Welcome to Books of the
Book. I'm so excited that you've
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joined us for a study in
the book of Acts. My name is
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Mark Howard. I'm a pastor
in the Michigan Conference of
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Seventh-day Adventists. I live
there in Gilbus, Michigan with
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my wonderful and beautiful wife
Stephanie and my two children
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Caleb and Analise. My co-host is
actually somebody very close to
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me. That's right.
That is my brother Jim.
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Yes. My name is Jim Howard
and I also am a pastor in the
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Michigan Conference. I pastor
a church in Plymouth, Michigan,
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the Metropolitan Seventh-day
Adventist church as well as a
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church in South Lyon, Michigan.
We're excited about this
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particular study,
aren't we? Absolutely.
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Now before we dive into what
we want to talk about today, we
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want to start a precedent here
in our program and ask the Lord
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to especially bless the time
that we spend with you. So let's
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bow our heads together
as we start with prayer.
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Father in heaven, we're so
grateful for this opportunity we
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have to study your word.
We understand that the word is
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living and powerful and so
we pray that you would bring it
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alive to us and help us to
understand from the word exactly
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what you would have us to know,
for we ask it in Jesus' name
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Amen. Amen. Now
today we begin our study in
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the book of Acts and because
there is so much to understand
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leading into the book of Acts,
today's program will actually be
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an introduction to the book. Now
the book of Acts was written by
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Luke, the beloved physician,
and this would be the sequel
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actually to the gospel of Luke
in which Luke writes a narrative
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of the life and ministry
and ultimately crucifixion and
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resurrection of Jesus. So the
book of Acts is the sequel, the
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second book that he writes
to a friend, Theophilus and it's
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important to note that Luke
has some counterparts. There's
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Matthew, there's Mark,
there's John. So there are four
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different narratives to speak
about the life and ministry of
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Jesus. But the book of Acts is
the only book that really gives
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us a clear narrative of the
beginnings of the early church
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and because of that
it's a very special book.
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That's right. It's the only real
history we have of the early
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church. We have a history of
Christ and his ministry but Acts
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gives us the history of the
early church. There's a real
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benefit in that too and that
benefit is that it provides us
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a practical application of the
theology that we find throughout
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the New Testament scriptures.
I mean, for example we have much
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of the New Testament is a
theological exposition in the
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letters of Paul and the letters
of Peter and what have you.
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But when we come to the
book of Acts we actually have a
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practical application of
that theology. So when you look
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through the rest of the New
Testament you have Romans and
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1st and 2nd Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians; a lot of
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letters written to churches
that give instruction, give
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theological expositions and yet
in most of that you don't have
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an actual narrative of what was
going on in the early church but
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we have that in
the book of Acts.
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That's right. We have some
histories in the letters of Paul
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and that sort of thing, but
in the book of Acts we have a
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picture, a practical application
we have those letters and those
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teachings in action so we get
to see that when we apply the
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counsel of Paul to the
Corinthians or to the Romans
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or to the Galatians, we get to
see what it looks like in real
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life in the book of Acts.
And the benefit of that, Jim, is
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that we have a... Let's take
for instance here. When you talk
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about the spiritual gifts and
I'll pick on the gift of tongues
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this is something that our
viewers may be aware that there
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are a number of different view
points on the gift of tongues
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that vary. What is the right
view point? Well the book of
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Acts gives us a picture of what
that gift looked like whereas
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for example if I'm reading
in 1 Corinthians 14 when Paul is
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explaining the gift of tongues,
I don't get a picture of what it
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looked like in action. But when
I go to Acts chapter 2 and I see
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the Holy Spirit poured out on
the early church and I see them
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speaking with tongues I actually
get a picture of what it looked
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like and now I can get a clear
understanding of the theology
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of the New Testament by looking
at how it is played out in the
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New Testament church.
Excellent point. You know it's a
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similar situation to another
key doctrine for Seventh-day
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Adventists and that's
the doctrine of the Sabbath.
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That's correct. And I
would say that as we look
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at the book of Acts we
have a strong affirmation there
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wouldn't you
say, for the Sabbath?
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Absolutely. Because again there
are different viewpoints on how
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important the seventh-day
Sabbath is today, but when you
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go to the book of Acts, you find
a consistent practice, custom,
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is a word that's used often and
we find it in the history of the
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life of Jesus as well. But
for some the transition point of
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the Sabbath, when the Sabbath
became unimportant in the minds
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of some is after the ascension
of Christ. But when we come into
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the book of Acts after the
ascension of Christ we see a
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consistent practice in the
early church of worshiping and
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observing the Sabbath day. Some
places where we find synagogues
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and some places where we don't
and I bring that up because
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sometimes people say well we
find that practice because that
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is what the Jews did and so
the early church followed that
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custom to reach the Jews. But
we also find, for example, in
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Acts 16, which we're going to
come to later in our study, that
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in a place where there wasn't
a synagogue, in a place there
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wasn't even a church yet of
the Christian church, the people
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customarily met on the Sabbath
day by the river side. And so we
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see in the practice of the early
church the establishment of the
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Sabbath as we've
seen throughout scripture.
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That's right. So this narrative
is going to help us, it's going
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give us pictures of the theology
of the rest of the New Testament
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in a very practical way. Very
good. Now as we get ready to
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dive into the book of Acts it's
important for us to think about
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the setting. Remember that Acts
is the second part of Luke's
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writings. So we have the book
of Luke, then we have the book
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of Acts. Unfortunately we don't
have time to do both the book of
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Luke and the book of Acts
together in one whole. But it
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would make sense since we can't
do that that we at least go to
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the end of the book of Luke and
see where it leaves off and what
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really is the impetus for
the book of Acts. What are the
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driving motivators for what the
apostles are about to do in the
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book of Acts and we find at
least two but we're going to
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talk today about two driving
motivating factors that existed
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and that Jesus himself gave to
the early church that helped to
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motivate them to do all that
they did in the book of Acts.
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So let's go there together to
Luke 24. We invite you at home,
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if you have your Bibles, to open
them up to Luke 24 and as we
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go through these programs
we just really encourage you to
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follow along in your own Bibles
at home. Now in Luke chapter 24
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in verse 44 we find the very
end of the book of Luke some
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powerful words by the Lord
Jesus to the apostles, to the
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disciples. It says: Then he said
to them, These are the words
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which I spoke to you while I was
still with you that all things
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must be fulfilled which were
written in the law of Moses and
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the prophets and the Psalms
concerning me. So this is a
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powerful statement being made
by the Lord Jesus. He says these
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are things I spoke to you. When
I was with you I told you all
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of this. Now, of course, this is
after the resurrection, after he
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has appeared to the disciples.
So he is saying when I was still
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with you, perhaps he's intending
to say when I was walking, you
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know, before my crucifixion
I told you about these things.
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Now he's reminding them of them
but I think opening their minds
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even more than they ever had
been to these things. He says
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that all things must be
fulfilled which were written in
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the law of Moses and
the prophets and the Psalms
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concerning me. Now when Jesus
was going through his earthly
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ministry he at times told the
disciples about how he had to be
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turned over to the chief priests
et cetera and given into the
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hands of sinful men and be
crucified and raised from the
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dead on the third day. And he
said that more than one time to
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them, but they, for whatever
reason, were not quite ready to
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receive that. That did not
register with them and they
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still were looking for an
earthly king to conquer the
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Romans and that's what they
saw as a savior. But here we see
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that they're in a better place.
Now the crucifixion has happened
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they've gone through their
discouragement, the resurrection
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has happened and now they're
able to really look at how the
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Bible, the scriptures, the
law of Moses, the prophets, the
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Psalms, all pointed to the
things that happened to Jesus.
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That's right. If I might
interject here we read that he
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opened their understanding and
you're talking here about the
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prominence that the scripture
has. It's interesting that, you
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know, there are some people
today who have an understanding
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that the Bible is outdated, it
is not relevant and we have to
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adapt the Bible to meet
our current culture or current
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situation. But it's interesting
in this passage that the Bible
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wasn't adapted but the disciples
were adapted. In other words,
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the Bible wasn't made to fit
them, they were made to fit the
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scripture. The scripture can't
be broken in the words of Jesus,
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right? And so it says he opened
their understanding that they
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might comprehend the scriptures
and the implication there is
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that the scriptures are the
word of truth and when we don't
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see light in them, it's not
because there's a problem in the
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scripture but
with our understanding.
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Wow! He was opening their minds
to the fact that the scripture
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was their authority and they
needed to be submitted to that
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ultimate authority when it came
to understanding. Well that's
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fascinating. In verse 45 let's
look at that. It says, he opened
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their understanding that they
might comprehend the scriptures.
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I wish there was more here.
I wish we could see the Bible
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study that Jesus gave to his
disciples right here because I
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believe that this is where
he built the foundation of their
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He gave them the evidence
for his messiahship through the
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crucifixion, the resurrection,
all the multitude of messianic
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prophecies in the Old Testament.
There are some 300 prophecies
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pointing to the Messiah and
I'm sure he walked through those
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major prophecies that pointed
to his death and resurrection.
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And the reason we can know this
is that when we do go through
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the book of Acts we find
that they refer to those same
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scriptures. Yeah, repeatedly.
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And they give them as evidence
that Jesus was the Messiah. So
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this was really the meeting
before the meeting, as it were.
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It was that opportunity for
Jesus to open their minds and
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give them clarity of thought and
understanding so that they could
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then be able to do what they end
up doing in the book of Acts in
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their wonderful ministry. So if
we look a little bit further, it
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says, Then he said to them, Thus
it is written and thus it was
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necessary for the Christ to
suffer and to rise from the dead
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the third day. That's
fascinating. It says thus it is
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written and thus it was
necessary for the Christ to
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suffer. It's as if he's saying
the reason the Christ had to
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suffer is, yes because we needed
salvation, but in the context
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he's saying the reason
the Christ had to suffer was
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because it is written that the
Christ had to suffer. Isaiah 53
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very clearly expressed that
the Christ would have to suffer.
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So in everything I sense
something very strong here that
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the Lord Jesus is doing in
preparation for the ministry of
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the early church in the book
of Acts. He is pointing to the
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scripture rather than pointing
to the supernatural works that
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he did when he walked this
earth. He could have at this
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moment really emphasized the
fact that he was all powerful by
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working some miracle of
levitation or whatever it might
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be, doing something that could
not possibly be done and say
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I am the Messiah. But he did not
want them to base their faith on
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miracles, and as we'll find out
in the book of Acts, because the
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devil can work miracles. Yeah,
he can be deceiving. So what
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Jesus was doing here was
pointing them to the scripture
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and helping them to see that you
need a clear evidence for your
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faith and not even me and all my
power and glory do I want you to
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put your confidence in apart
from the scriptures and what the
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scriptures teach. So he built
that foundation and that was
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the very first motivating factor
for the book of Acts and what
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we see in the book of
Acts that Jesus gave was this
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foundation of the primacy of
the word of God. Well we need to
00:13:49.56\00:13:53.23
dive into a little bit more of
that but before we do we need to
00:13:53.27\00:13:57.33
take a break. So join us back in
a few minutes and we'll continue
00:13:57.37\00:14:01.40
our study in the book of Acts.
00:14:01.44\00:14:03.84