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The book of Acts, The Acts of the Apostles, Luke the Sequel…

Where do I even start with this book? I’ll tell you where we start, back in Luke.  Who thought it was a good idea to tuck the book of John between Luke and Acts?  Ya, I do realize that they really thought through the organization of the Biblical books.  The synoptic gospels were all arranged together, and John is added last because it feels like he read the other gospels and went, “Ya, but you forgot the one about…”  John tells a bunch of stories the others don’t, and his perspective and approach are very different. So ok fine, I understand why John is where it is.  BUT it’s also really inconvenient because it chops the book of Luke in half.  

If this is new to you, read the last paragraph or two of Luke, then read where the story begins in Acts.  There’s a good day’s worth of overlap, and frankly, without the story we read about in Luke, what point would there even be to the Apostles act-ing? 

In fact (huge spoiler alert) Saul, who plays a major role in this book, will say exactly that in one of his famous letters.  The UHCP (unauthorized Hope Cunningham paraphrase) if it existed, would say, “If the story Luke tells wasn’t true, the story Acts tells doesn’t matter.”  Ya, that’s pretty dramatically paraphrased, but that’s his point.  Check it out in 1 Corinthians 15:14 if you’re curious.  

As you may have inferred from my earlier rant, the book of Acts was written by Luke.  So what do we know about him?  Unlike the other gospel writers, it seems like Luke was not Jewish.  He was a well-educated Greek medical doctor.  He was involved in much of the story he tells in the book of Acts, so some is told from his eyewitness perspective, and the rest is told from the stories he heard first hand.  Historically speaking, this is a very reliable account.  

Personally, I love Luke.  He’s clearly way smarter than I am, but he thinks and writes in a way that connects for me.  He’s methodical.  He’s done his homework.  He’s collected the stories and laid them out thoughtfully.  The opening of both books makes it clear that he has been commissioned by an influential man who was probably a Roman official, named Theophilus.  He was to carefully research and record the story of a Jewish rabbi who had caused such a commotion in Palestine that long after he disappeared, his teachings spread all the way across the empire.

And so, the book of Acts is the part of the story where the rabbi’s teachings spread. If you’ve never read it before, you’re gonna love it.   If you’ve read it a hundred times before, me too!  Well, maybe not a hundred, but it’s gotta be close.  Whatever! Let’s do this again.  It never gets old.