Introduction to Acts

I breathed a sigh of relief. The results of the poll were finalized now, and my readers weren’t sadistic enough to set me on to Revelation.

(Most of them, anyway. There were two of you . . )

After doing my chapter-by-chapter commentary of Numbers, Acts seemed at first to be a relief.

It’s only now that I am reading the first chapter that it’s occurred to me that this undertaking is going to be just as difficult as going through Numbers – but for an entirely different reason.

You see, Numbers is fairly obscure. Yes, most of us know a couple of the stories there, but I’ll bet even the average Christian knows nothing about Zelophehad, or why his daughters are significant! And if you know the story of Balaam and the Donkey, odds are that you won’t know what he was actually on his way to do when God decided to use his donkey to make him look like a donkey.

Acts, by contrast, is well known to Christians. It can be an intimidating book, because it shows a church with a fire that deep down we suspect that we lack, getting results that we know we’re not getting. It can be hard going because of that very fact. But make no mistake, most of us have read it and know its stories well.

I’m going to have to come up with something meaningful from that!

Well, no time like the present. I invite you to join me and Dr Luke as we track the progress of the Church from its founding.