The Acts of the Apostles
In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instruction through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
Acts 1:1-2
We now begin Luke’s second volume. He begins by looking back to the end of Volume I. Jesus was “taken up” after he had instructed the apostles through the Holy Spirit.
We might say, “Whoa! We just finished reading the final chapter of Luke’s Gospel. The risen Lord himself, not the Holy Spirit instructed them.”
Don’t put distance between Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Luke sees all Jesus’ activities directed by the Spirit.
• At the very beginning of his public ministry we read: ”Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days.”
• In his first visit to the Nazareth synagogue, ”Jesus found the passage where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me…’”
Jesus’ whole minisitry was immersed in the Spirit, and his ministry after the ascension will be the same. The Holy Spirit is not a second-rate substitute, as though Jesus sends his assistant. Jesus is present to us in the Spirit, and it is a first-rate, real presence.
If I look to the right or left of me, I won’t see Jesus. But he is present to me now – within me, around me – in and through the Holy Spirit.
 |