Acts is one of the sixty-six books in the Protestant Bible. It details the actions (“the Acts”) of Jesus’s band of followers. As such, Acts supplies a compelling narrative of life in the early church as it emerges after Jesus’s execution.
Authored by Doctor Luke, Acts records the work of Jesus’s followers as they navigate unmapped territory. It forms a new faith perspective based on the teachings of Jesus and the supporting work of the Holy Spirit. Luke gives a valuable narrative to inform us and to reform our church practices. As a Gentile, Luke is also an outsider to Judaism—just like most of us.
As the narrative in Acts progresses, we see Luke sometimes shifting from a third-person perspective, that of a reporter, to a first-person point of view as a participant. Though the good doctor writes his first book, Luke, as an outsider, he emerges in his second book, Acts, as an insider, where he takes part in the work of Paul to develop Jesus’s church.
Clearly Luke, the former reporter, has become a follower of Jesus and part of his growing community of believers. This book explores what Luke shares in his informative description about the early church in the book of Acts, which can teach us much about faith and inform our church practice.
Each of Luke’s two books, Luke and Acts, address Theophilus.
We don’t know who Theophilus is, only that Luke writes both of his books to Theophilus so that he may know for sure what others had taught him about Jesus.
Luke has two notable traits to make him ideal for this task. First, as a doctor, he’s a trained observer. This makes him an ideal investigative reporter for Theophilus.
Second, as a non-Jew, Luke has a fresh take on the subject, without historical baggage to distract him on his mission.
This helps Theophilus, and it helps us.
What steps are we willing to take to help someone, like Theophilus, know for certain what they were taught?
[Discover more about Theophilus in Luke 1:1–4 and Acts 1:1–2.]
