THE CERTAINTY OF JESUS
Opening Prayer
Spirit of God, speak to me freshly and powerfully through Your Word.
Read Acts 1:1–11
1 The [a]former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, 2 until the day in which he was received up, after that he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3 to whom he also [b]showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God: 4 and, [c]being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, ye heard from me: 5 for John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized [d]in the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
6 They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath [e]set within his own authority. 8 But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as he went, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.
Footnotes
- Acts 1:1 Greek first.
- Acts 1:3 Greek presented.
- Acts 1:4 Or, eating with them
- Acts 1:5 Or, with
- Acts 1:7 Or, appointed by
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Will you commit to be open to all God will say to you through the book of Acts?Luke gets straight down to it in his second book, wasting no time at all to get to the main point: Jesus (1). His reader was Theophilus – a name that can mean ‘loved by God, friend of God or lover of God.’ I hope you would apply each one of these to yourself.
Do you want to love Jesus more? Reading God’s Word is such a good place for us to start (compare John 14:24). Reading the Bible shouldn’t be so much about information transfer, but meeting with God Himself in His Word. Luke’s intention in writing to Theophilus wasn’t simply to add to the history books. He wanted his reader – and God wanted all of us, his readers – ‘to know the certainty of the things you’ve been taught’ (Luke 1:4). He wanted them to know with certainty that Jesus lived an extraordinary kingdom-to-earth life (1): after suffering and dying He rose again (3) and then after a further intensive discipleship course (wouldn’t you love to have gotten the podcast?), He left earth for heaven (11); and to know with certainty that He is coming back again (11).
Apply
At certain times of the day, why not remind yourself: ‘I am loved by God. I am a friend of God. I am a lover of God’?
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, through this study, help me to know who You are with greater and greater certainty.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
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