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Acts Introduction

The book of Acts is of critical importance in clarifying Christian beliefs, describing the religious practices of early believers who knew Jesus, and defining a missionary program.

Acts is the earliest known record of the growth and development of the apostolic church; and it’s the only record written before the 4^th century.  For Christians who long for a return to the simple faith and worship and power of the first-century church . . . here in Acts is the most reliable model.

By showcasing the practices of the early church, Acts offers a bridge between the ministry of Jesus and the letters (or epistles) of His apostles. It’s difficult to understand either the early church or Paul and his letters without understanding Acts, because Acts provides the cultural and historical background.

Acts is also about missionary efforts – fulfilling the great commission. Furthermore, since so much of the focus of Acts is bringing the gospel across great cultural divides, it provides helpful insights for 21^st century America.  

Jesus’ ministry was pretty much to the Jews; hence the gospels don’t have the same cultural focus as Acts does. To understand the culture of Acts, we need to understand “Hellenism” . . . which came to the Middle East almost 400 years earlier: when Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered the known world from Greece to Egypt to India with superior military tactics based on the phlanx. Alexander and his successors imposed Greek culture, “Hellenism,” on the conquered peoples. Hellenism focused on beauty . . . in buildings and people . . . like the Parthenon with its beautiful statue of Athena.  It was unbridled hedonism and free love.  It was many gods—with great power but human weaknesses.  It was theater and horse racing and nude athletic competitions.  And it was a “western” thought process, with emphasis on logic . . . a focus on “form” over “function.” Hellenism was a lot like the practices in 21^st century America. 

Conquest by the Greeks brought massive culture shock to the Jews.  Hellenism was the epitomy of evil in their minds; and 150 years after Alexander entered Jerusalem, Jewish guerillas led by the Maccabees defeated the Greeks and established an independent Jewish nation – which lasted 100 years, until it was conquered by Rome. 

The Romans adopted the hedonism of Hellenism with only minor changes.  But the Romans were organizers and engineers; they cared little about anyone's culture or religion – as long it did not oppose Roman Rule – and they built a vast network of military roads to maintain peace in the empire. (The roads and religious freedom were critical to Paul’s ability to spread the gospel – as we’ll see in Acts.)

In Jerusalem, the Jewish religious leaders (the Sadducees) collaborated with their Greek and (later) their Roman rulers to preserve their high positions, and they corrupted the Jewish religion to accommodate. Rank-and-file Jews in the rural synagogues of Israel are uncomfortable with their religious leaders, with the pervasive culture of Hellenism, and with a potentially oppressive Roman military rule. 

Jews have also settled across the rest of the Roman Empire, due to a dispersion which occurred when Babylon conquered Jerusalem in the 7^th century BC. These Jews have formed synagogues in towns throughout the empire, where they meet on the Sabbath for Torah service. (Such synagogues of dispersed Jews across the Roman empire was also were critical to Paul’s ability to spread the gospel – as we’ll see.) Since the dispersed Jews were a small minority, theyed tended to be more culturally like the people around them; they were called “Hellenized Jews” – looked down upon by the Israelite Jews when they traveled to Jerusalem for Jewish feasts. Nevertheless, minority status can also produce rabid believers – such as Saul, a Jew from the city of Tarsus (in modern Turkey).

Furthermore, , since the hedonist "religion" of Hellenism is spiritually unfulfilling – both now and then – many Gentiles are attracted to the moral absolutes of Judaism, and attend the Torah services in dispersion synagogues. These are called “God-fearing Gentiles” in Acts – and some even submit to circumcision to become Jews.

This was the religio-cultural situation time of Jesus . . . and at the time of Acts.

As Acts begins, Jesus gives the Apostles what has been called “the Second Great Commission” . . . verse 1:8:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8)

Before the apostles can ask Jesus what this means this, He ascends to heaven . . . while they watch.  Ten days later at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit arrives . . . in tongues of fire.  This is not the first time the Holy Spirit has come upon people, but it’s the first time it has done so en masse, and moved into people’s hearts as a counselor – as Jesus promised.

So . . . emboldened by evidence of the resurrection of Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ followers do amazing things in Jerusalem:  they preach and heal and defy the Jewish religious establishment . . . until the Jewish establishment finally has enough.  A disciple named Stephen is stoned, and anti-Christian persecution breaks out . . . which is actually good, because it forces Christians to flee Jerusalem and become missionaries to Judea and Samaria and beyond – as Jesus ordered them to do.  Zealous Jews such as Saul of Tarsus pursue Christians to stamp them out; but en route to Damascus, Jesus appears to Saul, and he himself becomes a Christian.

We all know Jesus was a Jew – as were all his disciples and almost everyone he associated with. Up until this point the Christian church consists entirely of Jews – yet the rest of Acts is the story of taking Christianity to the Gentiles. It’s normal today to want to share the gospel with people of other cultures and races, but 2000 years ago that was a radical idea! Devout Jews intensely dislike the Greco-Roman culture and the Gentiles who practice it; pious Jews are allowed no social associations with Gentiles. The rabbis teach that Jews are automatically “saved” and non-Jews automatically damned.

Why would Jewish Christians want to share the gospel with Gentiles? How is this great cultural barrier bridged?  To make a long story short: Peter has a vision from God, and the Holy Spirit comes upon Gentile Christians. This convinces Peter – but it takes a lot of effort to convince Jesus’ brother James and the Christian church in Jerusalem. They want to accept Gentiles only if they convert to Judaism (with circumcision and the whole 9 yards); and the tension between these two positions underlies much of the rest of Acts!

Meanwhile in Antioch, the 3^rd largest city in the Roman Empire, large numbers of Gentiles are becoming believers in Jesus.  The church in Jerusalem sends an emissary to verify the legitimacy of this movement . . . then calls Saul from his home in Tarsus – just over 100 miles away – to go to Antioch to instruct these new believers. Saul does even more.  After building up the church in Antioch, he travels through central Turkey to preach about Jesus – using his Roman name, Paul.  He wins many converts – but encounters fierce Jewish opposition.

And while Paul is away from Antioch, the battle over the conditions under which Gentiles shall be recognized as Christians reignites. Pharisee-Christians in Jerusalem continue to insist the new Gentile believers must first become Jews – which precipitates the “Council of Jerusalem,” where the “church fathers” meet to decide this issue. Ultimately they agree Gentile Christians need only do two things:  demonstrate separation (“holiness”) from the immorality of their Greco-Roman civilization, and prepare foods in such a way that they can eat with Jews without causing offense.

Flushed with victory at the Council of Jerusalem, Paul sets out on an even more ambitious missionary journey . . . to more of Turkey and on to Greece.  He confronts the philosophers of Hellenism in their intellectual citadel of Athens.  Paul returns home to and reports on his work . . . then strikes out on a 3^rd missionary journey, also to Turkey and Greece. 

But all is not roses. Paul’s effective preaching causes Jewish opposition to intensify. It also causes concern among Gentiles that people will turn to Jesus and quit buying shrines to pagan gods – which causes a riot by silversmiths in Ephesus. And Pharisee-Christians don’t accept the ruling of the Council of Jerusalem; they continually try to undercut Paul’s work and impose a yoke of oppressive legalism upon new Gentile Christians.

Paul returns to Jerusalem, where he precipitates a riot by Jews. He is taken prisoner by the Roman army for his protection; but the Jews pursue him doggedly, until ultimately Paul demands a trial by the emperor in Rome, rather than submit to a Jewish “kangaroo court.” This is Paul's right as a Roman citizen . . . but it means Paul is taken on an arduous sea journey to Rome as a prisoner of Caesar. Under house arrest in Rome, Paul is free to preach Jesus and write letters to the churches he founded . . . which he is doing as Acts comes to an end.

Within the framework of this story, lots of important issues are addressed . . . which we’ll discuss in the next 24 weeks.  We learn about Holy Spirit.  After Jesus ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit came to live within believers . . . to empower them to do Jesus’ work on earth.  We see this over and over in Acts.

We also learn in Acts about the universalism of the gospel of Jesus:  the applicability of God’s grace to non-Jews.  We experience the clash between the Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures . . . yet we see Paul translate the good news of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, into something understood in the Gentile culture and mindset.  On the other hand, although Paul emphasizes Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, we see overwhelming, vehement Jewish rejection of Christianity.  Acts helps us learn why.

Acts constantly reminds us that cross-centered preaching produces exponential growth.  The “gospel” is always the same:  forgiveness of sins has been made possible by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  How do we best grow the church the 21^st century? Just the way they did it then!

But, lastly, we see efforts within the early church to convince Christians to give up the freedom Jesus promises . . . and replace that freedom with the shackles of legalism.  Why does anyone listen to that?  Indeed:  why do modern Christians listen to modern legalists? 

This will be an interesting study.

The author of Acts is Luke, a physician from Antioch, a Gentile who became a believer and disciple and followed Paul on his missionary journeys until his martyrdom.  Acts is the sequel to the Gospel of Luke, in which the author promises “an orderly account” based on interviews with “eyewitnesses and servants of the word,” which have been “carefully investigated” (Luke 1:2-3). Luke wrote Acts in the early 60’s AD—before Paul and Peter were martyred in the persecution of Christians by Nero in AD 64-67, and before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. The authorship of Acts by Luke (and of the gospel of Luke) is one of the least disputable facts of the New Testament – except to those who claim everything in Christianity is myth.

Luke was a product of the Greco-Roman world.   He knew that to receive a hearing from his Greco-Roman audience, he had to adhere to certain “norms” established by the great Greek historiographers, including a rigorous methodology for accuracy.  His research had to be comprehensive; his narrative had to be based on evidence obtained from eyewitnesses and reliable written accounts; and his account had to be chronologically accurate. Luke could not afford to be sloppy, even on details such as dates, political titles, and legal matters.  Mistakes in even small points would invalidate his narrative; and Luke has been proven reliable – even in areas where “scholars” claimed for years he was wrong. 

It’s exciting that Acts is an eyewitness account.  The author was a participant in many of the events he reports . . . he actually heard many of the speeches he transcribes – and those he did not witness are based on eyewitness testimony. Acts is the “real deal.”  As we read Acts, we can almost reach out and touch the apostles . . . and especially Paul.  We can feel we are in the audience for the great speeches.

All this historical and cultural background is leading up to the point that we intend to follow the traditional method of interpretation since the 16^th century: to allow the Bible to speak for itself . . . to use every tool at our disposal to hear the intended message of the original author.  This includes reading each passage in its larger literary context and against the background of its proper historical context. We reject the “this is what the Bible means to me” or the "this is what I think the Bible ought to say" traps popular in some quarters today. These traps effectively seek to replace the Word of God with our word – implying we are under an inspiration equal to that of the writer of Scripture.

We also reject the hyper-literalist interpretations which treat the New Testament letters as if they were written last week from someone in the next county.  They're not. The bible must be understood in historical and cultural context; it’s not right to uncritically claim we're being "obedient" to God's word by transposing something that was culturally correct 2000 years ago onto today’s culture.

The Bible is rich in meaning on many different levels. But we must always begin by first seeking to understand the inspired, intended meaning of God’s Word . . . as the original hearers understood it.  Only then can we accurately apply the Bible to the 21^st century.  All other approaches – however well-meaning – risk a return to the spiritual bondage which characterized the Church before the 16^th century Reformation.

 So, as we study Acts, we will try very hard to hear the words of Luke as his 1^st century Jewish and Greco-Roman audiences heard them . . . and to use that as a springboard to apply them to 21^st century America.