BibleProject New Testament Series - Lesson 10

BP150-10 - Acts (Part 2)

The Book of Acts. In the first video, we watched Luke open the book by showing us how the risen Jesus was exalted as the king of the world. He promised to send the Holy Spirit as his own personal presence, to empower his followers to go out into the world and bear witness to the good news about his kingdom until he would return one day. And so the movement began in Jerusalem as the Spirit came and formed Jesus followers into the new temple promised by the scriptural prophets. But this generated conflict with the leaders of Jerusalem, and so it led to the persecution of the Christians. But the spirit transformed it into good. It actually became the means by which the originally Jewish Jesus communities were pushed outside Jerusalem to become a multi-ethnic international movement. And the flagship church of this diverse Jesus movement was in Antioch, the largest city in that part of the Roman Empire. So we left the story with Barnabas and Paul serving in the Antioch Church, and the spirit prompts the church to send them on a missionary journey, which opens up a whole new section of the book, the stories about Paul and his coworkers traveling to different cities around the Roman Empire, announcing the good news that Jesus is king. The first mission is into the interior of what's called Asia minor, found in modern Turkey, and it ends with an important meeting of the apostles back in Jerusalem. The second mission is through Asia minor and then into ancient Greece. And then the third mission is through that same territory again. And it concludes with Paul's journey all the way back to Jerusalem. Now, in recounting all these stories, Luke has highlighted a number of important themes by repeating them. So first is the continued mission to Israel. Whenever Paul enters the new city, he always goes first to the Jewish synagogue to share about the risen King Jesus and how he's forming a new multi-ethnic family of God. Now, most often, lots of people come to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but some oppose Paul. Sometimes they even throw him out of town as a dangerous rebel who opposes the Torah and Jewish tradition. And this tension culminates after the first journey leading to an important council in Jerusalem. So Paul discovers that there are some Jewish Christians in Antioch, and they're claiming that unless non-Jewish people become Jewish by practicing circumcision, the Sabbath, obeying the kosher food laws, that they can't become part of Jesus's family. But Paul and Barnabas, they radically disagree. And so they take the debate to a leadership council in Jerusalem. Now they're Peter, Paul and James, the brother of Jesus. They all show from the Scriptures and from their experience that God's plan was always to include the nations within his covenant people. So they write a letter requiring non-Jewish Christians to stop participating in Pagan temple sacrifices, but they don't require them to adopt an ethnically Jewish identity or obey the laws in the Torah. Now, this decision was groundbreaking for the history of the Jesus movement. Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, but he's also the risen king of all nations. And so one's membership among his people is not based on ethnic identity or following the laws of the Torah. It's based simply on trusting Jesus and then following his teachings. And it's this multi-ethnic reality of the Jesus movement that leads us to the next theme Luke wants us to see in the missionary journeys, namely the clash of cultures between the early Christians and the Greek and Roman world. Luke records multiple clashes in Philippi, Athens, Ephesus. Paul goes and announces Jesus as the revelation of the one true God and as the King of the world who shows up all other gods and idols as powerless and futile. And his message is consistently viewed as subversive to the Roman way of life. And he gets accused of being a dangerous social revolutionary. These stories show how the multi-ethnic, monotheistic Jesus communities did not fit into any cultural boxes known to the Roman people. The ancient world had just never seen anything like them, and the Christians aroused more than just suspicion. Another theme Luke repeats is how Paul and the Christians are constantly being accused of rebellion, even treason against Caesar, the Roman emperor. People heard Paul correctly. He was announcing that there's another King Jesus, and they also correctly saw that the Christian way of life was a challenge to many Roman cultural values. But every time Paul gets arrested and interrogated before Roman officials, they don't see any threat and he's dismissed. These stories show us the paradox that the early church presented to the world. It was a Jewish messianic movement, but it was ethnically diverse, full of communities that treated men and women and rich and poor and slave and free, all as equals. And they all gave their allegiance to King Jesus alone and no other God or king. And so their very existence, it turned upside down the core values of Roman culture. But. The Christians posed no military threat because Jesus taught them to be people of peace. And so the only crime Paul and the Christians can be accused of is not conforming to the status quo. The book's final section returns the focus to Paul's witness spreading from Jerusalem to Rome. His final missionary journey ends back in Jerusalem, where his controversial reputation precedes him. He gets attacked by Jewish people who think that he's betrayed Israel, which attracts the attention of Roman soldiers who think Paul is a terrorist from Egypt starting a rebellion. And so he gets arrested. From here, Paul is put on trial first before the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. But then before a series of Roman leaders in Sensorium, there's Governor Felix, who puts Paul off for the next governor, Festus, who eventually brings Paul before King Agrippa. He ends up in prison for years, even though at each trial the charges never stick to him because all he's doing is announcing that his hope in the resurrection has been fulfilled in King Jesus. This is hardly a crime. But at this point, the Roman legal machine can't just turn him away. And so Paul ends up appealing to Rome's highest court. Now, you would think that all this prison time would be a setback for Paul because his heartbeat is to be on the road starting new Jesus communities. But the Spirit orchestrates everything for good in this book. And so the imprisonment gives Paul time to have his most important apostolic letters written. And these become the way that his missionary legacy is carried on long after he dies. Eventually, Paul was transferred as a prisoner to Rome, and after a terrifying near-death voyage across the Mediterranean. Paul ends up in house arrest in Rome, awaiting his delayed trial. And so he's able to host in quite a nice house regular meetings that reach Jews and Gentiles. And the book's final words are about how Paul is announcing the Kingdom of God and boldly teaching all about the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, totally unhindered, all happening right under Cesar's nose in Rome. The unified work of Luke acts. It does so much more than give us a history of Jesus in the early church. He's showing how the Kingdom of God came on Earth, as in Heaven, through Jesus's life, death and resurrection, through the coming of His spirit, to empower the church to bear witness from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And as Luke has told the story, he's given us scores of example of what faithfulness to King Jesus looks like. It looks like sharing the good news of the risen King Jesus in word and in action. It means forming diverse Jesus communities where people of all kinds come together, where they're treated equally and give allegiance to King Jesus and live by his teachings. And all of this is done by trusting in the power and the guidance of the spirit to lead the way forward. And that's what the Book of Acts is all about.