Acts
What happened next: the church's first thirty years, from Jerusalem to Rome.
Who wrote it: The same author as Luke's Gospel, traditionally Luke the physician. Written after the Gospel, probably the 70s or 80s AD; some argue for the early 60s because it ends with Paul still alive and untried.
What it is
Acts picks up where Luke ends. The risen Jesus spends forty days with his followers, tells them to wait in Jerusalem for the Spirit, and is taken up out of sight. A hundred and twenty people wait in an upstairs room. Then, at the festival of Pentecost, wind, fire, and a rush of languages. Peter, who denied Jesus seven weeks earlier, stands up and preaches, and three thousand people are baptized in a day. That is chapter 2, and it is the book's engine.
The first twelve chapters stay mostly in Jerusalem and follow Peter. The believers share everything, heal people at the temple gate, get arrested, get flogged, and keep going. Stephen gives a long speech and becomes the first person killed for following Jesus; a young man named Saul holds the coats. Persecution scatters the church, which spreads the message rather than stopping it. Philip explains Isaiah to an Ethiopian official on a desert road. Peter has a vision that convinces him God does not do outsiders, and a Roman centurion's whole house receives the Spirit.
Chapter 9 is the hinge. Saul, on his way to arrest Christians in Damascus, is knocked flat by a light and a voice: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' He is blind for three days, baptized by a man who was terrified of him, and becomes Paul, the church's most relentless missionary. From chapter 13 the book follows him on three long trips around what is now Turkey and Greece: synagogues, riots, a jail in Philippi where the earthquake opens the doors and he stays put, a speech to philosophers in Athens, eighteen months in Corinth, three years in Ephesus.
Along the way the church has to decide the biggest question of its first generation: do non-Jews have to become Jewish to follow a Jewish Messiah? The council in chapter 15 says no. That decision is why Christianity became a world religion rather than a sect. The last quarter of Acts is Paul under arrest: a riot in Jerusalem, two years in prison in Caesarea giving speeches to governors, an appeal to Caesar, a shipwreck on Malta, and finally Rome.
Then it just stops. Paul is under house arrest, preaching to whoever visits, 'with all boldness, without hindrance'. No trial, no verdict, no death. Either Luke wrote it before he knew, or he meant the open ending. The book is called the Acts of the Apostles, but the real main character is the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit's story was not finished.
Verses worth keeping
- Acts 1:8WEB
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Gen Zsame meaning, your words'But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth.'
Jesus's last words before he leaves, and the outline of the whole book: Jerusalem (1 to 7), Judea and Samaria (8 to 12), the ends of the earth (13 to 28).
- Acts 2:42WEB
They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsThey kept at it: the apostles' teaching, sharing life together, eating together, and praying.
The first description of a church. Four things. No building in the list.
- Acts 4:13WEB
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsWhen they saw how bold Peter and John were, and worked out that they were untrained, ordinary men, they were amazed. And they recognized that these two had been with Jesus.
The religious council's view of two fishermen. 'Had been with Jesus' was the only qualification that showed.
26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
Gen Zsame meaning, your words'From one man he made every nation on earth, and he set their times and the borders of where they'd live, so that they would look for God, and maybe reach out for him and find him, even though he isn't far from any of us. Because in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have put it, we're his children too.'
Paul to the philosophers of Athens, quoting their poets back at them. He starts with what they already believe.
- Acts 20:24WEB
But these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of the grace of God.
Gen Zsame meaning, your words'But none of that matters to me. I don't treat my life as precious, as long as I can finish my race with joy and finish the work the Lord Jesus gave me: to tell people the good news of God's grace.'
Paul to the Ephesian elders, knowing prison is ahead. He went anyway.
Read Acts
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
Acts 2
1Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. 4They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
5Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky. 6When this sound was heard, the multitude came together and were bewildered, because everyone heard them speaking in his own language. 7They were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Behold, aren’t all these who speak Galileans? 8How do we hear, everyone in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, 10Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabians—we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!” 12They were all amazed and were perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13Others, mocking, said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke out to them, “You men of Judea and all you who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words. 15For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day.
16But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel:
17‘It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.
18Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.
19I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.
20The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
21It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
22“Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know, 23him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; 24whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
25For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
26Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope,
27because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.
28You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
29“Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, 31he foreseeing this, spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay. 32This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses. 33Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you now see and hear.
34For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand
35until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
36“Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” 40With many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
41Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls. 42They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. 43Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44All who believed were together, and had all things in common. 45They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need. 46Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.
Questions about Acts
Why does Acts stop without telling us what happened to Paul?
Nobody knows for sure. One view is that Luke wrote it around 62 AD, before Paul's trial, and simply reported the present. Another is that Luke knew Paul was executed (tradition says under Nero, mid 60s) and chose to end with the gospel reaching Rome unhindered because that was the story he was telling. Either reading works. Acts is not Paul's biography; it is the account of a message getting from one city to the capital of the world.
Did the first Christians really share everything?
Acts 2 and 4 say the believers in Jerusalem sold property and held things in common so that nobody was in need. It presents this as voluntary and local; Acts 5 says explicitly that the land was theirs to keep. Whether it is a model for all churches or a description of one extraordinary moment is something Christians have disagreed about ever since. Both sides agree Luke admired it.
Is speaking in tongues in Acts the same thing some churches do today?
In Acts 2 the crowd hears real human languages they recognize. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul describes something that needs interpreting. Whether these are the same gift, different gifts, or whether either continues today is a live disagreement between denominations. Acts itself does not settle it.