Acts: The Church Is Born - Week 1 (Acts 1:1-11)
Acts 1:1-11
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Acts 1:1-11
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Acts 1:1-11 〰️ Acts 1:1-11 〰️
The Acts of the Apostles
The book of Acts provides an overview of the early church's history after Jesus’ ascension. Rather than a detailed account of events, this book is meant to highlight the role the Apostles played in forming the church and the trials they endured. The book covers about 30 years of history (around 30-63 AD) and primarily attributes the spread of Christianity to the Holy Spirit dwelling within God’s people. Some key events we’ll encounter in this book are: 1) Pentecost (Acts 2), when the Holy Spirit’s presence filled people, enabling them to do the miraculous. 2) The zealot, Saul’s (now known as Paul), conversion from persecuting Christians to faithfully following Jesus (Acts 9) and committing his life to the spread of the Gospel. 3) Peter’s vision in Acts 10, where Jesus speaks to him in a vision saying, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” (v15). This paved the way and made clear that the saving sacrifice of Christ was not only for Jews (God’s chosen people), but for all. Paul would later call this the “mystery of Christ” in Ephesians 3:1-13: “The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (v6).
Acts was (most likely) written by Luke, who also authored the Gospel that bears his name. Acts opens with the author giving a brief recap of the ending of the “first narrative,” the Gospel of Luke, and getting us up to speed.
“I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After he had suffered, he also presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” (1:1-3)
“Theophilus,” the recipient of both Luke and Acts, means “lover of God” in Greek, which could suggest that this book was written to all believers under this collective title, although it is most commonly accepted to be addressed to an individual with this name.¹ Acts opens at the end of the forty-day period following Jesus’s resurrection. Jesus was with His disciples, imparting His final teachings and, as we’ll read this week, the presence of the Holy Spirit.
1:1-11
This passage continues with Jesus' words, echoing what John the Baptist said about Jesus’ coming. If you look back in Matthew 3, we read John saying, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matt. 3:11) In this part of Acts, we don’t yet see the arrival of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, but only a reminder of the promise from Jesus. Interestingly, Jesus said that they “will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.” (v5). Most of the time, Jesus has been a little more vague about the timing of things (most often this is in reference to “the end of this age,” a time that only God knows or will know), but here He tells them when the Spirit will come.
The disciples don’t seem all that interested in this baptism of the Holy Spirit, as they then ask Jesus the question they’ve been wondering since they’ve known Him: Is now the time He would restore the kingdom to Israel? “Restoration of the kingdom of Israel was something for which all first-century Jews longed. It was commonly believed that [the] Messiah, son of David and heir to his throne, would accomplish this restoration.”² Jesus doesn’t answer this question directly, but, in His patience, shifts their thinking back to a Kingdom-of-God perspective. “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (v7-8). The key takeaway from Jesus’s words here is in the beginning of v8: “...you will receive power.” Reading on in Acts, we see this power revealed as the disciples of Jesus perform miraculous works after Jesus’s ascension, spreading the Gospel far and wide and transforming lives through the power of God working in them via the Holy Spirit.
After this (we don’t know whether it was immediately or after a little while), Jesus ascended into heaven, only to be followed by two angels appearing. They informed the disciples of Jesus that He would return one day in the same way He departed. Again, no clear timeline is given, only that it would happen. When Jesus returns, this will mark the end of this age and the fulfilled arrival of the Kingdom of God on this earth. We do not know when Jesus returns, but we know it will be miraculous, joyful, and terrifying. This was not the first time the disciples heard of Jesus’s impending return, as we read of Him foretelling it in Matthew 24:
“Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matt. 24:29-30).
With “power and great glory,” our Lord will return, and we can anticipate this with great joy. But while we wait, we have the power of the Holy Spirit living within us and the call to be His witness to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Discussion Questions
Could someone read Acts 1:1-11 for us?
What stood out to you from the passage?
Does this passage remind you of another part of Scripture?
Do you have any questions?
What was the disciples' response to Jesus promising the Holy Spirit’s coming? What does this reveal about how they understood the “kingdom” of God?
How did Jesus respond to their question in v6?
What is the significance of Jesus ascending into heaven in a visible way? What does this tell us about how He will return?
In what ways do you find yourself missing the message of Jesus in looking for your own answers?
How should the promise of Jesus’s return shape the way we live and witness as a community?
1. Stanley E. Porter, “Acts” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1716.
2. Ibid., 1716.