When Jesus Christ told his disciples to “Go… and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he was giving them what the Duke of Wellington once described as the Church’s “marching orders.” They were to tell others about Him. They were to carry the Gospel everywhere.
In yesterday’s study we concluded by asking if you keep aloof from unbelievers, or do you take the Gospel to those who need it? Another way of asking the same thing is to ask whether or not you have contact with non-Christians socially. Do you go to their homes, sit in their kitchens, ask hem their interests?
Yesterday, we listed the second principle, which is that Jesus began his conversation with a question. We pointed out that one consequence of this was that the woman’s interest in talking with Jesus was aroused.
Fourth, stress the Good News. Show that the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers comfort. I am sure you realize that this does not mean we are totally to overlook sin. Jesus did not do that. He brought the woman to the point of recognizing her sin by His reference to the issue of her husbands. Nevertheless, even as He gently uncovered the sin, he offered comfort; for He coupled His inquiry into her marital status with the invitation to come again to Him.
In England, in the early part of the nineteenth century, there was a woman who had heard the Gospel but had never been able to respond to it personally. She had come from a Christian home. She understood the faith. But, she could not come. She considered herself unworthy. One day she wandered into a very small church and sat down in the back. She was almost in despair and hardly heard the words of the elderly man who was speaking. Suddenly right in the middle of his address, the preacher stopped and, pointing his finger at her, said, “You, Miss, sitting there at the back, you can be saved now. You don’t need to do anything.” His words struck like thunder in her heart. She believed at once, and with her belief there came an unimaginable sense of peace and real joy.
Now Philip is on the scene, and he is another great man. He well earned the title of evangelist, because when the church was scattered, he made his way north to Samaria where he preached Jesus. Acts 8 contains two stories about him: 1) the impact of his preaching on Simon, the magician, which we looked at in last week’s study; and 2) his witness to the Ethiopian eunuch, who had been to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way home when God sent Philip to him.
Yesterday we looked at how God called Philip to evangelize to the Ethiopian, and how Philip responded in obedience to God. That is because Philip knew something that we need to know and which will be very helpful in our lives if we know it: God’s ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. How do we know this? We know it because God tells us (Isa. 55:8).
On the road to Gaza Philip came upon an Ethiopian eunuch. Ethiopia is a name which in ancient times was given to a large area of Africa south of Egypt. Today that land is more limited: it is a smaller country to the southeast of Egypt. But in that day it referred to the whole region of the upper Nile, approximately from Aswan to Khartoum. I press this because it is the area from which the Queen of Sheba came in the days of King Solomon. In other words, there had already been a link between that area of the world and Judaism.
We are not given the whole conversation between the Ethiopian and Philip. But I imagine that Philip gave a friendly greeting, and the man in the chariot gave a greeting back. Philip had already heard him reading from Isaiah—in those days people generally read everything out loud—so he asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (v. 30). It was a good question—inoffensive, yet a subtle but gracious offer to explain the passage if the Ethiopian official was interested in receiving one.
So there in the desert, in the presence of the treasurer’s entourage, this high-ranking official of the Court of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, was baptized, coming to God not as the treasurer of the Ethiopians, not as an important man, but as a sinner availing himself of the blood of Jesus Christ, who had died in his place.
In one way or another this story is told twice and perhaps even three times. First, the Lord gives Peter a vision meant to show him that the Gospel is not to be restricted to Jews but is for Gentiles too—Gentiles who may come to Christ not as Jews first, but as Gentiles. Second, Peter repeats the lesson he had received to Cornelius, perhaps even telling the vision of the sheet, though Luke does not include that specifically. Finally in chapter 11, when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, he explained what had happened to that audience (vv. 4-17). Obviously, Luke is saying that this event is pivotal.
What an interesting man Cornelius is. He is a Gentile, first of all. This is the matter of chief importance, because this is an account of the opening of the door of the Gospel to the Gentiles. He is also a centurion. A centurion was a Roman military officer who had command of one hundred men. Cornelius’ group was called “the Italian Regiment.” It is interesting to note that this is not the only place in the New Testament where we are introduced to a centurion.
In verses 9-16, we are told of the preparation of Peter for his task. Did Cornelius need preparation? Yes, and God prepared him. Did Peter need preparation? Yes, Peter needed preparation, too.
While he was puzzling over the vision (v. 17), the men Cornelius had sent arrived in Joppa. Joppa was to the south. Caesarea was to the north. It was a three-day journey between them, and the men had arrived in the south hunting for the house of Simon the tanner and for Simon Peter, who was staying there. God told Peter to go down and welcome the three men.
Whenever you see yourself, not as the clean animal but the unclean animal, not as the attractive beast but as the creeping thing—the thing that is despised—that has no hope whatsoever as one who by the grace of God got into that sheet and is pronounced clean by the sheer grace of God in Jesus Christ, then you are ready to open your heart and arms to other people. And it does not make any difference who they are. God does not show favorites. If you got in, the Gospel must be for everybody.
The tenth chapter of Acts is one of the most important chapters in Acts—perhaps also one of the most important chapters in the Bible—because it tells how a Gospel which was originally thought of in exclusively Jewish terms came by the intervention and revelation of God to be practically as well as theoretically a Gospel for the whole world.
When Gentiles arrived at Peter’s door, he understood rightly that God was about to do something new. Then, when he arrived at the house of Cornelius and found the centurion and his household waiting eagerly to hear God’s message for them, Peter said, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.”
In today’s study we continue our look at Peter’s sermon to the Gentiles, which contains the basic Gospel message.
The central item in this list of essentials is the crucifixion of Jesus. Peter mentions it only briefly, perhaps because it was so well-known: “They killed him by hanging him on a tree” (v. 39). We may rightly suppose, however, that as questions were asked, this is the chief thing Peter would have spoken about.
When Peter got to the end of this sermon he gave what I would call an application or invitation, though he does so cautiously and even indirectly. Peter said, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (v. 43).
Paul’s late missionary efforts centered on the cities of his world. At the beginning, when he first set out with Barnabas, he passed through Cyprus from one end to the other, and we are told almost nothing about any specific ministry in towns. But after he went to Asia Minor, which we call Turkey, he worked in some cities there, small ones at first, then larger cities. At last, when he came to Europe, his ministry was focused almost entirely on the great cities: Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and now, in this chapter on Athens, the greatest city of them all.
In yesterday’s study we read about one type of philosophy Paul encountered in Athens, which was Epicureanism. In today’s lesson we encounter a second type.
Paul’s address begins in verse 22. It is a classic. When you write a formal address or sermon, you generally begin with an introduction, have three or four main points and then a good conclusion. This is exactly what Paul does here. He has a short but brilliant introduction, followed by four clear points. His first point is that God is the Creator of all things. His second point is that God is the sustainer of all things. His third point is that God is the ordainer of all things. His fourth point is that we should seek Him. Then there is a conclusion, which says that we should repent since we have not sought God as we should. To this he appends three sharp inducements.
Third, Paul says that God not only sustains the universe but that he also guides the affairs of men. Verse 26: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
Paul ended his sermon on Mars Hill with a few inducements to repentance.
In the eighteenth chapter of Acts, we find Paul working for a year and a half in Corinth. Corinth was not like Athens. In fact, it was different from most other cities Paul had visited. Yet it was receptive to the Gospel, and Paul spent the first long period of his missionary career in this city. Later he would spend a similarly long time in Ephesus.
Why do I think that Paul was probably quite discouraged as he entered Corinth? There are three reasons to suppose that he was.
We can learn a great deal about Paul’s condition if we read the chapter carefully. I think, too, that it was not only the experiences that he had before he came to Corinth that must have weighed upon him, but also the difficulties once he was there.
Paul had ample cause to be discouraged and no doubt was, just as we have causes to be discouraged and are. But now comes the good news. At this very point, when Paul was most discouraged, God intervened in several important ways to encourage him.
The last thing God did to encourage Paul was to speak with him, saying he would bless the work in Corinth. Let’s continue our look at what God said.
Not only did Paul have a message, which was a message of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, and not only did he establish churches consisting of those who heard his message and believed it, but once he had established churches he also drew them into his missionary strategy by using them as bases for the extension of the Gospel into the surrounding neighborhoods and the world.
Ephesus was so strategic that it is surprising that Paul had not gone there before, especially since he had already been in the Roman province of Asia, where Ephesus was located. The reason, as we have already seen, is that the Holy Spirit had stopped him from doing so, having had other work for him to do first.
A second element in Paul’s strategy is that he worked with or cooperated with other Christians. He had what we would call a multiple or pluralistic ministry. We have already seen that Paul followed this strategy on his missionary journeys in general, always taking along two or more additional workers. In Ephesus the ground was being prepared and the work was being carried forward by Priscilla and Aquila, and Apollos.
We have seen how Paul appealed to the disciples of John the Baptist and the Jews. Let’s now note how he reached out to the Gentiles.
There are two more points to Paul’s strategy that are worth mentioning before moving on to the results.
It is good God intervenes like this. Sometimes you and I act wrongly. We are prepared to do wrong things—perhaps with good motives, but quite often with bad motives—and God simply slams the door to the action for us. He will not let us do it, because what we do matters to God, even if at the moment it does not seem to matter a great deal to us.
Paul was arrested as a result of an attempt by a Jerusalem mob to have him killed. Verse 27 says that this began because some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. Asia refers to the Roman province of Asia, what we call Turkey. Its capital city was Ephesus. Paul had spent two years in Ephesus and was well-known there.
Paul gave a magnificent defense. He actually used the word “defense” (Acts 22:1). In Greek it is the word apologia, from which we get our word “apology.” It refers to a formal defense of one’s past life or actions.
The second thing Paul talks about is his conversion, when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Paul had been consumed by zeal for his religion. It had blinded him to what he was actually doing. But when Jesus appeared to him, he suddenly understood. God had stopped him short. Before this he had thought he was doing God’s work. But when Jesus suddenly appeared to him, he learned that in persecuting Christians he had been persecuting the very Son of God, opposing what He was doing in the world.
But as soon as he uttered the word “Gentiles,” the mob reacted violently and would have killed him if it could have done it. Why did they object to that word? They were objecting to Paul’s persuasion that Gentiles could be saved without adhering to the law of Moses—without circumcision, without the temple worship, without the sacrifices—without, to put it very simply, first becoming Jews.
Paul had been a free ambassador of Jesus Christ for nearly twenty years, but in Acts 22 he passes from being a free man to being a prisoner of the Roman state. We would think that being in Roman hands would be worse than being in Jewish hands. But we soon discover that Paul was better off in the hands of the secular authorities than he would have been in the hands of his own people. They were trying to kill him, after all.
When we see the Roman government functioning wisely and according to the law, as it did in these circumstances, we see the state functioning as it should function. What is the role of the state? In the Western world, we have fanciful ideas of what we think the state should do for us today. But the role of the state, as the Bible speaks about it, is just twofold. The state exists: 1) to establish, maintain and assure justice; and 2) to provide for the defense of its citizens. Justice and defense.
We move to the second stage of the story, and here we find Paul with his own people, represented by the Sanhedrin. This was because the Roman commander, who recognized that he still did not have the full story and could not understand why the Jews were so incensed against Paul, commanded the Sanhedrin to make a case. The text says, “The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews” (Acts 22:30). He must have thought that once he had a concrete accusation he would be able to decide what to do.
We concluded yesterday’s study with the question “Why didn’t Paul recognize the high priest?” Several answers have been given.
When Paul stood before the representatives of Rome, he appealed to his Roman citizenship. When he stood before the Sanhedrin he appealed to his conscience. But over and above that and at all times, Paul appealed to and relied upon the Lord. If we rely on the Lord, He will be with us also, give us the words we need to speak and bless that witness, however uncertain and stammering, to the conversion of other needy individuals.
The twenty-fourth chapter of Acts contains the account of the apostle Paul’s appearance before Governor Felix. Paul had finally come to where he was to testify before the rulers of this world. When God sent Ananias to Paul shortly after Paul had seen Jesus on the road to Damascus, He told Ananias, “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15). There are three parts to that, and Paul had already fulfilled two of them.
It soon became clear what the Jews wanted from Governor Felix. They wanted the governor to kill Paul. They had several charges against him, which Tertullus, their lawyer, skillfully developed.
After a brief introduction, Paul began to answer the charges Tertullus had made. He dealt with each one in order.
The third charge against Paul was that he had tried to desecrate the temple. In response to the first charge, that he was a troublemaker, Paul pleaded that he was innocent. He was no troublemaker. In response to the second charge, that he was a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, Paul admitted the accusation but rephrased it. In the case of this third accusation, Paul emphatically denied it.
Felix was a judge, but he died. And when he died, he appeared before that one who will not postpone His judgments and who does not accept bribes. So far as we know from Scripture, Felix is in hell at this moment. One day you will stand before that great Judge too. You will have to give an accounting for what you have done and for what your life has been. How will you stand in that day? Make sure that you are not like Felix. Come to Jesus while there is still time.
The account of Paul’s appearance before King Herod Agrippa II begins at Acts 25:13 and continues to the end of Acts 26. It is a large section of the book, so large that it would be desirable to divide it, were it not so clearly a single story. These verses recount the third of three formal defenses of the apostle Paul before the secular authorities subsequent to his arrest in Jerusalem.
When we see the impressive things of this world—positions, power, and pageantry—they usually seem to be what is lasting or stable. Indeed, what could be more stable, more impressive, more weighty than the Roman Empire in the person of those who represented it? Yet Luke is suggesting that all that was seen were fantasies, things that even then were in the process of passing away.
The apostle Paul had been called by God, and he knew it. He had been given a commission, and he understood his commission. He was not about to be overpowered by the display of the Roman court. Paul’s story has generally been told in three parts, and that is what is done here.
The third part of Paul’s defense before King Agrippa had to do with his service for Christ following his conversion. Paul stresses a number of things. The first thing he stresses is his obedience, though he couches it in negative form: “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven” (v. 19). One of the first marks of our conversion is that we obey Jesus Christ. We might even call it the first mark, except that faith itself is the first evidence.
The Gospel stirred up opposition on this occasion. Paul did not even get to finish, though he seems to have been near the end of his address. Festus, who had been listening all this time, interrupted, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane” (v. 24). He had never heard anything as crazy as the Christian Gospel in his life.
We come in this study to the end of what is by any measurement a most remarkable book. In F. F. Bruce’s volume, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, there is a section dealing with Luke’s two-volume history of Luke/Acts. Bruce points out that Luke set out to chronicle the expansion of Christianity from a small beginning in Judea, a distant province of the Roman Empire, to where it had become a world religion and a force in many cities, a not inconsiderable task.
The last verses of Acts describe two meetings the apostle Paul had with people in Rome. Three days after he arrived and got settled he called the leaders of the various Jewish communities in the city together. There were a number of synagogues in Rome at the time. The remains of some of them exist even today, so we know that there were at least three, and probably more than that. Paul got in touch with the leaders of these synagogues, because he wanted to explain why he was in Rome, what he had been charged with and why the accusations had been false.
At his second meeting with the Jewish community in Rome, Paul preached the Gospel and did it all day long (v. 23). He began in the morning and went on until evening, declaring the kingdom of God and preaching Jesus. That is a sermon I would like to have heard.
We may wonder whether Paul was puzzled or discouraged by the Jews’ reaction. I do not know the answer. I do not know whether Paul was discouraged or not. When we preach the Gospel even under the most adverse circumstances, we preach optimistically. We expect God to work. Since Paul met with this very strong resistance, it may be that, humanly speaking, Paul was discouraged or downcast. But he was not puzzled. The reason is that he had worked through the problem of Israel’s rejection of the Gospel.
What does matter is whether we are faithful in the calling to which God has called us. The Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). That end has not yet come. So you and I still have the task of preaching it.
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