Answers in Acts

Reading through Acts is an adventure. It seems like the church grows with every turn of the page. Living in the midst of North American Christianity in the 21st century it may be easy to become a little detached from the reality of the miraculous work of God in the early church. It's too easy to have a "that was then, this is now" view of Acts. That's a sad way to read Acts. It misses the mark in a couple of ways. First, it tends to lead to a diminished view of God's activity in the church today. Second, we forget that Peter, John, Paul and Barnabas were real people. One of my reasons for studying Acts is to highlight the answers that Acts provides to real questions. As I read the first couple of chapters with fresh eyes, I have recognized that the questions that people in the first century were asking are not all that different from the questions we wrestle with today. Likewise, the answers provided through the dramatic story of the early church contain valuable insights for us today.