Acts
The Book of Acts: An Introduction
The short answer
The book of Acts tells the story of what happened after Jesus' resurrection and ascension: how a small group of frightened disciples in Jerusalem became a community that spread across the Roman world. Written by Luke as a sequel to his Gospel, Acts is often read as early church history—and it is that. But it is also something more like a founding self-portrait: a picture of what a Christian community actually looks like when it gathers, and what it believes about the one it gathers around.
The portrait comes into focus early. In Acts 2, right after Pentecost, Luke describes the first believers proclaiming that God raised Jesus from the dead, devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, breaking bread and praying together, sharing life in common, and caring for anyone in need. It reads less like a chronicle of events than a description of habits—the ordinary, repeated things this community did. In that sense, Acts works as a kind of blueprint: not just what happened, but what a church does.
But the practices rest on a claim, and Acts does not let readers forget it. In Acts 7, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, dies praying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." It is a small moment with enormous implications. In Luke's Gospel, the dying Jesus commends his spirit to his Father; now Stephen commends his spirit to Jesus. The prayer quietly assumes that Jesus can do what only God does. So Acts holds two things in one hand: the shared life of a community—preaching, teaching, worship, fellowship, service—and the astonishing confession about Jesus that makes such a life make sense. To understand the book of Acts is to see how practice and belief were, from the very beginning, inseparable.
What scholars say
Maria Harris shows how Acts gives us the first place where the classic activities of Christian community—proclamation, teaching, worship, fellowship, and care for the needy—are named together; Rowan Williams then reads Stephen's dying prayer in Acts 7 and asks what it implies about who Jesus must be.
“The first time these forms are named for us is in the book of Acts. There we find in one place the most detailed description of the first Christian community doing what will in time become the classical activities of ecclesial ministry: kerygma, proclaiming the word of Jesus' resurrection; didache, the activity of teaching; leiturgia, coming together to pray and to re-present Jesus in the breaking of bread; koinonia, or community; and diakonia, caring for those in need. In Acts, the kerygma is first announced: "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses" (Acts 2:32). There too the following account is given: And they continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles and in the communion of the breaking of bread and in the prayers.”
“Early in the Acts of the Apostles, the record of the first years of the Christian community’s existence, St Luke describes the dramatic trial and execution of Stephen, the first Christian martyr; as Stephen dies, he prays, apparently without thinking twice about it, to Jesus , ‘saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’ (Acts 7.59). Just as, in the Gospels, the disciples of Jesus ask, ‘Who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?’ or his enemies ask, ‘Who is this who forgives sins?’ we might ask here, ‘Who is this who receives spirits?’ When Jesus himself dies, according to St Luke, he commends his spirit to his Father; and now here is Stephen commending his spirit to Jesus.”
What it means for you
Acts invites a simple self-check: does my faith show up in habits? The first believers didn't just hold opinions about Jesus; they gathered, learned, prayed, ate together, and looked after the vulnerable—steadily, week after week. If your spiritual life feels abstract, Acts suggests starting with practice: join the meal, show up for the prayers, find someone in need.
At the same time, Stephen's dying prayer presses a deeper question. The habits only make sense because of who Jesus is. Acts encourages readers to let their practices and their convictions inform each other—to ask not only "what should I do?" but "who is this Jesus I'm entrusting myself to?"
In context
Acts is the second volume of Luke's two-part work, picking up where his Gospel ends. It opens with Jesus' ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2), which launches the Jerusalem community described in the chapter's closing verses. Chapters 3–7 follow the church's growth and mounting conflict, ending with Stephen's trial and execution—the first martyrdom, which scatters believers and pushes the message outward. From there, Acts traces the gospel's expansion through Peter, Philip, and above all Paul, ending with Paul preaching in Rome. Acts thus bridges the Gospels and the New Testament letters.