Luke - a Healing Hope

In the shortest and most intimate of all Paul’s letters, Paul finishes by sending greetings from some of his closest friends and fellow workers.

Epaphras, who is in prison with me for the sake of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings, and so do my fellow-workers Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Philemon 23-25

Alongside that personal letter, Paul also sent a letter to the church that met in Colossae in Philemon’s house. Again, as he comes to an end he sends greetings from two of those friends. This time, he identifies Luke even more specifically.

Luke, our dear doctor, and Demas send you their greetings Colossians 4:14

On one more occasion Paul refers to those two friends. He feels let down by Demas and has only one friend with him …

Demas fell in love with this present world and has deserted me, going off to Thessalonica. Crescens went to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me 2 Timothy 4:10-11

Who is Luke?

From those three references we learn a lot about someone called Luke: a doctor, he is a faithful friend and co-worker of Paul.

At first sight it is curious that no one by that name appears in the account of Paul’s missionary work in Acts. Look more closely and something rather interesting happens as the story is told.

As Paul enters into the second phase of his work of mission something changes in the way the story is told:

They travelled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit did not let them preach the message in the province of Asia. 7 When they reached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So they travelled right on through ysia and went to Troas. 9 That night Paul had a vision in which he saw a Macedonian standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 As soon as Paul had this vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, because we decided that God had called us to preach the Good News to the people there. Acts 16:6-10

Up until that point in Paul’s missionary travels the story is told in the third person – ‘they went here, they did this …’. From this point on a change happens in the way the story is told. It’s told for the most part in the first person – ‘we went here, we did this …’

Was it that the writer of Acts was drawing on a first hand record of someone who had accompanied Paul, or, was it that the writer joined Paul at this moment. Could he have been ‘the man of Macedonia’ Paul saw in his vision?

Some of the descriptions that follow on from that point are very vivid. Indeed, the account of the shipwreck is the longest account of a ship wreck in all Classical literature and is remarkably informative about shipping customs in the Mediterranean. Are they so vivid because the writer could say, “I was there!”

Interestingly the ‘we’ passages of Acts continue right through to the very end of the book:

After three months we sailed away on a ship from Alexandria, called “The Twin Gods”, which had spent the winter in the island. 12 We arrived in the city of Syracuse and stayed there for three days. 13 From there we sailed on and arrived in the city of Rhegium. The next day a wind began to blow from the south, and in two days we came to the town of Puteoli. 14 We found some believers there who asked us to stay with them a week. And so we came to Rome. 15 The believers in Rome heard about us and came as far as the towns of Market of Appius and Three Inns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and was greatly encouraged.

16 When we arrived in Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier guarding him. Acts 28:11-16


That’s interesting! The writer of Acts was with Paul as he was in prison. Two of the four letters Paul wrote from Prison, Colossians and Philemon both make mention of Luke. The only other person to be mentioned in the personal greetings of both letters was Demas. We know Demas drifted away from Paul at a later date. That leaves Luke.

So it is that tradition has suggested that Luke is the writer of Acts.

Luke, the writer of Acts and the third Gospel

But not only Acts!

The length of Acts is almost identical to the length of Luke’s Gospel. The opening words of Acts make it quite clear that it is the second volume of a two volume work addressed to the same person, Theophilus. Maybe, a Roman, maybe a generic addressee – Theo – philus literally means ‘a friend of God’.

Dear Theophilus:
In my first book I wrote about all the things that Jesus did and taught from the time he began his work 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven.

Luke’s gospel begins in a very similar way and is addressed to the same person.

Dear Theophilus:
Many people have done their best to write a report of the things that have taken place among us. 2 They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message. 3 And so, your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you. 4 I do this so that you will know the full truth about everything which you have been taught.

When you read the Bible in a single translation like the Good News Bible, the New Revised Standard Version or the Message, it all seems to be in the same style.

The original Greek books of the New Testament are written in quite different styles. They are all written in a kind of colloquial, everyday Greek that is known as ‘Koine Greek’ or ‘Common Greek’. It is quite different from ‘Classical Greek’.

But each writer has his own style. Paul writes in a complex way with long, long sentences. Mark is very down to earth and much easier to read. John is the easiest Greek to read and is written in short sentences. The Greek of Luke and Acts is the nearest the New Testament comes to the much more refined, ‘Classical Greek’. It is considerably more difficult to read than John, but not as complex as Paul.

That suggests it is written by an educated person. Some commentators have suggested that often in accounts of healing miracles the writer of Luke and of Acts uses language that is closer to the technical language you would expect of a doctor.

It all seems to fit together.

Luke and Acts – a Two Volume Work

Luke and Acts are written by Luke, the fellow-traveller, co-worker of Paul whose company and support Paul valued so much.

In Luke and Acts we have crossed over from the Jewish world of the first followers of Jesus to the Gentile world of a Greek-speaking, cultured Doctor. Doctors were well educated and well respected in the ancient world of the Roman empire. One of the things to look out for in almost any Roman museum is a collection of medical instruments. They look startlingly modern as if they could be cleaned up and put into a Doctor’s bag today!

How does Luke work?

From the opening of Luke we can learn a great deal about the way in which he works. There is a thoroughness to his approach to re-constructing the story of Jesus and all that went before the point at which he became a part of the story which you would expect of an educated Doctor.

Look again at Luke 1:1-4 and you learn a great deal.

Many people have done their best to write a report of the things that have taken place among us.

By the time Luke took pen to paper (or should we say, papyrus?) other accounts of the story of Jesus and the beginnings of the church were already circulating.

2 They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message.

Luke had had the opportunity not only to read their accounts, but also to test them out in conversation with those who had been eye-witnesses and with those who had first preached the Good News of Jesus Christ.

3 And so, your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning,

Luke has made a careful study of the story they tell.

I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you.

He claims to have put all his researches into order so that he could put together an ‘orderly account’ for the benefit of either the real person, Theophilus who as a cultured Greek speaking Roman wants to hear an authentic, trustworthy, orderly account of all every thing about Jesus and his followers, or the generic ‘God-lover’ who wants just such an account.

4 I do this so that you will know the full truth about everything which you have been taught.

Though he writes from a well-researched position, he is quite unashamed in having an agenda in what he writes. Whoever it is he is writing to, he assumes some prior knowledge of the story of Jesus and his followers. He then wants to go on and write in a persuasive and convincing way.

What’s fascinating is that a careful examination of the structure of Luke bears out all the claims he makes in these opening verses.

Luke’s Method

In a chart that sets Matthew, Mark and Luke side by side a number of things are apparent:

· Luke has used Mark faithfully in alternating chunks, keeping closely to the wording of the original source he is using.
· Luke has followed Mark’s order clearly giving great respect to Mark
· Luke has ‘slotted’ in sayings of Jesus that are common with Matthew and may well have come from a ‘sayings source’, Q. Again he does so in a way that keeps to the wording. Now, however, the order can differ significantly from Matthew, suggesting the source contained an anthology of sayings.
· Luke incorporates distinctive material of his own and does so again in chunks. Most noticeably, there is a long passage from Luke 9:51 in which Jesus makes a journey to Jerusalem.

The fulfilment of the Hebrew Scriptures in a Christ for All People

Writing for a Gentile readership Luke still wants to establish the roots of the Jesus Movement (his favourite description of the church is The Way) in the Hebrew Scriptures. He does that in his own way. With a skilful use of language his Gospel opens with an account of the birth of John the Baptist and of Jesus. Those two chapters are written in the style of the Hebrew Scriptures; they include three wonderful ‘Psalms’ written in the style of classical Hebrew Poetry. A skilful story teller introduces all the significant features of the link between the Hebrew Scriptures and Jesus in a way that is immediately accessible for the non Jewish reader. His stories draw you into the temple and all it means, to the prophets and all they stood for, to the expectations of a Messiah and all that meant.

From the very beginning of the Gospel one of Luke’s main features becomes apparent. He has taken to heart his friend, Paul’s, conviction that a new kind of relationship has broken into society as a whole in the coming of Jesus Christ. There is now no Jew or Gentile, no slave or master, no man nor woman for all are one in Christ Jesus.

Nowhere in the New Testament is the barrier between rich and poor broken down more powerfully than in the words of Mary’s song, the Magnificat.

The fact that Mary, Elizabeth and Anna all play such a prominent role as women in this story is no coincidence either. Throughout Luke and Acts women play a more prominent role than in any of the other gospel accounts.

Luke sets the scene for the coming of Jesus with a much fuller account of all that John the Baptist stood for in chapter 3. And it really does capture the commitment of the ancient prophets to justice and righteousness.

Luke, a good friend of Paul, accompanying him to Rome knows full well the significance of the claim that Jesus, not the Roman Emperor, is the Son of God. As soon as Jesus is identified in that way at his baptism Luke gives his credentials. The family tree does the work of an Emperor’s genealogy and links Jesus to David, King of Israel.

But Luke is working on a bigger scale altogether. Luke takes the family tree right back to Adam. For Luke, Jesus is much more than the fulfilment of the Hebrew Scriptures, he is the universal saviour.


All that Jesus did and taught in his ministry and through his followers

Read through from the start of Jesus’ ministry in Luke 4 to the point at which he sets out on his journey to Jerusalem in 9:54 and two things are clear about Jesus. He has come with a message, proclaiming God’s rule in people’s hearts, in their homes and in the world at large. He has come to bring healing into a hurting world.

Nowhere is that more clearly put than in the quotation from Isaiah 61 that Jesus preaches on in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

All that Jesus did and taught are contained in those few words.

As the journey begins it becomes apparent that this task is fulfilled not by Jesus alone, but by Jesus and his followers.

Jesus draws first the twelve (9:1ff) and then the seventy-two (10:1ff) into this task of preaching the message of God’s rule and bringing healing into a hurting world Jesus. What they do as they are sent out is precisely what Jesus did. He equips them for the task by telling wonderful stories. Many of the favourite ‘story-like’ parables are only found ‘on the journey’ in Luke 9-18.

That becomes even more apparent in Luke’s second volume. The first book had described ‘all the things that Jesus did and taught’. That’s a very telling summary of the two dimensions of Luke’s telling of the story of Jesus.

The second volume continues to tell the same story. But now Jesus has been ‘taken up to heaven’ what he does and what he teaches is done and taught by his followers.

They really are, to use a favourite expression of Luke’s friend, Paul, the body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit

The first volume of Luke’s Gospel begins time and again with references to the Holy Spirit.

Acts begins in the same way. Just as the Holy Spirit was on Christ from his birth to the start of his ministry and beyond, so too the Holy Spirit is on the followers of Jesus.

Read through Acts and the same two things stand out. Those followers of Jesus do as Jesus did: they bring healing into a hurting world. They teach as Jesus taught and they preach the rule of God in people’s home, in their hearts and in their world.

Acts displays the same attention to detail as Luke’s Gospel. There is a framework to the many speeches Luke records that sees the actions and the teaching of Jesus as the culmination of all that the Hebrew Scriptures stood for but of life-changing value for all the world.

You can think of Luke and Acts as two parts of the same story – the story of what Jesus did and taught himself and through all those followers who made up ‘the body of Christ’.

A Tale of Two Journeys

There’s more that holds the two books together.

Luke’s Gospel is structured around a journey.

So too is Acts.

Acts 1:8 stands out. On the one hand it establishes the absolute significance of the Holy Spirit for Luke. Acts could well be called ‘The Acts of the Holy Spirit’. On the other hand, it provides the framework for the whole book.

But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth

It starts in Jerusalem, then follows the followers of Jesus as they move out into Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. The followers of Jesus are always on the move in Acts. Just as Jesus is on the move in Luke.

You could think of the two books as ‘A Tale of Two Journeys’

As soon as that thought comes to mind, another one comes too!

A Tale of Two Cities

You could think of the two books as ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.

The Gospel leads us up to Jerusalem and then finishes with the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem on the threshold of something new. It is wonderful writing that leaves you wanting to read the sequel and find out where it will take you!

50 Then he led them out of the city as far as Bethany, where he raised his hands and blessed them.51 As he was blessing them, he departed from them and was taken up into heaven.52 They worshipped him and went back into Jerusalem, filled with great joy, 53 and spent all their time in the Temple giving thanks to God. Luke 24:52-53

Just as the Gospel had begun in Jerusalem and the Temple with all that meant. So it ended in Jerusalem and the Temple.

If Jesus were nothing more than the fulfilment of the Hebrew Scriptures that would be a wonderfully appropriate place to finish.

But he is much more than that.

We must get hold of the sequel and read on.

Acts takes us as far as any Theophilus in the Roman Empire was concerned to the ‘ends of the earth’, to the capital of the Roman Empire, to Rome itself. And it leaves us there.

It is quite mistaken to think of Acts as primarily telling the story of Paul. It is very much a continuation of the story of Jesus and it leaves the reader in the knowledge that the Jesus story is for the Jewish people and has taken us to Jerusalem and the Temple, and much more it is for all people as it takes us to the heart of the Roman Empire.

For Luke that is not a contradiction. It is, rather, a wonderful fulfilment.

Just as Paul reaches the point when he sums up his thinking in a letter to the Romans that leaves space for the Jewish people’s place in salvation, so too Luke’s account of the arrival of the Good News in Rome has not forgotten the Jewish people. It is easy to read these words dismissively of the Jewish people – and some manuscripts reinforce that feeling in a spirit of anti-semitism. The oldest manuscripts suggest, quite differently that some among the Jewish hearers of Paul did believe.

30 For two years Paul lived in a place he rented for himself, and there he welcomed all who came to see him. 31 He preached about the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking with all boldness and freedom

Luke – hope through healing

1) Taking Jesus to Jerusalem - Luke's Gospel

For every enquirer who is open to God and wants to know all about Jesus in an ordered and reliable way. It all began with the news that there was to be one more prophetic figure who would pave the way for the coming of the One who more than any other would bring God’s love into a broken world. That One would bring down the powerful and raise up the down trodden, feed the hungry and send the rich empty away. It was the poor and the excluded who first heard the message of the angels, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. They were the ones who first saw that One in the most unexpected of places, a squalid feeding trough usually used by animals. Given the name ‘Jesus’ when he was only eight days old those wise beyond their years could see he truly would be saviour of the world.

A man for all the world, he faced up to the world’s temptations and stood his ground. He burst on to the world’s consciousness with the recognition and the support of the last of the prophets, and so began his life’s work. He taught of the way the rule of God was breaking into the world and changing people’s lives. He brought healing to hurting people. And he did not do that alone. First, he sent out six pairs of his followers to teach people of the rule of God and to heal hurting lives. And then for each pair of those followers he sent out another six pairs. And so his love for all the world began to spread into that world. It was a love not just for the religious but for those who had never heard of God. It was a love for all people regardless of their gender or their race. It was a love that made a difference.

But it was a love many could not abide. With resolution he determined to face those who would oppose him. They thought they had the better of him as they subjected him to cruel torture and the horror of execution. But in the midst of the pain he spoke words of loving forgiveness, Father, forgive them. They were words that people would not forget.

They had every reason to remember. For within three days, he showed that the powers that be who thought they could prevail against him could not hold him down. One by one those friends of his whose lives had been shattered met him, even though they knew he had died. And in that meeting they knew he would be with them for evermore. And they resolved to go out into the world with the message of God’s rule in love breaking into people’s lives; and they determined to bring healing into hurting people’s lives too!

2) Taking Jesus to Rome and the World - The Acts of the Apostles

For every enquirer who is open to God and wants to know what happened next after the death and resurrection of Jesus. It all began with a challenge from the risen Jesus for his followers to begin where they were and then to spread out into all the world with the love that Jesus embodied. But they could not do that on their own. They had to wait. That’s exactly what they did in a spirit of prayer. On the fiftieth day after the day of resurrection it happened. The unseen yet very real power of God was let loose into their lives and they had the strength to do as Jesus had bidden them to do.

They began where they were in Jerusalem. Their task was simple. To teach people of the rule of God and to heal hurting lives. And so God’s love in Jesus for all the world began to spread into that world. But it was a love many could not abide. The authorities hounded them out of their own town. Those who faced death faced it with forgiveness in their hearts and on their lips.

At first they did not realise it. But soon it dawned on them. This love was a love not just for the religious but for those who had never heard of God. It was a love for all people regardless of their gender or their race. It was a love that made a difference.

In ever increasing circles they took the message of this love that makes a difference out into a world filled with need. Peter, Philip, James and the others were joined by Stephen and then by Paul and many others who carried the message with them wherever they went.

Until at last the message of God’s love reached Rome itself and the heart of the Roman empire. With resolution Paul was determined to face those who would oppose him. They thought they had the better of him as they arrested him and held him prisoner. But he held on to the faith that meant so much to him.

He too had met with the risen Jesus Christ and in that meeting he also knew Jesus would be with him for evermore. So it was that he toured the Roman Empire and arrived at Rome itself with the message of God’s rule in love breaking into people’s lives; and with the determination to bring healing into hurting people’s lives too!