“Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”— Acts 18:9–10 Context & Key Themes Acts 18 takes Paul from Athens south to Corinth, the commercial…
“In him we live and move and have our being.”— Acts 17:28 Context & Key Themes Acts 17 follows Paul through three Greek cities that represent three different kinds of audience. In Thessalonica, he preaches to synagogue Jews and God-fearers and meets fierce resistance. In Berea, he meets the opposite—a congregation that studies scripture with…
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”— Acts 16:31 Context & Key Themes Acts 16 is the chapter where the gospel crosses into Europe. Paul has begun his second missionary journey with Silas. He picks up Timothy in Lystra. He tries to enter new territory several times and…
“We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”— Acts 15:11 Context & Key Themes Acts 15 records the most important theological debate of the early church and the decision that settled it. The question was simple to ask and brutally difficult to answer. Do Gentile…
“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”— Acts 14:22 Context & Key Themes The first missionary journey continues. Paul and Barnabas have been driven out of Pisidian Antioch and are now moving east through the interior of Asia Minor—Iconium, Lystra, Derbe. The pattern Luke established in chapter thirteen tightens here. Enter a…
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”— Acts 13:2 Context & Key Themes Acts 13 marks the beginning of the second half of the book and the beginning of Paul’s missionary career. Everything Luke has been describing up to this point—Pentecost, the scattering, the Samaritan breakthrough,…
“But the word of God increased and multiplied.”— Acts 12:24 Context & Key Themes Acts 12 is the chapter where Luke’s narrative attention returns one last time to Jerusalem and Peter before pivoting permanently to Antioch and Paul. It is also one of the most dramatic chapters in the book. A king kills an apostle….
“And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”— Acts 11:26 Context & Key Themes Peter’s Caesarea visit is not a private event. Word travels fast. By the time he returns to Jerusalem, the circumcision party among the believers has already heard that he went into a Gentile house and ate with the uncircumcised. Acts…
“Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”— Acts 10:34–35 Context & Key Themes Acts 10 is the chapter where the Gentile door is officially opened, and Peter himself is given the key. Up to this point, the…
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”— Acts 9:4 Context & Key Themes Acts 9 contains the single most consequential conversion in the history of the church. Saul of Tarsus, the most zealous persecutor of Christians alive, is stopped on a road by the risen Christ and turned inside out. Within three days he has…