Continuity

THE CONTINUING WORK OF JESUS CHRIST 

“In my former book, Theophilus, 

I wrote about all that Jesus began 

to do and teach until the day that 

 he was taken up to heaven…” 

Acts 1:1-2 

There is very real confusion today, both inside and outside the Church of Jesus Christ, concerning 

the true message of Christianity and the true nature of the Christian church. What exactly is the 

Gospel and what exactly is the church? If we are going to live in the fullness of Christ, we need 

to understand the answers in light of Scripture. From the book of Acts, Author and Bible teacher, 

Charles Price, goes directly to the birth of the Christian church, from which he explained the true 

nature of the church, and what the true message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. 

Outside the church, there is the belief that God is actually a creation of human beings to meet 

their social needs. Others see Christianity as a type of worldview that embraces politics, 

economics, and a value system, giving some kind of sense to this world. There are also those who 

view Christianity as a type of psychological phenomena, filling a need for forgiveness, 

acceptance and hope. From within the church, there are many who see the Christian life as doing 

their best to live by the teachings of Jesus, following in His footsteps, but, of course, in our honest 

moments, none of us can do that. 

If we want to know the true nature of the Gospel, we need to understand what it was that 

revolutionized a handful of men and women (120 of them), gathered together on the Day of 

Pentecost, and through them, had turned the city of Jerusalem on its head with the news of the 

Gospel. Their numbers grew from 120 to 3,000 on that day, and the Bible then speaks of 5,000 

converts, with the Lord adding daily to their numbers. In the 33 year span the book of Acts 

covers, the church moved from an outback, which Jerusalem was in the Roman empire, to Judea, 

Samaria, Syria, and onto Antioch, then to Cyprus, up to Asia Minor, across to Greece and to the 

very heart of the Rome empire itself. Historically, the details are limited and very selective in the 

information it gives in those early years. The reason is because the book of Acts is not a 

comprehensive history of the early church, but a representative history of the 11 apostles Jesus 

left behind. In fact, Acts is built around two main characters; Peter and then Paul, who came on 

the scene later. 

Luke, the author of the book of Acts, travelled a great deal with Paul, and was a physician by 

profession, but also a meticulous historian. He addresses Acts to Theophilus, of whom it may be 

speculated occupied a high position in Roman government as he is earlier referred to as ‘most 

excellent Theophilus’. His name, however, is a combination of two Greek words; theo, meaning 

God, and phileo, meaning love in the sense of friendship. It could be that Luke used this as a 

pseudonym for him, ‘lover of God’ or ‘friend of God’. In the first verse of Acts 1, Luke says, “In 

my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he 

was taken up to heaven…” 

The former book, of course, was the Gospel of Luke where he tells the whole story of Jesus; His 

conception, birth, life, miracles, parables, death, resurrection and ascension. The best way to 

understand the book of Acts is how Luke would have us understand it…that it is the 

Spirit in the apostles and in those “added to the Lord”, which is the only explanation for the rapid 

spread of Christianity throughout the known world. 

On the Day of Pentecost, two things happened. The disciples received the Holy Spirit and Christ 

received a new body. The church of Jesus Christ is not an organization, but an organism. It’s a 

living body where Christ is the head, His Spirit is its life and, as Christians, we are all members of 

this one body. It was during the years of Constantine, when Christianity became embraced by the 

Roman Empire, that they erected buildings where people could meet, and that began to change 

the meaning of what the church really is. 

Today, we commonly talk about the church as a building, but from its inception, the church is 

actually those ‘who were added to the Lord’, and had nothing to do with where they met. There is 

a sense in which corporately, as we meet in church, we are being built together to be a dwelling in 

which God lives by His Spirit, and there is a special awareness of His presence. But we don’t 

walk out of the presence of God as we leave church. Church should not be a sacred part of our 

lives that is separate and on Mondays we’re on our own. 

We cannot understand, nor live the Christian life until we understand that Christ is alive and 

active. He didn’t just leave His teachings behind for us to try to live by, but He left us Himself, so 

that through Him, we are not only saved, and brought into reconciliation with God, but indwelt by 

His Spirit, empowering us to live the life God intended. This is the true message of the Gospel, 

and the greatest need in the church is not to learn how to apply the principles of Jesus, but to 

allow the release of the life of Jesus, by His Spirit, to work in us and through us. Just as it was in 

the birth of the Christian church at Pentecost, our lives will then become inexplicable apart from 

the fact that God is doing something.