Book Of Acts Essay

The book of Acts was written by Luke around AD 60 and spans thirty years of Christianity’s growth throughout both the Jewish and Gentile communities and the early beginning of Christ’s church. Luke picks up where the Gospels ended and deals with what happened to Christ’s followers after His ascension and ends with Paul’s imprisonment. The book details how the apostles carried out Christ’s work empowered by the Holy Spirit. Because it records how the Holy Spirit acted through believers to spread the Word of God, Acts is commonly known as “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” (Elwell and Yarbrough 195).

The establishment and growth of Christ’s church is Luke’s continual concern in Acts. Paul, Barnabas, Phillip, Stephen, John, and Peter were all empowered by and even called by the Holy Spirit to bring the gospel to others. Miracles were continually performed utilizing the Spirit within (Elwell 202). The seeds of faith they planted culminated in the early church’s beginnings. At first the followers of Jesus met in single groups and created an excellent, beginning model of the Christian community (Foster 191). The body of the church discouraged individualism for “they had everything in common” (English Standard Version, Acts 4.32). They practiced servitude early on and met each other’s needs financially and spiritually. “There was not a needy person

As people were baptized by the Holy Spirit, the inner fire to spread the good news consumed the church. This made persecutions seem irrelevant in the face of eternal life. Sometimes when Paul could not be located, his associates were persecuted in his stead. Stephen was the first of many martyrs (Elwell 204). But the evidence of the Spirit is seen in him. He endured stoning “full of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7.55) and even reflected Christ’s own loving, forgiving words on the cross for His persecutors in saying, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts