Acts 1:1-5

The continuing ministry of Jesus

This book was written so that Theophilus, a young christian friend of Luke could learn that everything he heard about Jesus was true. How? By learning about what the church and the Apostles did in His name. Observing christians as they serve God can lead to great realisations about what they believe. As christians all our actions should point to God, so that people watching might catch a glimpse of Him in us.

Looking at this as a sequel to the gospels is useful - it's not really the "Acts of the Apostles", rather the acts of Jesus Christ. It's what He continued to do in these people after He had left them to the task of preaching the good news to the entire world.

Jesus working in us

This is a great reminder to us that as we work for Jesus' glory, it's not us doing the work but Him working in us! We are not the star of the show, but neither are we the one who carries the burden. It's like at uni - when doing a group project often you can feel like you're the one carrying the group. In this case we are all being carried by Jesus, this is His ministry and so He is the one doing it, through the Holy Spirit in us. This means that nothing is impossible for us to do with Jesus working through us. We can do great things, cause great revivials, if we rely on Jesus' power.

Remember, only the Spirit of God, and the Word of God are needed to do God's work. If we show those two things to someone then that is all we need to allow God to transform their lives. As long as Jesus ministers, we can too.