Background
The Acts of the Apostles (aka Acts) is part 2 of Luke’s gospel. Luke tells the story of Jesus in volume one (Gospel of Luke), and in volume two (Acts) he tells the story of how Jesus’ disciples take his message to the world.
Luke was not an apostle or an eyewitness to the life of Jesus, however, he is one of the best people to have written these stories. He was part of the apostle Paul’s traveling party during the last part of Paul’s story in Acts (the narration switches to first person in Acts 16:10).
Paul was in prison for two years in Caesarea (see Acts 21-26). It is likely that Luke spent those two years investigating the life of Jesus and the early days of the church in Jerusalem. These eye-witness interviews with people like Mary, Peter, John, the Sanhedrin, etc. gave Luke the material he needed to write his two-volume history.
Outline
In Acts 1:8 Jesus said to his disciples,
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.”
I illustrated Acts as a graphic novel with 43 pages. The interactive image below organizes the story around the geographic locations from Jesus’ instructions. Each box in this illustration represents a page of the graphic novel. Click on the box to view that page and any resources associated with it.
Flip through the pages of A Cartoonist’s Guide to Acts in the viewer below.
Walk through the amazing stories of the first generation of Jesus’ disciples in this 8-session course. View the lessons at your own pace and interact with others on the journey.
This course is available to members of the Art Pastor’s Network. Start your 7-day FREE trial and explore this course and many other benefits.
I illustrated Acts in the summer of 2023. Each week I produced a one-hour livestream session where I invited people to observe my process. Enjoy this playlist of videos below and watch A Cartoonist’s Guide to Acts come to life.
A Cartoonist’s Guide to Acts
(2003 version)
I helped start a network of house churches in Las Vegas that lasted from 2002-2007. We committed to reading through the Bible together as a community. I produced a cartoon illustration and some written commentary each week to help our people in the reading process. The powerpoint below and the book The Acts of the Apostles at the bottom of the page contains the illustrations from that era. This powerpoint also folds in my illustrations of Paul’s letters and connects them to Paul’s life and ministry in the book of Acts.
This PowerPoint contains 166 slides that will walk you through every passage of Acts. They will also place the writing of Paul’s letters in the context of his journey’s through Acts. The download also includes a .zip file of every slide in a .jpg format so you can use it in other applications.
May this resource enhance your study, preaching, and teaching through Acts.
This video is an excerpt from a one-day live seminar I did in 2012 called Bible Mania. The purpose of the seminar is to walk the participants through the entire Bible in one day…with hand motions and pictures.
