Since the last time I wrote on this blog, my studies of God's Word have taken me to all sorts of places in the Bible. I spent a few weeks in the Old Testament, reading parts of Isaiah, all of Job, Jonah, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. I also delved a bit in Proverbs.
While lingering in the Old Testament, I learned a lot; too much, in fact, to talk about today. I will say that everything that I learned about the Old Testament Jews was fascinating stuff, and drove me to want to know more about Jesus and the early Christian Church.
Thanks to my younger brother Marty, I discovered the sermons of Charles Spurgeon, and began studying the book of Acts with Doctor Spurgeon as my guide.
I love the book of The Acts of the Apostles. From a purely literary standpoint, it's a great adventure story, for one thing. From Jesus' final days on Earth through the conversion of Paul and his Journeys through Judea, Greece, Asia and Europe, it's a story of miracles, early sermons, and perilous journeys and narrow escapes.
From the standpoint of a Christian student of the Bible, Acts is a complex work of faith that brings a mixture of awe and shame; awe, in that we see the Apostles performing great miracles of healing through the power of the Holy Spirit, and shame because so few Christians show the same faith and power these days. It's hard to read Acts and not feel at least a little shame at my own weaknesses, anyway, when contrasted with the powerful things accomplished by the Apostles in the early years of our Faith.
This week, in the adult Bible Study class led by the pastor of my Church, we began to study Acts. I'm quite excited, because my Pastor is a great student of the Bible, and I learn something new every time he teaches, so I'm expecting to learn a lot in the coming weeks.
Most Biblical scholars agree that Luke the Apostle is the author of Acts, with good evidence supporting the belief. Since, in my personal, alone-time Bible study, I've been reading the Gospels, I'm going to be studying Luke's account of the life and ministry of Jesus to complement my Pastor's Wednesday night Bible Study class. The Beloved Physician writes with great detail, and, in his Gospel, achieves in a masterful way what he states he will do in his preface:
"Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed." The Gospel of Luke, 1: 1-4. (KJV)
To paraphrase the Beloved Physician, Luke picked up his pen meaning to record for posterity an account of the life and ministry of the Christ from his own recollections, from written sources available to him ( Several sources record that Luke used the Apostle Mark's account as a reference.) and also by talking to other eyewitnesses who had seen and spoke to Jesus both before his death and after his resurrection. Luke was writing to be sure that not only the people of his time, but that people for all time would have certainty that Jesus lived, died, and conquered the grave exactly as our Lord said he would.
Jesus is not a mythical figure. We Christians understand this, because we have faith. We should also, though, be aware that the Apostles understood that non-Christians in later ages would have their doubts, and so Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John took pains to be sure that people down through the ages would have written records from people who were there that Jesus indeed lived, died, and was resurrected. I, for one, am grateful. I know that those of you who are reading this little blog are also grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment