Preparing for the Birth of the Church
Today we embark on a new journey through the book of Acts. I have no idea how long this journey will take but we are looking at a journey through 28 chapters. It was written as a second part to the narrative in the Gospel of Luke, a physician and companion to Apostle Paul through most of his journeys. In the opening verse of this book the author refers to his first book that he wrote concerning everything that Jesus Christ did and taught. You will notice other similarities especially in the introductions of both these books. For example both books were dedicated to Theophilus. We don’t know who Theophilus is but most likely scholars tell us that he was a patron of Luke, who paid for the expenses of writing these two volumes. Another connection between the two books in seen in this super crisp one line summary of the previous book where he says and I quote, “In my first book[a] I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit.” End of quote.With that summary he gets into the meat of this record which gives an overview of Jesus’ 40 days post resurrection work.