Introduction to the Acts

If the four gospels provide a biographical history of Christ from His birth to resurrection, the Book of Acts continues the history of what followed, particularly through the two leading characters, Peter and then Paul. The Book of Acts is companion to Luke's Gospel and continues Luke's "orderly account" to Theophilus. Geographically, Acts begins in Jerusalem and ends in Rome. Acts 1:8 serves like a geographical outline of the book: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Ethnologically, Acts shows the movement of the central front of the Gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles.

Many theological issues are fleshed out in Acts, not as dogmatic propositional truth, as in the epistles, but as the experience of a young church humbly and prayerfully following the leading of the Holy Spirit. It can be dangerous to try to derive propositional teaching from Acts alone, because like many passages from the Old Testament, the experience is given without a clear prophetic judgment on what is to be learned from it. Therefore, before garnering universal principles from the experience of Acts, the epistles should be consulted for validation and elucidation. Controversial matters regarding the nature of the church, the role of the Mosaic Law, the gifts of the Spirit, and even the essence of Gospel truth are expressed in the rough in Acts.

If there is one consistent and undeniable movement in Acts, it is the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit. Oftentimes, the Spirit moves contrary to the plans and practices of the disciples. The Spirit commands the disciples to take the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world (Acts 1:8), but they remain in Jerusalem. He empowers them to speak in other languages and gives them boldness. Yet, since they insist on remaining in Jerusalem, He brings a great persecution to force them to go out. The disciples take it upon themselves to replace Judas with another (Matthias) by casting lots, little realizing that God had a different plan - He raised up Paul. When the disciples chose deacons to serve tables so that they themselves could focus on preaching and prayer, the deacons, particularly Stephen and Philip, eclipsed even the disciples in preaching and witness. Even when the Spirit gave clear evidence that the Gospel was also for the Gentiles, many still insisted on preaching only to the Jews. Therefore, the focus turns from them to Paul and his companions as they, in obedience, carry the Gospel message to the world from Acts 13 to the end (Acts 28).

It has been suggested that Luke wrote acts as a kind of a defense for Paul, who at the end of the book is in a Roman jail awaiting trial. Therefore, it may have been written along with the Gospel of Luke shortly after Paul's imprisonment as a kind of polemic to show the Roman official, Theophilus, the truth of Christ and the nature of the ministry that followed His death and resurrection, which Paul faithfully undertook at great risk and loss to himself. History tells us that Paul is freed from this first imprisonment.