Week 21, May 17–23: 1 Kings 20–22; Acts 1–18

• Sun      May 17            1 Kings 20–22
• Mon     May 18            Acts 1–3         
• Tue      May 19            Acts 4–6         
• Wed     May 20            Acts 7–9         
• Thu      May 21            Acts 10–12     
• Fri        May 22            Acts 13–15     
• Sat       May 23            Acts 16–18

We finish up 1 Kings this week and move to the NT to read the book of Acts before continuing into 2 Kings. Remember, the division between 1 Kings and 2 Kings is somewhat artificial, since they were originally combined as one book and meant to be read that way. So if it seems things are somewhat unresolved at the end of 1 Kings, that is right. We will come back and pick up the story where it leaves off in 1 Kings 22, with the good king Jehoshaphat reigning over Judah in Jerusalem and the wicked king Ahaziah reigning over Israel in Samaria.

Turning to the NT, we have read through the four Gospels and the book of Acts is next. As you read the first part of this wonderful book, especially the first two chapters, pay close attention to the details there. Some important introductory comments help guide the reading for the rest of the book, and Acts 1–2 recounts the key moments and foundational theological principles that help us understand the church and our place in God’s kingdom plans.

Acts covers a unique and important time in history. It tells the story of the beginning of the church and the earliest phase of the church’s mission. It is a story of the Apostles and first Christians obeying Jesus’s instructions and advancing the work he commissioned God’s people to begin after his resurrection and ascension to heaven.

When we are reading Acts it is important to remember that the book is describing a particular time in history. It recounts the events when the Holy Spirit first came down at Pentecost and the church was launched. It is instructive for us today, and there are many lessons to learn about things like evangelism, ecclesiology, spiritual gifts, and roles in the church. Nevertheless, the primary purpose of Acts is to recount to us what happened in that pivotal stage in God’s work in the world. Its message is based on the inspired account of what God was doing in and through his people by the power of his Spirit. More than prescribing what we are to do, Acts is describing the astounding events of the early church. It is the narrative of God’s mighty acts to advance his kingdom after Jesus ascended and sent his Spirit to indwell and empower the church.

The book opened by telling us that Acts is part two of a two-volume work. The first part, the Gospel of Luke, was an orderly narrative of Jesus’s life, what he accomplished and what he taught (Acts 1:1, cf. Luke 1:1–4). Acts picks up where Luke’s Gospel left off. Both books were written to someone named Theophilus, and they were both probably written by Luke, one of Paul’s travel companions who was with him on the missionary journeys we read of in Acts. (Notice the first time there is a switch from third-person “they” pronouns to first-person “we” pronouns in Acts 16:10.)

The first chapter of Acts includes some important introductory details that frame the rest of the book. Luke recounts the last instructions from Jesus to his apostles during the forty days he was with them after his resurrection. Jesus speaks to the disciples about the kingdom of God and he tells them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon them there (1:3–5). Then, when his disciples ask about the timing of the kingdom, Jesus says it is not for them to know the time. While he does not answer their question in the way they want, he does give them some significant information. He says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (1:8).

This is Jesus’s commission to the disciples, similar to the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel (Matt. 28:19–20). This commission in Acts provides a narrative outline of sorts for the rest of the book. As the early church goes out after Pentecost, their mission spreads according to the geographical stages set forth by Jesus in 1:8, starting with Jerusalem then going out to Judea, Samaria, and beyond. As we read of the mission advancing, notice that it is always doing so by the power of the Spirit and through the proclamation of the gospel of Christ; and this proclamation is always rooted in the story of the OT.

Paul joins these efforts to preach the gospel and expand the kingdom after his own miraculous conversion. In fact, he becomes the focal agent of the early church’s mission in the latter half of Acts. He is the one primarily responsible for leading the efforts to take the gospel out from Jerusalem and Judea to the “ends of the earth.”

This is what we are called to do as well. Acts narrates the launch of the church era, which is the era of history we are still living in. We are still awaiting Jesus’s second coming as we look back on his first coming. As we wait, like the Apostles and the early church, we are called to proclaim the good news of the kingdom and tell people boldly about Jesus the Messiah. And as we know from Acts, from the experience of those early Christians, this will not always be easy. One of the marks of the early church was persecution, but that persecution is what brought about the growth of the gospel (See 8:1–4; 11:19–21).