Luke 5:17

Again Luke stressed the priority of Jesus’ teaching ministry. The Pharisees and scribes had come to hear what He was teaching. These men, first appearing in Luke here, were the guardians of Israel’s orthodoxy. The Pharisees were a political party in Israel noted for their strict observance of the Mosaic Law as traditionally interpreted by the rabbis. Some of these doctors of the law (i.e., scribes, lawyers) were probably Pharisees, but probably not all of them were. The figure is a hendiadys indicating that they were religious watchdogs and does not mean that other religious leaders were absent. A hendiadys is a figure of speech in which someone expresses a complex idea by naming two entities and linking them with a conjunction. Thus scribes and Pharisees means religious leaders but does not imply that other religious leaders such as the Sadducees were absent. [Note: For a discussion of the religious leaders, see Steve Mason, "Chief Priests, Sadducees, Pharisees and Sanhedrin in Acts," in The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting; Vol. 4: The Book of Acts in Its Palestinian Setting, pp. 134-47.]

Luke viewed the power of God as extrinsic to Jesus (cf. John 5:1-19). Jesus did not perform miracles out of His divine nature. He laid those powers aside at the Incarnation. Rather He did His miracles in the power of God’s Spirit who was on Him and in Him as a prophet.

"Why would Luke say that ’the power of the Lord was present for him to heal’ if Jesus could heal at any time, under any condition, and solely at his own discretion? This statement only makes sense if we view healing as the sovereign prerogative of God the Father, who sometimes dispenses his power to heal and at other times withholds it." [Note: Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, p. 59. Cf. J. I. Packer, "The Comfort of Conservatism," in Power Religion, p. 289.]

In Acts, Luke would stress that the same Spirit is on and in every believer today, and He is the source of our power as He was the source of Jesus’ power.