Luke opens The Book of Acts with this: “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.” (Acts 1:1-2) Luke’s Gospel documents all that Jesus began to do and teach in his physical body from his birth through his resurrection. His second account, the Book of Acts, tells what Jesus continued to do and teach through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in his new, mystical body, the Church.

The Book of Acts is not a book of doctrine or theology. It is the story of how the knowledge of Jesus Christ was spread from Jerusalem throughout the whole earth. It gives us a skeletal understanding of the story, but not the complete picture. Luke’s account begins with Pentecost (30 AD) and ends with Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome, which lasted from 61 AD to 63 AD. It concludes while Paul is still under house arrest. By this time, only eleven of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament (not counting the Gospels) had been written.

By combining the story sketched in Acts with details and information provided in the rest of the New Testament letters, the story of the first-century church becomes clearer. But all these details and where they fit into the story are a challenge to sort out, and without a timeline to put the people and events in context, it is still difficult to discern the full picture. Piecing together the story of the early Church is much like putting together a puzzle. Understanding the timeline is critical.

This book combines all of the elements—the timeline, information from the rest of the New Testament letters, when and from where each of those letters was written, and the issues they addressed. It was written to help the reader understand the chronology and story of the early Church, and provide a richer understanding of what those early Christians living in the first century actually experienced.