GYC 2012 Acts: The Revolution Continues

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2012 Seminar: Christ - The Watchword of the Revolution

Steven Conway

A New Way to Read, Part I

This message was presented at the GYC 2012 conference in Seattle, Washington.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Our Father in heaven, we are thankful for the privilege that you've given us to be here today.

We are thankful that we can come and be Revived spiritually, we can recommit ourselves to you.

And thankful that we can discuss things that are spiritual, things that are eternal.

I ask that all of us will be edified and challenged as we study and consider this topic together.

Thank you for hearing and answering this humble prayer.

Forgive me of my sins as well as my brothers and sisters here.

Let nothing stand in the way of you and us.

All right, well, it is a pleasure to be here with you all.

My name is Stephen Conway and I come from Michigan where I'm pastoring And Brother Bomji, are we all right?

This is my wife, Tamara, here on the front row.

We have 4 little ones, they're not little, the oldest is 10.

So they're with our in- well my in-laws right now.

But we are going to spend some time considering what I believe is a tremendous subject.

And it is really something that I'm sure that all of you are familiar with, someone who I believe all of you are familiar with, and that is Jesus.

Many times we compartmentalize in Christianity and we talk about things as though 1 doesn't have anything to do with the other, you know, like justification and sanctification and all those types of things, but really and truly, I believe that Jesus is, I don't like the watchword, I like the term catalyst.

Jesus is the catalyst for what we see taking place in the book of Acts.

In fact, I want to show you a couple of things before we get into a little bit.

2 texts that I'd like us to take a look at.

And I want you to consider what these 2 texts are saying to us about what we read in the book of Acts.

So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God.

And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following." Did you get it or did you miss it?

In verse 20, they went forth, who is the they referring to?

Now this is the same Lord in verse 19, so then after the Lord has spoken unto them, and that Lord is referring to who?

Now the Bible says here in verse 20, that the same Lord who had just been received up into heaven when his followers go forth and began to preach and teach, that this same Lord who was received up into heaven is at the same time working with his followers as they preach and teach and he is confirming the word that they are preaching about him with signs that follow.

All right, So what we read about in the book of Acts is not Like the title says the acts of the Apostles the Bible says that the Lord Jesus is actually working with his followers in the book of Acts.

And that's the reason why we see all of the signs and the marvelous things taking place.

It's not because men are at work, but it's because Jesus is actually at work.

Of course, through the person of the Holy Spirit.

The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.

By the way, who did the Holy Spirit inspire to write the book of Acts?

So Luke is the 1 who pens the book of Acts.

So he's also the 1 who penned the gospel according to Luke and he is essentially saying, Theophilus I have shown you all that Jesus and how did this how does he describe the contents of what is contained in the gospel according to Luke, or this letter that he composed and sent to Theophilus.

I don't know, before that, you've left out some words.

What did it contain It contained what It contained all that Jesus all that Jesus began both to do and teach Now if I say to you If I say to you hey my wife just began baking a cake in the kitchen.

Do you assume then that my wife is finished baking the cake?

You assume that she is still in the process of baking the cake, but no 1 assumes that my wife is finished baking the cake if I tell you that she began.

So it seems to me, you all can disagree if you'd like, but it seems to me that Luke is saying to Theophilus, listen, what I wrote you was simply the beginning of what Jesus began to do.

It was simply the start of the work or the ministry of Jesus Christ.

And that I believe just in those 2 texts, in those 2 passages of Scripture, I think it gives us a little bit of an inkling of who it is that is really and truly the catalyst for all that we read of in the book of Acts.

Now I want to take you back to another passage.

And I want you to think, well let me ask you first, how long did Jesus have with his followers?

How long did he spend with them on earth?

Actually, It's closer to 2 years, perhaps 2 and a half years.

And the reason is because when Jesus first came, you all read in John chapter 1, I'm sure, come and see and everyone, he's kind of rounding up his followers and whatnot, but none of them had completely forsaken their jobs.

That's why there's, if you, you know, read in the book, Desire of Ages, there is a call by the sea.

Why on earth is there a call by the sea if in John chapter 1, after Jesus' baptism, he gets his first 2 followers?

None of them had completely left off their jobs, so to speak.

They were following Jesus, but they were doing so while still maintaining their jobs.

They were not full-time followers, if you will.

So it actually is about 2 or 2 and a half years.

Now, after 2, 2 and a half years of time spent with Jesus, What is the product?

Prior to Acts chapter 2, in fact prior to the resurrection of Jesus, what is the product of spending 2 and a half years with Jesus.

A sad product, a lack of commitment, waffling, doubt.

The Bible says the disciples were assembled together for fear of the Jews.

They thought, man, if they kill Jesus, we know what next.

Let's lock the doors, don't let anybody in, and let's keep this thing hush-hush, let's weep and pat each other on the back and make each other feel better about what has just transpired.

After all, their hopes had been that Jesus would do what?

That Jesus would take over, that he would establish a literal kingdom here on planet Earth, that he would be seated on the literal throne of David, and they would be on his right hand and left, they would be his cabinet ministers, everything was gonna go great.

And now all of a sudden they see Jesus Hanging on a cross his body is taken down off of the cross He's laid in the tomb so the product now Please do not dismiss this product from the fact that they have spent 2 and a half years with Jesus.

Question, has Jesus told them that he was going to die?

A New Way to Read, Part II

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Our Father and our God, we pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit to be here with us today.

We pray that he would lead us and guide us as we study this important topic.

We pray, dear Father, that we might see things in a light that we have not seen them till now and I pray that that will radically change each and every 1 of our lives.

We thank you in advance for hearing and answering this prayer for we ask it in Jesus name.

Now I know probably a lot of you weren't here yesterday.

Well let me ask first, who was here yesterday?

Oh okay, so we do have some who were here yesterday.

Just a quick review on yesterday was part 1 of, well the seminar is not Christ the watchword, but Christ the catalyst of the revolution.

And yesterday was part 1 of a two-part series in this seminar entitled A New Way to Read.

And we talked about how Jesus Christ introduced a new way to read, a new way of looking at the scriptures.

I want to read a couple of things to you because yesterday we talked about seeing Christ as he was revealed in the scriptures, how there was a difference.

Prior to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the ascension of Jesus Christ, the disciples only had to invite people to come and see Jesus for themselves.

That's what the woman said in John chapter 4.

And the disciples had that very same invitation.

In fact, if you look at John chapter 1, that's how Jesus, he got many of his disciples.

Come and see, come and see, but when Jesus would ascend to heaven, they would no longer be able to give that invitation as Jesus would no longer bodily be here on this planet earth.

But I want to read a couple of things to you that I believe kind of emphasize that point.

But first, I think I was talking to somebody yesterday, if you look at every 1 of the public discourses in the book of Acts, they have 1 thing in common, or 2 things.

1 is that they trace through the history of Israel, at least Stephen does that in Acts chapter 7, but each and every 1 of those discourses centers or focuses on Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.

So in all of the messages in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2, 14 through 36, Acts chapter 3, verses 12 through 26, Acts chapter 4, verses 8 to 12, Acts chapter 5, verses 29 to 32, Acts chapter 7, verses 1 to 53, Acts chapter 13 verses 14 to 41, Acts chapter 17 verses 21 to 32, and Acts chapter 26 verses 2 to 7.

The theme of every sermon in the book of Acts was Jesus Christ.

Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to be able to put 2 and 2 together.

If you want the type of results that the early church had, then you must preach the same message that the early church preached, yes or no?

And that message centered around none other than Jesus Christ as we discovered yesterday, Jesus Christ as he was revealed in the scriptures.

In Acts chapter, or excuse me, this is Acts of the Apostles, page 157, it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

The name was given them because Christ was the main theme of their preaching, their teaching, and their conversation.

Continually, they were recounting the incidents that had occurred during the days of his earthly ministry, when his disciples were blessed with his personal presence.

Untiringly, they dwelt upon his teachings and his miracles of healing.

With quivering lips and tearful eyes, they spoke of his agony in the garden, his betrayal, trial, and execution, the forbearance and humility with which he had endured the contumely and torture imposed upon him by his enemies, and the godlike pity with which he had prayed for those who persecuted him.

His resurrection and ascension and his work in heaven as the mediator for fallen man were topics on which they rejoiced to dwell.

Well might the heathen call them Christians since they preached Christ and addressed their prayers to God through him.

Jesus Christ, the wisdom and power of God, was the theme of every discourse.

His name, the only name given under heaven whereby men can be saved, was by them exalted.

As they proclaimed the completeness of Christ, the risen Savior, their words moved hearts and men and women were 1 to the gospel.

Multitudes who had reviled the Savior's name and despised his power now confessed themselves disciples of the crucified." Christ Object Lessons 127 of Christ's life and death and intercession, which prophets had foretold, the apostles were to go forth as witnesses.

Christ in his humiliation, in his purity and holiness, in his matchless love was to be their theme.

And in order to preach the gospel in its fullness they must present the Savior not only as revealed in his life and teachings but as foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament and as symbolized by the sacrificial service.

So all of these things are evidence that the theme of the message that the Apostles took was none other than Jesus Christ.

In fact there's another 1 that I don't believe I have here, but essentially it says that if we are to preach Daniel, preach the prophecies of Daniel, and preach the prophecies of Revelation, but take the mind of the people to Jesus.

Preach prophecy, but let all of your preaching center around Jesus.

Now, I remember a few years ago, after I was reading some quotations like that, I was challenged to go back and study the 3 angels' messages in the light of Jesus because I could easily tell people about the fall of Babylon, I could identify who Babylon was, but I couldn't quite get Christ out of the second angel's message.

And definitely I couldn't get Christ out of the third angel's message.

You know, if any man receives the mark of the beast or the number of his name.

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

He will be tormented with fire and blood.

And yet, the Bible says that the book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So if I can't see him, it's not God's fault, it's my fault.

So the apostles are now preaching and teaching and they are representing Jesus to the world in a way that they have never seen him.

We ended our session yesterday talking about the 3 types of messianic prophecies.

The straight line or direct prophecies in Michael chapter 5 verse 2, that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, bam, the Messiah is born in Bethlehem.

You know, Daniel chapter 9, he would be anointed, bam, he was anointed.

So those are those straight line prophecies.

There's not much to them except for, you know, there's a prophecy made and there's a fulfillment of that prophecy.

Then there's the typological prophecies, which some of them have partial fulfillment an immediate successor of a prophet or king for instance most is prophecy in deuteronomy chapter 18 the lord was speaking through moses and said that that he was going to raise up a profit like Moses from the midst of the children of Israel and him all of the people should obey.

Immediately succeeding Moses was the prophet who?

So that prophecy had a partial, immediate fulfillment in Joshua, but the ultimate prophet that God would raise up from the midst of the children of Israel, who they all should listen to and obey, was referring to none other than Jesus Christ.

Also in 2 Samuel chapter 7 there was a prophecy concerning David's son who would be seated on the throne of Israel even forever.

In the immediate sense that prophecy was fulfilled in the person of Solomon but in the ultimate sense that prophecy would be fulfilled in its absolute sense rather in none other than the person of Jesus Christ.

And the third type of messianic prophecy was typology in Israel's history.

And I asked you a question, those who were here yesterday, I asked the question and I said, where exactly does the Bible predict that Jesus would die and he would be resurrected on the third day?

Where exactly does the Bible predict that Jesus would die and he would be resurrected on the third day.

Where exactly does the Bible predict that Jesus would die and he would be resurrected on the third day?

And the fact of the matter is that there is no direct or straight line prophecy in the Bible that says the Messiah will be cut off and he will be raised again on the third day.

There is not 1 of those prophecies in the entire Bible.

I was talking with my good Canadian friend here.

But I was talking with my friend John Ross here and I told him I went to, there's a book called Evidence That Demands a Verdict and it's put out by a guy named Josh McDowell and he compiles a lot of evidences for Jesus Christ.

And he talks about 456 Old Testament prophecies that pointed to things that would take place in the life of Jesus Christ.

And he gives all of these scientific or statistical reasons why it would be impossible for anyone to have even 8 of these things to take place in their life.

Well I went to a skeptic website and I wanted to see what the skeptics had to say about it.

And the skeptics were looking at the scriptures in an entirely different way than Josh McDowell was.

And they turned to a scripture like Micah and they said, this has nothing to do with the Messiah.

And they turned to several other texts and they interpreted them in a completely different way than a Christian would interpret them.

So I want to deal with that as a lead into the rest of what we'll talk about today.

First, Jesus believed that the Scriptures taught that he would rise on the third day.

Mark chapter 8 verse 31, turn there with me Mark chapter 8 verse 31 Are you there Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and experts in the law and be killed and after 3 days rise again.

All right, Let's take a look at another passage.

For he was teaching his disciples and telling them the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men.

They will kill him and after 3 days he will rise again." So Jesus is clear.

Jesus believed that he would be killed and he would rise after 3 days.

Jesus also says in Luke now turn to Luke chapter 18 He didn't simply just believe this out of a vacuum Jesus claimed that the Bible predicted that all of these things would happen Luke chapter 18 now Luke chapter 18 beginning with verse 31 are you there?

The Key to the Promise, Part I

Loving Father and our God, we are so thankful for the privilege of being here today, thankful for the opportunity to step aside from the normal routines of life and to spend time with you, spend time in your word.

We pray, dear Lord, that as we open the scriptures and attempt to understand more clearly the revolution that took place in the book of acts and the catalyst for that revolution.

I pray that our eyes, the eyes of our understanding might be opened.

I pray that we might again be drawn to the Savior, to Jesus.

Alright now we, our first 2 presentations dealt with a new way to read, and we looked at this new way of reading and understanding the Bible that Jesus gave and so we are going to Now see another example of that in practice in an axe chapter 2 Acts chapter 2, and we're going to read Peter's sermon here.

Acts chapter 2, verse 14, but Peter standing up with the 11 lifted up his voice and said unto them ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem be this known unto you and hearken to my words for these are not drunken as ye suppose seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.

So Peter is telling those who are witnessing what is taking place that what you are seeing is actually a fulfillment of prophecy.

This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass, he's quoting Joel, in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy.

And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord.

And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking of myself, right?

As I'm, as I read that, I'm like, why in the world is this brother talking about blood and fire and vapor and, and all of these other things?

And why would that be of any importance to his hearers?

Verse 22, ye men of Israel, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loose the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holding of it.

For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved.

Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad.

Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy 1 to see corruption." So he's talking about the resurrection as we discussed in our last presentation.

Thou has made known to me the ways of life thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

So in the experience of David and in the writings of David, the Apostle Peter, looking at these through the Messianic lens, applies the things that David wrote about, some concerning his own experience.

He applied them now to what the Messiah would experience in his resurrection.

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried.

In other words, David was not writing of his own resurrection.

And His sepulcher is with us unto this day Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his lawns Loins according to the flesh He will raise up Christ to sit on his throne remember for those of you who are here We said that 1 of the messianic prophecies dealt with the succession of prophets and of Kings He says David was not speaking of himself because David Is both dead and buried his grave his tomb is still here with us But God did tell David that he would raise up seed who would sit on his throne even forever We talked about that in 1 of the previous presentations Okay, can we finish please please please Messianic the Messiah concerning the Messiah Yes, Messianic Right that's Jews who have accepted the Messiah, or they have accepted Christ.

So, he's seen this before, Verse 31, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

I hope those of you who have been here, you're seeing now how he's applying what David wrote.

And he's saying David couldn't have been writing this about himself.

So he had to be writing concerning someone else.

Guess what folks, I'm going to tell you who he was writing about.

He was writing about the same 1 who you crucify.

This is the thrust now of Peter's sermon.

Verse 32, this Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses.

Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he has shed forth this which ye now see and hear.

For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand Until I make thy foes thy footstool Therefore let all the house of Israel know Assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ.

He just takes the words of David and shows them that I might be repeating myself but I don't care.

He shows them David was not talking about himself.

And he says I'm going to tell you who this person is.

Whoever he is, he had to be killed or die so he could first be resurrected and then sit on the throne of David.

It's the same Jesus whom you have crucified.

They heard the disciples speaking and preaching in other languages, in their languages, in the languages of all the people who are gathered there yes or no They said this is crazy.

We've never seen anything like this these guys must be drunk Peter and what he's just shared is Giving an explanation of what has taken place All right, he begins his explanation by going to the book of Joel now now mind you What were those who were speaking in tongues?

What are just speaking in tongues saying hello?

It's a good day to see you it's a good day to be here praise the Lord what what were they doing what were they saying they were they were preaching about Jesus and him crucified in the languages of those who were there.

Now, How did they get the ability to preach the gospel in these other languages?

The Holy Spirit had been poured out upon them.

Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the what?

The promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.

Galatians 3 verse 14, that the blessing of, the blessing of who?

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GYC 2012 Seminar: Christ - The Watchword of the Revolution

A New Way to Read, Part II

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