Overview of the Book of The Acts of the Apostles

I started a new Bible study this week having finished studying Genesis a couple of weeks ago. Things mentioned in the commentaries about The Acts of the Apostles already intrigue me. Several of the commentaries suggested that Luke wrote the book as a continuation of the story in the gospel of Luke. They basically said that in order to understand the themes and purposes of Acts, the themes and purposes of the gospel of Luke must first be understood.

Not having the inclination or the time to do a complete study on the gospel of Luke before starting my study of the book of Acts, I read several introductions and commentaries about the book of Luke. First thing I noticed was that it is generally agreed among scholars, Luke and Acts were written by the same person. It is also generally accepted that the person was Luke. Luke was not an eye witness to the life of Jesus, so he had to do research to tell the story in Luke, while he was a companion of Paul’s and an eye witness to many of the events in Acts.

Luke wrote the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles as an explanation or defense of the truth. He was specifically writing to someone called Theophilus (Luke 1:3, Acts 1:1). There is a lot of speculation about who Theophilus was. One theory is that Theophilus was designated as Paul’s “defense attorney” or Paul’s sponsor in Rome. He needed to know the whole story from the birth of Jesus to Paul’s various missionary journeys in order to adequately represent Paul before the rulers in Rome. Regardless of why Luke wrote these two books, they were definitely addressed to Theophilus, a Gentile.

The Ryrie Study Bible’s notes at the beginning of the gospel of Luke explain the distinctive approach Luke took in writing these books. With many references Ryrie builds his case for uniqueness of Luke’s writings. One aspect is that although it was addressed to Theophilus, it is directed toward all Gentiles. Also there’s a pattern of being interested in individuals and mentions many of them by name. Among the many people Luke mentions by name, there’s an abundance of women whose names get recorded for history. There’s an emphasis on prayer and the answers to prayer experienced by the disciples.

In the book of Acts we are given the record of the spread of the gospel starting with the Jews and including the remotest parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). The book of Acts covers approximately thirty years. It ends with Paul imprisoned in Rome awaiting his hearing before Caesar. That fact helps date the writing of this book to around A.D. 63 because if it was later than that other significant events would also have been recorded (like the martyrdom of Paul, the burning of Rome, Nero’s persecution of Christians, and the destruction of Jerusalem) which all happened within a few years of the end of this account.

The key verse for me is Acts 1:8 which says what this book is about: “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” The account is how the Holy Spirit is used by Jesus to get His message out to all the nations of the world. I’m looking forward to seeing that all take place as I continue in my study of Acts. My goal is to share with you the key things I learn as I go through this study.