001 - The body follows the Head

The manner in which God deals with His creation is central to history. God interacts with His creation in covenants. He has redeemed and is re-structuring the world via an ecclesiastical work of His people. Throughout the Bible, and especially in Acts, the body (church/bride) typologically walks in the steps of her Head (Christ/Bridegroom). “God’s way of managing history is by making covenants with His people. There is a succession of such covenants in the Bible, each more glorious than the previous, each absorbing and transfiguring the previous, until finally we come to the New Covenant in Jesus Christ” (Jordan, Covenant Sequence in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, 1989, p. 3). The covenant keeping God reveals His Word through a typological literary pattern of type and anti-type (shadows/foreshadows). Understanding the literary pattern of the Bible, its many symbols and historical context are thus important; they reflect how God has ordered His creation. The; “doctrine of creation means that every created item, and also the created order as a whole, reflects the character of God…[E]verything in the creation, and the creation as a whole, points to God. In short, everything is a sign or symbol of God” (Jordan, Symbolism: A Manifesto, 2006). Acts cannot be adequately understood outside of its Biblical (covenantal) historic and typological contexts. “The influence, whether literary or theological, of the Old Testament upon the Lucan writings…is profound and pervasive” (GK Beale and DA Carson, 2007, p. 513). We find 25 explicit Old Testament quotations, 9 uses of direct phrases, an extensive usage of Scriptural language, allusions, and employment of Scriptural motifs in Acts (GK Beale and DA Carson, 2007, p. 513). Luke expects his audience to understand his usage of Old Testament (and earlier Lucan) symbols, types and anti-types to see the fulfillment of Christ's kingdom extending to draw the Gentiles close to God, thus making them one with the Jews in Christ. More than this, he shows how the body (i.e. the church) will retrace the footsteps of her Head (i.e. Christ). Covenant is thus important. But what does thew covenant look like? The book of Deuteronomy declares its structure to be covenantal ( Deuteronomy 4:13 , 29:29) and it reveals a clear (five point) covenant model (Sutton, 1987, pp. 14-17): 1. Transcendence ( Deuteronomy 1:1-5 ) – God declares His distinct transcendence; 2. Hierarchy ( Deuteronomy 1:6-4:49 ) – God establishes a representative system of government; 3. Ethics ( Deuteronomy 5-26 ) – God lays out His stipulations via ethical standards, God’s people defeat their enemies via obedience to these standards; 4. Sanctions ( Deuteronomy 27-30 ) – God stipulates rewards/blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience; 5. Continuity ( Deuteronomy 31-34 ) – God provides continuity from generation to generation. Covenant is thus central to the story of the Bible. The saving work of the Lord Jesus cannot be understood without a covenantal framework: 1. Jesus’ birth was God declaring that He remembered His covenant ( Luke 1:72 ); 2. In the Last Supper Jesus ordained the cup of the "new covenant" ( Luke 22:20 ); 3. The Lord’s resurrection and redemptive work related to the blessing of "the covenant God made with your [Jewish] fathers" ( Acts 3:25-26 ); 4. In the New Testament Jesus is called "the Mediator of the New Covenant" ( Hebrews 12:24 ) and in Hebrews 13 :20Christ’s salvific work is defined as being brought about “through the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Bahnsen, 1992).

With this covenantal background in mind an analysis of how the book of Acts applies today can be undertaken. The history of God’s people can be seen as a covenantal cyclic pattern. These cycles generally move from death to life (i.e. exodus experiences) and are typologically recapitulated. For example Joseph was thrown into prison (a type of death experience) & then was resurrected (i.e. an exodus) to a position of influence; Moses was disposed of in the Nile River and then “resurrected” to lead God’s people out of Egypt; Jesus emptied Himself of glory, died and then resurrected (i.e. an exodus experience) to receive all power in heaven and on earth. The building of Christ’s kingdom is accomplished through the means of taking up one’s cross ( Luke 9:23-26 ) and bringing to bear the reign of Jesus over every area of life, worship and society ( Matthew 6:33 , 1 Corinthians 10:31 , 2 Corinthians 10:5 ). The book of Acts gives the pattern of how the church disciples the nations – via exodus like experiences. “[M]uch of the history of the Old Testament runs in cycles” (Goulder, 1964, p. 34). The book of Acts extends this cyclical history as the Church moves from its Jewish roots to a single body of Jew/Gentile believers. “Acts follows a cyclical progress because the Church is the body of Christ, and each movement of her life is a reliving of his life. In other words Acts is not straight forward history but typological history, the life of Jesus providing the types of the life of the Church…[T]he dominant types are the dominant facts of his life, his passion, death, and resurrection…” (Goulder, 1964, p. 34). As Jesus (the Head) went through a passion, death, resurrection and then reign so His church (the body) walks in these steps typologically. In his Gospel record, St Luke gives us an “account of the incarnate ministry of Christ; in Acts we have St Luke’s account of the ministry of his body the Church” (Goulder, 1964, p. 52).

The covenantal historic context to Acts is the unfaithfulness of Israel (e.g. Luke 13:34-35 , 20:9-19). This covenantal disobedience culminated at Christ’s trial before Pilate; “away with him, away with him, crucify him...we have no king but Caesar” ( John 19:15 ). But God was gracious and gave Israel 40 years (i.e. one generation – Matthew 24:34 , cf. Jonah 3:4 ) to repent and accept Christ as their Messiah; or they would face His coming (on the clouds) in covenantal judgment ( Matthew 24:29-30 , cf. Isaiah 13:9-11 , Ezekiel 32:6-8 ). Just as Israel had 40 years in the desert and Ninevah 40 days to repent, so the Jews had one generation. Israel did not repent but continued to persecute not only Christ but also His bride. This is evident throughout the book of Acts. Rome, in the majority, protected the church while the leaders of Israel persecuted her. It was only with the rise of Nero Caesar that Rome (the Sea Beast, cf. Revelation 13:2 ) turns, to join socio-political Israel (Land Beast, cf. Revelation 13:11 ) in persecuting the church. These great tribulations ( Matthew 24:1-34 ) of the church are illustrations of her living through the birth pangs of the last days of the old covenant.

Acts gives a chronology of ending in the late AD 50s (Jordan, Problems With New Testament History, 1993). It deals with the last days of the Old Covenant, the time of its waxing away and the New Covenant being fully established ( Hebrews 12:18-27 ). Acts gives a four fold outworking of the Gospel from its Jewish roots (Jerusalem), through Samaria, Judea and then to the Gentiles (Acts 1:8 ). The church through Acts becomes a throng of people from every tribe and nation. In Acts, Luke “tells the story of God’s moving out from dealing with one nation only to dealing with all nations. This is the most important transition in all of recorded history” (Schlissel, 2000). God rolling out His Word to all the nations can be seen in Luke’s account of Pentecost ( Acts 2 ); it is closely modelled on Genesis 10-11 . Both events, Pentecost and Babel, contain a table of nations ( Genesis 10 & Acts 2:9-11 ) and draw attention to a language (or religious tongue/confession) miracle. This creates a Biblical contrast wherein the Pentecost experience typologically fulfils (or is the true) Babel. Instead of God diverging languages (religious confession) to divide the nations, in Acts He brings unity through the “diversity of tongues at Pentecost…[In effect]…joining all nations into one people. The gift of the Spirit thus implies that all tribes and tongues will confess Jesus as Lord; the outpouring of the Spirit is for the purpose of the gathering of the nations” (Leithart, 1999). Pentecost is fulfilment of the promise that Abraham’s seed will bless all nations. Acts shows us how the Church reverses Babel’s curse.

We can now approach the structure of Acts to investigate how it may apply to modern Christendom. Luke’s first account, his Gospel, details the work of Jesus. He details Jesus’ ministry to the Jews (and God fearers) in His “preaching, His raising up disciples, His suffering, death, and resurrection" (Jordan, The Resurrection of Peter and the Coming of the Kingdom). In this first account we read of the life, work and passion of the one Man to the Jews alone. Peter leads the church in that mission and in Acts 2-12 we read of Peter (John, the Apostles and the church) recapitulating Jesus’ work. He went through the same cycle as Christ. Peter was thrown into prison ( Acts 12:4 ; a type of death) and guarded by soldiers ( Acts 12:5 ; like Jesus was), at the time of Passover ( Acts 12:3 ; as Jesus was), the Church earnestly prayed for him (Acts 12:5 ; unlike what happened to Christ in Gethsemane – Matthew 26 ), an angel lead him out of the prison from between two soldiers ( Acts 12:7-9 ; a type of resurrection, with reference to the soldiers around the cross), he meets Rhoda first (Acts 12:13-14 ; like Jesus meets the women after His resurrection), the Apostles do not believe Rhoda ( Acts 12:15 ; like they did not believe the women) but Peter joins them to “prove” his escape ( Acts 12:16-17 ; like Christ did in the upper room). This is one example of the pattern of Christ’s life; passion, death and resurrection lived out in the Apostles and Church in Acts. Luke divides Acts theologically, geographically, personally, and cyclically into four sections. The first section ( Acts 1-5 ) is a continuation of Gospel microcosm, which “happened with Jerusalem and Israel as center, according to the pattern of the Old Covenant” (Jordan, The Resurrection of Peter and the Coming of the Kingdom). The second section ( Acts 6:1-9:31 ) sees the church’s mission go out to the periphery of Israel (i.e. to Hellenist Israel, Israel in Samaria and to eunuch Israel). Section three ( Acts 9:32-12:24 ) is characterised by Peter preaching to Palestinian God-fearers, he took the mission from Jerusalem through the major cities of Judea. The admission of Palestinian God-fearers into the church foreruns the wholesale admission of outright Gentiles. Acts climaxes in the fourth section ( Acts 12:25  to Acts 28 ) wherein the church’s mission extends to the Gentiles, the uttermost parts of the world, via Paul’s missionary trips. We may think it strange that Luke ends Acts with Paul’s shipwreck journey and arrival at Rome. But this has enormous symbolic purpose. The church is now established as Jew/Gentile and Paul is taking the Gospel to the ends of the world. Luke climaxes with Paul’s road to Rome, this is a fulfilment/recapitulation of Jesus’ road to Jerusalem. Paul goes through death (a shipwreck, like Jonah being swallowed) and resurrection (being washed ashore, like Jonah was spewed onto the beach). It is Paul (and the church) following in the footsteps of Christ. “Luke indicates his intention of constructing Acts on a fourfold basis in the opening verses of the book. The last words…of the ascending Christ are these: ‘Ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth [ Acts 1:8 ]’” (Goulder, 1964, p. 68). Thus Luke symbolically shows us how the Jewish church gives rise to the worldwide church of Jesus Christ. The typological history of Acts moves cyclically from the womb of a Jerusalem/Israel centred church under Peter’s leadership to an international body of believers through Paul’s missionary journeys. All of these cycles play out through a general pattern of: 1. choosing a new man for God’s work; 2. descent of the Spirit; 3. conversion and heart baptisms; 4. a mighty work; 5. persecution; 6. gathering of the church; 7. confronting of a false disciple; 8. passion and death; 9. resurrection. Through this pattern (after the life, passion, death and resurrection of Christ) we can see how the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. (Goulder, 1964, p. 72)

In order to apply the principles and patterns found in Acts today an understanding of this covenantal historic background as well as the literary devices employed by Luke is essential. If we do not understand this setting we will misapply the intention of the author and incorrectly structure our churches after the events that were taking place in the period when the Old Covenant was being brought to an end, a time when the heavens and earth were being destroyed and a new heaven and earth instituted under the reign and rule of the greater David. Luke did not intend to give the church a succinct history of church life in the first century, or a worship overview, or a mission blueprint or a church directory. His intention was to give us the covenantal cycle/pattern of how the Church expanded to the ends of the world. The church today can learn from these patterns and understand that God extends His kingdom when His people are faithfully obedient. This obedience instigates persecution and death (symbolic or otherwise) but death never reigns – Christ raises up His people to bring His will to reign upon the earth in history. So the great paradox of the New Covenant era is that faithfulness can lead to persecution (i.e. symbolic or real death), which in turn leads to the Lord raising up new life (i.e. resurrection) to continue the kingdom expansion (i.e. dominion) over all the nations. Thus dominion is accomplished after death to self and being raised/resurrected by God to be given dominion.

End notes:

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