Acts (2010)

This class is taught on the eve of Yom Kippur. In recognition of that, Dr. Dean began class with a short video of Aveinu Shebashabaim, a Hebrew prayer for the State of Israel, sung by the Chief Cantor of the Israeli Defense Forces.

As Christians we recognize the importance of supporting Israel and the Jewish people in light of Genesis 12:1-3 and we appreciate how God’s love for Israel lives forever in His covenants and promises. Understand the real threats Israel and the Christian world face today and the Christian’s role in support of Israel.

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is an example of another witness for the faith shown throughout Acts. Was Saul, in his thorough knowledge of the scriptures, an Old Testament believer or was he covered in layers that suppressed the Truth in unrighteousness? How long after the crucifixion did this event take place? Did Saul’s commission include more than just the Gentiles? Get the sequence and significance of events that began on the road to Damascus and led to Paul’s baptism and the beginning of his ministry.

The study of Saul’s conversion is more than academic. It becomes a study of our own times and how the Holy Spirit works today to totally redirect lives we have considered a lost cause. This revelation to Saul is repeated in scripture as an objective account of a historical event which was witnessed, and not just an imagined happening within Saul’s head. Saul uses his background as the catalyst in a severe acting out of passion directed against the gospel which may also mask an over-zealous but positive inclination toward God. Learn the significance of the bright light, Jesus’ introduction in terms of His humanity, Paul’s blindness, why Paul and Jesus spoke Hebrew instead of Aramaic, Paul’s conversation with Agrippa and Paul’s commission from God as apostle to the Gentiles.

Before we study Acts 9, a biographical sketch of Paul is essential. His road to Damascus experience is so important that the Holy Spirit has chosen to refer to it several times in Scripture. Here we see the miraculous nature of Saul’s conversion and the power of God in transforming a life. Get to know Saul through events surrounding him as he was growing up, his family, his education, his extreme persecution of Christians, his Jewishness and his leadership involvement as he spread the Christian message to the Gentiles. God’s role through intervention in history and His determination of ultimate reality are so counter to our cultural beliefs that reaction to these events has been extreme and dismissive. Learn about political correctness and its function in the suicide of Western Civilization.

The conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch through Isaiah 53 is an evangelistic ministry of Philip. The Holy Spirit is in charge, but evangelism is not apart from human responsibility. The Ethiopian is as ready as one can be to believe. Compare that to Paul, the prime persecutor of the Christian faith. Who would think his hostility could be turned around? Is there someone in your periphery you have written off because of their strong defenses? Relax, persevere, befriend, pray and trust, but be ready to deliver the Truth that you know. This lesson focuses on substitution, a foreign concept in our culture, but the major theme found consistently throughout the Old Testament, occurring prior to Israel and developed throughout Israel’s history and worship. See how the person of Christ and God’s judgment of us through His substitutionary death is undeniably stated in this passage so that we can know that Israel’s Servant can be none other than Jesus Christ.

As these future Jews look back on who they rejected, the identity of the Servant becomes focused beyond question. No passage is so perfectly honed into the person and work of Jesus Christ as this Word given by God to His beloved Israel. By illumination and elimination the description becomes a driving force to steer the unbelieving world to Jesus Christ. Our grief, sorrows, transgressions, iniquities and chastisement describe our guilt deserving of the penalty. Stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded, bruised, travail of His soul, describe the severity of the penalty. Borne, carried, offering for sin, put Him to grief, describe Him as our substitute. Justify many describes the completed atonement, and satisfy describes the Father’s approval. Righteous Servant, without deceit, who has done no violence, describes the offering – a righteous man, a sacrifice, Israel’s Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rejection of the Servant and Realization of Who He is. Isaiah 53:1-6. August 14, 2012.

Learn the ways people have tried to read this as a non-messianic passage and how that is, at best, a stretch beyond evidence and reason. The perspective is a future believing Jewish remnant looking back with an element of confession on the One they failed to recognize and the nation’s rejection that followed. Compare the imagery in The Arm of the Lord, Tender Shoot and Man of Sorrows. See how historical relevance of these terms points to the Messianic view. Contrast the Jewish expectations from Messiah and the Servant who actually came. Rejection ultimately shifts to glory revealing the substitutionary atonement and affirmation of what the Servant has accomplished.

From Isaiah 52 we have eliminated two of the possibilities in answer to the Ethiopian eunuch’s question, “of whom does the prophet speak,” which leaves us with the third possibility, the future Messiah. What group is looking back to report these things about Messiah? Look closely to determine the focus of these verses – suffering or exaltation? Compare and contrast the New King James translation with those of 20th century Jewish translations to see where they differ and the theology those differences affect. Understand the considerations in translating the word “sprinkle,” and the possibility of the influence of theology on translation instead of correct translation of the particular word on one’s theology.

The Ethiopian eunuch has a lot to tell us about personal evangelism. But be careful; our age is not one of transition and the object of our message may be sorely lacking in information unlike the Ethiopian eunuch. What did he already know that is absent or distorted in our culture? What is the advantage that comes from the experience of failure in our efforts? Can we relax in our efforts to evangelize because we know who is ultimately responsible for bringing in the crop? Where are we responsible to be vigilant when we evangelize? Our challenge is, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to illuminate the truth surrounding “My Servant” as central in God’s message to the unbelieving world and to focus on Isaiah’s description in its uniqueness to Christ.

The Ethiopian Eunuch is reading from Isaiah 53 about "the Lamb" and asks Philip, "to whom does this refer?" Learn the enormous significance of this term for Israel. Consider the options for Philip’s answer: a historical figure, the nation Israel, or an individual who is Israel’s suffering Messiah? See when early Jewish Rabbis saw Isaiah 53 as a reference to their suffering Messiah and when and why that began to change. Learn about the different servant songs in Isaiah and the Servant who is the center focus, the delivering Servant of God who is fully God, fully man, the branch of David and eternal king. See the ongoing thread of the role of servant throughout Scripture that can be fulfilled by Jesus Christ alone.

The Holy Spirit is responsible for the expansion of the church, but His covert/indirect guidance is more common than His overt/direct guidance in Acts. Others, such as the angel in Acts 8:26 also give rare divine guidance. In this episode we learn of the spread of the gospel to Ethiopia through this one Ethiopian eunuch. Who was he? Where did he come from? What is the possible spiritual heritage of the Ethiopian and how is it that Philip hears him reading from Isaiah? From this episode we learn valuable insights on the spiritual life plus we learn something fascinating about Jews and Ethiopia.