Many themes are traced throughout the book of Acts. There is the Spirit, Word, witness, courage, encouragement and care, perseverance, etc. One commonly overlooked area is God’s sovereignty (i.e. the doctrines of grace or predestination, election and providence, from here on simply ‘election’). This shouldn’t surprise us as Paul, Luke’s travelling companion, wrote a great deal on these doctrines in his epistles. Yet, election and evangelism are often seen as being in contradiction rather than complimentary. Examining this theme in Acts reveals this as untrue. Election undergirds evangelism, recognizing that this doctrine is not the content of our witness.
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Acts, like most New Testament letters, is not written to a general unbelieving audience but a Christian one. Acts is written by Dr. Luke to Theophilus, “to have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Lk 1). We teach election, not preach it. As such, in Acts, the Gospel is always what is proclaimed to unbelievers even while Luke’s narrative is seasoned with election for the teaching of believers.

Election in Acts

• 1:8- Jesus promises that His mission will succeed
• 2:23 & 4:27–28- Christ was predestined to die
• 13:48- “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed”
• 16:7-“the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (the Macedonian call, which meant that some heard the Gospel and the others didn’t)
• 16:14- “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” (effectual call)
• 18:10, 27- “many in this city who are my people” and “those who through grace had believed.”
• 20:24- “the Gospel of the grace of God.”
• 23:11- promise that Paul will go to Rome
• 26:16/Paul’s testimony- chosen to be an apostle to the Gentiles
• 27—God providentially preserved Paul in the storm
• 28:26–27- a citation from Isaiah that “a partial hardening has come upon Israel” (Ro 11:25). Curiously Luke bookends Acts with reminders of God’s sovereignty.

Acts, which is about evangelism, is entirely consistent with election.

We also see this from a simple review of history from recent centuries.

History
The following all upheld election and are all likewise famous examples of evangelism.

• During the Reformation Calvin’s Geneva was at the centre of a European wide missions movement sending missionaries across the continent.
• Puritans were at the forefront of evangelizing England.
• The evangelist George Whitfield was the most prominent figure on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1st Great Awakening/Evangelical Revival.
• William Carey was the “father” of modern missions.
• Charles Spurgeon helped to found hundreds of churches and preached to thousands more making a beeline to Christ in his sermons.
• Ontario Baptists upheld the “election and effectual calling of all God’s people” in 1925 as they zealously supported Western and Francophone missions.
• Martin Lloyd Jones preached Christ crucified—truth on fire—especially cultivating indigenous missions throughout the Empire.
• John Stott advocated Christian mission in the global world, especially amongst students.
• There are many more contemporary examples that could be given.

From Acts and recent history one sees that election and evangelism are compatible.

Specifically, it teaches a humble dependence upon the Lord to fulfil such a Great Commission; it grounds us that we preach grace through faith in Christ; it assures us that our mission or fishing for men isn’t in vain, that some will indeed believe the Gospel (2 Ti 2:10- “I endure everything for the sake of the elect”; Tit 1:1); it produces comfort in affliction; and inspires worship for in the end God alone is glorified.  
 

2. Remember to Worship
​When we focus on self (pride) our lives want joy. Joy comes from depending on God, putting Him and others first. The highest act of humility is worship. When we praise God for how great He is our gaze is lifted from self to heaven, from darkness to light. Such joy is magnified when we join others in the command of public worship. Music is also good medicine to a weary soul.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!” (Psalm 122:1)

3. Don’t Walk Alone
Christianity is personal but not private; Christians are part of the body and meant to support each other. How lonely it is to live for and by oneself. How depressing it is to have no one to encourage you. By design, God gave us the Church—His representative family on earth—in part at least, so our joy might be full. When we are active members of the Church we’ll have many brothers and sisters to share life with us.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)

4. Walk in Obedience
When we disobey the King we can only expect to live in guilt and shame and fear. However, when we obey Him, when we do good, it will be our joy. There is blessing in knowing we’re doing right, that we’re walking the way the King desires, the way we were created to live.

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:10-11, cf. 1 John 5:3;  Ps 119:2).

5. Enjoy the Small Things
Life can become monotonous, even hard at times. However, rather than despair the Lord commands us to take advantage of the small things in life: that sunset, a good meal, birds at the feeder, time with family, a job well done. Let’s not forget to count our small blessings and enjoy them one by one. The Lord uses these things to bring us joy.

And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 8:15, c.f. 2:24)

6. Be Content
It is easy to slip into the prideful thought that we deserve X lot in life or that God’s providence in any given situation isn’t best for us. Contentment frees us from self-pity to find joy in every situation.

Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. (Hymn “It is Well”)

7. Hope In the Future This world is a dark place and we experience the effects of sin. Even as we do all of the above in faith, we can lose hope and without hope there is no joy. However, the believer has been promised a day free from the presence of sin when Jesus returns. This hope breathes joy into our darkness.
According to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13)

So may your joy be complete by realizing His grace and walking in it.

If you ever visit a truly old North American Church (e.g. KT above) or one in Europe (e.g. England) you will like find a copy of the 10 Commandments in the Church. (Most classic Protestant catechisms, like Luther’s and Calvin’s, included them too). In my visits to old churches in Britain you will traditionally find two things on either side of the altar: the 10 commandments and either the Lord’s Prayer or Apostles Creed (or both). The one representing The Law and the other Grace.
The Law convicts of sin and drives us to the promise of the Gospel. Once we believe the Law becomes our guide to holiness, enabled by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Once familiar to or known by most Christians, sadly today many Christians cannot even tell you the 10 Commandments. I became aware of this at a church retreat when one group activity question was to list the 10 commandments in order. I got them all but not in order. As such I resolved to learn them by heart. Our son was able to say them by the age of 2. 
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Jesus condensed the 10 Commandments (and indeed the whole Mosaic Law) in the Great Commandment. Consider their identical parallels:

Part of the decline of the 10 Commandments is general biblical illiteracy but part of it is a view that does not see them as part of God’s moral law, binding upon all people at all times.

However, we have every reason to affirm that they are and so cherish them.

We find pre-Law expressions of don’t murder (Cain and Abel) and the Sabbath (Creation and Manna). Abraham kept all of God’s laws too (Gen 26:5).
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Jesus said, "You know the commandments." (Mk 10:19). Each of the 10 Commandments are  reaffirmed in the New Testament (or New Covenant):

Other reasons to view the 10 Commandments as a faithful summary of the moral law include:

• The distinct headings and outlines that separate the 10 Commandments from the rest of the Law (c.f. Det 5:22)
• How they were written on stone vs. paper
• How they were given in flashes of lightening.[1]
• That they were the only part stored in the Ark

In the 10 Commands is moral guidance for worship and rest, family, sexuality, society and materials. It offers a simple yet comprehensive guide for life. They are a straightforward moral compass that has stood the test of time.
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So let’s impress the 10 Commandments upon our heart and pray the Holy Spirit will use them to convict of sin and lead to righteousness.


[1] https://founders.org/articles/the-moral-law-doth-for-ever-bind-all/

You can view part one (History of the Land to 1917) here; and part two (History of the Land Since 1917) here.

How Christians approach the land/modern state of Israel today depends on their answer to an number of theological questions:  the way they understand the Bible, their view of salvation history, who the people of God are and their understanding of the future. 

My View
Jesus said, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and God the things that are God’s.” This is useful to understanding the question of the State of Israel.

Civilly (Caesar)
I sympathize most with the ancient Jewish land claims of the State of Israel, which far outweigh that of the Arab Palestinians; add to this Israel’s international recognition, defensive victories and productive sovereign presence and they have every right to exist, even if imperfectly. It certainly has a right to defend itself, remembering compassionate justice.

Yet the Arabs of Palestine have been there many centuries and likewise have a right to co-exist, either in Israel or over their own state (something that Zionism challenges). They have certainly been impacted by the arrival of Jewish settlers and refugees. However, the Arabs lost the wars of 1948, 1967 and 1973. The Arabs have clearly leveraged refugees against Israel when in all other international examples displaced people are reintegrated. Most Arab Palestinians simply want to live peaceably (and many do so as citizens of Israel). However, 5 times the PLO has turned down peace deals that would have seen them sovereign over Gaza and the West Bank, why? If Israel laid down their arms there are enough people who hate her that she would cease to exist. If the Palestinians laid down their arms (in the sense of terrorism and not police and military forces) then there would be peace. The adage that the conflict is “easy to explain, difficult to solve,” seems very true. One reason why the Jews are hated is theological, they are God’s “chosen” people; but this must be defined.

Religiously (God)
Religiously I do not sympathize with Israel with the exceptions of my Judeo-Christian heritage (Ro 9:5, chs. 9–11) and also my desire that all ethnic Israel may be saved (Ro 11:26). My sympathy stops here because I am a covenantalist (I see continuity between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant people of God, the elect, c.f. Ro 9–11—the Church is Israel) and an a-millennialist (the millennial Kingdom is today, Christ reigning over His Church on earth by His Spirit—the promises of land have been fulfilled in Christ).

Indeed, God choose to save a people to himself (the elect). He sought to bring salvation by choosing, under the OC, to work through one nation (Israel). Even in the OT Israel was made up of visible and believing Israel, or those elect to service and those elect to salvation. Under the New Covenant, unbelieving Jews remain “elect to service,” but in a much diminished sense, to bring about the salvation of the Gentiles, and even the Jews (Ro 11:11b). The New Covenant community are God’s people, believing Jew and Gentile, in salvation and in predominant service. However, because unbelieving ethnic Jews are still elect to service they are a hated people (anti-semitism). It seems clear that God, in His providence, has been kind to the Jews by allowing them back to their historic lands; a kindness no doubt intended to lead to repentance (Ro 2:4).

We must remember to read the whole Bible through the lens of Christ (Christologically, e.g. the road to Emmaus). The promises of the Promised Land were surely realized in a literal sense under Solomon. Because the promises were contingent on covenant faithfulness the Jews were expelled from the land for their unfaithfulness. It was according to God’s mercy they were even able to return to the land in part under the Persians. The destruction of the Jewish Temple and the expulsion of the Jews from the land under the Romans was a judgement for not accepting the New Covenant of the Messiah. (During the first millennia Christians were disinterested in the land, except for its connection to Christ and the saints). When secular Zionism emerged, Rabbis were quick to point out that the dispersion was God’s judgement and that the Jews would not return to the land, in their view, until the Messiah came. Today Israel is largely a spiritually godless Western nation of atheists and legalists. Even if the Old Covenant had not been fulfilled in Christ, ethnic Jews would have no claim to the land because of their covenant unfaithfulness. How much more so today because they reject the New Covenant.

While Zionism is a powerful and tantalizing drug that even the disciples dappled with (Acts 1:6). Jesus in the Kingdom of God, however, had far more in mind. At the Fall God’s presence in His place (Eden/earth) was lost. Since that point His presence on His place has been expanding. The Promised Land was a type of Eden. Today the Kingdom’s reign through the New Covenant People of God (the Church) is typologically expanding His rule all over the earth, not simply in one place (Israel). In the words of the Reformers Luther and Calvin, the restoration of Israel is a mere “Jewish myth.” When Christ returns His rule over earth will be completed in the New Heavens and New Earth. Perhaps the most we might say of the land of Israel in this is that it is likely Christ will return to the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:11), and so in that sense Israel might feature in future events.

But what of God’s promises to Abraham of the land? It was fulfilled in Christ just like all Old Covenant promises. We must covenantally understand the expansive nature of this promise. Imagine a father promised his son a carriage as a gift for his marriage in 1900. However, when he was married in 1910 he gave him a new automobile. Did the father not give what he had promised? Abraham never lived to see an inheritance in the Promised Land. This was because he was hoping in what the Promised Land signified, the New Heavens and New Earth, God’s reign over all (Heb 11:10). These were partly fulfilled in Solomons day (1 Ki 4:21), today through the Church (Ro 4:13; Mt 5:5) and in the future (Rev 11:15, Rev 21:1). 

Conclusion
Civilly I sympathize with Israel; religiously I also sympathize with Israel, but not in a way many ministries and Christians have paraded on social media since the recent conflict began. It is a modest sympathy. My sincere sympathies lie here:

Existing in both Israel and Palestine are believing Jews and Arabs, members of the New Covenant, Christians. These are our brothers and sisters. These are the ones caught between a worldly power struggle (unbelieving Palestinians and Israelis) that we ought to sympathize the most with, whether it is an Israeli Christian being killed by Hamas rockets or a Palestinian Christian being killed by Israeli missiles. Our great desire for Israelis and Palestinians is that they might join Christ’s Kingdom through repentance and faith and thus be assured of a place in the New Heavens and New Earth.