[These days, on Tuesday nights, a group of folks in the congregation I serve as pastor is looking at the New Testament book of Acts. Acts tells the story of the Church from the day of the risen Jesus' ascension into heaven until a time about thirty years later.
[As I did when a group studied the Old Testament book of Genesis, my intention is to present some random notes about our discussions. The aim is to provide people who can't participate in the group with the benefits of our times together and to help all of us who participate to remember what we discuss.]
Acts 1
vv. 1-2: Here, Luke, whose goal as explained in his gospel, is to create "an orderly account" of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, says that this book is a continuation of Jesus' ministry. It's a ministry empowered by His Holy Spirit and led by the "apostles."
The word apostle means sent one. While the term is used somewhat ambiguously in the New Testament, it's best to think of apostles as a subgroup of disciples. All followers of Jesus Christ are disciples, the English word that translates the term in New Testament Greek, mathetes, meaning student or follower.
The apostles, a group which as Acts opens numbers 11, owing to the betrayal, defection, and death of their twelfth members, Judas, were given a special role of leadership in the Church to which the Spirit soon to be sent by Jesus will give birth.
v. 3: Paul says that more than five-hundred believers saw the risen Jesus during the forty-day period between His resurrection on the first Easter and His ascension.
vv. 4-5: The fledgling Church was to stay in Jerusalem and wait. In this, Jesus is underscoring an ongoing theme of His own ministry. He interspersed times of intense activity with times of prayer in which He waited for the Father's empowerment. Now, the disciples are to wait for the Holy Spirit.
The word spirit in the Greek is pneuma, the equivalent of a Hebrew word, ruach. Both words can, depending on the context, be rendered wind, breath, or spirit. Of course, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the "triune" God, consisting also of the Father and of the Son, Jesus.
It was God's Spirit Who moved over the waters to create the universe in Genesis 1:1 and it was this same Spirit that animated the life of the first human being according to the second Creation account in Genesis.
v. 6: I find Jesus' followers so endearingly stupid some times...and so like me! Jesus has broken the barriers of sin and death and shown that He is the bringer of a transcendent kingdom, one that will last forever. Yet even now, forty days after Jesus has risen from the dead, the disciples are thinking in earthly political terms.
They may as well be asking Jesus, "Is this the time when you're going to throw out the Romans and put a chicken in every pot and a Maserati in every garage, Lord?" Or, "Is this when you're going to kick tail and take names?"
In their question, the gathered disciples betray a short-sighted, earth-bound understanding of the Messiah. It's the same understanding that had once caused Peter to upbraid Jesus for predicting His own execution and which may have motivated Judas to betray the Lord with the hope that once Jesus was arrested, He would lead an insurrection to throw the Romans out of Judea. It's the same understanding of the Messiah that caused the crowds that so uproariously welcomed Jesus on the first Palm Sunday to turn on Him and cry for His blood just a few days later.
The King could offer them eternity, but the disciples were still looking for little parcels of land and the hollow satisfaction of revenge.
None of this is to say that Christians should accept injustice. As I explain here, one of the missions of Christians and of the Church is to advocate for justice. Karl Marx was totally wrong about Christianity, the main target of his critique, when he said, "Religion is the opiate of the people." In fact, when a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, it gives a powerful motivation and an incredible confidence for witnessing against injustice, no matter the opposition.
But the Christian's commitment to justice isn't born of personal resentments. It isn't waged for oneself. Remember the speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis on the night before he was assassinated? He spoke of his people reaching a promised land of freedom, equality, and opportunity. Then he said, "I may not get there with you."
By this stage in his life, King wasn't fighting for himself. Even then, at age 39, King could have legitimately said that he had already made his contribution and taken a faculty position somwhere Yale or Harvard divinity schools. He could have become a respected grey-eminence at theological institutions or a large church and nobody would have thought the less of him for it. But he felt God's call on his life. He felt compelled to speak on behalf of those who hadn't yet made it to the "promised land."
In this verse, Jesus' first followers demonstrate that they don't quite get it yet. But within days, God is going to begin forging them into a bold force who will share the Good News that the risen Jesus Christ makes it possible for all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved from sin and death and have new life with God forever (Acts 2:21).
v. 7: Jesus' response has in mind the Day when He will return to the earth. These words, I think, stand as a condemnation of all those pseudo-Christian fear-mongers and booksellers who claim to have a handle on when Jesus is coming back. Only the Father knows when that will be, Jesus says.
v. 8: Here, Jesus says that the Spirit is going to empower this embryonic Church to move out in the world, telling His story.
They'll start in Jerusalem, the seat of the religious life of the Hebrews, home of the Temple.
They'll fan into the rest of Judea, the occupied nation of which Jerusalem is the capital. Judea was the home of two of Israel's twelve tribes, called the southern kingdom by historians.
Then, the Church was to go into Samaria. Not long after the death of Israel's most powerful king, Solomon, God's people split in two. The northern kingdom, also known as Israel, was centered on the city of Samaria. The Samaritans were hated by the Judeans with the special contempt we human beings often reserve for those to whom we are most closely related.
Finally, Jesus says, the early Church is to carry this message into the whole world.
It's difficult to imagine a less qualified group of people to lead the Church than these eleven "apostles." They haven't proven very reliable or faithful so far. But Jesus had faith in the ability of the Holy Spirit to help them fulfill His mission for them, if only they will submit to Him.
vv. 9-11: This scene always cracks me up. The people with Jesus were understandably amazed and incredulous as they watched Him being taken into heaven. But the men in white who show up--I think we can safely assume that they're angels--almost upbraid them for their incredulity.
vv. 12-14: Here we see that the Church is doing what Jesus told them to do. They're waiting. For Luke, waiting really involves waiting on God, which means devotion to prayer. In prayer, we seek God's direction and empowerment to do whatever God wants us to do. Jesus' first followers would have felt the need for God's power in light of the daunting mission Jesus gave them in Acts 1:8 and in light of their track record of abandoning Jesus in the tough times, as happened after He was arrested, tried, and crucified.
vv.15-26: It's amazing to see Peter's boldness here. After all, he denied knowing Jesus three times on the night of Jesus' arrest and trial. But his position of influence among his fellow Jesus-Followers bespeaks His fellow believers' awareness that God forgives the repentant--that is, people who turn from their sin and seek God's forgiveness. You can already see the impact of this period of prayer on Peter and the rest of the embryonic Church. We'll see even more of the effects of prayer in subsequent chapters!
[Random Stuff from Our Acts Study, Part 1]
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