The Gospel of Luke 1:1-4 Introduction to the Gospel of Luke
Luke 1:1-4 · Vern Peterman · Oct 5, 2014
Gospel of Luke, No. 01
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926442447590

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be going into the passage that Courtney just read for us here shortly. First, there. One of the things, we've changed the wording in here, as we will do from time to time. We will from time to time change wording. We will sometimes drop out verses, sometimes drop out whole songs. if we see something is not quite right.

And one of the things I'd like to remark about that line, the original line talks about us owing Him. And the truth, do we owe anything to the Lord? No, because it's grace given. We don't owe Him. He didn't save us and then send us the invoice, where we pay Him back. There is no debt repayment schedule. We do not owe Him. So we change that love and honor we will show Him. And that, by the way, is not a promise either. We make no promises to the Lord. He's the promise keeper, not us. It is a response to the grace.

This single seminar, I'd just like to point out, it addresses, I think, some important questions. We've had people as young as 10 take this seminar and as old as 70. It's something I'd recommend particularly for younger singles and their parents. We address, I think, some pretty important questions.

And one of the reasons we offer this is because the culture is going farther and farther off track in how romantic relationships ought to develop. Okay, now let's get into the passage here in Luke 1, 1-4. We'll first do an introduction to the entire book.

The Gospel of Luke was written about 60 AD by Luke the physician. He was a companion of the Apostle Paul and very likely brought to being a Christian as a result of the Apostle Paul's ministry. He very likely became a believer under Paul's evangelistic ministry, which took place there in the northeastern Mediterranean. Not this Luke. Not that Luke. Not that Luke. Not those. This Luke. Luke the physician. So we have an artistic portrayal here of Luke mending an arm, a broken arm.

The Gospel of Luke is the longest of the four Gospels, and in fact, the longest of the New Testament books. It's not the longest by chapter, but by content. If you look at Luke, between Luke and Acts, about 28% of the New Testament was written by Luke, and about that same figure for the Apostle Paul.

Just before Christ's birth is where the book starts. We see the birth of John the Baptist in there, and then the birth of Christ. It focuses largely, of course, on the ministry of Christ, and then his death, burial, and resurrection, and then finally all the way up to his ascension. The Gospel of Luke mentions Christ's ascension, his ascension into the heavenlies, briefly, and then the Book of Acts kind of extrapolates and expounds upon that and gives more detail. Now, Luke was a man, a very special guy. I'm convinced that the Lord prepared this man. He was a man of keen skills of observation. He observed things that, in fact, in some cases, none of the other gospel authors observed.

As one reads through Luke and Acts, the titles given, for example, by Dr. Luke are specific as to the time frame and political domain in each instance. And we won't go through the detail on that. Here's one out of Acts 1931. This is also some of the Asiarchs. Now that's a political title that was only used there in what we call Western, you know, end of Turkey, Asia as it was called at the time. And he makes reference to that. It's just there. It's been confirmed in the secular writings.

And we could give numerous instances where the apostle, excuse me, where Dr. Luke gives the particular political title and he nails it every time. Uniquely, Dr. Luke not only observes with very careful attention to detail, as we'll soon see, but he also shows deep compassion. He has great sensitivity to the hearts and the hopes that different people have, which reflects that compassion that Christ himself had. It's a wonderful characteristic.

Here's an instance, and you have this also as a slide in your handout, Luke 7.12.

Now as he, Christ, approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother. Now Luke is the only one who notices these details. And she was a widow. So what that meant is, she was a widow, her husband had died, here is the only son, the mother, and he had died. So Lucas is observing that, oh, there's such heartache here and she has nobody. There's nobody left. Nobody left to care for her.

Here's another one, the very next chapter, chapter 8, Luke 8, 41 and 42. There came a man named Jairus and he was an official of the synagogue. He fell at Jesus' feet and began to implore him to come to his house. And he had only an only daughter. Okay, here we go again. An only daughter, about 12 years old, and she was dying. So here we see Luke pays attention to the fine details and he shows great compassion in these circumstances and situations. Luke 9, 38 and 39. Here we go to chapter 7, chapter 8. Here's now chapter 9. Notice the pattern again.

And a man from the crowd shouted, saying, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only boy. And a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams, and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth. And only with difficulty does it leave him, mauling him as it leaves. You see him observing things very carefully. He notices those unique and special relationships. Three chapters in a row. My only, my only, my only.

And Luke notices that and takes care for that and looks with compassion on that, and that compassion reflects Christ's compassion. Dr. Luke himself shows up in various places in the New Testament. One of the ways that we see it is towards the end of the book of Acts. We see it in chapters 16, 20, 21, and 27, where Dr. Luke doesn't mention his name, but he talks about we or us. And so Dr. Luke is present for these circumstances towards the end of the book of Acts. It would indicate that he became a believer as a result of Paul's ministry, possibly there during Paul's second missionary journey, or it could have been before.

Dr. Luke also shows up by name in Paul's letters three times, Colossians 4.14, 2 Timothy 4.11, and Philemon verse 24. There's only one chapter there.

We find that Luke is a physician in Colossians 4.14, and we find that he is not a Jew, because the Jews are mentioned just a few verses before in Colossians 4.10 and 11.

Now, here's 4.14, Colossians 4.14, Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings and also Demas. And then the second Timothy, Paul's last letter that we have any possession of, He says, only Luke is with me. So here's Luke being a very faithful person at a very trying time.

Pick up Mark and bring him with you. And by the way, that's the one that sent Paul and Barnabas in opposite directions, and about which there was great contention. This Mark is a changed man. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.

And finally, in Philemon 24, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers. So we see those three references to Luke in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Now you have this slide here, four references in Acts. And the reason for including it is I think Luke is giving us a clue about where his background is.

In Acts 10.22, It says, and they said, Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews.

Judaism was for the Jews. God made covenants with the Jews. A Gentile could come in among them and even attend synagogue, and those were called God-fearing Men, proselytes, Greeks, Gentiles, they would use different terms. Sometimes they're called the God-fearers. And so it would be a Gentile who at least sympathized with the Jews, if not having made a commitment or even converted. as a Gentile into Judaism. So here is the term.

It starts in Acts 10.22 with Cornelius.

It goes on in Acts 13.43. Now, when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and the God-fearing proselytes who also attended synagogue followed Paul and Barnabas. That was in Paul's first missionary journey.

In his second missionary journey, Acts 17.4, and some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks. So they're Gentiles, at least sympathetic, if not supportive, and possibly even converted to Judaism. And then Acts 17 again, verse 17, so he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, who also attended synagogue. So it is quite likely, I think, since here is Dr. Luke, who was not a Jew, that's what Colossians 4 tells us, not a Jew, very likely that he had been a God-fearing Gentile and attended synagogue. And it was one of these synagogue meetings like this in which Dr. Luke, listening to Paul, would have then followed Paul and been converted to Christian faith.

Now another question about Dr. Luke is where did he come from? Antioch or Philippi? The truth is we don't know for certain. Some ancient sources say that Dr. Luke was from Antioch. Others say that it was from Philippi. So we have both reports. Just to give you an idea, here's Jerusalem at the lower corner and then here's Antioch. at the very northeastern corner of the Mediterranean there, and then Philippi here. The book of Philippians was written to them. He went there, both Luke and Paul, where they are at the second and third missionary journeys. So one of those places, Philippi or Antioch, we do have one record outside of anything in the Bible that Dr. Luke was in Antioch, at least at one point in time.

We also have record, however, from the book of Acts itself, Dr. Luke was in Philippi, and very interestingly, Acts 16.12 is where Dr. Luke leaves off, and then we pick him up again at Verse 6, so for several years, Dr. Luke was in Philippi, apparently. That would tend to lean towards that's where he's from, but who knows, maybe he's taking a long vacation. Both Antioch and Philippi had a medical school, so that doesn't solve the problem. So we still have a question that we really don't know for sure.

Now, going through the Gospel of Luke as we will, there are some unique things, and so we'll touch on those unique things. You have this on a slide in your handout on page 1. In Luke chapters 1 and 2, we have Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist. We're told of that account.

We have Gabriel announcing the birth of Christ through Mary. And only two angels are named in the Bible, by the way. Two good ones. There's Michael and Gabriel. So here's one of them. The birth of Christ in Bethlehem, the angel announces to the shepherds. That's uniquely in Luke. That's not in Matthew, the other gospel that has an account, a Christmastime account. Oh, that's another thing.

We're going to have two Christmases this year. Two Christmases. Because we're going to do the Christmas account early, and then we're going to do a Christmastime. And then the last part there was Simeon and Anna. So we have that to look forward to here.

These things are uniquely in the Gospel of Luke in the first couple of chapters here. In Luke 3, the genealogy of Christ back to Adam. Whereas Matthew doesn't go all the way back to Adam, Luke does. Luke goes all the way back to Adam to show the genealogy of Christ. So we'll take a closer look at that. In Luke chapter 10, 70 are sent out. In Matthew chapter 10, the 12 disciples are sent out two by two. Luke 10, 70 are sent out two by two. So a little different one there.

And then the famous parable of the Good Samaritan. Even people who don't know anything about the Bible will talk about Good Samaritan laws or something like that and will have some idea what that's talking about. So the parable of the Good Samaritan is uniquely in the gospel of Luke, and we'll take a look at that. And by the way, it's got a very interesting message in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

In Luke 16, again, another unique one is the rich man and Lazarus. And by the way, that name Lazarus is not the same as the guy who was resurrected, that Jesus resurrected, that had been dead for four days. And so we'll talk about the rich man and Lazarus. And Abraham's bosom, it's called, is a unique insight into the afterlife. And so we will look at that when we get to Luke chapter 16. In Luke 19, another unique story, Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, believes. And remember Zacchaeus was the one who was really short. I can imagine him in the crowd, you know, and all he's doing is looking at people's belt lines, you know.

And so now he's going to get up on a tree. And then much to his surprise, and it seems delight, Jesus says, Zacchaeus, come down. We're going to spend the night at your place. We've got to go to your place today. In Luke 23, Jesus telling the criminal on the cross that today he would be with him in paradise.

One of the things I think is really neat about Luke, this is another evidence of his compassion, caring for individual people. Imagine, Jesus could very well have said, you know, I'm just kind of busy right now. I'm a little preoccupied. I mean, I got a lot of stuff going on.

Right? He could have just said that. Imagine taking the time, when you're dying for the sins of the whole world for all time, imagine taking the time to tell this guy, who doesn't deserve anything, right? Today, you're going to be with me in paradise. Today. And Luke gets that.

This is compassion for individuals. And it's something else to think about. God's not too busy for you. God's not too busy for you. So we're going to see some unique moments like this. This is like those passages, it's my only boy, it's my only daughter, it's my only son. God cares about the individual and that means you. You individually. God doesn't just deal with things in mass. So Jesus tells the criminal on the cross, uniquely in Luke 23, today he would be with him in paradise. In Luke 24, Jesus talks with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. That's unique to the Gospel of Luke.

This is his first appearance to anyone outside of Mary Magdalene. And what does he do? He takes the time to be with two, just a couple. Just a couple of guys. And it's again, the Lord's demonstration. He doesn't say, hey, we've got to get a lot of mileage here, so I'm only going to appear to groups of 500 or more. He doesn't do that. He will appear for the sake of Mary Magdalene. He will appear for these two disciples.

He will appear at another time just for the sake of Thomas. Just for the sake of Thomas. And so I think you get this pattern. You get this pattern that God cares for individuals and he'll do massive, miraculous, immense things for one person. For one.

Now let's take a look at the passage that Courtney read for us here, starting with Luke 1.1. So Dr. Luke starts out writing to Theophilus. We'll speak about him in a minute. And as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us. By the way, this word compiled is actually literally put to hand to. Put a hand to it. The life of Christ in his first coming was extraordinary from beginning to his ascension into the heavenlies.

You see, there were a lot of rabbis during the time of Christ and before and afterwards. There's about 150 rabbis. Gamaliel was one of the more well-known Paul's rabbi. Gamaliel, over his lifetime, had about a thousand disciples. There was a tradition about rabbis. Jesus did some things that were very traditional, and then he did some things that no rabbi ever did. Let me give you an example.

The rabbis had rules about how you could be a rabbi and how you could be a disciple. And they even set limits on what a rabbi could ask his disciples to do. And one of those limits was that a rabbi could not ask any of his disciples to wash his feet. But there was no rule against the rabbi washing the disciples' feet. Right? So that's what Jesus did. Jesus was no ordinary rabbi. He would do things and say things that rabbis did. And then he would say, I am the good shepherd. I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the door. No rabbi would say such a thing.

John 21.25 says this, There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. That's why we have four Gospels.

They're each presenting things from a little different perspective, including some original material. And so we're reading through and studying through Dr. Luke's account, one of the accountings of this compilation that Dr. Luke is talking about. And he himself is drawing upon some of these earlier compilations.

Now, he uses in verse 1 that word accomplished. It's interesting. He wasn't going to tell Theophilus about the things that had happened. Notice he didn't use that word. This happened, and that happened, and this happened. But about the things that had been accomplished in Christ's first coming. See, Christ didn't come to just sort of be here. He actually had things that he wanted to accomplish.

And so Dr. Luke put it that way, that it's not just things that happen. These aren't just events. This isn't just recording history, although Luke was quite a historian. But furthermore, while neither the Apostle Paul nor Dr. Luke were involved in Jesus' ministry, it doesn't appear that Dr. Luke became a believer even until quite a few years after the church had begun.

Dr. Luke still wrote of those accomplishments as being effective among us. He used the us word. So these things happened years before, but those accomplishments are still impacting us now. Still impacting us now. As we go through the book of Luke, we're going to see what many of those accomplishments are.

Now looking at verse 2, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. So this handed down to us here, everything about Christ's earthly ministry and his first coming was outside of what Dr. Luke and the Apostle Paul had witnessed directly, because they didn't become believers until Christ had ascended. So everything that Dr. Luke wrote here in the Gospel of Luke about Christ's earthly ministry had been handed down to him by others who had direct contact. Dr. Luke was not himself an eyewitness. But there are still two reasons to see why Dr. Luke's account is still highly reliable.

One, eyewitnesses and servants. Notice he uses two words there. Those who delivered what they knew to Dr. Luke were eyewitnesses to the people and the events described for us in Luke's Gospel. They saw it themselves. They heard it themselves. They touched it and experienced it firsthand.

But the Greek word behind servants, this is not the usual word. This word conveys that these same eyewitnesses viewed themselves as entrusted with what they witnessed. It wasn't just, you know, hey, I was an eyewitness and sure, I'll testify. But they saw themselves as entrusted with something very, very special. And so they paid particular attention to it. And they saw themselves as needing to guard the truth. of what had taken place and what they'd seen and heard and touched and experienced. They also wanted the message to get across truthfully, reliably. And they saw themselves that way.

So the beginning of the reliability is those who were eyewitnesses recognizing the critical importance of what they had been given and that they were entrusted with the content of the gospel and of what they saw. Here is Peter, one of those eyewitnesses and one of those servants who had been entrusted, 2 Peter 1, 16-18, writing about what's called the Transfiguration. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Same word that Dr. Luke used. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And we ourselves heard the utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. So Dr. Luke's account of this transfiguration is in Luke 9, 28-36.

So we'll get there. We'll take a look at this very account. Here's the Apostle John as he writes the letter, 1st John 1, 1-4. Now get this, as we look through this, look for two things. You see the eyewitness character of it, but the other thing is you see in John's words here, you see him describing that he sees himself as one who is entrusted with the content of the gospel, and while there are historical facts, empirical things that were seen and heard and touched, and he'll make reference to that, he doesn't just leave it at some physical event. He wants you to know that he sees what he saw and touched and heard as something he's entrusted with and he wanted it to have spiritual impact. This isn't just history. Is it real history? Yes it is. But he wanted it to have spiritual impact. Let's look at it.

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life, and the life was manifested as means it was revealed we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was manifested revealed and shown to us what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ these things we write why so that our joy may be made complete You get the idea that John is very knowledgeable and very aware that a part of what he's doing is he's seeing and witnessing, he's hearing, he's touching, but you also get the sense he wants his readers, he wants those who are listening to these words to be impacted by them spiritually. So here's Luke 1 verse 3. It seemed fitting for me, Luke, as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus.

Now, when you read Dr. Luke's words, do you get the impression that this guy just is happy with an approximation? Do you get the impression that a little bit of embellishing is just fine? Do you get the impression, when you read through that, that he says, well, we'll just take it and run with it, you know, go with it? No. What you see is, here is a guy who is very, very careful. It doesn't keep him from being compassionate. It doesn't keep him from recognizing the spiritual depths. But he's telling the truth. He wants to make sure he's telling the truth. So now, it's a reliable account because Dr. Luke was not an eyewitness to the people and events in the Gospel of Luke.

He was to some of the things in Acts. However, those who were eyewitnesses conveyed what they witnessed with the mindset that they were entrusted. They knew. You saw it in the words of Peter. You saw it in the words of John. They knew that they were entrusted with something very, very special. In addition to that, Dr. Luke also investigated everything carefully. So he made sure that he got it from people who took reporting the truth carefully and having spiritual insight into it. And then he investigated on top of that, checked everything out. Okay, you said this and you said that.

Does this story corroborate this one? Are they mutually corroborating? He checked it out carefully, asking questions, and apparently asking the questions maybe others had not asked. Like, was that her only son? Is that his only boy? Is that the only daughter?

He started also, not at some later point in time, but at the very beginning. Even before John the Baptist was born, before Christ was born. He started at the beginning, and he also did one other thing. Put everything in proper sequence. So this happened before that, right? And this happened afterwards, correct?

So he got it from reliable witnesses who knew that they'd been entrusted. He checked everything out, and then he put it very carefully in sequential order. No part of the process was taken casually. The witnesses I talked to better be of a particular character, and they better be eyewitnesses. And I'm going to check everything out. And, in addition to that, I'm going to put it in the right sequence.

Nothing was taken casually. Now, who is this guy Theophilus? This guy, Theophilus, that Dr. Luke wrote about, he shows up here and his name shows up again in Acts chapter 1, verse 1. We have no other information on him, so that makes it a little tough. However, we do have a clue.

The address Most Excellent is also reported in Acts 23, 26, 24, 3, and 26, 5, and since Dr. Luke wrote Acts, That means that all the usages in the New Testament of the title or address most excellent, all by Dr. Luke. All by Dr. Luke. And so we know, however, it's used in Acts should also have good indication and application in Luke.

So in Acts, most excellent was used to address governors Felix and Festus when Claudius Lysias, the centurion, wrote a letter to Governor Felix. He addressed it as most excellent. That's Acts 23-26. 24-3, Paul addresses Felix. And then 26-25, Paul addresses Festus.

And so we have all those usages of this address, most excellent, all written by Dr. Luke. And so the indication is that Theophilus may have been one who paid Dr. Luke to write. He may have underwritten the writing of it. He may have also been a government official at some level.

John Mock has even said he believes that Theophilus was the administrative judge handling the paperwork for Paul's submittal In his appeal to Nero so Now here is the last verse of Luke 1 1 through 4 verse 4 So that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught So that you may know the exact truth, so here's dr. Luke he did not want to pass along interpolations Extrapolations and best guesses no dartboarding here, okay? 1st Timothy 4 7 Paul says it had nothing to do with worldly fables. He's not coming up with a fable or a myth or a legend. This isn't something that's been embellished larger than life.

So that's why his sources were eyewitnesses who had been entrusted with what they knew, and Dr. Luke knew it. Dr. Luke investigated everything carefully so that Theophilus would know the exact truth, not some approximation, distortion, or Luke's best guess. As far as I can remember, right? None of that. So everything that he did up to that point was to have the outcome that Theophilus knew exactly what was going on and that Theophilus could rely upon what Dr. Luke wrote for him.

In the Gospel of Luke, Luke 1, right? and the Acts of the Apostles, Luke 2. Now, one of the things it says, things that you've been taught, the Greek there is actually things you've been told orally. So apparently Theophilus had been told things orally. Somebody had talked to him, and Theophilus is saying, well, wait a minute, we've got to get this down in writing. We've got to get this down in writing. All these oral accounts, not apparently what Theophilus wanted.

So Dr. Luke was going to present this eyewitness testimony from those who had been entrusted in historical sequence in writing. Everything had been carefully investigated. The exact truth does matter after all, and that's what we're going to be examining in the Gospel of Luke as we proceed through it in the weeks and months ahead here. Now, some things to look forward to. Here is from Zacchaeus, after Jesus addresses Zacchaeus and talks to him. And Zacchaeus has the opportunity to say some things and respond.

That passage ends in Luke 19.10, "...for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost." He's come to seek and to save that which is lost in his first coming.

In Luke 23.43, Where we talk about the thief on the cross and he Christ said to him the thief the criminal Truly I say to you today.

You shall be with me in in paradise That word paradise is a Persian word means pleasure garden. It only shows up three places in the New Testament This is the first one later Paul writes to the Corinthians and tells the Corinthians that he went to paradise same word and And then it's given in a promise to the church in the book of Revelation. Paradise?

You and I will be there. We'll be there. And we get to meet this guy who believed at the last hours. At the very last hours. In Luke 24, 45-47, Jesus Addresses the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them thus it is written that the Christ the Messiah and would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem." That word repentance, one that the lady's study just recently addressed here, a change of mind ending in faith. A change of mind ending in faith. For forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed to all the nations. All of them and not just the Jews. That would be something they wouldn't understand for another decade. Beginning from Jerusalem. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you as we just begin to explore and walk through the pages of what you had Dr. Luke record for our benefit because you love us and care for us. We just thank you that we can count upon every word. And we can also understand Dr. Luke's heart. He is wanting to present the truth and yet present it with spiritual depth and also with compassion that reflects your very character. And we thank you for that. What richness we have here in these words that you've inspired for our benefit. And we just pray in Jesus' name. Amen.