Luke makes frequent mention of women.
Luke's Book is not the story of the birth of the Body of Christ, as many have incorrectly assumed, but the DIVINE ACCOUNT of the temporary SETTING ASIDE of ISRAEL.
Some Mss. bear the title, "The Acts of the Apostles Peter and Paul." This is most interesting, as these two are the only Apostles who play major roles in the history recorded in this book. Also interesting is the fact that Peter disappears early in the book, only reappearing in support of the new Apostle, Paul. Because of this, some have thought that the selection of Matthias as Judas' replacement was human error. A close look at the first chapter, however, will demonstrate that, far from being elected by men, Matthias was selected by God. God always distinguishes Paul and his Grace message from the Twelve and their Kingdom message. The Twelve never claim Paul as one of themselves, nor does Paul ever claim to be one of them.
The Twelve never claim Paul as one of themselves, nor does Paul ever claim to be one of them.
This is important in the extreme, as the way that God saves men in the present portion of His program--what men have called "the Church age" but God calls "the Dispensation of Grace"--is not revealed anywhere in Scripture except the Pauline Epistles. Not only so, but Christian life and ministry can only be found in Paul. The confusion about the all-important doctrine of Salvation has arisen because men have failed to realize the difference between salvation for a believing Jew under Law and in a Covenant relationship with God, and salvation for all, Jew and Gentile concluded under sin today, under Grace.
Additional confusion ensues when teachers who fail to rightly divide the Word and ignore the unique nature of Paul's Apostleship by making him one of the Twelve, constantly confuse salvation with discipleship. The world's most famous evangelist, a dear man who loves the Lord and who played a part in my own salvation, invites the unsaved to come to Christ for salvation by using texts in which Christ in His earthly ministry to Israel called His Covenant people to become disciples. The well-meaning evangelist justifies his invitation to walk the aisle by stating that everyone that Christ ever called He called publicly.
When men are given something to do they invariably conclude that God is offering them an incomplete salvation, and that there is something that they must do--even if it is only aisle-walking--to effect a complete salvation.
Since there were no aisles to walk until recently, this would leave millions of sinners down through history, which only believed, unsaved.
Believers of the present Dispensation must never move to Jewish ground to understand their salvation, their standing before God, or their walk. The gospels are for us because ALL of the Bible is for us, but the Pauline Epistles are TO us and ABOUT us and it is to the Pauline writings that we must go if we are to understand our salvation as saints of the present Economy and our life and ministry in the Program of God for today.
Salvation is said to be by faith ALONE one hundred and fifty times in the New Testament. When the Philippian jailer asked Paul, "What must I do to be saved?," Paul replied, "Believe on (trust in) the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved."' Did God and Paul forget something? Was there something else the jailer should have done in addition to believing that Paul forgot and today's preachers must supply? No, Scripture is as clear as it is emphatic, God leaving no room to doubt where Man's eternal welfare is concerned, that we are "saved by grace through faith" plus nothing. God Himself does all the saving, all that you and I do is all the being saved!
The Book of Acts is not the Handbook of Salvation; Romans is that! Therefore, we must understand Acts in the light of Romans, and not the other way around.
The Book of Acts, properly understood, is a most significant key to understanding the Bible, but we must not miss the self-evident keys that God gives us to the understanding of the Book of Acts itself.
Remember, it is NOT... the story of the birth of the Body "Church"--you won't find even a hint of the Body of Christ until after Paul is saved and commissioned--and you will avoid needless and costly errors by the dozen.
When Peter says, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, he is calling on Jews to rethink their position on the crucifixion of their Messiah and demonstrate their new attitude, faith, by submitting to the familiar Jewish purification ritual, water baptism. Peter, then, is not giving us Christians a salvation verse to use with unsaved people in the present Dispensation of Grace. We are not called upon to repent of what someone else did to Messiah in the first century. Nor do we receive the remission of sins as God's Covenant People did by submitting to Israel's water ritual.
By the time God and Paul write Romans a major change has taken place. The "due time" has come for the Apostle to the Gentiles to proclaim his new message, "the preaching of the cross." God's timing is a most important key to understanding His Word. Christ's giving Himself as a ransom occurred several years before the due time came for Paul to declare the benefits of this ransom to a lost world. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized. Peter could not have preached Paul's message on the Day of Pentecost. For instance, Peter could not have said then, "But now righteousness of God apart from law is manifested (made conspicuous);" it hadn't been. Israel was still under law on the Day of Pentecost. Heaven was holding back the "faith righteousness" message until the Law program had run its course.