Transition from Jesus to the Apostles

Matthew 16:13-20; Acts 1:8

“I am the light of the world. You are the light of the world.”

 

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock[b] I will build my church, and the gates of hell[c] shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[d] in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

 

Acts 1:8 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

Matthew 28:18-20

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

 

The New Covenant established by Jesus Christ is what we talked about last week as we talked about Communion. Jesus has become the Way to God, the truth about God and the life of God.

 

But Jesus has been gone from the earth for over 2,000 years. Have we been left as orphans to fend for ourselves? No. God’s revealed plan for our covenant is for Jesus to establish it, and for the Holy Spirit to empower people to live it out. As such, we can see a very clear transition from Jesus to the Apostles in the Book of Acts as the ones used by God to bring His kingdom to all the earth.

 

John 14: 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

 

Acts 1: 1In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

It is this transition of ministry from Jesus to the Apostles that explains why the Apostles and their close associates wrote the New Testament. It explains why Jesus did not write Scripture and it explains how the coming of the Holy Spirit empowered people of all sorts to spread the gospel of the kingdom all over the world. This is what I want us to see today so we will know where the New Testament came from and how God desires to work in our lives as well.

 

  1. The Explanation of the Transition from Jesus to the Apostles

 

  1. Jesus Chose the Twelve Apostles

 

Jesus’ thesis statement about His Apostles

John 14: 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

 

John 15: 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

 

 

Peter representative of the twelve: Matt 16:

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

 

Matt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8 and then the Holy Spirit comes and BOOM!

 

In Acts 2 Peter opens the kingdom of heaven to Jerusalem.

Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost: Thousands believe! Greater works!

 

In Acts 8 Peter opens the kingdom of heaven to Samaritans.

Holy Spirit comes to Samaritans. Old prejudices healed. Greater works!

 

In Acts 10 Peter opens the kingdom of heaven to all Gentiles!

Holy Spirit comes to Gentiles! All nations are included in the people of God because of the Spirit of God! The curse of Babel is reversed!

 

Foundation of the church:

Ephesians 2: 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Rev 21:14 Wall of the city bears the names of the twelve Apostles

 

Keys to the kingdom: Keys allow you to open the kingdom to others.

Binding and loosing is the same idea. You lock up or you unlock! They do this by sharing the information about Jesus. All of the information that we have today comes through the Apostles. They have opened the kingdom of heaven to all who have come in!!

 

  1. The transition from Jesus to the Holy Spirit

John 14:

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

 

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

 

25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

 

John 15: 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

 

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

 

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness,

because you have been with me from the beginning.

 

John 16: 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

  1. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles
  2. The Apostles are key to the opening of the Holy Spirit’s ministry.

Acts 2 Jerusalem,

Acts 8 Samaria,

Acts 10 All Gentiles

Acts 19 the ultimate enemy is ignorance. We are all meant to      receive the promised Holy Spirit!

 

  1. The Holy Spirit gives the Apostles the information from God that Jesus gave. Just like Jesus is cooperating directly with the Father in His kingdom:

John 5: 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father[e] does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

 

 

  1. The Example of the Early Church at Jerusalem

 

The template for the future of the church is set in Acts 1:8:

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

  1. Pentecost and Peter’s Sermons

The Holy Spirit comes on Peter and what do we see?

  1. Great understanding in his sermon in Acts 2
  2. Great confidence in the absence of Jesus’ presence!
  3. Great boldness in the face of public persecution and rebuke. We must obeyGod rather than man! They are beaten and rejoice!
  4. Works that can be described as “greater” Thousands believe!

 

  1. Persecution in the kingdom of God

I bring up this issue particularly because it is a very common topic in the rest of the New Testament. It is practically the theme of the Book of Revelation, and it is discussed often in the other New Testament Books. But persecution does not defeat the gospel, it spreads it. Just as Paul’s arrest moves him from Jerusalem to Rome with the gospel, early in the Book of Acts the gospel moves from Jerusalem to the Gentiles.

 

The Apostles meet resistance from the beginning. Jesus told them:

 

John 15:20 “The servant is not greater than the Master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.”

 

John 16:1-2 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

 

Acts 4 they are arrested for the first time. And Peter says this:

 

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men[c] by which we must be saved.”

 

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

 

The church continued to grow. Acts 6: 7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

 

And the Jewish leaders fought back. Stephen is arrested and stoned to death in Acts 7 and Saul of Tarsus is introduced into the story as the leader of the opposition.

Chapter 8:

1 And Saul approved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

  1. The gospel goes to Samaria because of Persecution

        Acts 8 the church finds out that Jesus will build His church using   means that they would not consider.

 

 

III. The Example of the Apostle Paul and the Gentiles  

 

  1. The Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit

        Acts 10

 

 

  1. Paul seeks to destroy the church

        Acts 8 and 9 But Jesus seeks to build His church through Paul!

 

 

  1. Jesus chooses Paul to be His Apostle to the Gentiles

        Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Paul becomes the main missionary to the Gentiles in the rest of    Acts. Paul’s missionary journeys and arrest journey fill up the last        half of the book of Acts. By the end Paul is in Rome under arrest and the gospel is still spreading. Greater works.

 

John 14: 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me     will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these        will he do, because I am going to the Father.

 

        John 15: 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and   appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that       your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in     my name, he may give it to you.

 

Matt 16: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood        has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in         heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against   it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,    and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and         whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

 

Paul writes 13 New Testament texts and the earliest ones. His         testimony about Jesus is the earliest testimony!!

 

All of this is to emphasize that the power behind the ministry of   Jesus Christ and the power of the kingdom of God is the power of the Holy Spirit. And all people can and are meant to be used by         God as examples of God’s blessed kingdom life.

 

We should all be acutely aware of this in every area of our lives. What does the kingdom of God (God’s best and blessed life) look like in your marriage? With your kids? Your extended family? With your friends? At work? In your hobbies? In the community? We can see all of our lives as an expression of the kingdom of God!!