A Study of Acts: Introduction

The Book of Acts or Acts of the Apostles can more accurately be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit

Jul 04, 2024

One of my favorite books of the Bible is Acts; it is also known as Acts of the Apostles or the Book of Acts depending on the Bible translation. This is a big one to study (the biggest yet for me, although I did do the parables and miracles of Jesus) and I was a bit intimated at first, but then I realized that I can take this in tiny bites of verses or small passages and glean everything that I can out of the remarkable challenges of forming of the early church. Acts also includes the introduction of one of the most remarkable men of faith when we meet Saul (Paul) early as a persecutor of the church and see his dramatic conversion in Chapter 7.

Acts is the fifth book of the New Testament, following behind the Gospels. Acts has 28 chapters and 1007 verses; it is attributed to Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke, who was a Gentile and a physician. It is thought to have been written in about AD 61-62. Enduring Word has a marvelous and succinct introduction to Acts:

Imagine what it would be like if the Book of Acts wasn’t in the Bible. You pick up your Bible and see the ministry of Jesus ending in the Gospel of John; next you read about a man named Paul writing to the followers of Jesus in Rome. Who was Paul? How did the gospel get from Jerusalem to Rome? The Book of Acts answers these questions. “A great New Testament scholar has said that the title of Acts might be, ‘How they brought the Good News from Jerusalem to Rome.’” (William Barclay)
That expansion from Jerusalem to Rome is a remarkable story. “Humanly speaking, [Christianity] had nothing going for it. It had no money, no proven leaders, no technological tools for propagating the gospel. And it faced enormous obstacles. It was utterly new. It taught truths that were incredible to the unregenerate world. It was the subject to the most intense hatreds and persecutions.” (James Montgomery Boice)
Acts is written in the literary style of the Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint. “Since Luke can write in a different style (Lk. 1:1-4), this is something deliberate. Probably he regarded himself as recording sacred history.” (Howard Marshall)
We really don’t know all that much about Luke from the New Testament.
We know that he was a physician (Colossians 4:14).
We know that he was a Gentile (from his name).
We know that he was a devoted companion of Paul (from the text of Acts, and Colossians 4:14, Philemon 24, and 2 Timothy 4:11).
There was a time when many scholars and critics thought that Acts was sort of a romance novel of the early church, written more than 100 years after the events supposedly happened. But William Ramsay, a noted archaeologist and Bible scholar, proved that the historical record of Acts is remarkably accurate regarding the specific practices, laws and customs of the period it claims to record. It is definitely the work of contemporary eyewitnesses.
In the mid-1960’s, A.N. Sherwin-White, an expert in Graeco-Roman history from Oxford, wrote about Acts: “The historical framework is exact. In terms of time and place the details are precise and correct… As documents these narratives belong to the same historical series as the record of provincial and imperial trials in epigraphical and literary sources of the first and early second centuries AD…For Acts the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming…Any attempt to reject its basic historicity even in matters of detail must now appear absurd. Roman historians have long taken it for granted.”
John Calvin wrote that the Book of Acts was “a kind of vast treasure.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called Acts “that most lyrical of books…Live in that book, I exhort you: It is a tonic, the greatest tonic I know of in the realm of the Spirit.” (Cited in John Stott)

So Acts is considered historically accurate, it is written in the style of the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint), it is lyrical, and it is full of action (no pun intended). It brings the message of salvation to the Gentiles and away from Jerusalem and into the bigger Roman world. It brings us the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus in Acts 1:8 (this will soon be studied!).

Visual timelines of this book are the most effective ways to see how Acts moves through history and compares to events that are taking place at the same time. Here’s a great visual overview from Glad Tidings:

This version is also visually impactful, from Precept Austin from Jensen’s Survey of the New Testament:

Here’s one more visual, a simpler explanation of this transition as created by Pastor Chuck Swindoll (in Precept Austin); he calls this “Acts of the Holy Spirit”:

The earth-shattering message of salvation and eternal life through Jesus would be lost, in my opinion, without the early church and the power and courage of the apostles through the Holy Spirit. It is wonderful beyond belief that we have this detailed record of what happened (at least until AD 62) of the Christian movement from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond.

My next devotional examines Acts 1:1-2 - Luke sets the background for Acts referring to the Gospel of Luke.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - Please guide me and give me insights through the Holy Spirit as I explore the Book of Acts and learn the wonderful lessons of this crucial birth and expansion of the Church. Amen.

Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.

Precept Austin was accessed on 7/2/2024 to review overviews of Acts.

Glad Tidings was found doing an internet search for good timeline representations of Acts.

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