INTRODUCTION

A. Who was Amos?

1. Native of Tekoa (located 12 miles south of Jerusalem).

2. He lived during the reign of Uzziah in Judah (790-740 B.C.) and Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom (793-753 B.C.).

3. Occupation:  A farmer.

4. The Lord called him while he was tending his flock (Amos 7:15).

5. He was an average man (the country preacher who came to town).

B. The book of Amos.

1. Date:  760 B.C.

2. Key verses:  Amos 4:12; 5:24.

3. Themes:

a. The judgment of Israel.

b. Judgment upon God’s people for lack of sincerity and compassion.

c. The need for social justice.

C. Outline of Amos.

1. The judgment of surrounding nations (1:1-2:3).

a. Judgment against Syria for cruelty (1:3-5).

b. Judgment against Gaza for selling captives (1:6-8).

c. Judgment upon Tyre for disregarding the treaty (1:9,10).

d. Judgment against Edom for a revengeful spirit (1:11,12).
 
 

e. Judgment against Ammon for violent crimes (1:13-15).

f. Judgment against Moab for burning the bones of a king (2:1-3).

2. Judgment on Judah and Israel (2:4-6:14).

a. Judgment against Judah for rejecting the law (2:4,5).

b. Judgment against Israel for its immorality (2:6-15).

c. God’s charge against Israel (3:1-15).

d. Israel’s failure to return to God (4:1-13).

e. Israel’s punishment (5:1-27).

f. Israel warned to depart from iniquity (6:1-14).

3. Visions of the future (7:1-9:15).

a. The locust (7:1-3).

b. The fire (7:4-6).

c. The plumbline (7:7-9).

d. The basket of summer fruit (8:1-14).

e. The ruined temple (9:1-10).

f. A vision of the kingdom (9:11-15).

DISCUSSION

I. THE VISION OF THE KINGDOM (Amos 9:11-15).

A. “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11).

1. Christ was of the lineage of David.

2. Amos looks beyond his time to a day under the ruins of descendants of the house of David.

a. This verse tells how salvation for all men will be effected in the house of David.

b. Christ would come in his lineage.

c. Christ would set up His kingdom (Matthew 16:18,19).

3. Amos refers to the tabernacle.

a. He refers to the building up of the tabernacle.

b. The church is an antitype of the tabernacle.

c. Therefore it was also the building up of the church.

4. “Close up the breaches of it.”

a. This was not referring to any holes in the palaces of Jewish kings.

b. It was referring to the healing of the breach among God’s people.

c. The kingdom under Jeroboam had been divided.  

d. When Christ comes, all of God’s true Israel will be under one Head:  Christ.

5. “I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.”

a. The tabernacle stood for a time when God’s communion and fellowship had been established.

b. Their fellowship was destroyed by the sins and wickedness of the people.

c. Later, it wold be restored in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

d. No one could raise up the kingdom of God, except one descendant--Christ.

6. What is proclaimed by Amos is clearly Messianic.

a. This would be fulfilled under Christ.

b. This was not referring to a millennial reign of Christ.

B. “That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this” (Amos 9:12).

1. Edom had been brought under the subjection of David.

a. They revolted during Jeroboam’s reign.

b. They were related to Israel.

c. However, they were bitter enemies.

2. What is being taught is spiritual.

a. Christians would be the true Israel.

b. Israel would not do the conquering; the Lord would conquer.

C. “Behold, the days will come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt” (Amos 9:13).

1. The expressions in this verse are figurative.

a. God’s blessings would be prompt.

b. They would come through the Messiah and the prosperity of His kingdom, the church.

c. His blessings would be a joy of constant fullness.

d. There would be an abundance of spiritual blessings.

e. These blessings would enrich the kingdom, the church.

2. Amos gives a beautiful picture:  A picture of Christ’s kingdom.

D. “And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.  And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God” (Amos 9:14,15).

1. Israel is the type of the Holy Church.

2. Peace and prosperity are symbols of spiritual blessings we can have in Christ.

3. The Jews would be converted.  The blessings that they would obtain would be in the church.

4. This would all be completed when the Gentiles entered the kingdom of Christ.

II. THE TEACHING OF ACTS 15 – THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM.

A. Acts:  “Book of Conversions.”

1. The beginning of the church (Acts 2).

2. Conversion of the Eunuch (Acts 8:26-39).

3. Conversion of Saul (Acts 9).

4. Conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10).

5. Conversion of Lydia (Acts 16:14,15).

6. Conversion of the Jailer (Acts 16:25-33).

B. Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13, 14).

C. The council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:4-21).

1. Paul and Barnabas were confronted with the matter of circumcision.

2. Men from Judea were teaching that one cannot be saved unless he is circumcised.

3. Paul and Barnabas, along with several others, discussed this matter with the elders and apostles in Jerusalem.

4. James refers back to Amos 9:11-15 in verses 15-18.

5. “To take them out a people for his name.”

a. Israel was designated as the true people of God.

b. The Gentiles would also be included with the true people of God.

c. The Gentiles would be prophetically included in the people of God.

d. All Old Testament promises would be fulfilled in Christ.

CONCLUSION

A. The restoration of the fallen tabernacle began with the coming of Christ and the establishment of His kingdom.

B. The possession of the remnant of Edom and other Gentile nations took place in the days of the apostles.

C. These passages do not refer to a far-off future event.

D. It is not a one thousand-year reign of the Lord on earth.

E. The main focus of Acts 15 is the matter of circumcision and the acceptance of the Gentiles.

Mike Madden
107 Jackson Place
Cumming, GA  30040