Introduction

Acts is considered widely to be a second volume to the Gospel According to St. Luke. The book begins with the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit thus formation and growth of the church.

The story of the church begins in Jerusalem with those gathered after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. From Jerusalem Acts documents the spread of the faith into the gentile communities of the Roman Empire. The first part of Acts located in Jerusalem deals heavily with the disciples Peter and the others while the second half is dominated by the narratives of the Paul’s three missionary journeys into the far and away regions of the Empire. The spread of the church forms geographical concentric circles from Jerusalem to Samaria, the seacoast, Damascus, Antioch (the first place where these new religious rebels are first call Christians), Asia Minor, Europe, and finally in Rome.

Aside from the report of the journeys of Paul, Acts contains many “sermons” delivered by the apostles. What becomes apparent from the beginning is the impact of those sermons which offer testimony to the world of the disciples’ experience of God intervention into their lives and the life of the world through the person of Jesus the Christ. As Jesus spend his ministry healing and working the wonders of God’s presence in the world by which he drew many to himself; so now the calling of the Apostles is to preach and do God’s wonders in the world to draw others to faith in Jesus the Christ.

As we proceed through the Book of Acts, note the sermons, the testimony and the impact of that testimony upon the people who hear it. In a very real sense all that Jesus did in his life on earth including healing and other mighty acts are not picked up by the Apostles. They are called upon to pick up the baton from Jesus and continue the work that God has brought into the world through Jesus first, and then his followers. It is not accident that church has come to be called the “body of Christ.” As Jesus was God incarnate in human flesh and blood in the person of Jesus born of Mary, so now God becomes incarnate in human flesh and blood through the presence of the Apostles. The very word “apostle” means one who is sent out. Disciples became apostles as soon as Jesus sent them out into the world to carry on the work that he began in his life. We who have been sent and who have received the Holy Spirit have become the body, the presence of Jesus in the world once again. These are words that must penetrate into the very fabric of the church of our day because if we fail to be the body of Christ, the incarnation of Christ in our age, our world will not know of Christ’s abiding presence in our day and age. By all means, the work that was begun in the incarnation of Christ is still going on in our day. We have been passed the baton as we take our place in the succession of the apostles to our very day.

Friday, December 18, 2009