INTRODUCTION
The Book of Acts is a continuation of the story of Jesus. Jesus continues the work He started in the flesh by working through His new body, that of the Christian Church. The term Christian was first given at Antioch and it translates “Christ like.” The apostles were given the Holy Spirit and the power to perform miracles. The word apostle means someone who has seen Jesus.
STRUCTURE
The Book of Acts can be sub-divided as follows:
1. The gospel of Jesus is preached in Jerusalem. Acts 1.1-6.7
2. The gospel of Jesus is preached in Judea and Samaria. Acts 6.8-12.24
3. The gospel is preached from Rome to the ends of the earth. Acts 12.25-28-31
Luke structured his second book around two apostles. Peter is featured from Acts 1 to Acts 12.24. Paul is the key apostle in the chapters from Acts12.25 through Acts 28.31. This naturally divides the book into two parts. The following verses indicate Luke’s intent to further divide the book into six sections, all of which tell how the word was spread and how churches were planted.
1. “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” (Kings James Version. Acts 6.7) This relates the growth of the church in Jerusalem and the spreading of the good news of Christ.
2. “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.”(Acts 9.31) This verse tells of the increases made in Judea, Galilee and Samaria.
3. “But the word of God grew and multiplied.”(Acts 12.24) Indicates continued growth.
4. “And so were the churches established in the...
... middle of paper ...
... to the power of God.
Healing, and the raising of the dead, is part of the continuing work of the apostles. These miracles work together with the spreading of the Word of God, to bring people to the realization that these men were continuing the work started by Jesus.
Luke wrote his Gospel, which is the longest book in the New Testament, as well as the Book of Acts. These two books account for twenty-eight percent of the New Testament. (Schaff, Philip)
Works Cited
“Acts.” Wikipedia.org. 2011. Web. 12 March 2011.
Johnson, B.W. The Peoples New Testament. WORDsearch Corp. Database © 2008 WORDsearch Corp.
King James Version. The Holy Bible. The Nelson Company, 2004. Print
MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Student Bible. Nashville. A. Thomas Nelson, 2000. Print
Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. WORDsearch Corp. Database © 2007 WORDsearch Corp.
After his conversion to Christianity, Paul traveled throughout the Roman Empire and preached the Gospel, similar to Jesus’ own ministry across Galilee. Paul’s teachings were more focused on the community and the relationships of its members with each other and with non-Christians, whereas Jesus’ teachings were geared towards the individual and his/her personal relationship to God. Despite this discrepancy in their doctrines, Paul’s teachings remain consistent with those of Jesus. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul’s teachings, such as unity in the community and love for others, echo the teachings of Jesus as depicted in the Gospel of Mark and Matthew. Paul essentially reiterates the teachings of Jesus, and applies them to the lives of the people he preaches to, so that they may understand Jesus’ teachings and embrace Christianity.
Acts describes the continued spread of the gospel to new peoples and land. God’s love is not for any one race or ethnic subgroup a love, but for all who will respond to the gospel call.
He makes the point that Acts develops the themes of the gospel, one reason for this is because Luke is the first to extend the story of Jesus to the apostles. Luke seems to extend on Marks gospel but in a different way then what Mathew does. Luke seems to focus on Jesus’s disciples, his calling of them, and his teachings to them. It seems that the reason Luke did this was to set up for the new church. However the most convincing reason that shows Luke believed his books ought to be read together is his writings in Luke 1:1-4 and in Acts 1:1-3. This is when in both books Luke gives us an intro stating that Acts is his second book to
The Book of Acts, or sometimes known as The Acts of the Apostles was written between 62 and 70 A.D. To better understand the meaning behind Acts, one should look at the history and what lead to the writing of this book. It was written as a second half of a two part series, with Luke being the first half. Without mentioning himself in either of his writing, it is believed that Luke, a traveling companion of Paul, as mentioned in Colossians 4:14, 2 Timothy 4:11, and Philemon verse 24 was the author of both Luke and Acts. We are told that Luke wrote or dedicated both works to Theophilus (meaning a friend of God). Back in the Gospel of Luke chapter 1, Theophilus is also referred to as “most excellent”, which in Greek is Kratistos, to show an expression of honor. The Roman Empire social ladder was divided into four groups; 1) Phelps (common people), 2) Knights (people of affluence, dignity, high social standing) and 3) Senators (highest accolades of government). “Kratistos is the epithet used for Felix, The Roman governor of Judea, found later to describe Theophilus.” It is believed that Theophilus was a Christian convert, a master to a slave/Greek servant named Luke, who also happened to be a doctor. Luke was then made free or given manumission, so with gratitude of Theophilus, he wrote his gospel.
Theearly Church faced several struggles such as maintaining the purity ofChristianity, defining the structure of the Church and surviving the constantattacks on Christians by the Roman Empire. One of the Church’s firststruggles! was to define itself vis-à-vis the Jewish tradition and theRoman World. Both Paul and the Book of Acts reveal questions and issues theearly Church wrestled with. For example: “Should Christianity be its ownreligion or a new sect of Judaism?” “Which books should be includedin the Bible and which were the works of heretics?”
The New Testament teaches about who Jesus is and what he did on the earth. John wrote the last of the four gospels which recount Jesus’ life and what is to come. The gospel of John is somewhat different from the other three gospels, in that it is more symbolic and less concrete. For example, John expresses Jesus as the Passover Lamb when Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not. This gospel is showing that Christianity is moving away from the long-practiced Jewish traditions. John’s gospel can be laid out into four parts: the prologue or the incarnate word, signs of the Messiah with teachings about life in him, the farewell teaching and the passion narrative, and the epilogue or the roles of Peter and of the disciple whom Jesus loved. The Gospel of John is arguably the most
Kodell, Jerome. "Luke." In The Collegeville Bible Commentary. Edited by Dianne Bergant and Robert J. Karris. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1988.
...ctions. Peter answered with the Spirit. The power by which the crippled man was healed was that of Jesus of Nazareth. Not only that, but Peter accused the Sanhedrin of responsibility for rejecting and killing Christ. He also noted God’s power in raising Jesus from the dead. Peter’s speech to the Sanhedrin summarizes his other two sermons. Although they were unable to deny the apostolic miracle, the Sanhedrin felt compelled to stop the apostolic preaching. Before the power of God that transformed unschooled, ordinary men into powerful proclaim of the gospel, the Sanhedrin was unable to punish the apostles. This chapter ends with a report of the church’s prayer in gratitude for God’s deliverance of the apostles from the Jewish authorities.
Gary L. McIntosh 's book: Biblical Church Growth, looks at how the church in the Bible grew in it 's time period. Gary McIntosh worked as a Vice President of consulting services at the Institute for American Church Growth and later became a professor at Talbot School of Theology (McIntosh 16). The author takes lessons from the Bible and applies them to today 's world and culture.
After the Apostles were told to spread the Good News of the Gospel they carried that message to new and unknown places of the world, journeying far to the East and West. At the time, the Roman Empire consisted of the majority of Western
Although Paul was convinced of the churches spiritual maturity, he wrote to them to explain his reason for not coming to them sooner, and expressed his future travel plans, which included a trip to Rome (15:17-24). This trip would take place after he delivered the collection he was gathering to the saints at Jerusalem (15:25-29); a trip that Paul asked the Romans to help him with in prayer (15:30-33). Having finished his exhortations and commands, Paul finished his epistle by sending greetings to many individuals at the church in Rome (16:1-16), warning of false-teachers (16:17-20), sending greeting from his fellow-laborers (16:21), and giving glory to the God who was able to strengthen the church, and disclosed the mystery of the church to bring many to faith (16:25-27).
The known world was impacted by the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was done by the first century church with great passion. These early followers of Christ set the world on fire, by relaying the Good news of Jesus Christ, first to the nation of Israel then to the gentile world. The Bible tells us that the Apostle Peter was commissioned to bring the announcement of Christ’s death and resurrection to his Jewish brethren, whereas, the Apostle Paul was chosen by Christ to bring the Gospel message of salvation to the gentile world. The early works of the church are recorded in a series of letters that have become known as the scriptures of the New Testament.
During the time of Jesus, God’s and demigods were believed to have healed the sick and raised people from the dead. Some believed famous and virtuous men could calm storms, chase away pestilence, and abide by greetings as gods. Christian authors viewed the miracles of Jesus as works of love and mercy showing compassion for a sinful and suffering humanity. Each miracle involves specific teachings and they were an important component of Jesus’ divinity and the dual natures of Jesus as God and ...
The Holy Spirit gives us power to make things possible. Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The power enabled the apostles to heal the sick (3:1-10, 5:15-16, 9:32-35) and raise people from the dead (9:36-43). The power also enabled them to speak the truth boldly (4:1-14, 7:1-53,
The biblical book of Acts is an interpretation of the early discoursing regarding Jesus Christ, the development of the ancient Christian people, and sharing the good news of the Christian message. When Jesus was raise from the dead he went to see his disciples to my understanding, respiring on the disciples and stating, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22, NKJV). On the contrary even though the disciples had obtained the Holy Ghost after Jesus respired on them, my studies revealed that Jesus expressed to the disciples to pause for the satisfying or fulfillment of the Holy Ghost that was in Jerusalem.