Part of the burden of Luke’s gospel account and the book of Acts—which together form a two-part work—is to demonstrate the historical and religious legitimacy of the burgeoning Christian movement.
This aim surfaces clearly toward the end of both accounts. In his gospel account, Luke ends his narrative by noting how the life and work of Jesus and the mission of his followers serve as a fulfillment of Old Testament expectation. Speaking of Jesus’ post-resurrection interaction with his disciples in Luke 24:45–47, he explains, “Then [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’”
Toward the end of Acts, Luke lodges a similar such summary statement concerning how Christian mission finds its roots in the OT. In Acts 26:22–23, Luke records a summary declaration from the Apostle Paul: “I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
Not only do these two passages link together the mission of Jesus and that of his disciples, but they also underscore the historical and religious legitimacy of the church’s apostolic teaching and mission. As New Testament scholar Darrell Bock explains, “What has taken place in Jesus is a realization of what God revealed would happen both for Israel and the nations. In everything Luke does, a key frame is the teaching and promise of Scripture, for Luke’s claim is that this seemingly new faith realized promises of old that God made to his people.”[i]
Such legitimacy was important in that cultural context. Bock contends, “New movements in the ancient world, like the emergence of ‘the Way,’ were often viewed with interest but with skepticism as well (Acts 17:18–21). A great disadvantage of a new movement was that it appeared to lack a history and roots spanning the generations. The claim for heritage means being rooted in history and legitimacy, an ancient sociological necessity for obtaining cultural credibility, where what was older and tested was better, especially when making claims about what God had done in history.”[ii]
Thus by utilizing such summary statements toward the end of each book in his two-part narrative, Luke encourages both Christians and skeptics to view the church, its apostolic teaching, and its mission not as novel aberrations, but as trustworthy fulfillments of God’s long-awaited redemptive plan.
[i] Darrell L. Bock, A Theology of Luke and Acts: God’s Promised Program, Realized for All Nations (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2012), 407–8.
[ii] Bock, Theology of Luke and Acts, 408.
