The Acts of the Apostles holds a very unique place in the New Testament. It is the link between the four Gospels and the Epistles. Moreover it does not contain an orderly exposition of the doctrines of Christianity. It is a book of action and movement and shows how Christianity began to function. it proclaims the great power of the Gospel, insomuch that the rulers cried out when the Apostle Paul and his companion came to Thessalonica, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also” (Acts 17:6).
It is still more remarkable that our Lord Himself gave an epitome of the book as recorded in the compass of two verses. When His disciples asked when He would restore the kingdom of Israel, He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8). These words were spoken by the Lord Jesus just before His ascension to glory; the last recorded words He spoke on earth.
When we turn to the Acts of the Apostles we find how the Divine programme was literally carried out. That the gospel was first preached in Jerusalem is manifest. Chapter 2 records Peter’s remarkable address to the vast crowds gathered to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem, and how about three thousand souls were added to the believers in one day. “Beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47) was the divine commission, the city of His murderers. Such is the grace of God!
The Apostles were flung into prison for the crime of preaching the gospel, but the angel of the Lord delivered them. Brought before the council of the Jews, who would have killed them if they could, but listening to the wise counsel of Gamaliel, they commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus. Despite this command, they nevertheless went on with the good work, and ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. The work doubtless spread to Judaea, for when persecution broke out we find the believers were scattered from Jerusalem, and went everywhere preaching the word. So the devil, trying to stop the preaching of the word in one city, caused it to be preached in many cities and villages in Judaea.
This was about the time of the death of Stephen, the first recorded martyrdom in the Acts. In the parable of the talents, which our Lord spoke on earth, he said, “But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). In the martyrdom of Stephen we see this message sent after our Lord’s own rejection by the nation. As if to confirm the message of rejection, Stephen’s death is followed by that of James, and though not recorded in the Acts, we know that Peter, Paul, and all the apostles of which there is any historical record, save John, were put to death for Christ’s sake.
It is remarkable that the first mention of the Apostle Paul is in connection with the stoning of Stephen for we read, the witnesses laid their clothes at “a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul” (Acts 7:58). Further, in the vision that Stephen had of heaven, he saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Why standing? In another Scripture (Heb. 10:12) we read that our Lord sat down on the right hand of God, having completed the work of redemption. There is, however, no contradiction here. Our Lord sat in relation to the finished work of redemption. The work was done. His standing, as Stephen saw Him, sets forth a very touching truth, that the Lord lingered over His ancient people in wonderful grace.
This is born out in more than one way. When the Sanhedrin commanded the Apostles not to teach in the name of Jesus, Peter and the other apostles replied boldly, “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him has God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:29-31). Please note that the Lord in heaven, raised from the dead and exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, is there to give repentance to Israel. This shows how God lingered over His ancient people. It is true that the commission of our Lord to His eleven disciples was to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19), yet the Apostle Paul could point out that whilst he was the apostle of the uncircumcision, of the Gentiles, Peter was the apostle of the circumcision.
Even the Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, could write of the Gospel that he preached, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). Again and again we find Paul going first to the synagogue, following out the divine thought, “to the Jew first.” We append a few Scriptures to this effect. “When they [Paul and his companions] departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue” (Acts 13:14). “And it came to pass in Iconium, that they [Paul and Barnabas] went to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed” (Acts 14:1). “And Paul, as his manner was, went to them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2). “And he [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks” (Acts 18:4).
Our Lord seems to put a time limit in His dealing with Israel on these lines. In the parable of the vineyard, after narrating how the servants were maltreated, and sent away empty when they came to receive the fruits of the vineyard, we have the very touching words, “Last of all he sent to them his Son, saying; They will reverence my son” (Matt. 21:37). But when they caught the heir; and cast him out of the vineyard the question arose, “What shall be done to these husbandmen? They say to him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons” (Matt. 21:41). This was fulfilled when Titus besieged Jerusalem in A.D. 70, 1,100,000 Jews perishing, and the rest being dispersed among the nations, fulfilling the prophecy of Scripture, “And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen” (Deut. 4:27). They have been dispersed among the nations from that day to this, though within the last century there are manifest signs of their return in unbelief to their own land in fulfilment of the Scripture prophecies, that this will happen in the last days.
We must be careful to note that God did not seek to perpetuate the system that crucified Christ. When there was an attempt to bring in Judaism and the law as a complement to Christianity, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian assemblies in vehement condemnation of this subtle movement, which instead of being complementary was indeed absolutely subversive of Christianity, so much so, that if any preached any other gospel than Paul preached, let him be accursed.
No, any Jew, converted after our Lord ascended and the Spirit has given, would cease to be a Jew religiously, and would become a Christian, and form part of the Church of God.
Then we come to the record of three most striking conversions, doubtless samples of many others unrecorded. The story of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch is found in chapter 8; of Saul of Tarsus, in chapter 9; of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, in chapter 10. After the flood the world was peopled by the descendants of the three sons of Noah—Shem, Ham and Japheth. The descendants of these three form three well-defined streams of the world’s population, accepted generally by philologists.
The Ethiopian eunuch represented the family of Ham; Saul of Tarsus the family of Shem; and Cornelius, the Roman centurion, the family of Japheth. It is not a little remarkable that this is so, that without parading the point, it nevertheless shows how God would reach all mankind with the message of the gospel of the grace of God. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter” (Prov. 25:2). The Ethiopian eunuch would carry the news to his dark heathen country. There is to this day, a Christian church in Ethiopia, whose beginning is lost in the mists of antiquity, and many think it owes its origin to the eunuch’s conversion. Note Philip, who was used to his conversion, was at the time preaching in Samaria, one of the places mentioned by our Lord as a place where the gospel was to be proclaimed.
We know from the Acts of the Apostles how Saul of Tarsus carried the gospel to “the uttermost parts of the earth.” His conversion was most remarkable, and he got a start in Christian service that never slackened till he laid his weary head on the executioner’s block. One blow, and the weary warrior was in the ineffable presence of his Lord and Saviour, his course well run.
The Apostle Paul was undoubtedly the chief agent in carrying the gospel to “the uttermost parts of the earth,” as predicted by our Lord. The last we see of this Great-heart is dwelling in his own hired house, a prisoner manacled to a soldier, awaiting the headman’s axe under the cruellest of the Roman Emperors. Though a prisoner, and not able to move about, yet he served the Lord within the four walls of his hired lodging, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things, which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom was still preached, a kingdom in mystery (for the King had been crucified by the Jewish nation) waiting for the King to bring it into manifestation, which He will do when He comes to reign upon the earth, and establish a true New World Order so much talked about at this time.
Till that day comes, may He be in each one of our hearts, and may the true New World Order begin in our own hearts, and be seen in our individual lives.