God's Faithfulness in the Spread of the Gospel

Prologue

Good morning church. This morning, we are going talk about God’s Faithfulness in the Spread of the Gospel. Rather than having a number of points in this lesson like that in a traditional format, we are going to take a quick drive through the book of Acts. This is going to be somewhat of a broad survey. To review, it has been shown in previous lessons that Luke’s intention is to communicate to his reader that God will fulfill the commission that he gave to his witnesses. This commission, as you recall, is for them to go and be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts. Imagine I am a tour guide and you are on my tour bus, and these places are our destinations. Of course, we know that Luke ends the book with Paul in Rome, so that is where we will end. We will start in Jerusalem, and highlight Peter’s sermons, emphasizing God’s faithfulness in Jerusalem. Then, we will move to Samaria after the death of Stephen and notice God’s faithfulness in giving the Holy Spirit through Peter and John to the Samaritans. Then, we will see how the Gospel begins to spread to the Gentiles through Peter with Cornelius and how God orchestrates that and uses that to usher in Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles in the Jerusalem Council. And finally, we will end in Rome with God fulfilling his purposes in the spread of the Gospel.

My emphasis in all of this is to show God’s faithfulness in the commission that Jesus gave to his witnesses as shown in Acts 1:8.

Jerusalem

Jesus

If you haven’t yet, go ahead and open your Bibles to Acts chapter 1 and I want to orient our minds to how this began. Jesus gives the commission in Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 NKJV

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

God was faithful in the work of Christ and this men were witnesses of the resurrected Christ. They saw the results of God’s faithfulness in the earthly ministry of Christ. Now, they were going to behold the continuing ministry of Christ in the spread of the Gospel.

Jesus gives two commands: (1) To wait in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit; and (2) to be witnesses of Christ. This is fulfilled as God moves them from Jerusalem to Samaria, and then eventually the uttermost parts.

Peter

First Sermon

Our first stop on the tour is in Jerusalem. Let’s jump to chapter 2. Look at verse 22. The apostles have received the Holy Spirit and a crowd has gathered because they were speaking in tongues. God empowered them through this miraculous gift to orchestrate the first situation for them to be his witnesses. Peter is the first to speak up. Luke gives an account of Peter’s first sermon. Acts 2:22-24

Acts 2:22–24 NKJV

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.

Notice where the focus is: on God. God is the main character in the Book of Acts and Luke brings our focus back to this truth.

Peter, in his sermon, brings the focus of the crowd to the faithfulness of God in the crucifixion of Jesus.

What is the response of the crowd? Repentance.

Why did they repent? Was it because of Peter’s boldness? Was it because of his skill? Was it because of his charisma? No. It was because of God. Look at Acts 2:47

Acts 2:47 NKJV

praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

God was faithful in the supreme work of Christ and he is faithful through Peter’s preaching. Here, in Peter’s first sermon, God has already began his work in the spread of the Gospel.

Second Sermon

Turn in your Bible to the third chapter of Acts and we will see Luke’s account of Peter’s second sermon. Peter is now in Solomon’s Portico where he heals a lame beggar. Through God’s work in Peter to bring about healing this man, a crowd gathers.

God’s orchestration of this situation brings another opportunity for Peter which he responds by giving his second sermon. In this sermon, God’s faithfulness in his purposes is highlighted.

Look with me at Acts 3:18

Acts 3:18 NKJV

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.

God fulfilled his purposes as foretold by his prophets concerning Christ and he was fulfilling his purposes in Christ with the spread of the Gospel. What was the response here? It was split. In the first sermon, a ton of people repented. Here, in the second sermon, 5000 people repent, but there is also the first sign of resistance. Look at Acts 4:1-4

Acts 4:1–4 NKJV

Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

Resistance is probably a tame word to use. Peter and John were thrown into prison. Now, that’s scary, but remember than God is faithful to fulfill his purposes. Christ’s commission was for them to go to Jerusalem, Samaria, and the uttermost parts. They are still in Jerusalem, so there is still more for God to do. Imagine you’re watching a movie and you know you’re only about an hour into a two hour movie and the main character seems to be in an impossible situation. There is still an hour left. You know they will make it out. These witnesses haven’t even made it to Samaria yet, so we know there is still more left that God will do. Let’s continue.

Third Sermon

So, Peter and John are in prison and they are brought before some high religious officials and we are about to see Luke give an account of Peter’s third sermon. These officials ask, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” This is a God-prompted question, by the way, in case any of you were wondering. Even in this scary situation, God still provides and orchestrates the situation to bring about the preaching of the Gospel. God uses Peter again through which Peter responds to this question by giving his third sermon. In this sermon, Peter emphasizes God’s faithfulness, but there is something different about this sermon than the other two. In the first two sermons, Peter explicitly mentions God’s providential work. Here, he is a little more subtle. The closest that we get is the phrase, “whom God raise from the dead . . .” (v. 10).

Even though he is more subtle, we have already seen God’s faithfulness in the last two sermons, and so we can trust that God is being faithful here as well.

One way that we can see that God is being faithful is in the audience.

The Gospel isn’t only staying with the common man. Now, it’s being spread to the high religious officials.

Another way that we can see that God is being faithful is in the response of the audience.

First, the crowd responded positively. Then, the crowd responded split with some negative and some positive. Finally, the crowd responded all negatively. Look with me at Acts 4:18, 21

Acts 4:18 NKJV

So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

Acts 4:21 NKJV

So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.

Prayer

Regardless of the crowd, regardless of the speaker, and regardless of the response of the crowd, God will bring about his plan faithfully. Luke’s focus is on this as well. It is after these three sermons by Peter that Luke records this prayer that we see in Acts 4 where they lift praise to God because he has brought about his plan faithfully. Luke is highlighting the providence of God that he fulfilled in and through Christ. Look with me at Acts 4:27-28

Acts 4:27–28 NKJV

“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

Not only do the apostles lift up praise to God, but Luke also tells us that these apostles pray for boldness to continue proclaiming the Word. These two points are the threads that connect the different events in this book together. Another way to put it: The commission that was given by Christ in Acts 1:8 is connected to Paul preaching the Gospel while imprisoned in Rome in Acts 28:30 by these two things: God’s faithfulness in his determined purpose and God’s faithfulness in giving his people boldness to proclaim the Gospel. This recorded prayer is as if Luke takes a step back to explain to his reader that God’s faithfulness to his providential plan brought the apostles to this point with the Gospel and this should give the believer hope. This can give us hope too. We serve a God who is committed, more than you are, to fulfilling his plans for this world and he will do it either in spite of you, or he will do it through you. I encourage you: be a willing participant of God’s plan.

Moving from this prayer, Luke brings us to the apostles being thrown in prison, freed, and then brought before the people who threw them into prison. This is the moment. The apostles are all in prison. If someone wanted to stop the spread of the Gospel and end this Christian movement, now is the time to do it. Normally, people would be careful with what they said to avoid certain death. God has different plans, however. He fulfills the prayer for boldness and gives them boldness in this situation. Well, great. Now the apostles will certainly die. However, Gamaliel ruined it all. Or rather, he was a key character used by God to fulfill God’s purposes. It doesn’t say it, but I think it is difficult to read this without seeing God’s hand in Gamaliel speaking up and sparing the apostles.

We don’t need every reference of an event in the Bible to know that it was because of God’s providence. The Bible has God’s providence woven all throughout it. Even the preservation of Scripture itself is a story of God’s faithful providence in preserving his Word. The book of Esther doesn’t mention God’s name, but yet, one can hardly read it without acknowledging God’s finger prints all over it. This is what we see in Gamaliel as well. Although he didn’t know it, Gamaliel was a key figure in God’s faithfulness in the spread of the Gospel.

The apostles saw people repent, people threaten them, and now people beating them. This crowd heeds Gamaliel’s advice and beaten the apostles and let them go. There is a lot we could say about the response of the apostles in these different responses of the crowds. Koty will talk about this more next week so I won’t steal his thunder. Let’s jump to Acts chapter 8. While you’e turning there, I give you some commentary leading up to what happens in chapter 8. There are widows in the church who are needing to be ministered to, so the church appoints seven men to minister to them. This is generally believed to be the first institution of the office of the Deacon. One of these men is named Stephen who is what we would call a man of God. He is faithful to proclaim the word with boldness. If you want to read a great, condensed history of Israel, read Acts 7. At the end of the speech, the crowd gets any and rushes Stephen, and they end of stoning him to death. This seems like God is out of the picture, but God is still in control. There just “so happens” to be a fellow there who is approving of everything happening who goes by Saul. After the death of Stephen, this Saul ravages and persecutes the church. Due to this, the church disperses or scatters, and this has become known as the Diaspora, or the Dispersion. This, by the way, is who James writes to in his epistles: James 1:1 “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.”

Samaria

Now, are you at Acts chapter 8 yet? I hope so. I gave you a lot of time. At this point, it’s just your fault now. Look with me at Acts 8:4

Acts 8:4 NKJV

Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.

Our next stop in our tour through Acts is in Samaria. In the Diaspora, the disciples continued preaching the Word. God used the Dispersion to spread the Gospel and we have a man by the name of Philip who goes to Samaria who was one of the seven chosen with Stephen. I want to remind us that our focus is on the witnesses and God is faithfully working in them in the spread of the Gospel. Philip isn’t one of those witnesses, but he is faithfully proclaiming the Word. Well, as he faithfully proclaims the Word, these Samaritans receive it, but they haven’t received the Holy Spirit. I find this fascinating *clear throat* but we don’t have time to unpack it. It isn’t until Peter and John come and lay their hands on these Samaritans that they [Samaritans] receive the Holy Spirit. Look with me at Acts 8: 14-15, 17

Acts 8:14–15 NKJV

Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:17 NKJV

Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

This was to confirm to the apostles, the witnesses, that the Gospel has indeed spread to Samaria. God has done it. He has brought the Gospel to Samaria. How did he do it? Through the death of Stephen. The means to stop the Gospel was used by God to further it because God is faithful to his purposes.

Transitioning to the Gentiles

God has brought his witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and now Luke is going focus on the uttermost parts, but now the audience is going to be mainly Gentiles if not all Gentiles. The big question that the Jews had was “Can the Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit without the circumcision?” The circumcision was the sign, as you know, giving to Abraham when his faith was counted as righteousness. The Jews believe they had to maintain the practice as God’s people. However, as we will see, the Gentiles will receive the Holy Spirit without maintaining that practice. Is this even possible? God begins setting the stage to show us that it is by his grace alone, through our faith alone, in Christ alone, that someone is saved and he does it by grafting in the Gentiles. So, there is some transitioning done here in these next handful of chapters which finds its culmination in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. There is a significant event that happens that warrants our attention until we jump ahead to Rome which is this interaction between Peter and Cornelius.

If I can continue to tour bus illustration: we were in Jerusalem, stopped in Samaria, and now we are traveling a long way to Rome and along the way I’m going to give some background information before we get to Rome so that when we get there you are seeing it properly for what it is, namely, God’s faithfulness in fulfilling his purposes in the spread of the Gospel to the uttermost parts. In Acts 10 Luke introduces a man who fears God, who is a Gentile, who also hasn’t received the Holy Spirit *cough*, is prompted by God to send for a man in Joppa. Do you remember who the man is? Peter. Do you already see what God is doing? Before we even move forward, we can already guess what is going to happen. Indeed. Peter receives a vision from God to witness to Gentiles and it is at the end of this vision that someone knocks on his door. It’s the men from Joppa. Peter goes with them and these Gentiles, including Cornelius, receive the Holy Spirit. This confirms it to God’s witness, Peter, that now the Gospel has spread to the Gentiles. God prompted Cornelius, spoke to Peter, and brought them together at the perfect moment and the result was God faithfully spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles.

The Jerusalem Council

With God’s faithfulness through the interaction between his witness Peter and Cornelius the Gentile fresh in our minds, I’m going to jump to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. You all keep turning to Acts 28 though because that’ll be where the bus will actually stop. Here in Acts 15, I just want to highlight how the page is clearly turning towards the Gentiles. There is a giant meeting in Jerusalem that Luke records. The purpose of this meeting was to figure out if these Gentiles who were receiving the Word needed to keep the circumcision. Well, God’s witness, Peter just so happens to be there after his interactions with Cornelius and just so happens to stand up and just so happens to give his report of the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit. Now, at this point, Saul has been converted and was reaching Gentiles during his first missionary journey. Saul was at this council and Peter’s report gives him ground that he might not have had before. Remember, this is Saul we are talking about, the Christian-killer. God orchestrated perfectly the acceptance of Saul as a witness before this council and it is from this council that Saul is catapulted forward as a minister to the Gentiles.

Rome

Now that Luke has shown us that God has reached Jerusalem and Samaria, and has transitioned the Gospel to go to the Gentiles, we come to the end of our tour: Rome. Start at verse 11. Saul, who is called Paul makes it to Rome. Paul had quite the journey getting here. He witnessed to a Philippian jailor. He was taken into custody in Jerusalem where he witnessed to a commander, Felix, Festus, Agrippa, and Bernice. He’s in Rome because he appealed to Caesar. Or, rather, he’s in Rome because God brought along circumstances for him to appeal to Caesar and arrive in Rome under these circumstances. You see, Paul is under house arrest. But he is in Rome. Rome was the central heart of the Gentiles at the time. The heartbeat of the uttermost would have been Rome. Paul is witnessing to Gentiles about Lord Jesus while he awaits his meeting with lord Caesar.

Don’t miss it church: this isn’t Paul’s doing. This is all God. God organized Peter and Cornelius’s meeting in Acts 10. God organized the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. God organized Paul’s arrest and trial. God organized Paul’s journey to Rome. And now, God is giving Paul boldness to be a witness there in the heart of the Gentiles to spread the Gospel. God has done it. Luke ends the book here because Jesus’s commission is fulfilled. What we see in Acts with Jesus commanding the apostles to be his witnesses has been fulfilled. It isn’t that the work of the Great Commission is finished. But rather, Luke’s goal of showing the reader the continuation of Jesus’s ministry to the uttermost parts has been made complete.

Conclusion

My emphasis in all of this was to show God’s faithfulness in the commission that Jesus gave to his witnesses as shown in Acts 1:8.

So What?

What is the significance of this? Isn’t it interesting that Luke ends this book with Paul in Rome and it is Paul’s letter to the Romans where he writes Romans 8:28-29

Romans 8:28–29 NKJV

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

I have had the privilege to preach on Romans 8:28. It is this passage that answers the question of “So what?” The significance is that God is faithful to fulfill his promises and look at what he has promised us in Romans. He has promised to work all things for our good.

When we read through a book like Acts we should be encouraged.

We have an awesome God who is more dedicated to his purposes that you are. He will complete what he has purposed.

It should also strengthen us in the spread of the Gospel.

If you have friends or family that you have been evangelizing and praying for for years. As the old saying goes: “Keep on keepin’ on.” Don’t stop. God will fulfill his purposes with your family and your friends. Trust that his ways are good. God cares about them more than you do.

This should encourage us, strengthen us, but it should also be a reminder to just keep this truth at the forefront of our minds.

We should walk out those doors this morning meditating on God’s faithfulness. When someone pulls out in front of us on our way home, this truth should be fresh on our minds. Why is it important? Because it shows us that our God is faithful.

Not only is there Romans 8:28, but there is also 1 Corinthians 10:13

1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

This promises us that God will provide a way of escape for us to endure the temptation that we are going through. If there is something heavy and difficult in your life, God has provided a way for you to endure this temptation too. Just trust him.

Now What?

So what should we do about it? I know that I have mentioned trusting him and that can sound passive. That can sound like something that happens to us, but it really is something that we are active participators in. What I mean by this is that we don’t sit back and do nothing and wait for our God to act, and then once he does, then we do something. Rather, we are actively engaged in the things of God because we know and trust that our God is faithful to accomplish his purposes.

We have gone through “My favorite Verse” and I’m sure we could sit here all day and have different people talk about difference verses that have given them hope throughout their lives. You can trust those verses because of the truth that we saw this morning in Acts. If God has promised you something in his word, if he has promised to save you from your sins, or to comfort you, or to strengthen you: he will do it. Trust that he will do it and jump into the work that he has set out for you. If you’re a member of this church, get involved in the ministries here. Be faithful in proclaiming the Gospel. Remember Pastor Stephen’s sermon: we don’t have to “convert” anyone. You just trust God and be faithful. God will fulfill his purposes.