Gospel of Luke | Craig T. Owens

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7 Bible Study Ideas From D.L. Moody

July 20, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

As I read D.L. Moody’s book Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study, I made note of several ideas that could stimulate a great Bible study. Check out my review of this book by clicking here, then check out these great study-starters:

“If you are impatient, sit down quietly and commune with Job. If you are strong-headed, read of Moses and Peter. If you are weak-kneed, look at Elijah. If there is no song in your heart, listen to David. If you are a politician, read Daniel. If you are getting sordid, read Isaiah. If you are chilly, read of the beloved disciple. If your faith is low, read Paul. If you are getting lazy, watch James. If you are losing sight of the future, read in Revelation of the promised land.” —Richard Baxter

“Every chapter [of Mark] but the first, seventh, eighth and fourteenth begins with ‘And,’ as if there was no pause in Christ’s ministry.”

“Matthew begins with Abraham; Mark with Malachi; Luke with John the Baptist; but John with God Himself. Matthew sets forth Christ as the Jew’s Messiah. Mark as the active worker. Luke as a man. John as a personal Savior.”

“[In John’s Gospel] the word repent does not occur once, but the word believe occurs ninety-eight times.”

“Dr. A. T. Pierson says: Let the introduction cover five P’s; place where written; person by whom written; people to whom written; purpose for which written; period at which written.”

“Some time ago a man wanted to take my Bible home to get a few things out of it, and when it came back I found this noted in it:

Justification, a change of state, a new standing before God.
Repentance, a change of mind, a new mind about God.
Regeneration, a change of nature, a new heart from God.
Conversion, a change of life, a new life for God.
Adoption, a change of family, new relationship towards God.
Sanctification, a change of service, separation unto God.
Glorification, a new state, a new condition with God.”

“I was wonderfully blessed by taking the seven ‘Blesseds’ of the Revelation. … Or you may take the eight ‘overcomes’ in Revelation…. I have been greatly blessed by going through the ‘believings’ of John. Every chapter but two speaks of believing. … Take the six ‘precious’ things in Peter’s Epistles. And the seven ‘walks’ of the Epistle to the Ephesians. And the five ‘much mores’ of Romans 5. Or the two ‘receiveds’ of John 1. Or the seven ‘hearts’ in Proverbs 13, and especially an eighth. Or ‘the fear of the Lord’ in Proverbs.”

“No scripture is exhausted by a single explanation. The flowers of God’s garden bloom, not only double, but seven-fold: they are continually pouring forth fresh fragrance.” —Charles Spurgeon

11 Quotes From “Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study”

July 19, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

D.L. Moody’s book Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study is a Bible study rejuvenator for both the novice and experienced reader of the Bible. You can read my full book review by clicking here. Below are some of the quotes I especially appreciated in this book.

“The more you love the Scriptures, the firmer will be your faith. There is little backsliding when people love the Scriptures.”

“I believe we should know better how to pray if we knew our Bibles better. … And if we feed on the Word, it will be so easy then to speak to others; and not only that, but we shall be growing in grace all the while, and others will take notice of our walk and conversation.”

“It is a very interesting fact that of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, it is recorded that our Lord made quotations from no less than twenty-two. … About 850 passages in the Old Testament are quoted or alluded to in the New…. In the Gospel by Matthew there are over a hundred quotations from twenty of the books in the Old Testament. In the Gospel of Mark there are fifteen quotations taken from thirteen of the books. In the Gospel of Luke there are thirty-four quotations from thirteen books. In the Gospel of John there are eleven quotations from six books. In the four Gospels alone there are more than 160 quotations from the Old Testament. … In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians there are fifty-three quotations from the Old Testament; sometimes he takes whole paragraphs from it. In Hebrews there are eighty-five quotations, in that one book of thirteen chapters. In Galatians, sixteen quotations. In the book of Revelation alone, there are 245 quotations and allusions.”

“It is very important that every Christian should not only know what the Old Testament teaches, but he should accept its truths, because it is upon this that truth is based. Peter said the Scriptures are not given for any private interpretation, and in speaking of the Scriptures, referred to the Old Testament and not to the New. … If the Old Testament Scriptures are not true, do you think Christ would have so often referred to them, and said the Scriptures must be fulfilled? When told by the tempter that He might call down the angels from heaven to interpose in His behalf, he said: ‘Thus it is written.’ Christ gave Himself up as a sacrifice that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Was it not said that He was numbered with the transgressors? And when He talked with two of His disciples by the way journeying to Emmaus, after His resurrection, did He not say: ‘Ought not these things to be? am I not to suffer?’ And beginning at Moses He explained unto them in all the Scriptures concerning Himself, for the one theme of the Old Testament is the Messiah. … Christ referred to the Scriptures and their fulfillment in Him, not only after He arose from the dead, but in the book of Revelation He used them in Heaven. He spoke to John of them on the Isle of Patmos, and used the very things in them that men are trying to cast out. He never found fault with or rejected them.”

“Prophecy is history unfulfilled, and history is prophecy fulfilled. … Between 500 and 600 hundred Old Testament prophecies have been remarkably and literally fulfilled, and 200 in regard to Jesus Christ alone. Not a thing happened to Jesus Christ that was not prophesied from 1700 to 400 years before He was born.”

“Someone has said that there are four things necessary in studying the Bible: Admit, submit, commit and transmit. First, admit its truth; second, submit to its teachings; third, commit it to memory; and fourth, transmit it. If the Christian life is a good thing for you, pass it on to some one else.”

“Application to the Word will tend to its growth within and its multiplication without.”

“We learn that Christ prayed when he was baptized, and nearly every great event in His ministry was preceded by prayer. If you want to hear from Heaven you must seek it on your knees.”

“If you want to reach people that do not agree with you, do not take a club to knock them down and then try to pick them up. When Jesus Christ dealt with the erring and the sinners, He was as tender with them as a mother is with her sick child.”

“Let us go to the Bible and see what that old Book teaches. Let us believe it, and go and act as if we believed it, too.”

“But we can not be ready if we do not study the Bible. So whenever you hear a good thing, just put it down, because if it is good for you it will be good for somebody else; and we should pass the coin of heaven around just as we do the coin of the realm.”

Money & Hammers

May 19, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Hammers are very similar to money. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at some of the things they have in common. They both…

…are tools.
…can be used to build up or destroy.
…are amoral.
…don’t have any power until they’re in a person’s hand.

I realize in church circles it can make people uncomfortable to talk about money, but it shouldn’t be that way. The Bible is very clear in saying wealth comes from God, as well as how to use that wealth, so why should that be uncomfortable? Here are some of the things the Bible says about wealth:

If we honor God, He blesses our work (Proverbs 3:9-10).
If we take the glory for our success, God calls us “foolish” (Luke 12:16-21).
Money can be used to build God’s kingdom (Acts 4:34-37) or to build our own reputations (Acts 5:1-11).
Making the pursuit of money our priority becomes an idol (Luke 16:10-13).
The anxiety over money can choke our spiritual life (Matthew 13:22).
God gives us the ability to work, to make money, and to enjoy both the work and the rewards of work (Ecclesiastes 5:19).
God alone judges our attitude toward money (Luke 16:15).

It’s not money that is immoral, but our pursuit of Money (with a capital “M” or what the Bible calls Mammon) that is immoral.

It’s not money that will ruin us, but our trust in money that will ruin us.

It’s not money that gives us a secure future, but God Who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17).

Don’t envy people with more money than you. Don’t look down on people with less money than you. Don’t—as Jesus said to the Pharisees—justify your opinions and attitudes about money.

Only an honest listening to the Holy Spirit about your attitude and lifestyle concerning money is what can keep us from letting money rob us of God’s blessing.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Timothy, amoral, anxiety, attitude, Bible, blessing, Book of Acts, counter-cultural, Ecclesiastes, God's Word, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Matthew, Holy Spirit, idolatry, immoral, Jesus Christ, lifestyle, mammon, money, proverbs, Scripture, success, tool, video, wealth. 1 Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—All Of Me

May 15, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

All Of Me

Never run away with the idea that you are a person who has a spirit, has a soul and has a body; you are a person that is spirit, soul and body. Man is one; body, soul and spirit are terms of definition. My body is the manifest “me.” Some of us are so dominated by the body that our spirit lives only in the physical domain, instead of the physical being slowly taken into the spiritual by a series of moral choices. Our spirit goes no further than we bring our body.

From Conformed To His Image

God created us as a three-part, integrated being. Quite simply, all parts are interdependent on each other.

If my body is diseased, it’s hard for me to develop my soul and spirit. If my emotions are out-of-balance, it adversely affects by body and spirit. If my spirit is still weighed down by sin, it cannot but affect my body and soul.

I love the brief description Dr. Luke gives us about how Jesus grew up: Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people (Luke 2:52). Let me state this verse differently. Jesus grew healthily…

…in wisdom (His mind)
…in stature (His physical body)
…in favor with God (His soul)
…in favor with all the people (His emotions and relationships)

Jesus showed us well-round, healthy growth. If you are diseased in your body, talk to a doctor about remedies; if you are diseased in your soul, talk to a counselor or psychologist about your emotional health; if you are diseased in your spirit, talk to God about forgiveness.

**Don’t let one part of you hold you back from being all the you God created you to be!**

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: emotional health, forgiveness, God's favor, Gospel of Luke, interdependent, Jesus Christ, mental health, Oswald Chambers, physical health, relationships, sin, wisdom. Leave a Comment »

7 Quotes From “Did Jesus Rise From The Dead?”

April 30, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Did Jesus Rise From The Dead? is an excellent apologetic for both the biblical skeptic and the biblical student. You can read my full book review by clicking here. Below are seven noteworthy quotes and one infographic from this fascinating book.

“One of the most noteworthy facts about the early Christian belief in Jesus’ resurrection was that it flourished in the very city where Jesus had been publicly crucified. So long as the inhabitants of Jerusalem thought that Jesus’ corpse lay in the tomb, few would have been prepared to believe such silliness as the claim that God had raised Jesus from the dead.”

“We have the extraordinary number of at least five independent sources for Jesus’ burial, some of which are extremely early. The Gospels describe Joseph as a rich man, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. As a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea is unlikely to be a Christian invention. The Sanhedrin was a sort of Jewish high court made up of seventy of the leading men of Judaism, which presided in Jerusalem. There was an understandable hostility among early Christians toward the Jewish Sanhe-drists, for Christians blamed the Sanhedrists for engineering a judicial murder of Jesus at the hands of the Romans. … Therefore, Jesus’ burial by Joseph is very probably historical, since it would be almost inexplicable why Christians would invent a story about a Jewish Sanhedrist who gives Jesus a proper burial.”

“Matthew is clearly working with an independent source, for he includes the story of the guard at the tomb, which is not derived from Mark and is unique to his Gospel; moreover, his comment that the rumor that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body, ‘And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day,’ (Matthew 28:15) shows that the guard is not Matthew’s own creation, but was part of prior tradition. Luke also has an independent source, for he tells the story, not found in Mark, of two disciples’ inspecting the tomb to verify the women’s report that the tomb was vacant. This story cannot be regarded as Luke’s own creation, since the incident is independently reported in John’s Gospel. And, again, given John’s independence of the other three Gospels, we have yet another independent report of the empty tomb.”

(click image for a larger view)

“To appreciate how restrained Mark’s narrative is, we need only read the account in the second-century apocryphal Gospel of Peter. It describes Jesus’ triumphant exit from the tomb as a gigantic figure whose head reaches above the clouds, supported by giant angels, followed by a talking cross, heralded by a voice from heaven, and all witnessed by a Roman guard, the Jewish leaders, and a multitude of spectators! This is how real legends look: They’re richly decorated with theological and apologetical motifs. By contrast, Mark’s account is stark in its simplicity.”

“Think about that: ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away’ [Matthew 28:13]. The Jewish authorities did not deny the fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty; instead they entangled themselves in a hopeless series of absurdities, trying to explain it away. In other words, the Jewish claim that the disciples stole the body presupposes that the body was, in fact, missing. Therefore, we have evidence from the very adversaries of the early Christian movement for the fact of the empty tomb.”

“All the followers of those first century messianic movements were fanatically committed to the cause…. But in no case right across the century before Jesus and the century after Him do we hear of any Jewish group saying that their executed leader had been raised from the dead, and he really was the Messiah after all.” —N.T. Wright

“A supernatural explanation of the empty tomb, the resurrection appearances, and the origin of the Christian faith is not contrived given the context of Jesus’ own unparalleled life, ministry, and personal claims.”

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apologetic, book review, evidence, Gospel of John, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Matthew, Jerusalem, Jesus Christ, Judaism, N.T. Wright, New Testament, Pharisees, quotes, resurrection, Sanhedrin, William Lane Craig. Leave a Comment »

Healed Healer

April 7, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Martha has gotten a bad rap throughout history. So many people jump on her for buzzing around her home trying to make sure Jesus, His disciples, and all of the other guests were taken care of. She was attempting to be a good hostess.

But let’s read her story again carefully (see Luke 10:38-42). Notice first of all that Martha “opened her home” to Jesus. She took the responsibility for making sure Jesus felt welcomed in her home.

Next notice how Jesus addressed Martha. He said “Martha, Martha.” There are no unnecessary words in the Scripture, so His repeating her name is significant. Jesus alone speaks like this in all of the New Testament: only He repeats someone’s name to make sure He has their undivided attention—

Simon, Simon (Luke 22:31) when warning him that satan is after him.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem (Luke 13:34) to the people who could be helped by Him.
My God, My God (Matthew 27:46) to His Father from the Cross.
Saul, Saul (Acts 9:4) to the young zealot who was persecuting Christ.

Jesus was not scolding Martha, but He was trying to get her attention. Jesus told her she was “worried and upset about many things.” By contrast Mary was focused on one thing: soaking up Christ’s words. It’s hard to be hospitable when you’re doing it in your own strength. It’s hard to be a healer when you need healing yourself.

In an amazing turnaround, Jesus became the Host. He wanted Martha to see that having a relationship with Him is THE priority. Everything else flows from that.

It’s not coincidental that both hospitality and hospital come from the same root word meaning a place of healing.

You are HEALED when you make Christ at home in your heart.
You are a HEALER when your heart makes others feel at home.

This is the essence of being God-oriented and then people-focused. This is when YOU can be a healed healer!

Think about this: What does it mean to you to make Jesus at home in your heart? What’s stopping you from receiving His healing today? It’s only after you’ve been healed that you can bring healing to others.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Gospel of Luke, healer, healing, hospitality, Jesus Christ, Martha, priority. Leave a Comment »

God-Oriented & People-Focused

March 31, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

You can spin it around, roll it down the stairs, throw it high in the air, and still it isn’t phased one bit. It doesn’t matter if you’re moving fast or slow, if you’re at high altitudes or in Death Valley, it still works. The needle of the compass always points north.

It can’t help it: it is naturally oriented to the north pole. Whether it’s pitch-black outside, or 40 degrees below zero; whether you feel like north is “north” or not, the needle will always point its way back to north.

Jesus could be cheered by the crowds or jeered by them. People could shout “Hosanna!” or “Crucify Him!” The weather could be calm or stormy, His disciples could be courageous or scared to death, and still Jesus was oriented to His Father.

Every word Jesus said, every action He undertook, every lesson He taught, every prayer He prayed was God-oriented.

But not only that, even as much as people ridiculed Him, snubbed Him, rejected Him, or denied Him, Jesus was still people-focused. After being so cruelly treated, I think I may have turned from some people, or even turned on some people with some not-so-kind words. I may have even begun to withdraw from people. But despite the way people mistreated Him, Jesus remained lovingly people-focused (see 1 Peter 2:21-23).

Jesus us told us that if we stand for Him, we will be mistreated as well (see Luke 21:17 and John 15:20). But He also told us there was a reward for that mistreatment (see Matthew 5:11-12).

When asked what the greatest of all the commandments was, Jesus replied that it was to be God-focused and people-oriented—

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

So a good check-up question for us all: How am I doing at being God-oriented and people-focused, no matter what the circumstances are?

UPDATE: I explore the example of how Jesus responded to His critics in a couple of chapters of my book When Sheep Bite.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Peter, criticism, God's love, God-oriented, Gospel of John, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Matthew, Great Commandment, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, love, neighbor, people-focused, persecution, relationships, When Sheep Bite. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—The Power To Descend

February 13, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

The Power To Descend

The test of spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only, there is something wrong. … Spiritual selfishness makes us want to stay on the mount; we feel so good, as if we could do anything—talk like angels and live like angels, if only we could stay there. But there must be the power to descend; the mountain is not the place for us live, we were built for the valleys. …

The reason we have to live in the valley is that the majority of people live there, and if we are to be of use to God in the world we must be useful from God’s standpoint, not from our own standpoint or the standpoint of other people.

From The Love Of God

When Peter, James and John were with Jesus on the mountain and He was transfigured in their presence, Peter said, “Lord, let me build some shelters so we can stay here always!” (see Luke 9:28-36). But there was no one on the mountaintop, except for them. In the valley below was a demon-possessed boy who needed help (Luke 9:37-43). If they had stayed on that mountain, this boy would not have been helped.

On the day of Pentecost, the followers of Jesus were on the “mountaintop” of an upper room when the Holy Spirit baptized them (Acts 2:1-4). It was an amazing experience, probably very similar to what those apostles had seen with Jesus. It would have been very tempting to stay there, basking in the presence of God. But Jesus had said that this baptism in the Holy Spirit was to empower them for the “valley” of service (Acts 1:8). There were people in valleys all over the world who needed the good news of Jesus.

Mountaintops with God are great. God gives us these experiences so that we can be of greater service for Him in the valleys. The people are in the valleys and they need what you and I have received from God. Enjoy the mountaintop experience with God and then go quickly to minister in the valleys!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apostle Peter, Christian, God's power, Gospel of Luke, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, minister, Oswald Chambers, Pentecost, selfishness, usefulness. Leave a Comment »

14 Quotes From “Pentecost”

February 5, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Pentecost

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Pentecost by Robert P. Menzies, and learned quite a bit. You can read my full book review by clicking here. Here are a few quotes that stood out to me.

“It’s because Pentecostals fuse the biblical and contemporary horizons that we link baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, since that’s what Acts 2 does. It’s why we associate Spirit-baptism with empowerment for mission rather than with spiritual regeneration. And it’s why we expect God to perform ‘signs and wonders’ and to manifest spiritual gifts in worship services. All these things happened in the first Pentecostal community, and their story is our story.”

“At its heart, the Pentecostal movement is not Spirit-centered but Christ-centered. The work of the Spirit, as Pentecostals understand it, centers on exalting and bearing witness to the Lordship of Christ.”

“Pentecostals are ‘people of the Book.’ Although Pentecostals certainly encourage spiritual experience, they do so with a constant eye to Scripture.”

“So, the stories of Acts are our stories, and we read them with expectation and eagerness: stories of the Holy Spirit’s power, enabling ordinary disciples to do extraordinary things for God. … The hermeneutic of the typical Pentecostal believer is straightforward and simple: the stories in Acts are my stories—stories that were written to serve as models for shaping my life and experience.”

“In Luke’s view, every member of the church is called (Luke 24:45–49; Acts 1:4–8/Isaiah 49:6) and empowered (Acts 2:17–21; cf. 4:31) to be a prophet. Far from being unique and unrepeatable, Luke emphasizes that the prophetic enabling experienced by the disciples at Pentecost is available to all of God’s people. … Through his two-volume work, Luke declares that the church, by virtue of its reception of the Pentecostal gift, is nothing less than a community of prophets. It matters not whether we are young or old, male or female, rich or poor, black or white; the Spirit of Pentecost comes to enable every member of the church, each one of us, to fulfill our prophetic call to be a light to the nations.”

“Not long ago a Chinese house church leader commented, ‘When Western Christians read the book of Acts, they see in it inspiring stories; when Chinese believers read the book of Acts, we see in it our lives.’”

“Luke’s theology of the Spirit is different from that of Paul. Unlike Paul, who frequently speaks of the soteriological dimension of the Spirit’s work, Luke consistently portrays the Spirit as a charismatic or, more precisely, a prophetic gift, the source of power for service.”

“Luke crafts his narrative so that the parallels between Jesus’ experience of the Spirit (Luke 3–4) and that of the disciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1–2) cannot be missed. Both accounts: 1. Are placed at the outset of Luke’s Gospel on the one hand, and the book of Acts on the other; 2. Associate the reception of the Spirit with prayer; 3. Record visible and audible manifestations; 4. Offer explanations of the event in the form of a sermon that alludes to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.”

“Luke’s understanding of baptism in the Holy Spirit, I have argued, is different from that of Paul. It is missiological rather than soteriological in nature. … The tendency in Protestant churches has been to read Luke in the light of Paul. Paul addresses pastoral concerns in the church; Luke writes a missionary manifesto.”

“Bold witness for Jesus is recognized as our primary calling and the central purpose of our experience of the Spirit’s power. Missions is woven into the fabric of our DNA.”

“I do not wish to minimize in any way the significance of the great doctrinal truths of Paul’s writings. I merely point out that since Paul was, for the most part, addressing specific needs in various churches, his writings tend to feature the inner life of the Christian community. His writings, with some significant exceptions, do not focus on the mission of the church to the world. … It is probably fair to say that while Paul features the ‘interior’ work of the Spirit (e.g., the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. 5:22–23); Luke features His ‘expressive’ work (Acts 1:8). Thus, by appropriating in a unique way the significant contributions of Luke-Acts, Pentecostals have developed a piety with a uniquely outward or missiological thrust.”

“The clarity of the Pentecostal message flows from the simple, straightforward manner in which we read the Bible. As I have noted, Pentecostals love the stories of the Bible. We identify with the stories that fill the pages of the Gospels and Acts, and the lessons gleaned from these stories are easily grasped and applied in our lives. For Pentecostals, the New Testament presents models that are to be emulated and guidelines that are to be followed. It should be noted that our approach to doing theology is not dependent on mastering a particular set of writings, say, the works of Luther; or coming to terms with a highly complex theological system. Pentecostals also do not worry much about cultural distance or theological diversity within the canon. We do not lose sleep over how we should understand the miracle stories of the Bible or how we might resolve apparent contradictions in the Bible. Our commitment to the Bible as the Word of God enables us to face these questions with a sense of confidence.”

“We must remember that whatever we do, God is measuring the work we do for Him in a qualitative, not quantitative way. … Only the work which is done by the power of the Holy Spirit can be acceptable in the Kingdom of God.” —David Yonggi Cho

“Some will still remain skeptical. They will ask: Is not this approach to church life, with its emphasis on ecstatic experience, emotional response, and spiritual power, filled with inherent dangers? Might it not encourage us to feature emotionally manipulative methods and to focus on superficial matters? Yes, undoubtedly, there are dangers. However, there is more danger in an approach that fails to make room for the full range of human experience, including the emotions, in our encounter with God.”

Pentecost (book review)

February 4, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

I grew up with this stuff: I’m a fourth-generation Pentecostal, so I cut my teeth on this distinctive doctrine. But I was still amazed at the depth of insight into this dynamic theology that Dr. Robert Menzies shares in Pentecost: This Story Is Our Story.

Although Dr. Menzies shares a number of anecdotal stories to help illustrate certain points, this book is really a serious doctrinal work. Many people have written-off the operational gifts of the Holy Spirit seen in the book of Acts as something that ceased at the death of the apostles, or at the closing of the cannon of Scripture. But Dr. Menzies points out from the outset that Luke’s writings in the Gospel that bears his name and in the book of Acts are not just historical, but doctrinal too.

Many times people look at Paul’s writings as doctrinal, and the four Gospels and Acts as simply historical; thus giving more “weight” to the Pauline epistles. Dr. Menzies persuasively shows that Luke’s writing in Luke-Acts is just as doctrinal, and just as Holy Spirit-inspired, as every other book of the New Testament. In fact, he really goes beyond that to show how Luke’s writing is heavily influenced by Old Testament prophesies about the coming of the Messiah and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

This is not a sensational book, but a scholarly work. It is extensively referenced, as evidenced by the ample endnotes. But don’t let this scare you off as a book just for pastors and theologians, as Dr. Menzies’ writing style is very readable by all.

Anyone who is interested in this distinctive doctrine of the Holy Spirit should read Pentecost.