Current Living Room: Acts of the Apostles Part 2

Key text: Acts 1:1-26

The opening chapter of Acts is about the nature and mission of the Christian church that is soon to be born. The story of the earthly Jesus ends at the ascension
(1: 9-11), but the author Luke makes it clear that the church picks up where Jesus left off through the power of the Spirit.

One of Luke's main points is that since Jesus is not going to be present in the way he used to be, the church must be the hands and feet and presence of Christ in the world. Therefore, Luke insists that the church is not optional. It is essential for proclaiming God's reign in the world.

Now, the first community of Jesus followers is seeking to make sense of what is happening. Jesus tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit, because it is the Spirit that will make it possible for the church to fulfill its mission. The success of the Jesus movement would not depend on the moral, physical, or even spiritual power of the apostles alone. It would depend on the power of the Spirit to make the Jesus movement stick. In the absence of Jesus, the church would be the "flesh of God" to help bring about the kingdom of God on earth.

The community of believers in Acts is struggling to redefine itself in light of recent events. This is not unlike what we are doing today: seeking to rediscover and even redefine what it means to be the church in the 21st century.

Author Phyllis Tickle recently shared her working definition of both church and Church as "a body of people delighting in God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit."

So two questions for you: 1) How does the culture around you tend to define the church? 2) How would you say the church is best defined?