In the Field Audio Blog Christie Richardson

Luke’s writing portrayed himself to be a literal writer. After all, he was a physician that took care of a person’s ailments while being very detailed in his work. Luke presents the setting to the reader, explaining every detail, as most people have not visited and been a part of this Jewish world. However, “[n]ow all who believed were together, and had all things common” (Acts 2:44, NKJV). Many cultures separate our lands; therefore, attention to detail is needed to introduce the reader to the early church with its “Jewishness” roots.

Acts is the second volume of Luke’s writing from the Gospel. It is the origination point from where Jesus’ disciples dispersed throughout the region and different corners of the world to spread the good news. It was at Pentecost where “[s]uddenly members of this small band of disciples were transformed people, speaking the good news of God to fellow Jewish pilgrims from around the ancient world in their own native languages.” It is the story of thousands of people converting to the Risen Savior. To be described as authentically Jewish tells the reader of one’s origin. The church’s “Jewishness” represents sacred land during a holy time. This land is the beginning and the end; therefore, it is necessary to understand the rhythm of time for worship in the temple, togetherness in community, and the breaking of the bread.

Luke depicts through his writing that the importance of the authentic Jewishness of the church, as it reflects a time of gathering “in spaces ritually marked as pure and holy to various degrees, according to nearness to the deity whose presence radiated out from the temple’s holiest innermost shrine.” It is essential for Christians to understand the Jewish roots of their faith, as this is our ancestry. As Christians, we can see ourselves in these people that worshipped God, following Jesus, and that embraced the Holy Spirit. God picked ordinary people from an ordinary country to represent humankind. Luke poetically describes the “first Christians as a community of the new age of the Kingdom of God already enjoying its benefits but not yet fully so.” The Jewish people made mistakes, and yet they were still loved by God. It is this eschatological setting of the early church that represents who we are today. We are still like the first Jews, as we wait for the final fulfillment of the Scriptures.


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Called into question is Jesus’ divinity, initially amongst His disciples, after His arrest and His crucifixion. It is “Jesus’ ‘legal’ execution, which is overturned by the resurrection with its aim bringing justice for all people.” Jesus spoke about His divinity, whereas biblical scholars identify as “[a]nother path to seeing Jesus’ divinity starts not with the idea of Jesus as the Son of God but with Jesus as the Son of Man.”

Referring to the visual interpretation of Daniel 7, it is the Son of Man, who is Jesus Christ, that rules a just and righteous kingdom replacing the beasts or the Anti-Christ. Even “Stephen’s vision in Acts 7:56 likewise portrays the Son of Man as standing at the right hand of God,” referring that Jesus is co-equal with God.

“The mediatorial kingdom is to be contrasted with the universal kingdom, the direct rule of God from heaven over all His creation.” Therefore, the last step after sanctification, reconciliation, and justification is glorification before God for humankind's deliverance from the presence of sin.

Understanding Jesus’ position as Son of Man is similar to God’s relation to humankind through Jesus’ missions. It is noted that “our understanding of the kingdom or reign of God is closely tied to Jesus' parables, and it is hard to make them cohere as a systematic set of insights.” It is the union between Christ, as the Son of Man, and God the Father that one realizes the value of John 14:6, setting a clear path to divine glorification. It is how “the human nature of Christ was assumed into essential union with the divine Person of the Word of God and has no other personal center than that of God the Son.” Divinity is perfection in Jesus; He is God in the human flesh.


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