WWUTT 2246 Introduction to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:1-4)

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The Gospel of Luke is written like a letter, and it is written in such a way to detail events that really happen so that we can have certainty and confidence in what we believe, knowing it's the truth, when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. In our study through, well, the Bible, we have been studying the

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Gospels. And today we get to the Gospel of Luke. This lesson today is primarily going to be an overview of the book, as we will consider the author and his audience.

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Who is Luke, and who is he writing to? We're also going to do an outline of the book, an overview of these 24 chapters and what we might see, how it's divided up, the structure of the book.

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And then also some themes that we will see as we go through Luke. How is this book different than what we read in Matthew and in Mark, the other two synoptic

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Gospels? How is Luke different than what we will see in John? We'll consider those things as well. But to get started here, let me begin by reading the very beginning.

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The first sentence of Luke, which is as clear an introduction as any of the

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Gospels have. This is Luke chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, hear the word of the

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Lord. In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us.

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It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you, most excellent

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Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

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And there you go. That's the first four verses of Luke. It's one sentence that gives us a clear purpose statement of the book.

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Why is this being written? Well, this is a letter from Luke, although Luke is not clearly identified either here in this introduction or anywhere else in this book.

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There are clues that inform us as to who the author is. Most of those clues are really in the book of Acts.

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But Luke and Acts both begin the same way with this address to Theophilus.

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So you might consider this part one and part two. Luke is the story of Jesus the

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Christ and his mission. And then Acts is the account of the apostles of Christ and the mission that Jesus sent them on.

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So part one is showing us who is the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the coming

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Messiah and what it is that he accomplished in his earthly ministry, the things that he taught concerning the kingdom of God and so on.

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And then as he commissions his disciples to go out into the world, spreading the gospel and growing, advancing the kingdom.

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So that's what we have in the book of Acts. Luke is primarily the gospel the way that the apostle

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Paul preached it. So when we were in Matthew, I had mentioned that Matthew is an apostle.

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He is one of the 12. So you have an account from one who was with Jesus throughout his earthly ministry.

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Mark is not written by one of the disciples, although he was an eyewitness. Mark was rather a disciple of Peter, and he probably was among the extra disciples that would have been following Jesus around.

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So Mark indeed was an eyewitness to some of the things that happened during the course of Jesus earthly ministry.

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But Mark was still writing what Peter had preached was the gospel. Since Luke is part of Paul's missionary entourage,

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Luke is writing the gospel the way that Paul would have preached it. Now we call Luke the third of the synoptic gospels.

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Synoptic is a word that means the same. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke seem to share a lot of the same oral tradition.

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So that's why we refer to these three gospels as synoptic. But even though they might be, you know, something like 70 to 80 % the same with regards to the miracles that are talked about, the journey that Jesus is on over the course of his earthly ministry, the way that he travels around performing miracles, teaching certain things, coming to Jerusalem, and then the things that are recorded in that last week of his ministry, his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and some of the things that transpire after that.

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A lot of that is the same in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So that's why they are referred to as synoptic gospels.

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Now there are some out there who will say that there is a written tradition that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all drawing from.

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And that written tradition is referred to as the Q document. It's not something that's ever been discovered.

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Nobody's ever been able to affirm it actually exists. But because those three gospels sound the same, they must have the same source or drawing from the same source.

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So there is an account of Jesus earthly ministry that exists before Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

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But as I said, there's no evidence to support that that is true. What is more likely the case is that there was an agreed upon oral tradition among the apostles who said, when we go out and we teach the things that Jesus taught and did and commanded and so on and so forth, what's the main idea?

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What are we going to say? Now, either this was led by the Holy Spirit, either way it was led by the

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Holy Spirit. But it could be that because the Spirit was leading them, they're all saying the same thing or they agreed upon a certain tradition that they were going to repeat as they went out sharing the gospel.

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And I think the second scenario is most likely, again, still the Holy Spirit behind it.

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But the apostles agree with one another. We can't stand there and talk for hours upon hours about everything that Jesus did as we're trying to spread the gospel to the most number of people.

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What are the highlights? What are we primarily going to say? And that's why you have Matthew, Mark, and Luke that sound very similar.

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But when you read them, and you probably picked this up already with the studies that we've done in Matthew and Mark, when you read them, they're clearly different.

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Yeah, they record a lot of the same events. Sometimes those events will be put in a different order, but it's very obviously a different voice among all three.

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Luke does not sound like Matthew. Mark definitely doesn't sound like Matthew and Luke.

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Mark was trying to do everything really quick, catching the highlights, kind of an action story, boom, boom, boom, and get through those things fast so that you know all the high points concerning the things that Jesus did and said.

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There's not a lot of large discourse or huge bodies of teaching from Mark. He's mostly focused on events.

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Luke is going to be a lot more meticulous. Now, Matthew was meticulous, of course, as he showed how

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Jesus was the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. You had lots of Old Testament references, and we're going to see some of those references in Luke's gospel as well.

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Luke is going to focus upon very specific places, people, events, times in which these things happened, and so on.

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Luke spends a lot of time on these details. We went through Mark rather quickly, especially compared with Matthew.

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We're going to take our time with Luke. Since he was real meticulous, we want to be meticulous also in the way that we study these things.

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This will be a much longer study than what we studied in Matthew and Mark. Another reason why

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Luke is going to be longer is because the book is simply longer. This is the longest book in the

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New Testament. Yes, even though Matthew has 28 chapters in it and Luke has 24,

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Luke actually has a thousand more words than Matthew has. Luke is the longest book in the

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New Testament, and I think it's the 12th longest book in the Bible altogether, if memory serves.

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There's 11 other books in the Bible that are longer than Luke, and all of them are in the Old Testament.

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Luke is the longest New Testament book. For that reason, this will take us a little bit longer, but also we want to focus on some of these details that Luke has been so careful to record for us.

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We get that right at the very beginning. As Luke is saying to this man named

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Theophilus that here is why he is writing, so that Theophilus has a detailed account of these things that have occurred from eyewitnesses.

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Luke is recording these things according to what eyewitnesses have told him, and Luke has been an eyewitness to some of these things.

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He even says so. Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, so he is among those who have been with the apostles and have been going out, spreading the gospel throughout the world, verse 2, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word and have delivered them to us, and that's in reference to the eyewitnesses who would have said these things concerning the gospel to Luke.

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That's what he's writing down, that which came from these eyewitness accounts. And so he says in verse 3, it seemed good to me also, having followed all these things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent

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Theophilus. Now whoever Theophilus is, we don't know much about him. We know more about Luke than we know about Theophilus, and we don't really know all that much about Luke either.

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We know that he was a doctor, a physician, that's mentioned in Paul's letters. Colossians 4 .14

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says, Luke, the beloved physician, greets you as does, then he mentioned some other names.

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So Luke is a doctor, and that would explain why he is so emphatic upon these details.

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He's so careful to record the details. Now Theophilus, again, we don't know who that is. The only time

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Theophilus is mentioned is at the beginning of Luke and at the beginning of Acts. Some have assumed that Theophilus is not a real person, that he's actually a made -up singular figure that Luke is using as a stand -in for the entire body of Christ, for everybody who is a

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Christian and a follower of Jesus. The name Theophilus means beloved of God.

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Theo meaning God. You're familiar with Theo at the beginning of words like theology. And then philos, which is from the

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Greek word philo, meaning brotherly love. So Theophilus, meaning loved of God.

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And that's all of the followers of Jesus, right? They're all loved of God. So Theophilus may be a fictional character or just some sort of personification that Luke has given for the whole body of believers.

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But I don't accept that theory. I don't think that's right at all. Especially when you consider how much

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Luke is paying attention to real people in real places, real events, and the times in which these things happen, and very careful to record all of that in a very detailed way.

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It's so unlikely that Theophilus would therefore be someone fictional. That would seem out of character for Luke, who is trying to record these things accurately, to then throw in a guy that's made up.

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Well, then how much of what Luke records is therefore figurative for something?

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That would just be confusing. So Theophilus was most likely a real person, and he could have been somebody who hosted a church in his home, kind of like Philemon did, or he could be a pastor or an elder himself.

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We don't know for sure, but we know that Luke and Acts are both written like letters. Yes, they're gospel accounts, but it's as though Luke is writing a letter to a particular person recording these things, so that once again, as Luke says, you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

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Now, that's certainly applicable to all of us. Not just to Theophilus, but all of us.

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When we read Luke, we can have certainty about those things that we have been taught. Though Luke is writing to one guy, it's not as though he's writing so that only

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Theophilus will read it. It's written so that a multitude of people would read it.

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I'm finishing up the book of Titus with my congregation. We just have a couple of more weeks in Titus, and it's at the very end of Titus where the apostle

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Paul says, all who are with me sends greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.

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Grace be with you all. Now, Titus was written to one guy, right?

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One of Paul's disciples that he sends to the island of Crete to accomplish the work that needed to be done in those churches.

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So he writes a letter to Titus about his assignment, the things that he's going to be doing. But this letter was not just to be read by Titus.

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It was apparently to be read by more people than that. The other churches that Titus was going to be working with, the people in those churches.

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And then even beyond that, the Holy Spirit intends for us to read it 2 ,000 years later. And so the same is with the gospel of Luke.

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Luke may have addressed it to one man, but he doesn't write it to just be read to one man by the

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Holy Spirit's preservation of this book. We have it today that we may study it and know that Jesus is the

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Christ and what he expects of us as his disciples advancing the kingdom of God in this world through the preaching of the gospel.

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All of that we're going to see here in the gospel of Luke. Now, then, that's a little bit about the author and who he was writing to some other things that we're going to see in Luke as well.

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Let's consider an outline. How is this divided up? Well, you might think of chapter one, verses one through four as something of a preamble, an introductory sentence, maybe a subtitle to the gospel of Luke that we just read.

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The first three chapters are all introduction, introducing us to main characters and some main events.

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And we see kind of a shared narrative that's happening here in chapter one. You have the angel Gabriel that foretells the birth of John the

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Baptist, and then he appears to Mary and foretells the birth of the Christ. And so you have the beginning of John the

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Baptist ministry and Jesus ministry, both here in these first three chapters, focusing mostly on John the

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Baptist. This section, the introduction ends with the genealogy of Jesus at the conclusion of chapter three, and it traces from Jesus all the way back to Adam.

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And I think the reason that we have that, that's different than the genealogy that we saw in Matthew. The reason why the genealogy is written the way that it is in Luke is so that we would see that Jesus is the last

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Adam. You have the first Adam who failed to obey and follow God, and you have the last

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Adam, Jesus, who is going to fulfill the will of the father perfectly. That's part of Paul's teaching.

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Remember that he talked about Jesus being the last Adam in Romans and in first Corinthians.

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So that makes sense that Luke would include that as well as part of his introduction, showing that Jesus is the

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Christ, the holy one of God. From there, we have from chapters four through nine, we have the introduction to Jesus ministry.

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And this really begins in chapter four with Jesus in Nazareth, preaching from the book of Isaiah.

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He reads from Isaiah 61, which says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

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He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the

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Lord's favor. And then Jesus sits down and says, this scripture has been fulfilled in your midst.

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So he is demonstrating right there in his hometown synagogue that Jesus is the fulfillment of those things that have been prophesied in the book of Isaiah.

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He is the messianic figure that is talked about in Isaiah 53. And then we have through these first or these next several chapters, all the way through chapter nine, we have the beginning of Jesus earthly ministry.

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Now, this really concludes when you get to, let's see, in chapter nine, it is in verse 51, where it says there, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem and he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the

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Samaritans to make preparations for him. Okay. So that point right there, which is almost at the end of chapter nine, that's a turning point.

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We're now from chapters nine through 19. We have Jesus journey to Jerusalem.

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It's almost like Luke writes about Jesus earthly ministry as being on like a journey and the people that he meets and the places that he goes to and the lessons that he teaches and the miracles that he performs, all the good works that he does.

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All of those things are recorded in this journey from chapters nine to 19. We've seen some of it even up to this point from chapters four through nine, but that's really a turning point there.

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And then we're following Jesus and his disciples along on this journey as he is going to Jerusalem.

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Now, the next turning point, the next dividing marker is going to be in chapter 19 with the triumphal entry.

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So then Jesus has made it to Jerusalem. That's it. Chapter 19, verse 28. And we see a lot of the same events that we've read, recorded in Matthew and Mark as well.

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Jesus is going to die on the cross. He's going to rise again from the dead. And then so from chapters, the end of 19 through the end, chapter 24 is

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Jesus crucifixion and resurrection narratives and the commissioning of the disciples to then take the gospel to the world.

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Luke is the first gospel that records Jesus ascension into heaven. That hasn't been said in Matthew or in Mark.

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Yes, we saw it in the Mark and appendix, but remember that we understood that appendix was added later.

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It was not originally written by John Mark. So somebody else threw that in at the end of Mark.

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It wasn't meant by the Holy Spirit to be recorded in Mark's gospel that way.

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So the first account of Jesus ascension into heaven is at the end of Luke. And then we read of it again at the beginning of the book of Acts.

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It's like Luke comes back to it again and then mentioned some other things that Jesus told his disciples before he ascended into heaven.

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So that's the outline of Luke. You have that preamble or that opening sentence in chapter one, and then the introduction in chapters one through three, you have the beginning of Jesus earthly ministry chapters four through nine a, and then you have

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Jesus journey to Jerusalem in nine B through 19 a, and then

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Jesus in Jerusalem, his death, his resurrection and his ascension. And that's from 19

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B through to the end chapter 24. So there you go. There's the outline to the gospel of Luke.

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Now, how about some of the themes that we are going to see here? Well, like in the gospel of Matthew, the kingdom of God is a big theme.

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Now in Matthew's gospel, Matthew recorded it as the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven was a term that appeared 31 times in Matthew's gospel kingdom of God appears 31 times in Luke's gospel.

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So this is going to be a major theme. Also, the way that Jesus expects us to behave as citizens of his kingdom and that we are going to reach out to the poor and the needy and the destitute as Jesus is going to do a lot here in this gospel.

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And, and in fact, thematically Jesus comes to the poor and he rebukes those who are high and lofty.

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You think highly of themselves. We see that quite a bit. Sometimes those individuals that Jesus convicts will repent like Zacchaeus.

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You have the Zacchaeus narrative in Luke's gospel, and it's only recorded in Luke's gospel, not in any of the other gospels.

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There are certain parables that will appear in Luke's gospel as well that are unique to this book, like the parable of the good

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Samaritan, the parable of the prodigal son, which is probably better recorded as the, uh, the parable of the older brother.

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We'll talk about that when we get to that particular parable, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, you know, where the tax collector goes into the temple and beats his chest and says,

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Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. That one is, is here in Luke's gospel.

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Also the account of the rich man and Lazarus. Now that's not a parable, but that account that Jesus gives of a man named

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Lazarus, who is carried up to heaven and a rich man who dies and goes to a place of fiery torment. That's in Luke chapter 16.

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And we only find that recorded in Luke's gospel. So heaven and hell is talked a lot about here again, kingdom of God and how we are to live as citizens in the world.

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The way that God is, uh, is changing the world, renewing things through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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The way that, uh, that believers are supposed to live being good stewards of that, which

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God has entrusted to them and being willing to be generous with what God has given to us.

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There are quite a few warnings in Luke about, uh, being, being careful with riches, not holding too fast to the world, not chasing after the passions of our flesh, not expecting, uh, a kingdom that is of the world, but rather a kingdom that is from God that is even being inaugurated in their very midst.

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As Jesus is here and is preaching and people are coming to believe in him and follow him.

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So these are some of the main themes that we see through Luke's gospel. Once again, you have the sovereignty of Christ, God's rule over all of history that is being fulfilled in Christ, the kingdom of God being a major theme differences between the rich and poor rebuking of those who have privilege or higher prestige and power.

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And when I say privilege, I don't mean the woke version of privilege, but privilege, according to its context, that's used here in Luke, a, a love for those who are oppressed and hurting and the poor and the destitute.

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And then also the way that believers are supposed to live in this world, committed to prayer, practicing good stewardship, being careful with their possessions and, uh, and being aware of the danger of riches.

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Heaven and hell are talked about a lot here. Jesus making very stern rebukes.

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In fact, I would say this might be a personal opinion, but I think that Jesus harshest words are here in Luke's gospel.

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Yeah. Even though we have the seven woes that are set against the Pharisees and Matthew, you have

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Jesus saying some pretty harsh things in John's gospel as well. But I think some of his harshest statements are here in Luke.

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You might pick that up as well as we go through this. And the reason Jesus speaks that way, the reason

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Luke records Jesus speaking that way is not because he just wants to beat us over the head and make us feel bad all the time.

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It's because he loves us so that we would be warned that judgment is coming upon this world.

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And the only way that we can be saved from the judgment of God is to turn to Jesus Christ as our savior.

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And that we likewise, because we have heard the gospel message, which has been affirmed in great detail here in Luke's gospel, because we know what we believe is true.

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And we know that this is the only way that we can be saved from the wrath of God, from death itself and have our sins forgiven.

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The only way that we can enter into God's presence with his favor upon us is through Jesus Christ.

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And so we must take that message to the world. We have come to believe it. That is the only way to gain eternal life.

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And so we must tell the world the good news about Jesus. Another main theme of Luke's gospel.

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Let's finish there with prayer. We'll come back to Luke chapter one tomorrow. Heavenly father,

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I thank you for what we have read here in this introduction to Luke and thinking about some of the things that we're going to be reading over as we go through what might be a long study.

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And Lord, I pray that you would bless us as we go through these things. May we see the savior. May we be convicted of our sin.

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May it stir in us a desire to live a deeper life of holiness in commitment to our

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God, watching our steps, making sure that we are keeping ourselves focused upon Christ, not going after the passions of our flesh or the temptations of the world, but knowing that deliverance is only in Christ alone, who came to set the captives free, who came to deliver us into an imperishable kingdom.

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And may we set our eyes and our hopes upon that, not on anything in this world, but upon Christ and his promises.

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It is in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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.com. And click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our