Today we turn to the Book of Acts for the first time. The full title is often “The Acts of the Apostles,” but some have contended a better title would be “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is the central actor in the book. From start to finish, we see how different the presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer’s life makes humanity. As we saw so often in the Old Testament, only a select few received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The masses followed these anointed leaders. Now, from Acts 2 forward, every believer has the opportunity to be led by the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 1, Luke introduces his second book to Theophilus. He tells us the first book (the Gospel of Luke) told all that Jesus had done and taught. This second book starts after Jesus had risen from the dead. Indeed, in chapter 1, Jesus has his final meeting with the apostles before returning to heaven. In that meeting, He tells the apostles they will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from that moment. He also tells them once they receive the power of the Holy Spirit they will be His witnesses “…in Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The “formula” is: Wait. Receiver Power. Go. How vital it is for us to keep that order in our minds and hearts. Unless we wait for the filling of the Holy Spirit, we won’t have any power to carry Jesus’ mission forward in the world. There’s no sense going without that power. In the remainder of chapter 1, the apostles choose a replacement for Judas. The interesting thing about that is we never hear about the replacement again, because Jesus already had a replacement in mind–more about that in future chapters of Acts.
Acts 2 offers us the record of the first “Christian” Pentecost, often considered the “birthday” of the Church. That’s because Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit was fulfilled that day. 120 believers were filled with the Holy Spirit and witnessed to the thousands of Jews who were in Jerusalem for what was at that moment the Jewish holy day of Pentecost. Through their ministry 3,000 people responded to the Good News, and the Church was born. In Acts 3, we see the amazing power God gave to His children through the Holy Spirit as Peter and John received power to heal a lame beggar. The account is amazing and joyous as we see a man released from a lifetime of being unable to walk. He not only walks, but he also leaps and runs and praises God. Peter uses this opportunity to tell the people gathered in the Temple where the miracle took place, about Jesus. More people responded to the Good News and additional thousands were added to those who believed.
As we return to Matthew 1, we read again the genealogy of Jesus as well as the account of His birth. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth contains different details than Luke’s, as we would expect. After all, Matthew’s heritage was Jewish, and Luke’s was Gentile. That means Matthew was quite concerned about how Jesus, as the Messiah, fulfilled the Jewish Scriptures. Luke, on the other hand, was more concerned about how Jesus’ coming fulfilled God’s overall plan for humanity.