Church newsletter pastoral column for St. Peter Lutheran Church, Greene, Iowa, for April, 2021.
Acts
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
– Acts 2:42
In the cycle of the church year, Easter is the climax. Easter is the moment when we see the proof that Jesus is who he said he was, the proof of death’s defeat. The empty tomb declares that the cross was God’s moment of triumph, rather than the defeat it appeared to be. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all end their Gospel stories with either the resurrection or its immediate aftermath, as Jesus appears to his disciples and then ascends into heaven.
But of course, for the church, Easter is only the beginning of the story. In the weeks following Easter Sunday, in April and May, we will hear a reading each week from the book of Acts. Acts is a unique book in the Bible, because it tells the story of how the church began and how it grew. Luke wrote it as a sequel to the Gospel that bears his name, and its full title is “The Acts of the Apostles.” A more accurate title might be “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” because if you read through Acts, you’ll notice that God the Holy Spirit is constantly at work.
Acts tells how the followers of Jesus go from just a small band of Jesus’ immediate friends left behind after his ascension to a growing movement that will change the world, a movement which you and I are part of today. There’s an invitation elsewhere in this newsletter for you to join me in a six-week small-group study of Acts starting April 25, but even if you have no interest in a formal study, I think it’s well worth reading through Acts this month – I think it’s one of the most engaging and inspiring sections of the Bible to sit down and read.
The story starts with Jesus bidding farewell to his disciples and promising to send the Holy Spirit to them. A few weeks later, at Pentecost, his promise is fulfilled as the Holy Spirit comes upon them, dramatically giving them the ability to speak in different languages, but more importantly, giving them courage to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
For the first few chapters, Acts tells stories of the Holy Spirit working through the early church as it grows as a community of believers. Then, we meet a man named Saul who had been persecuting the church. In a dramatic encounter with Jesus, his life is transformed, and his name is changed to Paul. The majority of the rest of the book focuses on Paul, who travels around having adventures and starting churches in various cities and towns. Salvation is extended to include the Gentiles, no longer limited to the Jewish people.
At last, Paul is arrested, and after a dramatic journey (are you sensing a theme?) aboard a ship to Rome, the book ends with him in captivity awaiting trial, proclaiming the good news of Jesus to his captors. And of course, we know the church only grew from there!
Our church today looks much different than the church in Acts, but the promise and challenge of the book are still relevant: God is still active, and our job is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, boldly proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, our risen Lord.
In Christ,
-Pastor Daniel Flucke