The Biblical Book
Called Acts: Rightly Divided
Writing
purposes and observations:
ªWritten as a historical account of the
founding of Christ’s Church. The writing
is filled with details for fact-checking- desires.
ªWritten for Jews to inform them that Gentiles
have a new role in God’s plan. Acts
records the conversion of many Jews to
Christianity.
ªMultiple miracles in Acts versus limited miracles
in the Epistles, though covering the same time-frame.
ªSpiritual Positive Volition: One of most
powerful spiritual realities in the universe (angelic and human). Fine examples of human spiritual positive
volition abound in Acts; as Christ’s
Church was formed by those leaving Jewish
religion and Gentile religion.
ªActs is more applicative to first century
Christians than us. The events in Acts
are not the norm for the mature Church (1 Corinthians 13:8-13
and Hebrews 2:1-4). If you are going to
claim visions from God, producing miracles
makes for credibility.
Acts
Chapter One
1:1-11, Details of Jesus’ Ascension and His
orders to the Apostles.
1:12-26; Choosing another Apostle, a
replacement for Judas.
Acts
Chapter Two
2:1-13; Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, and
evangelistic languages.
2:14-36, Peter presents Jesus as Messiah to a
Pentecost crowd.
2:37-41, About 3,000 believed Peter’s Messiah
message.
2:42-47, The activities of the First
Christian assembly of God.
Acts
Chapter Three
3:1-10; At the Temple, Peter and John heal a
lame man.
3:11-26, Peter presents Jesus as Messiah to
the miracle gathered crowd.
Acts
Chapter Four
4:1-22, The Jewish religious establishment
jails Peter and John. Peter preaches
Jesus as Savior to them.
4:23-31, The First Christian Assembly of God
reacts to the Jewish religious establishment with prayer and boldness.
4:32-37, The First Christian Assembly of God
was a spiritually based collective.
Acts
Chapter Five
5:1-11, Ananias and Sapphira: Lying and
dying.
5:12-16, Abundant Apostolic Miracles.
5:17-42, Subjective religious leaders reject
the Apostles’ abundant miracles.
Acts
Chapter Six
6:1-7, Distribution of Church work: Workers
in the Word, workers among members.
6:8-15, The false spiritual arrest of
Stephen.
Acts
Chapter Seven
7:1-50, Stephen proclaims his Jewish
bonafides to counter the false witnesses.
7:51-53, Stephen judges the Sanhedrin.
7:54-8:1a, The Sanhedrin murders Stephen for
proclaiming Jesus as Messiah.
Acts
Chapter Eight
8:1b-3; The Sanhedrin, and their agent Saul,
try to destroy Christian Assemblies in
8:4-13, The spiritual work of Philip in
8:14-25, Peter and John go to
8:26-39, The spiritual work of Philip for an
Ethiopian court eunuch.
8:40, The spiritual work of Philip in Azotus
through
Acts
Chapter Nine
9:1-9, On a road to
9:10-19a, In Damascus: God has Ananias
spiritually help Saul.
9:19b-22, In Damascus: Saul proclaims Jesus
as Messiah.
9:23-25; Religious Damascus Jews seek to
murder Saul, but he escapes.
9:26-28, Saul returns to
9:29-30; Religious Greek speaking Jews seek
to murder Saul, but he escapes to
9:31; Spiritual peace and strength for the
Judea, Galilee, and
9:32-35; Peter goes to Lydda, heals a
paralytic, and many are saved.
9:36-43; Peter goes to Joppa, raises dead
Tabitha, and many are saved.
Acts
Chapter Ten
10:1-48; God sends Peter to the Gentile house
of Cornelius, in
falls on the Gentiles to the surprise of the Jews.
Acts
Chapter Eleven
11:1-18, The Jerusalem Church realizes that
Gentiles get to go to heaven too—and have the same Spiritual gifts.
11:19-26, The Church is established in
Gentile Antioch
11:27-30, The Gentile Antioch Syrian Church
sends famine relief to the Jewish Jerusalem Church.
Acts
Chapter Twelve
12:1-24, The rule of Herod Agrippa: He
persecutes the
12:25; Barnabas, Saul, and John-Mark go from
Acts Chapter Thirteen
13:1-14:28, Missionary Journey One: Paul and
Barnabas proclaim Jesus as Messiah, starting in Jewish Synagogues (45-47 A.D.).
13:1-3; The Holy Spirit and the
13:4-12, Paul and Barnabas proclaim the word
of God in
13:13-52, Paul and Barnabas proclaim Jesus as
Messiah in Pisidian Antioch.
Acts
Chapter Fourteen
14:1-7, Paul and Barnabas in Iconium: They
proclaim Jesus as Messiah, in the Synagogue, and many Jews and Greeks
believe. Other Jews and Greeks turn
against them. Paul and
Barnabas perform miracles. The
city is divided spiritually. Those opposed try to murder them. They flee.
14:8-20, Paul and Barnabas in Lystra: They
proclaim Jesus as Messiah, heal a lame man, Paul is murdered, returns to life, and they leave.
14:21a, Paul and Barnabas in Derbe: They
proclaim Jesus as Messiah and make many converts.
14:21b-23; Paul and Barnabas return to
Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch: They strengthen the Christian Assemblies.
14:24-25a, Paul and Barnabas in Perga: They
proclaim Jesus as Messiah.
14:25b-28, Paul and Barnabas return to
Acts
Chapter Fifteen
15:1, A religious attack on the
15:2-29, A Jerusalem Council: Are Gentiles
saved by keeping the Mosaic Law, or “saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus”?
15:30-34, The Gentile Antioch Syrian Church
is encouraged to continue in the grace of the Lord Jesus.
15:35-41, The start of Missionary Journey(s)
number Two: Personnel issues (49 A.D.).
Acts
Chapter Sixteen
16:1-5, Paul and Silas in Derbe and Lystra:
Adding Timothy to the team and strengthening the churches.
16:6-10; Paul and Silas and Timothy in
16:11-15; Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke in
Troas, Samothrace, Neapolis,
and Philippi: The salvation of
16:16-40, A dispossession, Paul and Silas are
arrested, a jailer and family become Believers,
Paul and Silas are released from prison and leave
Acts
Chapter Seventeen
17:1-10a; Paul and Silas and Timothy in
Thessalonica: Paul proclaims Jesus as Messiah in the synagogue, many agree,
others disagree and cause a riot in town. Religious civil
arrests are made, but Paul
and Silas escape.
17:10b-15; Paul and Silas and Timothy in
17:16-34; Paul in
Acts
Chapter Eighteen
18:1-4; Paul in
18:5-11; Paul and Silas and Timothy in
boldly remain in
18:12-17, Synagogue Jews attempt to use a
civilian court to spiritually attack Paul.
18:18-22; Paul leaves
18:23, Paul goes to
18:24-28, The ministry of Apollos in
Acts
Chapter Nineteen
19:1-7; Paul in
19:8-10, Paul ministers for two years in
19:11-20, The Angelic Conflict in
19:21-41, A religious riot in
Acts
Chapter Twenty
20:1-5, Paul travels from
20:6-12, Paul and Luke travel to
20:13-38; Paul, Luke, and the entourage travel to
Acts
Chapter Twenty-One
21:1-16;
Paul, Luke, and entourage travel to
21:17-40,
Paul in
Acts Chapter Twenty-Two
22:1-21;
Paul’s barracks stairs evangelistic message.
22:22-23,
The Jews violent reaction to Paul’s evangelistic message.
22:24-30,
Roman officers seek the reason for the Jews reaction to Paul.
Acts Chapter Twenty-Three
23:1-10;
Roman officers, seeking the reason for the Jewish reaction to Paul, bring him
before the Sanhedrin. A spiritual riot
ensues.
23:11,
God encourages Paul, more ministry.
23:12-15,
Jewish leaders plan to murder Paul.
23:16-22,
Paul’s nephew learns of the plot and informs Paul and then the Romans.
23:23-35,
The Romans send Paul to Governor Felix in
Acts Chapter Twenty-Four
24:1-9;
Jewish leaders come to Caesarea and governor Felix, they accuse Paul of causing
unrest in
24:10-21;
Paul easily defends himself against Jewish accusations.
24:22-27,
Governor Felix takes two years to decide Paul’s case, but just leaves him in
prison after he is relieved of his duties.
Acts Chapter Twenty-Five
25:1-12;
New Governor Festus, as a favor to the Jews, wishes to try Paul before him in
25:13-22,
King Agrippa goes to
25:23-27,
Paul is brought before King Agrippa.
Acts Chapter Twenty-Six
26:1-29,
Paul’s defense before King Agrippa: A spiritual chronology of his life.
26:30-32,
King Agrippa would have freed Paul. (He
recognizes freedom of religion.)
Acts Chapter Twenty-Seven
27:1-28:1;
Prisoner Paul, plus Luke and others, sails to
Acts Chapter Twenty-Eight
28:1-10;
Events on
28:11-16;
Final travel to
28:17-31;
Spiritual events at