This is Jesus, talking during these 40 days. He’s resurrected and returning to talk to His disciples. Think about what must be going on in the minds of the disciples and others. Think of Peter, John, Andrew, etc. When Jesus was arrested and crucified, what were they thinking? "It’s over. Stick a fork in it…it’s done. Nothing else is going to happen. Our leader has been crucified. He’s dead." -- Even though Jesus told them on several occasions, "I must be killed. I must be crucified. I must die for your sins." He told them that over and over. It didn’t sink in. Remember that we kept asking, "How could they not have seen it?" They couldn’t.

What do you think these disciples, Jewish people, are doing now? What did they have? All they had was the Old Testament. That’s all they had. When Jesus was resurrected and walked with them, what would you have done as a disciple? Go back and read the Old Testament again and ask, "Where is He? Where is He?" I would have searched for the ~360 prophecies predicting the Messiah, exactly what happened to Jesus. Can you see them during this 40-50 days? They’re sitting around doing a little Bible Study from the Old Testament and they get to the point in Isaiah where it says, "He was an innocent lamb, ready to be slaughtered." They would look around and say, "That’s Christ!" Can you feel they’re excitement? They’re living it. They’re absolutely, positively discovering exactly what happened.

It’s just like today, if Jesus were to come back the second time. Some, who are not Christians but knew the Bible, would be probing the Scriptures to find everything they could about His Second Coming. "He’s supposed to descend on a cloud with trumpets sounding…" You’d be doing the same thing. That’s what they were doing. This is the most exciting time they could ever imagine. Everything they’ve been told and taught has now come about and they’re searching the Scriptures to verify, substantiate, and feel good about it.

Do you all know what "the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms" means? He didn’t say "the Old Testament" because it didn’t exist yet. They called it "the Law of Moses" (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), "the Prophets and the Psalms." That’s what they called it.

Who opened their minds? Jesus opened their minds so they could understand what they were reading. Do you understand this? They didn’t know before but now they understand it. They’re getting the picture. They’re seeing what Jesus was talking about.

Do you remember when He told them that? He said, "You’re going to go into all the world and teach all nations."

What had He promised? The Holy Spirit, the Comforter. I want you to understand the word "Comforter." It’s the Greek word "fortis," the same word from which we get "fortify" and "fortitude." What’s "fortitude"? Courage. Energy. That’s the "Comforter." It’s not "Oh, it’ll be o.k. It’ll be alright"—that’s our definition. What will the Holy Spirit do? Empower! He’ll give you energy, fortitude, and courage to be witnesses.

So He told them to stay in Jerusalem these ten days until they were clothed with power from on high.

I want you to see the difference here. This is the Ascension. Forty days ago, the crucifixion occurred. What did we say their mindset was immediately following His crucifixion? Mourning, sadness, "It’s over with." They felt like Jesus had died and left them. He was away from them. Now they’ve seen Him depart, leave them again. What’s their reaction? Praising and worshipping with joy. Why? Because now they understand. They understand God’s plan for eternity—that Jesus had to die for salvation. He is the Son of God. He had to die for our sins. God raised Him from the dead and now they’re joyful. They’re waiting on the Holy Spirit. It’s exciting!

And don’t miss this when you read Acts. "They stayed continually at the temple." Don’t forget the effect of the Jewish influence on the Church. In other words, the book of Acts is really a book of transition. This is unbelievable. This is huge. It is the story of God transitioning His vehicle for communication to man from Israel to the Church. Do you see that? That’s what He’s done. God took everything He had poured into Israel and given it to the Church. If you go back and read the Old Testament, you’ll see God pouring out who He is and what He is on Israel. Now He’s shifting it to the Church. He’s saying, "I’m going to make this transition, this juxtaposition, from Jewish to the Church." We’ll build on this more.

We have Christians who are Jews still practicing Jewish traditions. When they became Christians, they didn’t just all of a sudden stop going to the temple, stop their offerings and gifts, stop saying their Shema, etc. Why? That was their religion. They were Jewish. But what did they do in addition? They said, "We have to learn about Jesus Christ. We have to grow in the knowledge and grace of Him." Somewhere along the line, they have to get away from the Jewish customs/traditions and focus more on His saving grace. That’s the Church. That’s the shift. We’ll talk more about it. But where did they go now? To the temple, the only place they know to go. Later on we’ll see that they met in their homes, not the temple.

This is just unbelievable stuff, isn’t it!? It’s phenomenal what God has done in putting this together. It’s believable because we put faith in it. But isn’t it unbelievable!?

Let’s get into Acts. I’ve given you some stuff to look for. You know what time period it covers. It’s the growth of the early Church. We’re going to read about how this transition occurred. There’s so much to read in here. The Holy Spirit is here.

Do you have a title with "Acts" in your Bible? Some say "Acts of the Apostles." Better Bibles say "Acts of the Holy Spirit." <Ha ha.> There are four apostles mentioned in Acts, including Paul. But the Holy Spirit is in almost every other sentence. So I think "Acts of the Holy Spirit" is a much better description than "Acts of the Apostles."

You’ll have to ask yourself, "How did the Church start from twelve and grow to hundreds of millions today?" What was the early Church facing? What made it such that the early Church should never have gotten off the ground? When you think about it, read about it, and study it, everything tells you "this should never have happened." It should never have happened. There’s no way this should’ve happened. Everything was against it:

• They were a defeated people (Jews),
• Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed,
• they were put down by their Jewish brothers,
• they were a small group,
• they were illiterate (except through the power of the Holy Spirit), etc.

That’s what you’ll read in Acts. You’ll get to the point where you’ll ask, "How was this possible!?" with all the things that came against the Church. In our minds, if we were starting a business, we would have quit. We would have said, "There’s no way we can finance this. There’s not enough support. We can’t do this." We, finite, human beings, would’ve said, "That’s it. Forget it. The Church will never happen." That’s why you study the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. It was only through the supernatural, spiritual power of the Holy Spirit that this happened.

Remember that "the former book" is Luke. Everyone wonders who Theophilus was. Some think physicians were slaves back then and Theophilus gave Luke, the physician, his freedom because Theophilus had been healed. Early church fathers tell us stories about Luke.

We just read about the Ascension. Jesus was taken up to Heaven.

Don’t miss the 40 days. The Gospels and Acts talk about all the teaching and confirmation Jesus did during those forty days.

The "kingdom of God" is another key point we need to emphasize—the "kingdom of God" in the Old Testament versus the New Testament. The Jews had their idea of "the kingdom of God" which was an earthly rule. That’s what the expected Jesus to do. He didn’t so they rejected Him and crucified Him.

The Comforter. The Holy Spirit. There it is again, repeated. Wait.

That’s the power, not man-power but God’s power. God said, "There will be a Church and nothing will come against this Church." Remember in Matthew, He said, "The gates of hell will not prevail against it." Jesus said, "Upon this rock, I will build my Church."

Also, keep in mind that we’re 2,000 years into the future. Looking back, we know what a church is, don’t we? What is a church? A group of believers. Those called out. These are really good answers but if you ask a normal person, what would they say? "A building. It has an address. It has a pastor and a staff. They meet for Sunday School and fellowships. They eat all the time. That’s a church." Well, this church baptizes, that church sprinkles. This church believes this and that church believes that. Do you see the word "church"?

We have to look at it from God’s point of view. What did these Jews, becoming Christians, think the "church" was? They didn’t know. It’s new! It’s a new thing God has going. It’s different. It’s not the Old Testament/Israel/Jews. As a matter of fact, the church is not just for the Jews but for whom? The Gentiles. But some Jews were saying, "You can’t come in unless you become a Jew first." This is earth-shattering. That’s what I want you to see. If you were a member of the early Church, you were asking every day, "What did we find out today? What is this ‘church’ thing? What are we going to do now? What’s going to happen?"

That’s why studying early Church history is so interesting. You try to figure out what they were doing to get things going and compare that with "Church" today and if you’re like me, you’ll ask, "How did we get in this mess!? What happened? How did we lose the purity of the early Church?" I’ll tell you one reason. I’m not saying this is true throughout the world, but in America, "church" is just another aspect of life. We treat it like, "Well, you go to school, you get married, you get a job, you have a child, you go to church. It’s just another thing. You either go to church or you don’t go to church. You have to have a position…you’ve got to know one way or the other." It’s become just a compartment—not a way of life.

The thing you have to see about the early growth of the Church was the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It was their way of living. It was their lifeblood. It didn’t matter whether they were slave or free, rich or poor. It didn’t matter. It was their way of life. That’s what we need to capture today to get back to the early Church and their way of life. The twelve quickly became 120. Who were the 120? It was the apostles, Mary (the mother of Jesus), other Marys, women, and men—people who had followed Christ before and were coming back. We’ll read that at the Day of Pentecost, the 120 becomes 3,000 in one day.

They were not a commune. They were still Jews through-and-through, still going to the temple, still practicing Jewish customs. You couldn’t tell the difference between an Orthodox Jew and a Christian Jew until the Christian Jews started meeting in their homes to talk about Jesus Christ. The Orthodox Jews thought the Christian Jews were a cult, off doing their own thing. The Orthodox Jews said, "We crucified that man they called ‘Messiah.’ He wasn’t the Messiah. We’re still waiting on the Messiah. We’re right. They’re wrong." We’ll see this in the early part of Acts.

That’s a fair question. What are the apostles asking for? "Is it time to set up the kingdom that you promised Israel?" This is so important to understanding the whole Bible. It’s on your timeline. They were promised the "kingdom of Israel." Do you remember God’s promise to David in 2^nd Samuel 7? God said, "The descendant of David will sit on the throne forever and ever." We know this is Christ. So the disciples are asking Him, "Is it time to restore the kingdom to Israel?" No. Not yet. He ascended.

Jesus is going to come back in Revelation. You’ll see the Jewish influence again in Revelation. If you read Revelation, after chapter 4, verse 1, all you read about is the tribes, temple, and sacrifices. Revelation 4:1 goes all the way back to Israel. Why? God says, "I have a plan. The seed from Abraham that will bless all the earth is Jesus Christ, my Son. He will die for everyone. I will resurrect Him and the Church will start. The Church is now my only witness to all the world." You are it. That’s why the Church is "the called out." This dynamic is what we’ll read in Acts.

This goes along with other Scripture. We don’t know when Jesus will return. We don’t know when the Rapture will occur. We don’t know when He’ll establish His kingdom on earth. But He says that He will. Just like the Jews were waiting on the Messiah, we wait on the Second Coming of Christ. We should all be aware of that.

That’s an outline of Acts. As you step through Acts, it starts in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and then all the world.

That’s exactly what we see in Acts. We’ll see God, through the Holy Spirit, working to get people out of Jerusalem. Remember that these are Jews and they don’t have the New Testament.

One of the controversies that comes along is that some Christian Jews say, "You know, if someone wants to become a Christian, they really need to understand the Jewish background first. So you have to become a Jew before you can become a Christian." That was what they called "doctrine." That’s what they thought and taught. In their own hearts and minds, that’s what they thought was the right thing to do. It took God, shaking them up, to separate the truth. Because if you become a Jew, you are under the Law/Old Testament. But Jesus brought Grace as the new reconciliation to God. They’re going to run dead on into each other. You can’t have both. You can only have one or the other. This controversy is addressed in Acts. They thought that the only way a Gentile could become a Christian was to become a Jew first. God will bring out His truth.

You also have to understand the mindset of the people. It is so easy for us to look back and say, "Oh, we know what the Church is." They were just learning. These were Orthodox Jews. They knew the Old Testament inside and out. They had a choice to make: for Christ or reject Christ. Some decided to reject Christ when they crucified Him. Others are ordinary, every-day, working Jews who had to make the same decision. Then there were non-Jew Gentiles who were godly. We’ll read about them. They had to make the same decision. They are not Jewish but must decide whether or not to accept Christ. As a matter of fact, it is these people who will show the light to the Jews. Finally, there were those who are "lost." We’ll read about them in Acts too. As you read certain sections of Scripture, you’ll have to ask yourself, "Who are they talking to? An Orthodox Jew, a Christian Jew, a godly Gentile, or a lost person?" If you know that, you can read Acts.

According to the Bible, there are no Jews and no Gentiles—only faith. One either accepts Christ by faith or rejects Him. By faith, Abraham believed. All the Jews throughout history were saved by faith. No one can ever live up to the Law. Even in the Old Testament it was all about faith, not the Law. The Law existed only to show you that you can’t live up to it. A true Jew is one who accepted Christ by faith before He came (like Abraham) or one who accepts who Christ is and what He did when He came. So what happens to a person who is born a Jew? The same thing that happens to a non-Jew sitting right next to him. If they don’t accept Christ, it’s over. They will go to hell.