Acts: Introduction

Andy gives a brief introduction and survey of the book of Acts. 

- Episode Transcript - 

Wes  

Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This isn't our first episode in the Book of Acts, but as we prepare to begin our journey through this great book next week, we wanted to give you a little bit of an insight into why the Book of Acts is so helpful for us. So, I'm here with Andy Davis and Andy, I'd love to just ask you the question. First, why should we study the Book of Acts? And then a follow up to that would be, how will studying the Book of Acts really help us to grow in those two journeys of the Christian life?  

Andy 

Well, it's fantastic to begin this study with you, Wes, and we'll be getting into it in detail next week and excited about that. But just in terms of why we should study this incredible Book of Acts, it helps us to understand in many ways the purpose of our lives here on Earth, especially once we've come to faith in Christ. The fundamental issue of our lives is forgiveness of our sins and being born again. And trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins that we would have eternal life. But once that's happened, what do we do now? And I think one of the main answers to that, and we've seen this in the two journeys kind of paradigm that we use, the two journeys approach, is to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and also to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. That the gospel would move out and just fill the whole world with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. That is God's purpose.  

"This incredible Book of Acts …helps us to understand in many ways the purpose of our lives here on Earth, especially once we've come to faith in Christ."

From the very beginning when God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans he said, "Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed" (Genesis 22:18). And so, from the very beginning, God's purpose was that the gospel of Jesus Christ would spread to the ends of the earth. And I think a thesis statement of the Book of Acts happens right away in Acts 1:8, when Jesus said, "'You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' And then after he said that he was taken up before the eyes of the apostles," taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight." So, these were Jesus' last words to the church before he left planet Earth before he left the earth and went up to heaven to sit at the right hand of Almighty God.  

Since that time, that is all that's happened. The Holy Spirit has been advancing the kingdom of Christ from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth in every generation; the Book of Acts shows the beginning of that journey. As the book opens, the disciples are in the upper room waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit as Jesus told them to do. They're waiting for the outpouring of the Spirit. The Spirit is poured out on the day of Pentecost, and they spill out into the streets of Jerusalem. And Peter and the other apostles preach a very powerful first sermon on the day of Pentecost. And in that day, 3000 were added to the church through repentance and faith in Christ. And so it begins, the gospel starts spreading and moving, and that is the story of human history. Redemptive history is the movement of the gospel spreading from individual to individual through repentance and faith in Christ.  

Now, the Book of Acts we're going to find out, will come in a movement from a Jew-only church to a Jew plus Gentile church, and ultimately to a church dominated really numerically by Gentiles. Well, the movement from Jewish-only to Jewish plus Gentile believers in Christ is captured very beautifully in the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts breaks into two kind of main sections, really two main individuals. This is simplistic, but it mostly kind of begins in the first 12 chapters or so with the story of Peter the Apostle to the Jews. And so, the focus is on Peter more than anyone else. So that's not just Peter. There's Stephen and other individuals, but Peter's kind of the main individual there at least. And then from the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9, but then from Acts 13, which is the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas through to the end of the book, we're really following Paul, almost exclusively Paul.

"Redemptive history is the movement of the gospel spreading from individual to individual through repentance and faith in Christ."

And so, Peter and Paul are the key figures, although there are other figures as well. And what we're going to find in this study of the Book of Acts, we're going to see how the Holy Spirit uses ordinary people, sinners like you and me as witnesses. And what sorts of scenarios happen, what kind of persecutions the early church endured. And what kind of fruitfulness came through their faithful preaching of the gospel, and what types of doctrinal issues they worked through as they saw people coming to Christ. And as they were planting churches and localities, and how God was faithful in various places to spread the gospel. And so, it's going to be inspirational to us. So bottom line, for me personally as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I know that one of my main callings is to do evangelism and to do missions, to care about lost people, unreached people groups to the ends of the earth, and lost coworkers and neighbors and people right here in the city where we live.  

And the Book of Acts inspires me. It instructs me, motivates me. It encourages me to be a faithful witness of Jesus Christ for the glory of God. So, we're going to go through these chapters. We're going to look chapter after chapter. We're going to look at the details and continue to look at that big picture, Acts 1:8 being the kind of summary or outline of the whole book to some degree. And we're going to see the incredible power of the Holy Spirit in taking the gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. I'm excited about this journey we're about to begin.  

Wes  

I'm excited for our time together as well, and we would encourage you to join us next time for our first episode in the book of Acts entitled Judea, Samaria, and The Ends of the Earth, where we'll discuss Acts. 1:1-11. We hope you'll join us as together we are encouraged and inspired and motivated by the word of God to be faithful in growing both in that internal journey of sanctification and the external journey of gospel advance. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.