Sermon Tone Analysis

Luke, the Inspired Historian

Since the beginning of this year, we have been steeped in the first chapters of Deuteronomy.

By now you have learned that I believe in the value of preaching methodically through chapter and verse of scripture, and indeed many of us have seen great reward in being challenged by our study of that sometimes difficult book.

And certainly, I plan to return to Deuteronomy at some point, but I have found in the past that sometimes both the preacher and the congregation can find it refreshing to study a new area of scripture as well for a while.

So this morning marks the first Sunday where we will be departing from the book of Deuteronomy and entering into the gospel of Luke.

By beginning today in the book of Luke, we will in a sense also be preparing in advance for the Advent season, since I have planned the preaching out through Christmas so that we will arrive on Christmas week at those wonderful verses that tell us about the birth of Jesus.

And what a book of the Bible the gospel of Luke is! RC Sproul said:

I am sure that every Christian has one gospel that stands out as his or her favourite.

If I were forced to choose, I would have to select Luke’s.

I have studied and taught it in various settings.

It seems that the more I read it, the more excited I get about it.

Sproul, R. C. A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke.

Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999.

Print.

So let’s get right into the book of Luke.

But let’s begin by considering a concern that most believers, or probably all believers, have at times.

The concern that most of us face at various times is one of faith.

To be blunt, our faith is often lacking.

We believe, but we need help with our unbelief, as the man who asked Jesus to heal his son admitted.

Perhaps we believed in Christ for salvation, but often do not believe he cares about us in this life.

Maybe we feel he doesn’t care what is going on in our lives, or that he has left us with a sort of faith that must be hung on to without any further encouragement or evidence of the truth of the gospel.

Of course, none of this is true, but let us admit, at least to ourselves, that sometimes we do question, sometimes we do wonder.

In order to help those who may have believed to have a more certain faith, Luke wrote this gospel.

Today we will look at the introduction to the gospel of Luke, keeping in mind that hearing and reading the Word of God helps us grow in confidence that the gospel is true.

Whenever we begin the study of a book of the bible, it is worthwhile to take a few moments to better understand the historical context of it, who the author is, who it was written for, and what the purpose of the writing was.

In the case of the gospel of Luke, it is in these first 4 verses that we get the last part of that, the purpose of the writing, and also who it was written for.

The general consensus of when this letter was written is in the early 60s AD.

The gospel of Luke is a little different from the other gospels in a few ways, but one way is that the gospel of Luke is written by a Greek; the other gospels were written by Jews.

So Luke offers a different perspective than the others.

Additionally, the other gospel writers were personal witnesses to the events of Jesus’ life, but Luke was not.

He was a witness of the events of the early church, as he wrote about in the second volume of his account of the history of the ministry of Jesus and the early church, the book of Acts, makes clear.

In fact, Luke writes some of the narratives in that book in the first person, indicating he was there for some of it.

However, the gospel of Luke is based not because he was a first-hand witness, but because he carefully researched the history of Jesus’ life, which we will talk more about as we go verse by verse in a bit.

So Luke wrote this gospel and also Acts.

These can be considered as a matching set, or a 2 volume series.

Some have believed that Luke was planning or perhaps had begun work on a third volume, but this is not certain by any means.

One thing that is certain is that between the gospel of Luke and Acts, Luke wrote the largest chunk of the NT in terms of words written.

This may surprise many of you.

We often talk about Paul, who wrote 13 of the books of the NT, and this out of 27 books total.

So it may seem like Paul wrote half of the NT.

However, since many of Paul’s letters are short, it turns out that Luke wrote far more words than Paul.

In Fact, only two bible writers have written more words than Luke.

Moses and Ezra.

Moses is credited with the first five books of the Bible, and Ezra wrote the book named for him and also 1 &2 Chronicles.

By the way, out of all of those words Luke wrote, two of his favorite phrases were “preach the gospel” and the word salvation.

So who was Luke?

Well, it really was not debated for much of church history, but Luke was the beloved Physician Paul wrote about in Col4.14

And further, in Acts, written by Luke, he shows his closeness to Paul: Acts16.10

Let’s look at this letter’s introduction verse by verse:

Here Luke notes that already there exist some written accounts of the ministry of Jesus.

In fact, many.

Many have given accounts, and apparently many people had heard and believed through this.

These accounts were delivered by eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.

While these eyewitnesses were still available, Luke diligently gathered the information.

The idea here of ministers of the word does not necessarily imply some sort of official like a pastor or apostle or something.

Luke most certainly included in this phrase “ministers of the word” those who had believed and lived out their faith by sharing the gospel with others.

The story is told about a man who was so intrigued by a Christian friend at work that he came to him one day and asked how he could find God.

His friend said, “You need a theologian.

You’d better talk to my pastor.”

When he talked to the pastor he was told, “I’m not a theologian, I’m just a poor preacher who learned some things in seminary.

I suggest you see my seminary professor.”

Undaunted, the man made an appointment to see the seminary professor.

At the start of the visit, he asked, “Are you a theologian?” “No, no,” was the reply.

“I am just a teacher.

I get my material from all these theology books in my library.

You’d better go and see some of the authors of these books.”

When he finally arranged an interview with one of the important authors, his first question again was, “Are you a theologian?” “No, no,” answered the author.

“I’m just a scientist who observes life and who writes about what I see.

If you want a theologian, talk to somebody who is living out the faith day by day.”

I think this points up what Luke is implying.

He got his story from the authentic theologians of his time.

Beyond being eyewitnesses, they were living out their faith day by day.

And really, the word theologian only means one who studies God.

Therefore, every Christian is called to be a theologian.

Luke was not saying none of these other people did a good enough job getting the information together, so I had to go and do this; No, he is recognizing the validity of their work, and seeking to put together a sort of compilation of other gospel accounts, along with his own research, which involved interviewing the eye witnesses.

And he is doing this work for someone he is referring to as the most excellent Theophilus.

Theologian means one who studies God? Do you wonder what Theophilus means?

Lover of God.

Oh, that all of us could be called Theophilus and Theologian!

Pray that God would grant you and I to be known as people who know him and love Him!

This same Theophilus was the one Luke addressed the book of Acts to: Acts1.1

And I’m not preaching from Acts this morning, but I did preach through Acts years ago, and when I did, I noted that in the first verse of Acts, it says all that Jesus began to do and teach, the implication being, that the work of Christ continues, He began to do and teach, and we are privileged to continue His work today!

So who was this Theophilus?

Most likely he was what we would call a patron.

He may have provided income to Luke, the means for him to work on these accounts.

So he wrote an orderly account for Theophilus after having followed all things closely for some time past.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Specific Person)

The honorific “most excellent” (Luke 1:3) might indicate a measure of power or wealth.

This expression is used elsewhere to describe Roman government officials (Acts 23:26; 24:3; 26:25), which suggests that Theophilus could have been one himself.

Streeter speculates that he might have been Titus Flavius Clemens, the Emperor Vespasian’s nephew (Streeter, Four Gospels, 559).

Marx provides some evidence that Theophilus was none other than Herod Agrippa II (Marx, “A New Theophilus,” 17–26).

It’s possible that he was simply a literary sponsor, since “most excellent” could designate anyone with a position of means.

So Luke writes for Theophilus, whoever he was,

Now we get the the main point of why he wrote.

Theophilus, whoever he was, was someone who had heard the gospel, and Luke wanted to provide a very thorough historic account or narrative of the ministry of Jesus, so that Theophilus may have certainty.

But in addition to Theophilus, Luke certainly was aware that this account would be widely published, so his purposes were to increase the confidence of the gospel in not just one person, but for anyone who may read and study it, including us.

John said his gospel was written so that those who read it would believe: John20.31

And Luke’s reason to write was pretty much the same, although it seems to me he is considering his audience as someone who has already been taught, where John seems to be considering his readers to include unbelievers.

I have often heard people say the Bible is for believers, and unbelievers won’t understand it.

There is a bit of truth in that.