Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
Luke 24:44-53
• The final verses of Luke’s Gospel provide closure for what came before, as the author had set out to do in 1:1, “to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us,” and set the stage for what will unfold in the book of Acts.
• Verse 44: “while I was still with you” highlights the in-betweenness of this section. Though he is with them in the flesh in the resurrection appearances, he is also already gone. He invites the disciples (and the reader) to recall his passion predictions (Luke 9:22, 44: 13:33; 17:25: 18:31-33).
• “Opened,” dianoigo, appears in v. 45 as it had earlier appeared in the road to Emmaus story. Understanding scripture does not come on one’s own, but through being opened by Jesus, which can only happen in the light of Jesus death and resurrection.
• V. 47 the message goes from reflective to active, the repentance achieved through Christ’s death and resurrection is now to spread outward. From here on out, the mission of the church as portrayed in Acts, is to fulfill scripture through spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
• V. 47, “all nations, beginning from Jerusalem,” what was once a very Jerusalem-centered message now turns its attention outward. Scholarship tends to identify Luke as a second-generation Christian, not one of Jesus’ original disciples, but probably a missionary and traveling companion of Paul. Because the locations in Palestine are often imprecise, he was probably not from Palestine. Also, he had a stronger grasp of Hellenistic Greek language then the other Gospel writers, which strengthens the case that Luke himself was not from Judea. So this idea of the good news of Jesus going beyond Jerusalem to the world would have been especially important to Luke and to the community to which he was writing.
• V. 48, what it means to be a “witness” begins to shift here. Witness moves from being an eyewitness to being someone who can testify to the significance of Jesus. This shift is what makes Paul a confessing witness, though he never saw Jesus, and what makes us able to read ourselves into this story as taking up the mantle as witnesses.
Acts 1:1-11
• The ascension of Jesus signals the completion of Jesus earthly ministry and the installation of the ministry of the disciples.
• The Holy Spirit becomes a central character in Acts. It is through the Spirit’s power and direction that the apostles are able to fulfill their new vocation as fulfillers of Jesus’ ministry.
• Acts presupposes the reader has knowledge of Luke. For example, “the apostles whom he had chosen” is a reference to the “elected” Twelve in Luke 6:12-16.
• The “disciples”, from the Greek mathetes, meaning “pupil” or “apprentice,” in Acts become “apostles” from the Greek apostello, meaning “to send.”
• V. 3, “forty days” – many theories exist as to this elongated series of resurrection appearances. “Lengthening the speed of the account at the end of Luke, stretching it out to get closer to Pentecost, the theological significance of the number forty in scripture.
• The role of the Holy Spirit in acts is functional rather than soteriological (related to salvation). Salvation occurred with Jesus, now the Holy Spirit comes to move the action outward.
• “Power” (v. 8) is not political power, but is new abilities that allow them to accomplish the tasks ahead of them.
• Acts follows the same pattern laid out in v. 8. “In Jerusalem (Acts 2-7), in all Judea and Samaria (Acts 8), and to the end of the earth (Acts 9-28).”
• The ascension into heaven connects to other prophetic heroes who ascended never to die, like Elijah, Enoch, and others.
Works Sourced:
Culpepper, R. Alan. “The Gospel of Luke.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
Powell, Mark Allan. Fortress Introduction to the Gospels. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.
Wall, Robert W. “The Acts of the Apostles.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume X. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002.
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