Acts 1:1-6
- Jenny Crum
- Jan 1
- 2 min read
New years is for something new. New goals new diets, new plans and dreams. So I thought we would try something new as well. No we aren’t starting a new fad diet, that out. Plus, my birthday is in January and I want to eat my birthday cake.
I have been thinking of a time when God was starting something new as well. He started something new at creation, he revealed what he had been doing all along at the birth of Christ ( new to us) however there is another something new that we can study in Acts, and Luke has written it all down for us.
The birth of the Church, Jesus literally sends His Spirit, the Holy Spirit to indwell his people. The Holy Spirit is a constant for the believers, always there, never leaving, counselor and guide. From this day on, the miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit begins to work in and sanctify the early believers as they set up the fellowship of “The Way”. The Church is born and God was doing something completely new!
So we start in the middle of the story but at the perfect spot to see God doing something new. In the book of Acts Luke gives his friend Theophilus, and us, a mini recap of what’s been happening. In the gospel of Luke he starts at the birth of Christ and in his second book of Acts he starts at the birth of the Church.
Acts 1: 1-6
“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 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. 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; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.””
Acts 1:1-5 ESV
TGP Journal Questions:
To whom is Luke Writing?
What does Luke say has happened before this letter?
Fill in the blanks from verse 3:
He presented himself ________ to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during _____ days and speaking about the ___________ of God.
What were the disciples instructions from Jesus as he left?
What did John baptize with? What does Jesus baptize with? Why is this significant?
What a the Holy Spirit doing in your life right now?
What is the Holy Spirit doing in the Church right now? ( think bigger than your local church, think global)
What fresh new thing is God doing in your life? How are you prepared to obey the Spirit in the coming year?
