"Luke’s Gospel stands apart from the others for its incompleteness—that is, only Luke has a sequel. This fact leads to several observations. In comparing the two works, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, we notice that each book begins with a story of beginnings. The Gospel of Luke records the birth of Jesus: the Book of Acts records the baptism of the Spirit. Both books begin with the fulfillment of promise. Luke asserts the fulfillment of the hopes of Israel: Acts asserts the fulfillment of the promise of the Father. Both books record the birth of a movement. Luke chronicles the early Jesus movement: Acts records its metamorphosis into the Church.
"When the two books are read as one, we see that Luke begins his story in Jerusalem and ends in Rome. He begins with the prophecy of the kingdom and ends with the preaching of the kingdom. He begins with a celebration for Israel and ends with the castigation of Israel.
"These observations prompt the following questions: How does the story of Israel become the story of the Church? How does the prediction of the kingdom become the preaching of the kingdom? Why do the promises to Israel give way to the promise of the Father? One central, critical question stands behind all of these questions: have Israel’s ancient promises been fulfilled, and, if so, how?"
This is more or less how I opened up the first part of an extensive essay on the Gospel of Luke (alas, part two, on the Acts of the Aposltes, has not yet been written).
I intend return to some of these questions here on the blog, in particular the relationship between kingdom and ekklesia (church) in Luke-Acts.
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