A Letter to the Lover of God was written based on These 2 things



(“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach” Acts 1:1 NKJV)

Luke cannot help but to share the love that is burning in his chest. Words and thoughts are ways to express his desire to get this person, whose name is called in Greek as “The Lover of God”, closer to the God. Just as Psalms 2:7 says “I will declare the decree: the Lord has said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” So Luke also, declaring Jesus beginning  from the Gospel that is Jesus' Biography, to this epistle which covers the church history. 

This letter is the second part of the Biography of Jesus and it emphasizes upon the history of the church. The epistle commenced the resurrection, ascension of Jesus to the prevalent of the Gospel to the end of the world. However with all the resources gathered including personal interviews with people mentioned in Acts, direct or indirectly, the purpose of this letter is to bring spiritual blessing to the reader to trust Him more. Just as Psalms 2:12 says “…Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him”.

There are two things that impressed Luke to write the letter of Acts to Theophilus and both of them is centered on Jesus. The two qualities that the church is rooted upon are none other than:


  1. Jesus as a doer: Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke. He covers the story of Jesus before He was born, His death on the cross and His resurrection. Luke pay much attention of Jesus as the doer of the law by painting on the details of how Jesus was tempted and rejected in Luke 4, questioned by the Pharisees in Luke 5, challenged by the Pharisees and tested by the Sadducees in Luke 20, betrayed, denied, mocked and beaten in Luke 22, and eventually crucified in Luke 23. Jesus walked the talk and as Hebrews 2:18 says “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” Application for us is that: He can relate to our sufferings and trials and He shows more empathy to us because of all that He has gone through 
  2. Jesus as a teacher: His teaching relates to the inner most of human being. He connects the heart of sinners and counteracts them with the will of God, He deflects man’s desire to sin and attract the desire of God in their life and He explained the law of God in parables and illustrates them so they can understand. As a teacher, He goes to the level of His listeners to connect Himself with the hearers. Mark 1:2 says “And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” That verse proves that His teaching is productive and bearing fruits to the hearers.


Luke, by and large, asserting the ministry of Jesus that rapidly spread throughout the whole earth. From the disciples to the apostles and the church by the empowering of the Holy Spirit the ministry has continued and will continue until His coming on the air. The two qualities of Jesus that is unchanging and still reverberate the church today is both the teaching and being the doer of the law. Do you think both qualities are still practiced in your church today?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Water Baptism of John Compared to the Baptism of The Holy Spirit

Image
 “For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:5 (NKJV) Not a single saying was purging out from the outset of Luke’s letter to the one who loves God aka Theophilus. Raking up Jesus’ sayings on both baptismal is for our feeding, the differences on both is to dissect and to find the spiritual treasure, with the purpose of applying it to every believer who come to the knowledge of Jesus. Luke, the writer of the book of Luke and Acts, physician by profession, a servant and ministry partner of Paul, was necessitate to present the importance of both water baptismal and the Holy Spirit. Luke elaborates the application on both baptismal in the later chapter to further explain both applications. Nonetheless, the purpose of knowing both baptismal is for spiritual erudition inspired by Holy Spirit to widen the spiritual horizon to its reader toward the widespread of the church worldwide.  Here’s the difference
Read more

Purpose Driven Meeting With the Closest

Image
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me (Acts 1:4 NKJV) One of the strongest leadership traits practiced among the successful band of people is centered in the gathering together or in the assembling together. Purposeful gathering brings solution, reaffirming guidelines, principals, and even commitment in the looming potential difficulties we are all facing. It is in the meeting or “assembling together” that Luke, the author of the epistle of Acts, is directing the reader ’s attention to bring to surface that Jesus can’t depart to Heaven without meeting with His closest. In the span of Jesus' ministry, the assembling together of Jesus with the common people and His closest disciples are often times mentioned in the scriptures.  To the common people He customarily imparting parables or narratives so people could easily
Read more

Alive, Seen, and Speak Again

Image
     To whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.  ( Acts 1:3 New King James Version)    Speaking of being alive again after horrifically onslaught by His fellow countrymen, crucified, and rose again on the third day. Imagine of the contemptuous heart and feeling of the high priests, the Pharisees, the elders who succeeded in convincing the Roman government to put Jesus to death. If any of us can remember Jesus’ teaching in Luke 12:4 “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do”, Jesus was alluding them that only God can call anyone He desire to be with in Heaven, in other words, God is commissioning a person that He is longing to be with at His disposal. Other than that, people could be ignorantly destined to shorten their lifespan through unhealthy life
Read more