Narratives of Apostles' Companions: Spreading the Gospel by Ric Keaster

What were they thinking?

Scripture tells us they preached, traveled, suffered, and built churches. It rarely tells us what was going on inside them.

What did Barnabas feel when he vouched for Saul of Tarsus and the apostles still flinched? What did John Mark tell himself the morning he turned back at Pamphylia — and what did Paul see in him, years later, when he finally called him "useful for service"? What was Stephen looking at when the stones began to fly and his face shone like an angel's?

In Narratives of Apostles' Companions: Spreading the Gospel, Ric Keaster steps into the sandals of twelve men and women who carried the message out from Jerusalem — and lets each of them tell their own story.

Meet the Companions

• Barnabas, the son of encouragement who vouched for Saul when no one else would
• Silas, singing hymns at midnight in a Philippian jail
• Timothy, the young minister Paul called his "true child in the faith"
• Titus, dispatched to Crete to set in order what was lacking
• Luke, the beloved physician chronicling what he saw and heard
• John Mark, the one who turned back — and was restored
• Aquila and Priscilla, the tentmaking couple who quietly built churches in their home
• Apollos, the eloquent Alexandrian who let Priscilla and Aquila finish his education
• Stephen, the first to die for the Name, his face shining like an angel's
• Philip, the evangelist on the desert road to Gaza
• Philemon, the slaveowner asked to receive Onesimus back as a brother
• Cornelius, the centurion whose household opened the door to the Gentiles

Anchored in Scripture

Keaster invents no new characters, no new events, no new dialogue. Every story is anchored in the biblical text. What he adds is a careful, prayerful imagining of the inner life — the doubts, the loyalty, the courage — that Luke and the epistle writers leave unspoken.

The result is a companion volume to Narratives of Personal Encounters: Meeting Jesus that doesn't replace Scripture but draws us deeper into it, helping us meet the men and women whose obedience helped build the church we now inherit.

Who This Book Is For

If you've ever read through Acts or the epistles and wondered what those second-tier names were actually feeling — what it cost them, what they hoped for, what they doubted — this book is written for you. It's a fit for personal devotional reading, small-group study, Sunday school classes, and anyone who loves the New Testament and wants to draw closer to its people.

You've read about them all your life. Now hear them speak for themselves.

About the Author

Ric Keaster writes from a deep love of the New Testament and a long habit of placing himself inside its pages. Narratives of Apostles' Companions: Spreading the Gospel is the second volume in his Narratives series, following Narratives of Personal Encounters: Meeting Jesus.

Format & Specs

• Paperback, 6 × 9 inches
• Published by Spiritbuilding Publishers
• Companion volume to Narratives of Personal Encounters: Meeting Jesus