The Book of Acts is one of the transitional books of Scripture. It is a Book of changes. In it God
"rings out the old, and rings in the new." It is like March 1st among farm tenants _moving tune.
To lose sight of this fact is to miss the meaning and the message of the Book. In Acts we need to
remember the familiar warning, "Watch your step." Failing at this point, many have tripped and
fallen here. Extreme movements of various kinds have been built and propagated on hasty,
careless conclusions from Acts.
Acts 1:8 is a key to the structure and movement of the Book:_"but ye will receive power, the
Holy Spirit having come upon you, and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (J.N.D. Trans.) Let us notice some of the
changes in this Book.
I. When Acts opens, our LORD JESUS CHRIST was upon the earth; when it closes He is in
heaven, and we have the promise that He will return. In chapter 1 He is showing Himself alive
after His passion,, to His apostles, but in chapter 28, though still possessing the same life, He is
the One "in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory."
The Book of Acts commences in the first advent of Christ, records the end of that advent in an
ascent, and promises His second advent by descent, until which time He is absent.
This leaves on earth a people attached to His Person, gathered to His Name, "remembering" Him
in His death, "until He come." This is the assembly, of which, as we learn in the Epistles, He is
the exalted Head.
II. At the beginning of Acts, the HOLY SPIRIT was in the glory; at its close, on the earth, in the
assembly. In the first instance "the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet
glorified" (John 7:39); in the latter, "This Jesus . . . being by the right hand of God exalted, and
having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye
now see and hear" (Acts 2:32,33).
The Book opens anticipating "ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit after now not many days"
(ch. 1:5, J.N.D. Trans.); narrates the fulfillment of that promise by His first advent (ch. 2);
introduces the earth history of the assembly, indwelt by the Spirit; and by more than fifty
references to that Holy One, emphasizes the vital place He occupies in the life, testimony, and
conflicts of God’s people on the earth.
III. In the first chapter, we meet a question about restoring the kingdom to ISRAEL (v. 7); in the
last, ‘this salvation of God has been sent to the NATIONS" (ch. 28:28). In Acts, as in our Lord’s
earthly ministry, the order is "to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16).
The Book opens in Jerusalem, the center of Jewish interests; and works out from that point until
it closes in Rome, the center and throne of Gentile world rulership. Accompanying this, we behold
a movement of the Spirit from the people of Israel, who persistently refused His testimony to the
risen Messiah, out to the Gentiles.
Peter’s ministry on the day of Pentecost was to Jews (ch. 2); but in the house of Cornelius (ch.
10) he reaches out to the Gentiles. This is definitely recognized at the conference in Acts 15 as
the work of God (vv. 7-18).
Paul’s ministry follows a similar course. In the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, after the Jews had
rejected their message, Paul and Barnabas said to them, "It was necessary that the Word of God
should first have been spoken to you:but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles" (ch. 13:46). When the Jews at Corinth,
in response to Paul’s testimony to Christ, "opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his
raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean:from henceforth
I will go unto the Gentiles" (ch. 18:6). And finally, when the Jews in Rome agreed not among
themselves after hearing his message concerning Christ, he quoted^ from Isaiah 6 as to their
blindness, and said, "Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the
Gentiles, and that they will hear it" (ch. 28:28).
"And to this agree the; words of the prophets" (ch. 15:15). This transition is in harmony with the
rest of Divine revelation. It is demanded by other Scripture. It agrees with the prophets, fulfills
the prophets. This fact is not incidental, but fundamental, giving a distinctive character to the
Book.
Thus the assembly, or outcalling, begins with Jewish material, separated by divine call from the
unbelieving nation (Matt. 16:13-18; Acts 2:40-41); and is extended to include on equal footing
believing Gentiles, whom God now for the first time visits "to take out of them a people for His
Name" (Acts 15:14).
We are further assured (v. 16) that there is to be an "after this;" this age is not the end of God’s
earthly program; He has not cast off His people Israel_they are only blinded in part "until the
fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25); an outcalling does not exhaust His purpose
toward either Israel or the Gentiles.
"After this"_(1) He will return; (2) He will build again the tabernacle of David, now fallen
down; (3) He will reach out in a larger way to the nations, through the nation.
But for the present He is occupied with the assembly, as for 2000 years He had been with the
nation Israel, though for the doctrine of this, we must go especially to Paul. "The kingdom" will
"come" (Matt. 6:10); but it is not here now.
Acts shows us, not the kingdom restored to Israel, and prospering in a world-wide administration
under King Messiah; but rather an outcalling, from Jews and Gentiles, walking together in a
beautiful fellowship which, we learn in Paul’s Epistles, involves the truth of membership in the
One Body.
IV. At the beginning of Acts, THE CHURCH (Assembly, literally "outcalling") is a subject of
prophecy; but at the end it is a fact of history. Previously it had, been foretold (Matt. 16:18); here
it was founded.
At the opening of Acts 2, the assembly was not here, though the exalted Head was in His place
in Glory (Eph. 1:20-23); at the close of this chapter a new order of things existed:the Holy Spirit
was here, the assembly was formed (I Cor. 12:13), and a testimony to the risen Christ, ultimately
to encircle the earth, went forth through the assembly in the Spirit’s power.
The assembly, though composed at first of Jewish believers, was not merely a new kind of
synagogue; it was on entirely different ground. Apostolic ministry points out the way of life to a
convicted remnant in Israel (ch. 2:37-40); and apostolic teaching instructs the newly formed
company, as to its normal life (ch. 2:42), in its problems (ch. 6:2-4), and in its growth (ch. 8:14-
17).
What a beautiful picture do chapters 2, 3, and 4 present, as to the assembly’s early simplicity,
unity, energy and testimony, in the power of an ungrieved Spirit! How soon man marred this!
How sad is our present state, in contrast, despite the unchanged fulness and sufficiency of our
glorious Head and the indwelling Spirit! May God give us grace to say, with Daniel (9:5), "We
have sinned"; yea, with Nehemiah (1:6), "I . . . have sinned."
V. There is to be observed a distinct transition in the early church itself. At the beginning, all is
Jewish, through the first seven chapters. These believers, though saved through grace (ch. 15:11)
were "zealous of the law" (ch. 21:20).
Following Stephen’s martyr death, the testimony moved out to the Samaritans (ch. 8). The
harmony and unity of this work of the Spirit with that at Jerusalem was certified (8:14-17).
From this point, further extension took place:first, thru Peter (ch. 10); then through others
unnamed (ch. 11:20); and finally, through Barnabas and Paul (from ch. 13 on).
Resulting from Peter’s mission in ch. 10, "they that were of the circumcision" (ch. 11:2) admitted
(ch. 11:18), "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."
When the Gospel was preached to the Greeks in Antioch (11:20), Barnabas was sent forth from
the assembly in Jerusalem, thus showing the oneness of the assemblies.
The mission of Barnabas and Saul (Acts 13-14), resulted in the opening of the door of faith unto
the Gentiles (ch. 14:27), who were associated in the assembly capacity and in one common
fellowship with Jerusalem, Samaria, etc. (14:23).
When this unity was challenged (ch. 15:1), the matter was decided at Jerusalem, and believers of
the Gentiles were recognized as "the brethren" equally with those who wrote (ch. 15:23). To be
in fellowship at Antioch was to be in fellowship in Jerusalem. Enlargement maintained and
manifested the fundamental and practical unity of the people of God. (to be cont.)