The Turning of the Ages: From Kingdom to Grace
The Kingdom Still Offered (Acts 1-7)
The book of Acts opens with the risen Christ speaking to His apostles of the kingdom of God. Their question is simple, almost childlike in its hope: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). The expectation is alive, the promises of the prophets still ringing in their ears. When Peter stands to preach at Pentecost, he does not announce a new programme but calls Israel to repentance so that “the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ” (Acts 3:19-20). The kingdom is still on offer, the prophetic hope still extended to the nation.
Yet the story takes a darker turn. In Acts 7, Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, rehearses Israel’s long history of resisting God’s messengers. His words cut deep: “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Acts 7:51). The leaders, enraged, drag him outside the city and stone him. This is more than the silencing of a preacher; it is the nation’s climactic rejection of the Messiah and His witness. With Stephen’s death, the prophetic appeal to Israel as a nation reaches its close. The kingdom offer is refused, and the stage is set for God to reveal something entirely new.
The Damascus Road: A New Apostle (Acts 9)
Into this moment of rejection and scattering steps the most unlikely figure. Saul of Tarsus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter, sets out for Damascus to crush the followers of Jesus. But on that road, heaven breaks in. A light shines, a voice speaks, and the persecutor falls to the ground. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4). In that instant, the enemy of Christ becomes His chosen vessel.