Most Important Notes from BIBL 424 {4,228 words}
IX. Lesson 9 - The Book of Acts (Chapter 3:12-26)
A. Peter's sermon after healing the lame man occurred on the eastern corner of the courtyard (Solomon's porch). Three points stand out in his sermon.
1. In verses 12-16, Jesus healed the lame man through Peter, and the reason was to bring honor and praise to the Lord. Peter said that the One that man rejected and condemned was the Chosen of God. He also said that the people had killed the One that God called the Prince of Life.
2. In verses 17-18, the suffering of Christ was a fulfillment of Old Testament passages in Isaiah 42, Isaiah 53, and Psalm 22.
3. In verses 19-26, Peter exalts Christ even though He was rejected. However, His kingdom is still coming. Israel's sin had caused the delay of the Kingdom. Therefore, the people needed to repent and be converted. Peter was probably expecting a short church Age, so he felt some urgency in his message. If the Jews would repent, then the kingdom could come. Peter knew through the Spirit that Israel would have to repent before Christ's kingdom would come.
B. In verses 22-26, the kingdom had been prophesied by the Old Testament prophets. His point was that God's plan has not changed. He went all the way back to the prophecies of Moses, Samuel and those that followed, and in Acts 7, Stephen also made the same claim by referring to the same prophecy by Moses.
C. In verses 25-26, Peter said that the Abrahamic Covenant promised the coming kingdom to Israel. God will send His kingdom when Israel repents.
D. According to G. Campbell Morgan, Peter's sermon taught three things.
1. What God said to His prophets is still true. Covenant theologians would say that God's agent purposes have changed through time, but Peter's argument says otherwise.
2. The restoration of all things await the advent of Christ. This means that the restoration is not merely spiritual but that it is also physical. This teaching goes against the tenets of Amillenniumism.
3. There will be a time of restoration for Israel.
E. Five thousand more got saved through this sermon, so Peter had reason to expect Christ's soon return. In Romans 11:11-26, Paul also said the same things as Peter concerning Israel's future.
F. In Romans 11:25-26, Paul did not want the children of Israel to be saved. He was showing that God has a program for His chosen people.
X. Lesson 10 - The Book of Acts (Chapter 4:1-31)
A. The first persecution occurred, but the chief priests had a weak case. They were upset because Peter and John were teaching the people about the resurrection and also because Peter and John were teaching the people. Many of the chief priests were Sadduccees, and they did not believe in a general resurrection. However, they were also upset because Peter and John had not been trained to teach. They were unlearned, which literally meant "no letters" or no degrees. They were viewed by the chief priests as simple lay persons.
B. In Luke 3:2 ("during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert."), Luke identified Annas and Caiaphas both as high priests. In Acts 4:6 ("Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family."), he only named Annas as the high priest. In reality, Caiaphas was the person with the political office of high priest, and Annas was a former high priest and viewed by the people as still having power with God.
C. In verses 8-12, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, responded to their accusations. The verbal form of filled was used, so that meant that he was being filled at that moment for a special purpose. While in the Spirit, Peter identified Jesus as the Worker of the miracle on the lame man, and he identified Jesus as his Authority for preaching about Christ. Peter's reply was very harsh, but one must remember that the Scriptures say that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Such harsh replies are not a good thing when one is responding in their own power, but Peter was acting on behalf of the Holy Spirit.
D. The Sadduccees recognized that a miracle had been done, but they did not believe in miracles either. Therefore, they simply commanded Peter and John to keep their mouthes shut and not preach Christ again. But they refused to be intimidated. In his epistles (I Peter 2:13-14 says, "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right."), Peter indicated that obeying civil government is important. But once again, he was yielding to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Paul also wrote about the importance of obeying government authorities in Romans 13:1-7.
E. Peter had respect for authority, but he also recognized that he could not be quiet. Jeremiah was also told to be quiet, but the power of the Holy Spirit would not let either of these men keep their mouthes shut.
F. The outcome of this event was that they were released with a warning, but they ignored the warning.
XI. Lesson 11 - The Book of Acts (Chapter 4:32-5:42)
A. Acts 4:32-37 provided an introduction to Acts 5. Chapter 5 contrasts Chapter 4, so it could start with "But" instead of "Now."
B. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira was to pretend that they had given all of their land proceeds to the congregation when they had not. Their's was the sin of hypocrisy. Our whole environment teaches us to lie. Peter did not do as Elisha in calling down judgment from heaven. In II Kings 1:1-16, Elisha called down fire on the messengers that had come to take him away, but Peter put the matter in the Lord's hands. Note that God supernaturally took the life of a couple of hypocritical believers. He does not always do this, but He can. In I Corinthians 11:29-30, some Christians had died prematurely because of their misuse of the Lord's Supper (Those verses say, "For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.") God's judgment fell on His people.
C. In I Peter 4:17, Peter wrote that judgment begins in the family of God. Proverbs 11:31 also supports the idea of God's judgment on His own (Proverbs 11:31 says, "If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner!").
D. Ananias and Sapphira were probably saved. This is true because they were a part of the others. It is also probably true because Satan tries to cause Christians to do wrong, and it is probably true because God often deals with His own in this world. Finally, the church was starting to undergo persecution, so it was not very attractive to unbelievers.
E. The result was that fear came upon all the people. The unsaved were scared away, and God gave unusual power to His apostles to perform miracles.
F. After Ananias and Sapphira, persecution continued. The apostles were arrested because the jealousy of the Sadduccees. God set the apostles free, they returned to the Temple, and they were arrested again. Peter made his defense before the council by saying that they had to obey God. Three types of questions arise from Peter's response concerning civil and godly authority.
1. Should Christians disobey civil government?
2. Should they destroy abortion clinics?
3. Should they smuggle Bibles into lands where they are forbidden?
G. The proper spiritual answer is to do what God has explicitly commanded the individual to do, but be ready to accept the consequences. Peter was not acting on his own. He was basing his actions on his filling of the Holy Spirit. A person cannot go wrong when he or she obeys the indwelling Holy Spirit. But when people act in their own spirit, they often do wrong.
H. Dispensational theology can help in showing how one should behave. It is not about salvation. It is about progressive revelation and about stewardship. Throughout time, God has revealed more and more about Himself and His program for mankind, and mankind has a responsibility to get with His program. The Holy Spirit, which applies to the church dispensation, is higher than Human Governments, which applied to the period after the Great Flood.
XII. Lesson 12 - The Book of Acts (Chapter 6:1-7:53)
A. The problem in the church was caused by three factors.
1. Too many disciples made it impossible for the apostles to do everything.
2. There was murmuring in the camp between the Hellenists and the Hebrews.
3. The apostles did not think that caring for the daily needs of widows should be their duty because they did not have the time.
B. In I Timothy 5:3-15, Paul wrote conditions for the church to undertake the financial care of widows. A widow should first be cared for by children and grandchildren. A widow should trust the Lord to meet her needs when she did not have a surviving family. A widow should be over sixty, a godly person, and having only been married to one man. Finally, a widow should be a prayer warrior, which would have meant that the church was supporting someone involved in the ministry rather than just a widow.
C. The men selected to tend to the tables had to be full of the Holy Spirit (adjective form of fill which meant a characteristic of their life). Of those selected, the names were Hellenistic, and Dr. FreerKsen views that as demonstrating the graciousness of the early believers. The Hellenists were the ones that had been complaining.
D. The church grew because of the strong administration. However, the men that were selected were not called deacons. The Greek word used to describe them was also used for the apostles.
E. After the widow episode, the remainder of the chapter focused on Stephen. He went to the synagogue to minister whereas Peter and John had gone to the temple. Just like Peter and John, he too met with opposition. He was accused of blaspheming against the temple ("this holy place"), the Mosaic Law, and God. In his defense before the Sanhedrin, he actually showed that the Jews were the ones that had blasphemed against those things.
F. There are a few inconsistencies that have been pointed out in his message, but none of them are real problems.
1. He said some things that are not in the Old Testament (i.e., the age of Moses in Acts 7:23).
2. He said that the Jews had received the Law from the direction of angels. That is not in the Old Testament, but Paul wrote the same thing in Galatians 3:19.
3. In Acts 7:2, he wrote that God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, but Genesis 12:1 says that it was Haran. In actuality, He may have appeared twice.
4. He said that the Egyptian captivity was four hundred years, when it was really four hundred and thirty years. He had simply rounded down, and that happened in a few other places as well.
5. In Acts 7:14, the number in Jacob's family was listed as seventy-five, but in Genesis, the number was given as sixty-six. The explanation is that they are two numbers about different things.
G. Stephen preached that the people of Israel had repeatedly rejected the leaders that God had given them (Joseph, Moses). He was full of the Holy Spirit (adjective form of fill meaning a characteristic of his person). In the end, he was killed by a mob. His execution violated Roman Law, and he was not given the right of a second trial. The chief instigator against him was Saul.
XIII. Lesson 13 - The Book of Acts (Chapter 8:1-40)
A. The ministry began to be outside Jerusalem with Philip.
B. The persecution went from being the Sadduccees against the apostles to being the Pharisees against the laypeople. Paul attacked the people of the church, while the leaders seemed to be escaping the persecution.
C. Philip traveled to Samaria as all of the church was scattered from Jerusalem. The Samaritans were half-Jew, half-Gentiles that dated back to when Assyria attacked and overthrew the northern ten tribes of Israel.
D. The apostles had not gone to Samaria, but Philip was willing and God used him there.
E. Simon was probably not saved. He had the wrong motives, and he was told later by Peter to repent of his evil ways. He was impressed with the miracles but not with the Lord. However, in his writings, Luke did not try to judge whether or not Simon was saved.
F. God sent Philip to Samaria to preach, but He used Peter to unify the Samaritan believers with the Jerusalem believers. Without the important work by Peter, there may have been a denomination of Samaritan Christians and Jerusalem Christians.
G. Philip heard the Ethiopean eunuch reading Isaiah 53. That was not unusual because, at that time, everyone read out loud. Reading to oneself did not become fashionable until the third century AD. Philip preached Christ to the eunuch, so he probably also preached the Great Commission and the need for baptism. That's why the eunuch wanted to be baptized, but notice that belief preceded baptism.
H. Acts 8:37 ("Philip said, 'If you believe with all your heart, you may.' The eunuch answered, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'") does not appear in all the Greek texts. But even if the verse does not belong in the Word of God, the theological principle of faith before baptism is taught throughout the New Testament.
I. The KJV comes from the Byzantine Greek manuscripts (also called majority texts). They are much more plentiful, but that is because Greek was spoken in the area. The NIV comes from the Alexandrian manuscripts, and they are the oldest manuscripts, probably because the climate was more suitable for preserving them. Of particular note is that neither of those manuscripts contain Acts 8:37. Acts 9:5-6 is also omitted from both, but neither omission causes a doctrinal problem.
XIV. Lesson 14 - The Book of Acts (Chapter 9:1-19)
A. Paul's conversion occurred in Acts 9:1-9. Christ suffers when His people suffer. He asked why Paul was persecuting Him, not believers. When one hurts a Christian, he or she also hurts Christ.
B. The witnesses heard a voice but did not see anyone. In Acts 22:14, all the witnesses heard and fell to the ground. In Acts 22:9, the witnesses did not hear a voice. Which passage is correct, and how is this not a contradiction? In Acts 22:9, the Greek accusative case is used for hearing. In Acts 9:7, the Greek objective case is used. The accusative case means to hear with understanding. Thus, they heard something, but they did not understand. Some scholars say that the witnesses heard Paul but not the voices, but this is not Dr. FreerKsen's belief. Clearly, Paul was not having a subjective experience. His later thorn might have actually resulted from this experience. In a similar instance, Jacob had a permanent physical disability after wrestling with the angel.
C. In Acts 9:10-19, Paul received his commission. God used a lowly layperson or common Christian to commission Paul. Therefore, Paul always said that his commission came directly from God. Note that Paul did not speak in tongues at the time.
D. According to Luke, Paul's ministry began immediately. But in Galatians 1, he indicated that he waited three years before going to Jerusalem. Acts 9 does not mention Arabia, as does the Galatians passage, but it logically fits after Acts 9:22. Notice Acts 9:23. Paul had returned to Damascus, then he went back to Jerusalem.
E. Acts 9:31 acts as a bridge from the early church to Paul's ministry. During that ten-year period, there are not any great persecution.
XV. Lesson 15 - A Study of Paul's Life
A. The Book of Acts and Paul's epistles are the major sources for Paul's life, but neither were written specifically to detail his life.
B. Four areas of Paul's life that can be seen from Scriptures.
1. His youth - in Acts 9:11, he is identified as being from Tarsus. In Acts 22:3, he called himself a Jew born in Tarsus, and he lived in Silicia. His social status can be determined by his education. He traveled several hundred miles to be trained under Gamaliel. He was probably from a well-to-do family. He was a Roman-born citizen, so his father was probably Roman. His interest and focus was always on Jerusalem. In Philippians 3:5, he called himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, so he knew Hebrew and Greek.
2. His personal characteristics - he is never mentioned in any "secular" writings. Josephus was his contemporary, but he did not even mention him. Paul was not a well-known person. He was not a lawyer or philosopher, but he had the ability to write. He had academic quality, but he was not outgoing. In II Corinthians 10:10 ("For some say, 'His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.'"), his writing was described as weighty, but his body and speech were described as contemptable. In II Corinthians 12:7-9, Paul wrote about a thorn in the flesh. In Galatians 4:13, Paul spoke of his physical infirmities. His problem might have been related to his eyes. Based on Galatians 4:15 and Galatians 6:11, he might have had an eye disease. Paul did not write many of his own epistles, but to Galatia, he wrote with large letters. Another theory is that he might have had malaria. Whenever a person is run down, malaria brings the person all the way down. So, malaria may have been a problem. Regardless, Paul was very zealous for the Lord. His religious quality could be described as zealous. He was a Pharisee, and the son of a long line of Pharisees. Before being saved, he might have wanted to be a member of the Sanhedrin. In Acts 26:10, Paul mentioned his vote, and this implies that he might have been in an official group, probably even the Sanhedrin. If that were true, then he would have been married. His wife might have already passed on.
3. His ministry - The first part of his ministry was the ten-year period right after he got saved. He spent the first three years in Damascus. Then he went to Tarsus for ten silent years that were not covered in the Book of Acts. In Galatians 1:18, the first three years were described. In Galatians 1:20-21, he mentioned going to Syria and Silicia, where one of the cities was Tarsus. He probably had a ministry in that area for those years. When he began his second missionary journey, he returned to those areas again to strengthen the churches. For that reason, it is highly likely that he had started those churches during the ten years from 35AD to 45AD. Many of his perils mentioned in I Corinthians did not fit into the Book of Acts, so those perils could have happened during that ten-year period. Luke was too careful as a historian to have left them out if they should have been included. Iraneaus said that Paul was saved eighteen months after Pentecost, which would have been in 32AD. Concerning his missionary journeys and writings, the journeys were probably 47AD to 49AD, 50AD to 52AD, and 52AD to 56AD. His writings were probably Galatians (49AD), I and II Thesalonians (51AD), I and II Corinthians (54AD), Romans (55AD), Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon (58AD), I Timothy, Titus, II Timothy (61AD).
4. His Romans Imprisonment - In Acts 28:30-31, Paul was released from his first imprisonment and had further mimistry. He was even allowed to preach. Because Luke mentioned two years, he had to know the beginning and the end. Luke implied the release and there are four views of what might have happened.
a. He might have been acquitted.
b. He might have been exiled.
c. He might have been executed. Some believe that he only had one imprisonment.
d. His first imprisonment might have ended in default because the Jews never showed up to testify against him. This is the view held by Dr. FreerKsen. Luke was a skilled historian, so he probably did not elaborate on what happened because nothing happened. Then, Paul was released. If true, then his second ministry was around Greece, Crete, and in that region. Then, he was arrested a second time by the Romans. The first time the Jews had been against him. The second time, Paul did not seem to imply that he had any hope of being released. During his first imprisonment, he spoke of meeting with some people again, but not so with the second imprisonment.
XVI. Lesson 16 - The Book of Acts (Chapter 9:32-10:48)
A. Peter had an itinerate ministry in Jerusalem, Lydda, and Joppa. He healed Aeneas in Lydda and Dorcus (Tabitha) in Joppa, but he was carefiul to give Jesus the credit (Acts 9:34 says, "'Aeneas,' Peter said to him, 'Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.' Immediately Aeneas got up."). Aeneas may nlot have been saved, but many came to Jesus as a result of the healing. Tabitha was referred to as a disciple (Acts 9:36), but Aeneas was not.
B. Acts 2, 10, and 11 are probably the three most important chapters in the Book of Acts. Dr. Freerksen holds this view because of the amount of words used on the two separate events and also because of the crossover from Jews to Gentiles. Cornelius is the very first Gentile that gets saved. The Ethiopean eunuch was not a true Gentile because he had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover. He was probably circumcised, but Cornelius was not. That became a serious problem for Peter to resolve.
C. Caesarea was built by Herod the Great. Archaeologists did not dig up this town until 1956.
D. In Acts 10:3, Cornelius was in the habit of praying at the same time as those in the church, Cornelius was very sincere in his devotion to his religion, he was not saved. God had heard Cornelius's prayer. Proverbs 15:29 says that God is not obligated to hear the prayer of the ungodly, but He obligates himself to hear the prayer of the righteous. Note, however, that Gpd can choose to hear any prayer whether made by the righteous or unrighteous. He will hear the prayer of the person that prays to be saved.
E. Peter's dietary laws were a problem because they separated the Jews from the Gentiles. His vision taught him that the Mosaic dietary restrictions are no longer valid and that he should never call any person unclean or unfit for salvation. Peter understood wat it all meant by the time fhat he got to Cornelius's house. The gospel is the substitutionary death of Christ along with the burial and the resurrection, and the whole gospel must be received. Acts 10:43 says, "All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." In Acts 10:43, the people were not saved. In Acts 10:44, the people were saved. Once they were saved, they became part of the body of Christ. Acts 10:48 says, "So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days." They were baptized into the body; however, they were not circumcised, obviously, because that was not an important part of the process.
F. Some important doctrinal notes.
1. Cornelius received the Holy Spirit at the moment that he was saved. The teaching of the apostles was in Acts 8:9, I John 4:13, Ephesians 1:14,I Corinthians 12:13, I Corinthians 6:19, and Titus 3:6).
2. Cornelius was saved before water baptism.
3. He received the gift of the Spirit without the laying on of hands.
4. God is doing the same thing in Acts 10 (a Gentile Pentecost) as in Acts 2 (a Jewish Pentecost).
Tom of Bethany "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
BIBL 424 - The Book of Acts (Lessons 17-25)
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