Museo Interativo

CHRIST VERSUS RELIGION
IN THE BOOK OF ACTS
Scripture Reading: Acts 4:1-3, 5-7, 13, 18-21; 5:17-29, 33, 40-41; 6:9-13; 7:54-59; 8:1-3; 9:1-5; 10:9-16; 11:1-3, 12, 19; 15:1-2, 28-29; 21:17-28
CHRIST IS ONE WITH THE SAINTS
We all must realize that in the Book of Acts Christ is living with all His members. Never think that Christ is only in the four Gospels and not in the Acts. In the Gospels wehave Christ in the body given Him by Mary, His physical body; but in the Acts we have Christ in a larger Body, a mystical Body, given Him by the Holy Spirit. Acts 1 tells how Christ ascended into the heavens in the presence of all His followers. Then Acts 2 tells how this ascended Christ came down upon His followers. From that day, the Day of Pentecost, Christ was fully one with all His saints.From that day He was not only within them, but also upon them; He not only filled them, but also clothed them. He was fully and thoroughly one with all His disciples to the extent that His disciples just became Jesus Christ.
You remember what that persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, heard when he was smitten down on the road to Damascus: The Lord Jesus said to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"(Acts 9:4). Then Saul replied in so many words, "Lord, who are You? I never persecuted anyone in the heavens; all those whom I persecuted were on earth. I persecuted John, I persecuted Peter, and I persecuted Stephen; now I am on my way to persecute some people in the city of Damascus. Who are You?" The Lord Jesus answered, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." The Lord said in effect, "You mustrealize that Peter, John, Stephen, and all My believers are just Me. When you persecute them, you persecute Me. I am one with them, and they are one with Me."
Hence, in the Book of Acts Christ is still here on this earth living with, in, and among all His disciples. We all must realize that the sufferings, journeys, and speeches of these disciples were absolutely the acts of Jesus. Jesus was stillacting, living, moving, working, and doing things in all His disciples.
CHRIST, THE TARGET OF RELIGION
We can also see in the Book of Acts that Christ was still versus religion. The battle between Christ and religion was even more severe in the Book of Acts than in the four Gospels. The disciples of Jesus went forward testifying and witnessing for Jesus, absolutely ignoring religion. This greatlyoffended the religious people and rulers; therefore, they exercised their religious authority to arrest and imprison them. The religious rulers, in a sense, were opposing all the followers of Jesus, but they were not mainly against the followers, but against Jesus Himself. They had no problem with those Galilean followers of Jesus; their problem was with Jesus. They instructed the disciples neverto speak or teach in the name of Jesus. You see, they didn't mind their teaching or preaching as long as they would leave out the name of Jesus. They were not against those Galileans; they were against Jesus. They did not hate His followers; they hated Jesus. The disciples, of course, would not take their word: they had something more living and powerful within them than what they heard from thosereligious rulers. They proceeded fearlessly to preach and to praise Christ, and thus brought upon themselves swift arrest and imprisonment.
But that was not the end. "An angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them out, and said, Go ye, and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life" (5:19-20). What life? The life which nothing can hold, thelife which even the prison cannot hold. The angel told them to go and speak the words of such a life. And so they went early in the morning to the temple and spoke. The rulers sent the officers to the prison that day to bring forth the disciples to the counsel, and the officers returned saying, "The prison house we found shut in all safety, and the keepers standing at the doors: but when we had...