This Weeks Text: Acts 10:23-11:18

The Acts of the Apostles tells the story of the beginning of a new age: the age of the Spirit. This is the last age the last chapter so to speak of God’s work of salvation. This age will continue until the return of Jesus the King. That is the big picture of Acts. Acts begins by filling in details of the last meeting between Jesus and the disciples before his ascension into heaven. Prior to this event Luke says that Jesus taught the disciples about the kingdom of God for forty days. The rest of Acts is about how the apostles empowered by the Holy Spirit take the message of Jesus to the world. All along the way we see events people and even nature lined up against the gospel. Entering the kingdom comes with difficulty. Rather than deterring or diminishing the apostolic gospel suffering and obstacles become means of its spreading. Biblical narrative including Acts: is a real living story that is to be taken up and followed by its readers. Acts is not just a story about the first Christians who lived a long time ago with a record of the events surrounding them. Like all biblical narrative—like the Bible itself—Acts invites us to take part to understand ourselves our history our future our whole worldview in light of this story. – Brian J. Vickers ESV Expository Commentary vol. IXActs: The Church Aflame – Maintaining the Ministry