Luke

author of both Luke (62 AD) and Acts (63 AD)

-Paul wrote most books, Luke wrote most content of NT

“Indeed Luke was an Antiochene Syrian”

-lived in Antioch, was a Gentile (not churched)

“a doctor by profession”

-a man who saw no conflict in faith/science

-use of “secular” job for “sacred” purposes

“a disciple of the apostles”

-not an eyewitness, trained by those who were

“later however he followed Paul until his martyrdom, serving the Lord blamelessly”

-Col 4:14/2Tim 4:11

-two types: called out=Paul/ rise up=Luke (faithful, humble, servants)

“He never had a wife, he never fathered children, and died at the age of eighty-four, full of the Holy Spirit”

Theopholis: both Luke and Acts written to him

“most excellent” means probably a governmental official (wealthy, educated)

names means “dear to God” (either given by Luke, or actual)

either a new convert or a seeking skeptic wanting bolstered or convinced in faith

most likely Luke’s benefactor, paying for him to investigate and write this historical account (oral tradition, written accounts, eyewitness accounts/Famed archaeologist William Ramsay says it this way: “Luke is a historian of the first rank. . . . should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.”)

some scholars believe dually written as defense for Paul as he stood before Nero (reason emphasis on Pilate’s acquittal of Jesus)

Book of Luke

to write an orderly account…that you may be certain (Luke 1:1-4) of all that Jesus began to do and teach (Acts 1:1)

Book of Acts

documentary of early church from resurrection/ascension of Jesus and commissioning of church…what church was, should be, could be

10 sermons (5 by Peter, 4 by Paul, 1 by Stephen)

Acts 1:8 is historic outline (1-12 Greater Jerusalem/ Global Crusade 13-28)

-The Church at Jerusalem (5 years) (1:1-8:4)

-The Church of Palestine and Syria (15 years) (8:5-12:25)

-The Church Abroad/Gentile (18 years) (13:1-28:31)

*Paul Missionary Journey 1: 13:1-15:35

*Journey #2: 15:36-18:22

*Journey #3: 18:33-21:16 (Prison in Jerusalem/Caesarea/Rome till end)

as testimony or defense:

-what happened…how did Christianity go from sect to dominant religion in empire?

-the power/movement of the Holy Spirit (the hero of the story)

To understand the NT you have to understand the church

-why did the early church explode?

-why is the Chinese church exploding?

-what is Gospel booming in South America?

-why is every continent other than North America bursting with Gospel?

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, (Eph 5:18)

Types of Churches

Teaching

Bible Churches/advanced degree pastorate/well taught, well read, well studied…often pharisaical and inward focused (books before people)

Devotional

worship and prayer/belief that God will work, show up, do something…often seek experience over person of God

Formal

rooted in history of church/sacraments and liturgy/thoughtful, measured, avoid fads…often anti-emotion and attract white educated people

Community

relational/familial…hard to break in especially if not Christian/low impact on community/consensus vision that leads to staying small (most in US)

Seeker

evangelism driven/technology savvy/accessible to unchurched and de- churched…often christianity lite, with lots of converts but little disciples

Social Justice

minister to least of these and get outside walls of church…sin begins to be defined horizontally instead of vertically…corporate aspects of Gospel elevated about individual aspects

Notice, the early church did not pick a specialty.

They sought to do all through Holy Spirit.

Relational Rhythms (all things in common)

Transformational Rhythms (Holy Spirit, preaching, persecution)

Missional Rhythms

reject consumerism (keeps from committing, giving, serving)

reject individualism (keeps from community, investing into, being invested into)

reject comfort (keeps from growing and going)

Testament:
Latin: “will” used to translate
Greek: agreement or covenant (Jer 31:31-34)

Breakdown
NT is 27 Books
4 categories: Gospels/Acts/Epistles/Revelation
First 5 Books are Documentaries: 3 Synoptic (“at one look”) Gospels + John and Acts
13 Pauline epistles: longest to shortest (9 to churches/4 to church leaders)
8 general epistles (Peter/James/John/Jude)
1 apocalyptic/prophetic “Revelation”

Accuracy
Internal Evidence (Consistency/Manuscripts)
Best Secular: Illiad (643 manuscripts/500 years original to copy=95% accuracy)
NT (5,686 manuscripts/100 years original to copy-99.5% accuracy)
If reject NT must reject ALL ancient documents!

Practicality
Predominately written in “koine” greek (common greek)
Easily translatable and distributable (vs. Islam and Arabic)
2500 languages have parts of scripture/1200 have entire NT/451 entire
83 Million distributed this year/171 K will die for faith this year

Resources:

“The “Canon of Scripture”/ “The NT Documents: Are They Reliable?” FF Bruce

“Can Man Live Without God” -Ravi Zacharias

“Evidence that Demands a Verdict”/”New Evidence that Demands a Verdict” -McDowell

Content
NT is about Jesus and the Church (continuation of what God began in OT)
Differences
Looking forward: 1st and 2nd coming
People of God: Jews and Church
Failure under Law and fulfilled Law through Jesus
Long time to write, Short time to write
Prophecy Made vs. Revealed
Circumcision vs. Baptism
Mystery Concealed vs. Revealed

Types and Shadows: Ark/Exodus/Sacrificial System/Melchizedek

How Testaments Relate: “The NT is in the OT contained, the OT is in the NT explained”
Luke 24:25-27
In OT…
Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.
Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.
Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.
Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”
Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.
Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.
Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.
Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.
Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.
Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk leaving an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.
Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.
Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.

See NT doctrines in seed form in OT
10 Commandments…I brought you out, now obey (sit, then walk)
Sacrificial System…obey me, but I know you can’t
Covenant…rather than both passing through, only God passes through…i am faithful even if you aren’t! (Gen 15)

So why is the NT a New Covenant, and the OT, old?
The Holy Spirit! (OT…kings, prophets, priests/NT all received!)
The Gospels (Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension in Acts 1)
What Church to Do: Mt 28:18-20
Where: Acts 1:8
How: Acts 2:1-4

Understand NT by understanding the church: Acts 2:37-47

community calling to repentance
community baptizing
community devoted, not consuming
teaching
fellowship (general community)
breaking of bread (meals…specific community)
prayer
praise
…in common

Get our Podcast

“Covenant: A Journey Through the New Testament”

Join us every Sunday at 5:00

Get our Podcast

Get our Podcast

Get our Podcast

1.  We work as offering to God
Paul explains our work and work relationships are truly being to God and for God. When I work well I render my service to God. When I obey my boss I am obeying the God who sovereignly placed Him in authority.

An incredibly important point that is often not spoken of is addressed in an essay by Dorothy Sayers called “Why Work”.  In the article she makes this accurate claim: The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. Church by all means, and decent forms of amusement, certainly – but what use is all that if in the very center of his life and occupation he is insulting God with bad carpentry? No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers ever, I dare swear, came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Nor, if they did, could anyone believe that they were made by the same hand that made Heaven and earth. No piety in the worker will compensate for work that is not true to itself; for any work that is untrue to its own technique is a living lie.…[The Church] has lost all sense of the fact that the living and eternal truth is expressed in work only so far as that work is true in itself, to itself, to the standards of its own technique. She has forgotten that the secular vocation is sacred. Forgotten that a building must be good architecture before it can be a good church; that a painting must be well painted before it can be a good sacred picture; that work must be good work before it can call itself God’s work.

How many times have we given the impression that as long as we obey our boss and don’t cause problems with our co-workers our effort will be good enough.  In truth the church ought to be the source for the best work in our communities.  Should we not create the best music, art, businesses, design and innovation because of who our true employer is? Should we not be ashamed to offer half hearted efforts rather than the best we are able to provide from our God given capacity?  Gospel work is a responsive offering to the person and work of our Savior.  That work should not just be adequate, but as excellent as we can produce.

2.  We work for the benefit of others
Sayer’s article correctly defines work as “the gracious expression of creative energy in the service of others”. Consider the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31. She is praise worthy and a blessing to her family because she works, not to create and identity, but from her identity and for the service of her family. The biblical mandate for men equally supports this truth, calling men to work hard and provide for their family. Scripture says a man who does not follow this command is worse than an unbeliever. (1Tim 5:8)  Work is a communal effort for the benefit of the community.  When work is made an individual pursuit we can trust that inequality and injustice will shortly follow.

3.  We work for work’s sake
There are some who place work under Adam’s fall, believing the very act to be a distasteful but unavoidable reality. Scripture simply does not support this perspective. God commissioned Adam to work in the garden and have dominion over it prior to the fall. The curse effected the productivity of his work, but name his responsibility to work. The Bible is clear that work is a gift from God (Ecc 5:18-19) that is to be enjoyed and producing a rest that can only be had on the other side of a full day of labour. (Ecc 5:12)

We do not work to meet a religious standard or gain acceptance from God. Instead we work hard and well, offering our best to God for the benefit of others so we can bring glory to Him for the strength He gives and the true rest He provides.

The industrial age dramatically changed the journey we take in becoming competent, trustworthy employees. Rather than joining our fathers in the field and working side by side we observed that one or both of our parents left the house, were gone 8-12 hours, and came back tired. We rarely heard them talk about work unless it was negative, and our training was as in depth as weekly chores for allowance.

The church has largely adapted a modern view of work that sees employment as a means to get what they really want. In other words, work is what happens while we pursue our true desires. In this perspective idolatry is rampant. I pursue my idol of money, power or status, free to sign on with the highest bidder while maintaining little or no loyalty to my employer, brand or co-workers. If my idol is leisure or entertainment I will not see work as a God given gift and command, but rather a impediment in my schedule. Equally, for those intent on climbing the ladder, their work becomes who they are. When they lose their job they lose their identity and purpose. All of these habits and mindsets compete against a biblical view of work and lead to and incredible amount of stress, imbalance and sin.

God says that Gospel work has three foundations and three reasons:
Foundations
1. Work is founded on mutual submission
As in the other gospel relationships Paul talks about in Ephesians 5-6, a biblical work ethic is not about climbing over one another, but instead mutually submitting to your co-workers and employers.  A gospel ethic requires that I count those I work with more significant than myself.  (Phil 2:3)

2. Work requires that I be filled with the Holy Spirit
How many of us view our work environment as a place that we must have the Holy Spirit’s filling and guidance if we are to succeed? Paul says our testimony is contingent on our living quietly, minding our own business, and working with our hands.  (1Thess 4:9-12) A gospel centered work ethic in not attained in our own power, but in that of God’s Holy Spirit

3. Work must be properly set in our priorities
Paul explains three Gospel relationships that flow our of our Gospel Identity and Gospel Community. He begins with our marriage, proceeds to our families, and then addresses our work relationships. The order is intentional, for if I place my work above my marriage, or my children I will compromise the priorities that God says will be shown by one walking worthy of who Christ has made me. (Eph 4:1) A man who succeeds at work and fails in his marriage or as a father has made and idol of his pursuits at the expense of the relationships that God says will primarily define his walk.  The Gospel is not simply the entry point for our Christian life. Rather it provides an incredible blueprint for our efforts and work in ways that bring God glory, and protect us from self destructivve idolatry

Part 2: The biblical reasons to work

Get our Podcast