Our Human Condition Despair darkens the sky for many people. The clouds blot out the sun. Is there any hope? Can anyone push back the haze so that we can smile and sing again?
Assignment You are being invited to read Luke’s two volumes, the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, as one piece at a single sitting. Luke pens the Greek of his day with fluidity and grace. His style varies as needs arise. He tells the story with fire and imagination. No one else in the early church attempted to write both an account of Jesus and a testimony of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early church. Skim Luke-Acts at one time, or read the two volumes in the following segments: Day 1 Luke 1:1-9:50 (early life and ministry) Day 2 Luke 9:51-20:37 (journey to Jerusalem) Day 3 Luke 21:1-Acts 8:40 (suffering, death, Resurrection; beginning of church) Day 4 Acts 9:1-18:28 (the gospel spreads, Paul the missionary) Day 5 Acts 19:1-28:31 (Paul’s later ministry) Day 6 Study Manual Day 7 Rest
Making Connections: Watch to see if the passage contains questions and if and how the questions are answered.
Spiritual Disciplines Study. Through our disciplined reading and study of Scripture and the resulting insights, God works to change us. How disciplined am I in arranging and using my study time and in selecting the tools and methods for my study of Scripture? How do I expect God to change me through my study?
Prayer Pray daily before study: “I will eagerly obey your commands, because you will give me more understanding.” (Psalm 119:32, GNB)
Into the Word Imagine Christmas without shepherds, a baby without a manger. Remove from the liturgies of the church the Magnificat, the Gloria, the Benedictus, or the Nunc Dimittis. What would the church year be without Ascension or Pentecost? How diminished Christian teaching and preaching would become if we lost our stories of Zaccheaus up a tree, the prodigal son wasting his inheritance, the good Samaritan lifting the wounded man from the ditch. What a tragedy if we did not have Peter’s sermon in Jerusalem or Paul’s sermon in Athens. All are from the writings of Luke and not recorded elsewhere. Christians resources would be impoverished if Luke’s pen were taken away. The author of the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles gave us an irreplaceable gift.
Luke the Writer Who was Luke? His name is not mentioned in his writings, so we must pick up bits and pieces from the letters of Paul. Paul mentioned the ‘circumcision’ and others who were with him while he was in prison (Colossians 4:10-14). Luke, apparently a Gentile, was one of the others. In Acts, the grammar changes from ‘he’ and ‘they’ to ‘we’. Luke must have joined Paul during the second missionary journey. Paul, writing from prison, sent greetings from ‘Luke, the beloved physician’ (Colossians 4:14). His being a doctor could help explain his compassion for the sick and infirm. His training could account for his keen attention to detail. However, Luke was not an uninvolved recorder of events. He was a passionate Christian, an evangelist, travelling side by side with Paul. During two years in a Caesarean jail, on the wild shipwrecked journey to Rome, under house arrest in Rome, Luke was Paul’s steady companion. Why did Luke write? Look at the opening verses of both books.. The introductions are in formal style, addressed to ‘most excellent Theophilus’ (Luke 1:3). The name is Greek, meaning ‘friend of God.’ Many documents were in circulation in the latter part of the first century A.D. – personal remembrances, teachings of Jesus. Furthermore, preachers, apostles, teachers, and witnesses were remembering, retelling, and explaining the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus all around the Mediterranean area. Some stories were far-fetched; some material was inaccurate, unbalanced. Luke wants his account to be orderly, with design and purpose. He wants it to be carefully true and accurate. Although addressed to an individual, the manuscripts have universal impact. Luke meant for the manuscripts to be shared. He was Paul’s co-worker, not a travelling reporter (Philemon 24). Throughout the journeys, in the midst of starting new churches, visiting countless Christians, he apparently was taking notes, keeping a diary, preparing to write an account in good form. His book were personally addressed but meant to be read by others as well. Where did Luke obtain his source materials for the events he did not witness? He surely had Mark’s Gospel, for over one-third of his Gospel contains accounts from Maker, which he reshaped or rearranged. Luke Matthew, Luke also had valuable teachings of Jesus derived from a document scholars simply call ‘Q.’ ‘Q’ stands for ‘source’ in German. Examples would be the stories of the houses on rock and sand (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:48-49) and the lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14; Luke 15:4-7). But much of the material was Luke’s own, ‘just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word’ (Luke 1:2). Luke did not know Jesus in human ministry, but he knew many people who had. For example, he was in Jerusalem with James the brother of Jesus, which could account for his knowledge of Jesus’ childhood. Of course, his early church remembrances in Acts were drawn from his conversations and from his own experience of travelling with Paul. Scholars call Luke’s own sources ‘L.’
Luke’s Theme What was the main theme of this careful evangelist writer? Luke presents a clear and forceful message of repentance and forgiveness offered in Jesus Christ. He declares that God had acted mightily in Jesus and his message so that all people could be brought into a saved and saving community that both experienced God’s joyous reign and awaited its complete fruition. Luke set this major theme in a context of continual rejection. If the good news of mercy and fellowship was the forward thrust, then fear, unbelief, and anger were the counterforce. A two-stage sense of history seems to pervade Luke’s understanding of salvation. Even though he was Greek and Gentile, he knew that the good news was born from the womb of Israel. Abraham, the Exodus, and the law of Moses formed the faith base for the new covenant community. In the second stage God was at work in the ministry of Jesus Christ and in the establishment of the church through the Holy Spirit. That faith community will witness and work until the Son of Man comes in all his glory.
Subthemes Luke has many subthemes or special emphases. Universality. Some have called the Gospel of Luke the Gentile Gospel, contrasting it with the Gospel of Matthew, which makes many Old Testament references. Matthew took great pains to use strong Jewish imagery. But Luke also thoroughly understood the Old Testament from the Septuagint, the third-century B.C. Luke shows great respect for Jewish Scripture. Observe his reference to Jesus’ purification, ‘according to the law of Moses’ (Luke 2:22; see Leviticus 12:2-8). His quotation from Isaiah is clear and accurate, placed in a solid understanding of synagogue custom (Luke 4:16-21). On the road to Emmaus, the resurrected Jesus explained to the two travellers, ‘Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures’ (24:27). Luke records at length Stephen’s sermon, which is as powerful a review of Hebrew history as Psalm 105 (Acts 7:2-53). Jerusalem and the Temple are focal points for the Gospel and for Acts. Yet Luke’s world is expanded. He wrote not only of Bethlehem and Jerusalem but also of Athens and Rome. He set the gospel message in the whole world, for as Paul said to King Agrippa, ‘This was not odne in a corner’ (Acts 26:26). Did you notice that Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus goes back t Abraham (Matthew 1:1-16), but Luke’s genealogy goes back to Adam (Luke 3:23-38)? For Luke, Jesus Christ came out of Israel to be Saviour for everyone. Prayer. No other Gospel writer emphasises the prayer patterns of Jesus as does Luke. Acts might be described as one continual prayer meeting with a few sermons, a few journeys, and a few trials thrown in. For Luke, Jesus’ ministry and the ministry of the early church are saturated with prayer. Joy. Every time Luke announced the good news, he did so with joy. The baby in Elizabeth’s womb ‘leaped for joy’ when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, walked near (Luke 1:44). After Philip baptised the Ethiopian eunuch, ‘The eunuch . . . went on his way rejoicing’ (Acts 8:19). Women. Luke carried a special concern for women. He noticed them, and he acknowledged their presence and power. He recorded their work and witness in both the Gospel and Acts. Who can forget Jesus’ visit in the home of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42)? We would scarcely appreciate Mary Magdalene’s weeping at the cross and racing to the tomb if we did not first know she had been healed of seven demons (8:2). Mary the mother of Jesus, who pondered the events in Bethlehem, stood near her son’s cross, and gathered with the disciples in the upper room before Pentecost (Acts 1:14). After Paul preached at the riverside in Philippi, Lydia invited him into her home and the church began (16:13-15). Priscilla and her husband, Aquila, helped start churches in Corinth and Ephesus. Family. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus fortified the family circle. He was often in homes, surrounded by women and men; and he welcomed children. Nowhere is family portrayed more realistically than in the story of the lost son and the elder brother (Luke 15:11-32). The poor. Luke’s Gospel confronts you with Jesus’ compassion for the poor. A few wealthy people are remembered favourably, like Zacchaeus (19:1-10). But the poor receive an unusual amount of attention. The poor were very poor, the rich were very rich, and Jesus said one day that situation will be reversed. Sinners. Christ came and died for sinners. Luke clearly pictures Jesus as the Son of Man who deliberately violated customs to reach out in forgiveness, healing, and fellowship to those who had broken the Law, who were filled with guilt, who were shunned by good people. Jesus offended the conscience of the righteous by eating with sinners. Son of Man. Luke repeatedly uses Son of Man as Jesus’ refrence to himself. Son of Man, when used of Jesus, designates not merely his humanity but also his devine authority on earth and in the age to come. Holy Spirit. Sometimes Christians treat the Pentecost account in Acts 2 as if the Holy Spirit had just arrived on the scene. One purpose for our reading Luke and Acts in one sitting is to observe the dramatic work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acted in the birth of Jesus, came upon him ‘in bodily form’ at baptism, drove him into the wilderness to be tempted, worked through him in healing diseases, and undergirded his constant prayer life. This same Holy Spirit filled the women and men at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit empowered witnesses. Gentiles were baptised by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit sends Christians to proclaim the gospel to all nations. Luke’s Great Commission was that ‘the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled’ and that ‘repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’ (Luke 24:44-47). Luke was careful to point out that Jesus was no political revolutionary to be dismissed lightly by Greeks or Romans, and he st4ressed Pilate declared Jesus innocent. King Agrippa, a Roman official, did the same for Paul. The Gentiles should see not a Jewish sect or a political revolution but God’s mighty act in history to bring joy and healing to the nations.
Into the world Look back at the notes you made as you read. Leave the Bible closed, lean back, and ask yourself these questions: Any surprises? Any reinforcement of deep-seated beliefs? Any challenges to my theology? to my faith? to my moral activity? What challenge cam to you that you would like to pursue? Let this week ‘ground you’ in biblical faith so that you will have ‘a place to stand’ in your later responses to life in the world.
God’s Word in My World This message from God’s Word will shape my ministry this week: I will respond in these ways:
Sabbath Sabbath reminds us of the continuing covenant between God and people made known in a special way in Jesus Christ. As you observe Sabbath, recall that Jesus said Sabbath was made for people, not people for Sabbath.
If you want to know more Here are some incidents or stories recorded by the other Synoptic Gospels. Compare them to Luke’s account to see how Luke shapes them to make his witness: · the centurion: Luke 7:1-10; Matthew 8:5-13; · the Gerasen (Gadarene) demoniac: Luke 8:26-39; Mark 5:1-20; Matthew 8:28-34; · the lost sheep: Luke 15:1-10; Matthew 18:10-14
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DISCIPLE......4 John Wesley
Road,..........Peterborough,......PE4
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