Introductory: The Book and Its Author

THE Acts of the Apostles, or "The Gospel of the Holy Ghost," is a record of the chief historical facts concerning the Church which took place between the years Anno Domini 30 and 60.

As the four Gospels tell of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God; so the Gospel of the Holy Ghost tells of the effect of that life, death, and resurrection as it was brought to bear upon the hearts and lives of men.

The Old Testament had told of the settling down of a dark cloud of sin between the world and God, and of the gradual illumination of that cloud as pierced by light from Heaven or lit up by the teaching of the Prophets. The New Testament tells of the enlightening and dispelling of the cloud by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings.

The Distinction Between the Gospels and the Acts

In the Gospels we see the brightness of the visible manifestation of Christ; in the Acts of the Apostles the continued manifestation of Christ, not by His visible presence but by the presence of the Holy Ghost. Throughout the succeeding ages the light of the Holy Spirit has continued, but its progress is not recorded in Holy Writ. We learn of it from human records, or by tracing the work of God's servants in the world around us.

The Gospels concern us more intimately and are more helpful to us than the Acts of the Apostles, in so far as they tell the history of the coming of the living Christ into the world, of His marvellous personality, His words, His acts; they are the record of the manifestation of the Son of God in human flesh. They stand first among all records because they contain the revelation of a personal Saviour, the coming of a mighty power into the world, a power which would change the whole face of human history. But whilst the Gospels stand first as a revelation of God in man, the Acts of the Apostles stand next as a revelation of the same God in man, as also of the way of approach to the invisible Christ. It is true that in some respects the way of approach always has been and always will be the same, whether trodden by the men who saw Christ, as Peter and John, or by the men who had not seen Him, as Moses. It was ever the same path of penitence, faith, and love, the only difference being that those who drew near before Christ came, or after He was ascended into the heavens, drew near by faith rather than by sight. It is the revelation of this drawing near by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit which makes the history of the years which immediately succeeded the death of Christ of transcendent importance to us. The Acts of the Apostles, inasmuch as they tell how the great facts of His life, death, and resurrection were translated so that they became a living reality to the men who had not personally seen or known Him, touch us also very closely.

They tell us also how the first preaching of the Gospel influenced and changed the every-day life and character of the early disciples, so that from them we learn how it should influence and change our lives also.

The Acts of the Apostles are of first importance in the world of history, theology, and biography. In history because they tell the story of a decisive crisis in the world, of a time when a great intellectual, spiritual, and moral change began to make itself felt, and they tell this story in a masterly way, from the point of view of a contemporary, one who was himself an actor in the scene.

In theology they are equally important, for they give the effect of the first preaching of the risen Christ upon the Jewish and Gentile world. In biography they stand second only to the Gospels, for they give a life-like sketch of two of the greatest heroes of the Christian faith, men who followed Christ so closely that they marked out, as it were, a path of life for the generations of Christians who came after them.

The Leadership of St. Peter and St. Paul

The Acts of the Apostles might be called the Acts of St. Peter and St. Paul, or the Acts of the Holy Spirit as shown through St. Peter and St. Paul. St. Peter was a man of ready perception, so ready that he opened as with a key the door of everlasting truth, and cried out, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." It was Peter also who first entered the empty tomb of Jesus, and, perceiving somewhat of the import of what he saw, "departed wondering within himself at that which had come to pass." It was Peter who was the first to interpret the meaning of the descent of the Holy Ghost. Peter, again, who opened the door to the Gentiles as he spoke the pregnant words, "I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." The work which Peter began was carried out by Paul, for Paul was a statesman as well as a man of keen spiritual instinct, and he was the first to apprehend the marvellous power of Christianity and the change which it would bring into the world. It was Paul who conceived, and who not only conceived but also carried into effect, the laying of the foundations of the Spiritual Kingdom of Righteousness, Paul who knew that that Kingdom contained within itself elements of power and of greatness which would make it mightier and more far-reaching than the Empire of Rome under which he lived, and which was the world-empire of his day.

The Author of the Acts—St. Luke

All tradition unites in ascribing the authorship of the Acts to St. Luke, although his name is never expressly mentioned as the writer. This testimony is confirmed by the study of the book itself, for the author of the Acts is clearly the same man as the writer of the Gospel of St. Luke. He has the same literary style; he opens his epistle as he opens his Gospel with a preface, and addresses it to the same man, "the most excellent Theophilus," a convert evidently of high rank among the disciples. He is also a co-worker with, and a lover of St. Paul. He is an eye-witness, for he has been present at many of the scenes which he narrates, and he describes them with an accuracy and a detail which distinguish them from other parts of his writing; as for instance in the closing chapters of the book. These are full of personal touches which could only have been given by one who had himself taken part in what he describes, and contrast in this respect with the earlier chapters, which are comparatively vague and wanting in little touches of detail, the record of what the author has heard and learned rather than of what he himself has seen. Then again, the latter chapters are distinguished by the pronoun "we," and St. Luke tells of the time when he was with St. Paul, when they were together at Troas and Philippi, when they journeyed from Miletus to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to Rome. These chapters are so vivid that the reader is carried away by them, and becomes for the time himself a living actor in the scene, an eye-witness of all that passes. He is one of the assembly, he hears Paul speak, sees him beckon with his hand, stands beside him on the ship, hears the clank of the iron in the prison at Rome, and watches keenly the effect of his teaching on those who believe the things which are spoken and those who believe them not.

His Nationality and Method

The writer probably is a Gentile, and one who sympathizes with and understands the importance of the revelation of which he is speaking, not only to the Jew but also to the Gentile. This tone runs through the Gospel of St. Luke as well as that of the Acts, for in each book the purpose of the writer is practically the same. He wishes to set forth a clear account of a matter which he holds to be of the first importance, and "to set to" his seal to what is true. He is a witness to that which he most surely believes, and which will be as surely believed by those who read his writings, because they, too, know the facts as to what has been passing around them and will recognize the truth of which he writes. His first desire is to tell of Christ and of the spread of Christianity, but in doing so he desires especially to emphasize the attitude of Christ towards the Gentiles and the attitude of the early Church generally towards the Gentile world. Thus he writes from a wide point of view, from the standpoint of one who sees beyond his day, and as seeing beyond his day welcomes not only the revelation of the Godhead to those who had already received light, but also to the Gentiles who were lying in the shadow of death. Thus in the Gospel we see how vividly he narrates the healing of the Gentile widow, the Gentile leper; how carefully he notes that repentance and remission of sins are to be preached among all nations.

In like manner in the Acts of the Apostles he eagerly welcomes the progress of the Gospel as it passes from the Church at Jerusalem to the Church at Galatia and at Rome. He views with as keen an interest the movement of the Church towards the Gentiles and the response of the Gentiles towards Christianity as he had watched the movement of Christ towards the individual Gentile and the reply of the individual Gentile to Christ. Thus underlying the apparently abrupt transitions of the narrative is a real order and movement. St. Luke is giving in a few master-strokes the effect of the first facts about the foundation of the Church upon the countries of Syria, Asia Minor, and Europe, the first appeal of the Gospel to varying nationalities and types of thought, and he gives together with the appeal the particular response which it evoked, whether that response came from the philosophers of Athens, or the theologians of Jerusalem, or the barbarians of the island of Melita.

His Relation to St. Paul

In the third place we can see from the narrative that St. Luke was the chosen companion of St. Paul, and a coworker with him in the Gentile world. He writes with the pen of a man of action, one who knows that whereof he speaks. The whole narrative is the work of a man who is spending himself as fully upon the future of Christianity, upon the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, as St. Paul himself, and who loves Paul with an intensity beyond all other loves, not only for himself, but still more because of the future of the cause which he represents. From the brief notices it seems that it was St. Luke who stood beside St. Paul and protected him throughout the darkest days of persecution. It was he who watched over the life of the great Apostle with the affectionate reverence of a disciple as well as with the tender care of a physician, and whose writing is the passionate outcome of his soul. He has caught from St. Paul a fire and enthusiasm for Christianity equal only to that of St. Paul himself, so that in the last extremity when the call comes to St. Paul to witness by a martyr's death to the truth which he proclaimed, St. Luke for the sake of Christianity does not deem that sacrifice to have been in vain.

His History

Very little is known as to St. Luke himself. He was probably a Gentile, and, according to tradition, came from Antioch in Syria. He uses Greek idioms in his writings, and has a Grecian accent. His name is only mentioned three times in Scripture:—"Luke, the beloved physician" (Colossians iv. 4). "Luke, my fellow labourer" (Philemon 24). "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy iv. 11).

Three sentences only, three master-strokes only, but strokes which delineate the outlines of a great character; a man whose personal charm attracted all around him; one whose faithfulness endured when that of all others had fallen away; one who by the power of the Holy Spirit laboured side by side and endured with the greatest, the most inexhaustible, the most self-sacrificing hero the world has ever seen.

His Characteristics

There are many little touches in the Gospel of St. Luke and in the Acts of the Apostles which show the writer to be a physician as well as a scholar. St. Luke gives an accurate account of every miracle of healing performed either by Christ or by His disciples; and as he gives them he shows he has a physician's compassion for and understanding of suffering as well as a physician's consideration for all who are weak—for women, children, and slaves. Thus he shows his sympathy for women and his consideration of them by the way in which he speaks of them and by the position which he gives them in the Church. He is careful to narrate any service which they have been able to render to the Church, whether it comes from the hand of a maidservant like Rhoda or from a woman of standing like Lydia at Philippi.

Tradition says that St. Luke was a poet and a painter, and in some of the churches in Italy there are pictures shown which are said to have been painted by him. But no authority can be given for this statement; it is a mere tradition. On the other hand, it is quite possible that St. Luke was a painter and a poet; for although his style is abrupt and rugged, yet there are many touches in his writings which show that he had a keen sense of beauty, that he saw every scene with an artist's eye, and that he illuminated what he saw with a poet's thought.

St. Luke, in addition to his compassion and sympathy, was also full of faith and of the spirit of prayer. Throughout his writings we find that he realized the power of prayer, and rejoiced in the expression of the faith which manifests itself in prayer. The whole trend of his spirit is towards love and unity. He exposes self-seeking and covetousness, and shows how it destroys the spirit of unity and love which he is striving to spread upon the earth. It is little wonder, therefore, that Christians of all ages have especially prized the Gospel of St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles—for they are aglow with a fire of faith and love.

The Title of the Book

This book is always called the Acts of the Apostles, although it might be divided into two parts: Acts i.-xii., the life and works of St. Peter; Acts xiii.-xxviii., the life and works of St. Paul. It passes from the one to the other, as the first and second books of Samuel pass from the story of Samuel to that of David and of Solomon.

Why Did Jesus Begin to Do, and Yet at the Same

Time Say "It is Finished?"

Christ had said upon the Cross, "It is finished." It is true that His life-work and His atonement for sin were finished, but the effect of His life-work and atonement were not finished. They were only begun, and would be continued in the Acts of the Apostles and in the acts of His servants in succeeding generations, because they contained within themselves an inexhaustible store of light and truth. There was more light and truth in the concise suggestions which were found in the personal acts and deeds of the living Christ during three years than can be found in the personal acts and deeds of the lives of all other men of all other ages.

The whole life of the Church is a continuation of the life of Christ, because Christ acts through the characters, the words, and the acts of His servants. Hence in whatever service man renders to God, his cry ought to be "not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give the praise," because it is the Spirit of Christ Who is working in him to will and to do of His pleasure. All work that is done in the power of Christ and for His sake, whether it be the release of a fellow-man from the leprosy of body or from the leprosy of soul, is a continuation of the vitality and of the very life of Jesus, because the hand which breaks the chain of suffering or of sin which is dragging down a fellow-man derives its power from Christ Himself. Christ in the person of His servant continues to take part in the conflict which He began, and which He will continue until the strongholds of sin and of Satan have been for ever thrown down and cast away.