Why Church Outward?
- Rev. Eric Kapur
- Jan 22, 2010
- Series: Church Outward
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The author of Acts, Luke, meant for us to read his book together with his first volume, The Gospel of Luke. At the beginning of his Gospel, Luke tells us that his two volume work represents a carefully researched account of the historical events concerning Jesus' life and ministry and the life and mission of the early church. Luke writes as a careful historian, relying on eyewitness accounts to demonstrate the reliability of the gospel message.
But Luke isn't just writing history - his writings are best classified as "Theological History". In other words, Luke is telling us the Story of God. Luke wants us to see that God is the main character in history and that, through His Son Jesus Christ, He accomplishes His mission for the world. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we see that God will not give up on his plan and purposes for humanity. He is on a mission and will not be stopped until He restores and rescues a people from every corner of the earth . Luke-Acts shows us that God is a missional God.
As we see from the ending of Luke (24:44-49), Jesus' death and resurrection are the fulfillment of all the promises and expectations of the Old Testament Story. Luke is very careful to demonstrate that Jesus is not inventing something new but bringing to fulfillment the story that began in the Garden. When the disciples minds were opened to understand the Scriptures (Lk. 24:45), they finally saw that all that was written pointed to Jesus' mission and his community of followers whom he sends to continue the work. Luke-Acts show us that the whole bible is about God's mission.
The book of Acts "has an open ending, as the work is not yet done but continues into the future. The book brings us into the present, telling us that the acts of God and the advance of God's word have a future into which we join, Those who are a part of [the church] are asked to press ahead in continuing the task" (Darrell Bock, Acts). Luke-Acts shows us that the church is a missional people.
"Luke wrote his gospel to show what Jesus began to do and to teach when he was on earth (Acts 1:1). He wrote his Acts to show what Jesus continued to do and to teach after his resurrection, through the agency of the Holy Spirit in a handful of dedicated people whose message became irresistible. God is still engaged in this dynamic enterprise" (Green, Thirty Years that Changed the World).
This dynamic enterprise is the calling of every church, every Christian. For us to truly be the church we must be a church outward.