Acts: The Risen Jesus Continues His Work
Step into the unfolding story of the early church as the risen Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit, transforms fearful disciples into witnesses and carries the gospel from Jerusalem outward to people, places and nations they never imagined reaching.
Welcome to Acts
Acts begins with an ending that is really a beginning.
Jesus has been crucified.
Jesus has risen.
For forty days He has appeared to His disciples and spoken about the kingdom of God.
Now they stand with Him before His ascension.
The disciples still have questions.
“Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus does not give them a timetable.
Instead, He gives them a mission:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”
Then Jesus ascends.
The disciples return to Jerusalem and wait.
And in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes.
From there, the story moves.
Jerusalem.
Judea.
Samaria.
Beyond.
Peter preaches.
Thousands respond.
The church grows.
Opposition comes.
Stephen is killed.
Persecution scatters believers.
Philip carries the gospel into Samaria.
An Ethiopian official hears about Jesus.
Saul, the persecutor, encounters the risen Christ.
Peter enters the home of a Gentile named Cornelius.
Antioch becomes a centre of mission.
Paul and Barnabas are sent.
Churches are planted.
Arguments arise.
Decisions must be made.
Prisons open.
Riots erupt.
Kings listen.
Ships are wrecked.
And eventually Paul reaches Rome.
Acts is filled with movement.
But Luke is not merely telling us how Christianity spread geographically.
He is showing us how the risen Jesus continues His work through the Holy Spirit and through ordinary, imperfect people who bear witness to Him.
That distinction matters.
Acts is sometimes treated primarily as a collection of formulas for reproducing particular experiences.
But Luke’s central focus is larger.
This is the continuing story of Jesus.
Luke’s first volume told us what Jesus “began to do and teach.”
Acts shows what happens next.
The risen Christ reigns.
The Holy Spirit is given.
The gospel is proclaimed.
And barriers begin falling.
Jew and Samaritan.
Jew and Gentile.
Religious insider and pagan outsider.
Powerful and powerless.
Men and women.
People from different nations and languages.
The message concerning Jesus moves outward.
But Acts does not romanticise the early church.
There is generosity.
And hypocrisy.
Boldness.
And fear.
Unity.
And disagreement.
Miracles.
And martyrdom.
Deliverance from prison.
And faithful believers who are not delivered from death.
Rapid growth.
And fierce opposition.
Acts therefore refuses simplistic formulas.
Faithfulness does not always produce comfort.
Being filled with the Spirit does not remove suffering.
Prayer does not mean every outcome will match what believers hoped for.
But through it all, God’s purposes continue moving forward.
And Acts leaves us with a remarkable picture.
Paul is in Rome.
Not standing before a cheering crowd.
Not controlling an empire.
But living under guard.
And still:
“preaching the kingdom of God and teaching things about the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.”
Human circumstances have restricted the messenger.
They have not imprisoned the message.
Before You Begin
Acts is the second volume of Luke’s two-part work.
Both books are addressed to Theophilus.
Luke’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ earthly ministry, death, resurrection and ascension.
Acts begins by briefly returning to the ascension and then continues the story.
That connection is essential.
Acts is not primarily the story of impressive apostles.
It is the story of what the risen Jesus continues doing through the Holy Spirit and His witnesses.
Several themes deserve attention before you begin.
First, watch the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit empowers witness.
Fills believers.
Guides mission.
Speaks.
Sets people apart.
Gives courage.
Directs people towards particular places and away from others.
Falls upon Gentiles.
And makes unmistakably clear that God’s saving work is not limited to one ethnic group.
But Acts should not be read as though every narrative event establishes an identical sequence that every Christian experience must reproduce.
Acts records a unique period of redemptive history as the gospel moves from its Jewish beginnings across significant covenantal and cultural boundaries.
We should learn deeply from what happens without turning every detail into a universal formula.
Second, watch the word of God.
Luke repeatedly describes God’s word growing, spreading and prevailing.
The church grows through Spirit-empowered witness to Jesus.
The apostles do not preach themselves.
They preach Christ.
Third, notice the importance of Scripture.
Peter explains Pentecost from Scripture.
Stephen retells Israel’s history.
Philip explains Isaiah to the Ethiopian official.
Paul reasons from the Scriptures.
The early church repeatedly interprets what God is doing through the biblical story that has come before.
Fourth, notice how Acts handles suffering.
Peter is miraculously released from prison.
James is executed.
Stephen is martyred.
Paul survives stoning, imprisonment, beatings, storms and shipwreck.
Acts never gives us permission to conclude that greater faith always produces earthly deliverance.
God may rescue.
God may sustain through suffering.
Either way, faithful witness remains the calling.
Fifth, pay attention to the expanding inclusion of Gentiles.
This is one of Acts’ great theological developments.
The question is not whether God suddenly decided to care about the nations. Israel’s Scriptures had long anticipated blessing extending to the nations.
The question is how Gentiles are now incorporated into God’s people through Christ.
Acts 10, Acts 11 and Acts 15 are particularly important.
Finally, remember that Acts describes events during a foundational and transitional period in the church’s history.
Some events are clearly presented as examples of faithful Christian life.
Others record what happened without necessarily commanding believers to reproduce every detail.
Good reading asks:
What does Luke actually emphasise?
What does this event reveal about God, Christ, the Spirit, the gospel and the church?
What principles are confirmed elsewhere in Scripture?
That will help Acts transform us without making it say more than Luke intended.
The Story of Acts
Acts begins in Jerusalem with the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The apostles proclaim the risen Christ.
The church grows.
Opposition intensifies.
Stephen is killed.
Persecution scatters believers beyond Jerusalem.
The gospel reaches Samaria and then crosses increasingly significant boundaries.
Saul the persecutor becomes Paul the witness.
Peter is sent to Cornelius, a Gentile.
Antioch becomes an important missionary church.
Paul and others carry the gospel through Asia Minor and into Europe.
A major dispute concerning Gentile believers is addressed in Jerusalem.
Paul continues travelling, preaching and planting churches.
Eventually he is arrested in Jerusalem and appeals to Caesar.
After imprisonment, trials, a dangerous voyage and shipwreck, he reaches Rome.
Acts ends with Paul proclaiming Jesus at the centre of the empire.
The story has moved from Jerusalem towards the nations.
Movement One – Power to Be Witnesses
Acts 1-2
What Happens Here
Luke begins by reminding Theophilus that his first account concerned what Jesus “began to do and teach.”
Jesus has presented Himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs.
He instructs His disciples to remain in Jerusalem and wait for the Father’s promise.
They will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.
Then Jesus gives the great geographical and theological outline of Acts:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses.”
Jerusalem.
Judea.
Samaria.
The ends of the earth.
Jesus ascends.
The disciples return to Jerusalem, devote themselves to prayer and choose Matthias to replace Judas among the twelve.
Then Pentecost arrives.
A sound like a violent rushing wind fills the house.
Tongues resembling fire appear.
The believers are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin speaking in other languages as the Spirit enables them.
Jewish pilgrims from many nations hear the mighty deeds of God proclaimed in their own languages.
Some are amazed.
Others mock.
Peter stands and explains what is happening through the prophet Joel.
He then proclaims Jesus.
Jesus was crucified.
God raised Him.
Jesus has been exalted.
The promised Holy Spirit has been poured out.
Peter declares:
“God has made Him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The listeners are pierced to the heart.
They ask:
“What are we to do?”
Peter calls them to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ.
About three thousand people respond.
The new community devotes itself to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.
Generosity grows.
Meals are shared.
God is praised.
And people continue being added.
What to Notice About God
The Holy Spirit’s power is given for a purpose:
witness to Jesus.
Pentecost is spectacular.
But Peter does not make the phenomena themselves the centre of his sermon.
He explains them and then preaches Christ.
Jesus crucified.
Jesus raised.
Jesus exalted.
Jesus Lord.
The Spirit directs attention towards the Son.
A Thread to Follow
Acts begins with disciples asking about the kingdom.
Jesus redirects them from knowing the timetable towards fulfilling their calling.
There is a lesson here that will continue through the New Testament.
God has revealed enough about the future to produce faithfulness.
He has not revealed everything necessary to satisfy human curiosity.
Pause & Notice
- What does Jesus say the Holy Spirit will empower His disciples to do?
- What is at the centre of Peter’s Pentecost sermon?
- Where might you be more interested in knowing what God has not revealed than faithfully living what He has already made clear?
Movement Two – The Name of Jesus Cannot Be Silenced
Acts 3-5
What Happens Here
Peter and John encounter a man unable to walk from birth sitting near the temple gate.
He asks them for money.
Peter tells him:
“I do not have silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!”
The man is healed.
He enters the temple walking, leaping and praising God.
A crowd gathers.
Peter immediately refuses personal glory:
“Why are you amazed at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk?”
He points towards Jesus.
The religious authorities arrest Peter and John.
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly proclaims that the man was healed through Jesus Christ, whom they crucified and whom God raised.
Then comes the declaration:
“There is salvation in no one else.”
The authorities command them to stop speaking in Jesus’ name.
Peter and John refuse.
They return to the believers.
The church prays – not primarily that opposition disappear, but for boldness to continue speaking God’s word.
The place is shaken.
They are filled with the Holy Spirit and continue speaking boldly.
The community demonstrates remarkable generosity.
Barnabas sells property and gives the proceeds.
Then Luke immediately places a darker story beside it.
Ananias and Sapphira sell property but lie about what they have given.
Peter makes clear that the property was theirs and the money remained under their control. Their sin is not failing to donate everything.
It is deliberate deception.
Both die under divine judgement.
Fear comes upon the church.
The apostles continue performing signs.
Opposition grows.
They are arrested again.
An angel releases them and tells them to return to the temple and speak “the whole message of this Life.”
They are arrested again.
Beaten.
Ordered not to speak in Jesus’ name.
And they leave rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonour for His name.
They continue teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
What to Notice About God
God’s power does not make His servants the centre.
Peter refuses that immediately.
“Why do you stare at us?”
The healing points towards Jesus.
This is a crucial safeguard for every generation of Christian ministry.
When God’s work becomes a platform for human self-exaltation, something has gone deeply wrong.
A Thread to Follow
Notice the church’s response to opposition.
They pray.
But their prayer is not built around controlling their enemies or guaranteeing their own safety.
They ask God to enable them to continue speaking faithfully.
Acts is beginning to redefine boldness.
Boldness is not loudness.
It is faithful witness even when faithfulness becomes costly.
Pause & Notice
- How do Peter and John respond when attention turns towards them after the healing?
- What does the church ask God for when opposition begins?
- When following Jesus becomes uncomfortable, is your first desire always for the discomfort to disappear, or are you also learning to ask how you can remain faithful within it?
Movement Three – Growth, Opposition and a Scattered Church
Acts 6-8
What Happens Here
As the church grows, practical problems emerge.
Greek-speaking Jewish believers complain that their widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
The apostles do not dismiss the concern.
Seven respected men are appointed to oversee the need so the apostles can remain devoted to prayer and the ministry of the word.
One of those men is Stephen.
He performs wonders and speaks with wisdom.
Opponents cannot withstand him, so false accusations are arranged.
Stephen is brought before the council.
Acts 7 records his long speech tracing Israel’s history through Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the tabernacle and temple.
His message culminates in a severe accusation that his hearers are resisting the Holy Spirit and following the pattern of those who rejected God’s messengers before them.
The crowd becomes furious.
Stephen sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand.
He is dragged outside the city and stoned.
As he dies, Stephen prays:
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
Then:
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”
A young man named Saul watches and approves.
Severe persecution begins.
Believers are scattered.
But the attempt to suppress the message produces an unexpected result:
“Those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.”
Philip goes to Samaria.
People respond to the gospel.
Peter and John later come, and the Samaritans receive the Holy Spirit, visibly confirming their inclusion within the one expanding people of God.
Then an angel directs Philip towards a desert road.
There he encounters an Ethiopian court official reading Isaiah.
The man asks for help understanding the passage.
Philip begins from that Scripture and preaches Jesus to him.
The Ethiopian believes and is baptised.
The gospel is moving outward.
What to Notice About God
Persecution is evil.
Stephen’s death is tragic.
Acts does not call the murder good.
Yet human opposition cannot finally stop God’s mission.
The scattered believers carry the message with them.
God is able to work through circumstances His people would never have chosen.
That does not mean every painful event should be called God’s direct design.
It means opposition does not place God’s purposes beyond His ability to accomplish them.
A Thread to Follow
Stephen dies praying in language that echoes Jesus.
Jesus prayed for His executioners.
Stephen prays for those killing him.
Transformation is becoming visible.
The disciple is beginning to resemble the Lord he follows.
That may be one of Acts’ deepest pictures of Spirit-formed life.
Not merely supernatural activity.
Christlike character under pressure.
Pause & Notice
- How does the church respond when a genuine internal problem involving neglected widows appears?
- What happens to the gospel after persecution scatters believers from Jerusalem?
- When you are under pressure, what tends to emerge from your heart – and what might it look like for the character of Jesus, not merely Christian words, to become increasingly visible in your response?
Movement Four – The Persecutor Meets Jesus
Acts 9:1-31
What Happens Here
Saul is still breathing threats and murder against Jesus’ disciples.
He obtains authority to arrest believers in Damascus.
Then everything changes.
A light from heaven flashes around him.
He falls to the ground.
A voice asks:
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Saul asks:
“Who are You, Lord?”
The answer comes:
“I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”
Saul discovers something extraordinary.
In persecuting Jesus’ people, he has been persecuting Jesus.
He is led blind into Damascus.
For three days he neither eats nor drinks.
Then the Lord speaks to a disciple named Ananias.
Ananias knows Saul’s reputation.
His fear is understandable.
But Jesus tells him that Saul is a chosen instrument who will carry His name before Gentiles, kings and the sons of Israel.
Ananias obeys.
He enters the house.
And addresses the feared persecutor:
“Brother Saul.”
Saul regains his sight.
He is baptised.
Soon he begins proclaiming:
“He is the Son of God.”
The persecutor becomes the witness.
But conversion does not make his life easy.
Those who once shared his cause now plot to kill him.
Believers initially fear him.
Barnabas takes him to the apostles and explains what has happened.
Eventually Saul leaves Jerusalem.
Luke closes the section describing the church enjoying a period of peace, being strengthened and continuing to grow.
What to Notice About God
Saul does not find Jesus because he has been sincerely searching for Christianity.
He is actively trying to destroy the church.
Grace interrupts him.
This should permanently challenge our tendency to decide that certain people are beyond God’s reach.
The man who appears to be one of the gospel’s greatest enemies will become one of its most significant witnesses.
A Thread to Follow
Notice Ananias.
We naturally focus on Saul because we know what comes later.
But Ananias must obey Jesus before he knows how Saul’s story will unfold.
He walks towards someone he has every reason to fear.
Acts often advances through people doing the next faithful thing without knowing the full consequences.
Pause & Notice
- What does Jesus’ statement “Why are you persecuting Me?” reveal about His relationship with His people?
- What does Ananias have to overcome in order to obey Jesus?
- Is there anyone you have mentally placed beyond the possibility of God’s grace because you can only see who they are now rather than what God may yet do?
Movement Five – God Shows No Partiality
Acts 9:32-12:25
What Happens Here
Peter travels among believers and is involved in remarkable miracles.
Aeneas, paralysed for years, is healed.
Tabitha – also called Dorcas – becomes ill and dies.
Peter prays, and she is restored to life.
Then Acts turns towards one of its most important transitions.
A Roman centurion named Cornelius fears God, gives generously and prays.
An angel instructs him to send for Peter.
Meanwhile Peter receives a vision involving animals considered unclean under the Mosaic food laws.
A voice tells him to rise, kill and eat.
Peter refuses.
The voice answers:
“What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”
Peter initially wonders what the vision means.
Then Cornelius’s messengers arrive.
The Spirit tells Peter to go with them.
When Peter enters Cornelius’s house, he explains what he has learned:
God has shown him not to call any person unholy or unclean.
Peter begins preaching Jesus.
Before he finishes, the Holy Spirit falls upon the Gentiles.
The Jewish believers with Peter are amazed.
The Gentiles speak in tongues and magnify God.
Peter orders that they be baptised.
When he returns to Jerusalem, some believers criticise him for entering a Gentile home and eating with Gentiles.
Peter carefully recounts what happened.
The response is extraordinary:
“Well then, God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
The gospel continues spreading.
In Antioch, large numbers believe.
Barnabas is sent to investigate.
He sees the grace of God and rejoices.
He brings Saul to Antioch.
It is there that the disciples are first called Christians.
Then persecution strikes again.
Herod kills James, the brother of John.
Peter is arrested.
The church prays fervently.
An angel miraculously releases Peter.
The praying believers initially struggle to believe he is actually standing outside.
Herod later dies under divine judgement.
And Luke closes with another summary:
“But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.”
What to Notice About God
Acts 12 places two outcomes painfully close together.
James is killed.
Peter is miraculously released.
Both are apostles.
Both belong to Jesus.
The difference cannot simply be explained by saying one had more faith or received better prayer.
Acts gives us no such explanation.
That should make us deeply cautious about judging a person’s spirituality by whether they receive the outcome for which they prayed.
God’s faithfulness is larger than a single earthly outcome.
A Thread to Follow
Peter says:
“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality.”
The gospel confronts deeply rooted human divisions.
Peter needs God to transform his understanding before he enters Cornelius’s home.
Acts does not merely show outsiders being changed by the gospel.
It also shows believers being changed as they discover the breadth of God’s grace.
Pause & Notice
- What convinces Peter and the Jerusalem believers that God has welcomed Gentiles through faith in Christ?
- What do the different outcomes for James and Peter teach us not to assume about suffering, prayer and faith?
- Are there categories of people you find difficult to imagine fully welcomed into God’s family on the same basis of grace that welcomed you?
Movement Six – Sent by the Holy Spirit
Acts 13-14
What Happens Here
The church in Antioch is worshipping and fasting when the Holy Spirit says:
“Set Barnabas and Saul apart for Me for the work to which I have called them.”
After fasting and prayer, the church sends them.
Barnabas and Saul – increasingly called Paul – begin travelling and proclaiming the word.
On Cyprus they encounter opposition from Elymas the magician.
Then in Pisidian Antioch, Paul speaks in the synagogue and traces Israel’s story towards Jesus.
He proclaims forgiveness through Christ.
Many respond.
Others oppose.
Paul and Barnabas increasingly turn towards Gentile hearers.
The word spreads.
In Iconium, many believe, but opposition develops.
In Lystra, Paul heals a man unable to walk.
The crowd concludes that Barnabas and Paul are gods.
Instead of accepting worship, they tear their clothes and urgently redirect the people towards the living God.
Then the atmosphere changes dramatically.
Opponents arrive.
Paul is stoned and dragged outside the city, presumed dead.
He survives.
The missionaries continue.
Then, astonishingly, they return through some of the same cities where they encountered danger, strengthening the disciples.
Their message includes this sobering truth:
“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
They appoint elders in the churches and return to Antioch.
There they report what God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
What to Notice About God
Paul and Barnabas refuse worship.
Like Peter earlier, they understand that God’s power is not permission for God’s servants to become the centre.
Acts repeatedly redirects glory away from the messenger towards God.
Notice also how they describe their mission afterwards.
Not primarily:
Look what we achieved.
But:
Look what God did.
A Thread to Follow
The Holy Spirit sends.
The church sends.
The missionaries go.
This is not individualistic mission detached from Christian community.
Prayer, worship, Spirit-led calling, communal sending and faithful action belong together.
Pause & Notice
- How do Paul and Barnabas respond when people attempt to worship them?
- How do they describe their missionary work when they return to Antioch?
- When something goes well in your life or ministry, how naturally does your heart move towards gratitude to God rather than building identity around being impressive, needed or successful?
Movement Seven – Grace Settles the Question
Acts 15:1-35
What Happens Here
A major theological crisis emerges.
Some men from Judea teach Gentile believers:
“Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Paul and Barnabas strongly disagree.
The issue is taken to Jerusalem.
The apostles and elders gather.
There is much debate.
Peter reminds them that God chose for Gentiles to hear the gospel through him and gave them the Holy Spirit.
Then Peter asks why they should place a yoke upon Gentile disciples that neither their ancestors nor they had been able to bear.
His conclusion is central:
“We believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”
Barnabas and Paul describe what God has done among the Gentiles.
James turns to Scripture and sees the inclusion of the nations as consistent with God’s revealed purposes.
The council concludes that Gentiles do not need to become Jews in order to be saved.
A letter is sent explaining the decision and giving instructions intended to support holy living and fellowship within the mixed Jewish-Gentile church.
The believers in Antioch rejoice at the encouragement.
What to Notice About God
Salvation rests upon the grace of the Lord Jesus.
Human beings continually feel the pull towards adding grounds for superiority.
Ethnicity.
Tradition.
Performance.
Background.
Religious achievement.
Acts 15 cuts through that instinct.
Jew and Gentile alike stand before God through grace.
A Thread to Follow
Notice how the church handles serious disagreement.
There is debate.
Testimony is considered.
Scripture is brought to bear.
Leaders listen.
A decision is reached.
The disagreement is not dismissed as unimportant, because the gospel itself is at stake.
Unity does not mean avoiding difficult truth.
Biblical unity is built around truth and grace.
Pause & Notice
- What is the central theological question being addressed in Acts 15?
- What evidence and Scripture help the church recognise God’s work among Gentiles?
- Where might you be tempted to add unspoken qualifications to grace – ways people must become more like you before you can fully regard them as belonging?
Movement Eight – The Gospel Crosses Into New Places
Acts 15:36-18:22
What Happens Here
Immediately after the Jerusalem Council, Acts records something painfully human.
Paul and Barnabas disagree sharply about whether John Mark should accompany them on another journey.
The disagreement becomes so strong that they separate.
Barnabas takes Mark.
Paul chooses Silas.
Luke does not explicitly tell us that one man was entirely righteous and the other entirely wrong.
Nor does he present their conflict as ideal.
He simply records it.
The mission continues.
Paul meets Timothy.
Then the Holy Spirit redirects their travel plans.
Paul receives a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading:
“Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
They cross into Macedonia.
At Philippi, Lydia responds to the gospel and opens her home.
A slave girl exploited through fortune-telling follows Paul and his companions.
Paul commands the spirit troubling her to leave.
Her owners become furious because their source of income has disappeared.
Paul and Silas are beaten and imprisoned.
Around midnight, they are praying and singing hymns.
An earthquake opens the doors.
The jailer assumes the prisoners have escaped and prepares to kill himself.
Paul stops him.
The jailer asks:
“What must I do to be saved?”
Paul and Silas answer:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
The jailer and his household hear the word, believe and are baptised.
Paul later travels to Thessalonica, Berea and Athens.
In Berea, hearers examine the Scriptures daily to test what Paul is teaching.
In Athens, Paul encounters a city filled with idols.
He speaks at the Areopagus, beginning from truths his audience can recognise but moving clearly towards the Creator, repentance, judgement and the resurrection of Jesus.
Some mock.
Some want to hear more.
Some believe.
Paul then travels to Corinth, where he works alongside Priscilla and Aquila and remains for an extended period teaching God’s word.
What to Notice About God
The Spirit’s guidance sometimes includes closed doors.
Paul intends to travel in particular directions, but the Spirit redirects him.
Only later does the way into Macedonia become clear.
We should be careful about turning every frustrated plan into a secret message from God. Acts gives specific divine guidance within this particular mission.
But the broader truth remains important:
God’s servants are not sovereign over their own plans.
Faithfulness includes willingness to be redirected.
A Thread to Follow
Watch the variety of people receiving the gospel.
Lydia, a businesswoman.
A desperate jailer.
Jews searching the Scriptures.
Greek philosophers.
People from very different social, religious and intellectual backgrounds hear the same essential message concerning Jesus.
The gospel does not require everyone to have the same story before they meet Christ.
Pause & Notice
- How does Paul communicate differently in the synagogue and in Athens without changing the core truth he proclaims?
- What does Acts reveal about God’s ability to work through changed plans, conflict and opposition?
- How do you respond when life does not follow the route you expected – with increasing trust and flexibility, or with a need to control every outcome before you can feel secure?
Movement Nine – The Word Grows and Prevails
Acts 18:23-20:38
What Happens Here
A gifted Jewish teacher named Apollos arrives in Ephesus.
He knows the Scriptures and teaches accurately concerning Jesus in important respects, but his understanding is incomplete.
Priscilla and Aquila take him aside and explain “the way of God more accurately.”
Apollos receives instruction and becomes a powerful help to believers.
Paul later arrives in Ephesus.
The ministry there becomes extensive.
Some disciples who know only John’s baptism receive fuller instruction concerning Jesus.
Extraordinary miracles occur through Paul.
An attempted imitation by the sons of Sceva ends disastrously, demonstrating that Jesus’ name is not a magical formula to be manipulated.
Many who have practised magic publicly renounce it and destroy valuable books associated with those practices.
Luke summarises:
“So the word of the Lord was growing and prevailing mightily.”
But transformation threatens economic interests.
A silversmith named Demetrius gathers other craftsmen whose business depends upon producing shrines of Artemis.
A riot erupts.
The gospel is not merely changing private beliefs.
It is affecting what people worship and therefore how money is made.
Paul later travels through Macedonia and Greece.
At Troas, a young man named Eutychus falls from a window during Paul’s long teaching and is restored.
Then Paul meets the Ephesian elders at Miletus.
He reminds them how he served among them with humility, tears and trials.
He warns them about future dangers.
He entrusts them to God and to the word of His grace.
Then comes a deeply emotional farewell.
They kneel.
Pray.
Weep.
Embrace Paul.
They know they may never see him again.
What to Notice About God
Truth is not threatened by honest correction.
Apollos is knowledgeable and gifted.
Yet he still has something to learn.
Priscilla and Aquila do not publicly humiliate him.
They help him understand more accurately.
And Apollos receives the correction.
There is maturity on both sides.
A Thread to Follow
In Ephesus, people do not merely add Jesus to their existing spiritual practices.
They renounce what is incompatible with following Him.
That is an important picture of repentance.
Grace welcomes people as they are.
Grace does not tell them that everything must remain as it was.
Pause & Notice
- What do Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila teach us about truth, humility and correction?
- What happens in Ephesus when allegiance to Jesus begins affecting people’s spiritual practices and economic interests?
- Is there anything you are trying to keep alongside Jesus that His truth may actually be calling you to release rather than merely rename as Christian?
Movement Ten – Bound for Jerusalem
Acts 21-23
What Happens Here
Paul travels towards Jerusalem despite repeated warnings that suffering awaits him.
Believers plead with him not to go.
Paul remains convinced that he must continue.
In Jerusalem, he meets with James and the elders and reports what God has done among the Gentiles.
Concerns arise regarding rumours about Paul’s teaching among Jewish believers.
Paul participates in a purification arrangement intended to demonstrate that the accusations against him have been misrepresented.
But opponents from Asia recognise him at the temple and stir up a crowd.
Paul is dragged out and nearly killed.
Roman soldiers intervene.
Paul asks to address the crowd.
He tells his story.
He speaks about his Jewish background, his persecution of Christians and his encounter with Jesus.
The crowd listens until he speaks about being sent to the Gentiles.
Then violence erupts again.
Paul later appears before the council.
Conflict breaks out between Pharisees and Sadducees.
That night, the Lord stands near Paul and says:
“Take courage; for as you have testified to the truth about Me in Jerusalem, so you must testify in Rome also.”
A conspiracy is formed to kill him.
Paul’s nephew hears of the plot and reports it.
Roman authorities move Paul under heavy guard to Caesarea.
What to Notice About God
Jesus’ encouragement to Paul does not mean Paul will avoid hardship.
It means hardship will not prevent the purpose Jesus has for his witness.
“Take courage.”
Biblical courage is not confidence that nothing painful will happen.
It is confidence that faithfulness remains possible because Christ is Lord even when painful things do happen.
A Thread to Follow
Paul repeatedly tells his testimony.
His story matters.
But notice its centre.
He is not the hero.
Jesus confronted him.
Jesus sent him.
Jesus changed the direction of his life.
A Christian testimony is ultimately valuable because it bears witness to Christ, not because the person telling it has an unusually dramatic story.
Pause & Notice
- What remains consistent in Paul’s testimony as he speaks to different audiences?
- What exactly does Jesus promise Paul when He tells him to take courage?
- When you think about courage, do you define it as certainty that circumstances will work out comfortably, or as faithfulness to Christ even when the outcome remains costly?
Movement Eleven – Witness Before Governors and Kings
Acts 24-26
What Happens Here
Paul remains imprisoned in Caesarea.
He appears before Governor Felix and responds to accusations brought against him.
Paul speaks about righteousness, self-control and coming judgement.
Felix becomes frightened but repeatedly delays making any meaningful response.
He also hopes Paul will offer him money.
Two years pass.
Festus replaces Felix.
Paul eventually appeals to Caesar as a Roman citizen.
King Agrippa and Bernice arrive, and Paul is given another opportunity to speak.
Once again, Paul tells his story.
He describes his former opposition to Jesus’ followers.
His encounter with the risen Christ.
And the commission he received to carry the message to both Jews and Gentiles.
Paul says his message is consistent with what Moses and the Prophets said would happen:
the Christ would suffer and, by rising from the dead, proclaim light to both the Jewish people and the Gentiles.
Festus accuses Paul of madness.
Paul responds calmly.
Then he turns towards Agrippa.
Paul is not merely defending himself.
Even while on trial, he remains a witness.
Agrippa, Festus and the others conclude that Paul has done nothing deserving death or imprisonment and could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar.
But the appeal will take him to Rome.
What to Notice About God
Years of waiting do not mean the mission has stopped.
Paul spends a long period imprisoned.
From a purely human perspective, it might look like wasted time.
Yet even imprisonment places him before governors and kings, just as Jesus had said when Paul was first called.
Acts challenges our tendency to measure usefulness only by visible freedom and rapid progress.
A Thread to Follow
Felix hears truth and delays.
That is another kind of response to the gospel.
Not outright rejection.
Not belief.
Later.
Acts reminds us that postponement is not the same as obedience.
Hearing truth repeatedly does not guarantee that we have responded to it.
Pause & Notice
- How does Paul continue using his circumstances as opportunities to bear witness to Jesus?
- What different responses do Felix, Festus and Agrippa make to what they hear?
- Is there anything you already know is true but continue postponing because listening feels easier than responding?
Movement Twelve – To Rome, Through the Storm
Acts 27-28
What Happens Here
Paul is placed aboard a ship for Rome.
The voyage becomes increasingly dangerous.
Paul warns that continuing will result in serious loss.
His warning is ignored.
A violent storm overtakes the ship.
For many days, neither sun nor stars are visible.
Eventually hope of survival begins to disappear.
Paul tells those aboard that an angel of the God to whom he belongs and whom he serves has assured him that he will stand before Caesar and that the lives of those travelling with him will be spared.
But the ship will be lost.
After fourteen terrifying days, the vessel runs aground near Malta.
All aboard reach land safely.
On Malta, Paul survives a snakebite and ministers among the islanders.
Eventually the journey continues.
Paul reaches Rome.
Believers come to meet him.
Though living under guard, Paul receives visitors and explains the kingdom of God, trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets.
Some are persuaded.
Others do not believe.
Acts ends without resolving Paul’s legal case.
Instead, Luke gives us a final picture:
Paul remains in Rome for two years, welcoming people and:
“preaching the kingdom of God and teaching things about the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.”
What to Notice About God
The final word of Acts is striking:
unhindered.
Paul is under guard.
The gospel is not.
Storms have not stopped it.
Prisons have not stopped it.
Riots have not stopped it.
Religious opposition has not stopped it.
Political power has not stopped it.
Shipwreck has not stopped it.
The messenger may be constrained.
God’s word continues.
A Thread to Follow
Acts does not really end.
Luke closes his book while the mission remains open.
The gospel has reached Rome, but Jesus spoke of witness reaching “the remotest part of the earth.”
The story of the apostles belongs to a unique foundational period.
Yet the church’s calling to bear faithful witness to Christ continues.
Pause & Notice
- What does Paul’s journey to Rome reveal about the difference between God’s faithfulness and a trouble-free life?
- Why might Luke choose to end Acts with Paul preaching under guard rather than resolving every detail of his story?
- What circumstances are you tempted to see only as restrictions, and how might faithfulness to Jesus still be possible within what you cannot presently change?
See Acts as a Whole
Acts begins with Jesus.
And it ends with Jesus.
At the beginning, the risen Lord tells His disciples:
“You shall be My witnesses.”
At the end, Paul is in Rome:
“teaching things about the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Between those points, almost everything changes.
The frightened disciples become bold witnesses.
The Jerusalem church grows into thousands.
The gospel crosses into Samaria.
An Ethiopian travels home having heard about Jesus.
Saul the persecutor becomes Paul the apostle.
Peter enters a Gentile home.
Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit.
Antioch becomes a missionary centre.
Paul and Barnabas travel.
Churches form.
The Jerusalem Council confirms that Gentiles are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus rather than by becoming Jewish converts first.
The gospel crosses into Macedonia.
Lydia believes.
A jailer believes.
Athenians hear.
Corinth hears.
Ephesus is shaken.
Governors hear.
A king hears.
Sailors witness God’s preservation.
And eventually Rome hears.
But the road is anything but smooth.
There are lies within the church.
Widows are neglected.
Stephen is murdered.
James is executed.
Peter is imprisoned.
Paul and Barnabas argue.
Missionaries are beaten.
Paul is stoned.
Churches face false teaching.
Riots erupt.
Paul is arrested.
Years pass.
A ship sinks.
Acts does not present the Spirit-filled life as a life in which everything becomes easy.
It presents something far stronger:
Jesus continues His work through His Spirit and His people even in a world that resists Him.
The church does not advance because Christians become powerful enough to control society.
It advances through witness.
Prayer.
Truth.
Service.
Sacrifice.
Generosity.
Scripture.
Courage.
Repentance.
Spirit-given power.
And ordinary people continuing to speak about Jesus.
Seven Great Threads to Carry With You
1. Jesus Is Risen and Reigning
Acts does not leave Jesus behind at the ascension.
He continues acting.
He pours out the Spirit.
He confronts Saul.
He directs His servants.
He encourages Paul.
He builds His church.
The ascended Jesus is not absent.
He reigns.
2. The Holy Spirit Empowers Witness
The Spirit fills Acts.
But His activity repeatedly directs attention towards Jesus and God’s mission.
Power is not given primarily for spiritual status.
It equips God’s people to bear witness to Christ.
3. The Gospel Is for All Peoples
Acts moves deliberately across boundaries.
Jerusalem.
Judea.
Samaria.
Gentiles.
The nations.
God does not erase every cultural difference.
But He creates one people through Christ.
No ethnicity possesses a superior path to salvation.
All are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.
4. God’s Word Cannot Be Imprisoned
People attempt repeatedly to silence the gospel.
Apostles are threatened.
Beaten.
Imprisoned.
Killed.
Scattered.
Yet Luke keeps telling us:
The word grows.
The word spreads.
The word prevails.
The story ends:
unhindered.
5. Faithfulness Does Not Guarantee Comfort
Stephen is faithful and dies.
James is faithful and dies.
Peter is imprisoned and released.
Paul is beaten, stoned, imprisoned and shipwrecked.
Acts gives no biblical basis for measuring God’s love or someone’s faith by whether suffering is immediately removed.
Sometimes God delivers His servants from suffering.
Sometimes He remains faithful to them through suffering.
6. Grace Changes People and Communities
Saul becomes Paul.
Zacchaeus belonged to Luke’s Gospel; Acts continues the same pattern of grace producing changed lives.
People abandon magic.
Generosity grows.
Enemies become brothers.
Jews and Gentiles eat together.
Communities form around Jesus.
Grace does not merely change someone’s eternal destination.
It begins reshaping allegiance, relationships, priorities and behaviour.
7. The Church Exists to Bear Witness to Jesus
Acts contains remarkable people.
Peter.
Stephen.
Philip.
Barnabas.
Paul.
Priscilla.
Aquila.
Lydia.
Silas.
Timothy.
But none is the centre.
Jesus is.
The church’s calling is not to persuade the world that Christians are impressive.
It is to bear faithful witness to the risen Christ.
Where Acts Leads
Acts stands at one of the great turning points of the biblical story.
The Gospels announce and reveal Jesus.
Acts shows the message concerning Jesus moving outward into the world.
And Acts also prepares us for the New Testament letters.
When you read Romans, you will know how Paul reached Rome.
When you read Corinthians, you will remember Paul’s ministry in Corinth.
Galatians will make more sense against the background of the controversy concerning Gentiles and the Law.
Ephesians will resonate differently after reading about Paul’s years in Ephesus.
Philippians will carry memories of Lydia, the prison and the Philippian jailer.
Thessalonians will connect with Paul’s mission in Thessalonica.
The pastoral letters will unfold within the world of churches and leaders Acts has introduced.
Acts therefore becomes a bridge.
From Jesus’ earthly ministry to the church’s mission.
From Jerusalem to the nations.
From the Gospels to the letters.
But Acts reaches even further backwards.
The prophets had spoken of God’s salvation reaching the nations.
Jesus told His disciples that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed to all nations.
Acts begins showing that promise unfolding.
And the biblical story will eventually take us to Revelation, where people from every tribe, language, people and nation worship before God.
Acts does not complete that vision.
It shows the gospel moving towards it.
Before You Leave Acts
Acts can easily make us admire courageous people.
Peter standing before authorities.
Stephen facing death.
Philip running beside a chariot.
Ananias entering Saul’s house.
Paul preaching after beatings.
Silas singing in prison.
Priscilla and Aquila teaching accurately.
Believers carrying the gospel across cultures.
But if we leave Acts merely thinking:
I should be braver like them,
we may have missed something important.
Where did their courage come from?
Acts continually points beyond the people towards God.
The risen Jesus is alive.
The Holy Spirit has been given.
The gospel is true.
The Scriptures are being fulfilled.
Death does not have the final word.
Jesus is Lord.
That changes courage.
Christian courage is not manufacturing a fearless personality.
Peter once denied Jesus beside a fire.
In Acts, Peter stands before authorities and says he cannot stop speaking about what he has seen and heard.
What happened?
The resurrection happened.
The Spirit came.
Peter’s confidence moved increasingly away from himself and towards Jesus.
Acts therefore invites us to examine where our own security rests.
Perhaps you feel inadequate.
Acts is filled with people who would have had reasons to feel inadequate.
Perhaps you dislike conflict.
The early church had conflict.
Perhaps your plans have been interrupted.
Paul’s plans were redirected repeatedly.
Perhaps you have failed.
Peter failed publicly.
John Mark appears to have withdrawn from an earlier mission, became the centre of a serious disagreement and yet later appears elsewhere in the New Testament as a valued co-worker.
Perhaps you are waiting.
Paul spent years imprisoned.
Perhaps your circumstances feel restrictive.
Acts ends with Paul under guard.
The question Acts repeatedly raises is not:
Are your circumstances ideal?
It is:
Can you be faithful to Jesus here?
There is another challenge.
Acts reveals how easily we create boundaries that grace must dismantle.
Peter needed his categories challenged before entering Cornelius’s home.
Some Jewish Christians struggled to accept Gentile inclusion.
The Jerusalem Council had to defend the truth that salvation rests upon grace.
Human beings naturally create hierarchies.
People like us.
People unlike us.
Respectable people.
Difficult people.
Educated people.
Uneducated people.
People whose stories make sense to us.
People whose lives make us uncomfortable.
Acts keeps moving the gospel across those boundaries.
Not by pretending truth does not matter.
Acts is uncompromising about truth.
But the same gospel is offered to all.
That should produce humility.
Nobody enters God’s family because they belonged to the superior category.
Nobody can boast that grace had less distance to travel to reach them.
There is also a challenge concerning power.
Acts contains extraordinary miracles.
But look at the people through whom God works.
They repeatedly refuse glory.
Peter:
“Why do you stare at us?”
Paul and Barnabas tear their clothes when people attempt to worship them.
The Spirit’s power is never intended to make Christian leaders into celebrities.
Power points towards Jesus.
And perhaps one of the most beautiful transformations Acts invites is this:
To become less concerned with being impressive and more concerned with being faithful.
Less interested in controlling outcomes and more willing to obey.
Less concerned with whether people recognise us and more concerned that they see Christ clearly.
Less quick to decide who God can use.
Less quick to decide who God can save.
Less dependent upon comfortable circumstances.
Less frightened by closed doors.
Less discouraged by waiting.
Less likely to interpret suffering as proof that God has abandoned us.
And more grounded in this reality:
Jesus is alive.
His Spirit is present.
His gospel remains true.
His grace still reaches people.
And circumstances cannot make faithful obedience impossible.
Acts begins with ordinary disciples looking upward as Jesus ascends.
It ends with the gospel being proclaimed in Rome.
They could not have imagined everything that lay between.
Neither can you.
You do not need the whole map before taking the next faithful step.
Pause Before You Continue
- Looking across Acts as a whole, what does Luke reveal about the continuing work of the risen Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
- How does Acts challenge the idea that God’s faithfulness should always produce comfort, protection or immediate success?
- Which boundaries within the early church did the gospel have to cross, and are there ways your own assumptions about people may need to be challenged by the breadth of God’s grace?
- When circumstances restrict, disappoint or redirect you, how quickly do you conclude that something has gone wrong rather than asking what faithfulness to Jesus looks like within the situation you actually have?
- If you were less concerned with controlling outcomes, receiving recognition or feeling completely certain before obeying, what might simple faithfulness to Jesus look like in the ordinary places He has already put before you?
Now Open His Word
Now return to Acts itself.
Begin with the first sentence.
Luke refers to his earlier account as everything Jesus “began to do and teach.”
Notice that word:
began.
The Gospel of Luke was only the beginning.
Jesus has ascended, but His work continues.
Then listen to the disciples’ question:
“Lord, is it at this time…?”
They want to know the timetable.
Jesus gives them something else.
Power.
Witness.
Mission.
Notice what He does not tell them.
Then notice what He does.
Carry Acts 1:8 through the entire book.
Jerusalem.
Judea.
Samaria.
The remotest part of the earth.
Watch the geography unfold.
When Pentecost comes, do not stop at wind, fire and languages.
Listen to Peter’s explanation.
Read Joel.
Listen to his proclamation about Jesus.
Notice where the sermon lands:
Jesus crucified.
Jesus raised.
Jesus exalted.
Jesus Lord and Christ.
Then notice the response:
“What are we to do?”
Truth calls for response.
Move into the early church.
Notice teaching.
Fellowship.
Prayer.
Meals.
Generosity.
But do not romanticise the community.
Keep reading.
Problems come.
Hypocrisy appears.
People are neglected.
The early church needed grace, wisdom and correction too.
When the man at the temple gate is healed, listen immediately to Peter:
“Why do you stare at us?”
Keep that question.
Whenever Christian ministry becomes centred upon the apparent greatness of the person being used, Acts redirects your eyes.
Then watch opposition develop.
Notice what the believers pray for.
Not revenge.
Not superiority.
Boldness.
Then enter Acts 5 carefully.
Do not turn Ananias and Sapphira into a warning that Christians must surrender every possession to church leadership.
Peter explicitly says the property belonged to them and the proceeds remained at their disposal.
The sin involves deception.
Let the text establish the issue.
When you reach Acts 6, notice the neglected widows.
This is an internal church problem with cultural dimensions.
The apostles do not say:
We preach, so practical injustice does not matter.
Nor do they abandon prayer and the ministry of the word.
Responsibilities are shared.
The church responds structurally.
Then read Stephen’s speech slowly.
Follow Israel’s story.
Notice his repeated emphasis on resistance to God’s messengers.
Then watch Stephen die.
Hear his prayers.
Ask where you have heard words like these before.
Jesus.
The disciple is beginning to look like his Lord.
Then notice what happens next.
Persecution scatters the church.
And the scattered believers preach.
Do not say that persecution itself is good.
It is not.
But notice that evil cannot force God’s mission into surrender.
Then run beside Philip’s chariot.
Listen to the Ethiopian read Isaiah.
Notice that Philip begins with that Scripture and tells him about Jesus.
There is a model worth carrying:
Begin with what Scripture actually says.
Then show how Scripture leads to Christ where the biblical text warrants it.
Do not force Jesus artificially into every isolated detail.
Let Scripture’s own story reveal Him.
Then come to Saul.
Remember who he is.
He approved Stephen’s death.
He is hunting Christians.
Then hear:
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Notice how personally Jesus identifies with His people.
Then meet Ananias.
Do not skip him.
Imagine what obedience costs him.
He knows Saul’s reputation.
And yet he goes.
“Brother Saul.”
Stay there for a moment.
Grace has already changed the relationship before Saul has had time to prove himself.
Then move towards Cornelius.
Take your time with Acts 10 and 11.
They are so important that Luke essentially tells the story more than once.
Ask why.
Peter needs convincing.
The Jerusalem church needs convincing.
God is making something unmistakably clear.
Gentiles are being welcomed.
Notice that Peter himself interprets the vision.
Do not reduce it merely to food.
Peter says:
“God has shown me that I am not to call any person unholy or unclean.”
Then watch the Holy Spirit fall.
Listen to the Jewish believers’ conclusion:
“God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
Then reach Acts 12.
James dies.
Peter lives.
Do not manufacture an explanation Luke does not give.
Do not tell grieving believers that one outcome proves greater faith.
Acts will not allow it.
Let both stories remain.
Then go to Antioch.
Watch the church worship.
Fast.
Listen.
Send.
Mission begins in the context of worshipping community.
Follow Paul and Barnabas.
When people try to worship them, watch their horror.
They are not building a personal brand.
They are trying to turn people towards the living God.
Then reach Acts 15.
Slow down.
This is one of the most important chapters in the book.
The question concerns salvation.
Must Gentile believers be circumcised and take on the Mosaic covenant identity in order to be saved?
Listen to Peter:
“We believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.”
Grace settles the foundation.
Then notice that grace does not eliminate concern for holy living or loving fellowship.
The council gives practical instruction.
Grace is not lawlessness.
But obedience is not the basis upon which Gentiles earn entry into God’s family.
Then keep reading.
Paul and Barnabas disagree.
Do not feel the need to make one of them the villain unless Scripture does.
Luke does not.
God’s servants can disagree painfully.
And God continues working.
Then watch the Spirit redirect Paul’s plans.
Closed door.
Closed door.
Then Macedonia.
Be careful here.
Acts specifically tells us the Spirit directed Paul.
That does not mean every inconvenience in your life should be interpreted as a coded divine message.
But it does remind you that your plans are not ultimate.
Then enter Philippi.
Meet Lydia.
Meet the exploited slave girl.
Enter the prison.
Listen at midnight.
Prayer.
Singing.
Earthquake.
But do not stop at the miracle.
Watch Paul remain.
Watch the jailer.
Hear:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus.”
Then travel to Berea.
Notice what Luke praises.
They examine Scripture.
Paul is an apostle, yet his teaching is still examined in light of Scripture.
That is healthy.
Then stand in Athens.
Notice that Paul understands his audience.
He begins where they are.
But he does not leave them there.
He moves towards the Creator.
Repentance.
Judgement.
Resurrection.
Contextualising the message does not mean removing the parts people may find uncomfortable.
Then meet Apollos.
Gifted.
Knowledgeable.
Eloquent.
And still teachable.
Watch Priscilla and Aquila.
They correct him privately and carefully.
Watch Apollos receive it.
Ask yourself:
Am I still teachable when I already know a great deal?
Then enter Ephesus.
Watch people abandon practices incompatible with allegiance to Jesus.
Notice the financial cost.
Transformation can become expensive.
Then notice the riot.
When worship changes, economies built around false worship may be threatened.
The gospel is personal.
But it is never merely private.
Then walk with Paul towards Jerusalem.
Listen to the warnings.
Watch believers weep.
Notice Paul’s determination.
Then hear Jesus stand beside him:
“Take courage.”
Do not turn those words into a universal promise that every personal ambition will succeed.
Jesus tells Paul specifically what will happen:
He will testify in Rome.
Keep the promise where Scripture puts it.
Then watch how God gets him there.
Not through an easy missionary itinerary.
Through arrest.
Trials.
Waiting.
Appeal.
Storm.
Shipwreck.
Sometimes the route towards what God has said looks nothing like the route we would have designed.
Then stand with Paul before Felix.
Listen to him speak about righteousness, self-control and judgement.
Felix says, in effect:
Later.
Let that warning reach you.
Truth postponed remains truth unanswered.
Then board the ship.
Feel the storm.
Notice that God’s promise does not prevent shipwreck.
The ship is lost.
The people survive.
God’s faithfulness does not always mean preserving everything we wanted preserved.
Finally, arrive in Rome.
Paul is under guard.
And Luke ends:
“unhindered.”
Do not miss the irony.
Paul is restricted.
The gospel is unhindered.
Perhaps that is where Acts can leave you.
You may not control your circumstances.
You may not know the whole route.
You may experience closed doors.
Waiting.
Misunderstanding.
Conflict.
Loss.
Or change you never planned.
But the risen Jesus has not stopped being Lord.
Your circumstances do not need to become perfect before you can be faithful.
You do not need to be impressive.
You do not need to know everything that comes next.
You do not need to control another person’s response.
You do not need to force outcomes.
You can pray.
Listen.
Learn.
Serve.
Repent.
Speak truth.
Love people.
Remain teachable.
Take the next faithful step.
And keep your eyes on the One Acts is truly about:
Jesus Christ – risen, reigning and continuing His work.
Let that truth increasingly shape the way you see God, understand the church, respond to uncertainty, treat people, face opposition, use your gifts, surrender control and live as a witness to Christ.
Continue Your Journey Through Acts
The Overview has helped you see Acts as a whole – from the risen Jesus commissioning His witnesses, through the coming of the Holy Spirit and the gospel’s movement across barriers, all the way to Paul proclaiming Christ in Rome.
Now come closer.
Walk through Acts chapter by chapter.
Watch the Holy Spirit.
Listen to the sermons.
Follow the movement of the gospel.
Notice how Scripture is used.
Pay attention to the church’s failures as well as its faithfulness.
Watch grace cross boundaries.
And whenever remarkable people begin to capture your attention, look beyond them towards the One whose work continues through them:
the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
→ Explore Acts Chapter by Chapter
→ Continue to Romans