This is a very significant time to be studying the book of Acts.
I obtained a book called the Outline Bible some time ago. It gives a synopsis of each book of the Bible. The author says that Acts is the only unfinished book in the Bible.
Tonight we’ll look at Luke, the author of the book, and then we’ll look at the theology. We want this to be relevant to our lives.
Acts 28:30-31
The book ends up with the fact that there was no hindrance to the proclamation of the Gospel. We are here because this is the church age. Time will end when the church is complete.
It’s exciting to study the book of Acts, because it is primarily about the church. This book should be called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel of the resurrection, the Acts of the ascended and glorified Lord.
Acts talks much about Paul. He wasn’t an apostle who met with Jesus. But the book is to do with the acts of the ascended and glorified Lord. It deals with the early church, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, how God moved, how evangelisation took place, how the Gentiles were included, and the emergence of the early church.
We’ll take themes from the book of Acts, and we’ll focus on the Holy Spirit. We need to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us individually and collectively.
In the Old Testament, we are mainly aware of the activity of God the Father, in the creation, the flood, the calling of Abraham etc.
Then we have the four Gospels, mainly about God the Son, manifesting God in the flesh.
Acts looks mainly at the activity of God the Holy Spirit.
We need to be careful how we refer to the Holy Spirit. We readily assume God the Father, and then the Son – down a bit from the Father. And the Holy Spirit is just “somehow” there. We’re aware of the Trinity, but if you put God in front of each one – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, it helps put the Holy Spirit in His rightful place. That’s why when you read the verse about grieving the Holy Spirit, it allows for that respect and dignity.
In acts we look at the activity of God the Holy Spirit.
We know the Spirit was present in creation. He moved through key individuals, and caused men to write the scriptures. 66 books all inspired by God’s Holy Spirit – God the Holy Spirit. The prophecy running through the Old Testament was that a day was coming when the Spirit of God would be poured out on all flesh.
Joel 2:28-32
That day was coming. It was prophesied. And in Acts we come to the occasion in time when the Holy Spirit was given.
John 7:37-39
There you have it again – the fact of the Spirit being promised and given.
Luke 24:45-49
And again – the promise of the Spirit. And God the Holy Spirit is the one who makes you emboldened, secure, as a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts we’ll see how when the Spirit came they were emboldened to be that witness.
Who wrote Acts? It was written by Luke. He wrote the Gospel and the Book of Acts, and you could treat them as one book. He wrote 40% of the New Testament. Luke and Acts are a two-part volume of one book.
We think of the Gospels as being written by those who walked with Jesus, but Luke didn’t. He was a doctor, an educated Greek. He was careful to pinpoint in history where everything happened.
Luke 3:1
You can’t get more specific than that. He intended to make things accurate and careful. This was the method by which the documents in the first century were regularly dated. Luke/Acts is the first attempt at an historical record of the Christian movement from the inside.
We’ve looked recently at the martyrdom of Stephen, and how vivid the account was. The criterion of the appointment of the seven deacons was that they should be filled wit the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere Luke uses eye-witness accounts. He goes in for thorough investigation, and claims that he was guided by the Holy Spirit.
We have two volumes of one book with a structured account of the life of Jesus, and then the growth of Christianity in Acts.
Luke 1:1-4
The Gospel was addressed to a particular individual and was an account of the life of Jesus. Now let’s look at how Acts starts :-
Acts 1:1-2
Luke was written to Theophilus and so was Acts. Luke refers back to the Gospel in the opening of Acts.
At the end of Acts, there’s an unfinished work. But look at the end of Luke :-
Luke 24:49-53
They went back to the Jerusalem, and it was there they were endued with power.
So you can see the link between the two books.
There are several possible divisions of Acts ...
In the first division, we see Chapters 1-12 dealing with the beginning of the church around Jerusalem, where the focus is on the leadership of Peter and John. And then the rest of the book deals with the expansion into the Roman empire, focusing on Paul and Barnabas.
Another division is to see Acts 1-7 referring to Jerusalem, 8-10 to Samaria and Judea, and 11-28 to the ends of the earth. You’ve thrown a rock in a pool and the ripples are spreading out, and the ripples are still happening, and one of them is here tonight. It’s exciting to study this as a church in the 21st century, each wanting to do what God wants in our lives.
A third division sees the book as six panels, each divided by the Holy Spirit bringing a close to that section, and at the end of each you change up a gear. More people join the church ... and more ... and more. You get a sense of what God is doing to establish the bride of Christ.
Under this division, the first section runs from 1:1 to 6:7, where we have a description of the primitive church in Jerusalem, its preaching, common life and the opposition. Everything is Jewish. The early believers continued in association with the synagogues – and you can understand that.
But now it was to go out from Jerusalem to the Gentiles – and a completely different mindset was required. Peter was required to eat something which he had always seen as unclean, but God said it was clean, and Peter realised he was caught up with the maelstrom of the church reaching out to the Gentiles.
In your own life, be careful if God brings across your path someone who you thought was beyond salvation. Woe betide us if we pigeonhole people. These people are those for whom Jesus died. Be open to what God wants to do through you in sharing the Gospel.
Acts 6:7
That marks the end of the first section, and things go up a gear. The number of disciples multiplied.
The next section runs from 6:8 to 9:31. Here we go out geographically to those activities carried out by the Hellenists, the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians. It includes the conversion of Paul who was a Hellenist Jew.
Acts 9:31
The ripple goes out again – Judaea, Galilee and Samaria.
The next section is 9:32 to 12:24, and gives a description of the first expansion to the Gentiles. The key is the conversion of Cornelius. His conversion was through Peter, not through the Hellenists. Peter was Jew, and it was a direct intervention of God.
Acts 12:24-25
Again the Word of God grew and multiplied.
Did this multiplication take place only in the early church to launch it? Is it a thing of the past? Obviously there was a start. But what are we looking for now in this church? We’re looking for what God wants to do here. That will involve preaching this Word so that faith will be engendered in others and so that others will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem will be finding room for all the people.
The next section runs from 12:25 to 16:5. It describes the first geographical expansion into the Gentile world with Paul as leader. The church meets in counsel and does not reject its Gentile brothers, nor does it lay Jewish ritual practices on them. They had to come to terms with what was going on. Did they force these practices on people, or did they accept that God was pushing things out to the Gentile world? It shook their thinking.
Acts 16:4-5
Increased – multiplied. At the end of each section, there’s gathering momentum.
The next section runs from 16:6 to 19:20 and shows the expansion into Europe.
Acts 19:20
The final section runs from 19:21 to the end of the book, and describes the events which moved Paul and the Gospel on to Rome. Three times Paul is declared innocent of any wrongdoing.
The key to understanding this book of Acts is Luke’s interest in this momentum, in the switch from Jerusalem out to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Something similar happened with the Moravians, with them moving ever outwards, and you end up with Moravian missions in the Pacific islands. I believe people will go out from this church, and missionaries will go out.
Luke’s interest in the growth of the church means he doesn’t go into things you might have expected. He doesn’t go into biographical details. He doesn’t talk about church organisation. There are no details about how the deacons were appointed. We have principles in church organisation, but it’s not written down. He doesn’t explain how leadership passed from Peter to James. There’s no talk of Crete, etc, etc. He seems to know what he was going to write, and it was a direct line from Jerusalem to Rome. He’s not interested in standardisation of conversion. Sometimes baptism comes first. Sometimes it comes later. Sometimes he mentions tongues, sometimes not. There’s no indication that the Gentile churches had the same communal life as in Jerusalem.
But Acts is to be seen as a model – the joyful progress of the Gospel, changing lives. And because this is God’s purpose for the church, noting can hinder it.
I want now to look at the purpose of the book.
Purpose 1: At the beginning of Luke, Theophilus was mentioned. He was probably a Gentile official, and Luke wanted him to understand more clearly the historical events which underlie the Christian faith.
A handful of people. uneducated men and women, had turned the world upside down.
Acts 17:6
That’s power, when you turn the world upside down in the face of opposition! Whether it’s Wesley and Whitfield confronted with a world soaked in gin ... Within two centuries Christianity became the main force of the Roman Empire, and by the 3rd century Constantine declared it the official faith.
Acts 1:8
The key verse. That’s the ripple effect going out from Jerusalem.
Purpose 2: There are eight sermons of Peter in the book, one of Stephen, one of Philip and one of Paul.
Purpose 3: There are four things which show the continuation of God’s purpose in history.
History 1. The events in Acts are seen as being brought about by the will and purpose of God.
Acts 2:23
Acts 4:27-29
God brought this about and was undertaking what He wanted to do. They were in the path of God’s destiny for them.
History 2. The life of the church is seen as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy.
Acts 13:46-47
Complete confidence that they were in line with what God wanted. They weren’t wavering. There was an urgency, a focus. You can see the life of the church as the outworking of the Old Testament prophecy.
History 3. The church was directed by God at crucial times.
Acts 13:2
Acts 15:28
Acts 16:6
Acts 18:9
Specific intervention.
Acts 23:11
And again. Specific, clear, definitive, directional. The purpose of God. And that’s what we want in our lives.
History 4. The power of God was seen in signs and wonders.
Acts 3:16
Purpose 4: To detail the mission, which we know about from Acts 1:8.
Purpose 5: To set out the message, which was straightforward – Jesus, whom God raised from the dead is Lord and Messiah. He offers forgiveness of sins, and He sends the Holy Spirit. The main story relates to the spread of this message.
Purpose 6. To describe the progress made despite opposition.
Acts 14:21-22
Purpose 7. To talk about the opposition. This is why you can have confidence in what’s going on in your life. God is working out His perfect purposes for your life. And God will make things clear because He loves you.
There are parallels with the opposition Jesus faced. When Stephen was martyred and persecution came, it was the means of spreading the Gospel. It’s strange how God sees things and how God is in control of any circumstance for your good.
Purpose 8. A big theme is the inclusion of the Gentiles. There were tensions when this took place. Should Jewish practices be continued? Luke shows how the problem was solved. When the Spirit fell on the Gentiles, Peter was prepared to eat with them – but it’s not clear everyone else felt the same way. The Jerusalem council confirmed the point that circumcision was unnecessary, but set other standards.
Then Acts also chronicles the increasing refusal of the Jews to accept the Gospel.
The books does refer here and there to the organisation of the church.
Acts 4:32-37
Acts 2:42-50
It’s quite a lifestyle. Does it mean we sell our houses? I don’t think so. But what’s our heart in relation to our possessions? That’s the key thing.
Small group meetings, the importance of the Spirit, the source of joy and power, who guides the church in their choice of leaders, their evangelistic activity (generally in teams of two or four), based essentially on the lives of Peter and Paul.
What would it be like if I were to start recording the acts of the people of Trinity in 2009? Looking at each one of you who have made the effort to come here tonight. It would be a lovely book to write because of what God will do through you and for you, outworking His purposes.
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