God Works Despite Our Frailties
Following Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the disciples returned to Jerusalem with “great joy.” Jesus was alive! However joyful they might have been, they had to be thinking, “What is next? What do we do now?” The entire book of Acts is the answer to those questions. A few days later God’s Holy Spirit descended on them, and they were off and running.
By our present-day standards of “doing church,” we would have seen their activities as rather chaotic. There were no organized churches, only people meeting house to house praying, worshipping, asking God what to do.
Viewing it now from a distance, we can see the Holy Spirit was in charge, directing to a God- ordained destiny. As a pastor and “missionary,” I have sometimes witnessed religious “chaos.” In those times I often thought, “God works in spite of us rather than because of us.” Thank God!
If the disciples had known what was ahead for them, they would have at least been concerned. In just a few short months, the “Way,” the name first given to the believers, would make it known they were not a branch of Judaism but a church all its own. This made them an enemy of the Roman government, which forbade any new religion. The success of the church at Antioch, where they were first called Christians, gave them a name that stuck---Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. They bore the name proudly and often painfully.
Soon the entire known world was against them. The Jews always hated them; the pagans despised their morality; the government hunted them down as outlaws. Still, Christianity grew rapidly. Following the resurrection of Jesus, the formerly fearful disciples became men of great commitment and courage. At the time, one might have assumed their courage would wane. It did not. All but one of them died as martyrs. Meanwhile, they turned the world upside.
The King James authorized version of the Bible chose Acts of the Apostles as the title of the book you and I know as the book of Acts. Someone has suggested it might be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Personally, I tend to agree.
