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.