Lessons from the Book of Acts - Part 1: Power for World Transformation
by Jeremy Groves
I love the way Jesus operates. I see the determination He carries for the world to be reborn as we come into the book of Acts, the second part of the Luke-Acts narrative.
Jesus has risen from the dead after completing "operation atonement" and is ready to pass on the legacy of His life and ministry to His carefully selected disciples.
They would be tasked with carrying the resurrection message of life and power to the ends of the Earth (see Matthew 28, Acts 1).
In Acts 1-13, we see the Church clothed in the power of the Spirit of God and launched into hostile Jerusalem, carrying the sin-dismantling power of the Gospel until the Holy Spirit activates the Church to bring the messianic message to the Gentiles when He sends Peter to Cornelius.
After this, we see the power of Christ on display in Judea and Samaria, culminating in the founding of the first multi-ethnic Church of believers gathered in Antioch.
Antioch is where the first "E-3" or cross-cultural missionaries, whom Dr. Peter Wagner describes in his excellent commentary “The Book of Acts: A Commentary,” are sent from to reach the ends of the known world. (Wagner, 2008, p. 34).
We see the breaking down of old theological paradigms within the disciples as the Holy Spirit picks up where Jesus left off, guiding them into truth and activating God's power upon their lives to release and establish the message across the Earth.
We will delve into these topics as we broach the massive implications of the revolutionary message of the Messiah who came in human flesh, dying a sinner's death, and rising again in triumph over death and the grave.
And who then delegated His mission to be carried on to completion by the very humanity that will be transformed by His message.
Let us begin our journey by looking at the implications of the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.
The Power of Pentecost for Every Generation
Imagine what it must have been like seeing the 120 in the upper room, praying and waiting for the promise of the Father to come upon them without any idea of what would happen.
There would have been uncertainty mixed with anticipation—a longing and wondering for something more.
Seeing Jesus' life and the impact He had would provoke anyone to want to live for something more than themselves.
Especially after learning from Jesus that they would receive the same power He had to carry on His work (see Acts 1:8).
I imagine they were looking at themselves and disqualifying themselves while at the same time remembering Jesus' words in Mark 5:36, "only believe." (NIV, 1973/2011)
Then the unthinkable happens. The Spirit of God descends upon them as a mighty rushing wind, settling as tongues of fire upon their lives, clothing them with Himself.
They are baptized into His confidence and authority, endowing them with power in the place of weakness, confidence in the place of fear, and wisdom in the place of ignorance.
Jesus then releases them upon the world, revealing His desire for unity amidst a divided world through the first sign of tongues, which allowed all the various ethnic groups within the crowds they addressed to understand.
It was no longer meaningless babble but a purposefully revealed hope leaking from their words for anyone who would receive them.
Three thousand people convicted of nailing Jesus to a cross gave up their lives to be reborn as a son or daughter of God, restarting their legacy and being grafted into the covenant of the Spirit made available to every generation.
Peter declared in Acts 2:17-21:
"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the Earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (NIV, 1973/2011)
This message will begin echoing through the hearts of disciples old and new throughout the world, creating a rapid expansion of the Kingdom of God in humanity.
I will now highlight a few areas of this cataclysmic event that we would draw from to continue advancing the Kingdom in our modern context.
Power over Persuasion
With the coming of the Spirit within and upon believers, we see an unprecedented enabling of every believer to effectively carry Christ's message to every avenue of society and culture.
It moved us from relying on our own skills of convincing others to relying on God's ability to reach the deepest parts of humanity’s soul.
This shift in focus is particularly significant in the Context of 'doing Church,' a term that refers to the traditional practices and structures of the church.
The Holy Spirit's empowerment means that, no matter how skilled we become at “doing church,” we will never be truly effective and can even hinder the Gospel without reliance on the Holy Spirit.
I once heard a preacher say that true spiritual maturity is characterized by growing dependence on God. We must trust in His power to accomplish what He has given us to do.
Cultural Reformation over Cultural Relevance
The outpouring of the Spirit empowers the Church with the power and wisdom necessary for effective evangelism and cultural transformation.
At Pentecost, the Church was baptized in the wisdom of the Spirit, ensuring that no matter what situation we find ourselves in, we will have access to God's mind to shape culture and reveal God's Kingdom.
The true apostolic mandate is cultural reformation, restoring kingdom values in a world that embraces demonic constructs and philosophies.
This is a call to action, a commitment to speak truth to power, just as Peter and the apostles did.
They confronted the rulers of the day with the power of God, unafraid and unwavering, to the degree they were described in Acts 17:6 as men who had “turned the world upside down.” (NIV, 1973/2011)
This starkly contrasts with much of today's Church that seeks cultural relevance to maintain acceptance from the world.
Our mission is not to seek approval, but to seek reformation, stirring up the water to rid it of impurities, which leads me to my next point.
Holiness Breeds Favor
A message is worthless if the messenger does not embody the message. In Acts 2:47, we see that the Church "enjoyed the favor of all the people." (NIV, 1973/2011)
Why? Holiness.
The message was not just words the people of "the way" spoke, but it was a life they lived—peer into the situation of Ananias and Sapphira, or when worms ate Herod.
In times of incredible outpouring, there is a call to holiness because holiness is the container through which the power of God flows purely and effectively; otherwise, it will come at the destruction of the conduit.
The Church enjoyed favor because it demonstrated love and compassion, giving to those in need and backing up its message with a life of grace.
Jerusalem to Antioch – Preparation for the True Purpose of God's Kingdom
The Kingdom of God did not belong to the Jews alone. It was intended for those first called to be the initial messengers to bring the Gospel of grace to the Gentiles.
The Gentiles were also God's lost children whom Israel was first anointed to reveal Him to as a nation set apart.
From Acts 2-13, we see the advancement of the Gospel from Jerusalem until the first persecution launched the Church into Judea and Samaria, and ultimately established another "base of operations" in Antioch.
While Christianity continued to advance in Jerusalem, the center of the faith and God's purpose for grafting in the Gentiles shifted to Antioch, where followers of Christ were first called Christians (see Acts 11:26).
God's mission from Jerusalem to Antioch can be characterized as God reframing His people's view to include the Gentiles in His Kingdom and how he accomplishes this mission.
God speaks to Peter in Acts 10:15 to "not call anything impure that God has made clean." (NIV,1973/2011)
This is God's first step in bridging the racial divide between Jews and Gentiles. The Holy Spirit descends upon Gentiles as Peter preaches, and the witness of God's heart to include the Gentiles is confirmed.
The Gospel then explodes, and we are introduced to the future apostle, Paul, who will play a pivotal role in bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles.
He would later be sent from Antioch as one of the first missionaries to cross cultural boundaries.
The power of God is central to this advance. While we have key players such as Peter and Paul, ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit, working through redeemed humanity, that will complete Jesus' mission.
Dr. Peter Wagner echoed this when he wrote in “The Book of Acts: A Commentary, "As indicated in Acts 1:8, this cross-cultural advance of the kingdom of God would be characterized by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit working through the disciples." (Wagner, 2008, p. 221)
The Book of Acts and My Theology
When I was twelve years old, a year after I gave my life to Jesus, I remember feeling stirred to read the book of Acts. Mind you; I hardly ever read my Bible.
I was captivated by how the Holy Spirit was at the forefront and the fantastic things he did through the disciples, who were ordinary people.
That was when the Lord planted seeds of destiny in me, which grew into a passion for knowing the God of Acts—the God who works by, with, and through His Church.
I wanted to be a part of the story He was writing. I was raised in a fatalistic, cessationist, dispensational background.
Luckily, not much of the theology is rooted in me. All I saw was an impotent Christianity that demonized everyone who was not a Christian.
There was no desire to reform the culture, but rather to escape it.
I don’t intend to generalize, I have met many good-hearted lovers of Jesus within this context.
I am noting the theology and the fruit I have seen it produce. Good theology produces good fruit; bad theology produces bad fruit.
We should continually examine our theological trees and ensure the fruit is aligned with God’s heart, nature, and the testimony of Scripture through the life of Jesus.
In my journey, the Holy Spirit showed me through the Acts narrative God's design to empower His people to be world changers.
When I realized that the treasure within me was a treasure that could bring wealth to the world, it ignited an enormous desire and purpose in my heart to pursue transformation and intimacy with the Holy Spirit so that I could bring lasting and true healing and change to the world.
The three core theologies that have impacted my faith through the Acts narrative have been the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts that flow from it; its availability to all, the agency of the five-fold ministry and its purpose to equip the Church, the unity of the Church in Christ and His desire to reach cross-culturally to create “one new man” in Him.
Lessons from the Book of Acts - Part 1: Power for World Transformation
Honor is the currency of the anointing. Whenever I read books on past revivals and those that went before, I have a deep sense of honor well up in me, regardless of the mistakes they have made.
I notice there is a grace released in that place that empowers me to draw from the well they dug.
How much more grace would the Church of today receive if we honor our roots in the early Church and the message the Holy Spirit conveyed through them in the Acts narrative so that we can release the same world-changing power to a desperate and dying world?
I do not know about anyone else, but I, for one, am inspired by the initial half of the Acts narrative to believe that anything is possible with God and that all I need in life is the Holy Spirit and His testimony of God and His Son, Jesus Christ the Messiah.
References
Holy Bible: New International Version. (2011). Zondervan. (Original work published 1973)
Wagner, C. P. (2008). The book of acts: A commentary. Chosen Books.