The story line of the Book of Acts is very straightforward: It retraces the Gospel from Jerusalem to Samaria to the Gentiles and finally to Rome. The dominant person in the first twelve chapters is the Apostle Peter: His preaching in Jerusalem, his proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles at Caesarea, and the Council in Jerusalem that determined that Gentiles do not have to become Jewish in order to belong to the body of Messiah.

The central figure in the remaining sixteen chapters of Acts is the Apostle Paul: His conversion on the Damascus Road, his preaching of the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire, the persecution he suffered from both Jews and Gentiles, and finally his arrival in the capital city of Rome about thirty years after the resurrection of Jesus. Rome is where the Jesus revolution had to go.