SLG: The Book of Acts - Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church

Led by Rev. Paul Chan, this module runs every Sunday @ 11:15am from October to December of 2022. It will run in a hybrid format: In-person in Room B14-15 and online (slg.vcbc.ca)

For your preparation before each class, please download the course notes below.

INTRODUCTION TO ACTS OF THE APOSTLE

(Originally presented to the 3rd Annual Bible Conference in Myanmar, 2006)

The Name of the Book

The Acts of the Apostles is a familiar book in the Bible, and throughout the ages, it has been given various names:

The Origin of Christianity
The Acts of All Apostles
The Acts of the Holy Spirit, and
The Book of Acts (as it is called in the NT Canon)

Of course, the name is not as important as its contents, but behind the naming of a book is a reflection of our view of God’s action. We know that God is a God of order, plan, wisdom and design. Just as He certainly has a plan for the salvation history of all humankind, from Adam to the birth of Jesus Christ–every event which is part of the salvation history has not been accidental, such as the time and place of Jesus’ birth, and the time during which the various events in the Book of Acts took place.

Since the work of the Holy Spirit on earth took place in an orderly, logical and wise manner, and the true author of all the books in the Bible is He, whoever the author might be (whether it was the learned scholar for Tarsus, or the least educated fisherman from Galilee), each book of the Bible reflects the order, logic and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Its literary style may not be polished; its contents and logic do reflect the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is with this belief that we look at how the Holy Spirit has prompted Dr. Luke to compose this work, what its emphases and its purposes are. The answers to these questions are important in the proper interpretation of the book.