…. what Jesus continued to do and teach (see Acts 1:1)
In a Nutshell
The second half of Acts includes Luke's participation in the events he describes.
Questions
We receive the Book of Acts as God's Word. Why is it important for us, now, to have an account of these developments?
So
farewell to Barnabas and Mark. From this point on in the Book of Acts there is
no mention of Peter. The Acts of the Apostles now moves on and is the story of
Paul, how he continued the work begun by the Apostles and how the Christian
mission reached Rome and beyond.
We hear of Mark again in
Paul's letters. For instance in Colossians 4:10 Aristarchus, my fellow
prisoner, greets you, as does Mark the nephew of Barnabas, about whom you have
received instructions, and if he comes be sure to welcome him; Philemon
23-24 Epaphras,
my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark,
Aristarchus, Demas and Luke my fellow workers; 2
Timothy 4:11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you;
for he is very useful in serving me.
So
what can we say? Were these letters of Paul already written during Paul's
previous imprisonments? I doubt it. The mention of Mark in Paul's second letter
to Timothy indicates that he was not always outside Paul's orbit after Barnabas
took him off to Cyprus. Paul mentions Mark as he concludes his letters from
prison. And Mark also maintained a loyalty to Paul which was not evident from
Luke's account of his travels with Paul and Barnabas and the split.
Paul
asks Timothy to visit him in prison, to bring his papers and his books and to
bring Mark, too. The two gospel writers, Mark and Luke, met in Paul's prison.
We
also hear of Mark in Peter's first letter 5:13. Peter refers to my son Mark. And
of course we also have Mark's Gospel, which, since early times, has been
interpreted as Peter's gospel.
There
is a change of tack by Luke in the way his book is written. Peter, Mark and
Barnabas no longer figure in his story. Of course, Chapters 1-15 have been
important in their own right, and Luke knew that what he was writing would be
helpful, not only to his friend Theophilus, but also for teaching in various
places. The people who read this book would be assisted to understand their own
local church history and the story of how those churches came about because of what Jesus continued to do and teach. They could
see how their local situation fits into the story of the entire movement. And
the same applies for us today. Our Christian life today is built on what the
Apostles did, or rather what Jesus continued to do and teach through them.
Chapters 1-15 also prepare us readers for the next stage of Luke's narrative. In this stage, Luke enters into his own story. It tells of the continuation of Paul's journeying, his preaching in many locations around the Roman Empire with many collaborators. By the time Paul reached the church in Jerusalem (chapter 21), James, the brother of Jesus, who was not an apostle, had become its leader (we noted how he and Peter had commended the work of Paul and Barnabas earlier (Hints 67 Acts 15:6-21)). But that later visit led to Paul's imprisonment and finally after a strange and difficult journey he arrived at Rome. So now we have come to a point where we can be a bit more specific about Theophilus and ask some questions about what it was he wanted Luke to tell him. Luke's gospel began like this:
Yes, just as many have worked to
compile a narrative of those things accomplished among us, just as they have
been told to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of
the word, so also it has seem the right thing that I, having followed all these
matters closely for some time now, to write an orderly account for you
Theophilus, my good friend, so that the truth of these about which you have
been instructed may be confirmed.
This
was how Luke began the Book of Acts:
My first book, O Theophilus,
covered all that Jesus began to do and teach, until He was taken up, after He
had issued instructions to the apostles chosen through the Holy Spirit. He
presented himself to them after his passion, giving proofs by his appearances
over a forty day period, speaking to them about God's Kingdom. He stayed as
long as he needed to make his charge clear: they were not to leave Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard me
talk about when I said that John baptised with water, but before many days you
will be baptised with the Holy Spirit."
Chapters
16-28 are therefore Luke's own eyewitness account because he travelled with
Paul and was part of his ministry. So now we begin to see how Luke was able
came to write the two books. We can imagine Luke meeting Theophilus, a fellow
Christian, sometime before AD72. Scholars usually agree that Luke and Acts were
composed prior to that date - the sacking of Jerusalem. Maybe Luke and
Theophilus met while visiting Paul's house or maybe it was later. But it seems
Paul was still active in Rome when he wrote.
We
imagine Theo's questions:
"So you travelled with Paul? You would know how the church got
started in Rome. Please tell me its story?"
which
meant he would have to ask a follow-up question like:
"So how did it happen that you met him. I mean what do you know
about what happened before you met up with him and Silas and Timothy?"
which
meant he would have to ask another follow-up question like:
"So what do you know about the travels of Paul and
Barnabas?"
"How did they meet? Do you know? Why did they split? What did
Mark think of that?"
And Luke saying, "Well, thanks for those probing questions my friend. You have now given me the task of collecting eye-witness accounts so I can tell you the story in full. It may take a few years of research. I will have to go back and probe for the full history of this movement since the birth of Jesus Himself."