Book Review: Commentaries on the Book of Acts
Since July of last year, we have been going through the book of Acts at New Life on Sunday mornings, examining the book one section as a time to glean from it what the Lord has to say about the growth of his church in the first century, and his calling upon us, his redeemed people, to seek to spread the Gospel “to the ends of the earth.” All preachers need assistance in the preparation of sermons on ancient texts, so it is common for them to refer to Biblical commentaries to learn about the historical, cultural, Biblical and theological context of each text of Scripture.
In my opinion, it is possible for preachers to rely too heavily on commentaries, to the extent that they only regurgitate what scholars have said, and neglect to personally apply the Biblical text to the hearts and minds of the people in his local congregation. But it’s also unwise to try to prepare a sermon solo, without reference to commentaries. Paul tells us in 2 Tim. 2:15, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” Every preacher needs help to rightly handle the word of truth.
It’s also true that a preacher can only say so much in a 35-minute sermon. Much of what commentaries have to offer never makes it to the sermon manuscript. This is because some material doesn't fit in the flow of the sermon, or is overly technical, or too easily becomes an unnecessarily long tangent. So, if you want to know more about Acts than what you’re getting on Sunday mornings at New Life, here are the commentaries I have been using for the current sermon series, and which I would recommend to anyone for further study:
As has been the case with some of my past sermon series, so it is true of the book of Acts: John Stott is simply the best. Stott had an extraordinary gift for organizing and distilling material in a way that helps the reader perceive the natural flow of the text. His writing is easy to follow; he is theologically sound; and he makes frequent contemporary applications so we can see how the text relates to the concerns of today’s Christians (even in 2026, when the book was first released in 1990). This commentary is enough to challenge the seminary educated, but not too difficult for even a relatively new Christian. Stott was an Anglican pastor, theologian and writer who was regarded as one of the most important evangelical leaders until his death in 2011.
This is also highly recommended, and only slightly behind Stott in terms of readability, theological rigor, and contemporary application. It’s maybe a bit easier to read than Stott, not quite as dense, but also a little less thorough in its coverage of the text. Boice was a well-known pastor in the PCA, where he served as senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia until his death in 2000. He was also president and cofounder of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
If you want to step up your study of the book of Acts to the next level of difficulty, this volume in the Pillar commentary series by David Peterson is a great option. It will set you back in cost ($62 on Amazon) and time (846 pages), but like all Pillar commentaries, it is academic and scholarly, but not too technical for the average lay reader. Sometimes commentaries suffer from too much interaction with the most current scholarly controversies of the day, which can often feel very remote from the questions and concerns facing ordinary Christians. Peterson’s commentary avoids this, but again, it’s definitely more challenging than Stott and Boice. My only criticism is that Peterson frequently makes reference to the TNIV version of the Bible, rather than something more common like the NIV or ESV.
If the above titles aren’t enough, there are others. This is not an exhaustive list, of course, but these are the commentaries I have consulted to some extent and would additionally recommend:
The Book of the Acts, F.F. Bruce (Eerdmans).
The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption, Dennis E. Johnson (P&R).
