Mind the Gap Between Acts and Our Experience
Every time you board a train on the London Underground, you’ll hear the announcement to “Mind the Gap!” It took a while before I realized it was referring to the gap between the platform and the train.
When we read the book of Acts, we soon discover there’s a gap between our experience and the movement of God described within its pages. We’re standing on a stationary platform and the only way to board that train, is to step across the gap.
That’s why Luke wrote Acts. He’s the only Gospel writer to tell the one story of Jesus in two parts. What Jesus began to do and teach in the Gospels; he continues to do as his Word goes out in the power of the Spirit.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he confronted a band of dismayed and disillusioned disciples. How did he restore them and form them into a missionary movement? Luke tells us the risen Lord taught from Genesis to Malachi and explained how the Messiah must suffer and rise again and how repentance for the forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed to every people group and in every place. Finally, he promised them the power of the Spirit. This is the essence of the movement of God in Acts—obedient to the living Word, dependent on the Holy Spirit, and faithful to the core missionary task of making disciples and multiplying churches from where we are to the ends of the earth.
We see this fleshed out on the day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit reaches its climax in the proclamation of the Word to the nations and the formation of the church in Jerusalem, and the birth of a missionary movement.
God’s Word is on the march. The story of Acts is the story of the progress of the Word throughout the world. Wherever the Word goes in the power of the Spirit, the fruit is always disciples in community to the glory of God.
Acts is not just a book about the early church. Acts is a book about God and how he brings salvation. Acts has one story to tell and its main character is the living God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Father’s plan is centered on his Son, whose obedience to death brought us forgiveness of sins and a restored relationship with God. Now risen and enthroned, the Lord Jesus rules through the Spirit, who empowers the disciples to proclaim this salvation to all. As the Word spreads, the Spirit forms those who repent and believe into the new people of God who are witnesses to the ends of the earth. Angels appear, prophets speak, prison doors open, houses shake, thousands believe, persecutors fall to the ground, the Scriptures are fulfilled—God directs the mission.
Acts calls us back to the beginning—to a movement born in obscurity, without wealth or influence, captivated by God’s grace, devoted to prayer and the spread of God’s Word, bold in persecution, generous in love, experiencing God’s powerful presence, on the move from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
Acts ends abruptly with Paul under house arrest awaiting trial. Why? Luke is saying the movement of God doesn’t begin and end with Paul or the early church. The movement of God continues until there are disciples and churches to the glory of God, in every place, and among every people group.
Luke is not just saying, “This is how it was,” he’s saying, “This is how it should be.”
It’s time to bridge the gap between the movement of God and our experience. The train is leaving the platform and we need to get on board.
UPDATE: My next book, Acts and the Movement of God: From Jerusalem to the Ends of the Earth should be out sometime in May 2023.
In preparation, you may find this resource helpful for working through Acts in a group or individually: 4-Fields Discovery in Acts
