Pastor Jeremy M. Thomas
Fredericksburg Bible Church
107 East Austin
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
830-997-8834      jthomas@fbgbible.org
A0811 – March 16, 2008 – Acts 1:1-8 – The Kingdom In Early Acts

Turn with me in your Bible to Acts 1. What we want to do today is go back. Acts is one of the most misunderstood books of the Bible for a number of reasons. We’ve already talked about the fact that it’s a transitional book and you never want to forget that because transitions by nature are not normal. So you can’t run 100mph into Acts, pull out some gem of a verse like Acts 2:38 that supports your theory of water baptism and make it the norm for the Church. We’ll be getting to that verse here in the next few weeks and it’s my hope that what we develop today is going to set you up to get the proper meaning of that controversial verse because I assure you every Church of Christ person you know will always bring up this verse. “What do you do with Acts 2:38?” but we don’t have a problem with Acts 2:38. They have a problem because their interpretation doesn’t fit the historical context. So we want to go back to the events that surround Pentecost. Pentecost becomes the key because Christians in our day come to Pentecost as Monday morning quarterbacks and get all tied up in the origin of the Church. Now, I’m not saying that the Church didn’t start on Pentecost, it most certainly did. But what I am arguing is that the apostles and Jewish converts didn’t have the faintest idea that was happening. So, we’re trying to get a true historical perspective and that takes mental discipline because all you’ve ever thought about Acts 2 was that it’s the birth of the Church, the birth of the Church, the birth of the Church. So, what you have to do for now is forget about the Church, they didn’t know about that, we will show quite clearly from early Acts that it took Peter and the others several years to figure out that the Church had started on Pentecost. So, for now just put it out of your mind and think back to Israel’s kingdom in the OT, think about how the OT predicted the sending of a great King of Israel from the DNA of David. And then think of yourself as a Jew living in Israel in the early first century. This King, the Messiah is the hope of all Israel. And this Jesus who offers Himself as the King of Israel, He offers the kingdom to Israel, this is not the Church, this is something very different from the Church, He had mentioned the Church once in Matt 16:18 but that was certainly not His main concern. Almost all of His teaching was concerning Israel’s kingdom and He does miracles, signs and wonders to authenticate to the nation that He is the King of Israel. In effect Jesus’ miracles proved that He had kingdom authority, that He could forgive human sin and control all of nature. He had kingdom authority but how did the nation respond to His miracles? They said the source of His power was Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, lord of the dunghill, Satan. The claim was that His miracles were done by Satan. This is the national rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus.  The nation rejected Him as their King. Even when they nailed Him to the cross what did the inscription above Him read, “King of the Jews.” But three days later He was resurrected and then He appeared over a period of 40 days to more than 500 Jewish brethren, eating and drinking with them, teaching them about things pertaining to what? Acts 1:3, “of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” Now that should shock you somewhat. Here are these Jews who have been raised from childhood on the OT kingdom teaching, they have spent more than three years under His teaching and they still need more teaching on the kingdom? But apparently they had missed something. If they were lacking in kingdom teaching how much more ignorant are we? The kingdom is hardly ever understood by a modern Christian. Now you ask, “What did they already know? Because if we know what they knew then we can see what they missed? The kingdom has many characteristics, we want to summarize three. First, the kingdom is earthly; it is not inside you, it is not in heaven, it is on earth. The kingdom is not to be spiritualized. When the Bible says “kingdom of heaven”, particularly in Matthew the parallels in Mark and Luke say “kingdom of God” showing the fact they are interchangeable and refer to the same kingdom. If there be any difference in the terms “kingdom of God” may emphasize the source of the kingdom as being God and “kingdom of heaven” may emphasize the nature of the kingdom as heavenly. But they refer to one and the same kingdom to be established on earth. All the Jews knew this. Second, the kingdom is political with the Messiah ruling as King of kings and Lord of lords from Jerusalem, the city of the great King and He will reign in perfect righteousness across the entire face of the earth, executing just decisions in every injustice, bringing a restoration of nature. Third, the kingdom is spiritual in the sense that entrance into the kingdom requires believing in the Messiah (John 3:1-15). The apostles understood this but not all Jews grasped this point. Many of them thought that being a simple descendant of Abraham was enough. But each individual, Jew and Gentile had to meet the spiritual pre-requisite of believing in the Messiah to enter the kingdom. Thus the kingdom requires spiritual readiness. But further it is spiritual in the sense that it includes great spiritual blessings being poured out on Israel (Joel 2:28-29), the Spirit will give them a new heart causing them to walk in His statutes and obey Him (Ezek 36:27). So, it will be a kingdom not only earthly and political but also spiritual. 

Now, to our final point we add something vital taught by the OT prophets and by Jesus and by Peter, that the kingdom is contingent, there is a condition that Israel must meet in order for the King to come and establish His kingdom. This is what early Acts is dealing with, that condition that Israel must meet, the condition of national repentance. When Israel repents, then and only then will the King return and establish His kingdom. So the kingdom is contingent. This is the problem early Acts is dealing with. Did the King come and offer Himself to the Israelite nation? Yes. Did the nation repent? No. Being that they rejected the King the kingdom could not come. It came near, it was at hand, but it did not arrive. Indeed it cannot arrive until a future generation of Israel repents. That is what Jesus unequivocally taught and that is what Peter was preaching about in Acts 2 and 3. But something has been added to the kingdom message in these sermons that was never understood by the apostles heretofore. Anyone know what new element was preached? Peter’s Pentecost sermon is loaded with new content on the day of Pentecost. That content is the death and resurrection of the Messiah. That’s the central portion of his sermon. Now, obviously it was not preached before because it had not happened. But is that the only reason? Think back to the gospels. The apostles knew He was the Messiah, Peter affirmed it in Matt 16, “Thou art the Christ,” the Messiah. So they had already accepted Him as the Messiah. But Jesus told them “Hey guys, I’m going to suffer many things in Jerusalem and I’m going to die and rise again” (cf Matt 16:21). And did the apostles like that message? Did they have any problems with that teaching? Sure they did. You and I don’t because we’re playing Monday morning quarterback. But they could not understand that. It made no sense to them. How in the world Jesus, if you are the kingly, ruling Messiah, how can you be that and be killed? What are you talking about? Those two don’t fit together. Haven’t you taken logic 101 Jesus? They did not understand this. Think back to Peter in Matt 16. It’s really a remarkable transition. Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that the Son of Man is?” And Peter passes the test with flying colors; “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But then three verses later the guy who scored a 100 fails the course! Peter says, “You’re not going to the cross, God forbid it!” They didn’t get it. The nation didn’t get it. So they needed more teaching regarding the kingdom, namely, that the Messiah would come once to suffer, dying and rising and a second time in glory, to reign as King of Israel. Two comings solves the mystery of a Messiah who must die for His people and yet who also must reign over them gloriously in a coming Kingdom. The resurrection is the link between these two comings because if Jesus dies but is not resurrected then He can’t return to establish the Kingdom. Think about it, is the resurrection not totally central to Christianity? Not only is our salvation tied up in Jesus’ resurrection but the goal of history. You know, the resurrection is offensive to modern people, not so much because of intellectual problems but because of their spiritual rebellion. The whole goal of man in history is to create a cosmos where it is safe to sin. And if the Christian view of history has God the Son returning into history, shattering man’s sin then obviously the resurrection is going to be a detestable doctrine to unbelief. It goes against the entire grain of fallen man. The kingdom is a divine interference in human history, a catastrophic and sudden end to man’s rebellion, it’s a divine destruction of paganism. And that’s why the resurrection is central to every sermon in the early chapters of Acts. The resurrection has caused a disturbance in space and time that guarantees a future disturbance, a return of the living King who will destroy all kingdoms and establish His own in their place (Dan 2; 7). So what did the Lord Jesus in those 40 days teach them about? The kingdom. And what did He tell the apostles to do? What’s their commission? Look at verse 2. What did Jesus leave them with? Some parting orders, some commandments. What are those? Obviously the great commission. To be witnesses of His death and resurrection and that they were to preach this to all the nations starting, v 8 in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria and finally to the remotest parts of the earth. To help them in this work of witnessing they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit and Christ said He too would be with them, even to the end of the age (Matt 28:21). But you say, “When He says “to the remotest parts of the earth” doesn’t He abrogate the promised kingdom to Israel? No, absolutely not as the order of going out makes clear. It is to begin in Jerusalem indicating that the door is still open for Israel to repent and her Kingdom to come. Thus, verse 6, what do the apostles ask? “…when they had come together, they were asking Him,” and remember we said they were asking Him over and over and over, it’s a present continual, Jesus couldn’t get a word in edgewise, “saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Two crucial observations. One, they’re asking about a restoration of the kingdom. You can’t restore something which has never existed. So it’s a restoration of the kingdom to its former glory. This could be nothing but the Theocratic Kingdom of the OT that began when Shechinah Glory entered the Tabernacle at Mt Sinai and ended when the Shechinah Glory departed the Temple at the Babylonian Exile. During that time of the kingdom Israel held the pre-eminent and sovereign place under God. They are asking when that former glory will be restored. Second observation, this is a question of timing. It’s not a question of whether the kingdom will be restored or not but when it will be restored? Is it going to be restored now they’re asking? And Jesus responds, verse 7, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;” So Jesus well understood their question, they knew a lot about the kingdom but what they did not know was the timing, so it was a clock issue, a when question. And Jesus responds that it is certain to be established, that has been fixed by the Father’s authority, but it’s not for you to know the time. If He had said, it’s going to be more than 19 centuries away then that would have given Peter no impetus to preach the kingdom in 3:19-21. But evidently from what Jesus said the thought the Kingdom could be established very soon. And note the air of certainty with respect to the future. The kingdom is certain to come, the Father has determined it. Therefore, obviously we have the Judaic-Christian philosophy of history, that history is linear, it is not circular, it’s not meaningless, rather there is a linear fashion in which events are happening and these events are heading toward a culminating goal, a purpose, there is an aim to history filled with meaning a purpose, a definite point where God is taking history and that place is to Jesus Christ in the kingdom. But in the meantime, while the King and His kingdom are absent, verse 8, they will receive power to witness. So, these early chapters of Acts where the witness is to Israel Peter includes a re-offer of the kingdom. They are being given another opportunity to respond to Jesus’ fulfillment of OT prophecy. 

Then, in vv 9-11 we have two great events related to the kingdom; the ascension of Jesus and the promise of His return. Both are given to assure the apostles of a future kingdom. The ascension proves that God in heaven had accepted His cross work, that the Father had been completely propitiated by the Son’s sinless substitutionary blood death. And the promise of a second coming guarantees the establishment of His kingdom on earth. He is coming back. Notice how the two white clad angels assure them of this at the end of v 11? “This Jesus who has departed into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go…” Not only will He return but He will return in the same way, the same manner, on the clouds of heaven. So this is a guarantee of the future establishment of the kingdom when He returns, not when the Spirit comes on Pentecost, not when the Church begins on Pentecost but when the nation of Israel repents and Jesus returns. Then and only then will the kingdom come. But during the intercalation, the calendar break for Israel, during this unknown period of time they are to serve as witnesses of the resurrection. And that’s exactly what they do beginning with Peter in His Pentecost Sermon. Everything focuses on the resurrection. Then we come to the choosing of the 12th apostle and it’s quite obvious why they do this. They are preparing for the kingdom. Jesus said that those who followed Him in the regeneration would sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Kingdom promises. But the problem now is, there are no longer twelve, Judas the Iscariot was not regenerate, he turned aside from his office, it was sovereignly predetermined that Judas be the one to betray Him of his own free choice. So now they are simply filling that office. So they replace him with someone who had been a witness of what, v 22? The resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is the issue in Acts, it is central to the gospel message, it is what they must give witness too. It is what we are banking on as a space-time historical event. If this event didn’t Paul says forget it, your wasting your time, we are of all men most to be pitied because we are trusting in a non-event and he insists that if that is the case then our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins. Faith, now this is very important because oftentimes faith is defined as the absence of evidence, just a leap out there into the nothingness, this is the separation that is made in our culture, that you have faith and that’s in the upper story, it’s subjective, it’s non-quantifiable, just your private religious feeling and then on the other hand you have knowledge and that’s objective, it’s quantifiable, it’s true for everyone. That’s not what the Bible is saying about faith and knowledge. The Bible never makes that separation. Faith is substance, it is based on knowledge, not our knowledge, but it is based on God’s omniscience, that He has given us the omniscient interpretation of the facts. See, it’s not just facts or evidence that drive us to this conclusion. Lets’ say you had a man born into the world named Jesus and he walks around and dies on a cross. A series of historical facts, right? “What do those historical facts mean?” Forget the Bible, throw the Bible out, act like you don’t have the Bible. What do they mean? How could you possibly know? The only thing you can do is interpret out of your experience what the facts mean to you. You impute the meaning. And impute the meaning you will but what that little exercise shows you is that historical facts are interpreted. They do not speak for themselves, they are interpreted and they are going to be interpreted either by man or by God. When Jesus did the miracles how did the Jewish leaders respond? IN whose power did they say He had done the miracles? By Satan. See how they gave an interpretation. The miracles were facts undeniable but the interpretation of the facts was decided by whom? By themselves, by man. What does Peter say on the day of Pentecost in His sermon about those miracles? What’s His interpretation of the source of the miracles? Performed by God. Same miracles, same signs, same wonders, two different interpretations. One given by man, the other by God. This is always the issue. Who has the authority to interpret the evidence? Who is the only one in a position where He can authoritatively interpret facts? Only God. Why? Because only He is omniscient. We’re not omniscient. At best we have fragmented knowledge, very limited, left to our own even the greatest genius who ever lived, someone like a Marcus Aurelius or a Leonardo Da Vinci knew next to nothing. But God knows everything. Put another way, God never learns anything. So, when we talk about faith we’re talking about confidence in God’s word, confidence in His character, that He is reliable not me, not my interpretations of evidence. That’s called a Bible first epistemology. How do I know what I know is true? Because God has spoken. As Francis Schaeffer’s book says, He is There and He is not Silent. He has told us. And what He has told us is not only that Jesus was resurrected from the dead but what that means. He overcame death and thus He lives and will return and intervene in history, wiping out all human kingdoms and establishing His Kingdom.

Alright, the day of Pentecost, a Jewish feast, keep the church out of the picture for now, Jewish feast, literally millions of Jews dwelling in and around Jerusalem this time of year. Most of them had been in Jerusalem for about 2 months by now for the Feast of Passover, Firstfruits and Pentecost. Jesus Christ had fulfilled the first two and the Spirit comes right on schedule, just as Jesus had predicted. But the problem is the nation of Israel is not ready spiritually. What did we say had to happen for the kingdom to come? The nation had to be ready spiritually, they had to repent. Now, are you beginning to see where we’re going on Acts 2:38? Are you starting to see that this is a national call to repent in light of a national sin of rejecting Jesus the Messiah? You wonder why I am belaboring all these things about Israel and the Kingdom? It has to be done. You will never, never, never understand Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized” if you don’t get it in your skull that this is not for the Church, I repeat, this is not for the Church. This is for Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel. We’ll explain more about the baptism in a few weeks because that too is for Israel, Israel, Israel. But on the day of Pentecost the Spirit has come and with a great miracle, the twelve apostles speaking in tongues to many who had gathered around this miracle and they spoke in many languages the mighty deeds of God. Now, those in attendance were Jews as v 5 says. So the tongues are directed toward the Jews. As well as the sermon that follows, verse 24, “Men of Judea” and verse 22, “Men of Israel”, verse 36, “the house of Israel”. Who can deny that these words are directed at Israel and are kingdom oriented? The tongues given to warn them of divine judgment coming upon the nation if they did not repent. Isaiah had predicted tongues as a cursing upon Israel. Paul, in his letter to Corinth says that tongues will cease of themselves and were for the unbelieving Jews and quotes Isaiah 28 to that effect. The author of Hebrews says in 67AD that they were no longer seeing these signs and wonders. Tongues operated until their purpose was fulfilled in 70AD when Israel fell under divine judgment. Verse 14 Peter gives the explanation quoting Joel in a literal + application method. None of what Joel said was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. No one dreamed dreams, no one saw visions, the sun was not darkened, the moon was not turned to blood. Rather these 12 spoke in tongues, something Joel does not mention at all. Joel therefore remains unfulfilled. When will it be fulfilled? In connection once more with Israel’s kingdom. However, there is one point of similarity between what Joel predicted and what happened on Pentecost. That indeed is why Peter quoted it as explanation. A pouring out of the Spirit had occurred and that is the explanation of tongues. 

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. 5Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. 7They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8“And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9“Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” 12And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.” 14But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. 15“For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; 16but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 17‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams; 18Even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy. 19‘And I will grant wonders in the sky above And signs on the earth below, Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. 20‘The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. 21‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 22“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— 23this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24“But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. 25“For David says of Him, ‘I saw the Lord always in my presence; For He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. 26‘Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted; Moreover my flesh also will live in hope; 27Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. 28‘You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’ 29“Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30“And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, 31he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. 32“This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33“Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. 34“For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 35Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” ’ 36“Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

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