Resurrection and Spirit

From the Pentateuch to Luke-Acts

Brian W. Lidbeck

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781725267039
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Systematic Theology & Ethics

The preachers in Acts are Spirit-filled people who have one message to proclaim: the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The themes of resurrection and Spirit converge at Pentecost when Peter boldly announces that the risen Christ has poured out the Holy Spirit. A new stage in redemptive history has arrived, but is it entirely new?As it turns out, the concept of resurrection is not new at all--it goes back much farther than many people realize and has its roots in the Pentateuch. At the same time, the Holy Spirit has advanced God's agenda from the very beginning. When these two eschatological themes meet on the lips of Peter at Pentecost, thousands suddenly realize who Jesus is. They acknowledge Luke's central teaching: Jesus is Lord and Christ. Resurrection and Spirit traces these two Lukan themes from the Pentateuch to Luke-Acts and invites the reader to discover a new depth of appreciation for Jesus, the Lord and Christ.

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Introduction

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between two of Luke’s most prominent themes in his gospel and Acts: the resurrection and the Spirit. By studying the two themes together and drawing heavily from the Hebrew Scriptures that Luke uses as his foundational source, one sees Luke’s theology more holistically, gains fresh insights into his pneumatological interests, and better understands his perspective on the resurrection of Christ. This approach can then serve as a basis for additional study and comparison with Paul’s complementary teaching on these subjects.

The thesis of the following study is that (1) Luke frames his two volumes in an eschatological context in keeping with the perspective of the Hebrew Scriptures, and this context provides a point of intersection for resurrection and Spirit; (2) he views the Spirit as the divine agent who advances God’s plan through creative and charismatic acts, but especially by anointing a Messiah in fulfillment of an Old Testament leadership and Davidic pattern; (3) the concept of resurrection has roots in the Pentateuch, and the resurrection of the anointed one is a fulfillment of Scripture, a reversal, and a royal exaltation; (4) the Spirit anoints Messiah’s followers to proclaim the message of his resurrection and reign to all nations; (5) the themes of resurrection and Spirit intersect in identifying Jesus in accordance with Luke’s central point that Jesus is Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36); and (6) the themes of resurrection and Spirit converge in the Pentecostal narrative, for it is through the resurrection as part of the complex of exaltation events that Christ’s divine status becomes evident and that he exercises the divine prerogative of pouring out the Spirit.

The primary notion that Christ’s resurrection and the Spirit both serve Luke’s purpose in glorifying Jesus as Lord and Christ relativizes other significant themes. Thus, important emphases such as prophetic inspiration receive attention as the means by which the Spirit advances God’s plan, but prophetic inspiration and charismatic events are viewed as means to an end and not as ends in themselves. Likewise, this study acknowledges Luke’s use of cultic images in relation to Pentecost but emphasizes how Luke uses such images to focus on Christ. Luke employs temple and priestly images in order to point to the exalted status of Christ and does not necessarily use them in the same way that Paul does.

The Reason for Resurrection and Spirit

Even the mention of the Holy Spirit in a study on Luke-Acts could immediately call into question the need for yet another journey on this well-trodden path. The Spirit in Luke-Acts has received an outpouring of scholarly attention for several decades and is recognized by all as a major theme in Acts. The abundance of references to the Spirit (there are about seventeen direct references to the “Spirit” [πνεῦμα] in Luke’s gospel and fifty-seven in Acts) demonstrates Luke’s obvious interest in the topic.1 Martin Mittelstadt has chronicled much of the history of the debate over Lukan pneumatology in his work Reading Luke-Acts in the Pentecostal Tradition. He notes the surprise of François Bovon that not only have Lukan studies not ceased, but that Lukan theology has advanced, in part due to the arrival of Pentecostal theologians.2 Yet, while the breadth of Lukan studies has expanded tremendously, the debate over a proper Lukan pneumatology still rages, and the existence of that continued debate is evidence that there is still room for greater clarity and more work.3

One might assume that a subject as prominent as the resurrection would have been studied exhaustively in Luke-Acts by now. After all, Luke directly mentions the subject with his typical resurrection terminology sixty-two times.4 References to resurrection in general include four resuscitations apart from Easter (Luke 7:11–17; 8:49–56; Acts 9:40–41; 20:9–10), discussions with the Sadducees (Luke 20:27–37; Acts 23:8), mention of the final resurrection (Luke 14:14; Acts 24:15), and a figurative resurrection (Luke 15:32). Jesus’s resurrection is foreshadowed in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:31) and is reflected via a double entendre in the raising up of a paralyzed man (Acts 3:6–7). Use of “the Name” of Jesus implies his resurrection (e.g., Acts 3:6, 16; 4:7, 10, 12, 30; 5:29, 40), and the title “Lord” implies his resurrection and exaltation (Acts 2:36; 4:33). Also, the “word” of the Lord became closely associated with Christ’s resurrection and the complex of saving events early in Acts (2:22, 40, 41; 4:29, 33). Not only the pre-ascension appearances (Luke 24; Acts 1:1–11) but also the post-ascension appearances of Jesus testify to his resurrection (Acts 7:56; 9:3–16; 10:13–15; 18:9–10; 23:11).5

Yet Lukan studies have by no means exhausted Luke’s teaching on resurrection. The standard Lukan commentaries and theologies address resurrection in Luke-Acts, but “a perusal of the vast array of research on Luke-Acts reveals a startling lacuna: not one monograph has been devoted to the subject of the resurrection in Luke-Acts as a whole, and relatively few essays have been devoted to the subject.”6 Kevin Anderson’s “But God Raised Him from the Dead” has gone a long way in filling that lacuna, but there is still room for further study.

Even a cursory reading of Luke-Acts reveals the prominence that Luke gives to resurrection (especially the resurrection of Christ) and to the Holy Spirit. Due in part to the influence of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, a host of books on the Spirit and, particularly, on the Spirit in Luke-Acts have flooded the market. Such specialized studies have their place, but there is a danger in isolating a single Lukan theme from his larger purposes, other emphases, and the broader biblical story. Some authors have noticed this danger and made an attempt to establish their pneumatology on a stronger, broader biblical footing or have expanded the study of pneumatology by examining it in relation to other subjects. Roger Stronstad sought to demonstrate the Old Testament roots of Lukan pneumatology; the subtitle of the second edition of his book emphasizes this: The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke: Trajectories from the Old Testament to Luke-Acts.7 Martin Mittelstadt studied Lukan pneumatology in light of Luke’s suffering theme,8 and Youngmo Cho endeavored to shed light on the uniqueness of Luke’s pneumatology by examining the themes of Spirit and kingdom and comparing Luke’s handling of these themes to Paul’s treatment of them.9

Despite the advances, however, a need still exists for a more thoroughly christocentric Lukan pneumatology. Studying the themes of resurrection and Spirit in tandem results in a more christologically oriented pneumatology. Luke helps his audience understand that the Spirit is the divine agent who advances the plan of God by anointing the Messiah to proclaim...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: The Spirit, Creation, and Luke-Acts
• Chapter 3: The Spirit, Prophecy, and Luke-Acts
• Chapter 4: From Death and Barrenness to the Resurrected King
• Chapter 5: Beyond Grave Expectations
• Chapter 6: The Center of Luke-Acts
• Chapter 7: The Resurrection and the Spirit as Identifiers of the Lord Jesus Christ
• Chapter 8: Resurrection and Spirit
• Chapter 9: Conclusion
• Bibliography