Acts is a bridge, a hub – and it is also a history. Its author is a superb storyteller who was actually present for many of the events about which he wrote. Acts is the only inspired record of the early church that we have. Without it we would know little about the coming of the Holy Spirit. We would have no idea how world missions got started. Our understanding of how the church began would be a blank. We wouldn’t know much about what happened to the apostles after Christ’s ascension. We would have no detailed accounts of how people became Christians. We would have a lot of theory but little practice – plenty of principle but little application.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the central theme of the Bible. In the Old Testament He is predicted and in the New Testament He is revealed. The Old Testament points across 39 books to His cross. In the New Testament points backward over 27 books to His cross. Every book in the Old Testament contains reference to Him either by mention, by type, or by prophecy. Every book of the New Testament reveals important information about His nature, his deeds, and His purpose. The Old Testament presents Him in shadow. The New Testament presents Him in substance. Learn this, study it, and you are well on your way to a future with Him for eternity.

But don’t take my word for it. Jesus said it Himself. In Luke 24 we read the story of the two disciples of Jesus who were walking to the village of Emmaus, about 7 miles from Jerusalem. It was the third day following the crucifixion and they were discussing the rumors they had heard about His resurrection. Suddenly a man approached them and began walking with them. It was Jesus, but neither of them recognized Him. As they expressed their doubts about the credibility of the rumors, He joined their conversation. Let’s break in at verse 21:

What a privilege for these men to have Jesus explain the Scripture to them! Wouldn’t it be great to have the Lord as your primary teacher? But did you catch my point? It’s in verse 27: "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."

Drop down a little farther into the chapter to verses 44 and 45 which describe another appearance of Jesus after His resurrection. This time it is to the eleven remaining apostles and a few others.

If we don’t see Christ in all the Scriptures, we don’t really understand them. Jesus "opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" by pointing out to them all the things that pertained to Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.

The Bible is not a collection of unrelated rabbit trails that lead off into the woods and go nowhere. It is a series of pieces that all fit together like a puzzle to give a clear picture of Christ.

One important piece of that picture is a New Testament book of Acts. If we were to lose it or neglect it we would have no inspired history of the church that Jesus built. Without it we would know nothing of how the Apostles and early Christians translated the teaching of Jesus into shoe leather.

With this message I want to begin a series that I’m calling simply Acts of the Apostles. As we progress through it I want to cover the book of Acts, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Today’s sermon, the first in the series, is called Accessing Acts. In it we’ll do a flyover introduction of the book.

Just as you would probably look at a road map before launching on a trip into unknown territory, I want to give you a map of Acts this morning that will help you find your way through the book. Let’s begin with some:

Several metaphors have been applied to Acts that can help us see the role it plays in the overall picture of the Bible. It has been described as a bridge that spans the gap from the life of Christ to the life of the Christian. The gospels tell us of Christ’s life and teaching. Acts tells us how those teachings were given legs by the early Christians. In the gospels, Christ is the model. In Acts, the early Christians become the model as they carry out the teaching of Jesus. Whereas the gospels lay the foundation for the church, Acts erects the building.

Another metaphor that is helpful is to view the role Acts plays in the Bible as that of a hub from which the spokes of the epistles protrude. Just as the spokes of a wheel would have no support without the hub, so the epistles of the New Testament would have no known basis, no support without the book of Acts. For instance, if you read I Corinthians which is a letter to a church in existence in the first century, you would understand little without being able to turn to Acts 18 to learn how that church got started and what it was like.

So Acts is a bridge, a hub – and it is also a history. Its author is a superb storyteller who was actually present for many of the events about which he wrote. Acts is the only inspired record of the early church that we have. Without it we would know little about the coming of the Holy Spirit. We would have no idea how world missions got started. Our understanding of how the church began would be a blank. We wouldn’t know much about what happened to the apostles after Christ’s ascension. We would have no detailed accounts of how people became Christians. We would have a lot of theory but little practice – plenty of principle but little application.

Acts has 28 chapters which cover a period of 32 years. It begins 10 days before Pentecost in 33 AD with a description of the ascension of Jesus from the midst of a rag-tag group of defeated but amazed disciples. It ends with Paul in Rome waiting in the wings of the palace to share the story of Jesus Christ with Caesar. It is the 32 year story of how a tiny group of disorganized, timid men turned the civilized world upside down with a teaching that lives on even today.

Acts is the story of Christians, empowered by the Holy Spirit and stirred by a message they were willing to die for. They went out and engaged to the forces of evil that controlled the entire world in their day. There is laughing and weeping, great joy and intense sorrow, suffering, tears, blood, sweat, sacrifice, loneliness, and victory. There is fellowship and there is the story of a people bent on a cause so worthwhile that every other pursuit of their lives paled by comparison.

Not every book of the Bible is alike. Some contain material about people and events. From them we try to get insight into how God’s truth applies to life. Other books are mostly doctrinal in nature, giving commands and principles and leaving us to apply them. One of the beauties of Acts is that it has both of these. It is a continuous story which gives it lots of practical application, but it is also laden with strong doctrinal messages that help give us a framework for our faith.

For example, if a person wants to learn what to do to become a Christian, Acts would be the place to go to learn because it gives in-the-flesh examples of people becoming Christians. Not just theory, but practice. Acts answers once for all that often controversial question, "What must I do to be saved?" It is a very important book.

Of course the author of the book of Acts is the Holy Spirit, as is the case with all the books of the Bible. But the Holy Spirit worked through men as He authored the Scripture. Speaking of the Old Testament books, Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:21 that "men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Speaking of the New Testament books, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13:"Now we [the apostles] received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak."

The Holy Spirit inspired the Bible, but it was penned by men. The man holding the pen in the case of Acts was a physician named Luke. We learn this from the very first verses of the book - Acts 1:1-2:

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.

The author refers to a "first account" that he wrote to someone named "Theophilus." That first account, whatever it was, was concerned with the life of Jesus from the beginning to the ascension. If you know your Bible you understand that this describes the third book of the New Testament, the book of Luke. Luke 1:1-4 says:

Notice that this account was also addressed to one "Theophilus." And what does the gospel of Luke cover? It begins with the birth of Jesus and ends with His ascension. It is clear then that Luke wrote Acts. Further evidence that Luke is the author is found in a comparison of the style between both Luke and Acts where 50 words are common to both books that are not found elsewhere in the New Testament. I’ll give you one more bit of evidence in a moment.

We’ve seen that Luke wrote to someone named "Theophilus." He is the one mentioned in Acts 1:1. We know nothing more of him. In fact, we’re not even sure if Theophilus is a name at all, since all the original manuscripts were written in capital letters and the word "Theophilus" can also be translated as "lover of God." This could be a man’s name or it could be that Luke is addressing a general audience of "lovers of God."

It is reasonable to assume that Luke wrote both his accounts (Luke and Acts) for the same purpose since they were addressed to the same recipient. If that it the case we have a statement of purpose over in Luke 1:3-4:

Luke provides to all lovers of God a carefully investigated, accurate, consecutive record of the things he covered. Elsewhere Paul refers to Luke as "the beloved physician."(1) While I can’t tell you what kind of a doctor Luke was, I can tell you that he was an historian of excellent quality. That isn’t just my opinion. That is the opinion of Sir William Ramsay, a man who devoted most of his adult life to the archeology of Asia Minor, the area mentioned in much of Luke’s account. Ramsay was a skeptic in his younger days, believing that Luke was a fabrication produced late in the second century rather than in the first century as we believe. But his discoveries in archeology change his mind. Late in his life he wrote these words about Luke’s writing:

"Luke is an historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy; he is possessed of the true historic sense; he fixes his mind on the idea and plan that rules the evolution of history, and proportions the scale of his treatment to the importance of each incident. He seizes the important and critical events and shows their nature at greater length, while he touches lightly or omits entirely much that was valueless for his purpose. In short, this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians."(2)

Where did Luke get his information? Just as modern correspondents might travel with, say, the President or maybe with a presidential campaign, Luke traveled with the missionary campaign of Paul the Apostle. Much of what he records therefore is eyewitness testimony. Parts of his work are also, no doubt, based on information he received from Paul. It is most likely that Luke was a New Testament prophet, the gift of which came by the laying on of hands of one of the apostles, probably Paul. Thus, his writing was guided by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Acts is loaded with clues to Luke’s eyewitness position. Sometimes in the narrative he says "they" did such and such. Sometimes he says "we" did thus and thus. You can always tell when Luke was present by paying attention to the language he uses. Whenever he says "we" by the way, he refers to himself and such men as Paul, Silas, Timothy, Sopater, Secundus, Tychius, Trophimus, Gaius, and Aristarchus. These were others in Paul’s traveling group.

Actually, that name "Acts of the Apostles" is not altogether accurate. It neither contains all of the acts of some of the apostles nor some of the acts of all of the apostles. Thus it isn’t a complete accounting of the life of the early church. Apart from Paul, only three other Apostles are mentioned after chapter one. We are told in one sentence that James was executed by Herod, and then there is no more mention of him. John appears in the narrative, but never speaks. In Acts it is Peter and Paul who get the most attention.

For you advanced students who have studied Acts before, you might be interested in chapter seven of world class New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce’s work, The New Testament Documents - Are They Reliable? It is a standard in the field of textual criticism when you are looking for a good summary from a conservative viewpoint. Chapter seven of the work deals with Acts and is available online.(3)

You can outline Acts biographically if you wish, looking at who the narrative follows. That would produce a simple two part summary that might look like this:

1. The church in Jerusalem (1-7) – City Evangelism

2. The church in Judea and Samaria (8-12) - Home missions

3. The church in the remotest part of the earth (13-28) – Foreign evangelism