The Historical Work of the Holy Spirit in the Early Church

I have set my mind to do a series of brief studies on the Book of Acts to keep up the practice of the study of God's Word which is my "first love" in Christ. My first love is my wife, but my failure to love God's Word results in failure to love my wife. Therefore my goal is to do the first works and repent, so that, I may lead my family into a more fruitful life of worship to our Lord Jesus Christ(Rev.2:5).

In introducing the book of "Acts" we need to first understand that this is a historical narrative that is designed to give us a historical account of the history of the Holy Spirit's working in the Apostles during the birth of the church in her early stages. It is not a prescription for the church today to try to copy and mimic, but to teach us how the Holy Spirit was given or birthed in what we call the church today. These are historical events in history; not commands to obey. God is not telling us to go out and start a new church, but is simply giving her history in how the church grew, and the gospel spread into what we see today. This book is not designed to tell us how to receive the Holy Spirit but how the Holy Spirit has worked and continues to work in the church today.

The author of Acts is Luke who was a close friend, traveling companion, personal physician, and one of many accountability partners of the Apostle Paul. Luke also wrote the Gospel according to Luke who, like the book of Acts, is also addressed to Theophilus. Both books are designed to give historical and "eye witness" accounts of the life of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in the church. Luke was a physician(Col.4:14), a researcher(Lk.1:1-4), and a historian who understood the times of the day(1Chron.12:32). Traveling with Paul he was able to interact with most of the other Apostles. In his narrative he often uses pronouns like "we" and "us" to say that he was an eyewitness of these events, which enhances the credibility of the texts. Scholars debate the date of this book to be after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D, but it is more likely that is was written before 60 A.D., because being a traveling companion of Paul, Luke doesn't close the book with accounts of Paul's second imprisonment and death(2Tim.4:11).

Acts 1:1-3 ACTS 1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. NKJV

1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

There is no offical title to this book. Acts was added after it was written to describe that it was a historcal account of the church. Luke starts his letter off by way of remembrance to Theophilus, which means, "friend or lover of God". Luke is reminding Theophilus of the first account of the life of Jesus Christ, which was also written, for Theophilus' benefit. Theophilus was probably some kind of Roman official(Lk.1:3) who changed his name to mean "a friend of God". This says a lot about the man, because he was willing to subject himself to open persecution by being identified with the Christian God. He evidently has some influence and power in Rome, because of the respectable phrase, "most excellent", given to him by Luke. We are not sure how much or how high of a ranking Theophilus was, but he did have a sphere of influence within the Church's enemy to persuade them with the truth of Christ. Therefore Luke was probably eager to write an accurate and detailed eyewitness account for Theophilus, so that, he could persuade people to hear and understand the doctrines of Christ's church. Luke pays him all honor and respect with prayer and devotion to bring Theophilus under the full authority of God's Word(1Tim.2:1-2).

2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,

Here Luke is transitioning from the former account(The Gospel of Luke) to his present account(The Book of Acts). Luke is giving an introduction to what he is about to describe in detail about Jesus' ascension into heaven and the giving of the Holy Spirit to lead and command the chosen Apostles of the church of Jesus Christ.

3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Here in verse 3 we have a brief summary of what Luke described at the close of his gospel, in how the resurrected Christ appeared to the chosen Apostles for forty days, confirming to them the kingdom of God that is to come(Lk.19:11;22:30), and that now is, within their hearts(Lk.17:21). But they will need to wait to go "in power" to proclaim it to evey nation.