WELCOME to the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
We typically call this book “Acts” for short, but nowhere in the text does it call itself, “The Acts of the Apostles.”
It’s a follow-up “Treatise” by Luke the Physician to a man named Theophilus. The first “Treatise” was the work we call The Gospel According to Luke, or just “Luke.” Luke is not named in the book but if you carefully watch the use of pronouns in the text, you will see “they” and “them” until precisely Acts 16:10 when it switches to “we” and “us” for the remainder of the book. By looking closely at the text and who was in Paul’s group we can deduce that Luke was indeed the author which confirms the information passed down by the church since the beginning.
When I think of the name of the book of Acts, I often remember a scene in the book Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The townfolk had to provide their own entertainment so they formed a society to plan programs at the school. And one evening they played charades. When Pa’s turn came, he stepped up to the front dressed in his common work clothes, carrying his axe; upon the blade of which he had stuck two potatoes. He walked back and forth teasing the crowd who kept guessing in vain what his charade could be. When they finally gave up, Pa told them it was…
The Commentators on the Acts. 🪓🥔🥔
It took just a second for everyone to “get it,” but when they did, they all had a good laugh.
🙄 That is SUCH a nerd joke.
I thought it was funny. Must mean I’m a nerd.
😏 “Thou sayest it.”
Well, we may in fact want to look up what the “common taters” say on the Acts. If you do, I recommend blueletterbible.org. It’s free and you don’t have to make an account or anything. There are plenty of helpful tools.
THE ASCENSION
Jesus didn’t come out of the tomb then ascend to heaven right away. He spent 40 days appearing on and off to various groups of disciples and teaching them. Some of those appearances were in Galilee.
But during the summer, there is a festival in Jerusalem. It’s 50 days after Passover, hence the Greek name Pentecost, which means 50th. The Hebrew name is Shavuot, which means “weeks” (because it was the end of a 7-week grain harvest count). It marked the beginning of the wheat harvest and commemorated the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. All male Jews were required to attend. So the disciples went back to Jerusalem to be there for the festival.
Just 10 days before the festival Jesus reminds them of all the things He taught them about the coming of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14-16), after His New Covenant meal with them.
“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 1:4-5 ESV
“And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:49 ESV
Now, Jesus already breathed on them and said, “receive the Holy Spirit,” so in some sense the Holy Spirit has been “received” by them. But they have not been baptized – submerged, immersed – into the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that this baptism will “clothe” them “with power from on high.”
Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal scholars have long studied and discussed whether or not there is a difference between the regeneration of the Spirit at conversion and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, subsequent to conversion.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit – as taught and experienced by most Pentecostals – does not make a person more Christian. You can’t get more saved than saved. But since Christ Himself described this baptism as an endowment of supernatural dunamis power upon men who were obviously already baptized believers, I must conclude that they did not receive this power when they believed. It came after. Classic Pentecostal teaching is that baptism in the Holy Spirit is an empowering of the Holy Spirit for Christian service, separate and subsequent to salveation. And that idea comes from the key verse of the book:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””
Acts 1:8 ESV
The purpose of the empowerment is to be a witness. And that Greek word is:
This is all very new for the disciples. I rather imagine this verse from Luke getting interrupted…
“And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them…” Lk. 24:50
(Insert record scratch…)
Disciple: Um, Master? Excuse me…
(Jesus standing there with His arms still stretched out ready to ascend…)
Jesus: (with a sigh…and possibly an eye-roll) What is it?
Disciple: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 ESV)
Jesus: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8 ESV)
Disciple: Oh. Uh…Ok. Sorry to interrupt. Go ahead with whatever you were about to do.
“While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.”
Luke 24:51 ESV
They watch until Jesus is a tiny speck in the clouds and just like that, He’s gone.
Mark 16:19 adds that Jesus sat down at the right hand of God. (Remember that. It’s going to come up in just a few chapters.)
THE TEN DAYS OF WAITING
They all return from the Mount of Olives where Jesus has just ascended to heaven and they’re staying in “an upper room.” It’s possible that this was the same “upper room” where they had the Last Supper. Here is a fantastic video that shows what remains of this very spot. It’s 16min.
For 10 days, the little group of true believers stay together, sharing meals, praying, and no doubt talking about all the things Jesus had said and done. It feels like it was kinda the first church-camp.
🤓 Do you think they played relay races and Bible trivia? That’s what we always do at church camp.
🙂 Gotta have songs around a campfire too.
☝️🤓 And s’mores!
Uhhh….
- Relay races – No
- Bible Trivia – sorta yes
- Songs around a fire – probably
- S’mores – Definitely not
I think it’s precious that Jesus’ brothers and sisters are there too with Mary. They have finally realized just who was in their house all along.
The bit about Matthias and Joseph Barsabas Justus having been with Jesus the WHOLE time – from the Baptism of John to the Ascension, is like a surprising plot twist. We’ve known there were other followers, but now a couple of them have names. They’ve been there all along! Just in the background. It’s another reminder that MUCH more happened than what is recorded in scripture. There were about 120 men and women in the upper room waiting to receive this empowerment and we don’t know most of their names. But they helped establish the Church. I just find that fascinating to ponder.
PENTECOST
Shavuot is a one-day feast and it always falls on a Sunday. At the temple, the priests made 2 loaves of leavened bread from the newly harvested wheat. They would lift the two loaves up together and wave them before the Lord and then burn them on the altar along with 7 lambs, 1 bull, and 1 ram. (See Lev. 23:15-22).
The 120-ish believers in the upper room were the first of the newly harvested “wheat” of the Church. Think about the parable of the wheat and the tares and Jesus referring to the “fields white for harvest.” They weren’t perfect. There was some leaven. But they are holy to the Lord anyway.
While the priest was waving loaves of bread in the temple and then putting them in the fire, the LORD was making His newly harvested grain into loaves. There would be a Jewish loaf and a Gentile loaf from the new grain. And they had fire come and rest on them too.
Shavuot also celebrated the giving of the Law on Sinai. The Law was written with the finger of God when the fire came down on the Mountain.
On the day that the Jews were celebrating that, the LORD wrote His law of Love on the hearts of this new band of exiles and the Fire of His presence came and burned on each one of them as if each of them was a tiny Mount Sinai or a mini brazen altar of sacrifice.
This was the fulfillment of God’s promise through the prophet Jeremiah:
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””
Jeremiah 31:33-34 ESV
The coming of the Holy Spirit is a whole new chapter in God’s relationship with humanity. There is no longer a need for a Levitical priesthood or Old Testament prophet teaching the people and telling them about knowing God. Those who receive the Holy Spirit have direct and personal access to God. There is no longer a need for a human mediator. Even the least of can know the LORD personally. In this time period, the “least” would be women, children, Gentiles, the poor and slaves. Even a poor Gentile slave girl could know the God of Heaven and not need a priest or mediator to do so.
This is unheard of.
But the noise on the Day of Pentecost was not unheard. Oh, they could hear it all over that part of town.
As the 120 men and women began to speak in other languages, a crowd gathered to observe this phenomenon. And what they witnessed looked a lot like a story they knew from the Bible…
The Tower of Babel.
But instead of not understanding what was said, the message of “the wonderful works of God” was spoken in several languages that the hearers could understand.
🤔 So like, The Tower of Babel in reverse?
Yes! That’s exactly what was happening.
At Babel, the nations came together to build what was going to amount to a man-made mountain so they could access the gods and their divine intelligence on their own terms and so they could be unified and not dispersed.
(Boy that sounds a lot like the world we live in today.)
And so God dumped the nations and started over with an elderly couple and made a new nation from them for Himself.
At Pentecost, Yahweh makes the first move in reclaiming the nations. He is reversing the great disconnect that happened at Babel. These Jews from other regions will hear the Gospel, repent and be baptized, and then go home after the feast and take this news with them.
To the nations…
We’ll even meet some of them later.
Yahweh has started with this small crowd and He’s making a new people for Himself. It’s not a political nation. It’s a holy people.
And the rest of the book of Acts will show how this new people spreads all over the world in only about 30 years.
P.S.
I was looking for some pictures online to drop into this post and found this:
This is Jewish “Seventh Heaven Bread.”
😏 I’d be in seventh heaven if I got to eat that.
It is traditionally made by Sephardic Jews for Shavuot. Its origins have been traced to Jewish communities in Spain in the 700s AD. They were apparently inspired by special breads made by their Christian neighbors for Easter. It’s meant to represent this:
The mound in the middle is Mount Sinai. There are 7 rings for the 7 weeks leading up to Pentecost. The ladder is supposed to be Jacob’s Ladder, but the ladder gives it major Tower of Babel vibes if you ask me.
This is just begging to be made for a Sunday School class of children to teach them about Pentecost.
🤓 Oooo, then you could light it on fire! 🔥
I don’t think the recipe calls for flambé.
