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No.10.
pp. 196 - 200
In our last study of the Acts of the Apostles we went through all the epistles written
during this time, and found that every single one without exception stressed the near
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. God was not mocking His people when He promised
this; He meant it. The Second Advent could have taken place during the Acts period, but
it did not do so. Not because God was unwilling but because Israel were not obedient;
they did not repent or turn back to Him. At the point we have reached (chapters 4: & 5:)
they are still being tested. What was the first reaction then, of this people, the leaders
especially, to this wonderful promise? They just kicked all the harder against God; they
imprisoned the apostles thus attempting to muzzle them and their message of salvation
and restoration. And then God delivers His servants from prison and they stand before
the leaders again. There is an important passage to which we must now refer in the fifth
chapter. "Peter answered them, we ought to obey God rather than men" (verse 29). This
is the fearless Peter, not the vacillating man who, before the crucifixion, denied his Lord.
Now he stands, enabled by the grace of God and by the enduement of the Holy Spirit, and
he says quite frankly to the leaders of Israel, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus,
whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted at His right hand to be a
Prince and a Saviour", for there can be no ruling as a prince or king without the question
of sin being dealt with by redemption. Now note: "for (in order) to give repentance to
Israel; and forgiveness of sins." God was prepared to forgive Israel's sins and to give
them repentance and so fulfil His promise of restoration and the return of Christ to them.
It is difficult to overstress the importance of the resurrection of Christ because this is
the great foundation stone of Christianity. The Apostle Paul makes that clear in his first
letter to the Corinthian church. "If Christ be not risen" he said "your faith is vain . . . . .
Ye are yet in your sins" (I Cor. 15: 14-17). And when he writes later to the Romans he
deals with One who "was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our
justification" (Rom. 4: 25). We wonder if all who are reading this have entered into the
joy of this glorious fact? We have now a living Christ, One who ever lives to make
intercession, to aid, to assist all His redeemed people. But in Acts 5: we have an aspect
of the resurrection of Christ which is little stressed or understood today. When did we
last hear any Christian speaker or writer point out that Christ's resurrection was "to give
repentance to Israel"? So concerned are evangelicals with the idea that the Body of
Christ commenced at Pentecost and Israel were rejected at the Cross, that Israel's
repentance at this point and its consequences means nothing to them. A change of heart
for the nation of Israel was still a possibility. We must keep that well in our minds,
otherwise how can we understand God's great plan revealed in the N.T.? How can we
get an accurate knowledge of God's will for us today? Later on we are going to see that
the Apostle Paul is going to say something similar. He is going to confirm that the
people of Israel are still there, an important factor in this great plan concerning world
blessing, with Gen. 12: in mind, the promise to Abraham that `in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed'. We shall see that he constantly ministers "to the Jew first".