Book Of Acts: A Thematic Analysis

In the book of Acts, we can see how the early church carry out Jesus’ commission to “go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life” and “instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you” (Matthews 28:19-20, MSG). Even in the beginning, the work of the church is centered on Jerusalem; soon its mission spreads out through the major cities of the Greco-Roman world of the first century. As we follow the apostle Paul’s mission trips in the Mediterranean region, we can easily recognize that the most influential urban places become the primary targets of his mission. It is not that these cities are exceptionally good or opened to the Gospel, but they are simply the places of the microcosms or crossroads of human civilization, where most people live and where significant influence happens.

In Acts 17, he travels to Athens, the major intellectual center, and then he visits Corinth, one of the vital commercial centers. In Acts 19, he goes to Ephesus, the Roman world’s religious center. In the end, Paul has made it to Rome itself, the empire’s capital of military and political power. It is obvious that the apostle Paul fully gets it: God has a new way of working with humanity through Jesus Christ, and Father’s love is to be embodied and taught in communities among all nations or groups of people (Adeney 2010, 19). In every place that Paul visits as God’s missional worker, he behaves as an insider to the particular culture; he pays attention to the social and religious trends and engages in the conversation. As Greenman points out, ministry beckons God’s people to pay attention to the particular world of people, relationships, culture, economics, religion, sociology, power, art, land and more (Greenman 2012,