Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for this glorious evening. Thank You for this wonderful sunset that we were able to see, creation that You have made, the lovely constellation of colors. Lord, we thank You that we can have this evening hour together to meditate on Your Word, to reflect on Your counsel, to understand Your purposes with this creation and human lives in particular, and even more specific to understand Your purposes for our individual lives. Lord, we come with questions, with needs, with concerns, with insights. And we pray that You, in Your greatness, in Your wisdom, would meet us. Lord, we thank You, that You afford us the opportunity to reflect on Your Word, and although we have worked during this day, we pray that You would refresh our minds and hearts, and that We would be encouraged by Your Word and Your Presence. Bless this evening. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I did give you a lead question for this evening. What have you gathered from acts concerning missions and the work of the Holy Spirit? This leads us to lecture five and six this evening, but simply anticipates Your reflection, because I know some or even many of you have been engaged in proclaiming the gospel, in passing on the gospel, in giving testimony for the hope that is within you. And as we are reflecting on the book of Acts in that respect, I just want you to be aware of your own experience, your own past, perhaps even painful, past in this respect that you're searching for answers concerning that great manifestation that we have here in the book of Acts. However, before we get to the question of the outpouring of the Spirit of God and the enablement for missions, the understanding of missions, we are going to look a little bit at the beginning of the book of Acts. From last time, you remember that we began with reflecting on the purpose of Acts, and the characteristics of the book of Acts, the general theological characteristics. And as you keep that in mind, that purpose of the book of Acts with internal and external growth with opposition and tension, external opposition and internal attention, we perhaps can start with Acts 1-8 tonight and then work through the entire chapter a little bit in understanding what, how the book of Acts is unfolding the message of that expansion. In Acts 1-8, we read the following. Jesus instructs His disciples in this way, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Many interpreters of the book of Acts believe that this is a very important signpost and signal for the entire book of Acts in terms of what is happening here and we are going to trace that a little bit throughout the semester as we look at the book of Acts and also at the life of Paul who is a very significant witness in this expansion, concentric expansion of witness. Acts 1-8, we will move towards it as we look through chapter 1, but just keep that in mind, there is an important statement here that leads the disciples to anticipate what God in His sovereignty and in His kindness is about to unfold in their midst. Let us begin with the beginning of the book of Acts and then work our way to verse 8 and a little bit beyond. You see here that the book of Acts begins as a second volume. I've already made brief reference of that to that that you see that Luke writes the second volume. This is the second part of the gospel. I have emphasized that last time that the gospel is not finished with Luke 24. It is finished with Acts 28 and this connection here between Luke's gospel and the book of Acts is a literary connection initially but it leads beyond that because it says here that Luke reported what Jesus began to do and to teach. Now this formulation began to do or to teach can be interpreted in two ways. The Greek text could be taken to say what Jesus did so this began can be interpreted in a very flat way that I have reported to you in the gospel what Jesus did and now one could interpret I'm going to tell you what the Holy Spirit is doing. However, I believe it is a better reading of the Greek text to say I have written to you in the gospel what Jesus began to do and to teach and now I'm going to tell you what he continues to do and to teach by means of the Holy Spirit. That is a Christocentric understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Acts and actually in the total understanding a trinitarian understanding so that the means by which the unfolding work of salvation is accomplished namely by the Holy Spirit is emphasized but not to the exclusion of the ministry of Jesus or the will eternal will of the Father. So we're not dropping off you know it's not choppy that the gospel of Luke speaks about Jesus and now we finally suddenly hear about the Holy Spirit it is really the triune God working out salvation bringing the covenant people to himself that is made out of both Jews and Gentiles that dramatic unfolding that we see here that's being accomplished that is being worked out and so grammatically and then theologically I believe it is more apt to say I'm telling you now in the book of Acts Theophilus patron what Jesus continued to teach and do and then in brackets we can add by means of the Spirit of God that is certainly correct so this would be the interpretation here of verse one as we briefly look through the initial verses of this chapter we are moving on that there's a repetition here of Jesus instructing his disciples and it is instructive that the theme of the kingdom of God is being continued here the rule of God when Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God in Luke and for that matter in the other gospels he speaks primarily about the rule of God and not the realm of God when he says the kingdom of God is near its hand it really means the hand of God to rule in your midst in your personal hearts but also corporately is near there is a sense of indictment there with this call namely the people have fallen away people has separated itself from the direct authority of God and now the announcement of the kingdom is an announcement of the rule of God and all of what happens to Jesus is death and resurrection and now his instruction is subsumed under the understanding of God re inaugurating recalling commencing once more his rule among his people because it is the eternal purpose of God that he be their God and they be his people that is a red thread a country's firmness throughout the old and new testament and that is certainly being born out here so it's not surprising that Jesus would continue to speak to the disciples about the rule of God and how that rule of God is unfolding now the next verse then speaks about verse 4 that he instructs them to stay in Jerusalem and to wait for the gift promised by the father which you have heard me speak about in the gift then in the next verses clearly identified as the gift of baptism in the Holy Spirit the gift of receiving the Holy Spirit perhaps you read quickly over the fact that it's in Jerusalem that this is to occur not in Alexandria not in Antioch not in Ephesus certainly not in Rome Jerusalem why Jerusalem we could reflect a long time on that but it is the place that God has revealed himself through it is the place where his chicana glory dwelled in the temple and it is from that place that his presence the outpouring of his spirit indiscriminately upon Jews and Gentile upon simple and complex upon servants and masters is being poured out it is the place from which God reveals himself chooses to reveal himself so Jerusalem as the place of God's self-revelation is very significant here the question of the disciples in verse 6 is very telling isn't it the disciples ask so Lord are you at this time when the spirit of God is going to be poured out in Jerusalem are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel throughout Jesus ministry they have been taught that the purposes of God are going to go beyond the confines of the people of Israel especially toward the end of Jesus ministry the instruction in Luke 24 is so clearly instructive that the purpose of the ministry of Jesus is certainly to the house of Israel but it goes beyond that according to Isaiah 42 and 49 he is to be a light to the Gentiles and you see that anticipated already in the beginning of Luke so you have Jesus broadening the perspective of the eternal will of God by utilizing and using the people of Israel as a a symbol a demonstration of God's faithfulness and unmerited grace and mercy but that his final thrust is much broader includes a people that is made of Jews and Gentile like and the disciples still insist that there should be a restoration for Israel at this point not as instructive to note that Jesus does not reject this hope as you read in the following verses 7 and 8 but particularly 7 it is not for you to know the times or dates the father has said by his own authority so there is this sense that Jesus does not deny some of the purposes of God to be fulfilled with the people of Israel I've read acts carefully with this question in mind what happens to Israel and obviously it is a divisive issue Christians are of different convictions on this question of what happens to the people of Israel as the gospel is now poured out I would like to liken it to a two wave event yes God is showing his faithfulness to the people of Israel and there is no denial here on the part of Jesus that God is showing that faithfulness to the people of Israel but behind that promise is a major title wave that has accumulated other prophecies and predictions of God's purpose namely to include Gentiles in this wonderful salvation process Paul calls it the mystery of the gospel. Mysterion is that Christ would be among you among you Gentiles that's the mystery of the gospel and so this title wave is washing over this anticipation of God's faithfulness to Israel now I'm not going to be very specific acts is not very specific on this point except that this restoration theme in acts 1 6 is being echoed and picked up in chapter 3 and we're going to turn to that just briefly in chapter 3 in in Peter's second missionary or second speech sermon in Jerusalem he says this concerning the restoration in chapter 3 we see this in verse 21 this is concerning the risen Christ when Peter speaks about this truth concerning the risen Christ he must remain he Christ in heaven until the time comes for God to restore same word just in a verbal form rather than in a noun form in acts 1 6 to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets that's what I would liken this verse to this larger wave that comes right behind the small wave of an anticipation of restoration for Israel in acts 1 6 here Peter says there is more to God's purposes and these purposes are going to wash over I don't know exactly how God deals with Israel in particular but I know one thing there's this title wave of God bringing in Jews and Gentiles into his covenant people bringing that message in a broad way to completion and thereby fulfilling and restoring everything that has been promised in the Old Testament which includes that there is to be a light to the Gentiles from Jerusalem and that the Messiah of God is to be that light so there is something greater happening here and I see that dynamic in the book of acts that it does not deny God's faithfulness to Israel but it affirms a greater work of God that is anticipated here so I would recommend to you in your reading of the book of acts not to get stuck with verse 6 in chapter 1 but to read on now there's not a lot on restoration this passage in Acts 321 is among the only ones that we find in this theme but as we see acts unfold it is plain that God is not denying the call to Israel and I differ with those interpreters who say that Paul goes a certain way in preaching to the Jews and when they do not receive him he turns away to the Gentiles well you can find proof texts that say and when they did not receive his message he turned away and preached to the Gentiles to which the Gentiles were very happy about read a few chapters further down he's again back preaching the gospel to the Jews so I find that a continuous theme in Acts and actually born out in the Pauline epistles to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles also there is a priority of preaching there's a priority of presentation calling the people of Israel back to the covenant that God has made and including the Gentiles those of those moments are there so I differ with those who say that at some point in Acts Paul turns his back against the Jews never to return I don't see that it continues all the way to the end of Acts whatever else we would say about the outreach to the Jewish people including Romans 9 to 11 I find that first to the Jews and to the Gentiles as well to be born out Jesus lives that Paul lives that Acts testifies to that and I don't see really an end to that there's one way of salvation there are not two ways only by calling on the name of the Lord Acts 2 21 and only he who calls on the name of Jesus Christ will be saved Acts 4 so there's one way for Jew and Gentile alike but there's still a particular love that God has for his people it's not wiped out but it's taken over by a greater agenda perhaps that helps a little bit in understanding this development here of anticipating a restoration to Israel and then comes verse 8 the very significant verse that speaks about the fact that the power is being poured out but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth now this word power you will receive power is wonderful term it means strength it means the ability to create it can refer to the spirit in Micah 3 8 it has all kinds of dimensions here one thing is clear this is something that is being received in fact the entire section in the beginning of Acts is very much a section of waiting upon God and God taking charge in his unfolding of his plan and the way he orchestrates that unfolding and Acts 1 8 is certainly strongly participating in that for you will receive the power you will receive the power and perhaps the best way to define power here in this passage is a divine innately I am wrestling with the issue how much that also means to receive the Spirit of God basically fundamentally because we see for instance that Cornelius later on receives the Spirit of God there are others who receive the Spirit of God and will probably get into that subject a little bit later on when we reflect on the people of Israel already having the Spirit of God and yet there is this outpouring here we need to reflect on that a little more that it is significant that verse 1 8 probably explains verse 1 5 to receive the Spirit of God John the Baptist baptized with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit note how that correlates to what I have said that it is Jesus who takes charge by means of the Spirit to lead his people into the outpouring of the Spirit and then beyond what is significant here too is not only the enabling but the purpose statement here you shall be my witnesses and the Greek text my is emphatic now when we in English say you shall be my witnesses that is a normal grammatical structure if I would say you shall be the witnesses of mine perhaps you would notice a little more this possessive aspect not some witness not somebody that says something but my position you will be my position and as that you will testify you will witness that's a little more emphatic in the Greek text so that the message is clear you're not going to go out and and give a nice spiel about the gospel you're not going to go out to become rich you're not going to go out to impress people you're not going to go out to be rhetorically refined and eloquent you're simply going to go out and say I testify to the truth that this man who has died in our midst who has been crucified as alive I've seen it so it's a non eloquent but equally profound statement my witnesses you're just to go out and to speak to testify to that truth a appalling message to the Jews and stone of stumbling and foolishness to the Greeks you already know that it won't it won't be received with open arms wherever you go and you're supposed to go everywhere so there's my witnesses is very significant protected by me associated with me not on your own terms but on my terms and then certainly the Greek word of witness is martyrs that's where we derive our word martyr from but originally a martyr was not somebody who would die it would just be somebody who witnesses but in an adverse circumstance in a world that resists light in a world that resists truth in a world that resists gods foolish quote unquote acts that are actually wisdom to those who believe that may that witness may lead to dying for that witness and then becoming a martyr in the sense of the term that we now use it but originally this witness sense that witness theme is just to stand up for that truth and you know not much has changed since the time of the disciples and our time the message hasn't become more intelligent it hasn't become less of an offence to those who seek a unquestionable demonstration of God's signs and also it has not become more of a deep wisdom to those who seek wisdom but the paradox is still true as well that Paul brings out in Corinthians 1 Corinthians that for those who believe it is a wonderful basis of God's demonstration and of wisdom in fact it is the demonstration of God's strength and the demonstration of God's wisdom so you've got two things going on here as you are a witness you have the opposition the opposition theme and you have the treasure in earthen vessels the wonderful profound wisdom of God of his salvation and if you remember the introductory lecture that I gave last time the whole problem of human existence the witness is simply and profoundly to give testimony to the fact that there's one who solved the problem of the great glory of man the great misery of man who is actually able to restore man to his glory by restoring him to a relationship with God to a toning for the debt for the sin the separation and enabling that person to to grow in Godliness so there's a lot bound up with the term marches witness and in fact it's a very important theme in the Book of Acts the theme of witness you remember later on that when Judas has to be replaced in the Book of Acts chapter one that a witness an apostolic witness has to undergo a rather severe scrutiny namely to be able to witness to Jesus public ministry beginning from John the Baptist all the way through to his resurrection the Book of Acts also establishes an important fact that there are apostolic witnesses and then there are other witnesses the other witnesses are not inferior in the sense of worth before God but there's a uniqueness about the apostolic witness that is why the Book of Acts always uses the word apostle only for the twelfth verses one exception where it is applied to Paul and Barnabas one exception and there are some explanations for that but basically the trend is apostles in the Book of Acts are not just missionaries and messengers in the secondary sense but apostles in the primary sense of those that Jesus worked with those that Jesus trained those that Jesus called to be witnesses and they are particularly equipped here to testify to the truth of the gospel entrusted to them so there's a lot bound up here with the reference to the being a witness now the tail end of this verse is that they will testify to the truth of the resurrection of Christ beginning in Jerusalem then Judea then Samaria and then to the ends of the world now I like to ask students where does Jesus stand when he pronounces this statement is anybody know from reading the section here where is Jesus standing when he is presenting this mount of olives now I've never been in Israel some of you may have had that privilege but I imagine this and I think it's informed by some geographical at less than I do have that Jerusalem is a high point with regard to the rest of the country and the mount of olives is still slightly more elevated now put yourself on the mount of olives for for Acts 1 8 look towards Jerusalem let's say down to Jerusalem or over down to Jerusalem you're facing west the Mediterranean seas in front of you the hinterland is behind you and as you now hear Jesus speak of how the witness is going out Jerusalem Judea Samaria and the end of the world the end of the earth the known Roman Empire the northern strips of North Africa Asia Minor Italy way back there maybe Spain who knows you know that is the the world so really when Jesus pronounces this outlook of witness in a real way and at least in an envisionary way they look over the territory that is to be covered they see what is going to happen and it's overwhelming there's this little group of people and they are to go out with this message that they know will be opposed by Jew and Gentile alike and yet some will be moved by the spirit of God both Jew and Gentile to respond to this witness that is a magnificent beginning kind of a mountaintop experience before you go down and then get into the nitty gritty of losing your life Steven of having little bakerings about who gets what money Hellenistic Jewish widows get less than Palestinian Jewish how are we going to arrange all of this of being thrown out of Jerusalem for your witness being dispersed across this whole area that you looked out so there's a lot going to come after acts 1A sometimes we need ourselves these vision statements we need to be up on a mountain and look beyond in fact i've experienced in my own life that sometimes just going up on a mountain is really therapeutic and you looked on or being in a plane i always use that when i'm up on the plane i just see these problems of human existence fade you know they're still there but they're just like little toy cars down there and little toy houses and all the the marriage problems and family problems and strides among various churches and all this is kind of you know being rather small and over you can kind of size it up then you see the glorious greatness of just this world i enjoy flying to Europe and flying through the night which takes about two hours and then you have this glorious sunrise new day coming but just go up on a mountain and get a perspective and this is one of those experiences of getting a perspective getting a distance we are sometimes so focused on our problems and challenges that we cannot see gods larger plan the comfort that god is going to work things out and that he is going to get to his purposes that he's going to accomplish his purpose somehow we've got a mechanism in our heart that says yes god is in charge god is the lord of this world but it all depends on me and woe to the church if i don't you know get really in there rather than to say to remind yourself over and over again god is in charge god is doing his work Jesus is taking the disciples up on that hill and says this is my agenda my witnesses i will give you power you know it's on god's term on god's turf and then you just go out it's still going to be a struggle it's still going to be a major challenge to be witnesses because there's this martyrdom tone even as you look out from the mountain but somehow you can have the confidence that god is going to come through not because of your great work but because of his great faithfulness that's why see israel as the people the covenant people of god such an important flag that is put across the history of mankind not because the people of israel is great not because they married not because they're numerous not because they're gifted not because of anything except god's mercy god's faithfulness god's kindness god's loyalty to one exemplary to one example one people and you can see it so as you look at israel you look at god's greatness god's faithfulness continuing in a broader sense and it's including gentiles in this wonderful work and we have the same god the same faithful covenant god the same one that shows his power and purposes i think that's wonderful for us to just remember as we are about down in the valleys moving through the nitty gritty of our days of our ministries of our challenges uh it's so easy to to lose track of that and i just must testify myself i get caught in the five percent in my life that is intention that where i need help where i need strength and i ignore absolutely ignore the 95 percent of god's good provision of good health of uh family of uh provisions that would go into the thousands if i started to enumerate them they're taken for granted but luck at these five percent you know look there's it's not resolved well i think we need to step back and to see god's overarching work in uh x18 will help us to get a new glimpse of that of the agenda of god after he said this he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hit him from their side the cloud is often used as a description of moving from the visible to the invisible world it's a point of transition and uh Jesus goes into the invisible world and then the important point is here that the angels that address these disciples as men of Galilee say this same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven this is one of the key statements in the book of acts on the second coming of christ uh chapter three where i've already read to you a little bit you remember that i read in verse twenty three verse twenty and that he may send the christ who has been appointed for you even Jesus there's another reference to the return of christ so here in acts one uh eleven we do have a clear reference to the fact that Jesus is going to return in that way he is going to re-enter the visible world but then we know in a much different way then we would have expected he comes to judgment he comes to uh bringing his bride into glory so there are these sobering references in the rest of the book of acts then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called mount of olives a Sabbath stay walk from the city and then they congregate and they choose a replacement for Judas this is the first chapter in the book of acts the first presentation of how the messianic church was brought into life now let me uh briefly reflect on the uh further effect of that throughout the book of acts i've told you that we will look at certain parts of the book of acts and then kind of look out what happens now how is acts one aid being born out in the rest of the book of acts and i'm going to go into that just briefly i uh mentioned that here in your handout under lecture four as missiological approach that's a big word for how is this message of witness now being carried out and i just want to enumerate a few elements you may have already taken or planned to take a class on missiology on mission strategy i'm not really leading you into all of that except to trace a few lines from the book of acts itself what do we find there so i'm moving now to the exorcist missiological approach there are various ways that this witness is being carried out in the book of acts and the first major category that we find is public speeches let's say that way it's a neutral term maybe sermon maybe a speech in a more specific sense public speeches that's the first means that this message is now carried out and you can already anticipate that there will be other categories how that message is being carried out among these public speeches there are certainly sermons there are sermons that are respectively adjusted to the particular audience the general rule of thumb is if you are addressing Jewish people you will be making reference to Old Testament texts if you are addressing Gentile people particularly in act 17 you will be making reference to creation and perhaps a history of interpretation of your audience concerning creation that's what happens in act 17 wonderful way how that creation reference and the interpretation of creation among stoics in particular is being interpretive but that's the rule of thumb here and then certainly there is an adjustment to the audience even beyond there so there are certain speeches that are being given a second category that I think is often overlooked and slowly being recovered in some of the circles that I have contact with is evangelism through dialogue or debate now that's a form that is not very common but we certainly see it in the book of acts evangelism through dialogue or debate in fact at one point in act 19 we have the reference to the Greek word d-a-legomenos dialectic debate to debate with somebody and the most conspicuous example is when Paul goes to Ephesus and enters the debate house of tyrannos act 19 and nine following their abouts now the lecture hall of tyrannos was a institution it was a place where you would go if you wanted to test your rhetorical skills or you had a fancy new idea and you just wanted to try it out on people so you would go to the house of tyrannos and you would say I want to give a speech now normally some people assume you would try to do that at night between 11 and 1 most likely Paul only got a noon slot and that was downtime that was yes that time that was recovering from your meal time and you were kind of getting ready for the night debates so probably Paul got a really bad slot but there still must have been some people there that would have listened to his presentation and what we see here is that Paul uses as a witness a particular institution in this culture for the sake of the gospel and he debates he presents prior to that he was in the synagogue again 19 verse 8 says he was in the synagogue and then he went across and I believe that Paul used that means of debate frequently it's always suspicious when somebody says you know honestly I'm telling you the truth this time I'm telling you the truth you know the implication is normally when I don't make that disclaimer I'm lying straight into your face but honestly I'm thinking truth that's what Paul has to say in Jerusalem honestly I did not debate with anybody meaning in applying that that's kind of his mode of operating to not in a bad way debate but to say you know I've got something to witness to you about and that's really the disclaimer that he has to make in Acts 24 12 where it says in Jerusalem Paul did not argue with anybody D. Alegomenos he did not debate with anybody he was a peaceful quiet saw Paul but actually his disposition was to engage a very wonderful form of presentation and what the Francis Schafer Institute is trying to do here in in speaking or having various lectures and various bookstores or featuring lectures in different settings is that attempt to say is the presentation of the gospel and the witness does not only have to go through the means of preaching or an evangelistic sermon it can very well be a debate where people ask and give a counter argument and you need to present your position another area that we see is that of witness yeah various examples in the book of Acts where there are some witnesses given perhaps in the context of a speech such as Acts 26 that sometimes Paul includes in one of his speeches a personal witness this is my testimony this is what God has done in my life I don't think witness should be the foundation of Christian instruction but it's a very encouraging factor namely this every time you or I hear a witness we have another piece of evidence of God's way of reaching a completely different person for myself once more so the truth of Acts namely to break through all barriers and to reach all types of people even Germans believe that that is a miracle that's wonderful that's encouraging that is a testimony to God's promise and unfailing faithfulness to reach so it is wonderful to hear testimony in the church in Germany that I was involved with we try to include that partially in our services to have occasionally witnesses for their faith I think it's a wonderful form of passing on the witness this is the public domain now I'm coming to the next area be the household domain it's very interesting that not only in the public arena do you find witness but you also find it in the household domain now it would take a long time to go a little bit into the sociology of the household what we shouldn't think when we say household is mama papa and one daughter or one son that's for the ancient world an absolutely decimated part of the house but we're we're all the relatives we're all the friends we're all the people that help in the household so when you hear household when something happens in the household in the book of acts you need to envision 20 to 30 people a little a little community of family relations grandparents uncles and but also employees servants many times slaves in the ancient world so it was a whole group and I'm not going to get into the whole sociology of slavery but there were also different kinds of slaves but it was a whole group of people with various functions in that organism it was a microcosm of society much more than the the western family of today you need to go more towards Asia towards Russia and other areas where families are still broader unities I still remember a colleague that studied with me at the University of Aberdeen who was from the Philippines well I had to go in a good German sense in my little cubicle and I had to be isolated quiet nothing around then I was seriously concentrating on this task at hand well he couldn't stand it he was like a fish out of water I mean how can you live like that he went back home he had kids and his wife in Aberdeen he put his desk in the middle of the living room and that's where he did his study in research kids playing around and telephone and wife and that's how he felt research should be done that's a little bit more of the household mentality rather than this austere german weight so this is the household in which then the gospel is being presented and passed on we have a lot of references to that the house of Mary the mother of John Mark is a significant house in acts and I've perhaps already mentioned it to you you do find references in the beginning of acts that houses were sold in fact you may get the impression that everybody sold everything but that's not true because in acts 12 Mary still has the title to her house in Jerusalem and it's still very much a meeting place where Paul Peter comes to where John Mark is at et cetera in acts 12 12 so it is a place of congregating of missionaries moving in and out of meetings that are given Jason's house in acts 17 is another example teachers used to house in acts 18 the house of philippis is mentioned Lydia's house in acts 16 is used for other purposes of the passing on of the gospel and many others what are these houses used for well it is amazing when you look through the book of acts and just say what are the houses used for what you find they are used for prayer circles and many of the accounts that you have heard from China or Russia where household churches are virtually the only form of survival in some circles that is very significant fellowship among Christians so prayer fellowship whole nights of prayer worship and teaching prayer worship and teaching acts 20 verse 7 evangelistic times of get together some of them spontaneous some of them planned evangelistic get together and also for instruction teaching so a very wide spectrum of means that we find in the house churches actually there's even a reference to the celebration of the Lord's supper in acts 246 you have to deal with that carefully there are all kinds of ramifications that I don't want to get into here that you need to be careful about when you look at the celebration of the Lord's supper for instance you need to understand that in the book of acts there was no public meeting place for the church so you need to be careful in how you interpret the entire understanding here and then certainly there is besides public presentation and the household which is a semi public place there is the personal evangelization not so much mentioned in acts interestingly enough a lot on public various forms of public presentation a healthy section on the household evangelization and not a whole lot on the personal evangelization but there are some references to individuals in acts eight for instance you do have the passing on to an individual explaining scripture explaining the purposes of God now particularly ananias had a wonderful job of giving testimony to definitely the most well-known opponent of the Christian faith so you pick the person that you think is most viciously opposed to the gospel and just envision yourself to be called by God to give testimony that's a big challenge especially if that person that you are testifying to seemingly has the authority to execute you ananias had that in acts nine 10 to 18 here you see again that there is a serious measure of courage that is associated with that and before I conclude I just want to add one little footnote to this public semi public and personal form of evangelization and that is the literary form of presenting the gospel now I know that this category is not a separate unit and I know that the writing was the writing of scripture gospels the epistles but I do believe that there's something to be learned from the fact that there was a literary dimension to the presentation of the gospel by letter by gospels now I do know that there's a difference between the canon of scripture and you writing an evangelistic letter but at least we need to appreciate the literary dimension of what is going on as this message has been carried out and just as a little bit of a side issue if you believe that the early church was taken up with such an understanding of the imminent coming of Christ that it would just take a few days and a few weeks why write why document if it was going to happen within such a short time I think it's a misconception of the early church to believe that it was just taken up by this euphoric expectation of the return of Christ there was a sense of faithfulness of continuity and of nearness of Christ yes nearness in the sense of his presence let me say two words before we have a break on the missionary strategy so we can conclude our lecture four tidy and neatly that we can go into our break with a good conscience missionary strategy I will not say a lot on that except to observe that the way Paul moves about in the ancient world is by using the infrastructure at hand that would be the basic observation that I would have Paul does not sit in Antioch and says what exists I'll definitely not use I will make my new roads I will go in different ways where people aren't I'm going to go into the hills and if I meet somebody then that's definitely God's will no he moves with the traffic he moves into the centers he uses that which the Greco-Roman empires had established for the sake of the gospel more than that even uses the infrastructure that the Jewish people had established with synagogues of establishing synagogues all over the Greco-Roman world so it's hand in glove basically except it's not mechanical and automatic there is some reference to the fact that Paul is hindered to go in this direction he's called to go in that direction there is a dependency upon God but not to the in encounter distinction to the structures that are established so I think it's very good to do a good analysis of what you have I know of a church planter in in Hawaii a former student here of covenant seminary and elite and perhaps he more than anybody that I have met before did a sociological study in analysis of Hawaii history the composite of ethnic groups enormous amount of preparatory study so that when he arrived he perhaps knew the island better than most people living there it's just amazing I think that's wonderful and he's still trusting that God leads that God will help him to know how to August faith it's not at the expense of dependency but it's good it's good to know where you're going and Paul certainly knew where he was going what he was doing and the account of Luke in the book of Acts is a wonderful testimony to an insightful understanding of the particular settings where the gospel is preached so when you go somewhere understand the people understand what motivates them understand where they're at and these patterns that I just explained to you of forms of evangelism they have to be translated and indigenized and that's the job of mission missiology that I can't provide here to then say okay how does how does household evangelization relate to the French people is that a way to go or should you be not in the house but out in the marketplace where they play bull well probably that's where you need to be in Germany do you need to be in the house or should you be somewhere where people get together clubs or restaurants well you need to really look at particular situation and then transfer and translate that is a little bit of the understanding how that message then is being taken out particularly focusing on Paul but also some of the other messengers let's conclude here and just take with us that the wonderful mountain view and perspective is something that we need to regain if you're very tired you need to go up on a mountain prayerfully and regain your vision it's tough when you're involved in the battle down in the valleys so let's take a little break for five minutes and then we'll come back to lecture five thank you