The risen Christ ascends and pours out his Spirit at Pentecost, forming a new community that prays, shares, heals, and proclaims — even under threat.
New Testament
Acts
Acts is the second volume of Luke–Acts and resumes the story where the Gospel ends: with the risen Jesus, his ascension, and the promised Holy Spirit. Like Luke, Acts is anonymous within the text, but early Christian tradition attributes it to Luke, the physician and companion of Paul. The two volumes address Theophilus and were likely composed together or close in time, commonly dated around AD 75–95, though the date and original setting remain debated. Acts traces Spirit-empowered witness from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria, then across Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and finally to Rome. It explains how a movement rooted in Israel came to include Gentiles without abandoning God's promises to Israel, and it prepares churches for mission, conflict, discernment, and faithful endurance. Canonically, Acts links the four Gospels with the New Testament letters by narrating the apostolic missions and providing background for many of Paul's letters.
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Gospel Expansion Beyond Jerusalem
Acts 7-12Persecution scatters the Jerusalem believers outward, and through Philip's preaching, Saul's dramatic conversion, and the Spirit's fall on Cornelius, the gospel crosses every boundary the ancient world had erected.
Mission to the Gentile World
Acts 13-20Commissioned from Antioch, Paul and his companions carry the gospel across the Roman world — through synagogues, marketplaces, and philosophical halls — while the Jerusalem Council settles the terms on which Gentiles enter the people of God.
Paul's Mission and Journey to Rome
Acts 21-28Paul's arrest in Jerusalem sets him on a long journey through defense speeches, shipwreck, and chains to Rome, where the book ends with the gospel proclaimed openly and without hindrance — the word that seals the entire narrative.