Acts

New Testament: the good news spreads

The Acts

of the apostles

About this book

This is the second book written by Luke. His first one is commonly known as the Gospel of Luke. In it he told “all that Jesus did and taught from the very first until he was taken up to heaven” (1.1,2). In this book Luke continues the story by describing some of the struggles the disciples faced as they tried to obey the command of Jesus: “You will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world” (1.8).

So many different countries are mentioned in Acts that the book may seem to have been written only to tell about the spread of the Christian message. But that is only part of the story. After Jesus was taken up to heaven, one of the big problems for his followers was deciding who could belong to God's people. And since Jesus and his first followers were Jews, it was only natural for many of them to think that his message was only for Jews. But in Acts, the Spirit is always present to show that Jesus came to save both Jews and Gentiles, and that God wants followers from every nation and race to be part of his people.

The first conflict between Christians and Jews took place when some of the Jewish religious leaders rejected the message about Jesus (4.1-31; 7.1-59). But the most serious problems for the early church happened because the disciples at first failed to understand that anyone could become a follower of Jesus without first becoming a Jew. This began to change when Philip dared to take the message to the Samaritans (8.7-25), and when Peter went to the home of Cornelius, a captain in the Roman army (10.1-48).

Finally, Peter reported to the church in Jerusalem (11.1-18) and a meeting was held there (15.3-35) to discuss the question of who could become followers of Christ. Before the meeting was over, everyone agreed that the Spirit of God was leading them to reach out to Gentiles as well as Jews with the good news of Jesus.

The one who did the most for the spread of the faith was a man named Paul, and much of the book tells about his preaching among the Gentiles. Finally, he took the message to Rome, the world's most important city at that time (28.16-31). One of Luke's main reasons for writing was to show that nothing could keep the Christian message from spreading everywhere:

For two years Paul stayed in a rented house and welcomed everyone who came to see him. He bravely preached about God's kingdom and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, and no one tried to stop him.

(28.30,31)

A quick look at this book

1. Telling the good news in Jerusalem (1.1—8.3)

2. The good news in Judea and Samaria (8.4—12.25)

3. Paul's first journey to tell the good news (13.1—14.28)

4. An important decision in Jerusalem (15.1-35)

5. Paul's second journey to tell the good news (15.36—18.22)

6. Paul's third journey to tell the good news (18.23—21.16)

7. Paul's arrest in Jerusalem (21.17—23.22)

8. Paul is taken to Caesarea (23.23—26.32)

9. Paul is taken to Rome (27.1—28.31)