Acts: Courageous Witness in a Hostile World: A Guide for Gospel Foot Soldiers

By Howard Brant and James Plueddemann

Most commentaries on Acts are written by Western scholars for a Western audience. This book comes out of more than forty years of teaching in the Majority World. It is aimed at the new breed of emerging missionaries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The apostles in Acts faced a hostile world. Yet in that context, the Holy Spirit gave them incredible courage. The scenes of Peter, Stephen, and Paul facing angry mobs and the fury of the Jewish Sanhedrin are being played out in India, China, and Eritrea today. Acts teaches us how to have a "courageous witness in a hostile world." Further, this work addresses the powerful forces that assault the worldwide church--particularly the racism that splits the church all over the world. Acts: Courageous Witness in a Hostile World will thrill you as you see how God's Spirit overcomes every obstacle and keeps the church on track, even when we think all is lost. Read this book for yourself and become courageous.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Jan 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781621896463

Howard Brant

Howard Brant grew up riding on the back of his daddy's mule as he evangelized in the mountains of southern Ethiopia. He studied missions in Bible school, college, and earned a doctorate in missions at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In 1996, he and his wife took the first Ethiopian missionaries to India. As a mission executive with SIM, he has traveled the world teaching Acts to Majority World missionaries.

Book preview

Acts: Courageous Witness in a Hostile World

A Guide for Gospel Foot Soldiers

Howard Brant

2008.WS_logo.pdf

ACTS: COURAGEOUS WITNESS IN A HOSTILE WORLD

A Guide for Gospel Foot Soldiers

Copyright © 2013 Howard Brant. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Wipf & Stock

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

ISBN 13: 978-1-62032-630-5

EISBN 13: 978-162189-646-3

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inctm. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the English Standard Bible, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version, © 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

First Edition 2013

Foreword

They turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6 KJV). This description of Jesus’s early disciples is happening again today as missions movements expand from everywhere to everywhere.  Nigerian church planters in Moscow and Chicago, Bolivian evangelists in Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopians serving in Pakistan, business missionaries from Cairo working in Kano, Nigeria, Guatemalans reaching Muslims in India, and Chinese spreading the Gospel in Afghanistan demonstrate this radical shift in world Christianity.

It is quite possible that Christian missions have transformed more in the last fifty years than in the last 2000. Today Christianity is rooted and growing in every part of the world. Believers are reading their Bibles in hundreds of languages and discovering the Great Commission as their own mandate. The Lord is not only planting his worldwide church, but he is also raising up missionaries from every corner of the world.

A fresh thrust for preparing missionaries from the non-Western world is desperately needed. Early missionaries from the majority world have served with great zeal, but have often unwittingly committed the same mistakes as missionaries from the West.

Over the years thousands of missionary books have been written from the perspective of the West, but many are incomplete for missionaries from the majority world. Most describe how churches from European-related countries should send missionaries to spread the Gospel in Africa, South America, the South Pacific and Asia. As a college student I remember reading books on the importance of sleeping under mosquito nets, filtering drinking water, and the need to take a rest hour in the heat of the day. Courses in mission history retold the story of the Nestorians in China, the Jesuits in South America, William Carey in India, Hudson Taylor in China, Adoniram Judson in Burma, and Roland Bingham in Nigeria, but reported little about African or Asian missionaries.

We now live in a time when a whole new set of teaching materials is needed to prepare churches and missionaries in the majority world to be sent to the rest of the world. Books on understanding Islam have been translated into Mandarin to equip Chinese missionaries to serve in the Middle East. A Spanish curriculum has been developed to equip Latin American missionaries. Yet we need more than how-to books. We need resources that take us back to the biblical basis of missions. That is why Acts: Courageous Witness in a Hostile World, is so timely. Dr. Brant provides a vibrant exposition of each chapter in the book of Acts. He also includes theological reflection interspersed with stories and examples from his own ministry, and from the bold witness of modern missionaries from the majority world. Most chapters end with a reflection and application for missions today.

Howard Brant is uniquely gifted to write such a book. Few people have his extensive missions experience combined with solid biblical and missiological education. Even if there are others with biblical skills and relevant experience, I know of no one who can compare with his passion for facilitating missions among the majority world. Howard and his wife Jo-Ann showed the way working with a team of godly Ethiopians in India, and then to Pakistan in a time when other forward-looking thinkers were just talking about the idea. Howard Brant has been a champion of the global missions movement for many years. He has given visionary energy to it at every opportunity—encouraging, nudging, pleading for this multi-directional highway to the nations. He has personally given leadership and resources to this movement and has pioneered ways to make it happen. This commentary on Acts grows out of Dr. Brant’s passion for equipping mission leaders all over the globe.  It is a Kingdom resource that takes us back to the future. The acts of Jesus’s apostles continue to unfold today as the Holy Spirit calls and empowers those who will go to make disciples in every place, turning the world upside down.

James E. Plueddemann, PhD

Former International Director of SIM

Chair and Professor of Missions and Evangelism

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL

Preface

I am writing to all true servants of Jesus Christ who are passionate about the gospel. This is to equip and encourage those who are engaged in the eternal conflict between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. Hopefully it will be a guide to those who want to learn more about engaging our spiritual enemy with spiritual weapons that are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds (2 Cor 10:4 KJV).

There are hundreds of commentaries on the book of Acts. Most of them are written from the Western world and to the Western world. This work is written for the new generation of missionaries coming out of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It is my attempt to tell the amazing story contained in the book of Acts and share its meaning for God’s ambassadors. Indeed, my goal is to have this translated into as many of the world’s languages as possible. My target audience is majority-world missionaries.

I sincerely appreciate the scholarly works written on Luke-Acts. Although many have been consulted, the critical reflections presented here do not come from the writings of others, but rather from 40 years of pondering these truths as we pursued our own missionary pilgrimage in Africa and Asia. It has been written on the road, and it is written for those on the road. I am not writing as an academic to satisfy the questions of the mind, but as a fellow foot soldier with those involved in God’s call to establish the church of Christ around the earth.

Dr. Luke was a missionary writing about the birth of missions. Traveling over land and sea to distant places where people had never heard of Jesus, he was radically influenced by the life of Paul, and became his traveling companion and friend, especially toward the end of Paul’s life. Furthermore, Luke was not from the majority Christian group of his day; he was, in fact, the only Gentile believer to write in our New Testament. Luke became so inflamed with the gospel that he not only wrote about how the gospel started to expand, but also how its followers defended it against some of the wickedest men on earth.

As the new wave of missionaries goes out today, they will find the world to be every bit as hostile as it was in the first century. Like the early apostles, most will not come from affluence and power. They will be opposed by governments (sometimes their own) and by religious fanatics of other faiths. In many places neither they nor their message will be welcome. That is why we need to look again at a book about radical messengers of Jesus witnessing His gospel in a hostile world, and about the Holy Spirit’s guidance and protection as they planted the church of Jesus Christ. God builds His church in spite of persecution.

The first time we presented the teaching of Acts in this way, it was to ten Ethiopian men who had been selected by their church to go as their first missionaries to India. To them, these lessons were no mental exercise or academic requirement. It was rather a training manual for success on the battlefield. I would like to dedicate this work to those ten Ethiopian missionaries who went with my wife Jo-Ann and me to India in 1996.

Ayele Yatura

Alemayhu Goshu

Agdachew Anebo

Dansa Dana

Desta Langena

Sebsibe Wolasso

Shiferaw Feyissa

Terefe Bolteno

Teferi Bora

Wolde Eusus Bufebo

Howard Brant

May 2011

Overseas Missionary Study Center

New Haven, CT

Introduction

The book of the Bible we are about to study is simply called Acts. But whose acts are recorded here? There are three different answers, and each is correct!

These are the Acts of the Apostles (and that is another popular name for the book). Acts traces the lives and work of some of the first apostles, including the same fishermen Jesus called along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Peter, James, and John first became disciples and learned to follow Him. Only then were they ready to be sent into all the earth as apostles. The same is true with us. Jesus calls us first to be His disciples. For only after we have learned to follow Him in faith and obedience is He willing to send us out as His ambassadors.

Acts relates the way in which the Holy Spirit used these men to start the church. The story turns first to the life of Simon Peter and tells how God taught him to care about non-Jewish people. The last half of Acts focuses on the apostle Paul and how he effectively spread the gospel all the way from Jerusalem to Rome. In the process he brought the gospel to the Gentiles. This is about the Acts of the Apostles.

In another sense, these could be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. God is building His kingdom using weak and fragile human beings—but filled with the power of His Holy Spirit. In Acts, we find fifty-seven references to the work of the Holy Spirit—more than any other book of the Bible. Viewed in this way, this book is about the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

These are also the Acts of Jesus Christ, a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. We could have called Luke and Acts First Luke and Second Luke, as they are written by the same author. In the very first verse of Acts the author tells us that his first book (The Gospel of Luke) was written to tell about all the things Jesus began to do and to teach. This second book written by Dr. Luke (Acts) is a continuation of the same story, except instead of Jesus doing these things by Himself, He does them through His apostles.

This is an encouraging truth! The apostles, and we ourselves, still carry on the work that Jesus began to do. Note how the Gospel of Mark closes: Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them . . . (Mark 16:20). Acts does not close with Amen, as many of the New Testament books do. That is in part because the work of Jesus continues through the Holy Spirit. He works, but His acts are now through His apostles, His servants, and His church.

The Old Testament gives a precise recipe and instructions for using holy anointing oil (Exod 30:22 ff.). When prophets, priests, or kings were consecrated, holy anointing oil was poured on their heads. This oil was a symbol of God’s Holy Spirit coming upon them and separating them for special ministry. Now when Jesus came, He was called Jesus Christ, which means Jesus, the Messiah. The word Christ in Greek means the same as the word Messiah in Hebrew: the Anointed One. So God took the Holy Spirit without measure and poured it out on His Son. Jesus could say, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (Luke 4:18 KJV). This same Jesus is the One who poured out the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (see Acts 2:33).

Given this background, imagine being at the anointing of a high priest. Imagine the holy anointing oil being poured out upon him (see Ps 133:2). In the same way the Spirit was poured upon our Lord, Jesus poured out the Spirit upon those gathered on the day of Pentecost. The same Spirit with which Jesus was anointed falls on us. That is why we continue to do the works of Jesus. That is how He lives on in us and accomplishes His work through us.

Three ways to organize Acts

Acts begins in Jerusalem but ends in Rome. Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish faith, called Judaism. Rome was the political capital of the ancient world. The population of Jerusalem at the time is estimated to have been somewhere between 600 thousand and 1.1 million people—smaller than Rome, but bigger than Carthage. The Jewish people were important, but still a minority group within the Roman empire. Yet the book of Acts tells how God the Holy Spirit moved the gospel out of this tiny nation and made it a faith that would change the world.

The first and simplest way to organize Acts is by dividing it into two parts.

The first half (Acts 1–12) centers on the life and ministry of the apostle Peter. It tells about the expansion of the gospel among the Jews. It explains the true meaning of the kingdom of God. And it tells how God changed the minds of people like Peter to see His kingdom as something more than the Jewish nation. In fact, God’s kingdom expands throughout the known world. God had to break the Jewish apostles of their ethnocentrism.¹ It was hard for Jewish Christians to conceive of God’s kingdom including non-Jews. Dr. Luke, a Greek medical doctor, must have taken great delight in recording how God got the apostles out of their narrow thinking and slowly convinced them that the gospel was not just for the sons of Abraham, but for all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) publically affirmed that the gospel was for the whole world.

The remaining half of this book (Acts 13–28) focuses on the life and ministry of the apostle Paul. It describes how the gospel spread to the Gentile world, despite the Jews who tried to hold it back. It is an indictment against the Jewish nation. The Jews rejected the prophets in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament. Acts describes how they rejected not only the message preached by Paul, but the Holy Spirit’s work in bringing the Gentile nations to the Lord. Thus, at the end of the book, the Jewish nation stands condemned. In just a few short years, the Roman armies would roll over their city, destroy their temple, and scatter them to the nations of the world. The gospel, however, would live on and grow primarily from the Gentile world.

A second way to organize the book is around the sequence given to us in Acts 1:8. Jesus told the disciples that they would be witnesses in Jerusalem (Acts 1–7), in Judea and Samaria (Acts 8–12), and to the ends of the earth (Acts 13–28).

A third way to view the narrative flow is in ever-expanding ripples:

Chapter 1—From the resurrection to Pentecost

Chapter 2—The day of Pentecost

Chapters 3 and 4a—Growth of the church in Jerusalem

Chapters 4b to 7—Three waves of persecution

Chapter 8—Expansion into fringe groups: Samaritans and Ethiopians

Chapter 9—Conversion of Saul of Tarsus

Chapters 10 and 11a—Peter and Cornelius

Chapter 11b—Expansion to the Gentiles: Antioch

Chapter 12—Peter’s imprisonment and escape

Chapters 13 to 21—Further expansion to the Gentiles

Chapters 22 to 26—Five trials of Paul

Chapters 27 and 28—Paul takes the gospel to Rome

Acts demonstrates the gospel reaching all kinds of people and places.² It is like someone standing on a bridge and dropping a big stone into the water. The circles go out farther and farther until the ripples touch a distant shore. The epicenter was at Pentecost, with a series of tsunami-like waves breaking down religious, cultural and political barriers. The gospel sweeps through Jerusalem, which was the Jewish religious capital; then Athens, the cultural capital of the world; and finally into Rome, the political capital of the world. No power could stop it. By the end of the book, the whole ancient world was talking about the gospel.

Author and purpose of Acts

If you read the first few verses of Luke’s Gospel and then read the opening verses of Acts you will find that both books are written by the same author, Dr. Luke, and to the same person, called most excellent Theophilus.

Early church fathers all affirm Luke as author of Luke and Acts.

The tradition of the early church also consistently attributes the third Gospel to Luke. Thus the Muratorian Canon (ca. ad 180) says, The third book of the Gospel according to Luke, Luke that physician, who after the ascension of Christ, when Paul had taken him with him as companion of his journey, composed in his own name on the basis of report. But even before this, the heretic Marcion (ca. ad 135) acknowledged Luke as the author of the third Gospel. This tradition of authorship was confirmed by Irenaeus and successive writers.³

In Colossians 4:14 (KJV), Paul calls Luke the beloved physician. As Paul got deeper and deeper into trouble with the Jews, and as he moved successively through his trials and on towards Rome, this beloved physician accompanied Paul as his personal attendant and physician.⁴ In fact, at the very end of his life, when Paul was in chains awaiting his execution in Rome, he wrote to Timothy saying that only Luke remained with him (2 Tim 4:9–11). The whole Christian world is indebted to Luke for his kindness toward Paul. We are even more indebted to him for recording the great things God did. Surely he will have his reward in heaven.

Luke was a highly intelligent man who set out to tell the story in precise detail. In the first few verses of his Gospel, Luke describes the way he went about gathering information for his writings:

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught (Luke 1:1–4).

Luke was not a personal eyewitness of the gospel events. He came to faith in the second generation of believers. But Luke used accurate and reliable sources. He says many of the early eyewitnesses had already handed down information. This would explain why his Gospel runs parallel with the writings of Matthew and Mark. In fact, many passages are almost identical.

But Luke included unique material. He tells us that he got this information from interviewing eyewitnesses—people who had seen these events firsthand. He testifies to have carefully investigated everything from the beginning (Luke 1:3) and then set things out in order (Luke 1:3 KJV). It is highly probable that one of the sources Luke used for an account of the early life of Jesus was Mary, the mother of Jesus. We are indebted to Luke’s record for most of our information regarding Jesus’s early years, and even His visit to the temple in Jerusalem. These are the kinds of things a mother would remember and tell an investigator. Luke wrote using many sources, but the Holy Spirit was guiding him as he wrote so that what we now have is part of inspired Scripture.

The result is that 27.5% of our New Testament was written by Luke. The Gospel of Luke and Acts contain more writing than was done by any other New Testament writer: Paul wrote 25% of the New Testament, and John wrote 18.5%.

Who was Theophilus?

Theophilus is only mentioned twice in the Bible, once at the beginning of Luke and once at the beginning of Acts. Although this Greek name, meaning lover of God, was common in ancient times, we know nothing about this man from history. Some suggest that there was no such person as Theophilus but that this was Luke’s way of addressing all who love God. That explanation is unlikely because Luke gives him a specific title: most excellent Theophilus (Luke 1:3). The title most excellent was reserved for addressing someone like a governor or high official (Acts 23:26 KJV). It was not used to address a common man. This clue, along with several others, is very important.

It is interesting that Luke is always respectful of Roman people in his writings. He seldom says anything negative about Romans, even though they were often cruel to both Jews and to Christians. At the same time, Luke is not afraid to expose the wickedness of the Jews who opposed Paul. This is a subtle but strong hint that Luke might even be writing to a Roman, or to some official who had strong ties with the Roman government.

Luke writes with unusual precision. He gives historical details that would not necessarily be of interest to a lay reader. He carefully lists the names of people, places, and titles. Luke details the trials of Paul with precision. It is almost as if he is a lawyer writing a legal report for public record. In each of Paul’s trials, Luke gives us specific details about the person and rank of those before whom Paul was tried. He records the accusation, the accuser, the discussion, and the outcome in every case. It appears that Luke is writing to another lawyer who would need to know and understand all these details.⁵

But perhaps the greatest surprise of all is the abrupt end of the book of Acts. We have been led to anticipate Paul’s final trial before Caesar in Rome. But to our utter surprise the book ends suddenly, with no mention of Paul’s trial or its outcome. The story just stops. This makes us wonder if somehow the story needed to get into the hands of someone called most excellent Theophilus before Paul’s trial.⁶

All this leads us to speculate that Theophilus might have been the lawyer who was to represent Paul at his trial before Caesar.⁷ It is possible that some of Paul’s wealthy friends like Luke and Lydia of Philippi raised the funds to secure him a good defense attorney. This would explain Luke’s narrative precision. It would also explain why he was careful to speak well about Romans. And it would explain why Theophilus would be given such a detailed story, but without a conclusion.

If this is correct, then it leaves us with a sense of awe at the way God works! Luke may never have realized that his writings would be read and studied by millions of people two thousand years after he wrote them. He was writing for someone named Theophilus so that he would understand the gospel and be able to defend Paul. God’s ways are marvelous!

As legal documents sent to Paul’s lawyer, these books have a high probability of being accurate. Luke’s assertions and reports about these events would have had to hold up to the highest levels of scrutiny. If there were even small errors, Paul’s enemies would expose them and thereby try to defeat Paul. And we know from history that Paul was pronounced innocent at the end of his first trial before Nero (2 Tim 4:17). It looks like Luke’s intervention paid off.

1 Ethnocentrism is a view that places one’s own group in the center of everything. Here it means thinking only from a Jewish point of view.

2 See chapter 14 for the eight different categories of people who embraced the gospel.

3 Longenecker, Acts of the Apostles, 238–239.

4 In Acts, whenever Paul gets near Philippi, the language of the writer suddenly includes both Paul and Luke (we did this or that). Dr. Luke likely lived in or near the Macedonian city of Philippi.

5 The legal language of Acts has long been attested to by scholarship. One writer says, Luke’s writing is characterized by a fine use of legal terminology. He is well acquainted with legal procedure and with . . . law. Indeed, his account of Paul’s appeal to Caesar and its legal consequences is quite in accordance with the little we know of the appellate procedure in the First Century a.d. Tajra, The Trial of Paul, 1.

6 Another suggested explanation for the abrupt ending of Acts is that Luke was planning a third edition to continue his story. We consider this rather unlikely. If the abrupt ending of Acts were the only evidence that supported our theory then this alternate explanation would carry more weight. But the third edition theory only accounts for one part of the puzzle. Furthermore, there is no indication that Luke wrote a third episode. Our suggestion that Theophilus needed the book before Paul’s trial before Nero carries more weight.

7 This thesis was also advanced by John W. Mauck in his book Paul on Trial: The Book of Acts as a Defense of Christianity. 

Chapter 1

Between resurrection and Pentecost

The fifty days from the resurrection until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost were full of Jesus’s appearances, teaching, instructions, and anticipation of the Holy Spirit. These fifty days are divided into two periods. There were forty days from the resurrection until Jesus ascended into heaven, and then ten days between His ascension and Pentecost.

Figure%201V.tif

Jesus’s last instructions before His ascension—Acts 1:1–5

Luke introduces Acts by tying it to his Gospel. The Gospel was about all that Jesus began to do and teach. In Acts, Luke tells how Jesus continued the same story, working through the Holy Spirit in the lives of apostles whom He had chosen. Luke closed his Gospel with the promise of the coming Holy Spirit, and with Christ’s ascension into heaven. In Acts, he picks up that theme exactly where he left off.

Jesus gave instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen (Acts 1:2). The instructions were to go into all the world and preach the gospel. They were to make disciples everywhere they went, to baptize and teach all that Christ had commanded them.

In Matthew 28:18–19 (NASB), Jesus said All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore. . . . But here in Acts a new component is added: the command comes through, dia (δια), the Holy Spirit. This first mention of the Holy Spirit is important. It is Luke’s intention to show that from first to last, the spread of the gospel around the world is tied to the command of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Just as the command comes through the Holy Spirit, the power to fulfill it comes from Him (Acts 1:8). The work of the Holy Spirit links the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts.

Importance of the resurrection

In those forty days before His ascension, Jesus appeared to many people as a sign of His resurrection. He gave His followers many convincing proofs to make absolutely sure that they knew He was alive. The resurrection was of great importance.

When the Jews demanded a sign of Jesus’s deity, He told them that this wicked generation would get only one sign: as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt 12:40). When they testified against Jesus, the Jews quoted one of His sayings, but misapplied it. Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it. Jesus spoke of His own body. The resurrection proved conclusively that Jesus was the Son of God (Rom 1:4). Later, as the apostles preached, they kept telling the Jewish leaders, You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this (Acts 3:15). Jesus died saying He was the Son of God as well as the Savior of the world. He would bear the sins of many so that they might be saved. The resurrection was like the Father giving Jesus back to us with His stamp of approval. Yes! This is my Son. Yes! He has paid the price for sin. Yes! All who put their trust in Him will be saved.

Think of all those who saw the resurrected Jesus! A careful count reveals that Jesus made ten appearances after the resurrection. The first was to Mary Magdalene, and then to the disciples. Remember how He showed Himself to doubting Thomas and invited him to put his finger into the nail holes in His hands and side? Note his soft rebuke of Peter by asking him three times if he loved Him. Paul records that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at the same time (1 Cor 15:6). This most likely occurred when Jesus appeared on a mountain in Galilee (Matt 28:9–10, 16). Both His disciples and His family were told to meet Him there. It was the only scheduled appearance of the risen Christ and it is likely that those who knew where He was going to appear told many others. His followers had no doubt that Jesus had literally risen from the dead. Jesus’s resurrection became the cornerstone of the apostles’ witness as well as the foundation of our faith. The one thing we must believe in order to be saved is that God raised Him from the dead (Rom 10:9). These appearances were very important, and among the reasons Jesus gave a full forty days to this ministry.

Importance of the kingdom of God

During those forty days Jesus was teaching about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). The over-arching importance of the kingdom becomes apparent when we note that this was addressed repeatedly by John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the Apostle Paul. The seminal theological problem in Acts is a basic misunderstanding of the nature of the kingdom. It affected the way the nonbelieving Jews thought about the gospel, and it affected many believing Jews in the way they thought about the Gentiles. It ultimately became the reason Paul was imprisoned. Because of the magnitude of this problem, it deserves careful examination. If we miss this point, it will be difficult to understand the rest of the Book of Acts.

To understand the kingdom of God, two distinctions must be made: The first is the difference between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. The second is the difference between God’s people Israel (see below) and God’s people in the church—those He has saved out of the whole world.

The kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light

From eternity past, God ruled everything, absolutely and completely. But this tranquil kingdom of eternity past was disrupted when Lucifer, one of God’s angels, rose up in pride against Him and staged a full-scale rebellion. Satan, as he became known, succeeded in getting a third of the angels of heaven to follow him.¹ He said in his heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne. . . . I will make myself like the Most High (Isa 14:13–14). One may ask why God didn’t totally destroy Satan and his followers then and there. Perhaps, in his wisdom, God wanted to demonstrate His justice to the rest of creation so that no such revolt would ever occur again. This was the starting point of two kingdoms: God ruled His kingdom of light, and Satan ruled the kingdom of darkness. The Lord reveals the end of the story—Satan’s doom is to be consigned to that