One of the story rhythms that I have really enjoyed in the age of recent TV is the A-plot B plot story rhythm. And you see this a lot in 30-minute episodes like sitcoms, things like that, that don't have a laugh track, especially, where there's just enough time in that window to have a primary plot and attention that needs to be relieved. But then you've got a seemingly unrelated B plot that just gives the audience a breather to cut away to something that's comic relief or seemingly inconsequential, or that keeps us checked in with some of our other favorite secondary characters on a given week so we don't forget about them. I think this might also just be a function of contracts that actors have with studios so that they have to appear in a certain number of episodes. And so the A plot, B plot thing kind of makes it work. I don't know. I like it though, because a really well-written episode that has an A plot, B plot structure will eventually weave the A-plot and the B plot together in a satisfying final act where you realize, ah, these two things were related all along. And the reason we were tracking these two seemingly unrelated stories is because they actually totally pay off for each other. And the all-seeing narrator was carefully crafting this so that I would get that payoff at the end. And in doing so, see the big picture and the theme of the whole episode. Brilliant! You know who else is brilliant? Luke. Luke is the guy who wrote the book of Acts. You're not going to believe what other book of the Bible he wrote. I mean, you wanna, did you want to? It was Luke. He also wrote the one that says Luke. It's right there in the name, Doug. And this guy is a master storyteller. Now, he wasn't there for any of the stuff that he wrote about in Luke. The book of Luke is one of the four gospels that tells the story of Jesus. And it looks like Luke didn't come around to the Jesus thing or didn't hear about it until a little later on. But the sequel to Luke, which just dovetails perfectly with that book, is Acts. Luke was there for pretty good chunks of the book of Acts. He was a buddy of Saul, who became Paul. An interesting little thing that you'll note if you read carefully through the book of Acts is sometimes the voice of the narrator as he's walking you through the A plot and B plot, which we're going to talk about what those are in just a minute. Sometimes the voice of the narrator is like, then they did this, then they did that, then that guy went over there. And there's no sense that the narrator actually saw it. You get the sense that the narrator asked a bunch of people and compiled the story the way you or I would if we were writing about anything we didn't see. And in fact, Luke explicitly discloses that this is how he gathered most of the information. He writes at the very beginning of the book, there, Luke 1-1. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. We don't need to worry for the sake of our conversation today about who this Theophilus fellow is. It's somebody, or uh some smart people think it's a metaphor, it's a nickname for a group of people, but it's somebody who was interested in the story of Jesus and wasn't there to see it firsthand either. So Luke went and did the research, and as a result, all of the gospel of Luke is very second-handy, and a good chunk of the book of Acts is very secondhand in its tone. But there are other portions of Acts where it just flips and all of a sudden it's we went here, we went there, then we looked at this, and in those moments, clearly, Luke was along for the adventure, he was a part of the journey as a traveling companion of Paul, who also was cataloging all the things that were going on because this Luke fellow, who is a physician by trade, was really handy with a pen and knew something world-changing was happening, and somebody needs to write this down who is putting eyes on it. Okay, so now we know a few things about Luke. He's well educated, he's sophisticated, he's a good author, he is great at research, he seems to be very tireless in drilling down to get the details right and to get to the truth of things, and he's present for some of what we see in acts and not present for other things we see in Acts. All of that tells me that we're talking about an author who is talented enough and sophisticated enough to pull off the A-plot, B plot routine, where we discover as we read along that the A plot and the B plot are not separate things, but they're totally related to each other. So the A plot and the B plot in Acts, in my opinion, at least over the last few chapters, is the plot that follows the disciples of Jesus who were with Jesus in Jerusalem. We'll call that A plot. And then the B plot is this Saul guy who we don't really meet until the very end of Acts chapter seven, and he's a bad guy, and then he scatters everybody with persecutions in chapter eight, and then he goes through this gigantic conversion thing in chapter nine, but then he goes off screen toward the end of chapter nine, and we're back to the A plot, following around the disciples who were with Jesus, and the most famous of that crowd is, of course, Peter. Acts chapter nine rounds out, jumping back over to Peter and the A plot, and what is he doing? Yeah, you know, normal stuff, bringing people back to life. Normal Tuesday in the book of Acts. There's a lady up in a town called Joppa that's just a little bit north of Jerusalem where a lot of the action has been happening. And this lady is apparently awesome and also apparently dead. Peter, by the power of God, has her resurrected, and she opens up her eyes and she sees Peter and she sits up. He takes her by the hand and helps her to her feet, and then he called together all the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive. And this became known all over Joppa, and a whole bunch of people, or says, well, specifically this, and many people believed in the Lord. Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon. So that's the end of Acts chapter 9. And this is a pretty exciting moment, because over on the B plot with Saul, who is becoming Paul, the scales have fallen off of his eyes. And that isn't just the end of his physical blindness, but it also seems to be a metaphor for him being able to spiritually see. It looks like we're gaining a great new ally in Saul. But back over here in the A plot, things are still going great with the original disciples of Jesus, and they are starting to take the show on the road outside the orbit of Jerusalem, up into Joppa. It's not that far away, but it's a start. And the really interesting thing to note here is that the miracles that are happening echo all the miracles of Jesus. It looks like what we're getting is a continuation of all of the miraculous confirmation that we saw before that would cause reasonably skeptical people to see Jesus and be like, you sound great, and your words seem sensible, and you have a certain charisma and an air about you, you teach with authority, not in the way our teachers of the law teach, but huh, this is a big thing. Well, the miracles were part of what confirmed the reality of what Jesus was teaching, and the miracles also were part of what conveyed the theology of what Jesus was teaching. And it would make sense that if what is happening after Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father and everything that's going on in the book of Acts is the same thing, the story just continued, you would expect to see the same stuff happening. And it is happening. So let's put ourselves in the shoes of Luke or any generic person who is compelled by the things that they heard about Jesus. Maybe they even met him once or saw him around a little bit, but they weren't an initial follower. They kind of wanted to wait and see how it all plays out. And Jesus dies, and you hear rumors that he's come back to life. And now you see Peter and John and all the disciples, and they're still at it. Jesus isn't physically there, but his followers, they know what happened to Jesus and they're not quitting. They seem willing to suffer the same fate Jesus did if need be. They're very compelled by this. Now other people are signing up, lots of them, and you're kind of hearing rumors about miraculous things happening. How would you know that whatever was going on with these followers of Jesus, generation two of Christianity? How would you know that it's the same thing that Jesus did? How would you know that what you're considering signing up for are the right inheritors of the Jesus thing? Well, I think this is what you'd look for. Is it the same message that Jesus spoke about? Is it the same values that Jesus articulated and lived out? Is it the same continuity demonstrated from the Old Testament that Jesus articulated? And I think finally, is it backed up supernaturally in the same way that Jesus was backed up supernaturally in the same way that Jesus had power over distance and time and disease and social uncleanness and really everything in nature? Well, is that same power on display? And that's why, as Luke, the author of Acts, takes us back over to the A plot in the book of Acts, it's a pretty big deal that what we're seeing happening on screen is a resurrection. And I don't think we should get bored or tired of this and be like, oh yeah, a lot of resurrections in the Bible. That was cool. Yeah, but they all mean something. And they're all coming at the right time to be persuasive and to demonstrate to the understandably skeptical or questioning original audience member who's wondering, is this thing real? Is this the same thing here that was the Jesus thing in the first place that I'm getting with Peter and Paul and the A plot and the B plot? And well, I think the point here is the miracles look the same. The message looks the same, the values look the same, the continuity with the Old Testament looks the same. Yeah, this would seem to be the same thing, whether you're talking about the narrative thread that's unfolding in the A plot or the narrative thread that's unfolding in the B plot. Now, what we're gonna see as we get further into the book of Acts is that the A plot kind of tapers off and gets absorbed into the B plot. We have a little bit more Peter in the book of Acts, but gradually the story is going to begin to follow Paul, Saul who becomes Paul, much, much more. But this isn't an abandoning of the A plot. It's a fusing together with the A plot. And how the A plot and the B plot of the book of Acts are fused together is gonna have a lot to do with the situation we encounter when we turn over to the book of Galatians. All right, I think that's plenty for now. I'm Matt. This is a 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.