Let's go back to Acts, the first
chapter. Acts, the first chapter. Let's
look at these instructions, the last instructions of our Lord
Jesus to His disciples. Acts, the first chapter. Well,
you see the name of the book is the Acts of the Apostles.
That was given by the church fathers in the second century,
so it isn't an inspired title. And it's really the activities
of our Lord Jesus as he worked through these men by the power
of the Spirit of God. And the apostles, especially,
would be those Peter and the Apostle Paul. They did what they
did by the enablement of the Spirit of God, and it was the
Lord Jesus working out His will through their lives. In other
words, they were like instruments in His hands. So it isn't so
much just the acts of the apostles, as though we would isolate them
and say, well, these are just the things that they did. These
are the things the Lord was doing. And He was doing them through
these men who were His instruments. You see, we know these instruments
are only valuable when the Master touches them. It's like the piano. It's a beautiful instrument.
I could sit down in front of it, you could sit down in front
of it, and maybe we could hit a note or two, but that's it. We have no mastery over it. So after we hear a special in
music on the piano or on the organ, we don't say, my, what
a beautiful instrument. We say, my, what a gifted musician. It's the one who has the mastery
over the instrument that gets the glory. And in the book of
Acts, we see the activities of our Lord Jesus using specific
instruments. And those instruments would be
most especially the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul. Let us
learn the lesson. Without the Lord Jesus, we can
do nothing. We need the Master's touch. Oh, may the Lord use us as instruments
for His glory today and every day. Because we know this, without
the Lord, we can do nothing either great or small. We can do nothing big. We can
do nothing little. We can do nothing physical without
Him. And we can do nothing spiritual
without Him. The Savior said to His disciples
there in John chapter 15, without Me, without Me, you can do nothing. What could I do today without
Him? I stand before you with the book
of God open. And I want to glorify the Lord.
I want to preach His gospel. I want to talk to you about substitution
and satisfaction. And I have a great responsibility
thrust upon me. Here you are all gathered in
the Lord's name. People are watching on the internet.
Who is sufficient for these things? I can do nothing unless He touches
this instrument. Unless He uses me. I cannot preach the Gospel in
any power, with any authority, unless the Lord Himself, unless
the Master uses the instrument. And my friends, you cannot receive
the Word of God without the Master. Oh, how much do you need the
Spirit of Christ Jesus today? A man can receive nothing except
it be given to him from above. What can you know? What can you
hear? What can you understand without
the Spirit of Christ Jesus? Almighty Savior, this should
be our cry. Almighty Savior, You who bought
us with Your blood, who satisfied justice for us, You who redeemed
us to God, you who have gone back to glory, speak, O God,
in great power today to both the preacher and the hearer. Enable us, O God, to worship,
to fall at the feet of Christ Jesus, and O God, show us mercy
for Christ's sake. Oh, how much we need Him. Well, look at the first verse. He says, the former treatise,
literally the former word, the former word, the first word,
have I made, O Theophilus. What was the first word of Luke? And Luke is indeed the inspired
writer. Luke, whose name means one who
sheds light, one who is luminous, And as you read through the gospel
that bears his name, Luke being a follower of the Apostle Paul,
a student of the Apostle Paul, most likely converted under the
ministry of the Apostle Paul, he's led by the Spirit of God
to write the third gospel that bears his name, that is the third
gospel narrative, because there's only one gospel. But he writes
the third gospel narrative that bears his name, and now he is
led by the Spirit of God to write this book that connects the gospels
to the epistles. This is the connecting book.
This is the one that brings them together. You have Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, and then you have Romans through Revelation. And there's one book that brings
them together in the leadership of the Spirit of God, in the
purpose of the Lord Himself, and it is the activities of the
Lord Jesus through His apostles by the power of the Spirit of
God. And Luke is the writer. And in
the Gospel of Luke, we know this was his subject. He wrote of
this, look at the last line of verse 1. He wrote of all that
Jesus began both to do and to teach. Being a student of the scriptures,
as you look at the gospel narratives and as you come to the book of
Luke, what words would you use to summarize the gospel of Luke? Well, you don't have to come
up with anything. Because the Spirit of God has
already said it before us. That is, Luke, in his gospel
narrative, he set before us all that Jesus began both to do and
teach. Now, obviously, he didn't write
of all that the Lord did. Back up to John chapter 21. Look
at the last verse of John's gospel, John 21, 25. And there are also
many other things which Jesus did, though which, if they should
be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that should be written. Amen. So neither Matthew, Mark, Luke,
nor John could write everything that Jesus did and everything
that he spoke. But what these writers did write,
and of course Luke is the one that we're specifically focused
in on right now, What Luke was led by the Spirit of God to write
was all that Jesus began to do and to teach that was necessary
to instruct us in the gospel of God's saving grace. In other
words, you don't need any more information. And it isn't a lack
of information that's our problem. If you do some studies in the
Scriptures and on the subject of inspiration, you know, people
talk about the lost books of the Bible and more books of the
Bible, and we know that's not correct. But I would say this,
why look for more books when you don't even understand the
books that are given? Men don't have a knowledge of
what the Word of God is all about. In fact, the Savior said to the
Pharisees, search the Scriptures. Literally, you do search the
Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these
are they that testify of me. Of me. Everything you need to
know. regarding who God is in his holy
character, in his righteousness, in his justice, in his grace,
and in his mercy. Everything you need to know about
yourself, in your sinfulness, Your degradation. Your separation
from God. Your fall in Adam. Everything
you need to know about Jesus Christ. Who He is. God and man. What He did. Died for sinners
that God might be just and the justifier of all who believe. And of His resurrection and ascension. Everything you need to know about
a sovereign God, about fallen man, about Jesus Christ, about
salvation, all of free and sovereign grace is in this book. Well, what then do we need? Eyes
to see. Ears to hear. We need a heart
to receive it. Oh God, give us a new heart. Oh God, take away the heart of
flesh. Take away the heart of stone.
Give us a heart of flesh. Give us a new heart. Give us
a heart that believes. Give us a heart that submits.
Give us a heart that adheres ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us a heart that always seeks
His face and seeks His glory and seeks His will. Oh God, give
me that kind of heart. That kind of heart. Notice who this is written to.
It's written to Theophilus. Oh, Theophilus. And if you read
in Luke the first chapter, about verse 4, Luke wrote his first
book, the gospel that bears his name, the gospel narrative that
bears his name, he wrote that to most excellent Theophilus. We don't know much about Theophilus,
and we don't need to. He was a noble believer. He was a Gentile. And the Word
of God, this book, as well as the book of Luke, were addressed
to him, and he received them as a child of God, and they were
entrusted to him. But what is significant is what
his name means. Theophilus, his name means, it
has a two-fold meaning. Befriended by God and beloved
of God. In other words, this book is
written to somebody who's been befriended by God and beloved
of God. But there's more to this. Because
you see, all of God's people, we're all a bunch of Theophiluses. Because we're befriended by God,
and we're beloved of God. And we can say this, all of the
Scriptures are written to God's Theophiluses. The Word of God is a love story. It's a book of redemption, of
reconciliation. It's a book about forgiveness. It's a book that tells us of
God in His glory and of His everlasting purpose to save a people to the
glory of His free and sovereign grace. It's a book that tells
us of the Lord Jesus. In the Old Testament, He's announced
as that One who is the Lamb. He's the One announced as the
Offering. He's the One announced as the
Sacrifice. He's the One announced as the
Seed of the Woman. He's the One who's set forth
as the Ark of our Salvation. He's the brazen serpent to whom
we look, those of us who've been bit with the fiery serpents.
He's set forth in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it declares
He has come. He has done the work that God
gave Him to do. This is a book that is all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. This wonderful story of redemption. And it is addressed to those
who are befriended of God. It's not for anybody else. So
you see, as you go through and you read all the promises of
God, there are hundreds and hundreds of promises in the Word of God.
You know who they're for? They're not for everybody. They're
only for those whom God has befriended and who are the beloved of the
Lord. Well, how long has the Lord been our friend? Since before
the world began. We sing the song, what a friend
we have in Jesus. Well, he didn't begin to be our
friend at our conversion. And this friendship did not start
at the cross. This is an everlasting friendship. Our friend stood for us in the
covenant of grace. He stood for those who by nature
are friendless. Who deserve no friend in glory. But He stood up for us as our
friend. And we are the beloved of the
Lord. He loves us. Like He said to Jeremiah, I've
loved you with an everlasting love, therefore in loving kindness
I've drawn you. We're the befriended of the Lord
and we're the beloved of the Lord. And you see, all of the
glorious things in the Word of God pertaining to salvation,
it's only for these who are the befriended of God and the beloved
of God. And everybody else, it's not
a love story. The Bible is not about universal
love. In fact, you go through the book
of the Acts, and this is indeed the transition book. You read what these evangelists
have to say. And you read of these two great
apostles that rise to the surface, the apostle Peter and the apostle
Paul. And you know what? You'll never
hear them saying to anybody, they'll never say to anybody,
God loves you. In fact, the love of God isn't
even mentioned in the book. And that's not to say that the
love of God isn't there. It is there in Christ Jesus. It is there. But that's not the
message of evangelism. The message that the apostles
went for preaching was the crucified, risen, exalted Son of God. That He's the Lord of glory.
So that Peter said this. Look at what this apostle said.
Acts chapter 2. He says this in verse 36, Acts
chapter 2 and verse 36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom you have
crucified, both Lord and Christ. The message is not, smile, God
loves you. The message is not, Jesus died
for everybody. The message is not, God made
the way open and now you have to go through the door. The message
is, God has made Jesus Christ to be the Lord. He earned that
position of Lordship by finishing the work of redemption that the
Father gave Him to do. Worship Him, proud sinner. Bow
down before Him at His throne. He's the Sovereign of Glory.
That's the message of the Gospel. Who's the book written to? It's
not written to everybody. Hey, when you open the Bible
and you read the promises of the Bible, unless you have been
assured by the Spirit of God that you're the befriended of
God and you're the beloved of God, you can't take these promises. Well, preacher, how can I know
that I'm one of the Lord's befriended, one that God has befriended,
one that Christ Jesus loves with an everlasting love? Because
you've become His friend. And you come to love Him. That's
right. He makes you willing in the day
of His power. And you see Him as the very friend
that you need. And you'll sing from your soul,
Jesus is all the world to me. He's my friend. And He's always been my friend.
And He loves me and now I love Him. I love that He's Lord, don't
you? I love that He's sovereign. I
love that He finished the work of redemption. Oh, you can't
preach too much grace to me. Oh, preach it again. Tell me
again, He has done it all. Would you please tell me again,
salvation is in no way conditioned upon this poor, miserable, helpless
sinner? I'll rejoice in Christ Jesus.
I love Him. I love Him. It's written to Theophilus. Is
that your name, Theophilus? Oh, Theophilus! Theophilus! Look at verses 2 and 3. Acts chapter 1, unto the day
in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost
had given commandment unto the apostles whom he had chosen,
to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many
infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking
of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Now, the book
of Acts, it begins where the book of Luke ends, with the ascension
of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord arose. He arose because
justification had been finished. And then after showing Himself
alive for 40 days, He ascended back to glory. Our Lord appeared
to His disciples lots of times, many times, both publicly and
privately, giving irrefutable evidence of His resurrection. He spent 40 days on this earth
after His resurrection and before His ascension, eating and drinking
and walking and teaching His disciples, walking with them,
fellowshipping with them day by day. He showed them His hands
and His side. He taught them the things concerning
the Kingdom of God. These were men who loved Him. These were men who believed Him. These were men who rested in
Him. And yet, the things that He spoke
about were still things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. In other
words, He was teaching them the Gospel. Every once in a while, somebody
will say to us, don't you have anything else to preach? I always preach the gospel. Are
you always speaking of those things that are pertaining to
the kingdom of God? Why do you do that? Why do you
preachers do that? Every time you get up, we're
following the Master's example. That's what he did. Here are these disciples. These
eleven men and other followers as well. These apostles will
go forth preaching the gospel. These forty days are critical. This is like their final education
before He ascends and He thrusts them out into the world after
the giving of the Spirit of God. What must they learn? What must
they be taught? What must they be skilled in
handling? Things pertaining to the kingdom
of God. Well, look at verse 4. and being assembled together
with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from
Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he,
ye have heard of me." He says, wait. I'll get to that in a minute. He says in verse five, for John
truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the
Holy Ghost in just a few days." When they therefore were humped
together, and you know our Lord, He would have answered, practically
anything they'd ask Him. And I would even say to you,
perhaps I'd just kind of put this question to you, if you
could ask the Savior, I mean, you were sitting there with His
disciples and He's already talked about He's going to go away,
He's got to go to the Father. And you could ask Him anything
you wanted to ask Him. Ask Him about any subject whatsoever. What would you ask Him about? Well, these apostles, like so
many people, had the end times on their mind. Verse 6 says, When they therefore
were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou
at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel, or to Israel? In other words, they're interested
in an earthly kingdom. An earthly kingdom. Lord, is
it the time when you're going to finally run these Gentiles
out of Jerusalem? Are you finally going to establish
your kingdom here? This literal kingdom and literally
sit upon the throne of David? And he says in verse 7, It's
not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father
hath put in his own power. And if I may take the liberty
to put it this way, he's basically saying it's none of your business. You know, we like to get into
things that satisfy our curiosity. And certainly things pertaining
to national Israel, that gets the interest of a lot of people.
Things pertaining to the end times. And I'll only say this. There
is an Israel that God's interested in. But it's not national Israel. It's spiritual Israel. That is,
those who are Jews inwardly. Those who have experienced a
circumcision of the heart by the sword of the Spirit. As to
whether God has anything for national Israel, that's His business. On a national level or a physical
level, maybe. But no spiritual promises are
made to an earthly nation. All spiritual promises are made
to a spiritual nation, that nation which is a kingdom of priests,
God's very elect. Remember that. But He says this to them. ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and
unto the uttermost part of the earth." Our Lord spoke to them words
of instruction and He instructs them in their message. What is
our message? What was their message? Their
message was to be this, he says, ye shall be witnesses unto me. In other words, as you go forth,
here's your message. Me. Me. We have a message to declare. And the message we have to declare
is somebody, somebody, Jesus Christ the Lord. We are witnesses
to the person of Christ, to His deity, and to His eternal Sonship. We're witnesses to His incarnation. We declare great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. We're witnesses of His ministry. We're witnesses of His miracles. We're witnesses of His sufferings
and of His death. We're witnesses of His resurrection
from the dead and His ascension to heaven. The message of the
apostles and our message today are the same. Our message is
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
Peter did on the day of Pentecost. Look again at the 2nd chapter
and the 22nd verse. Let's see if he got the message. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and you
have slain Him whom God raised up having loose the pains of
death, because it was not possible that He should be a holden of
it. That's our message. He's our
message. And we know He's our message
because the Savior told His disciples, ye shall be witnesses unto Me. Or literally, witnesses of Me.
What does a witness do? Now maybe you've gone to court
before to sit on the jury or maybe you've been called as a
witness. Now I have been. What does a witness do? What
is a witness instructed to say? Just tell us what you know. Would
you tell us what you saw? Would you tell us what you experienced? Would you tell us how you felt
when that happened? And our Lord says you shall be
witnesses unto Me. Let me read you the words of
a witness. Look at 1 John 1. 1 John 1. Here's a witness. And I would, as it were, call
to the stand this morning the Apostle John. Would you step forward, Brother
John? Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth? So help me God." And the Apostle
John says, I will. Tell us what you know, John. This is what he says. And I know
this is what he says because the Spirit of God wrote this.
Here's what he says. 1 John 1. That which was from
the beginning, there He witnesses of the eternality of Jesus Christ. If He's not God, He can't be
a Savior. If He's not from everlasting,
He can't help you. If He's not the great I Am, He
can't do business with the Father. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard. I've heard Him. Which we've seen
with our eyes. More than that which we have
looked upon. In other words, it wasn't a casual
glance. John said, I focused on Him.
I'm focused. I'll tell you what faith does.
Faith focuses on Jesus Christ. See, lots of people take a casual
glance. No doubt there were thousands
of people who were eyewitnesses to His death. And they saw Him
on the cross. But some people, by the enabling
grace of the Spirit of God, they look upon Him. They focus on Him. This is the
Son of God. This is the Savior. This is the
substitute of sinners. Why is He dying? For the guilty. For the sins of His people. Why
is He dying? That God might be just. and then forgive sins, not at
the expense of His justice, but with its full agreement. Why
is He dying? To put away the sins of the guilty.
Are you focused on Jesus Christ today? Are you looking on Him? John said, Behold the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. And we read in
Hebrews chapter 12, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finish
of our faith. We've looked upon Him. Our hands
have handled Him. We've embraced Him. He embraced us, we embrace Him. It's a warm embrace. Who is this? The Word of Life. He's the Word of Life. A bunch of disciples left Him one
day and He looked at the twelve and said, will you also go away?
Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. We believe and we're sure You're
the Christ of God. You're the Son of God. Look at
verse 2. For the life was manifested,
we've seen, we bear witness, we show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That
which we have seen, that which we have heard, declare we unto
you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. The one we've
seen and the one we've heard That's the one we preach. The Savior said, you'll be witnesses
of Me. Witnesses of Me. You know, actually,
that word witness over there in Acts chapter 1, where it says
witnesses, the word witness literally means martyr. And it came to mean that because
so many of the Lord's people, when they testified of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, they sealed their testimony with their blood. We're witnesses of Jesus Christ. I'm going to finish this tonight.
So we'll just stop right here. Just push the pause button. We'll
stop right here and we'll finish this tonight. May the Lord bless
His Word to our understanding and to our hearts. Let's sing
a hymn. Brother, what is it?