The Book of Acts (lesson companion book)

“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”–Galatians 6:14

Thirty years—that’s all it took. In those 30 years the Christian church gained sufficient growth and credibility to become the largest religion the world has ever seen and to change the lives of hundreds of millions of people. And it all began with a dozen men, a handful of women, …and the Holy Spirit. Acts is their story.

While it’s tempting to think of the early Christian church as the pinnacle of unity, purity, and perfection, this is misleading. Author Wilson Paroschi writes, “We find the early believers, including the apostles, entangled with misconceptions, personal conflicts, prejudice, and several other difficulties typical of human nature. They were not infallible. What they were able to accomplish in such a short period of time, however, is a perpetual testimony of how powerfully God can work when men and women, despite their limitations and failures, humble their hearts in prayer and submit their lives to the control of the Holy Spirit.”

We should not look at Acts as a retelling of the missionary successes of the apostles, but, rather, as an example of the amazing things God was able to accomplish through them in reclaiming humanity for Himself.