“YOU SHALL BE WITNESSES TO ME”
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 25, 2022 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: May 25, 2022 from Acts 1:1-11
Theme: Our Lord calls us to be His Holy-Spirit empowered witnesses of the gospel to the world until the time of His return.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Today, we begin a study of the Book of Acts. And let me begin by telling you about the first time I ever read it.
I was a brand new Christian at the time—only sixteen years old. I hadn’t grown up in a church. I didn’t even know anything about the Bible other than what someone had told me—that it would be a good idea for me to start reading the New Testament. And so I did. I read the Gospel of Matthew for the very first time; and I was thrilled with it. It was a story about the life of my Savior. Then, I went on to read Mark—and was thrilled that it was another story about the life of my Lord. Then I read Luke—another telling of the story about Jesus’ life. I was loving this! And then I read John—and it was yet another telling of the story of Jesus. It was a little different from the others; but I was thrilled by it. I was beginning to wonder if every book of the Bible was a story of the life of Jesus.
And when I got to Acts, my first reaction was to be disappointed. It wasn’t another story about the life of Jesus. But how wrong I was! It was a story of the ongoing life and work of Jesus in this world. And now—many decades later—I love it very much.
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Think for a moment of the Book of Genesis. Genesis is crucial for all Christians to study. It’s God’s book of beginnings. In it, we learn how we are to understand the beginning of the world and all that is in it. It teaches us the story of how sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, and brought ruin upon God’s good Creation. And in it, we learn of God’s unfolding work of grace, and of how He promised to provide a Savior—a promise He fulfilled in Jesus. If we want to understand the world and how we are to live in it, we need to read the Book of Genesis. Well; the Book of Acts is important in a similar way. In it, we find the beginnings of the church of Jesus Christ in this world, and how that church is to conduct itself until the time of Jesus’ return. If we want to understand Jesus’ church—and how it is to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus gave to us, then we need to study the Book of Acts.
Do you remember how the Lord Jesus—in His last supper with His disciples—told them that He was going away from them? They were sad; but He assured them that, because He was going, they would do greater works than He did. How could this be? In John 16:7, He said;
“… I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7).
The Book of Acts is the telling of the story of the beginning of those greater works. It is sometimes called, “The Book of the Acts of the Apostles”. But it’s really better understood as “The Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit”; because it’s the story of how the Lord Jesus sent His Holy Spirit after His ascension to the Father; and of how the Holy Spirit then worked through His apostles to spread the gospel of Jesus to more and more people—calling them to believe on Jesus and to be saved from their sins.
A very good way to think of the Book of Acts is as the sequel to the Gospel of Luke. Look at how Luke began that Gospel account;
Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed (Luke 1:1-4).
Luke wrote his Gospel account for a man named Theophilus. He calls him “most excellent”—which may indicate that Theophilus was an important and noble Roman leader, since that was the way such a Roman official was usually addressed. (You can see the same sort of thing in Acts 26:25; when Paul addressed the Roman governor as “most noble Felix”—which was the same Greek word as is translated as “most excellent” in Luke 1:3.) It may be that this important man Theophilus had become a Christian; because the name Luke gave him means “Lover of God”. If so, it seems then that Luke wrote his Gospel to help Theophilus grow in his faith and be certain of his trust in Jesus. And it was the same Luke who wrote the Book of Acts to the same man Theophilus with the same intention of further informing and further encouraging his faith.
Luke had written the Gospel of Luke strictly as a second-hand observer. He wasn’t present with the apostles to see the life and work of the Lord. But he wrote the Book of Acts as a second-hand observer only up to Acts 16:9. Beginning with Acts 16:10, he began to use the word “we”; which meant that he was—from that point on—a first-hand participant in the adventure of the spread of the gospel.
The key verse of the Book of Acts is 1:8. In it, Luke tells us that Jesus told His apostles;
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
And here, we’re given the basic divisions of the Book of Acts. It’s the story of the spread of the gospel of Jesus into this world in three ever-widening ripples: It began in Jerusalem; and that’s the story of Acts 1-7. Then, it spread to the surrounding regions of Israel—in Judea and Samaria; and that’s the story of Acts 8-12. Finally, it went from the surrounding regions of Israel to the ends of the Gentile world; and that’s the story of Acts 13-28. The gospel of Jesus is “for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16); and that’s the very pattern by which it spread in the Book of Acts. We can also look at the Book of Acts from the standpoint of the Holy Spirit’s work through two apostles. The focus of Acts 1-12 is the ministry of the apostle Peter, who preached primarily to the Jewish people. And the focus of Acts 13-28 is the ministry of the apostle Paul, who preached primarily to the Gentile world.
It’s a book that, in a sense, doesn’t come to an end; because it closes with Paul in Rome—waiting for the opportunity to bring the gospel to Caesar Nero. The fact that it doesn’t seem to come to a clear conclusion suggests to us that we today are living in the ongoing work of the spread of the gospel in the world—and that we are to keep on doing the work of the Great Commission until Jesus returns. We’re still living out the Book of Acts today.
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So then; let’s look at the introductory words of the Book of Acts in its first eleven verses. That’s where we find …
1. THE PROLOGUE TO THE BOOK (vv. 1-3).
Luke wrote;
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-3).
Here, Luke lets us know that what he wrote in the Gospel of Luke was only the beginning. At the close of Luke’s Gospel, we find some of the things described that Jesus did during the forty-day period between His resurrection and His ascension. There, we see Him giving the apostles “many infallible proofs” that He was alive, There we also read of the things that He taught them about the Scriptures concerning Himself and His kingdom. There we read of Jesus’ final commission to be His witnesses. And there—at the very end—we read of His ascension to the Father. But now, at the beginning of Acts, we see that Jesus’ work of “doing” and “teaching” had only begun. It would now be carried on in His absence through His apostles; and the Book of Acts tells the story of that ongoing witness. We today are a part of that ongoing witness.
Now; before the story of that witness is unfolded to us, we find that we’re told about …
2. THE POWER FOR THE WITNESS (vv. 4-5).
Luke tells us;
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (vv. 4-5).
The apostles may have been tempted to run right out and begin telling the world about Jesus. But if they did so, they would have been bearing a witness in their own power … and they would have been sure to fail. What a great lesson that is for us! We don’t have to wait for the Holy Spirit to be given; because He already came at Pentecost. But we must not try to do anything for the kingdom of the Lord Jesus—not even witness for Him—without a complete reliance on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
Note some important truths that are being told to us. First, we see that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and from the Son. The Holy Spirit is described as “the Promise of the Father”; but Jesus also affirmed that it was He Himself that would send the Spirit. Thus, the Holy Spirit’s ministry is the essential provision of the Son under the authority of the Father for the work of His church. Second, notice that the Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus. As Jesus had told the apostles during His last meal with them before going to the cross;
“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27).
Without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we have no power to bear witness for Christ in this world. And third, notice that Jesus promised that, as John the Baptist baptized people with water as a witness of Christ’s soon coming, the apostles would soon (in a little over a week’s time) be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This ‘baptism’ isn’t the same thing as the remarkable experience of being ‘filled’ with the Holy Spirit. To be ‘filled’ with the Spirit is to be completely submitted to the Holy Spirit’s rule and enabling control in an all-pervasive, all-prevailing way. When the apostles spoke in many languages in Acts 2, we’re told that they were ‘filled’ with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). But to be ‘baptized’ with the Holy Spirit was—just as was true of John’s baptism—an act of becoming ‘radically identified’ once-and-for-all with Jesus and His church.
Before Jesus’ followers could be ‘filled’ and enabled by the Holy Spirit to be His witnesses, they first needed to be ‘baptized’ by the Spirit into one body—the church. That’s what Jesus promised would happen—and that’s what happened long ago at Pentecost.
Then, notice …
3. THE PERIMETERS OF THE WORK (vv. 6-8).
Luke goes on to tell us;
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (v. 6).
They had an understandable question. They had expected that Jesus—as the Messiah—would restore the kingdom to Israel and begin His reign on earth during His life on earth. They hadn’t expected that the cross and the resurrection would happen. But now that it had—and now that He was standing before them alive—was this the time? Jesus didn’t deny that this would still happen. But that was not to be their focus.
And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority” (v. 7).
It would happen in the right time and at the right season; but during His earthly ministry with them, He told them that not even He knew when that time would be (Mark 13:32). It was known only to the Father. But that didn’t stop the Lord from telling them what their focus should be:
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (vv. 7-8).
After the Holy Spirit would come, they were to get on with the business of being His witnesses—first at home in Jerusalem; then around the neighborhood in the surrounding regions of Judea and Samaria; and then finally around the world and into the remotest parts of the earth—where even we live today. And do you notice that Jesus’ words not only constitute a command, but also a prophecy? Who but the Son of God would have known that such a tiny band of followers from such a small beginning in such a tiny part of the world would grow to encompass the whole earth?—and would continue to do so until the time of His return?
And that leads us finally to …
4. THE PROMISE OF THE RETURN (vv. 9-11).
Our Lord’s command to be His witnesses was the last recorded thing He spoke on earth. For then, Luke goes on to tell us;
Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (vv. 9-11).
Theologically speaking, this teaches us the doctrine of the bodily return of Christ. He ascended in the same exact body as was crucified and raised. Right now, He sits at the right hand of God the Father as a glorified man in a glorified physical body. And one day, He will return in that same glorified physical body. His return is our “blessed hope” as believers (Titus 2:13).
But speaking from the standpoint of practical Christian living, this also teaches us that the commission that Jesus gave continues. He has not returned yet; but He most assuredly will! And that gives us both joyful hope and earnest motivation to keep on doing the work—by the power of the Holy Spirit—until that coming day!
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So then;as these first few verses—and indeed, the whole Book of Acts—show us, our Lord calls us to be His Holy Spirit empowered witnesses of the gospel, to the world, until the time of His return. As we study the Book of Acts together, may we—by the Holy Spirit’s help—learn from it to live consistently in our Lord’s call.
AE
