the book of Acts it's the second volume
of a unified two-part work that today we
call Luke acts these were written by the
same author Luke who was a travelling
co-worker with Paul this is clear from
the books introduction where Luke says I
produced my first volume that's the
gospel about all the things that Jesus
began to do and to teach now Luke's
giving a clue here as to what this book
of Acts will be about Volume one was
about what Jesus began to do and to
teach vol 2 will then be about what
Jesus continued to do and teach which
leads to a really interesting point
about the books traditional but not
original name the Acts of the Apostles
while different Apostles do appear in
most of these stories the only single
character who unifies the whole story
from beginning to end is Jesus himself
acting directly or through the spirit
and so the book would more accurately be
named the acts of Jesus and the spirit
the books introduction recounts how the
Risen Jesus spends some 40 days with the
disciples teaching them about the
kingdom of God this connects back to the
story of Luke's Gospel where Jesus
claimed that he was restoring God's
kingdom over the world beginning with
Israel so he called Israel to live under
God's reign by following him and he was
enthroned as king when he gave up his
life and then conquered death with his
love and so the book of Acts begins with
the risen King Jesus instructing his
disciples about life in his kingdom so
he promises that the Spirit will soon
come and immerse them in his personal
presence and this fulfills one of the
key hopes from the Old Testament
prophets that in the Messianic Kingdom
God's presence his Spirit would come and
take up residence among his people in a
new temple and transform their hearts
and so Jesus says when this happens the
Spirit will empower his disciples to be
my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth
from here Jesus is taken up from their
sight and a cloud it's an image drawn
from the book of Daniel chapter 7
it shows how Jesus is now being
enthroned as the son of man who was
vindicated after his suffering and now
shares in God's rule
the world and so he promises that he
will return one day and so the main
themes and the design of the book of
Acts flow riot out of this opening
chapter this is a story about Jesus
leading his people by the spirit to go
out into the world and invite all
nations to live under his reign and so
the story will begin with that message
spreading in Jerusalem and then into the
neighboring regions of Judea and Samaria
full of non-jewish people and then from
there out to all of the nations into the
ends of the earth this video is just
going to focus on the first half of the
book so the Jerusalem focus section
begins with Jesus's followers waiting
until the feast of Pentecost when all of
these Jewish pilgrims from all over the
ancient world were in the city and the
Holy Spirit comes on the disciples as a
great wind and something like flames
appear over each person's head and
together they start announcing and
telling stories of God's mighty deeds
and they're speaking in all of these
languages that they didn't know before
but all the people gathered there
understand perfectly now in order to see
what Luke's emphasizing in this story
it's crucial to see the Old Testament
roots of all of these images so first
the wind and the fire is a direct
allusion to the stories about God's
glorious fiery presence filling the
tabernacle and the temple and it's also
connected to the prophetic promises that
God would come and live by his spirit in
the new temple of the Messianic Kingdom
and so here in Acts God's fiery presence
comes to dwell not in a building but in
his people Luke is saying that the new
temple promised by the prophets is
Jesus's new covenant family the people
of Jesus which connects to the second
thing Luke is trying to say here so the
prophets promise that when God came to
dwell in his new temple he would reunify
all the tribes of Israel under the
Messianic King and that the good news of
God's reign would go out and be
announced to the nations Luke describes
in detail the international multi tribe
makeup of all of the Israelites who were
there at Pentecost and who responded to
Peter's message and so that apostles
keep calling is realized to acknowledge
Jesus as their Messiah and thousands
upon
thousands respond forming new
communities of generosity in worship and
celebration but not everybody's
celebrating from here Luke shows how
Jesus's new family quickly faced
hostility from the Jerusalem leaders
with a really beautiful symmetrical
design Luke tells a tale of two temples
so God's new temple the community of
Jesus's followers they're gathering
every day in the temple courts and from
house to house now in between those
notices are two stories about Peter and
the other apostles healing people in the
temple courts only to get arrested by
the temple leaders followed each time by
speech of Peter claiming that Jesus is
the true king of Israel and at the
center of all this is a story about
Jesus's followers donating property and
possessions to a common fund to help the
poor which is really cool but it seems
kind of random for Luke to mention it
here until you realize that this was a
practice described in the laws of the
Torah and was supposed to be happening
through the Jerusalem Temple and its
leaders so Luke's point here is clear
the new temple of Jesus's community is
fulfilling the purpose that God always
intended for the jerusalem temple to be
a place where heaven and earth meet
where people encounter God's generosity
and healing presence and this conflict
between the two temples it culminates in
Acts chapter 6 and 7 it's the first wave
of persecution
so Jesus's followers they continue to
multiply requiring more leaders and one
of these Stephen he's a bold witness for
Jesus in Jerusalem and he ends up
getting arrested and he's accused of
speaking against and even threatening
the temple and so Stephen here gives a
long speech showing how Israel's leaders
have always rejected the messengers God
sent them including Jesus and now his
disciples
so the Jerusalem leaders are enraged
they murder Stephen and they launch a
wave of persecution against Jesus's
followers that drives most of them from
this city but it has a paradoxical
effect Luke shows how this tragedy
actually became the means by which
Jesus's people are now sent out into
Judea and Samaria now in this section
Luke has collected a diverse group of
stories that all show how the
mostly Jewish jerusalem-based community
of Jesus became a multi-ethnic
international movement so first is the
mission of Philip into Samaria it's the
land of Israel's hated enemies and many
of them come to follow Jesus next we
have the conversion of Saul of Tarsus
later known as Paul he was the sworn
enemy and persecutor of Jesus's
followers until he personally met the
Risen Jesus and he then became a
passionate advocate on behalf of Jesus
next is the story of Peter having a
vision about how God doesn't consider
non-jewish people ritually impure or
unworthy of joining Jesus family and so
Peter he's led by the spirit into the
house of a Roman soldier just full of
non-jewish people and they all respond
to the good news about Jesus in fact the
Spirit shows up powerfully upon them
just as he did to the Jewish disciples
back in chapter 2 these themes all come
together in the founding of the church
in Antioch the largest most cosmopolitan
city in that part of the Roman Empire
and Luke he tells us that Barnabas a
Jewish leader from the Jerusalem church
went along with Paul to help lead this
church community and so it became the
first large multi-ethnic Church in
history it was where Jesus's followers
were called Christians for the first
time and it's from here that the first
International missionaries were sent out
and so we see Jesus's Commission coming
true and this takes us into the rest of
Luke's story but for now that's the
first half of the book of Acts