ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
As salient points in this book, we would call the attention of our readers to
The position occupied by our Lord Jesus Christ at the very outset:Having been raised from the dead, He is taken away from the earth and carried into heaven.
This wholly changes the character of His ministry. On earth He ministered earthly things to an earthly people-the house of Israel. In heaven He ministers heavenly things to a heavenly people. Hence
The descent of the Holy Spirit as sent by Him to carry on that ministry here.
The Lord on the cross had prayed for Israel, " Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." The gospel therefore begins with Jerusalem. A new opportunity must be given Israel to repent. The first seven chapters of the book are devoted to the work among them. Instead of repenting, they stone Stephen, persecute the gospel, and seal their doom. The Spirit therefore turns to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles.
It will be instructive to mark the prominence given to baptism in those chapters of ministry to the Jews. Why "does this prominence decrease as Christianity becomes more and more fully revealed, and all that is Jewish is passing away ? The body of the book shows the gospel going out to the Gentiles. The glory of the knowledge of God, which had been given to Israel, is now leaving them and passing to a people taken out of the Gentiles. But mark how, as in Ezekiel, the glory moves reluctantly away; so here, how slow God is in taking His testimony out of their hands! God ever puts off judgment as far as He can. It is His "strange work."
Romans 11:shows that God's testimony will be given back to Israel when His patience can no longer endure the evils and apostasy of Christendom, and He spews it out of His mouth. See, also, for this, the Lord's address to Laodicea (Rev. 3:16).
Mark the work of the Spirit. They in whom He took His abode were of one heart and of one mind.
He is the Great Uniter of the children of God, Jews and Gentiles being by Him formed into one body, of which Christ in heaven is the Head.
Acts is the new wine (grace) put into new bottles (men born of God). Judaism was the old wine, and the Jews the old bottles. Not only they would not drink the new wine, but they ever persecuted the new. This we get in object lessons in Acts, but in plain statements in Rom. 3:-8:, and especially in Galatians.
Judaizers are ever the persecutors of true Christianity. Law can but teach man his deep need. Christianity meets it. Law therefore must give way to Christ. If it refuses to give way, it persecutes.
After his conversion, Paul soon becomes the leading man among the servants of Christ. Why? Do not his epistles show that to him is entrusted the dispensation of Christianity in its essential character-the dispensation of Christ in heaven, of the Spirit on earth, and of the Church gathered and formed during that time ?
Does not his being caught up to the third heaven point us to the hope of the Church, whilst his experiences among men tell of the vicissitudes of Christianity upon earth ?
How deeply interesting is this book! How much there is in it which lies beneath the surface of the narratives ! May we have the spiritual energy to find some of it. The heart engaged with this is satisfied indeed, and has little room for lust.