In this paper I argue that the church in Acts is the narrative incarnation of Luke's prophetic Christology, providing often-overlooked Christological material in Acts. Within the functional definition of identity assumed by Luke's audience, this portrayal of the church would have been understood as Christ's ongoing presence in Acts. After establishing the prophetic cast of Lukan Christology, I demonstrate how the apostles imitate Christ in word and deed, continuing Jesus’ teaching of repentance as well as his prophetic “signs and wonders.” Moreover, the church shares Jesus’ fate of rejection and persecution, seen most prominently in the narrative parallels between Jesus and Paul. Theologically, Luke-Acts insists that a prophetically configured ecclesiology is an essential component of Christology, and that no portrait of Jesus is complete without images of those followers who continue “those things that Jesus had begun to do and teach” (Acts 1:1).
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