The New Testament divides neatly into two nearly equal sections. The first consists of four Gospels that tell about Jesus' life on earth. The second section, beginning with Romans, concerns churches that sprang up after Jesus left. In between stands the book of Acts.
The best way to appreciate Acts is to imagine a Bible without it. You have just read the life of Jesus, underscored by four different authors, and you turn to Romans: "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus . . . to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints." Rome? How did the story get there from Jerusalem?
Next you'd find two books, also from Paul (who's he?), addressed to "the church of God in Corinth." Another book follows, written to the church in Galatia, then one to Ephesus, and so on with more letters to other exotic locales. Obviously, something is missing. Without Acts, the New Testament leaps from an orderly history of one man, Jesus, to a collection of unexplained personal correspondence.
A Plan Revealed by Jesus
With Acts, everything fits into place. This book gives a transition from the life of Christ to the new church. It introduces Paul, and explains how a minority religion crossed the sea to Rome, the capital of the Empire. A reader of Acts visits key cities sprinkled around the Mediterranean, meets the principal leaders of the new movement, and gets a strong scent of the problems that will occupy Paul's letters.
Luke, a physician, had written the third Gospel as an account of "all that Jesus began to do and to teach" (Acts 1:1). The book of Acts resumes the story, hinting that this history, too, |
