was murdered by a mob for killing a cat. Moses was not willing to sacrifice in a manner unpleasing to God just to keep from causing a riot among the Egyptians for sacrificing in a manner that displeased them.

Bible Study on Acts 1, verses 6 to 11, But ye shall receive power

 

Acts 1:6 ¶  When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7  And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 9  And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10  And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11  Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

 

One of the common errors of Evangelical Protestantism and Fundamentalism is the belief that the Old Testament Jews were looking forward to the Cross as we look backward to it. It is clear, though, from reading the Bible in context that the Jews did not understand the suffering of their Messiah and knew nothing about the Cross at all.

 

Luke 1:74  That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

 

Luke 1:74 shows that there was an expectation that Christ the Messiah would restore Israel and deliver it from Roman occupation. This expectation persisted even after Christ’s resurrection as shown here in Acts.

This shows how the Fundamentalist doctrine that in the Old Testament the Jews were looking forward to the Cross is wrong. They did not understand Isaiah 53. Their confusion persisted until an eleventh century rabbi nicknamed Rashi developed the idea previously only mentioned by a few that rather than being about a singular man the chapters in Isaiah about the Messiah were actually about the suffering Jewish people as a group thereby totally confusing the Jews with regard to Christ.

Jesus’ Jewish followers literally had no clue what He was talking about when He referred to His impending agony on the Cross or understood anything about His Resurrection.

Matthew 16:21 ¶  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 22  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 23  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

 

Mark 9:9  And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. 10  And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean…31  For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. 32 

But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.

 

Luke 18:31 ¶  Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32  For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33  And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. 34  And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

 

John 20:9  For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

 

The Jews, even Christ’s followers, were expecting Him to restore Israel to its former glory. But, He makes it clear that this information is not for them, or us.

 

Deuteronomy 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

 

We understand prophecy and the future only in a limited way but we are given it for a reason. Perhaps, as Jesus told the Apostles;

 

John 16:4  But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

 

In verse 8 He tells them what is going to happen in the immediate future and what they are to do.

 

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: 20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

 

Mark 16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

 

Note verses 9 and 10 and read Luke 24.

Bible Study on Exodus 8, verses 16 to 19, and it became lice in man

 

Exodus 8:16 ¶  And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 17  And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 18  And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast. 19  Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

The court magicians could counterfeit the rod turning into a snake, the surface water turning into blood, and the frogs. However, they could not produce the lice. The Egyptians hated lice. Lice were a sort of personal horror to them. The remains of lice can even be found in Egyptian tombs. They were so sickened by the infestation of lice that normally Egyptian men and women shaved their heads and the hairstyles you see on statuary and tomb paintings represent wigs. The Ebers Papyrus, listing many medical remedies, contains remedies for lice as well.

This is very personal. I am reminded of the symbolic significance of the first wonders; the serpent, the blood, and the frogs. But, with lice I am reminded of the personal horror and nausea this entailed, much like the Philistine lords being afflicted with painful hemorrhoids in 1Samuel 5. The symbolic wonders that may have told a story of spiritual significance were able to be copied by the heathen magicians. But, this very personal pestilence was all God’s own. God even warns us now in our lives in many other ways, often, before afflicting us personally to turn us from our sin to Him.

Each of these plagues affect things that were worshipped as gods by the Egyptians. The earth the lice came from was no different. God is punishing not only the Egyptians, and the entire ancient world by example, but their devils, their gods.

Exodus 12:12  For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

In God’s ministry of reconciling man to Himself we have come to a critical point. As I pointed out in my comments on Genesis the ancient world had deteriorated spiritually to a point where idolatry was the norm, where gods were created who were gods of a particular city and family, and where the God who created mankind was ignored or forgotten. Political gods were part of a nation, a cultural entity’s sense of self-identity. A nation, an ethnic nationality, was justified by its political gods much like the Hindus and Muslims who battled at India’s independence from the British in the late 1940’s or the so-called Christian governments of Britain, Russia, and Germany during World War One or the fundamentalists of America who glorify the state with flags on the pulpit and celebrations at every national holiday and support any martial effort of this country no matter what the reason or consequence. It was all done to the glory of their gods, not the God of the Bible or creation. Yes, I am saying that many Christians in America today, Britain, Russia, and Germany in times past, and Hindus and Muslims worship false gods, devils, and not the God of the Bible. Their gods are wrapped in a flag, a political ideology, and a cultural chauvinism. That is why they hate each other so and why they kill each other so easily. But, even supposedly non-religious people will fight and die over secular gods whom they call ideals and ideologies thinking they have escaped the plague of religion. It is not so. Communists and other atheist ideologies are also bloody killers, trying to create a perfect kingdom out of millions of victims and great suffering they cause.

God is judging mankind here by proxy for its decay into the lunacy of national gods and cultural gods, as even the modern Christian merely worships a god who is a reflection of his own political beliefs, paranoia, and bigotry.

The magicians acknowledge that, because of their inability, they realize that this is proof of the God of the Hebrews involvement. This is not a saving acknowledgement however, as we see the Pharaoh, as a god-man, the only physical and living emblem of the gods on earth for the Egyptians, set his heart to oppose the God of the Hebrews, who, unknowing to him, is the God who created him and sustains him.

The Egyptian Pharaoh was the incarnation of gods on earth as he lived and when he died he was the representation of the god of the underworld. Pharaoh was a false god in the flesh. He, of course, possessed by devils, and filled with pride and exaltation, like the Beast of Revelation, sets his heart of stone against the God who created Him.

Some part of mankind will follow God through the only physical representation He has ever had, the incarnate God, the physical body of the invisible God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God by which all things were created and are sustained. But, it began with one man, Abraham, coming out of Ur of the Chaldees, and now this one group of people, the Hebrews, coming from Jacob, who was called Israel, who will depart from Egypt as Abraham departed from Ur and as the Christian looks forward to departing a judged world that is shrouded in darkness, a condition of which one proof is decay and death, the greatest temporal plague of all.

Bible Study on Acts 1, verses 1 to 5, part 3, the natures of Christ

 

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.

 

The Holy Ghost gave commands to the Apostles whom Jesus showed Himself to for forty days after His resurrection. The apostles were ordered to assemble together at Jerusalem and to wait for the Holy Ghost to be given to them. What do we say then to this passage in John?

 

John 20:22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

 

It appears then that, at least for the early believers in Christ, that the Holy Ghost could be given more than once, possibly for different reasons, renewed in them, filling them, like a little bit of water in a bottle can fill the bottle with water vapor when heated.

 

Titus 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

The question I have to ask is if while we are sealed and secure with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit does God renew it in us as we are sanctified for Him in life? Could that be what the following means more fully?

 

Ephesians 5:18  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

 

We are saved once and indwelt with the Spirit as Paul relates the absurdity of being saved and lost again and again in Hebrews 6:1-6. In the following passage Paul shows that if you could lose your salvation you could not get saved again. It appears he is trying to get Christians to move beyond salvation to our sanctification.

 

Hebrews 6:1 ¶  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3  And this will we do, if God permit. 4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

 

So, the question would be, are we praying to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be renewed in the power and mind of God over sin and self? Or are we satisfied and complacent about this unspeakable gift?

 

Jesus walked among His disciples after His resurrection. Paul told us;

 

1Corinthians 15:6  After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

 

The disciples were to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Ghost to be given to them.