Introduction to Acts

Dan Berry

• Purpose:
  • To record early church history and show that the gospel message is based on historical fact
  • To show that the gospel applies to all nations and classes of people
  • It gives us hope that we can all be saved
• Outline
  • The church in Jerusalem
  • The church in Judea and Samaria
  • Paul’s mission to the Gentiles
  • Paul in Jerusalem
  • Paul’s journey to Rome
• Peter and Paul
  • The first part of Acts is related to Peter
  • The latter part of Acts is related to Paul
  • Though a simple way of organizing the book, their ministries are not separate and to make this distinction too sharp can result in missing details
• Characters in Acts
  • Many people are introduced in Acts
• Authorship -- Luke
  • A physician who traveled with Paul
  • Also wrote Luke
  • Not one of the 12 disciples
  • Addressed books to (sponsored by) Theophilus
  • Authorship attributed to Luke early – 2nd Century
  • Greek and the only Gentile writer of the NT
  • A Christian, he’s also writing about his own faith
  • A political objective: to show that Christianity is not a threat
    • Showed a contrast to the legalistic rituals of law keeping of Judaism (see Leviticus)
    • Roman officials continually found Paul innocent
  • Peter
    • His beginnings
      • Born around 1 BC, died around 67 AD
      • A fisherman
      • Account of his (and his brother Andrew’s) calling is in Matthew
    • First to preach after Pentecost
    • First to preach to the Gentiles
    • A disciple and an apostle (one sent forth, one directly sent by Jesus)
    • His ministry was in Jerusalem and Samaria – an area of 40 - 50 miles
  • Paul
    • His beginnings
      • Born in Tarsus (modern day Turkey)
      • A Jewish family
      • A Roman by birth
      • Trained by famous rabbi, Gamaliel, in Judaism
    • Originally, Saul, a persecutor of Christians, Acts describes his conversion
    • He took four journeys, three main missionary trips and then a journey to Rome
  • Practical Application
    • God can do amazing things through ordinary people when they are empowered by the Holy Spirit
    • Acts helps in the understanding how we can be directed by the Holy Spirit
    • It gives us hope that we can be saved – salvation is open to all
    • Acts shows the importance of prayer: it is mentioned 31 times
  • Spreading the Gospel
    • Started in Acts
    • There is still work to do to make sure the whole world hears the Gospel