I have maintained from the outset of our time in Acts that the proper and appropriate title for Luke’s second historical work is “The Acts of the Apostles.” Some argue for “The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” but this is the account of the apostles and of the apostolic church fulfilling the mandate given by the Lord in Acts 1:8. By this point in the narrative, the church has expanded geographically as well as ethnically in line with Acts 1:8. Acts is not a biographical sketch the life of Paul, though he figures heavily in it. And because he features so heavily in it—as one of the apostles whose acts are recorded—it should not surprise us how the narrative ends: Paul is found under house arrest in Rome. He would be released some two years later and perhaps would even get to Spain. He would again be arrested and would die in prison. Nero, to whom he had appealed, probably never met Paul during this first incarceration, but in his second Nero took his head. What Luke records about the … [Read More...]
