Read: Acts 1:1-5
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach . . . (v. 1)
Luke’s first book, the Gospel of Luke, records what Jesus began to do and teach (Acts 1:1). The book of Acts records what Jesus continued to do and teach . . . through his people! Everything you read in Acts—all the riots and mobs, new community and radical generosity, the shipwrecks and Roman soldiers, the proclaiming of this strange yet compelling story of good news of a returned king who promises wholeness and peace and restoration—all this is Jesus in action. Even though the book of Acts tells the stories and escapades of faithful yet fallible and broken people like Peter and Paul, Philip and Pricilla, this is Jesus’s story. In other words, they saw their story as being part of a bigger story, a vast cosmic narrative that moved towards a reimagined world, where Jesus is the hero. They were key role players in God’s grand redemptive narrative.
Martin Luther and the Reformers, also flawed and gifted, imagined themselves as part of God’s redemptive story in the 16th century. They thought the church always needs reforming and that they were part of the continuing redemptive work of Jesus Christ. What is your role in the unfolding drama of God’s redemption in the 21st century? What is the next act in Jesus’s story?
As you pray, ask God to equip you for the part God wants you to play in reforming his church and proclaiming the gospel in the world.
Michael Andres is a professor of religion at Northwestern College. He first met his wife Joan in a History of the Reformation class at Arizona State University.
