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Acts 1:1-5

From the beginning, the LORD God had shown His creation of mankind their need for righteousness and
eternal life, in order to enter His kingdom. The lessons in the garden made it evident that mankind could
not acquire these things through their own efforts, but must receive them from the LORD.

Each man must trust into the Coming Seed of the woman, the Christ, who would be the LORDs provision to
redeem men to Himself - as His sons. Thats Gods eternal covenant, conditioned on Himself alone - which
men enter into, by faith. And the LORD saw to it that every man would know of His eternal covenant -
through the revelation that He made in the stars.

But men changed that revelation into a lie - using the star names to tell a different story, myths of created
beings, instead of the truth of the Coming Christ. And they united in rebellion against the LORD, worshiping
the stars instead of the One who made them.

So men had rejected the LORD and His Christ, in favor of worshiping false gods of their own design. And
because the LORD had given men freedom of choice, the LORD had to let them go their own way, and do this.

But meanwhile, the LORD began to call to one man whom He knew would follow him, out of the idolatry of
the nations - Abraham. From Abraham, the LORD would make a nation for Himself, a nation that would
believe Him, and hold out the light of truth to all the other nations, so that they might believe and be saved.
That nation is Israel.

But generation after generation, Israel failed to believe the LORD, and enter into His covenant, to be saved.
They chose instead to go the way of the other nations. Nonetheless, the LORDs purposes were not thwarted
by Israels unbelief. In His sovereignty, the LORD saw to it that Israel was kept intact as a nation until the
time was right to bring forth His Christ, into the world - the Seed of the woman.

When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman - the nation Israel - born
under the Law (Gal 4:4). God the Son emptied Himself of His external attributes as Deity, and took the
form of a bondservant - the servant of Jehovah (Phil 2:7).

Jesus came in the likeness of men - in a human body - weak, mortal, subject to death. He came into this
world the way every man comes into it; He was born into it, as a baby.

The Creator humbled Himself, to become completely dependent upon His creation. He grew up, like all
men do; a child, who matured to manhood; and He lived, as all men do, in this world. He was like men in
every way, except one - in Him was no sin. Here was the perfect man - utterly obedient to the will of God.

Having lived a life of perfect righteousness, Jesus then made Himself an offering for sin (Heb 9:24-28) -
the sins of the whole world. And the Father was well-pleased, with the offering of Jesus - His beloved Son;
a Lamb without blemish, without spot (1 Pet 1:19).

Jesus was obedient to death - the death of the cross (Phil 2:8). He was wounded for our transgressions, He
was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were
healed (Is 53:5) - healed of our sin sickness. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might
become the righteousness of God - in Him (2 Cor 5:21).
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Jesus committed Himself to God, who judges righteously, bearing our sins in His own body on the cross (1
Pet 2:24). The fire of Gods holiness consumed the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, and through the shed blood of
Christ, Gods justice was satisfied, concerning sin - all sin, for all time (Rm 3:25).
Following His death, the body of Jesus rested in the grave, during which time it saw no corruption. Why
not? Because it is sin that corrupts, and Jesus was sinless. Then, after three days, God raised up Jesus,
loosing Him from death - because it was not possible that He should be held by it (Acts 2:24).

Jesus was resurrected in His body, now an ever-living body of spirit-life; death no longer has dominion
over Him (Rom 6:9). And in this way, Jesus accomplished the redemption for Gods creation of mankind.
Now through union with Christ by faith, man receives righteousness in his being, and life in his body - the
redemption from sin and death.

The Father had worked, to bring forth the woman, and her Seed. Then the Son had worked, to accomplish
the redemption. From the cross, Jesus had declared, It is finished (Jn 19:30); He had completed the work
the Father had sent Him to do.

The cross marked the initiation of the Seeds victory over Satan and his world system, prophesied since the
beginning, in the garden of Eden (Gen 3:15, Jn 12:31-32).

Through His shed blood, Jesus ratified Gods covenant for men to become His righteous, ever-living sons.
But in order for any man to enter into that covenant, he must believe into the covenant Son. And in order to
believe, he must first hear about Him; and in order to hear about Him, someone must tell him (Rom 10:14).

Jesus spoke of this as the greater work, that those who had already believed into Him would do (Jn 14:12) -
a greater work, not in significance, but in scope. It is work that would be accomplished through the many
members of Christs Body on earth - a work of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus would send.

The Father had worked; the Son had worked; and now, the Spirit would work - which is the part of the
story of redemption that is told by the book of Acts. This book relates the acts, or work, of the Holy Spirit
through the members of the Body of Christ - that men might receive the redemption that Jesus
accomplished for them.

The work of the Spirit that we see in the book of Acts is reconciliation; causing each man to personally
recognize that he is a sinner, at enmity with God, so that he will turn from his sin, be reconciled to God -
and be saved.

And what is the primary tool that the Holy Spirit uses in the work of reconciliation? The gospel; the Good
News of Jesus Christ. Acts provides a record of the spread of the gospel from a single point of origin to the
outermost parts of the earth.

So now, with our minds prepared for this next chapter in the story of redemption, lets begin the book of
Acts.

[Acts 1:1-5] Back in verse 1, Luke speaks of a former account. What would that be? The gospel of
Luke. Thats where Luke wrote of what Jesus did, and what He taught; His works, and His doctrine.

You may remember that Luke wrote both his gospel and the book of Acts for a man named Theophilus,
who was a high-ranking member of Roman society, and apparently a believer. Theophilus was thought to
have sponsored the writing of this two-volume work by Luke, with the intention of having it published -
copied for wide-spread circulation.
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Luke=s gospel is a record of the life of Jesus starting from before His birth, with the birth of the forerunner
of Jesus, John the Baptist. Lukes gospel ends with the death of Jesus, His resurrection and ascension.

Then the book of Acts picks up with the forty-day period after the resurrection of Jesus, and His ascension
into heaven. So the two works overlap, which was the custom in that day when writing a series.

In this passage, the term Aapostles@ - literally meaning, sent ones - is referring to the remaining eleven
men whom Jesus had specifically selected for this office. Luke wrote that before Jesus ascended into
heaven, He had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen.

A more literal translation would be Aafter having commanded the apostles He had chosen out for Himself@.
We have no sense of a plural here, commandments; Jesus simply commanded them.

Jesus commanded the apostles through the Holy Spirit. We can see in this Jesus and the Spirit working
together, in their ministry with the Body of Christ - Jesus commanding the apostles from the outside, with
His voice, and the Holy Spirit bearing witness to them from the inside - the inner voice.

What was it that Jesus commanded them? Many things, but this is referring to something He said to the
apostles right before He was taken up (1:2). Verses 4-11 go back and give us more detail of this time.
What Jesus commanded them was to wait before they were sent out - wait until they were baptized in the
Holy Spirit, who would empower their witness to Jesus throughout the world.

So we see that Luke has laid out here what his first volume covered - the life of Jesus, through His
ascension - and now he is working backward from that point in time to speak of the apostles - just before
the ascension, then going back still further to the 40-day period following the resurrection of Jesus from the
dead.

Jesus appeared to His disciples after His suffering on the cross and death about a dozen times, including
once when He appeared to over five hundred of His disciples (1 Cor 15:6). He showed Himself to be alive
by many infallible proofs - that is, absolute confirmations by which anything can be known with certainty.

We know what some of these infallible proofs were. Jesus appeared to many of His disciples, to different
groups, and to individuals. He did so over a lengthy period of time, on many different occasions. Jesus
spoke with these disciples, often of the same things which He spoke of before His death. He ate with them,
considered a proof that He was not a spirit. The disciples touched Him, proof that He was flesh and bone
(Lk 24:39).

By all these things it was proven that Jesus was alive; that it was really Him, and not an imposter; that it
was not an illusion conjured up by wistful thinking, not an apparition. Jesus was really alive, and He had
really been dead - the disciples were eyewitnesses to His crucifixion (Lk 23:49).

That=s the infallible proof that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. And, at the end of the 40-day period,
the disciples would have infallible proof that Jesus ascended into heaven - for they would see Him do so
with their own eyes.

During this 40-day period, Jesus spoke to His disciples concerning the kingdom of God. This pertains to
the kingdom of sons that the Father is obtaining from His creation of mankind. When complete, God will
have gathered together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth (Eph
1:10) - a kingdom in two realms.
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The disciples have already been conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of Gods love (Col 1:13) - what
realm are they a part of? The heavenly realm. This realm was now to be expanded as they shared the good
news of Jesus.

Jesus spoke to His disciples specifically of how His death, burial and resurrection - the essence of the
gospel - was a fulfillment of the OT Scriptures.

Turn to Luke chapter 24. This was the night of Jesus= resurrection, when He first appeared to His disciples
in the upper room. After the disciples were convinced that it was indeed Jesus, He spoke to them.

[Luke 24:44-48] So Jesus enlightened them to the significance of the types and pictures as well as the
prophecies in the OT Scriptures concerning the Messiah - and showed them how these had all been fulfilled
in Himself. The disciples were eyewitnesses to these events in the life of Jesus, and so would become His
witnesses to the world - not just to Israel, but to all nations.

[Return to Acts 1]

After the 40 days, which were at least partly spent in Galilee, Jesus met with His disciples once again, back
in Jerusalem. Lets read that again, starting in verse 4.

v. 4-5 So what is the Promise of the Father? In verse 5 - its the baptism, not with, but more literally in,
the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that they were to wait in Jerusalem for this, and that it would occur
within just a few days (ten, to be exact).

Jesus mentions to the disciples that He had already spoken to them about the promise of the Father - the
baptism in the Holy Spirit. When did He talk to them about it? He did so in the upper room, just before
His death.

Turn to John chapter 14. Jesus had told His disciples that He must leave them, and return to His Father.
But Jesus would not leave them alone.

[John 14:16-18, 26; 15:26-27; 16:7-15]

14:16-18 The Father would give the disciples of Jesus another Helper. The word AHelper@ here is the
Greek parakletos, and means a comforter, an advocate, an encourager. A parakletos is one who represents
another.

Jesus had been parakletos to the disciples while He was on the earth, representing His Father to them. Now
the Holy Spirit would act in place of Jesus, as Christ=s representative. He would dwell right in their midst -
among the members of the Body of Christ.

In verse 17, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth. Who is the Truth? Jesus - He is the way, the
truth and the life (Jn 14:6). So the Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of - Jesus.

The world cannot receive the Spirit of Truth because the world has never believed into Jesus, who is the
Truth; but the disciples had believed into Jesus. Because of this, they already knew the Spirit of Truth - for
they knew Him in Jesus, who had been dwelling with them.

When Jesus returned to heaven, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, would dwell in the disciples collectively
- as the Body of Christ. Jesus would not leave His disciples as orphans - that is, neglected, without
guidance. He would come to them - in the person of the Holy Spirit.
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What we see is that, essentially, the Holy Spirit and Jesus would be changing places. This change was
absolutely necessary in order for God=s plans to be fully realized.
In coming to the earth, Jesus had limited Himself to a body - and even after He was glorified, Jesus
continued to be limited to a body. He will be limited to a body, forever. In order for the greater work of
reconciliation to be accomplished, Jesus must return to heaven, and send His Spirit.

Through the Spirit dwelling within His body of believers collectively, Jesus, as the Head in heaven, would
be able to direct the actions of His Body on earth - the Body of Christ - and thereby extend His message of
reconciliation to the outermost parts of the earth.

Now skip down to verse 26.

14:26 The Father would send the Spirit to the believers on earth, to teach them and remind them of all
things that Jesus had shared with them. That=s a comfort!

Turn to chapter 15, verse 26.

15:26-27 The Holy Spirit would bear witness to Jesus, along with the witness of the disciples; He would
empower their witness before the world, through the spiritual graces that He would give to the Body of
Christ. That is why they had to wait until He was sent; their witness would be ineffective without the Holy
Spirit.

Turn to chapter 16, verse 7.

16:7-11 It was necessary for Jesus to depart and send the Holy Spirit to His body of believers, who could
then work through them to apply the work of Christ to the hearts of sinners.

First, the Spirit would use believers new-found power over sin to convict those who didnt believe in Jesus
- showing them their own hopeless state of sin.

Then, as the eyewitness accounts of the believers were shared concerning Jesus, the Holy Spirit would seek
to bring unbelievers to the conclusion that Jesus was indeed righteous - as was demonstrated through Gods
vindication of Jesus, when He raised Him from the dead, and received Him back to heaven.

And finally, the Spirit would impress upon the hearts of unbelievers that they were therefore a part of a
condemned system, whose ruler had already been judged - that they needed to escape the condemnation that
was to come, through the Savior, Jesus. In this way, the Spirit would work through Christs Body to reach
the unsaved.

v. 12-15 The Holy Spirit would guide the members of Christ=s Body into the truth, so they would have
God=s direction; and He would prepare them for what was ahead, as needful.

The Body of Christ would also be given insights about the church age; the Tribulation; and the Second
Coming of Christ, to rule and reign over the earth. In all of this, the Holy Spirit would glorify Jesus,
revealing the truth concerning Him.

This is what the Helper, the Holy Spirit would do in and through the members of the Body of Christ. But
the disciples had to wait until the Father sent Him. Luke mentioned this at the end of his gospel also. Turn
to chapter 24, well continue where we left off.
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[Luke 24:49] As in Acts, Jesus was telling His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father,
the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus will send - send upon the Body of Christ. Notice that Scripture indicates both
Jesus and the Father as sending the Holy Spirit.
When the Spirit comes, the Body of Christ will be endued - the word means clothed - clothed with power
from on high. To be clothed means to take on the characteristics of something. The Body of Christ will
take on the characteristics of the power of God; it will not be the believers power, but Gods power upon
them, authenticating them as His agents, His representatives.

Notice that in both this gospel and in Acts, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit Athe promise of the Father@. This is a
significant term. A promise, in the Greek, means a gift that is graciously given - as opposed to a pledge that
is secured by negotiation.

There was no need to ask for the Spirit to be given, to plead for Him to be sent, to pray for the power of the
Spirit. The Holy Spirit would be given as a gift; He would be bestowed by the grace of God on the Body of
Christ collectively - once, for all - to abide among them, forever (Jn 14:16).

[Return to Acts] We see in verse 5 that Jesus referred to this sending of the Holy Spirit as a baptism, and
He likens it to John=s baptism. Johns baptism was in water (the word with is not in the original).

Now, John=s baptism of men was a baptism of repentance (Mk 1:4, Lk 3:3). Men who were convicted of
their sin through the preaching of John came to him to be baptized in water, symbolizing their recognition
that they were a sinner, in need of being cleansed from sin. John=s baptism was intended to prepare them to
receive Jesus as the One who could wash away their sin - in His shed blood.

But could Jesus have been saying that the baptism in the Holy Spirit would be like John=s baptism of
repentance? No, that could not have been His meaning. The disciples had already repented of their sin;
they had already received Jesus as their Savior; there was no need of a baptism of repentance, symbolic or
otherwise.

What Jesus was saying here is that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was like John=s water baptism - of
Himself - of Jesus. The physical body of Jesus had been baptized in water. Now this spiritual Body of
Christ would be baptized in a similar manner, in the Holy Spirit.

Let=s go back and look at the baptism of Jesus by John. All four gospels record the baptism of Jesus. Well
look at Marks account, in chapter 1. Mark=s gospel presents Jesus as the Servant of Jehovah.

[Mark 1:9-11] So Jesus was baptized by John. His body was immersed under the water - symbolic of
death - and then straightway He came up out of the water - life out of death - a foretelling of His sacrificial
death and resurrection, which would be the ministry of the Servant of Jehovah.

Then the heavens were opened to Jesus (Mt 3:16). The Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove (Lk
3:22), alighting upon Him - a visible sign. And then the Father=s voice was heard, addressing Jesus with an
expression of His pleasure in Him.

So supernatural tokens - both visible and audible signs - expressed the divine approval of Jesus. And in this
moment in time, Father, Son and Spirit could be seen united as One.

The Spirit was the anointing of Jesus - the Fathers seal of approval, on the sacrificial Lamb, for His
ministry of redemption. That ministry began immediately with the testing of Jesus through His temptation
by Satan, by which Jesus was proved to be the Sinless One. Luke wrote that Jesus then returned in the
power of the Spirit to Galilee, where He taught and was glorified by all (Lk 4:14, 15).
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Turn to Luke chapter 4. These were the words of Jesus which Luke recorded as He began His ministry in
Galilee.

[Luke 4:18-19] The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him - the Spirit of the Lord anointed Him, to speak the
words of God, and to do the works of God.

This would be what the baptism in the Holy Spirit would be like for the Body of Christ. Each member of
that Body had already believed into Christ to be saved. Each had individually received the righteousness of
God and eternal life through union with Christ, by faith. Also, the Holy Spirit was already resident in the
body each believer, personally.

In addition to this individual indwelling, the believers had also received the life of the Holy Spirit
collectively when Jesus breathed on them in the upper room, on the night of His resurrection (Jn 20:22).
Now the Spirit would be given in a new way, as the members of Christ=s Body received the baptism in the
Holy Spirit, when Jesus poured out His Spirit upon them from heaven, following His ascension.

Like the baptism of Jesus, God would provide supernatural tokens, both visible and audible, to indicate the
divine approval upon this Body of believers, authenticating their ministry, and reflecting their unity with
their heavenly Head - Christ.

The baptism of the Body of Christ, like the baptism of Jesus, would be the anointing for their ministry - to
speak the words of God, to do the works of God, so that men might be reconciled to God. Through the
baptism in the Holy Spirit, they would collectively receive the power to be witnesses of Jesus throughout
the world.

This would include the graces of the Holy Spirit, the charisma - sometimes called spiritual gifts. Under the
Spirit=s direction, these graces would empower their witness - such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing,
miracles, tongues, to name a few (1 Cor 12:8-10).

All would be used to draw men to hear the of the love of God toward men - the sacrificial death of Jesus on
behalf of sinners, and His victory over death, which He freely offers to all who will believe in Him. And
those who preached the gospel were the eyewitnesses of each event in His ministry. By the power of the
Spirit, through the Body of Christ, that message would reach to the outermost parts of the earth.

Reading: Ephesians 4:4-10; Psalm 68; Hebrews 7:25-27; John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
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