Luke and Acts form a two-part book, each revealing what Jesus accomplished among the first-century followers of Jesus. The Gospel of Luke focuses on what Jesus began to do before His ascension; Acts focuses on what Jesus continued to do after His ascension through the Church and ends with the proclamation of the gospel in Rome. 

This two-part book written by Luke makes up 25 percent of the New Testament. The size of the combined accounts makes the author the chief contributor to the New Testament. Luke and Acts form a body of work larger than the combined writings of the Apostle Paul.

Purpose 

No doubt the book was written to Theophilus, a man about whose identity we can only make guesses. His name means “Lover of God,” so some assume the book was written to all “lovers of God,” but this is unlikely. 

Theophilus, being “most excellent” by title, was a new believer of equestrian rank (only the senatorial order was of higher status), who had some deep interest in the life of Jesus and His activity among His followers. 

Many believe Theophilus funded Luke's Gospel project, allowing him to investigate and gather research for the two-part book. Others also speculate that he was the lawyer from Antioch who defended Paul before Caesar, so Luke could have been gathering material concerning Jesus' life and ongoing ministry to give Theophilus as Paul’s defense attorney, and the two-part book resulted from his research.  

Luke's defense of Paul in this two-part book gave evidence of “The Way” regarding three matters:

• Christianity had its origin in Judaism.

• Christianity was thus a recognized legal religion of Rome.

• Christianity was not seditious or subversive, thus it was not seeking to overthrow Rome militarily or to rule through earthly power.

As presented by Luke, the Christian faith was, in fact, a harmless, innocent, and lawful religion.

No doubt Luke was gathering information when Paul was in prison in Caesarea (24:27), probably between 60 and 62 A.D., as he was free to travel to Jerusalem, visit the sites, and interview eyewitnesses. 

The Goals of the Gospel of Luke

Luke’s Gospel, along with Acts, accomplishes three goals:

• Theological - revealing God's salvation

• Historical - revealing the history of Jesus and His Church

• Judicial - providing a defense for Paul

Regarding salvation, Luke provides three pieces of evidence of how it was:

• promised

• given through Christ

• offered to all people, beginning first with the Jews by Jesus and His disciples, then through Christ's apostles and the Church

Author

While the two-part book carries no immediate autograph from Luke, it is church tradition and internal evidence that point to Luke as the clear author. 

Regarding church tradition, the early church fathers proclaimed Luke to be the author. Luke was not an eyewitness, nor did he physically follow Jesus. He was a Gentile and likely a personal physician and traveling companion to the apostle Paul. The early fathers would have had ample reason to want the book written by an eyewitness who followed Jesus. Thus, the fact that they attribute the work to Luke affirms the truth of authorship.

The internal evidence within the two-part book is overwhelming. The book describes the writer as not being an eyewitness (1:2), removing the possibility of any of the Lord's apostles. In Acts, we find the “we” passages, referring to Paul and Luke, offering the largest clue as to the identity of the author (Acts 16:10-17; 20:5-16; 21:1-18; and 27:1-28:16). Scholars have accepted that Paul wrote Philemon, Colossians, and the Pastoral Epistles during his house arrest in that city. In studying those letters for references of people with Paul at that time, they developed a list of possible authors for Luke and Acts. In 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul writes, “Only Luke is with me,” making him the most likely person to have written Luke-Acts. 

Outline

Prologue (1:1-4)

The Infancy of the Son of Man (1:5-2:52)

The Preparation of the Son of Man for Public Ministry (3:1-4:13)

The Son of Man’s Galilean Ministry (4:14-9:50)

The Son of Man’s Journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27)

The Son of Man’s Jerusalem Ministry (19:28-21:38)

The Death and Resurrection of the Son of Man (22:1-24:53)