Feb 22-27, 2024

As we study the gospel of Luke, we notice the link between the OT and NT and how the prophecies and teachings in the OT are progressively revealed and understood in the NT.
What is more astounding is to see this link crystallised by the Lord Jesus himself in the gospel of Luke:
‘He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up and read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Isaiah 61:1-2).

What is even more astounding follows: after returning the scroll, he sat down and proclaimed, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. There is no more direct declaration than to realise that Jesus was declaring himself to be the Messiah, and the link between the OT (particularly Isaiah in this context) and the NT is surely very obvious (Luke 4:16-21).

Then, after his resurrection, when he was travelling with some of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and after revealing his identity to them, he said:
“This is what I told you when I was still with you: everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” (Luke 24:44).
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 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: 45-49).

Notice how the Lord Jesus revealed that whatever was written about him in the Old Testament must be fulfilled (and indeed much has already been fulfilled); he also opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, stating the necessity of the cross, suffering and the resurrection, and in particular, the Lord pointed to the future (which principally involves us (the church)) and the mission to preach the gospel and to evangelise nations, with the power of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, the second volume by the same author Luke, in Acts 1:7-8, we read:
“He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.

From all these, we can glean very important principles and lessons regarding what the priorities and perspectives of the church should be, and we need to affirm the link and relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Although there is continuity between the two, there is also some discontinuity; but nevertheless, they are related as taught by the Lord Jesus himself.
From the Scriptures (OT and NT), we can strengthen our understanding of God’s sovereignty as the ruler of the world he created; deepen our understanding of his essential nature as the faithful covenant-keeping God, who promises and fulfils. We can also build confidence in God’s commitment to his people and the absolute certainty of the eternal kingdom of righteousness and peace. We also can encourage faith in God’s promises, rather than a desperate resort to human policies; we can build up God’s people to believe in and defend the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Son of God, the only Saviour of the world!

What ought to be the priorities of the church at this point in world history? How should we regard the competing ideologies of the global village in an age of instant information and even false and distorted information? How should we occupy the ‘waiting time’ in which we live, looking towards the eschatological completion of God’s salvation plan? What are the values that should predominate, both within the Christian community and also in its relationships with others, whether structurally or personally in the light of what we know about the end of all things? By examining these questions and pondering on the answers, by God’s enabling and guidance, we would know the right priorities for us as God’s people living in these last days (the period between the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus).

One area that we note as a priority is: the gospel must be preached:

The content of the gospel must always control the method of its communication,and we must judge the value of various evangelism techniques by asking how far they can and do succeed in getting the message across.
The gospel’s content includes a diagnosis of the hearers’ state and needs before God, value judgements on the life they live as compared with that which might be theirs, and a call to judge themselves, to acknowledge the gracious approach and invitation of God in Christ, and to respond by a commitment more radical and far reaching than any they will ever make. The gospel is not fully communicated unless all this comes over. The gospel must be verbalised – that is, set forth by a messenger who interprets and applies it to the hearers in a way which makes the implications for them plain.

But the gospel is not just eliciting response and conversion. Matthew 28:19-20 makes it clear that the Lord Jesus spells out the command to make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything the Lord has commanded the disciples.
This command is backed by the authority of the Lord in heaven and on earth; and the Lord promised to be with his disciples as they fulfil this commission to the end of the age.
This definitely is one major priority of the church – to evangelise, and to make disciples in the process, in the context of churchlife and God’s community!

(B)
In the previous sharing, we noted in Luke 24 the statement by the Lord Jesus to the disciples: “You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:48-49). Prior to these statements, the Lord also disclosed that everything must be fulfilled that is written about him in the Old Testament. In the OT, what was written about him also points to the future beyond the cross and resurrection; specifically, the Lord pointed out that the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations (v47).

We have previously also considered Luke gospel as the first volume written by Luke, and the sequel is found in the book of Acts (the second volume). In Acts 1:8, we see the same instruction from the Lord that parallels verse 47 of Luke 24. And this focuses on the main priority of God’s church – preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations.

As we study the gospel of Luke, and Acts, we would realise that the gospel of Luke is a prequel to the book of Acts; the book of Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. Luke’s prequel is an account of an earthly Jesus; his sequel is an account of the earthly activity of a heavenly Jesus.
The principal theme of the sequel, in the book of Acts, is this: Spirit-empowered mission – the universal expansion of Christianity effected by the potency of the Holy Spirit under the direction of the resurrected Lord Jesus. In other words, Luke’s criteria in the book of Acts were to articulate and delineate the ongoing mission of Jesus Christ through the Spirit-empowered church; it is Part 2 of ‘The Jesus Story’. Luke’s gospel is a compilation of only the beginning of what Jesus did and taught up to the point of his ascension. The second volume, Acts is a record of what Jesus continues to do and teach (his ongoing work).

The Jesus of history began his ministry on earth; the Christ of glory continues his ministry on earth. The ascension functions as a hinge in between an event that, far from implying Jesus’ absence or inactivity, calls attention to the location from where he rules as the universal sovereign. Jesus is still the Spirit-filled man par excellence, even subsequent to his resurrection.

Christian witness is not to be mistaken for the promotion of a political agenda, nor reinterpreted as the advocacy for a compelling expression of social justice. Unfortunately, in recent years, the call to witness and evangelise has been ‘overshadowed’ by the call to social justice; to restore the church’s credibility, the relevant mission of the church, according to this assertion, is to overturn injustice and oppression in a broken world. All Christians agree that the gospel has social implications; but we do not see Apostle Paul telling the churches to concentrate on transforming their communities; where does Jesus, with the corrupt oppressive Roman Empire in full sway, seem interested in world-changing initiatives?
Also, the telling feature of the sermons of the Apostles in the book of Acts, is not a call to cultural transformation, or an invitation to participate in various forms of social justice; instead, their theme is the redemptive work of Jesus, along with the corresponding summons to repent and believe. It is this relentless repetition, in fact, that reinforces the true nature of the church’s mission, not that her people would become new “incarnations” of Christ, rather that they would serve as his “ambassadors” offering eternal life through the gospel.
The kingdom of God is also not to be regarded as a body politic, but as a universal and spiritual reign inaugurated and advanced by the means of the advent and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Christian witness is not to be mistaken as the promotion of a political agenda, nor reinterpreted as the advocacy for a compelling expression of social justice. The crucified and resurrected Lord is the object of witness in Luke 24 and Acts 1:8, a command-promise given to his apostles, free of any haziness or ambiguity.

As the narrative of Acts unfold, Luke makes it very clear that all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ are given the indwelling Holy Spirit and can be empowered to speak the word of God boldly (Acts 4:31). When Luke records the initial outward advancement of the Christian mission, he highlights the fact that those who take the gospel into the regions of Judea and Samaria are not apostles but ordinary Christians driven from Jerusalem by persecution. (Acts8:1) and that they preached the word wherever they went (8:4). Luke also indicates that Christians (other than the apostles) take the gospel to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch (11:19-21). Luke’s implication is that all who responded to the gospel and the apostle’s testimony qualify as witnesses.
Indeed, this is the mission of the entire Christian church, the holy commission of every person who has embraced the resurrected Christ and been given the gift of the empowering Holy Spirit.

The Great Commission is the primary task the Lord Jesus left the church; it is not an optional ministry. The church must always be a misssionary church; the Christian must always be a world Christian – nothing can be an adequate substitute for it. It is a mission that requires our role as a witness of the saving death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the world around us.

To be missionary is organic to the life of the church, a reality embedded within her nature. Therefore, unless something is profoundly amiss, she cannot not witness; on the day of Pentecost, the missionary Spirit came to rest upon the church forever and, as such, implanted the missionary impulse within her – the impulse to witness to Jesus Chriost – which is one of the certain proofs of the Spirit’s indwelling presence.
Pentecost reminds the church of God’s ancient promises and fulfillments (as noted in the gospel of Luke), her unique mission in long-standing continuity with God’s intention for his people, and of the provision of the Holy Spirit by whose potency she is equipped to engage it successfully.

In these last days, the Messiah has taken the throne at the right hand of the Father, and he is extending his rule and domination on earth through the power of the Spirit; the departure of Jesus has made witness to him necessary, while the Pentecostal baptism with the Spirit has made it possible.
We must not forget this: the one main priority of the church is to preach repentance and forgiveness of sin to the world; the process will necessarily require the power of the Spirit, the direction of the ascended Lord Jesus, and the godly testimony and loving sacrifice of his people, individually, and collectively as a community, and as a church.

(C)
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, in the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts…” (Acts 2:42-46).

We see the priorities of the early church clearly recorded: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. No longer do the believers remain as individualistic Christians – they were together and had everything in common – in other words, they were a community, the church.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once asked a question: “Have you received the apostolic doctrine? I can test you simply. If you believed this and received it, you have new, spiritual life, and that will show itself in this way: You will be hungering and thirsting for more. It will become the greatest interest of your life”.
The new life God gives, conveyed through the gospel of Jesus Christ, will not be contained. Sourced in God’s own life, the eternal life that is given to the followers of Jesus Christ possesses a vitality and exuberance that defies any attempt to contain it.
Eschatological Christianity, introduced by the power of the Spirit, has set itself on display as a community. Not an idealised life together, which is reserved only for the consummated new creation, but a community life that is indicative of an existence set in the overlap between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’.

What are the distinguishing activities of a Spirit-revived community? What are the tell-tale signs of a corporate life that has been brought into existence by Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit?

THE FIRST FEATURE

Listed first is their devotion to the apostles’ teaching. This is one of the decisive manifestations of people who have been authentically born again: the possession of a genuine hunger for the truth, an ongoing demand for the nourishment derived from divine revelation, in the same way that a decreased appetite for the truth is a sure indication of spiritual declension. For every stage of maturity, Christians will deeply desire the unadulterated word.

These revived believers in Acts 2:42 are undeniably engaged in learning. To which curriculum are they persistently devoted. Luke identifies it as ‘the apostolic teaching’. The believers need to be furnished the capacities to hear and read the Old Testament in a manner consistent with the knowledge of the Saviour who has now come. The apostles themselves were persistently devoted to teaching them. Both the apostles and believers understood the significance of this moment in redemptive history – their new calling was to form the Christian community!

The Bible is the inspired word of God. ‘Inspiration’ means literally ‘God-breathed’. It does not mean the coming together of natural talent and training in a special circumstance which produces something beyond normal expectation. The inspiration of Scripture means that the message originates with God and he is active in its communication. But there is also the human dimension; the original writers were human beings.They used natural writing material, human languages, and reflect the times and cultures of their own days and surroundings. Indeed their own personalities shine through the finished product.
God selected the men whose backgrounds and personalities would express that which he desired, he ‘breathed’ his message into them (2 Tim.3:16), and remained active in the writing process, superintended the project (2 Peter 1:21)to assure its authority and accuracy.

The BIble is not so much concerned to reveal concepts, principles, and rules as to reveal a person, God. It does so primarily by showing him at work and in relation to the universe and human beings. God does what he does because of who he is, we come to know him by seeing him in action. The moral and spiritual principles of the universe are simply reflections or extensions of God’s nature. A thing is true or false, good or bad, because of God’ attitude toward it. The Bible is then God’s presentation of himself and his works. The Bible also shows varying human reactions to God and the consequences of these reactions. In addition, it provides interpretations of God and his will; it shows how God’s will was applied and worked out in specific situations and circumstances. The activity of the Holy Spirit continues his work with the Scriptures as he guides the interpretation and application of them in succeeding generations of believers.

Since the Bible’s words about God are for all times and places, the Biblical student must also seek to apply these same moral and spiritual principles, appropriately, to the situations of modern times, culture, and places as well.The ultimate purpose of the Bible is to reveal God and to call humans into relationship with him.
So we see that God reveals himself to us in the Bible in human words and language’; God speaks about himself to us so that we may know him and relate with him, and thus be what God desires for his people. If we reject and doubt the BIble, we are rejecting and doubting God and his revelation.
Hence the early church devotes itself to the apostolic teaching (which was the Old Testament in its context). There was a hungering and thirsting for God’s word revealed in the Old Testament in the early church!
Today, we see indifference and disinterest in what God has provided and preserved for us over all the years of church history. We question God based on our human logic and understanding and we forget that unless God reveals himself, there is no way we can know him. Even in what he has revealed, we must acknowledge that many issues are beyond our understanding; there are also issues, God, in his wisdom, chooses to keep away from us, at this point of time and history. God is transcendent, beyond time and space, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, infinite, and certain things are beyond us now to appreciate. We have to acknowledge that there is a certain ‘mystery’ in our understanding of God and his ways – for God deems it fit to keep us ‘in the dark’ on certain matters. But what is revealed to us is sufficient for us to respond to him in faith and worship.

(D)
We saw in the previous sharing the priority of the early church; it devoted itself to study the “Apostles’ teachings” (principally the Old Testament Scriptures) in order to understand what God desired for the new community in Christ, the church.

“The word of God”, apart from Apostle John’s application to the Son of God in John 1:1-14, denotes specifically the Christian message as a whole, the many-sided good news of divine grace through Jesus Christ, as proclaimed by Jesus to the apostles. The New Testament itself, and indeed, in a large sense the whole Bible, may properly be called “the Word of God” in this material sense, as being proclamation of the gospel, no less than in the formal sense of having God as its source and speaker.
What God blesses is his truth and only his truth – that is, the teaching of Scripture, as faithfully echoed and reproduced in the preaching and witness of the church. It is only with his truth that he feeds our souls.
God’s Word has the nature of a call. It comes as a summons to each hearer to respond to God in light of its application to himself and the way the Holy Spirit blesses it is precisely by causing us to understand and receive it as God’s call, and to answer accordingly.
It follows that if the preaching and teaching of God’s Word is not faithfully and accurately communicated, it is no longer the wholesome truth God desires to communicate to his people, and we cannot accordingly expect God to bless it and to use it to feed our souls in the church. So it is no longer the views of one party of Christians versus the views of another party in the church as we evaluate preaching and teaching of his Word; it is the sincere dependence on God’s Spirit to help us understand and receive God’s Word as we should, and to apply it in our lives individually and corporately – only then can we expect true and wholesome spiritual growth instead of a gathering of ‘knowledge’ that puffed up. Ponder over what Jeremiah wrote on behalf of God:
“I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered” (Jer. 35:17). We must understand the seriousness of rejecting God and his Word – there are grave consequences for God’s people if they persist to do so.
All doctrines terminate in mystery; for they deal with the works of God, which men in the world cannot fully comprehend, nor has God been pleased fully to explain. God does not tell us everything about his acts and purposes, nor put us in a position to work them all out for ourselves. We are wholly dependent on him for our knowledge of his ways.

Going back to Acts 2:42-47, we continue to ponder on the priority of the early church. “All the believers were together and had everything in common…Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,….”
The emphasis: the community selflessly shares (the sharing in the life of God and his blessings effects a sharing out with those in fellowship with God through the gospel) i.e. the Spirit-revived people were persistently devoted to fellowship. This sharing and fellowship is something costlier than idle conversation that occurs among Christians over coffee and ‘cakes’ in the church’s fellowship hall; it is a partnership in the sharing of economic resources and edification in the Lord; the basis of their unity is that they share a common faith, and the faith they have come to share as believers rests on Jesus, the enthroned Messiah who has poured out the Holy Spirit which accounts for the zeal displayed in their common commitment to assemble together daily.
When the gospel is genuinely embraced, the gospel dynamically controls. And when the gospel controls, it unites the one controlled by it to everyone else for whom it is the controlling influence.
Fellowship is a term used exclusively for the sharing Christians experience with God and each other; idle talk and frivolous conversations without God in them do not truly and strictly constitute Christian fellowship. Non- believers can also do that, and even do that expertly, even bordering on gossip and unhealthy discussions.
Are we engaging in authentic Christian fellowship? What we do or do not do with our material possessions is an indicator of the Spirit’s presence or absence. The Spirit reigns where the Word reigns. The Spirit reigns where selflessness reigns; and indeed, the Spirit reigns where love (agape) reigns.

C.S. Lewis in “The Four Loves”, distinguished agape (The NT Greek word for God’s love and Christian love) from storge (the feeling of affection or fondness), eros (the feeling of desire and the need for some person or thing that is felt to be attractive especially in sexual or aesthetic contexts), and phila (the attitude of friendliness to one who is friendly to you). Each of these three is a blend of animal instinct, personal taste, appreciative awareness, and self-gratifying impulse, and in this all three differ radically from agape.

Agape is a “way” (1 Cor. 12:31) – a path of action – of which four things are true. And these four things should characterise Christian fellowship. First, It has as its purpose doing good to others, and so, in some sense making them great. Agape Godward, triggered by gratitude for grace, makes God great by exalting him in praise, thanksgiving, and obedience.
Agape manward (love for neighbour) makes fellow humans great by serving their observed real needs. Marital agape seeks fulfillment for the spouse and parental agape seeks maturity for the children.
Second, agape is measured not by sweetness of talk or strength of feeling,but by what it does, and more specifically by what of its own it gives, for the fulfilling of its purpose.
Third, agape does not wait to be courted, nor limit itself to those who appreciate it, but takes the initiative in giving help where help is required, and finds joy in bringing others benefit. The question of who deserves help is not raised; agape does good to the needy (however undeserving), not to the meritorious. Agape focuses on particular people with particular needs, and prays and works to deliver them from evil. In all of this it is directly modeled on the love of God revealed in the gospel.
When we see squabbles, jealousy, envy, sarcasm, and the like in our so-called Christian fellowship; when one-upmanship characterises our apparent service to God and others, how far off are we from what God expects to reign? -AGAPE is a more excellent way (1Cor. 12:31).

(E)
We have been considering the above over the last few sharings. We noted how the “Salvation Plan” of God began from eternity past and would culminate in eternity future. We saw how God’s plan was ‘instituted’ even after the fall with the “embryonic gospel’ sounded out in Genesis 3:15.
Then through his promises, the Lord God established his covenants with his people, as he sought a people of his own, when he declared, “I shall be your God and you shall be my people” as far back as in the Old Testament. He dealt with selected individuals, his prophets. and established his covenant with Abraham, and his descendants; he also dealt with nations and ensured the continuity of his covenant throughout history, leading, admonishing, and correcting his people in love, to ensure that they kept his commands and his desires for them as his people.
From the nation of Israel, in the old covenant, God prepared for the coming of his Son (the Messiah) and also granted prophecies and exhortations to his people that there would be a great reversal with the coming of the Messiah, and God would put down the proud and rebellious (among them kings and nations) and exalt the humble and the oppressed with the promise of the culmination in the new heaven and new earth, following the second advent.
So as we study the Gospels, the Gospel of Luke in particular, we see that what God instituted as a ‘seed’ in the Old Testament now sprouted with the coming of the messenger (John the Baptist) and the ‘incarnation’ of his Son.

Luke, in his second volume, the book of Acts, documented how Jesus Christ, after completing his mission on the cross, being resurrected and ascended to his Father, now continues his ministry on earth from heaven, through the church, with the enabling of the Holy Spirit (sent by the Father and him), and by directing his people in these last days – and this would lead to the ‘fruitful tree’ when Christ comes again when God will be all in all, and God’s people will dwell in his presence and glory forever and ever.

From this context, we then considered the priorities and perspectives of God’s church in these last days (the period between the first and second comings). After his resurrection, Jesus spent about forty days with his disciples and much must have been communicated and taught during those days. Then Jesus told them to wait for the power from on high (the Spirit on Pentecost) before embarking on their mission in fulfilling the Great Commission.
We noted how the early church concentrated on learning from the Apostles’ teachings (which probably came from Jesus during those forty days), focusing on the Scriptures in the Old Testament; the church learned together, fellowship in joy and fellowship in caring and sharing, as a holy and loving community, not ideal, but yet as a wonderful testimony to those around.

We now turn to another important feature in the early church’s priority:
“They devoted themselves…….to prayer” (Acts 2:41b).
After the ascension of the Lord Jesus, observed by the disciples, the latter returned to Jerusalem, went to the room where they were staying (the upper room), gathered together in constant prayer, and awaited the coming of the power from on high. Those present were not only the Apostles but there were others among them: they included women, and Mary the mother of Jesus and also the brothers of Jesus (Acts 1:13b -14),
Note the specific mention of the family of Jesus, in particular his brothers. We would recall the antagonism of the brothers to Jesus in the early days but now the astounding thing is that they were now with the disciples in believing and in following the Son of God. Jesus was no stranger to a divided family. Living as a man in the fallen world necessarily included the experience of a home-life marked by profound sibling hostility. The gathering in the upper room includes the family of Jesus and the prominent female disciples, together with his chosen apostles. They were all together, praying, waiting. Waiting for God was not indolence (laziness) or passive inactivity on the part of the believers; waiting for God was an aggressive activity under His command, and on many occasions in Acts, the disciples pray as a display of their active waiting upon God, even after threats and persecution.
Every great decision in the apostolic period, and in the whole life of early Christianity, is sustained by persistent prayer. The spiritual history of a church is written in its prayer life; at almost every important turning point in the narrative of God’s redemptive action in Acts we find a mention of prayer.

The persistent devotion to prayer in the early church reveals that Jesus’ followers did not regard the gift of the Spirit and His power as the basis upon which dependent prayer may now be dismissed as irrelevant, particularly with relationship to the accomplishment of the mission Jesus has assigned them. Instead, in today’s context, we see confidence in strategic planning utilising the latest technological apparatus, expertise at contextualisation to ensure that the gospel is marketed appropriately to its target audience. This is not to suggest that a constant dedication to prayer diminishes the need for careful planning, careful research, and sensitivity to cultural uniqueness. It is to recognise the church as a missionary body seeking to convert human beings – an impossibility apart from God’s exclusive and effectual initiation. Therefore, the constant dependence of the church must conscientiously rest on the sovereign good pleasure and omnipotence of God, not on the vast potentialities of human prowess.
Christians have been given the distinct honour of being the channel through which the mission of Jesus advances. As such, prayer is not a token expression that serves to contribute a spiritual tone to an otherwise efficient operation. It is an act of desperate dependence upon HIm to achieve what is impossible apart from Him.