Acts

Acts continues Luke's story by showing what the risen Jesus does through the Holy Spirit and His witnesses. Beginning in Jerusalem and moving outward to Judea, Samaria, and Rome, Acts records the spread of the gospel across ethnic, cultural, and geographic boundaries. The church's mission is not a human expansion project but the work of the exalted Christ through the Spirit. The book highlights preaching, prayer, signs and wonders, persecution, community life, missionary journeys, and the inclusion of Gentiles. Peter, Stephen, Philip, Barnabas, Paul, and many others bear witness that Jesus is Lord and Messiah. Again and again, opposition cannot stop the word of God from increasing. Acts is a bridge between the Gospels and the letters. It explains how the message of Jesus moves from a Jewish setting into the wider Roman world and how churches addressed by the New Testament letters came into being.