Jesus and the Holy Spirit
The final distinctive element in the Christology of Luke which is almost wholly absent from Matthew and Mark, is Jesus as the giver of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is anticipated in a saying by Jesus in Luke 11:13 concerning the Father. Yet we cannot really perceive the centrality of the Holy Spirit until the book of Acts. The very first thing that Jesus instructs his followers is not simply the geographic progression of the mission of the Church, but that the power of the Holy Spirit will be the only means that through which the Church can accomplish it (Acts 1:11). Until the Holy Spirit is given on Pentecost, the Church must simply sit and wait and pray for its outpouring. When it is outpoured in Acts 2:1-4, the gift of tongues is a reversal of the old curse of languages at Babel and signifies how the Spirit will complete the mission of Jesus to restore old Israel and the greater human family. The Spirit is also the fulfillment of the prophecy announced in the OT by the prophet Joel by which God will restore a people from among “all flesh.” The Church is powerless without the Spirit. The progress of the Spirit through the Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and to the ends of the earth coincides with the progress of the word of the Church (Acts 4:28-31; 8:15-17; 10:44; 19:6). The Spirit is also a character in Acts, intervening frequently in the story guiding and moving the Church in accord with his will (Acts 8:29; 39; 10:19; 11:15; 13:2; 15:28; 16:6; 20:22; 21:4, 11). The Spirit empowers the apostles not only to perform healings in the name of Jesus but to suffer after the pattern of Jesus (Acts 5:41; 7:79; 9:16; 12:4; 14:22; 16:23; 20:19, 22-24, 35; 21:11-14).
The sending of the Holy Spirit is very closely connected to the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus as we see in Acts 2:33 and as indeed as the culmination of the words of Jesus in Acts 1:11. It can even be said that in the portrayal of Luke, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the goal of Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven; the gift of the Holy Spirit is how the saving effects of the Christ event come to be received by the Church. This is an example of NT soteriology in Luke which necessarily shifts the focus away from the cross of Christ as the means of salvation and toward Pentecost. This anticipates a more thorough treatment of soteriology to which we will return later in the course.
The sending of the Holy Spirit is also closely connected to the formation of the Church too, which is also a theological climax in the Luke-Acts narrative. One could even argue that the most important thing for Luke is not even Jesus in and of himself, but the renewed people of God that Jesus draws around himself in the narrative of Luke. This is even more the case in Acts, where the Church itself as the growing people of God continues the mission of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:10; 2; 4:31-37). Luke especially, when read together with Acts, is a much neglected Gospel of the Church—even though the word “church” is used sparingly.
The sending of the Holy Spirit is very closely connected to the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus as we see in Acts 2:33 and as indeed as the culmination of the words of Jesus in Acts 1:11. It can even be said that in the portrayal of Luke, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the goal of Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven; the gift of the Holy Spirit is how the saving effects of the Christ event come to be received by the Church. This is an example of NT soteriology in Luke which necessarily shifts the focus away from the cross of Christ as the means of salvation and toward Pentecost. This anticipates a more thorough treatment of soteriology to which we will return later in the course.
The sending of the Holy Spirit is also closely connected to the formation of the Church too, which is also a theological climax in the Luke-Acts narrative. One could even argue that the most important thing for Luke is not even Jesus in and of himself, but the renewed people of God that Jesus draws around himself in the narrative of Luke. This is even more the case in Acts, where the Church itself as the growing people of God continues the mission of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:10; 2; 4:31-37). Luke especially, when read together with Acts, is a much neglected Gospel of the Church—even though the word “church” is used sparingly.
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