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Acts 1:1-14
Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven
1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
12Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
It has become our practice, whenever the New Testament readings start a new book, to spend a day’s Reflection talking about that book in general. Most of the time, we’re talking about the background of a letter written by one of the apostles — by Paul, or Peter, or James, or John, or of one of the other leaders of the early church. Those letters make up the bulk of the New Testament, along with the four gospels. The one book that is neither a letter nor a gospel is the Acts of the Apostles. That book will be the source of our New Testament readings in coming days.
The Acts of the Apostles is a book of history, relating the events that shaped the church in its earliest days. It includes the accounts of the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost; the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul; the early theological controversies involving whether Christians needed to keep traditional Hebrew law; and the beginning of the persecution of the church by the Jewish authorities.
Bible scholars say that the Acts of the Apostles was compiled by the apostle Luke, the author of the gospel that bears his name. Luke was not one of the original disciples, and in the text of Acts, he describes the early days of the church, which he shared as one of the first missionaries. At a certain point in the text, Luke changes from writing in the third person about the leaders of the church to writing in the second person — about what “we” were doing. It’s understood that that change in writing style indicates the point at which Luke began to play an active part in the life of the church.
You might notice that Luke begins this book by addressing it to a reader who he names as Theophilus. It’s not known whether this was a real person, or is just a way of addressing his readers at large. The name Theophilus is Greek for ‘Lover of God,’ so it seems possible that Luke just assumed that anyone who was reading either his gospel or the Acts of the Apostles would be a lover of God.
In the course of relating his history of the early church, Luke highlights a number of themes that are worth noting. One of those themes is the importance of the Holy Spirit guiding and empowering the early church. That’s probably no surprise, considering that the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost is one of the major events of the Acts of the Apostles. But even before the Pentecost story, Luke had consistently expressed his understanding that the Holy Spirit was at work in the life and ministry of Jesus. You might remember, for instance, that Luke’s account of the tempting of Jesus in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry says that Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit to undergo that testing.
Another of the important themes of the Acts of the Apostles is the way the church was led to reach out in ministry to gentiles to incorporate them into the life of the growing church. The Pentecost story includes the giving of the gift of languages to enable that international ministry. A vision is sent to Peter telling him that it’s now acceptable to share table fellowship with gentiles. The apostle Philip is brought into contact with an Ethiopian government official in the course of his ministry. The apostle Paul gives a brief summary of the Christian faith to the intellectual leadership of Athens at the city’s most important forum, the Areopagus.
Today’s reading is the first fourteen verses of the Acts of the Apostles. After a brief introduction, in which Luke reminds his readers of what he wrote about in his gospel, he says that Jesus spent forty days with his disciples after the resurrection, giving “many convincing proofs” that he was genuinely risen from the dead.
Then Jesus commands his disciples to remain in Jerusalem and wait for coming of the Holy Spirit, which he had promised as a continuing presence with the disciples in their ministry. The disciples were distracted by the question of when their nation would be restored to its former glory, but Jesus tells them that only God knows that, and that they should focus instead on their calling to serve as his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (in other words, in all of the promised land), and in all the rest of the world.
Having given these final instructions, Jesus ascends into heaven. As the disciples stand watching after him, two heavenly figures appear and tell the disciples that Jesus will eventually return. The reading ends with the disciples returning to Jerusalem, to an upper room where they were staying. There, they joined in prayer as they awaited the coming of the spirit.
Luke names the members of the group, and includes mention of the female disciples, including Mary, the mother of Jesus.
You might notice that this first story in the Acts of the Apostles introduces many of the themes that we said it would be found throughout the book. The coming of the Holy Spirit to empower the new church. The commandment by Jesus to bear witness to the whole world — even outside the bounds of Israel and Judea. The act that new church would be more than just a continuation of Hebrew history and tradition.
In coming days, our Reflections will alternate somewhat between readings from the two books Luke compiled — his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. As we reflect on readings from these two books, we might notice ways that the apostle Luke’s themes show up in each of them.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the faithful service of the disciple Luke. We thank you for his role as a missionary in the early church, and also for his work in compiling his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. We pray that by his writing, we might each continue in our walk of faith, coming to know you and your son better, and growing closer to you day by day. Amen.
Grace and peace,
Henry
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