ACTS CHAPTER 1, “Tarrying Upon the
Holy Spirit”
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1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In this study of the book of
Acts, we will be looking at the church from the perspective of the first
generation after the resurrection of Christ, as being the model of what the
church should really be like in all ages.
1.1.1.
We in the Calvary Chapel
movement believe that the first generation church was really the only church to
see what the Spirit of God wants and can do through the church, for that early
church was pure from doctrinal error and the plans and schemes of man, and it
was also the only generation of the church to turn the world upside down, and
in its own generation reach all of its inhabited world with the gospel
1.1.2.
This is not at all where the
mainstream Christian church today is looking for models of what the church
should be like
1.1.2.1.The philosophies of what the church should be doing and how it should
be modeled have not just recently detoured from looking at the church in the
book of Acts as its model, this process of looking elsewhere has been occurring
since that first generation after Christ.
1.1.2.1.1.When I was going to Bible college in the mid 70’s, and part of the
Southern Baptist churches, we ministers to be were taught the simple philosophy
of church growth of, “Build it and they will come!”
1.1.2.1.1.1.However, often times after the building was built the people didn’t
come
1.1.2.1.1.2.After a year or so into the planting of my first church, I suddenly realized
that I was not really interested in just having bodies in the church, rather I
wanted the people whom the Lord was leading to come into the church, because
the ones He wasn’t leading into the church ended up being a real pain and a
hindrance to the ministry
1.1.2.1.2.The mainstream church in the large has for many many years now looked
to the wisdom of man for its ideas and philosophies of church growth, etc., and
to show you how deeply these ideas have taken root, last year the number one
book sold in the Christian bookstores was a book titled, “Marketing The Church”
1.1.2.1.2.1.This book teaches that church growth is all about demographics, modern
marketing techniques, and salesmanship
1.1.2.1.3.During the 80’s and early 90’s I would weekly get brochures advertising
the latest church growth seminars, ‘Power Conferences’, ‘Seeker Friendly
Seminars’, etc.
1.1.2.1.3.1.However, these seminars and conferences didn’t stick with the model
given in the book of Acts for the church, nor did they stick with the counsel
of God’s Word regarding the church
1.1.2.1.4.Those in the church today who could be described as more of what we
call the ‘Pentecostal’ vein, have I believe actually moved away from the model
of the first century church because they have often emphasized the Holy Spirit to
the expense of emphasizing Jesus and the preaching of the gospel, and they have
also gone the extra-Biblical route seeking experiences not described anywhere
in the Bible, and not seeking to verify so-called ‘spiritual’ experiences
through God’s Word
1.1.2.1.4.1.Don’t get me wrong however, for in the Calvary Chapels we believe in
the gifts and baptism of the Holy Spirit, and we believe those are for today,
however, we also believe that we must follow the Biblical guidelines regarding
the use and practice of those gifts and movings of the Spirit
1.1.2.1.4.2.Jesus taught that when the Holy Spirit came He would glorify Him (John
16:14), and ‘Jesus’ and the preaching the gospel of salvation through Jesus was
the emphasis in the book of Acts, not the Holy Spirit for His own sake, however
many of these Pentecostal groups have errrored in making the Holy Spirit their
main emphasis
1.1.2.1.4.3.In the book of Acts its says that the signs would ‘follow them’ who
believed in Him (Mark 16:17), not that they were to follow after the signs
themselves
1.1.2.1.5.I have found it odd in the last few years when church leaders have sent
their people to a certain city and church because they couldn’t get the same
experience and anointing in their own city and church.
1.1.2.1.5.1.Isn’t the Lord present everywhere?
1.1.2.1.5.2.Do we really need to copy these formulas in the church?
1.1.2.1.6.What I believe the mainstream church really needs to do at this point
is to consider their marketing philosophies against what what the book of Acts
reveals concerning the church, and against the rest of the counsel of God’s
Word, and, to consider what Paul wrote to the Galatians in Gal. 3:3, “3 Are
you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the
flesh?”
1.1.3.
It has been said by many that
the book of Acts should really be called the, ‘The Acts of the Apostles’, since
the gospels tells us of the acts of Jesus, and yet in the book of Acts we see
great and wonderful things done by the hands of the apostles. However, what we also need to see is that the
book of Acts could rightly be called, ‘The Acts of the Holy Spirit’, because
the church is inaugurated by the moving of the Holy Spirit, and then continues
to grow and flourish at each point because of the fresh moving and inspiration
of the Holy Spirit
1.1.3.1.What the church needs today is the genuine moving of the Holy Spirit in
the lives of men and women who realize that in and of themselves they do not
have the ability to do anything of value for the Lord
1.1.3.2.In the mainstream church today, men and women have looked to their own
worldly and fleshly resources to build the church, yet in Matt. 16:18, Jesus
said to Peter that the church was His church, and that He would build it, “18 “And
I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My
church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it”
1.1.3.3.In the book of Acts, we see that the building of the church revealed a
sovereign working of God, and that there was a realization that what the church
needed was simply to be in synch with the Lord, hear His voice, and follow
where He led, and the rest would be His responsibility. We see this especially in Acts 13:48, when it
is written that God added to their number those who were ‘appointed’ unto salvation,
“ 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying
the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life
believed”
1.1.3.4.The Psalmist said in 127:1,
“Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it;”. However, if we will let the Lord build the
church, and do the things that the church did in the book of Acts, then we will
see the Lord work as He did in the book of Acts.
1.1.3.4.1.Those today who are teaching
and the ‘Church Growth Seminars’ that teach how that we can build the church,
are using the methods of men. However,
when they are done what they will have build is nothing more than a house of
cards. It will collapse all of a sudden
and be no more, for it is a house which the Lord has not built.
1.2.
So, that brings us to the
title of this message for chapter 1 of the book of Acts: “Tarrying On The Holy
Spirit”
1.2.1.
The disciples are told by
the Lord here in this chapter, Acts 1:4, 40 days after His resurrection, as He
was going to ascend up to Heaven, to go and stay in Jerusalem and to wait for
that moment in time when the Holy Spirit would fall upon the church, baptizing
the believers in the Holy Spirit, and that thenceforth they would receive a new
power which would enable them to do effective ministry
1.2.2.
Then, in chapter 2, we see
that the Holy Spirit does indeed fall upon the church 50 days after His
resurrection from the dead, the day of Pentecost, and the church was at that
point inaugurated and commissioned by the Lord for its calling to reach the
world for salvation
1.2.3.
But, it doesn’t end there,
for all the rest of the way through the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit
sovereignly just keeps falling on the church, and the Lord works mightily with
each outpouring.
1.2.3.1.Martyn Lloyd-Jones has aptly pointed out that after the book of Acts
period of time, the rest of the history of God’s working within the church,
including especially all of the periods of genuine revival, in every case was
initiated by the Lord sovereignly pouring out His Spirit upon humble and
willing believers through whom He has chosen to work
1.2.4.
Now, we ought to ask the
question up front here as to why the Lord would be telling His disciples to go
to Jerusalem and to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the outpouring
of power in their lives so that they can be powerful witnesses for Him, if as
we seen in the latter part of the gospel of John, John 20:22, that soon after
His resurrection He appeared to the twelve and gave them the Holy Spirit,
saying ‘receive the Holy Spirit’, “22 And when He had said this, He breathed
on them, and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”” [ I have to believe
also that if the Lord says, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’, you receive the Holy
Spirit! ]
1.2.4.1.You see, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a separate work in the
believer’s life from salvation. A person
receives the Holy Spirit at salvation, for everyone who is saved has the Holy
Spirit within him (Rom. 8:9), however a person is usually not ready in heart
and mind when he first comes to salvation for a powerful outpouring of the Holy
Spirit such as we see occurring in the book of Acts
1.2.4.2.Also, the ‘baptism’ of the Holy Spirit is different than the ‘filling’
of the Holy Spirit. For, according to
Eph. 5:18 we are all commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to be
filled means to be ‘controlled and empowered’.
However, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a much greater outpouring of
the Spirit, and it results in being used in an incredible mighty way, greater
than that which should be the daily result of walking being ‘filled’ with the
Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy
Spirit occurs not necessarily as a result of our faith and appropriating, for
as we see all throughout the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit ‘fell’ upon them,
indicating that it was a sovereign act of God
1.2.4.2.1.Martyn Lloyd-Jones correctly describes the difference between the
‘baptism’ and the ‘filling’ of the Holy Spirit by saying that it is sort of
like the difference between rainy days.
Some days there is just a drizzle, other days a steady rain, and then
there are days when there is just a downpour.
The downpour describes the ‘baptism’ of the Holy Spirit, for the word
‘baptism’ in the Greek means ‘immersion’
1.2.5.
Having said all of that, it
is important for believers today to wait upon the Lord, or ‘tarry’, as this
message suggests, upon the Holy Spirit.
It is important to pray to the Lord for gifts of the Holy Spirit, and to
realize in doing so that we need to have a supernatural empowering and gifting
of the Holy Spirit if we are to be used mightily by the Lord for the building
up of His kingdom. It is also important
to go to the Lord daily and ask Him to fill us with the Spirit, so that we
might be ‘controlled and empowered’ to be effective in our witness for the Lord
1.2.6.
It is important to note that
the Lord did not tell the disciples how long He wanted them to wait in
Jerusalem upon Him for the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’. I believe that if they knew that the Holy
Spirit would be poured out upon them on the day of Pentecost, that they would not
have been prepared in heart for that to occur, for they would not have sought
Him diligently all during that time leading up to the day of Pentecost
1.2.6.1.You see, all of those times in our lives when we are found in the place
of waiting upon the Lord, we ought to be tarrying upon the Holy Spirit, and it
is in those times of waiting upon the Lord for His leading and will that the
Lord performs a mighty work within us.
In those times the Lord begins to:
1.2.6.1.1.Purify our motives and cause us to realize that we need to let the Lord
truly be Lord of every area of our life
1.2.6.1.2.Normally, we tend to come to the Lord in prayer for the things that we
need, and our prayers tend to be selfish, however in those times the Lord
begins to reveal to us that we are to pray for His glory through all of our
prayers
1.2.6.1.3.We begin to realize that true prayer involves us finding out what the
Lord’s will us rather than us trying to convince the Lord to do our will in
situations
1.2.6.1.4.We tend to begin to confess sins that perhaps we have known for a long
time that we had in our life, however we had kind of shoved them to the back of
our mind
1.2.6.1.5.We begin to have the Lord’s heart for those who do not know Christ, a
burning desire to see people be saved
2.
VS 1:1 - “Acts 1:1 The
first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and
teach (NASB)” - Luke writes the book of Acts to Theophilus
2.1.
The author of
this book is obviously the same author of the book of Luke, the beloved
physician Luke.
2.2.
In the book
of Luke, the author wrote to this same man, Theophilus, and in that book he
calls him, ‘Most Excellent Theophilus’.
2.2.1.
This is a
title that would have been given to a Roman governor or high official, so many
have believed that this was the man’s station.
2.3.
In this
verse, Luke writes that in his first account, which we know to be the gospel of
Luke, that he wrote about ‘all that Jesus began to do and teach’. In saying this, he is referring to the fact
that Jesus was and is to the present time continuing to ‘do’ His works and
‘teach’ his people.
2.4.
Jesus told His
disciples on several ocassions that it was to their advantage that He might go
away from them, for if He went away the Holy Spirit would come to them and they
would do much more for the Lord through the Holy Spirit’s empowering. Thus, John recording Jesus saying the
following in John 16:7-11 , “"But I tell you the truth, it is to your
advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to
you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 "And He, when He comes, will
convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; 9 concerning
sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness,
because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; 11 and
concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged””.
2.4.1.
Had Jesus not
gone away from them, then He would only have been able to be in one place at
one time, however that would not enable them to do much at all in order to
advance His kingdom. Therefore, it was
truly to their advantage that He go away from them.
2.4.2.
In John
14:12, Jesus went so far as to say that the one who believed in Him would do
even greater things than He did because He went to the Father, and subsequently
sent the Holy Spirit to empower the church as witnesses
3.
VS 1:2 - “until the day when He was taken up, after He had by
the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. (NASB)” -
Jesus was with the disciples after His resurrection, until the day He
ascended up to heaven
3.1.
Luke says
here that Jesus did works and taught ‘until the day He was taken up’, or until
the day He ascended on a cloud up into heaven.
However, Jesus ascended up to heaven in body, but He remained on earth
as the Christ, and the book of Acts shows His works done by the Holy Spirit
through His church.
3.2.
In this
verse, Luke refers to the ‘orders’ that Jesus had given to the apostles, the
ones ‘whom He had chosen’. Jesus ordered
the disciples to stay in
3.3.
The church
often seems to have forgotten the Great Commission for which she was
established, for as Matt. 28:19-20 reveals to us, the church has been created
and established so that she can take the gospel to the entire world, “19 “Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all
that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
4.
VS 1:3 - “3 To these He also presented Himself alive, after His
suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of
the things concerning the
4.1.
Luke writes
in this verse about how Jesus appeared off and on after His resurrection,
revealing Himself to His disciples, ‘by many convincing proofs’.
4.2.
This book and
1 Cor. 15 are the post-gospel passages which reveal what Jesus did in the
interval between His resurrection and ascension. He bolstered their faith tremendously by His
appearing to them in different ways and times.
4.3.
Luke writes
that during the forty days between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension that
He was always ‘speaking of the things concerning the
4.3.1.
Jesus had
clearly commanded all of His followers to take up a mission, a mission called
the ‘Great Commission’, and thus He was supremely interested in the building up
of His kingdom.
5.
VS 1:4 - “ 4 And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave
Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; 5 for John
baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many
days from now. " (NASB)” -
Jesus told His disciples not to leave
5.1.
When Jesus
had gathered all of His disciples (the ones who were with Him) together on the
last day of this forty day period since His resurrection, He alluded to them
about what John the Baptist had said when He had first baptized Jesus, that he
‘baptized with water’, but when the Messiah (Jesus) would come, He would
‘baptize with the Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 3:11)
5.1.1.
This baptism
is not the same baptism as that which Paul wrote about in 1 Cor. 12:13, for in
that scripture it is the Holy Spirit Himself which is baptizing (remember the
word baptism means ‘immersion’) Christians into the body of Christ, as John
witnesses in Matt. 3:11 and Luke recalls here, Jesus is the One who will
baptize the believer in the Holy Spirit
5.2.
This is what
the church needs in every era, to come together with deep awe and worship of
God, and to fervently pray together for Him to do a great work and to break
down all of the walls that are standing in the way of God working.
6.
VS
1:5-7 - “6 And so when they had come together, they were asking Him,
saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to
6.1.
Luke records
in this verse the disciples asking Jesus if He was at this time ‘restoring the
kingdom to
6.1.1.
In Matt.
24:36, Jesus said that He Himself at that time did not know when He would
return to the earth, “36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the
angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone””.
6.1.2.
We Christians
must never be so arrogant nor foolish as to try to predict when the Lord is to
return, for the Lord Himself said that we would not and could not know that
information.
6.2.
We believers
cannot know the exact time when He is coming, and though it is important to be
watching and waiting upon His return, what is even more important is what Jesus
says in the next verse which is that we be His witnesses in the world.
7.
VS
1:8 - “8 but
you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall
be My witnesses both in
7.1.
The disciples
needed a power source in order to have powerful effective service for the Lord,
and Jesus tells them that they would receive ‘power’ (‘dunamis’ in the Greek),
and then they would be able to powerfully and effectively preach the gospel
wherever Jesus might send them.
7.2.
Jesus taught
what is to be the strategy of every church, and that is first to preach the
gospel and reach their own ‘Jerusalem’, then reach their own ‘Judea’, then
reach their own ‘Samaria’, and finally reach the ‘remotest part of the earth’.
8.
VS
1:9-11 - “11 9 And after He had said these things, He was
lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their
sight. 10 And
as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two
men in white clothing stood beside them; 11 and they also said, "Men of
8.1.
Luke records
that as Jesus was ascending up to heaven there were ‘two men’ who were standing
beside them wearing ‘white clothing’.
These men were angels, for they were dressed in white, plus we know that
from several other biblical accounts of angels, that the people who saw them
recorded that they appeared as ‘men’.
8.2.
When the
angels (men in white) asked the disciples who were standing there watching
Jesus ascend, ‘Why do you stand looking into the sky?’, they in essence were telling them that they
shouldn’t be so surprised at what they were seeing, for after all, Jesus would
return to earth ‘in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven’.
8.2.1.
That is,
Jesus will come again for His church upon the clouds, heavenly clouds just like
the one in which He ascended. Many New
Testament scriptures collaborate this view of the passage. For instance, Matthew records Jesus saying in
Matt. 24:30-31, “30
and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then
all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming
on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send
forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect
from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other”.
8.2.2.
This cloud in
which Jesus ascended to heaven reminds me very much of the shekinah glory cloud
that would appear to Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness when God would
speak to Moses and lead the people about
8.3.
It is
tremendously comforting to us Christians that the word of God records that
these two angels say to His disciples that this ‘same’ Jesus, as some
translations support, will come again.
The Jesus that the Bible tells us of, the one whom we read about in all
of the gospels, He shall come again for us who are part of His church.
9.
VS
1:12 - “12 Then they returned to
9.1.
This verse
shows that Jesus ascended up to heaven from the Mount of Olives, which is
likewise the place where Zechariah 14:14 says that Christ will return when He
comes at the end of the tribulation to battle all of the nations that are
assembled together to battle against Jerusalem.
10.
VS
1:13-14 - “13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room,
where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip
and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the
son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 These all with one mind were continually
devoting themselves to prayer, along with the
women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. (NASB)” –
The disciples are all together in the ‘upper room’ and were continually
devoting themselves to prayer
10.1.
Some think
that this was the same room that Jesus took His disciples to have their last
supper together, however there is no internal proof for that view from the
bible.
10.2.
We see in
this passage that the Lord’s mother is there not as someone to be worshipped,
but simply one of God’s worshippers. She
is never mentioned again in any of the biblical accounts of the New Testament. The Lord’s brothers had just come to believe
in Him, as they did not believe in Him until He had been raised from the dead.
10.3.
These verses
reveal what is really the key to church growth:
prayer and seeking the Lord. The
10.3.1.We in the church would do well to come to the Lord and
seek Him in lengthy prayer times. What
great things for God’s kingdom would be accomplished if we would dedicate
ourselves to spend days and weeks in continual prayer to the Lord.
10.3.2.So many churches these days will go to every kind of
conference or rally in search of empowering by God, when in reality they would
do much better to spend their time just seeking the Lord in prayer and worship
11.
VS 1:15-17 - “15 And at this time Peter stood up in the midst of the
brethren a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there
together, and said, 16 "Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the
Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide
to those who arrested Jesus. 17 "For he was counted among us, and received
his portion in this ministry."(NASB)”
- Peter addresses the disciples about
scripture revealing prophetically Judas’ betrayal of Jesus
11.1.
Luke records
the approximate number of people who were here gathered to pray and worship the
Lord, and they were about 120.
11.2.
The
scriptures that Luke may have been referring to include the following:
11.2.1.Psalm 41:9: “9 Even my
close friend, in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel
against me”.
11.2.2.Psalm 55:12-15:
“12 For
it is not an enemy who reproaches me, Then I could bear it; Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me,
Then I could hide myself from him. 13 But it is you, a man my equal, My companion and
my familiar friend. 14 We who had sweet fellowship together, Walked in the house of
God in the throng. 15 Let death come deceitfully upon them; Let them go down alive
to Sheol, For evil is in their dwelling, in their midst”
11.3.
Over the
centuries many have said that the disciples were not in the Lord’s will in
making this decision, since that the Holy Spirit had not fallen upon them as
yet. They look at the means of making
the selection as being faulty and reflective of the Old Testament times,
namely,the drawing of lots to make a decision.
Many, including myself, believe that the apostle Paul was to be the
twelfth apostle of the Lord’s choosing, not Matthias. It does appear that the disciples were
sincere and humble in seeking the Lord and what He wanted them to do here,
however we really don’t know for sure if they were truly in the Lord’s will in
it.
12.
VS
1:18-19 - “18 Now this man acquired a field with the price of his
wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his
bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all who were living in
12.1.
This verse
talks about how the 30 pieces of silver were used which Judas received for
betraying Jesus. In the gospel of Matt.,
25:7, the author records that the high priest used the 30 pieces of silver
which Judas threw into the temple, in order to buy the field. Verse 18 seems to contradict this, however
the point of this passage is not to say that Judas himself bought the field,
but rather that it was from the money which he received that the field was
bought.
12.2.
Verse 18
describes the scene where Judas hanged himself.
He apparently fell a good distance down from the gallows, and perhaps
his head came off, and when he hit the ground his body cavity burst open and
all of his intestines and organs popped out.
Then, as a result of Judas’ blood (and perhaps also Jesus’ blood) being
spilt as a result of Judas’ receiving this money, the field that was purchased
with this money became known around the environs of Jerusalem as the, ‘field of
blood’.
13.
VS
1:20-23 - 20 "For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let
his homestead be made desolate, And let no man dwell in it'; and, 'His office
let another man take.' 21 "It is therefore necessary that of the men who have
accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us-- 22 beginning
with the baptism of John, until the day that He was taken up from us-- one of
these should become a witness with us of His resurrection. " 23 And they put
forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas who was also called Justus, and
Matthias. 24 And
they prayed, and said, "Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men,
show which one of these two Thou hast chosen 25 to occupy this ministry and
apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. " 26 And they
drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was numbered with the
eleven apostles. (NASB)” – The disciples put forth names to consider for
the one to replace Judas as an apostle, and then drew lots and Matthias was
chosen
13.1.
Quoting from
Ps. 109:8, Peter tells the 120 who were gathered from prayer and worship that
they were to appoint another man to take the place of Judas, so that their
might be a full 12 apostles.
13.2.
Peter seeks as
the pre-requisite for the work of apostleship that the person to be chosen
should have accompanied the disciples from the very early days of John the
Baptist all the way up to the day of Jesus’ ascension, so a pre-requisite of
one who is to be a capital ‘A’ apostle is that he had been with Jesus from the
beginning
13.2.1.Obviously, this would rule out the posibility of any
of us accepting the office of a modern day capital ‘A’ apostle, since all of
the apostles which met the criteria which Peter reveals died by early in the
second century.
13.2.2.I do believe though that all of us ought to desire to
be small ‘a’ apostles, in the sense of one who is being sent out to do a ground
breaking ministry for the Lord