Acts Overview

28 chapters, 1,007 verses. The book of Acts tells the epic story of the origin and growth of the Christian church from the time of Christ’s ascension to Paul’s final imprisonment.

The focus is not on dates or institutional history but on the exploits of key leaders, especially Peter and Paul. The book follows an outward expansion of the early church from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria to “the end of the earth” (1:8).

The author of Acts was Luke, who had also written a Gospel on the life of Jesus. The book of Acts should be regarded as a continuation of the story of the gospel (good news) that Luke had proclaimed to Theophilus in his former book (1:1–2). The opening verse of Acts claims that the earlier Gospel had “dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,” suggesting that the book of Acts tells what Jesus continued to do through the apostles, by the power of the Holy Spirit.