◄ What Does Acts 1:1 Mean? ►

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach,

Acts 1:1(NASB)

Verse of the Day

Although the book of Acts is often described as the acts or actions of the apostles in the fledgling Christian church, this volume of Scripture would more accurately be called the continuing acts or undertakings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke in his Gospel, described all that the Lord Jesus began to do and teach in His earthly ministry and he also put on record, in the book of Acts, all that Jesus continued to do and to teach. But there was one major difference - the Body through whom the Holy Spirit worked.

In the Gospel of Luke, the Lord Jesus was clothed with His own humanity, for when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a Body You prepared for Me." Christ the eternal Son of God, was born to Mary as the perfect Son of Man Who lived His whole life in submission to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, and Doctor Luke wrote all that Christ began to do and to teach in this first letter to Theophilus.

In the book of Acts, the Lord ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father, but he sent His Holy Spirit to indwell all believers, starting on that memorable Day of Pentecost. On this day, the fledgling Church was born, and all who were eagerly waiting (as instructed in the upper room), were suddenly baptised into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. We read that they were all filled at that moment by the Spirit of God.

All that Jesus Christ continued to do through His Body, the Church, was recorded in the second letter that Theophilus received from Doctor Luke, in those opening years of the dispensation of grace.

In Luke's Gospel, the Lord Jesus was seen to wear His own humanity in a human body, while in the book of the Acts, the Lord Jesus clothed His activity and actions with the humanity of forgiven sinners who were redeemed by His blood and indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God. And the good works they were doing God Himself had prepared that they should do - IN CHRIST.

Today, we who are saved by grace through faith are still part of Christ's Body on earth, and are called to live our lives in spirit and truth.

We are instructed to abide in Christ, rest in His love, and submit to the work of the Holy Spirit within our heart so that we too may be part of that glorious cloud of witnesses that are being used by God to continue carrying out the acts of Jesus Christ in our lives - to His praise and glory.

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for this momentous truth, that Christ has never ceased to work and to teach from the moment that He was born in Bethlehem as the eternal Son of God, clothed in a Body that God had prepared for Him. Thank You that I am part of His Body, the Church. Use me, I pray, to Your praise and glory. In Jesus' name, AMEN.