Training · Grasping God's Word
Acts
Luke's second volume, its shape, and the central question of how to tell description from instruction.
1 of 9
-
Card 1 of 9
How does Acts relate to Luke?
It is the second volume of a two-part work by the same writer, addressed to the same man, Theophilus.
Luke's Gospel tells what Jesus "began to do and teach"; Acts tells how he continued it through the Spirit and the church. Reading Acts without Luke is reading the second half of a story.
-
Card 2 of 9
How does Acts 1:8 outline the book?
The witness goes to Jerusalem (chapters 1-7), then Judea and Samaria (8-12), then to the ends of the earth (13-28).
The book is built around the geographical spread of the gospel. Knowing the outline tells you, for any passage, what stage of the mission you are in.
But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8 -
Card 3 of 9
What is the central interpretive question in the book of Acts?
Whether a given passage is descriptive — telling what happened — or normative — showing what should happen in the church in every age.
The believers in Acts 2 sold possessions and held everything in common; the apostles chose a replacement by casting lots. Is either a pattern for us? Most disagreements about Acts come down to this question.
-
Card 4 of 9
How do you tell whether something in Acts is meant as a pattern?
Ask what Luke intended to communicate to his readers, look for patterns that are repeated consistently across the book, and check against clear teaching elsewhere in the New Testament.
Something that happens once, or happens differently each time, is unlikely to be a norm. Something Luke repeats and presents positively, and that the letters also teach, very likely is.
-
Card 5 of 9
What do the summary statements scattered through Acts do?
They mark the progress of the story and signal the end of a section.
Statements like "the word of God continued to spread, and the number of disciples increased" appear at intervals through the book. They are Luke's own markers of how he has structured it.
-
Card 6 of 9
Why does Acts end with Paul under house arrest in Rome?
With Paul under house arrest in Rome, preaching boldly and "without hindrance". The story of the church is not finished, and the word is unstoppable.
Readers often expect to learn Paul's fate. Luke instead ends on the mission going on, which is the theme of the whole book and leaves the reader inside the story it describes.
Paul stayed there for two whole years in the place he rented. He welcomed everyone who came to see him.
He kept sharing the message about God's kingdom and teaching about Jesus the Messiah, boldly and without anyone stopping him.
Acts 28:30-31 -
Card 7 of 9
Why do the speeches in Acts matter so much?
They take up about a third of the book, and they are where Luke sets out the message the church was preaching.
Peter at Pentecost, Stephen before the council, and Paul in Athens each preach the same gospel to a different audience. Comparing them shows both what stayed fixed and how it was adapted.
-
Card 8 of 9
What does Luke signal by telling the same story more than once in Acts?
That it is especially important. Paul's conversion is told three times, and Cornelius's conversion is told and then retold.
Space on a scroll was expensive. When Luke repeats a story, he is marking a turning point: Paul's call to the Gentiles, and God's acceptance of Gentiles without their first becoming Jews.
-
Card 9 of 9
What does the varying order of baptism and receiving the Spirit in Acts show about how to read the book?
That the order is not a fixed pattern. In Acts the Spirit sometimes comes after baptism, sometimes before it, and once through the apostles' hands some time later.
This is the descriptive-or-normative method in action. Because Luke does not repeat one sequence consistently, the sequence itself is unlikely to be what he is teaching. What is consistent is that all of these people receive the Spirit.