Nowhere in the Bible is there another book like Acts. It is the only biblical record we have of the exciting development and work of the early church.

Acts was written by Luke the physician who also wrote the Gospel which bears his name. In fact, the two works can be considered  two volumes of one continuous story. They are both addressed to an otherwise unknown recipient named Theophilus and in verse 1 of Acts Luke refers to his “first book.” In other words, Luke refers to his Gospel as his first book in the opening statement of his second book.

The two books are the longest two books in the New Testament. In fact, due to the length of the two books, Luke- not Paul- wrote more of the New Testament than any other single author. Paul wrote more individual books,  but Luke exceeds Paul in sheer word count.

In Acts we are introduced to the church in it’s infancy when prayer, dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and evangelism were the essential, identifying markers of the Christian life. It is not out of the question to perceive the core elements of the early church, as presented in Acts, as the “blueprint” of Christ’s church. As someone has said, “Jesus started the church the way He wanted it-now He wants the church the way He started it!”

In the first section of the book through chapter 12 the Apostle Peter is the main human character and most of the action revolves in some way around him. Beginning with chapter 13, however, the narrative focus shifts so that Paul is the main character of the action until the end of the book.

As you read the book of Acts, take note of two things. First, notice how frequently the church retreated to prayer. Second, pay attention to how regularly the early church depended upon supernatural intervention and how often the Holy Spirit is mentioned as a result.

If the book of Acts reflects the purest stream nearest to the original source, how should our own church, and our own Christian experience, be corrected to align with what Jesus originally intended for His people?

JKB