A Theology of Luke and Acts: Audio Lectures

23 Lessons on Major Theological Themes

By: Darrell L. Bock

Narrated by: Darrell L. Bock

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, A Theology of Luke and Acts: Audio Lectures includes high-quality live recordings of college-level lectures that cover the important points from each subject as well as relevant material from other sources.

In A Theology of Luke and Acts: Audio Lectures, top New Testament scholar Darrell L. Bock offers an in-depth study of Luke's Gospel and the book of Acts. The lessons provide a thorough exploration of the important introductory issues, major theological themes, and how each book relates to the broad picture of New Testament theology.

In his writing, Luke records the story of God working through Jesus to usher in a new era of promise and Spirit-enablement so that the people of God can be God's people even in the midst of a hostile world. It is a message the church still needs today. The lessons cover major Lukan themes and set forth the distinctive contribution of Luke-Acts to the New Testament and the canon of Scripture, providing students of the Bible with a comprehensive and holistic grasp of Lukan theology in the larger context of the Bible.

A Theology of Luke and Acts: Audio Lectures is part of the Zondervan Beyond the Basics series, which is dedicated to bringing expert teaching from the world's best biblical scholars and theologians directly to interested learners. A Theology of Luke and Acts: Audio Lectures offers the chance to learn about these important New Testament books from one of today's premier New Testament scholars.

©2015 Darrell L. Bock (P)2017 Zondervan

great overview of Luke/Acts!!!

a great overview of Luke/Acts. well done, informative, and easy to follow. the only downside was that the last lecture in the series was the second to last on the audiobook. the 'final' chapter was a duplicate lecture from earlier. otherwise great!

Lessons for today

Note that this is not a commentary and doesn’t go verse by verse. But don’t be scared away by the term “theology” thinking that it might be too deep or maybe too boring, scholarly, technical, etc. Dr. Bock is possibly the top modern day scholar of Luke’s writings (the Gospel and Acts), but he writes to anyone interested in what the Bible says. He is dealing with the major themes common to Luke’s writings (and notes that most of the New Testament was written by Luke; Paul wrote more books, but these were mostly shorter letters to churches). He begins by reminding us that Luke and Acts go together. Acts is more like volume 2 of the Gospel, with the Gospel focusing on Jesus’ ministry on earth, and Acts on the results of that ministry over the next few decades after Jesus’ ascension to heaven. They are addressed to an otherwise unknown believer named Theophilus, to explain to him why, if Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah predicted by the Jewish prophets, why was it that so many Jews had rejected him (while reminding us that there were many thousands, at least 8,000 mentioned, who did not) and why was the church becoming mostly Gentile. Luke shows that this was all a part of God’s plan and that the Jews, even as a nation, still had a role in the future. Luke focuses much on the challenges that Jesus made, and that this was the launch of a new work of God in salvation, not just for Jews, but for the world. Dr. Bock focuses much on how Luke’s writings had such a strong basis in the Old Testament, and reminds us that at the time of Christ that was the only “Testament” that we had. Luke also puts great emphasis on Christ’s teaching as radical, not as we often think of radical as meaning basically the same as a fanatic or rebel, but as a more serious challenge as to what our life should be. Followers of Christ cannot be static. Followers of Christ love the world just as God loved the world, not that they want to be like the world or popular in the world, but that they but with a sacrificial love. If the Old Testament said to love your neighbor, there are no excuses and no limits. We sometimes forget that the parable of the Good Samaritan didn’t show that a Jew should even love their enemies, those traitors, the Samaritans. It embarrassed them by showing a Samaritan that loved a Jew in spite of being an enemy. It’s very missionary focused. The good news of God’s intervention in the world to save people is for the world, not only for Abraham’s descendents. It’s a good reminder for the age in which we live, where the church is not reviled for righteousness, but for it’s indifference to the plight of the world, for its lack of care, for what seems to them to be hatred of others. It also is a good reminder that the church is not to put its faith in any political entity, but to preach the gospel (emphasis--good news, not condemnation) and to live lives that others will respect and want to emulate. 

 

Worth listening!

It helps reconstruct some of personal aproaches on both books. Thank you for making it"fluid"!

A good review

This presentation assumed too much familiarity to be an introduction but wasn't complex enough to be a deep dive. I suppose I would call it a review of the theology of Luke and Acts for those who have already read it a number of times? In any case, a good review of an important subject is always beneficial. As an aside, I noticed that a piece from earlier on was duplicated and tagged onto the end.