Why does God Allow
Evil? Click here: /Apologeticshtml/Why Does God Allow Evil 0908.htm
Should God’s existence be
proven? /Apologeticshtml/Should the Bible and God Be Proven
Fideism vs WCG.htm
Does
the Bible teach blind faith? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Gospel of John Theory of Knowledge.htm
What
Did the Disciples Do After Jesus’ Resurrection?
After
Jesus’ resurrection, what did the disciples do? In the short term, Jesus trained the disciples by appearing and
speaking to them before His ascension to heaven, but in the long term, their
main job eventually was to preach the gospel to the world, which wasn’t what
they had anticipated during His ministry.
Let’s
say that the “short-term” period was that before Pentecost, the holy day on
which the Church was born (Acts 2:1-4) when the Holy Spirit came. The “long-term” period refers to the rest of
the disciples’ lives during the first century A.D.
Let’s
begin by looking at the short-term picture first. After Jesus was resurrected, He confronted the disciples for
their skepticism and unbelief (Luke 24:25, 34-42). For example, He rebuked Thomas for not believing in Him based
upon the reports of others (John 20:24-29).
Jesus appeared repeated to them (Acts 1:3): “To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering,
by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days.” He also instructed them about how to
interpret the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and how they applied
to Him (Luke 24:27, 44-46). He did more
miracles for them as well (John 20:30).
He also spoke to them about “the things concerning the kingdom of God”
(Acts 1:3), which is a key part of the Gospel’s message. When Jesus appeared to them for the third
time, when Peter went fishing not long after the resurrection, it’s distinctly
possible that he planned to go back to his old occupation after Jesus’ death
and resurrection (John 21:1-11). He may
not have realized then that the rest of His life was to be spent in leading the
church as an apostle and in evangelization about who Jesus was and His future
Kingdom (cf. Mark 1:14-15). The Lord
told them that they would need to preach to all nations about repenting from
their sins, starting from Jerusalem, but they shouldn’t leave Jerusalem until
they had received power from on high (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5)), which refers to
the Holy Spirit. So during the time
before His ascension (Acts 1:9-11), Christ appeared to His disciples to build
their faith and to train them for future service as evangelists.
The
primary responsibility of the Church after Jesus’ resurrection and the Day of
Pentecost became to preach the gospel to the world as much as reasonably
possible. This is the long-term mission
and the main responsibility of what the disciples were trained to do by Jesus
during His earthly ministry and after His resurrection, but before His
ascension to heaven. The classic text
here is Matthew 28:19-20, which is known as the “Great Commission”: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age.”
Similarly, Jesus instructed His disciples (Mark 16:15-16): “‘Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to all creation. He who has
believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall
be condemned.” So the Book of Acts and
Paul’s Letters describe the Church’s work in evangelization and what the
disciples, now called apostles, taught others.
On the day of Pentecost, one of the annual Holy Days
listed in Leviticus 23, the Holy Spirit first came en masse to a large group of
(seemingly average) people at once. Acts 2:4 states what happened
miraculously in a nutshell: "And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance." Now, were these angelic languages or some other special
language of the Holy Spirit unknown to other human beings? What does the
Bible itself say? Verses 5-6: "And there were dwelling
in Jerusalem Jews, devout
men, from every nation under heaven. [They were pilgrims
in town visiting for this special day, which is described specifically in
Leviticus 23:10-16--EVS] And when this sound [from the Spirit's
arrival] occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because
everyone heard them speak in his own language." In verses 9-11 is a
list of all the places/nations these Jews from around the known world had
come. Yet, they could understand the 120 disciples of Jesus as they
spoke. Interestingly enough, the miracle was as much in
the hearing as in the speaking, for these people could
understand what was being said.
Evidence that the disciples didn’t receive the Holy Spirit
until Pentecost comes from what could be called the "gentile
Pentecost" at Cornelius' household, which occurred many years after the
events narrated in Acts 2. Here God had a miraculous, publicly noticed receipt
of the Holy Spirit by the gentiles in order to show He didn't play favorites
spiritually at least permanently, in His plan for humanity. Notice Acts
10:44-47, especially the last verse: "While Peter was still speaking these
words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because
the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. For
they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter
answered, ‘Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have
received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?’" If the gentiles
received the Holy Spirit just as the apostles did, then they received it on
Pentecost, when similar publicly noticed miraculous events took place.
It’s true the disciples made use of the Spirit before being converted at
Pentecost, such as when they cast out demons. But it's necessary to make a
distinction between having the Spirit with you and having the Spirit in you.
Notice John 14:17: "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides
with you, and will be in you." The Spirit was with them, but not in them
to give them salvation. So Jesus told
them to “tarry” or wait in Jerusalem until the gained the Holy Spirit (Luke
24:49) so they could evangelize much more effectively.
Now, in this context, the message that the
disciples brought to the world should be examined. So what does the Bible itself teach about how
someone can be saved? On the original birthday of the New Testament
church on Pentecost, Peter preached a powerful sermon about Jesus' being the
promised Messiah and Savior. The crowd of Jews, realizing their guilt
about crucifying their Savior, asked, "Brethren, what should we
do?" Peter replied, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:37-38). Such a
text points to the need to repent, be baptized, and to receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit in order to be saved. Repentance is simply the determination
from a fundamental change of mind for someone to change his life by embracing
the need to obey God's will as expressed through His law. Before a
person repents, he has a mind that's hostile to God and His law (Romans 8:7).
Baptism in this context clearly meant the ceremony by which someone enters water
by immersion to demonstrate his changed life by re-enacting crucial steps of
Jesus' own life, death, and resurrection (Romans 6:3-6). According to
what Scripture explicitly reveals, the Holy Spirit is gained after the laying
on of hands by ministers and pastors (Acts 8:14-19; 19:5-6; I Timothy 4:14;
5:22).
So in this
context, what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? This refers to the gaining of
the Holy Spirit. Notice the resurrected Jesus’ explanation in Acts
1:5: “For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with
the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” In context, he was
obviously referring to the powerful descent of the Holy Spirit on the first
Christians that’s described as occurring on the Day of Pentecost in the next chapter. Peter
interpreted these words the same way in Acts 11:15-17: “And as I
began to speak [to the gentiles, including Cornelius], the Holy Spirit fell
upon them, just as it did upon us at the beginning [i.e., on Pentecost, in Acts
2]. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John
baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit.’ If God therefore gave to them the same gift as He gave to
us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand
in God’s way?” Here Peter plainly equates baptism by the Holy Spirit
with receiving the Holy Spirit, not with fire. One is baptized by
the Holy Spirit after one is baptized by water and then receives the laying on
of hands from an elder to receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 8:12, 14-19;
19:16). So the baptism of the Holy Spirit is very good, and to be
sought, since the Holy Spirit makes someone into a Christian and gives someone
eternal life conditionally (Romans 8:9; 2 Cor. 5:5; Ephesians 4:30).
So
what does the Bible itself teach about how someone can be saved? On the
original birthday of the New Testament church on Pentecost as described in Acts
2, Peter preached a powerful sermon about Jesus' being the promised Messiah and
Savior. The crowd of Jews, realizing their guilt about crucifying their
Savior, asked, "Brethren, what should we do?" Peter replied,
"Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit." (Acts 2:37-38). Such a text points to the need to
repent, be baptized, and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in order to be
saved. Repentance is simply the determination from a fundamental change
of mind for someone to change his life by embracing the need to obey God's will
as expressed through His law. Before a person repents, he has a mind
that's hostile to God and His law (Romans 8:7). Baptism in this context clearly
meant the ceremony by which someone enters water by immersion to demonstrate
his changed life by re-enacting crucial steps of Jesus' own life, death, and
resurrection (Romans 6:3-6). According to what Scripture explicitly
reveals, converts gain the Holy Spirit after the laying on of hands by
ministers and pastors (Acts 8:14-19; 19:5-6; I Timothy 4:14; 5:22). Based
on what Scripture itself reveals, it's a mistake for anyone to believe that
simply praying will give that person salvation (or place him on the initial
stage of the salvation process) by itself. More is clearly required, if
we take the words of Scripture as the foundation for our faith, not the
traditions of men and recent theological innovations.
Does Scripture recognize that baptism, by itself, isn't
enough? Notice that John’s baptism wasn’t enough for salvation,
according to Paul: “John baptized with the baptism of repentance,
telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in
Jesus” (Acts 19:4). After hearing this, these people were then
baptized in the name of Jesus (v. 5), for they hadn’t known enough the first
time they were baptized in order to be deemed saved by God by
it. These people also needed to receive the Holy Spirit, which they
had not even heard of (v. 2). So God gave them the Holy Spirit via
Paul’s laying on of hands on them (v. 6). And not just anyone can be
used to give others the Holy Spirit, as Simon the Sorcerer
perceived. After Philip had baptized people in Samaria, Peter and
John had to be sent up to give the people the Holy Spirit, which they did by
the laying on of hands (Acts 8:12, 14-17). And besides the initial
spectacular miracles in which the outpouring of the Spirit was used to start
the Church of God with a bang (Acts 2:1-4, 16-18), and which showed a special
blessing was upon the first gentiles to come into the church (Acts 10:44-47;
11:16-18), the normal way the Holy Spirit was given was by the laying on of
hands (Acts 9:17; I Tim. 4:14; II Tim. 1:6).
Notice
this exchange what the jailer in Philippi asked Paul and Silas and their
response back (Acts 16:30-31): "Sirs, what must I do to be
saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you
shall be saved, you and your household." However, mere faith and
speaking the attendant words without action wasn’t enough. Two verses later the jailer and his household
were baptized. So "belief" in this case required action to
demonstrate its reality. Similarly, as James explains, faith without
works is dead (James 2:17-20). We need to act upon what we believe if we
expect to be saved, even though good works of any kind don't earn salvation
(Ephesians 2:5, 8-10) nor give us our initial justification, in which our past
sins are removed from our accounts by faith alone (Romans 3:21, 28). We need to
act on our beliefs by going through certain ceremonies, which here are water
baptism and the laying on of hands, in order to be saved after repenting and
accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior by faith.
So
as explained above, Jesus instructed the disciples about what to believe and
preach as the gospel for their future roles as evangelists during the time
before He ascended to heaven. Then
after they received the Holy Spirit on the holy day of Pentecost, the disciples
became powerful evangelists for preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to
the world, which was what they did in the long term for the rest of their
lives.
Eric
Snow
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Why does God Allow Evil?
Click here: /Apologeticshtml/Why
Does God Allow Evil 0908.htm
May Christians work on
Saturdays? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Protestant
Rhetoric vs Sabbath Refuted.htm
Should Christians obey
the Old Testament law? /doctrinalhtml/Does
the New Covenant Abolish the OT Law.htm
Do you have an immortal
soul? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Here
and Hereafter.htm
Does the ministry have
authority? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Is
There an Ordained Ministry vs Edwards.html
Is the United States the
Beast? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Are
We the Beast vs Collins.htm
Should you give 10% of
your income to your church? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Does
the Argument from Silence Abolish the Old Testament Law of Tithing 0205 Mokarow
rebuttal.htm
Is Jesus God? Click
here: /doctrinalhtml/Is
Jesus God.htm
Will there be a third
resurrection? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Will
There Be a Third Resurrection.htm
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