have been asking the Lord to teach them about the Church. But they could not have

known anything about the Body of Christ as we know it today, for that was still a secret,

hid in God. But they do ask Him, because of His unfolding of the O.T. Scriptures, as to

whether the kingdom would be restored again to the people of Israel at this time. The

Lord did not say it would never be restored to this people, rather it was the time of

restoration that He could not reveal.

Then we looked at the day of Pentecost and its relationship to that great plan for world

blessing that is reveled in the Bible. We saw that the Apostle Peter, under the guidance

of the Holy Spirit, links it with the prophecy of Joel. We saw that Peter's quotation was

in a setting of restoration for the people of Israel; so that it is all in line with the

disciples' question. And Peter tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ had been raised to sit on

David's throne, and that has surely a close relationship with the people of Israel and not

the church, the Body of Christ. The Hebrew Christians who were saved on that day

formed part of the faithful Jewish remnant that the Apostle Paul is going to talk about

later on.

Then we came to chapter 3:, an extremely important chapter. There is a miracle of

healing performed before the Jews, showing, in effect, that what God had done for that

lame man, he was able to do spiritually for them, if they would only repent and turn

again, and that is what they were commanded to do by the Apostle. Wondrous things

God promised if they would do that. Their sins would be forgiven (you would hardly

think it possible that God could forgive the great sin of crucifying Christ!). Yet it was

possible; and not only that, but He would send back again Jesus Christ who before had

been preached to them in His earthly ministry. And we took the trouble to look through

all the epistles written during the time covered by the Acts, and every one of them looks

on the Lord's coming as being imminent. And no one at that time knew whether the

people of Israel would repent or not; we know that now, of course, as it is a matter of

history that they did not! But we must try and put ourselves back in the place of people

at this time if we really want to understand how the purpose is developing. Peter not only

tells them that the Lord Jesus Christ would return, but that the glorious kingdom as made

known by the O.T. prophets would then set in. This was no secret; it had been clearly

revealed in the O.T. And we can still go to those same Scriptures and see exactly what

would have happened had the Nation of Israel obeyed that command.

Then we passed on to chapter 5:, where Peter deals with the resurrection. He says

that the Lord Jesus had been raised from the dead to give repentance to Israel. That is a

fact that is often overlooked. The resurrection of Christ is of tremendous importance

because it is the very foundation of the Christian faith; but how often do we hear of the

Lord Jesus being raised to give a change of heart, a change of mind, to the people of

Israel? The usual idea is that the Jew, as regards God's purpose, was finished at the

Cross; but no, there is at this point, still a possibility of them repenting and turning back

to the Lord and the earthly Kingdom being set up.

And then in Acts 10: we find a very important event recorded--the coming-in of a

Gentile to blessing with Israel.  We see Peter using the keys of the kingdom and