November 17, 2025 • 20 mins
A movement doesn’t start with perfect people. It starts with a promise. We open Acts with Luke’s careful hand guiding us from resurrection reality to the launchpad of the church, where an upper room full of ordinary disciples waits, prays, and prepares for power. Before the crowds and miracles come, there’s a quiet ten-day hinge that shapes everything: Jesus ascends, angels reassure, and a community chooses faithfulness over frenzy.
We unpack why Luke writes to Theophilus again, how Acts serves as the essential bridge between the Gospels and the letters, and what the early 60s AD context reveals about reliability and purpose. From the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem’s upper room, we trace the three core scenes of Acts 1: the resurrected Jesus teaching over forty days, the Ascension reframing political expectations into a global mission, and the early church replacing Judas to preserve credible witness. The phrase that still echoes—“You will receive power”—does more than headline the chapter; it outlines the book and sketches our map for witness from home to the ends of the earth.
Along the way, we sit with the awkward parts that make Acts so human: misunderstanding timelines, casting lots before Pentecost, and learning to partner with the Holy Spirit in real time. That honesty is the invitation. If fishermen and a used-up Pharisee can carry the gospel across continents, there’s room for us—teachers, technicians, students, nurses, and neighbors—to live this story in our zip codes and online spaces. Waiting becomes preparation. Prayer becomes strategy. Presence becomes proclamation.
Join us as we set the foundation for the series: authorship, context, the key verse, and the surprising way God builds with the least likely. If this conversation sparks insight, share it with a friend, subscribe for the next chapter on Acts 2, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. What part of Acts 1 challenges you to be a witness today?
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
(00:20):
Today, Acts chapter one.
This is gonna be a lot of funtoday, and I will go ahead and
tell you there's a part of methat is not looking forward to
this.
And the reason why is becausethere's so much good stuff in
the Acts of the Apostles thatthere's just no way we're gonna
get to it.
And so what I'm gonna do isbefore we even get into it, I'm
(00:42):
gonna go ahead and tell you mygoal behind this series of
podcasts is not to give youevery single thing that is here
because yes, the more we dig,the more we find.
But man, we are digging in atreasure chest.
There's so many great thingsthat is going on in this.
So I'm gonna give you verysurface level stuff.
(01:03):
But man, I would love for you toon our YouTube videos, of
course, like, share, andsubscribe to those.
But if you find anythinginteresting or noteworthy about
these chapters, I want you toput them in the comment section.
Also, if you do the social mediathing, I would love for you to
go to the Facebook group atBible Breakdown Discussion and
(01:24):
let us know what you find.
Because there is no way we'regonna be able to do justice to
the amazing content that theHoly Spirit has given us as we
walk through the book of Acts.
And so I want to give you, as wealways do at the beginning of a
new book, kind of a synopsis,just the who, what, where, when,
and why of the wonderful bookcalled the Book of Acts.
(01:47):
And then we're just gonna jumpinto this and enjoy what God is
doing.
Because if I was to give this atitle, it would just be the
prologue.
Chapter one is a prologue ofeverything that is about to
happen.
It's all gonna kick off in Actschapter two, but this is the
beginning, the setting up of allof this.
And so I would have called itthe prologue preparing for a
(02:08):
miracle.
But let me give you some of thebackground first.
Now, first of all, who is theauthor?
Now, if you remember, back whenwe read the gospel according to
Luke, it was written by a guynamed Luke.
He was a doctor turnedinvestigative journalist by a
guy named Theopolis.
And according to history,Theopolis would have funded
Luke's journey as he wentthroughout the countryside of
(02:28):
Judea, confirming what hadhappened to Jesus and putting it
in chronological order.
And we see that at the beginningof the Gospel of Luke, he says,
I was sent by you that we may beable to find and know for
certain what we believe to betrue.
And it turns out it's true.
So I'm writing back to youeverything I found out.
Well, the gospel of, or not thegospel, but the book of Acts is
(02:50):
a continuation.
It is part two of the Gospel ofLuke.
And so Gospel of Luke is partone, Acts is part two, and it's
written to the same person bythe same person.
So Luke, the doctor turnedinvestigative journalist, is
back at it again, and he ischronicling as a historian what
is going on in the early church.
(03:10):
But what's amazing is in theGospel of Luke, you see him as a
spectator, as someone who hascome back later and has written
about what has happened.
Well, in this one, he's aparticipant.
There's a part of this where heis traveling with the Apostle
Paul, and he's going through andhe's just taking the journey as
well.
And so it's a very interestingperspective as we get from this
(03:34):
writer, Luke, which by the way,when you put Luke and Acts
together, Luke wrote more thanany other person in the New
Testament.
Now, there's more individualbooks written by the Apostle
Paul or letters, but as far asjust words on the page, Luke has
written more than any other NewTestament writer.
And what I love about this isthat Luke gives us the same
(03:56):
detail as he did in the gospelof Luke.
So attention to detail, people,places, all these different
things, we get to see this.
And so it's amazing to realizethat as Luke was probably
growing up, he was probablysomeone who was a lot of
attention to detail, someone whowas very interested in getting
things right, very interested inhistory.
Little did he know that God wasgrooming him and preparing him
(04:20):
for this wonderful task of doingthis amazing thing.
Now, what is the gospel?
I keep saying gospel.
What is the Acts?
What is the Acts of theApostles?
Well, the Acts of the Apostlesis just that.
It is a chronological telling ofthe birth of the church coming
to life and then spreading andmaking disciples of the known
(04:42):
world of the time through theapostles and different ones.
That's what Acts is.
Is it a story of the birth ofthe church and then the
spreading of the gospel?
Where is it written?
Well, Luke likely wenteverywhere and he traveled with
the Apostle Paul and differentones, but likely when he
actually sat down to write outActs, he did it likely in Rome,
(05:06):
where he would have had time tosit down and write about the
different things going on.
And he would have also writtenthis between 61 and 64 A.D.
Now, Jesus would have beencrucified and rose again on 33,
around 33 A.D.
It's also when the church wasborn.
And so then over time, as thiswas happening, he is collecting
these stories, he's living thesestories, and then he writes them
(05:27):
all down between 61 and 64 A.D.
And the reason why this book isimportant, why would God put
this in there?
Well, it's because it's aboutthe birth of the church, and
it's about watching what itlooks like for God to move
through his people into theworld.
Let me give you a fewinteresting facts, and we're
going to jump into the veryfirst part.
(05:48):
A few interesting facts is Actsis the link between the Gospels
and the Epistles.
Because you have at the end ofthe Gospels, you have Jesus
rising from the dead, and it'sthis grand finale.
Well, then when you get into theepistles, which are the letters
written mainly by Paul throughthe early church, there's this
gap, right?
Like, like what happened?
Well, that's what the book ofActs is all about, is it puts
(06:10):
those together.
And then also what happens thatwe as we are reading this,
you're gonna hear about some ofthe different cities where Paul
had planted churches and hewrites back again.
Like, for instance, there'sgonna be a part we're gonna
learn about the city of Ephesus,and then later when we read the
letter to the Ephesian church,we're gonna realize it was about
that time when it was written.
(06:32):
And so it gives us that linkbetween the gospels and the
letters or the epistles.
Another one is we get to watchpeople figure out how to partner
with the Holy Spirit in realtime.
There's gonna be a place wherePeter actually has a dream.
The Holy Spirit is trying tospeak to him through a dream,
and Peter doesn't get it.
(06:52):
He doesn't understand what'sgoing on.
We get to watch him processthrough that.
We get to watch Paul as he hasan argument with his best friend
to where they end up partingcompany for a while.
And so we are watching peoplefigure out how to walk with the
Holy Spirit in real time.
It covers the first 30 to 35years of church history, it
reveals the outpouring of theHoly Spirit, and we're able to
(07:16):
see that it really could bebroken up into two sections.
The first is where the mainperson in the story is really
the Apostle Peter, where HolySpirit has come down and he's
moving through the church, butone of the chief central people
is Peter.
Well, then after a little while,Paul gets saved, and then it
(07:37):
begins to shift to tell totelling about the different
journeys of Paul.
And so here's the overall themeof the entire book, and that is
this that God does amazingthings through ordinary people.
I want to tell you something.
If you were voted, most likelyto succeed, if everybody loved
you and wanted to sign youryearbook in high school, if you
(07:59):
find yourself someone who iseasy to talk to, friendly, fun,
you're the life of the party,you're the first one to be voted
man or woman of the year.
I've got great news for you.
God can still use you becausethat's awesome, but God likely
most likely, usually uses theleast likely to succeed, the one
(08:23):
voted most ordinary, the onethat nobody ever really thinks
about.
Those are the ones God usuallyuses to do the best things.
And here's the thing (08:30):
if God can use fishermen and a used up
Pharisee to change the world,what can he do through you and
me?
Dio Moody used to say it likethis: if God be your partner,
make your plans large.
And so this is what I want us todo.
We're gonna walk through theacts of the apostles, the acts
(08:51):
of the church, the the the birthand growth of the early church.
And I want I don't want you tothink of this as just some
random thing that happened.
But these people, they're ourthey're us, they're our
ancestors, they're they're thepeople that's come before us,
that they paved the way for usso that we could go and continue
(09:15):
to spread the gospel.
When Jesus told them to go intoall the world, he was talking
about us, about coming to reachwhat would one day be us.
And so this isn't just somethingwe read for good information,
but these are our great, great,great, great, great, great,
great spiritual grandparents.
And when we watch what God didthrough them, we realize that if
he can do it through theseordinary people, then he can do
(09:39):
it through us as well.
Okay, so let's jump into Actschapter one and let's read the
New Living Translation.
There's gonna be three sections.
First, we're gonna have theintro where Luke is riding to
Theopolis again.
Second, we get to see Jesus onemore time in the flesh before he
ascends into heaven, and then wehave the early church trying to
(10:01):
figure out what to do and toprepare for a miracle.
So let's get started and let'ssee what God will say to us
today.
You ready?
Acts chapter one, verse one.
In my first book, he's speakingabout the gospel of Luke.
I told you, Theopolis, abouteverything that Jesus began to
do and teach until the day hewas taken up to heaven after
(10:21):
giving his chosen apostlesfurther instructions through the
Holy Spirit.
During the forty days after hesuffered and died, he appeared
to the apostles from time totime and proved to them in many
ways that he was actually alive.
And he talked to them about thekingdom of God.
Once he was eating with them andhe commanded them, do not leave
(10:44):
Jerusalem until the Father sendsyou the gift he promised.
As I told you before, John theBaptist with baptized with
water, but just a few days youwill be baptized with the Holy
Spirit.
So pause real quick.
What Luke was just saying is, ashe was saying, Theopolis, I
wrote to you about the life ofJesus.
And if you remember, when I leftoff, Jesus was getting ready to
(11:07):
ascend into heaven.
Well, I want to fill in a fewmore of those details because
remember, likely Luke wasn'tthere.
And so he has now got a few moredetails as to what happened
immediately before, just beforeJesus ascended into heaven.
And he was telling thedisciples, and notice this said,
while he was eating with them.
So after he rose again, he wouldhave rose again right after the
(11:29):
Passover, and this is rightbefore Pentecost.
Between Passover and Pentecostis 40 days.
And we know that they ended upwaiting in the upper room.
We're going to read abouttomorrow for 10 days.
So Jesus walked around for about30 to 40 days with them.
And at this point, they'resitting and having a meal
together.
And Jesus says, Remember what Itold you, the Holy Spirit is
(11:51):
coming.
Here we go, verse six.
So when the apostles were withwere with Jesus, they kept
asking him, Lord, has the timecome for you to free Israel and
restore our kingdom?
He replied, The Father alone hasauthority to set those dates and
times, as they are not for youto know.
Here's the key verse of theentire book.
(12:12):
But you will receive power whenthe Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses,telling the people about me
everywhere, in Jerusalem,throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.
After saying this, he was takenup into a cloud while they were
watching, and they could nolonger see him.
(12:32):
And as they strained to see himrising into heaven, two white
robed men suddenly stood amongthem.
Men of Galilee, they said, Whyare you standing here staring
into heaven?
Jesus has been taken from youinto heaven, but someday he will
return from heaven in the sameway you saw him go.
(12:53):
Now, pause again.
What just happened?
Well, remember, these these arethe twelve disciples, or eleven
disciples who've been followingJesus, but they're still Jewish
people.
And one of the things that theythought about Jesus was they
thought that when the Messiahcame, he was going to
immediately be a conquering heroand deliver them from Roman
(13:15):
oppression.
Well, Jesus is telling them, youhave no idea what God is doing.
You have no idea what I amdoing.
It's so much bigger than justyour generation.
So how about that?
You just leave that in the handsof the Lord and you get ready
because you're about to receivepower that you've never thought
possible before.
And so then as he gets ready togo into heaven, that you see
(13:35):
that there are these angels thatare there saying, Hey, don't be
afraid, don't worry, he's comingagain.
And so here we go, verse 12.
Then the apostles returned toJerusalem from the Mount of
Olives, a distance of a half amile.
When they arrived, they wentupstairs to a room of the house
where they were staying.
Now, some people think, by theway, that this may be the same
(13:57):
upper room where Jesus had hadthe first communion.
We don't know that for sure, butsome think that may be what
happened.
Here are the names of those whoare present: Peter, John, James,
Andrew, Philip, Thomas,Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the
son of Alveus, Simon the son ofZealot, and Judas, son of James.
(14:18):
Notice they were real quick tosay, not that Judas, not the
other one.
He's he's he's in the dead,right?
But this Judas, he's here.
All right, verse 14.
They all met together and theywere constantly united in
prayer, along with Mary, themother of Jesus, and several
other women, and the brothers ofJesus.
So notice if you rememberbefore, back in the Gospels, the
(14:38):
brothers wanted nothing to dowith Jesus, now they're there
with him.
We're actually going to find outlater in the gospel in the in
the book of Acts that there wasa time when he Jesus appeared to
his brother James.
You imagine what thatconversation was like.
Like, oh, I'm sorry, Jesus.
Hey, it's all good.
So now they're together.
Verse 15.
(14:59):
About this time when abouttwelve, uh 120 believers were
together in one place, Peterstood up and addressed them.
Brothers, he said, thescriptures had to be fulfilled
concerning Judas, who guidedthose who arrested Jesus.
This was predicted long ago bythe Holy Spirit, speaking
through King David.
Judas was one of us and sharedin this ministry with us.
(15:22):
Verse 18, Judas had bought afield with the money he had
received for his treachery,falling headfirst there, his
body split open, spilling outall of his intestines.
That's gross.
The news of his death spread toall the people of Jerusalem, and
they gave the place the aromaticname Akdama, which means field
(15:42):
of blood.
Now, what happened was, this isgross, but he went and he hung
himself.
And then after he hung himself,he ended up starting to rot, and
his body fell, and when it fell,it exploded.
So not a good way to go forJudas, the jerk, but he did.
All right, verse 20.
Peter continued, as it waswritten in the book of Psalms,
where it says, Let his homebecome desolate, no one will
(16:06):
live in it.
It also says, Let someone elsetake his position.
So now we must choose areplacement for Judas from among
the men who were with us theentire time we were traveling
with the Lord Jesus.
And from the time he wasbaptized by John until the day
he was taken from us, whoever ischosen will join us as a witness
(16:26):
of Jesus' resurrection.
So what they were saying is, isthere were the twelve disciples
who were chosen, but at the sametime, there were a lot of people
that follow Jesus from the verybeginning.
And so what Peter is saying iswe want somebody who was with us
from the very beginning.
Likely, as we read in theGospels, there were times also
when Jesus would send out two bytwo to go.
(16:46):
He's also saying maybe one ofthose as well, someone who is
used to the ministry.
We don't know, but we just wantto prepare for what God is about
to do.
So verse 23, till they nominatedtwo men.
Joseph called Barsabbas, alsoknown as Justice, God had a lot
of nicknames, and Matthias.
Then they all prayed, O Lord,you know every heart.
(17:08):
Show us which of these men youhave chosen as an apostle to
replace Judas in this ministry.
For he has deserted us and gonewhere he belongs.
So then they cast lots, andMatthias was selected to become
an apostle with the othereleven.
Now what's interesting isbecause the Holy Spirit had not
yet descended and filled all ofthem, they didn't know quite how
(17:31):
to make this decision.
So they rolled the dice.
They rolled dice to see if itwas going to be Judas or I mean
if it was going to be Matthias,if it was going to be Barsabbas.
Well, the great news is, isafter the next chapter, they
don't ever roll dice ever again,because then they have the Holy
Spirit who leads them and guidesthem into all things.
So as we finish this to gettogether today, I want to tell
(17:54):
you if you are voted, the mostlikely to succeed.
If you always seem to haveeverything going your way, and
if everything is always perfectfor you, can I tell you the good
news?
Jesus can still use you.
But often he uses the ordinary,he uses the overlooked, he uses
the used up to do great things.
And what the gospel reminds usis that Jesus rose again so that
(18:18):
we can have new life.
And what Acts tells us is thatJesus uses ordinary people to
change the world.
And if he can do this throughfishermen and used up Pharisees,
what can he do through you?
I'm gonna give you the keyverse, and then we're gonna pray
together.
That we're gonna be readingthroughout the time.
Acts 1.8 says, Jesus said, Youwill receive power when the Holy
(18:40):
Spirit comes upon you, and youwill be my witnesses to the ends
of the earth.
My prayer for you, as we getready to pray, is that
throughout the Gospel of Acts,and I'm gonna keep on saying
gospel, it's not a gospel,throughout Acts, what we will
learn is that the Holy Spirithas come upon you so that you
can be a spreader, a carrier ofthe gospel to all the world.
(19:04):
Let me pray.
Father, thank you so much forgiving us the opportunity to
walk through the amazing book ofActs.
Thank you, God, that these areour ancestors, these are our
spiritual ancestors.
So, Lord, I pray when we readthis, we won't just read this as
words on a page, but Lord, wewill read this seeing this is
us.
And because you did this in ourspiritual ancestors, how much
(19:26):
more can you do through us?
I pray, God, that you willexcite us, that if you could do
it through them, you can do itthrough us, and that we will be
a witness of the power of Godtoday.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
God bless you.
Be a witness of the power of Godtoday.
And I'll see you tomorrow forActs chapter two.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
(00:20):
Today, Acts chapter one.
This is gonna be a lot of funtoday, and I will go ahead and
tell you there's a part of methat is not looking forward to
this.
And the reason why is becausethere's so much good stuff in
the Acts of the Apostles thatthere's just no way we're gonna
get to it.
And so what I'm gonna do isbefore we even get into it, I'm
(00:42):
gonna go ahead and tell you mygoal behind this series of
podcasts is not to give youevery single thing that is here
because yes, the more we dig,the more we find.
But man, we are digging in atreasure chest.
There's so many great thingsthat is going on in this.
So I'm gonna give you verysurface level stuff.
(01:03):
But man, I would love for you toon our YouTube videos, of
course, like, share, andsubscribe to those.
But if you find anythinginteresting or noteworthy about
these chapters, I want you toput them in the comment section.
Also, if you do the social mediathing, I would love for you to
go to the Facebook group atBible Breakdown Discussion and
(01:24):
let us know what you find.
Because there is no way we'regonna be able to do justice to
the amazing content that theHoly Spirit has given us as we
walk through the book of Acts.
And so I want to give you, as wealways do at the beginning of a
new book, kind of a synopsis,just the who, what, where, when,
and why of the wonderful bookcalled the Book of Acts.
(01:47):
And then we're just gonna jumpinto this and enjoy what God is
doing.
Because if I was to give this atitle, it would just be the
prologue.
Chapter one is a prologue ofeverything that is about to
happen.
It's all gonna kick off in Actschapter two, but this is the
beginning, the setting up of allof this.
And so I would have called itthe prologue preparing for a
(02:08):
miracle.
But let me give you some of thebackground first.
Now, first of all, who is theauthor?
Now, if you remember, back whenwe read the gospel according to
Luke, it was written by a guynamed Luke.
He was a doctor turnedinvestigative journalist by a
guy named Theopolis.
And according to history,Theopolis would have funded
Luke's journey as he wentthroughout the countryside of
(02:28):
Judea, confirming what hadhappened to Jesus and putting it
in chronological order.
And we see that at the beginningof the Gospel of Luke, he says,
I was sent by you that we may beable to find and know for
certain what we believe to betrue.
And it turns out it's true.
So I'm writing back to youeverything I found out.
Well, the gospel of, or not thegospel, but the book of Acts is
(02:50):
a continuation.
It is part two of the Gospel ofLuke.
And so Gospel of Luke is partone, Acts is part two, and it's
written to the same person bythe same person.
So Luke, the doctor turnedinvestigative journalist, is
back at it again, and he ischronicling as a historian what
is going on in the early church.
(03:10):
But what's amazing is in theGospel of Luke, you see him as a
spectator, as someone who hascome back later and has written
about what has happened.
Well, in this one, he's aparticipant.
There's a part of this where heis traveling with the Apostle
Paul, and he's going through andhe's just taking the journey as
well.
And so it's a very interestingperspective as we get from this
(03:34):
writer, Luke, which by the way,when you put Luke and Acts
together, Luke wrote more thanany other person in the New
Testament.
Now, there's more individualbooks written by the Apostle
Paul or letters, but as far asjust words on the page, Luke has
written more than any other NewTestament writer.
And what I love about this isthat Luke gives us the same
(03:56):
detail as he did in the gospelof Luke.
So attention to detail, people,places, all these different
things, we get to see this.
And so it's amazing to realizethat as Luke was probably
growing up, he was probablysomeone who was a lot of
attention to detail, someone whowas very interested in getting
things right, very interested inhistory.
Little did he know that God wasgrooming him and preparing him
(04:20):
for this wonderful task of doingthis amazing thing.
Now, what is the gospel?
I keep saying gospel.
What is the Acts?
What is the Acts of theApostles?
Well, the Acts of the Apostlesis just that.
It is a chronological telling ofthe birth of the church coming
to life and then spreading andmaking disciples of the known
(04:42):
world of the time through theapostles and different ones.
That's what Acts is.
Is it a story of the birth ofthe church and then the
spreading of the gospel?
Where is it written?
Well, Luke likely wenteverywhere and he traveled with
the Apostle Paul and differentones, but likely when he
actually sat down to write outActs, he did it likely in Rome,
(05:06):
where he would have had time tosit down and write about the
different things going on.
And he would have also writtenthis between 61 and 64 A.D.
Now, Jesus would have beencrucified and rose again on 33,
around 33 A.D.
It's also when the church wasborn.
And so then over time, as thiswas happening, he is collecting
these stories, he's living thesestories, and then he writes them
(05:27):
all down between 61 and 64 A.D.
And the reason why this book isimportant, why would God put
this in there?
Well, it's because it's aboutthe birth of the church, and
it's about watching what itlooks like for God to move
through his people into theworld.
Let me give you a fewinteresting facts, and we're
going to jump into the veryfirst part.
(05:48):
A few interesting facts is Actsis the link between the Gospels
and the Epistles.
Because you have at the end ofthe Gospels, you have Jesus
rising from the dead, and it'sthis grand finale.
Well, then when you get into theepistles, which are the letters
written mainly by Paul throughthe early church, there's this
gap, right?
Like, like what happened?
Well, that's what the book ofActs is all about, is it puts
(06:10):
those together.
And then also what happens thatwe as we are reading this,
you're gonna hear about some ofthe different cities where Paul
had planted churches and hewrites back again.
Like, for instance, there'sgonna be a part we're gonna
learn about the city of Ephesus,and then later when we read the
letter to the Ephesian church,we're gonna realize it was about
that time when it was written.
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And so it gives us that linkbetween the gospels and the
letters or the epistles.
Another one is we get to watchpeople figure out how to partner
with the Holy Spirit in realtime.
There's gonna be a place wherePeter actually has a dream.
The Holy Spirit is trying tospeak to him through a dream,
and Peter doesn't get it.
(06:52):
He doesn't understand what'sgoing on.
We get to watch him processthrough that.
We get to watch Paul as he hasan argument with his best friend
to where they end up partingcompany for a while.
And so we are watching peoplefigure out how to walk with the
Holy Spirit in real time.
It covers the first 30 to 35years of church history, it
reveals the outpouring of theHoly Spirit, and we're able to
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see that it really could bebroken up into two sections.
The first is where the mainperson in the story is really
the Apostle Peter, where HolySpirit has come down and he's
moving through the church, butone of the chief central people
is Peter.
Well, then after a little while,Paul gets saved, and then it
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begins to shift to tell totelling about the different
journeys of Paul.
And so here's the overall themeof the entire book, and that is
this that God does amazingthings through ordinary people.
I want to tell you something.
If you were voted, most likelyto succeed, if everybody loved
you and wanted to sign youryearbook in high school, if you
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find yourself someone who iseasy to talk to, friendly, fun,
you're the life of the party,you're the first one to be voted
man or woman of the year.
I've got great news for you.
God can still use you becausethat's awesome, but God likely
most likely, usually uses theleast likely to succeed, the one
(08:23):
voted most ordinary, the onethat nobody ever really thinks
about.
Those are the ones God usuallyuses to do the best things.
And here's the thing (08:30):
if God can use fishermen and a used up
Pharisee to change the world,what can he do through you and
me?
Dio Moody used to say it likethis: if God be your partner,
make your plans large.
And so this is what I want us todo.
We're gonna walk through theacts of the apostles, the acts
(08:51):
of the church, the the the birthand growth of the early church.
And I want I don't want you tothink of this as just some
random thing that happened.
But these people, they're ourthey're us, they're our
ancestors, they're they're thepeople that's come before us,
that they paved the way for usso that we could go and continue
(09:15):
to spread the gospel.
When Jesus told them to go intoall the world, he was talking
about us, about coming to reachwhat would one day be us.
And so this isn't just somethingwe read for good information,
but these are our great, great,great, great, great, great,
great spiritual grandparents.
And when we watch what God didthrough them, we realize that if
he can do it through theseordinary people, then he can do
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it through us as well.
Okay, so let's jump into Actschapter one and let's read the
New Living Translation.
There's gonna be three sections.
First, we're gonna have theintro where Luke is riding to
Theopolis again.
Second, we get to see Jesus onemore time in the flesh before he
ascends into heaven, and then wehave the early church trying to
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figure out what to do and toprepare for a miracle.
So let's get started and let'ssee what God will say to us
today.
You ready?
Acts chapter one, verse one.
In my first book, he's speakingabout the gospel of Luke.
I told you, Theopolis, abouteverything that Jesus began to
do and teach until the day hewas taken up to heaven after
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giving his chosen apostlesfurther instructions through the
Holy Spirit.
During the forty days after hesuffered and died, he appeared
to the apostles from time totime and proved to them in many
ways that he was actually alive.
And he talked to them about thekingdom of God.
Once he was eating with them andhe commanded them, do not leave
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Jerusalem until the Father sendsyou the gift he promised.
As I told you before, John theBaptist with baptized with
water, but just a few days youwill be baptized with the Holy
Spirit.
So pause real quick.
What Luke was just saying is, ashe was saying, Theopolis, I
wrote to you about the life ofJesus.
And if you remember, when I leftoff, Jesus was getting ready to
(11:07):
ascend into heaven.
Well, I want to fill in a fewmore of those details because
remember, likely Luke wasn'tthere.
And so he has now got a few moredetails as to what happened
immediately before, just beforeJesus ascended into heaven.
And he was telling thedisciples, and notice this said,
while he was eating with them.
So after he rose again, he wouldhave rose again right after the
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Passover, and this is rightbefore Pentecost.
Between Passover and Pentecostis 40 days.
And we know that they ended upwaiting in the upper room.
We're going to read abouttomorrow for 10 days.
So Jesus walked around for about30 to 40 days with them.
And at this point, they'resitting and having a meal
together.
And Jesus says, Remember what Itold you, the Holy Spirit is
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coming.
Here we go, verse six.
So when the apostles were withwere with Jesus, they kept
asking him, Lord, has the timecome for you to free Israel and
restore our kingdom?
He replied, The Father alone hasauthority to set those dates and
times, as they are not for youto know.
Here's the key verse of theentire book.
(12:12):
But you will receive power whenthe Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses,telling the people about me
everywhere, in Jerusalem,throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.
After saying this, he was takenup into a cloud while they were
watching, and they could nolonger see him.
(12:32):
And as they strained to see himrising into heaven, two white
robed men suddenly stood amongthem.
Men of Galilee, they said, Whyare you standing here staring
into heaven?
Jesus has been taken from youinto heaven, but someday he will
return from heaven in the sameway you saw him go.
(12:53):
Now, pause again.
What just happened?
Well, remember, these these arethe twelve disciples, or eleven
disciples who've been followingJesus, but they're still Jewish
people.
And one of the things that theythought about Jesus was they
thought that when the Messiahcame, he was going to
immediately be a conquering heroand deliver them from Roman
(13:15):
oppression.
Well, Jesus is telling them, youhave no idea what God is doing.
You have no idea what I amdoing.
It's so much bigger than justyour generation.
So how about that?
You just leave that in the handsof the Lord and you get ready
because you're about to receivepower that you've never thought
possible before.
And so then as he gets ready togo into heaven, that you see
(13:35):
that there are these angels thatare there saying, Hey, don't be
afraid, don't worry, he's comingagain.
And so here we go, verse 12.
Then the apostles returned toJerusalem from the Mount of
Olives, a distance of a half amile.
When they arrived, they wentupstairs to a room of the house
where they were staying.
Now, some people think, by theway, that this may be the same
(13:57):
upper room where Jesus had hadthe first communion.
We don't know that for sure, butsome think that may be what
happened.
Here are the names of those whoare present: Peter, John, James,
Andrew, Philip, Thomas,Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the
son of Alveus, Simon the son ofZealot, and Judas, son of James.
(14:18):
Notice they were real quick tosay, not that Judas, not the
other one.
He's he's he's in the dead,right?
But this Judas, he's here.
All right, verse 14.
They all met together and theywere constantly united in
prayer, along with Mary, themother of Jesus, and several
other women, and the brothers ofJesus.
So notice if you rememberbefore, back in the Gospels, the
(14:38):
brothers wanted nothing to dowith Jesus, now they're there
with him.
We're actually going to find outlater in the gospel in the in
the book of Acts that there wasa time when he Jesus appeared to
his brother James.
You imagine what thatconversation was like.
Like, oh, I'm sorry, Jesus.
Hey, it's all good.
So now they're together.
Verse 15.
(14:59):
About this time when abouttwelve, uh 120 believers were
together in one place, Peterstood up and addressed them.
Brothers, he said, thescriptures had to be fulfilled
concerning Judas, who guidedthose who arrested Jesus.
This was predicted long ago bythe Holy Spirit, speaking
through King David.
Judas was one of us and sharedin this ministry with us.
(15:22):
Verse 18, Judas had bought afield with the money he had
received for his treachery,falling headfirst there, his
body split open, spilling outall of his intestines.
That's gross.
The news of his death spread toall the people of Jerusalem, and
they gave the place the aromaticname Akdama, which means field
(15:42):
of blood.
Now, what happened was, this isgross, but he went and he hung
himself.
And then after he hung himself,he ended up starting to rot, and
his body fell, and when it fell,it exploded.
So not a good way to go forJudas, the jerk, but he did.
All right, verse 20.
Peter continued, as it waswritten in the book of Psalms,
where it says, Let his homebecome desolate, no one will
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live in it.
It also says, Let someone elsetake his position.
So now we must choose areplacement for Judas from among
the men who were with us theentire time we were traveling
with the Lord Jesus.
And from the time he wasbaptized by John until the day
he was taken from us, whoever ischosen will join us as a witness
(16:26):
of Jesus' resurrection.
So what they were saying is, isthere were the twelve disciples
who were chosen, but at the sametime, there were a lot of people
that follow Jesus from the verybeginning.
And so what Peter is saying iswe want somebody who was with us
from the very beginning.
Likely, as we read in theGospels, there were times also
when Jesus would send out two bytwo to go.
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He's also saying maybe one ofthose as well, someone who is
used to the ministry.
We don't know, but we just wantto prepare for what God is about
to do.
So verse 23, till they nominatedtwo men.
Joseph called Barsabbas, alsoknown as Justice, God had a lot
of nicknames, and Matthias.
Then they all prayed, O Lord,you know every heart.
(17:08):
Show us which of these men youhave chosen as an apostle to
replace Judas in this ministry.
For he has deserted us and gonewhere he belongs.
So then they cast lots, andMatthias was selected to become
an apostle with the othereleven.
Now what's interesting isbecause the Holy Spirit had not
yet descended and filled all ofthem, they didn't know quite how
(17:31):
to make this decision.
So they rolled the dice.
They rolled dice to see if itwas going to be Judas or I mean
if it was going to be Matthias,if it was going to be Barsabbas.
Well, the great news is, isafter the next chapter, they
don't ever roll dice ever again,because then they have the Holy
Spirit who leads them and guidesthem into all things.
So as we finish this to gettogether today, I want to tell
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you if you are voted, the mostlikely to succeed.
If you always seem to haveeverything going your way, and
if everything is always perfectfor you, can I tell you the good
news?
Jesus can still use you.
But often he uses the ordinary,he uses the overlooked, he uses
the used up to do great things.
And what the gospel reminds usis that Jesus rose again so that
(18:18):
we can have new life.
And what Acts tells us is thatJesus uses ordinary people to
change the world.
And if he can do this throughfishermen and used up Pharisees,
what can he do through you?
I'm gonna give you the keyverse, and then we're gonna pray
together.
That we're gonna be readingthroughout the time.
Acts 1.8 says, Jesus said, Youwill receive power when the Holy
(18:40):
Spirit comes upon you, and youwill be my witnesses to the ends
of the earth.
My prayer for you, as we getready to pray, is that
throughout the Gospel of Acts,and I'm gonna keep on saying
gospel, it's not a gospel,throughout Acts, what we will
learn is that the Holy Spirithas come upon you so that you
can be a spreader, a carrier ofthe gospel to all the world.
(19:04):
Let me pray.
Father, thank you so much forgiving us the opportunity to
walk through the amazing book ofActs.
Thank you, God, that these areour ancestors, these are our
spiritual ancestors.
So, Lord, I pray when we readthis, we won't just read this as
words on a page, but Lord, wewill read this seeing this is
us.
And because you did this in ourspiritual ancestors, how much
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more can you do through us?
I pray, God, that you willexcite us, that if you could do
it through them, you can do itthrough us, and that we will be
a witness of the power of Godtoday.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
God bless you.
Be a witness of the power of Godtoday.
And I'll see you tomorrow forActs chapter two.
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