On the Road from Jerusalem: A Study of Acts (Transition - Acts 1:3-26)

During our time together, we’ll look at the following:

• Session 1 - Preparing for the Journey (Acts 1:1-2)
• Session 2 - Transition (Acts 1:3-26)
• Session 3 - Birth (Acts 2:1-47)
• Session 4 - The Work Begins (Acts 2:42–3:26)
• Session 5 - When Faced with Opposition (Acts 4:1-26)
• Session 6 - But... (Acts 5:1-42)
• Session 7 - Problem Solved (Acts 6:1-15)
• Session 8 - When Something Bad Happens (Acts 7:1-60)
• Session 9 - Step Two (Acts 8:1-40)
• Session 10 - Saul (Acts 9:1-43)
• Session 11 - Clean People (Acts 10:1-48)
• Session 12 - Phase Three Begins (Acts 11:1-30)
• Session 13 - Even Above Kings (Acts 12:1-25)
• Session 14 - The New Kid Takes the Stage (Acts 13:1-52)
• Session 15 - Approaching a New Community (Acts 14:1-28)
• Session 16 - Issue Resolved (Acts 15:1-41)
• Session 17 -  A New World (Acts 16:1-40)
• Session 18 - Know Your Audience (Acts 17:1-34)
• Session 19 - The Big Time (Acts 18:1-28)
• Session 20 - Christ and Culture (Acts 19:1-41)
• Session 21 - Farewell (Acts 20:1-38)
• Session 22 - Jerusalem (Acts 21:1-40)
• Session 23 - A Personal Testimony (Acts 22:1-30)
• Session 24 - The Plot Thickens (Acts 23:1-35)
• Session 25 - The Way Continues (Acts 24:1-27)
• Session 26 - Different Singer, Same Song (Acts 25:1-27)
• Session 27 - A Message to God’s People (Acts 26:1-32)
• Session 28 - Will He Make It (Acts 27:1-44)
• Session 29 - Without Hindrance (Acts 28:1-31)

In our second session, we looked at the forty days Jesus spent with his Apostles before his ascension (Acts 1:3-26). The discussion and passage are below:

Acts 1:3-26

After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, “Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus— for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it’; and ‘Let another take his position of overseer.’ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.” So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.