The Book of Acts

Acts is the story of God’s grace flooding out to the world by Holy Spirit and through the Church. Nothing is more prominent in Acts than the spread of the gospel. Jesus promises a geographic expansion at the outset, and Acts follows the news of his death and resurrection as it spreads from a small group of disciples in Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and all the way to the capital of Rome.

Through the repeated preaching of the gospel to different people groups, the gospel of grace draws them in, forms them as the church centered on the grace of Jesus, and then sends them out in mission to the world. Acts is a historical account of how the resurrection of Jesus changes everything through the birth of the early church.

God is clearly central to the gospel’s expansion. He is at the heart of the gospel message and, through the Holy Spirit, he is responsible for its remarkable growth. The gospel expands not through human strength but through the power of God over barriers of geography, ethnicity, culture, language, gender, wealth, persecutions, weaknesses, suffering, sickness, and imprisonments. Acts makes clear that no one is beyond the scope of God’s saving power, nor is anyone exempt from the need for God’s redeeming grace. 

The book of Acts repeatedly calls us to reflect upon the work of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, establishing the church by the power of the Holy Spirit.