An Introduction: Understanding Acts through Different Lenses

The things I have written thus far have not followed the lines of typical commentary. I have not gone from Chapter 1 to 2 to 3, et cetera. For one thing, I was going through Chapter 11 when I started the blog, and I have not really had the opportunity to back-fill the comments I have made on the book. Despite the lack of anything resembling an order, the posts thus far nevertheless assert a single theme—that is, Jesus Christ is alive, at least on the pages of the Book of Acts. That assertion has implications for today—some of : which I have explicitly stated. But the main point is He is alive, and enthroned, then, now, and tomorrow.

With that said, because I started in the middle, I have never provided an introduction. I don’t necessarily need to; Luke does that for us in Chapter 1. But what may be of some value is to set out various lenses by which we can understand the book.

Any of you readers of the Word have surely discovered already that any one book of the Bible will continue to yield up its treasures every time you read it. Whether the first time or the fifth time, the Holy Spirit has the masterful ability to make the book new in some way poignant for that particular reading to you.

We can and should dive into the Word. At one fathom, two fathoms, and three fathoms, and so on, we will find new treasures at each depth. At no point will we ever be able to say we have plumbed the depths of any one book in the Bible, including this one, the Book of Acts. As a result what I will say here is only a partial list arising out of my present time in Acts. As I have hinted at in the title of this post, there are several lenses to provide a look into what Luke has set forth here.

Once you arrive at Chapter 12 in Acts, some 15 years have passed since Christ’s resurrection and ascension in Chapter 1. So, while the book has a historical-chronological underpinning, Acts is not a history. Luke has left out a tremendous amount of material, and selected quite specific episodes. In other words, the history, or the chronology, serves the narrative Luke is conveying—not the other way around. Acts is not a encyclopedic or comprehensive telling of the first 30 years or so of the Church. Rather Luke is telling us something through precise points in time and their respective activities. He is connecting dots for us so that at the end of the reading we will have a constellation, a overall picture that will convey a message.

Make no mistake. Acts is not a Rorschach test; we do not get to impose ourselves on the meaning of the book. Luke is deliberate. That is apparent. And we should be just as deliberate in discerning the message he is conveying. We are not left to our own devices; the Scriptures have given certain aids. Over the next several posts, I will set out some lenses through which we can readily see what Luke conveys.