All that Jesus Began

Today's reading: 1 Chronicles 25-26; Acts 1


Acts 1:1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach

Luke, the writer of the gospel of Luke, is wrote the book of Acts as a companion to his gospel and the first two verses in Acts explain why he's writing it. There was a young man by the name of Theophilus who had an interest in who this Jesus was and Luke took the time to write two lengthy accounts. Typically when I read this first verse I kind of skip over it like it's a preface or preamble to get the story rolling, but today when my eyes rolled across this verse I had to stop and re-read it because it suddenly dawned on me that it wasn't a simple introduction it literally summarizes the entire book of Acts.

This verse tells us that Luke wanted to tell this young man about all that Jesus BEGAN to do and teach. You would expect that to be in the past tense but it's not because Jesus has risen from the dead. The idea of being raised from the dead is amazing but to take it the next step Luke implies that Jesus is still at work doing and teaching. He has never stopped. Death couldn't keep Him down but it also couldn't keep Him silent. Not only does Jesus continue to do and teach the book of Acts makes it clear that Jesus continues to His work and teachings through the apostles. Luke had it right all along and His opening line was much deeper than I ever imagined.