Michael Green, in his book Thirty Years That Changed the World said,

Three crucial decades in world history. That is all it took. In the years between AD 33 and 64 a new movement was born. In those thirty years it got sufficient growth and credibility to become the largest religion the world has ever seen and to change the lives of hundreds of millions of people.  It has spread into every corner of the globe.  It has had an indelible impact on civilization, on culture, on education, on medicine, on freedom, and of course on the lives of countless people worldwide.  And the seedbed for all this, the time when it took decisive root, was in these three decades.  It all began with a dozen men and a handful of women: and then the Spirit came.

If God did so much with such a small band of people without anything going for them humanly speaking, what might he be pleased to do with us over the next thirty years?  For these men and women in the first century, the coming of the Spirit changed everything.  It set them on fire!  The Spirit sent them as thunderbolts into the world and changed the world.  I want our expectations to be raised as to what is possible with God.

These first 11 verses which tell us about Christ’s final 40 days on earth, sets the stage for the entire book of Acts.  And they tell us what the controlling theme of Acts is: The Continuing Ministry of Jesus through His Spirit-empowered followers.   For us to understand the book of Acts we need to see this.  Furthermore, for us to understand the ongoing mission of the church (which includes us) in this present age, we need to see this.  So let’s look at three things that show us the overarching theme of Acts in these 11 verses.

1. The purpose of Luke writing Acts: a history of Christ’s continuing work (verses 1-2)
2. The importance of the ascension of Jesus: the detonation of all Jesus is and has done (verses 9-11)
3. The central verse in the entire book of Acts (verse 8)

Luke's Purpose: A History of the Continuation of Christ's Ministry

The opening verses read like a story already in progress.  And it is.  The author of the book of Acts, Luke, is also the author of the gospel of Luke.  Many have referred to these two books as “Luke/Acts” because they belong together.  We know that the book of Luke and Acts belong together because both of them are written to the same person - a man named Theophilus.  From the introduction of Luke and Acts, it seems clear that he set out to write a history of Jesus’ life and the expansion of the early church and wrote them on separate scrolls.

Look at what Luke says in verse 1, “In the first book, O Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until he was taken up”.   I love how it combines doing and teaching.  Jesus ministry was not just doing miracles and works of mercy.  And it wasn’t just teaching.  It was both.  And these two things always went hand in hand.  We see this so clearly throughout the gospels (Matthew 4-7).  Well, if Luke says his first book (Luke) was about what Jesus began to do and teach until he was taken up, the book of Acts is about what Jesus “continued to do and teach after he was taken up”.  Jesus is the main character in Acts.  

Throughout the book of Acts, Luke claims that as this budding Christian movement spreads, Jesus himself is at work (Acts 4:10).  So Acts is about the continuing ministry of Jesus.  And, Jesus continues to work through his church up to this present day and will until the end of the world.  If you opened your bible to the first page of the book of Acts, the title page, it probably reads “The Acts of the Apostles”.  A better title might be, “The Acts of Jesus through his Spirit-empowered followers.”  This certainly is the reason Luke wrote the book of Acts.  So the purpose of the book of Acts is to give a history of Christ’s continuing ministry.

The Importance of the Ascension

In verses 9-11, we see at the end of these 40 days, Jesus is visibly lifted up.  He was taken into heaven and there he sits on a throne at God’s right hand.  We see the ascension, but what does it mean?  What is its significance?  We don’t think a whole lot about the ascension of Jesus.  We have holidays for his birth, death, and resurrection.  And right we should.  But the ascension is such an important event, and often doesn’t get much attention.  This might be our problem.  One of the reasons for our lack of zeal and effectiveness in the world may be because we don’t live in light of the ascension and its importance for us and the world.

Ascension is a spatial word.  If I ascend a stage, I am spatially higher than you.  But when we speak of Jesus ascending, it is a spatial word meant to communicate a deeper reality.  In other words, the ascended Jesus does not relate with us like someone on the fifth floor relates with someone on the first floor.  Rather, he relates with us like a King does his subjects; but it is more than that - he is an infinitely exalted Sovereign King with universal power and authority (Matthew 28).  Psalm 24 is an ascension Psalm.  Charles Spurgeon called it “The Song of the Ascension”.  Listen to these words:

7 Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!  (Psalm 24:7-10)

Speaks of a conquering King coming back from battle.  And the gates of heaven are summoned to open for him so that he may come in and sit on his throne having defeated his enemies.  Psalm 110:1.  Jesus, the God man rules from heaven… and he rules for our good.  But there is more to the ascension.

But that’s not all.  Because Jesus has entered heaven victorious over sin, the powers of darkness, and death itself, he has received a gift from the Father to release upon his people.  This takes us to what I believe is the central verse in the book of Acts.  

When Jesus ascended, it’s like a nuclear bomb detonated and reverberated through the world, because the promise of verse 8 came to pass.  The ascension is necessary for verse 8. Acts 1:8 is probably the key to the entire book of Acts.  It is the key to understanding how this little group of people experienced such rapid and amazing growth though they had no political power, no money, no proven leaders, and no technological tools for spreading the gospel.  Plus they faced huge obstacles - a new religion with unfathomable truth claims.  They experienced intense hatred and persecution.  Yet they spread from Jerusalem, an obscure city, to the capital of the world (Rome) in just the first generation of believers.  Verse 8 is the key.  The fulfillment of it (Acts 2) is the detonation of the ascension which then changed the world.  Furthermore, verse 8 is key to us following in the footsteps of our first century forebears.

The Central Verse in the Book of Acts

Let’s read verses 6-8 and see what Jesus thinks is really important (READ Acts 1:6-8 and EXPLAIN).  Having ascended, Jesus continues his work through his witnesses. It is important we understand that verse 8 is a promise and a command.  This really is Luke’s account of the Great Commission.  In the time we have left, let’s consider some aspects of a witness a Jesus:

1. Every believer is called to be a witness

Jesus said, “But you will receive power… and you will be my witnesses…” Who is the you?  Certainly those Jesus is originally speaking to.  And there is a special way in which they were witnesses.  They had seen the Lord Jesus bodily after his resurrection.  Well, is this for us?  Yes.  Every Christian is to be empowered by the Spirit in order to witness to Christ.  Notice 3 things.  1) The promise is for power to witness to the end of the earth, which hasn’t happened yet. 2)  Jesus said, “Your business isn’t to be concerned when the kingdom will come in its fullness.  Your business is to be a witness.”  And 3) The gentle rebuke in verses 10-11 to stop standing around looking up in the clouds - he will come again, implying that the witnessing to Jesus does not end until he returns.

2. The strength of a witness is the power of the Holy Spirit

Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The strength of the witness does not come from self. The velocity with which the church spread and way in which it spread so expansively so quickly cannot be attributed to the cleverness of human beings, but must be attributed to the Holy Spirit.  Over and over again in the book of Acts, we see not the planning and strategies of human committees, but the words, “Filled with the Holy Spirit” - fourteen times in the book of Acts and always powerful witnessing followed.  Notice the language Jesus uses.  He doesn’t just say, “you are going to get the Holy Spirit.  In verse 5 he says, “you will be baptized [immersed] with the Holy Spirit…”.  In verse 8 he says, “when the Spirit comes upon you…” 

In 1867, Alfred Nobel discovered a power stronger than anything the world had known up to that time.  He asked a friend who was a Greek scholar what the Greek word for “explosive power” was.  His friend answered, “dynamis”.  Nobel said, “that’s what I’ll call my discovery.”  You can probably guess what his explosive discovery was: dynamite.  Jesus is saying in verse 8, “When the Spirit comes upon you, he will come with explosive power (dynamite power) to enable you to be my witnesses.”  It is something so far beyond human personality and giftedness.  Think of the disciples.  Just a few weeks before this, fifty days before the the Day of Pentecost, they were hiding for their lives, afraid that they would be killed w/ Jesus - and Peter had denied him three times.  This should encourage us.  They would need a power outside them.  And so do we.  The ability of a witness is the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. The path of a witness is suffering

The path of a witness of Jesus Christ is a path of suffering.  The Greek word translated witness is “martus”, where we get the word martyr and historically we know that all of the apostles except John were martyred for the faith.  The entire book of Acts shows us tandem truths: the explosive power of the Spirit and the hostile persecution of opponents of the gospel.  It is not either or.  

The history of the church - Tertullian, in his book The Apology, writing to the Roman Governor or his province said,

Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust.  The more we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of martyrs is the church’s seed.

And this has been the history of the church.  Richard Wurmbrand said: “A man really believes not what he recites in his creed, but only the things he is willing to die for.”

It is highly unlikely that anyone here will ever be called upon to die for your faith in Christ.  However, you will be made fun of for your commitment to Christ.  You may suffer financially and socially.  You may be unfriended on FB.  But Paul makes it clear to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will lead to persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).  The path of a witness is suffering.  

4. The passion of a witness is Jesus Christ

Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses…”  Everyone is a witness.  Everyone witnesses about something.  You are a witness to you are most excited about and talk about and whatever it is you want to spread.  It may be a sports team, a new beauty product, a work out program, a new toy you have, or it might just be you in promoting yourself.  Jesus said the passion his witnesses will be HIM.  Not a particular church, denomination, movement, style of worship/service, or any other pet doctrine or anything else!

The passion of a witness of Jesus is Jesus Christ himself.  In Acts 4:20, speaking to the authorities who wanted to harm them physically, Peter and John said, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”  They were compelled by the Spirit to do so.  And of course this makes perfect sense since the Spirit himself is passionate about witnessing of Jesus.  Jesus said of the Spirit, “He will bear witness about Me” (John 15:26, Acts 5:32).  If we want to be a witness of Jesus Christ, he must be our passion, our boast (Galatians 6:14, 1 Corinthians 1).  Paul said, “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).  The passion of a witness is Jesus Christ.

5. The location of a witness is everywhere one is needed

Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Where you are now, and just spread outward to the ends of the earth.  Do you know someone who needs to truly know who Jesus is?  That is why you are in that person’s life.  Are there still people in the world who have not heard of Christ?  Then witnesses need to go there.  Jesus is clear.  His witnesses will bring the gospel from Jerusalem (first century) to the ends of the earth before the end comes (Matt. 24:14).

What should be our response?  Do you believe Jesus is continuing to work? Do you believe in the power of his ascension?  Then you are called to be Holy Spirit-empowered witness.  Acts 1:8 is a promise and a command.  It is a promise of empowerment.  But it is also a command.  They were to be obedient in bringing the good news of what Jesus had done to the world and countless lives have been saved and transformed. This is the most important thing in the world - the most important thing we could give ourselves to.

Let’s humble ourselves and ask the Lord to change us so that our lives look more and more like the lives of these early Christians.  Let’s seek the Lord and the empowerment of the Spirit that we may see Christ’s continuing work so that we may rediscover the effectiveness they had by which in 30 short years, they changed the world.