This week in our quest for 2012 to ReDiscover the New Testament, we’re starting on the fifth book of the New Testament, which is called the Acts of the Apostles. Acts was written as a sequel to the Gospel of Luke, and it seems to be written by the same author. It picks up right where Luke left off after he told the story of Jesus being risen from the dead. If the gospels are stories about God coming to us through Jesus to bring salvation, Acts is about the disciples, empowered by Jesus’ pouring out the Holy Spirit on them, taking that Good News of Jesus and beginning to share it with all the peoples of the world. In other words, Acts is the story of the beginnings of the church and its mission in the world.
But this good news is not always received peacefully. At several points Jesus’ ambassadors are arrested, interrogated, run out of town, and even killed. People found these people to be offensive, even treacherous – a danger to society. For instance, at one point some people get upset at a few travelling Jesus followers, and so they start a riot mob and attack the house where they were staying:
And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” (Acts 17:6-7 ESV)
In a way, these people were absolutely right. The book of Acts records stories of ways that the church answering God’s calling ends up turning the world upside down. Some receive the Good News and the Holy Spirit with open arms, while others react to it by trying to snuff it out. The point of Acts is to put the question to you: How will you respond to this new thing God is doing?
