Introduction to Luke: Luke 1: 1-4

Well today we have the distinct honor and pleasure of introducing to you a new book which we will be beginning here this morning and continuing verse by verse, chapter by chapter for probably quite some time in the future.  Even if I could manage to condense it down to two messages per chapter, we would be looking at 48 weeks, so we can be certain that we will be in this book for at least a year if the Lord permits.

If you were here last week, you may remember that I encouraged you to incorporate a systematic reading of Luke in your own personal devotions.  I encouraged you to become Bible scholars and that one way to begin that process is to start with Luke. I suggested that you could read 4 chapters a day for 6 days and finish the book in a week.  Or you could read a chapter for 6 days over a 4 week period and have the book read in a month.  Or, you could even read it in one or two sittings.  Then once you have read it through, start back again.  Reading the Bible shouldn’t be a chore.  And the nice thing about Luke is it is laid out in chronological order in story form, so it really is an easy read.

So I was happy to get some feedback from some of you last week that you were in fact reading  the book.  Some of you had finished and were already on the second trip through.  And so I would encourage you to continue.  Reading the Bible is like uncovering another layer of insight every time you study it again.

Last Wednesday evening we were continuing in our study of 1 Timothy and we were in chapter 4.  And for those of you that weren’t there I would like to just highlight what we learned there in Timothy because I think it is applicable to our introduction today.  Paul was advising Timothy that bodily discipline is only of a little value, it’s temporary, but what he is really talking about is not just physical exercise but external religion.  He references a bodily discipline type of religion in 1Timothy 4:1 saying “the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.”

He makes the same reference to bodily discipline/external religion earlier in 1 Timothy 1: Paul tells Timothy to “instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.  For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion.”  In other words, one may attempt to appear spiritual by exercising external religion, but they won’t produce true fruit. True fruit is godliness, a love from a pure heart and a sincere faith.  A genuine faith.

So Paul says bodily discipline/external religion is of very little value,  but spiritual discipline has eternal benefit, because it is not external but internal, it’s a matter of a changed heart and the benefit of a changed heart is godliness.  In other words, being saved should result in godliness, which is becoming conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  That means we start talking like Christ, acting like Christ, serving like Christ, conducting ourselves like Christ.  That is what it means to be godly.  We’re not just learning a bunch of facts about God but continuing to live and operate the same way we always have.  But we are being transformed into his image.  And we do this according to Ephesians 5:26 by our hearts being the washed by the Word, so that Christ may present us holy and blameless.

One characteristic of the disciples was that after hanging out with Jesus 24/7 for 3 years, they began to be recognizable as one of those people who followed Jesus.  They began to talk like him and act like him.  That should be the characteristic of a follower of Jesus.  He begins to look like Jesus.  That’s why Paul tells Timothy in chapter 4 that he needed to live in such a way that he was an example.  As I’ve said before so many times, you’re either being an example or an excuse.  And Paul gives Timothy 5 areas of his life that he was to be an example of godliness in:  his speech, his conduct, his love for others, his faithfulness, and in purity.

Then Paul said and “especially give attention to the public reading of scripture, exhortation and teaching.”  That’s what church is supposed to be about, by the way, reading and studying scripture, exhortation, and teaching doctrine.  And exhortation is just a polite word for urging someone to do what they are supposed to be doing.   And he said, if you persevere in these things and take great pains to do these things and pay close attention to these things, then your progress will be evident to everyone who is watching you and you will ensure salvation for those who hear you.

And folks, that should be the goal, shouldn’t it?  Our goal should be to become godly examples and have people listen to our message that we are saying either by our words and by our actions, so that they will be saved.  And the implication there is that if they just hear our claim of Christianity and maybe see us go to church on Sundays,  but they see very little else about our lives that reflect the godliness of Jesus Christ, then they will write us off as hypocrites and we’ve become just another excuse why they don’t need to take the claims of Christianity seriously.

So as we begin this book today, I just want to emphasize why we are studying the Bible in this way.  Why we plan on laboring for over a year to study just one of the four gospels.  And the reason is that we might learn what Jesus expects from us in terms of our conduct and behavior.  Not just following blind tradition, but following Jesus instructions as written in the Word.

The admonition in Hebrews 5:12 is true for far too many people today that consider themselves to be evangelical Christians and yet have never really read the word of God for themselves.  It says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”  The average person in church today cannot provide a Biblical reason why they are here on a Sunday as opposed to the Sabbath.  They cannot provide Biblical proof texts of elementary principles such as grace, sanctification, the second coming, hell and heaven, the deity of Christ and so on.  They are going on blind faith that the religion they are following will be good enough to get them accepted by God, and yet they don’t know what they really believe or why they believe what they do.  We love to claim that if necessary we would lay down our lives for our faith, and yet if our faith is founded on very little substance, then I’m doubtful whether or not they would in fact be willing to die for something they aren’t sure of.

God speaks to those who come with the offerings of external religion in Isaiah 1:12 which says "When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.  I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.  So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.  Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.  Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.”  Obviously, God requires godliness, not just lip service.  He calls us to reason, to know, to study God’s requirements.

So let us come today with clean hearts to apply our full attention to the authoritative word of God.  To be painstakingly diligent in this study of the gospel of Luke.  Since this book was written, thousands and thousands of people have died over the centuries as martyrs, being tortured, burned at the stake, thrown in prison, suffered untold torment, so that we might have the privilege of having this book in our hands today, so that we might be able to read this gospel of Jesus Christ for ourselves, so that we might know the truth of the gospel.  Let us then come here with reverence, giving our complete attendance, paying close attention to the reading and teaching of the word of God, so we might know that which produces the fruit of godliness.

In the short time that I have left I am going to introduce to you as best I can the gospel of Luke.  First, we should say that it is almost universally accepted that Luke is the author of this gospel.  Though he never names himself in this book, it was widely accepted and corroborated as early as the second century that Luke was the author.  Additionally, the scrolls  had a label that were attached to them in such a way so that the author’s name was readable even though the scroll was rolled up. So even though Luke never wrote his name on the book, his name as the writer was tagged on the earliest scrolls, attesting that his peers acknowledged his authorship.

Luke also was the author of Acts.  If you look at the first verses of Acts, you can see that it is a continuation of Luke as it is addressed to Theophilus as was Luke, and Luke references the earlier writing and that his second volume is a continuation of his history of the gospel.  It is a testament to Luke’s humility that though his two volumes are larger than any other writer’s contribution to Scripture, he never mentions himself by name.  In Luke and the first part of Acts Luke speaks in third person, but about midway in the book of Acts you begin to notice that Luke starts using the personal pronoun “we”, indicating that he was there at that point of the story.

But before I go on with Luke, let me say a few things in general about the gospels.  There are four gospels.  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Gospel simply means the good news of Jesus Christ.  And each gospel presents a unique perspective on the life of Jesus Christ.  They each have some overlapping elements, but some present certain historical events while others may not.  Matthew, Mark and Luke are what are known of as the synoptic gospels, meaning that they share a lot of the same information about the life of Christ.  But they each have a different theme, a different perspective, and so they each tend to highlight  or present events that are  of particular interest to their perspective.  For instance, Matthew emphasized the Jewishness of Jesus, especially that He was the promised Messiah of Israel, and to that end he emphasizes Jesus is the King of the Jews.  He goes to great lengths to give the genealogy of Christ from both Mary and Joseph’s family trees which can be traced back to the throne of David. So the perspective of Matthew is Jesus is King of the Jews, the Messiah. Matthew, by the way, was one of the 12, an apostle.

Mark’s gospel doesn’t start with the birth of Christ, but with the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus coming to him to be baptized. His audience is basically those people in the Roman Empire who are unfamiliar with the religion of the Jews.    Mark presents Jesus as a Servant.  Mark, by the way, was not one of the 12, but rather he was the protégé of Peter. Earlier in his ministry he was known as John Mark.  And so he learned from Peter who was of course an eyewitness to the life of Christ.

Luke presents his gospel from the perspective of the humanity of Christ.  He presents Jesus as the perfect man, the perfect example for mankind.  So Luke stresses the humanity of Christ.  A Christ who was tried in all points like as we are, yet without sin.  Luke wasn’t an apostle either.  He was a companion of Paul.  And even more interestingly, Luke was the only writer of Scripture that is believed to be a Gentile.  He was most likely from Antioch, in Syria and so his introduction is written in classical Greek.

John, of course, was an apostle, so therefore an eyewitness of the life of Christ.  He says in 1 John 1:  “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, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested 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.”  John’s perspective was the deity of Jesus Christ.  He says in chapter 1 that Jesus was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  So he emphasizes the fact that Jesus was God in the flesh.

And real quickly, you may be interested in the dates for the gospels.  Contrary to a lot of false information out there it can be verified rather conclusively that all the gospels were written relatively soon after Jesus death.  There were people still alive who were eyewitnesses at the time of their writing.  They were able to give testimony and corroborate, or if something were to have been claimed that didn’t happen, they could object.  At the time of Jesus resurrection the Bible says that 500 people witnessed it.  So there were plenty of eyewitnesses around for the next 50 years or so.

Matthew is generally thought to be the earliest written book of the gospels, though there is some who think it was Mark. An examination of Matthew, Mark and Luke show that each gospel has Jesus predicting the destruction of the city of Jerusalem as well as the temple. However none of these writings records the fulfillment. Since the city and temple were both destroyed in the year A.D. 70 there is good reason to believe that these three gospels were written before this destruction took place. The same is true with the gospel of John. It is written from the perspective of the city of Jerusalem still standing. This would make all four gospels written during the period when eyewitnesses, both friendly and unfriendly, were still alive.

There is also possible evidence from the Book of Acts as to the early date of the gospels. Acts is the second part of two books written by Luke. There is internal evidence from Acts that it should be dated before the death of Paul. If this is true, then it was composed before A.D. 68. Since Luke's gospel was written before Acts that would place it in the early 60's of the first century or earlier. Add to this that Luke may have used Mark as a source we have an earlier date for Mark. Finally, the early church unanimously believed Matthew was the first gospel written. This places the writing of the first three gospels within thirty years of the resurrection of Jesus.

There is another fact about Luke that is not evident from the text and that is that he was a physician.  Colossians 4:14 Paul sends greetings from “Luke, the beloved physician.”  We know he was with Paul in at least three imprisonments, one in Caesarea, two in Rome. We know about his faithfulness because he traveled with Paul over thousands of miles and would have been exposed to the same terrors and the same robbers and the same hostilities and the same illnesses and the same deprivations of travel in the ancient times that Paul was.

And perhaps doctors in that day didn’t make as much money as they do today, but I would imagine that it still was an incredible sacrifice for Luke, having spent years being trained as a doctor, then becoming saved, perhaps at the preaching of Paul, and then leaving his practice and his source of income to travel with Paul for years, possibly right up to Paul’s execution.  At the end of Paul’s life, as he is waiting trial with the emperor Nero, he says in 2 Timothy 4:11, “only Luke is with me.”  Everyone else had deserted him, having loved this present world.  But Luke is still with Paul, ministering to him, being his companion, as well as his personal physician.

It’s believed by some that Paul suffered from a condition in his eyes that was something like a running sore, perhaps caused from the blinding light on the Damascus road.  It caused him not to be able to see clearly. Or to write very well.  And so I can just imagine Dr. Luke, tending to Paul in this prison, putting salve and medicine on his eyes, reading the scriptures to him, and perhaps taking dictation from the mouth of Paul.  And that closeness to Paul undoubtedly afforded Luke many opportunities to converse not only with him but with visitors and people Paul met through the years who had been eyewitnesses of Christ.

We’re told this highly educated man writes the prologue, the first four verses, using  very formal, highly refined Greek, which would have put it on par with an important treatise or historical document.  He had an analytical mind, a mind trained in the languages, in the sciences, and was able to speak to an intellectual audience.  But then we are told that in the rest of the book, Luke writes in the more common Greek vernacular so that any person could understand him.

Greek, by the way, was the English of the first century.  It was the universal language, the way English  today is taught around the world.  The Jews spoke a mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew, mostly Aramaic.  It was probably the language Jesus spoke most often and certainly the disciples.  Aramaic was the language the Jews learned when they were exiled in Babylon and they continued it’s use in Jesus day.  Though the Romans were in charge, very few people spoke Latin, mostly the Roman elite.  But Luke writes in Greek, and he writes with a style that is born of education in the arts and sciences.

Finally, let’s look at the prologue briefly which is actually one long sentence in the Greek.  Luke points to the fact that others have already written or attempted to write an account of the gospel.  It’s likely he is talking about Matthew and Mark whose works preceded Luke’s.  It’s possible also that there were some spurious accounts floating around and that became an impetus for Luke to get the truth out.  But as  we already pointed out, Luke knows that Matthew and Mark’s accounts did not include everything, and some things in particular Luke feels the urging of the Holy Spirit to write down so that we and they might have a full account, a consecutive account from before Jesus birth to the time just before the death of Paul, by which time the gospel had spread throughout all the known world. And all of this happened in the span of his lifetime.  And Luke had been a witness to that part where the gospel was taken throughout the known world. So Luke, with his analytical mind and his meticulous attention to detail, says in the second verse that his sources are eyewitnesses and servants of the Word.  2. “just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” Verse 3, “it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus.”

A couple of points:  eyewitness accounts are the basis in a court of law for being able to render a just verdict.  And so this account of Luke is something that we should really rejoice over as Christians.   It means that we have facts upon which to found our faith.  God never asks us to just have blind faith in the sense that we are to just hope for something, and then leap from that to believing in it, and then if the size of our faith is sizable or strong enough, then somehow God will make it a reality.  Such nonsense is commonly being taught in many churches today as what it means to have faith.  But what we have here is the careful documentation, the careful investigation, eyewitness accounts that could be verified by hundreds of people at the time of their writing, so that we might have faith in the facts of the gospel.

There is a passage in Matthew 13:58 that says Jesus could not do many miracles in his hometown because of their unbelief.  And people take this out of context and teach that the size of their faith is the reason for the lack of miracles.  But the problem wasn’t that they had only a little faith, but not quite enough faith.  The problem was that they had no faith.  They rejected Jesus out of hand. They tried to throw Him off a cliff.  The point is, we’re not required to muster up some sort of hyped up blind belief or blind faith, but we have been given the word of God, the testimony of the Apostles and prophets, written down for us that we might believe the truth.  Our faith is founded on the Word of God that we might know as Luke said, the exact truth.

Finally, who is Theophilus?  Who is Luke writing to? By his title (most excellent), we gather that Theophilus was probably a Roman government official. It is entirely likely that the books of Luke and Acts make up Paul’s defense brief for his trial before Caesar, since Acts leaves Paul waiting for that trial.  We know from Paul’s writings that many of Caesar’s household had become saved. And Theophilus, Luke says in verse 4, had been taught the truth, and now this treatise would be the historical record that was needed, perhaps because Theophilus would be representing Paul in court.  We don’t know.  But we do see Acts continued as an addressed to him as well, so we can assume that he would have been reading this treatise about the time of Paul’s trial, which is where Acts leaves off.

Well, we will continue next week.  I encourage you to continue in the study of God’s word.  I hope that you will commit to being here for every message as we go through this book.  And I believe that if you will do that, then God will be faithful to accomplish His word, and transform your mind to the image of Christ Jesus. 2Ti 2:15 “Study to show yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”