Watch
how meticulous the Bible is about showing you something. When Paul addressed the Jerusalem council,
look at what he said:
Galatians
2:9
And when James,
Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was
given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that
we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
Did
he put Peter first or James? The
headship of [the Jerusalem kingdom church] changed during the diminishing of
Israel. Peter will always be associated
with Israel’s rise. He always will! Peter’s ministry will be prominent again out
in the future when God is finished with the mystery dispensation.
Even
the books of your Bible are in a specific order to show you something. Interesting!
After Paul’s epistles there is the book of Hebrews, written by God who
didn’t want to reveal the human author.
Israel is not in their kingdom glory
yet. (I want you to see how meticulous
this is.) Before Israel gets into their
kingdom glory, God has the Hebrew epistles, and they are in the same order that
Paul used in Galatians 2:9. After
Hebrews you have James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter and the three epistles of John. That is consistent with the order that Paul
lists the three apostles.
There will be another transition
period right before the kingdom [Hebrews through Revelation], but during the
transition period in the book of Acts, there were:
James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars [important leaders of the kingdom church], perceived the grace that
was given unto me, [that grace has to do with the grace in Ephesians
3:8 and Romans
15:15] they gave to me
and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen,
and they unto the circumcision.
What I want you to see is that the
moment Paul was saved, God started to change things. He even changed the headship of the little flock. Why?
So that the focus could be off of Peter and move towards Christ. In other words, God takes the focus off of
Peter so that there would be no doubt that he is stopping the kingdom program
for the time being. He allows James,
John’s brother, to die. The reason he
kept Peter alive was so that he could write his epistles; but also so he could
testify about Paul.
2 Peter
3:15-16
And account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all
his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things
hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as
they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Transcribed
excerpt from the Survey of the Book of Acts.
To listen to the complete message click here:
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