Acts chapter 1. And this is called Four Facts About
the Acts. Four Facts About the Acts. And
next week, if you're under 15, Girls, listening, next week I'm
going to ask you what these four facts are. And if you can't tell
me, you're going to have to come up here and sit behind me for
the rest of the service. Okay, four facts about the Acts. We're going to read from Verse one, so Acts chapter one
and verse one. The former treaties have I made,
O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. until the day in which he was
taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments
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. And being assembled together
with them, 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. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. When they therefore were come
together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them,
It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the
Father hath put in his own power. But 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. And when he had spoken
these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud
received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen him go into heaven. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading. Four facts from the Acts. Here's the first one. This book
was written by a man called Luke. This is Luke's Acts of the Apostles. Luke is spelt L-U-K-E. And this man, Luke, was not one
of Jesus' 12 disciples. He was not one of Jesus' 12 disciples. Indeed, it seems that he was
a Gentile. He wasn't even a Jew. And he wrote two books in the
New Testament. He wrote the Gospel of Luke,
So we have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Those are called the
four Gospels. And then Luke's Acts of the Apostles. And you might find it interesting
to know that Luke wrote more of the New Testament than any
other person. So here is Luke's Act of the
Apostles, and he wrote this book as a history. He wrote it as
an account of the act, so the things that were being done by
the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote it to a friend
of his called Theophilus and Theophilus was the person to
whom he wrote his gospel and also this act. So it's like two
volumes, a two-volume book giving us the history of the Lord's
life and a history of the life of the apostles after the Lord
Jesus Christ went back to heaven. Luke is a doctor. He was a physician. He was a
medical man. And we can trace in his writings
both a familiarity with medical terms and the human body, because
we see that in some of the things that he writes, and also a scientific
mind as he sets out in place all the things concerning the
Acts of the Apostles. He is a careful detailer of the
history that he is writing about. And he also was a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ, though a Gentile, he was a Gentile believer,
and he went with the Apostle Paul on several of his missionary
journeys. So he was with Paul in those
journeys, and we can actually detect in the Acts of the Apostles
times where he met with Paul and times where he left Paul
because he suddenly begins saying we instead of they. And so as we're thinking about
the Acts of the Apostles, we'll discover that from time to time,
Luke comes into the story himself. So not only is he the writer
of the book, but he also appears in it. So the first thing I want
you to notice is that this book was written by Luke. The second
thing is this, that the Acts of the Apostles begins with the
ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins with Jesus going away. Luke's gospel took us up to the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection after three
days. And then afterwards, it stopped. And Acts begins with the Lord
being taken up into heaven. He testifies of the resurrection
and he testifies of the ascension. We say ascension because Jesus
ascended up into the clouds and into heaven. And it's very interesting
because if we look at verse nine, it's clear that Luke is giving
us an eyewitness account, not his own eyewitness account, but
the account of the eyewitnesses that were there with Jesus when
he ascended up into heaven. Look at verse nine again, he
says, And when he had spoken, that's the Lord Jesus, these
things, while they beheld, while all of these people, all of these
disciples of the Lord were watching, he was taken up and a cloud received
him out of their sight. That's the ascension. That's
the ascension of the Lord. And that's the beginning of Luke's
account of the acts of the apostles, was when the Lord went away and,
as it were, left the apostles without the friend that they
had had for all of the previous three years. And while they looked
steadfastly towards heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood
by them in white apparel. These were angels, and angels
often took the form of men. We can see them throughout the
Old Testament and in the Gospels as well. And here they were again,
which also said, Ye men of Galilee, that was the disciples of the
Lord, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus
which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Jesus died, he was
buried, he rose from the dead, he ascended up into heaven, and
he's coming back again. The third thing that I want you
to know about is that Jesus' disciples became the apostles. So when we're talking about the
acts of the apostles, we're talking about the acts of those people
that Jesus had called as his special friends and his special
followers. A disciple is a student or a
pupil. and an apostle is a messenger. So these men had started as pupils,
students, and then they became messengers. They learned their
lesson. And when we go to school, we're
there to learn lessons so that we will know the things that
we've been taught. And that's what these disciples
were, men and women who had spent time with the Lord, men who had
spent time with the Lord Jesus and who thereafter were sent
out as his messengers. They had been called to testify
of him and authority and power was given to them to take the
message of Jesus to the ends of the earth. They had learned
from Jesus and now they were going to teach others. The fourth
thing, these are the four facts that I want you to remember today,
is that the apostles were sent out by Jesus as his witnesses. And he expressly says that in
verse 8. Ye shall be witnesses unto me. both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. These disciples were to take
the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth. Starting in Jerusalem
and working outwards, they were to carry the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ to every nation and every part of the world. They witnessed, they were his
witnesses. Now a witness is someone who
was there, who saw what happened and heard what happened. They
saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears. And in Luke's
gospel, remember that's two volumes as it were, part one and part
two of the history of Jesus and his apostles, in Luke's gospel
right at the very end we hear about what these men witnessed,
what they had heard and what they had seen with their eyes. And in Luke chapter 24 and verse
46 we read these words, that Christ suffered, that he rose
from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations. That's what Jesus had shown them,
that's what Jesus had taught them and that was the message
that they witnessed and were to carry to the ends of the earth. And we call that the apostolic
testimony. That was the testimony of the
apostles of Jesus Christ and whether they were preaching it,
or whether they were writing about it and teaching about the
doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the message of the gospel
that we have in Scripture today that goes all over the world,
teaching men and women about the things that Jesus said and
did. John was one of those apostles
and here's what John wrote at the start of one of his letters. He said this, that which was
from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled
of the word of life. This was the testimony that the
witnesses gave of the Lord Jesus Christ and all his achievements
and accomplishments. And now, those who hear the testimony
of the apostles, and those who believe the message that they
have given us, We are told in Ephesians chapter two, written
by another one of the apostles, now therefore ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, all those from all around the world
who hear the testimony and the witness of the apostles in their
preaching and in their writing and believe what they have taught
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of
God, all bound together by this message of Jesus Christ, which
connects us all in the faith of the gospel. Fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. This is an important book. The
Acts of the Apostles is going to be teaching us in a very formative
way, in a very basic way, foundational way, the message of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And these were the men that were
sent out to carry this message around the world. So as we are
able to study their teachings, to learn their message, to hear
their witness, We believe and are brought into the family of
God upon these truths which are foundational to the Christian
faith. Four facts about the Acts. I'll
be questioning you next week. Written by Luke, begins with
the ascension. It has to do with Jesus' disciples
becoming his apostles, and these apostles being his witnesses
to the ends of the earth. Thank you for your attention.