(Acts of Apostles Manuscript - Google Images)
"[Acts of the Apostles] tells [us] how God Worked through the apostles to spread the good news of Jesus throughout the ancient world" ~ Fr Jeff Mickler, ssp
Purpose
Luke wrote Acts of the Apostles as a continuation of the Gospel (Barker, n.d.). He wrote it not only to record the expansion of the Catholic Church, but to also aid in the growth (Barker, n.d.). It was originally written in colloquial Greek to broaden his audience (Barker, n.d.). Whilst this was his foremost motivation in writing the book there were additional reasons. The secondary purpose of Acts of the Apostles is to uphold how Christianity is similar to Judaism (Barker, n.d.). The reason Luke wanted to do this was to prove that Christianity should be granted the same protection as Judaism from Roman Government (Barker, n.d.).
Importance
Acts of the Apostles is still a crucial piece of writing to Christians, 2000 years later. Not only does it provide a historically accurate account of the Church (Bible Study Tool, n.d.), but it also gives an understanding of the principles of how the Church should operate (Bible Study Tool, n.d.). It did this by recording the issues the apostles faced without Jesus there to guide them. This makes it especially significant to Christianity today as when confronted with a new issue that has arisen due to the world’s modernization, current Christian figures can relate back to how the Apostles dealt with similar issues. The Acts of Apostles functions as a link between the Gospel and the rest of the New Testament (Bible Study Tool, n.d.).