Delve Into Luke-Acts & Paul's LettersSample

DAY 2 – LUKE-ACTS II

So Luke–Acts tells the story of how God invited first the people of Israel, and then the people of all nations, to follow Jesus. The very form of Luke’s history reflects this message. In the first volume the movement is toward Jerusalem, the center of Jewish national life. In the second volume, the movement is away from Jerusalem and out toward other nations. 

Compared with other national histories of the time, which often contained twenty or more volumes, Luke’s is relatively short. Its two volumes each cover a period of about 30 years. Like other historians of his day, Luke provided an outline of important events and stocked it with details from the sources available to him: letters, speeches, songs, travel accounts, trial transcripts, and biographical anecdotes. Luke had access to these materials because he was well-placed within the community of Jesus’ followers as a coworker and traveling companion of the apostle Paul. 

The first volume, the book of Luke, begins with a preliminary section that introduces the main themes of the whole work by telling the story of Jesus’ early life. The book then has three main parts. 

The first one describes Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, the northern area of the land of Israel. The miracles Jesus does there point to his identity as the Messiah. 

The next section presents a long journey to Jerusalem, on which Jesus teaches and answers questions about what it means to follow him. 

The final part of Luke describes how Jesus gave his life in Jerusalem to be the Savior of the world. 

The second volume, the book of Acts, has six parts. Each one describes a successive phase in the expansion of the community of Jesus’ followers outward from Jerusalem. Each phase except the last concludes with a brief description of how the church or the word of God grew and spread. 

In the first phase, the community is established in Jerusalem and becomes Greek-speaking, enabling it to spread its message throughout the empire. In the second phase, the community expands into the rest of Palestine. In the third phase, Gentiles are included as well as Jews. 

In the fourth phase, the community intentionally sends messengers westward into the populous Roman province of Asia. 

• In the fifth phase, these messengers bring the good news about Jesus into Europe. 

• In the final phase, the community reaches all the way to the capital of Rome and into the highest levels of society. God’s invitation is thus extended to all nations.

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord for Your Church. Show me how to support and be part of it.