Luke 1:1-4 Introduction to the Gospel of Luke
Good morning! It seems like forever since I have been up here! Thank you Nate for bring the Word for the last two weeks, understanding Scripture as one united whole is so important!
Before we get too far, let’s have a word of prayer.
We are beginning a new series following in the same pattern that we have for the last several years of looking at the works of one human author in the approximate order in which they were delivered. We spent around seven years on the works of the Apostle Paul, and not nearly as long on the works of the Apostle Peter, considering Paul wrote thirteen books and Peter wrote only three.
Well, now we are moving onto a new author and that author is Luke.
Luke wrote two works which some feel are merely part one and part two of the same work, which in my view is an accurate way of looking at them. First, there is the Gospel of Luke which is where we are going to start, and then there is the book of Acts, also known as The Acts of the Apostles. That’s a somewhat more accurate title; even more accurate would be The Acts of the Holy Spirit.
Regardless of what you call them, those are the two books that Luke wrote. Some scholars suggest that he collaborated with Paul to write the Epistle to the Hebrews which was a new suggestion to me this week and is an intriguing idea for sure, maybe a spoiler for where we’ll go after Acts…
So who is Luke, what do we know about him?
Most commonly known is that Luke was a doctor, an educated man, most likely from Antioch in Syria which was a very polished city, thought to be the seat of science and learning in the Roman world of the First Century. This would explain Luke’s incredible work of writing his Gospel account and the Book of Acts. He weren’t no dummy!
Luke was a close companion of the Apostle Paul. Paul mentions him by name in Philemon 24, 2 Timothy 4:11, and Colossians4:14. Luke joins up with Paul in the city of Troas, also known as Troy. This is recorded in one of my favorite passages of Scripture mostly because I’m such a nerd about this sort of thing.
Acts 16:6-10
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Did you see the difference? Remember that Luke is writing this, and he goes from saying, “they,” and, “them,” to saying, “we,” and, “us.” I love that! I’m a nerd, I know!
Luke remained with Paul for most of his life and ministry after that, preaching and writing. He was well known by the church and was martyred in Greece by being crucified on an olive tree because there weren’t any crosses around.
You can see evidence of the relationship of Paul and Luke in their accounts of the Lord’s Supper as well as Luke’s subtle emphasis on justification by faith alone. Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians 11 that we often read during Communion very closely echoes Luke’s account of the Last Supper in Luke 22.
Luke’s Gospel differs greatly from the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, not just in organization and style but in his overall emphasis.
Luke endeavored to preserve the chronological order of the events much more that Matthew did. And where Matthew presents Jesus to us as the Messiah of Israel, and Mark announces the gospel of the Son of God, Luke depicts the Son of Man, Jesus’ most used title for Himself. He appeared definitely in Israel but for the benefit of all of mankind, Jews and Gentiles.
JJ van OOsterzee wrote, “As Paul led the people of the Lord out of the bondage of the Law into the enjoyment of gospel liberty, so did Luke raise sacred history from the standpoint of Israeilitish nationality, to the higher and holier ground of universal humanity.”
If you compare Matthew’s record of Jesus’ genealogy to Luke’s the contrast will really stand out, Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage back to Abraham, the origin of the Jewish race, but Luke traced it all the way back to Adam the origin of all races.
I’d like to look at Luke 1:1-4, the only preface given by any of the Gospel writers, and do a little exercise with you.
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
So we’ve been doing a little bit of our typical Bible study procedures, thinking about who wrote a specific text, who was it written to, and what were the circumstances…
So far, we’ve gotten to the fact that Luke wrote this book, but who did he write it to? Theophilus.
We don’t know much about Theophilus, the experts think that he lived in Italy but not much else is really known about him. Both Luke and Acts are addressed to Him.
But as far as the circumstances for the writing of this Gospel, I’d like to do a little exercise with you called, “Drafting an Author’s Intent Statement.”
Luke is the easiest subject to do this exercise on, on both of his writings, because you don’t have to look any further than his introduction to get the information that you need in order to do it.
Drafting an author’s intent statement is to simply consider what the original author intended to do in his writing, what was he trying to accomplish? This tool is helpful to us because it helps us get a little closer to the original meaning of any given text because we have to consider who originally wrote it and what we know about them, as well as who originally received it and what would it have meant to them in their context. This is so important to consider because a Biblical text can never mean what it never meant, we can’t just tear the meaning away from the original audience and try to force it into our modern context.
Unfortunately, many churches today do just the opposite and say that because the Bible was written so long ago, what it says isn’t really what it means, at least not anymore. This, my friends, is the definition of heresy. The meaning never changes, there is only one meaning, there may be infinite applications of the principles, but the meaning remains the same forever.
So let’s consider what Luke’s original intent was in writing this Gospel from verses 1-4.
Intent statements are made up of two parts: TO, and BY.
Meaning, the author’s intent was TO accomplish this or that, BY doing this or that.
It’ll make more sense in a minute. Everything is profound until you do it once.
Let’s look at those verses again.
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
So we’re looking for one TO and at least two BYs.
I’ll give you a hint, the TO is in verse four.
Luke’s intent in writing this Gospel was TO: give Theophilus certainty about the things that he had been taught. In this context it was obviously the things that he had been taught about the life and ministry of Jesus not about fly fishing.
So, Luke’s intent in writing this Gospel was TO: give Theophilus certainty about the things that he had been taught.
And the BY statements are how he planned to accomplish the TO statement. His intent was TO give Theophilus certainty about the things that he had been taught about the life and ministry of Jesus BY…
BY collecting accounts from eyewitnesses AND BY writing an orderly account.
Other people had tried to compile a narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus, Matthew and Mark had done that work already by the time Luke wrote his account, but Luke wanted to do it as well. And as we’ll see as we go through the fruit of his labor, his emphasis was very different from the other Gospel writers and his perspective was very different as well.
So this author’s intent exercise can be fun, it can be helpful, if you want to give it a try on your own, try it on the Book of Acts. Since you’re all beginners at it, Acts is just as easy to find as Luke, it’s in the first three verses, it will be a little trickier for you but it’s worth the effort.
One last thing about the original recipient of this letter, Theophilus.
The name Theophilus means, “lover of God.”
As Saint Ambrose wrote: “If you are a lover of God, a Theophilus, it is written to you.”
Amen.
