Luke wrote The Gospel According to Luke and The Acts of the Apostles as a two volume work. As such, it should be read it in light of Luke's Gospel and the four Gospels as a whole. Acts describes the history of Christianity after Jesus' death and resurrection, beginning with Jesus' ascension into heaven and the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome with the last line, "Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house and received all who were coming to him, preaching God's Kingdom and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance." (Acts 28:30-31).
The place of Acts in the canon of Holy Scripture has never been disputed by the early Church, except by such heretical sects as the Marcionites, the Ebionites and the Manichaeans, and then only on dogmatical grounds. Traces of acquaintance with it are found in the apostolic fathers, as also in Justin and Tatian. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian frequently quote from this book. It is named in the Muratorian canon, and is also contained in the Syriac and old Latin Versions. These testimonies are quite sufficient to show that it was generally accepted.
As an integral part of Scripture it is inseparably connected with the Gospels, and reveals to us, how the Gospel was embodied in the life and institution of the Church. We here see that the sowing of the precious seed that was entrusted to the apostles resulted in the planting and extension of the Church from three great racial centers of the world, from Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish Theocracy, from Antioch, the center of Greek culture, and from Rome, the capital of the world. The Gospels contain a revelation of what Jesus began to do and to teach; the book of Acts shows us what he continued to do and to teach through the ministry of men.
There is an evident advance in the teaching of the apostles; they have learnt to understand much that was once a mystery to them. In the Gospels we find that they are forbidden to tell anyone that Jesus is the Messiah; here we read repeatedly that they preach Christ and the resurrection. They now exhibit Christ in his true character as the Prince of Life and as the King of Glory. And the effect of their teaching was such as to bear striking evidence to the regenerating power of Him, who by the resurrection from the dead was powerfully declared to be the Son of God.
Alan J. Thompson, Unity in Acts: Idealizaton or Reality?, JETS 51/3 (Sep. 2008), 523-42.
Benjamin R. Wilson, The Depiction of Church Growth in Acts, JETS 60/2 (2017), 317-32.
Brian J .Tabb, Salvation, Spreading, and Suffering: God's Unfolding Plan in Luke-Acts, JETS 58/1 (2015), 43-61.
Cornelis Bennema, The Ethic Conflict in Early Christianity: An Appraisal of Bauckham's Proposal on the Antioch Crisis and the Jerusalem Council, JETS 56/4 (2013), 753-63.
Craig S. Keener, The Spirit and the Mission of the Church in Acts 1-2, JETS 62.1 (2019), 25-45.
Eckhard J. Schnabel, Fads and Common Sense: Reading Acts in the First Century and Reading Acts Today, JETS 54.2 (Jun. 2011), 251-78.
Gregory Goswell, The Place of the Book of Acts in Reading the NT, JETS 59/1 (2016), 67-82.
J. Paul Tanner, James's Quotation of Amos 9 to Settle the Jerusalem Council Debate in Acts 15, JETS 55/1 (2012), 65-85.
Steve Walton, What Does "Mission" in Acts Mean in Relation to the "Powers that Be"?, JETS 55/3 (2012), 537-56.
Craig Keener, Dr. Craig Keener, Acts (23 Lectures).
Daron Roberts, Acts with Daron Roberts.
Erik Manning, Reliability of Acts.