Acts 1
Acts 1
The risen Jesus ascends, leaving the disciples with a mandate and a promise; they return to Jerusalem to wait in prayer while the eleven restore their number to twelve by lot.
Acts of the Apostles — chapter by chapter
All 28 chapters — from the ascension in Jerusalem to house arrest in Rome.
Acts divides into four movements: Jerusalem (1–7), the widening mission through Judea and Samaria (8–12), Paul's three missionary journeys through Asia Minor and Greece (13–21), and the long arrest sequence from Jerusalem to Rome (21–28). Chapter 15 — the Jerusalem Council — is the structural pivot. Everything before it points toward it; everything after is its consequence.
Jerusalem · Acts 1–7
Pentecost, the early community, Stephen’s speech and martyrdom.
Acts 2
Acts 2
The Spirit falls on the disciples at Pentecost with sound, fire, and sudden multilingualism; Peter preaches the first Christian sermon, and three thousand are baptized that day.
Acts 3
Acts 3
Peter heals a man lame from birth at the Beautiful Gate of the temple and preaches to the astonished crowd in Solomon's Portico, interpreting Jesus through Moses and Abraham.
Acts 4
Acts 4
The Sanhedrin arrests Peter and John for preaching in the temple, finds itself unable to deny the healing, and commands them to be silent; they refuse, return to the community, and pray for boldness.
Acts 5
Acts 5
Ananias and Sapphira die for lying about a land sale; the apostles are arrested again, freed by an angel, and found teaching at dawn; Gamaliel's counsel saves them from the council's harsher intentions.
Acts 6
Acts 6
The Jerusalem community appoints seven men to oversee food distribution and free the apostles for prayer and preaching; Stephen among them is immediately brought up on charges before the Sanhedrin.
Acts 7
Acts 7
Stephen retells Israel's history as a pattern of rejecting God's messengers, accuses the council directly, sees a vision of the Son of Man, and is stoned outside the city — the first Christian martyr.
Wider mission · Acts 8–12
Philip, the Ethiopian, Paul’s conversion, Peter and Cornelius, Herod’s death.
Acts 8
Acts 8
Philip preaches in Samaria and rebukes the sorcerer Simon's attempt to buy the Spirit; then on a desert road he baptizes an Ethiopian official who had been reading Isaiah 53 in his chariot.
Acts 9
Acts 9
Saul is struck blind on the Damascus road by the voice of Jesus, is baptized by Ananias three days later, and begins preaching the very faith he had set out to destroy; Peter meanwhile heals Aeneas and raises Tabitha at Joppa.
Acts 10
Acts 10
Peter's vision of the great sheet at Joppa and Cornelius's vision in Caesarea converge; Peter goes to the centurion's house, preaches, and the Spirit falls on the household before the sermon is finished.
Acts 11
Acts 11
Peter defends his baptism of Cornelius before the Jerusalem church and silences criticism; Antioch emerges as the movement's new centre, where the disciples are first called Christians.
Acts 12
Acts 12
Herod kills James and imprisons Peter; an angel frees Peter overnight while the community is praying for him; Herod, accepting divine honours, is struck down by an angel and dies.
Paul’s journeys · Acts 13–21
Three missionary circuits from Antioch through the eastern Mediterranean.
Acts 13
Acts 13
The Spirit sends Barnabas and Saul from Antioch; they preach through Cyprus and into Asia Minor, where Paul's synagogue sermon at Pisidian Antioch provokes a split: resistant Jews, receptive Gentiles.
Acts 14
Acts 14
At Lystra, Paul heals a lame man and is mistaken for Hermes; he barely prevents a sacrifice to himself and Barnabas before being stoned by the same crowd; they retrace their route and report back to Antioch.
Acts 15
Acts 15
The Jerusalem Council rules that Gentile converts need not be circumcised; Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James each speak; a letter is sent to the Gentile churches with four conciliatory but non-salvific requirements.
Acts 16
Acts 16
The Macedonian vision redirects Paul into Europe; Lydia is baptized at Philippi's river; after midnight hymns and an earthquake, the terrified jailer and his household are baptized before dawn.
Acts 17
Acts 17
Paul reasons from scripture through Macedonia's synagogues and is driven from each city by riot; in Athens he addresses the Areopagus, quoting Greek poets and arguing from an altar to the Unknown God.
Acts 18
Acts 18
Paul works as a tentmaker in Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila for eighteen months; the proconsul Gallio dismisses the charges against him; Apollos appears in Ephesus and is instructed more accurately by Priscilla and Aquila.
Acts 19
Acts 19
Paul teaches for two years in Ephesus until all of Asia has heard; extraordinary healings and a failed exorcism lead to a mass book-burning, then silversmiths riot to defend the trade in Diana's shrines.
Acts 20
Acts 20
Paul revives Eutychus after a three-story fall in Troas; at Miletus he delivers a farewell address to the Ephesian elders, reviewing his ministry and warning of future trials before sailing for Jerusalem.
Acts 21
Acts 21
Paul arrives in Jerusalem despite repeated prophetic warnings, takes a vow in the temple, is seized by a crowd of Asian Jews who accuse him of defiling the temple, and is taken into Roman custody.
Arrest and Rome · Acts 22–28
Paul before councils and kings, the shipwreck on Malta, and the word that reaches the capital.
Acts 22
Acts 22
Paul addresses the Jerusalem crowd in Aramaic with his conversion story; they listen until he mentions the Gentiles, then riot; his Roman citizenship stops a planned flogging and alarms the commander.
Acts 23
Acts 23
Paul divides the Sanhedrin by raising the resurrection issue, learns of a forty-man assassination plot through his nephew, and is sent to Felix in Caesarea with a military escort of two hundred soldiers and seventy cavalry.
Acts 24
Acts 24
The high priest presents a formal accusation through the advocate Tertullus; Paul offers a disciplined defence; Felix hears him regularly but adjourns without verdict and holds him for two years hoping for a bribe.
Acts 25
Acts 25
Festus, wanting to do the Jerusalem authorities a favour, suggests transferring Paul there; Paul appeals to Caesar; the appeal is granted, and Agrippa and Bernice arrive in time to give Festus an educated audience for the case.
Acts 26
Acts 26
Paul delivers his most elaborate conversion account before Agrippa and Festus; Festus says he has gone mad from learning; Agrippa says he almost becomes a Christian; both agree Paul could have been freed.
Acts 27
Acts 27
Paul sails to Rome under guard in late season; a two-week storm drives the ship off course; it grounds and breaks up on Malta, but all 276 aboard survive, with Paul's prophetic role vindicated throughout.
Acts 28
Acts 28
Paul is unharmed by a viper on Malta and heals the island's sick; he arrives in Rome to a brotherly welcome; his final meeting with the Roman Jewish community ends in division; the book closes with him preaching openly and unhindered.