Resources for Finishing Our Lord's Unfinished Work, Part 1

Acts 1:1‑11

This morning we have the wonderful privilege of beginning a new series.  And it's always with a great anticipation that we do that.  We're going to begin a study of the book of Acts this morning and I'm excited about it because there are many, many things that we're going to learn in the book of Acts.  We're going to learn tremendous principles that the Lord used to begin the church, some of which are still operating today, some of which are not.  We're going to see some ministries that are exciting in terms of what happened in miraculous ways.  We're going to see how God works through men by His Spirit.  We're going to see the pattern for the church, what our Lord intended it should be and what it was in its purest form.  We're going to be learning some marvelous things.  We're going to see God's pattern for missionary effort, God's pattern for the control and the government of the church, God's pattern for building the church, for evangelizing the world.  All of these things unfold to us in the book of Acts.  And so it becomes a very strategic book.  It is the chief source of facts concerning the birth of the church and gives to us the strong character of the first century church.

Now the author of the book of Acts, as we shall see in a moment in some more detail, is Luke...Luke is the author of Acts.  And Luke was closely associated with the Apostles from about the time of Jesus' death, around 30 A.D., to about 60 or 63 A.D. where evidently he penned this book.  And in those intervening 30‑plus years, as Luke travelled in the companionship of the Apostles, he penned what was going on.  And the story of the book of Acts is the beginning of the church at Jerusalem and its explosion until it reaches the capital of the world, one of those uttermost parts of the earth, the city of Rome.  And in a thirty‑ year period, under the tremendous power of the Spirit of God, the church exploded around that area of the world and reached the capital of the world in the form of the Apostle Paul in his arrival in the city of Rome.  And in those 30 years, Luke presents to us how it was that the Spirit of God superintended controlled and empowered the expansion of the church.

     Now, there are many reasons that Luke wanted to write this and we could, perhaps, pull out as many reasons as there are truths in the book.  It's important because it gives us the pattern of the church.  It's important because it shows us the pattern of world evangelism.  It's important because there are principles of discipleship.  It's important for a multiplicity of reasons.  But in Luke's own mind, as he is writing, he is directing this book to a particular Roman high official whose name we shall see in a moment.  And in writing to this man, he is evidently‑‑as one of his purposes‑‑attempting to commend Christianity to the Roman world.  The Romans had a rather exclusive view of religion, you worship the emperor.  And they had some other gods that were involved, but emperor worship was the key thing.  They were somewhat tolerant although their tolerance ran a little thin and they became great persecutors of Christianity.  And in this particular book, Luke directs the attention of the Romans from time to time to the character of Christians, that is that they are not bad citizens but rather they are very loyal and they are very law abiding.  He also directs the Romans' attention to the fact that many other Roman officials have treated the Christians with great care and have even given good testimonies about Christians.  So it has kind of as a background thought the commending of Christianity to the Roman world, lest the Romans be threatened that all of these people were rebels who were going to overthrow the pax Romana or the Roman peace.

     For example, in Acts 13 he even talks about the fact that Sergius Paulus who was at that time the Roman governor of Cypress became a Christian.  And so at that point certainly a Roman was tolerant of Christianity.  Chapter 16 verse 35, chapter 18 verse 12, chapter 19 verse 31 indicate the Roman attitude toward Christianity was positive at that time.  And so this book sort of sets down for all time the fact that Romans should treat Christianity with great care because Christians were accepted by the early Romans.

     But not only that, there's also a great emphasis on the fact that the Christians were good citizens.  The secretary of Ephesus, for example, in chapter 19 gives the Christians a good testimony.  Even in chapter 25 and verse 25, Festus, when discussing the issues with Paul made the statement that Paul perhaps might have even been released.  And certainly gave no signs of being worthy of any crime.  And so Luke then commends Christianity in the sense of its place in the Roman world.

     Not only that, Luke evidently commends Christianity in its place in relation to the Jew because you see there was this kind of latent problem with the new‑born church as it was to unfold and that is that the Jews would think that it belonged primarily to them and the Gentiles were second‑class citizens.  Particularly might this have happened in view of what happened when the church began at Jerusalem as the Spirit of God came in cloven tongues of fire and came upon them, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in different languages.  Now then this gave them a certain exclusive kind of feeling and that's why when Peter came to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, he was so shocked when he announced to the Jerusalem council, "Guys, you'll never believe it, the same thing happened to the Gentiles that happened to us, can you believe that?"  In other words, the point is that God wanted them to make sure the Gentiles and the Jews were on an equal basis in the church.

     So, the book of Acts then commends Christianity to the Jew in the sense that it's a universal thing and there's no variation.  It talks about, for example, Philip preaching to Gentiles.  It talks about Peter and his ministry with Cornelius.  It talks about the Christian Gentile...the Christians who went to the Gentiles at Antioch.  It talks about Paul in Asia Minor.  All this Gentile ministry and the climax in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem Council when they decided there that Jews and Gentiles were indeed equal in the church.

     But both of those are in a great measure secondary.  For the main purpose of Acts is stated as such in Acts 1 verse 8.  And if you'll look at that for a moment you'll see the main character summarized very clearly.  Verse 8, "But ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you," and here's really the purpose, "ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, in all Judea and in Samaria and in the utter most part of the earth."  Now there you have the outline of the book of Acts.  The book of Acts begins when the Spirit came.  They received power.  Immediately they became...what?...witnesses declaring the wonderful works of God.  They began where?  In Jerusalem.  Then the book of Acts moves and they went to Judea.  Then they went to Samaria, finally they went to the world.  They wound up in the capital city of Rome and that's exactly the outline of the book of Acts given in the eighth verse.  It begins right there and it sweeps clear through to the end of the book.

     The purpose then of the book as Luke states it there is to show the story of the spread of Christianity empowered and energized by the Holy Spirit throughout the world.

     Now I can illustrate this to you and I want to take a moment to do it because I think this will help you to get the flow a little bit.  It's somewhat academic but hang on for a minute, I want you to see this.  The book of Acts falls into various kinds of outlines.  You can outline it in many ways and everybody always has trouble outlining the book of Acts because it's tough to outline the work of the Spirit...always.  So whenever you try to outline the book of Acts you have a problem.  If you're outlining Romans, you're dealing with Paul's logical mind.  If you're outlining Acts, you're dealing with the flow of the sweep of the Spirit which can't always be boxed into little categories. 

     But there are six kind of panels that find their way through the book of Acts.  And all of them show us the flow of the church as it moves.  Let me show you what I mean.  In...beginning in chapter 1 verse 1, and running through chapter 6 verse 7, the first panel appears.  And this little section tells us about the church at Jerusalem where it all began.  It tells us about the preaching of Peter at Pentecost and the birth of the Jerusalem church.  And it finishes us with this statement in Acts 6 verse 7, "And the Word of God increased and the number of the disciples...watch this word...multiplied in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith."  Now there's the summary of the first six chapters up till verse 7.  It's all summarized right there.  This is the birth of the Jerusalem church as it began to grow and as it began to multiply.

Then beginning in chapter 6 verse 8, running through chapter 9 verse 1 we find the next little section in the book of Acts and this shows how Christianity which began at Jerusalem began to spread throughout Judea which was a province in which Jerusalem was the city.  It began to spread throughout Judea, in that second little section Stephen preached and died a martyr's death.  Then it began to move into Samaria and that's all covered through chapter 9 verse 31 and summarized in verse 31 which says, "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit were...and here's this word again...multiplied."  So there you have the second movement of the church as it begins to grow toward fulfilling the commission that Jesus gave in Acts 1:8.

     Then beginning in chapter 9 verse 32 and going to chapter 12 verse 24, we find the next movement of the church which involved the conversion of the Apostle Paul and at that point the church begins to explode.  The Gentiles are reached in the city of Antioch where they're first called Christians.  Cornelius is saved through the ministry of Peter.  And the summary of that period is in verse 24 and again it says, "But the Word of God grew...and there's that word again...and multiplied."  The whole thing is the multiplication of Christianity as it moves out.

     Then we come to the fourth section beginning in verse 25 of 12 and running to verse 5 of chapter 16, 16:5 and that section deals with the church born in Asia Minor and the preaching tour of Galatia by the Apostle Paul.  And it ends with this summary, verse 5, "And so were the churches established in the faith...and here comes the same idea...and increased in number daily."

     Then that brings us to the fifth section which begins in 16:6 and runs through chapter 19 verse 20.  And in this section, Paul moves out again even further and moves to the great Gentile cities of Ephesus and Corinth and extends the ministry further to the ends of the world.  And the comment is in verse 20 of chapter 19, "And mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed."  And here it is again, multiplying and extending.

     Then beginning in 19:21 clear till the end of the book we find Paul's final ministry, his arrival at Rome where he is imprisoned but still preaches the gospel and the book closes with these words: here's Paul preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him.  And there it closes.  And so the book of Acts covers a period of 30 years in which the church of Jesus Christ was born and exploded around the known world and reached the capital of the world, the city of Rome.  And thus does the book end with Paul in Rome in prison awaiting his execution.  And that's where Luke stops because he has accomplished his purpose.  He has shown the miraculous spread of Christianity to the capital city of the world in just over 30 years, a religion that began with a little handful of weak men and a leader who was nailed to a cross in 30 years has conquered the known world.

     Now I might add, going back to the first chapter and still talking about introduction, that verse 8 says it will all happen under the power of the Holy Spirit.  Now this book is entitled "The Acts of the Apostles," it could better be titled "The Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles."  Because it is the record of how the Spirit of God was instrumental in all of this that was going on in the spread of the church.  Behind everything is the power of the Holy Spirit, the dynamic of the Holy Spirit.  And Acts is a practical book in the sense that it gives us patterns for Christian testimony, for missionary work, evangelism, building of the church, etc., etc.  But it is also a theology book in the sense that it details for us the flow of the work in the person of God and how He operates.  And so as we go through this book, we're going to find ourselves not only learning practical principles but we're going to find ourselves kind of running off on theological tangents.  As we see the Spirit of God do something, we'll then have to branch out and define that ministry of the Spirit. 

     So our study in Acts will be practical and it will also be theological.  The Holy Spirit dominates the book of Acts.  Sixty times in the book of Acts, it talks of the Spirit, 40 times of the Holy Spirit.  And everything in here revolves around the Spirit.  If you put it all together you find that God's pattern for everything in the church is the energy of the Spirit, always.  The Holy Spirit...the Holy Spirit regenerates, baptizes, fills and sanctifies the members.  The Holy Spirit chooses and appoints the ministers.  The Holy Spirit precides over the councils of the church.  The Holy Spirit directs and controls everything the church ever does.  And so it is really the Acts of the Holy Spirit. And whereas in the gospels, and particularly in John where we have been studying, Christ is revealed in the flesh.  In Acts, Christ is revealed by the ministry of the Spirit.  And you'll remember that Jesus made that statement, He said, "When I go away, I'll send the Holy Spirit and He shall testify...what?...of Me."  And so the book of Acts, though majoring on the Holy Spirit, is a living testimony to the power of Jesus Christ for the Spirit always points to Christ.  And so as we study the book of Acts we do not want to get preoccupied with the Spirit or else He has not accomplished His ministry, we want to get preoccupied with what the Spirit tells us about Jesus Christ.

     Now included in our introduction I'd like to introduce you to verse 1 and 2 to get us rolling.  Verse 1, "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments unto the Apostles whom He had chosen."  Now this introduces us to the book and it's a very brief introduction.  And it tells us who wrote Acts.  It tells us that Luke wrote it.  You say, "I didn't see Luke's name there."  You're right.  But what you did see there was the statement, "the former treatise have I made, O Theophilus."  Now if you go back to the beginning of Luke and look at chapter 1 verse 3, Paul addresses...or Luke addresses this gospel to Theophilus.  He says, "To write unto thee in order the most excellent...or most excellent Theophilus that thou mightest know the certainty of those things where in thou has been instructed."

     Luke wrote Luke, the gospel of Luke, to Theophilus.  And we know that.  Now here in chapter 1 of Acts verse 1, he says, "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus," so we know it's the same writer.  It's interesting that Luke is not mentioned a great deal in the New Testament, he appears three times in Colossians 4:14, in the little book of Philemon verse 24 and in 1 Timothy 4...er, 2 Timothy 4:11.  And in each case he is just seen moving about, moving about with the Apostles.  Now we can put a little bit together about Luke, not a lot but we know a little bit.

     Number one, we know he was a doctor.  Now we know he was a doctor not only because of the statements but when we read the book of Luke, we find that he gets himself into situations that reveal he's a doctor.  His choice of words is medical, in certain cases.  And particularly interesting in the case of a woman who had an issue of blood, the other gospel writers say as she had suffered many things at the hands of many physicians.  Luke, however, carefully omits that phrase, see, which gives us a little insight into how Luke viewed his profession.  And so we believe that Luke was a doctor.  And we don't know much else about him other than that and that he was one of a godly sort who followed and was a close helper and close friend and companion of Paul, even involved in his final imprisonment with him.  And he was a Gentile.  And then likely the only Gentile writer of the New Testament.

     Now he says "the former treatise," and that's an interesting Greek phrase because it really means the first part of two historical narratives...the first part of two historical narratives.  In other words, the idea that this is volume 2 of something and that, of course, pushes it right back to Luke where we remember that the gospel is volume 1.  If you want another title for Acts you can call it "Luke, volume 2" because Luke began, first of all, by instructing us concerning the person of Jesus Christ and what He did in His life.  And then he carries the flow of the thing right on, what Jesus did when He went back to heaven and sent the Spirit to finish His work.  This is just volume 2.

     Now picking just a moment some thoughts from the name Theophilus, which is a combination of two words meaning "beloved of God, or friend of God, or lover of God."  Theophilus, we know little or nothing about except historically.  In the second century his name appears and is some indication in the second century sources that he was an influential wealthy official in Antioch.  There's also some indication that Luke was originally from Antioch and therefore Luke had a knowledge of this man and perhaps because he was a well‑known physician had some connection with Theophilus.  Undoubtedly, Theophilus had become a believer and consequently Luke had addressed these particular volumes to Theophilus to give him information as he states in Luke concerning Jesus Christ that he might well understand the things which he had been instructed.  So evidently he had come to Christ and now he needed detail and perhaps Theophilus was a man who demanded detail.  Also the fact that he commends Christianity to the Romans would be in back of his mind as he writes to a Roman like Theophilus.

     Now we may also assume from Luke chapter 1 where he calls him "excellent Theophilus" that he was a high‑ranking Roman official, for the term "excellent" also appears in connection with Festus and Felix who were governors.  So it is very likely that this man Theophilus was a very high‑ranking Roman official who had come to Christ and it is this one to whom Luke pens this two‑volume set on the work of Jesus Christ, His work on earth and His work through His church, volume 2.  And you'll notice that this is indicated very simply in verse 1.  It says this, "I'm writing to you about all that Jesus..what's the next word?...began...began to do and to teach." 

     In other words, I only got it started.  Jesus on earth in his gospel, in the gospel accounts only began to do the work.  You say, "I thought the work of Jesus Christ was a finished work."  You're right.  The work of redemption is finished.  The work of evangelization and teaching of the Word of God was not finished, He only began to do that.  Don't ever forget for a moment that the idea of Jesus' work is not a finished work, Jesus said in John 17:4 when He prayed to the Father, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."  And He also said on the cross, "Tetelestai", it is finished.  When it came to redemption, it was done.  When it came to evangelization, it was only begun.  And so I have entitled this particular beginning of the book of Acts, "Jesus gives the resources for the finishing of His unfinished work."  Plans for finishing His unfinished work.  And so we must distinguish between the finished work of Christ and that which He only just began.  And if you want to know what He only just began, it's what He can do and what He teaches.