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Johnson (1992) lists four theological themes present in the book of Acts: the Holy Spirit, the life of the church, the discernment of god’s activity, and universality. The same four themes are present in the life and ministry of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. Moreover, these are the four main themes that would become the bedrock of the early church itself. According to Johnson (1992), being able to recognize these themes not only enrich the reader’s understanding of the gospel, but also reveals the “consistent religious preoccupations that might not be obvious on the surface of his storytelling,” (p. 14). These consistent religious preoccupations remain the cornerstones of Christianity.The first theme is the Holy Spirit. So crucial is this theme Johnson claims that the book of Acts can even be considered the “Book of the Holy Spirit,” (p. 14). Luke refers to the “dramatic outpouring” of God, of course in Jesus but also in the particularity of Jesus’s fulfillment of prophesy (Johnson, 1992, p. 14). Through his focus on the Holy Spirit, Luke shows how Jesus signals the radical transformation of humanity itself. Jesus works in and through individual people via the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Luke’s narrative style essentially...
God is transcendent, but is wholly immanent as well. The Holy Spirit then becomes the life that illuminates the church, what Johnson calls the “life-principle,” (p. 14).
The second theme Luke elucidates in Acts is related to the life of the church. Luke formulates the first vision for a church, both in spiritual terms and in pragmatic ones. The church serves a social function of people who are gathered in His name, but the Holy Spirit also moves through the members of the church congregation. Thus, the Church becomes an almost necessary instrument, part of God’s plan for humanity. Luke also describes the qualities of the early Christian church, thereby distinguishing the community of believers from the Jewish community from which it sprung. These are communalists, with an idealized vision of the world that paralleled Jesus’s own idealism and communitarian values. It is also important to recognize the importance of church leadership. Strong Christian leadership helps to promulgate and stabilize the church and its values.
The third theme in Acts is the discernment of God’s activity. As churches and Christian communities are comprised by human beings with faults and failings, the need for discernment…
This lets us know that Christianity is not something that should be forced on us. Those receiving what Paul preached received it by faith. Although times have changed the Book of Acts serves as a good foundation for Church government. Jesus was very clear in his instructions on what should happen after his resurrection. Many verses in books of the New Testament speak of this. He would not have been
This could prove a difficult task filling in the blanks existing in what he had acquired by then There are instances of inconsistency between Paul's journeys regarding his visits in Jerusalem (as recorded in Galatians 1,2) and those recounted by Luke, which point to Luke's inability to comprehend the perfect sequence of events and their importance accurately. However, the most important thing to note is that the latter chapters of
Holy Spirit is the cornerstone of the Acts of the Apostles, attributed to the apostle Luke. According to Lee, the Book of Acts refers to " the formative history of the Early Church," while establishing Luke as a "charismatic theologian who demonstrates that baptism in the Holy Spirit is an experience of empowering to facilitate the mission of the Church."[footnoteRef:1] The Book of Acts opens with a frank and
Gospel of Luke According to early church traditions, Luke was a Jewish, Greek-speaking physician who accompanied Paul on his three journeys, and was chosen to write the third Gospel because his knowledge of Greek was better than most of the other writers in the church at that time. Even his use of language gives a hint about his social and cultural origins since it was composed in the same style as
Shepherd: Pastor, Elder, Overseer The Shepherd The words elder, overseer, and pastor all describe the same authority of leadership within the universal church. However, since different denominations use these terms as though there are separate entities, the three offices are thought to have distinct meanings. Within the ultimate authority of the Bible and the Scripture, the terms elder, overseer, and pastor overlap in meaning. Indeed, Apostles Paul and Peter continuously interchange the
Christianity: The Origin, Purpose, and Destiny of a Christian Just as the gospels present the account of the life and ministry of Jesus, the book of Acts presents the creation and growth of Christianity. Whereas in the gospels the apostles were consistently clueless about the points Jesus was attempting to make, the ascension of Jesus and the entry of the Holy Spirit transforms these cowardly men into heroes of the