ACT-102
The Book of Acts II (chs. 13–28)
Paul's missionary journeys and the pattern the early church left for planting new congregations.
Topics: Missions, Church planting, Gifts in action
Suggested resource: Trace Paul's journeys with a free Bible atlas app.
Week 1: Set Apart, Sent Out, and the Jerusalem Council
Reading: Acts 13:1–3, 14, 15:1–29, 16–18
Acts 13 opens with the church at Antioch fasting and ministering to the Lord when “the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them” (13:2) — the first intentional missionary sending in church history, launched not by human strategy but by direct instruction from the Spirit. Paul and Barnabas plant churches across Cyprus and Galatia, and a repeating pattern emerges that shapes church planting to this day: preach the gospel, see people believe, appoint elders in every church, then return later to strengthen what was started (14:21–23).
That success created a crisis. Certain men from Judea began teaching the new Gentile believers, “Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved” (15:1) — in effect, requiring Gentiles to become culturally Jewish before they could be fully Christian. The apostles and elders convened in Jerusalem to settle it. Peter's testimony was decisive: “God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith” (15:8–9) — pointing directly back to Cornelius's household receiving the identical Acts 2:38 experience without first becoming Jewish proselytes. James then rendered the council's decision: Gentiles would not be burdened with the law, only asked to abstain from a short list tied to idolatry and to basic moral purity (15:19–20, 28–29). This ruling permanently separated the gospel from ethnic and ceremonial requirements — salvation by grace through faith, evidenced by the same Spirit given to Jew and Gentile alike, not earned by keeping the law of Moses.
Key terms: Acts 13:2's Spirit-directed sending, The church-planting pattern (14:21–23), The Jerusalem Council's question (15:1), Peter's Cornelius testimony (15:8–9)
Discussion Questions
- Why was Peter's own experience with Cornelius, rather than a new argument, the decisive evidence at the Jerusalem Council?
- What does the council's decision in Acts 15 teach you about the difference between essential doctrine and cultural or ceremonial requirement?
Challenge: Read Acts 15:1–29 in full and write, in your own words, exactly what the council did and did not require of Gentile believers.
Week 2: The Third Journey and Ephesus
Reading: Acts 18:24–28, 19:1–20, 20–21
Before reaching Ephesus, Paul encounters Apollos, an eloquent, Scripture-mighty preacher who nonetheless “knew only the baptism of John” (18:25) until Aquila and Priscilla “expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (18:26) — a picture of sincere, gifted ministry that was still, in a specific and correctable way, incomplete. Paul then arrives at Ephesus and finds “certain disciples” and asks them a direct question worth memorizing: “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” Their answer is startling: “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost” (19:2). When Paul learns they had only received John's baptism of repentance, he explains that John's baptism pointed forward to Christ, “that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” “When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied” (19:5–6).
This account matters enormously for everything studied in Soteriology (THE-102): these were not pagans or strangers to God — they were sincere religious disciples, and Paul still corrected and rebaptized them, because sincerity under an incomplete gospel is not the same thing as the full New Testament experience Acts 2:38 describes. The word became so effective in Ephesus afterward that “the word of God grew mightily, and prevailed” (19:20), even provoking a citywide riot from silversmiths whose idol-making trade was threatened (19:23–41). The rest of the passage shows Paul's sober, determined journey back toward Jerusalem, telling the Ephesian elders plainly that “bonds and afflictions abide me,” yet counting “none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy” (20:23–24).
Key terms: Apollos's incomplete instruction (18:24–26), Paul's diagnostic question (19:2), Acts 19:5–6's rebaptism and Spirit baptism, Determined obedience (20:23–24)
Discussion Questions
- Why do you think Paul's very first question to the Ephesian disciples was about the Holy Ghost rather than about their doctrine in general?
- What does Acts 19:1–6 teach you about the relationship between sincerity and correctness in matters of doctrine and experience?
Challenge: Compare the Ephesian disciples' experience in Acts 19:1–6 to Acts 2:38 and Acts 10:44–48 side by side. What three things are present in all three accounts?
Week 3: Arrest, Trials, and Rome
Reading: Acts 22–26, 27:1–26, 28
From his arrest in Jerusalem through hearings before the governors Felix and Festus and finally King Agrippa, Paul repeatedly turns his own legal defense into an occasion to preach Christ. Before Agrippa he retells his Damascus road conversion in full, then presses the king directly: “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest” — to which Agrippa answers, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (26:27–28). Paul's reply captures his whole approach to trial and testimony at once: “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds” (26:29) — a prisoner in chains who still considered his hearers, including the king judging him, more in need of what he had than he was in need of his own freedom.
Acts 27 records a violent, fourteen-day storm at sea, and in the middle of it Paul—still a prisoner—stands up and calmly assures the crew, on the word of an angel who appeared to him, that not one life will be lost though the ship will be wrecked (27:22–25); it happens exactly as he said. The book closes not with Paul's death but with him under house arrest in Rome for two full years, “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him” (28:31). Luke deliberately leaves the ending open: the story Acts tells — the gospel spreading from a locked upper room in Jerusalem to the capital of the Roman Empire in one generation — was never meant to end at all. It continues in every generation since, including the one studying it right now.
Key terms: Paul's testimony before Agrippa (26:27–29), Calm faith in the storm (27:22–25), The open ending of Acts (28:31), The unfinished gospel mission
Discussion Questions
- How does Paul's habit of testifying at every trial challenge how you handle difficult or hostile conversations about your faith?
- Why do you think Luke ends Acts without describing Paul's death or giving the story a tidy resolution?
Challenge: Write your own two-minute testimony, modeled on how Paul told his story to Agrippa in Acts 26 — where you were, what happened, and what it produced in your life.
Course Exam
Five questions for review or self-testing.
Q: What did the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 decide?
Reveal Answer
That Gentile believers are saved by grace through faith, not by keeping the Mosaic law.
Q: What happened to the disciples at Ephesus in Acts 19:1–6?
Reveal Answer
They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
Q: What does Acts 19:1–6 teach about sincerity versus correctness?
Reveal Answer
Sincere religious devotion under incomplete understanding isn't the same as the full New Testament experience.
Q: How does Paul handle his trials in Acts 22–26?
Reveal Answer
He turns each hearing into an opportunity to give his testimony and preach Christ.
Q: How does the book of Acts end?
Reveal Answer
Without a tidy resolution — Paul preaching under house arrest, because the gospel's spread was never meant to end.