Acts Introduction
Category: Church History
Written by: Saint Luke (‘the beloved physician’)
Written for: Addressed to ‘Theophilus’ – which can refer to both a specific person (a prominent Gentile at the time) as well all people who love God (‘Theophilus’ means ‘one who loves God’). As such, as St Ambrose says, ‘if you love God, then this book was written to you’.
At the time of: Written around 75-85AD.
Main Focus: The book covers the spread of the gospel by the apostles, from Jerusalem to the whole world. It shows the work of the Holy Spirit in the early church. This book presents the acts of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, promised by the Lord to His disciples. We see Him behind the history of the Church, being the true Leader, the Guide, and the Mentor, capable of drawing the souls, to experience the work of salvation of the Lord Christ. He shines with His light over the Church, to fill it, amid the afflictions, with a divine, hidden, and attractive splendor, to kindle the hearts with the divine fire of love. It is the divine river that flows from heaven, to set on earth the city of God, a fruitful divine paradise, in place of the barren, spiritually dry wilderness.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, St. Luke the Evangelist revealed to us the Church in the apostolic era: The secret of its birth, its growth, its worship, its testimony to the Lord Christ and its strength through the work of the Holy Spirit. He revealed to us the realization of the Lord’s promise to His disciples: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28.20); “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
A Key Verse: Acts 1:8
Overview: Watch an overview of the book at https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-acts/
Until the end of the first century and the beginning of the second one, this book was considered as a continuation of the gospel according to St. Luke, as the beginning of this book came in harmony with the end of that gospel. Yet, after the gospel of St. John was written; the Church brought the four gospels together; and this book came to form the connecting link that binds the four gospels and the epistles of the apostles. As the epistles reveal the writings of the apostles, this book came to reveal their acts by the Holy Spirit of God, or the works of Christ in them, by them, and to their account. We could never have enjoyed the comprehension of those epistles as we should have; unless they are read through the background of this book. This book helps as well, in a living way, to study the bond between the teachings of the Lord Christ, and those of the apostles.
