Pastor Matt and Pastor Chris reflect on Easter weekend, peel back the curtain on building the Easter Worship setlist, and dive into more of the details contained in the first 5 verses of Acts.

***SHOW NOTES***

Who is Theophilus?

The name Theophilus appears in only two places in the Bible, Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-3. Luke wrote these two books around 61-63 AD which is during the time that the Apostle Paul was a prisoner in Rome and Luke was with him. (See 2 Timothy 4:11).

The name Theophilus is from the Greek word “theophilos” and means “friend of God” or “loved by God.” The most common theory is that Theophilus was of high social standing who was a friend of Luke. In his Gospel, Luke addressed Theophilus as “most excellent”, which is a Roman title of respect and possibly of official importance.

OR…An Honorary title

Some people think that Theophilus was not a person at all. According to this view the word “theophilo” (“friend of God”) is just a title Luke uses referring to the people who will read his books. According to this idea, Luke simply meant that they were all loved by God.

-Bibleinfo.com

The Importance of Christianity Adopting a Written Form (Michael Joseph Brown)

“The movement is at the point of leaving the realm of ordinary people (that is, oral tradition) and entering the world of literature. This is one of the few explicit indications in the NT that at least some Christians wanted to move beyond the confines of a largely Palestinian Jewish—largely oral—world into the expansive environment of the Greco-Roman World. Additionally, this literature signals the intent in the life of the church to fix the form of Jesus tradition for all time. We are moving then from the realm of anecdote and oral exchange into one of doctrine and emerging theology.”

V1:

Luke wrote his account(s) to help people have a historically reliable account about Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity…

Luke is associating what Jesus began to do during His ministry with what He continued to do after His ascension; the ministry of Jesus was the beginning of Christianity…

Tyndale Commentary

“All that Jesus BEGAN to do and teach”…

It seems clear then that Jesus’ death was always a part of God’s plan and that God knew that at some point we would have to do the mission without Jesus physically present. However, God did not leave us to our own devices, He gave us His Holy Spirit. The work of Jesus continues through His ambassadors, and that’s us!

V2:

The time from from Easter to the ascension had two important characteristics: 1) It provided evidence that Jesus was alive 2) it was the time when Jesus gave His marching order to the Apostles.

Tyndale Commentary

“If he had but once appeared unto them, it might have been somewhat suspicious, but in showing himself so often unto them, he dissolveth all doubts which might arise in their minds, and by this means, also, he putteth away the reproach of the ignorance which he said was in the apostles, lest it discredit their preaching…

Therefore, we may properly set the world, the flesh, and whatsoever is in man’s nature against the kingdom of God, as contrary to it. For the natural man is wholly occupied about the things of this world, and he seeketh felicity here; in the mean season, we are as it were banished from God, and he likewise from us; but Christ, by the preaching of the gospel, doth lift us up unto the meditation of the life to come…Therefore, God will reign in and amongst us now, that He may at length make us partakers of His kingdom.”

John Calvin

V4:

wait for The proper attitude of the faithful in both testaments

“Again, he suffered them to rest a while, that he might the better set forth the greatness of that business which he was about to commit unto them. And thereby is the truth of the gospel confirmed, because the Apostles were forbidden to address themselves to preach the same, until they should be well prepared in succession of time.”

John Calvin