The Acts of the Apostles

This book continues that started by Dr Luke in his gospel.  It traces the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome through the apostles whom God had appointed.  The book of Acts can also be described as The Acts of the Holy Spirit because it is after the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Ac 1:8) that the Great Commission of Christ began to be fulfilled. 


Since I have problems creating a table here, I am going to use colours to denote different entries/themes.


Acts 1:8 THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH


Outline: Witness in Jerusalem Witness in Judea & Samaria  Witness to the ends of the earth


Chapters: 1 – 7   8 - 12  13 – 28
The Church: Starts  Scatters  Sends


Key Group: Jews  Samaritans  Gentiles


Dates: AD 33-35 AD 35-48 AD 48-62


Time: 2 years 13 years 14 years


The book of Acts ends abruptly with a continuation of the very theme with which it began - the expansion of the church.  The ministry in which Christ was engaged, "all that Jesus began to do and teach" outlined by Luke in his gospel account, finds it furtherance in the closing sequence of the book, "preaching ... and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ," and in spite of the growing persecution, Luke adds the encouraging words, "with all openness, unhindered."


This is the task of the church. We are Christ's witnesses in the urban centres and the rural regions that surround us, in the opposing cultures more distant from us, and in the totally distinct cultures far from us.  The task goes on until we have effectively bring the gospel to the "uttermost part of the earth."