The Book of Acts • Get fired up and ready for adventure!

ByMelanie Newton Acts
Book of Acts-Get fired up and ready for adventure!
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Do you long for adventure? Do you want your life to have a profound and far-reaching effect? Then, you are longing for the Holy Spirit’s work in your life! A study of the book of Acts will lead you there. The book of Acts provides a bridge between what Jesus did in the gospels with what He continued to do and teach through the apostles after He returned to heaven. It reveals the acts of Jesus Christ by His Spirit through His Church, the people of God. In Acts, you will see the fire of the Spirit erupting through the lives of believers. The results were so radical then and continue to be radical today. This overview of Acts is post #1 in the Radical Acts blog series. For you, this blog series should spark a real longing and expectation for the Holy Spirit’s transforming power in your life. God’s Spirit will get you fired up and ready for a life of adventure with Jesus. Ready?

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our Radical Acts Bible Study covering the book of Acts in the New Testament. (11 lessons)

Power erupting

Have you witnessed a volcano erupting? I saw one from a distance in Alaska releasing a cloud of steam. Does that count? I have also been inside the crater of an extinct volcano in New Mexico and on the slopes of the dormant volcano Mt. Rainier just outside of Seattle.

My husband Ron teases me because I am drawn to earth’s natural calamities. Hurricanes. Earthquakes. Volcanoes. They all fascinate me. Part of that is because my college major was geology. But more than that, I think I am drawn to the natural power displayed—power that we cannot totally understand and will never be able to control. We call those things “disasters,” but in a strange way, they can also be beneficial.

On November 15, 1963, the island of Surtsey was born in the North Atlantic. It was a dramatic, fire-and-brimstone birth that erupted from the icy sea off the coast of Iceland. I remember watching a video of this in my first college geology class. In April of 1963, a fissure had broken open on the sea floor releasing molten rock called lava. It kept building up for months. When the lava finally broke through the ocean’s surface 6 months later, lightning and thunder accompanied the glowing crater of hot lava and the boiling water around it. The violence of the volcano then increased so that ash, cinders, and pumice were blown 1,000 feet into the air for about 4 months.

A steady flow of lava over the next year built up an island of one square mile, adding as much as one acre daily to the island’s size. It was new land being created on planet Earth. By the time all volcanic activity ceased, the highest point on the island was 560 feet above sea level. Life took hold quickly. Within a year or so, the new island had wide sandy beaches. Plants took root giving nesting areas for sea gulls. The island looked as though it had been around for thousands of years. That is the natural power of the earth.

The radical blessing of the Holy Spirit

On the day of Pentecost around 30 A.D., the power of God poured forth on the followers of Jesus gathered in Jerusalem. The church of Jesus Christ was born. The Church was a radically new creation on earth that never existed before. It was not created by natural power but by supernatural power. And the power behind its existence is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a radical blessing to every believer and to the world.

That word radical is an interesting word. I used to think that it referred to something bad like free radicals that are supposed to be bad for our bodies. I decided to look up radical in the dictionary. What I found amazed me! The definition of radical is this: “having a profound or far-reaching effect.” That could be good as well as bad. Having a profound or far-reaching effect certainly describes the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit’s transforming power in our lives, He changes the world immeasurably and irreversibly. I would say that is pretty radical.

One of the biblical symbols for the Holy Spirit is “fire.” Of course, the vision that came to my mind was that of a volcano. Just as fiery lava and ash erupt from a volcano and flow out to build new land, the Holy Spirit’s fire erupts through the lives of believers to build Christ’s church. That is why there is a volcano on the cover of the Radical Acts Bible Study book. Within a few decades, the church of Jesus Christ was well-established on planet Earth. We learn this from Acts.

3 reasons why you should study the book of Acts

When was the last time you really studied the book of Acts in the Bible? Or have you ever really studied it? Perhaps you have shied away from it because it happened so long ago or has controversial issues in it or it is so long. Whatever has kept you from studying Acts in the past, forget that!

Here are 3 reasons why you should study Acts right now in your life. Ready?

Reason to study Acts # 1.  To understand how to live out your life in Christ.

The book of Acts is a fast-paced, action book that chronicles the birth and growth of the early church from the Jewish center of Jerusalem to the Gentile nations surrounding her. It is a rich and fascinating book that God placed in our Bibles for us to read and understand. I love it for so many reasons. It has many gifts for us.

  • Do you like history? Acts is a book of history, but not a complete history of the early church. The Spirit of God selected what He wanted us to know. The author He used was Luke, a physician and companion of Paul. Acts is actually Luke’s Book 2; the Gospel of Luke is Book 1.
  • Acts provides a bridge between what Jesus did in the gospels with what He continued to do and teach through the apostles. Some call it the Acts of the apostles. But it is really the acts of Jesus Christ by His Spirit through His Church. Spirit is Spirit of God. The Church are the people of God. All flow from the work of Jesus Christ. Great history.
  • Are you one of those who likes theology? Acts is a book of theology. You will see how theology is lived out. You will see evidence for the inspiration of Scripture. You will see that the gospel message taught from the very beginning has never changed.
  • Do you read biographies? Acts is a book of biography and human relationships. You will see the fire of the Spirit erupting in the lives of people who are touched by the Spirit and changed forever. Men and women. Conflicts occur and are resolved. Friendships are made and tested. Old prejudices surface and are removed. People open their homes and their money bags to other believers. Even persecution is shared together. The opportunity is taken to share the gospel with whoever would listen. And Acts teaches how the church functions as a cultural minority.

So, Acts helps you understand how to live out your life in Christ.

Reason to study Acts #2. To connect with your spiritual heritage

You will gain a connection and appreciation for those who obeyed Jesus by spreading the gospel everywhere they went. They reached people like you who never saw Jesus face-to-face but learned to believe in Him as Savior and Lord.

That gospel sharing carried on throughout 2000 years over multiple continents. It reached that one person who shared Jesus with you so that you could also believe. In their everyday lives, people were making disciples who made disciples who made disciples. And you have now received the benefit of that disciplemaking. The book of Acts connects you with your spiritual heritage.

Reason to study Acts #3. Because you need spiritual adventure.

Acts is a book of adventure. Within the history, theology, biography, and relationships, this marvelous book introduces us to adventure with Jesus. In it, we see men and women fired up by His indwelling Spirit and living a spiritual adventure with Jesus Christ.

Let us explore that more.

Adventure with the Spirit of God

What comes to mind when you think of adventure? How adventurous are you? According to the dictionary, adventure is “an unusual or exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.” I have to admit I am not naturally adventurous, especially the typically hazardous part. Are you?

I also found out that our English word adventure comes from the Latin for “about to happen.” Yep. What a way to look at life following Jesus—something is about to happen! And it is not always what you expect. I can verify the truth of that!

In Acts, the adventure definitely includes the unexpected. Miracles occur in strange places and strange ways. The Gentiles are included as equals to the Jews in the Church. An earthquake selectively releases prisoner chains. Unselfish behavior just springs forth in unexpected ways. Lots of spur of the moment adventures. Also, executions, beatings, riots, and a shipwreck—happening to the good guys! Adventure rarely means easy. But it never means alone. The Holy Spirit is with you and me every day, forever.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Who is this Holy Spirit? Most Christians have only a vague idea about Him. The older Bible translations called Him the Holy Ghost. The word “ghost” does not inspire appreciation or even curiosity in me!

  • In the New Testament, the Greek word used for the Spirit is pneuma, which means breath. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God. We cannot see Him. But the Bible confirms that He lives inside every believer. Sometimes, I feel His presence. Maybe you do, too.
  • The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. Our God is one God but three persons. The Spirit is not an impersonal “it” or simply an influence but a personal being just as the Father and the Son are persons.
  • The Holy Spirit is central to salvation. He convicts the unbeliever of sin and makes believers into new creations the moment we believe. He enters our spirits and seals us with Himself so our salvation is secure. He unites us with Christ and places us into the universal Body of Christ. We are all part of the one Church since Pentecost—those who are already in heaven as well as every Christian alive at this moment.
  • The Holy Spirit is the One who makes the Christian life possible. He is the first gift we receive from God when we trust in Jesus for salvation. And all those wonderful spiritual treasures Paul writes about in Ephesians and his other letters are wrapped up and delivered by the Holy Spirit to us in a package deal the moment we are saved.
  • The Holy Spirit is the power for spiritual growth. He enables us to understand the Bible and takes our prayer needs to God the Father, even when we cannot. He fills us with Himself and transforms us from the inside out so that our character looks more like Jesus and our lifestyle glorifies God more and more.

This firepower is inside us. Yet, we must choose to cooperate. That means living our lives with a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit—when making decisions, facing temptations, in our relationships, and in how we respond to the Spirit’s leading us. Trusting God in ways that you never did in the past, that is the adventure. And the Holy Spirit will get you, dear believer, fired up and ready for this adventure.

Look for Holy Spirit hot spots in your life

Volcanoes form over hot spots in the earth’s crust where a crack allows molten lava to flow to the surface. The Holy Spirit’s work in our lives becomes our own “hot spots.”

I recently taught a study of the book of Acts to a group of women at my church. Our hope for every woman in the group was that the study of Acts would spark in them a real appreciation, longing, and expectation for the Holy Spirit’s work in their own lives—to see their own Holy Spirit Hot Spots and give God the credit for His work in their lives.

We chose a new praise song that fit so well with our study of Acts that it became our theme song.

Holy there is no one like you, there is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder. Show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around you. (Build My Life by Pat Barrett)

We asked God repeatedly to open up our eyes in wonder and show us who He is. I bought some stickers that looked like sparkling fire and asked the women every week to look for and share what the Holy Spirit was doing in their lives—their Holy Spirit hot spots. We started every class with that.

At first, only a few put something on a sticker and placed it on the poster. Then, more joined in as they began to recognize what God was doing and giving Him credit instead of taking the credit themselves. The last couple of weeks I encouraged them to look in the past and make a sticker for what God had done for them, even years before this. By the end of the semester, this was what our poster looked like.

Holy Spirit Hot Spots
Our Holy Spirit hot spot poster

Our poster was filled with recognized evidence of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of the women and their families. What a time of praise we had together! I love it!

Several years ago, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. It did not look like he would make it more than a couple of months. He should have died. I was preparing this Bible study on the book of Acts at that time. What I learned from Acts gave me the encouragement to ask God for another year for my father. The Lord graciously granted that request. We got one more year. I praise God for that Holy Spirit hot spot.

Studying the book of Acts will open your eyes to the evidence around you of the firepower of the Holy Spirit—your Holy Spirit hot spots. I highly recommend you start looking for the Holy Spirit Hot Spots in your life. And record them somehow—in a journal, on stickers, in notes you write to yourself. The Lord Jesus will work through that “hot spot” in your life and get you fired up for adventure with Him every day.

In the next post, we will see that Acts chapter 1 teaches us how we can trust Jesus when making decisions.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with His Spirit’s transforming power. And say yes to a life of adventure with Him!

All of the above information is covered in the Radical Acts Bible Study of the book of Acts.

Image credit: sourced from a template at canva.com

AI was not used to generate this post.

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