Outline

I. Key topics/themes

1. A continuation of Luke's two-part narrative of Christian origins
2. Emphasizes many of the same themes of Gospel of Luke
1. God's promises to Israel fulfilled in Jesus and the early church
2. Christianity presents a way of salvation open to both Jews and Gentiles
3. God's promises extended to non-Jewish people through growth of the Christian movement
4. Paul the model of a Christianity that is the logical extension of Judaism and that is no threat to Rome

II. Introduction

1. Volume two of Luke's two-volume narrative of Christian origins
2. A highly selective account concentrating on Christianity's movement from its Jewish origins into Hellenistic cultures
3. Paul as Luke's heroic exemplar of Hellenistic Christianity
4. This volume as theologically oriented as Luke's Gospel

III. The divine plan of humanity's salvation

1. Theme verse: Acts 1:8
2. Christianity to spread to "the ends of the earth"
3. Luke's major theme: God's Spirit operating in human history
1. God's work in the Christian Church an aspect of God's fulfilling of promises to restore Israel
2. The twelve apostles representatives of a new Israel
3. Work of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost pointed at Jewish nation
4. Paul's missionary work begins with Jewish communities

4. Luke's use of speeches
1. Luke's use of speeches as parallel to similar phenomena in other ancient Greek histories
2. The example of Thucydides

5. Organization of the Book of Acts

IV. Prologue and account of the ascension (1:1-11)

1. The significance of "forty days"
2. God's rule to be realized gradually through the spread of the Christian message
3. Jesus' ascent into heaven

V. Founding of the Jerusalem church (1:12-2:47)

1. The apostles
1. Matthias as the replacement for Judas Iscariot
2. Luke's scant treatment of most of the apostles

2. The Holy Spirit at Pentecost
1. The sign of speaking in tongues
2. Peter's first speech: events at Pentecost as portents of the "last days"
3. Jesus' death part of the deliberate plan of God

3. The Jerusalem commune
1. Creation of an ideal community without rich or poor
2. A model of Jesus' teachings about sacrificing material possessions

VI. The work of Peter and the apostles (3:1-5:42)

1. Peter's second speech
2. Jewish leaders acted "in ignorance" in their condemnation of Jesus
3. Several confrontations between the apostles and Jerusalem religious leadership
4. God intervenes repeatedly to assure the fledgling Church's survival and expansion

VII. Persecution of the Hellenist-Jewish Christians: the first missions (6:1-8:40)

1. Disputes between the Hellenist and Hebrew Christians
2. Stephen: the first Christian martyr
1. Stephen's martyrdom mirrors Jesus' suffering and death in Luke
2. Presence of Saul (=Paul) among Stephen's persecutors
3. Persecution results in spreading of the Christian movement

3. The Samaritan mission
1. The conversion of the magician Simon Magus
2. Philip's witness to an Ethiopian eunuch

VIII. Preparation for the Gentile mission: the recruitment of Paul and Cornelius (9:1-12:25)

1. Paul's vision of Jesus
2. Peter's call to baptize a Gentile
1. Cornelius the first Gentile Christian
2. Peter's dream a sign that the Gospel must be taken to the Gentiles
3. Peter perceives that the Spirit is given to Gentiles who have faith, as well as to Jews

3. The fate of the blasphemer Herod Agrippa I

IX. The first missionary journey of Barnabas and Paul: the Jerusalem conference (13:1-15:35)

1. Paul teamed with Barnabas at Antioch in Syria
2. Paul and Barnabas on a missionary trip to Asia Minor
1. First visit the Jewish synagogue in a new town
2. After Jewish rejection, take their message to Gentiles
3. Paul and Barnabas mistaken for Greek gods at Lystra

3. The first church conference
1. Jewish Christians who insist that Gentiles must be circumcised in order to become Christians
2. Paul and Barnabas debate these Jewish Christians at Jerusalem
3. Issue decided by James, leader of the Jerusalem church
4. Gentile Christians need not be circumcised, but they must obey certain dietary and sexual demands of the Torah

4. Paul's independence of the apostolic church
1. Luke's portrayal of Paul's dependence upon Jerusalem church
2. Contrasts with Paul's portrayal of his independence from Jerusalem apostles in his letters

X. Paul's second missionary journey: evangelizing Greece (16:1-18:21)

1. Basic themes of second half of Acts
1. The Spirit's control over the Church's growth
2. The favorable response of Gentiles to the Christian message
3. The familiarity of Christianity to Roman officials and their indifference toward it

2. Paul teams with Silas and Timothy
3. Begins new work in Macedonia
1. Work in Philippi
2. Work in Thessalonica

2. Begins new work in Achaia

XI. Paul's third missionary journey: revisiting Asia Minor and Greece (18:22-20:38)

1. Emphasis on Paul's lengthy stay in Ephesus
2. Christianity in Ephesus as influenced by the religion of John the Baptist
3. The influence of the Christian orator Apollos at Ephesus
4. Christianity's competition with the cult of Artemis at Ephesus
5. Paul resolves to go to Jerusalem

XII. Paul's arrest in Jerusalem and imprisonment in Caesarea (21:1-26:32)

1. Paul's desire to deliver an offering to the "poor" of Jerusalem's church
2. Paul's presence in Jerusalem Temple sparks a riot
3. Paul's life saved by the Romans, who arrest him
4. Christianity and the state
1. Paul appears before the Jewish Sanhedrin and divides the group by his affirmation of the doctrine of Resurrection
2. Paul's hearings before Roman officials as signs of Christianity as no threat to Rome
3. Paul's hearing before Antonius Felix

5. Christians' political influence
1. Paul's hearing before Porcius Festus
2. Paul could have been released had he not "appealed to the Emperor"

XIII. Paul's journey to Rome and his preaching to Roman Jews (27:1-28:31)

1. Long sea travel section narrated in first-person plural
2. Paul shipwrecked at Malta
3. Paul arrives in Rome
4. Possible reasons Acts ends so abruptly
1. Luke's possible hesitance to depict Paul's trial and conviction before Nero
2. Luke's belief that, with Paul coming to Rome, Luke's theological purposes have been accomplished

5. Paul at Rome continues to preach "openly and without hindrance"

XIV. Summary

1. A continuation of Gospel of Luke
2. Focuses on Peter and Paul
3. Traces Christianity's rapid expansion from Jewish roots into Gentile territories throughout the Roman Empire
4. Acts as Luke's apologia (explanation or defense) for Christianity
5. A new religion that is a legitimate outgrowth of Judaism
6. Christianity no threat to the Roman state