invitation to
Lu k e –Ac ts
Luke and Acts are two volumes of a single work. Beginning with the
life and ministry of Jesus the Messiah, they trace the history of his
followers down to the author’s own day, some time after the middle
of the first century AD.
Luke wrote this history to serve several important purposes. The
first was to assure followers of Jesus that what they’d been taught
about him was trustworthy. It’s likely that Theophilus, the man who
sponsored and helped circulate this work, was a Roman official,
since Luke addresses him in his opening dedication as most excellent
Theophilus, using the title generally reserved for such officials. Luke
speaks of him as someone who’s been instructed in the Christian faith
and says he wants him to know the certainty of the things you have
been taught. Luke no doubt wishes the same for the many people that
Theophilus will share the work with.
Luke–Acts also shows that the true God is faithful and can be
trusted completely. It does this by documenting how God kept a
promise made to the people of Israel by sending them Jesus as their
long-awaited Messiah, or King. It then shows how God invited non-
Jews (known as Gentiles) to follow Jesus as well. Luke’s history thus
demonstrates that the extension of God’s blessings to people such
as Theophilus and his friends represents not a fickle change in plans,
but the masterful fulfillment of a plan God has been pursuing over
the ages. In the Bible’s story, it has been Israel’s role all along to bring
God’s light to the rest of the world. The earliest Jesus-followers take
up this calling by announcing Jesus’ victory over sin and death to all
the nations. This theme runs all the way through both volumes, with
Paul and Barnabas telling one Jewish audience:
The Lord has commanded us:
“I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”
So Luke–Acts tells the story of how God invited first the people
of Israel, then the people of all nations, to follow Jesus. The form of
Luke’s history reflects this message. In the first volume, the movement