Day 320 (Acts 1-3) - Year 4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. We finished the Gospel of Luke yesterday, but let's refresh our memories on who he is. He's a doctor who goes to great lengths to interview a bunch of people and compile a detailed account of the life of Jesus. He's probably a Gentile, not a Jew, and he writes for a Gentile audience, specifically a guy named Theophilus.

But some say that since the name Theophilus means one who loves God, that his letters are actually addressed to all of us. In Luke's Gospel, he talks about the life of Christ, and in the book of Acts, he focuses on what happens after the life of Christ. So this book could have easily been called Luke 2.

The primary theme of Acts is how God the Spirit works through the early church to spread the gospel to all the nations, just like Jesus told his followers to do before he ascended to heaven. We read about that briefly yesterday and we covered it again today. Let's jump in.

Jesus stayed on earth in his resurrection body for 40 days. And in that time, he continued to remind the apostles to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came to empower them. Remember, this is a whole new thing. The Holy Spirit has not come to indwell believers yet. So he's letting them know that the next phase of God's plan is about to be rolled out. Just like when God the Son came to live alongside his people, now God the Spirit will come to dwell in his people. It'll be a new kind of baptism that they haven't had access to yet.

and it still won't be available until after Jesus ascends. The disciples ask him, so now that you've raised from the dead, you're going to overthrow Rome and we can be free again, right? After all this, they're still short-sighted, still waiting on an earthly kingdom. Jesus says, you guys are asking the wrong questions. There's no political takeover. The only time frame you need to be concerned about is the one where the Spirit comes to dwell in you after I leave. He's the one who will empower you for the mission ahead, which is to take the gospel from this place to the whole world.

In case you didn't major in ancient Near Eastern geography, the progression he gives when he says there'll be his witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth is kind of like saying in Los Angeles and all of California and the United States and the whole world. So essentially, his plan starts with Jerusalem and ends with the world. It starts with the Jews and ends with everyone.

Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascends to heaven from the Mount of Olives. This is the same spot where the Old Testament prophet Zechariah says the Messiah will come to earth. So if we put that together with what the angels say here, it seems like the spot he ascended from is also the spot he will descend to when he returns. After they watch him ascend, they walk back across the valley to Jerusalem. It's a Sabbath's Day journey. What does that mean?

The Sabbath is for resting, so of course the rabbis come up with an exact number of steps you're allowed to take on the Sabbath before you break the law. In case you're curious what that number is, it's approximately three-fifths of a mile, so about 1,200 steps or eight football fields or two CVS receipts.

In Jerusalem, they head to the upper room, the spot where they had the Last Supper. This has kind of become their headquarters for the time being. It's where the apostles and the female disciples meet regularly with Jesus' mom and his siblings to pray. It seems his brothers have had a change of heart. They used to mock him, but now they're devoted to him. By the way, there's no mention of Jesus' earthly dad, Joseph, in any part of Jesus' adult life, so most scholars speculate that he passed away at some point.

There are now only 11 remaining apostles, so they decide they should fill Judas' spot with someone who's been following them for the past three years, from the time John baptized Jesus, through the resurrection, and to the ascension. They pray and ask God, who knows the hearts of all, to guide them to the right decision as they cast lots, and it falls to a disciple named Matthias. About a week later, there's a holiday called the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. All the disciples are gathered together, probably at the temple, the house of God, to

just waiting day after day on whatever it was Jesus kept telling them to wait for. He wasn't clear about how things would go down. They almost certainly don't expect what actually happens. It seems like there's some kind of indoor tornado, a strong wind blowing through the whole interior. And while that's happening, Luke says, divided tongues as a fire appeared over their heads. Is it actual fire or is it like fire? And this is just the closest description he can come up with.

Either way, fire serves as a motif throughout scripture representing the presence and power of God. And what does divided tongues mean? This phrase, divided tongues, takes us back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, where the people sinned against God so he divided their languages. And language is the same word used for tongue. And here, these divided languages or tongues appeared over their heads like fire.

As this happens, the disciples are all filled with the Holy Spirit. The next phase has begun. And the Spirit empowers their words to be understood in languages they aren't even speaking. Verse 5 tells us why this is so important here in this moment. Devout Jews from loads of different nations are in Jerusalem for the holidays, and they're all hearing these uneducated Galilean disciples speak the language they understand, even though that language is from maybe thousands of miles away.

Some scholars say it was fairly rare to be bilingual at the time. So when the disciples are still speaking Aramaic, but all of a sudden you're hearing them in Latin or whatever language you speak, you know something miraculous is happening. Scientists just invented in-air devices that can do this a few years ago. But 2,000 years ago, God himself was the original Google Translate.

The foreign believers are blown away, but some locals are like, that guy from Egypt must be hammered. He acts like he can understand Peter when he talks, but Peter is just speaking Aramaic like normal.

So Peter addresses the situation. He says, you guys, no one is drunk. It's 9 a.m. What's happening here was written about by the Old Testament prophet Joel. He said one day God would pour out his spirit on people and they would speak about the mighty works of God and that all who call on God's name will be saved. And you're seeing Joel's prophecy fulfilled before your very eyes. According to 2.11, all these guys were talking about were the mighty works of God. And suddenly, for the first time ever, the foreigners can understand their praise. These

These foreigners probably never had any idea what Jesus was saying. But now they can hear the gospel in their own language without anyone having to download Duolingo. So in the same way God divided the tongues or languages at the Tower of Babel, here God is undoing that division, bringing unity by the power of his Spirit. 2,000 years before translation devices existed, this is how the gospel goes out to all the nations.

the miraculous power of the God who invented languages and knows them all. In this instance, speaking in tongues just means speaking in human languages. This particular event isn't filled with chaos and confusion. On the contrary, it brings clarity and understanding and unity. There are some other scenarios we'll look at as we continue to read, but that's what's happening here. No translator, no one misunderstanding, just the gospel for all to hear and understand, though there are some who don't believe what they see.

So Peter addresses them and preaches the gospel there on the day of Pentecost. He says God's plan for redemption involves the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. And he preaches repentance, just like JTB and Jesus did. And that day, 3,000 people do repent and are baptized. How do you baptize 3,000 people in one day?

Just outside the temple gates, on the southern steps which are still there today, there are roughly 125 mikvahs. Those are the ritual purification baths the Jews used regularly. People continue to be saved by God every day as the apostles keep teaching what they've learned from Jesus and keep doing miracles. In addition to what the apostles are doing, all the believers are eating meals together and praying together and sacrificing and sharing their lives with each other every day.

In chapter 3, Peter and John do a kind of sneak attack flash mob healing for a lame man who was only asking for money. Wow. Of course, they credit Jesus with the healing. This healing serves as a launch pad for Peter's next sermon. By the way, go back and look at how much scripture Peter quotes and references in his sermons. It's a lot. It's clear that he's been studying God's word, treasuring it not just in his heart, but in his mind. He knows you can't feed the sheep with the food you don't have.

Today, my God shot is God's detailed planning and also his kindness in pulling back the curtain on those plans for us for a bit. To be honest, I can't think of a single time in my life where God has done something exactly like I thought he would. Maybe your story is different, but for me, I'm always trying to map out what I think will happen and I'm never anywhere close to right. I feel a lot like the apostles who just kept missing the forest for the trees. Even with his repeated promise to send the Holy Spirit, I never would have thought, oh

Okay, here's what I bet he's going to do. Indoor tornado, fire holograms, language convention. When God says his ways are higher than our ways, no kidding.

He's so kind to drop some info into his kids' laps. But even with what he tells us it's like, he gives us a puzzle piece and we use it to stabilize a wobbly table leg. It's so humbling to constantly have no idea what's next. All that to say, I love how he works. I love how he's kind enough to share bits of his big plan with our tiny brains and how he doesn't grow impatient with us when we misunderstand.

He has the best ideas and the kindest heart. He's where the joy is.

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