A Subsequent Chapter
There are twenty-eight chapters in the New Testament writing of Acts, which picks up where Luke left off, with the story about God’s redemptive mission fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Acts continues this story of God’s mission to the ends of the world, extending from the Jews to the Gentiles. What began in Luke with Jesus is now carried forward by the followers of Jesus. Those who accepted the invitation to follow Jesus into the in-breaking realm of God’s kingdom are now extending the same invitation to Jews and Gentiles
Last December, I began preaching through the Gospel of Luke, followed by Acts. Now I have finished the series on Acts. But Acts is far from done if we’re following Jesus because doing so means we’re all actors and actresses in the ongoing mission of God. We continue extending the invitation of the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God—to our neighbors.
The writing of Acts begins by imagining us as witnesses of Jesus Christ. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (1:8).1 The final chapter of Acts is also about witnessing. “He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus” (28:23). Between the first chapter and the last chapter, what we read is the story of the Jesus movement, a community of believers, living as a witness to the gospel.
I don’t believe it’s a mere coincidence that Acts ends with Luke telling us how Paul “proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ…” (28:21). Everything stands or falls on this proclamation. It is what matters.
The Bible is filled with many moral teachings. Without any doubt, following the teachings of the Bible will result in a virtuous life. We will be better husbands and wives, better parents, better brothers and sisters, better neighbors, and even better employees in whatever job we do. But none of that matters without the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Without this gospel, we are all still hopeless. Not only are we still bound to the plagues of our sin, but death still holds us captive to a fight we cannot win. But with the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, God fulfills the promise of hope.
Although Paul spoke of this hope as “the hope of Israel” (28:20), it’s a hope for us all. But it also means we must continue living as participants in the mission of God, bearing witness to the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. That’s why there is no end to Acts, even though the writing we know as Acts ends with the twenty-eighth chapter.
“I’m not worried about the future of Christianity in America if we, who follow Jesus, continue living as gospel witnesses. As long as we follow Jesus, we’ll always be the church Jesus wants us to be.”
In his theological commentary on Acts, Willie Jennings describes Paul’s witness to his fellow Jewish people as “trying to turn the reading practices of his own people in a new direction in, toward and through the life of Jesus.”2 Like many of us, the Jewish people had scripture too. Still, they needed to see how scripture testifies to Jesus as the Messiah who fulfilled the promise of hope that God made regarding the restoration of the kingdom. I’m convinced that there are Christians who need to have their Bible reading practices turned away from legalism, nationalism, and prosperity, and turned towards Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.
In Gospel Portraits, I discuss the need for reading the Bible as a “Christ-centered and Kingdom-oriented narrative.”3 This is a participatory reading of scripture whereby we (re)imagine ourselves as actors and actresses in the story, discerning how we play our part as witnesses.4 The reason why such a reading of scripture matters is because, to circle back to Jennings' point, not only do we need our reading practices turned towards Jesus, but so does the rest of the world.
Only when our neighbors learn to navigate life through the gospel lens of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God will they begin to discover the life God is redeeming them to live. But we’re not living in any of the twenty-eight chapters of Acts anymore; we’re living in a subsequent chapter. Our chapter, set in an American context, is one where people have already heard something about Jesus and the kingdom of God. However, the marriage of legalism, nationalism, and prosperity to Christianity has muddled the testimony. It’s for this reason that we must pay as much attention to the way we live as to the content we preach, because if our life, what we live for, isn’t congruent with the content of our preaching, then we undermine our witness.
Although the writing of Acts ends with twenty-eight chapters, the acts of participating in the mission of God do not. There are subsequent chapters. Our chapter, perhaps titled Christianity in America, must continue bearing witness to the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. This is what matters. I’m not worried about the future of Christianity in America if we, who follow Jesus, continue living as gospel witnesses. As long as we follow Jesus, we’ll always be the church Jesus wants us to be. The forms by which we worship, the space where we gather together, and whether we serve fried chicken or pulled pork at a fellowship meal do not matter. What matters is that we bear a living witness to the kingdom of God as the promise of hope God has fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
1Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
2Willie James Jennings, Acts, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017, 244.
3K. Rex Butts, Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God, Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2022, 110. On the same page, I go on to write, “As we read the Bible, whether from the Old or New Testament, we are invited to read in a manner that instructs us on how we follow Jesus and embody the kingdom of God he proclaimed.”
4Ibid, 113. See also N.T. Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011, 121-127; The New Testament and the People of God, Christi Origins and the Question of God, vol 1., Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992, 139-143.
