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.

Night of Praise and Sunday Morning Services

I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for their kind words about the Night of Praise last Sunday night. It was a special night of worship, and God moved in the hearts of many of us very deeply. Everything that happened that night was the result of God’s kindness toward us. He decided to visit us in a special way and all glory is His.

Word has gotten back around to me that some people have coupled their complements upon the Night of Praise with an additional wish that Sunday mornings could be that good. At first, I took offense to that comment. Ultimately, though, it really made me sad. Comments like that display a core misunderstanding about what makes corporate worship powerful.

The Night of Praise was special because, in part, everyone who attended came with a singular goal – to worship God. That goal’s singular purpose alone makes a huge difference. This morning in our first service, I was disheartened by some of the stoic, blank looks people had on their faces. I could barely hear the congregation singing. The countenance of many people in this morning’s first service was very obviously not joyful. How can we expect Sunday morning to be powerful when we come in with no expectation and excitement about worshiping God?

I know some of you who are reading this will be quick to say that I cannot know what is in a person’s heart and that some people worship very much internally. That maybe true, but it is also true that your countenance reveals your heart. And I see those “internal” worshipers every week and even their countenance is uplifted when they worship. No one who is truly worshiping will be able to contain it completely within themselves. Every time the Scriptures describe a person who is worshiping, it is always evidenced by some outward sign of God’s activity in their heart. If you can show me a place in Scripture where a worshiper is described in terms that show him or her to be stoic and unmoved, I will apologize and recant what I have said here.

Sorry about the rant. But if you want Sunday mornings to have the same demonstration of power which you observed at the Night of Praise last week, then I suggest that next Sunday, you arrive with the same excitement and anticipation that you came with last Sunday night. I also suggest that you join me and the rest of our leaders in praying for Sunday morning. Another reason the Night of Praise was the way it was is because so much targeted prayer went toward it. We talked about this at prayer group. We all realized that for the last few months we had been specifically praying for the Night of Praise, but neglected to specifically pray the same things for Sunday morning. It was a little embarrassing to admit that to each other. So you have my word that a regular, repeating item in my prayers will be for Sunday morning. Join me in asking for God’s power to be evident.

Just as a public service announcement, the next Night of Praise will be this fall, after we have occupied our new building. It will be our first large event in the new facility and I am looking forward to it with great anticipation. Begin praying for that event today.