‘In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach…’
Acts 1:1
When I was about sixteen, my older sister bought me The Matrix on videotape.
It blew my mind. The story was compelling, the effects were groundbreaking, the characters strong. Me and some good friends must have watched that old videotape close to a hundred times, slavishly rewinding in between viewings.
But the thing with The Matrix, before the sequels came along, is that it didn’t really finish the story. By the end of the first movie (which, for some years, was the only movie), Neo, as the lead character, had only just realised the role he was to play. He’d won some initial skirmishes, but the real story had only just got started.
Sometimes the best stories do this. They don’t complete everything, palming us off with a ‘happily ever after.’ But rather they introduce a new order of things— a changed world into which a new reality can now be lived and dreamed and enacted.
As we start reading the book of Acts today, this is exactly what we have.
Acts is unique in the New Testament, in that it sits between the four Gospel narratives, and the letters written to the new churches across Europe during the First Century. It is the only narrative overview that we have of the nature and growth of the early Christian Church. And it was written by Luke, whose Gospel we have just finished. In the pages to come, Luke is going to cover some significant material. It’s his sequel to his Gospel. He’ll cover the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, the radical nature of early Christian community, great preaching, martyrs, and the spread of the message of Jesus into many new nations. He’s going to cover some familiar characters (like Peter and John), and introduce a number of new ones (such as Paul, Stephen, Silas or Barnabus).
And he begins, writing these things down for his friend Theophilus,1 Luke references his Gospel:
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.
Jesus began.
It’s an extraordinary insight.
Because when we read the Gospels, there is a danger that we view it simply as what Jesus did. There is a risk that we are simply amazed by the miracles and message, and that we view His own words ‘It is finished’ and His Ascension as the end of the story.
It is dangerous, because a completed story leads to a passive Church. For if Jesus had merely done everything, then the role of the Church would be idle waiting, in some millennia of religious thumb twiddling until He returned.
But Luke doesn’t introduce things this way.
Jesus began.
The Gospels, then, were a Matrix ending. The order of things had been transformed. The enemies of the devil, sin, and death had been decisively defeated at the Cross.
And yet, Luke didn’t view this as the ending of the story. He viewed it as the beginning of a new one.
Because all the stories of the people of God, from that decisive victory of the crucified Messiah onwards, now begin from here.
That Jesus began means that He had established something that was intended to continue.
That Jesus began means that He anticipated a new move of His people, enacting and confirming the victory won on the Cross in the years between His Ascension and return.
That Jesus began means that you and I are called to live lives that are deeply purposeful, in the midst of this broken and dying age that is passing away.
That Jesus began means that, at the moment of His Ascension, He’d only just got started.
Reflect:
What questions about my purpose am I bringing as I begin reading the book of Acts?
Bring these to the Father. Ask the Spirit to clarify and direct in the days ahead.
Pray:
Lord Jesus,
You’d only just got started.
The miracles, the healings, the stilling of the waves—
You’d only just got started.
The blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame dancing—
You’d only just got started.
The religious confronted, the outcast reconciled, the shamed given dignity—
You’d only just got started.
The truth-telling, devil-evicting, disciple-making, justice-bringing, grace-announcing, dead-raising, hell-raiding, apostle-unleashing, water walking Messiah—
You’d only just got started.
The King of the Cross,
Conquerer of death,
Reconciler to the Father,
All-conquering,
Sin-breaking,
Soul-awakening,
Tomb-exploding
King of Life—
You’d only just got started.
And so, Jesus who began,
In me,
Continue,
Unto the increase of your peace and your reign
Into a wounded world,
And the confidence of glory ahead.
Lord Jesus,
In Your Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Jeremiah 18-20 | Proverbs 19:25-20:4
Theophilus means ‘loved by God’; scholars have debated whether Theophilus was one person, or a kind of symbolic name that Luke gave to all the people of God, who are all loved by Him.
The poetic prayer today was very powerful - thanks Chris 🙏🏼