A Look Back at Acts

After seven months, I have finally finished studying through the book of Acts. Acts has been interesting for me on several levels. When I first began studying it, I had honestly not read it straight through from beginning to end. Now that I’ve finished it, I’m sure that before I began this study, I had read everything in the book through selectively spot reading and searching for particular things over the years because I came across few things of which I had never read. But reading it straight through has brought me new clarity on the events of the early church which I never gained from reading a little here and a little there.

When I began this journey, I had heard a few differing opinions on this book, as to whether one should try to extract doctrine from this book. Some say you shouldn’t attempt to extract doctrine because it is strictly a historical account of the apostles’ ministries. Some say that’s hogwash and we should use Acts for learning doctrine. Here’s where I have landed on this topic. Acts is not a theology book; it is an account of the early workings of the apostles in their ministries. BUT, Acts indeed contains theology and we should take note of the theology of the apostles and the early church. However, the theology present in this book isn’t in the form of a letter from Peter or Paul where we are receiving direct instruction from the writer on how matters of belief and life. Therefore, we should not read Acts and try to directly apply something which the early church practiced to our own contexts just because that’s how they did it in Acts so it must be good for us. HEAR ME: I’m not saying we shouldn’t do our best to emulate the early church – we should. But some things which were practiced in the early church were done out of necessity either due to their minority status in the culture or the fear of persecution. Here’s an example.

Many of the earliest Christians met in homes throughout their cities. There were a few reasons for this. For believing Jews, many of them were shut out of the synagogues. For believing Gentiles, the idolatry of the Roman religions prevented them from using Roman temples. Therefore you see the birth of home churches. They couldn’t go down and rent the local theater every week like many of our churches do when they need a facility in which to meet. Home churches sprung up out of necessity. So to read Acts today and say that we must meet in homes because that’s how the early church met would be false. The feasibility of meeting in homes is allowed by Scripture, as is evident in Acts, but it is not required.

Everyone at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, spoke in tongues. Does that mean that when we receive the Spirit we should all speak in tongues as well? You might believe that if you don’t ask the question, “Why?” Why did they speak in tongues? Why wasn’t it some other manifestation of the Spirit? The answer is in the following verses. Who was right outside the window? Lots of Jews who spoke different languages. The manifestation of the Spirit at that moment – tongues – was needed for the ministry moment at hand. If there had been thousands of sick Jews outside the window, I believe the manifestation of the Holy Spirit would have come in the gift of healing. Whatever would have brought maximum glory to God in that moment would be how the Holy Spirit manifested himself – and it was tongues so that everyone would understand the message of the Gospel.

So can doctrine be drawn from Acts? Yes. Is the extraction the same as from an epistle? Not always. You can’t always read the text and make an immediate literal jump from verse to application. It’s the same thing when you read an Old Testament book like 1 Samuel or 1 Kings; the doctrines aren’t always leaping off the page at you, but they are present in the beliefs and character of the individuals in the stories.

One thing which I am becoming more and more convicted of and convinced about is the presence of God’s power in the lives of people who are born again. Over and over in Acts, salvation is accompanied by the demonstration of God’s power. And Paul even writes this to the church at Corinth in his first letter; the kingdom of God does not consist of talk, but of power. Don’t misunderstand me; I don’t mean the demonstration is always miraculous as it often is in Acts. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. The demonstration of God’s power is most often shown through transformation of the heart and mind. If there is no evidence of transformation, then there is no evidence of God’s power, and hence, no evidence of salvation. The transformation may manifest itself differently in each individual, but the goal of the transformation is the same – to become like Jesus. An abusive jerk will have a different transformation journey than a person who is easily intimidated and submissive to a fault. But in the end, the Holy Spirit’s goal for both of these people is to make them into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Transformation is a product of God’s power in salvation.

Lastly, I have been most convicted over sharing in Christ’s sufferings. I still don’t fully grasp what it means to share in Jesus’ sufferings. I understand it, I believe, in a very limited fashion. Look, it’s not that I want to actually suffer. I don’t want to go the Philippines during Holy Week and put myself through an actual crucifixion like so many of them do (which they do so that they may “share in his suffering”). Forcing suffering upon myself would just be stupid. Paul did what he could on a few occasions to avoid yet another beating or even being killed. There’s nothing wrong with avoiding suffering so long as you aren’t doing so at the cost of loving Jesus with all your heart, mind and strength. But I still have a certain unsettled feeling within me when I think about sharing in Jesus’ suffering. Strangely enough, it’s not fear of suffering. It’s fear that I’ve missed out.

Acts should be required reading for every believer. There is much to gain from understanding the beginnings of the church. For me, I actually have gained a greater desire within me to see the church restored to health. My passion in ministry is to see the people I love become more passionate in their pursuit of Jesus. Acts has only thrown gas on that fire.

Worshiping on the Way

In my study through Acts, I’ve made it as far as chapter eight. The Lord really spoke to me as I was reading about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The first thing that occurred to me was that God gave Philip no details in his instructions to head south of Jerusalem to Gaza. He just said start walking. And Philip did so without question. He didn’t know what he was looking for, he just knew God said to go to Gaza.

God frequently asks people in the Scriptures to go places without providing many details. He didn’t even tell Abraham where he was going. He just said, “Go from your country . . . to the land that I will show you.” These people of faith needed few details; the directive to go was enough. I’m not saying that there wasn’t some internal wrestling of the soul, but it never led them to question God. Gideon is the only person I can think of who asked for more details. And I am not inclined to believe that his actions are meant to be an example for us to follow. Philip just started walking.

It doesn’t say how far down the road Philip had traveled before he encountered the Ethiopian. It may have been 2-3 miles, it may have been 20-30 miles. And Philip doesn’t stop to ask God if he should speak to the Ethiopian. He just runs up beside the chariot and begins speaking.

Why are we so tentative? Philip just opened his mouth and began speaking. All Philip knew is that God had told him to go to Gaza. It seems to me that Philip didn’t have any pretensions about about speaking with this man. He didn’t say, “This must be why God sent me to Gaza.” He simply ran up to the man and began sharing. I don’t think for one moment that Philip thought any more or less of this Ethiopian than any other person he had ever shared the Gospel with. He had no idea that this man was the reason God had sent him to Gaza.

If we are faithful witnesses, there is no telling what God will ask us to do or where God will send us because he knows we will be about His business every step of the way. That’s huge. We tend to think in terms of destinations. Mission trips, conferences, camps, etc. God thinks in terms of journeys. We think about what we’ll do when we get there. God thinks of what we’ll do on the way.