Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture
The Acts of the Apostles
By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
(Sunday, August 17, 2025)
The Acts of the Apostles
By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
(Sunday, August 17, 2025)
The New Testament, after the Gospels, includes the book called Acts of the Apostles. If the Gospels present the activity of Christ, His teaching and miracles, the Acts of the Apostles present the establishment of the Church, as the Body of Christ, at Pentecost, and the subsequent organization of the Church in Jerusalem and its expansion beyond. First, something should be noted regarding the title of the book. Today it is written “Acts of the Apostles”, better though is “Acts of Apostles”, without the definite article “the”, because it does not describe the actions of all the Apostles, but mainly of the two Apostles, Peter and Paul, and it presents only a few incidents from their lives.
Specifically, the book of Acts of the Apostles contains incidents from the activities of the Apostles Peter, John, the Apostle Paul, James the Brother of God, the martyrdom of the Apostle James, the brother of John, and the hanging of Judas, the traitor of Christ. The author of the Acts is considered by all tradition to be the Evangelist Luke, who also wrote the third Gospel, the Gospel of Luke, and there are internal testimonies that confirm this, but also testimonies of the first interpreters of the Scriptures that support this. Among other things, this is evident from the prologue to the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in which it is clearly seen that it is sent to Theophilos, to whom he also sent his Gospel, where he refers to the “first word” in order to support him in the faith in Christ. And according to the interpreters, it must have been written around 70 AD.
In terms of content, the book can be divided into two parts. The first part is included from the beginning to the fifteenth chapter, verse 35, and describes the life of the first Church in Jerusalem with the leading role of the Apostle Peter. The second part, from the fifteenth chapter, verse 36, describes the activities of the Apostle Paul, with the apostolic journeys until his first arrival in Rome accompanied by a Roman guard to stand trial, and essentially it is the first imprisonment of the Apostle Paul. And in the first part, Saul's conversion to Christ and his first apostolic journey are described until the Apostolic Synod held in the year 48 AD in Jerusalem, to address the problem of circumcision that arose, that is, whether Gentiles who became Christians had to be circumcised, according to the provisions of the Mosaic Law.
If one were to run through the content of the book very quickly for a brief update, I would say that the book of the Acts of the Apostles deals with the following topics.
In the first part until the middle of the fifteenth chapter, after the prologue, reference is made to the appearance of Christ for forty days, to the replacement of Judas who was hanged, to the election of the twelfth disciple Matthias, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, to the preaching of the Apostle Peter, to the common life of the first believers, to the miracles and imprisonments of the Apostle Peter, to his calling before the Sanhedrin, to the election of the seven deacons, to the speech of the Protodeacon Stephen in the Sanhedrin and to his stoning, to the first persecutions of the believers in Jerusalem, to the catechism of the Ethiopian eunuch and his baptism, to the calling of Saul by Christ to the apostolic office in a vision before arriving in Damascus, to the preaching of the Apostle Peter in Lydda and Joppa, to the resurrection of Tabitha and the conversion to Christ of the Roman centurion Cornelius, to the founding of the Church in Antioch, to the beheading of the Apostle James, to the imprisonment and miraculous release of the Apostle Peter, to the tragic death of Herod, to the mission of Barnabas and Paul to Cyprus and the southern part of Asia Minor, and to the Apostolic Synod in Jerusalem, where it was decided those who accept Christ through Baptism should not be circumcised.
In the second part, from the end of the fifteenth chapter, the second journey of the Apostle Paul is described, while the first journey had previously been made with Barnabas. Thus, the second journey of the Apostle Paul is made with Silas in Asia Minor, where he hires Timothy and Luke as companions. Also, the vision in Troas to visit Greece, the journey of the Apostle Paul to Philippi, to Thessaloniki, Beroia, Athens, Corinth and return to Antioch are described. Then begins his third journey from Ephesus to Corinth, return to Macedonia, Troy, Miletus, his speech to the Elders of Ephesus and the other Churches whom he summoned to Miletus, refers to his return to Jerusalem, his arrest, his defense, his request to be tried in Rome, and his journey to Rome through the Cretan Sea. The Acts of the Apostles concludes: “Paul stayed for a whole two years in a private rented house, where he received all who visited him. He preached the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with great boldness and without any hindrance.”
This brief presentation of the content of the Acts of the Apostles cannot make people understand the importance of this book. A short assessment of this work will be made.
The book begins with the great event of the Ascension of Christ into heaven and the certainty given by the Angels that Christ would come again in His glory. This is a work of crucial importance. Then, the miraculous event of Pentecost is presented, during which the Old Testament Church became the Body of Christ and the Disciples, as well as the believers, became members of the Body of Christ. The gifts were manifest and rich. The Apostles received great power, performed miracles, preached the divinity and Resurrection of Christ with great power, and their preaching had great power, through which many were attracted to the new faith and believed in Christ as God. Furthermore, the amazing phenomenon of the common life of the first Disciples of Christ, who later in Antioch were called Christians, is presented. They all lived together, they distributed their possessions for the needs of all, they glorified God, they prayed charismatically, that is, they had charismatic prayer, they saw the glory of God through theoptia, like the Protodeacon and Protomartyr Stephen.
A very important event is the appearance of the Risen Christ to the hitherto persecutor Saul, who called him to the Apostolic office. Saul, later the Apostle Paul, with his knowledge of the Scriptures, the vision he had, and his energy gave new life to the growth of the early Church from Jerusalem to Rome, with his divinely-inspired and martyric journeys. Of course, one of the most important events was the Apostolic Synod in Jerusalem, in which a meeting was held with the Holy Spirit and they determined how they would accept Gentiles who wanted to be baptized without being circumcised. This is the transition in practice from the Old to the New Testament. Now baptism is the new spiritual circumcision and incorporation into the Body of Christ. Therefore, the relationship of Christ with His Disciples has another, greater significance. Thus, this first Apostolic Synod, which took place in 48 AD in Jerusalem, with the historic phrase “it is determined by the Holy Spirit and us,” became the model and type of all subsequent Local and Ecumenical Synods for the resolution, in the Holy Spirit, of all the theological issues that arose in the history of the Church.
Also, in the early Church, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, the degrees of the Priesthood begin and are organized. They are the Apostles, then the first Deacons are ordained, then the Bishops and the Presbyters, and all of them had the Holy Spirit with the manifest and external gifts of prophecy, noetic prayer or prayer of the heart, miracles and vision. All of this shows us what the essence of the Priesthood is and what its purpose is. Certainly, in the book of the Acts of the Apostles the dynamism of the early Church, its spiritual vitality, its authenticity, its missionary activity is seen and this is a model for all of us. Reading this book we are reflected, we see what the secularization of our life, our teaching, our pastoral ministry, the synodal function of the Church, our worship and our social work consists of.
According to the Church's Typikon, sections from the book of the Acts of the Apostles are read during the Divine Liturgy from Easter Sunday until Pentecost, so that we may understand in the Light of Christ's Resurrection what the Church is, what theology is, what the priesthood is, what the Christian life is.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
