1. Lesson 4 Acts Institutes A New Will

2. Breath of fresh air blowing throughout the book of Acts.
Many things are vastly different.

3. Hints from the past are now realized.
Suddenly, in just one day, many religious things have changed.
The apostles are different.
The disciples are different.
Something has energized all the followers of Jesus.

4. The preaching is different.
The disciples now preached that Jesus was on a throne at the right hand of God.
"He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).

5. Something new was revealed.
Thus, Peter declared Jesus was made to be the Christ and Lord.
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified” (Acts 2:36).

6. This Jesus has a new status.
Upon his resurrection he was made to be something new.
“Christ” means that Jesus is anointed; he is now King of kings. (“Messiah” in the Septuagint)
“Lord” means Jesus is master.

7. Stone set at nought
“He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12).

8. Prince and Savior
“He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).

9. Righteous One
“Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;” (Acts 7:52).

10. Sheep and Lamb
“And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:
"He was led as a sheep to slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He does not open his mouth”
(Acts 8:31-32).

11. Thou art my Son
“And we bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers, 33 that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (Acts 13:32-33).

12. Thy Holy One
“Because he saith also in another psalm, Thou wilt not give Thy Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 13:35).

13. This transition period found problems.
Circumcision was a major stumbling block.
20 years later Jews in Antioch still were requiring Gentiles to be circumcised.
Paul met with them in Jerusalem (Acts 15).

14. “And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Brethren, hearken unto me: 14 Symeon hath rehearsed how first God visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. 15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, …”

15. “…16 After these things I will return, And I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; And I will build again the ruins thereof, And I will set it up:…Wherefore my judgment is, that we trouble not them that from among the Gentiles turn to God” (Acts 15:13-19).

16. The only conclusion to which the disciples could come was that no one had to keep the Law of Moses to be a Christian.
Since the Tabernacle of David was rebuilt all nations are now included. (Tabernacle, temple, church - where God dwells).
This brought momenteous changes.

17. Worship is now different.
No Passover, Pentecost, Booths, animal sacrifices, Levitical priesthood, tithing, sabbath, or even 10 Commandments!
“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

18. This indicated 4 new items of worship:
Apostles’ teaching, not the Law of Moses.
Fellowship, not tithing and animal gifts.
Breaking of bread, the Lord’s Supper, not the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, or Booths, Prayers now in the name of Jesus.

19. One other is seen in other contexts.
A cappella singing (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16)
“What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also” (1 Corinthians 14:15).

20. Interesting that all these changes took place in one day!
This was a time of high drama, change, vitality, and excitement.
These changes explained God’s purpose and use of the Law of Moses.

21. None could be justified by following the Law of Moses.
“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: 39 and by him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).

22. The Law of Moses served as a tutor to bring one to Christ (Gal. 3:24).
“But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 So that the law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith… ”

23. “… But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor
“… But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus”
(Galatians 3:23-27).

24. A careful student might find in the Greek:
“But before the faith came” (v. 23);
“justified by faith” (v. 24);
“But now that the faith has come” (v. 25);
“sons of God, through the faith” (v. 26).
“The faith” = gospel, complete revelation.

25. This “faith” is the same as:
“obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7);
“turn proconsul from the faith”(Acts 13:8);
“continue in the faith” (Acts 13:22);
“preaching the faith” (Galatians 1:23);
“one faith” (Ephesians 4:5); and
“the faith once for all delivered” (Jude 3).

26. The Law of Moses was given only to Israel
The Law of Moses was given only to Israel. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’ 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Exodus 34:27-28) .

27. The Law was Fulfilled by Jesus.
“And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44).

28. The Law was Nailed to the cross.
“having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out that way, nailing it to the cross;” (Colossians 2:14).

29. The Law was made to be old.
‘In that he saith, A new covenant he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away” (Hebrews 8:13).

30. The Jews were made dead to the Law.
“Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? 2 For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband…

31. “…So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man…”

32. “…Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God” (Romans 7:1-4).

33. The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins.
“For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. 5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, But a body didst thou prepare for me” (Hebrews 10:4-5).

34. The first was taken away, the second established.
“Lo, I am come to do thy will. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:9-10).

35. There is a new and living way, a new priest, and all can enter into the presence of God (Heb. 10:19-22).
Every Christian is now considered a priest who can offer acceptable sacrifices to God (1 Peter 2:5, 9).

36. “But ye are a elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10 who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2: 9-10).

37. The history found in Acts shows this marvelous change of will.
Everything from Acts 2 onward shows that there is something new and different.
So, why even study the Old Testament?

38. “Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come” (1 Cor. 10:11).
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

39. It was time.
“Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel”
(Mark 1:14-15).

40. It was time!
“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

41. God had a special law and special promises, and a special purpose for a special people beginning with Abraham. This took 2,000 years.
God also had instructions to the Gentiles, though the Bible does not reveal all that they included.

42. Now, in Christ Jesus, God’s will has come to eternal fruition.
Indeed, it was time!

43. Acts of the Apostles reveals this new will in action.
No other book pulls all the history of God’s Scheme of Redemption together.

44. The new will of God comes alive in the Acts of the Apostles!