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...
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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.
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.
The book of Luke, found after the books Matthew and Mark, focuses on the ministry of Jesus Christ but it also gives us a look into His birth and growth in totality. In this chapter we see a historical account of some of the journeys that Christ experienced. It is important to keep in mind that the Bible and all of its books do serve as historical accounts but each book is unique in the fact that they incorporate a theological timeline. The Bible is, conceivably, the most important book that has ever been written. It gives the world eyewitness accounts to historical events that helped not only shaped a region of the world but the whole entire world. It is nearly impossible to go through some formal societal education and have never once read a part of the bible or have heard a story that adapts from the stories within the bible. The bible has helped formed institutions, associations and so much more. By reading the Gospel of Luke we are truly reading what is meant for us to read as Christians. The principal plot in the book of Luke is the life of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, His ability to beat death and remain perfect as the son of GOD despite being human as well. Jesus is seen as the perfect savior for humans in the book of Luke. Luke not only gives multiple examples of the power of Jesus but also it gives us a look at The Lord’s triumph over temptation. Luke also depicts Jesus as a man/GOD who had a very deep concentration on people and relationships. The book of Luke gives Jesus a loving characteristic but doesn’t shy away from showing that at times Jesus got angry too. Jesus showed a great deal of compassion to the sick, those in pain, the poor, and unambiguously the sinful. Jesus had genuine love for everyone. Throughout this...
The book of Acts is known as 'the birth of the church'. Acts recounts the story of
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.
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
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?”
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
The New Testament is a collection of different spiritual literary works, which includes the Gospels, a history of early church, the epistles of Paul, other epistles and apocalypse. Without deeply thinking or researching of the chronological order of the Gospels, a reader should not have problem to observe that the Gospels begin with the Gospel of Matthew, and to notice that there are many common areas, including content and literary characteristics, among the first three Gospels, the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
The Book of Acts was written to provide a history of the early church. Acts emphasis the importance of the day of Pentecost and being empowered to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. Acts sheds light on the ministry gift of the Holy Spirit, which empowers, guides, teaches, and serves as our Counselor. When reading the Book of Acts many of the readers will be enlightened and encouraged by the many miracles that were being performed during this time by the disciples Peter, John, and Paul. The Book of Acts emphasizes the importance of obedience to God’s Word and the transformation that occurs as a result of knowing Christ. There are also many references to those that rejected the truth that the disciples preached about in Jesus Christ. Power, greed, and many other vices of the devil or evidenced in the book of Acts. Acts 1:8 serves as a good summary of the Book of Acts. Acts records the apostles being Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the rest of the surrounding world.
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.
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
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).
Jesus’ healing ministry constructed a profound theological statement to Israel, similar to his selection of the twelve apostles and his eating with sinners. God’s promise one day to establish his kingdom and renew his people visible and available in preview to any who witnessed his deeds of the teacher from Nazareth.
First major theme of the book of Acts is the work of the Holy Spirit in the apostles and the early church. Jesus appeared to his disciples and commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift, the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3b-5) As they gathered together and prayed in one place, the Holy Spirit came to rest on each of them (2:1-3). The disciples who were filled with the Holy Spirit boldly proclaimed God’s word and performed miracles (2:14-42, 3:1-10). Throughout the book, the author focuses on how the Holy Spirt ministers the apostles and the believers in their lives and the community.
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.