Acts
completes the story begun in the Book of Luke by narrating the spread of the
Gospel from Jesus’ ascension to heaven to Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. The Book
of Acts’ contribution to understanding the missional nature of God’s people is clear.
A missional reading of Acts listens to the story of the emergence of the Christ
following movement in the 1st century Greco-Roman world as a guide
to 21st century mission.
The
central insight of Acts is the empowering role of the Holy Spirit in the
advancement of the Gospel. The Book of Acts is Spirit-driven. So much so that
it is more appropriate to think of the Book of Acts as “Acts of the Spirit”
rather than “Acts of the Apostles.”
The
Book of Acts opens with the Risen Jesus prepping his disciples for their
post-resurrection mission. This is a new era for the people of God. Jesus’
words are programmatic and visionary: “But you all will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes down upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (1:8). This text is full of
meaning.
Fundamentally,
this text reconnects the mission of God’s people explicitly with the Genesis
1–11 world. If the Gospel story from Genesis 12 until the coming of Jesus focused
on the creation of a new humanity to reflect God’s character in the world, the
post-resurrection era of the Church shifts to a “go to” ethos in which the
people of God now engage actively the nations with the Good News about God’s
abundant and transforming love.
Notice
the language of Acts 1:8. It is a vision for world mission. It assumes that
mission will continue in the area of the disciples' current geographic reality:
Jerusalem and the wider land of biblical Israel. These had been the areas in
which Jesus himself had served. But now there is a push beyond these regions to
the rest of the earth. The Gospel came to its initial fulfillment in the land
promised to Abraham and his descendants. Now post-resurrection, it is time for
the good news to spread to the nations in anticipation of the New Creation.
This reconnects the Biblical story line with God's universal mission to all
Creation. This fulfills the original mission of humanity (1:26–31). Under the
power of the Spirit, the Church re-engages this mission with the hope of
reaching the nations with the Gospel.
The
Spirit is the catalyst for this new movement of God’s work in the world. With
the resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Messiah, God sends the Holy Spirit
into the world to empower his new humanity–the church–to serve as clues to the
Kingdom of God. The sending and empowerment of the Spirit is the qualitative
difference between the Old Testament people of God and the New Testament people
of God. The Spirit guarantees the success of God’s mission. God’s people, the
church, are people of the Spirit. The Book of Acts demonstrates this in
dramatic fashion.
Acts
2 powerfully tells the story of the initial filling of Jesus followers with the
Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Jews and god-fearers from all over the Roman
world had gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. Jesus’ followers
had likewise gathered together. Suddenly, on the morning of Pentecost the Holy
Spirit descended upon them in the form of tongues of fire. All of Jesus’
followers who were present (perhaps as many as 120 cf. 1:15) were
instantaneously gifted with the ability to speak one of the many native
languages of those gathered in Jerusalem. They began to announce the good news
about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. This reality reversed the confusion
of Babel (Gen 11:1–9) and demonstrated the translatability
of the Gospel cross-culturally. This is a key element, as Jesus’ followers
could have spoken in Greek and addressed the crowd as a whole. But the mission
of God is for the nations and, thus, the followers address the nations
contextually in each person’s native tongue. Peter addresses the crowd and
announces that this miracle of speech is the fulfillment of the ancient
prophecy from Joel 2:28–32. God’s future age of the Spirit, as inaugurated by
Jesus, has now come. Peter goes on to announce cogently the Gospel to all who
gathered around him. The immediate result of the proclamation of Jesus’ death and
resurrection through the power of the Spirit was the addition of 3000 persons
to the Christ following movement.
The
Book of Acts marks the spread of the Gospel around the world by tracing the
advancement of the baptism of the Spirit. Whenever the Gospel reaches a new
people, the Spirit’s coming signifies the creation of a new Jesus community. Unlike
in the Old Testament, in the New Testament all of God’s people receive the
Spirit for empowerment and cleansing. Acts records the apostles performing
miracles and preaching in the power of the Spirit. As the Gospel reaches a new
area in fulfillment of Acts 1:8, the Spirit fills believers in each region.
In
subsequent chapters, the Gospel advances through the work of the Spirit. This
will be a recurring pattern. In fact, although the full name of Acts is “The
Acts of the Apostles, a better title would be “Acts of the Holy Spirit.” We
will now trace briefly how this narrative thread plays out in the rest of the
book. In Acts 3, Peter and John encountered a crippled man on their way to the
temple. Peter heals the man and boldly proclaims the Gospel in Solomon’s
portico. This scene catches the attention of the authorities who then arrest
Peter and John. In Acts 4, Peter and John appear before the religious authorities
in Jerusalem. The Spirit fills Peter (4:8) and enables him to boldly proclaim
the Gospel before the council.
In
Acts 7–8, an intense time of persecution erupts against the earliest Christ
following movement. However, human power cannot quench the Spirit. Instead of
stopping the Gospel in its tracks, the persecution has the opposite effect of helping
to advance the Gospel by pushing it out of Jerusalem into surrounding regions.
This is an important insight for a missional reading. The arrival of persecution
does not mark the end of Christian witness, but instead it often enhances
Christian witness (e.g., Philippians 1:27–30). The persecution in Jerusalem forces
Jesus’ followers to flee, but in the process, they are carrying the Gospel to
new people and new places. The inhabitants of Samaria are the fist
beneficiaries. Jews and Samaritans had a shared history but also much animosity
with each other. This does not stop the Gospel. Acts 8:4–25 reports the
missional work of Philip among the Samaritans. They receive the Gospel. Reports
of the reception of the Gospel by the Samaritans make it back to the apostolic
leadership in Jerusalem. They appoint Peter and John to travel to Samaria in
order to equip the new believers there. The believers in Samaria had received
water baptism, but they did not yet have the baptism of the Spirit. Peter and
John pray that God would send his Spirit upon the Samaritans, and they received
the Holy Spirit (8:15–17). The Spirit’s arrival marks the advance of the Gospel
to a new place and new people.
Next
the Spirit empowers the Church to bridge the cultural gap between Jew and
Gentle. In Caesarea, the first Gentiles receive the Gospel (10:44–48). The book
of Acts marks the acceptance of the Gospel by a new cultural group with a report
of the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the believers. In due course, the Spirit
baptizes Jews (Acts 2), Samaritans (Acts 7), and Gentiles (Acts 10). This continues
the fulfillment of Joel’s vision of the Spirit being poured out on “all flesh”
(Joel 2:28). The gift of the Spirit is for everyone. The artificial boundaries
of humanity dissolve: Jew and Gentile, young and old, rich and poor, slave and
free, male and female.
God’s
Spirit is the driving force in the expansion of God’s people from the day of
Pentecost in Jerusalem (Acts 2) to Paul’s house arrest in Rome (Acts 28). The
early apostles and witnesses were open and sensitive to the Spirit’s promptings.
For example, in Acts 8:26–40, the Spirit leads Philip (8:29) to engage an
Ethiopian eunuch in a conversation that leads to the man’s conversion. The Holy
Spirit fills Saul (9:17) after his Damascus road encounter with the Risen Jesus
(9:1-9) and he becomes Paul. Paul’s encounter transforms him. He shifts from
being a persecutor of the church to being the person whom God uses to carry the
Gospel to the Gentile world. His journeys ultimately bring him to Rome.
Acts
13–28 describes the forward advance of the Gospel from the regions of
Jerusalem, Samaria, and Syria into Asia Minor (modern Turkey), Greece, and eventually
Rome itself. Acts 13:1–4 narrates how the Spirit selected Paul and Barnabas to
serve as ambassadors of the Gospel. We often think of Paul as a man with a
driven personality. But Paul is not merely an ambitious and visionary missional
leader; his exploits are the product of the leading of the Spirit. The Holy
Spirit calls Paul (Saul) and Barnabas to preach the Gospel in these new lands.
Eventually, Paul and Barnabas separate to pursue different calls (Acts
15:36–41), but Paul continues to carry the Gospel to cities that have not yet
heard the name of Jesus. Under the guidance of the Spirit (16:6–10), Paul leaves
Asia Minor to evangelize Macedonia and Greece. Paul continues to proclaim the
Gospel until Acts ends in Acts 28 with Paul preaching about Jesus in Rome, the
capital of the empire. This is significant because it represents a partial
fulfillment of Acts 1:8. The Gospel has now moved from Jerusalem, the spiritual
center of God’s people from the time of David to Rome the center of the
dominant empire of the first century.
Provocatively,
Acts concludes in an open-ended fashion. Acts 28 reports that Paul arrived in
Rome and lived under house arrest for two-years. During that time, he taught
openly about the Kingdom of God and Jesus. Interestingly, the Book of Acts ends
abruptly. The reader does not learn the outcome of Paul’s stay in Rome nor of
any additional advance of the Gospel. Scholars do debate the ending of acts.[1]
But is is clear that the reader is left to wonder what happens next. This invites
the reader to create his or her own ending. In the absence of an Acts 29, we must
imagine the next chapters in the advance of the Gospel and even to see our own
day as part of the ongoing story of God’s people. The story of Acts 29 and
beyond remains one to be written by Jesus’ followers today.
The
Book of Acts serves an important role in developing a missional hermeneutic
through its emphasis on the work of the Spirit. God advances the Gospel through
the Spirit’s empowerment. Our hermeneutical reflection is vital but the Good
News is that the Spirit continues its work.
[1] The issues turns on the meaning of “ends of the earth” in Acts 1:8 and
the extent to which the Gospel reaching Rome represents the fulfillment of
Jesus’ promise.
