The Acts of the Apostles. William Barclay

to commend Christianity to the Roman government. Again and again, he goes out of his way to show how courteous Roman magistrates were to Paul. In Acts 13:12, Sergius Paulus, the governor of Cyprus, becomes Christians. In 18:12ff., Gallio is absolutely fair-minded in Corinth. In 16:35ff., the magistrates at Philippi discover their mistake and apologize publicly to Paul. In 19:31, the Asiarchs in Ephesus are shown to be concerned that no harm should come to Paul. Luke was pointing out that, in the years before he wrote, Roman officials had often been well-disposed and always just and fair to Christianity.

      Further, Luke takes pains to show that Christians were good and loyal citizens, and had always been regarded as such. In Acts 18:14, Gallio declares that there is no question of crime or villainy. In 19:37, the secretary of Ephesus gives Christianss a good report. In 23:29, Claudius Lysias is careful to say that he has nothing against Paul. In 25:25, Festus declares that Paul has done nothing worthy of death, and in the same chapter Festus and Agrippa agree that Paul might well have been released had he not appealed to Caesar.

      Luke was writing in the days when Christians were disliked and persecuted; and he told his story in such a way as to show that the Roman magistrates had always been perfectly fair to Christianity and that they had never regarded the Christians as evil. In fact, the very interesting suggestion has been made that Acts is nothing other than the brief prepared for Paul’s defence when he stood trial before the Roman emperor.

      (2) One of Luke’s aims was to show that Christianity was for all people of every country. This was one of the things the Jews found it hard to grasp. They had the idea that they were God’s chosen people and that God had no use for any other nation. Luke sets out to prove otherwise. He shows Philip preaching to the Samaritans; he shows Stephen making Christianity universal and being killed for it; he shows Peter accepting Cornelius into the Church; he shows Christians preaching to the Gentiles at Antioch; he shows Paul travelling far and wide winning men and women of every kind for Christ; and in Acts 15 he shows the Church making the great decision to accept the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews.

      (3) But these were merely secondary aims. Luke’s chief purpose is set out in the words of the risen Christ in 1:8: ‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ It was to show the expansion of Christianity, to show how that religion which began in a little corner of Palestine had in not much more than thirty years reached Rome.

      The Church historian C. H. Turner has pointed out that Acts falls into six panels, each ending with what might be called a progress report. The six panels are:

      (a) 1:1–6:7; this tells of the church at Jerusalem and the preaching of Peter; and it finishes with the summary: ‘The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.’

      (b) 6:8–9:31; this describes the spread of Christianity through Palestine and the martyrdom of Stephen, followed by the preaching in Samaria. It ends with the summary: ‘Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it was increased in numbers.’

      (c) 9:32–12:24; this includes the conversion of Paul, the extension of the Church to Antioch, and the reception of Cornelius, the Gentile, into the Church by Peter. Its summary is: ‘The word of God continued to advance.’

      (d) 12:25–16:5; this tells of the extension of the Church through Asia Minor and the preaching tour of Galatia. It ends: ‘So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.’

      (e) 16:6–19:20; this describes the extension of the Church to Europe and the work of Paul in great Gentile cities like Corinth and Ephesus. Its summary runs: ‘So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.’

      (f) 19:21–28:31; this tells of the arrival of Paul in Rome and his imprisonment there. It ends with the picture of Paul proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and unhindered’.

      This plan of Acts answers its most puzzling question – why does it finish where it does? It finishes with Paul in prison awaiting judgment. We would so much have liked to know what happened to him; and the end remains a mystery. But Luke stopped there because he had acheived his purpose; he had shown how Christianity began in Jerusalem and swept across the world until it reached Rome. One New Testament scholar has said that the title of Acts might be: ‘How they brought the Good News from Jerusalem to Rome’.

       Luke’s Sources

      Luke was a historian, and the sources from which a historian draws information are all important. Where then did Luke get his facts? In this connection, Acts falls into two parts.

      (1) There are the first fifteen chapters, describing events of which Luke had no personal knowledge. He most probably had access to two sources.

      (a) There were the records of the local churches. They may never have been set down in writing, but the churches had their stories. In this section, we can distinguish three records. There is the record of the Jerusalem church, which we find in chapters 1–5 and in chapters 15–16. There is the record of the church at Caesarea, which covers 8:26–40 and 9:31–10:48. there is the record of the church at Antioch, which includes 11:19–30 and 12:25–14:28.

      (b) It is very likely that there were cycles of stories which were the Acts of Peter, the Acts of John, the Acts of Philip and the Acts of Stephen. Beyond a doubt, Luke’s friendship with Paul would bring him into touch with all the great figures of all the churches, and all their stories would be at his disposal.

      (2) There are chapters 16–28. Luke had personal knowledge of much that is included in this section. When we read Acts carefully, we notice a strange thing. Most of the time, Luke’s narrative is in the third-person plural; but in certain passages it changes over to the first-person plural, and ‘they’ becomes ‘we’. The ‘we’ passages are as follows: Acts 16:10–17, 20:5–16, 21:1–18 and 27:1–28:16. On all these occasions, Luke must have been present. He must have kept a travel diary, and in these passages we have eye-witness accounts. As for the times when he was not present, many were the hours he must have spent in prison with Paul, and many were the stories Paul must have told him, There can have been no great figure Luke did not know, and in every case he must have got his story from someone who was there.

      When we read Acts, we may be quite sure that no historian ever had better sources or used those sources more accurately.

       THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

       POWER TO GO ON

      Acts 1:1–5

      My Dear Theophilus, I have already given you an account of all the things that Jesus began to do and to teach, right up to the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had, through the Holy Spirit, given his instructions to the apostles whom he had chosen. In the days that followed his sufferings, he also showed himself living to them by many proofs, for he was seen by them on various occasions throughout a period of forty days; and he spoke to them about the kingdom of God. While he was staying with them, he told them not to go away from Jerusalem but to wait for the Father’s promise, ‘which’, he said, ‘I told you about; for I told you that John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit before many days have passed’.

      IN two senses, Acts is the second chapter of a continued story. First, it is the second volume which Luke had sent to Theophilus. In the first volume, his gospel, Luke had told the story of the earthly life of Jesus. Now he goes on to tell the story of the Christian Church. Second, Acts is the second volume of a story which has no end. The gospel was only the story of what Jesus began to do and to teach.

      There are different kinds of immortality. There is an immortality of fame. In Henry V, Shakespeare puts into the king’s mouth a speech which promises an immortal memory if the Battle of Agincourt is won:

      This story shall the good man tell his son;

      And