EPISODE 47 BOOK OF ACTS CHAPTER 1 "What Happens Next"

Welcome to Share the Word. We are so pleased that you're taking the time to listen. Today's lesson is an introduction to the Book of Acts and launches us into a study of earliest Christianity. So, let's get started. Acts chapter 1, the Gospel of Luke continues. So what happened next?

Welcome back to Share the Word, the best place to learn the big ideas in the New Testament chapter by chapter. We're turning our attention now to the Book of Acts, A-C-T-S. I probably make it sound like A-X, like something you cut down a tree with, but actually, A-C-T-S, which sounds like a funny name for a writing maybe, but actually it was pretty common for titles at the time this was written. It was often used for a work about an important person's life, their story, their accomplishments. Those were their acts. Luke, the author, didn't call this writing Acts, by the way.

For him, it was just a continuation of his gospel, telling what happened next after Jesus' death and resurrection. The Gospel, according to Luke, part two, I guess, is a pretty good name for it because if you open to chapter 1, you'll notice it picks up exactly where Luke's first writing ends. That's why we are looking at these two writings back to back. By the middle of the second century, the title Acts of the Apostles was often used for this writing. That's because it focuses on the contributions of the two most influential apostles of Jesus, Peter and Paul, and largely is taken up with describing their special contributions to the growth and establishment of early Christianity.

Notice from the opening verses, like his gospel account, Acts was also dedicated by Luke to that same mystery recipient he called Theophilus, who I suggested may have been a highly placed Roman who he did not want to call by his real name. He begins like this. In the first book, Theophilus, referring back to his gospel, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up. By taken up, Luke means Jesus' ascension, his return back to heaven. So he's now turning to what God continued to do after Jesus was taken up, after his earthly ministry was over. Acts, in fact, covers roughly the next three decades, from 33 A.D. to about 64 A.D.

It is our best look at the earliest Christian history, the foundational years when the apostles and the associates were carrying out Jesus' Great Commission to take the gospel to their world and found Christian churches. As we just discussed last lesson, Luke reiterates here early in chapter 1 that Jesus had appeared to his apostles and others as well many times in undeniable ways after the resurrection. It was by these shared experiences that the early Christians became fully convinced that Jesus was who he'd claimed to be and realized that his sacrificial death on Calvary to make salvation possible for us was the message of hope that the world needed to hear. Luke describes how 40 days after Jesus' resurrection, the apostles literally saw him ascend back to heaven from the Mount of Olives, a hilltop east of Jerusalem.

Two men, apparently angels, appeared out of nowhere and assured them that Jesus would one day return in the very same way they just saw him go up to heaven. That is, physically return from heaven through the clouds to the earth one day. For believers, this is what we are looking forward to. Newsflash: things are not going to go on indefinitely until we destroy ourselves one way or another. A lot of people today are terrified of that prospect. But we are here assured, and other times in the New Testament, that Jesus is coming back at God's appointed time to save those who have believed in Him and to initiate His kingdom over this world.

That's His promise. In the meantime, in God's plan, we are in what theologians like to call the Church Age, or sometimes the Age of Grace. This is a period of time during which God is calling out from every nation and every ethnic group on earth a people for Himself to be His eternal family, all those who will respond to the call of the gospel. It's when, as Jesus explained it in some parables, His spiritual kingdom, where He rules in men's hearts who will receive Him, is growing and growing in a kind of parallel universe alongside the kingdoms of this world. This Church Age will end with Jesus' second coming. The New Testament never tells us how exactly long this period lasts.

Before He left, Jesus instructed His followers to stay in Jerusalem and wait for something special to occur. He called it baptism with the Holy Spirit. He promised them that this would happen shortly and would empower them to be His witnesses. The apostles did not know exactly what to expect. They were actually hoping Jesus would return from heaven shortly and institute His kingdom on earth. That was the real expectation of all Jews.

But Jesus had told them that worrying about when His return would occur was a wrong focus because although God had a plan in mind for when, it was not one He was going to share. It's a secret plan. Instead, in His final instructions to His followers, Jesus told them, When the Holy Spirit comes, He will empower you to become My witnesses here in Jerusalem and Judea and beyond to Samaria and even to the remote parts of the earth. Jerusalem, of course, was the place that they were. Judea was the district Jerusalem was located in. Samaria was an adjacent district, we've learned, where Jews would not even normally go.

And the remote parts of the earth meant, well, everywhere else. So this small group of followers, it was about 120 people at the time, were entrusted with the life-changing, potentially world-changing message we call the gospel. Until Jesus comes again, however long that may be, God alone knows, sharing the message about who Jesus was and what he has done for us is the Great Commission for all of us who are his followers. That's why our podcast is called Share the Word, by the way. You know, I was thinking as I began to plan the podcast for Acts, all that the early Christians had to go through to obey the Great Commission in their time. Remember, these were people just like us, not spiritual superheroes.

It was difficult, grueling even, frequently very dangerous, as we'll see as we get into this book. It required traveling hundreds, even thousands of miles, usually on foot, to share the story of Jesus and why it mattered to people in farther and farther away places. We know that through their efforts in the first century, the gospel spread as far west as Spain, as far north as Eastern Europe, as far east as India, as far south as Ethiopia and North Africa. For us today, sharing the gospel is as simple as clicking a few buttons on our computers or phones and forwarding it on to people anywhere in the world. If you've embraced Jesus as your Savior, Leader, I hope you will actually join us in doing that, in obeying Jesus' Great Commission, sharing the gospel too. And the simplest way I can think of to do that is to just forward this podcast or things like it to your friends and family.

It's as easy as forwarding a link to our website that says, Hey, I found this interesting. Maybe you will too. And if they're interested, they can start at the beginning of our podcast series and get the whole story of the New Testament. All the past episodes from the Gospels of John and Luke are already archived there at www.sharetheword.org. But can you even imagine how the Apostle Paul, who broke his body traveling tirelessly for twenty-some years carrying the gospel to new places, how would he react if he knew how easy it is for us to obey Jesus' Great Commission now? So let's do it.

Let's do our best at it. Our dark world needs the light of the gospel of Christ right now badly, and the time to share it might be short. Returning to this chapter at verse 12, commercial over, we read that the apostles did return to Jerusalem and prayerfully waited for the Holy Spirit's arrival, who Jesus promised would empower them to be his witnesses. Luke notes here that there were others among them, including women in the group. He specifically mentions here Jesus' mother, and his brothers were a part of this group. Remember, we saw in the Gospel of John that during his ministry years, interestingly, Jesus' brothers did not believe his claims and did not support him.

So what do you suppose changed? The resurrection. That's what changed. It would have been very hard to deny the claims of Jesus when he foretold his own death, his own resurrection, and then they saw it all happen before their own eyes. At least two of Jesus' brothers, James and Jude, were now convinced believers who, by the way, went on to become leaders of the early Christian church and also authors of writings in our New Testament. It's also noteworthy to me that here in Acts chapter 1 is the last mention of Mary, Jesus' mother, in the Bible.

She didn't play a prominent role in the early church so far as we can see. Religions that have turned Mary into an almost divine figure, a co-mediatrix, I've heard her called, with Christ, someone sinless, someone who was assumed into heaven alive, that's all extra-biblical invention, unfortunately. Mary was an exemplary young woman who God highly favored to become the mother of Jesus. But it's a mistake to make her into something the Bible does not, to pray to her, to imagine she holds some kind of ongoing influence over Jesus that she can forgive sins and so on. These are unbiblical inventions by man-made religion. When we see Mary last in the New Testament, she is simply one of about 120 believers in Jerusalem in 33 A.D. who made up the first Christian church.

Luke also records here that one thing that occurred during this waiting period is that Peter initiated the selection of someone to replace the betrayer Judas Iscariot. Peter felt Judas needed to be replaced in the apostolic office. He had vacated that through unbelief. One thing I think is important to understand from this then is that the office of apostle was special. Listen to what Peter said here. We must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus, from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken up from us.

Whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus' resurrection. Two distinguished candidates were put forward, a fellow named Matthias and another named Joseph Barsabbas. But did you hear the requirements? The man chosen to replace Judas as an apostle must have been a follower of Jesus since the outset of his public ministry, and must also have been a witness of his resurrection. Why am I underscoring this? Because the apostolic office was special.

The apostles were the foundation stones of the Christian church, to use a metaphor the apostle Paul used in Ephesians chapter 2. They were chosen for this office by Jesus personally, taught by him personally for three years. They were also eyewitnesses of his resurrection. Another mistake being made today by some religious groups is when people claim to be apostles. There is, unfortunately, a growing movement right now called the New Apostolic Reformation that imagines their leaders are somehow modern inheritors of the office of apostle. But nowhere does the New Testament teach this office could be passed on.

It was a foundational office in the first century. No one today could meet the qualifications. In fact, no one alive in 124 A.D. or 1024 A.D., much less 2024 A.D., has been personally chosen and trained by Jesus for three years, or certainly was an eyewitness of his resurrection. And these were the requirements that Peter laid down to be an apostle. There is no teaching or even suggestion in the New Testament that this office would be or needed to be passed on as the church moved past the first century. The office of apostle was for the foundation.

When the apostles Jesus chose passed off the scene, the foundation of Christianity had been laid, and consequently, there are no more apostles. Those who occupied that special office, like John and Peter and Paul and James and the others, were chosen by Jesus to be the foundation in what God was now building. Buildings have only one foundation, so far as I know. If I might draw a comparison, here in America, we have a group of men who lived in 18th century we call the Founding Fathers. They were the foundational thinkers and the first leaders of the USA. There were no new Founding Fathers in the 19th century or the 20th century, and no new Founding Fathers today.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and a handful of others served a unique role during a special time during the foundational period of the United States. In the very same way, the apostles Jesus chose were unique to the foundational era of Christianity. And that brings me to the last thing I want to consider as we start getting into this writing. What exactly is the role of Acts in the collection of New Testament scripture? What purpose does it serve? I'm bringing this up because it's become something of a controversial question.

Share the Word is not out to be intentionally argumentative or controversial, but when we come to certain questions, it's important to take a view. It's impossible not to take a view. That's the case as we get into the book of Acts. The question is, just what are we supposed to take from this writing? I mean, what role does it serve? In the last approximately hundred years or so, some have answered that question by insisting that Acts, its role in the canon, is to be a blueprint of what God wants to do in and through the church and its leaders throughout all the history to follow, throughout all the centuries after it.

That it shows what God wants to do and will do through believers led by the Holy Spirit in any generation. I think there's some truth in that answer, but honestly, I think it goes too far. When I read Acts, I am inspired by the courage and example of these early Christians, by how profound their faith was and how much they were able to influence their world. But also when I read Acts, if I am honest, and that's what we're intending to be here, I read about some things going on then that I have never seen in all my years of being a Christian, extraordinary things, actual miracles, wonders, especially early on in Luke's account.

Most Christians throughout the history of the church have recognized the miraculous things at the outset described in Acts were not a blueprint of what God will always do, but were special demonstrations of His power given in measure to the apostles by Jesus to authenticate their message as they laid the foundation for our faith. Just as Jesus demonstrated supernatural power and God authenticated Him through it, Jesus gave to the apostles, we're told in the Gospels, a measure of that power. But this is important. The last of the apostles chosen by Christ was the apostle Paul. He had to vigorously defend his legitimacy in that special office because he was not with the twelve who originally followed Jesus. In his own defense, he wrote this to an early congregation of Christians.

Listen. When I was with you, I certainly gave you proof that I am an apostle, for I did many signs, miracles, and wonders among you. Think about that. Paul said his unusual ability to do miraculous things through the power given him by Jesus was what proved he was an apostle. If those gifts were common among others, even in the first century, Paul's argument in favor of his apostleship makes no sense. So I respectfully disagree with those who teach that God always intends the supernatural things we read early in Acts to be the norm for His people.

Not only doesn't that jibe with what Paul wrote, but it doesn't jibe with reality so far as I've ever seen. I am bringing this up not only because it will affect how we understand and apply the Book of Acts, but because it is a divide of sorts in Christianity today. After a lot of thinking and observation, I've concluded that Acts is not, strictly speaking, a blueprint or a description of what is normal for the whole church age. Rather, it is a history. It's like a slice in time of the foundational years and an inspiring record of the people who took the Great Commission seriously in that generation. Here's something interesting I have noticed in the Bible that has brought me to that conclusion.

Think about it. So far as we know, there have only been a few generations that have witnessed extraordinary signs being done through God's special representatives in all the time covered in the biblical records. People doing miracles has been very, very rare, and those so gifted, very, very few. In the generation of Moses and Joshua, those two men were given by God ability to do special miracles, it seems. So around 1400 BC, for a short time, that generation, God was doing supernatural things through those two great leaders, but nothing really before them and nothing really after them, four hundreds of years. And then, during another generation around the time of Elijah and Elisha, at the outset of the prophetic era when God was warning Israel to return to their covenant with Him, that was around 850 BC, for a short period of time during a generation, through those two men.

God was doing special things. Miracles happened. They were very common during that generation, during the public ministry of Jesus and his disciples, and then early into the book of Acts, among his apostles. During that brief era, once again, we are told special things were happening, miracles were happening, unusual things were happening. But let this sink in. I think it's very significant, if we're honest.

Is it normal or extraordinary for God to be working in dramatic supernatural ways through people on this planet? The answer seems to be, so far as we can see from the biblical record, extraordinary. It seems clear to me that God has used signs and miracles and supernatural events during very specific brief periods of time for very specific purposes. You, of course, can form your own opinion about that. I'm just telling you mine up front so you'll understand how I approach the book of Acts. I don't see it as a blueprint.

Mostly, I see it as a history. This also explains, by the way, why I am skeptical, and I hope you will be too, of those who today claim to do miracles, who claim to be apostles, who claim to be prophets. I think we should be very careful about such claims. I'm not putting God in a box, as we say. He is sovereign and can do whatever He chooses, whenever He chooses. I'm just making the honest observation.

We're told in the New Testament, test everything. Hold fast to that which is good. Sadly, I've seen Christians who so badly want to believe that God is doing miraculous signs and miracles today that they are too ready to believe in con men. And I've seen sincere believers who want to believe God is giving new revelation today fooled by false prophets. I'm not saying God can't do these things, or that He won't do these things. Again, He can do whatever He chooses and whenever He chooses.

I'm just saying, be careful of those who make such claims and build ministries around people's hopes for the miraculous and the dramatic. Test their claims against reality and against the revealed Word of God. Don't be naive. That's my best advice after listening to too many spiritual frauds say they are apostles or healers or miracle workers. I have yet to see any of their outcomes measuring up in any way to the authentic supernatural power demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus or His apostles, which we see described on the pages of the Gospels or in the Book of Acts. So remember, test everything.

Hold on to what is good, and that means authentic. As we leave Acts chapter 1, Jesus has returned to heaven. The apostles are awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, and we're about to see how and why Christianity exploded into a movement that actually changed the world. The sincere faith of those earliest Christians, their courage, their resiliency, their urgency to obey Jesus' Great Commission—man, our generation needs a big dose of all that, don't you agree? I hope our study of early Christianity in Acts will stir up those qualities in us. Are you ready to get into it?

Thanks, Paul. Well, we're off to a great start, and I hope you are ready to journey through the Book of Acts, as well as other books of the Gospel. For those of you who are new to Share the Word, we release two podcasts every week, one on Monday and one on Thursday, both at 9 a.m. But you don't have to wait, because you can access all the past podcasts simply by visiting sharetheword.org. Everything that's produced at Share the Word is free to use and to share. Please take a moment to subscribe to Share the Word.

We pray that you'll continue your spiritual journey with us. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.