We just finished reading the book of John, the last Gospel and account of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. But the story isn't over.
One of the Gospel writers, Luke, wrote the next book we're about to study starting today. I love the Introduction to Acts found in the Message version of the Bible. Here's a little part of it:
"The story of Jesus doesn't end with Jesus.
It continues in the lives of those who believe in Him.
The supernatural does not stop with Jesus.
Luke makes it clear that these Christians he wrote about
were no more spectators of Jesus
than Jesus was a spectator of God--
they are in on the action of God,
God acting in them,
God living in them.
Which also means, of course, in us."
(Introduction to Acts, The Message)
In the opening chapters of Acts, some pretty major stuff happens--the disciples see Jesus ascend into Heaven, the Holy Spirit comes and transforms them, thousands of people start to believe in Jesus, and Peter and John are part of a miracle where a crippled man is completely healed.
But what stood out most to me was the story of Peter himself. His story is pretty incredible. At the end of the Gospels, we saw Peter as the guy who denied even knowing Jesus when He was on the cross. Then, Jesus saw Peter after the resurrection and charged him with being a "fisher of men" and "feeding the lambs"--basically, reaching people with Jesus' story and love and guiding them in their faith.
In the first chapters of Acts, I saw a little bit of how that change happened--mainly through the Holy Spirit and the power it gave to Peter. After he receives the Holy Spirit, the same guy who denied Jesus is bold enough to tell His story to thousands of people (with no microphone--he had to use a loud, booming voice!) whose lives were changed because of it. Talk about transformation!
After He received the Holy Spirit, Peter (with John) witnessed a miracle where a crippled guy was healed...and then, Peter proceeded to use the miraculous story to tell even more people about God.
I think that's pretty incredible. I love that Jesus' story didn't end on the cross or even with an empty tomb. It continued with people like Peter...and continues today with people like us.
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