IT’S ALL ABOUT JESUS!

Acts 1:1-5
Bob Bonner
November 15, 2009

Last week as we introduced our study of the book of Acts, we noted that originally Luke’s Gospel and Acts made up one complete work of Luke. Because of its length, Luke’s original manuscript required being written in two volumes or two scrolls. But the overall subject of this single work in two volumes, his Gospel and Acts, is the work of Jesus Christ upon the earth. This morning as we begin our study of Acts 1:1-5, I want you to notice five points that Luke makes about Jesus in these verses that set the foundation for the work of God on earth through His people, the church.

Let’s begin by reading our passage of study for today, Acts 1:1-5. 

¹The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to

do and teach, ²until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He

had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.

³To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many

convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and

speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. ⁴Gathering them

together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for

what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me;

⁵for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit

not many days from now.”

From the outset in verse 1, Luke tell us that the starting point, the central feature or subject matter of Acts, the Cornerstone of the book, is the person of Jesus. This account is “about all that Jesus began to do and teach.” Christianity is not about a teaching—it is about a person. Christianity is not merely a moral outlook that is to be applied in the realm of politics or a creed on how one is to live among others. Christianity is about a person, someone you must get to know and serve.  You do not start with His teaching—you start with Him.  That’s why later in Acts 17:18 you will find that our Lord’s disciples always preached to the lost “Jesus and the resurrection.” Likewise, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:5 that our mission is to “preach Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake.”

As mentioned in our introductory message on Acts, this is the record of Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth, being directed by Him from heaven through his apostles by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Acts, Luke expands on not only who Jesus is and what Jesus did, but also on what He taught. But it always begins with knowing Jesus.

In case you weren’t here last week, Luke’s statement in verse 1 that this is a follow-up account to his “first account” literally means Acts is the next discourse following his previous volume, the Gospel of Luke. Also, the words describing “Theophilus,” the same individual addressed in Luke 1:1, “most excellent Theophilus,” are descriptive words used only in addressing a Roman official, generally one set over a country. Hence, Theophilus was evidently an official of the Roman Empire, probably a governor of a province, who had an interest in the story of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some believe that Theophilus was going to be the Apostle Paul’s advocate or lawyer to present Paul’s case before Caesar on the basis that Paul was falsely arrested on bogus charges that were trumped up by Jews in Palestine. Hence, with Luke’s complete work of both the Gospel and Acts, he is telling this Roman official, “I will give you an account of exactly what happened in Palestine. I will tell you why we believe what we believe. I will tell you Who Jesus is. I will tell you the whole story.”

When Luke states that he is about to tell him all that Jesus “began to do and teach,” he was implying, among other things, that Jesus is not finished. He is not done with His work and with His teaching. He is not dead and He is not absent. He is alive and He is presently working in the world. He is still doing and He is still teaching.

Christ’s work of redemption was completed in Luke’s first volume, his Gospel in which we learn of Christ’s death on the cross to pay for the sins of the world. Now, according to Acts, the church’s work of evangelism and discipleship begins. But even that, as we will see next week, is going to take a miracle, because God is going to build the foundation of his work, the church, on eleven men, who from a purely human perspective were in no way ready for such a task. There were things these eleven Apostles still did not understand. They had not only failed in public witness but also in private loyalty and in personal faith. Hence the need for the supernatural work of God, His Holy Spirit, to instruct, direct, and empower them in the days ahead is the first major subject of Acts.

Luke states that Jesus set an example for us to follow. According to verse 1, Jesus first did and then he taught. Doing always precedes teaching. There will be no power in our words if there is no demonstration or action of it in our lives. Jesus "did" for thirty years before he began to "teach." Of Jesus, the Apostle John reminds us in John 1:4, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”

This principle of “first practice then teach” has been modeled for us for thousands of years. Take Ezra, for example. Just in case you don’t know who Ezra was, he was a man committed to honoring God through his faithful service and obedient life. While Israel had spent years in the Babylonian Exile, Ezra remained faithful to the Lord, hoping one day to return to Israel to re-establish faith in the promised land. When he got the chance to return to Israel, this is what the text says about him in Ezra 7:8, 10: “⁸He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. . . . For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.” Notice the order: Study, practice, teach. This is the same model that Paul used later in Titus 2:7, 8, and 10 to admonish the believers in Crete. He wanted them to “adorn the doctrine” they had been taught by how they lived their lives. That which makes our message believable is a holy life that clearly demonstrates God can save from sin and transform the sinner in the midst of the vicissitudes, challenges, inconveniences, and disappointments of life. The messenger manifests the power of the message he is proclaiming through the manner of his living.

The failure of the modern church to apply this to our lives results in two major factors that contribute to the church’s powerlessness to make a difference in the USA today. First, many are ignorant of Biblical truth. Second, those who may know Biblical truth all too often fail to live by it. They come to church, say they love Jesus, and in some cases know the right thing to do, but they refuse to do it. 

Recently, my son from Southern California called me for some advice concerning a couple he and his wife have been counseling. The woman is a Christian who knowingly married a non-Christian. He has turned out to be verbally abusive and lazy and has committed adultery numerous times. Then he got saved, went back to work, and started to get a grip on his abusive language. But just as he began to get his act together, she decided that she deserved more, so she went out and had an affair and rationalized her action on the basis that he wasn’t changing his ways quickly enough and she, after so many years of living with this difficult man, deserved to be happy. 

Never does she admit that she probably would not have had these problems if she had not disobeyed God about marrying a non-Christian. Never does she admit that her affair was wrong. Further, she refuses to put into practice the biblical instructions of her counselors. She knows that divorcing her husband is wrong, but she doesn’t care. She figures God will forgive her any way, so why not? She actually believes that her loving God will not discipline her so that she will learn that this is not how He works. 

Just in case you know someone who thinks this way, allow me to remind you of Biblical truth. The fact is, God loves you so much that yes, He will always forgive you. But He also loves you so much that He will discipline you to teach you that you don’t ever get ahead or find true meaning in life when you knowingly do what is wrong, thinking you have your escape chute called “forgiveness.” After telling me the scenario, Nick asked me, “Where do I go from here?” I told him, “Nowhere. You can’t live her life for her. You have told her all that she needs know and now she needs to practice it. One way or another, God will take care of it. Either she will obey Him and He will restore and build love and trust back into their marriage, or she will disobey and He lovingly will discipline her.” Sadly, if the statistics are true, her life will probably be one more loud voice screaming the lie to a lost world that trusting Jesus won’t transform your life. 

According to verse 2, prior to his ascension Jesus by the Holy Spirit gave some orders or commands. It was not just one order but plural orders or commands. What commands did Jesus give? Even though Luke explains in the last verses of his Gospel that Jesus had ordered his disciples to remain in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit, that is probably not the orders Luke has in mind in this verse. I say that because two verses later, in verse 4, Luke mentions that same specific single command to “stay in Jerusalem.” So here, the plurality of orders that Luke has in mind probably refer to those mentioned during Christ’s post-resurrection instructions to the disciples mentioned in Luke 24:47 to “preach the gospel in all nations” and in Matthew 28:19-20 to “make disciples of all nations” and in John 20:21 where Jesus tells the eleven Apostles, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” These commands to preach the Gospel and to make disciples was so drilled into Luke’s mind by his mentors, the Apostle Paul, John, Peter, and James, Christ’s brother, that he brings them up again in Acts 10:42.  Hence, the second point Luke makes that focuses on Jesus is His commands to preach the gospel and to make disciples.

Allow me to make one more point from verse 2 that hopefully will clear up some confusion concerning the idea of modern day “apostles.” The term apostles by definition means “sent ones.” However this term, as it is used here, has a specific reference to the eleven disciples to whom Jesus gave this command to preach the Gospel and to make disciples. Their calling was unique; these men laid the foundation of the church, according to Ephesians 2:20. You only lay a foundation once. There is only one cornerstone to a building. After the first century, the apostles died and the office of apostleship stopped. At a later time, we will look at other Scriptures that define the qualifications for being a first century apostle. 

For now, just understand that all Christians are apostles in the sense that Christ has sent all of us on this mission to preach the Gospel and to make disciples. But the first century apostles were a unique group with special powers that the Lord did not give to the rest of us. These eleven were chosen by Christ three years before to be His apostles. While on the earth, Jesus saved many, but He did not choose any others to be in His inner circle, later to be called “apostles.” 

One commentator suggests that Jesus chose these men because of their commitment to Him and because of their righteous lives. I see that differently. When he chose them, none were committed; some were thieves and not living very righteously. Even after having followed Christ for more than three years, they were far from being righteous, as evidenced by their jealously as they kept trying to jockey for the position of being Christ’s best follower. They eventually demonstrated commitment to Christ and to living righteously, but that was not why Christ chose them to be apostles in the beginning. Probably, Christ chose them to be apostles in the same manner that He chooses to save whom He chooses. He chose them and not others for His own reasons, which we will never know.

In verses 3-4a, we read about what these apostles needed from Christ before they could accept His call to become His apostles. Luke tells us in verse 3, “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together . . .”

Why did Jesus hang around for “forty days?” Why did He continue with “many convincing proofs” that He was alive and Who He said He was? Why did he continue to speak of the “Kingdom of God?” Why did he “gather them together?” By the way, that expression “gather them together” comes from the word that means to eat a meal together at a meeting. Imagine, Jesus and his eleven disciples actually sat down to have a meal together over as much time as it would take to normally eat a meal. Up close and personal, they saw food disappear as he ate it. He didn’t stand off like modern magicians do today, so that they can trick you into believing or seeing something that is not there. No, Jesus placed Himself before them in such a way that for forty days they could examine him. But why did Jesus need to do all of this?

I’ll tell you why. The Lord wanted them to know that the crucifixion did not nullify the promised Kingdom of God. The apostles needed the confidence to proclaim that message of Christ’s Kingdom, since Jesus told them that in doing so it would cost them their lives. They could hardly have been enthusiastic about proclaiming the Kingdom of God and facing martyrdom for a king who had died. They needed to know that their King was indeed alive and that He would fulfill His promise of the Kingdom. Like Theophilus, these men needed to be convinced by the authenticating work of Jesus.

The end result of these appearances, His ongoing miracles, and Christ’s continuing to speak to them about the kingdom was that the apostles became absolutely convinced of the reality of their Lord’s physical resurrection, his call upon their lives, and the church’s purpose to fulfill the Great Commission. That assurance gave them the boldness to preach the gospel in the face of death to the very people who crucified Christ and probably would kill them also. The transformation of these men from fearful, betraying, cowering skeptics to bold, powerful witnesses is a potent proof of the resurrection.

John Piper put the importance of Christ’s authenticating work this way:

You can't be an authentic instrument in the hands of a living Christ, if you do not

think he is alive. Until the apostles were profoundly persuaded that Jesus had

broken the power of death and that he was alive with indestructible life, and

therefore could never be defeated and that his cause was unstoppable—until

then, the apostles were ready to go back to fishing for a living.

Furthermore, think about the impact upon first the Jews and later the outside world of the sheer number of witnesses to all of these convincing proofs. This many apostles preaching and testifying as eyewitnesses to the exact same things was too much for others to declare that each of them had been seeing things or dreaming the same dream or deceiving or lying. Add to that, the number of witnesses at one recorded meeting with Jesus was over five hundred at the same time, according to 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. 

Another interesting side note to that is that many of those five hundred witnesses were alive thirty years later during Luke’s investigation of the facts of Christ’s post-resurrection ministry. How could five hundred witnesses dream the same dream, if this were not an actual happening? How can eleven men sit down and have a meal with the resurrected Christ and be dreaming the whole time?

In addition to the number of witnesses, there were the numerous times that Jesus showed up and taught. There are no less than thirteen different appearances of Jesus to his disciples that are recorded in the Scriptures. What about all of the unrecorded appearances? It would be one thing if there were only one sighting at which a bunch of people saw the resurrected Jesus. But several sightings happening over and over again for a period of six weeks is quite significant. And not all of them were in the same place or at the same time of day! We have recorded many witnesses, different occasions, different places, and all hours of the day. How else could you remove the possibility of deception?

To stress the reliability of these testimonies to Jesus’ resurrection, Luke uses a Greek word used here and nowhere else in the Bible. Our version translates it as "convincing proofs." This term refers to proof by incontrovertible evidence as contrasted with the proof alleged by a single eyewitness. Luke is describing Jesus Christ's resurrection as beyond dispute.  The fact of the resurrection had to be beyond dispute because upon its solid foundation would rest the apostles' faith and the chief ingredient to their being able to confidently preach the Gospel message.

When Luke mentions that Jesus was “speaking to them,” he did so to demonstrate to them and others that the same Jesus was speaking of the same topics of discourse that he gave before his sufferings, thus showing them that he was the same person and that his heart was still intent on the same great work.

Those who want to dispute the reality of Christ’s resurrection must disprove it or make a legitimate argument to prove that Christ didn’t rise from the dead. Several have made a serious attempt, but when they did, they ended up trusting in Christ. A most recent attempt was by the former law editor of the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel. In the end, this avowed atheist trusted Christ and wrote a book in legal style entitled, A Case for Christ. To this day, 2000 years later, there has not been one logical presentation that considers all the facts and is able to give a responsible refutation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Today, the problem with the most unbelievers rests not with the lack of facts concerning the resurrection, but with their refusal to believe. Because if they agree with the facts, then they have to recognize that Jesus is God and has the right to rule their lives. Faced with that option, most people do what even the religious leaders of the day did when they saw Jesus’ miracles. They refused to worship Him, because they didn’t want to submit to someone else running their lives. They wanted to be in charge of their destinies, able to answer to no one.

Ever since the Fall, the natural tendency for human beings is to run away from God just as Adam and Eve did. This morning, if you have not submitted your life to Christ as your Savior and Lord, the problem is not with the facts. The problem is with you. If you really want to know Him, you can. But the issue for you is more likely that you are not interested in knowing or serving or having a relationship with Him on His terms. The problem is that you don’t want to know. The problem is not in your mind; the problem is your will.

The fourth point that Luke makes about Jesus is in the rest of verse 4. Luke writes, “⁴Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me.’”

Why would Jesus think it necessary to tell these eleven disciples to stay put? I see two possible reasons. The first is that maybe He noticed that they were scared of the thought that they were going to be left behind to do too big of a job and they felt like running back to their previous jobs. He may have read their fears of, “Wow! This is a too much responsibility Jesus is giving us and He is about to leave us to do it alone. We need help!” By Jesus’ telling them to wait because of his promise, they were relieved. The second could be that, having received the message and witnessed the risen Christ, the apostles may have been tempted to get on with the ministry in their own strength. They were fired up and ready to go, perhaps like Paul right after his conversion. To prevent that, Jesus said, “Wait! Don’t go anywhere and don’t start anything until my Father’s promise comes true.” Either way, it must have been difficult for them to wait for an unknown length of time.

The last point that Luke makes about Jesus is in verse 5. Jesus explained the Father’s promise: “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Jesus, knowing that He had called them to a supernatural mission that required more power and ability than they humanly possessed, was about to provide the sufficient supernatural power behind His orders, and that would be the working power of His Holy Spirit.

What is this Baptism? Since there is so much confusion on the subject, we are going to wait until we get to Acts 2:1-4 when the actual event takes place, and we will then look closely at what the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit is.

In the meantime, just keep in mind that God never gives you a challenge that He also hasn’t given you the resources to fulfill.  All it takes on your part is a willingness to obey.

Can you think back to a time when a Christian you knew did something that caused you to think differently of Christians? What was it? Have you ever done anything that you wish you had never done as a Christian because it put Jesus or Christianity in a bad light? If so, have you done anything to rectify your error?

Before coming to Christ, did you know of any Christians who talked the talk but did not walk the walk? Did their actions delay your coming to Christ?

If you were called upon to suffer execution for your faith, what is it about your relationship with God that would make you willing to die, even though you may not necessarily want to?

Have you ever been excited about an event or scared of an event that was coming up, and you were told that you had to wait an indeterminate period of time before that event arrived? How did you respond?

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