7 Concluding summary
Chapter Seven
Concluding summary
Luke’s ‘biblical narrative’, the book of Acts, highlights the continued outworking of God’s saving purposes through the risen Lord Jesus. In chapter 1 we saw that the kingdom of God, inaugurated in the person of the Lord Jesus, is continuing to be administered through Jesus even though he, as the one who announced the arrival of the kingdom, has ascended to heaven. The book of Acts, therefore, is about ‘the acts of the risen Lord Jesus’. The departure of the Lord Jesus does not mean the departure of the kingdom. In this period between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’ of the kingdom he is continuing to reign from the right hand of the Father, as seen in the pouring out of the Spirit and the spread of the good news about him. The suffering and opposition that believers continue to face is because the kingdom has ‘not yet’ come in fullness. Nevertheless, the risen Lord Jesus ensures that the word will continue to spread and, in this ‘inaugurated kingdom’, God’s people are strengthened by his word of grace in the context of local churches.
Luke’s emphasis on the inauguration of the kingdom by Jesus and his continuing rule is the reason why the resurrection of Jesus features so prominently in Acts. In chapter 2 we saw that the resurrection of Jesus especially highlights the arrival of the age to come as anticipated in the OT Scriptures. The resurrection is therefore integral to the outworking of God’s saving promises and the inauguration of the kingdom of God: it is the fulfilment of Israel’s hope. Luke had already drawn attention to the saving significance of the wrath-bearing and sacrificial death of Jesus in his Gospel. In Acts, therefore, he summarizes this aspect of apostolic preaching more succinctly in order to highlight the new event in God’s saving purposes: the resurrection as supreme evidence of the achievement of God’s saving purposes and the arrival of the age to come. It is therefore on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus that the blessings of the age to come may be offered to all who come to the risen Lord Jesus in repentance and faith.
In chapter 3 we saw that the close relationship between the nature of God’s kingdom in this era (following Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension) and the prophetic hopes for the restoration of Israel and the inclusion of Gentiles is established in the first chapter of Acts. In response to the disciples’ question concerning the kingdom, Jesus clarified that God’s saving promises would indeed be fulfilled: Israel would be restored to God and salvation would come to the Gentiles. The narrative of Acts then shows the unfolding of those saving promises as thousands of Jews (including the southern kingdom of Judea) respond to the message of the saving reign of the Davidic King, Samaria (reminding us of the northern kingdom) hears and responds to the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, outsiders (as illustrated by the eunuch) joyfully respond to the good news about Jesus (as Isa. 56 anticipated), and Gentiles also receive salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus (according to God’s promises in the prophets). All (Jew and Gentile) who receive the blessings of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus are God’s people. God’s saving kingdom through the reign of the Davidic King Jesus is continuing according to plan.
This framework of the inaugurated kingdom of God also helps to explain Luke’s focus on the role of the Holy Spirit in Acts. In chapter 4 we saw that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is evidence that the Lord Jesus reigns from the throne of David: the Lord Jesus is continuing to reign and administer God’s saving promises. Peter declares in Acts 2 that, in the light of the promise found in Joel, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit shows that the last days have arrived, and God’s last-days promises for the restoration of his people are being fulfilled. As promised, therefore, all who turn to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith receive the Holy Spirit, all are enabled by the Spirit to proclaim the good news of God’s saving action in Christ, God’s people are transformed by the Holy Spirit and, therefore, there is just one people of God under the Davidic King Jesus.
The introduction of this ‘new era’ of ‘last days’ fulfilment, however, also has implications for the ‘old era’. If the kingdom of God has been inaugurated in the death, resurrection and reign of Jesus as the Davidic King and Lord, what happens to the old system and its authorities? In chapter 5 we saw that Luke follows an emphasis in Acts 2 on the Davidic kingship of Jesus and the arrival of the last days with a focus on the temple and temple leadership in Acts 3 – 7. Luke especially draws attention to the replacement and fulfilment of the temple in the risen Lord Jesus by highlighting the all sufficiency of Jesus as the only one in whom all of God’s blessings may now be found. Thus Stephen, in his dying words, points to Jesus as the One who reigns in the presence of God, receives prayer, brings access to God’s presence and grants forgiveness of sins. Because of this, the temple authorities are not the leaders of the new people of God. Rather, God’s people are formed and strengthened by the apostolic proclamation of Jesus as the one with universal authority and as the ‘name’ in whom all of God’s blessings are now received.
Since Jesus now reigns as Lord and his chosen apostles are the leaders of God’s new people, what is the relationship now between the law of Moses and the people of God, in the inaugurated kingdom after Jesus’ ascension? In chapter 6 we saw that the role of the law in Acts is best understood in the context of the new salvation-historical situation brought about by the inauguration of the kingdom of God. The apostles are not against Moses, for this would be to oppose the one who pointed to Jesus. This new situation, however, indicates that, as reigning Lord, Jesus is the one to whom God’s people submit and the one they call upon. As the authorized delegates of the Lord Jesus, the apostles’ authority and teaching are now the direct guiding authority for God’s people. The book of Acts highlights the end of the old temple system and law and the inauguration of a new ‘authority structure’ in the inaugurated kingdom of God by virtue of Jesus’ lordship and the teaching of his authorized delegates, the apostles.
The inauguration of the kingdom of God therefore provides cohesion to the emphases in Acts on (1) the sovereign plan of God, (2) the reign of the Davidic King Jesus, (3) the spread of the word and the strengthening of local churches in the midst of opposition, (4) the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the offer of God’s end-time blessings on the basis of his death and resurrection, (5) the fulfilment of God’s saving promises in the restoration of God’s people, (6) the pouring out of the Holy Spirit from the risen and reigning Lord Jesus, (7) the replacement and fulfilment of the temple in Jesus, and (8) the salvation-historical shift to the teaching of the apostles as the guiding authority for God’s people.
Thus, according to Luke, believers such as Theophilus may be assured that God’s plan of salvation is being carried out according to his promises through the continuing reign of the risen Lord Jesus. The inaugurated kingdom of God continues to be administered by the Lord Jesus. In this era of the kingdom of God the Lord Jesus continues to add to his church, to enable the spread of the word, and to strengthen his people before the consummation of the kingdom at his return. His death and resurrection mean that the blessings of the age to come are found in him even now. All who turn to him receive the blessings of forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. God’s people may be assured that they will be enabled and transformed by the Spirit of Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the one who grants these gifts to Jew and Gentile alike. Thus Gentiles are receiving God’s salvation by the grace of the Lord Jesus through hearing and believing the same good news of forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus, not because God has failed to keep his word to Israel. God’s people may be reassured, therefore, that God fulfils his promises through the acts of their Saviour, the risen and reigning Lord Jesus!