Alan Lewis
Elon, North Carolina
January 2025
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen (Acts 1:1-2 NIV)
This morning, we begin a new series on the book of Acts. There is no other book like Acts. It is one of the most exciting books of the NT.
There are some dramatic conversions in Acts. There are daring prison escapes. There are dangerous shipwrecks. There are some incredible miracles. People are raised from the dead.
There are angels appearing to people. God talks directly to people. King Herod gets eaten by worms. A young married couple in the church suddenly drops dead.
The Book of Acts is one of the most important books in the NT. What kind of book is Acts?
A Book about the Church
It is a book all about the church. The church is born in Acts. The church not only starts in Acts; it is tested and purified in Acts. The church grows in Acts. It is persecuted in Acts.
If you want to know what the church should look like or how we should do ministry today, read Acts. You have to go back to Acts. It is “a handbook for the Christian life.”[1] It is “God’s training manual for Christians”[2]
The big problem today is that many churches today do not look anything like the church in the Book of Acts. They look completely different.
There are no supernatural healings. There are no miracles. There are no radical conversions taking place. There is no deliverance. There is no spiritual warfare. God is not working in a big way in many churches.
Many churches claim to be apostolic. They boast about it. They claim that their church goes all the way back to the apostles, but their church does not look anything like the church in the Book of Acts.
A Book about the Spirit
Acts is also a book all about the Holy Spirit. The Gospels emphasis Jesus. Acts emphasize the Holy Spirit. In the Gospels, Jesus goes up to Heaven. In Acts, the Holy Spirit comes down. Some churches don’t talk too much about the Holy Spirit. Acts is all about the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was poured out on people (Acts 2:17-18; 33; 10:45). The Holy Spirit fell on some people who heard the message of the Apostle Peter (Acts 10:44). People were baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). They were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:5; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9).
Some spoke through the Holy Spirit under inspiration. The Holy Spirit spoke though King David (Acts 1:16; 4:25). Some spoke in tongues in Acts as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:4). Some were encouraged by the Spirit (Acts 9:31).
Some received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 15:8; 19:5-6). Others sin against the Spirit. You can lie to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3). You can resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). You can blaspheme the Spirit (Luke 12:10).
Acts mentions the Holy Spirit more than any other book of the Bible. Acts mentions the words “Holy Spirit” (πνεῦμα ἅγιον) 41 times (not counting the times it mentions the words “My Spirit” or “The Spirit”).
Matthew, Mark and Luke only mention the word “Holy Spirit” 22 times combined. Acts mentions the term 41 times in one book.
While some groups may overemphasize the Holy Spirit, far too many try to underemphasize the Holy Spirit. If you talk to much about the holy Spirit, you are considered a holy roller. Many try to do church apart from the Holy Spirit.
A Book about Power
Jesus said, “You will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” (Acts 1:8 NIV) and that is what we see in Acts. In Acts, the church was not just a church of prayer and bible study. It was not just a church of worship.
It was not just a church of evangelism; it was a church of POWER. They did power evangelism. Their preaching was powerful. Three thousand people got converted from one sermon.
Real miracles were taking place. The sick were healed. Demons were cast out. The dead were raised.
Some were bit by poisonous snakes and not hurt. Two people are raised from the dead in this book by two different apostles. All of us should want to live a supernatural life.
One of the signs of a false church is that there is no power. Paul said that some have “a form of godliness but denying its power” (II Timothy 3:5 NIV).
They have great outward forms. They have a great liturgy and order of service but no power. Paul says, “Have nothing to do with such people.”
Christians in Acts changed the world. They didn’t have a lot of money. They did not even have a building but they had the Holy Spirit, and they turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6).
They began with only 120 in Jerusalem. They were in the same city that killed their leader. They were a small group of timid, demoralized disciples.. Their hopes were dashed. They didn’t know if they would be next.
They have gone from 120 to 2.4 billion people in the world. That is how many profess faith in Jesus today. Christianity makes up one-third of the world’s population. It is the world’s largest religion on the planet.
A Book about Actions
It is a book about the actions of Jesus through His church. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1 NIV).
The key word is the word “began” to do. The Gospel of Luke was a record of what Jesus BEGAN to do. Acts is a book about what Jesus CONTINUES to do.
What does that tell us? The work of Jesus did not end with the ascension. Jesus is still doing things today. His work is not done. It is still ongoing. His suffering on the cross is done.
He said, “It is finished” but He is still doing things in the world today and He is doing things through believers. That makes Acts an unfinished book. The story is still being written.
Jesus is continuing to do things today. He did not stop doing things in the first century. He is still doing things today. Acts is a display of what God can do through someone who is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
He did things through the early church. Many in the early church were ordinary people. They were not all apostles. There are a lot of ordinary people in Acts. There are some women like Tabitha, Lydia, Rhoda and Priscilla. They are not famous.
There are some men named Jason, Simon, Ananias and Sosthenes. We don’t know too much about them, but they are in Acts and God used them and He uses us as well.
Acts was written by a man named Luke. Luke is the only Gentile to write a book of the Bible. All of the other books of the Bible were written by Jews, except for Luke and he wrote two books of the Bible. Those two books make up one fourth of the NT.
Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts and those two books are related to one another. Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. They were meant to be read together.
Luke wrote a two-volume work on the origins of Christianity. Volume One is book on the life of Jesus. Volume Two is a book on the early church. It is a sequel to the life of Christ. It continues the story.
Luke deals with the thirty-three years of the life of Jesus. The Book of Acts deals with the next thirty-three years of the early church.
The Gospel of Luke deals with the ministry of the incarnate Christ. The Book of Acts deals with the ministry of the risen Christ. Both books were dedicated to a man named Theophilus.
With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account FOR YOU, most excellent Theophilus (Luke 1:3 NIV)
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1 NIV)
No one knows exactly who he was. He may have been Luke’s patron. He may have backed Luke financially to write these books. We can just call him Theo (like Theo Huxtable).
A Controversial Book
Acts is also a controversial book. Christians fight over this book. There are whole denominations which fight over the Book of Acts. What is all of the controversy?
The first tongues speaking is in Acts. Should we speak in tongues or not speak in tongues today? They did it in the early church.
Should we prophesy today or not prophesy? There were believers in churches with the gift of prophecy in the Book of Acts.
Do we baptize in the name of Jesus, as some churches do, or in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, as Jesus said to do in the Great Commission?
Do we have to be baptized to be saved? Does baptism wash away sins, as Acts 22:16 says? Is baptism for the remission of sins, as Acts 2:38 says, or is it not essential to salvation?
Do we baptize by sprinkling or do we immerse people? Presbyterians argue from all of the household baptisms in Acts that we can baptize babies by sprinkling.
Is Holy Spirit baptism something we get after we are saved if we seek it or is it part of salvation? There is a big debate about that among Christians. All of these debates come out of Acts.
Three Errors in Reading ActsNot all of these questions are easy to answer. Some are a little harder than others but I would like to propose some rules of interpretation, because Christians read this book very differently. People on both sides of the spectrum make errors on this book. There are three errors when it comes to the interpretation of the Book of Acts. 1) The first error is not to read the rest of the Bible Acts is a great book. For many, it is their favorite book of the Bible. That is not wrong, but we need to read the rest of the Bible. Pentecostals base their theology mainly on Acts. They are obsessed with the Book of Acts. They make a canon within the canon. They claim all of the Bible is inspired but they really focus just on Acts. That is where they spend all of their time. That is a mistake. We need to read the whole Bible. We need to compare what Luke says with what John, Paul and Peter say. 2) The second error is to read everything in Acts as a command That is how many people read the book. Everything in the book is seen as a prescription. It is seen as a command for today. You say, “What’s wrong with doing that? It sounds like a good idea.” The early Christians drew lots to elect a new apostle. Should we elect church leaders today by drawing lots? The early Christians had everything in common. Should we sell our house and all of our possessions today and give the money to the pastor to distribute to people? Paul heard an audible voice and saw a bright light when he got saved. Is that what has to happen when people get saved today, since it happened to Paul?[3] Should we have apostles today? Some churches do. They had them in the early church. Should we have them today? 3) The third error is to read Acts just as history That is very common in some Baptist churches. Acts is just history. It doesn’t apply much today. There are no longer any signs and wonders. No one speaks in tongues in these churches. No one is healed. No one is delivered. No demons are cast out. God doesn’t do these things anymore. It does not apply too much today. That is the wrong way to read Acts. A.W. Tozer said, “Acts is not just a book for the first century. It is a book for the second century and the third century and the fourth century.”[4] God did not just do things with the church in the first century. He is still doing things today. He has not stopped working. |
First in Acts
There are many first in the Book of Acts? What are some of them?
1) The First Church
You can read about it in Acts 2. We see in Acts, not only the first church but the first small groups as people met house to house (Acts 2:46).
The first church looked very differently from churches today. They didn’t have a lot of money. Their worship services did not sound like rock concerts.
They did not have any fog machines or big worship bands, but they had the Holy Spirit. Some say that Acts is a pattern for modern church growth. They went from 120 to 3000 people in one day.
2) The First Church Discipline
In Acts 5, two well-respected members of the first church suddenly dropped dead, not too long after the church was started. A young married couple dropped dead in church. God judged them for lying to the apostles and for lying to the Holy Spirit about their finances.
3) The First Church Leaders
Acts describes the first ordination. It is an ordination of deacons in Acts 6. They laid their hands on them. Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders (Acts 14:23) and mentions elders in the church (Acts 20:17; 21:18)
4) The First Sermon
Peter preached the first gospel sermon. He preached the first evangelistic sermon and it was to a hostile audience. He was the first Billy Graham. Peter gives five sermons in Acts (Acts 2:14-39; 3:11-26; 4:8-12; 10:28-37; 11:4-18)
5) The First Missions
Christianity’s first missionaries are found in Acts. One writer called Acts “the missionary manual of the church.” He calls it “the greatest missionary story ever told.”[5]
It describes Paul’s three missionary journeys to Israel, Syria, Turkey and Greece. Paul traveled 10,000 miles by land and by sea long before the invention of planes or cars.
In Acts, we see Holy Spirit empowered missions. We see cross-cultural missions. Acts is all about preaching the gospel. Jesus said we are to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8).
The early Christians preached the gospel boldly, even if they had to break the law to do it. They said they would rather obey God an (Acts 4:19). They said, “we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20 ESV).
6) The First Conversions
We have the first conversions to Christ, including 3000 on one day. It also includes some unlikely people.
One of the leading opponents of Christianity became its leading defender. A persecutor becomes a preacher, an apostle and a writer of Scripture.
Two conversions are told three times. That is the conversion of Paul (Acts 9, 22 & 26), who became the Apostle to the Gentiles and the conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10, 11 & 15), the first Gentile.
Someone called Acts 10, “the most important chapter in the Bible.”[6] Without Acts 10, this church building would not exist. None of us would be here.
7) First Doctrinal Controversy
We have had many doctrinal controversies today. Christians argue and fight about spiritual gifts. We argue about Calvinism and Arminianism. Can you lose your salvation? We argue about eschatology. Will Jesus come before or after the Millennium and when will the rapture take place?
In Acts 15, we have the first church council. It was a big deal. The first controversy was whether you had to keep the law and be circumcised to be saved.
8) First Christian Apologists
Apologists give a defense of the faith to skeptics and unbelievers. There are many great apologists today (Norm Geisler, William Lane Craig, Frank Turek, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell). Apollos was the first apologist. You can read about him in Acts 18.
9) The First Apostasy
An apostate is someone who used to believe what the Bible teaches but not completely rejects it. Judas became the first apostate in Acts 1. He used to be a part of Jesus’ inner circle, one of the Twelve. He went from apostle to apostate and ends up dead.
10) The First Persecution
There are 28 chapters in Acts. Christians are persecuted in 22 of them. Many early Christians were beaten. Many were jailed but persecution did not stop Christianity. It just caused the gospel to spread even more.
11) The First Charismatics
The early church was charismatic. They were not Baptists, even though they did have some deacons in it. They were charismatic. There are all kinds of miracles in the Book of Acts.
There were people who spoke in tongues in the church. The first tongues speaking is found in the Book of Acts. There were prophets in the church (Acts 13:1).
There were people healed in Acts. People who couldn’t walk were instantly able to stand up. It happens in Acts 3, Acts 9 and Acts 14. Demons were cast out (Acts 16).
There were people raised from the dead in Acts. Peter raised a woman (Tabitha) from the dead (Acts 9:36-41) in Joppa (Israel). Paul raised a man (Eutychus) from the dead (Acts 20:9-12) in Troas (Turkey).
Some say that these are just apostolic signs and wonders. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles (Acts 2:43 NIV).
The apostles did do many signs and wonders in Acts but so did many other people who were not apostles. Some regular Christians did them as well.
Philip did them as well. In fact, he did not just do wonders; he did “GREAT wonders and signs” (Acts 6:8 ESV). He was not an apostle. He was just a deacon but he cast demons out of people and healed the sick (Acts 8:5-7).
Stephen also did miracles. Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:8 NIV)
After Saul met Jesus on the Damascus Road, he saw a light and was blinded (Acts 9:8-9). A few days later, he met a man named Ananias, who put his hands on Saul’s eyes, and he could see (Acts 9:17-19). Ananias was not an apostle. He was an ordinary Christian.
[1] Life in the Spirit Study Bible, 1658
[2] Peter Wagner, The Acts of the Holy Spirit, 9
[3] John Stott gives these three examples in The Spirit, The Church and the World, 8.
[4] https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/92802202841/a?autoplay=true&popout=true
[5]William Graham Scroggie, Know Your Bible (1940; rpt. 1965), 74.
[6] https://thebiblefornormalpeople.com/absolutely-the-most-important-chapter-in-the-entire-bible/
