Acts of the Apostles

The writer of this book was Luke, who also wrote The Gospel of Luke. In this book he tells how, after Jesus went back up to heaven, his followers told the Good News about him first to Jews in their own land and then to other peoples in other lands. Luke tells how the Holy Spirit first came to all the followers of Jesus and then always continued to guide and strengthen them and their leaders.

In chapters 1–12 Luke tells mainly about what the apostle Peter did and what happened to the Christians in Jerusalem. In particular, through various events the Holy Spirit helped them to understand that God wanted the Good News of Jesus to be given to people of all nations, not just the Jews. Then in chapters 13–28 Luke relates how the Holy Spirit guided the apostle Paul to take this Good News to many places in Asia and Europe and finally to the city of Rome. In the course of this story Luke includes several sermons which Paul and other apostles preached. These help us to see how they presented the Good News of Jesus to different people in different situations.

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