Acts 3

Chapter 3. God’s Plan for the AgeYou will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)We have already seen that this remarkable verse is an epitome of the whole book of Acts. Were we to express in three words the design and contents of this story of primitive Christianity, those words would be the perspective, the power and the plan of the Christian age. The Perspective First, we have the perspective given in the first 11 verses of the Acts of the Apostles. Perspective is the relation of objects to each other in the line of vision. The book of Acts gives us the outlook of Christian faith and hope. In its true perspective four great promontories stand out. First the cross, expressed by the word “suffering” in the opening verses of Acts—“his suffering” (Acts 1:3). Next is His resurrection and ascension described so vividly in the same passage. Now His cross would not have had the same meaning if it had been looked at alone. It could have signified only death, disaster and utter despair. But when looked at with the resurrection in perspective just beyond, it becomes a stepping stone to glory and victory. Next comes the ascension, but this would have only meant separation from His loving disciples had it not been for the third object that meets our view, namely, the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who came to take His place and fill the void of His absence. But even the dispensation of the Holy Spirit is not final. This has been the great mistake of the Church, to look upon it as the end of the Christian age. There looms beyond a still more sublime vision, namely the return of the Lord Jesus, the message of the angels to the bereaved disciples: “This same Jesus… will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Thus, as we look at all together, they have upon each other the most vital bearing, and the whole truth is necessary in order rightly to understand each part of the whole. The Power Next, the word power expresses that deep underlying truth that runs through the entire book of Acts, impressing us with the fact of a supernatural Person in the bosom of the Church, the power of the Holy Spirit as the heart of Christianity, while Jesus on the throne is its Head. The whole story of primitive Christianity is supernatural. There is no rational explanation for the sudden and widespread movement that brought into the bosom of the Church the men that crucified the Lord and the bitter enemy that pursued Stephen to his death and afterward ravaged the Church of God in the name of religious zeal. The triumphs of the gospel were miracles of grace and power, and the same power must still be recognized or we shall cease to have a living Christianity. The Plan But we have already followed these thoughts and facts in some measure, at least, through their unfolding in this history; and so we come to the third of these great outline words: the plan according to which this mighty and divine Person was to evolve the Church and prepare for the coming of the Lord. This is also most clearly given in our text and as clearly unfolded through the entire book. The movement was to begin at Jerusalem, and so we find the earlier chapters of Acts describing the origin, growth and constitution of the Church in Jerusalem. Next it was to reach the scattered Jews throughout all Judea. And so we find the story expanding in the evangelistic work of Peter and Paul among their countrymen scattered abroad. Then Samaria was to be reached, and so the eighth chapter of Acts introduces us to the gospel in Samaria, and late references continue the story. But the final and supreme triumph of Christianity in the Christian age was to be in the remoter realms of heathenism. And so the last half of the book of Acts, from the 13th chapter, is chiefly occupied with the origin and growth of foreign missions and the spread of the gospel to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Such was the plan of campaign given by the Master and faithfully followed by His first field officers; and such is still the divine order for the Church of God in the aggressive work of Christianity—or, at least, such it ought to be—and only as we follow this plan will we have the Master’s approval and blessing. Let us follow in detail these successive stages of aggressive Christianity.

Section I: jerusalem

Section I—jerusalemThe Church in Jerusalem This picture occupies the opening pages of Acts. Some striking features of this primitive Church are well worthy of our imitation.

1. It was born upon its knees. It came into being at Pentecost in the spirit and atmosphere of prayer.
2. It was baptized as soon as it was born. Its youngest members were taught to receive the Holy Spirit the moment they had accepted Jesus. “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). So still we should lead the convert to the altar of consecration, and never leave him until he has been sealed and sanctified by the same Spirit and saved from backsliding and defeat.
3. It was a household of love. Joy, praise, mutual affection, self-sacrifice, consideration for others, the care of the poor and the stranger, and the spirit of gladness and love made it a center of attraction and a blessed home circle which drew to it the sad and hungry world, as it still will draw men if it has the same Pentecostal spirit.
4. It was not without a very heart-searching discipline. The incident of Ananias and Sapphira left an awful lesson of the holiness of God and the sin and folly of trifling with His grace; and great fear, as well as great joy, fell upon the infant Church.
5. It had its baptism of fire in the martyrdom of Stephen and James, the imprisonment of Peter, and the cruel hatred of Herod and the Jews. And so still, if we have anything worth attacking, the devil will attack it, and if we have anything worth hating, the world will hate it as much as in the days of old.
6. It was scattered abroad by trial, that it might sow the seed in wider fields. When its members were in danger of clinging too closely to their congenial home circle, the Lord had to send them forth by persecution and kindle the fire on other altars.
7. But at length it became established and settled, and “It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord” (Acts 9:31). Our Jerusalem They were first commanded to begin at Jerusalem; and so, when we receive the Holy Spirit, our first witness should be at home in the family circle, to husband or wife, children or parents, brothers and sisters. In the church where God has placed us we should make the name of Jesus felt as “the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are not justified in running away from our kindred, or even from our Christian associates because they do not agree with us and are not congenial to us. We are to stay until we have finished the testimony and learned the lesson God has for us. Have we been true to those at home, or have we found it harder to live and witness for Christ in these closer circles of love and intimacy than from some public pulpit or to some company of strangers?

Section II: Judea

Section II—JudeaThe Church Among the Scattered Jews God has distributed the children of Abraham by many vicissitudes and providences in all parts of the world. They formed a little nucleus in almost every important center of commercial life, and became a starting point for the apostolic missions in almost every land. Peter was chiefly their apostle, and we find him going down to Lydda and Joppa, while it is significantly added that he “traveled about the country” (Acts 9:32). Later he seems to be writing from Babylon, where we know there were some 70,000 Jews residing. We know also that there were many Jews in Rome, for we read in Acts of a decree banishing the Jews from Rome, in consequence of which Aquila and Priscilla and others were driven forth to Corinth. Paul also ministered much to his own countrymen and had an insatiable longing, amounting even to self-sacrifice, for their salvation (see Romans 9:3). James writes to them as “the 12 tribes scattered among the nations” (James 1:1), and there seems to have been an understanding that these scattered Jews were not merely remnants of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but that they represented all the 12 tribes of the dispersion. If this be so, the recent theory which has been widely propagated in favor of the identity of the 10 tribes with the Anglo-Saxons, is, of course, without foundation, and the 10 tribes form part of the mass of Hebrews scattered among all nations still. To the Jews, therefore, everywhere the gospel was to be presented first, and this is still its message and its scope. The Gentile portion of the Christian Church has largely forgotten its sacred trust to Christ’s kindred according to the flesh. This duty is not entirely fulfilled when we seek out the Jews separately and try to form our class missions for them as a race distinctively, as though they were scarcely fit to be included in our Christian congregations. Surely, this is a mistake. Why should we not preach to them in our common congregations just as directly as to the Gentiles? Why should we know either Jew or Gentile in the one Church of Jesus Christ? Why should we not seek and expect to attract them as hearers of the gospel in all our places of worship, and receive them to equal membership and love in all our Christian fellowships? Surely, this is the intention of the apostolic commission, “first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Romans 1:16); and we have reason to thank God that many Christian Hebrews are to be found in the ordinary membership and even the ministry of the churches of Christ. Our Judea But for us as individual Christians, what does this second stage of the great commission mean? Assuredly, that having begun at home, we are next to go with our testimony to our friends, to the whole circle of those we love and with whom we have personal influence and who belong to our sphere of fellowship and affection. Have we done so? Have you been true to your friends in witnessing for Christ? Have you, like Andrew and Philip, brought your brother and your friend to Jesus? Is your personal correspondence, your social conversation, your whole influence flavored and fragrant with the love of Christ and interwoven with tactful and wise appeals for the best and highest things; or has your selfishness, timidity and shame led you to betray your Master and neglect the very highest claims of holy friendship?

Section III: Samaria

Section III—SamariaThe Gospel in Samaria The Samaritans were a mongrel race descended from the old Jewish remnant left in Northern Palestine after the Assyrians took most of the people captive, and the heathen colonies with whom they intermarried after these immigrants were planted in the land by the Assyrian conquerors. Contrary to the laws and traditions of Israel, these poor Jews allowed themselves to be drawn into family relationships with the strangers, and thus there grew up a new hybrid race partly Jewish and partly heathen, with a mixture of Mosaic teaching and ritual along with much that was loose and uninspired. These people were called Samaritans, and as traitors to their race they were hated much worse than the heathen. The Jews, therefore, had no dealings with them; but the Lord during His own earthly ministry several times visited Samaria and opened the doors of salvation to these people. Now therefore, when giving the commission He was particular to include them, and at a very early date the Holy Spirit directed the first evangelists to go to them with the gospel. The pioneer of this work was Philip, the deacon. His work was marvelously successful, and in a short time a great revival ensued, multitudes flocking to Christ, so that the apostles and elders at Jerusalem were compelled to send a special deputation to visit these new churches and share with them the fuller blessings of the Holy Spirit. A little later we read of many churches in Samaria, as well as Judea, which were in a prosperous condition. Our Samaria Now what for us is the personal application of this third stage of apostolic witnessing? Where is our Samaria? Can we fail to recognize it in that great outlying world around us in the homeland, consisting of the multitudes that lie beyond the pale of Christian influences, whether it be by poverty or race distinctions or the awful effects and ravages of sin? They have grown up in every Christian land, a great multitude of outcast ones who never go to the house of God, whose synagogue is that of Satan, who worship the world, the flesh and the devil, who are held captive by Satan at his will, and for whom respectable Christianity remanded long ago to a place of hopeless despair. For the drunkard, the harlot, the thief, the convict, the foreign population who infest our alleys and slums, the multitudes that somehow struggle for life in the dark underworld of poverty and sin, it is only a little while since the very thought of salvation and rescue was seriously entertained among the activities of the Church of God. Thank God that it is coming to pass, and Christian love is now going out into the streets and lanes of the city to find the poor and the maimed, the halt and the blind. But oh, how much has yet to be done, and how little some of us have even attempted! Have you, beloved, been faithful there? This wonderful movement of rescue mission work in the homeland is one of the features of Christian life today and one of the signs of the end. The Holy Spirit is moving out and moving down from the old planes, and perhaps, leaving the gospel-hardened children of the kingdom and finding the chief trophies of grace today among these neglected and hopeless children of wretchedness and sin. When this task is fully done, and along with it the great outcast heathen world has been equally invited, then the Lord Himself will come.

Section IV: The World

Section IV—The WorldThe Gospel for the Heathen “You will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This is the final stage and the supreme work of the witnessing Church. We shall find it the deep underlying thought of the whole book of Acts. It is quite wonderful and touching to see how the Lord patiently and gradually endeavored to bring His Church to understand this high calling and to be true to this trust. Naturally the Jew regarded the outlying Gentile world beyond the pale of God’s purpose of grace. He believed he could not please God better than by keeping as far from them as possible, holding himself in a place of rigid separation, and leaving them to their wickedness and doom. It was very difficult, therefore, to thoroughly infuse into the minds of the apostles themselves God’s larger thought of love and salvation for the heathen. It is interesting to trace the unfolding of this purpose and plan through the book of Acts.

1. Pentecost We notice in the gathering of the multitudes at Pentecost from all nations a providential movement in connection with the spread of the gospel. These people were brought from the remotest regions of the globe to attend the great annual Jewish festivals, and then God gave to them the marvelous lesson of Pentecost and sent them forth to tell the story in their own language and to their own people of this wonderful gospel. That in itself was a stupendous missionary movement and laid the foundation, no doubt, of many a church in far scattered lands.
2. Philip Next we find Philip suddenly called from Samaria, in the midst of his work, to meet a heathen prince down in the desert of Gaza as he was returning disappointed and hungry-hearted to his distant home. Peter might have argued with Philip that there was work enough to do at home, for never were hands so full as his with that great revival in Samaria. But Philip left it all for the greater work of foreign missions, even as Judson and the early missionaries left the attractive fields of their own home churches, refusing the most flattering calls that they might go far hence unto the heathen. And Philip found his obedience was not misplaced. God never misfits. When the man is ready the field is ready, and lo, the gospel has been carried to Ethiopia, and the first convert of foreign missions has been sent forth as the pioneer of a nation and of a continent. Surely, it paid. And so no matter how busy or how needed you may seem to be at home, if God is calling you to the work of missions, do not hesitate, do not spare the best you have to give, do not fear to leave your work in other hands; enough that the “Lord has need of you.”
3. Peter Next, we have Peter’s call to Caesarea and the house of Cornelius. First Peter himself had to be prepared, and there on the housetop God did most thoroughly prepare him, breaking up his old Jewish prejudices by that never-to-be-forgotten lesson of his strange, supernatural meal, and then calling him, when he had become enlarged enough to understand the call, to go to the capital of the country and the innermost circle of Roman influence and power and begin a new Pentecost in the very heart of the Roman Court. From that wonderful scene Peter went to Jerusalem with a testimony that they could not resist. “Who was I,” he might well say, “to think that I could oppose God?” (Acts 11:17). And the apostles began to understand and to rejoice that the door of faith was at last open unto the Gentiles. It was some such process as this that God had to go through in the beginning of this century in breaking our ecclesiastical fathers from their old theological shells and having them understand that it was our business to care for the heathen and send them the gospel. But, alas, even yet how little the ministry of the Church of God realizes the claims of foreign missions! We have no hesitation in saying that the lack of liberality, sacrifice and consecration in the churches of Christ lies much more at the door of the ministers than of the people themselves, and that when a pastor is thoroughly awakened to the claims of the perishing heathen and really baptized with the missionary spirit, there will never be any real difficulty in getting the people to give largely and to give freely. This is, perhaps, the most needed revival of missions in the Church of today.
4. Antioch The next step in the development of the missionary idea was the church in Antioch. God had to have a new center from which to send out the great missionary movement. Jerusalem was too conservative and too exclusive, and so in Antioch a new center was started and a new mother church was formed—consisting of spirits like Barnabas, the noble merchant prince; Saul, the educated teacher; Manaen, the courtly gentleman; Simeon, the consecrated black man; Luke, the large-hearted cosmopolitan, and such men as these with a large mass of common people that had been brought into the church not even by apostolic preaching, but by the simple testimony of men and women like themselves. From this new center the gospel could go forth with peculiar power. And so in our day God has been raising up His Antiochs again. The deep spiritual movements of our time all form a sort of Antioch from which are going forth the most vital missionary agencies of our time. It was this church that sent forth the early missionaries. Let us, therefore, not forget that it is God’s plan to send forth the missionary from a warm home center. The idea of independent missions apart from that supporting center is not scriptural. There must be two ends to the work, the home and the foreign, both equally responsive and helping.
5. Barnabas and Saul, the First Missionaries Time will only permit us to lightly touch this stirring theme. God has His men ready. Saul had been called from the ranks of the enemy, and Barnabas had also been prepared from another class. There were three men in the first missionary party. One was an educated teacher, and such men are needed still. The second was a consecrated businessman, and there are no better missionaries than such laymen. And there was a young man, a little fresh, a little immature, a little soft, a little weak, a little like some of our missionaries still—poor Mark. And he had his failure, as some of our boys and girls have at first, and for it Paul even would have none of him; but he came out all right at last. Let us learn the lesson of patience, for God even uses imperfect material and patiently waits until it is trained. And so they went forth, and in due time came back to tell the story of their wonderful beginning and to gather in that great missionary convention at Jerusalem, where the plan was more fully settled and their subsequent missionary work wrought out with still more intelligent and holy zeal. Let us learn the lessons of their victories and defeats, and let us catch the thought of the Master they followed so fully, so that He can use us to finish what they so gloriously began.