The Book of Luke: The Certainty of Those Things | An Intro to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:1-4)
Luke 1:1-4 “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, 2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; 3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.”.
The first 4 verses of Luke 1 serve as an introduction. Starting at verse 5, it starts with the Christmas story. We will look at the first 4 verses here tonight.
Number 1 – Let’s look at the significance of the person of Jesus Christ. Notice what he says in verse 1. “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,”. I want you to notice that Luke begins this letter by saying that he will do something that many people were planning to do. Many people were planning to write about the life of Jesus Christ and documenting the stories of Jesus Christ.
Now of course we have the 4 gospels in our Bible. However, there were also people who wrote about Christ and it is not divine scripture. We know of a man named Josephus who was not a believer but wrote about the life of Christ. Since that time, many have written about this man Jesus Christ. Here we have a man who lived over 2,000 years ago but this shows the significance of Jesus Christ. Think about the impact that someone would have to make to have many people write about their life. No one has had their life documented more than the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ without a doubt was the most influential person in history. It’s not even a question.
Number 2 – We see the spreading of the message of Christ. Notice what he says in verse 1. “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,”. I want you to notice that Luke is not just writing down history but he is writing down something that he believes. Now there are other characters from thousands of years ago that are talked about today. However, how many people gather together to remember Alexander the Great or Hannibal or some Egyptian Pharoah. The reason why you and I stand today as Christians is because this message of Jesus has been passed down through the generations.
Verse 2 “2 Even as they delivered them unto us,…”. How does the message of Jesus get spread. We believe and then we deliver. It is our job today to deliver what we believe. Luke says that the message was delivered unto him and he believed it. Now he is delivering that message which he believes to others. How does the message of Jesus get spread? We believe and then we deliver.
1st Corinthians 15:1-2 “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”. You see, we receive the message and believe it and then we pass it on to other people. That is the pattern for the growth of Christianity. “3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”. What are we passing on? The belief of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We receive and believe the message and then we should deliver it to other people. In Luke we see not only the significance of the person of Christ but we also see the spreading of the message of Christ. How is it spread? It is spread by people who believe it.
Number 3 – We see the spectators of the message of Christ. Luke 1:2 “2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;”. I want you to notice that with Luke and throughout the New Testament, there is an emphasis on the eyewitnesses of these events. We know that coming to God requires faith. Hebrews 11:6 “6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”. However, with that said, the Bible emphasizes that the birth, life, burial and resurrection of Christ were historical events with many eye witnesses.
1st Corinthians 15:5 “5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”. At the time of the writing of 1st Corinthians, Paul writes that Christ was seen by Cephas and then the twelve and then 500 brethren. He says that most of them were still alive at the time of his writing.
Verse 7 “7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.”. James is the half brother of Jesus who wrote the book of James and is the acting Pastor that we see in the book of Acts. James did not originally believe but he does after the resurrection of Jesus. Verse 8 “8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”. Of course Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus. “9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”. I want you to notice that the Bible emphasizes that there are eye witnesses to these events.
Go to 1st John. 1st John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;”, John says that he was an eye witness of these events. The Bible emphasizes the idea of the eye witnesses of the life of Christ and his resurrection.
2nd Peter 1:16 “16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”. Peter says that they didn’t follow some fable that had been carefully and deceitfully crafted. Peter saw Jesus’ die. In fact, it was so powerful to Peter that he quit serving God. There were eye witnesses to these events. That is a theme in the Bible. Now of course we must come to God in faith. However, we don’t come to God in blind faith. There is actual evidence and eye witnesses for the events that we believe.
I’m thankful that our faith is not like the faith of the Mormons. The Mormons teach that Jesus came to the Americas and had a ministry with the Indians. That is a cunningly devised fable. There is no evidence or proof for that at all. We just have 1 false prophet a long time later claiming these things are true. Believe what you want about Jesus but there is no denying of the historical impact that he had. I am glad that my faith is not in a cunningly devised fable but my faith is in our Savior which is documented by witnesses.
In the first 4 verses of Luke 1, Luke speaks of the significance of Jesus Christ. Then he speaks about the spreading of the message of Christ. We receive the message and believe it and deliver it to others. He also talks about the eye witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Number 4 – We see the scribe of the gospel of Christ. A scribe is an author. Let me introduce you to the author of the book of Luke. Of course we know the Holy Ghost is the author but God used a man named Luke to write this down. Luke 1:3 “3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,”.
Let me just help you understand the scribe, Luke. The person of Luke tells us a lot about the gospel of Luke. The Bible seems to indicate us that Luke was a Gentile. If that is true, he is the only gentile to write a portion of the New Testament. Why do I say that he appears to be a Gentile?
Go to Colossians 4. Notice what Paul writes about the people with him. Luke 4:10 “10 Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;) 11 And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.”. On a side point, the “Jesus” mentioned in verse 11 is not the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why he tells us that he is called Justus to avoid confusion. Notice how it says in verse 11 is “who are of the circumcision”. What Paul is saying is that they are Jews by ethnicity.
Verse 12 “12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”. With Epaphras, he says “who is one of you” indicating that he is not a Jew. Verse 13 “13 For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis. 14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.”. This seems to indicate that there were 6 people with Paul that he mentions and 3 were Jews and 3 were Gentiles. Let me be clear that I am not saying this dogmatically. However, it appears that the Bible teaches that Luke was a Gentile. He was also probably a Greek.
Here is what it is interesting. If Luke was a Gentile, that would make sense. The book of Luke is book that emphasizes that humanity of Christ. We have 4 different gospels and they emphasis different things. Based on what they emphasize, they may have been written to different groups of people. For example, the book of Matthew is written by Matthew and emphasizes Jesus as the King and specifically Jesus as the King of the Jews. It seems to have been written more toward a Jewish audience to declare who he was. This is why it often says “As it is written” to show how Jesus fulfilled prophecy.
The Book of Mark emphasizes Jesus as a suffering servant. Because Jesus is pictured throughout Mark as a servant, it is very fast paced. 1 chapter covers a lot of information but little detail. However, it emphasizes the works of Jesus. People assume that the book was written toward a Roman audience who would understand the idea of servants.
The Book of Luke appears to be toward a Greek audience. It focuses on Jesus as the son of man. The Greek teaching said man could be great and it was kind of a spiritual evolution that men could become super humans. This emphasizes the humanity of Christ which we will see throughout the book of Luke. That is why it goes in detail about the birth of Christ and his lineage that goes past David, past Abraham, all the way to Adam. Why? To emphasize the humanity of Christ. The Book of John is written to the world. “For God so loved the world”.
I want you to notice something else about our scribe. Colossians 4:14 “14 Luke, the beloved physician,…”. Paul refers to Luke as a physician because Luke was a physician. Luke was a Doctor. He was a medical Doctor. In Luke’s writings, he is very descriptive. He uses detailed terminology when describing the miracles and death of Christ. As a medical Doctor, it is likely that Luke traveled with the Apostle Paul to help as Paul dealt with illness. I can’t prove that to you but that is my opinion. Paul had a thorn in his flesh which I believe was probably in reference to his eyesight. It would make sense that a physician would travel with Paul to be a help to him.
2nd Timothy 4:11 “11 Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.”. At the end of Paul’s life, Paul states that only Luke was with Paul. Luke was a medical Doctor that traveled with Paul on his missionary journey. For the first half of the book of Acts, Luke who wrote the book of Acts, describes the actions using 3rd person terminology. In the first half of the book of Acts he will use words like “he” and “they”. Then in chapter 16 he starts to use “we”, “our”, “us”. The obvious conclusion is that Luke joined Paul during these adventures.
In these introductory verses we see the significance of Jesus Christ, the spreading of the gospel of Christ, the spectators of the message of Christ, the scribe of Luke and lastly the story of Jesus Christ.
Number 5 – The story of Christ
Luke 1:3 “3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,”. People debate about what it means by “in order”. I’ve heard people that I trust and know a lot about the Bible. I’m not 100% on what he means. Most people seem to believe and I would lean this way that Luke is saying that he is giving the information more chronologically than the other gospels or accounts of Christ. Often they are written thematically or to tell a story but the book of Luke appears to be the most chronological.
Other people think “in order” means that he is giving it to us in order of categories. An example is like in Luke 15 where there are 3 parables about something being lost. The lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son who was a lost son. To be honest, the jury is out. I don’t have a definitive thought on that. However, I do plan to keep my eye out on it when studying through this book. Whichever is true, Luke does give us a good order in the sense of description. Without a doubt it is the most descriptive of the gospels. 2/3rds of the parables of Jesus are found in the book of Luke. There are famous parables found only in this book. There are miracles found in this book that aren’t in others. There are songs found in this book that aren’t found in other gospels.
Go to the book of Acts. The Book of Acts like the Book of Luke was written to a man named Theophilus. Acts 1:1 “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:”.
There is no question that Paul wrote most of the books of the New Testament. The interesting thing though is that Luke wrote very long books and almost wrote as many words as the Apostle Paul. Luke is responsible for 27% of the New Testament by length. The Book of Luke gives us deep detail of the life of Christ.
Number 6 – The surety of the belief of Christ. I want you to notice the purpose of the Book of Luke. Luke 1:3 “3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.”. Luke states that he wrote this to “know the certainty of those things”. Luke is stating that Theophilus has been instructed about him. Based on this, Theophilus is already saved but Luke is giving him more information.
As we study this book, we will see that Luke goes out of his way to show that the life of Christ is a historically documented event. Let me give you an example. Luke 3:1 “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,”. This would be like me saying “In 2021 when Joe Biden was President and Gavin Newsome was the Governor of California, etc….”. Luke 3:2 “2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.”.
I want you to notice that Luke doesn’t write “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” or “Once upon a time”. He is extremely detailed because he wants us to be able to verify these things. Luke is showing this is a historical fact and basically daring us to check him on it. He is giving us certainty of these events. Other gospels have other purposes. Go to John 20.
John 20:30 “30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”. John was written that people might believe. The book of John has a purpose that people might believe. It emphasizes the deity of Christ.
Why was Luke written though? That we might know the certainty of those things which we have been instructed. It tells us the significance of Christ, the spreading of the message of Christ, the spectators of Christ, the scribe of the gospel of Christ, the story of Christ and the surety of the belief of Christ.
Let’s pray.