Acts: Courageous Witness in a Hostile World

A Guide for Gospel Foot Soldiers

Brant, McCausland

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781621896463
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Most commentaries on Acts are written by Western scholars for a Western audience. This book comes out of more than forty years of teaching in the Majority World. It is aimed at the new breed of emerging missionaries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The apostles in Acts faced a hostile world. Yet in that context, the Holy Spirit gave them incredible courage. The scenes of Peter, Stephen, and Paul facing angry mobs and the fury of the Jewish Sanhedrin are being played out in India, China, and Eritrea today. Acts teaches us how to have a courageous witness in a hostile world. Further, this work addresses the powerful forces that assault the worldwide church--particularly the racism that splits the church all over the world. Acts: Courageous Witness in a Hostile World will thrill you as you see how God's Spirit overcomes every obstacle and keeps the church on track, even when we think all is lost. Read this book for yourself and become courageous.

Chapter 1

Between resurrection and Pentecost

The fifty days from the resurrection until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost were full of Jesus’s appearances, teaching, instructions, and anticipation of the Holy Spirit. These fifty days are divided into two periods. There were forty days from the resurrection until Jesus ascended into heaven, and then ten days between His ascension and Pentecost.

Jesus’s last instructions before His ascension—Acts 1:1–5

Luke introduces Acts by tying it to his Gospel. The Gospel was about all that Jesus “began” to do and teach. In Acts, Luke tells how Jesus continued the same story, working through the Holy Spirit in the lives of apostles whom He had chosen. Luke closed his Gospel with the promise of the coming Holy Spirit, and with Christ’s ascension into heaven. In Acts, he picks up that theme exactly where he left off.

Jesus gave “instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen” (Acts 1:2). The instructions were to go into all the world and preach the gospel. They were to make disciples everywhere they went, to baptize and teach all that Christ had commanded them.

In Matthew 28:18–19 (NASB), Jesus said “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore. . . .” But here in Acts a new component is added: the command comes “through,” dia (δια), the Holy Spirit. This first mention of the Holy Spirit is important. It is Luke’s intention to show that from first to last, the spread of the gospel around the world is tied to the command of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Just as the command comes through the Holy Spirit, the power to fulfill it comes from Him (Acts 1:8). The work of the Holy Spirit links the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts.

Importance of the resurrection

In those forty days before His ascension, Jesus appeared to many people as a sign of His resurrection. He gave His followers “many convincing proofs” to make absolutely sure that they knew He was alive. The resurrection was of great importance.

When the Jews demanded a sign of Jesus’s deity, He told them that this wicked generation would get only one sign: “as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt 12:40). When they testified against Jesus, the Jews quoted one of His sayings, but misapplied it. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.” Jesus spoke of His own body. The resurrection proved conclusively that Jesus was the Son of God (Rom 1:4). Later, as the apostles preached, they kept telling the Jewish leaders, “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this” (Acts 3:15). Jesus died saying He was the Son of God as well as the Savior of the world. He would bear the sins of many so that they might be saved. The resurrection was like the Father giving Jesus back to us with His stamp of approval. Yes! This is my Son. Yes! He has paid the price for sin. Yes! All who put their trust in Him will be saved.

Think of all those who saw the resurrected Jesus! A careful count reveals that Jesus made ten appearances after the resurrection. The first was to Mary Magdalene, and then to the disciples. Remember how He showed Himself to “doubting Thomas” and invited him to put his finger into the nail holes in His hands and side? Note his soft rebuke of Peter by asking him three times if he loved Him. Paul records that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at the same time (1 Cor 15:6). This most likely occurred when Jesus appeared on a mountain in Galilee (Matt 28:9–10, 16). Both His disciples and His family were told to meet Him there. It was the only “scheduled” appearance of the risen Christ and it is likely that those who knew where He was going to appear told many others. His followers had no doubt that Jesus had literally risen from the dead. Jesus’s resurrection became the cornerstone of the apostles’ witness as well as the foundation of our faith. The one thing we must believe in order to be saved is that “God raised Him from the dead” (Rom 10:9). These appearances were very important, and among the reasons Jesus gave a full forty days to this ministry.

Importance of the kingdom of God

During those forty days Jesus was teaching about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). The over-arching importance of the kingdom becomes apparent when we note that this was addressed repeatedly by John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the Apostle Paul. The seminal theological problem in Acts is a basic misunderstanding of the nature of the kingdom. It affected the way the nonbelieving Jews thought about the gospel, and it affected many believing Jews in the way they thought about the Gentiles. It ultimately became the reason Paul was imprisoned. Because of the magnitude of this problem, it deserves careful examination. If we miss this point, it will be difficult to understand the rest of the Book of Acts.

To understand the kingdom of God, two distinctions must be made: The first is the difference between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. The second is the difference between God’s people Israel (see below) and God’s people in the church—those He has saved out of the whole world.

The kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light

From eternity past, God ruled everything, absolutely and completely. But this tranquil kingdom of eternity past was disrupted when Lucifer, one of God’s angels, rose up in pride against Him and staged a full-scale rebellion. Satan, as he became known, succeeded in getting a third of the angels of heaven to follow him.1 He said in his heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne. . . . I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa 14:13–14). One may ask why God didn’t totally destroy Satan and his followers then and there. Perhaps, in his wisdom, God wanted to demonstrate His justice to the rest of creation so that no such revolt would ever occur again. This was the starting point of two kingdoms: God ruled His kingdom of light, and Satan ruled the kingdom of darkness. The Lord reveals the end of the story—Satan’s doom is to be consigned to that place of everlasting torment created for him and his angels (Matt 25:41).

The clash between these two kingdoms began in Genesis. God made man in His image, and commanded him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was growing in the center of the garden of Eden. So long as the first couple obeyed the commands of God, they were in His kingdom. But Satan challenged the words of God, asking, “Did God really say. . . ?” (Gen 3:1). By making Eve doubt the justice of God, he deceived her, and was able to draw her husband in after her. Without realizing the enormous consequence of their action, they both stepped out from the rule of God, and into the kingdom of darkness. Just as God took clear and decisive action against Satan when he sinned, God now took severe and decisive action against those who followed Satan’s lead. Adam and Eve were driven from the garden. Both spiritual and (later) physical death fell upon the human race. But at the same time, a redemptive promise was implicit in God’s curse of Satan (Gen 3:15).

The kingdom of darkness was enlarged as a consequence. The whole earth fell under Satan’s dominion. God had given the first couple rule and authority over the whole earth. He told Adam to rule over the earth and subdue it (Gen 1:28). The authority that God gave Adam was effective as long as he walked in God’s light and obeyed God’s will. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, however, everything changed. By obeying Satan rather than God, the first human couple yielded their authority to Satan. That is how Satan came to be the god of this world.

From the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God

When Satan tempted Jesus, he showed Him all the kingdoms of this world and said, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours” (Luke 4:5–7). In other words, if you worship me and come under my kingdom, I can give you authority in it. Note that God did not give this authority to Satan nor did Satan usurp it from His hand. Satan cannot take power from the hand of God. Never! If he did, then indeed, he would be God. From the beginning, God had a plan for fallen human beings to escape from the kingdom of Satan. God made the first blood sacrifice and clothed Adam and Eve with the skins He prepared. God in His mercy made covenants with Abraham and others who followed him. God gave Moses the ceremonial law, whereby confession of sin and an atoning sacrifice, made in faith, could reconcile men to God. All this looked ahead to the day God would give His own Son as the ultimate sacrifice for the sin of man. By faith in Jesus, all who are born into the kingdom of Satan can be transferred into the kingdom of God. That is what Jesus was trying to explain to Nicodemus when He said, “Except a man be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 KJV). When God called Paul, He told him, “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:17–18; cf. Col 1:13). The Greek word for “power,” exousia (ἐξουσια), means dominion or authority. Now, as people turn from Satan to God, the kingdom of God is expanding throughout the earth.

The ultimate kingdom goal is expressed in our Lord’s Prayer when we say, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10 KJV). The Bible teaches that a time is coming when there will be a cosmic war between the angels of God and demons of Satan. Satan will be defeated. He and his demons will be cast into what is called the “Abyss,” and then later into the “lake of fire.” At that time God’s rule will be complete upon the earth. This final event comes in two stages: There is a literal rule of Christ on the earth for 1000 years followed by the destruction of our present heaven and earth, the brief release of Satan from the Abyss, and finally the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom in a new heaven and earth (Rev 20–22).

The Kingdom of Israel and the church

The Jews of Jesus’s day were convinced that God’s kingdom would include only those who were heirs to the covenant blessing of Abraham. This was the source of great confusion. God promised many blessings to Abraham and to his seed. David was promised more. Daniel saw these things against the whole panorama of history, and prophesied of a time when God would set up His kingdom on...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Between resurrection and Pentecost
• Chapter 2: Pentecost: the birthday of the church
• Chapter 3: Apostles heal, just like Jesus
• Chapter 4: Hostility rising
• Chapter 5: Pretense within, persecution without
• Chapter 6: Serving tables and defending the gospel
• Chapter 7: Stephen: the first martyr
• Chapter 8: The gospel goes to fringe groups
• Chapter 9: Paul: a chosen instrument
• Chapter 10: The day Peter’s world got bigger
• Chapter 11: Breakthrough to the Gentiles
• Chatper 12: James beheaded, Peter spared
• Chapter 13: The power of the sending church
• Chapter 14: Risking life for gospel and church
• Chapter 15: The first church council
• Chapter 16: The first church in Europe
• Chapter 17: God-fearers and philosophers
• Chapter 18: Discouragement at Corinth
• Chatper 19: Upheaval in Ephesus
• Chapter 20: Leading by example
• Chapter 21: Trouble in Jerusalem
• Chapter 22: Facing his accusers
• Chapter 23: Paul before the Sanhedrin
• Chapter 24: The trial before Felix
• Chapter 25: The trial before Festus
• Chapter 26: The trial before Agrippa
• Chapter 27: Piloted through the storm
• Chapter 28: Resistance in Rome
• Epilogue: Whatever happened to Paul?
• Bibliography