TO YOU … O ‘LOVED BY GOD’
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 31, 2019 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: July 31, 2019 from Luke 1:1-4
Theme: The Gospel of Luke is an orderly narrative of Jesus’ life that is meant to give its reader a certainty of faith.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
This morning, we begin a study of the fascinating Gospel of Luke.
God the Holy Spirit—in His great wisdom and love for us—has not left us with only one account of the life and ministry of our Lord. Instead, He has preserved for us four different accounts. Each one of them is a complete and trustworthy account in and of itself. But together, the four Gospels tell us all that the Holy Spirit wanted us to know about the life of our Savior. Just think of how spiritually rich we are because of having all four of them!
The four Gospel accounts have often been characterized by the four basic ways that they present our Lord Jesus to us. Matthew is the Gospel of Jesus as King. In it, the writer Matthew the tax collector (or Levi, as he is also known to us in the New Testament) shows us how Jesus fulfilled the prophetic promises of the coming King of the Jews. It quotes often from the Old Testament promises of Jesus’ coming. Mark is the Gospel of Jesus as the Servant of God. A key verse for that Gospel is Mark 10:43; “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Luke is the Gospel of Jesus as the Servant of Man. In it, Luke tells us many stories of Jesus’ loving and personal ministry to the people around Him. And John is the Gospel of Jesus as the Son of God. It highlights our Savior’s deity; and presents Him to us as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The first three Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are referred to together as the Synoptic Gospels; because they tell many of the same stories from slightly different perspectives in order to give us a full ‘synopsis’ of Jesus’ life. John’s Gospel, however, is unique in that it tells us the stories of our Lord’s life that are not mentioned in the other Gospels, and that highlights the theological aspects of our Lord’s life and teaching.
The Gospel of Luke is one of the three Synoptic Gospels. The man that the Holy Spirit used to write this Gospel was named Luke. He was a Greek; which makes him unique from the other Gospel writers. He also wrote the Book of Acts; and for much of that historical account, he placed himself in the story as a traveling companion and missionary assistant to the apostle Paul. Paul mentions him in Philemon 1:24; where he describes him as one of his “fellow workers”; indicating that Paul received and welcomed his partnership in ministry. Paul also mentioned him in Colossians 4:14; where he refers to him as “Luke the beloved physician”; which suggests to us that Luke was a well-educated man—a man of medical science and of letters—a man whose profession required him to be a trustworthy handler of facts. Many of the stories Luke tells of our Lord in his Gospel account involve miracles of healing; and the descriptions of the conditions of people are presented to us as careful medical evaluations. And note that he is called “beloved”. He was well-loved—not only by Paul, but also by those who read Paul’s letter. A third reference to Luke in Paul’s writings is found in 2 Timothy 4:9-11; and it is a particularly important one. It tells us much about Luke’s character as a man of God. Paul wrote to Timothy from prison—a little while before he was executed—and said;
Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me (2 Timothy 4:9-11a).
Luke is, without question, one of the greatest historians of ancient times. His Gospel account, together with his account of the works of the apostles in the Book of Acts, provides us with a rich, reliable record of the life of our Lord and of the work of the spread of His gospel throughout the world. You can divide the Gospel of Luke up into three basic divisions:
CHAPTERS 1-4: JESUS IS PREPARED FOR MINISTRY CHAPTERS 5-18: JESUS SERVES AND TEACHES CHAPTERS 19-24: JESUS IS CRUCIFIED AND RAISED
And the best summary-statement that we can find of the Gospel of Luke is from two verses that are not even found in the Gospel of Luke itself. They are found at the very beginning of the second New Testament book that Luke wrote—the Book of Acts. In it, he writes to the same individual that he wrote his Gospel for; and said,
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen … (Acts 1:1-2).
It’s an accounting of Jesus’ life up to the time He ascended to the Father. Acts tells the story of what happened after Jesus ascended. If we were making a movie of it all, we might title the Book of Acts as Luke II—the Adventure Continues.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Now; as we see from the very beginning, Luke wrote this letter to a man named Theophilus. Luke begins the formal introduction of his Gospel with these words;
Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed (Luke 1:1-4).
This Gospel is a bit different from the other three, then, in that it is specifically addressed to an individual. We don’t know anything about this man Theophilus beyond what we find in introductions to Luke and Acts. But we might be able to tell some things from the way Luke speaks of him. For one thing, he too was a Greek man with a Greek name. His name means “Loved by God”; and that may make him, in a way, a symbolic figure for all whom God loves and graciously wants to hear the good news of His saving grace through faith in Jesus. He was also a man with an honorific title. Luke referred to him as “most excellent Theophilus”; which may suggest that he was a man of significance—perhaps an important official in the Roman government. (Some scholars believe that the Book of Acts was intended to give an up-to-date accounting of how it was that Paul ended up in Rome to appear before Caesar Nero; and if Theophilus was a Roman official who needed this information, then calling Theophilus by this title of honor would make good sense.) Theophilus would be a learned man; because Luke’s Gospel is a learned piece of literature—written in very fine Greek style. And we might even speculate that Theophilus—if not a believer before Luke wrote his Gospel to him—became a believer later; because when Luke begins the Book of Acts, he drops the title “most excellent” and simply refers to him in the familiar manner “O Theophilus”. Did Luke speak to him in this way because he had now become a brother? Perhaps so.
In any case, it was Luke’s desire that Theophilus was made ‘certain’ about the things he had been taught about Jesus. That was Luke’s expressed reason for writing to him.
We can divide Luke’s ‘introduction’ into the four main points that he makes. The first is that …
1. OTHERS HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT JESUS (v. 1).
Luke began with this affirmation, “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us …” And in saying this, Luke is letting us know that his was not the only biography written about the life of Jesus.
What were those other books? It may be that among the “many” writings Luke had in mind were Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels. (John’s Gospel was written some time after Luke’s.) It may that some of the writings that Luke was thinking of included at least some portions of what we know today to be the “New Testament Apocrypha” (that is, stories and histories written during the New Testament era, but that were not inspired by the Holy Spirit or included in the canon of Scripture). Luke does not tell us specifically what his other sources might have been. In a very important sense, though, it doesn’t matter. The Holy Spirit has chosen to preserve for us only four reliable accounts of Jesus’ life in the New Testament; and these four tell us all that He wants for us to know in order to believe on Jesus and become His faithful followers. If Luke drew from uninspired sources, he did so by the leading of the Holy Spirit and in a way that gave us an ‘inspired’ product.
Luke was gathering information about things that “have been fulfilled among us”. He uses a form of the verb that speaks of a completed act—things that have been fulfilled in a settled way. He is speaking of established facts of history with respect to the life and ministry of our Lord. Apparently, some of these other written sources were attempts to “set in order a narrative of” these established facts. The word that Luke uses to begin his Gospel—translated by the two words “inasmuch as”—is a word that, in the original language, assumes a familiarity on the part of the reader. Theophilus, then, must have known about these other ‘narratives’ and the established facts they reported. But he apparently needed more information and a more orderly compilation—which Luke was led by the Holy Spirit to give to him.
What’s more, Luke lets us know that …
2. THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS’ WORKS WAS AUTHORITATIVE (v. 2).
Speaking of ‘those things which were fulfilled among us’—and perhaps with reference to the narratives about them—Luke writes, “just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us …”
You sometimes hear people today argue that the stories of Jesus’ life and ministry in the Bible are not reliable because ‘no one who wrote about them was an eyewitness to them’. But the writer of the Gospel of John testified that “these things” of which he wrote was based on a true testimony (John 21:25). With respect to the events of the cross, he said in John 19:35, “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.” The Gospel of Matthew was written by one of the apostles, who was present to see the things that Jesus did and to hear the things He taught. Mark’s Gospel was written by John Mark – who, as ancient testimony has it, wrote down his Gospel as it was given to him directly from Peter—and John Mark himself may, like Peter, have actually been present for some of the events of Jesus’ earthly ministry. And here, we have it in Luke’s introduction that he wrote down an accurate account as it was given from those who were “eyewitnesses”.
What’s more, he says that they delivered these things as “ministers of the word”. The word that Luke uses is one that means “servant” or (as in a ship) an “under-rower”. This suggests that, as some of his sources, Luke may be drawing from the apostles themselves as Jesus’ own appointed witnesses—some who wrote, some who’s eyewitness testimony was passed down by preaching and teaching. Luke tells us, in Acts 1:8, that just before Jesus ascended to the Father, He told His twelve apostles, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Historically, all of the apostles—with the exception of John—laid down their lives for their testimony about Jesus. John died in exile for his preaching. This means that Luke’s sources are reliable and trustworthy ones that we can whole-heartedly trust.
But their various testimonies—though all reliable—needed the wise and Spirit-guided hand of a compiler. And Luke was that man. We’re told next that …
3. LUKE IS SETTING THINGS IN ORDER (v. 3).
Affirming these other sources—and also affirming the reliability of their testimony—Luke then says, “it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus …”
Luke was led by the Holy Spirit to put all of the pieces together for us in a well-organized, chronological manner. The other Gospel writers, it seems, were being guided by the Spirit to write in a first-hand kind of manner. Luke, however, wrote like a scholarly researcher. He gathered his sources, critically analyzed them, and wrote in such a way as to systematize and harmonize the facts and events. But this does not mean that he wrote in a humanly empowered or purely intellectual way alone. He was clearly being guided by the Holy Spirit in his compilation and research. Nor should we think that Luke wrote only from scraps given to him by other sources. He makes it clear to us that he himself “had perfect understanding of all things from the very first”. He Himself may have been present to witness some of the events. In any case, he did not write from an experiential vacuum. He had first-hand knowledge. He was a Holy Spirit-inspired scholar of the highest order.
This, by the way, teaches us something of the marvelous variety that God uses in giving His word to us. As it tells us in 2 Peter 1:21-22;
… no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21b-22).
God used the unique personalities, and capabilities, and educational backgrounds of each of the human writers in order to give us His word. He ‘carried them along’ in their work—whether it was through a vision (such as John in The Book of Revelation), or a theological treatise (such as Paul in his letter to the Romans), or a carefully written historical work of research (such as Luke’s Gospel).
And finally, consider the purpose of it all—that …
4. THE GOAL IS CERTAINTY OF FAITH (v. 4).
Luke closes this introduction—in a very personal way—by telling Theophilus that he wrote this Gospel “that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed …” When John wrote his Gospel, he said,
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:30-31).
John really put it out there! He wanted people to read his Gospel and believe on Jesus! Luke’s purpose was related to that, but was expressed in a different way. He wanted to establish the historical certainty of the story of who Jesus is and what He has done for us. For Luke, the foundation of our faith is the certainty of the historical facts that would lead to a credible and inescapable conclusion. In a similar way, he began the Book of Acts by speaking of how the risen Lord appeared to the apostles;
to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).
* * * * * * * * * * *
We should praise God for what He has given us through His servant Dr. Luke! Luke’s Gospel is the Gospel of certainty about our Savior! Let’s study it with confidence—and let’s be encouraged by it to pass on the reliable, soul-saving Gospel of Jesus on to others.
It’s meant for those who are “loved by God”.
EA
