Why the Twelve Apostles Stayed in Jerusalem — 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, it's good to have all of you back once again for our final half hour of this session anyway. And for those of you joining us on television, we trust that you can feel like you're just part of the class, and we trust you'll take the Scriptures and follow them with us. We're going to go right back in and pick up where we left off at the end of our last program. And you remember, we stopped in Acts, and the big concern of the Twelve was, are you about to restore the kingdom? And then in our closing minute, I took you back to Matthew, where Jesus had promised the Twelve that they would indeed rule the Twelve tribes of Israel from Jerusalem under His authority, of course, when the kingdom would be set up. Now with that kind of an anticipation, I mean, that's the way the Lord left it. You will rule the Twelve tribes when the kingdom is set up and the earth is regenerated back like it would be in the Garden of Eden. So these guys were pumped up. Boy, they had a lot to be looking forward to. Now you come into the book of Acts, of course, Christ has now been crucified, buried, but risen from the dead. He has just spent 40 days with Him in His resurrected body, and now it's about the day for Him to be ascending, go back to glory, and there He is on the Mount of Olives with the Eleven. Of course, Judas is gone. And so now the Eleven, as we saw then in the last program, they said, verse 6, "...Lord, wilt thou at this time," now, right now, "...are you going to restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Now when the word again pops in there, you have to realize that Israel had reached her glory as a nation under what king or kings? Well, David and Solomon. And the glory of it had spread to the then known world. Well now, I think these men understood that even the glory of Solomon was nothing compared to the glory that it would be when their Messiah would rule and reign, and so they were excited. They were anticipating, and so the question was logical because here in chapter 1, go back to verse 3, Acts chapter 1, verse 3, "...to whom," that is, to the Eleven, "...to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion," his death, burial, and resurrection, "...by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining," to what? To the kingdom. See? To the kingdom. So for forty days in his resurrection body, what had he been doing? He had been explaining things that up till now they hadn't had a comprehension of. You remember I showed you, oh, go back all the way with me to Luke chapter 18, I'm sorry. Go back with me to Luke chapter 18 so that you get an idea of how blinded these men were. We've got John, Luke chapter 18, as to how totally unsuspecting they were of what was about to happen in spite of their knowledge of the Old Testament. As I said a couple of programs ago, they should have known, but they didn't. Now in Luke 18 beginning, oh, let's see, verse 31, "...then he," Jesus, "...took unto him the Twelve, and he said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished." You see that? Everything that was about to take place had already been foretold. His suffering, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his coming again, it was all back there. Psalms is full of it. I wish someday I could just teach a whole lesson or a series of lessons on the book of Psalms. The prophetic aspects of the Psalms, it's all in there. And that doesn't even mention Isaiah and all the others that we've already looked at. Now then, right on. Verse 32, "...for he," speaking of himself, "...he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles," the Romans, "...he shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, and they," that is the Gentiles as well as the Jews, of course, "...they shall scourge him, put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again." Plain English or plain Aramaic, whatever language he spoke, just as plain as it could be. But look at the next verse, "...and they," the 11 or the 12 here, 12 here yet, "...and they understood," how much? None. Not a word of it. It went off of them like water off a duck's back. It never registered. "...and they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things that were spoken." Now that's kind of hard to swallow. I know it is. But the book says it. And consequently, when the crucifixion came on the scene, were they expecting it? No. When he died, they placed him in the tomb. Did they camp out until that resurrection morning? No. Well, why not? They did not know. They did not know that he was going to rise from the dead. Now maybe they should have, but they didn't. Why? Because God had sovereignly kept them ignorant of it. Now always remember, when people write and tell me, my, you've just opened my understanding. No, I don't do that. That's not me. God does that. When you all of a sudden see a scriptural truth, don't give me the credit for it. You say, well, Lord, thank you for opening my eyes, because that's the way it works. He is the one that has to discern or help us discern the spiritual truth. All right, now while you're in Luke, stop at chapter 24, because you remember the verse in Acts says that for 40 days he spoke to them concerning the things of the kingdom. Now just for an example, here in Luke 24, he comes on the scene in his resurrected body. Now remember, he's come out of the tomb, and this is during that 40 days. Verse 40, and when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. Now he's physical. He's not there in some kind of a fog or like a Star Wars beaming up or down or whatever that was on, but whatever. He was there physically, visibly, and they saw the scars in his hands and his feet. Verse 41, and while they yet believed ... What's the next word? See, now most people read their Bible, and they don't see that little N-O-T in there. They didn't believe it. They still couldn't comprehend that all this had taken place. And as they believed not and wondered, and he said unto them, have you any food? Now the word meat in the King James, 99 times out of 100 means food. Have you any food? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and a piece of honeycomb, and what'd he do with it? Did he say, hey, fellas, I don't need this? No. He what? He ate it. He ate it. Now when we get into our new estate, when you and I enter into glory and we have our new resurrected bodies, when I tell people we're going to have pleasures that this world knows nothing of. Do you know that one of them is going to be eating, and we won't have to worry about a weight problem. We won't have to worry about a diabetical problem or a high blood pressure problem. We're going to have the pleasures of the ... You say, where do you get that? Because in Revelation 22, it says that the fruit of the tree of life will grow on both sides of the river. It's going to provide fruit 12 months of the year. And what's it for? To be eaten. See, and that's just one example. So anyway, the resurrected body is capable of ingesting food, but the glory of it is there'll be no need for sanitation. It's going to be a chemistry that is totally different than anything we know of. It's just going to be totally consumed instead of what, a small percentage of what we eat. All right, so he ate. Verse 44, and he said unto them there, these are the words which I speak unto you while I pause it with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written ... Now watch what this says. Everything Jesus says that were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. And now look at that next verse. And then he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. It took an act of God, see? And when he sovereignly ordained that they should understand these things, all of a sudden the lights came on, and they began to see this whole Old Testament program as it had been unfolding. Now here's the miraculous part of it, contrary to what most of us have had taught to us and preached at us, there is still not a single hint of the church age or of God going to the Gentiles any other way except through this prophetic program, which I'm still going to confine to the 490 years, 483 up until the cross. Now I thought we'd get there today, but we didn't. We'll make it next time. 483 years up to the cross, the seven years that were left, they could have happened, I say could have, immediately after he was going to ascend, he'd have been ready to come back, and all the prophetic program could have been fulfilled. But as I've been emphasizing, Israel didn't buy it. Israel rejected it. But nevertheless, the twelve, now the eleven, there will be twelve again, they now understood that all of this prophetic program had been fulfilled and was about to be fulfilled. All right, come back with me now then to Acts chapter 1 again. Acts chapter 1, and now come back to where we just left off in verse 6. Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Now if they were way out in left field, if they were talking about this physical, political, and spiritual kingdom that we've been explaining, and it was nothing but a spiritual, ethereal thing that's out there in heaven someplace, what would the Lord have said in this next verse? He would have upbraided them, and He would have explained, now listen, fellas, you're barking up the wrong tree, you're not understanding. But He doesn't. He lets them ask that question, and the only thing that He refuses to answer is not the if but the what, the when. There's no ifs, ands, buts, it's going to come. But He says, it's not for you to know when. Now according to the prophetic program, be sure you understand me, it could have come right in, the tribulation could have unfolded, the seven years, that has to happen, remember, because the program is 490 years in length. The tribulation could have happened within just a few weeks after His ascension. It could have run its course, and Israel could have had her king. Now I'm going to point this out a little bit if I've got time, and it might rankle your thinking a little bit, and a lot of people may just think I'm way out in left field, and that's all right, but I'm going to give you something to think about, and I'm going to make you study anyway. So He says, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons. Now then, since they don't know anything different, but the Old Testament program of death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and His tribulation, and His return. Now look what Peter does in Acts chapter 2, the Pentecostal chapter, the chapter where the Holy Spirit comes down to the nation of Israel, to the nation of Israel. And you remember how that they were all amazed at hearing in their own language from whatever part of the Roman Empire they had come for the Feast of Pentecost, which remember was a Jewish feast day, it was one of the seven feasts of Jehovah. Now then, they thought, verse 13, these men are full of new wine, they've just had too much to drink. But Peter says, no way, it's only 9 o'clock in the morning. So in verse 15 he says, these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. It's only 9 o'clock in the morning. But he said, what you are seeing, this is that, and what does that mean? Just exactly what it says. Peter says, everything that you've seen in these last few weeks, or even the last three years and some weeks, this is what Joel prophesied. Now here are a few programs ago we looked at these verses in Joel to show that the prophetic program runs constant right on through to the end. Now the amazing thing is, no, I guess we pointed this out in a lesson almost two years ago, the amazing thing is that Peter did not have the foreknowledge to stop where he should have stopped, like Jesus did back there in the temple. You remember when he stopped in the middle of that verse in the book of Isaiah, and he sat down and said, this day is this fulfilled, and you know what I'm talking about. He stopped exactly where he should have stopped, even though the rest of the verse continued on like these do. But see, Peter doesn't have that kind of knowledge. And so Peter quotes from Joel chapter 2, and he reads it, or he quotes it right straight through the prophetic program. Now look what he says. Verse 17, now he's quoting word for word from Joel 2, it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy, they shall speak forth. That was happening. See, this is what he meant. This is what Joel was talking about. You're seeing it. But he doesn't stop there. He should have, had he known, but what does he do? He continues the prophecy of the whole program, and he goes on to say, and I will show wonders in heaven above, signs in the earth beneath, blood, fire, vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come. Did that happen? Has it happened yet? No. But you see, Peter didn't know that it was going to be interrupted. Peter could see this whole thing coming right down the pipe, the tribulation, the return of Christ, and the setting up of the kingdom, and then what could Peter and the other 11 have done? They could have taken the knowledge of their Jehovah to the ends of the earth. Now you know, I shake people up a little bit. You know what the Great Commission says in Matthew 28? We call it the Great Commission. Go ye into where? All the world and preach the gospel. Did Peter and the 11 do that? No. No, they didn't. Were they remiss? No, because they knew their theology better than most people do today. It wasn't for them to go to the ends of the earth preaching the gospel, because they were not to do that under the covenant until they had the king. And so, this is where I can really shock people. Turn with me now to Acts chapter 8. We're going to come back to Acts chapter 3 in just a second. Now this is no study on the book of Acts by any means, but I still want you to see the flow of this Old Testament prophetic program even as far along as the book of Acts. We've come through the three years of his ministry, all on covenant ground, Israel under the law. Not once did Jesus even hint that the Jews were no longer under the law. Everything he spoke was to the Jew under the law. Now Peter comes on the scene here in Acts, Israel is still under the law. And here we are all the way back to Acts chapter 8, and this is seven years after Pentecost. Seven years. Now I know time's going fast for most of us, but seven years is still a pretty good little chunk of time. Seven years have gone by, and verse 1 of chapter 8, and Saul, that is, the one that will be Paul, Saul was consenting unto his death, that is, Stephen's. If we have time in this program, we're going to go back to it. Chapter 7. I doubt if we'll have time. And at that time, there was a great persecution against the assembly which was at Jerusalem, and they were all, that is, all those Jewish believers. And when the Scripture says all, I say it means all. Every Jew who had embraced the fact that Jesus was their Messiah was under such intense pressure that they had all left Jerusalem except, now read on, they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, and I have people underline those last three words. Everybody that had embraced the Lord Jesus as the Messiah ran for their life except who? Can you picture that? Here is such an intense persecution. People are being put to death for their faith, Jews, because of Saul's persecution. Remember, this is what Paul lived to regret, that he had persecuted those believers, and yet they all fled except the very twelve men that you would have thought would be the first to go. Why, why were they sitting so tight in Jerusalem when the Great Commission, we think, says they should have been long gone around the world, the then known world? But seven years, and they're still in Jerusalem, and persecution can't even drive them out. Now were they derelict in their duty? No, quite the opposite. They knew that they had no ministry to the ends of the world until this covenant program was fulfilled. Their ministry was to the Jew. Now let me show you. I'm going to go back to Acts again in just a minute, so keep your hand in it. Go with me to Galatians, all the way to Galatians. This is Paul's little letter now to the Gentile churches that he had established up there in Asia Minor, which is now the land of Turkey. And this is about twenty-two years after Pentecost, twenty-two years after Pentecost. And now they have called Paul and Barnabas back to Jerusalem on the carpet for having the audacity to go to Gentiles with that which they thought was for the Jew. That's the reason for this, what Paul is talking about. And so, just for sake of time, verse one of chapter two of Galatians, Paul says then fourteen years after, that is of what took place up in chapter one, fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation. Now whenever Paul uses the word revelation, he's referring to the fact that God had revealed to him the necessity to go. And so he goes up to Jerusalem to meet the wheels, I call them, of Judaism and of the believing Jews, those who had believed that Jesus was the Christ, the assembly or the church as we call it at Jerusalem. And so he said, I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. Now remember, the prophetic program has been interrupted now. We haven't come to that on the board, but I'm just trying to show you how that Peter confined his ministry to the Jew. And so he comes to Jerusalem to show the twelve this gospel that he is now preaching to the Gentiles. Well come on down to verse six, for sake of time, but of these who seem to be somewhat. Now he's referring to the twelve, whatsoever they were it maketh no matter to me, God accepteth no man's person, but they who seemed to be somewhat. Now that's kind of a snide remark, whether you realize it or not, because you see, by this time, twenty-two years after Pentecost, the prophetic program had begun to fall through the cracks. Israel was rejecting it left and right. And in the meantime, God had raised up this apostle of the Gentiles. While Israel is going down, the Gentile assembly is coming up, or the church. And so this is the setting. And so Paul says, these twelve who thought they were still in their prophetic program, not even realizing that it was falling away from them. Then verse seven, but contrary wise, when they, the twelve, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision, that's the Gentile. When they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision, that's the Jew, was to Peter, for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the Jew, the same God, was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. Now look at verse nine. And if you can see Peter, James, and John going to Gentiles in this verse, then you read English differently than I do. And when James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived or understood the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, they shook hands, and here's the hands-on agreement, this is what they shook hands over, that we, himself and Barnabas, should go to the Gentiles, the heathen, and they would go where? To the Jew. Now isn't that plain? How can you miss it? All right, now come back quickly with me to Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three. This follows shortly on the heels of the Pentecostal sermon of Acts chapter two. And now in chapter three, I'm going to try and wind this up before the program is over. I just want you to see that Peter is still aware of nothing but the covenant prophetic program promised to Israel. Verse 12 of chapter three, or verse 13, I'm sorry. And he says, He is the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers. Does that include Gentiles? Not a one. Not a one. This is so Jew only that you can't escape it. Whom you delivered up, and you denied him in the presence of Pilate. Verse 15, you killed the prince of life. Does that sound like our message? What do we say? Oh, God loved us, and He gave Himself for us. He died for our sins. Peter doesn't say that. Peter says, You killed him. Killed who? Your Messiah. Your King. See? And then he says in verse 17, And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it. Now, you remember, according to the law of Israel, ignorance was sort of a loophole. Then verse 19, we've got to go quickly. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus Christ. For what purpose? Well, to be their King. But, you see, then in verse 21, Peter knows that the times of restitution or the restoration of all things had to take place. That's the seven years. That's the seven years. That had to take place. And then, here we come now, all the way down to verse 24 and 25, Yea, all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after have likewise foretold of these days, see, the coming of the King and the kingdom. And then the 25th verse, You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, when He said unto Abraham, You're the children of the what? The covenant. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, 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.