This study was first taught on December 4, 2016

Topic: Understanding the Acts of the Apostles_1: Continuity

(use the audio to study)

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Background
After we receive Christ, His life (which is eternal life) begins to flow into us to change our nature—transforming us—from sinful and sin-loving people, to righteous and sin-hating people. Following from this, the life of Christ continues to flow within us to produce and maintain fruit—the fruit of the Spirit—in us, so that Christ can express His life and mission through us, enabling us to live for Him here on earth as His ambassadors—evangelizing and winning souls for Christ, teaching Christ’s doctrines, working miracles, and generally doing good works. Thus, we—Christ’s disciples—can also say, “We do what we see the Father do” and “As we hear our Father speak, so we judge”!

Indeed, true Christian discipleship must result in the disciple living the life of Christ, or having the life of Christ, lived through him. Christian discipleship cannot, and should not be an academic discipline culminating in the award of a certificate; rather, it must be, and, really is, the spiritual discipline by which the nature of Christ is worked in the disciple, thus enabling him to live and do as Christ lived and did.

The necessity of the life of Christ lived through the disciple is to enable him accomplish God’s work. The work of God is ONLY acceptable to God when it is done by someone manifesting the divine nature. The believer in Christ, who has allowed the Holy Spirit to transform him into the image of Christ, can thus become the heart and hands of God in a dark, and sinful world, displaying the love, forgiveness, and goodness of God to countless numbers of people, all over the world! As we—Christ’s disciples—interact with the unbeliever, we manifest God’s glory through the preaching of the word of God, the working of miracles, the teaching of the doctrines of Christ, and so on.

Thus, the Lord Jesus asserted in John 9:4-5 AMP, “We must work the works of Him Who sent Me and be busy with His business while it is daylight; night is coming on, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the world’s Light.” And this is the essence of the Acts—doing the work of God! It is God’s intention to ensure that the world know Him, and the salvation He has brought and freely offers to man. God never intended that we be cocooned in a building or camp, isolated from the world (John 17:15-16). There is work to be done, but it can only be acceptably done, when we have been properly discipled, and, when we can practically demonstrate the divine nature in our daily interaction with other people, without being enticed by the lure of sin and the world, or, offended or tripped up by the entrapment of Satan’s wiles. It is thus essential that, before the Acts, there must first be a becoming like Christ; and before the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, there must first be the producing of the fruit of the Spirit; otherwise, we would have a most ineffectual and ineffective ministry!

Scripture Text(s)
Acts 1:1-3; Matthew 13:19
Now that we have taken time to explain what is needed before we get into the Acts, we shall now take some time to understand the Acts of the Apostles. To appreciate what we intend to achieve by our study over the next few weeks, we need to define our terms. “Acts” refer to actions, activities, deeds, ministry, and the like; while “Apostles” refer to those who have been called, chosen, sanctified, and sent by the Lord Jesus to do the work of God (Mark 3:13-15; John 20:21-22; Acts 10:38). Hence, in our next set of studies, we intend to comprehend what Acts—actions, activities, deeds, and ministry—the Apostles—those called, chosen, sanctified, and sent by the Lord Jesus—should engage in, and how they are to go about such Acts—essentially, the acceptable work of God.
Our first bible text reveals four considerations that will help us to understand the Acts of the Apostles. We begin with the first, which is found in the first verse: “of all that Jesus began both to do and teach”. The operational word is ‘began’; implying that there is a continuity of what was begun!
John 14:12-17; 17:18; 19:30; Hebrews 9:11-12, 24-28; Colossians 1:24; 1 Corinthians 4:9-13; 1 Peter 5:1-3; 2 Timothy 2:2-13; Titus 1:5-11; Matthew 10:24-25; John 15:18-25; Galatians 1:10.

Conclusion
To understand what the Lord Jesus expects us to do on the earth, as per the Acts of the Apostles—the deeds of those who have been sent by the Lord to be His ambassadors—we must appreciate what the Lord Jesus Christ began to do and teach in the era captured in the Gospels; which must be continued by us, even though He completed His own part of the work. Thus, the Acts of the Apostles is a continuity of the things that the Lord began both to do—only in the power of the Holy Spirit—and teach—of the word of God, the doctrine of Christ!

We must however, quickly note that there is an aspect of the work of God, that the Lord came to do on the earth, which He completed, and which we are not expected to do anything about other than to tell people about it. We may, from time to time, be involved in certain things which would be our own contribution to what the Lord would have us do on behalf of others, but that does not confer upon us, the title of ‘Saviour’ or ‘Deliverer’ or ‘Healer’, and so on (1 Corinthians 3:4-11).

The Acts—actions, activities, deeds, ministry—of the Apostles—those called, chosen, sanctified, and sent—are not carnal acts, neither are they the fulfillment of fleshly desires, nor the meeting of the needs of the world apart from the need to be delivered from sin and its consequences. Rather, the Acts of the Apostles is all about the Acts of the Holy Spirit through those who have been called, chosen, sanctified, and sent by the Lord to accomplish the Will of the Father, meeting the Father’s desire to make known to a dying world, His free offer of salvation through Christ, so “that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”, and, His longing for fellowship with man.

Our role as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in this present age is, therefore, to faithfully continue from where the Early Church, and the Church since then, have left off. Like a link in a chain, this generation must link up with the appropriate chain of God’s work through the ages, and maintain the integrity of that ‘chain’—the work of God for all ages. To this end, we cannot claim to be continuing in the work of God, if we are not continuing in the steps of the Apostles of old, as is written in the word of God, particularly, the Book of the Acts of the Apostles! Hence, our study of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, will enable us to see what the Apostles of old did, and how they went about it, and, to continue from there.

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