Acts 1

In Acts we see Luke telling us the story of the first church and how it came about. Chapter 1 starts out with Christ tell the disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit. Christ gave them the command to stay in Jerusalem until the spirit came upon them. The disciples thought that at that time Christ would come back and reign on Earth and set up His kingdom but that was not the case. They wanted to know when that was going to be but He told them that “it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.”

They were to wait until the Spirit came down upon them and when it did come they would have power that they could never imagine. They would be overcome with the Spirit and He would guide them and show them the way that God wanted them to go. That says a lot to us because we are so often moving at our own pace that we don’t take a moment to slow down and listen to what God is telling us. We want to get out and do something but sometimes we need to slow down and read what the Bible has to tell us and listen to the heartbeat of God to know that there is a reason for everything.

God doesn’t have us do meaningless tasks just for the fun of it. There is always a reason that we do something we may not understand what that reason is but who are we to say that we need to. Why can’t we just have enough faith in Him to say “ok God, whatever you want to do I’ll do it. No matter what it is I’ll continue to serve you.’ If we could just do that and have faith that it will all turn out for the best then amazing things would take place.

Later on in the chapter the disciples are faced with the decision of who should replace Judas the Betrayer. They do something then that most of us won’t do or instead choose not to do anymore. They discussed it and prayed about it, then they prayed some more and discussed even more. They wanted to make sure that the person that they brought into their group would be a good servant and would uphold all that Christ has been teaching. In a way they really did something that is extremely prohibited in the eyes of most Christians today. They cast lots. In modern day language they gambled and left it to chance. God is great and they trust that He would provide the best person for the Job.

I guess what chapter one really comes down to is that they had to have faith. They needed to trust that God would provide for them. They could have made their own decisions and went their own path claiming that they were doing it to further the gospel, but instead they put their faith in God and made decisions based on what He wanted for them.