“Acts” of the apostles

 

1. Luke 24:53 says that the disciples stayed continually at the Temple praising God. The Feast of Pentecost, or Shavuot in Hebrew, was just starting in Jerusalem as the book of Acts begins. It was one of the three great pilgrim feasts that every Jewish male was required to attend (see Deuteronomy 16:16). Where would these Jewish believers, who were continually in the Temple Courts anyway, have been on the first day of the feast of Pentecost? They would have been at the Temple!
2. Acts 2:6-12 states that huge crowds of people from every nation gathered to hear Peter speak. Where would there have been room for great crowds of people, who were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, during the time of day that the Temple services would have been held? It would have had to have been somewhere in the Temple area, the only place where there would have been that much space!
3. In Acts 2:15, Peter told the crowd gathered that it was 9:00 in the morning. This would have been the exact time for the morning Pentecost service in the Temple. Certainly the disciples and the crowd would have wanted to be present for the Pentecost services.
4. In Acts 2:2, it says that the sound of a violent wind filled the whole house where they were sitting. The Temple is frequently called, “The House” in the Old Testament (see e.g. 2 Samuel 7:5). Even in Acts 7:47, the Temple is called, “The House”. The House where they were sitting was the Temple!
5. Peter spoke of the Tomb of David as being there (Acts 2:29). David was buried in the “City of David” (I Kings 2:10), which is the part of Jerusalem that is the closest to the Temple Mount.
6. In Acts 2:41, it says that three thousand people were baptized in response to the apostles preaching. One of the only places in Jerusalem with that much water to baptize three thousand people would have been at the southern entrance to the Temple, where there were located numerous “mikvoth”. These were ritual baths used by the worshipers to ceremonially cleanse themselves before entering the grounds of the Temple. These pools, which already symbolized the removal of the uncleanness of sin, and their proximity to where the crowds would have been gathered, gives further evidence to Pentecost happening in or around the southern stair entrance to the Temple grounds.

All this evidence overwhelmingly points to the events of Acts 2 taking place on or near the southern stair entrance to the Temple. Hundreds of thousands of God fearing Jews from all over the known world (Acst2:5) were gathered to celebrate the Jewish Feast of Shavuot (Leviticus 23:15-22). At this ancient Jewish feast, God came in the form of tongues of fire and settled on the new believers. God moved out of his old “House”, the Temple, and moved into a new “House”, the hearts of the believers. All of this took place in the framework of Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled at this miraculous event and it all happened at the place God had his people build a place for Him to dwell!

Commission of the Disciples

Matthew 10:5-6: “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teachall nations  baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:1

Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:and, lo I am with you always even to the end of the World. Amen.

The word “Nations” means heathen or foreign nations or races. The translation should say ALL RACES.

G1484 ἔθνος ethnos eth’-nos Probably from G1486; a race (as of the same habit), that is, a tribe; specifically a foreign (non-Jewish) one (usually by implication pagan): – Gentile, heathen, nation, people.

Paul

Christ had chosen Paul for a threefold purpose – “to bear [His] name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).

First, Paul was to teach the Gentiles – he did that in Cyprus, Asia Minor and Greece. Second, he was to appear before kings – an event which landed him in prison in Rome for two-years. At the end of that two-year period, during which no accusers had appeared, Paul would automatically have been released according to Roman law. At that point, Luke stops the story of Paul. See Acts 28:31. Thirdly, he ended his work by going to the Lost Ten Tribes.

                        

Also Paul had planned to go to Spain and may have gone to Britain. “I will come by you into Spain” (Rom. 15:28).

Greek church historian Theodore, wrote:
“That St. Paul brought salvation to the isles that lie in the ocean”
(book i, on Psalm cxvi. p. 870).

Paul ministered in southern Galatia, he was not allowed to minister in other areas by the holy spirit.
“After they [Paul and his companions] were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered [permitted] them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas” (Acts 16:7, 8).

 

Peter

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (I Peter 1:1). Notice the word “strangers.” It does not mean Gentiles. The original Greek is parepidemos. It means “a resident foreigner,” literally, “an alien alongside.

G3927 παρεπίδημος parepidēmos par-ep-id’-ay-mos From G3844 and the base of G1927; an alien alongside, that is, a resident foreigner: – pilgrim, stranger.

Gal 2:8 (ForG1063 he that wrought effectuallyG1754in PeterG4074 toG1519 the apostleshipG651 of theG3588 circumcision,G4061 the same was mightyG1754 in(G2532) meG1698 towardG1519 theG3588Gentiles:)G1484

All of the people living in Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were Israelites according to Josephus. Josephus, the Jewish historian, was familiar with Parthia as a major dwelling place of the Ten Tribes. He states:

“But then the entire body of the people of Israel [the Ten Tribes] REMAINED IN THAT COUNTRY [they did not return to Palestine]; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers” (Antiq. of the Jews, bk. xi, ch. V, §2).

Diodorus of Sicily wrote:

“… many conquered peoples were removed to other homes, and two of these became very great colonies: the one was composed of Assyriansand was removed to the land between Paphlagonia and Pontus, and the other was drawn from Media and planted along the Tanais (the River Don in ancient Scythia – the modern Ukraine, north of the Black Sea, in southern Russia).” See book II, §43.

Notice the areas from which these colonies came – Assyria and Media. The very areas to which the House of Israel was taken captive! Strabo called these people the “White Syrians” (12, 3, 9), instead of Assyrians.

Who were these so-called “White Syrians”? None other than the House of Israel which had been carried into Assyrian captivity. “Syria” was the Greek name for the whole eastern Mediterranean coastal strip north of Judea. That is why the Greeks called them the white Syrians.

Andrew

Andrew went to Scythians. Andrew had Scythia, and the neighboring countries primarily allotted him for his province.

Speaking of Andrew,
“went next to Trapezus, a maritime city on the Euxine Sea, whence after many other places he came to Nice, where he stayed two years, preaching and working miracles with great success: thence to Nicomedia, and so to Chalcedon; whence sailing through the Propontis he came by the Euxine Sea [BLACK SEA] to Heraclea, and from thence to Amastris….He next came to Sinope, a city situated upon the same sea,…here he met with his brother Peter, with whom he stayed a considerable time….Departing hence, he went again to Amynsus and then…he proposed to return to Jerusalem” — the headquarters church. “Whence after some time he betook himself…to the country of Abasgi (a land in the Caucasus)…Hence he removed into…Asiatic Scythia or Sarmatia, but finding the inhabitants very barbarous and intractable, he stayed not long among them, only at Cherson, or Chersonesus, a great and populous city within the Bosporus (this Bosporus is the modern Crimea), he continued for some time, instructing them and confirming them in the faith. Hence taking ship, he sailed across the sea to Sinope, situated in Paphlagonia…”
(Cave, Antiquitates Apostolicae, p.137-138).

 

Simon

Dorotheus was a bishop of Tyre (255 A.D.) is credited with an “Acts of the Seventy Apostles” which may be the same work as the lost Gospel of the Seventy.

Nicephorus and Dorotheus both wrote about Simon:
“directed his journey toward Egypt, then to Cyrene, and Africa … and throughout Mauritania and all Libya, preaching the gospel … . Nor could the coldness of the climate benumb his zeal, or hinder him from whipping himself and the Christian doctrine over to the Western Islands, yea, even to Britain itself. Here he preached and wrought many miracles … .” “that he went at last into Britain, and … was crucified … and buried there”
(Cave, Antiquitates Apostolicae, p.203.).

Anglo Saxon migrate to Britain

Here is Geoffrey of Monmouth’s answer:
“The Saxons … went unto Gotmund, King of the Africans, in Ireland, wherein, adventuring thither with a vast fleet, he had conquered the folk of the country. Thereupon, by the treachery of the Saxons, he sailed across with a hundred and sixty thousand Africans into Britain … (and) laid waste, as hath been said, well-nigh the whole island with his countless thousands of Africans”
(Historia Regum Britanniae, bk. xi, sect. 8, 10).

The Universal History is a 65 volume account of history form the earliest times. It is compiled from original authors, and illustrated with maps, notes and published in London between 1747 and 1768. Universal History explains the Nordics were white people who came from North Africa and Mauritania.

“gave out, that their ancestors were driven out of Asia by a powerful enemy, and pursued into Greece; from whence they made their escape” to North Africa. “But this … was to be understood only of the white nations inhabiting some parts of western Barbary and Numidia.”
(Universal History Vol xviii, p.194, 1748)

Eusebius, wrote about the apostles that they,
“passed over to those which are called the British Isles.” Again he wrote: “Some of the Apostles preached the Gospel in the British Isles.”
(Eusebius, Evangelical Demonstrations, Book III, chapter 7)

James Alphaeus

There were 2 apostles named James. James of Alphaeus went to Spain. James, the brother of the Messiah, was martyred by Herod. (Acts 12:2).James, son of Alphaeus, was the one who left Palestine after the first twelve years. The deeds of this apostle are sometimes mistakenly assigned to James, John’s brother.

“The Spanish writers generally contend, after the death of Stephen, he came to these Western parts, and particularly into Spain (some add Britain and Ireland) where he planted Christianity”
(Cave, Antiquitates Apostolicae, p. 148 ).

Thomas

In 256 A.D. Parthia began to migrate from the regions of the Black Sea to Denmark, thence into the British Isles in 449 A.D. The Greek historians reveal that Thomas brought the gospel to Parthia.

“Parthia, after which Sophornius and others inform us, that he preached the gospel to the Medes, Persians, Carmans, Hyrcani, Bactrians, and the neighbor nations”.
(Cave, Antiquitates Apostolicae, p.189).

These lands we know today as Iran (or Persia) and Afghanistan.

Parthia was defeated by Persia in 226 A.D. Expelled from Parthia, the Ten Tribes and the Medes moved north of the Black Sea, into Scythia. (See R. G. Latham’s The Native Races of the Russian Empire, page 216.) From there, around A.D. 256, the Ten Tribes migrated with their brethren from Asia Minor into Northwest Europe.

“White Indians” – that is, whites living in India – were also known as Nephthalite Huns, in later Greek records. They were overthrown in the sixth century and migrated into Scandinavia.

Bartholomew

Bartholomew worked with Thomas in the Parthian Empire. According to Nicephorus recorded that Bartholomew also spent part of his time in Armenia and Upper Phrygia in Asia Minor. Nicephorus called the area the “Western and Northern parts of Asia,” .(Asia Minor, modern Turkey today).
(Cave, Antiquitates Apostolicae, p 168 quoting Nicephorus Callistus “Ecclesiasticae Historiae”)

Jude

Jude, his other name was Libbaeus Thaddaeus, had his ministry in Assyria and Mesopotamia. That is part of Parthia Empire also. All lands north of the Eurphates River belonged to the lost tribes of Israel according to Josephus. During the New Testament times, Parthia ruled most ruled over most of the Gentiles. Part of their possession was Assyria and Mesopotamia. They controlled the famous city of Babylon.
(Dr. Herman Hoeh,The Compendium, “where did the Apostles go?”)

Philip

Philip was assigned to Scythia. Scythia was the land area located aroung the Black and the Caspian Seas. In 331 A.D. the Parthian Empire fell to Persia. The Parthians migrated to this region.
(Cave, Antiquitates Apostolicae, p 168)

 

Matthew

Matthew [Levi], Metaphrastes tells us,

“went first into Parthia, and having successfully planted Christianity in those parts, thence traveled to Aethiopia, that is, the Asiatic Aethiopia, lying near India.”

Metaphrastes was the principal compiler of the legends of saints in the “Menologia” of the Byzantine Church. Also Dorotheus declares Matthew was buried at Hierapolis in Parthia.

Matthias

Ethiopia and Greek sources tell us Matthias went to Dacia. Dacia is modern day Romania and Macedonia. sources designate Dacia. Dacia was the extreme western part of Scythia. From Dacia came the Normans who ultimately settled in France and Britain.

John

John may have been sent to Gaul which is modern day France. This is only based on a French legend that Mary mother of Jesus went to Gaul. We know that the Messiah told John to take care of his mother. There is a legend that Mary went with John to France and later to Britain. Paul may have passed by Gaul on his way from Italy to Spain (Romans 15:24, 28). This is no historical proof that John went to Gaul.

The Gospel Advances through Multiplication

As the apostles led the gathered believers in Jerusalem in worship, fellowship and instruction, “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (2:47). Opposition and persecution, far from stopping the gospel’s advance, actually served to propel the preachers forward with even greater boldness so that “many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about five thousand” (4:4). Prayer was what connected the church with the power of God so that “when they had prayed…they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (4:31).

Luke summarized the progress of the gospel in Acts 6:7:

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

The stoning of Stephen marked the beginning of intense persecution which scattered the believers “throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria…Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word” (8:1,4). Including “defiled” Samaritan-compromisers in the early church was no small issue for purity-minded Jews, so the Lord confirmed his acceptance of them with special signs and affirmation from the Apostles themselves (8:14). The Good News had already spread beyond Jerusalem to Judea and now even into Samaria!

Acts 9:31 provides another of Luke’s summary statements:

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Notice that by this point, the gospel had reached the northern part of Israel, and the church was not just growing, it was multiplying.

The Gospel Advances through the Word

As we reflect on the advance of the gospel in Acts, it is important to point out that the main character in the book of Acts is not Peter or Paul but “the word of God.” And when Luke refers to “the word,” he very clearly means the gospel.

Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. (Acts 8:25, emphasis mine)

As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all). (Acts 10:36, emphasis mine)

Luke is careful to document not only the inclusion of Samaritans in the early church but even Gentiles, in the story of Cornelius and those with him.

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. (Acts 10:44)

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. (Acts 11:1)

This is an early preview of how the gospel-preachers would be a “light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47, citing Isaiah 49:6).

Jesus was clear that the mission was “to make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-20). But the gospel retained a priority for the Jews (Romans 1:16), all the way to the end of Acts. We see this as the word of God advanced beyond Israel:

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution…traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. (Acts 11:19)

The prayer meeting in Acts 13 marks the turning point of Acts, as the central sending base for mission shifted from Jerusalem to Antioch. By Acts 19 the center would be Ephesus, in modern day Turkey.

The clear message of Luke through Paul’s missionary journeys is that while the Apostle circled back to build up the church, the word of God only advanced. Notice that “almost the whole city” of Pisidian Antioch in Galatia gathered, not to hear Paul but “to hear the word of the Lord” (Acts 13:44), with the result that “the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region” (Acts 13:49).

The Gospel Advances through Prayer

The connection between prayer and Holy Spirit-empowered proclamation of God’s Word runs from Luke’s Gospel all the way through Acts. Before Jesus started his ministry, he prayed. Before he chose his twelve disciples, he prayed. Before he went to the cross, he gathered his followers together and prayed.

The preparation for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was weeks of prayer (Acts 1). And what propelled the gospel from Jerusalem to Antioch and on into Galatia was a season of prayer, worship and fasting:

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3, emphasis mine)

[tweet_box design=”default”]Prayer connects us with Spirit, helps us share the gospel, and prepares sinners to respond. [/tweet_box]

Prayer connects us with the power of the Holy Spirit and enables us to proclaim the gospel with boldness, while at the same time preparing sinners to respond in faith. Look at what the prayer meeting in Acts 13:2-3 produced later in that same chapter:

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. (Acts 13:48-49, emphasis mine)

The first missionary journey took the gospel to Cyprus and Galatia. The second missionary journey bypassed Asia (Acts 16:6, western Turkey) and brought the Word to Macedonia and Achaia (modern Greece), with the Bereans as a shining example of a receptive audience: “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

Paul taught for eighteen months in Corinth (Acts 18:11), and then finally, the Lord opened the door to Asia. Paul preached in the strategic port city of Ephesus for two years, “so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10). Here is the final summary statement in Acts:

So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. (Acts 19:20)

Nothing can stop the advance of the gospel:

This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

Jesus will build his church “and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

Nothing can stop the Word of God. But we can speed its progress by praying – crying out to the Holy Spirit to empower us to preach the Word with boldness and to prepare the hearts of sinners to respond in faith. The book of Acts concludes with Paul’s shipwreck and transfer to a Roman prison. But persecution, hardship, and confinement could not silence his preaching or stop the message from moving on to the ends of the earth:

He lived there [in Rome] two whole years…proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. (Acts 28:28-31)