The writer, Luke, seems to have intended the Acts of the Apostles to be a continuation of his Gospel and very likely it was written within a short time afterwards, and with the same object, which is set forth in the first four verses of the Gospel. So the Acts of the Apostles begins, "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach," etc. Beginning, then, with the Ascension of Christ, it puts on record the fulfilment of the prophecy spoken by Joel, and of the promise of the Comforter by Christ in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and also describes the miracles and wonders done by the Apostles as proof of the power with which they had been endowed.

The hostility of the Jews following upon these manifestations, and the rapid growth of the infant church under the ministry of Peter and John, kindles into a persecution, which results in the death of the first martyr, Stephen, and the scattering of the disciples throughout Asia Minor, spreading abroad in every place the knowledge of the gospel. The writer first describes the labours of Peter, but afterwards attaches himself to Paul, accompanying him on some of his missionary journeys, and the larger second half of the book deals almost exclusively with Paul's "work of faith and labour of love". These accounts of Paul's work should be carefully read as throwing light on several portions of the great Apostle's epistles.

There is something strangely compelling in the fact that this Book, which begins in its early chapters with thousands being converted to the faith, should conclude, in its last few verses, with God's apostle sitting alone in "his own hired house, (in Rome) a prisoner of Jesus Christ." Such are the ways of a sovereign God, however, and the latter scenes are as majestic as the former are exciting.

The first Epistle to follow the Acts of the Apostles is Paul's epistle to the Romans. It is not difficult to see why this should be the case for the epistle to the Romans contains the sum and substance of saving faith from beginning to end. It should be borne in mind, however, that the order in which we have Paul's epistles set out for us in the New Testament is not the order in which they were actually written. This fact, of course, has no real bearing on the relative merits of any one epistle over another, for "all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable", but it is handy to know when endeavouring to align various parts of the Acts of the Apostles with the formation and doings of the different churches mentioned in the Scriptures.

The following table is approximate, but gives the generally-held dating etc, for the epistles of Paul and their place of writing.