INTRO TO ACTS

FOCUS ON 13-28

I have retired from my Sunday School class, but I plan to keep posting these notes, at least for awhile. I will re-emphasize that I'm assuming those following these lessons are in classes studying Experiencing the Bible, published by Lifeway. My focus is on ideas not contained or perhaps not adequately explained in the printed quarterly. The quarterlies have a space limit and must follow certain guidelines. I don't, so I can ignore some things and expand on others. By the time when the quarterly writer gets his assignment, the editor has already chosen the specific passage to be studied and outlined it. My notes may jump around all over the place.

If you are a long time Bible student, let me recommend to you the “Daily Study Bible” by William Barclay, a Scottish pastor and scholar. In sermon prep, I frequently started with the technical commentaries, from the most detailed on down. Barclay was last, because his work is in small volumes and divided into daily readings if you want to do it that way. But I soon discovered, he was regularly choosing the best parts from the technical study and putting them in simple language. You can buy the whole NT set in hardback or paperback, or you could just buy the one or two on the book you are presently interested in.

Having said that, I think this will be an excellent quarterly. By all means read the editor's introduction, short but excellent. Likewise the writer's intro is well done. I won't repeat their points, but you should read it and refer back from time to time.

One of them points out a traditional division of Acts as first about Peter in the first 12 chapters, and the rest about Paul. Well...sort of...It's more about the Gospel's progress from Jerusalem to Rome. Luke follows the outline given by Jesus's last words to His disciples: You shall be my witnesses,beginning in Jerusalem, then all Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth!” The first 12 chapters cover Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. From 13 on, we see the faith exploding worldwide. Baptist scholar and New Orleans Seminary prof Frank Stagg put out an easily understood commentary on Acts, emphasizing the expansion from Jerusalem to Rome. Luke famously changed the voice of many of his sentences (remember your grammar?) from third person to first about half way through. He begins to say “We” instead of “he or they.”

I see no compelling reason to look for any other author than the traditional Luke, though some have. Acts is the second part of a two-part work, Luke-Acts. Both are addressed to someone he calls “Theophilus.” which means friend of God. That could actually be his name or nickname, or it could be an open invitation to any God-follower to get some basic information. In his gospel, Luke says he researched all the information he could find to make sure he presented the best account of what happened that he could. He repeated his greeting to the same man at the beginning of Acts. Presumably he continued his research into the various accounts of what happened, how, and why. Remember, as a companion of Paul, he would have met at least Peter, James, and John – and possibly many others.

Now back to the unfolding of Acts. We get sidetracked on the day of Pentecost by focusing on the speaking in tongues. BUT DON'T MISS WHAT HAPPENED!

That first evangelistic explosion happened to thousands who had come to Jerusalem from ALL OVER THE WORLD! And 3,000 were converted that day! FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD! Most of them were Jews, of course, or at least God-fearers, such as the Centurion that sent for Peter later. But these people would have returned to their home countries with an excitement of what happened to them and telling the story of Jesus all over the world. Indeed, they may well have been part of the continuing teaching the next few days in Jerusalem, where another 2,000 were added to the church (4:4).

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH BEGAN AS A MISSIONARY RELIGION! Make no apology for sharing your testimony as to what God has done in your life. A changed life is an unanswerable “argument.”

The book does begin with Peter and his adventures. But when the new church ran into its first church fight (Chap 6) the Twelve appoint the Seven from a group chosen by the congregation – or its emerging leaders. Then the Seven begin first to solve the problem and then turned to witnessing. Indeed one commentator took the famous statement, It would not be right to neglect the ministry of the word of God to serve tables. That commentator pointed out that disdain for doing a lowly job may have hurt their witness, because the story immediately switches from the original Twelve to Stephen and Philip from the Seven.

But notice that the Seven all had Greek names, choosing from among the dispersion people who could relate to the Greeks who were complaining. My point here is the gospel from the very beginning was reaching out to all kinds of people. I imagine my readership from Facebook posts may vary in their feelings about the current political battles on immigration and “the wall.” Aside from that, I don't understand why the church hasn't raised up and said, “The Lord is sending us people. Let's share the gospel with them, even if we have to 'wait tables' to do it!?”

Stephen then preaches to the multitude, raises great opposition, and is stoned to death. As a result the whole church was persecuted and fled from Jerusalem into the countryside and even into Samaria. There Philip preached to crowds, converted a sorcerer, and was led by the Spirit to an appointment with an Ethiopian eunuck, definitely a foreigner, probably black. He was already a God-fearer, and Philip won Him to Christ and baptized him on the spot. Tradition says he went home and established the longest lasting Christian church in the world. The Ethiopian church continued until the government shifted toward Islam in the last 20 or30 years.

Notice that the Holy Spirit led Philip. He didn't move around on his on. The Spirit led him into the desert to find the eunuch. After baptizing the man, that same Spirit led him on a preaching tour from Azotus up to Caesarea, where more action is about to happen.

Two thoughts here: First some have suggested the book be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, because from first to last we see Him at work. The tongues of fire descending on the original 120 in the upper room, and the continuing emphasis on his leadership of Philip, and also Peter preaching up to Caesarea. And at the end of chapter 9, the church enjoys a period of freedom and growth directed by the Spirit.

Second, note that the new group is called the Seven, not deacons. We infer this as the origin of the deacons because of the comment about “serving tables.” The Greek term for serving is “diacono,” thus deacons. The early church did have deacons – their qualifications are spelled out in 1 Timothy. But the Seven might have been an ad hoc committee called to solve one problem, which they did. And by the way, both the Seven and the deacons are to be “filled with the Holy Spirit,” which we conveniently forget. We argue of what is meant by “not given to much strong drink,” and ignore the Spirit. The strong drink means we don't need alcoholics in positions of church leadership. We tend to make our actual choices on how good their attendance is. Does anyone know a local church that might have required evidence of soul-winning for eligibility?

Moving right along, in chapter 10 Peter also has arrived at Caesarea. (It's interesting that Philip is already there. Did he have anything to do with the invitation?) He had the miraculous dream/vision of the unclean animals let down on a sheet from heaven. What God has cleansed THAT call thou NOT common or unclean! And Peter woke and went with a delegation that brought him to a Roman centurion, also a God-fearer, but a Roman and not a Jew. Do you see the dream as a call to missions? And Peter, considered by many the chief of the disciples, had to struggle with it. He who preached to thousands walked in and asked the Centurion, what do you want? HE KNEW what the man wanted, but he was a Roman and not a Jew. And Peter says in effect, “I am just beginning to catch on that God is no respecter of persons.” Just beginning? Just beginning? After preaching to thousands? Before I jump on Peter, though, I need to ask Perry how quick he catches on to what the Spirit is doing? And what about you?

Do you see the progress here?All kinds of people are being saved. The church is already a hodge-podge. A couple more chapters about Peter, and then the scene shifts to the Church at Antioch, already a multi-racial and mixed Jewish/Gentile congregation. According to 11: 19 the Antioch church was founded by men from Cypress and Cyrene, an island nation and a city in Northern Africa. These men were used to living among Gentiles, so they had no trouble sharing the gospel story with these Gentiles as well. They had a diverse group, as you can see in 13:1 – even including a likely black man named Niger or Blackie.

Now the disciples in Jerusalem were getting nervous as the faith spread outside of their immediate watchcare. When they heard about Antioch, they sent Barnabas to check it out. (Barney was a committed Christian who had sold land and donated it to the church. His name, Bar – nabas, means son of encouragement in Aramaic.) He did and got excited over what was happening. He had heard of Saul (converted in chapter nine) and went up to his home town of Tarsus and persuaded him to come back with him to Antioch. Neither of them realized what they were about to get into. For a year they taught together, evangelizing and developing the Christians (first called that in Antioch, btw. Before the faith was called the Way.) and I'm sure they learned a great deal themselves along the way that stood them in good stead in the journeys to follow.

Luke does not tell us how, only that the Holy Spirit told the Antiochan church to let Him have Barnabas and Paul for a job he had for them. Possibly the two strongest leaders of the church, and God calls them away. But He also must have thought the church was built up and strong enough to flourish without them. >A church I once pastored had three pianists, and I though we were in good shape. Then one left to play for another church who had NO pianist, but left us in good shape with the first string keyboardist. But then she and her husband moved out of town, leaving us with a third string pianist. But guess what happened. She worked on it and improved and within a year was very capable. The Lord provides, taking care of His church and also developing his people!

Pay attention to their approach. Paul had been a leading rabbi, trained by Gamaliel, the most respected teacher of the time. Therefore he had an open door to Jewish synagogues wherever they travelled, so he began there. Read Chapter 13 for the details. You'll also find a sample sermon that follows the same two-part outline that Peter used on the day of Pentecost. He began with an outline of Jewish history, from Abraham through the Exodus and the Kingdom of David. Next he spoke of prophesies in Scripture, thus leading to the identification of Jesus as Messiah. He then told of the cross and resurrection and salvation open to all who believed. It's a good practice today to begin witnessing to people by beginning from where they are and moving toward your testimony of what God has done for you, confirming it from Scripture, and inviting them to follow Christ.

Notice the simple little verse 13 where Luke throws out casually in passing that John (Mark) left them and returned to Jerusalem. No explanation. But later Paul and Barnabas broke up their team when Barnabas wanted to include Mark s an aide on their second trip. Paul was adamant and went off with Silas and Timothy instead. Note they were training younger team members on both trips. Are you mentoring anyone?