The Acts of the Holy Apostles is the next New Testament book of historical content after the Holy Gospels, and it deserves the first place after them in its importance. Its author set himself to describe the events that took place after the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Book of Acts speaks of a small group of disciples growing and becoming “a fledgling multi-ethnic movement sweeping across the Mediterranean world” (Wilson 317). This paper aims to present the church before and after the Holy Spirit, as described in the Book of Acts.
Before the Holy Spirit’s descent, the apostles lacked explicit knowledge of the great truths about which they were to preach. No matter how much the Savior instructed them, they did not understand much in His teaching (Becerra 11). Prior to the descent of the Holy Spirit, they were simple-hearted, alien to deceit and hypocrisy; with an open soul, they listened to the teachings of the Savior. However, they still lacked much in the moral sense: their hearts were accessible to ambition and self-interest, they lacked the courage and selflessness required to spread the Gospel. The apostles are entirely different after the descent of the Holy Spirit. In their hearts, the fire of the Holy Spirit burned the remnants of the doubt, destroyed all pride in them, and inflamed them with a great love for Christ.
The consequence of Christ’s sacrifice was Holy Pentecost when Christians became a society of people, united around their teacher, “all with one accord” (Acts 2:1-2). It appears that until that moment, the church did not yet exist. Soon after the Holy Spirit’s descent and the subsequent preaching of the Apostle Peter, the first Christian society of baptized believers arose, having one heart and one soul. Separated from the “corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40), united by baptism, Christians filled with the Holy Spirit formed one family and had everything in common, even daily suppers.
The primary Christian life is presented in this way as ongoing public worship. From the very beginning, the main constituent parts of Christian worship are already present; but they have not yet managed to stand out from a young society’s general way of life. Reading and teaching merged, as it were, into one act and appeared in the form of a family conversation between members of society, in which, preferably before others, persons more capable, possessing gifts of grace, took part, under the chairmanship and guidance of the apostles. Additionally, mutual fraternal communication of believers, both moral and property, was appreciated.
Disciples, like brothers, constituted one family, each member of which belonged entirely to society and voluntarily renounced the personal property that society possessed, in accordance with the needs of each. The first Christians also observed the daily hours of prayer. In terms of their content, the first Christians’ prayers represented partly sayings taken from the Old Testament psalms, partly a free outpouring of praying, praising, and thankful heart (Guthrie 7). In both cases, prayer was an improvisation generated by inspiration.
The importance of the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles as an ecclesiastical, historical source lies not only in the fact that it has preserved for us the largest number of testimonies about the most ancient period of Church history. The book is a mirror that should be looked at by all children of the church at any period of its history, including the present one, for inscribed is a divine image of the First Church of Christ. Correspondence should also be in church life, and the book of Acts perfectly shows what the church life was like under the apostles.
The time and place the book was written are not precisely definable. The whole book gives the impression of early Christian work. Either the author writes when he had a direct, lively connection with direct eyewitnesses, or possessed such a historical flair that he was able to reproduce with superb reliability the way of thinking of that time (Guthrie 3). The first guess is recognized to be more likely, and therefore, the Acts are valued high.
Moreover, the author reports only about one direction of the mission – from Jerusalem through Asia Minor to Rome. There is a definite possibility that movement of the mission Jerusalem – Asia Minor – Macedonia – Achaia – Jerusalem – Rome, tried to reflect the most acute problem for his time, the acceptance of pagans among the heirs of New Israel (Barclay 4). The apostles’ missionary works in the direction Jerusalem – Rome revealed in full the difficulties of evangelizing the Gentiles. Luke’s other plan might be to show that Christianity is a doctrine for all people in all countries.
The first Christians were said to feel absolute love for each other. Bold witness and pure love characteristic of early Christianity is still relevant today. We learn from the Acts the global mission of the Christian church: “You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all Samaria, and in the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Thus, according to the Acts, Jesus’ mission began in Jerusalem and now is on the way of reaching the most remote corners of the world. His followers are to fulfill the plan and spread the Holy message in all directions.
Works Cited
Barclay, William. The Acts of the Apostles. Westminster John Knox Press, 2019.
Becerra, Xavier. “Divine Empowerment of the Early Church Movement and Rapid Growth in the Apostolic Age Exegetical Analysis of the Book Of Acts.” Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership, vol. 7, no. 1, 2017, pp. 7–24.
Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Introduction. 4th ed., IVP, 1990.
Wilson, Benjamin. “The Depiction of Church Growth in Acts.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, vol. 60, no. 2, 2017, pp. 317–332.