The Work of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts

he Spirit, in the New Testament writings, is first and foremost the empowering presence and activity of God amongst and alongside his people. But the various writers each give their own distinctive interest and emphases to pneumatology. Luke devotes particular attention to the topic, with some twenty references to the Spirit in the Gospel (compare with just six in Mark; twelve in Matthew), and a further sixty in Acts. The Spirit is a major uniting theme within his double-volumed work, indeed nothing less than the driving force of the “salvation history” and mission that Luke describes. In Luke 1-2, the Spirit brings about the birth of the Messiah who is to redeem Israel (1:32-35), affords prophecies relating to the saving events about to unfold (1:42-43, 67-79; 2:25-32), and empowers the Elijianic forerunner who prepares the way of the Lord (1:15, 17). In Luke 3-4 the Spirit then comes as Jesus’ messianic empowering for the redemptive mission, while Pentecost brings a parallel endowment for the church’s mission, over which the Spirit remains the initiator (cf. esp. Acts 2:4; 8:29; 10:19, 44; 11:12; 13:2, 4; etc.), the driving