SAVED

Experiencing the Promise of the Book of Acts

Nancy Guthrie

Saved: Experiencing the Promise of the Book of Acts

© 2024 by Nancy Guthrie

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Contents

  Introduction: Acts of the Apostles?

Part 1: Salvation in Jerusalem

 1  You Will Be My Witnesses (1:1–26)

 2  I Will Pour Out My Spirit (2:1–47)

 3  In Jesus the Resurrection from the Dead (3:1–4:31)

 4  You Will Not Be Able to Overthrow Them (4:32–5:42)

 5  The Most High Does Not Dwell in Houses Made by Hands (6:1–7:60)

Part 2: Salvation to Judea and Samaria

 6  They Were All Scattered (8:1–40)

 7  God’s Chosen Instrument (9:1–31)

 8  What God Has Made Clean (9:32–11:18)

 9  The Hand of the Lord Was with Them (11:19–12:25)

Part 3: Salvation to the Ends of the Earth

10  All That God Had Done with Them (13:1–14:28)

11  Saved through the Grace of the Lord Jesus (15:1–16:5)

12  There Is Another King, Jesus (16:6–17:9)

13  I Have Many in This City Who Are My People (17:10–18:23)

14  The Word Continued to Increase and Prevail Mightily (18:24–20:38)

15  Paul Resolved in His Spirit to Go to Jerusalem (21:1–23:35)

16  I Always Take Pains to Have a Clear Conscience toward God and Man (24:1–26:32)

17  It Will Be Exactly as I Have Been Told (27:1–28:31)

  Acts Timeline

  Bibliography

  General Index

  Scripture Index

Introduction

Acts of the Apostles?

If you think about it, Acts is kind of a funny name for a book, isn’t it? It immediately raises the question, “Whose acts? What acts?”

Of course, the fuller name we find in our English Bibles for this book is Acts of the Apostles. Luke, the author of this book, didn’t actually give it that title. It wasn’t until the third century that the early church gave it this designation. Why might they have given it that title?

This book certainly tells the story of what happened to and through the twelve apostles and the apostle Paul in the thirty or so years following the death and resurrection of Jesus. It particularly focuses on the ministry of Peter in the first part of the book and then on the ministry of Paul in the second part.

But if this is a book about what the apostles did, ...