The Sequel To The Gospels
"In my first book I told you, Thelphilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit." Acts 1:1-2 (NLT)
Pastor's Blog
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are 4 different accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and each ends with various post-resurrection accounts of Jesus Christ having come back from the dead.
The way these accounts end begs the question, "what now?" Jesus had risen from the dead, so now what do we do? Acts, the sequel, tells us.
Acts, the fifth "book" of the New Testament, is an historical account of everything that Jesus continued to do on earth through the Holy Spirit. Notice that Luke, the physician/author writing to a man named Theophilus, states that this "book of Acts" is the sequel to his account of Jesus' life, death, resurrection and subsequent post resurrection appearances.
By "Acts", Luke is referring to the actions of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, in and through the apostles and many others.
The book of Acts tells us how God and jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit began a new phase in the healing of this broken world. Acts has only 28 chapters and chapter 28 ends unfinished. It is almost as if this is intentional because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have not yet completed the salvation and restoration of the world. they are still at it, however now not through the apostles, but through you and me if we believe.
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