Acts of the Apostles Youth Group Study Introduction to Acts Imagine that you are a follower of Jesus. A little over a month ago, Jesus has been killed by the Romans, crucified as a political revolutionary. 1 You are thinking back to the day two years before, when you first heard Jesus speak. In a strong voice that allowed no argument, he declared, The Kingdom of God is near. The empire of God, you thought, not of Rome. As these seditious, revolutionary words echoed in your mind, a quiet hope began to take root deep inside you, a hope you could hardly admit to yourself. You stayed with him. You watched him heal people, teach about how God loves the poor, and inspire folks like Zaccheaus a tax collector working for the Romans, of all people to help people left destitute by the system. It was like watching Isaiah s ancient words come to life: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. 2 As you observed Jesus and listened to him, the hope in your heart grew stronger. You mulled over the old prophecies about a day of the Lord and newer ones about a mighty king, a warrior Messiah, who would shatter unrighteous rulers and purge Jerusalem from gentiles who trample (her) down to destruction. 3 Eventually, you dared to believe that this day was about to arrive. You dared to hope that God was getting ready to bring down the powerful from their thrones, and lift up the lowly 4, to redeem your people the Jews by wiping out the oppressive Roman Empire and bringing a new empire of God to replace it. Finally, after centuries of waiting, the promised future was now. But then, the authorities rich Judeans who had sold their souls to the empire to line their own pockets arrested Jesus and handed him over to the Romans, who crucified him. The day you watched him die, your heart broke. It broke because a man you cared about suffered cruelly. But it also broke because as you watched him die, the hope that had been growing inside you died too. You had utterly believed that Jesus was the One, but the cross turned everything upside down. It surely seemed like Jesus had been the one to redeem Israel, but the cross revealed the sad truth: one more great man of God wiped out by the violence of the oppressors. 5 Jesus had clearly been a prophet, powerful in his words and actions. 6 There was no doubt about that. Your respect and love for him would never waver. But the Messiah? No. The sweet hope of renewal was gone, withered like a sapling in the desert, and in its place came a crushing despair. Rumors started to float around that some of the female disciples of Jesus had found his tomb empty and then seen a vision of angels, announcing that Jesus was alive, but you didn t believe such talk. 7 Stories like that were just pathetic attempts to hold back depression with wishful thinking. Even Peter got caught up in the madness. As you met in Jerusalem with a number of other followers of Jesus, including his closest disciples the eleven who remained after Judas defection Peter claimed he d also seen Jesus alive. 8 You were shaking your head sadly at Peter s delusion when Cleopas and Mary burst through the door, shouting about how they talked Jesus on the road as they walked to the little village of 1 Acts 1:3 The events at the beginning of Acts take place forty days after Jesus crucifixion. 2 Luke 7:22; Isaiah 35:5 6; 26:19; 61;1 3 Psalms of Solomon 17:22 4 Luke 1:52 5 Luke 24:21 6 Luke 24:19 7 Luke 24:22 24 8 Luke 24:34
Emmaus. 9 You wanted to believe them, you really did, but it was just too impossible. And then suddenly Jesus was there, somehow. 10 Standing in the room. And he wasn t a ghost or a vision but flesh and blood. 11 He ate with you, for goodness sake. 12 A genuine resurrection. The real thing. Since then, it s been a roller coaster ride. Jesus crucifixion turned your world upside down, but now the resurrection has forced you to rethink it all again. If God raised Jesus from the dead, then Jesus was the real deal: not simply a prophet, but the Messiah. He really was the one to redeem Israel. But the Messiah was supposed to triumph over your enemies, not die at their hands. That wasn t in the plan, at least as you d always understood it. But in that room in Jerusalem, where Jesus suddenly appeared, he became your teacher again, taking you back through the old prophecies and explaining that the first step for the Messiah was suffering. Only after the suffering would he enter his glory. 13 Jesus didn t stop there. He kept teaching you every time he showed up. The more he explained the old sacred texts, showing you things you hadn t noticed before, the more you understood that the crucifixion was part of God s plan all along and that Jesus resurrection proved it! 14 There was a lot you still didn t get. Why did the Messiah have to suffer? When was Jesus going to push the Romans out of the land of promise? But still, as Jesus spoke, your heart blazed to life. Just as God raised Jesus, God was now resurrecting the hope you thought you d lost, stronger than ever before. 15 Over the last few days, things have gotten even crazier. Jesus blessed you and called you his witness. 16 You actually saw Jesus taken up into the heavens... and didn t pass out, thank God. 17 Before Jesus ascended he promised that a power from God the Holy Spirit would come upon you. 18 You don t have a clue what that means exactly and frankly, the idea of divine power possessing you is terrifying. When it comes to redeeming Israel and bringing the empire of God, you re starting to get the sneaking suspicion that you will have to play a bigger role than you had bargained for. 19 After what happened to Jesus, you fear you won t have the courage to do it. Even so, you re filled with this incredible feeling. Something more than hope: a kind of spiritual joy, as if all God s promises have already been fulfilled, even though they obviously haven t. 20 It s like nothing you ve ever felt before, and occasionally this joy bursts out into an overwhelming urge to praise God, to shout and sing and dance before the Lord in the temple, in front of everyone, without holding anything back. 21 And now, you re gathered in Jerusalem with all the other followers of Jesus, the ones 9 Luke 24:35. Cleopas and an unnamed disciple talk with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Because Cleopas wife, Mary, was one of the followers of Jesus (Luke 24:10; John 19:25), it s reasonable to deduce that the second disciple was this Mary. 10 Luke 24:36 11 Luke 24:37 39 12 Luke 24:43 13 Luke 24:26 14 Luke 24:46 15 Luke 24:32 16 Luke 24:48, 50; Acts 1:8 17 Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9 18 Luke 24:49; Acts 1:5, 8 19 Acts 1:6 8. When the disciples ask Jesus when he is going to restore the kingdom to Israel he seems to bring the disciples into the picture. 20 Luke 24:52 21 Luke 24:53; see also Acts 3:8
who saw him resurrected, whose hearts all burn with the same hope. All of you, together, worshipping God and waiting with anxious anticipation to find out what will happen next. 22 Gospel of Luke and Book of Acts The thoughts and experiences of the character imagined in the introduction above are drawn from the Gospel of Luke in order to provide a creative introduce the book of Acts. Why have I chosen Luke for this introduction rather than any of the other three gospels? Because Luke and Acts were written by the same author. You can see this by comparing the two introductions: Luke 1:1-4 Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed. Acts 1:1-2 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. What similarities do you notice about the two introductions (or prefaces)? The fact that both are dedicated to Theophilus is the most obvious connection. o Theophilus was probably the patron of the writer, who helped pay the author s living expenses while he worked on writing the text. (Most historians go in this direction.) The name means lover of God, so it could also just be a metaphor for the intended reader. In Acts, the author refers back to an earlier book or first writing. He refers here to the first scroll of his narrative. o In the ancient world, authors broke very long texts into multiple scrolls for easier handling. When they did this, they would often include a secondary preface to signal that the second scroll should be read as the continuation of the first. Many historians believe that this is what has happened with Luke and Acts Acts is actually the second part of a two-part story that we might call Luke-Acts, for lack of a better title. This theory has much to commend it. The primary problem with it is that there is absolutely no evidence from a time close to Luke s day that the two books Luke and Acts were ever together. o Still, even if it s not a two-part story, it s clear that the same person wrote both books. (Beyond the prefaces, this point can also be seen in a similar writing style and common ideas in both books.) What else do you notice about the prefaces? 22 Acts 1:13 15
The author seems to be quite interested in accuracy. He is drawing on previous stories about Jesus: probably the Gospel of Mark and possibly other writings about Jesus. He has also investigated everything to make sure his story about Jesus is orderly. He is writing to an audience who already believes, but he wants to give them assurance that what they believe is true. The prefaces indicate that the author saw himself as a historian. Ancient writers of history usually had prefaces that look like the prefaces to Luke and Acts. The author does not identify himself by name, either in the prefaces or anywhere else in the book. The title Gospel of Luke was added in the second century. o Traditionally, the author is understood to be Luke, a Gentile physician who became a follower of Jesus and travelled with Paul. There s no strong reason to suggest an alternative, except for the fact that both Luke and Acts are shot through with a deep knowledge and understanding of Jewish scripture and its interpretation. It s possible that a Gentile might know such things but it could also suggest that Luke and Acts were written by a Hellenistic Jew, and thus, not by the traditional Luke. o Even though there is some doubt, it easiest just to refer to the author at Luke. Read Luke 24:50 53 and Acts 1:3 11. Do you notice anything strange? Someone might notice that it seems as if Jesus ascends twice. How to explain this? Luke seems to have repeated some of the story that occurred at the end of the Gospel of Luke, like last week on Lost. Here are three overlaps that people have noticed. We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. (Luke 24:21) 47... and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:45-48) While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. (Luke 24:51) So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6) You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9) Ancient authors sometimes wrote in this historical overlap as a kind of seam between two scrolls. This is additional evidence that Luke was writing according to the standards of an ancient historian. Acts and Geography The middle of these three overlaps focuses on geography. Jesus says that his followers will be witnesses to Jerusalem > Judea > Samaria > the ends of the earth. Readers have noticed that the story of the followers of Jesus told in Acts follows this geographical structure: Acts 1-7 Events take place in Jerusalem Establishment of the church Acts 8-12 Events take place in Judea and Samaria Focus on Peter and Philip Acts 13-28 Events take place in Asia Minor and Europe Focus on Paul. In the end, the
gospel reaches Rome, possibly understood as the ends of the earth. Possible Outline Section of Acts 1 Introduction 2 Fiery Beginnings (Acts 2) 3 A New Community (Acts 3 4) 4 Philip and friends (Acts 8) 5 Two transformations (Acts 9 11) 6 Compromise in Jerusalem (Acts 15) 7 Paul in Philippi and Athens (Acts 16 17) 8 Paul in Corinth and Ephesus (Acts 18 19) 9 Paul s Conflict with Rome (Acts 21:37 26:32) 10 Paul s Sea Voyage and Arrival in Rome (Acts 27 28) Focus