Last week, having finished the Gospel according to St. Matthew, we moved to the Acts of the Apostles, written by St. Luke.  Acts begins:  “In the first book, O Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.”  So Acts is a sequel covering Jesus’ ongoing ministry.  Now, His Apostles continue what Jesus began.

Acts is a marvelous book.  On the one hand, you can see ways that the Apostles are following in Jesus' footsteps.  Just as Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem, knowing that there He would be rejected and killed (Luke 9:21-22, 51), so Paul makes a similar journey with similar expectations (Acts 20:22-24).  On the other hand, the Word of the Lord is growing (Acts 19:20), being heard in lands far from anywhere Jesus preached, first through Judea, then Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Even as Acts tells us exactly where things are going, the narrative takes unexpected turns.  For the first five chapters, the action follows Peter.  Then, in chapter 6, deacons are chosen to help with taking care of the needy.  But they also share the Gospel.  The longest sermon in Acts is not an Apostle’s, but Stephen’s in chapter 7!  It’s not until chapter 10 that Peter comes back into the narrative, but only for two chapters until he disappears from Acts almost entirely.

In chapter 13, it looks like Barnabas will take over the narrative.  He is sent, not by the church in Jerusalem, but by the church in Antioch, to take the Gospel to Gentiles.  He takes along as a helper Saul, a man who had once tried to kill Christians.  But by the end of the chapter, Saul is going by a name easier to pronounce for Gentiles, Paul.  Paul ends up driving the action from there to the end of the book of Acts.

Except that it’s not Paul driving the action at all.  That’s one of the great points of Acts.  Just when you think you know who the star of Acts is, the Spirit picks up a new brother, a new sister.  The Word of the Lord is growing.  Not just Peter, not just Paul, it was James and Lydia and Apollos and Mary and the Spirit through them all.  The hidden star of Acts is the Holy Spirit.

They trusted the Spirit’s work.  Time after time, it looked like the church was being defeated.  They were imprisoned, exiled, murdered.  But whatever earthly setback or suffering they faced, the Word of the Lord increased.  And they found blessing even in hardship (Acts 5:41).

As we read the book of Acts, we remember that the same Spirit is at work among us today.  We learn to look at what’s happening in our lives differently.  What may seem like a personal setback, what may seem to be meaningless suffering, may be something else entirely.  Jesus’ kingdom is coming.  Not just Peter, not just Paul, not just James and Lydia and Apollos and Mary, now it is you and me and the Spirit through us all.