Introduction to Acts

Good morning! Today, I am excited to begin a new series of messages on the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts is actually a “part two” of a longer work, of which the first part is the Book of Luke. Both are written by Luke, and it is very clear that the books are related by their openings. Here is the opening of Luke:

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. – Luke 1:1-4

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, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. – Acts 1:1-2

Due to practical limitations on the length of a scroll, it makes sense that Luke split his account into two separate documents. We also see that Luke is aware of other accounts of Jesus – so his account is definitely not the first that was written. Interestingly, this tells us that if we can date Luke’s account, then we can know that other gospels accounts were written even earlier.

Now who was Theophilus? We don’t really know. There are multiple theories, but none of them of have convincing evidence. The Ethiopian church (that is, the Coptic church) has a long-held tradition that Theophilus was a Jewish person who at one time lived in Alexandria, Egypt.  Some point out that the “most excellent” prefix to Theophilus in Luke implies that Theophilus was a Roman official. But Luke does not use that prefix again in Acts. Others believe that Theophilus was not a specific person at all, but a rhetorical tool that Luke used to invite people to read the letter. They say this because the name Theophilus means “friend of God,” or “loved by God” – Theo means God and phileo is one of the forms of love, the “friendly” form of love – so anyone who chooses to read Luke’s account is in fact a Theophilus, both a friend of God and loved by God.  

In addition to the question of who Theophilus was is the – I think – more important question of who Luke was. Probably the earliest mention of Luke by someone else is Paul in the book of Philemon, the short letter Paul wrote that concerned the fate of Onesimus, a slave who had fled from his master in Colossae, the location of the Colossian church. At the time this letter was written, Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and in a great God-directed twist of irony, the master that Onesimus fled from was Philemon. The book makes it pretty clear that Onesimus became a believer as a result of interacting with Paul, who writes,

Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. – Philemon 1:8-10

The phrase “became my son” clearly implies a conversion experience while with Paul. But back to Luke – Philemon ends with the following:

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. – Philemon 1:23-25

This verse is interesting because it mentions both Luke and Mark. So we see that Luke has direct access to both Paul, so that he can obtain firsthand accounts of what Paul experienced, and also Mark, who is also known as John Mark.

Mark is mentioned in Acts 12:12 as the son of a woman named Mary, whose house was used as a place for early believers to gather and pray, very likely in Jerusalem. Mark is also described as the cousin of Barnabas in Colossians 4:10.

Now, the book of Colossians is an important connection. I think it quite likely that the books of Philemon and Colossians were written at the same time and delivered together, along with Philemon’s slave Onesimus. Colossians is addressed to the entire church in Colossae, whereas Philemon is addressed specifically to Philemon. And so it makes sense that near the end of Colossians we have the following:

Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. – Colossians 4:7-9

Colossians goes on:

My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. – Colossians 4:10-14  

And so – maybe you thought this was a “rabbit trail” – but see? It all comes back to Luke. Paul’s wording here tells us some important things about Luke. He is “our” dear friend, which means he was well known and loved among the Colossians, and we also learn his occupation: Luke was Dr. Luke, a medical doctor. What did medical doctors do at the time of Paul, the time of the Romans? They, like the Greek doctors before them, relied heavily on herbal remedies, with some animal remedies. They did not yet understand the association of germs with disease. But at least some of the herbal remedies were reasonably effective at treating certain conditions. It is easy for us to forget that many remedies we use today may be made in the lab but were originally derived from plants.

Roman-era doctors did surgery when there were no other options. They carried tool kits that included arrow extractors, scalpels, catheters, and forceps. They used boiling water to sterilize their tools before using them. They could certainly do things like re-setting and splinting broken bones or immobilizing sprains. Although they had some herbal and other antibiotic treatments, because they didn’t really understand the germ nature of infection, and because stronger antibiotics were unknown, bacterial infections were often fatal.

Doctors were usually Greek in background, and ironically, looked down on somewhat by typical Romans, simply because they didn’t like the Greeks. But they definitely depended on Greeks for engineering, medical practices, and other technical needs. Yet doctors and other technical professionals were extremely highly educated, and based on the literary quality of Luke’s writing, we know that Luke was highly educated as well.

Like today, if not even more so, before doctors took any action, they would do a detailed examination of the patient, asking questions of symptoms and palpitating and looking at affected and non-affected areas of the body. Attention to detail was critical. And because Luke was trained in this way, he was indeed an ideal person to “carefully investigate everything from the beginning” and write “an orderly account” of both the events of Jesus (the Book of Luke) and the development of the early church (the Book of Acts).

Here is what the famous secular archaeologist Sir William M. Ramsay had to say about the Book of Acts after a lifetime of exploring locations described carefully by Luke:

The present writer takes the view that Luke's history is unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness...You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian's, and they will stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment, provided always that the critic knows the subject and does not go beyond the limits of science and of justice...Acts may be quoted as a trustworthy historical authority....Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy; he is possessed of the true historic sense; he fixes his mind on the idea and plan that rules in the evolution of history; and proportions the scale of his treatment to the importance of each incident. He seizes the important and critical events and shows their true nature at great length, while he touches lightly or omits entirely much that was valueless for his purposes. In short, this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.

In addition to the evidence in Philemon and Colossians of Luke’s association with Paul, we also have Luke’s use of the first person “we” in later parts of the Book of Acts.

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. – Acts 16:9-10

Luke was there in Acts 16 in Philippi when Lydia, “a dealer in purple cloth” became a believer, and he was also there when a demon was cast out of a slave who relied on the spirit to tell the future. The whole city went up in arms, and Paul and Silas (but not Luke) was arrested, beaten, and put into prison. An earthquake broke the jail open, and the jailor and his family came to faith.

It appears that Luke did not join Paul beyond Philippi in this journey, but when the third missionary journey came to Philippi and went from there, Luke was with them once again.

When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days. – Acts 20:1-6  

And so Dr. Luke was there when Eutychus, falling asleep during a long sermon of Paul, fell from the window and died, but Luke’s services were not needed because Paul, through the power of God, basically hugged him back to life and to health. He was there when Paul met briefly with the elders of Ephesus on the way to Jerusalem. Luke was with Paul as he made it to Jerusalem, and after Paul’s arrest, he was with him as he made his way as a prisoner to Rome.

And Paul, writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy, says this near the end of the letter:

Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. – 2 Timothy 4:9-13

And so we see that Luke was with Paul extensively, and was therefore the perfect person to write the Book of Acts.

When was Acts written? I agree with many conservative scholars that it was likely written in the 60s AD, before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, because neither Luke nor Acts records this extremely momentous event. Also, Acts does not record the death of James (likely 62 AD) or of Paul (likely the late 60s AD). The book also devotes much ground to the question of whether there can be Gentile believers in Christ, and what practices they must follow, a topic that was seen as settled and not really important anymore by the time that the number of Gentile believers explodes, which occurred by the 80s AD. This is important from a reliability point of view, because it means that there was absolutely no time for historical “revision”, mythmaking, and so on. We have every reason to trust Acts, even apart from reasons of faith, as accurate.

And so what is Acts about? We have already hinted a lot at this, and I know that most, if not all of you, are quite familiar with Acts. But the overall structure is interesting, and it is easy to miss the forest for the trees as we go deeply into the book line by line in later weeks. So let us look at the overall structure. Looking again at the opening of Acts:

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, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. – Acts 1:1-2

Notice the word “began”. The book of Luke is about what Jesus “began to do” so the book of Acts is about what Jesus continued to do, after His death and resurrection. People often call the book the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, but an equally valid name would be the Book of the Continued Acts of the Triune God. I have frequently joked that my one line summary of the Book of Acts is “Pray and show up” because God orchestrates the rest. I think it is a pretty good rule for life: Pray and show up.

After an introduction in Acts 1, which summarizes the risen Jesus telling the disciples that the Holy Spirit will come and empower them to be His witnesses. Jesus then rises up in a cloud, with the angelic messenger telling the disciples to move on, but also that Jesus will one day return the same way.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells His disciples that:

“You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:8b

And this verse is pretty good summary of the Book of Acts. Chapters 2-7 take place in Jerusalem, Chapters 8-12 take place in Judea and Samaria, and the remaining chapters begin the process of going to the ends of the earth, a process that is continuing to this day.

There is an interesting comparison/contrast study you can make between Luke and Acts. The following observations are due to Prof. John Stevenson. In terms of commonalities: Both begin, following their openings to Theophilus, with angelic announcements. Both begin in Jerusalem. Luke then deals with the birth of Jesus as the Spirit comes on Mary. Acts then deals with the birth of the church as the Holy Spirit comes on Christian believers.

In terms of contrasts: Luke emphasizes a movement toward Jerusalem, whereas Acts emphasizes a movement away from Jerusalem – note that Luke ends with the disciples in Jerusalem; Acts ends with Paul far away, in Rome. Both emphasize Christ with His people, but in Luke the presence is physical, whereas in Acts it is spiritual; in Luke it is external, but in Acts, it is internal.   

In the process of this development, we see the disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, performing miracles like the miracles Jesus performed. We see believers not only among the Jews, but now also among the nations. We see the fulfillment of countless prophecies in the Old Testament that show God redeeming not only members of the people of Israel, but people from every nation and every tongue and every tribe and every nation. A few examples:

“..and through your [Abraham’s] offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed Me.” – Genesis 22:18

“Your [Jacob’s] descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.” – Genesis 28:14

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Him,..” – Psalm 22:27

“May His name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun. All nations will be blessed through Him, and they will call Him blessed.” – Psalm 72:17

“Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” – Isaiah 45:22

“[The Lord] says: ‘It is too small a thing for You to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.'” – Isaiah 49:6

“The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” – Is. 52:10

“He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” – Daniel 7:14

“The Lord will be awesome to them when He destroys all the gods of the land. The nations on every shore will worship Him, every one in its own land.” – Zephaniah 2:11

And so the Book of Acts shows us how the salvation of God spread from believing Jews to believing non-Jews. It’s a beautiful account – with actions led by God, and frankly the response of the Jewish believers, including Peter, was something like, “Oh. Well, that’s definitely happening. It would be unthinkable for us to stand in the way of that, not that we could.”

But one more thing we see in Acts is persecution. The persecution of God’s people is also something we see repeatedly prophesied, especially and specifically by Jesus. A few examples:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching, they [would] obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both Me and My Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’” – John 15:18-25

“They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them.” – John 16:2-4a

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33

Acts shows us this persecution, but we see how God uses the persecution to scatter God’s followers and even more rapidly multiply the gospel. God also uses persecution to refine the faith of those who profess to follow Him.

Regarding persecution, I want to read a pair of ancient letters from the “other side.” The first letter is by Pliny the Younger, written about 110 AD, about 40 years after Acts was written, basically one generation after the final events in Acts. At this point, it is no longer the Jews who are the source of persecution – it is the Romans, who are acting in more and more aggressive ways because the Christians have multiplied so greatly that it is beginning to affect the very culture – people are leaving the old gods, no longer attending the temples, and no longer considering the emperor to be God. This fear of a people who are multiplying like crazy should remind you of something from the Old Testament – it should remind you of Egypt in the time between Joseph and Moses.

A relatively inexperienced Pliny the Younger was made governor of Bithynia, a small, mostly backwater region in what is now Turkey. (It does contain one important city, though.) As questions arose about governing, he would write to Emperor Trajan. The letter is important because it clearly establishes the growing Christian church in a source outside the Book of Acts.

Bithynia is mentioned twice in Scripture: once in Acts 16:7, as a place Paul desired to visit on one of his missionary journeys, but a place that it says the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go to. And once in the opening of I Peter, as one of the locations of believers that this letter was addressed to. So we know that there were believers multiplying in this location even in New Testament times.

I will say that reading these letters reminds me of reading the Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis. In many ways, it is like a real-life Screwtape, who if you have not read the book, is written from the perspective of a young demon seeking advice from an older demon on how to best keep those under his charge away from Christianity, or failing this, making them unproductive. If you have never read it, you should definitely do so, as its “backwards” presentation is used to powerfully remind us to do the opposite of what the demons in the story try to get the people to do. In any case, here is Pliny’s letter:

It is my practice, my lord, to refer to you all matters concerning which I am in doubt. For who can better give guidance to my hesitation or inform my ignorance? I have never participated in trials of Christians. I therefore do not know what offenses it is the practice to punish or investigate, and to what extent. And I have been not a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on account of age or no difference between the very young and the more mature; whether pardon is to be granted for repentance, or, if a man has once been a Christian, it does him no good to have ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even without offenses, or only the offenses associated with the name are to be punished.

Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome.

(Note here the consistency of what we find in the Book of Acts in how Paul, a Roman citizen, is transferred to Rome after he is arrested.)

Soon accusations spread, as usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and several incidents occurred. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ—none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do—these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.

(To be clear here – what the arrested had to do was simply light a candle, splatter some wax and some wine in the direction of a statue of the emperor and of one of their gods, and curse Christ out loud. To do this would only take a few seconds. Do this, and you would be released. Fail to do so, and you faced death, and probably an extremely painful and public death.)

They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food—but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations.

(These are the ones who would not deny their faith. They asked Pliny if what they were doing, simply gathering together, singing a hymn to Christ, and prior to the ban, remembering the Lord with the bread and the cup – whether that was really so terrible. They pointed out that they committed no crime but indeed committed to be absolutely upright.)

Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.

(Notice here the external validation of the fact that the early believers elevated both slaves and women to positions of responsibility, a radically progressive step for that time.)

I therefore postponed the investigation and hastened to consult you. For the matter seemed to me to warrant consulting you, especially because of the number involved. For many persons of every age, every rank, and also of both sexes are and will be endangered. For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and farms. But it seems possible to check and cure it. It is certainly quite clear that the temples, which had been almost deserted, have begun to be frequented, that the established religious rites, long neglected, are being resumed, and that from everywhere sacrificial animals are coming, for which until now very few purchasers could be found. Hence it is easy to imagine what a multitude of people can be reformed if an opportunity for repentance is afforded. (Epistulae X.96)

It is a fascinating and also a terrible account. The gospel has spread so far and wide that Pliny is maybe wondering if the entire region has “fallen for this superstition.” Let’s look at the second letter, Trajan’s response. If you recall, we spoke multiple times in recent weeks about Trajan and his propensity for putting up idols at the locations of destroyed Jewish and Christian worship sites. Ironically, his doing so helped preserve these locations for posterity. Here is what Trajan wrote:

You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it—that is, by worshiping our gods—even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age. (Epistulae X.97)

As time went on, to the time of Diocletian, the persecution became even worse. But despite all this, Christians continued to multiply. It is humbling to understand what those before us had to go through so that we could have faith today. And throughout the world, there are still those who face severe persecution, and the Bible tells us that a time is coming when it will become worse again.

Did Bithynia survive this persecution? Well, Bithynia contains Nicaea, the birthplace of the Nicaean Creed, composed in 325 AD. My prayer for us, as we go through the Book of Acts this year, is that doing so would deepen our faith and commitment to God, and that it would deepen our commitment to seeking out people who would be receptive to the gospel and helping to continue to grow the kingdom of God.