Acts and the Movement of God
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Not finding it easy to write a synopsis of my book on Acts for my editor. Here’s what I’ve got so far (unedited!). Let me know what you think.
The one story of Jesus is told in two parts. What Jesus began to do in Luke’s Gospel, he continues to do in the book of Acts. Acts tells the story of how God pursues his mission through his people. Acts is a book about God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The movement of God begins with the risen Lord. When Jesus rises from the dead he confronts a band of disciples in hopeless disarray. He restores them, he gives them their mission and tells them to wait for the Spirit to come in transforming power. The Spirit came at Pentecost and the mission began as the Word went out. Thousands turned and believed and were added to the community of disciples. This was just the beginning.
As the Word goes out in the power of the Spirit, the fruit is disciples and churches to the glory of God from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth—every people, every place.
The life of the first church was characterized by joyful worship and prayer publicly and from house to house. They were devoted to the apostle’s teaching. Their love for one another overflowed in generosity to the poor among them. The church in Jerusalem is an example for every church; it shows us what discipleship in community looks like.
They filled Jerusalem with the knowledge of Jesus. They responded to violent opposition with prayer, forgiveness and bold proclamation of the gospel. Persecution propelled the movement out of the city into Judea and Samaria. God was the initiator of every breakthrough. The risen Lord overwhelmed Saul the destroyer on the Damascus road he called him to open the eyes of both Jews and Gentiles, turning them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may be forgiven and added to God’s people. The Lord sets the parameters of his mission. The Word goes out, the fruit is disciples and churches to the glory of God.
When the mission to the nations stalls, God moves Peter further and further away from Jerusalem into Gentile territory. Finally, when the Spirit falls upon the Gentiles gathered at Cornelius’ house, Peter understands. Gentiles are accepted into the people of God through faith in Christ alone. They do not have to become Jews. It takes time, but eventually, through God’s intervention, the door swings wide open to the Gentile mission.
In Antioch, the Spirit falls upon a band of prophets and teaches fasting and worshipping. Barnabas and Paul are set apart to form a missionary band that will take the gospel to key cities along the trade routes of the eastern Roman Empire. They encounter violent opposition from both Jews and Gentiles, but God protects them. As they proclaim the gospel disciples are made and churches are planted in city after city. Despite the danger, they circle back to strengthen the disciples and appoint local leaders in every place. Only then can it be said that they completed the work the Spirit gave them to do.
After more than a decade Paul could look back and say, there is now no more room for him to work in these regions. He had proclaimed the gospel where it was unknown and planted and strengthened churches where there were none. He trained local leaders. Now he was ready for the next unreached field. This time he planned a mission to Spain via Rome.
Paul says a tearful farewell to the churches in the east and heads to Jerusalem. The Spirit intervenes to warn him that in every city trouble and hardship await him, but God will get him to Rome. In Jerusalem he is attacked by a murderous mob and arrested by the Roman authorities. What follows is two years of legal battles and delays in which his enemies seek to have him either handed over or executed by the Romans. The only way out is for Paul to appeal to Caesar.
There are many more dangers on the voyage to Rome yet Jesus stands by Paul and the gospel goes out to everyone on board and to the barbarian inhabitants of Malta.
Acts finishes with Paul in custody in Rome awaiting trial. He is chained to a Praetorian guard day and night yet the Word still goes out unhindered from the center of the empire to the ends of the earth. Luke doesn’t tell us what happened to Paul in the end. Acts was never about Paul or Peter. Acts is about the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ. Luke tells us how God is at work in the world propelling his Word forward in the power of the Holy Spirit through his people. The Word never stops moving. The Word never takes a backward step. Wherever the Word goes, salvation comes, disciples are made and new churches are formed—from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. This is the mission of God into which he calls every disciple.
Acts is as relevant today as the living God is relevant today. Acts is not a manual on methods; it’s a book about God. We ignore its message at our peril. Luke does not build a wall of separation between his age and ours. Luke calls every generation back to the beginning, back to the life and ministry of Jesus, shown in Luke’s Gospel and the book of Acts.
If at the end of all of our learning, discussion, creativity and planning, what we have looks nothing like the book of Acts, then we’re in trouble. Acts leads us back to the movement of God for a lost world.
