The Acts of the Apostles or, as sometimes called, the Acts of the Holy Spirit, is a history of the way in which divine wisdom ordered events to gradually lead people out from God’s previously established dispensation of law into the full liberty of the dispensation of the grace of God. The power and working of the Holy Spirit is beautifully seen here, as the apostles are used by God to establish Christianity.

The work begins at Jerusalem in chapter 2 with the descent of the Holy Spirit from heaven to earth, but it spreads out. When Israel as a nation, by their martyrdom of Stephen (ch. 7), coldly refused this second call of grace—for they had before rejected their blessed Messiah—then the apostle Paul is raised up by God as a special messenger to the Gentiles. Thus the grace of God was extended to the whole world. The Church of God was formed by the power of the Spirit of God by both Jewish and Gentile believers being baptized into the one body. Let us notice, too, the great care of our God in this book to preserve a true and vital unity of this work and of the saints in every place. After all, they were now one: the Church, the body of Christ!

The reality, the simplicity, and the freshness of these early days, the godly maintenance of order and unity without the necessity of human organization or arrangement, gives most blessed instruction for us. All this beautifully shows the sufficiency of Christ as the gathering center of His people, and the sufficient power of the Spirit of God for every spiritual activity, whether worship, communion, service, or testimony. It shows there is no need for man’s interventions, however well-intentioned, in any of these functions of the true Church of God.