It says in Acts 1:3 that, “He shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Isn’t it remarkable that of all the subjects that could have been spoken of, only one is mentioned? Jesus spoke with His disciples about the Kingdom of God. Maybe this is because that one subject is the all-inclusive and central subject. It almost leads us to wonder how much can really be said on the Kingdom of God? Yet it is the only subject mentioned that Jesus spoke of for 40 days.
Little wonder, then, why it says in verse 6, “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” After speaking with His disciples for 40 days on the Kingdom of God, they ask Him if this is when He will restore the Kingdom to Israel. Isn’t this the time that we would expect Jesus to shoot down that kind of Jewish nationalistic pride? Jesus’ answer actually doesn’t imply this. His answer seems to indicate that the question itself is legitimate. The only thing that needs to be considered and understood is its timing.
“And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The question itself was totally valid. It was exactly what the Scriptures teach. After speaking about the Scriptures for 40 days, don’t you think the disciples would at least have understood that much?
And even in the answer, we read that Jesus is pinpointing Jerusalem. Jesus says that they will be witnesses unto Him in Jerusalem first, and then in Judea, and then in Samaria, and then to the uttermost part of the earth. Do you see the progression? It goes from Jerusalem being the central place, and slowly makes its way outward from there. Jesus actually validates the question, and that ought to cause for our consideration.
For the rest of the Book of Acts, we find that this same question is addressed. The Kingdom of God is preached as the Gospel. It is then validated by the powers of darkness being overpowered. There are healings, miracles, and demonic deliverances throughout the Book of Acts. The whole thing is rich with displaying the Kingdom of God in power. The only thing that is not there is Jesus bodily. There is not a literal rule over Israel through Jesus. The reason for this is simple. When He shall rule, He shall rule over all Israel. All Israel must be saved, and yet not all of Israel yet believed on Him.
Acts 2
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judæa, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
These words of Peter are to be best understood in the context of the Kingdom of God. They are apocalyptic in their origin. Peter, and all who were at Jerusalem, knew the Scriptures. They knew that there would be a time of judgment upon Israel before the coming of the King. They knew that Zechariah declared only a third of all those in Jerusalem would survive the end time apocalypse. They knew that Isaiah spoke of 90% of Israel being empty. Out of the tenth of the people that remain in the Land, only a third of them would survive. The rest of the people Israel would be scattered through the wilderness places of the nations.
It is only upon that remnant that survives that will then return to the Land and be ruled over by the Messiah. How do you know who will survive? God preserves only those who are clean in heart. All of the wicked will perish. Over and over again the Scriptures indicate that God will cleanse Israel of her sins. He declares that He will completely abolish the wicked rulers and the wicked men that blaspheme and desecrate His name among the nations.
This is why the decree is made by Peter to come out from this wicked generation. That generation isn’t simply to say those alive in that moment. There is an unbroken continuum of a generation that grumbled against God in the wilderness. This is why Paul states, “not all Israel are Israel.” There is a remnant. And then there is a remnant within the remnant. Those who call upon Christ are no longer the same as those who are a part of national Israel. They have been somehow taken out of Israel and made into something different, but all the while they are now the deeper representation of Israel.
Israel is first spiritual. Those that are spiritual Israel are Israel indeed. But there are Jews that are not in Christ, yet are within a remnant that shall be saved. Peter is calling to that remnant that is yet to surrender to the Messiah Jesus. He is warning that the time is now and at hand when destruction and devastation is coming. It is true that it has been almost 2000 years and we have not seen that calamity yet. The mystery had not yet been revealed that there should be an age of the Church to fulfill a specific role and function. It has been almost 2000 years and we are finding ourselves back in the same place that Peter proclaimed this message from.
The enemies of Israel that are to overpower them are surrounding the land. The fulfillment of these prophecies cannot have come with the Holocaust. They must have been ejected out of their land. That did not happen with the Holocaust. Ezekiel 22:19-22 seems to indicate that there would be a time near the end when Israel would be re-gathered, only so that God can pour out His wrath upon them. I think that this is what we are seeing today. God has gathered Israel back to the Land, and is continuing to gather them, until the decreed time to pour out His vengeance upon them. This collecting is not the final gathering of which they will never be uprooted again. The accumulation that we are seeing play out before our eyes is for Israel to be destroyed. The present, political state of Israel is indeed, in every way, the nation of (and national fulfillment of) prophecy, but not yet the nation of promise.
And isn’t it interesting that Peter quotes Joel? We find that in Joel, it is at this moment that God pours out His Spirit that the judgment comes! Yet we don’t stop there. If you are a student of the Word, you will also know that Paul has said that this Spirit that we received is only a foretaste of the true fulfillment of that verse. We have received a portion as a down payment, if you will, but there is a pouring out of that Spirit to come at the end of the age that will eclipse what we see and understand now. Many of our churches that practice the Spiritual gifts abuse them. They think that the Spirit is poured out so that we can have some sort of thrill or titillation. Heaven forbid that we even start to think that what we see practiced in our Charismatic churches even slightly resembles what we see in the Book of Acts.
Our Christianity today is absolutely anemic in comparison to the Book of Acts. And yet, it is from that very context that Paul speaks. At the first, which might actually be the fullest representation that the Church has ever known, is when we read Paul writing that the Spirit was given as a foretaste of things to come. What, then, must it be like at the end? The Tribulation time will be a time of great persecution and suffering. Many of us will go to our deaths. They will beat us, imprison us, kill us, and torture us, and that will be our crown. I dare not even think what might befall my family or myself lest I sin.
It is in that time of extreme adversity and suffering that the Spirit will be poured out. We have a difficult time even finding enough strength of the Spirit to overcome our lust and pornography addictions. How will we survive something as gruesome and terrible as the Tribulation without falling away? It is only by the empowering of the Spirit in a way that we have not yet experienced, nor began to fathom. When Israel falls, Jesus told us to look up, for our redemption draws near. Maybe the reason for our looking up is not so much to see if Jesus is coming, but to receive that strength that has been promised to equip us through that time.
But this kind of pouring out of the Spirit will not be contained to the Church. It will continue on after we have been resurrected. During the Millennial Kingdom, Israel will have that benefit of the filling of the Spirit. They will enjoy the very blessing that we enjoy – the new covenant. It will be their joy and their honor. In order to fulfill their purpose as the priestly nation to the nations, they will need that Spirit. Men will clutch to the skirt of a Jew and say, “Take us with you, for you know God,” Zechariah 8:23.
We can continue through Peter’s statement about how David had prophesied about the coming Messiah. He spoke of one who should not die and see corruption, yet David’s tomb was known. But this Jesus’ tomb was also known. When Peter spoke of His resurrection, no one dared challenge it. No one went and got the body. The reason is because the body wasn’t there. Jesus really did rise from the dead.
We continue to find the statement about how Jesus now sits on the right hand of the Father. This is the same statement that Stephen made while he was being tried. When those who opposed him heard that statement, they stopped their ears and ran upon him. Gnashing their teeth like wild dogs, they stoned him. Interestingly, we read in verse 36 that it is actually because Jesus is at the right hand of power that we recognize Him as both Lord and Messiah. He went down, and therefore He was exalted. When it is the wisdom of Satan to egotistically and violently try to take by force the Kingdom, it is by God’s wisdom to humble self and die in order to be raised up and exalted.
The very word Messiah means anointed king. Jesus is both Lord and King because He has forfeited His life. It is after humility that we are then exalted. Ultimate humility brings us to a place of ultimate authority. This is why we needed to study so vast an array of subjects before we could even start to plunge into the texts dealing with Jesus and His Kingdom on this Earth. And what kind of indictment is it that those who are able to see do not recognize Jesus as a Son of David, and yet the blind man in the streets could not be shut up when continuously crying, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me?”
Psalm 22
Psalm 22 was quoted by Jesus when He hung upon the cross. It starts out, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” It goes through the whole of the crucifixion narrative. Yet, it ends with “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.”
Isn’t it interesting that the conclusion of this Psalm would be that all nations would worship God? The whole of Israel’s history seems to indicate this. All the way back at the promise of Abraham we can read that God’s intention was to bless all the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:3). We cannot understand blessing as something that is a high five or some sort of wealth or something that would cause the nations to now have peace and enjoy self. Blessing is only blessing when it brings us into relationship with Christ and an ultimate fulfillment of His intentions and purposes for us. Abraham’s descendants are to bring the nations that kind of blessing.
We find this even in the prophets. Amos 9 has all of the judgment to fall upon Israel, and that they will be sifted through all nations. But the chapter concludes with the return to the land and the tabernacle of David being restored. Many Charismatic believers have then taken that and used it as a way to teach on Davidic worship. This passage is speaking of so much more than worship. It says that Edom will come up, and so will all the nations that know God, be possessed by the remnant of Israel. The tabernacle of David is the throne of David. Nothing short of the Messiah ruling the Kingdom of God fulfills that prophecy.
Psalm 149
1 Praise ye the Lord.
Sing unto the Lord a new song,
and his praise in the
congregation of saints.
2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:
let the children of
Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise his name in the dance:
let them sing praises
unto him with the timbrel and harp.
4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his
people:
he will beautify the
meek with salvation.
5 Let the
saints be joyful in glory:
let them sing aloud upon their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their
mouth,
and a twoedged sword in their hand;
7 to
execute vengeance upon the heathen,
and punishments
upon the people;
8 to bind
their kings with chains,
and their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 to
execute upon them the judgment written:
this honour have all his saints.
Praise ye the Lord.
Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. This reference to a King in verse two is in direct relation to their Maker. This is not a king of Israel that we will find in Kings or Chronicles. This is Jesus the Messiah. The reason that they are rejoicing is not because of some random king upon the throne. The King is upon the throne. The greater than David has come. The Messiah rules and reigns, and because of that, the increase of His government shall have no end (as we read in Isaiah chapter 9).
Israel in her restored condition works out the rule of God to the nations as an earthly nation. But there is a glorified Israel in the Millennial Kingdom. We read in Revelation 20 about a first resurrection. The word first would seem to indicate that there will be a second. We are told in Revelation 20:4-6 that those who are beheaded by the beast are found worthy to rule with Christ