³To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. ⁴Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; ⁵for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Skeptics assert that the book of Acts is a religious document and cannot be held to be reliable history since is written from a slanted, “Christian” perspective. In fact, all history books are biased to some degree and are written with a purpose in mind. So this book cannot be discounted on that basis. One must look to the contents (what we call the internal evidence) and to the testimony of other writers in the ancient world (external evidence) to determine its historicity.

The book of Acts is well attested by references made by the second generation of Christians. Further, the non-Christian historical records match up well with the events, the places, and the person markers of the book. In other words, the cities and Roman authorities mentioned in Acts are also mentioned in secular records.

By Luke’s own testimony he has done his homework, just as he did with his first volume, the gospel of Luke. He is an evidence-based researcher; he is not just making this stuff up. Of course, he is selective in which of his discovered material he includes; it is clear, though, that his purpose is to record a faithful and accurate record of the story. In verse 3, he is convinced that the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is irrefutable based on the eyewitness testimony. There is no other explanation for the events that he included in his gospel account than that Jesus actually and literally rose from the dead.

It is with this same attention to evidence that he writes the second volume of the story, the expansion of the message of the risen Jesus Christ. That message is that Jesus Christ is still alive and concerned about “the kingdom of God.” So the story continues with Jesus gathering “them,” which we assume to be the twelve apostles, for His final words of instruction. What John the Baptist did symbolically, at the advent of Christ, was about to be given full expression in the work of Christ’s disciples. John’s baptism was by water, inaugurating the ministry of Christ. The Spirit’s baptism would inaugurate the ministry of Christ’s followers as they spread the message of Christ. The story that began with John’s proclamation was about to break forth to the world, beyond the bounds of Jerusalem and beyond the Jewish community.

Lord, open my heart to Your passion to reach the world with the gospel.