THE MEANING OF ACTS - CH. 1

Many have taught on the Book of Acts, and I have heard many sermons and studies on it. There is always this tension around it - like an elephant in the room - because when we look at the record of the life of the early Church, it begs the question, "Why aren't we experiencing these kinds of things in 'church' now?"


This is kind of an embarrassing question for leaders. But I think there are a lot of reasons we don't see what we read about in Acts - everything from our understanding of "church", to our leadership culture, to a misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit. As I finished reading Acts a few months ago, I sensed the Spirit of God prompting me to go back (yes, I was out running at the time) and work through the meaning of the testimony of Acts for us today. Please feel free to chime in on this at the Facebook Page "Organic Church Movements"  http://www.facebook.com/groups/16161960273/

I believe that the first chapter holds a key to understanding the rest of the story - it is in the words of Jesus. Like so many other things about Him and His mission, I think we have over-interpreted Him. He said a simple thing here: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses..."  That's it. No mention of gifts, miracles, signs and wonders - Then I thought, that was His point. The empowering of the Holy Spirit was not for any other reason - TO BE WITNESSES. I thought that if that is the case, everything else from here on should show that to be true.

As I would read on the chapter, even the concern with replacing Judas as an "apostelos" was all about the witness - the witness of those who had seen the life of the Messiah from His baptism to His resurrection. I don't think it's a stretch to put this also next to the last words of Jesus in Matthew to the disciples: to "...make disciples of all nations...teaching them to obey all I have commanded you...". The appointed task of disciples is to make more disciples - the role of the Holy Spirit's empowerment is all about being witnesses to the living Jesus Christ.


What I think it means for us today is that our witness of the reality of Jesus' work in our lives is the most powerful thing we have here. We can change the atmosphere around us by just saying what we have seen Jesus do. Haven't we all experienced this? Why do you think it is so hard to do? Is the enemy pushing back with all his might to stop the witness of the living Christ? Consider the power that accompanies your testimony - If we want to see what we read about of the early church, we can start here.

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ALTAR TO AN "UNKNOWN JESUS"

In first century Athens, Acts 17 records that many there "spent their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new".They also had an altar there to an "Unknown god", which Paul referred to in his gospel message to them.

There are many places we can go today that have pictures of Jesus, crosses and religious art of various kinds - and yet to many who are familiar with these images, Jesus Himself is "unknown", that is He is not recognized as someone you follow every day. He is "preached", but not known: His Kingdom message, His healing and deliverance ministry are stories in most places - acts to be remembered and rehearsed as proof of why we "believe" in what He did back then. Our response today is mostly to be nice and keep going to church every week, while the living Jesus remains unknown.

This Jesus who we read about is alive. He still calls followers - still heals; still sets captives free; still forgives sin; still upsets people in power. We can be one of His if we take everything else in our life and put it under Him - including our life itself. This Jesus can be known - He lives!