Donate
Return To Main Website

Explore Study Options >

Explore the Work of the Apostles

The work of the apostles is the bridge between Jesus’ earthly work—the salvation for human beings that He achieved through His life, death and resurrection—and us today. Having written the story of Jesus, Luke saw that it could not and did not end when He ascended into heaven. God’s work moved into a new phase.

The apostles began telling people about Jesus and the salvation that is possible through Him. But even the apostolic work had distinct phases. Luke was personally involved in the vital stage of the apostolic mission of bringing the message of salvation beyond the world of the Jews to the nations of the world. Explore the Work of the Apostles works through Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, picking up some of the other New Testament apostolic writings along the way.

Explore the Work of the Apostles - Contents Page

Introduction

Unit 1: Witnesses

  • Revision of the resurrection
  • The apostles’ recovery
  • With what understanding of the future did the apostles start their mission?
  • What did the apostles do once they understood their new role?
  • How did God empower the first Christians for their work of witness?
  • The importance of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life

Unit 2: The gospel

  • How did God launch the new Christian movement?
  • Peter’s message
  • What does ‘gospel’ mean?
  • The people’s response to Peter’s message
  • Other gospel sermons

Unit 3: Community

  • The community that resulted from the preaching of the gospel
  • Why does Luke describe the early community in such detail?
  • The attitude of outsiders to the first church
  • Persecution of the first Christians
  • What other difficulties did the first church face?

Unit 4: Crossing the culture barrier

  • The different groups of Jews
  • The gospel among Greek-speaking Jews in Jerusalem
  • The effect of the first great persecution of Christians
  • Christianity spreads to Samaria
  • How did the gospel first come to Africa?

Unit 5: The big breakthrough

  • Saul of Tarsus becomes a Christian
  • Preaching Christ to the Gentiles
  • Has Jesus really changed the law of Moses?
  • How was Peter’s action received by the church?
  • The first large concentration of Gentile Christians
  • The next major persecution against the church in Jerusalem

Unit 6: World mission

  • Where did the policy of sending missionaries to other countries begin?
  • The first port of call as Saul and Barnabas set out
  • Paul’s missionary strategy
  • Organisation of the new churches
  • The end of the first missionary expedition
  • A threat to missionary work to the Gentiles

Unit 7: Paul in Europe

  • Paul’s travelling companions
  • Philippi
  • Thessalonica and Berea
  • Athens
  • Corinth
  • The timeline of Paul’s ministry

Unit 8: Strategic location in Asia

  • Other early gospel preachers besides Paul
  • The evangelism of the province of Asia
  • What place did miracles have in Paul’s ministry?
  • The end of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus
  • Luke rejoins Paul’s party
  • The book of Romans
  • Paul’s model of church care

Unit 9: Paul on trial

  • Paul persists in his journey to Jerusalem
  • The attitude to Paul among the Christians in Jerusalem
  • Paul in Roman custody
  • Was Paul right to have gone to Jerusalem?
  • Paul in the custody of Felix
  • While Paul was in prison
  • What did Paul say to King Herod Agrippa?
  • The significance of all these hearings

Unit 10: Paul in Rome, the heart of the empire

  • Paul’s journey to Rome
  • Paul speaks to the Jews in Rome
  • The response of the Roman Jews
  • Paul’s letters
  • What happened to Paul after his imprisonment in Rome?
Register now