1. For the first word was done about all, about Theophilus, which Jesus began to do and teach, even to the day, in the same commandment of the Apostle the Holy Spirit, whom He chosen, ascended.

"The first book I have written to you, Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day on which he ascended, giving commandments by the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen."

The first word or the first book: by this word or book, the Holy Apostle Luke means his Gospel, or evangelism. St. Luke, out of humility, does not call his book the Gospel, but the Apostle Paul calls his book so, speaking of St. Luke: "His praise is in the Gospel in all the churches" (2 Corinthians 8:28). What did St. Luke write his first book to Theophilus about?

For all whom Jesus began to do and teach unto the day, in which He ascended; all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning to the day on which he ascended. This is how the Apostle Luke shows the content of his Gospel. He says: about everything that Jesus did and taught: this does not mean that the Gospel of Luke embraces all the works and all the teaching of Jesus Christ. This is impossible, as the Evangelist John testifies: "If it were written by one, neither can I myself contain the books of the whole world that are written" (John 21:25). St. Chrysostom remarks: "How, you say, does Luke speak about everything? But he did not say everything, but about everyone, and this means the same thing that is generally and abbreviated: or in other words: he speaks about everything that is especially important and necessary." The Apostle reminds us of this so that Theophilus, when he begins to read the new book, which Luke now begins, would remember the contents of the first book, or Gospel, and thus better understand the power and importance of this second book.

As Jesus began, do and teach. Jesus Christ, as a good shepherd, first did, then taught. He said: "Whosoever shall do and teach, this great shall be called in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19). Jesus Christ began to act from the time when He, the Son of God, took on our human nature with all its weaknesses, except sin. His Divine incarnation is the greatest work of God's goodness to the human race; His circumcision, bringing him to the temple of Jerusalem, to be presented before the Lord (Luke 2:22); His flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth, his growth in obedience to his parents (Matthew 2:13, 23), his journey with them to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover (Luke 2:42, 52); baptism by John on the Jordan, forty-day fasting in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1, 2); all these are works of God's love for mankind, which the Lord the Savior accomplished before He began to teach about the Kingdom of God. When Jesus Christ began to preach the Gospel, He revealed in Himself the most perfect example of a righteous man, so that no one could convict Him of any sin (John 8:46). Jesus Christ is the most perfect example of true pastors and teachers: every pastor and teacher must first do, then teach; "For there is nothing," says Chrysostom, "more useless than a teacher who is inquisitive only — this is characteristic not of a teacher, but of a hypocrite. For this reason the Apostles first taught by life, and then by words."

2. Even unto the day, in the same commandment of the Apostle the Holy Spirit, whom He chose, ascended.

Here St. Luke shows the limit to the works of the Lord Jesus, described by him in his first book, i.e. in the Gospel. This is the Lord's ascension to heaven. That is, the Gospel of Luke speaks of everything that Jesus Christ did and taught, from the beginning, or from His appearance on earth, "until the day in which He ascended into heaven, having given by the Holy Spirit commandments to the Apostles whom He had chosen."

The Holy Spirit filled the human nature of the Lord Jesus, as it was foretold by the Prophet: "Thou hast anointed Thee, O God, thy God with the oil of joy, more than Thy partaker (Psalm 44:8); or, as the Lord Himself, through the Prophet, said of Himself: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, His anointing is Me, to preach good tidings to the poor of My ambassador" (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18); The Spirit of the Lord worked in the perception of our humanity by the Son of God (Luke 1:31). The Spirit of God descended upon Jesus Christ during His baptism on the Jordan, in the form of a dove, and filled with the Holy Spirit, He returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke 4:1). All the works and miracles that He performed, He did by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:28). Of His Divine teaching the Lord says: "The Spirit is, which quickens, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words which I have spoken unto you, are the spirit, and the life is the essence" (John 6:63). And to His chosen disciples and Apostles, Jesus Christ repeatedly promised to send down the Holy Spirit from the Father. He said: "But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and will bring all things to your remembrance (John 14:26), and when the Comforter comes, I will send Him to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He bears witness of Me (15:26). And when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth: for thou shalt not speak of thyself, but if he heareth, thou shalt speak, and that which is to come shall declare unto you. He will glorify Thee, as He will receive Thee from Mine, and He will make it known to you (16:13, 14).

Now, proceeding to depict the Lord's promise to send down the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, St.

Spirit.

3. And before them set thyself alive after thy suffering, in many true signs, appearing to them for forty days, and saying, concerning the kingdom of God.

Having said that the Lord ascended into heaven, having given commands by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom He had chosen, St. Luke turns the word to that extraordinary event which serves as the basis of all the subsequent great events of which he speaks further, such as: the Lord's ascension into heaven, the sending down of the Holy Spirit, the worldwide preaching of the Gospel through the Apostles and their successors, the innumerable miracles in the natural and moral worlds, perfect and accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit. In view of the great importance of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, the Apostle again recalls this truth as indubitable, confirmed by irrefutable proofs. To whom, he says, He also manifested Himself alive, after His suffering, with many sure proofs, in the course of forty days, appearing to them and speaking of the kingdom of God. And before them Thou shalt make thyself alive after Thy suffering. After His suffering on the cross, Jesus Christ died and was buried; but on the third day He rose again, and revealed Himself to be resurrected or alive before the Apostles.

And His resurrection from the dead, or the fact that after death He became alive again, He testified with many true proofs, such as: His repeated appearances among His disciples, His conversations with them; He showed them His hands and feet with sores, and His side pierced (John 20:20). He allowed them to feel Himself and said: "See My hands and My nose, as I Myself am: touch Me, and see, that the spirit hath not flesh and bone, as ye see Me possessing" (Luke 24:39). And when they were still not believing for joy and were amazed, He said to them, "Do you have anything to eat here?" "They gave Him some of the baked fish and honeycomb. And he took it, and ate before them" (vv. 41-43). Thus the Lord appeared to His disciples many times, over the course of forty days, in order to assure them the more perfectly of the truth of His resurrection and to instruct them in the mysteries of salvation. And he spoke, concerning the kingdom of God. The conversation of Jesus Christ with His disciples even after His resurrection from the dead was similar to that which He had with them before His suffering and death. He conversed with them not about earthly things, but about spiritual truths, about how one must save one's soul and attain the kingdom of heaven. By the kingdom of God we must understand both the eternal kingdom of glory, which is in heaven, and the grace-filled kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is spread and established on earth through the preaching of the Gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ. We can confidently assume that Jesus Christ, preparing His chosen disciples for their apostolic ministry, conversed with them primarily about this grace-filled kingdom of God, about the spread and improvement of the Church of Christ, about the establishment and celebration of the grace-filled sacraments, about overcoming the upcoming difficulties in the feats of apostolic ministry, and the like. Of these instructions of the Lord, some have been preserved for us in the Apostolic Epistles, and others in the Holy Tradition of the Holy Ecumenical and Apostolic Church (Bes. on Sunday and Feast from the Apostle, Part I, p. 1).

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