Acts of the Apostles (10)
Introduction
The God of all creation is, of necessity, the God of all history. It is not possible to separate the two, and any attempts to separate the two will only land us in chaos and confusion. God is God, and that is the end of it. This is how the early Christians thought and prayed, and this is something that we must learn from them.
The Text
“And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done . . .” (Acts 4:23–37).
Summary of the Text
So after they were threatened in this way, Peter and John were released. They went back to their own people and reported everything (v. 23). When the believers all heard this, they lifted up their voice to God (probably singing together) and glorified Him as the Creator of all things (v. 24). And this Creator is the one who spoke through David, saying “why did the heathen rage? the peoples imagine vanity? the kings resist? the rulers conspire?” (vv. 25-26; Ps. 2:1-2). How was that prophecy fulfilled? Against the anointed Lord Jesus, Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel had all conspired to do exactly what God had foreordained for them to do (vv. 27-28). Their disobedience was in the palm of His hand. And so, Lord, they said, look at their threats and give your servants two things—boldness to preach, and power to heal in the name of Jesus (vv. 29-30). So after they had prayed, the place was shaken, they were all filled with the Spirit, and they declared the Word with boldness (v. 31). The multitude of believers were of one heart and soul, and were not possessive at all; they held everything in common (v. 32). The apostles then testified to the resurrection with great power, and great grace fell upon all of them (v. 33). No one lacked anything because those who had homes and lands sold them, and brought the money in (v. 34). They then laid the money at the apostles’ feet so that distribution could be made to the needy (v 35). And Barnabas, who was well-named as a true son of encouragement, a Levite from Cyprus, sold his land and brought the money in (v. 37).
Liquidating Assets in a Doomed City
Remember that the Spirit had been poured out when the population of Jerusalem was swollen with pilgrims due to the festival of Pentecost. No doubt many then stayed over longer than they had budgeted for. Remember also that the gift of tongues was a harbinger of doom for the city, according to Isaiah, and that Jesus had predicted the destruction of the city within a short time. He had also predicted His own resurrection, and then He did it, which validated Him as the true prophet Moses had predicted. He was the prophet that you must either believe or die.
We see here that the believers believed Him. They began selling both lands and houses (vv. 34-35), which was the obvious thing to do in the circumstances. This gave them the ability to establish a gigantic deacons’ fund, that would take care of everybody. This was mentioned earlier as well (Acts 2:44). We are introduced to Barnabas as someone who did this (vv. 36-37). As the story of Ananias and Sapphira in the next chapter revolves around this, we will discuss the generosity of the early church more there.
Integrated Faith
The Jesus who predicted that He would rise from the dead is the same Jesus who predicted that Jerusalem would be leveled. It is the same Jesus.
The God who created the heavens and earth, and all in between is the God who inspired David to foretell the fact that the ruling elites would conspire against the Messiah. It is the same God.
We must repent of thinking in bits and pieces. The world we live in is a tightly woven fabric. Everything is connected to everything else . . . but it all must go in a particular order. Worldview thinking is not “any old way” thinking. Some assembly is required.
How They Got to the Conclusion
Any Christian who believes in creatio ex nihilo is a Calvinist in principle. And any Christian who does not believe in creation from nothing is . . . not really a Christian. And so notice the reasoning of these early Christians: God created everything > God inspired David to predict what would happen > that is in fact what happened > which means that the enemies of God did exactly what He had foreordained to happen. The brute reality of creation is one of the premises.
The world is one screwed-up place, and who put it here? The Calvinist says He put it here this way on purpose . . . doing so for wise and holy reasons. The Arminian says He put it here knowing what would happen if He did, which means that it was kind of on purpose also, but with this last part whispered. The open theist says that He put it here knowing what might happen if He did so reckless a thing, and so He closed His eyes with a gambler’s hope and rolled the dice anyhow. So try as we might, there is no getting away from the fact that the Creator God is responsible for everything that happens in His creation. The Calvinist is simply the one who confesses that He knows what He is doing.
The Plainest of Statements
This point is made earlier in Acts as well. What does it say about Jesus?—“being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). Notice two elements there—determinate purpose of God, first, and wicked hands of men second. There is no contradiction. God foreordains evil actions without being Himself evil, and without turning us into puppets who have no moral agency. God predetermined the actions of wicked hands—He maintains sovereign control, and they remain genuinely wicked. This means He knows how to do it. If He did this once without sullying His holiness, then what is to prevent Him from watching over us in the same way?
And here it is stated again, plainly, baldly, and with no varnish at all. Who crucified Jesus? Did Herod sin? Yes (Luke 23:11). Did Pilate sin? Yes (John 19:11). Did the Gentiles sin? Yes (Luke 23:34). Did the Jews sin? Yes (Matt. 27:25). Not mentioned here in this line-up, but did Judas sin? Yes (John 17:12). And did God foreordain absolutely every last detail of this grotesque murder that laid the foundation for your salvation and mine? Amen—“Whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (v. 28).
The short form is that if God does not know how to wield sin and evil to His own good and holy purposes, then it follows that God does not know how to save the likes of us. But He does know how to save us, and it is our appointed task to point to that salvation without flinching. And we must never forget that we cannot point to the salvation of the world without pointing at a crime scene. And the crime at the very center of that crime scene was a despicable murder, the worst that has ever occurred in the history of the world. And that murder was settled upon by our thrice holy God before the foundation of the world. “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). That, and nothing else, is your forgiveness, your cleansing, and your salvation.