As we draw near to the end of our Acts sermon series, I’d like to share a few resources that I’ve found helpful. I’ve already mentioned probably the most striking one in a previous post: “Acts: A Visual Guide” and you can find out more about that unique book here. Often just glancing at the visual outline for whatever passage I’m studying gave me a great overview that helped to put all the pieces together.
The two other commentaries that I found most helpful are the “Acts” volume in the “NIV Application Commentary” series (here). This was easy to read and often had very good ideas and examples for applying God’s Word to our everyday lives. The author has extensive experience as a missionary which leads to a lot of challenging insights.
If you are looking for something a bit more in-depth, I have found that F. F. Bruce’s “The Book of Acts” (here) was easily the commentary that gave the most helpful insights (especially in these past few chapters, with all of the descriptions about how the Roman legal system worked and the details of sailing ships in the ancient world) while not going on and on about issues that don’t really matter. Bruce was from the U.K., which means that he sometimes uses language a bit more flowery than we are used to here in the U.S., but if you are looking for a helpful guide to what God’s Word says, his book is second to none.
Pick up any of these three books and I’m confident that you will find a faithful guide to getting deeper into the Word – and after all, isn’t that what the best commentaries do?
