Acts 1:1-3 :
The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.
This book is a continuation of the other book that Dr. Luke wrote, namely, the “Gospel of Luke.” Hopefully you have had a chance to go through that study also.
If you have been following along in Luke you will know that He is a good historian and provides very detailed accounts of things that happened during the time of Christ and the time of the Apostles. Acts is all about the life of the early Church. As we can read in the passage today, Dr. Luke is still dedicating the book to Theophilus; the same person he dedicated the book of Luke to. Here, Luke briefly summarizes his other book and in the process provides more information.
Right a way Luke mentions that Jesus gave his commandment through the Holy Spirit. I believe that this is a great way to start the book of Acts. Although this book is called: “The Acts of the Apostles,” I like to think of it as: “The Acts of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles.” I think that you will agree with me by the time we get to the end.
Apologetics: We read here that, after Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to the “apostles” over a 40 day period. It’s easy to think that it was shorter based on the few words written in Luke’s Gospel, but it was actually longer than a month. This is significant, in that it gives even more evidence that the disciples weren’t imagining things. In 40 days, many people were able to see Jesus alive. Also, these appearances stopped which makes the evidence more believable because other sightings of idolized men seem to go on and on. Remember from the book of Luke that disciples had started out doubting even their own eyes. Here we read that after a 40 day period they believed Jesus’ “many proofs.”