Acts 1:1-3 1In the first book, O Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
The Acts of the Apostles is Luke’s second volume about the story of Jesus and his followers. The book starts where Luke’s Gospel ends. Together, the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles make up 25% of the New Testament. We owe a lot to Luke for making his careful study and reporting from eyewitnesses of the various events that happened in the early church. The opening verses serve as a prologue, similar to Luke 1:1-4, which serves as the initial prologue that covers both books. The verses in Acts are a secondary prologue that catches the reader up with the events of the first volume and bridge the two books together.
Like the Gospel, Luke wrote Acts to Theophilus. Little is known about this person, although there has been much speculation and guesswork about him. His name literally means “Lover of God.” It could be a description or the actual name of a person. This person was of some significance since Luke wrote two very long books to him. He could have also been the leader of a house church or even a larger community of believers. Obviously, he considered these books by Luke important enough to copy and distribute to other locations.
Luke mentioned his first book, referring to his Gospel. He summarizes his Gospel in a short, brief line about all that Jesus began to do and teach. The reader could go back to Luke’s first book to find out all of this. The assumption is that the reader will have first read about Jesus and now can read about his followers and how the message he taught was spreading throughout the Roman Empire.
Verse 2 connects to the end of the Gospel of Luke by mentioning Jesus’ ascension, described in Luke 24:50-51. Acts picks up where the Gospel ends. The specific period of forty days mentioned in this verse was between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. This verse gives the first mention of the Holy Spirit, who will be the key character in this book. Everything Jesus did was guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit was now at work in Jesus’ followers. The twelve apostles were the recipients of this teaching and had the mission of telling it to others. Unfortunately, one of them, Judas, betrayed Jesus and ended up dying, which Peter briefly describes in verses 18-19. The other apostles and disciples felt that Judas needed to be replaced to make an even twelve, like Jesus had chosen. There is no indication that Jesus commanded them to replace Judas. The remaining eleven had a significant mission as apostles, a word that means “sent out ones.” Jesus sent them out to proclaim the same messag
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