Acts study notes

Important Concepts

• The Spirit-Empowered Church: Acts is the story of the risen Christ working by His Spirit through His people.
• The Gospel’s Advance: From Jerusalem to Rome, nothing can stop the word of God from spreading.
• Witness to the Resurrection: The apostles proclaim the crucified and risen Lord, calling all to repentance and faith.
• Salvation for the Nations: The door of faith is opened to the Gentiles, who are saved by grace apart from the law.
• One Name: Salvation is found in no one but Jesus; forgiveness comes only through faith in Him.
• God’s Sovereign Purpose: Behind the whole mission stands the sovereign God, whose plan cannot be thwarted.

Practical Application

Acts pulses with the reality that the church exists for mission, and that its mission is powered not by human cleverness or strength but by the Holy Spirit of the risen Christ. The same Lord who told a handful of disciples they would be His witnesses “to the end of the earth” is still building His church today, and He still gives His Spirit to embolden ordinary believers to speak of Him. Acts confronts our timidity and self-reliance, and calls us to depend on the Spirit, to pray as the early church prayed, and to bear witness to Jesus wherever He places us. It also portrays a beautiful picture of church life — devoted to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer, and marked by generous, sacrificial love — that remains the pattern for God’s people.

Acts is also deeply encouraging in the face of opposition and hardship. Its heroes are imprisoned, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and martyred, yet the refrain of the book is that “the word of God increased and multiplied.” God sovereignly weaves even persecution into the spread of the gospel: Stephen’s death scatters the church and sows the seed; Paul’s imprisonment carries the message all the way to Caesar’s household. This assures suffering Christians in every age that no chain, court, or storm can stop God’s purposes, and that our labor for Christ is never in vain. Finally, the open ending of Acts — Paul preaching in Rome “with all boldness and without hindrance” — invites us to see ourselves as part of the continuing story, called to carry the same gospel of salvation in the one saving name of Jesus to the ends of the earth.

Questions for reflection

1. Acts shows the church empowered by the Spirit for witness. Where is Christ calling you to be His witness, and are you relying on His Spirit?
2. The early church devoted itself to teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. How does your church life compare to that pattern?
3. Nothing could stop the word of God in Acts. How does that steady you when the gospel seems to face great obstacles today?