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ACTS
APOSTLES
18
OF THE
Acts 2,3. Peter addresses `Men of Judah', `Men of Israel', `House of Israel'.
Acts 13. Paul addresses `Men, brethren and ye that fear God'. `Gentiles'.
Acts 28. Paul turns to the `Gentiles'.
We can therefore exhibit this dispensational trend thus:
1 to 12
13,14
28
JEW ONLY (cf. 11:19)
JEW AND GENTILE
GENTILE ONLY
(3) The Alliterative Key-word Aid. Three key-words can be allied with this racial and geographical sub-division:
Restoration; Reconciliation; Rejection.
Restoration.
`When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again
the kingdom to Israel?' (Acts 1:6).
It will be noted, that this was a concerted action `when they were come together', it was a logical consequence of
the forty days' Bible teaching received from the Lord, `When therefore'. It was recognized by the Lord as a
legitimate inquiry; He did not say, `O fools and slow of heart to believe' or rebuke them for not speaking about the
Church, He only told them that the `time' could not be made known. It will be further observed that the apostles
were concerned, not with something new, but with something old, `wilt Thou restore again'. This theme is taken up
in Acts 3, where Peter speaks of `the times of refreshing' and `the times of restitution' which had been the burden of
all the prophets. If the `restoration' of the kingdom to Israel be the true burden of Acts 1 and 3, the Church in which
there is neither Jew nor Greek could not have come into existence in Acts 2. PENTECOST3 is dealt with as a theme in
itself.
Seeing that the Saviour began at Moses and the Prophets and expounded these Scriptures to the disciples during
the last forty days, He must have dealt with such passages as Isaiah 40:1,2; 43:5,6; Jeremiah 1:12; 31:28,35,36;
33:14-26; Daniel 12:1. Small wonder that the apostles were eager to know whether the time of Israel's restoration
had come, small wonder that the `Church' as we know it never entered into their calculations. (For a fuller analysis
of the prophecies concerning Israel's restoration, see the booklet, The Burden of Prophecy, and the volume entitled
From Pentecost to Prison).
Reconciliation. With the ministry of Paul, a change comes over the Acts, for the Gentile now comes into a place
of blessing. (For an examination of Peter's attitude toward Cornelius, see article CORNELIUS1).
No longer is the gospel addressed to `Ye men of Israel', no longer do they that preach restrict the message to
`Jews only'. The door of faith is opened to the Gentile (Acts 14:27); `all men everywhere' are called upon to repent
(Acts 17:24-30). The reconciliation of the Gentile hinged upon the rejection of the Jew (Rom. 11:11-15). Paul is
the only apostle to use the word reconciliation, for he alone was the apostle of the Gentiles. For a fuller account of
this subject in its several phases, the reader is referred to RECONCILIATION4.
Rejection. Miraculous gifts, the hope of Israel, and the position `The Jew first' are maintained right to the end of
the Acts (28:3-9,17,20). The apostle spent a whole day expounding and testifying the kingdom of God, but when
the Jews at Rome refused his testimony, he quoted Isaiah 6:9,10 for the last time in the New Testament and Israel
passed out into their present blindness. With their dismissal, the prophetic clock stopped, miraculous gifts ceased,
the hope of Israel was suspended, Israel became lo-ammi, the dispensation of the Mystery began, Paul became the
Prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles, and the revelation of the nature and calling of the present parenthetical
dispensation was committed to writing in what are called `The Prison Epistles'.
The reader is referred to the following articles as supplementing these themes: LO-AMMI2; ACTS 28, THE
DISPENSATIONAL BOUNDARY p. 26; the Seven pre-prison Epistles; the Seven post-prison Epistles; and Isaiah 6:9,10
and its cumulative fulfilment.