Acts 242 Study

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Faith Lessons

Faith lessons inspired by the Text

Doubting Thomas

There are a few New Testament Bible stories that are so universally known that the main character takes on a life and meaning of his own. That character’s name and actions become synonymous with certain personality traits that supersede the story’s real intent. For example, the story that Jesus told in Luke 10:30-37 about a man being robbed, beaten and left for dead is not remembered as the answer to the questions that Jesus was asked, “who is the neighbor”, but is known as the story of the” Good Samaritan”. Now, anyone who helps out someone in need is called a Good Samaritan, even though that was not the point of Jesus’ story. A second example is a parable that Jesus told in Luke 15 to answer the question of why he would eat with sinners and tax collectors. The young man in the story who wanted his inheritance early and left the family has over time become known as the ”Prodigal Son”. If anyone has wandered from the faith and returned, he is called a prodigal son. Again, that was not the main meaning of the parable that answered the Pharisees question of why Jesus would be hanging out with sinners.

Another story that has this kind of handle attached to the character is the story of Thomas, one of the 12 apostles (disciples) of Jesus. Because of his questioning reaction to the news that his rabbi, whom he witnessed being crucified and then buried, had now come back to life and was seen by the rest of the disciples, he has been forever labeled as,” Doubting Thomas”. Today, if anyone has a tendency to be hesitant or skeptical of a situation, they are labeled as a “Doubting Thomas”. Is this a fair label to hang on this disciple of Jesus or should he be remembered in a different light? What do we really know about Thomas? A little digging will show that this little known member of the twelve was a fiercely loyal and faith-filled apostle that was willing to give his life and travel to the ends of the earth to share the good news that he had been witness to for the three years leading up to the incidents in Jerusalem. Yes, he had some misgivings and questions because of what he had seen, but in the end, we should all strive to be more like this devout follower of Jesus.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Thomas is only mentioned as one of the twelve. In Matthew 10:3 and Luke 6:12-16 he is listed as one of the ones that were given the special title,” apostle”. The book of John has by far the most information on Thomas. In John 11: 16, we learn that he was also called, “Didymus”, which means twin, but doesn’t tell us who his twin was. A verse that gives us a great insight into Thomas’ personality is found in the same chapter of John. Near the end of Jesus’ ministry, in John 11:1-3, Jewish leaders were plotting to kill him. The disciples received news that their friend, Lazarus, was near death. Fearing for their lives, they tried to talk Jesus out of going to Lazarus’ hometown of Bethany, because it was too close to Jerusalem. Jesus was determined to go and Thomas spoke to the rest of the disciples and said, “Let us also go that we may die with him”. This statement, in the face of death, showed extreme courage and loyalty.

Thomas also showed extreme loyalty in John 14:1-6, when Jesus told the disciples that he was going to leave them very soon to go to his Father’s house to prepare a place for them. This confused the disciples and Thomas was the first to speak up and say, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” This statement implies that Thomas wanted to figure it out and wanted desperately to go where his Rabbi was going.

Unfortunately, what Thomas is known for in the Gospels is a statement to the other disciples that he needed proof to believe that Jesus had actually risen from the grave. He wasn’t in the room when Jesus showed himself to the rest of the disciples (John 20:24-29). He was saying,” I want to see it as you guys did, so I can also believe”, which was an honest statement given the unbelievable thought that Jesus had somehow come back from the dead. Jesus lovingly gave Thomas proof and let him feel and touch his resurrected body. Thomas immediately confessed, “My Lord and my God”! He was not a doubter at all-like the others, he saw and believed!

What happened to Thomas after the resurrection? Acts 1:13 lists him among the disciples that witnessed the Ascension. From that miraculous event, we have to depend on church history to see what happened to ‘Doubting Thomas”. History records that he traveled east from Jerusalem to spread the gospel as Jesus had commanded them. He traveled to Parthia (modern-day Eastern Iran) and then on to the far reaches of the known world in India. Look at a map to see how far he went to spread the good news that he was a witness of. In 72 A.D. while preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was killed with a spear by the local pagan priests who were vehemently opposed to his teachings. Like all the other disciples but John, he was martyred for his faith.

Let’s remember Thomas, not as a doubter, but a fiercely loyal follower of his rabbi, and our Messiah Jesus Christ.

Is Jesus in the Old Testament, Too?

The Appearance to the Apostles (Maestà)

The Appearance to the Apostles by Duccio di Buoninsegna

We often hear the catchy phrase that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. As you read the New Testament gospels, you can catch a glimpse of how the New Testament stories of Jesus might be revealing the answer to some Old Testament verses (such as the Passover Lamb and riding into Jerusalem on a donkey). However, we have a harder time looking in our Old Testament and finding Jesus. If it is concealed, how do we find them? For the most part, we seemed to be satisfied just to have the accounts in the New Testament of His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, and don’t feel the need to see if it was prophesied somewhere long ago. Does the Old Testament really predict all of these events ahead of time and is Jesus really concealed in all its pages? Another fascinating story, on the heels of the Emmaus Road story in Luke 24:36-49 will shed some light on this question. Is Jesus really in the Old Testament?

The story in Luke has Jesus appearing to his disciples the evening of the day that he was resurrected. John 20:19 tells us that the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid that the Jewish leaders were after them. Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst and began conversing with them. As you can imagine, even though he was standing among them, they were having a hard time believing that He had actually come back from the grave. Jesus showed them His hands and feet and ate a piece of fish so they would see that He was indeed alive and not a ghost!

Then, in verse 44-49, it says, ”he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.” In verse 44, He made this amazing statement, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses (Torah), the Prophets (Neviim) and the Psalms (Ketuvim).” The Hebrew Bible is called the Tanakh because of these three divisions. (Read, A Lesson from the Tanakh for a complete description). Jesus was saying, “I have fulfilled every prophecy in every part of the Hebrew scriptures that you know so well. Every section of the text refers back to me.” What a lesson that must have been when He showed them everything that had just happened in the Hebrew Text!

What was the result of Jesus opening their minds to understanding the fact that they had actually been traveling with the ”Son of God”, the, promised, “Messiah” for three years? Jesus told them that because they were eyewitnesses to the fulfillment of all these prophecies, they were going to be responsible to now go out “and preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.” This sounds just like the parallel verse in Matthew 28:18-20, that we call the Great Commission. And, that is what they did, starting in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. The disciples ended up all over the known world, spreading the good news that their Rabbi and Messiah had taught and shown them while he was in their midst. What they had seen and been shown in the word convinced them to be completely sold out to their faith, even to the point of death, for all of them. This should give us more incentive to find Christ ourselves in the pages of the book and make his name known to a world that badly needs his promise of salvation.

P.S. An excellent place to start a study to find Christ in the Old Testament would be these two short articles:

  1. A Blueprint for the Messiah-Found in the Exodus
  2. Mining the Scriptures

The Emmaus Road

The story of Jesus meeting two travelers on the road to Emmaus, a small village seven miles from Jerusalem, is recorded in great detail in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 24:13-35. According to Luke, the story takes place on the evening of the day ( Sunday) Jesus was resurrected. One of the men is named Cleopas and the other remains unnamed. These two men were discussing the events that had taken place in Jerusalem over the recent Passover weekend, and in particular what had happened to the man named Jesus, who was crucified. They had also heard that Jesus’ body was now missing from the tomb and some were claiming that he was, in fact, alive. 

While they were walking and talking, Jesus came alongside them and began walking with them and listening to their discussion. They were prevented from recognizing him and were shocked that he didn’t seem to know about all these terrible things that had taken place over the weekend. They were completely downcast because it seemed that their hoped-for Messiah had now been killed by the Romans. Jesus interrupted them and told these men that they were not seeing clearly and weren’t understanding why all these sequences of events had to have taken place.

The next set of verses in this story, Ch. 24:25-27, are some of the most profound and revelatory words in scripture, but we probably read right over it! ”Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and the Prophets he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself”. What “scriptures” was he talking about? The Old (Hebrew) Testament!! By saying, “beginning with Moses”, he was saying, the Torah and all the prophets. In other words, he was saying the whole of the Old Testament tells the story of how God’s only son had to come to earth, be crucified on a cross to be our Passover Lamb and then rise again on the 3rd day! Wouldn’t you have liked to have been in on that lesson? He would have shown them all the prophecies that had to be fulfilled to bring him to the spot where the events of the past weekend had unfolded. Can you imagine the look on their faces as everything became clear to them? The text says that after he had explained the scriptures to them, their eyes were opened and they recognized him as the risen Jesus! That phrase, “recognized” meant more than just him as a man-they now knew he was the promised Messiah.

The verses in Luke 24:25-27 are something we just typically overlook, but what he was saying was that Jesus is in the whole Bible, not just the New Testament. From Genesis to Maps, Jesus is on every page, we are just not always seeing him there. The whole Bible is one long thread that wonderfully portrays our Messiah Jesus as our Risen Savior.  Don’t we serve an amazing God?

The Lineage of Jesus: Miraculous Preservation of the Messianic Line

We know from reading and studying Scripture that the Jews of Jesus’ time were anxiously anticipating a Messiah. They were expecting a Savior figure that would bring them out of Roman captivity and lead them into a new age of prosperity and greatness that they had not experienced since their former great leader David, hundreds of years before.

From Old Testament passages and events, we know that this Messiah had to come from a very specific lineage, the lineage of King David. God had promised David specifically in 2 Samuel 7:13-16 that his kingdom would endure forever (also see Psalm 89:30-37). God also spoke through the prophet Isaiah that this promised Messiah would come from the stump of Jesse, David’s father (read Isaiah 4:2-6, Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 11:1-2, and Isaiah 53:1-7). If someone was going to be considered as the Savior for the Jewish people, he was going to have to first be from the line of David.

Matthew, who was a Jew writing to a Jewish audience, is well aware of this situation and begins his gospel of the account of the life of Jesus by showing in chapter 1, verse 1, that Jesus’ genealogy does, in fact, go back to King David. Matthew 1:1 reads, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham…” and then he lays out 42 prior generations to prove his point. Had you ever stopped to think what a miracle it was for God to have preserved that kingly line for all those generations? For God to honor His promise that the Messiah would come from David’s line, God would have to guarantee the presence of a surviving male descendant in every generation going forward up to Jesus’ birth. At first glance, it might not sound like all that big of an issue, until you realize how unlikely it would be in the normal course of affairs of life and death. Let’s look at a modern day example of what would be involved in keeping a male blood line intact for that much time.

Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th president, is perhaps America’s best known leader. President Lincoln had four sons: Robert Todd Lincoln, Edward Baker Lincoln, William Wallace Lincoln, and Thomas Lincoln. Of those four sons, one died in infancy and another died as a youth. A third died in early manhood before he was married. The only one of President Lincoln’s sons to marry was Robert Todd and he had three children; two daughters and a son. His son, however, died before he ever married. In less than three generations, approximately one hundred years from the time Lincoln was born, his direct male line had disappeared. No one today can claim to be a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln; his blood line is extinct. Think of your own family heritage and how quickly the male blood line can disappear. Keeping David’s lineage intact for all those generations down to Mary and Joseph was an amazing miracle. God delivered on His promise when He told Mary in Luke 1:32-33 that the son she was about to give birth to would be that long-awaited Messiah who would fill David’s throne.

Peter (Acts 2:30) and Paul (Acts 13:23 and Romans 1:2-4) both confirm that Jesus was the promised Messiah from the line of David and Jesus confirms this fact himself in Revelations 22:16, when He says, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

This advent season, stop and think of what a wonderful gift we have received and the promises that were kept to give us the hope of eternal life. Merry Christmas!

Adventus: The Coming

The word “Advent” (coming, or arrival of a notable event or person) is not a word that is in common usage in twenty-first century English. For those people in the more liturgical Christian denominations, they know the word is used for the four-week Advent season that leads up to the day of Christmas and the birth of the Christ child. For the rest of the church, it is not even a word that is familiar or often used. Where did the word come from and what did the early believers hear when they heard the term? A look back to the origin of the word and the customs surrounding it will give us an unbelievable picture of what the early believers were thinking when they heard this term used to describe the coming of their Savior, Jesus, the Christ.

“Advent” is derived from the Latin word “Adventus” (Greek: parousia). During the time of the Roman domination of the world, “Adventus” was a term reserved almost exclusively for the Roman Caesars. Adventus was a ceremony in which a Caesar was formally and ceremonially welcomed into a city. When the ruling Caesar won a military campaign or when a city was dedicated to a Caesar or another Roman God’s divinity, an Advent celebration was held in that city to confirm their deity and give them great honor and adulation. These ceremonies were not only held in Rome, but in many of the great conquered cities in the Roman Empire. All the major cities under Roman control were in competition with each other for the prestige to be known as the ”neokoros” – the protector and center of worship for a Roman deity, or the Roman Emperor that was in power. A great example of this is the city of Ephesus where Paul stayed for three years and the church to whom he wrote the book of Ephesians (also see the story of Paul in Ephesus in Acts:19 and Acts:20). At that time, Ephesus was not only the neokoros for the goddess Artemis, but also the neokoros for the Flavian family of emperors: Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.

To honor these great emperors and confer deity upon them, huge ceremonies were held in these Roman cities. Tremendous effort would go into sprucing up the city and completing building projects for statues and temples to commemorate these Adventus celebrations. Once the time had arrived and the city was ready, Caesar would take a huge entourage from Rome, complete with the Praetorian guard and several legions of troops, to travel to the place that was going to honor him. This huge assembly of royalty and troops could be seen for miles as they approached the city. Caesar would be mounted on a magnificent white horse and in full battle armor. Word would spread throughout the city that Caesar had arrived and was just outside the city gates. All the city dignitaries would lead the townspeople outside the city gate to meet and welcome the honored guest and his assembly. They would form a circle around the coming King and bow before him. They would honor him with words and proclamations and then welcome him into the city to see the new statues and temples that were built to deify their king. The entire procession would then march back into the city and the Advent celebration would begin. This huge event would last for several days and no expense would be spared to honor their deified “King of Kings” and “Lord of Lords”.

With this background in your mind, now try and picture the word ”Advent” and imagine the coming of our “King of Kings” as it is described in the Book of Revelation and in other places in scripture. Doesn’t it make the thought of his second coming feel so much more real and powerful? At Christmas time, we not only celebrate Jesus’ first Advent as a baby, but also his Second Advent when He will come again as a conqueror in all His power and glory. During this second Advent, Jesus will come, with the armies of heaven, riding on a white horse (Revelation 19:11-16) and Christians will fall before and acknowledge Him. He will lead us into the new heavenly city where we will worship and praise Him for eternity (Revelation 21 and 22). What a cataclysmic and earth-changing event this will be! In light of the historical background for Advent, shouldn’t the Christian church make a bigger attempt to recover the meaning and awesomeness of the Advent season?

P.S. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and see if you don’t notice an Advent in Paul’s description of Christ’s returning.

The Ascension

See Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:1-9

"Ascension", Rembrandt Harmensz

“Ascension”, Rembrandt Harmensz

After Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared and spoke to His disciples and others for forty days, teaching them about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-3). On the fortieth day, Jesus took His disciples out to the vicinity of Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, and while they were watching, He was taken up to heaven in a cloud. Put yourself in the disciples sandals and take a moment to think about what just happened. In the last forty days they have seen their rabbi, Jesus, who they thought would be their earthly king, arrested, crucified, resurrected, and now taken up to heaven in a cloud! The disciples have now witnessed what could be argued as the most dramatic event in all Scripture, ascending to heaven! As far as a major miracle, it would have had to be as equally impressive as the resurrection. Going to heaven to sit at the right hand of God was also a fulfillment of prophecy just like Jesus’ death and resurrection was. Yet, have you ever thought or been taught that the ascension was a major theological event? We have a day on the church calendar, forty days after Easter Sunday to commemorate the ascension, but you never hear anyone preach or teach or give the weight to this event like you do Easter and the resurrection story. In the Acts narrative in Chapter 1, we hear sermons on waiting on the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8) and the commission He gave the disciples in Acts 1:8, but we don’t hear anything about the ascension itself. We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection in a big way, but His ascension is every bit as important to His deity as His resurrection. There is bound to be more here than we’ve known at first glance and has to be more to the story.

The ascension is not mentioned in Matthew or John and there is only one sentence on it in Mark. From the last few verses in Luke and the first few verses of Acts, we can piece together the story – and what a story it is! Luke’s story of the gospel of Jesus Christ has quite a profound ending. Jesus gathered His disciples around Him near Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Scripture says, ”He lifted His hands and blessed them and while He was blessing them, He left them and was taken up to heaven.” When the disciples saw this, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. It is interesting to note that Luke begins His book by telling the story of an old priest, Zechariah, who was part of the line of Aaron and the official priesthood. This old priest is unable to bless because God took his voice after he didn’t believe the angel’s story of what was about to happen to him. The end of Luke’s book is a story of Jesus, who is not a member of the priesthood and was not supposed to be able to bless. However, Jesus raises His hands and blesses His disciples. In doing this, Jesus is claiming to be the promised Messiah who would be a prophet, priest, and king all rolled into one person. By lifting His hands to bless – which only priest were allowed and commissioned to do – Jesus was claiming the priesthood and displaying His divine nature as this triune being. This was why they returned to Jerusalem with such joy!

When the disciples saw Jesus ascending to heaven their Jewish minds would have quickly gone to the story of Daniel and the prophetic vision that he wrote down in Daniel 7 while in captivity in Babylon. In Daniel’s vision, four evil beasts came out of the abyss to bring chaos to the world. These four evil kingdoms of men misruled the earth and put it in shambles. Then in Daniel 7:13-14, Daniel sees, “one like a son of man”, coming with clouds to come and restore order to the chaos. This was taken by the Jewish minds as a reference to the Messiah who was to come and this is the first time in Scripture the Messiah was called the ”son of man”. Daniel’s vision then goes on to say that when this, ”son of man” went into heaven, He was led into the presence of God and was given authority over everything and that His rule and reign would be forever at the right hand of God. Interestingly, Jesus applied this title to himself several times and the disciples were definitely aware that Jesus called himself by this messianic term. In fact, the title “son of man”, is used for Jesus over one hundred times in the New Testament. Read Luke 9:21-22, Luke 9:26-27, Luke 11:29-32, Luke 18:31-34, and Luke 19:10 and also look at these passages in Matthew; Matthew 24:30-31, Matthew 25:31-33, and Matthew 26:64. From the Daniel story and by listening to what Jesus said about Himself, when they witnessed the ascension, they thought, ”He’s going to heaven now to sit at the right hand and rule with His father! He is the ‘Son of Man’ like He said He was!”

In Mark 16:19 it says that Jesus, ”was taken up to heaven and sat at the right hand of God.” This fulfills the prophetical verse in Psalm 110:1 where God declares the promised Messiah will sit at His right hand. Jesus says,”that’s me”, when He quotes that verse to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:41-45. In conclusion, because of prophecy and Jesus’ words to them, the disciples knew exactly where He was going, where He would be sitting, and what He would be doing when He got to heaven. He would now have all authority over the earth. When they saw Jesus ascend to heaven, they realized in a huge way, “Our Rabbis is King of the Universe! He’s in Charge! He does have all authority!” Then an angel comes and tells them that He will be coming back the same way that He left.

Given this background, isn’t the ascension every bit as important to God’s deity as His resurrection? The ascension proves that Jesus is the King; He is ruling and reigning over the universe now! Like the first disciples, we are also to be witnesses of His ascension. When He said to, “be my witnesses”, it was not only witness to the resurrection, it was witness to His ascension as well. We are to be witnesses that He is not only our Savior, but He is also our King! Evidently, the early disciples really believed that He was in charge of the world. Do we? By what we say and how we live, we also are witnesses to whether or not Jesus is in charge of the universe. Every time we choose to do what the King desires we are taking back a square foot of the Kingdom and are advancing the Kingdom of Heaven. Conversely, every time we choose not to do what the King desires and requires, we loose a square foot of the Kingdom. He didn’t say, “Just hang on till I get back”, He said to start advancing the Kingdom here on earth. We are to be expanding the Kingdom by the way we serve the ascended King. What square foot will you take today by living the way the ascend King wants?