Introduction to Acts

Introduction to Acts & Reading the Passage

I invite you to take your Bible and open it up to the book of Acts. And since we're starting a new book, let me kind of help show you where we're at. If you look at my Bible, you can see it's towards the end here. It comes after the four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts. If you hit the letters like Romans, first and second Corinthians or any of those, you've gone too far.

So flip back a little bit. But please turn to the book of Acts, chapter one. We're going to be reading verses one through 11 this morning, and then we're going to be really looking not just at what this passage says, but to get a picture of the entire book of Acts. So this will be an introduction to help prepare you as we read through Acts over the next five Sundays together.

I Invite you to read along in Acts chapter one, starting in verse one. 

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive.

After his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or season which the father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Now when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly towards heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.

Prayer

Will you join me in a word of prayer? Heavenly father, we thank you for your word, the Holy Scripture, the Bible. We pray as we study it today and as we study the book of Acts, that you will open its meaning to us, that you will open our hearts to understand. We pray that we will learn from your teaching here in Scripture, that we will learn from the examples of the believers written here in Acts.

But God, we also pray that we will grow closer to you in our relationship, that our faith will grow more secure, and that our lives will live out what we are reading. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Sermon Introduction Illustration

Now, a few weeks ago, I was standing right here in front of this table and, I may have looked a little goofy. I had a task to sign some Mother's Day cards. So if you got a mother's day card last week and it had bad writing, that was probably for me. And so I didn't get the signing. First thing I did is I started making neat little piles. I organize my envelopes into different, sections because there are different colors, and I organize the cards.

And then I got my pen ready and I had a little stack of stickers. And the reason I did that first is because I'm the type of person who will take a card, not sign it and just put it in an envelope and put the sticker on it. Does anybody else like that? Or I'll just forget to, or I'll write the thing in the wrong place, or I'll put it in the wrong thing.

That's basically what I'm hoping this sermon is for us today, that it's a way of neatly kind of organizing before we begin the book of Acts.

Author and Purpose of Acts

So let's start by looking at how the author continues the story of Jesus. And I've got a handful of questions to kind of answer to see how the author's doing that.

So who is the author of Acts? He is Luke or Doctor Luke the physician. We know that because church history records that it doesn't say Luke here in the passage, but church history tells us we also know it because of some hints here in the verse.

As you were reading verse one, did you notice how he was talking to a fellow named Theophilus? Well, when when we look at that person, Theophilus, we recognize this is the same person. The Gospel of Luke was written two. It starts with a very similar opening in the Gospel of Luke that helps us know that it's connected.

So the author is Luke, who is a physician who is a missionary company of Paul and who took part in some of the events here in Acts.

But this is not a story about Luke. He's not writing to say, hey, I had some great missionary trips. Let me tell you all about them. No, this is a story about Jesus.

He says that he wrote about all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

You see, when Jesus does things, when he does miracles, when he does actions, when he kicks people out of the temple, all of that is illustrating and proving his teaching.

Jesus works and teaching go together.

Why Luke Wrote Acts

Luke is not just telling this story for no reason. He's telling us this story so that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.

He says this to Theophilus, that he's been instructed about Jesus, and he wants Theophilus to know with certainty about those things.

But he also says that the Holy Spirit also says that to us today, that the Gospel of Luke and the story of Acts are written so that we may know the certainty of the things which we are instructed about Jesus.

That's the point of the story.

Transition — How the Story Continues

But you may have noticed an issue. I've been talking about Luke a lot, which was about Jesus while he was here on earth. But how can this story continue if Jesus has ascended?

How are we going to continue the story of Jesus Part two in Acts if Jesus is no longer here on earth?

And that's going to help transition to our second point, the central idea of the story of Acts.

The Holy Spirit and the Book of Acts

The story is going to continue through the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts centers on the Spirit's movement.

As we look at the story of Acts, keep an eye out for what the Holy Spirit does.

Because if Jesus has ascended, how is the good news going to spread? It's going to be through spirit empowered followers being his witness.

The Holy Spirit moves the disciples to be bold witnesses, gives strength in hardship, builds the church, expands the gospel, guides decisions, directs missionary movements, and continues today.

The Holy Spirit still works.

So my encouragement is: keep a close eye on the Holy Spirit. Look for what the Holy Spirit did then, but also how the Holy Spirit is moving today.

Structure of Acts (Jerusalem → Ends of Earth)

The mission expanding to the ends of the world.

You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Jerusalem: chapters 1 through 7
Judea and Samaria: chapters 8 through 12
Ends of the earth: chapter 13 through 28

We see scenes, speeches, and summary statements throughout the book.

Kingdom Tension and Jesus’ Return

There’s a tension between the present age and the age to come.

We live in the overlap where we experience God's kingdom now, but also wait for its fullness when Christ returns.

We are not called to count down the days, but to live in faithful witness empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And that brings us to the end of this quick overview of Acts. I hope it's something that will help prepare you to read through Acts, and to find your place in God's mission today.