Thursday, April 4, 2013

Making sense of the Book of Acts - 2

The last words of Luke's Gospel concerning the twelve apostles are:  "And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God" (Lk 24:52-53).  In Acts 5:42 it is recorded concerning them that "every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus."  Acts 8:1 tells us that when a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem and many were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, the apostles remained in Jerusalem.

It is also interesting to note that Jerusalem is mentioned 60 times in Acts from Acts 1:4 to Acts 28:17, and that the temple is mentioned 24 times in Acts.  Jerusalem continued to be the headquarters for the twelve apostles throughout the Book of Acts, and so far as the Acts record is concerned, not one of them preached the gospel outside of Israel's land.

Despite the judgment of Christ, pronounced against the temple and Jerusalem (Matt 23:31-39), Israel never received greater favor from Rome than they did during the period covered by the Book of Acts.  During this time the temple continued to stand and both believing and unbelieving Jews had access to it.

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