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, 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;
Chapter
1
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.
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.
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 mean 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.
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