The Gospel of Luke (1) - 09/11/2022

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Said rejoice. Oh Gentiles with his people and again, praise the

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Lord all you Gentiles and let all the peoples extol him and Again, Isaiah says the root of Jesse will come even he who arises to rule the

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Gentiles in him Will the Gentiles hope? May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the

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Holy Spirit You may abound in hope. I Myself am satisfied about you my brothers that you will that you yourselves are full of goodness

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Filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another But on some points

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I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by God To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the

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Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God So that the offering of the

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Gentiles may be acceptable sanctified by the Holy Spirit In Christ Jesus then

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I have reason to be proud of my work for God For I will not venture to speak of anything except what

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Christ has accomplished through me To bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed

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By the power of signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to ill

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Kirlian Ill the cream I Have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ and thus

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I make it my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has already Not where Christ has already been named lest I build on someone else's foundation

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But as it is written those who have never been told of him will see and those who have never heard will understand

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This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you But now since I am no longer have any room for work in these regions and since I have longed for many years to come

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To you I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey

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There by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while At present.

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However, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the Saints for Macedonia and Achaia Have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints of Jerusalem For they will were well pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them

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For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service of them in material blessings

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When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected

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I will leave for Spain by way of you I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ I Appeal to you brothers by our

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Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf

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That I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the

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Saints So that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company

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May the God of peace be with you all. Amen Let's pray

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Our Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you for its comfort.

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We thank you for its encouragement We pray Lord that you would give us an understanding of your word that you'd give us an understanding of the gospel

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Give us an understanding of your great character Lord so that we might live lives in a way that is pleasing to you

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We pray Lord that our lives would be lived in accordance with the scriptures Lord help us now as we continue our worship and as we open up your word

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We pray that we would hear the words and that the Spirit would teach us what they have to say We pray

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Lord that you would reveal the areas of our lives that need to change Change in our thinking change in our behavior.

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We pray Lord that this would be all to your glory Thank you Lord in Jesus name. Amen Well, I look forward to next week when he reads

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Roman 16 and all those Greek names that he's gonna have to pronounce As we commonly say it could be worse, you know, it could be me so Well this morning.

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We're beginning our study of Luke's gospel And today's message may be more of a technical of a technical nature.

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I Think there's this necessity in doing so Every Sunday won't be quite like this but to begin this study.

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I think it's important that we give a great attention to detail And I suspect it's going to take quite some time to complete

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We might at the outset give a rationale for this study why Luke First I believe this study which

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God is what God would have us study at this time as a church the gospel of Luke It is a desire of course to train you to And equip you as disciples of Jesus Christ as thoroughly as possible and Luke's gospel is certainly suitable toward this end

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We read in Luke's gospel of him calling out these these people of course unto himself from different backgrounds different levels of education

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Experience and he makes them disciples. They were sincere but rather illiquid men at first But we as we hear the

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Lord Jesus instruct them and as guided by Luke's pen I teach and train these men in the space of about three years

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They were equipped to carry on the work of the kingdom of God as his Apostles in his absence and so it's a desire to trace this relationship between our

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Lord and his disciples and Thereby equip ourselves to become more effective disciples followers of Jesus Christ and then secondly this study will be good for this or really any congregation that it will cause us to approach the things of God from a right perspective and Ensure that we retain this perspective the gospel of Luke and really every book of the

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Bible The gospel of Luke is not a book which sets forth you as an individual as the center of all things

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With God and his purpose in history to help you like yourself or feel fulfilled

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Or some such thing and yet sadly it seems that this is the philosophy that drives many evangelical churches at the present time

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Should not be The fallen world is anthropocentric Anthropocentric Man centered

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I'm the center of the world and everything revolves or should revolve around me

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And woe is the world if it doesn't I mean, that's that's the worldview But the

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Word of God is theocentric Christocentric God -centered and God -focused

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It's not good that the Word of God is often employed as a self -help book by which people can feel better about themselves and discover the keys to a happy life

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Now the Bible will do that, but when people are primarily

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Focused on that and looking for that they are out of balance The center and focus of this

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Holy Bible before us is our triune God and what he's done in history Through his son Jesus Christ to redeem his people unto himself

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This is a book which sets forth how God brings sinful men into a relationship with himself and how these

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Redeemed people are to live before him and what they're to believe regarding him and themselves and So if I can be frank here candle it candid if you have little interest or desire for knowing

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God and his will We've got nothing for you But if the

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Lord has given you a heart to know him and walk with him We pray that he will satisfy every desire and need that you have from his word that set before us this book is a revelation of God to us and It is through this book that God himself makes known the riches of his glory and the vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory and Working our way through the gospel

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Luke will keep us in this Theocentric world view frame of mind and again our own sinful tendencies and the world

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Wants to push you to be the center of all things and we have to resist that that's what

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Jesus said You need to deny yourself That's a whole different worldview and then what we came into the world with when we were born with it's a whole shift

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What's most important is God himself and Jesus Christ is the center and meaning of?

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all things Now before us is Luke's prelude to his gospel first four verses of Luke 1 and I'd like to focus on this text these four verses closely so that we might understand

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What motivated Luke to write this gospel and what impressed him as to his purpose for writing it?

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And by the way, you know, probably most of you have a set of notes before you but we send these out

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And numbers have you received them already via email or through our phone app?

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And so you have them available on your phone? And if you would like that You can either obtain them through the app or give me your email address and we send them out every

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Sunday morning around 8 o 'clock Generally a little before Well, here are the first four verses of Luke's gospel the prologue the preface

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In as much as many have taken in hand a set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us

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Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us

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It seemed good to me. Also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first To write to you an orderly account most excellent

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Theophilus That you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed

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Let's consider the preface itself and then after doing so we'll draw some implications and application

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If we were about to sit down and read the gospel of Luke at sequel, which is the book of Acts There's two volumes, of course volume one

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Luke volume two the acts We might tend to gloss over these introductory verses so that we can settle on the details and Frankly, I was looking forward to really beginning with verse 5, which we'll do next week

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Lord willing But this would be a mistake just to pass over these verses because they're very significant.

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They're extremely informative about a number of issues of importance here we obtained the clearest view of the author and His purpose for writing and very importantly were given a glimpse into the period of early

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Christians when Christian writings began to appear and God was Communicating his scriptures to his people

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And so through the use of this preface Luke attempted to secure an immediate sympathetic hearing of his readers by establishing the reliability of his credentials and His motivation for having written this account.

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He claims an acquaintance with eyewitnesses Eyewitness testimony and a long association with the true facts of history thereby possessing personal qualifications to relate his story and so let's

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Consider the literary nature of this preface Luke 1 verses 1 through 4 in the original

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Greek in which Luke wrote is a very polished sophisticated and finely structured sentence in Greek By the way, we'll point out next week there is a remarkable significant change in style with verse 5

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It's more Old Testament Hebrew like but this is high quality Greek Verses 1 through 4.

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In fact one wrote These verses are generally judged to the be best stylized sentence in the whole

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New Testament. It's one sentence in the Greek and What he meant by that statement was that these four verses contain an extremely high level of literary sophistication

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Which is really unusual for New Testament documents Most of the New Testament was written in the common language of the people

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Cone a Greek as it's commonly referred to But this single sentence transcends common literary language

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It's set forth as an organized well -balanced statement of a highly educated person who is addressing no doubt a person of rank and esteem and So here are the words of an excellent commentator on the

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Greek text. I wouldn't recommend you to buy this It's on the Greek text IH Marshall He wrote the preface is written in excellent

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Greek with the most carefully wrought sentence structure and stands in contrast to the style

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Adopted in the following narrative. That would be the narrative about Zacharias and Elizabeth and the birth of John the

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Baptist. We'll point that out next week It claims a place for the gospel as a work of literature worthy of an educated audience

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Although the gospel is addressed to one reader. That'd be Theophilus. It was meant to circulate widely

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The sophistication of its style is evident in both its vocabulary and its structure

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The writer used no less than six Greek words, which suggest literary sophistication words which are commonly found in ancient

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Greek literary works and The structure of the sentence contains two balanced parts verses 1 & 2 and then secondly verses 3 & 4 and Each of these two parts contains three matching phrases

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It's clear from the elevated style of his preface That Luke was attempting to predispose his readers to be receptive and responsive to the story which he was about to relate

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Now Although Luke's preface is unique to biblical writings It actually reflects a pattern which was quite conventional in the

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Hellenistic and Roman world Prologues were rather commonplace. In fact, most of us are probably familiar with the works of Josephus It was a

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Jewish man who wrote for the Romans history eyewitness to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 1870 at the beginning of his work the antiquities of the

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Jews. He had two major volumes This was one of them Josephus wrote a dedicated prologue addressed to Epaphroditus In a similar way that Luke addressed

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Theophilus But Luke's prologue stands forth as exceptional as one wrote

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But although it's true that Luke is a highly cultured author writing flawless and elegant Greek Adopts a type of introduction.

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It was customary with writers of the day and age. His prologue is more beautifully balanced than any of the others and also kinder in tone than some of them a quick comparison with the introductions by Josephus Immediately causes his contrast to stand out sharply

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Luke's forward correctly interpreted contains no Recumendatory remarks it is a product of divine inspiration

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Studies have shown that the form and content of Luke's preface is similar to prefaces in other ancient biographies and histories

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In fact one New Testament scholar Charles Talbert identified seven

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Elements that are common to this type of preface in the Greek world And so these elements include one the writers predecessors

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Luke mentions those Second the subject matter of the subsequent work third the author's

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Qualifications to write for the plan or arrangement of the work fifth the comment about the purpose for writing

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Six the name of the author and seven an official addressee of the work Luke's preface reflects six of these seven elements

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Of course, the one missing element is Luke did not identify himself by name in his prologue

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He was a humble guy One may conclude that his Alignment with literary convention reveals that Luke the author desired to commend his work to a rather broad

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Spectrum of educated readers of his day, even though he was addressing Theophilus specifically directly

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Let's consider the contents of the preface and so again, let's just in the few introductory words we've said let's read it again and as much as many have taken in hand to set an order a

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Narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us

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It seemed good to me Also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write to you an orderly account

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Most excellent Theophilus that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed verse one sets forth the importance of Luke's subject and So the first clause even of the sentence begins with the

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English words in as much as In as much as many have taken in hand to set an order a narrative

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These two words in English in as much as is actually a translation of a singular word in Greek Which is a payday pair

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This Is the only occurrence of this word in the New Testament it's a significant word and Theophilus would have immediately been struck that This guy's pretty educated pretty formal

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It's a word that was generally used in classical sophisticated literature of the day The very first word would have been perceived as betraying an intelligent and educated writer

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Many wrote that many had written of these matters in as much as many have taken them in hand

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Luke stated that others before him had similarly set forth the record of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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In fact many had There's no suggestion that Luke was denigrating their early efforts.

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He wasn't putting down the many that had written The point was that he too just like others had before him have taken pen in hand to set forth the accounts that he was relating to his readers

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As one wrote he justified his work by reference to the precedent of earlier similar writings to the trustworthy nature of his sources and to his own

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Qualifications to produce an orderly narrative based on careful research. He shows no disparagement of his predecessors

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Rather he felt that their example justified his own effort to write a gospel intended for the particular situation which he addressed

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And so Luke was not suggesting that they Those many had failed in their efforts or that he was going to set forth truth where they had set forth error

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Respecting these matters. He was simply saying that because others had wrote about these matters. He purposed to do also

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No doubt he believed he was capable of setting forth a more complete narrative in an orderly fashion than others had done

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But he was adding to the record. He was not aiming to correct it Considering Luke's statement that others had written of these matters may help us somewhat in determining when

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Luke wrote this gospel some period of time had passed since the life of the ministry of Jesus on earth and Also the second volume of course reveals that Luke probably wrote these things toward the end of when

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Paul was imprisoned in Rome as betrayed in Acts 28 Some time had passed since the events that occurred people had written of them.

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In fact, many had done So this and other factors which we need not address at this time

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Have led conservative scholars to believe that Luke probably wrote his gospel in the 60s ad

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Maybe around ad 65. The point is it had to be before Jerusalem was destroyed in the temple destroyed in 8070 and I think that's that's correct

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After Luke had declared that many people have taken in hand to write he described what it was They had written in as much as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things

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Which had been fulfilled among us Others had told the story having written down their account of what had occurred and When Luke described what it was they had written as a narrative

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They were of those things which had been fulfilled among us Now he expressed this verb in the passive voice

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They were you know, they were fulfilled among us and that passive voice verb means something

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These things have been fulfilled that passive voice of this Participle rather than a verb actually suggests these things had transpired were the works of God They've been fulfilled among us.

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God was at work Is what he's implying as one wrote

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The thought is of events brought to completion namely the events leading to salvation the passive form suggests that these divine acts which

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God himself promised as now fully brought to pass and the use of the perfect it's a perfect tense participle

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Indicates they are seen as a finished series in past time and So these things that had been written about had been fulfilled.

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In other words accomplished Luke was asserting that his gospel was an account of a story which it was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy

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These events didn't just occur but were accomplished. God had done so And so Luke was rehearsing the story of God's work in history

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And Furthermore these things had been accomplished among us is what Luke wrote Luke included his readers in that personal pronoun plural personal pronoun among us

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Included his readers with himself This too was a subtle commendation of the importance and relative and relevance of his story

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The narrative was an account of events. They were not just accomplished in an isolated setting In a community which may or may not have had significance for the readers

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God had been working in history and it had implications and application for everybody

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These things were fulfilled among us in our midst Bringing to pass events which were relevant

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Not only to the many who had written about them and Luke himself but even to the readers as well

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These things have been fulfilled among us As readers may not have been aware of these events

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But Luke is stating that God had been at work fulfilling these things among us In other words among the fallen people of the world

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Now whereas in verse 1 the narrator or Luke stressed the importance of his subject in verse 2

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He emphasized the reliability of his sources Luke sought to affirm to his readers

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He had possession of faithfully communicated accounts of the story that he himself was now about to relate to them

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Verse 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us

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Luke quite clearly declared forthrightly that his sources of facts were reliable witnesses in Fact they were eyewitnesses

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Luke does not claim to have been an eyewitness. He wasn't of course He was an eyewitness to what we have recorded in Acts, but not the gospel of Luke This is a preface to Their testimony was firsthand not secondary eyewitnesses wrote about these things and he had his hands upon them and Therefore the facts of his gospel were reliable.

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Not only were the facts he related reliable But the eyewitnesses themselves were legitimate.

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They had been ministers of the word These weren't rumors being scattered around Here the word is a technical term describing the

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Christian message These eyewitnesses regarded them as servants of the word

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Which is the record of the acts and teaching of Jesus and his apostles the contents of the gospel and by extension the book of Acts Luke describes him as ministers in other words servants of the word and so in describing the ones who had conveyed their accounts of the gospel story to Luke Luke sought to convince his readers of the reliability of his sources as Ministers of the word these eyewitnesses were subordinate to the message itself

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They were not predominant the message was Their activity did not involve the accommodation of their message to suit the furtherance of their own movement or reputation

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That wasn't their motivation. They were servants of the word Their testimony was firsthand and therefore reliable The eyewitnesses as ministers of the word were sincere their efforts to bear faithful Testimony of that message.

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The word is a Christian message Unchanging in its central emphasis but variable in its form and detailed exposition

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And here the record of the acts and teaching of Jesus is met Luke stated these eyewitnesses and minister the word had delivered them to us

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The New American Standard Version reads they have handed them down to us What is revealed is that these authoritative firsthand eyewitnesses who regarded themselves as servants or ministers of the word who had written down their

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Own narratives or what they had revealed had been revealed to them by God these men delivered their written documents into the hands of Luke Luke had sources that he used to write his gospel

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Luke had available to him written sources The readers of the gospel would have at once recognized this language

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Delivered them to us as depicting the faithful and secure communication of the body of truth

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Delivered to Luke just as the Jewish fathers of old had faithfully handed down their writings to their children these eyewitnesses these ministers of the word carefully and faithfully

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Entrusted the message into Luke's hands and with these sources Luke has put together his account of the gospel

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Now at this point we can perhaps divert a few moments and address a matter

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About the synoptic Gospels which of course are Matthew Mark and Luke John is not one of the synoptic

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Gospels In New Testament studies, there's been a long protracted issue.

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That's been called the synoptic problem. You might have heard of it and so we need to Probably should address the matter briefly.

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The first three Gospels are commonly referred to as the synoptic Gospels The word synoptic means it to have a common view and so these books are called the synoptics because they show similarity in their content their style and Manner of expression, you know a lot of parallel accounts of the same event

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The many similarities among the synoptic Gospels have led some to question if the human authors shared a common source such as another written account of Christ's birth life ministry death and Resurrection from which they gathered their material

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It is commonly argued that Matthew Mark and Luke are so similar that they must have used each other's writings or had another common source

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And so here is the problem that scholars have attempted to solve Matthew Mark and Luke have common accounts with one another

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But Matthew and Luke have information common with one another that's not found in Mark But Mark and Matthew have common information

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That's not found in Mark and many of the speeches of Jesus and Matthew and Luke are not found in Mark But then in addition

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Matthew has some material that's unique to him and Luke has some material unique to him

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And so how do you explain? You know these the relationships between the

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Gospels that's the synoptic problem that scholars have been working through for a couple hundred years and There have been different proposals about the sources behind the synoptic

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Gospels And again, there were sources Luke declares that in the preface That doesn't negate in any way the inspiration of God of the scriptures and we'll address that Well a few actually early on even in the second century a church father argued that Matthew first wrote his gospel and That it appears that Mark had

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Matthew as a source for his own and that Mark had basically condensed Matthew It then that said that Luke also used

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Matthew in writing his gospel and so the this belief in Matthew and Priority is sometimes the phrase you'll see

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It's not widely held today, but it's advocated strongly by a few In fact,

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I have a couple books in my library that their whole the whole entire book is given to argue this

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Matthew and priority However, the most commonly accepted theory is referred to as the two document hypothesis

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This asserts that Mark was the first written gospel It's the oldest and that both Matthew and Luke had

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Mark's gospel before them as a written source Matthew and Luke seemed to follow the order of Mark's gospel

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But in addition, it's claimed that Matthew and Luke also had a common source that contained mostly

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Jesus's lengthy teaching That's found in Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark The red letters in the red letter edition

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This written source of Jesus is saying has been commonly referred to at the Q Document and the letter

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Q and you'll read this sometimes in commentaries The letter Q is taken from the

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German word quela meaning source the Q source most scholars accept this explanation this two document hypothesis mark and Q as the source for for Matthew and and Luke Is there any evidence for a

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Q document? None Historically in terms of an actual written document

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No portion or fragment of a huge document has ever been discovered in all of the 5 ,300

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New Testament manuscripts or texts that we have None of the early church fathers ever mentioned a

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Q source between between the gospel accounts Q is a modern invention to support a human explanation of the composition of the synoptic

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Gospels While human authors compose these Gospels, there's no need for such an explanation

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Frankly the Bible itself claims to its writings are the supernatural inspired work of God and we accept that Luke had sources.

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He said he did But you know for us to try and identify those perhaps the gospel of Mark that might be legitimate, but it really doesn't matter

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Well Nevertheless here in Luke 1 1 through 4 Luke declared that he had many written sources

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Available to him and that he had made use of them Again, one of these was probably the gospel of Mark.

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Maybe I should say perhaps rather than probably What else he may have had is not stated

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But again, it doesn't matter in our study of Luke's gospel This matter may surface from time to time as we consider and compare the accounts parallel accounts between Matthew and Mark With Luke now after that little bit of rabbit trail, let's return to our text and so whereas in Luke 1 verse 1

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Luke stressed the importance of his subject in verse 2 We emphasize the reliability of his sources in verse 3.

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We read of Luke's own justification for writing his gospel So, what did he say?

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Let's read verse 3 in the context once again And as much as many have taken in hand to set an order narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us

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Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministered to the word delivered them to us and here's verse 3

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It seemed good to me also Having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write to you an orderly account most excellent

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Theophilus And so Luke joined himself with the others in writing his own account his own gospel in Verse 3 we have the writers own qualifications for writing set before us.

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It seemed good to me also To write an account was a suitable appropriate perhaps even a dutiful thing for him to do a

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Note of modesty is present Seemed good to me also And so he was saying it seemed good to me to write and and I think you'll agree

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It seemed good to me also since I'd known everything very thoroughly and I've had all these written

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Sources from eyewitnesses. It seemed good to me also to write The author may not have yet thought his readers to be predisposed to his work

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He's speaking in a you know, I think of kind of a gentle persuasive manner He's trying to influence

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Theophilus and anybody else who was going to read this work Now when we consider the meaning of these verses we might have it might have arisen in our thoughts

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Well, how do Luke's words and these few verses relate to the divine inspiration of the Bible? We know and believe that God has superintended the writing of Luke and all the writers of Scripture we affirm without question or without Qualification the doctrine of the divine inspiration of the

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Holy Scriptures All Scripture is given by inspiration of God's God breathe and it's profitable for doctrine for teaching for reproof reproving error errant people for correction where we might be a little off on our understanding

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Instruction and righteousness how to live all Scripture and he's referring primarily the Old Testament.

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It applies to the New Testament, too God has given it to us for this purpose

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And so it seemed good to me having had perfect understanding of all things The ESV translates this portion of the verse in this way

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It seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past No, Luke himself was not an eyewitness as were the earlier ministers of the word, but Luke also had credentials

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He was indeed qualified to write an account Not only had he received faithfully communicated tradition regarding these matters

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But he himself had followed all things closely for some time past. He had investigated them thoroughly

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Luke's use of the first -person address Commended himself as a sincere competent witness of the subsequent story.

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It seemed good to me also But the issue being stressed is the degree of concern that Luke had for the historical accuracy of the facts

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Luke had researched all things This refers to those things which he wrote about and firmly establishes the fact of the exhaustive nature of his research

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You know, he was with Paul a great deal of time the book of Acts Paul was in prison

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Caesarea Luke was there. He may have got his information on the birth narratives from Mary herself from other people there in Palestine Everywhere he went

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Luke, you know inquired research and gathered his understanding of these things from the very first from the very beginning or for a long time and So although Luke had not been an eyewitness from the beginning he had investigated all things even those events of the earliest day

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You know Luke chapter 2 1 verse 5 and following in chapter 2

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We'll get into that next in the following weeks and we'll address that he followed things closely or accurately

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And therefore Luke claimed three characteristics of his writing completeness accuracy thoroughness

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Luke regarded himself as a truthful competent informed Therefore he could write his intention to write to you an orderly account most excellent

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Theophilus To write an orderly account does not necessarily mean chronological But an orderly account he's merely stating to his readers they can expect an orderly and lucid story

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However, we would argue that much of Luke's gospel is chronological Maybe more so than Matthew or Mark that tend to group things more according to theme or subject matter

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But we'll get into that as we work through the text Luke regarded himself as truthful.

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Oh excellent Theophilus Well We come to verse 4 now really the end of verse 3 and the end verse 4 in which we read of Luke's purpose for writing

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At the end of verse 3 Luke identifies the one individual for whom or to whom he's writing as most excellent

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Theophilus Again Luke wrote it seemed good to me Also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write to you an orderly account most excellent

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Theophilus Several points we may made regarding this address first Theophilus, of course is a

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Greek word It means lover of God theos God Philos you may know it's a

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Greek word Like Philadelphia city of brotherly love. Here's a lover of God He was probably an actual person.

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Although some have argued that it was just kind of a literary device that Luke used

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I suspect he was a Roman of some rank or importance But specific identification with a specific person in the first century has not been possible

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The word translated most excellent is used by late Luke on three other occasions in the book of Acts and So it was used first in a letter of a tribune which was written to governor

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Felix. Oh excellent Felix Second by the spokesman

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Turtullus who was a lawyer to convict the Apostle Paul All right, and so most excellent

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Felix and then Paul who addressed Festus the successor Felix Oh meant Oh most excellent

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Felix And so this may suggest that Luke's use of the word in his preface identifies

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Theophilus as a Roman official Extra or outside biblical usage of the word is consistent with Luke's usage and that it was an honorific appellation or name or title of any official

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Whether or not Theophilus was a Christian is not clear but we do know that he had been instructed previously in the things of the gospel and Luke was attempting to instruct him further and confirm what he had learned was true

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Perhaps Theophilus was a literary patron One who had underwritten the public publication of a work

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That was common in that day Prefaces like this one would be a dedication to the one who basically financed the writing

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It is possible perhaps even likely that Theophilus was a new Christian of some importance however, and he needed grounding in the truth

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Or perhaps he was a person of importance who could either make it easier more difficult for Christians So Luke was writing a sort of apology or defense of the faith that Theophilus There is some evidence for this and that I'll point out much later in our study well

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I might just say this here and now every occasion in Luke and Acts whenever a Christian an apostle or or the

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Christian faith was Brought up before a Roman official every time the official declaration.

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I find no guilt. This is the innocent There's no threat to Rome and it would seem the fact that this is found in a number of places in both

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Luke and Acts Would have been a pretty good appeal to a Roman official that Christianity is not a threat

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But in every way will produce good citizens within the

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Empire But I think also addressing

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Theophilus in this way probably contributes to the perception of reliability and accuracy of this gospel if Luke is is writing to a person of note and importance

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You're not going to be fast and loose with the facts in writing to a guy like this You don't lie or give false facts to a

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Roman official Luke would give careful attention to the accuracy and faithfulness of his account

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So in conclusion Luke through his preface sought to commend his writing to a person of notoriety

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Luke sought to show himself as a sincere confident witness of the gospel story And he desired foremost that his readers would receive his story as both accurate and relevant

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Having received it from one who is sincere credible and respectful Luke concluded his prologue with verse 4

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Addressing Theophilus after addressing Theophilus. He stated his intention or purpose for writing his gospel

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And so he wrote again, I want to read the entire sentence In context and as much as many have taken in hand to set an order and narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among Us just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us

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It seemed good to me Also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write to you an orderly account most excellent

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Theophilus and then verse 4 That you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed

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Verse 4 is a purpose clause The Greek conjunction that opens is translated as that the

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Greek word Hina Makes this clear. It's got its Luke's purpose His purpose for writing this gospel was born out of his desire to convince his readers of the truthfulness of his account

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With regard to Theophilus specifically Luke desired that he would be confirmed in those things

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He had been previously taught that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed

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Interestingly the Greek word for instructed is a verb with a passive voice The Greek word is kata k face

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It's a Greek word from which is derived the English word catechize or catechism.

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That's why I put it down in Greek Kata case face catechism

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Theophilus had been catechized Instructed But Luke wanted the truth that had been taught

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Theophilus to be confirmed to him He wanted Theophilus to know the absolute truthfulness the certainty that what he had heard and learned was truth.

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I Kind of think this is evidence that Theophilus was a Christian or that he had been witnessed to Extensively and that he was near perhaps nearer embracing holy and faithfully the truth regarding Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God But that was

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Luke's motivation the Lord laid that upon Luke's heart. He wanted to write to this man and convince him and affirm to him the truth and This would have all been in the purpose and plan of God in his sovereignty in his

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Providence to give us our gospel What can we affirm or conclude from these things that we have spoken about today first a word to Christians In our efforts to communicate the gospel

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We should be as Luke and use every legitimate means possible to commend ourselves and our message clearly and effectively

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First we should be acknowledgeable about our Bible and its teachings as Luke was

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The Bible is a sword the Bible tells us. It's also a hammer Described in the

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Old Testament but the effectiveness of a sword will be in the manner that we wield it and This will be largely dependent on our ability to pull it from our scabbard as it were and apply it strokes artfully sound

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Soundly and accurately Luke had invested all investigated all things accurately to a degree

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He's able to put it down in writing make a solid convincing presentation of the faith and we should strive to have that kind of understanding

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We'll never arrive but we ought to be working toward it You can't live a good

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Christian life on what you learned in Sunday school when you're a child You can't even you can't you you won't even do well just going with what

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I taught last Sunday or today You've got to give yourself over to these matters the

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Word of God you need to be in the Word of God reading it attempting to understand it and And Secondly related to this we should be able to give stated reasons why this

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Bible and its message are accurate and trustworthy It's one thing for you and me to accept the details of the

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Bible because we're fully persuaded It's the Word of God, you know, the old adage God said and I believe it that settles it for me

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Well, that's fine But if you want non -christians particularly educated or thoughtful people to embrace the gospel

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You'll need to be able to show them the reliability of your sources just as Luke sought to do here

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You'll need to provide good reason statements and arguments asked during their difficult questions and this is what it is to sanctify the

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Lord God in your heart and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who Asks a reason for the hope that is in in you with meekness and fear

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Well, you could write Luke right across that verse can't you? and third the last words of Peter's statement to give a defense with meekness and fear should be the attitude and spirit in which we

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Speak to others regarding the truths that are in Jesus Christ Luke was assertive confident and direct

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But he was also gracious appealing and persuasive Spurgeon once said some

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Christians are so unlike their profession. They do well to speak less about spiritual matters He had a way with words

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And I think that's true Luke attempted to gain a sympathetic hearing by two principal means first is respectful address we were to regard and treat people with dignity and respect whether or not they do to us as immaterial and Secondly the conveyance of his sincerity that Theophilus would be

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Confirmed in the truth Luke had hoped through his preface Theophilus would be led to be responsive to a story which was both accurate and relevant

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Having received it from Luke who was sincere credible and respectful What is the name of that one lady is it

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Rosa reader Butterfield? Who was by her own admission a flaming lesbian feminist scholar one of the most pronounced women in the country?

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Over and I think in New York where she was a professor written books, you know over the years and she'd get these

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Letters from Christians and they'd pile up on her desk. You just throw them in the ash heap and but one letter she read and couldn't discard it and it was from a pastor and She made contact with him and the pastor and his wife

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Befriended her and over many months had her over to dinner She was eventually converted repudiated everything and she's a wife of a

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Presbyterian elder down south now and written books for the Christian faith, but it was a Manner in which the pastor and his wife bore witness to them that the

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Lord Blessed that's how we ought to be People ought to desire what we have and what we know

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For We should go to extensive measures to reach the lost and instruct

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Christians young Christians in the faith Luke's volume to volume work

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Luke acts is the most sophisticated piece of literature I've ever encountered and I spent three years of this doing my

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PhD dissertation I'm really limited in my experience but I've done a great deal of research and reading and Luke's writings and scholarly work and I couldn't begin to relate to you the intricate and subtle literary and theological details that permeate this

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Gospel of Luke and acts it is absolutely incredible. It's inspired of God as Bright as Luke was these weren't ignorant uneducated ancients

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Some you know, a lot of us think that somehow we're the civilized people in this day Maybe technologically but not in any other way it would seem

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And so granted Luke was inspired by God in his writing, but Luke didn't just wake up one day one morning

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Decide to sit down write some scripture Going into a kind of trance as his quill moved across the papyrus

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He gave himself over to this matter of learning researching to discover the truth promote it and defend it

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Would to God that we would be so devoted to reach others and teach others the gospel may the

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Lord place within us the desire and the delight to do so as he did

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Luke and Fifth we should be concerned about our speech and our writing.

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We should give attention to communicating the gospel clearly and concisely Now again, the

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New Testament was written in the common language of the people called a Greek and The newest

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Christian by his urge zeal of boldness and testimony of a changed life can be a blessed fisher of men

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Sometimes it's the brand -new Christian who seemed to have the most effective witness the non -christians

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You know, it's been studied it's about 18 months generally of the young Christians life where there they seem to really be evangelistic but if you want to fish larger seas where the fish are more plentiful and larger in size you're going to need to develop your skills of communication in a measure

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Luke himself wrote his gospel in the common language of the people, but he first demonstrated to Theophilus He could address himself in a loftier style

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If he was so disposed and We should not diminish our effectiveness for the gospel by an inability to communicate either through speech or pen we should seek to educate ourselves that we might be better ministers or servants of the

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Word of God and Sadly historically a lot of evangelicals have really decried education and that's not good and Finally, let me give a brief word to non -christians

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I hope that you've listened attentively to what we've said regarding the nature of this New Testament Document the gospel of Luke the message of Jesus Christ being sent into the world to save sinners would not a cunningly devised fable

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Or delusions of deceived men and women There were many eyewitnesses who who who viewed themselves as having a sacred trust to bear their message accurately and faithfully

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And if you're truly interested in knowing the truth of these things you wouldn't easily dismiss their testimony and so I would urge you therefore to examine the claims of this book carefully and closely

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It tells of Jesus Christ the Son of God who died on the cross in place of sinners Who was nevertheless because of his own righteousness raised from the dead and seated by God in heaven.

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He's King. He's Lord of Lords King of Kings And May we humble ourselves the father demands that all believe on his son humblings themselves and submitting to Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives

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And thereby receiving the free forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life.

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I Would urge you therefore to give attention to reading and hearing this message of the gospel

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Eternity is bound up here and it's open and available to anyone and any anybody anybody

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Anywhere, if they sincerely ask the Lord to give them understanding and seek his will in his word

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And then let me conclude with an appeal to consider the urgency of this matter. This old world is falling apart

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Even even non -christians Don't have a lot of optimism about what is coming down in the future

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Take this as a solemn warning God's been very gracious in providing this message to us through his son

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And he's given it in a manner that any and all who were honest with themselves would see the factualness of it and respond to its implications

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He'll not hold one guiltless who's heard and been shown the evidence But who nevertheless turns away

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And so if that is if you're concerned interest you're not you don't know the Lord come see me

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We'll talk about it and it's our hope as a pastor and pastors elders as a church

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To assist you in coming to know him Amen Let's pray

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Thank you father for your kindness and mercy to us and thank you our God for having

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Included this gospel of Luke in our canon of Scripture We pray you'd bless our study our

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God and thank you our Lord for moving men like Luke giving him the education the experience and the desire our

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God to Investigate matters the sources which he acquired and then his heart and desire to lay out the truthfulness of these matters in an orderly fashion

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Help us our God to understand them and take them to heart that we would be Transformed our

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God as your truth is confirmed to us for we pray these things father in Jesus name.