Recently, I had
coffee with a dear friend who lives in another state. We took time to catch up
on each other’s families. Then the topic turned toward faith and ministry
opportunities. She and her husband just finished writing an online course on
the Book of Acts. And what a coincidence – I was finishing a graduate course on
the same New Testament book!
During the course
of the conversation, she said something I thought I knew. After all, I had read
through Acts several times over the past few months as I studied and wrote
about the first-century church. But that day sitting in a local coffee house in
my city, there was something fresh in her words. Since that day, I have thought
about them almost continually, as I fear I almost missed an important message.
In essence, she
said, “The Book of Acts has no ending. That’s because we’re all still writing
the story.”
As I said, this is
not breaking news. The story seems to pick up where Luke left off his gospel.
Where the Gospel of Luke focuses on Jesus, the book of Acts follows several
apostles: Peter, John, Philip, James, and Paul. Yet no one of these could be
considered the main person in the story. The one constant figure in Acts is the
Holy Spirit. From beginning to ending, He is the One who fills believers with
power from on high, who gives them words to witness for Jesus Christ, the risen
Savior.
Acts is the story
of the Holy Spirit and His power. Under His anointing people are healed of
sickness and disease and delivered from demon possession. The Holy Spirit gives
discernment to Peter when Ananias and Sapphira try to deceive their brothers
and sisters; He provides wisdom when the apostles make decisions about church
leadership.
God’s Spirit is
mentioned throughout the Old Testament. Then when Jesus came, He told the
disciples when He went away, He would “send you what my Father has promised;
but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke
24:49).
At Pentecost, the
Holy Spirit seems to take on a new role from what believers knew before Christ
came. He is the one Jesus described in Luke 24:49 who would give “power from on
high.” That power was not limited to the disciples or the 120 gathered in the
upper room. On several occasions throughout Acts, many people confessed their
sins and were filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues and prophesying.
Peter and Paul and
the other apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and ministered in ways that
affected entire cities. In Ephesus, “A number who had
practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly”
(Acts 19). When Paul and Silas were in prison, they ministered to the prison
guard, and his whole family was saved (Acts 16). When Peter preached at
Pentecost, approximately 3,000 accepted the message of salvation and were
baptized (Acts 2). Those numbers represented individuals with names and faces
and families; they were men and women, youth, and children set free from the
bondage of sin.
Like
John, who wrote there was much more he could have written about the miracles of
Jesus (John 20:30), we might wonder if there was much more to this story of the
Holy Spirit’s work in Acts that could have been told. When we reach the last
chapter of Acts, we might feel as though we are left hanging, waiting for the
next installment of this exciting, story.
In
Acts 28 Luke ends this
narrative writing of Paul’s arrival in Rome where he was placed under house
arrest, welcoming people to his home, continually teaching about Jesus, and
proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
Period. The end. Turn
the page to find Paul’s letter to the Romans.
The reader may be
left with many questions…
What happened to
Peter after he spoke at the Council in Jerusalem? What about James and Philip
and the rest of the apostles? Did Paul stand trial before Caesar as he
requested?
Which brings me
back to my friend’s statement: “The Book of Acts has no ending. That’s because we’re still writing the
story.”
If that’s true,
that means the Holy Spirit is still at work…and being filled with the Holy
Spirit and speaking in tongues was not just something experienced by first
century Christians. It’s available for us today. (Remember Jesus’ words in Luke
11:13: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask Him!”)
If this story
continues in our generation, we can look to those accounts Luke recorded in
Acts and know the miracles and the power, the boldness and the conviction with
which the apostles shared about Christ can be for us and those to whom we
minister. Supernatural occurrences are not impossible. But they are not only
for the sake of the sign or wonder – they point people to God Almighty, the
Creator and His great love for humanity.
Just as the early
church needed the Holy Spirit to prepare the way and convict people of their
sins…
Just as the early
church needed the Holy Spirit to fill believers who were once timid and afraid,
who were said to be “unschooled” and “ordinary,” who were persecutors of
Christ, and turned them into powerhouses for the cause of Christ…
Just as those
first-century believers lived wholly devoted to their Savior, even “rejoicing
because they had been counted worthy of suffering
disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41)…
So the promise is
true for believers in the second century and the fifth century, and fourteenth
century and the twenty-first century: “You will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you,” and we will be His witnesses wherever we are – in our “Jerusalem”
(or Boston or Springfield or Seattle or Clovis), “in Judea and Samaria, and to
the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
What an
opportunity is ours. What a tragedy if we miss it!
Lately I have been
asking myself – so, what are you writing on the pages of your part of the story?
Lord, I’m so
distracted by things in this life. Even some good things can take away time
with You, time in Your Word and in prayer. Fill me again, Lord, with Your Holy
Spirit, with power and boldness and conviction, that I may serve my generation
as the apostles served theirs.