While he waswith them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise.
Acts 1:4a CSB
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 CSB
9 After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them.
Pretty EXCITING AND AWESOME STUFF!
Luke begins ACTS with Christ Jesus taken up into heaven, then ‘two men in white’ (we know they are angels) ask:
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?
This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
As Christians, now that we have begun Luke’s prologue in Acts and read his account of the AWEsome ascension of Jesus into the clouds, we can hardly wait for the powerful bestowing of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem.
BUT WAIT! Like you I was ready to read ahead to the anointing of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit and the beginning of their ‘acts,’ Then I thought about those TEN DAYS (more than a week) between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost.(I had always merged these two amazing events together in the historical timeline I conceived in my mind.)
Of course the eleven Apostles would have rather fled to their homes from the relatively remote Mount of Olives just a stone’s throw from the walls of Jerusalem; but now the Lord Jesus has commanded them to wait.
So what happened while the eleven Apostles waited?
Luke tells us (and we may have matter-of-factly dismissed it).
Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem..
Luke records those present:
11 Apostles (by name)
‘the women’
Mary, the mother of Jesus (the last mention of Mary by Luke)
Jesus’ brothers (Jude & James, but not named here)
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went up to the upstairs room where they were staying, that is, Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Acts 1:14 KJV
ὁμοθυμαδόν – ‘with one accord’
We will soon see this again in Luke’s account of the Acts of the Apostles, so lets take a quick look at his description of this gathering.
A unique Greek word, used 10 of its 12 New Testament occurrences in the Book of Acts, helps us understand the uniqueness of the Christian community. Homothumadon is a compound of two words meaning to “rush along” and “in unison”. The image is almost musical; a number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonize in pitch and tone. As the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master, so the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of members of Christ’s church.
Our glance at this scene in a first century upper room in Jerusalem will look different from famous paintings of the Italian Renaissance or an illustration from our Children’s’ Bible.
We observe eleven Jewish men (the Apostles), a large group of women (some wives of the Apostles) plus more followers and witnesses to the risen Christ Jesus, including our Lord’s mother and brothers.
All these were continually devoting themselves with one mind to prayer.. (Acts 1:14a NASB)
A Crowded upper room: Christians ALL with one accord
The Apostle Peter is about to speak to those present.
But as we have noted of these past ten days, MANY have gathered in this upper room in Jerusalem.
These men and women from many places throughout the Empire had witnessed the cruel crucifixion of Jesus. Yet now they have obediently returned to the same Jerusalem which had crucified their now-risen and ascended Christ Jesus.
Jesus’s promise has not yet been fulfilled; so as commanded, they ALL WAIT.
At this time Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters
(a group of about 120 people was there together),
and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David..
Acts 1:15-16a NASB
One Hundred Twenty (120) with one accord (all together)
The Apostle Peter addresses well over a hundred men and women in this room.
And ALL have been together praying with oneaccord. (See all the instances Luke uses this to describe these saints of the early Christian Church.)
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord G3661 in one place.
Acts 2:1 KJV – Strong’s G3661 linked
Is your Christian gathering of 120 like this?
Here is how the first century Church ‘acted:’
And they, continuing daily with one accord G3661 in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart
..they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, G3661 and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord G3661 in Solomon’s porch.
But I’m getting ahead of myself in Luke’s ACTS of the Apostles (and others).
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
Luke tells us that his first book, the Gospel, was about Jesus Christ and that this second account, Acts, will be about what Jesus accomplished through the Apostles AFTER His ascension into heaven.
We look for the actors (so to speak) who Luke records doing the crucial early works of the Church. Peter immediately comes to mind as well as Paul.
What most Christians may have missed in Luke’s chronicles of the first three decades of Church history is that mysterious Person we first met in the Gospels, the ungraspable Image of God in the Holy Spirit.
Luke tells us that during forty days after His resurrection Jesus appeared to many (in addition to the Apostles).
4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, …
Here, mentioning the Father and the Person of the Son, Luke records the words of Jesus to the Apostles as they must have testified to our author of Acts:
“Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water,
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – Gospel of John 4:24 ESV
Baptism
And I remind us that baptism [baptizō] ‘produces a permanent change.‘
The Apostles and others are about to be overwhelmed by a permanent change of the Spirit, a baptism receiving the third Person of God, the Holy Spirit. Luke records this cleansing baptism like no other, more that a baptism of water for repentance only.
Ascension of the Lord Jesus
The palpable tension of the Apostle’s encounters with the risen Christ, their beloved friend and Master which concluded Luke’s Gospel now builds once again. Luke records what happens next with this risen Jesus (who they could touch, who shared bread and wine with the Eleven), even the same Jesus who now continued to teach them more for the past forty days.
Christ Jesus again establishes the providence and authority of the Person of God the Father.
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
Acts 1:7 CSB
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnessesG3144 ..
Acts of the Apostles 1:8a NASB20
μάρτυς – Witness – (to the ACTS which Luke is about to unfold)
one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
in an ethical sense
those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death
Luke is witness through the Apostles not only of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, but a convincing witness to the Holy Spirit as Luke records God’s great acts of power only possible by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.
Luke records that this Son of Man, risen in flesh and blood from the grave, had been with them — forty days — and then powerfully and mysteriously Jesus rises into the clouds as they look on (actually, up) in awe!
The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!
How would your have reacted to this powerful, yet unexplainable rising of the Lord Jesus into the clouds?
You may find Luke’s account from the King James Version of the Bible helpful in describing your FEAR and AWE of this historical event which also includes angels of God.
The former treatise 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 shewed 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.
Luke records what fear and expectation Jesus planted in their hearts prior to the Lord’s ascension. Jesus compares this power with what they had received from John the Baptist.
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 1:5 KJV – Jesus promising the Apostles a baptism of the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost)
ἁγίου πνεύματος – hagiospneuma – the Holy Ghost
Unless you have a question for me by way of comment, we cannot get into some of the more mysterious depths of discussion about that which we cannot see and understand even less, the Person of the Holy Ghost. For to speak of the Spirit yields little fruit in the hearts of those ‘christians’ who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.
So allow me to define BOTH GREEK WORDS and you can take it from there.
(May I just add that our imagery of the Holy Spirit descending sometimes obscures the awesome power of the third Person of the Trinity, that is, the Holy Ghost.)
READ just some of these definitions from Strong's G4151 for Pneuma below:
Outline of Biblical Usage
the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the “Holy” Spirit)
sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of “Truth”)
never referred to as a depersonalised force
the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
the soul
a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
a life giving spirit
a human soul that has left the body
a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ
the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one
the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.
a movement of air (a gentle blast)
of the wind, hence the wind itself
breath of nostrils or mouth
ACTS in the Spirit
Luke will have much more to say about this mysterious Person of the Trinity and crucial character in his historical account of Acts.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31
And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Acts 5:32
And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us
Acts 15:8
And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
Acts 19:6
Although contemporary ‘christianity‘ characterizes the Holy Ghost less fearfully, in order to see his emphasis on the Person of the Holy Spirit let’s close Luke’s AWE–filled [awesome] introduction to ACTS from the KJV:
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts 2:38
Simon Peter, who had denied Christ three times during the Lord’s trial but was then restored by Jesus after the resurrection, introduces himself as a servant [bond-servant] and Apostle of Jesus Christ. He speaks of Jesus in the present tense, for Christ has shown Himself to many alive and risen from death!
Peter is a bond-servant of the Living God in the Person of Christ Jesus. And the Apostle writes not to all, but to those chosen by God to receive ‘the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.’
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Peter builds up believers in their faith, assuring them:
18 We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.
THE JUDGMENT OF FALSE TEACHERS
The Apostle then cautions the church of false teaching.
YES, even from the first days of Christ’s Church, built on a foundation of His Apostles, some sought to destroy the Good News of the Lord’s resurrection and restoration of sinners by distorting the way, the truth and the life of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Peter warns:
There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.
They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them.
The King James Version then pointedly follows Peter’s warning translated thusly:
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:14 KJV
FEW find the strait gate and the narrow way leading to eternal life. FALSE teachers WILL NOT teach that, though our Lord Christ Jesus preached this challenging truth.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Matthew 7:15
Returning to Peter’s analogy of Sodom
The Apostle acknowledges the challenges of believers living in a world of sin and disbelief.
Peter preaches that God cast angels down to hell and did not spare ANY in a sinful world, except Noah and his family.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, held for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example of what is coming for the ungodly..
2 Peter 2:4-6 NASB Bolded emphasis mine. – RH
The Apostle of the Lord Jesus then encourages the church to be faithful, as were Noah and Lot.
So what is the Apostle’s encouragement to believers who persevere in their own difficult challenges of the first century? (Or, I might add, equally applied for the believer of this 21st century?)
.. and if He rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the perverted conduct of unscrupulous people..
.. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from a trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt passion, and despise authority.
We are righteous in Christ Jesus, beloved believer, (though we were condemned as sinners).
Did you notice my omission of verse (8) above from Peter’s encouragement?
Here the Apostle shows our empathy for Lot as he lived in Sodom.
(for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds)
2 Peter 2:8 NASB20 – speaking of Lot living in Sodom before its destruction by the LORD
Is the city of your church a Sodom of sorts?
(Of course it is.) Here we feel the same compassion for Lot which Peter points out.
Further Description of False Teachers
For your own instruction you may want to read some characteristics of false teachers who will not preach Christ Jesus crucified and risen. READ the rest of the Apostle Peter’s second letter {below}.
Then consider if YOUR church, your Bible study, your ‘church group,’ and the children’s ministry of YOUR church all preach Christ Jesus.
The Lord Jesus’ Apostle, Simon Peter closes his letter to the church with this:
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stable position.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
Second Letter of the Apostle Peter to the Church 3:18 CSB
Paul – Peaching Christ to Believers in Sodom
Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, though a rabbinically trained Jew of high learning, Paulos of Tarseus{his Greek name}, after encountering Christ Jesus personally on a road to Damascus, also wrote to the Church with encouragement and cautions against false teachers.
In an intellectual environment of Athens where Paul could well have debated hours on end with its idolatrous and worldly philosophers and political leaders, this Apostle to the gentiles chose to defend Jesus Christ our risen Lord as ‘the unknown god.’
IS CHRIST JESUS the unknown god in YOUR city?
Who do you preach in your church?
Do you preach Christ OR some unknown ‘Jesus‘?
We glance back at scenes of the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, walking with Peter and the Twelve throughout all of Galilee, Samaria, Judea and other places – bringing the Good News to all who would believe.
Many of us who grew up in the instruction of a faithful church heard stories of evangelists like John Wesley and others riding further distances into unknown towns on horseback, preaching Christ Jesus and planting churches. These faithful preachers of Christ followed a model of the Apostle Paul of the first century Church.
Some even sailed into new lands as did Paul.
So whether in Athens, Corinth, Rome, London, New York, Washington DC — even Cincinnati or the ‘sin city’ where you reside:
We see Sodom in the mirror of our neighborhood, don’t we?
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. Burj Khalifa, an 830m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled skyline.
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
.. The God who made the world and everything in it —he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things..
So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”
Acts 17:30-31 NASB
The Apostle preaches to the idolaters of their ignorance of the Living God! Paul then preaches God’s mercy in overlooking their past sins. And the Apostle to the gentiles warns:
God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”
This ‘unknown god’ to those on Mars Hill who sought Paul’s teachings is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Does your church preach THAT?
So we hear Paul preach Christ crucified and risenfrom city to city.
Those young saints of the first century Church did repent and believe in the Lord. They often suffered and frequently died for their faith — a true faith — in the One God and risen Lord Jesus Christ— NOT an idolatrous faith in a god of war (Mars), a temple prostitute priestess, or a false prophet promising sinful bliss.
Paul – Writing to the saints in Sodom
Again, I direct our look back at Scripture to understand the heart of those preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
(Oh, how our Lord was so grieved over an unrepentant Jerusalem and all the other cities which witnessed the many proofs (signs and miracles) of the Son of Man, the Messiah Jesus.)
As the Apostle to the gentiles sustains the saints of The Way, Paul writes to believers in cities such as Corinth.
(Of course Athens and Rome were NOT the only sin cities of Paul’s missionary journeys.) The manifest sin of these cities tormented Paul’s heart as such unrighteous men had troubled Noah and Lot and in the Apostles’ time, Christ Jesus.
The city of Corinth was prominent in the first century. It is located in Greece on an isthmus between the Aegean and Ionian Seas, which guaranteed its importance both militarily and commercially. Corinth was the capital of the Roman province Achaia. It was a prosperous city but also known for its immorality. Because of Corinth’s sordid reputation, a new Greek word was coined, korinthiazomai, which meant “to live immorally like a Corinthian.”
Paulos, To the ekklēsiatheos(church of God) at Korinthos,
to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus,
saints by calling,
with all who in every place
call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
Do you have ANY question to whom Paul writes?
TO the saints of the church of God, separated TO GOD in Christ Jesus — those brothers and sisters of the Church who Name (also as He IS for us) Jesus Christ Lord.
(It is not an earthly name; i.e. Caesar, King, Governor, Prefect, Premier, President, Emperor, Iman or Pope.)
The Apostle Paul speaks of Jesus by Name forty-three [43] times in his two letters to the Corinthians.
He calls our Savior Jesus Christ(meaning Yeshua the Messiah to Jews) seventeen [17] times AND
Christ Jesus an additional nine [9] times,
once adding ‘the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us..’
Paul’s frequent reference to our Master (and his, as a ‘bond-servant’) is Lord Jesus Christ [49 times in 15 verses] & specifically eight times in 1 Corinthians, as well as four times in 2 Corinthians.
The Apostle further makes some of his most pointed arguments for our Lord Jesus using His Messianic title in Greek: Christ.
The Church will always hear Paul preach Christ Jesus. The Apostle always serves our Lord Jesus testifying to the truth of His Gospel.
NASB; KJV; CSB; ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 15
SBL Greek New Testament
12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Paul frequently warns of the false teachers who preach this heresy boldly or in the guise of interpreting ‘God’s word.’
.. no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain.
“IF,’ Paul preaches — IF these things are true, THEN the Gospel of Jesus Christ is false. YET some false ‘christian’ denominations preach and teach this heresy.
Paul says in effect, “You may as well go home and stop calling your self a ‘christian’ or a ‘believer.’
.. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
You know what some preach? No resurrection to the judgment or condemnation to hell. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
But IF God is good and just, how can He just save all to heaven (if indeed life beyond the grave is even possible)?
Many are the heresies which have crept into ‘christian’ thinking over the millennia of these last days.
What about all those funerals?
18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Are we celebrating (a last time) the lives of the dead? OR
Do our final days and death proclaim Christ?
But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep..
1 Corinthians 15:20 NASB
Do YOU preach Christ?
& Does your church teach Christ Jesus?
Paul has much more to say about the Lord Jesus Christ, as do all the Apostles.
IF you are not fully convinced, dear brother or sister in Christ, READ more of the letters to the Corinthians.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6 NASB20
.. for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down,
we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.
