Acts: His-story, Our Story, and My Story

I genuinely, undeniably, indescribably love the Book of Acts. Surprising since I do not enjoy
history! Arnold Cook probably had me in mind when he advised, Those who live in the past
are blind in one eye. Those who never consult the past are blind in both eyes. I am an enjoy-
the-present, dont-mess-me-up-with-reality, let-me-help-make-a-better-future kind of guy. I
find it ironic that the Book of Acts, the history of the first century church, is my favorite New
Testament book. I am fascinated with its twenty-eight chapters that provide thirty-three
years of history. I find myself striving to walk as the early church walkedin the power of
the Spirit. I struggle to preach with boldness and desire to see God at work in my ministry.
Yet, I am convinced that Acts then and there, in the first century, has much to say to the
here and now, twenty-first century church.

Acts compels me to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. I cannot get away from its
message. It calls me to be an effective Christian witness, to walk in holiness, looking for the
Lords soon return, and desiring to turn the world upside down with truth that changes lives.

I want to be victorious, to overcome obstacles, and run the race that is set before me. Like
the men and women in the early church, I will not retreat into compromise or be lulled to
sleep by a world calling me into tolerance. I will not conform to this world but seek to be
transformed into the image of God.

I must admit, I come short of my expectations and occasionally fall flat on my face. Acts
encourages me to get up, brush myself off, and try again. The ninety-five people introduced
in Acts encourage me to press on. They provide role models of what I ought to, and can, be.
Sixty-two of my friends are never mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament. The twenty-
four missionary messages of Acts correct me, convince me, convict me, challenge me, and
change me. Collectively, they teach me that God has a team consumed with a passion for
reaching the world. Individually, they caution me not to be afraid of standing alone and that
I can make a difference. Acts has spoken hundreds of lessons to my soul, and I have felt the
tug of the Spirit to write so that others may learn.

I will consult the past, but will skip living in it, choosing to face the challenges and
opportunities God has given us today. As much as I love Acts, I really would not want to
exchange places with Stephen, or be let down in a basket like Paul, or even knocked down
on the road to Damascus. I prefer to write lessons from my corner at home, instead of a
prison cell, or nestled in the belly of a ship destined for shipwreck. I will skip walking miles
delivering a letter to the new Christians, and stick with the convenience of sending e-mail. I
will pass when it comes to messy, time-consuming inkwells and stick with the modern
convenience of my trusty laptop.

I will learn from history (even if I do not like the subject), but I am thrilled to live in the finest
hour ever. We cannot live in yesteryear and have no promise of tomorrow. God continues to
move all over our world, and miracles are happening that cast a shadow on the events of
Acts.

Nona Freeman once said, The Word of God is a time-proven irrefutable fact. Whatever God
has done through the ages, He can do it again, and more, much more, than our finite minds
can comprehend.

Todays church has seen multiplied, tens of thousands receive the Holy Spirit in a single
service. I have stood on overseas platforms and looked out over a sea of people with hands
stretched forth to God. The floodgates of revival have opened, and a great end-time harvest
is being reaped. The river of revival is flowing throughout our world. No one can stop it. Our
only choice is to flow with the current or against it. The church of God is a mighty, moving
army. We can sit still or get up and march in beat with the church.

Acts is not only a book of the past, but I am convinced it is Gods Training Manual for Todays
Church. The contents of Acts will motivate believers to evangelize, receive understanding of
the apostles doctrine, and to share it with others with supernatural power. It provides
further truth for any serious seeker.

Acts: Their Story. The Past

At the turn of the 20
th
century, a Bible school teacher stood in his classroom to give an
assignment. Perhaps the students moaned and whispered, Another assignment! He
reported, I set the students at work studying out diligently what was the Bible evidence of
the baptism of the Holy Ghost that we might go before the world with something that was
indisputable because it tallied absolutely with the Word.

Charles Parham left school for three days. He returned the morning of December 31, 1900 to
collect the assignments. He wrote, To my astonishment they all had the same story, that
while there were different things occurring when the Pentecostal blessing fell, that the
indisputable proof on each occasion was, that they spoke with other tongues.

The first day of the twentieth century marked the birth of the modern Pentecostal
movement. Agnes Ozman received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A few days later, Charles
Parham, his wife, and twelve of his students received their personal Pentecost. They started
out studying Acts, but ended up living it. The doctrine of the first church was restored as a
step was made toward the Book of Acts.

Throughout the last century, the Pentecostal movement has exploded. Never has a group
grown more rapidly than the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. As we wade ankle-deep
into the twenty-first century, Gods army continues to sweep across the globe undaunted by
worldliness and modernistic thinking, still burning with the fire ignited at Pentecost. I
applaud the Pentecostal movement of the past and look forward to greater things from God
and His church.

Acts: Their Story. The Present

A little over one hundred years have passed. Here is what the Christian world is saying today:
According to Christianity Today, twenty-five percent of the worlds Christians are Pentecostal
or charismatic with a world growth rate of about 19,000,000 per year.

C. Peter Wagner in his book Prayer Shield, stated, The most massive growth of churches is
found in Pentecostal/ Charismatic traditions.

Estimates show that there are between 400 and 600 million Pentecostals worldwidea half
billion or morenot bad for a group that found its humble beginnings in a Bible school
classroom.

Philip Jenkins anticipates that by 2050 there will be one billion Pentecostals/Charismatic in
the world.

Mark Noll said the 21
st
century will belong to the Pentecostals not only in religion but in all
other areas of life as well.

Global Pentecostalism is the new face of global Christian missions. Surely, this is ample
reason to trace our roots and perform exegetical and hermeneutical analysis to ensure we
are on the right track and stay there.

Lloyd Oglivie states my every-day quest, and maybe yours as well: The greatest longing in
the church today, stated both directly and indirectly, is the quest for something more than
dull religion. People are in need of the intimacy, inspiration and impelling power of the Holy
SpiritIt is impossible to live the Christian life without the indwelling Spirit. Courageous
discipleship in the crisis of society cannot be accomplished without the guidance and
enabling energy of supernatural power. The church today, like the disciples in the Upper
Room, is waiting on the edge of a miracle (1983, 55-56).

Acts: Their Story. The Experience

How frustrating to read of a potentially life-changing book, only to order it, and discover it is
out of print. How annoying to rush to the store to purchase the perfect gift and to find it is
out of stock. How aggravating to want something and find that it is unavailable. How
disturbing to hunt for a part and find it is now obsolete. How equally frustrating, annoying,
aggravating, and disturbing it would be to walk down the aisles of the Book of Acts only to
find those things we desire: divine empowerment, miracles, healing, and things pertaining to
the supernatural are no longer available, out of stock, and meant only for the first century
church. Regretfully, that is exactly what some believe happened, or should happen, when
thinking that the baptism of the Spirit, evidenced by speaking in other tongues, stopped at
worst on the Day of Pentecost, or at best at the end of the Book of Acts; having a brief life
span of some thirty years.

Steven Ger shares his reflections:

The book of Acts grants readers a unique and fascinating glimpse into the world of
the early church. We peer through the corridorsand see the still vivid foundations
of our own faith.Acts shows us the road we believers have traveled to arrive at our
present state.It is storya simple story about regular human beings who are just
like us. They share our same hopes and similar fears, our worst biases and best
qualities. In fact, Acts is, essentially, our story. It is your legacy and mine. It is the
record of our brothers and sisters who came before us, blazing a revolutionary,
messianic trail from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. (Ger, 2004, 1).

Unfortunately, Ger eventually and sadly, comes up short, believing Pentecost was unique,
unrepeatable, and possesses no timeless truth or doctrine. How perplexing. How confusing.

Even questions arise within the Pentecostal ranks, but are often swept under the proverbial
carpet, silenced, or excused away as a lack of love for truth, and drifting from the old paths.
Not all questions indicate moving away from what is right. What is left could be a sincere
desire to understand; the ability to intelligently, logically, and persuasively explain beliefs to
others. Rather than forcing such questioners into cornerscausing them to be hesitant in
asking, afraid of being misunderstoodone would do well to create an environment of
learning; freedom to ask, freedom to explore, freedom to experience, freedom to discover,
and a freedom to learn.

F. L. Arrington said:

The interplay of Scripture, experience, Pentecostal tradition, and reason under the
direction of the Spirit have strong implications for a Pentecostal approach to
hermeneutics. Out of the Pentecostal reality and dimension of life in the Spirit
emerges a uniquely Pentecostal approach to hermeneutics. (172)

Experience and history reveals that tongues did not cease with the Apostolic Age, and have
not disappeared during the Church Age (the entire period between Christs first and second
coming). Church historian, Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. revealed, Speaking in tongues has always
been in the Church, although with varied levels of expression and acceptance (874). It
would be difficult to convince over five hundred million Pentecostals and Charismatics
worldwide their experience is invalid and ceased a couple thousand years ago. They
represent the second largest ecclesiastical body in the world, second only to the Roman
Catholics. Not bad for a group that recently celebrated a century of existence. On a more
personal and specific level, 110,278 received the baptism of the Holy Spirit overseas, in the
United Pentecostal Church International, last year. A colleague just returned from a ten day
trip in the 10/40 Window portion of Northern Ghana, and reported forty-two were baptized
in the Spirit. Each evidenced by speaking in tongues. Each persuaded their experience is
biblically based. F. J. May (1990) tells of an old-timer that said, You are wasting your breath
trying to tell a man he cant have what he has already got (84).

Whereas experience can never be the basis of theology, experience is the
contemporizing of history. Thus, the understanding of the Bible generally, and Luke-
Acts, particularly, involves a hermeneutic cycle. In this cycle the record of the
experience of the divine by Gods people in the past addresses the experience of
Gods people in the present, and the present experience of the divine informs the
understanding of the past. In this way the divine word as a historical document
becomes a living Worda Word, which, like God himself, is, was, and is to come.
(Stronstad 1995, 64)

This is referred to as an experience-certified theology. Every interpreter brings to the text, a
cognitive and practical presumption. Pentecostal hermeneutics should be holistic;
combining experience, the Spirit, genre, and incorporate traditional, and rational forms of
interpretation. Unfortunately, non-Pentecostals lack the premise of experience, and the
ability to verify it.

In Acts 19, Pauls understanding of theology, coupled with his personal experience became
the basis of his discussion. Experience should not be the starting point for biblical
interpretation, usurping biblical authority, but should not be locked outside the door either.
Charles Parham and his students did not have the experience but were looking for what was
expected or could be considered normative.

Luke is very careful to describe his method of researching and compiling material.

TABLE 1
LUKES HERMENEUTICAL STYLE

Validation of eyewitnesses Just as they were handed down to us by
those who from the first were eyewitnesses
and servants of the word (Luke 1:2)
Meticulous handling of truth handed down (v.2) and carefully
investigated (v. 3).
All-inclusive study Investigated everything from the
beginning (v. 3); All that Jesus began to do
and teach (Acts 1:1).
Correspondence of written material with
divine purposes and activities.
Certainty (v. 4).
Systematic, organized presentation Draw up an account (v. 1).
Role of the Spirit in directing the writer for
the origin and certainty of prophecy
For no prophecy of Scripture comes from
someones private interpretation See 2
Peter 1:19-21
Confirmed by revelation From the beginning (v. 3) This phrase is
from a Greek word translated elsewhere by
from above. Luke suggests that what he
writes, derived from those that were
eyewitnesses, is also confirmed by revelation
(Scofield 2004 Edition, 1338).

Pentecost happened for our example. It was recorded by Luke for our instruction. It is the
pattern for the church in all ages. Scripture sets the stage for this: All Scripture is God-
breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2
Timothy 3:16). These things happened to them as examples and were written down as
warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come (1 Corinthians 10:11). For
everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance
and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4).

Traditionally, Pentecostals have hidden behind their experience, and probably over-
emphasized it, coming up short on other aspects of hermeneutics (biblical interpretation
and exegesis). This author recalls, after conversion, often hearing others say, Pentecost; its
not a religion, its an experience. Still others advised: People can argue with your doctrine;
but they cannot argue with your experience. We would do well to present both doctrine
and experience in a way that it cannot be easily discarded.

This writing concentrates on the experiences found in the Pentecost narrative concerning
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is not limited, however, to Acts 2 (the Jerusalem
Pentecost), but extends briefly to the Samaritan Pentecost (Acts 8); Gentile Pentecost (Acts
10); and the outpouring on the disciples at Ephesus (Acts 19). We should ask: What took
place in the first century church which must happen in the ongoing church?

There is no hermeneutic unless and until the divine hermeneutes (the Holy Spirit) mediates
an understanding (Stronstad 1995, 26). The Spirit is the illuminator and inspirer of Scripture
(Stronstad 1995, 72). Scripture can only be interpreted accurately through the Holy Spirit
(John 14:26; 16:13). Thus, Pentecostals are in the best position to make a significant
contribution to understanding Luke-Acts.

Robert P. Menzies in The Role of Glossolalia in Luke-Acts contends, We Pentecostals
have always read the narrative of Acts, and particularly the account of the Pentecostal
outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), as a model for our own lives. The stories of Acts are
our stories: stories of ordinary people in need of Gods power; stories of fishermen called to
hear bold witness for Jesus in the face of great opposition; stories of peasants persevering
in the midst of great sufferingPentecostals the world over identify with these stories,
especially since so many face similar challenges. This sense of connection with the text
encourages us to allow the narrative to shape our lives, our hopes and dreams, our
imagination.

He goes on to say, The hermeneutic of the typical Pentecostal is straightforward and
simple: the stories in Acts are my storiesthat shape our identity, ideals and actions. He
reiterates,
This simple hermeneutic, this straightforward approach in reading Acts as a model for the
church today, is one of the key reasons why an emphasis on speaking in tongues played such
an important role in the formation of the modern Pentecostal movement

Acts is simply not a historical document; rather Acts presents a model for the life of the
contemporary church. Thus, tongues serve as a sign that their experience is our
experience. Acts is His-story, our story, and my story. The question is it your story as well?