Acts Devotionals
One for each chapter. Want to test what you read? Take the Acts quizzes.
- Acts 1: Waiting for the Promised Gift
Acts begins with Jesus still in charge. For forty days after his suffering, the risen Lord shows himself alive to his apostles and speaks with them about the kingdom of God (1:3).…
- Acts 2: Poured Out from the Throne
Pentecost arrives with the sound of wind, tongues like fire, and a crowd from many nations hearing the wonders of God in their own languages (2:2-11). Peter explains that this is…
- Acts 3: Not by Our Own Power
A man lame from birth sits at the temple gate asking for money, and he gets far more than he asked for. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Peter takes him by the hand, and…
- Acts 4: Praying Under Threat
Peter and John are arrested for proclaiming the resurrection in Jesus, and the rulers demand to know by what name they healed a lame man (4:1-7). Peter, filled with the Holy…
- Acts 5: The God Who Cannot Be Fooled
Acts 5 opens with one of the hardest scenes in the New Testament. Ananias and Sapphira sell a piece of land, keep back part of the money, and present the rest as if it were the…
- Acts 6: No Task Beneath the Spirit
As the church grows, a problem surfaces. The widows of the Grecian Jewish believers are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food (6:1). The apostles do not dismiss the…
- Acts 7: Dying in Sight of Jesus
Stephen's long speech retells Israel's story, and two threads run through it. God has never been confined to one place: he appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, was with Joseph in…
- Acts 8: The Gift That Cannot Be Bought
After Stephen's death, persecution scatters the church, and Saul drags believers off to prison (8:1-3). Yet the scattered believers preach the word wherever they go (8:4). Philip…
- Acts 9: Grace for the Persecutor
Saul sets out for Damascus with letters authorizing him to drag followers of Jesus back to Jerusalem in chains (9:1-2). He never arrives as planned. A light from heaven drops him…
- Acts 10: Made Clean by God
God is clearly arranging both ends of this story. An angel tells Cornelius, a centurion, to send for a man named Peter (10:3-5). The next day, on a rooftop in Joppa, Peter sees a…
- Acts 11: Repentance Is His Gift
Back in Jerusalem, some believers take Peter to task for eating with uncircumcised men (11:2-3). Peter answers by telling what happened: the vision, the Spirit's instruction, and…
- Acts 12: The Word Outlasts the King
Acts 12 begins with a loss the chapter does not explain. King Herod has James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword (12:2). Then he arrests Peter. While Peter sleeps…
- Acts 13: Justified Where the Law Could Not
The mission to the nations begins in a worship service. While the church at Antioch is worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit tells them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the…
- Acts 14: Kindness in Every Harvest
At Lystra, a man lame from birth jumps up and walks at Paul's word, and the crowd decides the gods have come down in human form. They call Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes (14:8-13).…
- Acts 15: Saved the Same Way
Some teachers arrive in Antioch insisting that Gentile believers cannot be saved unless they are circumcised and keep the law of Moses (15:1, 15:5). The question goes to the…
- Acts 16: Closed Roads and Opened Hearts
Paul and his companions try to preach in Asia and then in Bithynia, and both times the Spirit stops them (16:6-7). Then, in a night vision, a man of Macedonia begs Paul to come…
- Acts 17: The God Who Needs Nothing
In Athens, Paul is deeply disturbed to see a city full of idols (17:16). The philosophers bring him to the Areopagus to explain his strange teaching. Paul starts with an altar…
- Acts 18: His People Already in the City
Corinth is not easy. Paul works with his hands as a tentmaker beside Aquila and Priscilla, and every Sabbath he reasons in the synagogue (18:3-4). When opposition turns to…
- Acts 19: More Than a Magic Word
In Ephesus, God does extraordinary miracles through Paul (19:11). Some traveling exorcists notice and try to use Jesus' name like a spell, commanding spirits by the Jesus whom…
- Acts 20: Entrusted to the Word of Grace
Paul calls the elders of the Ephesian church to meet him at Miletus. He reminds them how he served among them with humility and tears, holding nothing back as he called Jews and…
- Acts 21: Into Chains with Open Eyes
Acts 21 is full of warnings. Disciples in Tyre urge Paul through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem (21:4). In Caesarea, the prophet Agabus ties his own hands and feet with Paul's…
- Acts 22: Telling What Jesus Did
Paul is standing on the barracks steps, just rescued from a mob, and he asks to speak to the crowd that wanted to kill him. His defense is not an argument. It is a story. He tells…
- Acts 23: The Lord Stood Near
Paul's hearing before the council goes badly. He is struck on the mouth at the high priest's order, answers him harshly, and then admits he did not know it was the high priest,…
- Acts 24: The Danger of Later
Before Governor Felix, Paul's accusers bring polished flattery and charges they cannot prove (24:2-8, 24:13). Paul answers calmly. He worships the God of his fathers, believes the…
- Acts 25: A Promise Kept Through Politics
Two years have passed, and Paul is still in custody. A new governor, Festus, arrives, and at once the chief priests ask him to send Paul to Jerusalem, planning to ambush him on…
- Acts 26: Eyes Opened by the Risen Lord
Paul stands before King Agrippa and asks a simple question: why should it seem unbelievable that God raises the dead (26:8)? Then he tells how he once did everything he could…
- Acts 27: A Promise Through the Storm
Paul's warning against sailing on is ignored (27:10-11). Soon a violent wind seizes the ship. For days there is no sun or stars, and at last everyone gives up hope of being saved…
- Acts 28: The Word Without Chains
The shipwrecked travelers are welcomed on Malta with unusual kindness. A viper fastens onto Paul's hand, and the islanders decide he is a murderer, then a god (28:3-6). He is…