1.The Sequel: the Acts of the Spirit

The book of Acts was written by Luke as the second volume of a two-part work; his Gospel was the first. And he ties the two together in his opening line, when he speaks of "the former account I made... of all that Jesus began both to do and teach." The word is quietly significant: if the Gospel told what Jesus began to do, then Acts tells what He continued to do — now from heaven, through His church, by His Spirit. The book is often called "The Acts of the Apostles," and the apostles are certainly in it; but many have felt that a truer title would be "The Acts of the Holy Spirit," for it is the Spirit who is the great actor from first to last. A. T. Pierson gave his study of the book exactly that name. And so we begin where the church itself began — not with a strategy or an organization, but with the promise and the coming of the Spirit of God.

2.The Ascension and the Promise

For forty days after His resurrection the risen Jesus showed Himself alive to His disciples and taught them about the kingdom of God. Then, before returning to His Father, He gave them both a command and a promise. The command was to wait — to stay in Jerusalem until they received "the Promise of the Father," the baptism with the Holy Spirit. And the promise came in a single sentence that maps out the entire book: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Then, as they watched, He was taken up into heaven, and two angels promised that this same Jesus would one day return in the same way He had gone. The disciples came back to the city and gave themselves to prayer, waiting for what He had promised.

3.Waiting and Prayer

It is worth noticing how the church began: not in a burst of busy activity, but in waiting and united prayer. About a hundred and twenty believers gathered together and "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." During those days, led by Peter, they also chose Matthias to take the place among the twelve left empty by Judas. But mostly they simply waited, and prayed, and made themselves ready for the power that had been promised. There is a lesson here that the church has needed in every age: the work of God does not begin in human bustle and self-confidence, but in humble dependence upon Him. Before there was preaching, there was prayer; before there was power, there was waiting.

4.Pentecost: the Spirit Poured Out

Then the day came. On the feast of Pentecost, as the believers were all together, the promise was suddenly fulfilled. There came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind that filled the house; what looked like tongues of fire appeared and rested on each of them; "and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Jerusalem at that feast was crowded with devout Jews from every nation under heaven, and they were astonished to hear these Galileans declaring the wonderful works of God — each visitor hearing it in his own native language. The Spirit had come; and the very first thing He did was to empower witness that leaped straight across the barriers of language. At Babel, long before, human pride had been scattered and languages confused; here, at Pentecost, the gospel begins to gather the nations back — a first bright foretaste of good news for every tongue and people on earth.

5.Peter's Sermon: the First Gospel Proclamation

Then Peter stood up — Peter, who not long before had denied with oaths that he even knew Jesus — and now, filled with the Spirit, he preached the first Christian sermon. He explained that what the crowd was witnessing was the fulfillment of what the prophet Joel had foretold, the pouring out of God's Spirit. And then he preached Christ: Jesus of Nazareth, crucified by wicked hands, but raised by God from the dead, of which they were all witnesses. "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." The word cut the hearers to the heart, and they cried out, "What shall we do?" Peter's answer is the gospel's own answer: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Turn from your sin, trust the crucified and risen Lord, be baptized in His name, and receive forgiveness and the Spirit — here, in Peter's very first sermon, is the message the church has carried ever since.

6.The Birth of the Church

The response was astonishing. "Those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them." In a single day the tiny company of believers had become a great multitude: the church was born. And Luke leaves us a lovely portrait of its earliest life together. "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." They shared what they had with any who were in need, they worshiped together with glad and sincere hearts, and they enjoyed the goodwill of the people around them — "and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Here is the Spirit-filled church in miniature, and a pattern for every age: a people devoted to the teaching of God's word, to real fellowship, to worship, to prayer, and to open-handed love, among whom the Lord Himself keeps adding the saved. And that is the great comfort of these opening chapters. Jesus ascended into heaven, but He did not leave His people powerless or alone. He sent the promised Holy Spirit, who filled ordinary disciples, gave them boldness to bear witness, and brought thousands to faith through the simple preaching of the gospel. That same Spirit, and that same gospel, are at work still. So take heart: the church is not built by our strength or cleverness, but by the Spirit of God. Our part is to wait on Him in prayer, and then to bear faithful witness to the risen Christ — and to trust the Spirit both to give the power and to save the souls.

7.Taking It to Heart

1.The Church in Jerusalem: Witness Begins

With the Spirit poured out and the church born, the believers now begin to bear witness in Jerusalem, the very first sphere the risen Christ had named: "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Chapters 3 through 7 tell the story of that witness — the apostles preaching boldly, the church growing swiftly, and, before long, the first hard collision with the religious authorities, a collision that ends in the death of the church's first martyr. Through all of it one thing holds steady: the Spirit-filled apostles keep preaching Christ crucified and risen, the church keeps growing, and the opposition, however fierce, cannot stop the work. These chapters show us the church learning to stand, and even to grow, under pressure.

2.The Lame Man Healed, and Boldness Before the Council

It begins with a miracle. Peter and John, going up to the temple to pray, meet a man lame from birth begging at the gate, and Peter says to him, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." The man leaps up healed, and a crowd gathers in amazement — whereupon Peter preaches again, careful to give all the glory to Jesus and none to himself, and calls the people to repent so that their sins may be blotted out. The healing and the preaching alarm the authorities, who arrest the two apostles; and yet, Luke notes, the church keeps growing, until the number of the men had reached about five thousand. Brought before the Sanhedrin — the very council that had condemned Jesus — Peter, filled with the Spirit, proclaims without flinching that salvation is found in Jesus alone: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." When they command the apostles to stop speaking in that name, Peter and John answer with words that ring down the centuries: "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." The believers gather and pray, not for safety but for boldness — and they are filled afresh with the Spirit. This church will not be silenced.

3.The Community of Believers, and a Solemn Warning

Luke pauses to show us the inner life of this Spirit-filled community, and it is beautiful: "the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul," and they shared their possessions so freely and gladly that no one among them was in need. But he sets right beside that picture a sobering account, lest we imagine the early church was flawless. A couple named Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property and brought part of the money, but pretended to be giving all of it — lying, Peter says, not merely to men but to the Holy Spirit — and they fell down dead, one after the other. Great fear came upon the whole church. It is a hard story, but its lesson is plain and important: hypocrisy before God is a deadly serious thing. The God who dwells in His church is holy, and He is not mocked. The generosity of the many was real and glad; but so was the danger of pretending, before God, to a devotion one does not have.

4.“We Ought to Obey God Rather Than Men”

The apostles keep on healing and preaching, and more and more people are added to the Lord. The authorities, now filled with jealousy, arrest them again and throw them in prison — but an angel opens the doors by night, and by morning they are back in the temple, preaching as before. Hauled once more before the council and reminded of the order to be silent, Peter gives the great governing principle of all Christian obedience: "We ought to obey God rather than men." When some on the council are enraged enough to want them killed, a respected Pharisee named Gamaliel counsels caution: leave these men alone, he says, for if their work is merely human it will collapse on its own, but if it is of God, you will not be able to stop it — you might even find yourselves fighting against God. So the apostles are beaten and released; and they depart not licking their wounds but "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name," and they never stop preaching. Here is the church's answer to persecution: joy in suffering for Christ, and a witness that simply cannot be shut down.

5.The Seven Chosen, and Stephen

As the church grows, a very practical difficulty arises: the Greek-speaking widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. The apostles' response is wise. Rather than abandon prayer and preaching to manage the tables themselves, they have the church choose seven trustworthy men, "full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom," to take charge of this service, so that the apostles can give themselves to "prayer and to the ministry of the word." It is the church organizing itself to care for both word and deed, both souls and bodies. Among the seven is a man named Stephen, "full of faith and power," who does great wonders among the people and preaches with a wisdom his opponents cannot withstand. Unable to defeat him in argument, his enemies stir up false witnesses against him and drag him before the same council.

6.Stephen's Witness and Martyrdom

Standing before the Sanhedrin, Stephen preaches a long and masterful sermon, tracing the whole history of Israel to show that God's people had again and again resisted God and rejected the messengers He sent — and that now, in their own day, they had betrayed and murdered the Righteous One Himself, Jesus. It is the boldness of the old prophets, and it enrages his hearers. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, lifts his eyes and gazes into heaven, and sees the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand. They rush upon him, drag him out of the city, and stone him — and so Stephen becomes the church's first martyr. And he dies exactly as his Master had died: praying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and then, on his knees, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." At his death, Luke quietly notes, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul — a name we will hear much more of. Stephen's death was not the end of him, and not a defeat for the church; it showed, once and for all, how a Christian dies: full of the Spirit, his eyes on Jesus, forgiving those who kill him. And this is the great encouragement of these chapters. Under mounting pressure the apostles healed and preached in Jesus's name, proclaimed salvation in Him alone, refused to be silenced, and counted it joy to suffer for Him; and Stephen showed the church how to die for its Lord. The persecution did not crush the church — it grew. For the same Spirit who filled those first believers is with Christ's people still. So take heart, especially where witness is costly: the gospel cannot be silenced, God stands with those who suffer for His name, and even a martyr's blood is never wasted.

7.Taking It to Heart

1.The Gospel Spreads Beyond Jerusalem

Stephen's martyrdom touched off a great wave of persecution, and the believers were scattered from Jerusalem throughout the surrounding regions. It looked like a disaster; it proved to be a mission. For "those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word." What the enemies of the church meant to stamp out the gospel, God used to carry it further than it had yet gone. Chapters 8 through 12 show the good news breaking out of Jerusalem and moving into the next spheres the Lord had named — into Judea and Samaria, and then, astonishingly, toward the Gentiles and the ends of the earth. And in these chapters we watch the gospel cross one barrier after another: to the despised Samaritans, to an African official, to the church's fiercest enemy, and at last to the Gentile world.

2.Philip in Samaria and the Ethiopian

Philip — one of the seven — went down to a city of Samaria and preached Christ there. The Samaritans were a people the Jews had despised for centuries; yet the gospel leaped that ancient wall, many believed, and there was great joy in the city. Then the Spirit sent Philip out along a desert road to meet a single traveler: an Ethiopian, a court official on his way home, sitting in his chariot and puzzling over the words of Isaiah about a lamb led to the slaughter. Philip ran up, and "beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him" — showing him that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 was Christ. The Ethiopian believed, was baptized on the spot, and "went on his way rejoicing," carrying the gospel home to Africa. In one short chapter, the good news has reached both Samaria and a far continent.

3.The Conversion of Saul

Now comes the most dramatic turn in the whole book. Saul of Tarsus was the church's most dangerous enemy — a man who had approved of Stephen's death and was, in Luke's chilling phrase, "breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord." He was on the road to Damascus, armed with authority to arrest believers and drag them back to prison, when suddenly a light from heaven blazed around him, and he fell to the ground, and a voice said: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" It was the risen Jesus, who counts an attack on His people as an attack on Himself. Struck blind, Saul was led by the hand into Damascus; and there God sent to him a frightened disciple named Ananias, who laid his hands on the very man who had come to arrest him. Saul was filled with the Spirit, his sight returned, he was baptized — and at once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. The persecutor had become the preacher. It is grace at its most breathtaking: God reached down and saved His worst enemy, and then made that enemy His chief messenger to the nations.

4.Grace for the Worst

5.Peter and Cornelius: the Gospel to the Gentiles

Then the last and greatest barrier of all comes down. Up to now the gospel had gone to Jews, and to Samaritans who were half-Jewish, and to a God-fearing foreigner — but the full inclusion of the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, was a wall no one had yet dared to cross. So God moved Peter Himself. In a vision, God overturned Peter's lifelong assumption that Gentiles were unclean, and then sent him to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion — a devout Gentile who feared God. Peter went, and said to the gathered household, "God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean," and then, wonderingly, "In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality." And as Peter preached the gospel of Jesus, the Holy Spirit fell upon these Gentiles exactly as He had fallen on the Jewish believers at Pentecost, and they were baptized. The door of faith had been thrown open to the Gentiles. When some believers back in Jerusalem objected, Peter simply told them the story, and they fell silent and then glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life." The gospel, it was now beyond doubt, is for all peoples.

6.Antioch, Peter's Deliverance, and the Unstoppable Word

Meanwhile, some of the scattered believers had gone as far as Antioch, a great Gentile city, and begun preaching to Greeks there; and a large number believed. Barnabas and Saul spent a whole year teaching this new congregation — and it was there, Luke tells us, that "the disciples were first called Christians." Antioch became a second great center of the faith, a largely Gentile church that would soon be sending missionaries of its own to the ends of the earth. But the opposition had not vanished. King Herod laid violent hands on the church, killed James the brother of John with the sword, and threw Peter into prison, meaning to kill him too. The church, however, gathered and prayed earnestly for him — and God sent an angel who led Peter out of the prison in the night, past the guards and through the iron gate. Herod, who soon after let a crowd hail him as a god and took the glory for himself, was struck down by the Lord. And Luke sums up the whole chapter, and the whole section, in one triumphant line: "But the word of God grew and multiplied." And that is the great encouragement of these chapters. Under persecution the church was scattered — and the gospel only spread. It reached the Samaritans, an African, the arch-persecutor Saul, and the Gentile world, for "God shows no partiality." No barrier of race, or region, or hatred could stop it; and the conversion of Saul declared for all time that no single soul is beyond the reach of grace. So take heart: the gospel is for every people on earth, God can save even His fiercest enemies, and His word can never be chained — it grows and multiplies still. Pray boldly, even for those who oppose you, and carry the good news across every barrier you meet.

7.Taking It to Heart

1.The Mission to the Nations Begins

The door to the Gentiles has been opened, and a vigorous, largely Gentile church is thriving at Antioch. Now the last and largest sphere the risen Christ had named — "to the end of the earth" — swings open. Chapters 13 through 20 tell the story of Paul's missionary journeys: three great campaigns that carried the good news out from Antioch, across Asia Minor, over into Greece and Europe, and back again. The whole center of gravity of the book shifts here — from Peter to Paul, and from Jerusalem to the wide Gentile world. What we are watching is nothing less than the birth of Christian missions, the pattern that Roland Allen and countless missionaries after him would study for centuries to come.

2.Sent by the Spirit from Antioch

It is worth marking how the whole enterprise begins — not with a committee's strategy or one man's ambition, but with the direct call of the Spirit. As the church at Antioch worshiped the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." The church laid its hands on them, and sent them off. (From this point on, Luke calls Saul by his Roman name, Paul.) The first journey took them to Cyprus and up into the cities of Asia Minor, and everywhere Paul followed a settled pattern. He went first to the Jewish synagogue and preached Christ from the Scriptures to his own people; and then, when many of them rejected the message, he turned to the Gentiles, who received it gladly. "We turn to the Gentiles," he announced — and turn he did, all the way to the ends of the earth.

3.Preaching Christ to Jew and Gentile

Paul was a wise preacher, and he suited his approach to his hearers. In the synagogues, speaking to people who knew the Scriptures, he preached Jesus as the promised Messiah, tracing the line of prophecy to show that this Son of David had been crucified and raised, and that through Him forgiveness of sins was now offered to all who believe. But when he stood before pagans who had no Bible at all — as at Lystra, and later at Athens — he began somewhere else entirely: with the living God who made heaven and earth, and who had never left Himself without witness, giving rain and fruitful seasons and filling hearts with gladness. The starting point shifted with the audience; but the destination never did. Always he came, in the end, to the same place: Jesus, crucified and risen, and the call to turn from idols and dead works to the living God. The gospel is one; only the road in varies.

4.The Jerusalem Council: Saved by Grace, Not Law

As Gentiles poured into the church, a question arose that could have split the whole movement in two: did these Gentile believers have to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved? Some men insisted that they must. And so the matter was brought to the Jerusalem Council — the single most important church meeting in the book of Acts. There Peter stood and reminded them how God had given the Gentiles the very same Holy Spirit, and "made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Then he said it plainly: "We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they." James agreed, and the council ruled: the Gentiles are saved by grace, through faith, and are not to be burdened with the law. It is a landmark decision, and the very heartbeat of the gospel: salvation is by grace, for Jew and Gentile alike, apart from the works of the law. What Paul would write at length to the Romans and the Galatians, the church here declared with one voice.

5.Across the Roman World

The second and third journeys carried Paul deeper still, across the sea and into Europe itself, and Luke fills the account with unforgettable scenes. At Philippi, a businesswoman named Lydia believed, a tormented slave girl was set free, and Paul and Silas, beaten and chained in the inner prison, sang hymns to God at midnight until an earthquake shook the doors open — and the jailer, trembling, cried out, "What must I do to be saved?" and heard the simplest of answers: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." At Athens, Paul stood among the philosophers and, pointing to their altar inscribed "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD," told them of the true God who made the world, who now commands all men everywhere to repent, and who has appointed a Man, Jesus, to judge the world — giving proof of it by raising Him from the dead. At Corinth and at Ephesus he stayed for long stretches, teaching, until "the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed," so that even the idol-makers of Ephesus felt their trade shaking. City by city, congregation by congregation, the churches were planted across the empire.

6.Paul's Heart, and the Call That Remains

As the third journey drew toward its close, Paul called the elders of the Ephesian church to meet him, and poured out his pastor's heart in a way that has moved every faithful minister since. He reminded them how he had served the Lord among them "with all humility, with many tears," never shrinking from declaring to them "the whole counsel of God," teaching publicly and from house to house, and warning every one of them night and day, with tears. He charged them solemnly to shepherd the flock of God, "which He purchased with His own blood," and warned them that fierce dangers would come. Then he knelt and prayed with them, commended them "to God and to the word of His grace," and left them with a saying of the Lord Jesus they must never forget: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Here, laid bare, is the true missionary heart: tireless labor, honest tears, faithful teaching of the whole counsel of God, and a deep love for the churches. And this is the great encouragement of these chapters. Sent out by the Spirit, Paul preached Christ to Jew and Gentile, planted churches across the known world, and saw the church settle forever that salvation is by grace, not law, for every people on earth. The work was costly beyond telling — opposition, beatings, prison, and tears — and yet the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. And the very same call still rests upon the church of Christ: to carry this gospel of grace across every border, in the power of the same Spirit, whatever it may cost. So take heart, and take up the work. The God who sent out Paul is sending His church still, and His word will prevail.

7.Taking It to Heart

1.The Final Journey: To Rome

The closing section of Acts follows Paul from his arrest in Jerusalem, through a long series of trials, and at last across the sea to Rome. Long before, the risen Jesus had said that His witnesses would carry the gospel "to the end of the earth," and Rome — the capital and the very heart of the empire — stood for that far goal. And so Luke gives these final chapters to a single, remarkable story: how Paul, now a prisoner in chains, was carried by the hidden hand of God's providence — through hostile courtrooms and a killer storm — to preach the good news in Rome itself. It is a story with a quiet and profound point: even Paul's chains could not stop the gospel; they only became one more means of its advance.

2.Arrest in Jerusalem

Paul had returned to Jerusalem knowing danger awaited him, resolved to finish the course God had given him. In the temple a mob, whipped up by false rumors, seized him and set about to kill him, and only a detachment of Roman soldiers saved his life. Given leave to speak, Paul told the shouting crowd his own story — how he, once their zealous champion and the church's persecutor, had met the risen Christ on the Damascus road and been sent to the Gentiles. Brought before the Sanhedrin, and then the target of a murderous plot, he was taken under heavy guard to Caesarea. And in the darkest of those Jerusalem nights, the Lord Himself stood by him and said: "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome." Whatever came, Paul now knew his destination was certain: God would bring him to Rome.

3.On Trial: Witnessing to Governors and a King

At Caesarea, Paul stood trial before two Roman governors in turn, Felix and Festus, and then before King Agrippa. And in every hearing, Paul did a striking thing: he turned his own defense into a testimony to Christ. Reasoning before Felix "about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come," he pressed the truth so closely that the governor grew afraid and sent him away. Standing before Agrippa, he told the story of his conversion yet again, and then turned and urged the king himself to believe — so earnestly that Agrippa said, half in wonder and half in retreat, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian." Paul's reply lays bare his whole heart: he answered that he would to God that not only the king but everyone listening to him might become such as he was — "except for these chains." There it is: Paul the prisoner is in truth the only free man in the room, and it is his judges who are in bondage. They could find no real crime in him, and agreed among themselves that he might have been set free — but he had appealed to Caesar, and to Caesar he would go.

4.The Appeal to Caesar, and the Storm

As a Roman citizen, Paul had exercised his right to have his case heard by Caesar himself; and so he was put aboard ship, under guard, for the long voyage to Rome. What follows is one of the most vivid sea-narratives to survive from the ancient world. A savage storm arose and battered the ship for many days, until, Luke says, all hope that they should be saved was finally given up. But in the heart of the tempest, one man was calm. Paul gathered the exhausted, terrified crew and told them that an angel of God had stood by him in the night and promised that not a single life would be lost — only the ship itself — and then he added the reason for his calm: "I believe God that it will be just as it was told me." His steady faith held the whole ship's company together. In the end the vessel ran aground and broke apart on the island of Malta — but every last soul aboard reached the shore alive, exactly as God had said. Even in the storm, God kept His word to the letter, and even in the storm, Paul bore his witness.

5.Malta, and Arrival at Rome

On Malta, a deadly viper fastened on Paul's hand and yet did him no harm, and he healed the sick of the island, so that the gospel touched that place too. And then, at long last, the journey reached its end: Paul came to Rome. Even as a prisoner awaiting trial, he was permitted to live in a house he rented for himself, with a single soldier to guard him, and to receive freely all who came to visit him. And so the book of Acts closes on a scene of quiet, unmistakable triumph. Paul "received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him." The gospel had reached Rome. And the very last words of the book — "no one forbidding him" — are nothing less than a shout of victory. The apostle is bound, but the word of God is not.

6.The Unstoppable Gospel, and the Next Chapter

Why does Luke end here, with Paul still under guard and the story apparently left hanging in mid-air? Because, in truth, his point has been fully made. The book that opened with a mere handful of frightened disciples praying in an upper room in Jerusalem now ends with the gospel being preached openly, boldly, and unhindered in the capital of the entire world. From Jerusalem to Rome; from a hundred and twenty to an uncountable multitude; from a few Galileans to people of every nation under heaven — the Holy Spirit has carried the word, and nothing whatever has been able to halt it: not the fury of mobs, not the councils of the powerful, not prison bars, not the killing storm, not even the vast might of Rome. Acts is left unfinished quite on purpose, for its true story does not stop at chapter 28; it goes on being written in every generation, wherever the people of Christ bear their witness in the power of that same Spirit. We ourselves are the next chapter. And so our walk through Acts comes to its close. We began at Pentecost, with the Spirit poured out and the church born; we watched that church bear bold witness and give up its first martyr in Jerusalem; we saw the gospel shatter every barrier — to Samaria, to Saul the persecutor, to the Gentiles; we followed Paul's journeys to the ends of the earth, and heard the church declare that salvation is by grace and not by law; and now we have come with Paul, through trial and shipwreck, all the way to Rome, where the gospel is preached with all confidence and no one can forbid it. The book of Acts is, from first to last, the story of an unstoppable gospel, carried by an unstoppable Spirit, through ordinary and faithful witnesses. And that story is not finished. The same Spirit fills the people of Christ still; the same gospel of grace is still waiting to be carried across every barrier and out to the ends of the earth. So take up the story where it was left. Be filled with the Spirit; bear witness to the risen Christ; and trust that His word — the word that traveled from an upper room in Jerusalem all the way to the throne-city of Rome — will surely reach wherever He sends you. For nothing in all the world can bind the word of God.

7.Taking It to Heart