Luke opens his account of the acts of the apostles by referring back to his first book, his gospel. There, he says, he recorded all that Jesus had ‘begun to do’. What an amazing thought! That all we have in the gospels is the beginning of what Jesus wants to do in this world. He hadn’t finished his work – it had merely begun. And Luke closes the gospel by referring to Jesus’ ascension which brings his earthly ministry to an end. The work he began, however, has not been completed and it is to this continuation that Luke now turns in Acts – for Jesus ‘by the Holy Spirit [had] given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen’. It seems that Luke quite clearly saw their work as the extension of the work begun by Jesus.

Luke then goes on to explain that in the forty day period in between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension the apostles were given more teaching about ‘the kingdom of God’ (v.3). It was this theme that Jesus taught on so much in the short ministry he undertook before being crucified. It was the central subject of his work. Indeed this was the reason why he had come – to usher in the rule of God here on earth.

Now we are given no detail as to what exactly he taught in this forty day period but we can assume, maybe, that it was similar in substance to all he said previously. Central to all of that was the emphasis on the supernatural – the healing of the sick and the casting out of the demonic – and the radical value system of the kingdom. Having the rule of God restored would see a very different world. For our understanding of the apostolic to be biblical maybe we should also emphasise what Jesus did not teach on, namely church – how to plant one and/or how to build one up. This was not his emphasis and did not form a part of his teaching to the apostles.

With this opening paragraph, Luke lays introduces the subject of his second book – the continuation of the work of Jesus through the apostles. To do this work they would need the same power that Jesus himself had – which is the subject I shall turn to next in the series.