11 5. The Beginning
5. The Beginning
INTRODUCTION
It is our purpose in this lesson to learn what the expression, ”at the beginning,” means. (Acts 11:15.) To do this, we must learn
SOME STATEMENTS IN PROPHECY The Lord’s house to be established. "And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem." (Isaiah 2:2-3; see also Micah 4:1). The points in this prophecy are easily seen: (1) That the Lord’s house would be established; (2) all nations to enter it; (3) it would be established in Jerusalem; (4) the time would be in the "latter days." The house of God is the church. (2 Timothy 3:15; see also Hebrews 3:6.) "The house of God, which is the church of the living God." It is the same institution Christ called "my church" in Matthew 16:18.
Jesus quotes the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah as the ground for making Jerusalem the place to begin. "Thus it is written [here he must refer to what was written in the Old Testament prophecies], that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I sent forth the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high." (See Luke 24:44-53. ) The prophecies fulfilled. The apostles returned to Jerusalem and there tarried until the Holy Spirit came to guide them. Read Acts 2:1-17 and you will find the Spirit came upon these apostles on the first Pentecost after the Lord’s ascension to heaven. They were in Jerusalem—the right place. Peter quoted Joel’s prophecy, which was to be fulfilled in the "last days"; so it is the right time. The fulfillment of this prophecy was to begin in the city of Jerusalem. (Joel 2:32.) It is easy to see that the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah are now being fulfilled and the "house of; the Lord," or the church, is being established. This Pentecost was the beginning. Turn to Acts 11:15. Peter says the Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius and his house as it did on "us [the apostles] at the beginning." Pentecost, then, was the beginning of something. What was it? Was it not the beginning of that church Jesus said he would build? Read verse 47, where it says: "The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." (King James Version.)
WHEN THE KINGDOM CAME, OR BEGAN The kingdom—the power and the spirit. Christ says in Mark 9:1 : "There are some here of them that stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power." The kingdom, therefore, would come when the power came— they were both to come together. And at least one of them would die before it came. The expression, "some of them that stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death," declares that at least one of them would. Judas did die before the kingdom came on Pentecost. (See Matthew 27:3-5.)
Turn to Acts 1:8, where it says: "But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you." The power, then, would come when the Holy Spirit came.
Now read Acts 2:1-5 : "And when the day of Pentecost was now come.... And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven." Could anything be more easily seen? The kingdom was to come when the power came; the power was to come when the Holy Spirit came. The Holy Spirit came on the first Pentecost after our Lord’s ascension, and it was all fulfilled in the city of Jerusalem. The kingdom of heaven began on that day. If you will read Matthew 16:18-19 and Hebrews 12:22-23; Hebrews 12:28, you will see that "the kingdom of heaven," "the church of the firstborn," and what Christ called "my church" are spoken of interchangeably. The church and the kingdom began here on earth the first Pentecost after our Lord returned to the Father. A LOOK AT THE TYPES A type of Christ’s resurrection. Read Leviticus 23:9-11, where we have a type of our Lord’s resurrection. This was "the first fruits of the harvest," and it was offered always on "the morrow after the Sabbath," which had to be the first day of the week. On this day our Lord arose from the dead. "Now when he was risen early on the first day of the week." (Mark 16:9.) "The first fruits of the harvest" typified "the first fruits of the resurrection." The type was offered on the first day of the week, and Jesus fulfilled it in rising from the dead on the first day of the week. He did not arise by accident on this day. God had fixed it as his resurrection day fifteen hundred years before Jesus was born into the world when he gave Moses the type, the first fruits of harvest, and had him teach the people to offer them on "the morrow after the Sabbath." "But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:20.)
A. type of the new covenant. Let us now read Leviticus 23:15-16. Here we have the day designated for "the new meal offering." And it was to be offered on "the morrow after the seventh Sabbath" from the time-of the first fruits of the harvest. The seventh Sabbath was certainly the forty-ninth day, and the morrow after it was the fiftieth day, and it was the first day of the week. This "new meal offering" was a type of the "new covenant" prophesied of in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Turn and read it. "Pentecost" means "the fiftieth day." The purpose for which the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles was to give to them this "new covenant" of which Christ is now mediator. In Hebrews 9:15-16 Christ is declared to be "mediator of a new covenant."
We have already learned that this covenant could not go into effect until after his death and his removal of the first covenant. Hebrews 7:12 declares that we have "a change also of the law." Read again Hebrews 10:9 and Colossians 2:14. In John 16:13-14 Christ told the apostles that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth; that he would not speak of himself, but only what he heard Christ command, this he would speak; that "he shall take of mine, and declare it unto you." This is the way we got the "new covenant"—the doctrine of our Lord and Savior. This teaching began on Pentecost.
All the preaching done by John the Baptist and Christ and his apostles before our Lord’s death was to the effect that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand"— that is, soon to be established. (See Matthew 3:1-2; Matthew 4:17; Matthew 10:7; Luke 10:1-9.) Joseph of Arimathea was "waiting for the kingdom " when he buried our Lord. (See Mark 15:43.) But now the kingdom exists, and every baptized believer is spoken of as delivered out of the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. (See Colossians 1:13.) To learn what to do to be saved, we must go to the teaching of these Spirit-guided apostles, which began on Pentecost. We must also go to them to learn how to work and worship in the church of Christ today. Let us remember this teaching had a time and place to begin. It was on the day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit speaks of it as "the beginning."