Acts Chapter 5

[0:00] Well, on the lighter side, be advised that Ed and his wife Norma go to the state fair every year. And every year Ed would say, Norma, I'd like to ride in that helicopter.

[0:16] Norma always replied, I know Ed, but that helicopter ride is 50 bucks. And 50 bucks is 50 bucks. So one year Ed and Norma went to the fair and Ed said, Norma, I'm 80 years old.

[0:33] If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance. To this Norma replied, Ed, that helicopter ride is 50 bucks. And 50 bucks is 50 bucks.

[0:46] The pilot overheard the couple arguing and said, folks, I'll make you a deal. I'll take you both for a ride if you can stay quiet and not argue for the entire ride and don't say a word.

[1:00] I won't charge you a penny. But if you say one word, it's 50 dollars. So Ed and Norma agreed and up they went.

[1:11] The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, but still not a word.

[1:23] When they landed, the pilot turned to Ed and said, by golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn't. I'm impressed.

[1:36] Ed replied, well, to tell you the truth, I almost said something when Norma fell out. But, you know, 50 bucks is 50 bucks.

[1:55] Now, you ought to keep that in mind if you're going to the county fair and taking a helicopter ride. Okay. Well, welcome to our July 26 class.

[2:09] This is our last one for the month of July. I can't believe that next week we'll be looking at August, but that's what the calendar says. So we are continuing in Acts chapter 5 and we see a great deal of heat being applied to the early apostles.

[2:23] The religious authorities are up in arms because these unlearned and ignorant men who insist that Jesus was the Messiah, that Israel crucified him and God raised him from the dead, they are proclaiming that message everywhere, much to the consternation of the local religious establishment.

[2:42] So they call him on the carpet and they threaten them and they demand that they cease speaking in this man's name. And Peter replies, We cannot help but speak forth that which we know.

[2:57] And if you think that we are going to listen to you rather than to God, you're mistaken. We cannot help but speak about that which we know.

[3:09] And we're going to continue to do so. So they threaten them. And we see at the top of page 462 in our notes, and the bold print reminding you is the King James Version.

[3:26] And as they went out from the religious authorities being chastised by them, we read in our earlier portion that great grace was upon them all, and that miracles and signs were being done through the hands of the apostles.

[3:43] And fellas, let me emphasize here, these miracles and signs are kingdom oriented. They are not body of Christ oriented. The reason they are kingdom oriented is because the kingdom that was pronounced as being at hand by John the Baptist, and then by Christ is still a viable possibility.

[4:07] In other words, God has not yet brought down the curtain on the nation Israel from embracing their Messiah. Hope is still there. They still can do that.

[4:17] The nation can still turn around. Many people had. On the day of Pentecost, we saw 3,000 that reversed themselves and believed Jesus to be the Messiah, and they were baptized in His name.

[4:31] And then we saw Peter repeat that same message, essentially in Acts chapter 3, with the healing of the man at the temple gate.

[4:41] Beautiful. And it was the same thing. And all of these miracles and signs, and they're selling their lands and distributing it to everyone, that is all kingdom stuff.

[4:52] That was in anticipation of the kingdom, and it was still very viable. The miraculous demonstrations and the speaking in languages that were not learned, that too is part of the kingdom program, and it was the method that was being used to get this message out.

[5:10] So all of these things speak to a different era and a different issue. And the difficulty is in that people read these things here in the book of Acts, and they think that is God's intended norm.

[5:24] That's what we're supposed to be doing, because that's what they were doing back there. And we're supposed to be duplicating that, which means we're supposed to be speaking languages that we've never learned. We are supposed to be performing miracles, and healing the sick, and raising the dead, and all the rest, because that's what they did back there.

[5:42] Don't you want to be biblical? And it sounds like, on the surface, a very good argument. But if you understand that these kingdom characteristics are not part and parcel of the church age, which has to do with the body of Christ, Jew and Gentile being blended into one body, it's a whole new thing.

[6:05] That's where we are today. And, fellas, this that I have just explained to you is probably the principal area of confusion among evangelicals today.

[6:18] This is where people really differ, and they do not see the distinction that needs to be maintained. And that is very, very important. So we read that they laid them, in verse 15, they laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.

[6:39] And these miraculous healings, demonstrations were just going on. They were the norm for then. But they are not the norm for now.

[6:51] And people respond to that sometimes indignantly by saying, but wait a minute. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so is Christ.

[7:01] And they don't change. Don't you believe that God is able to do the same thing today that He did back then? Of course He's able. The issue is, is that the plan of action that God is implementing today?

[7:17] No, it isn't. This was very physical. Everything in connection with the proclaiming of the kingdom has a physical underpinning. Physical healing.

[7:30] The earth restored to its original physical characteristics with the curse removed and all of that. That too will be forthcoming when that kingdom age is established.

[7:41] So much of the emphasis is on the physical in connection with the kingdom. But, what is it with the body of Christ? The emphasis isn't on the physical. It's on the spiritual.

[7:52] This is what led Paul to say, for the Jews require a sign. That means, the Jews are looking for physical manifestations, physical evidence.

[8:07] God needed to do something physical and obvious to show the people that He was with them. That's called walking by sight. You believe what God is providing because you can see it.

[8:22] It's concrete. Here's somebody who was seriously ill and an apostle lays hands on them and lo and behold, the fever's gone. They get up and they're hale and hearty and they walk away.

[8:34] That's physical. Am I suggesting that that can't happen today? No. It can happen today. But is it the norm?

[8:44] No. It is not the norm. It is the exception. The norm is, you go on through with the physical ailment that you've got. Hopefully, you will recover from it with the healing of the body and medication and doctor's intervention and all the rest and you may survive it or you may die.

[9:05] You may not survive it. That has become the norm today. And when we understand the distinction that is made here, nobody is suggesting that God has changed but we are insisting that God's methodology has changed.

[9:21] And it has changed with the setting aside of the nation of Israel and the bringing in of a new thing called the body of Christ. And this is why Paul said we walk, in this church age, we walk by faith, not by sight.

[9:36] That means we believe what we believe simply because God has said it. Not because God has transferred it into something physical that we can see.

[9:51] This is an enormous difference and it really divides the body of Christ in ways that it should not be divided. So here, what have we got here in Acts? We've got the former mode.

[10:02] We've got the kingdom orientation. We've got the emphasis on the physical and the material. One miracle after another. A little bit later on, we're going to see Peter put in prison.

[10:17] And he's languishing there in prison. He doesn't know if he's going to be executed or what. And what happens? God sends an angel. And the angel shakes up the place.

[10:30] Chains fall off of Peter. And he walks out. And the angel leads him out into the street and Peter goes to the home of the people who are gathered there praying for him. That's a miraculous deliverance.

[10:41] That's wonderful. That's characteristic of things in connection with this kingdom. But, time is going to come when Peter's going to be arrested and he won't be released.

[10:56] Tradition tells us that he's going to be crucified upside down. Where's the miracle there? Where's the angel? What happened?

[11:07] Had God changed? No. God hadn't changed at all. God could have miraculously released Peter the second time. But he didn't do so. Why didn't he? I suggest the program had changed in the meanwhile.

[11:23] Paul is going to be miraculously delivered a couple of times because he is caught in this transition period between Paul... Paul had...

[11:35] The Apostle Paul had one leg in the kingdom dispensation and one leg in the church dispensation. And boy, that calls for confusion. So, he is going to be dramatically released.

[11:49] He's going to be bitten by that poisonous adder on the island of Malta. And everybody goes, when they see he's been bitten by that thing because they consider him a dead man. He won't be with us in the next 60 seconds.

[12:03] He's going to die. And he shook the thing off and he wasn't even harmed by it. And everybody was amazed. Was that the norm then? No.

[12:13] The norm was you get bit by that thing and you die. And the time is going to come when Paul will be released from prison and the time is going to come when he'll be beheaded.

[12:27] What's going on there? Isn't God big enough to deliver him the second time? Sure, he could have. But the program had changed. And if you fail to recognize that, you will not be able to make sense.

[12:41] And I can understand how these dear friends become so convinced that, you know, we just need to believe harder and we need to have more faith. And if we do, we can see these same miracles that God did back then.

[12:56] Well, that's not the ticket for today. We are not walking by faith. We are walking by sight. So we read in verse 16, There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem.

[13:14] And this, of course, means the word spread like wildfire. Have you heard what is happening in Jerusalem? People that have been really, really sick and almost given up for dead are getting up and walking away.

[13:29] Well, man, I'm telling you, when that word gets around, it's just like, well, it is just so pervasive. They are bringing sick folks and those which were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed everyone.

[13:48] people that were people that were people that were these people were brought in with all kinds of conditions, spiritual and physical. Some of them demon-possessed, some of them crippled, some of them blind.

[14:01] And it doesn't say most of them were healed, but all of them were healed. That is just, that is the power of God unleashed for a special time.

[14:12] And fellas, what all of this is designed to do, what God is doing here, is showing Himself to His people Israel.

[14:23] He is giving them repeated reasons to believe Him, to trust Him. And you would think they would be completely convinced.

[14:35] But were they? No. You would have thought they would have been completely convinced, when God rained down manna from heaven.

[14:48] They ate, were filled, empty stomachs were filled, starvation was staved off, and yet, you read a short time later, our souls loathe this light bread.

[15:08] Is that all you've got to give us? This crummy bread? We're getting tired of it. So the Lord gives them quail, meat. And they have their fill of that.

[15:20] And He provides water out there. One miracle after another. But as they journey on through the wilderness, they complete murmuring again. This is human nature at its worst.

[15:31] Murmuring again. All God is doing is giving them reasons to believe and reasons to trust Him. And every time they come back with it, yeah, but, what have you done for me today?

[15:46] Nothing has changed. And there are Christians today with the same attitude that those Jews had in the wilderness. It's incredible. So we read on. All of these people were healed of these miraculous things and Israel has more and more reasons to believe that God is in this.

[16:07] And then the high priest rose up and all they that were with Him. 20th century New Testament. TCNT says, on this the high priest and all his supporters.

[16:19] Now remember, what we're talking about here is this is the religious establishment. These are the people in power. Religiously speaking. Politically speaking, Rome is in power.

[16:32] But Rome has delegated certain authority to the Jews allowing them to maintain and practice their own religion and so on. And these people are still in the driver's seat when it comes to religious observances, keeping the law, and all the rest of it.

[16:51] So, this is the high priest rose up and all they that were with Him, which is of the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation.

[17:03] The ASV says they were filled with jealousy. They were filled with angry jealousy, bitter jealously. Berkeley says they were insufferably jealous, were goaded into action by jealousy.

[17:20] Do you know what was wrong with these religious establishment people? Their egos had been crushed. They weren't able to affect these kind of things.

[17:33] They weren't able to provide these kind of miracles for the people. There was nobody getting up and walking away because a high priest laid hands on them and prayed over them. They were feeling like they were on the outside looking in and they're supposed to be in charge of this thing.

[17:50] And who were these guys? These are a bunch of ignorant fishermen, a bunch of nobodies, and look how they're making us look. They resented that deeply.

[18:03] And when you cannot, refute a man's message, kill the man. When you cannot answer a man's arguments, get rid of the man.

[18:20] That's a typical response. That's exactly what they did with John the Baptist. That's what they did with Jesus Christ. That's what they're going to do later with Stephen. When you can't silence the man and you can't answer his arguments, get rid of the man.

[18:35] You have to do that if you're going to stay in power. And that's exactly how they're operating. They were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

[18:50] I'll tell you what happens. When a human ego is crushed and you are just embarrassed to no end, the deadly thing that sets in is irrationality.

[19:06] It's irrationality. You become irrational in your thinking. Your mental processes get all discombobulated and you do and say stupid things.

[19:23] And that's exactly what they're doing here. They are faced with an enormously embarrassing situation and they just cannot abide it.

[19:33] And all they can do is lash out. Lash out. And that's precisely what's taking place. They laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

[19:45] Get them out of the public. Shut them up. Get rid of them. Put them aside. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

[20:10] And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest came and they that were with them and called the council together and all the senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought.

[20:36] But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and said and told, saying, the prison truly found we shut with all safety.

[20:53] The place was closed up and secure. Nobody could get out. And the keepers were standing without before the doors. Everybody was in place.

[21:06] The doors were locked and all the guards were there and they were all on duty. They were binding their business as guards. But when we had opened the doors to bring the prisoners out, we found no man within.

[21:28] There wasn't anybody there. We couldn't explain. What's going on here? What happened? And can you see how embarrassed these guards would be standing around scratching their head? Well, they were there.

[21:40] They didn't get out. We wouldn't let them out. We were on the job. We weren't sleeping. And yet, there's no explanation. Well, we know the explanation is a supernatural explanation.

[21:53] The Lord released them and while they are going to the prison to bring these guys out and bring them back before the council, they are already out early in the morning, out in the temple, and they've already had a couple of teaching sessions under their belt and they're still supposed to be in the prison.

[22:16] And we read in verse 24, Now, when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, here again, this same crowd, the hoi polloi religious establishment, they doubted of them where into this would grow.

[22:37] Reims says, they were utterly at a loss concerning them. What perhaps this might come to. Williams says, they were utterly at a loss to know how this might turn out.

[22:51] In other words, they are just absolutely dumbfounded. They don't know what they're dealing with here. There's just huge question marks settled over all of these people and they are wondering and looking at each other, what is this?

[23:05] What's going on here? What is actually happening? And Phillips translates it at the bottom there of verse 24, they were completely mystified at the apostles' disappearance and wondered what further developments there would be.

[23:25] In other words, they're saying, we are having a real problem shutting this thing down. where is this going?

[23:36] What's happening? What's going on here? And there is great perplexity over all of them. And then one came and told them, saying, behold, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.

[23:57] Wow. Wow. Next page. Then went the captain with the officers.

[24:09] I can just see this high priest saying, they're what? They're where? And then he motions to his guards, go get them.

[24:19] Bring them here. And they head off and they go to the captain. Captain goes with the officers and brought them without violence.

[24:33] In other words, it says they were very careful how they confronted them. They didn't walk up and grab them and start hauling them off because they knew they would have a riot on their hands right then and there because the people were eating this up.

[24:50] The people were hearing this with great gladness and they knew they had to be very gingerly in the way they handled these guys.

[25:01] So, I'm thinking that they walked up to the apostles, sidled up to them and said, we've got orders to bring you to the high priest. Now, come along peaceably.

[25:14] please, we don't want any trouble. Just follow us and they just start moving away with the crowd and all the people are standing there wondering what's going on here.

[25:26] But they're not manhandling them. They're not abusing them. They're just kind of escorting them away. And the apostles are not putting up a fight. They are compliant.

[25:39] They are being respectful and they are following. And when they brought them, they set them before the council. The council is the Jewish Sanhedrin.

[25:55] This is the official religious governing body of Israel. It consists of 71 of the most revered, respected, competent men in Israel.

[26:11] Most of them are Pharisees or Sadducees. And the council is presided over by the high priest.

[26:22] He is the chairman of the Sanhedrin. And by the way, I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but just as an interesting aside, I noticed in the Jerusalem Post, and this was no more than...

[26:36] Well, memory doesn't always serve me well when it comes to remembering times, but I think this was say within the last two years, an interesting article appeared in the Jerusalem Post that in the nation of Israel, they have just recently put together and convened a Sanhedrin.

[27:01] They've been without one. They've been without one for over 2,000 years. It has been a defunct body that has not existed. And they still don't have a high priest because Judaism, biblical Judaism, is not practiced except in a modified form only by the ultra-Orthodox and the Orthodox.

[27:25] But it's interesting to note that they have re-established the principle of the Sanhedrin. and there are 70 men who comprise it. And that's the same as the council here.

[27:37] And it is this same Sanhedrin in chapter 7 will be responsible for physically stoning Stephen to death.

[27:47] And they brought them and set them before the council and the high priest asked them. You see, he's the guy in charge and he's the one that says this is the same kind of kangaroo court.

[28:04] I don't know which one this is. I don't know if it's Annas or Caiaphas and I forever get these guys mixed up. But Annas and Caiaphas were both high priests at different times.

[28:17] they are father-in-law and son-in-law. And they served in the capacity of the high priest by order and permission of the Roman government.

[28:30] So they were just puppets of the Roman government. They were not officially high priests. Might not even have been of the tribe of Levi which of course would automatically disqualify them because if you were going to be a priest in Israel you had to be of the tribe of Levi.

[28:50] So here this puppet high priest and the same one that presided over the trial by Christ that our Lord stood before in the middle of the early hours of the morning and the high priest said did we not straightly command you that you should not teach in this name and behold you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.

[29:21] Wow what a compliment what a compliment wouldn't it be wonderful if it could be said of us that Springfield Ohio is filled with this doctrine but we know it is not so.

[29:37] The vast majority of people living here like in other communities are for the most part really ignorant as to what is involved with the person of Jesus Christ.

[29:49] You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. What are they talking about? You are accusing us of the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

[30:08] That's what you're charging us with isn't it? Absolutely! Absolutely! Peter made that very clear. You have by wicked hands crucified and slain the Lord of glory.

[30:19] And he didn't pull any punches. He laid it right out. That was exactly what they did. But do you know something? I want you to recall a passage in the Gospels when our Lord stood before Pontius Pilate and was on trial for his life.

[30:38] You remember one of the things that the crowd cried out? His blood be upon us and on our children. You remember them saying that?

[30:50] Remember the crowd shouting out saying, what will I do with Jesus? Who is called the Christ? How about if I release him? No! We want Barabbas. Well, what am I going to do?

[31:02] Shall I crucify your king? He said in a sarcastic way. He didn't believe that he was a king. But he was just rubbing it in a little salt in the wounds of the Jews.

[31:14] This is your king here. Do you want me to crucify your king? We have no king but Caesar. What shall I do then with him who is called Christ? Crucify him.

[31:25] Why? What evil has he done? And he cried out, His blood be upon us and upon our children. You know what they were saying?

[31:36] They were saying, listen, we accept full responsibility for this man's death. We take responsibility for his death and it will pass on to our children.

[31:51] You know why they said that? Because they were convinced that the death of Jesus would serve justice. He'd be getting what he deserved.

[32:04] And we don't mind taking the responsibility for putting one to death who deserves to be put to death. We'll own that. We'll take that. We'll plead guilty to that.

[32:15] His blood be upon us. And now they are rebelling at the idea and they're saying, you intend to bring this man's blood upon them. Well, his blood was upon them. And they had already accepted responsibility for it before.

[32:29] And now they are saying that they're innocent of that, if you will. And then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men.

[32:48] you remember the famous Nuremberg trials that were held in Nuremberg, Germany after World War II?

[33:03] What? We're not dead at all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Some of you young bucks, your fathers told you about it. Yeah. Well, there were the famous Nuremberg trials where Adolf Eichmann and Rudolf Hess and all these guys, henchmen, Martin Borman were put on trial and charged with mass murder.

[33:30] And it was a world court like. And there was an American judge that presided over the whole proceeding. And the defense of every one of these men, the only defense that they could muster was, we did do what we were charged with.

[33:53] But, we were only following orders. We had no choice. A soldier, is under obligation to follow the orders of his superiors.

[34:05] And the prosecution said, but there is a superior that is superior to your superiors.

[34:17] You should have followed his orders. And it was really a tacit acknowledgement that there is a higher court. There is a court of heaven. And despite the fact that your German official officers ordered you to do this and you carried them out, that cuts no ice.

[34:37] There is a higher order that you should have responded to. I'm not sure that would be a successful prosecution today. I don't know how well that would fly because some might consider that an inappropriate kind of prosecution.

[34:55] which of course buddies up the whole idea of there being right and wrong. It's a remarkable thing. So here they're pleading that there is a higher court and that yes, you told us not to teach or preach in this man's name, but we have to obey God rather than men.

[35:17] And Peter says, the God of our fathers, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree.

[35:34] That's an expression, of course, of the cross. Weymouth says, whom you crucified and put to death. Philip says at the bottom, whom you murdered by hanging him on a cross of wood.

[35:49] Well, him has God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior.

[36:00] This right hand is spoken of in Scripture as an expression of power and authority. And one who is at the right hand is one who occupies a position of prominence and authority.

[36:16] We are told that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

[36:28] Have you ever heard anyone use the expression, I couldn't do without so-and-so. He is my left-hand man. But it's the right-hand man.

[36:39] And the left-hand man, he has authority and position and prestige, but not as much as the right-hand man. And when the two apostles, James and John, came to our Lord and they said, would you grant that when you come into your kingdom that my brother and I can sit on your right and left hands?

[37:00] In other words, they were vying for positions of power and ascendancy. They were just thinking after the flesh, thinking like ordinary people. And Jesus rebuked them for that.

[37:11] And the other apostles, when they heard that they put in dibs on those offices, they were put out with them and angry and they started quarreling and arguing among themselves. And the Lord laid the whole thing to rest and said, listen, you guys are fussing and fighting over who's going to be first and who's going to be top dog and all the rest of it.

[37:27] He said, he who would be cheapest among you, let him be servant of all. What?

[37:39] That doesn't sound like power and authority. Being a servant, but that's what real power and real authority is, is servanthood. That's why Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give himself a ransom for many.

[37:59] It works just the opposite of the way it does with the world. God's way up is down. Isn't that interesting?

[38:11] And Philippians 2 gives us a wonderful commentary on that in the person of Christ and what he subjected himself to in order to serve. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

[38:39] fellows, I want to stop here and emphasize something that is really, really important. Do you realize what Peter is saying here? He's saying, listen, Israel, listen.

[38:55] It's not too late. It's not too late. You can still reverse yourself. the door remains open.

[39:08] The kingdom possibilities are viable. God has not written Israel off. Now, fellas, this is a really important point because most people in Christendom think that God wrote Israel off with the crucifixion.

[39:26] But he didn't. He answered Christ's prayer from the cross. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

[39:38] And do you think the Father did? Absolutely. He did forgive them. And that's what made the ongoing offer to Israel a possibility.

[39:50] And Peter is acknowledging that here and telling them, all is not lost. For to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins and we.

[40:02] And I think Peter is saying himself and the eleven apostles standing there with him. He's saying, we. We were witnesses of these things.

[40:13] We were there. And so also is the Holy Spirit whom God hath given to them that obey him. And this harkens back to Acts chapter 2 when Peter says, repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[40:34] That's what Peter is referring to. And this same gift that was bestowed by the Spirit of God in Acts chapter 2 is available to these people here in Acts chapter 5 if they will repent and reverse themselves.

[40:51] And that's as far as we'll go today, but are there questions or comments that you might have. Mark, when you mentioned faith by sight, I immediately thought of Benny Hinn.

[41:04] Now, Benny Hinn is certainly not the real deal, but look how he can pack auditoriums. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. People think they're going to be healed.

[41:15] And, you know, the same thing here. Back then, of course, in Acts, it was the real deal. Benny Hinn is anything but the real deal. But look what it does. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It shows you where people's hearts and minds are.

[41:28] And it is, to begin with, it is one of shallowness. It's one of a desire. It's one, there is a lot of theater involved in this, a lot of razzmatazz.

[41:43] It is appealing. And let's face it, when people are desperate, when they have been told by their doctor that you've got maybe three months, six at the most, probably you should set your affairs in order.

[42:04] Let me tell you, that strikes fear in the heart and mind of just about any normal person. It brings in a feeling of desperation.

[42:15] And desperate people will turn out for something like where people are reportedly healed, and where they throw their crutches away and all the rest of it.

[42:27] Maybe, maybe that would work for me. What's to lose? Everything to gain, nothing to lose. Maybe it'll work. I don't know.

[42:38] And this is the kind of straws that people cling to. And I can understand that. I can understand that. People become very vulnerable when they are threatened.

[42:49] And that's a perfectly normal human response. And there are those who are willing to take advantage of people's desperation. And many times that's exactly what's going on.

[43:01] Other comments? Roger? Verse 19, the angel of the Lord. That wasn't the risen Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know. I would suggest probably not, but I wouldn't be able to say for sure because he has been designated that way.

[43:18] And the word angel in the Greek, angelos, literally means messenger. Messenger. And sometimes our Lord served in that capacity, especially in the Old Testament, in a pre-incarnate Christophany.

[43:37] Yeah, probably. We just don't know. The angel is not actually identified. It could have been any of several angels whom the Lord dispatched.

[43:49] I noticed in the last verse that you had that Israel has to repent and God will forgive them of their sins. Yeah.

[43:59] That is not the grace message we know today. They have to recognize Jesus as their Messiah first. Yeah. And then it makes me think back to Acts 15 when Peter says, don't you know, brethren, we shall be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[44:18] It's like they have to get their act together first and recognize Jesus as the Messiah before the nation as a whole can be saved by the grace of the God.

[44:29] That was a priority item. Absolutely. Mike? Yeah, I had a question about unclean spirits. It's probably not time to do it now, but is there a correlation between what they call unclean spirits and craziness that's going on today in our society sometimes?

[44:49] That's a very good question. Unclean spirits, is there a connection between that and some of the stuff that's going on, some of the evil that's going on in our society today, like the Aurora thing and Columbine and whatnot, and these are cases of just unmitigated human evil.

[45:09] There's no question about it. I don't know. I can't answer that question. I don't know whether demonic activity was actually involved. I do know that human beings are capable of some pretty horrible things without any influence from the devil.

[45:28] The human heart, Christ said, is, out of the heart proceed all manner of evil. In that passage in Mark's Gospel, for out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, fornication, all kinds of things, come from within the human heart.

[45:48] There may or may not be an application there. I just can't say. Did I see another hand? Yeah. Mark, you've talked in the past about the covenant being a one-way transaction.

[45:59] This is a promise. I was just finishing up Jeremiah and I found in about three or four different places when Jeremiah was speaking, he talked about you broke the covenant.

[46:11] He's talking to the people saying, wait a minute, this is a transaction, but you broke the covenant. Yeah. Yeah, he's talking about the Mosaic covenant, the laws under which Israel was to be governed, and there in chapter 31, I think it's 31-31 of Jeremiah, he says, Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the whole house of Israel and Judah, a new covenant, not like my covenant which they broke, referring to the Mosaic covenant, and he says, I will put my spirit within them and they will be obedient in the new covenant in a way that they're not in the old covenant.

[47:08] that's Jeremiah 31-31. That's a wonderful passage. And Christ also, the night that he was betrayed, remember, he held up the cup and he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which was tremendously significant because Hebrews makes it quite clear that the old covenant is done away with the new covenant.

[47:37] And the new covenant as opposed to being ratified with animal blood, which the old covenant was by Moses, the new covenant was ratified by the actual blood of Jesus Christ, which of course was a startling significant difference.

[47:55] Yes? You've commented several times about the Jerusalem Post or whatever the name is. Out of curiosity, do you subscribe to that or is it those articles you're printed in another publication?

[48:06] I have my subscription ran out, but I do plan to renew it shortly. It's a weekly publication. It of course is published in Jerusalem, but it is wired over to New York and they translate it into English and make it available here in the States.

[48:28] And there are a lot of Jews who get the Jerusalem Post. It's their hometown newspaper. It's made available in other countries as well. You can get an annual subscription to it.

[48:39] I've had one in the past. I've subscribed to it for many years, but I did overlook my last notice and it's last, so I do need to renew it. There's a lot happening in the Middle East right now, and we want to keep abreast of it.

[48:53] Anything else? Okay, thanks for being here this morning, and we'll continue right on here in the Book of Acts with our next sessions.