INTRODUCING ACTS

INTRODUCING ACTS

Tim Chester, September 2008

QI (Quite Interesting)

‘Acts is about as long as a single-volume book in the ancient world could be which in today’s

terms is about the length and shape of a roll of kitchen paper.’ (Green, 13)1

There are a number of clues in the way Luke has compiled the book of Acts that point to the

lessons he wants us to see in the story of the early Christians.

#1: To the ends of the earth

Jesus said: ‘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.’ (Acts 1:8)

This gives a fourfold structure to the book:

 the giving of power (1-2)

 witness in Jerusalem (3-7)

 witness in Judea and Samaria (8-9)

 witness to the ends of the earth (10-28)

Judea and Samaria are significantly because they represent the two halves of Solomon’s

kingdom that were ripped apart after his death. Their reunification is promised in Ezekiel 37.

Psalm 98:3 says the LORD ‘has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;

all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.’ The OT expected God to bless in

Israel in such a way that blessing would come to all the nations.

The movement of Acts contrasts with the movement of Luke’s Gospel:

Gospel: Galilee to Samaria to Jerusalem

Acts: Jerusalem to Samaria and Galilee to the ends of the earth

Gospel: vertical inclusion – up and down the social structures

Acts: horizontal inclusion – out to the ends of the earth

#2: The spread of the word of God

Acts is also peppered with summary formulae about the word of God spreading: 2:41-47; 6:7;

9:31; 12:24; 16:5; 19:20. For example: ‘And the Lord added to their number daily those who

were being saved’ (Acts 2:47). ‘So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in

Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.’

(Acts 6:7) Chris Green suggests they form another structure within the book (20):

 1:1-2:47. The first Christians

 3:1-6:7. The first Christians in Jerusalem

 6:8-9:31. The first partly Jewish Christians (the Samaritans and a Eunuch)

 9:32-12:24 The first non Jewish Christians

 12:25-16:5 The encounter with the wider non-Christian world

 16:6-19:20 More acceptance, more resistance.

1 References are to Chris Green, The Word of His Grace: A Guide to Teaching and Preaching from Acts, IVP, 2005

and Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, Eerdmans, 1998.

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Within some of these sections, too, there is an emphasis on growth (from Green, 56):

3:1-10 Healing Peter (accompanied by John)

heals one man

5:12-16 Healing and preaching The apostles

(plural) heal many

3:11-26 Preaching Many believe (4:4) ‘More and more’ believe (5:14) Crowds

gather (5:16)

4:1-4 Peter and John are arrested 5:17-21a The apostles are arrested and

miraculously released.

4:5-22 Informal hearing

Testimony

Released with a command (4:18)

5:21b-41 Formal trial

Testimony

Released after sentence (5:40)

4:23-31 Prayer for more boldness is answered 5:42 Prayer for more boldness is answered,

which increases the scope of their

ministry (5:42).

4:32-5:11 Money and Stewardship

Barnabas, Ananias and Sapphira bring

money to the apostles’ feet.

6:1-6 Money and stewardship

The apostles delegate the increasing

workload to the Seven.

6:7 Conclusion

#3: To the Jew first and then to the Gentile

The movement in Acts is to the Jew first and then to the Gentile (Witherington, 72). This

reflects the movement Paul himself identified in Romans 1:16: ‘I am not ashamed of the

gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the

Jew, then for the Gentile.’ We see this in Paul’s own repeated practice of going first to the

synagogue when he arrived in a city. But it is reflected in the switch of focus from the ministry

of Peter (chapters 1-12) – the apostle of the Jews and the leader of the Jerusalem church – to

the ministry of Paul (chapters 13-28) – the apostle to the Gentiles.

In this movement the conversion of Cornelius (a Gentile synagogue attendee – perhaps like

Theophilus, the first recipient of Acts) is crucial. His story is told three times which

corresponds to the three stories of Paul’s conversion – the Apostle to the Gentiles.

(Witherington, 73)

These two miracles [in chapter 9], one of healing and one of resurrection, both occur

among and for Christians (‘the saints’ [9:32], ‘disciple’ [9:36]), but to keep the clarity

of the section we should note that they are Jewish Christians. The story of Cornelius

loses its sharp focus without that thought. Why are they here? Because the gospel has

travelled to the outer limits of Diaspora Judaism, Joppa being on the coast, and Peter

has witnessed that. Luke had previously shown Jesus telling a man to get up and walk

(Luke 5:17-26) and raising the dead (Luke 8:40-56), and Peter has repeated those

miracles here. So, in a way, Peter is at the outer limits of where the gospel had gone,

symbolically and theologically at least, and the question arises: what next? The

answer lies in the vision of the sheet. (Green, 80-81)

The conversion of Cornelius (or is it the conversion of Peter?) ‘is the massive theological

centre of the section’: ‘Every indication is that what we find obvious many of the first

Christians found impossibly difficult to grasp and revolutionary in its impact.’ (Green, 81)

Each of the main stories has a principle theme: the first is the blessing of God on

believing Gentiles (Cornelius and his family), and the second is the judgement of God

on unbelieving Israel (Herod and his nation). Both receive a double, supernatural

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authentication: Peter and Cornelius both have a vision; Peter and Herod are both

visited by an angel. And both conclude with an acknowledgement by Peter (10:34-35).

(Green, 84)

The continuity between the Jewish and Gentile missions is reinforced by the many parallels

that Luke draws between the ministries of Peter and Paul (Witherington, 72; Green, 25):

Peter Paul

Both heal a lame man 3:2-8 14:8-10

Both do miracles at a distance 5:15 19:12

Both exorcize demonic spirits 5:16 16:16-18

Both confront sorcerers 8:18-24 13:6-11

Both raise the dead 9:36-41 20:9-12

Both have heavenly visions 10:9-16 16:9; 18:9-10; 23:11

Both are miraculously released from prison 5:19; 12:7-11 16:25-28

Both preach to Jews using Psalm 16:10 2:27 13:35

Although Peter and Paul are to the fore, ‘Luke has an understanding that everyone is to be

involved in the task of spreading the message; hence he deliberately puts at centre stage in

evangelism those [Stephen and Philip] whom we might think he has disqualified.’ (70)

The continuity of the Jewish and Gentile mission is also reflected in way certain features of the

apostolic message are repeated, both in full-length speeches and summary statements. Green

claims a pattern emerges in which Luke abbreviates these speeches:

Peter’s … first full-blown evangelistic sermon is Acts 2:14-36 (twenty-two verses); his

second is in 3:12-26 (fourteen verses); his third is 4:8-11; 19-20 (five verses); then

5:29-32 (three verses), and so on. The verse numberings are new, but the decreasing

length is clear. As Luke increasingly abbreviates Peter’s sermons, it becomes apparent

that he is stripping Peter’s message down to its barest essentials; 5:29-32 shows this

clearly. That has condensed into a simple three-headed message about Jesus: You

killed him; God raised him; we saw him. (27)

Elsewhere the pattern becomes they (not you) killed him; God raised him; they (not we) saw

him. (See Acts 13:16-42.) ‘Luke has thus clearly shown that Peter and Paul preached the same

gospel, even down to their cross-references.’ (Green, 88) The same pattern is there when Paul

speaks to Gentile philosophers in Athens:

When Paul criticised the idolatry of Athens, he was criticising the best of the West …

acknowledging Athens’ intellectual strengths and contribution but pointing out some

weaknesses. This was a head-on critique … Although this conclusion is brief, it still fits

in with the standard gospel proclamation: Jesus was a ‘man’ who was ‘dead’ (i.e. they

killed him); by ‘raising him from the dead’ (God raised him) God has given ‘proof’

(witnesses saw him) of the coming judgement and possible salvation. (Green, 101)

#4: The movement of the Spirit

The Spirit is explicitly at work (16:6, 7, 8-10), moving the missionaries on into Europe. The Holy

Spirit is mentioned 52 times in Acts, but his work comes in clusters. Green comments: ‘The

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work of the Holy Spirit in Acts is to push the churches outwards into new missionary activity,

and that this activity is focused on telling people about Jesus. Even Peter’s sermon at

Pentecost is a sermon about Jesus, not about the Holy Spirit.’ (26)

Steve Timmis says: ‘The message of Acts is that the gospel will spread whatever happens

(despite short-sightedness, division, prejudice, weakness, persecution).’

The church and Israel

‘Luke address the question, How can the Christian church be the true Israel when so many

Jews reject it?’ (Witherington, 73)

Chapters 3-6 have a unique emphasis on the Old Testament …

 The authentic Messiah is the suffering Messiah, as the Old Testament foretold …

 The Christian believers are the continuation of the people of God. (Green, 57-59)

The church and Rome

So why does [Luke] write this long panel of Acts [chapters 19-28], which takes up

nearly one-third of the book, and which includes a quite elaborate description of a

storm and a shipwreck? One possibility is that the new element in this panel is to see

Paul defend the gospel against charges … Paul passed through a sequence of

investigations, informal hearings and trials, and Luke shows how he was innocent of

the three key charges made against him. As he said before Festus (25:8), ‘I have done

nothing wrong against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar … If

(more generally) part of the purpose of Acts is to defend the gospel before sceptical

non-believers who have heard that Christianity is a troublemaking and illegal faith,

then this might in part explain the length of this section and its concern with legal

niceties. (Green, 107-108)

Witherington suggests three trials are described in chapters 24-26 to show that the Roman

Empire need not be antagonistic to Christianity. (73)

Distinguishing between what is normative and descriptive

Ben Witherington identifies four hermeneutical principles for distinguishing between what is

normative and what is simply descriptive:

1. Most behaviour of Christians exemplary (though their behaviour has to be scrutinized by

the ideals of the text – e.g. 2:43-47; 4:32-37).

2. The speeches provide norms of Christian behaviour.

3. Look for repeated patterns. One-off events (e.g. choosing by lots) are less likely to be

normative.

4. Look for clear divine expressions of approval or disapproval.

There are many miracles in Acts, but there are also occasions when miracles are not

performed. Aeneas is healed, but not before he had been bedridden for eight years (9:32-35).

Dorcas is raised, but not before she has been sick and died (9:36-41). Peter is miraculously

released from prison, but James is executed (12:1-11).

Perhaps we should not think of Acts as a blueprint for church planting – though I anticipate

there will be many lessons for us. We need to remember it is a story. We should expect to get

caught up in the story, carried along, moved forward, inspired, enthused, excited. We should

pray that telling the stories of Acts will get our communities doing mission without always

being explicitly told, ‘The lesson for us is that we should do mission.’ We want the story of

Acts to become our story.

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ACTS OUTLINE

This outline involves some large sections. But larger sections are more achievable through a

story-telling approach. It should enable us to finish Acts by the end of the year (a chapter by

chapter approach would take at least nine months). It should enable us to get caught up in the

movement of the story. And it often reflects well the way Luke has compiled the book. It you

find the book unfolding in different ways then please do not feel bound to these divisions.

1. Acts 1-2

The community is empowered for mission by the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised and that

community then takes on a life that reflects its empowerment for mission.

2. Acts 3:1-4:31

God performs a miraculous sign that leads to persecution so the church prays for boldness

to speak in the face of persecution as God performs miraculous signs.

3. Acts 4:32-6:7

In answer to the prayer of Acts 4, God performs miraculous signs and the apostles speak

with boldness in the face of persecution. The believers share their possessions (fulfilling

Deuteronomy 15 and Joshua 7-8).

4. Acts 6:8-8:1

An ‘ordinary’ believer is the first to die as a martyr as he shows that the church is the true

Israel.

5. Acts 8:2-9:42

‘Ordinary’ believers are the first to take the gospel beyond Jerusalem and the spread of

the gospel beyond Jerusalem is affirmed.

6. Acts 10-11

The gospel moves out to the Gentiles as Cornelius is converted, a missional move that

involves a radical change of perspective for Jewish believers.

7. Acts 12

An angel comes to Peter and Herod: rescuing the leader of the new Christian community

and judging the leader of the unbelieving nation.

8. Acts 13:1-16:5

Paul and Barnabas begin church planting among the Gentiles. This mission raises new

theological questions.

9. Acts 16:6-40

People from different social classes are converted in Philippi.

10. Acts 17:1-19:20

The message of Jesus encounters religion, philosophy and occult power.

11. Acts 19:21-23:35

The gospel is attacked from outside and will be attacked from inside.

12. Acts 24-26

The gospel is seen to be innocent of any crime.

13. Acts 27-28

The Spirit brings Paul to Rome, the centre of the known world.