No. 10. >> So the evangelist Luke traveled with Paul during his second and third missionary journeys. I wonder what their personal friendship was like. Who is Luke and what was his relationship with Paul? And how did their relationship affect the writing of the third Gospel and the Book of Acts? >>DR. ARTHUR A. JUST, JR.: Thank you, Josh, for that question. Because this is a very important one if we're going to really get a handle on the history of the early church. And here I want to back up and talk about Paul's influence on the writing of the gospels. Now, there are probably many even within our own church who may disagree with the dating that I have of the gospels but I believe very strongly and I know I have a number of colleagues that do -- and this is the ancient point of view, by the way, this is the point of view of the tradition of the church up until the 19th Century. That Matthew was the first Gospel. That makes a lot of sense to me. Because Matthew is a very Jewish gospel. And I think the gospels were written according to the mission of the church. Matthew's gospel was written during the early period because the Jewish mission was dominant. And then later after the missionary journeys of Paul, Mark and Luke who are clearly more addressed to the Gentiles become the gospels to address the new church now that is composed of Jews and Gentiles. I mentioned before that Paul was in prison in Caesarea Maritima. You can see that on the map. It's on the West Coast there just north of Jerusalem. He was in prison there for two years. And we know that Mark and Luke were with him during those two years or at least part of it. Now, there's a theory by Bo Reicke in "The Roots of the Synoptic Gospels," a wonderful New Testament scholar. Sainted. From Sweden. Is a good friend, doctoral father of my good colleague, Dr. William ***Winerick. Bo Reicke had an interesting theory. And it makes a lot of sense if you read the New Testament carefully. And that is during those two years from 58 to 60 when Paul was in prison in Caesarea Maritima, he sat down with Mark and Luke and they decided what their two gospels were going to look like. Now, Luke, as a traveling companion with Paul -- and I'll talk about this more in a minute -- was clearly the one to write a Gospel that represented the Pauline perspective. And not only did he write a Gospel, he also wrote the Book of Acts. So you can see not only a book about Jesus but a book about the church which is Jesus who has become a people as I mentioned before. Mark, of course, is always the one thought to be the one who represented Peter. So with Luke and Mark, the two gospels, you get the represented the two great apostles, Paul and Peter. Now, it's during the second missionary journey that we have as we read the Book of Acts what are called the �we sections�. Where Luke now starts talking in the first person plural because he's clearly part of the traveling entourage with Paul. And it is in the second missionary journey, this would be in Acts 16 verses 10 to 17 in probably the year AD 51 where Paul has the Macedonian vision. And all of a sudden you hear Luke beginning to speak in the we section. They go over from Troas, which is in the western part of Asia Minor. They go across water there to Macedonia. And Luke is with him during that Macedonian ministry in northern Greece there. Now, if you read the Book of Acts, you'll see that Paul really in a sense gets into a bit of trouble there and needs to move quickly and he moves south to Athens and then to Corinth. And when he does move south from Macedonia, the we sections stop. That Luke seems to have left him there in Macedonia. Or better said, that Paul leaves Luke in Macedonia. Now, I happen to think that Luke is somebody who is probably a Jew or a Jewish member of what we call the Diaspora. Perhaps he is a God fearer. But he clearly was involved in Jewish things. And tradition tells us he's probably from Greece. In fact, many of the early Christian fathers thought he was from Thebes which is in the center of Greece. Today, in fact, it only happened a few years ago, the Roman Catholic Church sent his bones back to Thebes. So there's a place there that you can go and actually see where the bones of St. Luke are probably buried. And the carbon dating indicate that these are certainly bones from the First Century. Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. But what it does tell us is Luke is probably a Greek from Greece. Now, there have been other theories, as well, but I think what happened is during that second missionary journey, Paul left Luke behind to be the pastor in Macedonia, particularly Philippi. Now, if you read Philippians very carefully you'll see it is the church of all of the churches that Paul founded that remained faithful to him. It was the church that he loved the most. And in fact I'm going to argue that Philippians is the last letter that Paul writes from prison in Rome. And it is one of the most extraordinary letters of an apostle who is writing a congregation that is generous, that is loving and that really embodies the Gospel. Now, why is that? Well, I think one explanation might be that for a period of about six or seven years, they had a pastor whose name was Luke. Because if you read again the Book of Acts, seven years later in the year 58, in Acts 20 and 21 during the third missionary journey, as Paul is going now north in Greece from Corinth up into Macedonia, the we sections start again and then continue all the way to the journey to Rome. During that time, Luke linked up with Paul in Macedonia and traveled with him to Jerusalem. Now, where was Luke for those seven years? Isn't it interesting that Paul leaves him in Macedonia and picks him up in Macedonia? I think that Luke is the one who was the pastor there. And he essentially was learning the Gospel and how the Gospel is giving birth to Christians in a Gentile community as pastor of a congregation. In other words, what he was doing was showing how Paul's theology of justification of grace by faith grows a congregation. Now, this is significant because when Luke writes his Gospel, he dedicates it to a man by the name of Theophilus. I believe that this man is a literary patron and he's from the church of Philippi. And as Paul and Luke travel to Jerusalem and then to Caesarea Maritima, it becomes clear to them as well as to Mark that it's time for a Gospel for the Gentiles. Luke at least has a literary patron to help pave the way. And he also dedicates a Acts to him so he was also a literary patron for Acts. But the point of this is that when we read the Book of Acts, and when we read the Gospel of Luke, we should look for Paul. Because Paul is in a sense being represented there by Luke. Let me say one more thing about Luke and if you haven't discovered this already one of my areas of expertise is the Gospel of Luke and Acts. And one of the things I want to say about Luke is I think he was a lot like Barnabas. I think Luke was the kind of man who could help Paul be interpreted by people who may not fully recognize his genius, his passion, his courage and his bluntness. So that Luke is somebody that is able to interpret Paul for the church. And so when we talk about Luke and Paul, it's very important to recognize that a third of the New Testament, which is really what Luke and Acts comprise, is written by somebody who is deeply committed to the Apostle Paul, was a fellow traveler with him and was perhaps a pastor representing Paul in the church in Philippi.