This Sunday sees us start a series on Acts. Up until Christmas we are going to be focusing on Acts 1-6v7, apart from communion Sundays when we're doing a short series on Communion and Baptism. But why are we studying Acts? Is it just that was what the leadership fancied? Was it just because that was where one of the elders was up to in their reading plan?
I'm kind of hoping that you know the answer is 'No!' That the preaching programme isn't arbitrary or the result of a whim. This list isn't comprehensive, there are other reasons too, but it is a start. So why are we studying Acts?
It is our history
I know history isn't particularly fashionable and I have a love for it (after all why else would you train to be a history teacher). But Acts is a key part of our family tree as believers and the church. It shows us our origins as a people gathered round Jesus, it focuses on those early formative years after Jesus resurrection and ascension. We need to know our history as the church.
Our society is Acts-like
Our society mirrors the society in which the early church flourished in many ways: it was multicultural, it was polytheistic, it was tolerant so long as you held to one key mantra - in their day emperor worship in ours worship at the altar of 'no truth'. It was a society of inequality with the very rich growing richer and the poor struggling to survive. It was a time of persecution and opposition from both government and other religions. It was against such a backdrop that the believers filled with the Spirit boldly proclaimed Jesus, witnessing that salvation was found in him alone. We need that conviction!
The church was under pressure
As you read Acts you read of a church under pressure from within and without. Not only was there external persecution but there were pressures from within. Sin within the church (5:1-11), doctrinal debates (Acts 11 and 15), and distraction and division (Acts 6:1-7) were all threats to the early church. As a church we need to see how the Apostles identified and faced up to those issues because we will face them too.
God has not changed
Acts reminds us again and again of the sovereignty of God and his plan for the world. It reminds us of the wonder of the salvation that is ours in Christ and the privilege it is to share it with a world in need. And it reminds us that Jesus has poured out the Holy Spirit on his people to equip and empower his church to confront a lost world with its need and call it to salvation that is found in Christ alone.
Our community needs Jesus
Acts shows us people, communities, cities, and nations loved by God and in need of Jesus. Our community, individuals within it and our world shares that same need. My prayer is that as we study Acts God by his Spirit through his word will remind us of what he has done for us, how he has equipped us, and call us to go out on his mission, filled with his Spirit, for his glory to reach our needy community.
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