Acts  ## Metadata - Author: [[William H. Willimon]] | [[3. Resources/Authors/William H. Willimon|William H. Willimon]] - Full Title: Acts - Category: #books - Kindle: [Open in Kindle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005THAI9W) - Document Tags: [[Faith]] ## Document Notes ## Highlights - Acts, like the rest of Scripture, has as its purpose the formation and equipment of disciples. ([Location 276](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=276)) - of Acts wants to do more than to write a chronicle of the past. Rather, the past becomes the platform from which to preach to the present. ([Location 306](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=306)) - The truth of Acts is not to be measured in terms of accuracy in reporting some historical incident but in its correspondence to the apostolic faith in Jesus Christ, which forms the church. ([Location 317](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=317)) - Acts is proclamation, not in the sense of evangelical preaching to convert unbelievers but catechetical proclamation to strengthen believers. ([Location 416](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=416)) - Acts claims that it was ecclesiology, as much as Christology, which ultimately separated Judaism and Christianity. Acts is part of the argument between the synagogue and the church about who constitutes the People of God and how the faith of Israel is to be embodied in human community into the future. ([Location 521](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=521)) - fulfills its mission. At this point leadership in the church seems to be defined in terms of witness—the apostle is someone who has seen and heard something, a witness to the resurrection who now witnesses to others. Like Peter, the apostle testifies to what has happened so that it may continue to happen within the church. ([Location 632](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=632)) - The first gift of the Spirit is the gift of speech, the gift of speech in different languages. So we are hearing a story about the irruption of the Spirit into the community and the first fruit of the Spirit—the gift of proclamation. ([Location 705](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=705)) - Human language, so confused at Babel, has been restored; and community, so scattered there, has here been restored. ([Location 748](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=748)) - The miracle here is one of proclamation. Those who had no “tongue” to speak of the “mighty works of God” now preach. ([Location 752](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=752)) - Any good speech is more than what was said, and to whom it was said; it is also a matter of how it is said. ([Location 800](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=800)) - The power being offered here is not that of Peter’s homiletical ability to work the crowd up into an emotional frenzy or in the crowd’s sincere inner determination to get themselves right with God. The story of Peter’s Pentecost speech is told so that there is no doubt the power is that of the Spirit. ([Location 824](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=824)) - Luke does not intend to suggest a sequence of first “water baptism” and then “spirit baptism.” Water and Spirit are together. In fact, when the crowd wonders what they must do to be saved, that is, what they must do to receive forgiveness and the Spirit, Peter presents repentance and baptism. ([Location 854](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=854)) - But in Acts 19:5–6 the Spirit comes on the disciples of John the Baptist when Paul lays his hands on them after their baptism. Surely this diversity within Luke-Acts is testimony to the diversity and freedom of the experience of the Spirit within the church of Luke’s day. ([Location 863](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=863)) - Acts 2:38 gives the formula of the name of Jesus with the promise that in submitting to baptism “you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” ([Location 867](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=867)) - Contemporary religious life is plagued by momentary enthusiasm, periodic outbursts, and superficiality. In fact in contemporary parlance, “enthusiastic” (literally: filled with God) is a virtual synonym for a short-term high that does not take root in long-term commitment. So we become suspicious of religious emotion, suspecting that all of this charismatic fuss and bother will amount to little. The claim that “there were added that day about three thousand souls” moves us little, even though Luke intends to impress. We have seen these revivals and outbursts of piety come and go. ([Location 882](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=882)) - 1. They devote “themselves to the apostles’ teaching. “ The once popular distinction between the apostolic didache (teaching) and kerygma (preaching) was overdrawn. Certainly, Luke makes a distinction between what is said to outsiders and what is proclaimed within the ongoing life of the church. ([Location 888](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=888)) - The church is in fellowship. The Spirit has produced koinonia. Some have remarked that the real miracle of Pentecost is to be found here—that from so diverse assemblage of people “from every nation under heaven” (2:5) a unified body of believers is formed. What is more, this koinonia cannot be some merely warm-hearted animorum concordia, human-initiated brotherly and sisterly love. It is a fellowship which produces astounding “wonders and signs” (2:43), not the least of which was that “all who believed were together and had all things in common,” selling their possessions and distributing them to all (2:44–45). ([Location 896](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=896)) - 3. The church engages in “the breaking of bread.” The gathering of the fellowship at the table is another tangible, visible expression of the work of the Spirit among the new community. ([Location 908](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=908)) - 4. The church also has prayers, possibly at the Jewish hours of prayer for daily devotions. Furthermore, we are told that they continued to attend the temple (2:46). In the midst of all the newness, the community does not neglect the traditions of the ancestors, does not cease being devoutly Jewish. ([Location 923](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=923)) - They had better act quickly, for the last time Peter spoke at Pentecost three thousand people were converted! Now, before the temple, before the very seat of the religious establishment, five thousand repent. The Jesus disturbance is in danger of becoming a mass movement. ([Location 1045](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1045)) - Peter and John have been dragged before the authorities like common criminals, but what is their crime? They are guilty of “a good deed done to a cripple” (4:9)! ([Location 1053](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1053)) - The tough task of interpreting the reality of a truth like the resurrection is not so much the scientific or historical, “How could a thing like that happen?” but the ecclesiastical and communal, “Why don’t you people look more resurrected?” ([Location 1102](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1102)) - The Pharisees and Sadducees on the council are only doing their duty in protecting the faith of the ancestors from destructive innovation. But in their effort to conserve what is true, they, like Jesus’ critics before them, have missed the truth. In contrast to the council, the Spirit-led community is ready to move in order to remain obedient to the Spirit. A new challenge has arisen within the community. The community is multiplying and new organization and leadership are needed. The “Hellenists” (probably, Greek-speaking Jews of the diaspora) feel that their widows are being neglected in the daily distribution of goods. There was a long tradition of care of the poor within the synagogue, and Christians continued this practice. But distribution has become unmanageable. ([Location 1223](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1223)) - Although Luke does not use the term “deacon” for those who are selected to serve in the table fellowship, it may be that Luke is accounting for the origins of a diaconate. Hands are laid upon these new leaders—a gesture of the bestowal of authority and power taken from Judaism. ([Location 1231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1231)) - (1) Leadership within the church arises from the community’s quite mundane but utterly necessary functional needs. ([Location 1235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1235)) - (2) Leadership arises from “below” not from “above”—by dribbling down from God to Jesus, to the Bishop through the hierarchy, to the clergy, at last to the lowly laity. The process of ordination moves in the other direction—leaders arise from the needs of God’s people for guidance and service. ([Location 1241](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1241)) - (3) The ordained ministry in its present form is an adaptation of the church to its leadership needs. ([Location 1245](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1245)) - the church also showed an awareness that leadership drawn from the oppressed may do the best job of representing the interests of the oppressed. ([Location 1251](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1251)) - Stephen is obviously engaged in forms of ministry other than waiting on tables within the community (6:1–5). This “second-generation” leader is doing what heretofore only the apostles did—”great wonders and signs among the people” ([Location 1268](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1268)) - Stephen’s speech says, in so many words, “You have your nerve to charge that I have violated Moses and his law—look at you!” ([Location 1277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1277)) - In a curious revision of history, Stephen sees Solomon’s act as apostasy, using a portion of Solomon’s own temple dedicatory address (I Kings 8:20–27) to assert that “the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands” (7:48). Thus, the devotion to the temple is depicted as disobedience (cf. Heb. 8–9 where the tabernacle is regarded as the true place of worship). After ([Location 1293](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1293)) - John Wesley advocated the fourfold test of Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience. Calvin emphasized the twofold call to ministry—God calls but the church must also call. These were later attempts to embody the wisdom portrayed in Luke-Acts of tradition and experience. ([Location 1649](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1649)) - To the extent that we believers—Christian and Jew—allow our faith in God to be diluted through nationalistic loyalties, pagan philosophies, or other alien truth claims we forfeit the theological resources whereby we are enabled to live together as family. ([Location 1793](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1793)) - In our radically individualized mileau and our attendant radically subjectivized approach to conversion, we do well to note the communal, corporate quality of conversion in Acts. Conversion is adoption into a family, immigration into a new kingdom: a social, corporate, political phenomenon. ([Location 1988](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1988)) - When was Peter converted? When Jesus called him to follow or when Peter confessed that Jesus was “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20) or when Peter discovered that he did not, after all, know who was clean and unclean (Acts 10:1–11:18)? Luke will not let us settle down with one account or one moment. Peter was literally “on the way” as a member of “the Way.” He resolved to follow Jesus, wherever that might take him. Surprises greeted him at each significant turn in the road. ([Location 1992](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=1992)) - Since Luke’s day, the state has assumed power and influence, efficiency and control Caesar would envy. The state has become, for millions of moderns, the ultimate source of identity. As the significance of the individual has decreased, the power of the state has increased proportionately. We look to our government to provide for our security, our safety, our comfort, our identity. ([Location 2314](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005THAI9W&location=2314))