Friday, May 8, 2009

Introduction - Acts 1:1-5

Introduction - Acts 1:1-5

1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Breakin' it Down:

Luke summarizes his two volumes: by basically saying, in a nutshell, Luke is separating the two part volume, "Part 1 was about the work and person of Jesus here on earth for all of humanity." Part two is a result of two things here (1) the result of the commands I gave my apostles (2) the working of my Holy spirit in them.

Luke gives the foundation of the Apostles ministry: (1) Jesus chose them (2) Jesus showed himself to them (3) Jesus commanded/commissioned them (4) Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit:
  1. Jesus Chose them: Luke says, ...the apostles whom he had chosen...Luke uses the same verb eklegomai in his account of Jesus' calling and choice of the twelve disciples. This save very is also used later in connection with Paul. All the apostles were directly and personally chosen and appointed by Jesus himeself.
  2. Jesus showed Himself to them: Luke says, ...he presented himself alive to them after his suffering...Mark, and John indicated that Jesus appointed the 12, that they may be with him, thus being uniquely qualified to bear witness to him. The foundation witnesses had to be eyewitnesses. Peter said, Judas' replacement had to be someone who had been with the 12 the whole time. This experience with Jesus was an indispensable qualification of an apostle, which explains why Paul could be one as well as James and why there have been no comparable apostles since then.
  3. Jesus commanded/commissioned them: Luke says, ...he had given commands through the Holy Spirit...What were these commands? Luke already recorded at the end of his gospel in terms of preaching repentance and forgiveness in his name to all nations, and which Jsus will soon repeat in terms of being his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8).
  4. Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit: In the upper room, according to John, Jesus had already promised the apostles that the Spirit of truth would both remind them of what he had taught them and supplement it with what he had not been able to teach them (John 14:26, John 16:12). However John was not the first to promise this sending of the Spirit, the prophets of old did as well.
So how does this apply to us today? First, can there be apostles like there where then? No! However can there be modern day apostles? I believe so. First, let me say what we cannot have apostles like we had then. The reason we do not have aposltes like we did then is that there are none today whom Jesus physically has shown himself to, simply see the verse on point 2. However, being that the word 'apostolos' means sent one, envoy, delegate, ambassador, etc and we have John 17 showing that Jesus prays that we will be his witnesses. Paul tells us that ALL scripture is God breathed and and useful then every thing else that the Aposles are commanded and sent to do with the infilling of the Holy spirit, we are as well. The truth is, Luke like his two volumes show us the work of salvation, and the affect of salvation, so this applies to our salvation, we are saved from and saved to, we are called from and sent to...In other words, Salvation and being sent are not two different levels...in fact we are saved in the way the apostles were, and we are sent in the same way, you can't have one without the other. (1) Jesus chooses us, (2) Jesus reveals himself to us, (3) Jesus commissions us to be his witnesses, and (4) equips us with his spirit...what we lack ONLY is an eyewitness experience of the historical Jesus, but we can be sure that one day we will see him face to face!

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