Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles introduction (July 1, 2025)

July 1, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles

May the Grace and Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ fill your life with hope and joy each day, so that your faith will grow, and your heart will constantly be transformed by the Spirit's presence.

As we begin a new study on this 1st of July it is important for us to realize that we all live in the long tradition of those who have used the hope and joy which has sustained them to share with others how the Living Christ has transformed them, offering to become a friend, showing this new friend how Christ's Love has made your life so much better, because you are set free from the burden of sin and brokenness that kept you from living in the freedom of Christ's Love.  This is what we will be reading about as we live with the amazing story of how the beloved of Christ carry the "Good News" from the tiny county of Israel into Asia minor, and on into Greece and Rome, as they become the living witnesses of the Risen Savior.

As you move through the community today, please be careful of the heat, the dust, and potentially violent storms. Stay hydrated! Please pray for Nancy and her family. She has been experiencing some falls in her home. Pray that this will stop for her, and that she will have the support she needs every day. Pray for Joanna and Kelly. Their air conditioning should be back on sometime today. It quit over the weekend. Pray for Sharyn who caught her son's cough and is uncomfortable today. Pray for rain, the kind that can quench the desert's thirst. Please pray with thanksgiving for our nation as we approach the celebration of our Independence Day on Friday of this week. Pray for all the people, some of whom are with us in church, that the impacts of these radical changes in support for SSI, Medicare, and Medicaid will not place them in jeopardy. Join us Sunday for Gospel Music, Great Picnic style carry-in food, and singing a couple of our favorite songs about our country. Church begins at 10AM, and the meal follows at about 11:15AM.  If you bring a hot dish to share, the warmer will be available to keep your food at the right temperature.

Today we begin a new Bible Study. We have spent time understanding the joys and the pitfalls of the new church, learning about Paul through his letters to these churches that he started. And being who we are, we might like to read this book of Scripture and learn about when everything takes place. And we might want to know why every disciple is not mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. We like keeping everything neat and tidy when we study Scripture. However, in this book, we are much better off learning to live with the broad strokes of the book's author, Luke, as he tries to paint a lovely and honest portrait of how the new church and her new Christian members caused such a stir in that area of the world.

So.... I have already indicated that in all likelihood Luke, the gentile and physician is the author of this telling of the work of the Spirit in spreading the amazing story of our Resurrected Lord, Jesus. It is most likely that Luke would have had access to a number of the early church communities through his relationship with Paul, so telling what becomes mostly a recalling of the acts of Paul, this becomes a study for us all in how the work of the Gospel brings the reality of God's Grace into the lives of His children. 

We turn to Luke as the author even when he is mentioned only three times in the New Testament. Colossians 4:14, Philemon verse 24 (There is only one chapter), and 2 Timothy 4:11.  From this we know that Luke was a treasured companion of Paul's during Paul's imprisonment in Rome which provided Luke access to the stories which the Acts of the Apostles contains.  We are nearly certain that Luke was a doctor because he uses medical terms when quoting a source shared story that did not use those same terms.

Was Luke's greater purpose in sharing this broadly painted picture across the whole of the Roman empire, and perhaps even farther, or was Luke writing to a friend Theophilus, assuring him of the goodness and love in the young new church so that they would not be persecuted?  Another possibility is that the name Theophilus was a made-up name, either trying to protect an individual to whom Luke was writing, or as a code name for the new church as it received Luke's writing. The name Theophilus breaks into two parts. 1. The first in the Greek is theos which we know well as the word for God. 2.  The second part of the name is philein in the Greek, and it means love. So, it becomes possible that Luke was writing and sending his letters in order that no one could be identified and then persecuted for being part of this new cult of believers in Jesus who called themselves Christians.

So, we now think that we know that Luke is the author of the Acts of the Apostles, and we might know to whom he is writing, but what is the likely purpose of this text we have come to know as the Acts of the Apostles?

1. Maybe Luke is writing to convince the Roman government that they have nothing to fear from this new community of those who believe in Jesus Christ.

2. Luke's purpose is possibly to convince people that Jesus Christ, and faith in Him, is for all people, not just a small community of Jews or Gentiles. It is a universal religion.

3. But greater than either of these first two, is the command of Christ to move out with the story of God Grace and Forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ. Luke's writing shows how quickly the Gospel has taken hold and how quickly it has spread.

On Monday of next week, we will begin our own journeys through Luke's telling of the movement of the Gospel. Think about how it has moved in your own life, and how, through you, others have come to know that change of heart (metanoia) that has happened in your own life, a story in which they are truly meant to be included.

Thanks for letting me get us all started on this next study.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim