Did you ever sit in a group where the members were asked to divide into groups, read some Scripture and then "tell what they learned?" In most cases, they learned stuff out of context, reported cliched ramblings and came away having not learned what the Scripture was really about.
Today's book review is about the book of Acts.
In some Bibles it is titled "The Acts of the Apostles." Some theologs have said it should be called "The Acts of the Holy Spirit." Both titles are partly right and partly wrong.
The book does tell about things the Apostles did. It also tells what the Holy Spirit did. But neither is what the book is really about.
Acts divides itself into three parts: The establishment and rapid growth of the church (chapters 1-2); the trials of the Apostles and their perseverance through them and Paul's trip to Rome. Each of the three sections advances the main narrative which is the preaching of the gospel.
In Acts 1-2 we find 3,000 people who were touched by the Holy Spirit, responded to the gospel message and were saved. There are some peripheral stories, such as the early Christians sharing what they had (voluntarily...not through government coercion), the experience of glossa (languages), and the healing of a crippled beggar, but the main event was the salvation of souls when they heard the gospel.
Chapter 3 records a healing and a gospel message to the Jews, who Peter said should have recognized Messiah.
From chapter 4 all the way through chapter 26 we have instance after instance of Peter, John, Stephen, Philip and Paul preaching the gospel, getting tried, thrown in jail or stoned for it and their refusal to preach any other message, much to the chagrin of the religious leaders known as Pharisees.Each chapter tells of at least one such incident and most tell of multiple incidences.
When Paul got to Athens, he tried to dialog with the philosophers, trying to convince them about the unique, special God he served. That went over like a lead balloon. Paul records in his letter to the Corinthians that he had learned his lesson and would never again stray from preaching only the gospel. And he never did.
As we read the narrative, we finally get to chapters 27-28 where Paul finally makes it to Rome. There he preaches the gospel with the protection of Roman guards, since he was a Roman citizen. Still the Pharisees tried to get to him, but they could not.
The lessons to be learned from Acts do not revolve around how churches should behave. It revolves around what should be our determination to preach the gospel, no matter what the circumstances and no matter what the costs.That is what the book is about.
I used to think the book of Acts was about boring church history, or how Christians are to interact, or any one of a dozen other minor themes. Frankly, I hated the book...until I learned that it is really about keeping-on-keeping on with the gospel message, no matter what. That takes guts (and the comfort of the Holy Spirit) and is exciting!
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