ACTS 13-28 THE TRUTH OF THE MYSTERY UNFOLDED

> Paul Prominent <

Acts 20-28: PRISONER OF THE LORD FOR THE GENTILES

CHURCH PREDOMINANTLY GENTILE

"And now Paul, returning to Jerusalem, intimates the close of his ministry in those parts to the elders of Ephesus at Melitus, predicting the efforts of Satan, and calling upon them to watch and labor with the same earnestness and energy as had marked his own labors amongst them.... He now returns to Jerusalem, the Holy Ghost warning Him, and the disciples telling him by the Spirit, not to go up.  On the suggestion of the elders at Jerusalem, he accommodates himself to Jewish ceremonies, the believers at Jerusalem being all zealous of the law.  This brings him into captivity; but the effect of the captivity is to bring him into the place of testimony before the Jews, who refuse grace to the Gentiles, before Lysias, Felix, Festus, Agrippa, and Nero.  But he is a prisoner all the time, and as such he works at Rome.  (Paul's gospel was a prisoner at Rome from the first day.) This closes the testimony to the Jews; and thus closes the history we have of the dissemination of the gospel in apostolic times." (Collected Writings of J. N. Darby 19:30).

Thus the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus when He came in grace here below, thereby closing the history and trial of the first man [First Adam]. The second man [Last Adam], having been exalted above, consequently sent the Spirit in testimony to that exaltation first to the Jews, but they did not repent of their wickedness.  And finally, they did what they could to hinder the grace flowing down from the glory, ministered by the Spirit to the Gentiles.  And connected with these repeated exposures of their state, the Spirit proceeded with another work, the opening of the heavenly parenthesis on the day of Pentecost, the formation of the Body of Christ on that day, the gathering in of Gentiles and the unfolding of the heavenly truth of Christ's glory and the position of the saints, through the ministry of Paul.  All was perfectly timed as only God can sovereignly do for His own glorification in Christ.  For God has but one purpose: to glorify Himself in Christ--but in two spheres, the earthly and the heavenly.  The Spirit's present work regarding the heavenly parenthesis will end at the Rapture.  Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Dispensational Truth, Volume 1, page 144-145, R. A. Huebner