Introduction to the book of Acts

Acts is a historical account of the early church recorded by Luke. This introduction provides a guide for how we should read and understand the significance of the events in this book.

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven…. (Acts 1:1-2)

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

The Bible is not a book. It is a collection of books: Sixty-six books. Thirty-nine books making up the Old Testament. And twenty-seven books making up the New Testament. Within this collection of sixty-six books there are, generally, ten different types of literature found. These include history, law, wisdom, poetry, prophecy, gospel, parables, letters, eschatology (end times) and apocalyptic (the book of Revelation).

The reason why knowing what kind of literature we are reading matters, is because this determines how we understand what we’re reading.

For example, we read and understand instructions for using a lawnmower differently than a fairy tale. We take instructions literally. We do not take a fairy tale literally. We would not be surprised to read about the existence of a fire breathing dragon, of dwarfs, a witch and a sleeping beauty in a fairy tale. But we would be surprised to read about those things in a lawnmower instruction manual. In a fairy tale a character may be able to fly. It would be ridiculous and dangerous to take this literally, to believe that you too must be able to fly and to try to do so by jumping off a high building.

As a child I watched cartoons in which one character would blow up, shoot with a gun and saw in two another character, who would, seconds later, be fully recovered and would return to inflict similar mayhem on his opponent. My mother never had to tell me not to do such things to my sisters. She never told me not to take these cartoons literally. But somehow, intuitively, I understood by the nature of the medium—the television cartoon—that I should not take what I saw, literally.

I heard a missionary many years ago tell of his going to a remote group of jungle people to bring them the gospel. In the process of telling them about Jesus he showed them a small picture of Jesus. They had never seen a picture before. They did not understand the medium. They responded to the picture by saying, “My, Jesus was a very small man.”

When it comes to reading the Bible, awareness of the medium, the literary type, must be taken into account or it will result in misunderstanding.

For example, in the book of Psalms, chapter 11, verse 4, we read,

The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth; his eyes examine them.

Should we take what we read here to be literally true? Yes, and no. No, in the sense that we do not take what the psalmist said to mean that God is literally in a building somewhere (in his holy temple), sitting on a chair (on his heavenly throne), using his eyes to observe everyone on earth. If you understood this verse in this literal sense you would greatly misunderstand the nature of God.

But we understand the medium, the type of literature that is being used here. This is poetry. So we understand that this language is not to be taken literally. The psalmist is using imagery. He is using poetic license. The correct understanding of what is being said here, what we do take as being literally true, is that God is holy and is sovereign overall all the earth, he is fully aware of all that is going on and that all people are accountable to him.

The type of literature that the book of Acts is is historical narrative. Acts is a history of the early church; it is an account of the continued “acts” of the Apostles, or the continued acts of Jesus Christ, or the acts of the Holy Spirit. Acts covers events that took place from approximately 33 AD to 62 AD, in a relatively small area of the world (from Rome to Jerusalem). The events Luke recorded for us in Acts were, at the time they occurred, of relatively little significance, involving very few people (often personal interactions). They were not major world events by the world’s standards. Nevertheless, Luke believed it was important for Theophilus (and many others) to know these things that happened. And God knows it is important. That is why he has preserved this book—the record of what happened—for us for thousands of years.

Understanding this about the book of Acts, here are some foundational and introductory truths about this book we should keep in mind.

The first truth is that Acts is history. This means that what Luke recorded actually happened. Acts is not a fairy tale. Acts is not a religious myth or a fabrication. It’s easy to forget this—especially when we read about miraculous events that we find hard to believe. Your faith in God must be built on fact, not on fiction. Reminding ourselves regularly that what we are reading is true, it actually happened, will bring God’s word to us with the power and gravity we should experience as we interact with it.

The second thing to note about the book of Acts is that it is a record that includes some miraculous events—events that are extra-ordinary, that are to us unexplainable, that violate what we consider the laws of nature. That’s why we call them “miracles.” Do you believe in miracles? Many do not and so the book of Acts has little credibility as a historical account.

Luke comes across as a careful, an exact writer and recorder. His Gospel record, he said, was based on “careful investigation.” It was, he said, an “orderly” account so that Theophilus would know with “certainty” what Jesus taught. This same precision he applied to his record in Acts. Luke records miracles in a surprisingly “matter-of-fact” manner. He expresses no astonishment at what we consider astonishing. He equally expects God to work freely in both mundane and miraculous ways. In fact, it is as if in Luke’s estimation there are no “miracles,” there’s just God at work.

The third thing to note—which is what the miraculous points to and verifies—is that there is a spiritual world, a spiritual reality beyond this world, beyond what we know and understand, that is just as real as this world is. It is a world, a realm different from this world. It is a world that is not subject to the “natural” laws of this world. It is, according to Jesus, the kingdom of God, the eternal world, that exists and is, according to Jesus, more “real” and important than this world.

The fourth thing we see in the book of Acts is that we often cannot understand or predict how God works. As soon as we think we’ve got God figured out, he works in a way we never imagined. We desperately try to put God in a “box.” We analyze and look for patterns and we formulate doctrines by which we explain God and try to eliminate uncertainty. But we need to submit to God, honor God, trust God, live by faith and embrace what are God’s mysterious ways. Reading the book of Acts you find that what God said of himself through the prophet Isaiah is so very true:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The fifth thing to remember from the book of Acts is that what happened in the past is not necessarily what will happen in the present and future.

There is a common disclaimer that appears at the end of many of the commercials for financial investment firms that goes like this, "Past performance is no guarantee of future results." We should keep this disclaimer in mind when we read historical accounts in the Bible. What happened in the past is no guarantee that God will work the same way in the present or future. This is often forgotten or completely reversed. Many Christians “claim promises” (guaranteed results) based on how God performed in the past.

It would it be foolish for me to expect (to “claim the promise”) that God would part the waters of Long Island sound for me to walk from Stratford to Port Jefferson on dry ground. That was what God did for his people when they crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 14:10ff.). Should I expect him to do the same for me? Of course not. Why? Because God parting the Red Sea for his people was the exception, not the rule.

I have heard of Christian couples who, having been unable to have children, claim the “promise” that God will “open the womb” for them as he did for Sarah (Genesis 17:15ff.). I have heard of Christians who put out a “fleece,” expecting God to, as he did with Gideon, miraculously give them specific direction (Judges 6:36-40). And I often hear of calls for prayer for the good and healing of our country based on the “promise” that “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). While the nature of the relationship God’s people had with him is similar to the relationship he has with “his people” today, the fact is, when God said he would “heal their land,” he was not talking about the United States.

The sixth and last truth I’ll point out is that reading the history of what God did in a very distant time and place and with very different people in a very different world reminds us that God has plans and purposes that are much bigger than “me.” What matters is not how God can fit into what I’m doing, but how I can fit into what he’s doing. In Acts 12 we read about how Herod had James, the brother of John, put to death by the sword (12:1-2). At the same time Herod had Peter arrested intending to put him to death as well. But God intervened for Peter and miraculously saved his life (12:2ff.). Why didn’t God miraculously save James? That wasn’t fair to James. Why didn’t God stop the stoning of Stephen (7:54-60)? Why didn’t Jesus spare Paul from all the suffering he endured for Jesus’ name (9:15-16)? What we see is that God is not concerned with what is fair, or good, or convenient and comfortable for us. He is concerned with one thing: accomplishing his will for his glory. Acts is a reminder to us that God is the “potter,” we are the “clay,” and he can and will do with us whatever is according to his will, not ours (Romans 9:20-21).

We can hardly believe that Jesus said something like this; something that so offends our sensibilities, our sense of self-importance and that so upsets our understanding of the nature of our relationship with God.

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” (Luke 17:7-10)

The book of Acts is a revelation to us of the greatness and glory of God, and of the amazing and wonderful privilege it is to participate in the establishing of his kingdom, to be a part of his church, to be one of his unworthy servants doing only what is our right and good and honored duty. It is appropriate and good and richly satisfying to feel so small and insignificant in the presence of God and in the light of the book of Acts which gives us only a glimpse into the working of God’s grand plan. I have heard it said that we need to learn from history so as not to repeat the mistakes that were made. But what we need to learn from the history in the book of Acts is how it is that we fit in to the history that is still unfolding and that belongs to our God. ♦