Acts of the Apostles: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries

Introduction

Introduction With the shadow of next Sunday’s sermon falling over the study, the preacher using this commentary may be tempted to bypass the Introduction and go directly to the passage that is the starting point for the sermon. However, a commentary does not simply string together discussions of particular passages. A commentary offers a holistic interpretation of the biblical book based on a particular reconstruction of the world to which the biblical book was written, and the purposes and distinctive features of that book. This information not only helps a preacher understand a particular passage but often makes its way into the sermon. Since the central focus of Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries is sermon development, I straightforwardly indicate my perspectives on such matters in this Introduction. Preachers who want to delve into details of scholarship can consult more technical commentaries. The Sermon: The Twenty-Ninth Chapter of Acts I once heard a preacher announce the title of her sermon as “The TwentyNinth Chapter of Acts.” The congregation became restive—we knew that Acts contains only 28 chapters. But the preacher made an important point: Luke intended for the congregation to whom Luke wrote to continue the story told in Luke-Acts by witnessing in its own time much as Luke depicted Jesus, the apostles, and the church in their earlier times. The saga begun in Luke-Acts will not be complete until Jesus returns. In the meantime, congregations add new chapters to the story. The sermon today is not itself the Twenty-Ninth chapter of Acts. That congregation writes that chapter in its life and witness. In the sermon, the preacher urges the congregation to witness faithfully to the presence and coming of the Realm. By the time we reach the end of the Book of Acts, Luke wants readers to ask, “How will we write our chapter in the movement toward the Realm? Will we continue faithfully in the line of Jesus, the apostles, and Paul even as we await the end of this age?” 1 Who Was “Luke?” Many people in North America today are interested in the personalities and personal lives of public figures. Those who follow the contemporary cult of personality are often disappointed when encountering biblical figures because we can know so little about these ancient personalities and personal stories. In this vein, we do not know the name, the personality, or many other facts about the author of Acts. The earliest records that attach the name “Luke” to the Gospel and Acts do not appear in our records until the second century. To be sure, biblical materials refer to a figure named Luke (Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11; Philem. 24). But the Bible itself gives no indication that this Luke is the author of the Gospel and Acts. Nevertheless, the church has long used the name Luke when referring to this writer, and I follow this custom. Because Colossians 4:14 describes someone named Luke as “beloved physician,” many Christians have imagined Luke as a medical doctor. However, no major scholars today think Luke was a physician. While the picture of Luke as a “beloved physician” created a warm feeling about Luke-Acts, it added nothing of substance to our understanding of the theological meaning of these materials. Scholars continue to debate whether Luke was a Jew or a gentile. In my view, Luke has such a profound knowledge of the Septuagint (the translation of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings into Greek), it is difficult to imagine a gentile acquiring such a deep and intuitive resonance. I think Luke was Jewish. This possibility is reinforced when we remember that many Jewish people regarded the primary mission of Judaism as being a “light to the gentiles” (for example, Isa. 40:7; cf. Gen. 12:1-3). For Luke the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were a light through which God sought to reach out to gentiles in the last days of the present age. Of course, Luke is critical of some Jewish people, which I regard as a family fight. Who Was Theophilus? Luke dedicates both the Gospel and Acts (Luke 1:1; Acts 1:1) to Theophilus. Scholars ponder whether Theophilus was an actual person or whether the name is a symbol. If a person, then Theophilus was likely Luke’s benefactor or patron—a wealthy person who subsidized Luke writing these materials. Some scholars think this situation accounts for the relative sympathy toward wealthy people in Luke-Acts. At...