Scripture Reading: Acts 1:8; 2:32-36; 3:14-15; 4:33; 5:30-32; 7:56; 20:28; 26:16; 16:31

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 3　DAY 1　»

　　Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses...unto the uttermost part of the earth.

　　26:16 ...I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a minister and a witness both of the things in which you have seen Me and of the things in which I will appear to you.

　　What the ascended Christ wanted to use to carry out His heavenly ministry for the propagating of Himself so that the kingdom of God might be established for the building up of the churches for His fullness was not a group of preachers trained by man's teaching to do a preaching work but a body of His witnesses, martyrs, who bore a living testimony of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ. Witnesses bear a living testimony of the resurrected and ascended Christ in life. They differ from preachers who merely preach doctrines in letters. In His incarnation, Christ carried out His ministry on earth, as recorded in the Gospels, by Himself to sow Himself as the seed of the kingdom of God only in the Jewish land. In His ascension He carries out His ministry in the heavens, as recorded in Acts, through witnesses in His resurrection life and with His ascension power and authority to spread Himself as the development of the kingdom of God from Jerusalem unto the remotest part of the earth, as the consummation of His ministry in the New Testament. All the apostles and disciples in Acts were such witnesses of Christ. (Life-study of Acts, pp. 542-543)

　　According to the revelation in the book of Acts, everyone who is raised up and sent out by the Lord is a witness of the Lord....[In Acts 1:8] the word witnesses is not related to our normal understanding of a witness who gives testimony in a legal case in a law court. In the New Testament the meaning of a witness is primarily to bear a living testimony of Jesus Christ in His crucifixion and resurrection. This is repeatedly emphasized in the book of Acts (v. 22; 2:32; 5:32; 26:16). (CWWL, 1986, vol. 1, "Three Crucial Matters for the Increase and Building Up of the Church—Begetting, Nourishing, and Teaching," p. 563)

　　When the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul, He commissioned him, appointing him [both] a minister and a witness. Concerning this, the Lord said to him, "Rise up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a minister and a witness both of the things in which you have seen Me and of the things in which I will appear to you" (Acts 26:16)....A minister is for the ministry; a witness is for the testimony. Ministry is mainly related to the work, to what the minister does. Testimony is related to the person, to what the witness is.

　　According to the book of Acts, Satan could instigate the Jewish religionists and utilize the Gentile politicians to bind the apostles and their evangelical ministry, but he could not bind Christ's living witnesses and their living testimony. The more the Jewish religionists and the Gentile politicians bound the apostles and their evangelical ministry, the stronger and brighter these witnesses of Christ and their living testimony became. In His appearing to Paul on the way to Damascus, the Lord clearly told him that He appointed him not only a minister but also a witness. We have seen that as a living witness of Christ, Paul had testified concerning Him in Jerusalem and would testify of Him in Rome (23:11).

　　As recorded in Acts, the ascended Christ carries out His ministry in the heavens through these witnesses in His resurrection life and with His ascension power and authority to spread Himself as the development of the kingdom of God unto the remotest part of the earth.

　　In all the trials through which he passed, Paul was not merely teaching or ministering; he was continually bearing a testimony. (Life-study of Acts, pp. 594-595)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1986, vol. 1, pp. 563-570; Life-study of Acts, msg. 5

«　WEEK 3　DAY 2　»

　　Acts 2:24 Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

　　32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses.

　　4:33 And with great power the apostles gave testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus...

　　Christ today is in resurrection. One day, as the One who existed in eternity, Christ became a man by incarnation. Eventually, He was crucified and buried. Through death He entered into another realm, the realm of resurrection. In His preexistence, Christ was God and was with God in eternity; by incarnation, He became a man in the flesh; then, through crucifixion and burial, He entered into resurrection. On the day of His resurrection angels told the women that Christ could not be found in the tomb, for He had risen from the dead (Luke 24:1-6). This indicates that Christ is in resurrection. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2971)

　　The Lord is both God and resurrection (John 1:1; 11:25), possessing the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Since He is such an ever-living One, death is not able to hold Him. He delivered Himself to death, but death had no way to detain Him; rather, death was defeated by Him, and He rose up from it. (Acts 2:24, footnote 2)

　　Christ is now our Savior in resurrection, and the Spirit is Christ in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b). After Christ was resurrected, He became a person wholly in resurrection. Today some Christians know Christ in His incarnation and crucifixion. But like Paul we should aspire not only to know Christ in His death but even the more to know Him in His resurrection (Phil. 3:10). We need to know Him in the power, sphere, and element of His resurrection. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2971)

　　[In Acts 1], Peter went on to say, "It is necessary therefore that of the men who accompanied us all the time in which the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which He was taken up from us, one of these should become a witness of His resurrection with us" (vv. 21-22). The Lord's resurrection is the focus of the apostles' testimony. It refers back to His incarnation, humanity, human living on earth, and God-ordained death (2:23), and points forward to His ascension, ministry and administration in heaven, and coming back. Thus the apostles' testimony of Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, is all-inclusive, as depicted in the whole book of Acts. They preached and ministered the all-inclusive Christ as revealed in the entire Scripture.

　　[In Acts 3], when all the people, greatly amazed, ran to Peter, John, and the lame man, Peter said to them, "Men of Israel, why are you marveling at this? Or why are you gazing at us, as though by our own power or godliness we have made him walk? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him" (vv. 12-13). Some manuscripts add "the God of" before Isaac and before Jacob. Why in verse 13 did Peter speak of God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Why did he not speak simply of God? This title refers to the Triune God, Jehovah, the great I AM (Exo. 3:14-15). According to the Lord's word in Matthew 22, this divine title implies resurrection: "Concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (vv. 31-32). Peter referred to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because this indicates that He is the God of resurrection.

　　Peter told the people that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob "glorified His Servant Jesus." God glorified the Lord Jesus through His resurrection and in His ascension (Luke 24:26; Heb. 2:9; Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11). (Life-study of Acts, pp. 40, 101-102)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Acts, msgs. 1-2

«　WEEK 3　DAY 3　»

　　Acts 2:33 Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.

　　36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified.

　　The resurrection of Christ enables us to be regenerated. It imparts Christ Himself into us as our life and nature, but His resurrection is not sufficient to equip us, qualify us, and authorize us. Therefore, we also need His ascension. Whereas resurrection is a matter of life, Christ's ascension is a matter of position, and position is a matter of authority....We can compare our position to the presidency. In the United States the president must be inaugurated. When he is inaugurated into office, he is put into a position that authorizes, equips, and qualifies him to act and exercise the power of the presidency. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 2, "A General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, Part 1—the Gospels and Acts," p. 189)

　　The Lord's ascension was not the end of His activity. Rather, the Man-Savior's ascension was another initiation....Christ's ascension was His inauguration, His initiation, into His heavenly ministry....His conception was the initiation of His life and ministry on earth; His ascension was the initiation of His living and ministry in the heavens. Hence, Christ's ascension was not the termination of His activity; instead, it was His initiation into further activity—His ministry in the heavens.

　　The first book written by Luke, his Gospel, describes the Lord's first initiation and His life and ministry on earth. Now there is the need of the second book, the book of Acts, to tell us into what kind of living and ministry the Lord has been initiated through His ascension. Therefore, Luke had the burden to write a second book to unveil the living and ministry of the ascended Christ. (Life-study of Acts, pp. 2-3)

　　After the resurrected Lord finished the forty-day training,...He brought them all to the Mount of Olives where He was carried up into heaven (Acts 1:11-12). His ascension brought Him into a new stage—the stage of a resurrected man living in the heavens to execute the things God determined on this earth. This resurrected One is now sitting in the heavens to execute God's administration (2:36; Heb. 12:2).

　　After the resurrected Christ breathed the life-giving Spirit into the disciples as life, life supply, and everything related to their inner man, they all became God-men, men who had been mingled with God. They were filled with the divine life essentially, but they were not yet qualified to carry out God's economy. Therefore, the resurrected Christ had to ascend to the heavens to be exalted by God and to be given the kingship, the lordship, and the headship over all things. He also obtained the throne, the glory, and all the authority in the universe. While the one hundred twenty were praying on the earth for ten days, God was making the exalted Christ to be the King, the Lord, and the Head of all things. God was giving the authority, the throne, and glory to His exalted One—Christ as the One in ascension.

　　Christ is the Lord not only of God's chosen people, but also of the angels and of all those who will be in the millennium and in the new heaven and the new earth....He is the Lord of the heavens, the earth, and everything and everyone He has redeemed.

　　Since the lordship of Christ was fully established in His ascension, we—the members of His Body identified with Christ the Head—only need to realize this heavenly fact (Eph. 1:20-23).

　　Christ in His ascension has not only been made the Lord of all but also the Christ of God to work out the spreading of the gospel and the building up of the church. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2975-2976, 2979-2980)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 290

«　WEEK 3　DAY 4　»

　　Acts 3:25-26 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God covenanted with your fathers, saying to Abraham, "And in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." To you first, God, having raised up His Servant, has sent Him to bless you in turning each of you away from your wicked deeds.

　　The Lord Jesus is the Author of life. As such, He is the origin or Originator of life, the holy and righteous One; He was killed by the Jewish leaders, raised from the dead by God, and witnessed by the disciples.

　　In Acts 3:14-15 Peter said to the Jewish people, "But you denied the holy and righteous One and asked that a man who was a murderer be granted to you; and the Author of life you killed, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses." The Greek word rendered "Author" is archegos, meaning "author," "origin," "originator," "chief leader," "captain." In 3:15 it denotes Christ as the origin or Originator of life, hence the Author of life, in contrast to the murderer [v. 14]. According to this verse Peter indicates that Christ is the source, the origin, and the Initiator of life; He is the Author, the Chief Leader, in life. Here we see the imparting of life into others, which is to propagate Christ. For such a propagation, we need the Lord as the Author of life, as the source of life. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2981)

　　Christ as the Author of life is also the holy and righteous One. According to Acts 3:14 the Lord is the holy One. In this verse holy indicates that Jesus, the Nazarene, the One despised by the Jewish leaders, was absolutely for God and separated unto Him. Furthermore, He was absolutely one with God. According to the denotation of the word holy in the Bible, it signifies one who is absolutely unto God, who is absolutely for God, and who is absolutely one with God. In all of human history only the Lord Jesus is such a One....There was never an instant when He was not absolutely for God and one with Him. Therefore, He is called the holy One. He alone deserves the title the holy One.

　　In 3:14 Peter called the Lord Jesus not only the holy One but also the righteous One. To be righteous is to be right with God and also with everyone and with everything. Only the Lord Jesus can be called the righteous One, because only He is right with God and with everyone and everything. In ourselves we are not right with God, with others, or even with things. We, therefore, cannot be the righteous One.

　　As the righteous One, the Lord Jesus is the right One. He was never wrong with God or with anyone or anything....As the righteous One, the Lord cleansed the temple in a righteous way. He was never wrong, for He was always the righteous One. As the righteous One, He is right with God, with man, and with everything in the heavens and on the earth.

　　As God's Servant, Christ was raised up by God to bring the blessing covenanted to Abraham, first to the Jews, the chosen people of God, that they may turn away from their wickedness.

　　In Acts 3:25-26 Peter says, "You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God covenanted with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.' To you first, God, having raised up His Servant, has sent Him to bless you in turning each of you away from your wicked deeds." Here the "seed" of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed refers to Christ (Gal. 3:16). Christ is the One in whom all the families of the earth, all races, colors, and nationalities, will be blessed. Furthermore, God sent back the ascended Christ first to the Jews by pouring out His Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Hence, the very Spirit whom God poured out is the very Christ whom God raised and exalted to the heavens. When the apostles preached and ministered this Christ, the Spirit was ministered to people. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2981-2983)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 291

«　WEEK 3　DAY 5　»

　　Acts 7:56And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

　　20:28 Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood.

　　God exalted the man Jesus, who had been rejected and killed by the Jewish leaders, as the highest Leader, the Prince, the Ruler of the kings to rule over the world (Rev. 1:5; 19:16), and the Savior to save God's chosen people. Leader is related to His authority, and Savior to His salvation. He rules sovereignly over the earth with His authority that the environment might be fit for God's chosen people to receive His salvation (cf. Acts 17:26-27; John 17:2). (Acts 5:31, footnote 2)

　　Acts 7:55 speaks of Stephen seeing Jesus standing at the right hand of God: "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." This verse unveils that Christ is the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God to be the comfort, encouragement, and strength to the one martyred for Him.

　　Stephen saw the ascended Christ as the Son of Man. This means that the Christ who is in the heavens still has His humanity; He still possesses a human nature. Some do not believe that Christ today is still the Son of Man. They claim that Christ became a man by incarnation but that in His resurrection He put off His humanity. They think that Christ today is merely the Son of God, that He is no longer the Son of Man. However, it is erroneous to teach that Christ in ascension is no longer the Son of Man. In ascension Christ is still both the Son of God with divinity and the Son of Man with humanity.

　　According to Acts 7:55, Stephen saw the glory of God. This was a great vindication and encouragement to the persecuted one. Verse 55 says that Stephen also saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. The Lord in ascension is usually referred to as sitting at the right hand of God (Matt. 26:64; Heb. 1:3, 13). But Stephen saw Him standing there. Sitting is for resting, whereas standing is for working. Because a member of His Body was suffering on earth, the Son of Man was seen standing at the right hand of God.

　　In Acts 20:28 we see Christ as God: "Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood." This verse reveals that Christ as our God is the Purchaser of the church, having obtained the church with His own blood. God secured, purchased, and redeemed the church with His own blood. God's own blood is the blood of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:7). This also implies that the Lord Jesus is God.

　　The blood that has redeemed fallen human beings is the blood of Jesus, the Son of God (1 John 1:7). As human beings, we need genuine human blood for our redemption. Because He was a man, the Lord Jesus could fulfill this requirement. As a man, He shed human blood to redeem fallen human beings. The Lord is also the Son of God, even God Himself. Therefore, with His blood there is the element of eternity, and this element ensures the eternal efficacy of His blood. Therefore, as a man He has genuine human blood, and as God He has the element that gives to His blood eternal efficacy. In Acts 20:28 Paul had the boldness to speak of this blood as being God's own blood.

　　Therefore, Christ died on the cross as the God-man, and the blood He shed there for our redemption was the blood not only of the man Jesus but also the blood of the God-man. Therefore, this blood, through which God obtained the church, is God's own blood. This implies that Jesus Christ is God as the Purchaser of the church who obtained the church with His own blood. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2990, 3005-3007)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 292

«　WEEK 3　DAY 6　»

　　Acts 10:36 The word which He sent to the sons of Israel in announcing the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ (this One is Lord of all).

　　42 And He has charged us to proclaim to the people and solemnly testify that this is the One who was designated by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.

　　In Acts 10:36 Peter speaks of Christ as the One who is "Lord of all." All refers here to all men, all peoples (1 Tim. 2:4). Christ in His ascension is the Lord not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles. He is the Lord of all the different races and peoples on earth. With Him there is no respect of persons. As the Lord of all, Christ is the Lord of the Jews and the Gentiles for all of them to be saved. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2991)

　　Acts 10:39-43 indicates that Christ was done away with on a tree by the Jews, raised on the third day by God, and designated by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead; whoever believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.

　　In verses 39 through 41 Peter speaks to Cornelius concerning Christ's crucifixion and resurrection: "We are witnesses of all the things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom also they did away with by hanging Him on a tree. This One, God raised on the third day; and He has made Him manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses appointed beforehand by God, to us, ones who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead." In verse 40 Peter says that God raised this One, but in verse 41 he says that the Lord rose from the dead. Regarding the Lord as a man, the New Testament tells us that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 8:11). However, considering Him as God, the New Testament tells us that He Himself rose from the dead (14:9).

　　In Acts 10:4 2 Peter says, "He has charged us to proclaim to the people and solemnly testify that this is the One who was designated by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead." Here we see that Christ has been designated the Judge of all mankind....The resurrected Christ at His second coming will be the Judge of the living before the millennium on His throne of glory (Matt. 25:31-46; 2 Tim. 4:1). He will also be the Judge of the dead after the millennium on the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). Therefore, the Lord will exercise God's judgment over all men, over the living and the dead.

　　Christ, who is the Judge of the living and the dead, can also be experienced and enjoyed as the Redeemer into whom we may believe to receive forgiveness of sins.

　　Christ is a man to judge the world, designated by God in righteousness, and proved by God's raising Him from the dead.

　　In Acts 17:30 and 31 Paul says, "Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now charges all men everywhere to repent, because He has set a day in which He is to judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has designated, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead."...This day of Christ's judgment on earth will be brought in by His coming back. He was designated by God to execute this judgment, and God's raising Him from the dead is strong proof of this.

　　Acts 16:31 says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household." Here Christ is revealed as the Lord Jesus. As such, He is the object of the believer's faith for the salvation of the believer and his household. To believe in the gospel is mainly to believe in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, to believe is to believe on, to take the ground and stand on, the Lord Jesus to be saved. We believe not only into Christ but also on Christ. This is to take the ground and the standing on the person of Christ and all that He has accomplished, both of which constitute the belief, the faith, of God's New Testament economy. We believe on Christ as the ground and standing so that we may be saved. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2991-2992, 3004, 3003)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 294