Trajectories: Luke and Acts as a Road Map of the Bible's Story and a Guide to the Spirit-filled Future
N.T. Wright's understanding of Scripture as a 5 Act drama is a helpful way of viewing both the continuity and discontinuity within the Bible's narratives as well as seeing our own lives belonging within the history of God and his people. Wright's Acts are 1) Creation 2) Fall 3) Israel 4) Jesus and 5) Church. Jesus is seen as the climax of the grand narrative and we live in the continuation of Act 5.
What follows is a modest proposal for using Luke and Acts as a road map for the Bible and it's connection to our lives.
It makes sense to view Luke and Acts as volumes 1 and 2 of a two part work that function in many ways as a bridge between the Old and the New. It ties together many strands from Israel's Scriptures (the Torah, the Prophets and Writings) and points the way forward as a guide to the trajectory of the New Testament. We can also envision ourselves in the story as the action moves forward into the Spirit-filled future where we live.
Together they function almost as a hinge between the ages, a door closing on one age and opening into God's future. Together they can also provide a road map to the Bible's story. I'm assuming a New Testament view of God's full revelation of himself in Jesus which has continuity with the Old but also is superior (Hebrews 1:1-2, John 1:1-3, 14, 18).
I'll use a few brief passages to illustrate Luke-Acts as a sort of door swinging on the hinge between the old and the new. As the door closes on the old, it opens into the future.
In Luke we see the fulfillment and completion of the Old Covenant in Jesus himself.
In Luke 4:14 and following, Jesus reads the Isaiah scroll in the synagogue describing the coming of the kingdom of God as Isaiah envisioned it in chapter 61:
Then he said "Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." And all were amazed and all was well until Jesus made it clear that this fulfillment was coming in ways that his hearers and even Isaiah himself might not have imagined. Just as the prophets of old had healed foreigners and Gentiles, now the Kingdom was skipping Jesus' own hometown because they rejected him. They drove him out of town in a rage.
Another place we see the old come to a surprising fulfillment in a way that shuts the door on the past is when Jesus appears to some of his disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection. This starts at Luke 24:14. Jesus appears to them, but they don't recognize him. They explain to him about the recently failed Messiah that had come and had been put to death. "We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel." they said. So Jesus calls them foolish, and slow to believe the prophets. "Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"
Then he explained. "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."
A little while later he appears to the eleven remaining disciples. Here is a key link between Luke and Acts as the door turns. He explains to them "Everything must be fulfilled that is written about about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." (Luke 24:44) It's clearly more than just a checklist of predictions that has to come true- it's the whole great narrative of God and his people from Creation and Fall through Israel that is finding its completion in Jesus.
Then he says, "Wait" and in a passage that is echoed in the first chapter of volume 2 (Acts), he says "You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:48-49).
In Acts we see that fulfillment of the old shift to a future oriented trajectory, out from the former center of Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
As the door closes on the old, Acts 1:8 provides an outline for the rest of the book as well as a preview of the expansion of God's kingdom throughout the Roman Empire until at the end of the book Paul is in Rome, the center of Imperial power, preaching that Jesus (not Caesar) is LORD.
It's an incredible turn of events. Two points are key for this proposal. One is that the theological geography of Luke-Acts turns the old paradigm upside down. We are all familiar with the notion of the Holy Land and holy space, the holiness of Jerusalem and the Temple as God's dwelling place.
Luke and Acts move towards Jerusalem in volume 1 where the explosive and climactic events of Jesus (his teachings, death and resurrection) leave the old concept of holy space in ruins (the veil of the Temple that marked out holy space physically torn in Luke 23:45). Then in Volume II, God's holy presence is poured out in the Spirit and expanded to the ends of the earth (the extreme parts of the known world) and beyond. That Spirit is also poured out on men and women, young and old as envisioned by the prophet Joel. That's the Spirit-filled future we live in, Act 5, as the Church.
Acts 1:8 provides the trajectory and echoes Luke 24:48-49. "...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The narrative of Acts follows this, moving outward from Jerusalem after the Spirit came at Pentecost.
The second point is that we can map out the geography of many of the New Testament letters, especially those of Paul, by tracing the geography of Acts. It's both theologically meaningful as the presence of God spreads outward from Jerusalem and a helpful heuristic tool for connecting that movement to the New Testament letters that themselves are dealing with conveying a gospel rooted in the Jewish Scriptures to a Greek speaking world.
Acts and New Testament Connections
In Acts 16, we see Lydia's conversion in Philippi and the beginning of the church there in her household.
In Acts 17, Paul is in Thessalonica and many Jews and Greeks accept his message about Jesus. They are charged with undermining Roman power since "They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” (17:7).
In Acts 18, Paul is in Corinth for a year and a half teaching to both Jews and Greeks, convincing some and ultimately causing a group from the Jewish community of Corinth to rise up against him.
In Acts 19, Paul spends two years in Ephesus, teaching, baptizing and working miracles. He is rejected by many, accepted by some and "...all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord" (19:10). Then he ends up clashing with the Artemis cult and its economic benefactors in what Acts calls "a great disturbance about the Way."
In Acts 28, Paul is in Rome, the center of Roman imperial power where "He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!" (28:31)
Christians in each of these cities later received Pauline letters that make up an important part of the New Testament. There are all these points of connection between Acts and the rest of the New Testament and if we pay close attention, the theological meaning of the outward movement of God's presence from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth is clear. God's kingdom has come in Jesus and his followers in a way that radically changes the old Jerusalem-centered order of things and prepares the way for all peoples to participate in God's New Creation, the renewal and restoration of his good but broken creation.
What follows is a modest proposal for using Luke and Acts as a road map for the Bible and it's connection to our lives.
It makes sense to view Luke and Acts as volumes 1 and 2 of a two part work that function in many ways as a bridge between the Old and the New. It ties together many strands from Israel's Scriptures (the Torah, the Prophets and Writings) and points the way forward as a guide to the trajectory of the New Testament. We can also envision ourselves in the story as the action moves forward into the Spirit-filled future where we live.
Together they function almost as a hinge between the ages, a door closing on one age and opening into God's future. Together they can also provide a road map to the Bible's story. I'm assuming a New Testament view of God's full revelation of himself in Jesus which has continuity with the Old but also is superior (Hebrews 1:1-2, John 1:1-3, 14, 18).
Luke-Acts as a Road Map to the Bible’s Story
I'll use a few brief passages to illustrate Luke-Acts as a sort of door swinging on the hinge between the old and the new. As the door closes on the old, it opens into the future.
In Luke we see the fulfillment and completion of the Old Covenant in Jesus himself.
In Luke 4:14 and following, Jesus reads the Isaiah scroll in the synagogue describing the coming of the kingdom of God as Isaiah envisioned it in chapter 61:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
Then he said "Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." And all were amazed and all was well until Jesus made it clear that this fulfillment was coming in ways that his hearers and even Isaiah himself might not have imagined. Just as the prophets of old had healed foreigners and Gentiles, now the Kingdom was skipping Jesus' own hometown because they rejected him. They drove him out of town in a rage.
Another place we see the old come to a surprising fulfillment in a way that shuts the door on the past is when Jesus appears to some of his disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection. This starts at Luke 24:14. Jesus appears to them, but they don't recognize him. They explain to him about the recently failed Messiah that had come and had been put to death. "We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel." they said. So Jesus calls them foolish, and slow to believe the prophets. "Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"
Then he explained. "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."
A little while later he appears to the eleven remaining disciples. Here is a key link between Luke and Acts as the door turns. He explains to them "Everything must be fulfilled that is written about about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." (Luke 24:44) It's clearly more than just a checklist of predictions that has to come true- it's the whole great narrative of God and his people from Creation and Fall through Israel that is finding its completion in Jesus.
Then he says, "Wait" and in a passage that is echoed in the first chapter of volume 2 (Acts), he says "You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:48-49).
In Acts we see that fulfillment of the old shift to a future oriented trajectory, out from the former center of Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
As the door closes on the old, Acts 1:8 provides an outline for the rest of the book as well as a preview of the expansion of God's kingdom throughout the Roman Empire until at the end of the book Paul is in Rome, the center of Imperial power, preaching that Jesus (not Caesar) is LORD.
It's an incredible turn of events. Two points are key for this proposal. One is that the theological geography of Luke-Acts turns the old paradigm upside down. We are all familiar with the notion of the Holy Land and holy space, the holiness of Jerusalem and the Temple as God's dwelling place.
Luke and Acts move towards Jerusalem in volume 1 where the explosive and climactic events of Jesus (his teachings, death and resurrection) leave the old concept of holy space in ruins (the veil of the Temple that marked out holy space physically torn in Luke 23:45). Then in Volume II, God's holy presence is poured out in the Spirit and expanded to the ends of the earth (the extreme parts of the known world) and beyond. That Spirit is also poured out on men and women, young and old as envisioned by the prophet Joel. That's the Spirit-filled future we live in, Act 5, as the Church.
Acts 1:8 provides the trajectory and echoes Luke 24:48-49. "...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The narrative of Acts follows this, moving outward from Jerusalem after the Spirit came at Pentecost.
The second point is that we can map out the geography of many of the New Testament letters, especially those of Paul, by tracing the geography of Acts. It's both theologically meaningful as the presence of God spreads outward from Jerusalem and a helpful heuristic tool for connecting that movement to the New Testament letters that themselves are dealing with conveying a gospel rooted in the Jewish Scriptures to a Greek speaking world.
Acts and New Testament Connections
In Acts 16, we see Lydia's conversion in Philippi and the beginning of the church there in her household.
In Acts 17, Paul is in Thessalonica and many Jews and Greeks accept his message about Jesus. They are charged with undermining Roman power since "They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” (17:7).
In Acts 18, Paul is in Corinth for a year and a half teaching to both Jews and Greeks, convincing some and ultimately causing a group from the Jewish community of Corinth to rise up against him.
In Acts 19, Paul spends two years in Ephesus, teaching, baptizing and working miracles. He is rejected by many, accepted by some and "...all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord" (19:10). Then he ends up clashing with the Artemis cult and its economic benefactors in what Acts calls "a great disturbance about the Way."
In Acts 28, Paul is in Rome, the center of Roman imperial power where "He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!" (28:31)
Christians in each of these cities later received Pauline letters that make up an important part of the New Testament. There are all these points of connection between Acts and the rest of the New Testament and if we pay close attention, the theological meaning of the outward movement of God's presence from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth is clear. God's kingdom has come in Jesus and his followers in a way that radically changes the old Jerusalem-centered order of things and prepares the way for all peoples to participate in God's New Creation, the renewal and restoration of his good but broken creation.
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