Lecture 2 – Doing Theology from the Book of Acts

Reading

Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (3rd edn;
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 107-126.
Walter L. Liefeld, Interpreting the Book of Acts (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 49-59.
David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles (PNTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009),
42-47

Detailed Reading

Daniel Doriani, Putting the Truth to Work: The Theory and Practice of Biblical
Application (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2001), 161-212.
Grant Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1991), 153-
173.
James L. Resseguie, Narrative Criticism of the New Testament: An Introduction
(Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2005)

How to do Theology from Acts

We use the Bible to gain normative insight into four areas of the Christian life:

1. Christian Theology (what should I believe)

2. Christian Ethics (What is right and wrong)
3. Christian Experience (What should I expect God to do in my life)
4. Christian Practice (what spiritual disciplines should we practice as individuals and as
a church)

Acts is usually seen as a useful source for categories 3 and 4.

Two major responses to Acts as a guide to life

• One extreme - Lots of evangelical churches explicitly work out of a “restorationist”

mentality

o The way it happened in the early church provides the normative pattern for
the way it should happen now.
 “This is how the early church did it….”
 “We are an Acts 2 church...”
Lecture 2 – Doing Theology from the Book of Acts

o Tends to be selective in focus – i.e. only some items are focused on, whilst
others are passed over in silence.
o Potentially everything is repeatable (although we intuitively know this isn’t
true)

• Other extreme - Acts is descriptive not prescriptive

o Simply tells you what happened, but is always ambiguous on what parts
should and should not be followed.
o Too much is “unique” to the first generation of Christians for it to function as
normative.
o For prescription, we need to seek the clear, unambiguous propositions of
Paul’s letters or the teaching of Jesus.
o Hence, the teaching of Acts on Christian experience and practice can only
function as a support to teachings found elsewhere in Scripture. Otherwise,
Acts provides us with little that is new.

So how can we do theology and application

from the book of Acts?

 Which aspects of Acts 1:12-26 are normative and which are situation specific and
how can we tell?

 Which elements of Acts 2:42-47 are normative, and which are situation specific, and
how can we tell?

 What is the contemporary application of Acts 5:1-11?

 Is Saul’s conversion a model for our own experience of conversion (Acts 9)?

 What are the proper elements of a Gospel sermon (compare Acts 13:16-41 with Acts
17:16-34)?

 Should we baptize by immersion (Acts 8:36-38), and should we baptize children

whose parents have believed (Acts 16:29-34)?

A Method for Working Out Theology and

Application

1. The Plot Movement of the Whole Narrative (Wider Context)

Lecture 2 – Doing Theology from the Book of Acts

Plot – Plot refers to the progress of a narrative, the sequence of events which
move us from beginning to end in a story. It is the designing principle that
contributes to our understanding of the meaning of a narrative. In simple
terms, the way the story is told, the very shape of the story, is an essential
part of its meaning. If letters argue, then stories plot.

How does this relate to what the whole narrative of Acts is intending to
teach? Why did Luke include this episode in light of his larger story?

Remember - The big story is about the progress of the word from Jerusalem
to Rome, empowered by the Holy Spirit. For Luke this focus on the westward
journey of the Gospel functions as a representative story that testifies that
God will bring his gospel to the “ends of the earth”.

2. The Immediate Context of the Episode

How does the episode fit in with its preceding and following episodes?
How does it function within the literary subsection it belongs to?

E.g. Luke sometimes juxtaposes narratives in such a way that episodes are
placed into a relationship of comparison and contrast (e.g. 4:32-37 contrasts
with Acts 5:1-11). At other times, Luke is using multiple episodes to
reinforce points, build towards a climax, etc. (e.g. the two episodes
highlighting the distinction between the baptism of John and the baptism of
the Holy Spirit – Acts 18:24-19:7).

3. The Presence of Consistent and Repeated Patterns in different Episodes

• Singular and isolated happenings are very hard to regard as Luke

intending to establish a precedent to be applied or as key to his
theological beliefs. If something happens only once in the narrative,
don’t make a doctrine out of it!

• Similarly, when Luke presents inconsistent patterns for how things

happen (like reception of the Holy Spirit, the use of lots in deciding
leaders), it likely indicates that he is not trying to establish a
normative precedent.

• The greater the frequency and consistency of some detail, with

obvious divine approval, potentially indicates Luke’s belief in its
‘precedent’ value or its role in his theology. For example, what is it
that consistently happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon people in
the book of Acts?

o The parallels in depicting Paul and Peter in their teaching,

miracles, and ministerial experiences.

o E.g. In Acts 6:1-6 the entire congregation chooses the

apostles helpers. In 13:1-3 a select group of church leaders
chooses Barnabas and Saul for their missionary ministry.
Lecture 2 – Doing Theology from the Book of Acts

4. The Importance of Narrative Emphasis for Discerning Theological

Importance

Narrative Time

• The length of a narrative sequence may not proportionately

correspond to the duration of the original event. Chapters 3 and 4
cover two days, whilst Acts 19:10 covers two years.

• Which episodes and speeches get slow, detailed and repeated

treatment?

• What does the slowing of narrative time enable the author to

communicate?

Narrative Focus

• Within the episode itself, which things does the narrator focus on?
What term or terms are focussed on? On the flip side - What
questions is the narrator not interested in answering? It is unhelpful
to focus on incidental details.

• Which characters are praised and which characters are condemned?

o Narratives do have the ability to suggest when a character

(the protagonist) is setting a precedent, in particular when the
behaviour of a character matches something about God’s
nature.
o Narratives do have the ability to set precedents by means of
negative characters (antagonists), whose behaviour warns us
of what to avoid. A classic example is the behaviour of
Simon in Acts 8:9-25

• Are episodes reported on more than once

o Cornelius’ conversion
o Paul’s conversion
o The repeated trial scenes of Paul

5. The Importance of the Speeches in Acts

• Large amount of material in Acts is speeches (more than 25%)

• Because the apostles (and others, i.e. Stephen) are given divine
approval through their being empowered by the Spirit, the speeches
can function as trustworthy comment on the theological significance
of what is happening.

• Speeches can often identify appropriate responses (i.e. repent and

believe…)
Lecture 2 – Doing Theology from the Book of Acts

• Repeated features of speeches probably indicate what is at the core of

gospel proclamation.

• But the speeches can still vary according to the audience within the
narrative – contrast Paul’s evangelistic sermons to Jews and Gentiles.

6. The Voice of the Narrator (Editorial Summaries)

Does the narrator guide you in your evaluation of an episode through an

editorial comment or aside, such as the repeated summary statements? This
shows you what is central to his intentions and concerns.

7. Reading as the Implied Reader

Every book has an assumed group of readers in mind. We are called upon by
the text to read it from the standpoint of those “implied readers” and to
identify with their problems and issues. How is the text itself assuming you
will read it? What questions does it assume you are asking? This will help
you to not read meanings into the text by imposing modern questions on the
text.

8. The Use of Scripture (Biblical-Theological Context)

Scripture is often cited by the apostles and their associates in Acts as a way of
tying what is happening in the text to the OT plan of God. This is critical in
demonstrating that the message of salvation is the fulfilment of God’s
promises to Israel. God is just doing a new thing, but he is fulfilling his
ancient promises. This necessarily elaborates the meaning of these events. It
forces the reader to ask – how does Acts function in light of the story of the
whole Bible?

9. The Value of the Scripture Interpreting Scripture

Is the principle, practice or piece of theology espoused by Luke taught

elsewhere in Scripture? Didactic portions of Scripture can help to clarify
narrative portions (i.e. if Paul’s letters think completely different on an issue,
you have to factor that in when treating Acts as normative. We can’t set NT
books off against one another.

Some final caveats

Narratives may indicate something was normal in the experience of the early church, without
making it normative for the modern church. That is to say, we can happily repeat an action in
the New Testament, without having to say it is demanded by the text.

Where a narrative is ambiguous, we should be appropriately hesitant.

We should always be looking to say something like – it is the consistent and repeated fact in
Acts that when…
Lecture 2 – Doing Theology from the Book of Acts

Simple terms – be very careful, but the belief that “narrative can only describe and not
prescribe” is too restrictive.

“History illustrates moral and spiritual truth, but it can do more.

The Bible never quite commands, “Associate with outsiders.” It
never quite says believers have permission to work in places
where their hands might get dirty, for example, in pagan
governments or large corporations; but the pattern of
involvement visible in the stories of Joseph, Daniel, Obadiah,
Esther, and others does provide much needed direction. If we
avoid moralizing and mindless imitation, narrative can guide us,
whether we have independent verification or not.”

Daniel Doriani

A Test-Case Reading

Acts 8:4-25

Apply the insights given above to this particular episode.