The Book of Acts

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The Book of Acts Fall 2004 Semester

• Pastor Brett Peterson pastorbrett_at_ccbcu.edu
  949-677-0903

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Acts is full of surprises. God will not be put in
a box by men. God is not there to be used by men,
as they go through the right sequence of
spiritual steps. God uses men, rather than to be
used by men, as Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8)
learned. The apostles and disciples of our Lord
met together to choose a replacement for Judas,
and Matthias was chosen by lot (see Acts 1).
There is good reason to conclude that God set
aside the churchs choice, raising up Saul, a man
that the apostles found hard to accept as a
fellow-believer, let alone an apostle (see Acts
9). When the early church had a problem of
inequity in the feeding of its widows, the
apostles had the church select seven men, to
oversee the care of the widows, so that they, the
apostles, could devote themselves to prayer and
the ministry of the Word (Acts 6). And yet it was
two of these men who were appointed to free up
the apostles who were most instrumental in the
proclamation of the gospel among the Gentiles
(Acts 7 and 8). God will not be put in a box. If
the Book of Acts teaches us that God has great
power, which He demonstrates in and through the
church, the Book also teaches us that Gods
presence and power is sovereignly bestowed on
men, and that those who would seek to manipulate
God for their own gain are living very
dangerously.

• Acts Gives us the only real picture of the Early
  Church
• Therefore, Acts is the model for the Church and
  the example of how Christians should behave in
  the world today.

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Acts is the documentation of how our Lord
continues to minister to His church through His
saints, by means of His Spirit, in ways we would
never have expected. It is a great book. Let us
listen and learn with open hearts and minds,
looking to His Spirit to make His thoughts our
own, as we study this magnificent portion of His
Word.

• An Overview of the Book of Acts
• The life of the early church is recorded and
  preserved for us in the book of Acts and the
  epistles. The following outline is intended to be
  used while studying the book. It will help to
  keep the whole of the book before you as you work
  your way through each section.

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• A. The Importance of the Book of Acts
• The importance of this second of Lukes
  two-volume work can hardly be over-estimated, for
  without it we would have no record of the
  beginnings and development of the early church.
  Therefore, as Acts furnishes for us a selective
  record of events that took place during the
  formative years of the church, it provides us
  with the historical antecedents of our faith and
  how that faith came to be embraced from Jerusalem
  to Rome. It also provides helpful information of
  the facts surrounding many of the letters of the
  apostles, which in turn helps us to better
  understand when they said what they said and why
  they said it. It was probably written in the
  early 60s, perhaps from Antioch, Rome or
  Ephesus.
• B. The Purpose of Acts

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As was stated, Acts is the second part of what
was originally a two-part, single volume (i.e.
Luke-Acts cf. Acts 11). Therefore, it is
reasonable to include Lukes purpose for Acts as
falling under his purpose for the book of Luke.
In Luke 14 the author says that he is writing to
most excellent Theophilus . . . in order that
he might know the certainty of the things he had
been taught. Apparently, as Longenecker
observes, Theophilus seems to have been a man,
who though receptive to the gospel and perhaps
even convinced by its claims, had many questions
about Christianity as he knew it. Luke wrote to
strengthen him in his belief. Given the contents
of the book of Acts, Theophilus appears to have
had questions about the coming and activity of
the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the apostles,
Paul and his dealings with the Jerusalem apostles
and the advance of Christianity to the Imperial
capital.
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In a sentence, given the emphasis on the unity of
the church (2, 4, 15, 20) and its expansion from
Jerusalem to Rome we may say that the Lukes
purpose was to demonstrate to Theophilus the
sovereign, unified and unmitigated advance of the
gospel into all the world, i.e. from Jerusalem to
Rome. There are seven progress reports on the
unity and advance of the church that further
confirm this (cf. 247 67 931 1224 165
1920 2830, 31). With this knowledge,
Theophilus, who was probably a Roman official,
could understand how Christianity reached his
city.

• Special Note on Dates, BC, AD
• The abbreviation C.E. is a standard way of
  denoting dates in scholarly literature. C. E.
  means Common Era
• and B.C.E. denotes Before the Common Era. The
  year 1 C.E. is the same as the year 1 A.D.
• Many people do not appreciate the fact that the
  abbreviations AD and BC profess the Christian
  faith Anno
• Domini, meaning in the year of Our Lord, states
  the belief that Jesus is the Lord, and BC states
  that Jesus is
• the Christ (Messiah).
• Just like AD, the CE system counts the birth of
  Jesus as year 1.
• In fact, we do not know what year Jesus was born.
  The Gospels indicate he was born near the end of
  the
• reign of Herod the Great. The AD system thus
  takes the last year of Herods rule as the birth
  year of Jesus.
• Because of a counting error, this year turns out
  to be, in the modern calendar, 4 BC/BCE, not 1
  AD/CE.

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Introduction an overview of the Gospel of Luke
and how it relates to Acts

• 2 The designation most excellent is used by
  Luke to refer to Roman officials of high rank.
  Cf. Acts 2326 and 243 where it refers to Felix
  (a Roman governor from AD 53-60) and Paul refers
  to Festus (AD 60-62) as most excellent (Acts
  2625).
• Both books are dedicated to Theophilis

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1st 3 gospels, the synoptics,

• Matt. Focuses on the Royalty of the Messiah,
  Mark the servanthood of Jesus, demonstrating the
  power of humility, and Luke the Love of Jesus for
  all mankind!

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Out of a total of 1151 verses, Luke has 389 in
common with Matthew and Mark, 176 in common with
Matthew alone, 41 in common

• with Mark alone, leaving 544 peculiar to himself.
  
• The events recorded in Acts are verified by the
  Epistles of Paul, yet Acts is the only book to
  give the history of the Church from its
  inception to its growth in the 1st century.

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In fact, Chapter 951 to 1958 is all material
(almost) recorded only by Luke!

• Luke, not Paul, is the largest contributer to the
  NT.
• Luke has 2157 verses - 28
• Paul has 2032
• John has 1416
• Matt 1071
• Mark 678
• Only Luke records
• hx and birth of John the Baptist
• the announcement to Mary
• Jesus weeping over Jerusalem
• the resurection appearance of Jesus to the two
  disciples on the road to Emaes.

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There are seventeen of our Lords parables
peculiar to this Gospel. (including the prodigal
son, the pharisee and the publican, The good
Samaritan, .) Luke also records seven of our
Lords miracles which are omitted by Matthew and
Mark .
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Luke was a gentile physician, who lived in
Antioch. He becomes a fellow laborer with Paul
- some say he had the appostolic gift which would
make him a sort of Apostle.

• Luke was a Historian (Lk.11-4)

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While Paul was in Ceseria in Prison, Luke was in
Palestine, which would have given him the
opportunity to interview the eye whitness -
including Mary! This would account for his more
throurough report of the events.
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It is also interesting to note that his inside
information on Herod had to have been obtained
from someone very close to him.
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Guess who? Luke 83 Joanna, wife of Chuza,
Herods steward!
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Luke truly researched well the story of our
Savior, and gave us with the most extensive, well
reasoned gospel we have. It is also one of the
finest pieces of historical writtings we have in
all ancient liturature!

• Luke calls Luke a tretise (Acts 11)
• 3056 logoj logos log -os

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1b6) what is declared, a thought, declaration,
aphorism, a weighty saying, a dictum, a maxim

• The Universal rational the ability to
  understand.
• Luke and Acts together give us the ability to
  understand the Gospel and the birth of the
  Church.

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1c) It can also mean a weighty discourse of great
importance

• Hughes said, if you study Luke, you can not help
  but be changed
• If you study the book of Acts, it will impact how
  you live as a Christian and how you function in
  your Church!

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Luke fixes the chronology of the events of Jesus
and the early church. Matt. Groups by topics,
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Luke gives us a true gift in this book.

• As a physician (Col 414)

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, he also gives us a human side of Christ
(weeping over Jerusalem, blood sweat 2244)
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Luke is the only gospel that gives us insight to
Jesus childhood. I can see Luke intervewing Mary
and getting the details!
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Like the story of Jesus staying in the Temple at
Jerusalem, and his parents leaving him there and
didnt realize it until they were a days journey
away!
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Luke goes against 1st century thought as he
places women in a seat of honor and on an equal
plane with men in Christ.
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Tradition among early church writings hold that
Luke was martyrded, was unmarried, and died at
age 74 filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Luke was probably written between 57 and 61 AD,
during Pauls imprisonment at Rome. Luke also
wrote Acts about 62 AD.

• Luke is a theologian

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He gives us a view of the love of God for all
mankind, Jew or Gentile, and the love of Christ
for us all. Theology is the study of God and
how He relates to man. Luke also deals most
extensively in the work of the Holy Spirit and
the power God gives us through that work.
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Luke also gives us the rational basis to believe
and know that Jesus is the Messiah and fulfiller
of OT prophecy.
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This Gospel contains twenty-eight distinct
references to the Old Testament, most show how
Jesus fulfills prophecy.

• Luke also wrote Acts

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Acts, is really the continuing story of
Christianity also written by Luke
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There are five arguments which Guthrie uses to
show common authorship

• ) Both books are dedicated to the same man,
  Theophilus (2) Acts refers to the first
  treatise, which is most naturally understood as
  the gospel (3) the books contain strong
  similarities of language and style (4) both
  contain common interests (5) Acts naturally
  follows on from Lukes gospel . . . It may safely
  be concluded that the evidence is very strong for
  linking the two books as the work of one man, a
  conclusion which few modern scholars would
  dispute.
• Commentary

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Had there been newspapers in the Roman Empire
almost 2,000 years ago, some of the headlines
that month might have been

• KING ARTAXUS NEAR DEATH
• GRAIN SHIPS DOCK, ROME RIOTS END
• NINE PIRATE SHIPS SUNK BY SIXTH FLEET
• ATHENS STUDENTS CLASH WITH POLICE
• OLYMPIC WRESTLER STILL IN COMA
• REPORT ANGELS SIGHTED IN JUDEA

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Such headlines look very much like the headlines
in our newspapers today. For the world of the New
Testament was a world very much like ours.

• There were wars.
• There was sickness.
• There was poverty and injustice.

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There were people who struggled to keep on
living, living by habit long after they had lost
any sense of purpose, meaning, or goal.

• It was a world like ours, populated with people
  like ours. But God had made preparations.

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God was about to burst into this world of men.
Jesus was about to be born, and after His birth
our world, despite all its poverty and injustice,
wars and terrorists, has never been the same.
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CS Lewis would not believe in a knowable God
because he reasoned, man can not know God just
like Hamlet can not know Shakespere. The
character can not know the author.
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Finally, CS lewis embrace Christ and realized the
author wrote Himself into the story, so the
creation can know the creator! Praise God! We
can know God - all people of all time of all
nations of all colors are equally loved by God!

• This is Lukes theme!God has never desired the
  kind of world men have made.

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The Bible tells us that God worked carefully with
men. Yet when He looked for justice, He saw
bloodshed for righteousness, He heard cries of
distress (Isa. 57). Even the people of Israel,
who had been given Gods laws and had been sent
prophets to guide them, twisted life out of
shape.
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The people of Israel were brothers, but in the
passion of selfishness they too cheated one
another, lied, and tried to use each other. Yet,
the more life fell under the control of sin, the
emptier life seemed, and the more frustrated
people became (cf. Isa. 59).
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So God judged the sin of His people. History
records a series of defeats and years of foreign
captivity. And then, though living in their own
land, Gods people were crushed under the weight
of the Roman Empire.
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That empire extended over the whole of the
Western world. Rome had brought world peacebut
with peace came heavy taxes, armies of
mercenaries stationed in every land, Roman
culture and values, the gladiatorial games,
slaveryand misery.

• There were still wars.There was still poverty and
  injustice.
• People still struggled to live,
• and kept on living by habit long after they had
  lost all sense of purpose or meaning in life.

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Not all the power of Rome, nor the progress of
our modern technology, have been able to satisfy
the basic need all people share to find lifes
meaning. Neither Rome nor computers have been
able to break the bondage of sin that constantly
expresses itself in individual life and society.
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But something unique was about to happen in an
insignificant province in Romes wide-spread
empire. The birth of a Baby would do what no
authority or invention of man could.
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One day that Babe, full grown, would say, I have
come that they may have life, and have it to the
full (John 1010).
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In the birth of Jesus, God acted decisively to
bring new life to individuals and transformation
to human cultures. In the person of Jesus, God
has extended humanity an invitation to new life.

• Jesus birth offers a fresh newness, a life
  turned around and transformed by the power of God.

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This is what the Gospel of Luke is all about a
transformed life. In Luke Jesus is presented as
the transformer, with a message of new life for
all the world, and with a special message of
newness for believers. As we study this exciting
book, we and your group members will discover
more and more of what it means to really live.
You will learn and teach the how of that full
life Jesus promises, and show how that promise
can be fulfilled in our daily experiences.
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The Book of Acts is clearly a sequel, a second
volume to be read in conjunction with the first,
the Book of Luke. The author is the same, as well
as the recipient, Theophilus. The content of the
first volume pertained to the deeds and the
doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ, ending with
His ascension. Jesus final words, Luke tells us,
were orders to the apostles He had chosen. These
orders were given, Luke includes, by the Holy
Spirit. Those orders were given in Luke and will
be reiterated here shortly. The purpose then of
Acts is to provide an account of that which Jesus
continued to do through His church, by means of
the Holy Spirit. What Jesus began to do and to
teach, the Holy Spirit would continue to do,
through the church.