Unlocking the Bible

5. THE CHURCH
It is surprising to discover that even the word ‘church’ could be misunderstood, were it not for Luke’s record in Acts. In the Gospels only Matthew mentions the word at all, and his two references are not descriptive of what a church should be like. The Epistles are generally addressed to churches and give us hints as to what they were, but it is only in Acts that we learn what a church actually was, including how it was planted, how the apostles appointed elders and what the relationship was between the apostles and the churches they founded.
6. CONVERSION
Acts is crucial to us also because we learn so much about the proper way in which people were born again. The Gospels record events before the coming of the Holy Spirit and the Epistles are written to people who are already established in their faith. Neither provides an appropriate model of how people come to faith in Jesus in the Church age. So we go to Acts to see how the apostles brought people into the kingdom, and we read of the normal pattern of repentance, faith, baptism in water and baptism in Spirit. (For further explanation of this process, see my book The Normal Christian Birth, published by Hodder and Stoughton.)
A model for today
Acts is therefore an important source of information and explanation – but it is clearly much more than that too. Many would see it as a model for church life everywhere, and pine for the day when modern churches will exhibit the same qualities Luke describes. This seems a reasonable assumption. After all, it is the only Church history we have in Scripture. Presumably the Holy Spirit wanted it included so that we would know what God intends for his people.

Links
Acts is a vital link between the Gospels and the Epistles. Imagine the New Testament without it. Many things would be very difficult to understand. People and ideas are mentioned in the Epistles without explanation. Some key people and places cannot be understood without this book.
1. PAUL
Most of the letters in the New Testament are written by Paul, but who was Paul? He was not one of the twelve apostles, so he is not mentioned in the Gospels. Without the book of Acts we would know very little about him or his ministry, or how he came to be writing to churches and individuals and why these letters are important.
2. BAPTISM IN WATER
The baptism of believers is another matter with an important link in Acts. Only in Acts is it described as being in water. So while Paul frequently refers to baptism in his letters – for example, ‘Don’t you know that when you were baptized you were baptized into his death?’ – he never actually links the word ‘baptized’ with the word ‘water’. This has led some scholars to argue that Paul did not teach water baptism and that ‘baptism into Christ’ means something purely spiritual. But in Acts you find that Paul was himself baptized and had his converts baptized. So we know that when he talks about ‘baptism’ in his letters he is talking about baptism in water.
3. BAPTISM IN THE SPIRIT
The phrase ‘baptized in Holy Spirit’ occurs in all four Gospels, but none of them tells you what it actually means, or what happens when somebody is so baptized. If you looked for a meaning in the Epistles you would also be disappointed. Paul uses the phrase in 1 Corinthians – ‘For we were all baptized in one Spirit into one body’ – but he does not say what that means in practice. It is only the book of Acts which explains what it really means to be baptized in Holy Spirit, for only there is the event actually described.
4. THE LAW OF MOSES
Acts also helps us when we consider our approach to the law of Moses today. How do we know that we Christians are not bound by it? The law of Moses had 613 different requirements, so we need to be clear whether we are free from these laws or not. How do we know whether or not these are still binding? The answer comes as we read about the great argument concerning circumcision which reached a climax in Acts 15, when it was settled once and for all that Christians are free from the law of Moses, though still bound by the law of Christ.

PETER IN CAESAREA
The expansion of the gospel faced a significant stumbling block: the Jewish food laws forbade Jews to eat with Gentiles. Luke therefore includes an account of how God taught Peter that eating ‘non-kosher’ food was permissible and sent him to a Gentile home to preach the gospel.
Acts 10 is a pivotal chapter, showing Peter’s astonishment that the Holy Spirit came upon non-Jews exactly as he had come upon Jews elsewhere. So crucial was this that Peter had to explain what happened to the apostles in Jerusalem in order that they might be apprised of the way in which God was at work.
THE JERUSALEM COUNCIL
Peter’s conversation with the Jerusalem believers is a forerunner to the meeting of the Jerusalem Council in Chapter 15. Paul was sharing the way in which his ministry among the Gentiles had caused the Church to grow. But he was conscious of the danger of a rift developing between the Jewish church and this influx of Gentiles into the kingdom. They had, of course, little or no understanding of the Jewish heritage. The subsequent letter sent to the Gentile churches ensured that the Gentile church could grow freely with the encouragement of the ‘mother’ church in Jerusalem.
COHERENT PURPOSE
It is clear that Luke has selected particular events in order to show Theophilus not just the fact of the Church’s expansion but also how it took place. These are not just haphazard stories. They depict how the Christian faith came to spread across the Roman world and how it remained united despite the cultural pressures it faced. Luke does not tell us of many individual conversions, nor what became of the majority of the apostles, but instead picks out particular events which serve his purpose.
Acts on an existential level
Having looked at the human or historical aspects of Acts, we now need to focus on why the divine editor wanted us to have this book. We must not leave our study in the past, but must also seek to hear its message for today. So we move from the historical significance to the existential meaning of the book, asking what it has to say to us about God now.