This was my favorite book that I read for class in the Fall semester this year (2012). If you are teaching or preaching on Acts, stop reading and go buy it now. It really is worth having, and at 250 pages, it won't take you too long to read. If that wasn't convincing...
Dennis Johnson's The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption is a bit tough to pigeon hole. It's not really a commentary, though it is quite valuable exegetically. Nor is it an introduction, as it goes deeper into the text than such a book would. I think it is best to view it as a theology of Acts. It looks at the major themes and traces those through the book by means of detailed and learned exegesis. In short, it is an excellent work. It is relatively short, and not an ounce of ink was wasted in its production. Every page contains insightful and valuable observations.
It is in the pastor or seminary student's hand that this will be most beneficial. There is a fair amount of discussion of the original language (though, annoyingly, without accents in Greek or pointing in Hebrew). The (must read) end-notes are a cornucopia of historical, grammatical, and referential information. Johnson uses the Septuagint extensively, placing Acts firmly in "the History of Redemption." The amount and profundity of Luke's Old Testament references was something I gleaned from reading this book. His applications and pastoral challenges are insightful and clearly derived from the text. His hermeneutic is also instructive. It is easy to over or under apply Acts, and the nature of the apostolic calling makes application to today tricky. Johnson navigates these waters well, and is lucid as he discusses issues of interpretation and application. Given the books length, he does not interact too extensively with scholarly opinion as a commentary would, but this serves the pastor well. You need not wade through this text to find the meat, because all of the fat has been trimmed.
I am less inclined to recommend this book outright for the lay person. Each chapter is framed with probing application questions and contextualization that will prove helpful in thinking through Acts, and Johnson's discussion of how Acts relates to the present day is one of the valuable contributions of this work. However, the fine detail and work in the original languages makes this less likely to be a home run as an introductory work, even if much of this detail is buried in the end-notes Each chapter is well organized, though, and will benefit all readers in some way. If you know Acts well and are looking to dig deeper, this is a good book, but it is not a good introduction. Let me put it this way, I would not use this as a book to read together in a Bible study on Acts, but I would not go without it as a reference if I were teaching such a Bible study.
There are a few drawbacks to this work. While there is an extensive Scripture index, I do wish a subject index would have been included (but that is something every book of this sort needs). The editorial decision regarding the original language font (see above) is truly regrettable, and will likely cause some to take this work less seriously than they should. It feels to me as though the book was written to a seminary level, then edited to be accessible to a wider audience by placing much of the detail work in the end-notes. The chapters also feel a bit disconnected from each other. It reads like 13 essays on different aspects of Acts. By the end, you gain a full understanding of Luke's second letter to Theophilus, but the major themes (or "bridges" as he refers to them) of promise leading to fulfillment, Jew and Gentile relations, and the Apostolic events and our day are mentioned in the in preface, but don't form the organizing structure of the book. Indeed, he begins with the last and these themes are often mixed together within the chapters themselves. A clearer meta-structure would be appreciated. Finally, the cover is hideous.
Those drawbacks, though, do not detract from the benefit one will gain in reading this book. Acts is not just a history lesson of how the Gospel expanded after Jesus left town. It is a theologically deep explanation of the place of the Church in "the History of Redemption." At under $15, Johnson's book is well worth a purchase.
"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."
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