Sermons By Ed

Study Notes Ed Underwood Acts of the Apostles Against All Odds! But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Luke’s sequel to his gospel, the Book of Acts, begins where he left off—the ascension of Christ. The emphasis is different. The Gospel of Luke stresses the work of Christ while He walked on earth; Acts highlights the work of Jesus done by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. Without Acts we would have no record of the beginning and growth of the early church. Luke traces the birth and expansion of the church to strengthen the faith of Theophilus, a fellow Christian who may have helped finance Luke’s missionary and writing ministry (Luke 1:1-4). The Holy Spirit had a much broader audience in mind—the church of Christ throughout the age of grace. Luke’s selective but accurate history of the first 30 years of the church answers Theophilus’s questions i