Hello and welcome to Acts!
Today we begin our trek through the book of Acts as the second part of Luke’s writings to Theophilus explaining the Good News of Jesus Christ. Alongside our devotional reflections, there will also be three questions to engage each day for personal and communal Bible study if you wish.
Read Acts 1
Acts starts with a command and a promise. The disciples are ordered to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of God the Father, and that they will be baptized by the Holy Spirit not too long from now. The gift of the Spirit being poured out on them is this promise and leads to the thesis statement of Acts, our roadmap for the journey before us: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (1.8).
You will receive power and you will be my witnesses if only you wait for Spirit of God. How many times has God given you a command, a word whether to act or to wait, and you ignored God’s call? Imagine for just a second if the early church, if the 120 disciples mentioned in verse 15, didn’t wait around in Jerusalem for God’s Spirit to come and empower them. What do you think would have happened? It brings to mind the song Trust and Obey.
The disciples were given an incredible promise of the coming Spirit, but yet they still had to wait for the Spirit to come fully. What promises of God are you still waiting for? What promises of God are you needing to act upon? Take hope from the resurrected Jesus and trust and obey.
Grace and Peace,
Matt
Inductive Questions: (These will be included each day and your work on them will be the foundation we build upon at our Wednesday evening in-person and Zoom Bible Study as we explore the church, mission, and Holy Spirit in Acts.)
Pick at least one of these to be a focus for all of Acts, but answer as many of them as you want.
- What does the church look like in Acts? Who is a part of it? What do they do? How is it formed? How does it relate to mission and the Spirit? In other words (fancy, technical terms) What is the ecclesiology of Acts?
- What does mission look like in Acts? Who does it? What do they do? How does it happen? How does it relate to the church and the Spirit? In other words (fancy, technical terms) What is the missiology of Acts?
- What does the Holy Spirit look like in Acts? What does the Spirit do? How is the Spirit active? How does it relate to church and mission? In other words (fancy, technical terms) What is the pneumatology of Acts?
Answer the question with the language of Acts as much as possible and cite the chapter and verse reference in your notes.
P.S. Here is the link to Bible Project’s read scripture video on the first half of Acts to get you acclimated to the whole thing: