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Acts 1:8
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
We have reached the end of our study of the book of Acts. As part of the inscripturated Word of God, Acts comes to the church by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to edify His people and draw others to saving faith so that they may be equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16–17). In declaring to us God’s mighty works, Acts reminds us of the goodness and power of our Creator, and in describing the earliest history of the church, it gives us guidance to follow as we seek to take the gospel to the ends of the earth today.
Months ago in our very first devotional study in Acts, we said, “The Acts of the Apostles really describes the acts of the Lord Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, in and through His Apostles.” Our Savior Himself said as much just before His ascension when He promised that His Spirit would come upon the Apostles and empower them to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). We know that the Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of Christ,” the One by whom Jesus Himself comes to dwell within His people (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 2:20) so that it is no longer we who live but Jesus who lives in us. Thus, any good works that we do are really the good works that He has prepared for us and good works that He does through us as His Spirit causes us to bear fruit (Gal. 5:22–23; Eph. 2:10). These good works include proclaiming the gospel, which is really God’s working through His people to implore others to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20). So it was with the Apostles also.
The book of Acts, therefore, ultimately reveals to us the triumph of Christ and the gospel as our Lord, by His Spirit and through His Apostles, took the good news of salvation to “Jerusalem and [to] all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” That is essentially the outline of Acts. The Apostles first bore witness to Jesus in Jerusalem (Acts 1–7), then in Judea and Samaria (chs. 8–12), and then from those territories to the ends of the known world in the first century, even to Rome, the capital city of the most powerful empire on the planet in those days (chs. 13–28).
The book of Acts ends with Paul’s preaching the gospel freely in Rome (28:30–31), a sign that the gospel will ultimately triumph over the world despite any temporary harm it can do to the church. Indeed, God has installed our appointed King, His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the peoples of the world will bow to Him either in love or in terror (Ps. 2).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The final triumph of the gospel is not a mere possibility. Christ will be recognized as the great King of all the earth by all the nations of the earth. All peoples will bow, either willingly in repentance and faith or by external compulsion as they are broken by Christ’s rod of iron (Ps. 2). May the knowledge of Jesus’ sure victory inspire us with boldness for ministry today.
For further study
- Genesis 49:10
- Habakkuk 2:14
- Philippians 2:5–11
- Revelation 11:15
The bible in a year
- Malachi 3–4
- Revelation 22