ACTS
The continued Life of Jesus through the Apostles

INTRODUCTION

The word which Jesus began to do and teach carried on by the Holy Ghost in the lives of the Apostles,  and the early church Christians.

The truth was not spread by human power,  by the sword,  secular authority,  pious frauds,  cunning craftiness,  human eloquence,  or through worldly motives and prospects.  In Acts we have the true model of the Christian church and the means of propagating the Truth.

Date
Acts was probably written between 60-64 A.D. when Christianity was suspect by Nero,  but not yet openly persecuted.

Territory
During the time recorded in the Acts, Christianity spread from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond.

Key Verse
The Key Verse for the book as a whole is 1:8, and we can see this verse unfold throughout the book:

Written To
Theophilus,  an unknown person,  as in the Gospel of Luke (Acts 1:1; Luke 1:3).

The word in the Greek is recorded in these two places alone,  and means “a friend of God.”

The Great Controversy

The Great Message
The death, burial, resurrection, and manifestations of Jesus Christ, recorded in 18 sermons.

Statistics

Since we know that the entire Bible has God as its Author, we will refer in this section to the "writer," rather than the "author."

The most significant help in discovering the writer of Acts is simply recognizing this book's relationship to the Gospel of Luke:

In fact,  many Bible readers believe Luke and Acts is a single work which was divided into two parts as the books of the New Testament were gathered together.  The size of Luke and Acts combined makes the writer of these two books the chief contributor to the New Testament,  having written twenty-five percent of all Scripture from the Christian era.  Taken as a whole,  Luke and Acts are a larger work than the combined letters of Paul.  Once readers assume Luke and Acts come from the same pen,  they can begin to look for evidence within these books which points toward the writer's identity.

The first piece of evidence comes in Luke 1:2.

Scholars have determined Paul wrote Philemon,  Colossians,  and the Pastoral Epistles during his house arrest in that city. By searching those letters for references to Paul's fellow workers,  they compiled a list of companions who could have written Luke and Acts.

Why did Luke write Acts?
What purpose was the Spirit leading him to fulfill?
The years have produced several different answers to those questions.

Why did Luke separate the Gospel of Luke from Acts?

The Continuation of the Life of Christ

1.	Saul	In Luke 9:4 (NIV),  Jesus spoke directly to Saul and asked,  "Why do you persecute me?"
2.	Aeneas	Later,  in the same chapter,  Peter could say directly to Aeneas,  "Jesus Christ heals you" (9:34 NIV).
3.	Peter	In chapter ten,  Jesus made His will known to Peter concerning a ministry to the Gentiles.

These are but three examples of Jesus' vital involvement in the spread of the gospel in Acts.

Therefore,  despite the fact that Acts begins with the ascension of Jesus,  there is no evidence anyone in the early church perceived Him as  "gone"  from their midst.

Because the story begun in Luke  (the saving work of God)  continues in Acts with the same central character (Jesus),  one must expect the central themes of Luke to continue in Acts as well.  What are the themes which express Luke's personal understanding of the gospel and give his record of Jesus' story his unique touch?

There is an “apologetic” emphasis.

Throughout the whole period of the “Acts,”  the witness was accompanied by the miraculous gifts promised
(Mark 16:17, 18).
Cp. 3:7, 8; 5:5, 10, 15, 16; 6:8; 8:6, 7, 13; 9:33-42; 11:28; 13:11; 14:8-10; 16:18; 19:6, 12; 28:3-6, 8, 9.

Thenceforward,  the privilege of proclaiming and  “witnessing”  (Isa. 43:10; 44:8, &c.)  was taken from the Jew,  and  “the salvation of God”  was “sent =sent away; (Greek apostello.  Implying the mission or commission employed,  and the power and authority backing it.)  to the Gentiles” (28:28).

The proclamation is now by witnesses taken out from among “all the Gentiles upon whom My Name is called” (15:17),  including of course the Jewish members of  “the body.”

The Progress Of Doctrine (teaching)

The development of dispensational teaching in Acts,  as well as in the complementary  “Church”  Epistles of Paul,  and the limitations of the strictly Hebrew Epistles.  Our Lord’s words in John 16:12, 13,  are precious,  and they are precise.

The Gospels record what the Lord  “began to do and teach”  (1:1).
After His resurrection He continued  “speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom.”
And after His Ascension the teaching is carried on by the Holy Spirit,  the Spirit of the truth  (John 14:16, 17, 26; 15:26),  Who was to guide (lead on) into “all the truth” (see John 16:12, 13).

The book naturally divides into two parts which are relative,  mainly:

The period covered by the entire Book is:

It divides into two natural periods:

1. The Period of Home Missions – Chapters 1-8
With Jerusalem as its center, work done mainly in Palestine among the Jews

2. The Period of Foreign Missions - Chapters 9-28

“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”   II Cor. 2:11

Attacks from Outside the Church

	THE ATTACK		THE RESULTS
1.	(2.11)	Mocking	(2:41)	"that day about three thousand souls were added to them"
2.	(4:21)	Threatened	(4:31)	"they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness"
3.	(5:40)	Beatings	(5:42)	"daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ"
4.	(8:1)	Persecution	(8:4)	"those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word"
5.	(12:1-4)	Persecution	(12:24)	"the word of God grew and multiplied"

Attacks from Inside the Church

	THE ATTACK		THE RESULTS
6.	(5:1-9)	Hypocrisy	(5:11)	"great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things"
7.	(6.1)	Division	(6:7)	"the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith"
8.	(8:9-19)	Satanic Influence	(8:20)	"Your money perish with you"
9.	(11:2)	Division	(11:18)	"they became silent; and they glorified God"
10.	(15:1)	False Doctrine	(15:22-31)	"For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things...When they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement"

Matthew 12:25
But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.      (NKJV)

1 Corinthians 1:12-18
Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Christ."
Is Christ divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.  Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Governor

One who governs a land by authority of a supreme ruler to whom he is subordinate.
Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea when Jesus was crucified,  and is so called (Matt. 28:14),  though his specific Roman title was Procurator.

Procurator

Latin for manager, administrator.
The agent of the Roman Emperor,  who resided in Imperial  (as distinct from Senatorial)  provinces,  received the revenues and paid them into the emperor’s private exchequer.

These procurators were subject to the governor of Syria;  but in Judea itself their authority was supreme.

They commonly resided at Caesarea by the sea;  but they were wont to go up to Jerusalem at the feasts and sometimes to winter there,  and they visited various cities of their dominion as occasion required.  When in Jerusalem,  they were accustomed to occupy the palace of Herod.

Tetrarch

One who rules over the 4th part of a kingdom or province.
Philip of Macedon divided Thessaly into 4 districts called Tetrarchies.  Eventually the word Tetrarch was used loosely for a petty subject prince,  even though the land was not divided among 4 such rulers.

The Romans adopted the term and used it as a convenient title for a prince to whom they granted a small territory only,  and whom they were unwilling to dignify with the authority and rank of a king.  The New Testament names 3 of these petty dignitaries:

In the case of the tetrarchs Herod Antipas and Philip the title was appropriate,  even in its original sense,  for Augustus gave ½ of the kingdom of Herod the Great to Archelaus,  with the title of Ethnarch,  and divided the remainder into 2 tetrarchies,  which he gave to them.  A tetrarch was sometimes in courtesy called a king.

Caesar

The family name of a branch of the Julian house or clan in Rome.
Its most illustrious representative was Gaius Julius Caesar,  who was assassinated in 44 B.C.
The name  “Caesar”  was assumed by his grand-nephew Octavius,  later the emperor Augustus.  Tiberius,  who succeeded Augustus,  and Caligula,  Claudius,  and Nero,  who followed in succession,  were all entitled by relationship to the great dictator to bear the family name.

The 6 succeeding emperors – Galba,  Otho,  Vitellius,  Vespasian,  Titus,  and Domitian complete the number 12 in Suetonius’  “Lives of the Caesars.”
From having been the name of one mighty conqueror,  and then of a series of emperors,  the name Caesar became the type or symbol of the civil power in general,  and it is continually used in this sense in discussions as to the relative domains of civil and ecclesiastical rulers.

Tiberius Caesar

The 2nd Roman emperor,  born 42 B.C.,  the adopted son,  also stepson and son-in-law,  of Augustus.
During his reign Judea was governed by Valerius Gratus and Pontius Pilate.  At one time he banished the Jews from Rome,  but later recalled the edict,  and gave them redress for the severity of the provincial governors.  The city Tiberias,  on the Sea of Galilee,  was built in his honor by Herod Antipas.

Speaking of Euticus,  Agrippa’s freed-man –

(End of the Introduction)

Bibliography