The Acts of the Apostles: A Survey of the Text

The Text:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

Let us Pray,

Father, open your Word to us we pray. Let us feast upon your Words that we may desire more and never have our fill of understanding. Change us this morning in a way we could not on our own nor would if we could. Conform us to the Image of Jesus Christ through the application of this teaching we pray. Amen!

Introduction:

I am going to borrow a story from a former pastor of mine, I heard it somewhere around 20 years ago so I feel comfortable to embellish and personalize it.

There once was a supreme teach who according to his own wisdom chose a prize pupil. He worked almost exclusively with this student, teaching all aspects of the subject, working with the student at all hours of the day, even when the student didn’t want to, and demonstrating a care and affection for this student unlike any of the other students. This student, let’s call him Israel, was afforded all opportunities for learning, given detailed and advanced knowledge, and received exhaustive tutelage from the most excellent teacher, let’s call him God. Now one day, when the teacher decided it was right, he displayed a problem on the board for the class, lets call them the nations, to ponder and hopefully solve. Then, the teacher decided to call his prize pupil to the front of the class and solve the problem on the board. After much toil, fretting, forgetfulness, and attitude, the student publicly failed and presented a solution that even he knew was false. The teacher was displeased but knew that the rest of the class needed to see the solution to the problem, lets call the problem “how to glorify God” or “how to be reconciled to a holy God” and so God himself stepped down from his desk, went to the board, and will deep humility and precision, solved the wicked problem for all to witness. Now, if you haven’t got it by now, this is the point. God’s redemptive plan has always included redeeming his people from among the nations. It was the primary point. God taught Israel who he was and how to live according to this truth but they missed it. Israel was the chosen nation of God to be a faithful witness to the world. Did they do that? Let’s look to the book of Acts and see.

Summary of the Text:

Chapter 1, verse 8, serves as a table of contents and guiding text for the whole book of Acts. God first sent his Son into the world to live a sinless life, die, rise from the dead, and ascend to heaven that he may sit at the Father’s right hand to rule with all power and dominion over the world. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, he sent his Spirit and power into the world and to his Apostles to continue the work Jesus began here on earth. That work is to be a faithful witness of God to all of the world thereby subduing the chaos of sin and death and granting life, peace and freedom. God sent his Spirit and power to the disciples of Jesus so that they (and we) will continue the work of Jesus by the Holy Spirit in proclaiming and bearing witness to the Good News of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ. First to the Jew in Jerusalem, then to the Gentile’s in Judea, then Samaria, then the whole earth. God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven, by his Spirit, and through his sons and daughters.

The prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 43:10 and Isaiah 44:8) declared God’s call and purpose for Israel to be his witnesses. Isaiah 61

“All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord , “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”

Isaiah 43:9-10

'Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” '

Isaiah 44:8

Israel did not fulfill this task, but Jesus did, and this is what we continue to do with the power given to Jesus. In Act 13:47, Paul quotes Isaiah 49:6 and emphasizes the Jews first because they were first called by God to be witnesses to the world. The Gentiles openly saw Israel's failure and now received the spirit-filled witness from the Apostles.

Acts 13:46–48 ESV

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

Christ is doing what Israel failed to to in Isaiah 61

Isaiah 61 ESV

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; but you shall be called the priests of the Lord; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

1. Historical Background

The Acts of the Apostles is a name given in first and second century A.D. and is the second volume of a “History of Christian Origins” composed by a first century Christian and dedicated, or written to a man named Theophilus, of whom little is known. The first volume of the “History of Christin Origins” was the Gospel according to Luke. Most church fathers such as Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, the anonymous Muratorian Canon, and Eusebius attribute the authorship of The book of Acts to be Luke the physician. The text itself, in Acts 16:10-17, 20:5-15, 21:1-18, and Acts 27:1-28:16 show the narrator of Acts accompanied Paul from Troas in Asia Minor to Philippi, in Europe, then back to Troas. Paul names this man in Colossians 4:14 during his imprisonment in Rome as Luke the physician. So that settles it for me, Luke wrote the Book of Acts while he and Paul were ministering together throughout Asia. While it was named The Acts of the Apostles, or the Book of Acts , or just Acts in short, it more rightly could be named The Acts of Jesus and the Spirit because you can clearly see the continued work of Jesus by his Spirit throughout the whole book. The Gospel according to Luke describes what Jesus began and then Acts testifies to what Jesus continued to do and teach. These two books were written together and meant to be read together. However, sometime after the second century the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were batched together, Acts was placed after the Gospel accounts and it serves as the connective tissue or text to the rest of the collection of Paul’s letters and the rest of the New Testament. What I find to be amazing is the efficacy of the Spirit in spreading the gospel to the Gentiles that Luke is a Gentile and his writings, the Gospel according to Luke and the Book of Acts make up the majority of the New Testament writing.

2. Major Themes by chapter or sections

Now, lets work through a timeline of events. Acts was written sometime in 62-64 A.D. but the text covers the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:1-11) and Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41). These significant events happened under the reign of Emperor Tiberius and Pontius Pilate, who was the procurator of Judea. During this time a Deacon named Stephen got it…he may be the first one of anyone who truly got what Christ did and was doing. His boldness and tenacity in the preaching of the Word demonstrated that he knew God’s will is going to be done on earth just like it is in heaven and he was in. He wanted to be fully used by God to that end. For that, in 32 A.D. he was martyred. In the midst of those stone throwers and murderers was Saul or Paul, in Latin. Stephen was the catalyst that God used to set Paul on his blinding encounter with Jesus, but first he needed to ravage the church so that he can be a supreme example of God’s redemptive work in even the most vial of us sinners.

Acts 7:54–8:1 ESV

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

So as we reflect on our primary overview text Acts 1:8, we see the first 8 chapters are the faithful spirit-filled witness of the Lord’s work in Jerusalem.

Chapters 9-12 cover Paul’s conversion in 33 A.D. and begins his ministry to the Nations, now to the Gentiles in Judea and Samaria. Paul visits Jerusalem to join the disciples for the first time after his conversion in 35 or 36 A.D. This pretty much freaked everyone out as they thought he was still a persecutor of Christians but Barnabas brought him into the fold. He disputed the Hellenists (just Greek-speaking Jews), they wanted to kill him, so he was brought to Caesarea then Tarsus. About this time, 37-41 A.D. Caligula was Emperor of Rome and 41-44 A.D. Herod Agrippa I was King of Judea. Cornelius is the first Christian from the nations and the First Church among the nations is established at Antioch. James the apostle is faithful to the end and is martyred in 43 or 44 A.D. which is detailed in Acts 12:1-2

Acts 12:1–2 ESV

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword,

In 47-57 A.D. which corresponds to Acts 13-20 the gospel is first preached to the ends of the Earth, that is in Asia and Greece, then in Rome in Acts 21-28. Claudius is Emperor of Rome and in 49 A.D. he expels the Jews from Rome. in 54 A.D. Nero is made Emperor of Rome and the persecution of Christian’s begin to intensify even more. in Acts 20:3b-21:17 Paul is arrested in Jerusalem and tried before Felix in Acts 24:1-22. This begins a series of Pauls imprisonments in Caesarea and Rome from 57-62 A.D. where he wrote his prison epistiles to Ephesians, Philipians, Colasians, and the Galatians, the gospel continue to spread even more abounding than when he was free to walk around...and his and Peter’s martyrdoms in Rome in 64 A.D. This corresponds to Nero’s true persecution of Christians and ultimately the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

At the very core of this book is the idea that YOU have been given:

1) the Holy Spirit, and the power of God,

2) and that by this power, you must be a faithful witness throughout the world, and finally,

3) God's will is being done on earth as it is in heaven, by his Spirit, through YOU

3. How we shall now live

I want to encourage you at this point to commit to reading the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts so that you can see the parallel structures. These two books are connected in structure and use literary devices such as inclusio’s (a literary device similar to a refrain. It is also known as bracketing or an envelope structure, and consists of the repetition of material at the beginning and end of a section of text) and chiasm (a literary device that involves repeating words, grammatical constructions, or concepts in reverse order…where the words or ideas echo on both sides) to direct the readers to important aspects of the text. One element that I see in the structure is that both books address kingdom building business from start to finish, chapter 1 to chapter 28. Paul is preaching to the biggest super power in the world, Rome. The Jews believed that the messiah would come with physical power to overthrow Rome. They couldn’t belief that God would send Jesus or event his Spirit…They wanted a physical and worldly revolution. But God did not send a legion of soldiers, chariots, stealth bombers, nuclear weapons, or any other political or military might. He sent a far greater power, his Son and their Spirit. By this power, the whole earth will be subdued through the piercing of the heart, one soul at a time, grafted into Jesus Christ. Heaven is coming to Earth…Rome could not stop it, they actually contributed to the gospels intense spread and poignancy . No nation or military power ever could. The gospel may not appear to be a weapon; to them it may have looked like just another ineffective and neutered inward belief system, but when the gospel is believed and lived, it topples empires. It conquers the mightiest military. The gospel is a objective and historic reality, its a spiritual transformation, and produces very real physical outcomes.

The Kingdom of God has come to earth through Jesus Christ by the Spirit given to his church. Acts give many examples of what this kingdom looks like and how Christians participate in the Spirit's work. These Spirit-filled believers 1) Share the Good News by preaching, openly talking about the redemptive work of God through Jesus, and living a life that demonstrates this Good News…They are faithful witnesses of God’s salvation. 2) They create Christian communities devoted to the Word and obeying God by loving, serving, submitting to, and sustaining each other. 3) They actively trust in the power and direction of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, you must remember that the book of Acts wasn’t just written to the apostles, he wrote it to his disciples, he wrote it to you. So take this book to heart and model yourselves after their examples.

Let us Pray…

God, we desire to be a people that usher in your kingdom through the bold preaching of you Word. Make us ready to suffer persecution for your name sake, bless us in times of peace and prosperity, give us the perseverance to run the race as if to win the prize. We don’t desire a place in heaven, we desire to be instruments of a holy God for your holy purposes and what ever come from that service we count as our life’s blessing. As living stones, being built into a holy temple, have your way with us. In the name of our savior Jesus, and y the power of the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen!