This pinnacle of the life of love has been lived
by only one man in the history of humanity. While there has been perhaps a
few who have approached manifesting near perfection of this high calling,
there has been only one person who has totally refused to use others for any
personal enhancement. There has been only one who has totally refused to
stand alone, to live for himself, every moment of his life. Jesus of
Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God, is the only person who has not resisted
being taken to the end of himself for the needs of others.
This is not to say that every man cannot experience this noble essence of
life. Every man can. If any man does experience this magnificence obsession,
however, a miraculous event must occur in his life. He must be moved from
experiencing life in the natural realm of relationships to the supernatural
kingdom of God. A new way of speaking, a new way of seeing, and a new way of
thinking must occur. He must be saved from the contamination of his warped
or perverted age.
This particular salvation of man that changes life into the noble venture of
living for others is first recorded by one of the early followers of Jesus.
He penned for history how those early believers were also taken to the end
of themselves for the needs of others. Luke, the author of the gospel
bearing his name and the Acts of the Apostles, wrote of the good news how
Jesus came into their lives to be their life. This miraculous event enabled
them to experience the supernatural relationship of love.
The understanding of Luke’s second treatise, the Acts of the Apostles, is
built upon the revelation of Jesus Christ as recorded in Luke’s first
treatise, the Gospel of Luke. The Acts of the Apostles continues from what
"all that Jesus began both to do and teach" during His earthly
ministry (Acts 1:1). The Acts of the Apostles is the story of the acts of
Jesus, not in His earthly life, but in the lives of the apostles.
As Jesus began His earthly ministry, He entered into the synagogue at
Nazareth. He was given the book of the prophet Isaiah to read. He found the
following passage, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the
acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18,19). He calmly said, "this
day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21).
It was the acceptable time. Jesus began preaching the kingdom of God had
come. This proclamation of the kingdom of God was the essence of both the
ministry of Jesus (Luke 4:43) and the ministry of the Acts of the Apostles
(Acts 28:31).
It was a strange message in the light of the understanding of the time, in
deed, in the light of man’s understanding of every generation. Jesus
proclaimed that the "kingdom of God cometh not with observation . . .
for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20,21). The
kingdom of God could not be seen with the eyes of man. Man could see the
results of it but could not see or produce the power to perform as kingdom
saints.
The essence of the message of Jesus and the apostles in the Acts was
centered upon what God does for man. The message that was prevalent in the
time of Jesus, however, was focused upon what man does for God. The people
of God, before the preaching of Jesus, were consumed with the teaching of
the Pharisees, a religious sect of the Jews. They who "trusted in
themselves that they were righteous" (Luke 18:9) preached a message of
self-effort as the way to God. Jesus, however, preached a message of God’s
effort to man, the kingdom of God is within you.
Jesus simply stated, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose
it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it" (Luke 17:33).
He said of His own life and His own ministry, "Believest thou not that
I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I
speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the
works" (John 14:10). Again, He said, ". . . the living Father hath
sent me, and I live by the Father . . ." (John 6:57).
Jesus did not live His life in an attempt to do what the Father wanted Him
to do. The Father actually lived in and through Jesus. The Father did His
own will in and through the Son (John 6:38).
For example, Luke recorded, "The former treatise have I made, O
Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in
which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given
commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen" (Acts 1:1,2). Jesus
did not give commandments to the apostles by His own effort or being. It was
not Jesus in Himself that was giving the commandments. It was the Father
through His Spirit by the mouth of Jesus speaking the words of the
commandments to the apostles.
Just as the Father had sent the Son and the Son lived by the Father, the
Acts documents the history of the early believers not only being sent by the
Son but the believers living by the Son as well (John 6:57). They lived in
and through the supernatural relationship of love. In the key verse of the
Acts both aspects of being sent by the Son and the power to live through the
Son is stated: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and
in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth" (Acts 1:8). They were being told that they would go and through
what power they would live.
The context of this statement of Jesus reveals not only the issue of the
primitive church but the issue of life for every generation of believers.
The context speaks of the resurrection of the Jesus, and "the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). Both the resurrection of
the dead and the kingdom of God address the same issue of how man is to
experience the relationship of love
When this issue is understood, it is not
so surprising that it is also the issue of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1-5),
the issue of the Children of Israel going into their promised land (Deut.
1:22-46), and the issue of every generation of believers (Gal. 5:16-26). The
issue for man has always been and will always be where he attempts to live
his life, standing alone or in others. The need for Jesus is apparent
by the selfishness of all of our lives.
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