BibleProject - Acts E1: The Startup of Christianity

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

Starting point is 00:00:17 and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Starting point is 00:00:32 There's over 7 billion people on this floating rock we call Earth, and one out of three of those identify as Christians. How did something so massive and so widespread begin? Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. Today we're starting a new series on the Book of Acts. Last year we put out a video series on Gospel Luke. Luke, who wrote that Gospel, also wrote a sequel of sorts about the life and movement of the early church, a book we call Acts. Luke has even created the main movements of Acts to map on to keep movements in the Gospel of Luke.

Starting point is 00:01:13 Christianity today is big, it's complex, it's all over the world, but it hasn't always been that way. What was Christianity like as it began before the movement went viral. Book of Acts wants to tell us that it started with this crew in an upper room of disenfranchised suspect. Messianic Jews, it's remarkable. Just like every book of the Bible, the Book of Acts is literary genius. It's not simply a diary of events of the early Christians. Its purpose is theological. It's to tell us something deep and meaningful about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The book of Acts is telling me that if I've given my allegiance to Jesus, I'm a part of a Messianic Jewish sect that started as a persecuted religious minority movement in ancient Jerusalem. Like that's a living heritage.

Starting point is 00:02:09 So today on the show we go back to the roots of Christianity. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. So at some point a year ago or so we were gonna do a video on Luke and we had a conversation on Luke which is on the podcast. Yep. And I think it was just a couple of hours long conversation. Yeah, that's right. And one of the things that stood out to me was that Luke intentionally really slowed down

Starting point is 00:02:40 the stories and put you in there and there was a lot of relational dynamics that were really important. And so it felt like an opportunity for us to slow down our storytelling and do Luke and not just one five minute video, but we ended up doing five. Yep. Five minute videos. Yes. So 25 minutes of Luke. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:04 It's awesome. And that's out. And it is awesome. But then we started to realize, or at least I started to realize at one point, like, oh, we should just do the same thing for Axe. Yes. Keep the same style. Yeah, it's intended. It was designed as a two-part work. Yeah. If you compare the first sentences of Luke and the first sentences of Acts, they're both little notes from the author to the most likely the financial sponsor. The opalist? The guy named the opalist. Yeah. Who the author likely Luke writes to and says, hey, here's why I'm doing this and here's how I made the book. Yeah, it's awesome. He intended them to be read Consecutedly so right we thought let's just turn it into a little mini series. Yeah, the Luke Axe mini series

Starting point is 00:03:51 Luke Axe mini series. Yeah, so we're moving into acts Mm-hmm the book of acts. Yes, we're not gonna take five Videos we're not gonna do five videos in it well But we didn't start our conversation and about Luke's continuing to do five either. But you've kind of already thought it through and think that there's three videos in this. Yeah, I think there's three large movements in the book of Acts. And actually the first sentence is, give you a map of the whole book, the opening scene gives you a map by geography and kind of narrative

Starting point is 00:04:25 movements. So we could slow down, but I think X can be grasped. You can get the basic thing. Three movements. Shooting for three videos. Awesome. Perhaps John Collins, you would like to read the opening to X? The opening to X.

Starting point is 00:04:40 I'd love to. Yep. For the first eight verses of the Book of Acts. The first account I composed, theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach. And so this is Luke. This seems unique. Yes. Like there's no other book that starts this kind of way. Yeah, these two works. Well, that's true. In terms of narrative works, the Luke and Acts are the only narrative books that open up with a personal introduction.

Starting point is 00:05:10 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this is Luke, the first account I compose, being the gospel of Luke, the office of all the, that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up to heaven. After he had by the Holy Spirit given orders

Starting point is 00:05:25 to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these, he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days. I didn't know, I didn't realize 40 was in, yeah, yeah it is. There's a crossover to Paul, his letter to the first letter to Corinthians, where he talks about he appeared to the apostles,

Starting point is 00:05:50 to Peter, to James, to me, and then he talks about there were appearances to hundreds of people at one time, even. So Paul's independent witness to this season after the resurrection when Jesus was appearing to lots of people in small groups and in large groups. And here is a narrative about a large group. Some of the large group appearances. He doesn't call out in the gospel that it was 40 days. Correct. Yeah. The little 40 day thing is just unique to the introduction to acts. And you've mentioned for 40 days is about testing. Hmm. Well, it's a good case of testing.

Starting point is 00:06:27 Yeah, or more of that, many, a common motif within 40-day scenes is testing. Yeah. But that doesn't make sense. Why call out 40 here? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm sure there's a connection. I just don't know what it is. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:44 Okay. I'd have to do some homework. So he appeared to them over 40 days speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Which is what he was doing before? That's what the whole book of Luke was about. Kingdom of God is here. He's like, sorry. Sorry about the death and resurrection thing. Let's keep going about the kingdom of God.

Starting point is 00:07:00 Well, or- But with a new perspective. Yeah, or that the kingdom of God has truly been inaugurated now through the exit. All that stuff we were talking about is happening. It's happened. The cross was his new throne meant, and the resurrection was his exaltation. So 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. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Starting point is 00:07:31 Not many days from now. Not many. So here, this is a good, you know, scroll technology here. When you're writing a multi-volume work with the technology of the scroll, a really common way is to hyperlink the ending of a scroll in the beginning of the next scroll. So he's kind of overlapping that conversation at the ending of Luke, where Jesus says, wait, here in Jerusalem until you receive power from on a high.

Starting point is 00:08:00 The heart says it, Luke. Well, let's see, yeah, power from on high. Yeah, that's right. I actually, I merged the ending of Luke and Axe in my head. So it's kind of hard to tell him apart, which means that he did a good job. Yeah. Because I mix them in my head.

Starting point is 00:08:14 Yeah, so wait here for power from on high so that you can go out and announce repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all the nations. That's the ending of Luke. Now, here it's picking up that theme and filling it out a little bit more. Namely, that the power is the personal presence of God Himself, the Holy Spirit. So he just called it power at the end of Luke. Yeah, now it's the Holy Spirit. And now it's, we developed that to the Holy Spirit. So when they had come together they were asking him

Starting point is 00:08:45 saying, Lord is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom of Israel. He said to them, it's not for you to know times or epochs which the Father is fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth. So epic, it's good, it's great introduction. So two things, well, no, probably many things. So Acts begins from the vantage point of Luke writing to some well, likely a well-to-do convert. point of Luke writing to some well likely a well to do Convert, Patron.

Starting point is 00:09:25 Patron, somebody who has enough expendable resources to sponsor the writing of a research of an apostolic scroll. Yeah, yeah. So that's a big deal. The point is we're decades into the Jesus movement from the vantage point of the author. Okay. So for me, this is helpful to thank the voice that I'm hearing

Starting point is 00:09:47 narrate the story of Jesus, and then here the story of the spreading of the Jesus movement is a voice that is already decades down the line, decades into the movement. So wherever the book ends in terms of narrative time, the narrative's voice is even later than that. So this is somebody boiling down the last few decades of the movement. It's a one work, into one work, and trying to get us, and even though he's Luke has been really careful and intentional, brilliant, and crafting this work,

Starting point is 00:10:26 it's the same principles that we had when talking about the Gospels. He's not just interested in telling us a history of the early movement, because there's so many unanswered questions that he doesn't address about what, who, when, where, how. Yeah. So he adds a mission to tell the story in a way that also, just like the Gospel, helps us understand the meaning of the events. We had a lengthy discussion about that, Luke, podcast, about why is that a valid way of telling a story. And the advantage that we had with Luke was that we have one of his sources available

Starting point is 00:11:07 to us in the collection of the Gospels, namely Mark. And there are some people actually that hold that Luke had Matthew and Mark in front of him. That's kind of a minority view on the composition of the Gospels, but it's growing. It's kind of having a renewal movement in scholarship. So either way, Luke, we had the advantage of seeing some of Luke's source material to know how he reordered events, maybe reshaped wording. But once we get into acts, we don't know what his sources were, but we learned about his main themes from the gospel account,

Starting point is 00:11:45 namely that he was interested in showing the socio-economic implications of Jesus' kingdom message. Remember Luke turned up the volume on the upside down value system on the inclusion of the poor, the outcast, the stranger about more teaching about wealth and resources than any of the poor, the outcast, the stranger, about more teaching about wealth and resources than any of the other gospels. So we should expect to find the same types of themes here. As he narrates the story of the early Jesus movement,

Starting point is 00:12:16 he's gonna highlight stories of socioeconomic disturbance in the force of Jesus as a king, but with a totally different kind of value system of the most important people or the people that suffer and give up the most. You know, that kind of thing. And long and behold, that's, you know, and the role of the spirit, Luke in the gospel of Luke, Jesus, just the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the gospel of Luke more than in Mark or Matthew or John. No, we didn't talk about that. We didn't talk about that. I don't know if we did. I don't remember that.

Starting point is 00:12:51 Yeah, he just, he'll add lots of little introductions to, and in the power of the Spirit, Jesus went to this place or that place. Whereas if you look up to parallel story in Mark, it'll just say, and Jesus went here. So already in the Gospel of Luke, he's laying the seeds for Jesus as the model, the new human, the new spirit and powered human, who's gonna then empower his followers to be those things, gonna be. So let's just by wave an introduction

Starting point is 00:13:22 to how to read a book like Acts. It's not just a history. It's not just a history and it seems like the more we've talked about Jewish literature and understanding how it works Luke is drawing upon all of those same techniques of using like the 40. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Jewish like settings like 40 years and Jewish like settings like 40 years and yes, um, and

Starting point is 00:13:48 It seems like he you probably gonna bring this up But like it's a fire remember correctly the three movements of Luke are kind of mapped on to the Judea Mm-hmm or Jerusalem Judea ends of the earth and that's a very literary Mm-hmm way of wrapping it together versus yes like a historical Yeah wrapping it together. Yeah, historical way of wrapping it together. Yeah, I want to, so we'll have the visual style of the videos be the same. That's that's that. But yeah, Luke has even created the main movements of acts to map on to key movements in the gospel of Luke, so that Jesus is Gal, his mission up in Galilee,

Starting point is 00:14:22 which was the first large movement. Maps onto the mission of the disciples in Jerusalem in the first movement. Yeah. Then remember Luke had that long journey section in the middle and it was just a string of, and he went here and had this conversation. Then he went here and had this meal and taught on this.

Starting point is 00:14:43 That maps on to the missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabas in the center of Acts. And then Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and then his conflict, the trial, all maps on to Paul's arrival in Jerusalem. And his conflict, arrest, mistrials, except where it lands Paul is on a boat to Rome, and he ends with him in Rome announcing the Kingdom of God. But each of those, it's totally the threat. He's designed acts to map onto the story of Jesus for entry. Yeah, and that's a very, this seems like a very Jewish thing to do. Totally. Oh, let's take these stories and the way they were told here and let's re-architect our stories to map onto those.

Starting point is 00:15:31 That's right. And not just to be fancy, there's a theological claim being made there that when Jesus' followers are faithful, their life story will follow the arc of the Jesus story. So interesting. Yeah. That something that important to communicate is just embedded in how the story unfolds. The architecture of the story. The story. Yeah. Were you the one telling me about the book? The guy was writing a book. He just did a really geeky thing where he took like Pride and Prejudice or some book and he like oh I was telling you about this.

Starting point is 00:16:09 Yeah. Yes. Was that again? That was a New Testament scholar named NT Wright. Oh. NT Wright did that. Yeah. Well, he was, yep, in his fat book on the Apostle Paul. He had a whole section in there about the way Paul weaves in, non-explicit quotations and illusions from the Old Testament. But it's subtle. And he's so weaving them into the texture of his argument. Yeah, if you don't already know it, you'll miss it. And so he's gotten some, and this isn't actually only his argument.

Starting point is 00:16:51 This is a whole wave of scholars in Nerd-Dun-Paul, who are saying, you really get Paul, you need to know this is how he talks. Talks with Old Testament language without drawing attention to it. You're just supposed to know. And so, and he right did, was he structured one whole chapter of that book. The opening paragraphs, the closing paragraphs are modeled on really important,

Starting point is 00:17:18 transitional stories and episodes in, yeah, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. And then he laid a little breadcrumb illusions and phrases all the way through that chapter. And then I never told anyone. I never told anyone, and I actually, I heard, I was either a lecturer interview where he said that's what he did.

Starting point is 00:17:37 And he said it's been funny to watch, because he wanted to show that like, this isn't, this is the thing the authors do. If you're a good author, you know how to do this. You know how to creatively work and nod to your influences. And so he tried to do it himself in that work. That's so good. Yeah. Yeah. Anyhow. Yeah. So, but that's the technique. That's the technique. And it's, yeah. It's not just Jewish, but it's something that in Jewish literature they were doing. Yeah, on still.

Starting point is 00:18:07 Yeah, they've perfected this technique. So much so we're going to make other videos just about this. About this technique. Yeah, but we'll see it occur a lot in the book of Acts. But it's that core value. He's making drawing a deep level analogy between the story of Jesus and these stories of his disciples. So at multiple points in the book of Acts, he'll tell a story about the trial and execution of Stephen. And you feel like you're reading the story of Jesus' crucifixion at some moments.

Starting point is 00:18:37 And it's deliberate. When you're reading of Paul's trials, you feel like, oh, I heard that line from Jesus' trial, and that's because you did. So videos give us a great opportunity to model scenes on earlier scenes. Yeah, because we could do visually what he was doing. Correct, yeah. Literally. Yeah, so the crucifixion in Luke, part four, we have two

Starting point is 00:19:01 opportunities with Stephen's execution and Paul on trial to create the parallels. Yeah, so that would be cool. But the core value underneath it is that when Jesus followers are faithfully representing him in the world, their story will look like his, which means sometimes it's awesome, and great impact and sharing and the poor are fed and people find new families and love forgiveness. And other times, the story of Jesus is reflected when Jesus' followers are kidnapped and put in prison and murdered. And that too, it's a sad reflection, but it's a realistic one of the role of Jesus' people in the world. One other thing about that introduction, I thought it was cool.

Starting point is 00:20:28 I didn't discover this myself, but other people pointed it out. That the opening sentences of Acts, the first account about all that Jesus began to do and to teach. And you think, oh, okay, volume one, book of Luke. But then look at what he says, after all that Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day he was taken up to heaven, after he had given orders to the apostles to whom he had chosen. So in other words, the account is what he began to do in the teach, until he had hung out and taught the disciples for 40 days.

Starting point is 00:21:06 And you're like, wait, that hasn't happened yet. And then that's the next thing he's about to tell you. In other words, what Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up and then through the Holy Spirit giving orders to the apostles, well, when does that end? And orders to the apostles. Well, when does that end? And that's what this whole book is going to be about, is about Jesus through the Holy Spirit giving orders to the apostles whom you had chosen. So it's a clever way of uniting the two books that if volume one is what Jesus began to do, then what is this volume? This is what Jesus did. Yeah, what he continues. He's continuing. And so wait, so he says it's the first account, the first continues. He's continuing. And- So wait, so he says it's the first account-

Starting point is 00:21:47 That's right. But he's really describing what he's going to talk about in the second account. Yeah, it's kind of clever way to say, remember volume one, that's what Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day he started teaching through the Holy Spirit, which is about- I'm about to tell you about that 40 days in the Accentence, but the 40 days doesn't bring Jesus's teaching through the whole Spirit to a close. It actually just opens a new horizon. And it raises an interesting observation then about the name of this book, because the book, the Acts of the Apostles, the earliest I think attestations of that aren't till a couple hundred

Starting point is 00:22:22 years later. And that phrase, the axe of, is a pretty traditional Greek and Roman title for an early biography. The axe of Aristotle, something like that. But if you want, based on these opening sentences, he frames it as... The axe of the Holy Spirit. The axe of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. Like that would actually be a more accurate title. the acts of the Holy Spirit. The acts of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Like that would actually be a more accurate title. And it's true, the only character who continues from page one

Starting point is 00:22:51 to the last page of Acts is Jesus and the Spirit. Because the story transitions from the apostles to mainly Peter to then Paul throughout the book. Each one kind of ushered in and ushered off the stage. So I'm all for renaming the book. Each one kind of ushered in and ushered off the stage. So I'm all for renaming the book. The acts of Jesus. The acts of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Now did they did he not give his works titles then? Like when these were passed around. Yeah. Was it just like, hey, do you have the Luke scroll? Yeah, right. Like what do people call it? That's a good question. There's a German scholar who pioneered the argument, his name's Martin

Starting point is 00:23:32 Hengel. He thinks the titles, the singular gospel according to Matthew, according to Mark. He thinks that those are early, but they reflect the time period at which church community started to have more than one scroll. Which you think that would take a few decades for them all to circulate so that the Church of Colossae or the Church of whatever Ephesus would have all four. And a title like the gospel according to so-and-so only makes sense in a setting where you have more than one available to everybody now. But that probably the early 100s. But if you're in the early 100s, you're still within living memory of who wrote what just by reading it. Just today, you always put a title on something.

Starting point is 00:24:26 That's right, even if it's a school paper. Correct. And that was his argument was, there's no way that these scrolls were conceived of as anonymous or that like a missionary would bring one to Ephesus and be like, hey, I got this scroll. I don't know, it's about Jesus. I was told for some in Apostle. You know, these were expensive to reproduce. So they would have always had

Starting point is 00:24:51 a personal connection. I'm just saying when you enroll the scroll, you get to the ones side, does it say like, yeah, we don't know. Some sort of title. We don't know. We don't have it. We don't know. But the need for titles and the need for remembering and attributing would be right from the very beginning. We just don't have evidence. So, here's what I think we could do in the video from the opening scene. Opening scene raises some interpretive questions, but so I thought we could talk about them. But really, I want to talk about how this opening scene can set the trilogy, the X trilogy. So what's he doing in the opening scene? He's instructing them for 40 days about the Kingdom of God. And then the next thing that disciples ask is a question about the Kingdom. And they say, is this the time that you're going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?

Starting point is 00:26:02 And Jesus' response has to some people look like kind of a dodge. Yeah, it's a little. But the question is, is it a dodge? Right. So when you kind of affirmed that, as you read, did that, is that what occurred to you when you read Jesus' response?

Starting point is 00:26:17 Yeah, it kind of seems like, it kind of seems like it's a non-answer for when you know it's gonna be too much trouble to try to talk about it, you know? It's gonna like... Gosh, I pulled this a lot at home. Like when I get home from a day at work, a Jessica would be like, hey, you know, hey, what happened today? And there's the list of things that are probably important, but I'm just like, oh man, it's gonna take so long to explain.

Starting point is 00:26:49 And it's bad, it's bad, it's not good. And then I just say, it was good, it was fine. You don't tell her, it's not for you to know. I know the times where the epochs of my day. Yeah, that would be a really error. Very good thing to say. So this is a little different, I guess, for your Jesus, I guess. Well, I mean, one of the things that occurs to me when I read this is that the apostles

Starting point is 00:27:13 are still thinking in a paradigm of a kingdom that emanates from Jerusalem, that's a political power, that it seems to be embedded in this question. Like cool, you died, you came back, we're talking about the kingdom still, but when Israel gonna be free from Rome and when are we gonna lead this nation the way that God watches too? There you go.

Starting point is 00:27:39 So yeah, I think, yeah, you felt it. That's the question is, is that their question, what is their question actually? If that's their question, then I understand that Jesus is dodging at this point because he's like, come on guys, like. However, if that's their question, you have to ask, was Jesus not an effective communicate?

Starting point is 00:27:55 Right. Because they just had a 40 day class on the kingdom of God. Yeah. And a 40 day class, yeah. And a couple of years before that. Okay. And we could maybe give him grace before the resurrection. Yeah. And 40 day class. Yeah. And a couple years before that. Okay. And we could maybe give them grace before the Resurrection. Yeah. For not getting it at this point. They should get it. Yeah. So for a long time, I thought their question was a moment where you go serious guys. But I have some reservations now about my earlier questions. You think it's for them to be good?

Starting point is 00:28:25 Well, this one in the narrative, the point is they just spent 40 days with the risen Jesus. Yeah. And the way the two on the road to a mass, it was when they recognized the crucified and risen Jesus, that's when they get the kingdom and what it's about. So, let's... So you think they get it now. They get the upside down nature of the kingdom. They get-

Starting point is 00:28:46 Yeah, so if they get it, you have to ponder, why do they use the phrase restoring the kingdom to Israel? Right. Because that could mean they're just still thinking in maybe some nationalist, merely political agenda, you know, kicking right out the Romans.

Starting point is 00:29:04 But restoring God's rule over Israel is a really like important to stock theme in the the prophets. That's the vocabulary. The vocabulary. And it's actually how the promise to Abraham always worked was, I'm going to bless your seed, your family, and then through your family, I'm going to bless your seed, your family, and then through your family, I'm going to bring blessing to all the nations of the earth. And that's why the exile of Israel to Babylon was such a problem. Because God wants to bless all nations, but first He asked to repair the relationship with these people. It's the story within the story. We've talked about this. So in that sense, asking, okay, you're the risen king. So when are we going to restore the new covenant,

Starting point is 00:29:52 Holy Spirit, new heart, obeying the Torah, including the real and then to the end of the world? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Paul's phrase to the Jew first and then to the Greek. And if they're thinking in that paradigm, then that makes all the sense in the way it's the most natural question you would ask. to the Jew first and then to the Greek. And if they're thinking of that paradigm, then that makes all the sense, it's the most natural question you would ask.

Starting point is 00:30:09 When are we getting to work? When is the new covenant Israel? I'm enjoying this 40-day class. But when do we go out? That's right. Yes, start doing something. So some Christians have read Jesus' answer as a postponement, because they're in the paradigm of to say the

Starting point is 00:30:25 kingdom to Israel means a national messianic kingdom in Jerusalem, no bad, no Romans. Yeah. And that's not what happens in the book of Acts. Right. And so they view Jesus' answer as a postponing. One day, yeah, political kingdom will come. Right. But it's not now. Now it's a different age. So that kind of fits in the category of dispensational or millennial interpretations that the current 2000 years since has been the church age, which is a spiritual kingdom that will one day be fulfilled in the actual physical kingdom when Jesus returns and sets up his actual kingdom into Islam for a thousand years. That's one view.

Starting point is 00:31:12 Another view would be I think would occur to you, which would be that Jesus is slapping his forehead going, you guys, it's not about that, it's about this. To me neither of those does just us to what's happening here. If you just talked about the prophets and the kingdom, then it makes all the sense in the world that they would say, so when is the new covenant Israel going to be formed that will become the light to the nations? Yeah. That's the book of Isaiah, where the new covenant people happens in Zion, people happens in Zion, Isaiah 2, Isaiah 11, Isaiah 60, so that the light of the good news of God's reign through the Messiah can be announced to all the nations, Isaiah 61 and so on.

Starting point is 00:31:55 Then the question is just when's it going to start? When do we start? And he says, when's game time? It's not for you to know the full timeline, but just stay put because things are going to start happening really quick. You're going to receive power from the spirit. I'm not going to lay out the blueprint for you, but I'm tagging you in. Don't worry. I don't know. Yeah, games about to begin.

Starting point is 00:32:20 And then what story does Luke play next? Chapter two. Spirit comes. The spirit comes. And then also this is really key, this line in, you're gonna be my witnesses. So you're gonna bear witness to the kingdom coming through the crucified Rismasaya.

Starting point is 00:32:36 In Jerusalem, chapters one through eight, in Judea and Samaria, chapters eight through 12, like precisely Luke's designed the whole rest of the work, off of the sentence. Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and then to the remote parts of the earth, is chapters 13, where the missionary journeys began. That takes place in Papua New Guinea and the rainforest in Brazil. Yeah, for Paul, the remote parts of the earth is Rome. Yeah. Which is far.

Starting point is 00:33:08 But yeah, there you go. The other thing is, it's more every single one of those sentences comes from somewhere in the book of Isaiah. The Holy Spirit coming upon you is right out of Isaiah chapter 32. It's a part of the new Jerusalem, Messianic Hope. The idea of you, God, the new covenant people becoming my witnesses, that's right out of Isaiah 43. And then going

Starting point is 00:33:35 from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, that's from Isaiah 49. And actually, that's a really important text in Isaiah because it's the commissioning of an individual representative servant on behalf of Israel. And that servant's job is twofold in a book of Isaiah. It's to restore exiled Israel back to Yahweh. And then following that to become a light to the nations is the phrase, so that my salvation may be to the ends of the earth, in Isaiah 49. So, Jesus' answer is completely answering their question. To the Jew first, then to the Greek, it starts here. Here's the blueprint.

Starting point is 00:34:18 Here's the blueprint. Isaiah gives us the blueprint. I'm not going to give you the timeline. Here's the strategy. Or the sequence. Yeah, it's not the blueprint, because it's not for you to know how long each stage will last. But here's the game plan. Start here, then the rest of Judea and Samaria, which is the equivalent of saying all of historic tribes of Israel. Mm.

Starting point is 00:34:40 And then after we've covered home territory of Abraham out into the nations. It's awesome. Yeah. It's cool. I think Luke's goal is that Theophilus, wherever he lives, Rome or something, here's Theophilus. Who knows? He was born whatever, a Macedonian or something, and emigrated to Rome or... Doesn't that mean God was born? Is there an English name in, theophilus? Theophilus. Oh, a lover of God.

Starting point is 00:35:07 Lover of God. Yeah, lover of God. Okay. In the ancient world, and still today, the book of Acts is telling me that if I've given my allegiance to Jesus, I'm a part of a messianic Jewish sect. That started, yeah. That started as a persecuted, religious, minority movement in ancient Jerusalem.

Starting point is 00:35:28 Yeah. Like, that's a living heritage. Christianity has become a really big, diverse, complex thing. And the book of Acts wants to tell us that it started with this crew and upper room of disenfranchised suspect. Yeah. Messianic Jews. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:35:50 In Jerusalem, it's remarkable. It's remarkable. That you and I are sitting right here having this conversation right now about these things. How'd that happen? Yeah. We're also on a flying space route going 67,000 miles an hour. Okay. Around the Sun.

Starting point is 00:36:02 Around the Sun. Yeah. Which is also remarkable. Equally remarkable. But I think that's kind of the historical humility that Luke's trying to like instilling us here is the fact that we're here. Kind of humble because. Yeah, and that any of us that we're listening and talk at thinking about these things, it's because of a conversation Jesus had and a promise he made in Upper Rim to just

Starting point is 00:36:23 the small group. Yeah, there's a really critical scene in human history right here. So my sense is that we're only going to be in the scene for 60 seconds, but I feel like every second matters here in the scene. Because it's both transitioning from the earlier video. It's recalling the whole upside down kingdom of God, restoring exiled Israel. We have all the scroll motifs. Oh, the scroll motif will totally continue. Hmm, through Acts, yeah. Through Acts.

Starting point is 00:37:28 Except I think we could use it to have the scroll now be Luke. I'm sure you know. Yeah, right. Now it's gonna be about, but he also is gonna be paralleling things, like here with these Isaiah quotes. We're gonna get scrolls within scrolls. I know, it's gonna get very inception pretty quick.

Starting point is 00:37:44 But like in this scene, this could be Jesus talking about the kingdom, and we could just summarize these themes from these Isaiah texts here about the restoration of exile's in Jerusalem after the nations. Yeah. And then the three-part map of Jerusalem, today is Samaria, and so on. Almost feels like an introduction to the trilogy more than... of Jerusalem, Judea Samaria, and so on. Almost feels like an introduction to the trilogy more than, oh you're right. The first video, but.

Starting point is 00:38:10 You're right, that's a good one. But it'll have to be a part of the first video. Yeah. Scholars draw attention to what they call the kingdom of God frame around the book. So the kingdom of God that phrase appears twice in the opening scene. He spends 40 days teaching about it, and then they can ask, is the kingdom now to Israel.

Starting point is 00:38:30 Then once you get into the body of the book, the phrase doesn't appear that often, but when it does, it's always that one of these transition moments. So the moment that fill up leaves Jerusalem to go to the next boundary line, Samaria, what's in his mouth? The good news of the kingdom. Interesting. Which is the phrase Lucas introduced Jesus going around the countryside, announcing the good news of the kingdom. Then on the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas to go out to the nations. Which is the next break. It's the next, yeah, the next section.

Starting point is 00:39:06 There he talks about calling people to enter the kingdom of God. Then at the two key cities where Paul spends the most time planting influential churches, Corinth and Ephesus, he uses the phrase preaching or bearing witness. So just four times in the heart of the book, which isn't a ton. It's a big book. And then in the last chapter, it's repeated two times just like it is in the opening scene. So it's great. In the closing scene and opening scene, he uses the phrase two times. And then in the heart of the book, he only uses the strategic. And what Paul doing at the end, he's bearing witness to the Kingdom of God under house arrest

Starting point is 00:39:46 in one of Caesar's houses. And the last phrase of the book is, and he was there announcing the Kingdom of God, and many people heard him. So this is a good case where you can't just count the number of times a phrase occurs to gauge his own words. It's not just how many times it occurs. count the number of times a phrase occurs to gauge the importance of the current. It's not just how many times it occurs, it's when it occurs. And so the coming of the Kingdom of God through the power of the Spirit through Jesus' people, spoke of Acts.

Starting point is 00:40:19 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast. Our music today was from the beautiful Eulogy, and our show was produced by Dan Gummel, where nonprofit in Portland, Oregon, and you could find lots of our stuff, videos, study notes, other resources. It's all for free, and it's on thebibelproject.com. I'm Daniel from Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm a college pastor, and I found the Bible Project when I was hunting for resources to help people in their 20s. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. We're a crowdfunded project by people like me.

Starting point is 00:40:52 Find free videos, study notes and more at thebibelproject.com. you

BibleProject - Acts E1: The Startup of Christianity

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