Acts
Notes
Transcript
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
The Ascension
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 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.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
This is the Word of the Lord.
Acts is not a devotional book like the Psalms, nor a teaching letter like the epistles. It reads similiar to some of the historical books of the Old Testament, and even more like the four Gospels which precede it. We call this kind of Bible writing “narrative” and recognize that we can learn the truth of God’s Word and principles of Christian living by seeing how God worked with people in the early church. These are our brothers and sisters who faced many of the same kind of issues and problems we have experienced or will yet experience.
The Power of a Witness
The Power of a Witness A Chinese farmer, after having cataracts removed from his eyes, made his way from the Christian compound to the far interior of China. Only a few days elapsed, however, before the missionary doctor looked out his bamboo window and noticed the formerly blind man holding the front end of a long rope. In a single file and holding to the rope behind him came several blind Chinese whom the farmer had told about his operation. They all knew the farmer had been blind, but now he could see. He told them of the doctor who had cured him; naturally, all these other blind people wanted to meet the doctor who cured the blind man. The cured man could not explain the physiology of the eye or the technique of the operation. He could tell others he had been blind, the doctor had operated on him, and now he could see. That was all the others needed to hear. They came to the doctor. So it is in our Christian lives. We need not all be trained theologians. We need not understand all the intricacies of God’s mysteries, nor be perfect examples of flawless Christian living. We can all tell everyone what Christ has done for us. We may not all be teachers. We may not all be like Billy Graham or Adrian Roger's, or Lottie Moon. We can all be witnesses. That is the point of the Book of Acts, a written witness, a faithful telling of the work of God in the first days of Christianity and the church. The point of the book is to encourage us to move past phase 1 and into the expectant phases to follow.
Witnesses knowingly serve a living God(vv. 1–5).
God is not dead as some would suppose. He is active and the hope of the church in the forest century and the hope of the church today is in a living, Active, moving God.
One of the greatest rewards that we ever receive for serving God is the permission to do still more for Him.
Charles Spurgeon
Witnesses are powered by the Holy Spirit. (vv. 6–8).
We have been sent a comforter and guide. Why would we need a guide if we have it all figured out? Why would we need a comforter if we were to have a perfect and painless life?
“I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit's leading on a daily basis. Christ said its better for us that the Spirit came and I want to live like that is true. I don't want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly.”
― Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit
Witnesses live in expectation (vv. 9–11).
We should all be living for God to move in miraculous ways! We should be in expectant in revival, in miracles, in salvations. We should be expectant in growth and perseverance. There is truly nothing our God can't do!
Proverbs 23:16-18 (ESV)
My inmost being will exult
when your lips speak what is right.
Let not your heart envy sinners,
but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.
Surely there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
Surely there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
