Bible Study on Acts 1, verses 1 to 5, Luke introduces his account of the early church

 

The Acts of the Apostles chronicles the history of the early Christian church. With humble origins and a congregation consisting of the lowest members of society, even slaves and outcasts, the faith would be grown by the actions of the Spirit of God working through humble, and in Paul’s case, humbled men, and women. Sadly, Christianity would eventually adopt even more oppressive measures against other religions than the heathen ever dreamed of as unsaved people creeped into congregations and installed themselves in high positions. Institutional Christianity would become a tool of the state and in some cases, the state would become a tool of Christianity. But true Christian belief would always exist alongside the errors of the state-church whether those errors were expressed in the empires and kingdoms of Europe or as the de facto state church of the United States of America. Not conforming to the established institutional church governed by the tares of power-mad and self-righteous bishops, popes, patriarchs, pastors, and other high officials the humble church, the true body of Christ, would live and struggle throughout history to serve Christ and to obey in simplicity His commands. This is the story of the beginning of that church, the true church of God without even a building set aside specifically for church services until late in the second century, without a protector among the powerful, and without human power to grow and expand, completely dependent upon the Spirit of God to add such as would be saved to it. You and I will try to understand its foundational doctrines before Greek philosophy and Roman pragmatism coupled with superficial belief created two churches, those of the tares and the wheat.

 

Luke’s gospel ends with;

 

Luke 24:50 ¶  And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51  And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 52  And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53  And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

 

The Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke the physician, begins with;

Acts, chapter 1

Acts 1:1 ¶  The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2  Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3  To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4  And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5  For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

 

Remember Luke’s introduction to the gospel he wrote to Theophilus?

 

Luke 1:1 ¶  Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, 2  Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; 3  It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4  That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

 

Who was Luke? He was the physician who accompanied Paul.

 

Colossians 4:14  Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

 

Luke and Lucas are the same person, being two different forms of the same name as Timotheus and Timothy.

 

Philemon 1:24  Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.

 

Luke wrote in an educated style and did the work of an historian. When someone says they have studied, for instance, the American Civil War or the history of the Federal Reserve Board in our time they usually mean they’ve read other people’s opinions and accepted those opinions if they agree with them, rejecting those that don’t. But an historian regards eyewitness accounts, testimonies, and writings as paramount to getting at the truth, not just someone else’s opinion.

 

He or she collects many testimonies and sorts through them, considering what has been confirmed by other eyewitnesses. We believe that this was all done under the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom given to Luke by God, to give us what God wants us to have.

 

The twin doctrines of inspiration and preservation are very important to our faith and are usually discounted by those who do not believe.

 

2Timothy 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17  That the man of God may be perfect [for perfect as complete see 2Chronicles 8:16; Colossians 4:12; & James 1:4], throughly furnished unto all good works.

 

Psalm 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.7  Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

 

First, God gave wisdom and understanding to the men who wrote our Bible and then to the churches that preserved those writings down through the centuries, filtering, eliminating, and consolidating what was written. Preservation means that the action of God was not limited to the original autographs like fundamentalists and evangelicals like to believe. In fact, God did not elevate the original autographs. When the king destroyed the originals of what Jeremiah wrote we have this;

 

Jeremiah 36:32  Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

 

So, no one knows what those originals said and it’s really not important. What we have is what’s important.

 

First, the Bible is given by inspiration and just what is that? It is not word-for-word dictation.

 

Job 32:8  But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

 

What is understanding? Words linked by and are typically synonyms.

 

1Kings 4:29  And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

 

And so, inspiration is also wisdom.

 

2Peter 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

 

Often these words were written down by a third party, an amanuensis, as the giver of the words spoke them, moved by the Holy Ghost, the very mind of God.

 

2Peter 1:21  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

 

Now that Luke feels his understanding is perfect or complete (see Colossians 4:12 for a definition of perfect as complete) on the entire matter of what happened he writes to an acquaintance or friend named Theophilus.

 

Acts 1:1  The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

 

Theophilus is a name that means, “lover of God.” While Luke was writing, perhaps, to a Roman official who was a Christian by the use of the epithet most excellent the Holy Spirit was writing to all believers. This account is for you.