Reflection Of Luke And Acts

Luke was a medical doctor, a missionary, and evangelist, a historian, a researcher, and the writer of the third Gospel. The book of Luke was written in a formal literacy introduction noting his purpose in writing, his methodology, and the attempts others had made in such writing. Luke is the author of the book and it was written in AD 60 in Caesarea. According to Hindson and Elmer Luke’s purpose is to give “an orderly sequence” of the events about Christ’s birth, life, and sacrificial death followed by his resurrection and ascension back to heaven. The occasion calling for Luke to write his Gospel was that Theophilus, and other new believers like him, needed a clear account of the life and ministry of Jesus as an aid to confirm his faith

I chose to read The Gospel of Luke for my project. It is said that The Gospel of Luke was written somewhere between 80 CE - 90 CE. The Gospel of Luke was written for Theophilus, who was called “Friend of God”. But The Gospel was also written for a wider audience, including converts and potential converts.

In The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke, Robert Stronstad adduces a succinct interpretation of the significance of Holy Spirit according to Lukan theology. He examines both the Spirit’s activity in Luke-Acts and the implications of the Gift of the Spirit in empowering, equipping, and commissioning of God’s people for service. The text is separated into six sections covering “the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts”, “the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament”, “the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Luke”, “The Holy Spirit at Pentecost”, “The Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles” and the Charismatic Theology of St. Luke.

A prominent part of Luke’s account focuses on the poor. Similar to Matthew, Luke’s account directly states the piety of the poor but his account continues to scorn the rich. Luke’s gospel, in a very direct way, blesses the poor and damns the rich. Luke writes,”‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled,’” and directly contrasts this statement later when he writes, “‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.’”(Luke 6:21, Luke 6:25). Luke’s account of Jesus’ speech emphasises that his audience, Jesus’ followers, should not only love pious people, but rather they should also love impious people. After he describes people who love and lend for personal gain, Jesus explains that a person should love sinners and others who hate them, not just those who benefit the person themself: “‘But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return” (Luke 6:35). Luke calls his audience to love everyone and challenges them to collaborate with their enemies. Later in Luke’s account, he notes how his audience identifies the faults in others before they examine themselves. He calls his audience to purify themselves before helping others in order to avoid hypocrisy and uses a parable to illustrate this

He is mentioned to by Paul as "Luke the beloved physician" (Col. 4:14). Luke fixed forth the humanity of the Son of Man and cites it in chronological order the life of Christ. Being a physician, he is more precise when using language. For example, when he indicates a leper he uses the identical medical term to describe the circumstance, for example "full of leprosy" (Luke 5:12). Luke’s gospel is particularly focused towards an individual named Theophilus and is focused on the complete story and past events of Jesus Christ from his birth and ministry to his crucifixion and resurrection. A major theme in Luke’s gospel shows how important the poor were to Jesus and how we should not neglect the poor. Examples of this are seen when the book talks about the distinctive beatitudes “blessed you are poor…hunger now...weep now...” and the distinctive woes “woes to you that are rich...that are full...that laugh now…” which overall say, money and power will tend to bring judgement upon you. In addition, the gospel of Luke refers to certain parables like the Rich man and Lazarus. This sends a message to warn the rich who tend to trust in their riches more than in God, wealth tends to pull us away from God and that if we neglect the poor and prioritize our riches more we will go to hell. Asking oneself- is your existence a blessing for the

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 18Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ 20He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come,

In addition, here is another important element within this story, the Pharisees with the Herodians are setting a trap against Jesus, right? They asked him in seemingly sweet and charming words. “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God truthfully, and are swayed by no one. For You do not regard the person of men. 17 Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their wickedness and I like when Jesus told them: “Why test Me, you hypocrites?” the following is really brilliant. Jesus said: “Show Me the tax money”. Show me the money! Do you knew that the Pharisees themselves, they had forbidden to people to carry idolatrous images? even Roman coins that had any image?

As you can see my ACT score of 22 is not the highest. I assure you this does not refect my work ethic nor my intelligance. I've always worked hard in school to keep a high GPA, while taking challeging classes. So, I thought I would do well on the ACT like I had on other test in school. It proved to be more difficult than I had expected. I've taken the ACT 4 times, and not one of those times did I finish the test. I've had dyslxia my whole life; making me a slower reader. This was my fatle flaw when it came to the ACT. I tried requesting extra time for the test, but I didnt have the required documents needed to be approved. I am a dedicated student, and I know, if given the oppertunty, I can prove it to

Jesus' decision to physically cast out the moneylenders from the temple stands as one of the most interesting events of his life, because it represents what seems to be the only moment in the Gospel narratives where he becomes visibly angry to the point of physical action. While one could argue that Jesus is frequently (and justifiably) angry with the disciples from time to time, this is the only moment that Jesus' anger moves him to physical force. Although the event is recorded in all four of the Gospels, this study will focus specifically on its rendering in Matthew, because when considered in the context of Matthew's larger narrative, one can see how Jesus' decision to cleanse the temple does not represent an aberration in either his character or theological message, but rather the natural culmination of Jesus' life and works prior to that point, and demonstrates a kind of revolutionary, anti-authoritarian element of Jesus' message of salvation that is all too often overlooked by Christians and critics alike.

Luke and Acts tells the story of what Jesus did and taught during his ministry, first in his earthly life and then as the exalted Christ and Lord through his disciples. This essay will outline the various titles Luke used to portray or described Jesus in his two-volume narrative, in doing this we hope to get a better understanding and a complete picture of who Jesus was. Luke in his two volume work described Jesus in numerous ways and I am only going to be discussing four which referred to him as Christ, Lord, Prophet and Savior. The main Christological themes that appear in Luke-Acts highlighted and emphasised on the concept of the “Lord 's Christ”, meaning the coming ruler of God 's people, who will serve as their Savior and performing prophetic work [2 pg. 123-143]. Moreover, Jesus’s role was not assumed on his own initiative, but rather it was the work of God. Thus we can say that God’s work and plans were at the center of the Book of Acts and Luke’s gospel [1 pg 22].

In the Bible, the four Gospels push different ideologies, views, lessons and different stories that center around the central figure of Jesus. The Gospel of Luke main themes center on Universalism, social justice, compassion for outcasts, the role of woman and the Holy Spirit.(Hauer and Young) These parables are able to connect to the context of when Luke was able bring these stories together in 85 CE. The Gospel was most likely written in Greek speaking area located in the Roman empire.(Coogan et al.) This time of stability allowed for the proliferation of Christianity and Gospels such as Luke. The passages that will be discussed will mainly focus on compassion for outcast seen in Luke 16:19–31 and warning against greed in Luke 12:13-34. Luke 13:6-9 focuses on a fig tree talks of the opportunities people and if they use them properly. Finally, the last parable is 7:11-17, which focuses on holy spirit and the possibilities for miracles and the importance of life. These parables in Luke are able to give a social justice commentary that can make a person feel compassionate for the poor and the reckoning they would receive in the afterlife if they didn’t follow Jesus’s teachings. As, well the story is able to push across a message that will everlasting importance to people. This has led to the Gospels of Luke becoming one of the main 4 Gospels and one of the most highly regarded of the Gospels. (Hauer and Young)

Jesus is portrayed as a compassionate healer and teacher in Luke's gospel. Luke also portrays Jesus as a saviour in the image of a divine man. Like was a well educated jew that was struggling with the christians new faith. Luke is one of the synoptic gospels in the New Testament whose audience appears to be gentiles. Luke portrays Jesus as a person who reaches out to the poor and brings Justice to all. In Luke 10:38-42 Jesus visited Martha and Mary. Martha was disrespectful to Jesus as she put cleaning before Jesus, where as Mary sat down at Jesus’ foot and stayed with him. Jesus then says “Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things” Jesus is showing compassion and love even though Martha was showing disrespect towards Jesus. Overall,

In the Gospels, the Pharisees appear to be the enemies of Jesus, but actually are responsible for having Him crucified. They Constantly tried to find fault with Him, and violation of their vast, ridiculous law. The Pharisees were a pack of religious wolves that roamed among the Jews in Jesus day. They formed around 200 BC and existed throughout the first century. It is stated that there were about six thousand of them. They held to the Law and were ritually pure. As with many things though, their purity was sacrificed to power, and in the New Testament, the Pharisees represent the worst of the sects. As they became powerful in Israel, They were challenged by Jesus. His Truth and miracles exposed them to their deepest parts and Jesus labeled them as “hypocrites” because their outer appearance in no way justified the evil in their hearts.

The theme of the gospel of Luke talks about the journey of the life of Jesus, Christ. His death, burial, and resurrection. Moreover, his ministry, teachings and parables. As a historian, and physician, Luke was not only eloquent in his writing about Jesus; he also took interest in his early life. The Gospel of Luke also depict Jesus as compassionate, caring, and loving. Likewise, Luke not only put Jesus at the heart of the Jewish world during the first century, but also at the heart of the Roman world, where with the Christian gospel exploded.

The parable of the Pharisee and tax collector in Luke 18 is a cautionary story that Jesus teaches to a specific crowd of people. In it he deals with humility, righteousness, and justification. The parable describes two different types of people whose occupations are very familiar to any of Jesus’ audience, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The significance of this parable is that it is aimed at a certain type of person, which gives it the ability to be applied outside of Jesus’ immediate context. The type of audience described in this passage has two parts. The first is “those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous”, and the second: “and regarded others with contempt” (Luke 18:9).