Luke's there

It’s in Acts 16 that Luke joins Paul’s ministry. He writes in Acts 16:10, “And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.”

Jordan explains, “This is going to be the first foray Paul makes into the European scene. Notice how the author of the book has now joined the Apostle Paul, and he didn’t join him as a neophyte; he joined him as a fellow preacher of the gospel--someone who’s already involved in the work of the ministry.

“Acts 16: 3-4 says, ‘Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.
And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.’

“This is where Timothy comes on the scene here at Derbe and Listra. Paul is adding some significant people to his ministry entourage at this point. When they get around to Troas, he meets Luke. Now the general assumption is in I Timothy, when he calls Timothy ‘my son in the faith,’ that Timothy got saved through Paul’s ministry.

“It’s a logical conclusion that Luke got saved through Paul’s ministry also because when he comes to Troas, there’s no report of any ministry there in that area outside of what Paul’s doing. The Jerusalem church wasn’t ministering there, and when Paul goes to Troas and meets some brothers already doing the work of the ministry, Luke joins him.

“You say, ‘Well, how could it happen in such few verses?’ You don’t read everything that’s happening in the Book of Luke. When you go to Acts 17 in Thessalonica, Paul is there for three Sabbath days. That’s two weeks.

“If you read I Thessalonians, it’s quite obvious he’s there much longer than two weeks. In fact, in Philippians 4 Paul says, ‘When I was at Thessalonica, you Philippians sent to me once and again.’ That’s at least two offerings. You get a map out and figure out how far it is between Philippi and Thessalonica and you can see immediately it took more than two weeks to send one offering.

“First they had to find out that he was there. They had to know where he was to send the offering. You sent that stuff by pony express and snail mail back then, not with electronic transfer like we do today. So it took some time. So there’s obviously an expanded period of time he’s there. You don’t read that in Acts because that’s not the purpose of the Book of Acts.

“When Paul goes through this great shipwreck in Acts 27 Luke is with him. And frankly, a lot of times when I think about Acts 27 and these events, when I think of him standing before Agrippa or Felix and these people, I don’t think of Luke being there, but as you read through Acts he is. And he goes with Paul going back to Rome.

“You come down through chapter 28 and he’s still there. Verse 7 says, ‘In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.’ Luke continues to go on with Paul, verse 16, ‘when we came to Rome.’ Luke’s with him!

“So this whole section from verses 20 to 28, and even on after that in II Timothy in Paul’s second imprisonment, Luke is there.

“In the Book of Acts, Paul wrote the book of Galatians (Acts 16), the two books to the Thessalonians (Acts 18), the two books of Corinthians (Acts 19 and 20) and the book of Romans (Acts 20). These are what are called the Acts Epistles. He wrote those epistles during this time period.

“When Luke was not with Paul, Paul is writing Scripture. When Luke is with him, Paul isn’t writing scripture during the Acts period. Think about the fact Luke is going to write the Book of Luke and the Book of Acts, and Paul’s going to write the Acts Epistles, and they’re not writing their books while they’re together.

“You say, ‘Well, what was Luke doing during this time period?’ I don’t know but maybe this is the time period when he went back and did the research for the Book of Luke.

*****

“Colossians 4:10 says, ‘Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)

“If you take that verse literally, what does that tell you the relationship is between Barnabas and Paul was? That means Barnabas was Paul’s brother-in-law.

"Now, the new bibles say ‘cousin,’ but then they say that about Jesus’ brothers and sisters, so we don’t put much stock in that kind of malarkey. Can you imagine what kind of Thanksgiving dinners they had before Saul got saved?! Barnabas is a Believer and he’s going to go over to his sister’s house and have Passover with them and there’s Saul. Can you imagine the witnessing that would have gone on?!

“You look at Paul in Acts 7-8, and that fury and anger and hatred that he had against Christ and His followers . . . people don’t get that kind of irrational, unreasonable conduct without a reason. When he writes in II Thessalonians to pray he would be ‘delivered from wicked and unreasonable men,’ I think Paul knew what it was to be an unreasonable person. When people are unreasonable, it’s because there’s something that’s sticking them; something bothering them; something’s got them irritated.”