COV LIFE BLOG

Summary of the Book of Acts

Acts is the book that reveals the power of the church. Therefore, when a church begins to dwindle, lose its power, and turn dull and drab in its witness, it needs desperately to get back into the spirit, expectation, knowledge and teaching of the book of Acts.

That is what the book of Acts is all about. It is the account of the way the Holy Spirit, coming into the church, continued what Jesus began to do, that is, carried on the work which was initiated during the days of his incarnation.

It was never the intention of the Lord that the whole job of planning the strategy of reaching out to the ends of the earth and of mobilizing the resources should fall upon the Christian. When the church attempts the work on this basis, the Lord simply folds his arms and lets us go about our busy ways. He watches us try to fulfill this Great Commission in our own strength, while he stands by and quietly waits until we get over it.

When exhausted and utterly beaten and discouraged, as we inevitably will be in this process, we come back to him and cry out, “Oh, Lord, we can never get this job done. We can never accomplish this.” Then he quietly reminds us that his program was for the Holy Spirit to accomplish this task through the church, that he is perfectly capable of doing it, and that the book of Acts is the complete testimony to his ability and adequacy to carry out the program he had in mind. “He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24 RSV). It was always God’s intention not only to lay the program before us, but to fulfill it in his own strength.

That is God’s program — the Holy Spirit doing the whole thing — energizing, guiding, directing, programming, empowering and communicating life. He does it all. It is not up to us to do anything except be available, to be his instruments, to go where he wills, to open our mouths, to be ready to take advantage of whatever situation he places us in. It is the job of the Spirit, which he never fails to fulfill, to carry out that ministry. That is what the church has lacked, is it not?

Ray Stedman

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Heart Preparation
One of the major themes we see in the book of Acts is the confidence we can have in the work due to the sovereign grace and goodness of God. Take some time to meditate on this truth and surrender to God any areas where you doubt this truth.