There is no other book in the Bible like the Acts of the Apostles or Acts for short. The Wesley Study Bible commentary says that Acts provides “a bridge between the Gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Here one finds fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, which also extends to all nations. The result is a redefinition of the ‘people of God,’ so that all peoples are included in God’s work of salvation.”

Dr. Matthew L. Skinner wrote a book about Acts and gave it this title: Intrusive God, Disruptive Gospel. That gives you an idea of what we’ll encounter while reading this book.

Jesus ascends into heaven in chapter 1 and chapter 2 is the story of Pentecost- the giving of the Holy Spirit. The rest of the book is about what the followers of “the Way” of Jesus do as they spread the message of Jesus.  Skinner writes, “Frequently those who announce the gospel of Jesus Christ do things that create or lead to large-scale disturbances. In one instance, a complaint ominously accuses them of ‘turning the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6). What they teach about Jesus Christ asks people to embrace new religious, social, political, and economic values, sometimes putting both the proclaimers and their audiences at odds with the established social order.”

Acts is the second of two books written by Luke.  Luke writes both his gospel and Acts to “Theophilus” which means lover of God. I chose Acts for the season of Easter (the 50 days after Easter Sunday) because Acts happens after the resurrection of Jesus.  I also chose Acts because the stories contained in this book are often unfamiliar to us.  Acts doesn’t come up often in the Lectionary and very few of the stories in Acts are covered by children’s curriculum or vacation Bible school.

Skinner gives us an idea of what the situation for the church was like when Acts was written: “During the final decade or two of the first century CE, more than fifty years after the ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, many churches were thriving, even as most of them were navigating fresh and conceivably worrisome challenges…

“By and large the church had become mostly a gentile phenomenon.  Jews were largely unpersuaded by its messianic preaching, and in some settings strains and even contempt were intensifying between this emerging movement with Jewish origins and Jews who did not embrace Jesus as the Christ.

“Finally, Jesus had not returned in glory, despite traditions that taught believers to expect he would soon.  The perceived delay might have stoked confusion, disillusionment, or attrition.  Just one of those dynamics carried, at the very least, a potential to undermine the convictions and outlooks held by people committed to following Jesus.

“In that environment of change, discernment, and possible instability, the author of the Gospel according to Luke wrote a second narrative that might bolster the faith of his fellow believers, just as he expected his previous Gospel would. Eventually the wider church came to call this second narrative the Acts of the Apostles.”

The first verses of chapter 1 clue us into the fact that this is a second volume, the first being the Gospel according to Luke.

In Luke Jesus tells the disciples to stay in Jerusalem. In Luke 24 Jesus meets them in Jerusalem and in verse 49 Jesus tells them, “And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

What do they mean when they ask, “is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” The disciples are still stuck on the idea that Jesus’ Messiahship means that he will lead an army to kick Roman out of the Promised Land. Remember Messiah in Hebrew means ‘anointed one.’ The way you made someone a king in ancient Israel was to anoint them with oil.  Christ means ‘anointed one’ in Greek. We get glimpses of this misunderstanding throughout the gospels and now in Luke. It was what the people longed for and what they expected of a Messiah.  But Jesus does things differently. You can see this clearly on Palm Sunday, when the people welcome Jesus to Jerusalem like they would a successful General.  But instead of a horse and sword Jesus comes on a donkey.

There has been great expectation for a Messiah since the exile and Luke helps that expectation along in the first chapter of his gospel. When the angel Gabriel comes to Mary to ask her to participate in God’s plan Gabriel says to her, “you will bear a son… he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.” This can be interpreted in the traditional way- with a Messiah coming with military might, or the way Jesus came, preaching about the Kingdom of God and turning the world upside-down in unexpected ways.

So the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus get together and ask Jesus if it’s time to restore the kingdom to Israel and Jesus deflects and says, “It’s not for you to know. But the Holy Spirit is coming and you will be my witnesses.” So the followers of Jesus know who they are – they are empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to Jesus and his teaching.

The eleven disciples and other followers of Jesus, women and men, stay together and pray.  There are about 120 people together.  They decided they need another disciple to take Judas’ place among the twelve.  They cast lots between Matthias and Joseph. We know from our reading of Exodus and Nehemiah that casting lots was a common way to discern the will of God. Matthias was chosen to replace Judas.

Judas is, understandably, cast in a negative light. He takes the money he received from betraying Jesus and buys a field.  The property somehow kills him as he falls and is disemboweled. Matthew Skinner writes, “Acts repeatedly signals that greed goes hand in hand with impure motives or a longing for power.” We must remember, as Willie James Jennings reminds us, “The last word on Judas will not come from Peter. It will come from Jesus. Judgement belongs to Jesus, not us.”

This may be a familiar story – the story of the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  Pentecost was a Jewish holiday, one that required all Jewish men to be in Jerusalem. It means “fiftieth day” as it was the fiftieth day after Passover.  It was a harvest celebration associated with covenant renewal. Because this is the holiday when the Holy Spirit was given, we celebrate it seven Sundays after Easter, marking the end of the Easter season.

After the action of receiving the Holy Spirt, the speaking in all languages so everyone could understand, and the reaction of the Jewish folks outside- they were amazed, perplexed, disbelieving, Peter stands up and preaches.  He draws on Joel 2:28-32a while reshaping that scripture to fit the current situation.

The crowd asks, “what does this mean?” Skinner writes, “Peter replies: the unleashing of God’s Spirit indicates the beginning of a new day in human history. Here, in the days immediately following Jesus’ death, resurrection, and exaltation, a new and ultimate chapter begins in the story of God’s interactions with humanity… Peter tells the crowd that the Spirit marks Jesus’s followers—each one—as belonging to God… Peter boldly answers that the foreign languages are not an instance of trickery or mass hysteria. God is present, equipping people to communicate truth about God’s deeds… The community of faith is a community of prophets here to speak, act, and interpret.”

The next question the crowd asks is, “what should we do?” Peter tells them to repent. When you hear the word “repent” or “repentance” what first comes to mind? What does repentance mean to you? Skinner writes, “‘Repentance’ refers primarily to adopting a new way of thinking or a new perception of reality. A changed mind might eventually lead to reformed behavior, but Peter instructs the crowd to follow his sermon’s argument and therefore understand Jesus differently than they did previously. He is the expected Christ who has been exalted to God’s ‘right hand’ and thus possesses authority to pour out the Holy Spirit.”

Starting in verse 42 we learn how the community of believers or followers of the Way of Jesus spend their time and resources.  What do you think of this vision of community – where they sell their possessions to distribute the money to all, as any had need? How is our church community like this? How does our community differ?

Chapter 3 begins with a healing story.  It reminds us of the healing stories of Jesus. It echoes Luke 4 when Jesus reads that bit of Isaiah that says, “the spirit of the Lord us upon me because God has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recover of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

The disciples carry on Jesus’ mission.

Peter links what has happened – the healing of the man born lame – to Jesus and Jesus to God, God as in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Jesus.

In his sermon Peter also has some harsh words for the folks gathered in Solomon’s Portico. Skinner writes, “the sermon’s introduction of Jesus also calls attention to what the crowd did to him.  With an emphatic and plural ‘you,’ Peter tells his listeners that they bear responsibility for handing Jesus over for prosecution, rejecting him, and killing him. Indicating the crowd distorts the story that the gospels tell, and it misrepresents the historical and political realities to hold a random gathering of Jews to account for killing Jesus. Furthermore, it makes no sense for Peter to suppose that his entire audience in Solomon’s Portico was, many weeks previously, somehow ‘in the presence of Pilate’ and demanding that the Roman prefect release Barabbas the insurrectionist instead of Jesus.”

Peter quotes Moses. What he “quotes” is similar to Deuteronomy 18:19, but that verse has nothing about people being rooted out. Skinner writes that Acts portrays ‘Jesus as a divisive figure among first-century Jews.” The rhetoric used was probably harsh to get the people to respond decisively.

We get some conflict here as the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees are annoyed with Peter and John. Peter and John are arrested and the next day they stand before the rulers, elders, scribes, Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander.  They ask Peter and John, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit and gives a speech giving glory to Jesus for the healing of the man born lame.

Of verse 12 Skinner writes, “it is important to clarify that Peter is not treating the ‘name’ of Jesus as a secret code or talisman. The statement should not generate pride in calling oneself ‘Christian,’ for it is about the power of Jesus, a power to save that he extends to benefit anyone in the world. No one can designate themselves the final arbiter of where and how that power operates. It’s up to Jesus. Peter’s statement rightly expands our imagination about the accessibility, breadth, and wonder of God’s salvation instead of limiting it.”

The apostles go unpunished, not because the rulers are convinced, but because of the people. Wall writes that verse 21-22 reveal a deep division between the people and the rulers as well as a deep theological division between the rulers and God.

In verses 23-31 we get a prayer that the believers pray together. What do you make of this prayer? How does this prayer reflect your own prayers? What can you learn about prayer from reading how these early disciples prayed? After the prayer there is a sort of mini-Pentecost – the place where they were was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.  What must that have been like? Spend a few moments imagining what that must have been like.

Chapter 4 closes with another look at how the community did life together. Skinner writes, “In following the resurrected and ascended Jesus Christ believers discover the need and the power to break down whatever creates divisions between them. People choose to lay down their wealth and advantages not to earn their salvation or to achieve prestige but because they are beginning to grasp the strangeness of the divine economy that corresponds to the church’s Easter proclamation which promises a transformed future that is already under way.”

We move from hearing all about how the disciples held everything in common to the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a piece of property and instead of bringing the total proceeds to the apostles they kept some back for themselves. For some reason this story isn’t covered at Vacation Bible School.

Their story contrasts with Barnabas who we read about in chapter 4.  He was a Levite from Cyprus who sold a field and gave all the money to the apostles. His is a positive example of how to live in community.  Ananias’ and Sapphira’s story is a negative example.

Ananias deceives the community and Ananias is deceived, as Wall writes, “because he remains ignorant of the participatory nature of God’s ‘great grace.’ Peter tells him that the believer retains ownership of property and the personal freedom to do with it what he wants. Thus, if surrendered to the apostles it is by voluntary action and the result of an individual choice rather than by apostolic coercion. Ananias is not charged with failure to sell his property or to place the proceeds at the apostles’ feet, but with deception.”

Is deception a big part of your life?  Where do you see deception in your daily life or out in the world? How does deception cut one off from God’s great grace?

Skinner writes that Ananias and Sapphira’s offense, “entails misrepresenting the sale price for the purpose of fostering an impression that they are graciously handing over the full amount. Evidently, they want to appear to be making a greater sacrifice than they are, or to seem to be committing themselves to the ethos of mutual interdependence more fully that they really are.”

Peter’s question to Sapphira gives her an opportunity to confess and be restored to the community, but instead she chooses deception.

What do you think of this story? It feels extreme and out of place. Skinner writes, “This passage offers a vision of a church that many would be disinclined to join.” Including it might show how dangerous Luke thinks deception in the church community can be. Why do you think Luke includes this story in Acts?

Verses 12-17 remind us once again of Jesus ministry when we hear that people were bringing out the sick into the street in the hopes that Peter’s shadow might fall on them and heal them. Verse 16 sounds like it could be from a gospel- “A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.”

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