Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• 1. The prophecy about Bethlehem 2:1-12
  2:1-2 When did the Magi visit Jesus in Bethlehem?74There are several factors that point to a time about a year after Jesus' birth. First, Matthew described Jesus as a "child"(Gr. paidion, v. 11), not an "infant"(Gr. brephos, ...
• Revelation about the church 16:18-20
  16:18 "I say to you"(cf. 5:18, 20, 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44; 8:10) may imply that Jesus would continue the revelation the Father had begun. However the phrase occurs elsewhere where that contrast is not in view. Undoubtedly it ...
• Structure
  Longenecker identified five phenomena about the structure of Acts that the reader needs to recognize to appreciate what Luke sought to communicate."1. It begins, like the [Third] Gospel, with an introductory section of distin...
• Outline
  I. The witness in Jerusalem 1:1-6:7A. The founding of the church 1:1-2:461. The resumptive preface to the book 1:1-52. The command to witness 1:6-83. The ascension of Jesus 1:9-114. Jesus' appointment of a twelfth apostle 1:1...
• 2. The command to witness 1:6-8
  The key to the apostles' successful fulfillment of Jesus' commission was their baptism with and consequent indwelling by the Holy Spirit. Without this divine enablement they would only have been able to follow Jesus' example,...
• Peter's exhortation 2:37-41
  2:37 The Holy Spirit used Peter's sermon to bring conviction, as Jesus had predicted (John 16:8-11). He convicted Peter's hearers of the truth of what he said and of their guilt in rejecting Jesus. Their question arose from t...
• B. The ministry of Philip 8:1b-40
  Luke next featured other important events in the expansion of the church and the ministry of another important witness. Philip took the gospel into Samaria and then indirectly to Ethiopia, one of the more remote parts of the ...
• 1. The evangelization of Samaria 8:1b-25
  The first part of Philip's important witness took place in Samaria. Luke recorded the cause of Philip's ministry there (vv. 1b-3), its nature (vv. 4-8), and its effects (vv. 9-24)....
• Simon the Sorcerer's conversion 8:9-13
  8:9-11 Another person who was doing miracles in Samaria, but by satanic power, was Simon whom people have sometimes called Simon Magus. Magus is the transliteration of the Greek word magosmeaning magician or sorcerer. The mag...
• Compromise in the Samaritan church 8:14-24
  8:14-17 The 12 apostles were, of course, the divinely appointed leaders of the Christians (ch. 1). It was natural and proper, therefore, that they should send representative apostles to investigate the Samaritans' response to...
• 2. Philip's ministry to the Ethiopian eunuch 8:26-40
  Luke recorded this incident to show the method and direction of the church's expansion to God-fearing Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism at this time. This man had visited Jerusalem to worship, was studying the Old Testam...
• Saul's reception in Jerusalem 9:26-30
  Luke concluded each of his narratives of the Samaritans' conversion (8:4-25), Saul's conversion (9:1-31), and Cornelius' conversion (10:1-11:18) with references to the mother church in Jerusalem. He evidently wanted to stress...
• 3. The church at peace 9:31
  Notice that "church"is in the singular here. This is probably a reference to the Christians throughout Palestine--in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria--not just in one local congregation but in the body of Christ. Saul's departure ...
• The giving of the Holy Spirit to Gentiles 10:44-48
  10:44 Peter did not need to call for his hearers to repent on this occasion. As soon as he gave them enough information to trust Jesus Christ, they did so. Immediately the Holy Spirit fell on them filling them (v. 47; 11:15; ...
• The spiritual initiative of the Antioch church 11:19-26
  11:19 Luke's reference back to the persecution resulting from Stephen's martyrdom (7:60) is significant. It suggests that he was now beginning to record another mission of the Christians that ran parallel logically and chrono...
• The material initiative of the Antioch church 11:27-30
  11:27 Prophets were still active in the church apparently until the completion of the New Testament canon. A prophet was a person to whom God had given ability to speak for Him (forth-telling, cf. 1 Cor. 14:1-5), which in som...
• The supernatural deliverance of Peter 12:1-19
  "Peter's rescue from prison is an unusually vivid episode in Acts even when simply taken as a story about Peter. Because it is not connected with events in the chapters immediately before and after it, however, it may seem ra...
• 2. The mission to Cyprus 13:4-12
  Luke recorded the events of Paul's first missionary journey to document the extension of the church into new territory and to illustrate the principles and methods by which the church grew. He also did so to show God's supern...
• Paul and Barnabas' return to Jerusalem 15:1-5
  15:1 The men from Judea who came down to Antioch appear to have been Jewish Christians who took the former view of Christianity described above. They believed a person could not become a Christian without first becoming a Jew...
• Ministry in Philippi 16:11-40
  Luke devoted more space to Paul's evangelizing in Philippi than he did to the apostle's activities in any other city on the second and third journeys even though Paul was there only briefly. It was the first European city in ...
• The disciples of John the Baptist 19:1-7
  This is the first of two incidents taken from Paul's ministry in Ephesus that bracket Luke's description of his general ministry there.19:1-2 Two roads led into Ephesus from the east, and Paul travelled the northern, more dir...
• The preservation of unity 4:7-16
  Having described the basis of Christian unity Paul next explained the means by which we can preserve it, namely with the gifts that the Spirit gives.4:7 Whereas each believer has received grace (unmerited favor and divine ena...
• The survivors' response 9:20-21
  9:20 These three severe judgments (fire, smoke, and brimstone, vv. 17-18) will not move the remaining unbelievers as a whole to repent (cf. Exod. 7:13, 23; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 12, 35; 10:20; 11:10)."In all cases in the apocaly...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

• Seed Scattered And Taking Root
  And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apo...