ACTS - AN OUTLINE OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY

The author. Luke was a Gentile, a Greek, a doctor, an historian of the early church, and a missionary. He was Paul's companion from at least as early as the second missionary journey ... and as late as Paul's second Roman imprisonment. Luke wrote more of the New Testament than anyone else did (if we assume that Paul did not write Hebrews).

The book of Acts is a continuation of Luke's Gospel ... and a record of the apostles' obedience to the Great Commission. After Christ's Ascension in Acts 1 and the Holy Spirit's arrival at Pentecost in Acts 2, the apostles went into action. Acts 2-7 records their ministry in Jerusalem. Many believed in Jesus

Persecution beginning with the stoning of Stephen forced the early Christians out of Jerusalem into Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Compare 1:8 to 8:1. The oppressor Saul was converted on the road to Damascus ... and the stage was set to take the Gospel to the remotest part of the earth. Peter had a vision that opened the apostles' hearts towards taking the Gospel to the Gentiles. Saul became the great apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. In addition, the apostle James was killed.

Paul 's first missionary journey took him and Barnabas through Southeast Asia Minor. A dispute about the Gentile converts arose. Paul and Barnabas attended a council with Peter in Jerusalem to resolve the problem. The decision was made that new Gentile believers did not have to be circumcised to be saved ... heresy was avoided. Paul and Silas left Antioch for the second missionary journey ... into Macedonia and Greece. Luke and Timothy were with them. Barnabas and John Mark split off from them at the beginning of that trip to take the Gospel to Cyprus. Paul's third missionary journey took him and his companions through western Asia Minor. Then they went back to Jerusalem.

Paul was arrested in Jerusalem ... and then confined at Caesarea. There he told the Gospel to governors Felix and Festus and to King Agrippa. Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his case to Caesar. That set his course for Rome ... his fourth missionary journey. On his way to Rome he was shipwrecked on the Island of Malta, giving him an opportunity to minister there. Finally in Rome, he was under house arrest in his own rented quarters for two years. Large numbers of people came to him, and he told them of the Kingdom of God and about Jesus. And some believed.

Beyond the book of Acts. Paul was released and ministered for a few years before he was put in a Roman prison. He apparently was executed in the mid- to late-60's AD. The Apostle John's ministry continued beyond the other apostles. When Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, John moved on to Ephesus where he wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. After he was exiled to the Island of Patmos, he wrote Revelation.

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THE NEW TESTAMENT 4    PAGES: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
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