The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were written by Luke as a two-volume work, and these two books make up ¼ of our New Testament. In Acts, Luke shows us how the Age of the Holy Spirit and the Age of the Church began. We are still living in that age!
In the book of Acts, we first see the event that our church looks at every Sunday, the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. Jesus gave the eleven remaining disciples their marching orders: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) This is actually the plot of the rest of the book, as we see how the gospel was taken from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, meaning the whole Roman Empire.
Fifty days after the Passover, on Pentecost (which we often call the church’s birthday), the disciples received the promised Holy Spirit. While Peter and the disciples were gathered, they felt the rush of a violent wind. The word for wind in Hebrew and Greek is loaded with meaning: the same words, ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek, are used for wind and breath and spirit. As flames or tongues of fire appeared on each of the disciples, they began to speak in languages they had never known or spoken before! The first gift of the Spirit for the disciples was the range of language that they would need to accomplish the sharing of the gospel across the known world.
Peter, who had formerly and fearfully denied Jesus, emerged as a courageous spokesman and leader, able to interpret Scripture to show the meaning of Jesus in history. After an eloquent sermon, Peter and the early church gathered a great harvest of believers: “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day,” (Acts 2:41)
The first snapshot of the earliest church appears in a summary statement found in Acts 2:42-47.
In Acts 6, we see the beginnings of church structure, as the first deacons were called to serve the poor in the church. (We also see a first instance of the friction that can develop in a multi-cultural church, between the Jewish converts and the Greek converts.) These Greek-speaking deacons are identified in Acts 6:5.
Stephen was the first named deacon, and also the first Christian martyr. He ran afoul of the Sanhedrin, which falsely accused him of blasphemy as they had Jesus before him. After Stephen offered the Gospel as his defense, he was stoned to death, while a young Saul looked on with approval. Saul then began to persecute the early church.
As Christians scattered from Jerusalem, they took the gospel with them and began to share it. Philip, one of these travelers, encountered an Ethiopian court official, a eunuch, who was a worshipper of God, on the road headed south from Jerusalem to Gaza. This official was on the way back home to Ethiopia, and was reading a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Philip, prompted by the Holy Spirit, joined him and began to share the Gospel with him. After hearing his welcoming and inclusive message, the eunuch asked for baptism. The Spirit brought together people of many different tribes, languages, and countries into the new church.
Saul, meanwhile, was on the way north, to persecute the early church in Damascus. Along the road, his life was changed forever as he met Jesus, who asked why he was being persecuting. Saul (who became Paul in Acts 13:9) was briefly struck blind and, because of his encounter with Jesus, converted and was baptized. Everything he ever knew about the Scripture suddenly came into focus and he became a gospel preacher and evangelist. He was a bit of a hot potato as he began his new Christian calling; at first he was not completely trusted by either Jewish or Greek-speaking Christians. Paul will be the church leader we follow for most of the rest of the book of Acts, as we see him make his missionary journeys and begin to be the evangelist to the Gentiles.
The Scripture shifts back to Peter, who though he began with the Jewish Christians was now being stretched by the Holy Spirit to include Romans, starting with a centurion. He had a vision three times of animals clean and unclean and was asked not to reject as impure what God has created clean. Concurrently, the Spirit sent a vision and instructions to the Roman Cornelius, to find and meet with Peter. When the Spirit brought Cornelius and Peter together, Holy Spirit sparks began to fly. The story appears in Acts 10:44-48.
Peter’s actions resulted in repercussions that are detailed in Acts 11, which ultimately resulted in the Church accepting these new converts. The Holy Spirit widened God’s family of faith every day.
As the church scattered due to persecution, one of the newly founded churches in Antioch took it upon themselves to support the Christians of Jerusalem.
Before the main focus of Acts turns to Paul, there’s one last story about Peter: King Herod imprisoned Peter in Jerusalem to please the jealous authorities. Because those authorities intended to put Paul on trial, the church prayed earnestly for him, fearing that he would be martyred. But an angel came and opened chains, locks, doors and gates, allowing him to escape. Paul showed himself to his church friends, and then went elsewhere. The Spirit continues to unlock doors and expand our ideas of who God includes to this day.