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Acts 1:1-11 “The Church on Fire”

One man said, “In our day one of the nicer things said about the institutional church

is that it is “irrelevant.” The book of Acts carries the remedy. Whether you are

young and virile with Superman-like energy, or restless with what you have seen of

a dull, ho-hum, business-as-usual Christianity, or at the age where you are receiving

birthday cards that say things like, “When it’s time for a dental check-up, do you

send your teeth out?”

The work of Jesus didn't cease when He ascended into heaven. The book of Acts records

what Jesus continued to teach and do through His disciples. Acts traces the expansion of

Christianity in the days of the early Church. The story begins in the Jewish capitol of

Jerusalem, and ends in the Gentile capitol of Rome.

Acts takes us up to about 60 or 61 A.D., with Paul in Rome waiting to appear

before Caesar Nero. This same Nero began his infamous persecutions of

Christians in 64 A.D.

Acts explains how the Jewish Messiah became Lord of the Gentiles. There has never

been a more successful period of Church history. In a single generation the Church was

able to spread Christianity throughout the whole known world. And understand, their

success was without all the 21st century helps we rely on. They had no technology and

transportation – no money and marketing plans – no buildings and buses.

Yet through the Word of God – – through the power of the Holy

Spirit – – they turned the world upside down.

The Church today needs to recapture the fire and spark of the Church in Acts.

The book of Acts ends with chapter 28, but the acts of Jesus continue today, as the

living Lord carries on His work through followers filled with His Spirit.

As Missler states and I agree… “Note that this book is about Jesus Christ, and

not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is very prominent and we will learn a

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great deal about Him, but as is consistent with His Mission, He bears

testimony of the Son, Jesus of Nazareth!”

Acts is a book about people who thrust their feet into sweat stained sandals and march out to

conquer the world. They had no visible sword they had no visible shields , no visible commander;

nonetheless they marched with matchless unconcern into the gates of prison through the valley

of persecution and even into the jaws of death.

Acts 1:1 The former account I made, The Book of Acts was written by Luke.

The “former account” referred to is the Gospel that bears his name. LUKE At one

time the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts were joined together as one book with

two "volumes." His writings are regarded as some of the finest pieces of historical

writing in ancient literature.

As noted by one commentator, “From his exacting use of the Greek language,

we know Luke was an intelligent man. We also know from Colossians 4:14

that he was a doctor. Many Bible scholars and historians further believe that,

since the slaves of wealthy men usually held the position of physician, Luke

was a slave.”

We know that he was a doctor, we know that he was a Gentile, and we know that

he was a companion of Paul. And possibly a Jedi master possessing tremendous amounts of

the force.

In the Gospels the Son of Man offered his life; in Acts the Son of God offered

his power.

The subject of “Book of Acts” is the same as “Luke’s gospel”.

Same writer: ; Same reader: Luke ; and Same subject: Theophilus Jesus Christ.

Acts 1:1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus

began both to do and teach, …O Theophilus…

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Theophilus might have been a Christian wanting instruction. He might have been a Roman

official being briefed by Luke about the history of the Christian movement; or the name

could be symbolic, because the name Theophilus means "God-lover."

Some scholars and historians believe Theophilus was Luke’s owner who, following

his own conversion to Jesus Christ, freed Luke to travel with the apostle Paul.

Arno Gaebelein a reliable source dating back to the second century, states that

Theophilus was an influential and wealthy man residing in the city of Antioch.

He dedicated his magnificent palace, called a Basilica, to the preaching of the

Gospel. Luke came most likely also from Antioch. He may have belonged to the

household of Theophilus. Luke may have received great kindness from Theophilus;

some claim that he used to be a slave and became a free man through Theophilus.

Luke addresses Theophilus with title most excellent, which was a way to address people

who held high office.

Luke and Acts may have served as trial documentation. Roman

law required historical background of a case to precede an appeal to Caesar. Such

an undertaking was expensive and Theophilus may have been Paul’s sponsor.

Verse 2 of Acts 1 until the day in which He was taken up, “...taken up”:

This phrase occurs 4 times in this chapter alone, and refers to the ascension.

after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the

apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself

alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs,

during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of

God.

The Greek word for “seen” is optanomai, from which we

get our word ophthalmologist, or eye doctor. It literally means Jesus was being

“eyeballed” by them, “stared at,” or “scrutinized.”

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Wouldn’t you? If your leader had been crucified, but came back on the scene from

time to time, wouldn’t you eyeball him? Not only did His disciples see Him, but

according to 1 Corinthians 15:6, there were 500 eyewitnesses to whom Jesus

appeared following His Resurrection.

Luke is the only scriptural writer who tells us that Christ’s post-resurrection ministry

covered 40 days.

Acts 1:2-3 tell us that following His resurrection, Jesus lingered on earth for 40

days before ascending to heaven. This is why no one in the first century seriously

questioned the legitimacy of the resurrection - there were too many eyewitnesses.

Luke calls these sighting of the risen Christ…

Jesus knew the faith of all future generations would hinge on the testimony of

these eyewitnesses. Thus He made the evidence so undeniable and irrefutable,

so clear and conclusive – that no one could discredit the news…

In 1 Corinthians 15:6, Paul describes one of these many infallible proofs: He was seen by

over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the

present. There were more than five hundred people who had seen the resurrected Jesus,

and most of them were alive some twenty-five years later in the days of Paul!

On to verse 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded

them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father,

“which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My

name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things

that I said to you.

John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide

you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He

hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

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John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go

away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart,

I will send Him to you.

Back to Acts 1 verse 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be

baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

You know Peter is thinking… dude I’m gonna be able to walk through walls… oh

wait I better listen…

Can you imagine the conversations between Jesus and the disciples? It may have

even led to all-night rap sessions. What was this baptism “with the Holy Spirit”?

Would Jesus take them to the Jordan and rebaptize them? So many questions and no

doubt so many answers…

The idea of being baptized is to be immersed or covered over in something; even as John baptized people in water, so these disciples would be "immersed" in the Holy Spirit.

The word baptized, which normally means “dipped or immersed,” here has the idea of

“uniting with” (cf. 1 Cor 10:1-2). Immersed in the Holy Spirit…

When you opened your heart to Jesus, the Holy Spirit came into you. He

indwelled you. You were born again. You were regenerated.

In John 20, the disciples had the Spirit in them, just as He is in every one of you

who has been born again (John 20:22). You have the Holy Ghost. The question is:

Does the Holy Ghost have you? As we will see… there is a difference between the

indwelling and the overflowing of the Holy Spirit… All believers all indwelled and

now the disciples are going to experience the “baptism” of the Holy Spirit.

Fruits of the spirit vs. the gifts of the spirit?

Holy Spirit… He is with us when we are convicted of our need to be born again

(John 14:17);

He comes in us the moment we open our heart to the Savior (John 20:22); and

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He comes upon us when He empowers us for service (Acts 1:5).

but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

10 days to be exact. Who is going to be “Baptized with the Holy Spirit”? The

Apostles, 120 of them? The Baptism is of the Body of Christ on Pentecost.

6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord,

will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It

is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own

authority. Notice how this verse is recorded in Mark 13:32: “No man, nor the

angels, neither the Son!” That means there is something that the Father knows that

the Son doesn’t, at least at that particular time. I think Jesus by now knew… but

didn’t want them to know…

8 But you shall receive power ( … Force… miraculous power… Dunamis

dynamite) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;

The political kingdom they wanted would be delayed, power would not. They would

shortly receive power with the coming of the Holy Spirit.

and you shall be witnesses When the Holy Spirit has come upon you … you shall be witnesses

of Me. The words shall be are in the indicative, not the imperative. Jesus wasn't recommending that they become witnesses, He was saying they would be witnesses.

and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and

Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

It has been 2,000

years, and Jesus has not during that time planted his feet on terra firma and

audibly addressed his followers. Perhaps that silence is intended to prevent

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anything from obscuring Jesus’ last words, so they will continue to

reverberate in the Church’s ears.”

WE have a mission Church! The core mission is seen in the heart of verse 8: “… and you

will be my witnesses.” We are to be “witnesses” for Christ! This is the recurring message of

Acts. The word occurs no less than 35 times. For example:

“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.” (2:32)

“You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are

witnesses of this.” (3:15)

“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in

Jerusalem.” (10:39)

“You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.” (22:15)

To be a witness for Christ is to bring a message that is a marvel of simplicity; Jesus

Christ is God come in the flesh; he died to pay for our sins: he was resurrected; now

he is exalted in Heaven; he calls us to believe in him and so receive forgiveness of

sins. There is nothing to join, no system to climb –

just a person to receive and, in Him, eternal life.

If we are to be effective witnesses for our Savior, we cannot be water boys in the game of life.

Our lives must display the inner reality of what we externally proclaim.

When George Whitefield was getting the people of Edinburgh out of their

beds at 5 o’clock in the morning to hear his preaching, a man on his way to

the church met David Hume, the Scottish philosopher and skeptic. Surprised

at seeing him on his way to hear Whitefield, the man said, “I thought you did

not believe in the gospel.” Hume replied, “I do not, but he does.” DO YOU!

We need to be busy about His business. I work with Christians, I listen to Christian music, go to Bible studies and hang out with Christian friends and

yet I know I am called to be salt and light. Jesus prayed that I would

not be of this world but we still live in it. It is possible to go womb to tomb in a hermetically sealed container decorated with fish stickers.

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It is possible to abandon our culture to the devil. We can’t do it

Church… we need to be salt and light. salt and light must

penetrate to be effective! WE ARE HIS WITNESSES!

The more you soak up the “SON” the brighter your light will become!

Jesus believes that salty believers have a healing, preserving

influence on our own society and world. He believes that we can bring

flavor to life – that we can make the world thirsty for him.

–a

little salt goes a long way!

Jesus never challenges us to become salt or light. He simply says that we are!

Christ’s last word to us is,

Again Jesus last words, “and you shall be witnesses to Me in

Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the

earth.”

But what a shock these geographical designations must have been to the

disciples. Jerusalem? The Lord was crucified there. Judea? The had been

rejected there. Samaria? Samaria was regarded as a wasteland of impure half-

breeds! The ends of the earth? Gentiles too? the Gentiles were seen as nothing

better than fuel for the fires of Hell. The words were not only spiritually

revolutionary, but socially and ethnically unheard of.

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our Oceanside our neighbors… There can be no burden for distant

unreached peoples without a burden for unreached neighbors.

Christ’s words taken seriously are nothing less than the declaration of a

benevolent war. They are a call for every believer – every forgiven sinner now

following Christ – Nechayev, a nineteenth-century disciple of

Karl Marx, was thrown into prison for his role in the assassination of Czar

Alexander II. Prior to his death he wrote:

The revolutionary man is a consecrated man. He has neither his own

interests nor concerns nor feelings, no attachment nor property, not

even a name. all for him is absorbed in the singles exclusive interest

in the one thought, in one passion – REVOLUTION.

If the Christian faith is worth believing at all, it is worth believing !

When the Holy Spirit comes upon followers of Christ, the most unlikely people

become fountains of power.

Whether we are at home or bridging society’s barriers or making our way to the

ends of the earth, we are to be people of one thing – seeing one thing, caring for one

thing, living for one thing – to please God and be His witnesses…

Billy Sunday used to say, “The Lord has anointed me to preach to the guttermost

parts of the earth.” What made Billy Sunday tick? What drove D. L. Moody, R. A.

Torrey, or Charles Finney? Read their biographies, and you will see that, without

exception, each of these men had an undeniable encounter with the Holy Spirit.

Verse 9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken

up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

Some other versions suggest that the cloud came right down onto the mountain. I

believe it was the Shekinah glory –

This was the same symbol that Moses had encountered on Sinai when God

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covered him with his hand so that Moses only saw the afterglow.

It was the same cloud that traveled before Israel by day (a pillar of fire by night).

It was the same cloud that lay over the tabernacle and filled the temple.

It was the cloud that Ezekiel saw depart over the east gate.

It was the same presence that surrounded Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration

when his face shone forth like the sun (Matthew 17).

“...received him out of their sight”: literally here “took under him.” He seemed to be

supported by the cloud (“in glory”).

10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two

men stood by them in white apparel,

“...looked steadfastly toward heaven”: Genitive absolute of present middle

participle. They saw him slipping away from their eyes as the cloud bore him away

i.e., trans-dimensional?

“...two men”: Moses and Elijah? They are seen in Mt 17...And in Rev 11? Perhaps

also in Gen 18? Maybe two angels?…

11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same

Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw

Him go into heaven.”

This was Jesus’ homecoming. It proved that His Father had accepted His suffering and sacrifice -

and considered His mission a success! And as Jesus ascended to heaven, two beings deliver a

message, “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner

as you saw Him go into heaven.” At the rapture, Jesus will again come in the clouds to snatch

away those who trust in Him. He’ll return for us the same way He left us.

The teaching here is clearly meant for a missionary church. “Jesus is returning

again – so get going!”

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May you be filled to the fullness of the Holy Spirit! Our mission? To be “His

witnesses.” The mission’s extent? “In Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and

to the ends of the earth.” The mission’s power? “When the Holy Spirit comes on

you.”