Why the 12 Disciples Never Preached to Gentiles — Acts 1:8

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody right back again, and we're going to continue right where we left off in Acts chapter 1. We're going to go right into the next verse, verse 8. I trust that we covered the time element of verse 7, where the disciples asked, Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom? And the Lord's answer was, not in a ridicule that they thought such a thing, but it just wasn't for them to know when. So we're trying to show that throughout Scripture, God has the prerogative of keeping things secret until He's ready to reveal it. So now we're going to go on into verse 8, and again I always like to take a second to welcome our television audience, and for those of you who haven't been watching very long, we're just an informal Bible study. We're not denominationally associated with anyone, and we're not underwritten by anyone. I am just a layman, and as I said last week, I'm probably more like a Sunday school teacher than anything else. I don't claim to be a theologian, but we do like to just open the Scriptures and help common people like you and I to understand what the Book really says. We're living in a day, of course, where Satan is pulling every stop. I think he already knows his time is short. Now we know that when he's cast out of heaven at the midpoint of the Tribulation, the Book of Revelation says he's going to pour out his anger and his wrath upon the human race, because he knows his time is short. He knows he only has three and a half years left. I think he already realizes that he hasn't got a lot of time left, and so he is certainly pulling all the stops. I think one of those is a confusion of the Scriptures. My what confusion! I think I read the other day that there are over a thousand denominations in America alone, and you can just about bet that none of them agree with the other. And so we are confronted with a lot of confusion. This group says this, and another group says that, and then along comes this fellow and he says this. Well, who are you going to believe? The only thing you can do is get into the Book. I don't tell people to go by what I say. I don't intend to build a following whatsoever, but we just want to help people see what the Word really says. Now in that light, let's look in Acts chapter 1. Now go into verse 8. It's not for them, according to the previous verse, to know the times, but he says, Acts 1.1 Even though you don't know the time, this much I can tell you, you shall receive power. Now underline that word power if you don't mind, or put that word in your notes, because this is the crucial word in this verse. You shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit is come upon you, which of course we know is going to happen in ten days on Pentecost, and you shall be witness unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth. Now I do not like to allegorize Scripture unless Scripture does it itself, and I think most of you have heard this verse allegorized to mean that for you and I, Jerusalem is Tulsa, or whatever city you may abide in, Judea is our Oklahoma, or whatever state our television may abide in, and in Samaria that may be the United States, and then to the ends of the world. Now that sounds good from a missionary's perspective, and I've got nothing against that. That of course is our prerogative, to take the Gospel wherever we can. But that is not what this verse says. This verse says, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and after those three have been completely covered and converted, then where were these Jews to go? To the ends of the earth. But now from what I've taught you coming up through the Old Testament, even in the last two and a half hours, everything that Jesus has been speaking and teaching and writing through the prophets, has been to what people? To the Jew. And they understood that they had no role to play so far as evangelizing Gentiles, until they had the King and the Kingdom. And then the Gentiles would flow to Jerusalem, as we saw in Isaiah 2. That's when Zechariah said, "...and ten men out of all the nations shall take ahold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, and say, We have heard that God is with you, we'll go with you." But not until. So what I'm going to show you here in verse 8, is that Jesus could have. He could have, He didn't. But He could have done like He did in Luke's Gospel, chapter 4. He could have stopped after the word Samaria, because that's as far as this verse is going to be fulfilled, so far as the Jew is concerned. And just read it in that light, "...and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria." Did the disciples get that far? Sure they did. Sure they did. By the time you get to Acts chapter 8, where does Philip go? To Samaria. And Samaria heard the word. But did the twelve ever go to the nations of the world? Never. I've challenged people for 20 years. You show me one time in Scripture that those twelve disciples had a ministry among Gentiles. They didn't. Why? Because Israel never accepted the King, and so that opportunity was taken from them, because of Israel's rejection. Now I alluded to Luke chapter 4, let's go back to it a moment. We did this a few years ago, I guess now time goes fast, but you come back to Luke chapter 4. It better be in Luke chapter 4, or I'm in trouble. Yeah, it is. Verse 17, honey. Luke chapter 4, well actually beginning with verse 16, Jesus in His earthly ministry, and He came to Nazareth where He'd been brought up. Luke 4, verse 16, and He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up for to read. Now, of course, that was custom. You've got to understand there are customs that a visitor could come in and he could ask to read the Scriptures. Verse 17, "...so they were delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, or the scroll, he found," in other words, he looked for a particular verse that he wanted, "...he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Now let's go back to where He read, and that's in Isaiah 61. Keep your hand in Luke 4 so you can flip back and compare it. Isaiah 61, and we'll start right at verse 1, and this is the portion that Jesus looked for until He found it, and then He read it, and it's word for word, remember. So I'm not going to take the time to re-read verse 1, but just come down to verse 2, "...to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the deliverance of the poor, and the death Now read on in Isaiah, "...to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." What's the vengeance? Tribulation! And then what's the next one? "...to comfort all that mourn." When will that happen? The Kingdom! Now do you see the procession? He came to His own, and what did they do? They rejected Him. And so He says in Luke then, "...and He came to the end of to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." He put a period, and He sat down. Why didn't He finish it? Because He knew the rest wasn't going to happen at that time. He knew that. But you see, now come back to Luke chapter 4 if you will, verse 20, "...and He closed the book," or the scroll, "...and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him." Why? I think they knew what He did with that Scripture. He stopped practically in the middle of the verse, and then look what He said after He sat down. "...This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." Now could He have said that if He had read the whole verse? No, because the last part of that verse in Isaiah hasn't been fulfilled yet. And so He knew exactly where to stop. Now if you'll come back to Acts, I hope I've made my point. So here He could have stopped at the word Samaria, because that's where it did stop. The Jew and the disciples never did go to the ends of the earth with the Gospel of the Kingdom, because the nation was rejecting it. But now the secret word here I said was power. After the Holy Spirit, now remember John the Baptist said that when Jesus would baptize the nation of Israel with or into the Holy Spirit, here's the purpose. To give them power. Now, I would like to try to make people think, what kind of power does God have in mind for the Twelve in particular, and for these believing Jews who will be coming along? To carry on where He left off. Now in His earthly ministry, what was highlighted almost every day of His experience in those three years? Miracles, signs and wonders. And what was the purpose? To prove who He was. Now as He has gone back to heaven, and He is now commissioning these eleven men, and of course one is going to take Judas' place in a little bit, what are they to continue? Oh, what He had begun. Even though the Messiah has now been crucified and has ascended back to heaven, what is still the prospect for the nation of Israel? The King and the Kingdom. And the only way to convince them would be what? More signs, more miracles and more wonders. And so this is the reason the Holy Spirit now is going to be poured out upon these Jewish believers, is so that they could continue to see the nation of Israel converted to a faith in their rejected Messiah. Now let me just jump ahead for a little bit, and we'll come to it several weeks from now I'm sure, over to chapter 3. So you just get a little glimpse of what I'm talking about. They weren't concerned yet about evangelizing the whole world. Their chief concern is the nation of Israel, because Israel has to be converted to the Last Man, and then come down now to Acts 3, verse 19. And so Peter has just again presented a sermon, if you want to call it that, in verses 12-18. And then he says in verse 19, "...repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Now it's a semicolon, not a period. And so the thought goes on into verse 20, "...Israel converted, and the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." And then in verse 20, what would God do? He will send Jesus Christ. Send Him for what purpose? Well He only has one purpose left. He has now fulfilled the work of the cross, so what's left? To be the King! And Peter is saying it plain as day, that if Israel would just repent and be converted, God would send Jesus Christ to fulfill all the covenant promises that He had made to the nation of Israel. Now do you have any doubt about that? Then you come on down to verse 24, and Peter says, "...Yea, all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." What days? Well, the days that have just taken place. The appearance of their Messiah, His miracles, His rejection, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, and now He's ready to return. And Peter says, "...All the prophets laid this out." We saw it last week in Psalm chapter 2, plain as day, all laid out in prophecy. But remember, nothing about the Church yet, nothing about Gentiles saved by grace. Then we'll read on. Verse 24, "...and all those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." Now look at verse 25, and remember He's addressing Jews. Verse 25, "...you are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, those back in Old Testament days, saying unto Abraham..." See how I've stressed that Abrahamic covenant the last 4 years? Everything is resting on that Abrahamic covenant. Verse 25, "...when He said unto Abraham, In thy seed shall all kindreds of the earth be blessed, unto you first, the nation of Israel, unto you first, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away..." How many? Everyone. Not 9%, or 10%, or 99%, but 100%. And if every Jew would have responded to this message, what could have happened? The King could have returned, of course they had to have the Tribulation first, and then the Kingdom could have been set up, and Israel could have evangelized the world. My, what an opportunity! And they miffed it. They rejected it. And so what did God do? Well, He converted another Jew, completely out of any prospect for being a man of God. The least that you and I would have picked, old Saul of Tarsus, saved him by grace, outside the land of Palestine on Gentile ground, took him down into the desert for 3 years, and seminary trained him between the Glorified Lord and old Saul himself, and then sent him not to the Jew, but where? To the Gentile, with a whole new program. But we'll come to that later. But now I'll come back to verse 8 once again. And so after the Holy Spirit would come upon them, they were to receive power to continue on with what Christ had been doing in His earthly ministry. Oh, I just happened to think of another verse. Let's go back to Mark. This is an interesting one, and it raises a lot of eyebrows, and a lot of questions, and I suppose a lot of controversy. Well I don't look for controversy, I don't like to argue with people, all I do is point out what the Book says, and let the chips fall where they may. You come back to Mark's Gospel, chapter 16, and drop in at verse 15. Now some people like to cop out on these verses and say, well it wasn't in some of the best newer manuscripts, but you know what? In the oldest and the best ones it is, and we're finding out now that a lot of these so called best manuscripts are anything but the best, but these verses are in the oldest and most reliable manuscripts. I was even reading an interesting book on a fellow who had numeralized all of Scripture, and of course you know what they do then, where every letter has a numerical value, and then by putting all these numbers together they come out with a beautiful numerical formula. It's just unreal. But anyhow he tipped these verses out, and it didn't work. He left them in, and everything fell right back in place. So I'm comfortable that these verses are appropriate, they belong here, and they are not to be removed or omitted. Verse 15. Mark 16. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, they can drink deadly things, and it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Now it's interesting what various groups do with these verses. I heard one preacher one morning, and I just almost laughed, and I don't like to do that under serious circumstances. He started with verse 16, and he said, He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. Evidently he didn't study much before he got ready for his sermon, and when he saw what he was running into from his point of view, he backed away like it was a buzz saw. Now why did he want to stop there? Well he wasn't in agreement with the next part of the verse, and so they just stopped. Now listen, that is not a valid way to treat Scripture. If you can't use all of a verse, if you can't use all of a chapter, leave it alone, because you're going to get in trouble if you're going to try to split it and leave part of it out. Now there are other groups that like that part, and I'll read on with me. So they can take the verse 17, and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall test out demons, and they shall speak with new tongues. So far so good. But now they don't like the next verse. And so they say, we'll stop here. I'm not about to tell my congregation that they can pick up poisonous snakes, or maybe the Kentucky Hill people can do it, but a lot of them don't get away with it either. It's not valid. It won't work. So what are you going to do? Force it? No. You just analyze the whole thing? Now wait a minute. This is all part and parcel of Christ and His earthly ministry. This was appropriate in the Jewish economy, because this is exactly what He had been doing. But it's not appropriate today, because the Jewish program has slipped off the scene, and something new has come in. And don't try to force these verses. And it's the same way with so much else of the Gospel. They don't let you tear it out and throw it away from your Bible. Not at all. My goodness, there are so many applications in the Gospels that are just as true for us as they were for them. It's the same way with the Old Testament. But on the other hand, you're going to come up against things in the Old Testament, and it causes nothing but problems. I remember years ago reading where someone was decrying women wearing slacks. And he went back and used the verse in the Old Testament where it says, "...that a woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man." Good heavens, what did men wear in Old Testament days? Tunics and robes. They didn't wear pants. Now what's a poor woman to do? She can't wear pants. She can't wear a robe. See how foolish things can get? And so we just have to be discerning and understand that when we read in the Old Testament the things that God hates, drunkenness, misuse of the widows, corruption amongst the clergy, amongst the priests, does God still hate it? Sure He does, and that's appropriate. But when you come to certain things that were written directly to the Jew under the Law, don't try to force it. It isn't for us. You can't practice that, because we're not under those circumstances. But we can certainly learn from all this, the mind of God, His righteousness, His holiness, and all the rest. And so we have to be so careful how we use the Scriptures. Now let's come back for just a couple of minutes to Acts once again. So they were to receive power to continue on with what Christ had begun with the nation of Israel. And remember I've shown you that verse over the last several weeks in I Corinthians, that the Jew required a sign. All you have to do is just reflect over your Old Testament. Where did the signs and miracles for Israel really begin? Well when Moses and Aaron went back to Pharaoh, that's where they began. But now here's a lesson that some people don't want to hear. When Moses and Aaron threw their rod on the ground and it became serpents, which was an act of God of course, what did the magicians of Egypt do? The same thing. And the only consolation we have is Moses and Aaron's serpent gobbled up the serpents of the Egyptians of Pharaoh, but listen, they changed the shepherd's rod into a serpent the same way that Aaron did. And they didn't do it with God's power, they did it with Satan's power. And listen, don't you sell old Satan short, he hasn't given up any of his power. Now I think I may have made reference to it in our last taping, that was several weeks ago when this gets on the air. I can remember our missionaries coming home from the dark parts of this world spiritually back in the 40's with their little old 8mm movies, and I'll tell you what, it was scary the power that those old witch doctors had, where did they get it? Not from God, from Satan. And Satan's power is not diminished one iota. And that's why in John's little epistle, in fact let's go back and look at it, we've got about a minute left and our time is gone anyway, and I don't want to go into another subject with only a minute. But in John's little epistle in the rear of your Bible toward the end, 1 John chapter 4, and oh listen, now as I'm going into the book of Acts we're going to be dealing with a lot of this, and I do not ascribe to emotionalism. I think it is detrimental to a Spirit filled life. But just simply take God at His Word, and look what it says in verse 1, "...beloved, believe not every spirit, but try or test the spirits whether they are of God." Now how are you and I going to determine whether something is of God? Line it up with a book. If it doesn't line up with a book, forget it. I don't care how good it looks on the surface, I don't care how it warms your emotion. If it doesn't line up with this book, leave it alone. But test the spirits, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. And listen, if John thought there were a lot of them at his day and time, which is toward the end of the first century, how many more have we got today? That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.