Acts Bible Study: Day 1
Today’s passage: Acts 1:1–8
Focus verse: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.” (Acts 1:4)
Acts picks up where the book of Luke ended. As with many sequels, Acts opens with a review of what happened in the first book.
Again addressing Theophilus, Luke references his first letter, which we call Luke, the third book in the New Testament.
Here’s the recap: In the forty days between Jesus’s resurrection and his return to heaven, he appears to his followers many times. He proves he’s alive and reminds them about the kingdom of God.
Slowly, things begin to click for them. Jesus isn’t a military leader who will overthrow the Roman rule. He’s a spiritual revolutionary to fulfill God’s plan for humanity, set in motion before time began.
Finally, Jesus’s teaching starts to take on new meaning. The misconceptions of his followers’ prior thinking fall away. But it takes time to reorient their perspective from the physical world to a spiritual reality.
When one of his followers asks if Jesus is ready to restore Israel as a nation, his answer is “not now.” The timing is secret.
Instead, Jesus tells his followers to wait.
Waiting is counter to our modern-day thinking. Delay represents lost opportunity. We must maintain momentum to propel our cause forward. Yet Jesus says, “Wait.”
It seems ill-advised. However, much of what Jesus says is contrary to human wisdom. We should expect the unexpected from Jesus. If he says to wait, this shouldn’t cause dismay. Sometimes inaction is the best action—especially when God says to delay.
From a human perspective, they should organize, plan, and deploy across the region to tell others about Jesus. They have experience going out two-by-two. Jesus trained them to do just that. They seem ready, but Jesus says to wait.
Wait for a special gift promised by Papa: a new kind of baptism, a supernatural anointing. While John uses water, this new baptism will be with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will empower them to tell others about Jesus.
This new baptism doesn’t have the tangible use of water but the intangible power of Spirit. Yet the two are connected, for the Holy Spirit shows up when John baptizes Jesus with water.
Consider John’s baptism. He lowers people into the water, submerges them, and lifts them out. John’s baptism symbolically parallels death, burial, and resurrection. Cleansing takes place. It’s a powerful, beautiful imagery.
When Jesus emerges from the waters of his baptism, heaven opens and the Holy Spirit, in a visible form that resembles a dove, comes upon him. God’s voice booms. He confirms Jesus as his son, whom he loves and whose actions he affirms.
In this case, Jesus’s water baptism links to the Holy Spirit. This foreshadows what is to come for his disciples with the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.
While different streams of Christianity explain the Holy Spirit’s work in different ways, with varying present-day implications, we should use what happened then to inform our understanding and practices now.
Questions:
- Do we need to reconsider the role of the Holy Spirit in our life to better align with the Bible?
- Do we need to reconsider the role of the Holy Spirit in church to better align with what we read in Acts?
[Discover more about the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38, Acts 10:44–45, Acts 11:15–16, Acts 19:2–6, Romans 15:13, 1 Corinthians 6:19, and Jude 1:20–21.]
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Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.
Read more about the book of Acts in Acts Bible Study: Discover How the Early Church Can Inform What We Do Today, available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
Revitalize your faith with Acts Bible Study by Peter DeHaan. This 40-day journey through the early church reveals timeless lessons on community, perseverance, and Holy Spirit power.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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