Introduction to the Book of Acts

What is Acts About?
“The Acts of the Apostles” is the story of what happened to the disciples from the time Jesus ascended into heaven and through the establishment of the early church. “Acts” simply means “deeds.” Acts is also very much the story of the Holy Spirit, because it is the Holy Spirit that empowers the disciples (followers) of Jesus to become apostles (ones sent out) for Jesus. Peter and Paul are the main characters of this book, although there are several others with interesting stories. About 10 chapters of the 28 in Acts focus on Peter, and 17 or so focus on the ministry of Paul.

Who Wrote Acts?
Acts is an anonymous book – the work itself does not tell us who wrote it. Luke and Acts, however, were written by the same person. We know this because the language and style of the books are so similar. We also know this because the books themselves tell us so. Both are addressed to “Theophilus,” which means “God lover” and the introduction to Acts (1.1-2) refers back to the author’s previously written book about the life and ministry of Jesus.

Just because Luke’s name is now on the gospel doesn’t mean that Luke was the author of Luke-Acts. In fact all of the gospels are given their names by tradition, and not by evidence in the text itself. It wasn’t until the latter half of the 2nd century that church leaders began attributing the Gospel and Acts to Luke, a character mentioned three times in the New Testament as a companion of Paul and as a physician (Philemon 24; Colossians 4:14, and 2 Timothy 4:11).

Whether or not the author was named Luke or was a companion of Paul, there are several things that are evident about him from the Biblical text. For one thing, the beautifully written Greek tells us the author was well-educated and perhaps a native Greek speaker. We know from the relatively accurate details he provides about numerous places in Palestine and the Roman Empire that he was well-traveled. The author writes with enough detail on physical and medical issues that he may have been a physician, but didn’t write so much about them that it is obvious that he was. Likewise, from details included in his writing the author is clearly very well-versed in Jewish tradition, and yet he makes a few critical errors about that tradition that suggest he was not raised in it. Some scholars have interpreted this to mean that the author was probably a Greek convert to Judaism before he became a Christian.

For the convenient purpose of this study, I will refer to the author of Luke-Acts as Luke.

Why Read Acts?
¨ Because it is full of interesting and exciting stories about daring deeds.
¨ To know what happened to the disciples after Jesus ascended.
¨ To know what the church was like in its earliest days.
¨ For background information on Paul, who wrote so much of the New Testament.
¨ To understand the Holy Spirit.
¨ To see how powerfully God works through ordinary people.