As I was seeking the Lord's will about what to preach on next, I have been led to the book of Acts. And I sat down and decided I've got to have some good reasons to go into the book of Acts. That's an amazing book. And I came down with seven reasons, and I thought that was a good, difficult number, and I thought I was on track with that. But I think it is going to be a good study for us. It's a timely study since we are studying the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, in our midweek times. It has not been preached on by a pastor here for many years. Perhaps not all the way through by any pastor. I don't know some of you would have to tell me about that afterward. But it lays also a very good foundation for us in our faith. Sometimes in the neglected foundation that we need in the book of Acts. And it is a book that is historical narrative. And we haven't done a lot of historical narrative together. We've done book studies of letters and studies of wisdom, literature, and prophets and whatnot. But we have not done a lot of looking at history and how God uses history to teach us in His word. And most of all, the book of Acts is a crystal-centric book. We think of it as a spirit book, and it is, but it also is a very Christ-centered book. And it's a very different book from what we've been studying. We've studied and spent nearly a year on First Timothy, and we look there at a church that was established in the book of Acts. It's a new church. In First Timothy, it was a church that was in trouble. And here we find a church that is not in trouble is on the move in a great way. Threatened from without, whereas in First Timothy, the threat came from where? From inside, didn't it? Those false teachers. It's a letter. What's not a letter, as Timothy was, but it's history and how we are to handle history and study. And then it also is a lot longer. You might notice that we studied six chapters in First Timothy. We're entering into a study of what? How many chapters? 28 chapters. Now that may sound overwhelming at first to you. But I want you to know we're going to take it in sections. And we're going to be in the book of Acts, at least Lord willing, through the time of Easter, and perhaps into summer. We'll see how it goes. But we're going to take it in sections and not wear you out with the history book of the New Testament. So let's turn to that book, a book of Acts chapter 1, as we begin our study this morning. Acts chapter 1. Let me read to you the word of Lord. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised which you have heard me speak about for John baptized with water. But in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So in the reading of God's word, let's pray together and ask him to help us as we study it in preparation for the coming around the table and taking of the sacrament. Father, we thank you this morning that we have your word. It is an infallible word, a truthful word, a word that speaks to our hearts. Lord, we pray as we look at a passage and a book that may look distant. It is talking of other people and other times. Lord, we pray by your Holy Spirit's power, by your working within your church, that you would erase that and you would bring your word to our hearts. Lord, I am not sufficient for this. No preacher is. We cannot get this without you. So we ask, Lord, that you would open our hearts in mind. You would give us that eagerness, that excitement, that glory in studying and hearing your word. And we will give you the praise and glory in Jesus' name. There once was an American Indian and he went to see a friend and that friend lived in New York City. And as friends do, they walk and as what you should do. When you go to New York City, you don't stay inside, you need to walk the streets. And they were walking the streets together and looking at all the sights and all the architecture. And as they were going along, the American Indian also stopped in his tracks. I said, do you hear that? And his friend said, hear what? Did you hear that? That's a cricket. I hear a cricket. And his friend said, you must be creative. How could you possibly hear a cricket? This is a noon time in New York City. Taxi cabs are bustling by. People are rustling around. There are cars honking and noise and things just going on all around it. How could you possibly, possibly hear a cricket? And all of this, no, I do. And he started to follow his ear and he went looking and pretty soon he came to one of those cement planters with a little tree in there that you see in New York City. And he rustled around in the leaves of bed and he uncovered one of those leaves and there, low and behold, was a cricket. And his friend was just amazed. It's fine. How could you possibly hear that? It's nothing strange. It's just, my ears are no different than your ears. It simply depends on what you are listening to. And he said, here, I'll show you an Indian took out of his pocket two big handfuls of coins. And he threw them down on the sidewalk. And for a half a block, everybody looked and turned their head and looked at him. And he said, yes, you see, it's what you are listening for. In the same way, this can happen to us. What are we listening for when we read God's Word? We can come, particularly in the Book of Acts, and come to the Acts with a certain preconceived idea, a certain thing. Maybe we've gone through the Book of Acts or we've heard about the Book of Acts, or people have clubbed us with the Book of Acts in some persuasion or not. And we can be listening for what we want to hear and not hear really what's there. How would Luke want us? How would the author of this book want us to listen to his book? You might say, well, how could I know that? He's been dead for years. How could I possibly know what was in the mind of Luke? And I would contend this morning that we can't. I would argue this morning that we can't know what Luke was trying to get across in this book. This is a key sermon because it's going to set the pace for our entire study, not just by giving us some facts about the introduction, but it's going to show us how to listen to Luke in the Book of Acts. We can find out in the introduction for Luke's two works what he was trying to get across. Look at the first verse. Look at what he first tells us about his book. Maybe you missed it. We see first that Acts is a sequential book. It comes after another book. It's the second volume of a two volume work. We can think of the gospel of Luke being the first volume and now Acts the second volume. We know they were written. We believe by Luke, although he never tells us that outright. They're written with the same vocabulary and style. They are written to the same person, the authorless. They are written with the same major themes in mind. We might think of the book as almost one book, two aspects of the same book. I want you to go over to Luke. Luke's gospel. We need to look at that introduction as well. Luke chapter 1 verse 1 through 4. Let me read that to you as well. Luke 1 and see what is in the mind of Luke and what he wants us to listen for as we listen to his gospel and his history. Luke chapter 1 verse 1. Many have undertaken to drop and account of the things that have been fulfilled among us. First and foremost, what is his book? A fulfillment of things. And so it's got to be tied in very closely with the Old Testament. He tells us right now this is a fulfillment of things that have come. Just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have fully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent the author. So that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. Luke summarizes this orderly account. His gospel. Go back to Acts 1-1 now. Acts 1-1, he summarizes it. Look how he does it in verse 1. He summarizes the whole gospel that he has written as two things. What Jesus, what did and what Jesus, what, said. See that in Acts 1-1? That's how he summarizes his gospel. We may somewhere in many other ways. What he said is what Jesus did and what Jesus said. His works and his words. His life and his teaching. And then Luke adds that keyword. What Jesus began to do and to speak. Key word. There is a real sense in which we can say that Jesus only began to do his work and his words in the gospel of Luke. Oh yes, his atonement is complete. It's once for all. His work has been continued. It does not continue in that way, but his work does continue in the book of Acts. And Luke's mind, Jesus is still working. And Luke's mind, he is still working not to provide salvation, but he works from heaven by his spirit in his church. In Luke's gospel, we see salvation is secured for all peoples, but in the book of Acts we see that salvation spreads to all those peoples. Jesus is the savior of the world, is the theme of the gospel of Luke, and it's also the theme of the book of Acts. It has the same major theme. Luke tells us Jesus does his work on earth and then Acts, the book of Acts tells us Jesus continues to do that work from his throne room in heaven. And this is why for Luke the resurrection and the ascension are so essential because Jesus is alive and because Jesus is now exalted in heaven, he rules his church right now. Luke ends his gospel, the gospel Luke ends where with the ascension. What is Acts begin with? We'll get down in verses 10 and 11 next week, the ascension. That's not a coincidence. Luke is telling us that that's the hinge, that Jesus the exalted one now, the living one now is doing his work and saying his words today in his church. You see the focus we sometimes think of when we compare a gospel in Acts is to say that the gospel of Luke tells us about Jesus as savior and then Acts comes along and tells us about the saved about the church. And I'm contending that's not the way we should look at Acts. It's not, it does include the church, but that's not his focus. His focus is to tell us what Jesus continues to do and to teach through his church the whole different way of thinking of it. It's not that Christ does his work in the gospels and now it's up to me and you to do our work, the book of Acts. No, it's Jesus does his work of redemption. He dies and rises again for us and now he continues by his spirit to work in his church and in his world. If it's his world now, for he is declared both Lord and I like what John Stott says when he summarizes it in one phrase he says the cup between his two volumes is not between Christ and his church, but between two stages of the ministry of the same Christ, same Christ humiliated, die, risen again. And now it's salted and works through his spirit and his life of other people and see, you have to, you know, you know what the title, what's the title of the book here? Acts. Well that goes back to some of the early manuscripts. They just say Acts. There are some early manuscripts going back to about 150 AD. Very pretty close and they what they say, the Acts of the Apostle. That's kind of gone out of style somewhat now. Now since about the 18th century, it's been known as the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Who's Acts are they? If the question, what is it, why is it called that? Today, most times, we think of it and people think of the book of Acts as the Acts of God's people or the Acts of the Church. And you ask, who's right? I don't want to be overly diplomatic, you know, that about me, but I think that all of them are right. Yes, all of them are right. If we don't forget verse 1-1 that Luke tells us from the very beginning that what we're going to see now. Is what Jesus continues to do and to teach. And we don't get caught up in what people do and there, but to see that Jesus is the one doing that in his church. John's thought gives a whole summary. You might want to copy this down as a summary line of the entire book, the continuing words and deeds of Jesus by his spirit through his apostles. That summarizes the whole book. It's the continuing words and deeds of Jesus by his spirit through his apostles. Now, how has this worked out in the book of Acts? We can't take a long time because our time is short, but I want you to look at see how the words and deeds of Jesus, the deeds and words in the book are of Jesus. And that Luke points these out over and over again. If you look at chapter 2, or the quick, this is kind of just zip through a few verses here, chapter 2 verse 36. Peter on the day of Pentecost says, this Jesus whom you crucified, God, the Father has made both Lord and Christ, not will make Lord and Christ, it has made since the resurrection Lord and Christ. And this is now who we are to see Jesus as being. Look at verse 47 of chapter 2 at the end and the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved. Who's the Lord? They're Jesus. The Lord Jesus adds to the church. Those who are being saved. It's not because of their great evangelism. It's not because they were so faithful. It's that the Lord adds to their number. It's the Lord working. Look at chapter 3 verse 6 when it comes to signs and wonders. Peter sees a man who was lame and he says silver and gold have I none but what I have I will give you. And then he says in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk. What does that mean? Is Peter just simply saying I want you to know who's healing you here? That's why I'm going to talk about the name. You know if you do a study and we will through the whole idea of the name and the book of Acts it is the authority of Christ. It is him as the living Lord that is doing the healing through Peter. That's what Peter is saying. It's not just identifying who's healing you. It's showing I come in the authority of Jesus Christ Peter says and that's who is doing his work continuing to do his work among you. Think of the of suffering when we see suffering which we will in the book of Acts in chapter 5 verse 41. The apostles go forth from the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they were worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. What name? The name of Jesus Christ who was Lord and Christ. The works of Acts are the works of Jesus. And the words of Acts are the words of Jesus too. There are 24 sermons in the book of Acts in 28 chapters. It's a pastor's paradise. What it is. 24 sermons in 28 chapters. Luke should be telling us something there that the proclamation of the word the word is what goes for it and does the work of Jesus who speaks in those sermons to people. We could look at a number but look at chapter 5 verse 31 where the word comes to the Jews first and then it will go later in the later part of Acts to the Gentiles. But first to the Jews chapter 5 verse 31. God exalted him that is Jesus to the his own right hand as prince and savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. Who gives repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel? Jesus. Jesus. It's him doing that work and why is he doing that because where is Jesus now? Exalted as prince and savior that he might give these things and it's he that does that if we look to the Gentiles. Look at chapter 11 verse 21. We see there that we find that the Lord's hand was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. It's not just that the Lord wasn't with them and now also the Lord now comes in with them and therefore people are saved but Luke is trying to show us that because the Lord's hand was among them people were being saved. It's the Lord Christ doing His Word in one final example. Chapter 16 verse 14 when Paul goes to Philippi and and preaches the word. One of my favorite verses 14 says and the Lord there was a woman there by by name of Lydia who was a business woman and was a worshiper. That means she was a Gentile person that wanted to worship the true and living God and as the gospel was proclaimed by Paul the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. That's just not a verse telling us about Calvinism or sovereignty of God. That's showing us that the Lord is working among people to get His word out and to open up people's hearts to that word. And it comes back to Acts 1-1. Jesus only began to do and to teach. He continues to do and to teach in the book of Acts. Now what's the application to this before we briefly go on to that or for once? I think if we really believed this, if we really believed this, it would change our whole idea of the church. If we really believed that Jesus is exalted and that He is working by His presence within His church even now, it would change our whole way of thinking. We would no longer think of the church as a human, a mirror, a human grouping of people. We would no longer think of the church as simply people making decisions together. We would be seeing it as Christ's church and Christ as acting among us and moving us to a goal that would glorify Himself. Dennis Johnson is written a wonderful little book, not the basketball player. Dennis Johnson, the professor down Westminster West, a wonderful book called The Message of Acts. And it's confirming what I always thought was there in the book of Acts but wasn't articulate enough to bring it out. But in it, he asks that same question. If Jesus really is doing and saying His deeds, if that really is where Luke is going in all of this, how would that affect the church? And I can't give you all the read. I was going to read this whole thing but we don't have time. Let me just give you this application of how it would affect our prayer life. He says this, how would a vivid consciousness of the presence of Jesus affect the prayer life of the church? Prayer is often portrayed as a Christian duty. It is often enjoined upon us in exhortations heavily laced with guilt inducers. Like the holiday phone commercial that scolds wayward adults call your mother. The definition of prayer as duty, though not wrong, often leaves the impression that we have an uncomfortable obligation to a distant loved one who is out of touch with our daily life. Is that how you think about prayer? He goes on and says, at the opposite extreme, our pastors and teachers who try to move us to prayer by portraying Jesus as our buddy, our pal, eager to hear our monologues of self-pity and to come to our assistance. Here too there is a grain of truth. Jesus is compassionate. He does bring help to those who turn to Him in faith. But the casual and self-centered embellishment added to that grain puts the truth out of focus. Acts shows us that what prayer is like when praying people recognize the presence of Jesus the Lord. It is joyful and confident for the one who is Lord and Christ is among us to hear our needs. There is an off-filled fear when we recognize He is terrifying holding us. There is a preoccupation not with ourselves, our ailments, comforts, conveniences, hurt feelings, but with the great cause of the King who walks in our midst, we ask to receive from His hand whatever will make us a serviceable to Him useful for His saving purposes. We pray not because we must, but because we may, not out of lust for His gifts but out of love for the giver, not to bend His will to ours, but to bend our wills to His. Oh, if we believe that Jesus is the Lord and Christ, a Valley Presbyterian Church, we would function differently. We would think about each other differently. We would think about prayer differently. Secondly, this morning, not only see that Acts is a sequential book that shows what Jesus is about to do and teach, but Acts is a historical book, isn't it? History is thought of in our day and age as tolerable at best. We tolerate history. We take history because we have to take history. We are a future focused culture. We want to think about the future. We want to think about what's going to happen up ahead. And as long as we're moving ahead, we think we are progressing as a culture. I don't think that's really true, but that's what we think normally. And therefore history is boring. History is irrelevant. What cares what happened in the past? Someone has summarized history as this. History is an account mostly false of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly peasants and soldiers mostly fools. A lot of people think of history that way. And not like Will Durant who wrote his multi-volume historical account to say that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. Because we are sinners. History not only teaches us the mistakes of the past. History teaches us the mistakes we are going to make as well. And so history, what place does it have? Well, we need to look back to that. Winston Churchill said the further back you look, the further forward you are likely to see. What do we have to look back further and further and further? No. We need to realize that God has given his word in different forms, different genres. And one of those forms is historical narrative. And God gives us Luke to give us a history of the spread of the gospel from about 30 AD to 61 AD, from the Jerusalem all the way to Rome. And it is a selective history. It is not the whole story. It tells us of how the gospel spreads and Jesus does his acts in his work both north and west, but does not tell us anything about how the gospel spread to the south or the east. It tells us and focuses upon a few apostles, particularly Peter and the early chapters and Paul and the later chapters. It does not tell us about all the apostles. It is selective. And yet it is accurate history as we looked at Luke 1 and following. He personally researched this. We believe that Luke was in Caesarea when Paul was in prison for two years and did the interviewing and did the investigation that was necessary to put these two volumes together. He thoroughly researched and carefully orderly laid out, not to mention the fact that the Holy Spirit was with him. And yet this history is more than simply what history generally teaches us as we look in the past. It is a redemptive history. It is a god teaching history. It is a history with a powerful and urgent message for us. Luke doesn't just tell us some things that happened in the early church so we might get a feel for it. That's not what the book of Acts is about. He teaches us what we need to know. As all scripture that was written in the past is the teaches and that we might through the endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures have hope. But this raises a really important question which we are going to be asking over and over in the book of Acts and you are going to get sick and tired of me asking this question. So I might as well get used to it. Now the question is this. How does the book of Acts teach us? If it does teach us, which we all believe, how does the book of Acts teach us? How does this history teach us? Is everything in the book of Acts normative for us today? That's the key question. Some in the body of Christ would say if it's in the Bible it's supposed to be in your life. If it's in the Bible it's supposed to be in your church and your church is not biblical and you're not biblical and you're not spiritual unless you emulate exactly what the book of Acts teaches and says happened there. Apostles do signs and wonders you should. People receive the baptism of this spirit after conversion you should but no one applies this approach consistently. Are we really saying there are Apostles today that have seen Jesus Christ visibly? The Apostles of Acts did. Are we really saying that Apostles today have spent 40 days talking and eating with Jesus Christ? The book of Acts says they did. Are we really going to say that we are, it's mandatory for us. I can chapter 2 and 4 that we hold everything in common and that my van now belongs to you or your van belongs to me. Not the better one isn't it? I like that one better. I don't think so. See we're not consistent across the board. Christians would that really mean that Christians who lied to their leaders as we find in chapter 5 would drop dead? I wouldn't have anybody to cancel. Everybody would lie to me, drop dead. But that happens in the book of Acts as a disciplinary procedure. Judas was chosen by lot. Does that mean we should abandon the nominating committee? Does that mean we should not have an election on 31st and we should just throw the dice right here? You see we don't apply it consistently and that's why it's not a good hermeneutic as we come or way of interpreting the book of Acts. There is something unique about the book of Acts and therefore we can't make a one-for-one parallel from the book of Acts or application to our lives at every point. We need to take application and there will be much of it. But we need to see it through the gospels particularly Luke. We need to see it through the Old Testament how it is fulfilled. It's a covenantal book. We need to see it through the epistles where the apostles have told us what is for the church and what lasts in the church. We need to read the book of Acts through those epistles and what is told us there. You see Acts is a redemptive history. It's not a people's magazine of the early church. It's not a who's who of the first generation of Christians. It's not merely background material to satisfy your curiosity about what it was like back then. It's not even primarily a manual for how to grow a church. But Acts is a way in which we see Jesus doing His work and speaking His work, how the Lord fulfills His promises, how He establishes His people, how He spreads His gospel, how He lays a firm foundation for us to build upon. You see Acts is not intended to be a how to book for true spirituality or a church ministry manual. It is the further work. You see I'm telling you what the Scripture tells you. I'm not telling you what I want it to be. It's what one one tells us the book is all about. It's about the continuing work of Jesus Christ in His church. It's the further work of Christ to lay an apostolic foundation for His church. It is therefore foundational. It's therefore transitional. It's no less foundational and transitional as the four gospels. We tend to think because Pentecost happens in the book of Acts that Acts should be seen just like all the epistles and we should see it with them. There's a side of fruit to that. But I'm trying to help you see that also we should see the book of Acts tying more in with the gospels. It's a foundational book. It shows us how God laid that apostolic foundation. It is the work of the apostles and that extends to our work now as well. You see so often times we say we need to get back to the early church. We need to get back to Acts and we do. We need to get back to the power and the boldness and the evangelism and the growth and the commitment. We're going to have all of that as we go through it. But we need to remember that we can't completely get back because of the uniqueness of the book of Acts. Now thirdly and this leads into the third point. Acts is an apostolic book. We find in the epistles that Paul says that the apostles and prophets are foundation for the church, that the Lord lays a foundation of the apostles and prophets. And what Acts is is that foundation. And that is why Luke begins with the apostles here. Luke is not just trying to keep us informed by the way the apostles they were hanging out for 40 days and they didn't know what Jesus came and visited them a few times. That's not what he's saying in these early verses. He's telling us how to read his book. He's telling us that it's about the apostles. He's telling us that the apostles came here and the Lord appeared to them. Jesus doesn't pull aside the 120 that gather on the day of Pentecost and show himself to them and teach them. No, they were there. They probably were believers at that point. But no, he pulls aside these 12 as apostles. And the lesson that they heard as they walked along the road of a mess and their hearts burned within them as he opened up the scriptures. That's what Jesus continues to do for 40 days. The apostles are the key witnesses. They are the key players in the book of Acts, where they will speak for Christ. They will represent Christ. They will lay that firm foundation. I don't have time to get into it. But look at how Peter deals within chapter 10, verse 40. Maybe just jot it down and read it another time. Look at how he points out the uniqueness of the apostles there in chapter 10, verse 40 and following. And even Luke realizes this and Luke's introduction as he tells us, he says, I'm putting together a gospel and I'm going to have a second work called the Acts. But I realized that I was not an eyewitness. I wasn't one of those chosen eyewitnesses to his resurrection. I wasn't one of those chosen ministers of his word, the apostles. I'm building on their foundation, even there Luke sees this. And even there Jesus comes and he speaks and he talks and he appears to these 12 and lays that foundation. Fourthly, the book of Acts is a spirit-filled book. And since we're going to be talking a lot about this in the book, I'll be a shorter of this one. We see only two things that Jesus taught them in those 40 days. One of the things is verse 7 and 8 will get to you next week, where they ask a question. But the other one is found in verse 4 and 5 of our text this morning. And in it Jesus tells them that they are able to wait there to stay put. The promised gift of the Holy Spirit is just a few days away. You thought that John's baptism or repentance was great. Why don't you baptize with the Holy Spirit? And what is that teaching us? It's not teaching us that we need to wait now for another baptism of the Holy Spirit right now. What is teaching us from the very beginning and taught the apostles and continues to teach the church today? Is that nothing happens in Christ's kingdom without the Holy Spirit? We oftentimes forget that. We oftentimes think that things happen because of us. But the Holy Spirit is the one who works. Nothing happens in the kingdom of Christ. The kingdom of Christ does not advance without the Holy Spirit. Whatever happens in Christ's church is the work of the Holy Spirit if it is the will of God. And that's why they had to wait. That's why they had to wait for the baptism of the Spirit. Finally, and we'll get to this more. Acts is a personal book. How you might say, how can a history, a foundational history, how can a unique history be personal? Well, look at who it's written to. It's not written to the apostles even though it's written about them. It's not written to a particular church or group of churches. Who is it written to? One guy. Guy by the name of theophilus. All we know is what that word means. That name means either befriended by God or loved by God or this to reverse the lover and friend of God, whether it's subject or object to there. But we know from Luke 1.3 that he was most excellent. He drops that title here in Acts. But we know that that's possibly, although it's not completely sure, that he was some type of a government official. Maybe a Roman, a government official that was writing to him. The authorist could have been a code name for him, not wanting to be known by his real name. We don't know, but the bottom line, we really don't know who this guy was. But you know what we do now? We know why the book was written to him. We don't need to know other than he was a real person. We don't need to know anything else. Look at what he says. Look, go back to Luke chapter 1. This is where closing up here is hanging there. Chapter 1. It says, I wrote to you, it seemed best to write an orderly account, verse 3 of Luke 1, so that you may know the certainty of the things that you have been taught. That's why Luke writes to the author, that they might know the certainty of the gospel, that he might be know the certainty of what he has been taught. We don't know how he was taught, small groups hearing it from other letters. We don't know, but somehow he was taught about the gospel, and Luke wants this to be the confirming certainty in his life. Now you might say, Ron, that's why Luke wrote his gospel. He doesn't say that he wrote the book of Acts for the same reason. Ah, yes it does, indirectly. What was to give the authorless certainty? It was what Jesus did and said, and what Jesus continues to do and say is what Luke continues to give in the book of Acts, the very thing that would give the authorless certainty. And I hope you can capture this, in other words it's saying that the word of God is where our sin are assurances found. Luke gives him exactly in Acts where he gave him and Luke other than different stories, but they are the same thing, the things Jesus did and thought. And that is to bring certainty in his hearts. It's hard. So Acts is for disciples. Acts is for people like you and me who are seeking to know with certainty the things that we have been taught. Acts is given that we might know the gospel, that we might know our security in Christ, that we might know the living Christ is among us and working, that we might know that the Lord is working his will out in our lives. Acts is given that you might know the gospel that you have learned, that you might know it in an age of untrue. And that's why John Calvin called the book of Acts a vast, a kind of vast treasure. And Martin Lloyd Jones in his book on Ephesians speaks about the book of Acts at one point and says, live in that book. I exhort you. It is a tonic. The greatest tonic I know of in the realm of the spirit is the book of Acts. Oh, that this might be a tonic for our souls. You know, let me give you one last quotation in the 1662 prayer book, Anglican prayer book. There's a prayer for the day of Luke. I'm not advising that we have singstays, but the prayer is good. Let me read it a short prayer. He says Almighty God, who call us Luke the physician, whose praise is in the gospel, to be an evangelist and physician of the soul. May it please you Lord, that by the wholesome medicines of the doctrine delivered by him, all the diseases of our souls may be healed through the merits of thy son, Jesus Christ our Lord. You see that the prayer is asking to take the doctrines of the gospel, the writings of the Dr. Luke, both gospel and we could include Acts and may it be a medicine for our souls. That is my prayer for us as we go through it. This would be a bomb, a tonic, a nice solution and lotion upon us that we might know that certainty of our faith. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we ask now as we have heard your word and we know that you have set a course for us. Lord, we pray that if there's anything in this course that is off course, that you would get us back on track. Lord, we pray that you might help us to be drawn closer to you, to have greater faith in your risen, exalted power and presence in our lives as we study this book. Lord, we pray today as we've heard about it, that it might not just prepare us, it might not just excite us, but that there was one thing that you drew home to our hearts, that we need to do, that we need to get right with you, that we need to focus upon. Lord, may our hearts be burning within us as we continue to hear of what you have done and what you say, and we pray these things in Christ's name. You're done.