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Meet Doctor Luke
In the New Testament, Luke is "The Beloved Physician" of Colossians (Chapter 4 verse 14) and "The Travelling Companion of Paul" (2 Timothy Chapter 4 verse 11 and Philemon verse 24).
Luke wrote two of the volumes in the New Testament:The Gospel which bears his name and the other the Acts of the Apostles.
Each of these begin with a scholarly preface (Chapter 1 verses 1 to 4) dedicated to an unknown Theophilus and by detective work, we can infer that Luke lived in Philippi and could therefore have been the man in Paul's vision 'the man of Macedonia' saying, "Come over and help us" (Acts Chapter 16 verse 9), because immediately afterwards the report becomes first person plural (verse 10 "we" and "us").
There are four passages in Acts which appear to be directly part of Luke's Travel diary. Check them out, noticing the "we" and "us".
Acts 16 verses 10 to 17
Acts 20 verses 5 to 15
Acts 21 verses 1 to 18
Acts 27 verse 1 to 28 and verse 16
From the two polished prefaces to Luke and Acts, we see that Luke was aware of other accounts of the life story of Jesus.He had interviewed many eyewitnesses and was a systematic researcher and historian who had non-Jews in mind (nowhere does he assume that his readers had any extensive knowledge of the Old Testament).
Input
Luke adopts Mark's order of events, but to this he adds his own researched material in large blocks, which are priceless.The first two chapters and most of Chapter 3 occur only in Luke.Speed-read these chapters, noting what would have been missing from our knowledge of Jesus, and also take in the superb poetry. Can you name each of these Poems/Hymns?
The Way Jesus saw his Mission
Chapter 4 verses 14 to 30
Take time over the five-fold ministry of Jesus. There is only one Christian Ministry and this is it! (Chapter 4 verses 18 to 21)
Like a hand with its 5 digits, his Ministry is:
1-Spirit filled (Pentecostal)
2-Evangelical (Good news)
3-Social (Releases prisoners)
4-Therapeutic (Gives sight and healing)
5-New Dawn (God's new approach to us)
Question - Given this, how balanced is our present Christian Church's Ministry?
If you have time, re-tell together, in your own words, the Emmaus journey (Chapter 24 verses 13 to 32), then focus on verse 27 asking, "What things?"
Voluntary Preparation for Next Session
Read Luke Chapters 15 to 18 and concentrate on those parables (recorded only by Luke).
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