Acts Annual Bible Study
Living with Passionate Faith

The first thing I did after agreeing to write this study on the book of Acts was to sit down and read Acts from beginning to end. I was on vacation in Oregon, so I took my Bible down to the Alsea River, sat in a folding chair, and, with only the sound of the river gurgling in the background, read Acts. When I finished my reading, I found myself trying to untangle a jumble of feelings.

I felt intrigue because I read things I had either never read before or maybe had read and forgotten. I felt confusion because the Acts world of speaking in tongues, communicating with angels, and healing people physically seemed so foreign to my world. I felt admiration because those first Christians were so tenacious and resilient. I felt embarrassment because their faith seemed so much stronger than mine. But mostly I felt enthusiasm because of the example of those first believers. The book of Acts is about passionate faith, and just reading it from beginning to end gave me a new injection of passion.

The Flow of the Story

Reading Acts in its entirety also helped me realize the "flow" of the book, how Luke logically moves in his writing from one "thought compartment" to the next. It seemed to me that the book of Acts unfolds in an easy-to-outline form that includes four distinct sections.

The first section, chapters 1 through 5, is about gathering a community. In this section, Luke tells us how the early church organized itself, how the Holy Spirit energized those believers, and how they grew to love one another. By the end of the fifth chapter, the early church is in place, and its trademark is a white-hot fire of enthusiasm.

The next section in Acts, which includes chapters 6 through 15, is about breaking down walls. Luke shows us one incident after another where the early believers moved beyond provincialism to share the good news with the whole world. By the end of chapter 15, many walls have been demolished, and the church has made itself clear: Jesus is for everyone!

Logically, then, the next section of Acts, chapters 16 through 20, is about spreading the word. This section focuses primarily on the Apostle Paul as he travels throughout the ancient world declaring the good news of Jesus.

The final section of Acts, which encompasses chapters 21 through 28, is about taking a stand. In this final section of the book, Paul is again the focal point-only now he is trapped in prison. From prison cells in Jerusalem, Caesarea, and Rome, Paul takes a stand before a crowd in Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin, and a succession of government leaders: Felix, Festus, and Agrippa.

Gathering a community. Breaking down walls. Spreading the word. Taking a stand. Those four phrases capture the essence of the book of Acts and will serve as the outline for our study. Each section also includes a focal passage that gets special attention and especially captures the theme of that section. We begin by examining the first five chapters of Acts and seeing how the early Christians gathered a community of faith.

Jesus Gives Final Instructions and Ascends to Heaven (1:1-11)

Luke addressed the book of Acts to a man named Theophilus. No one knows who Theophilus was, and some scholars even suggest that the name is a generic one referring to no particular person at all. Theophilus, in Greek, means "lover of God," so Luke might have been addressing his book to all lovers of God. The Gospel of Luke is also addressed to Theophilus, which gives further credence to the notion that Luke wrote both books.

After greeting Theophilus, Luke quickly ushers Jesus onto the stage of his drama. He had written about Jesus "in the first book," he says, and now he is going to continue the story.

The first words Jesus utters in Acts are, "This is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts 1:5). The disciples barely heard those words. They were so intent on being a part of something grand and glorious that they had their minds elsewhere: "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6).

Remember, the people of Israel had always seen the Messiah as a political leader who would lead them back to prominence. For some 600 years, Israel had been ruled by other nations, and the people craved a Messiah who could restore their independence and glory. The disciples' question to Jesus revealed that old mentality about the Messiah. It also revealed the extent to which they were still in the dark about the true meaning of Jesus and his kingdom. What Jesus meant by "kingdom of God" and what they meant by "kingdom of God" were miles apart.

Jesus told them it was not for them to know "the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority" (Acts 1:7). Some things would not be revealed to them, and they needed to know that. Though they would get some revelation, they would not get total revelation. Don't most of us eventually find ourselves face to face with our limitations? Like those early Christians, we're filled with "when" and "why" questions for God but can't get satisfactory answers. More and more, along the Christian Way, we find ourselves admitting our ignorance and leaning into the sovereignty of a good God.

But Jesus told those early followers that there was something they could know and do: they were to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them and receive the Spirit's power, and then they were to be witnesses for Christ in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They were not responsible for everything, but they were responsible for something.

It is worth noting that the coming of the Spirit was connected primarily to the task of bearing witness to the world. The early believers were to receive the power of the Spirit not to get an ecstatic experience or emotional high, but to take the good news of Jesus and his resurrection to other people. The Holy Spirit came to give them power to serve, pray, preach, give, and go. It was not the power to feel something so much as it was the power to do something.

After issuing his marching orders to the early followers, Jesus ascended to heaven. By verse 11 in the Acts story, Jesus has bodily left the earth, and the implication is clear: the baton has been passed to this ragtag bunch of ordinary people. If the Way of Jesus is going to infect the world, it will be because these people form a community of witnesses that will serve, pray, preach, give, and go. After just eleven verses in Acts, Jesus has departed, and the spotlight has shifted to the community.