Papers...

Well, as some know, I recently started college at Tyndale Theological Seminary and Bible Institute. As a result I have been extra busy and have not posted. As a consolation, I have decided to bore everyone by posting my papers. Yeah, please, keep the commotion to a minimum it is embarrassing. :o)

So, the first one was on Acts 1:8, I still need to make the revisions that the instructor recommended but here it is in rough form... Sorry, about the footnotes, they are at the end.





An Understanding of Acts 1:8
By
Jeromy Ashcraft


Reading, Writing, and Research
GEDU1301

Instructor Dr. Charles Ray
 
Is there power in the Christian faith? If so, where does it come from and how should it be applied? In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells us that there indeed is power and He not only tells us where or from whom it comes, but what to do with it. As we will see, this is an everlasting promise and command to all followers of Christ. How, also, should we use this promise in our ministry today?
The book of Acts, perhaps better named as the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, starts off with a paraphrase of Jesus proving his resurrection. Therefore, confirming His deity, among His disciples, His apostles and the world. Over forty days, He presented Himself to over 500 people as a witness of His resurrection. In chapter one verse five, the book quickly jumps to Him giving the command to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Baptism here would be better understood as; an immersion in, leaving a permanent change. He is then asked if He will now set up His kingdom and He replies with Acts 1:8:
“8 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.” NKJV
After making this statement He ascended into heaven and the approx. 120 disciples that witnessed this went to the upper room to pray.
After reading this passage I am left wondering who would receive what type of power and who exactly was the Holy Spirit to them? This is important to understand because we need to know the responsibilities of our position. If we start a new career we cannot properly fill that position without first knowing our duties and responsibilities. After checking the cross references in my Bible, I came to the second chapter of Joel. In verse 28 Gods tells us, “That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh…” But if all flesh can partake of the Holy Spirit how are believers any different? Looking over the whole chapter we can see that God is speaking of “My People.” His people are those with repentant hearts that follow His commands.
He tells them in Acts 1:5, how long should they wait, “but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” This is really something for another study; however this is one of the few times Jesus gave a definitive timeline to His disciples. The significance of a few days had to have been obvious to these scripture warriors, Pentecost being only a short time off. Pentecost was also known as the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks. This was the time when crops were harvested and a time of great celebration. During this harvest there was an offering of firstfruits. This was a time of thanks to God and the firstfriuts of all labors were offered up (Leviticus 23:9-14). The history of this day and the power demonstrated through Jewish history would not easily be missed.
How would this “power” manifest in them? In Luke 24:49, Jesus tells us the power comes from on high. Again, of what significance is this to them? Taking a quick look at the language, let’s see what “power” really means. At first glance one might think; that because the establishment of a new kingdom is asked about and an endowment of power is being offered, that we are looking at a hostile takeover. However, the Greek word here is, dynamis, meaning “ability, to perform an activity.” Even in Hebrew it is "power, might, i.e., the potential to exert force in performing some function [see](Zec 4:6).”
So, what did these disciples know of the Spirit at the time they were given these instructions? They knew the Holy Spirit; as the source of life (Genesis 1:2, Job 33:4 and Psalm 104:30), as a teacher and guide (Nehemiah 9:20, Job 32:8 and Psalm 143:10), and as an empowerment to men (Exodus35:30-36:1, 1 Chronicles 28:12 and Genesis 41:38). In addition, they would have known the prophesies concerning Israel’s future (Isaiah 4:4-6, Ezekiel 11:18-21 and Haggai 2:3-9) not to mention promises to empower the Messiah (Isaiah 11:1-5, Isaiah 42:1, 61:1-3). There is authority when God speaks, as well as, a trust in His promises, which are always fulfilled. We can see that the Holy Spirit was not foreign to them. They knew of the works of the Holy Spirit in prophets and individuals of the past but now it would be poured out on all that believe. Believers are those that trust the gospel of Jesus Christ. This gospel is the understanding; that He died for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day offering forgiveness and remission of sins to all that repent and believe in Him as God (see Acts 2:38, 1 Cor 15:1-8).
How should we understand the simple phrase, “…you shall be witnesses to me...?” Reading through several commentaries there seems to be debate as to whether this is a command or a statement of fact. My simple assertion is that a statement from a timeless all knowing authority is the same as a command. Just because He already knows what will happen does not mean a command becomes a statement of fact. Likewise, if it were delivered as a statement then it is still a command for the simple reason that He does already know the outcome of the statement. In Luke 24, we see that Jesus is addressing a large number of His disciples. We may conclude that this command is going out to all believers. Not only are we His witnesses, but also the Holy Spirit through us. Acts 5:32, “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” NKJV
What does it mean to be a witness? I believe here, the purely legal definition of witness was implied. It was not until after Stephens’s death that the association with eminent death was linked with the term “martyr,” as we think of it today. The terms seem to be reversed in present day vocabulary. Witness as it was used then is actually from the root word, martyreō. This does not appear to be anything more than a person who testifies of things seen. Like the miracles performed by Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Why Jesus mentions these three locations is not totally certain, to me.
I have heard some relate this progression to a regional expansion or regional progression. Regional progression is that which considers in order of priority; city, then state, and on to country as the command of Jesus in this verse. However, the entities listed by Jesus are also not expanding regions; Judea and Samaria have historically been listed as the same territory. The greatest portion of these lands is in the much disputed West Bank. (See map on page 7) Still some imply that this is an expansion progression starting with daily personal influence, then local outreach efforts and onto missions. While these are both great trains of thought and admirable goals, He may simply have been demonstrating that witnessing is a proactive activity. Witnessing can be reactive if we are approached but, this leads many to believe the “doctrine” of lifestyle evangelism. Lifestyle evangelism (if the only effort afforded) is a deception. We must get out and engage the world!
Of greater significance is the last statement of this study verse, “…and to the end of the earth.” In His statement, which is really a response to an earlier question, He does not outright mention a specific time frame but an open ended reference to time. It is generally assumed that the phrase, “end of the earth,” is to reach out to all corners of the globe as witnesses. However, the word, “end,” is in singular form, eschatos. Eschatos means: last, last state, latter end, last in time or in place, or last of a series. We can see eschatos is most likely a reference to time.
The disciples had just asked Him if He would be restoring His kingdom at this time (Acts 1:6). He responded by saying that it is not for them to know the times or seasons. However, this does not mean that He did not leave us without a “parable” like answer. I do not believe that He left them or us for that matter, without a taste of hope or encouragement and a bit of knowledge to discern the desired time table. Jesus is known for two things when asked questions: getting right to the point of a question without directly answering as the questioner would expect and also speaking in parables. He does not change, and I am sure He has not changed His M.O. here. Though not speaking directly in parable here we can see that the phrase when compared to the question does actually answer it. In other words, this is a command that is to last until the moment redemption comes and to reach out to all lands. We can see this lived out in the rest of the book of Acts.
Additionally, if He had intended to mean, to the ends of the globe, then we would have fulfilled this command by now. Every country has been reach with the Gospel of Christ. If He is referring to time, then it is not fulfilled until the time of His choosing. We are obligated to continue to witness either until we take our last breath or until the end of the earth, as we know it. Also, let us look at Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the entire world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” NKJV Here “end” is telos, meaning; termination, the limit at which a thing ceases to be (always of the end of some act or state, but not of the end of a period of time).1 In this verse we see the contrast between the two different words used for “end.” The emphasis is that the gospel should be preached in all places until the end of days.
Charles Spurgeon said, "…If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for." We should never take man’s words over that of scripture; however this quote shows us the passion we should have in spreading the gospel. Jesus tells us the power He gives us to witness and His promises have been proven to never fail. We must share the gospel with the world to our end and enable others to share until their end and so on until the end of the earth.

Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the text of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurrence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.
Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament): 1539 δύναμις

Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament): 3946 I. כֹּחַ

Deffinbaugh, Bob, “Putting Pentecost in Perspective (Part 1) The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (Acts 2:1-13),” <> (accessed May 10, 2010)

Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLG 3455). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the text of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurrence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.