The Certainty of the Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a 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,
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 Theophilus,
that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
Most ancient historians would write a prologue to whatever account they were trying to make, to explain why the reader ought to believe them. Luke’s prologue is noticeably like these other history books. It’s especially obvious in Greek, since this is written in an educated style that is very difficult for non-native readers to read. But there’s nothing inherently unclear about the prologue, he just uses longer words and more vocabulary. Along the way he set out the purpose of his book. It’s in the very last sentence - that you may know the certainty of the things in which you were instructed. That is, Luke’s goal is to establish the truth of the events of the gospel. But his purpose isn’t evangelistic, rather, he writes to Christians who already believe the truth, and he wants them to be certain that what they believe actually happened.
But why would that be necessary? My best guess for when Luke was written is about AD 60-61. Luke’s gospel is the only one with a sequel, the book of Acts. And the book of Acts ends rather oddly with Paul in prison, but doesn’t explain what happened to Paul once he was let out. That’s quite possibly because Paul wasn’t quite out yet when Luke wrote it. And since he mentioned Luke in the first verse of Acts, he obviously had to write it first.
So why is that important? Because at that time the other gospels had either not been written yet or were not in widespread circulation. Thus, many people had yet to read a written account of the life of Christ at all, even many Christians. They had to get their information from the apostles and other eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life, and from preachers who proclaimed the apostles’ message. Thus, while all Christians knew something about Jesus’ life, they had the difficult job of sorting out the real truth from rumors and the like. Luke’s gospel is intended to provide a written, stable, and reliable record of what Jesus truly said and did, so that Christians have no doubt about what really happened.
And remember why that is important. Christianity is the only truly historical religion. Meaning, take out the stories and miracles from other religions and they don’t change much; take the resurrection out of Christianity and what you have left isn’t the same religion any more. We have placed our eternal destiny on a historical fact, the truth that nearly 2000 years ago, a man really came back from the dead, and ascended to heaven to the right hand of God. We place our eternal hope on the reality that this man proved himself to be more than a man, to be God incarnate. He wasn’t a mythological being who lived sometime in the never-never. He was a real man who lived First-century Israel. It’s the most important thing in the world that we get at least the basic facts right, for if they didn’t happen, we have believed a lie.
Of course, Luke give us way more historical information then is strictly necessary for salvation. Because he wants us to have a full instruction on Jesus’ life, since the life of Jesus is a guide for us (Heb 12:2). In the time Luke wrote, there would have been many stories circulating about Jesus’ life. Since everyone wanted to know what Jesus really said and did, already there was a sorting process that tended to reject the fake ones and only repeat the real ones. Since we use the life of Christ as a guide for our own lives, we need to know the certainty of what he really said and did (Matt 28:20).
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Luke isn’t trying to tell us absolutely everything Jesus said and did. He did way too much for Luke to include everything (John 21:25). Incidentally, Luke’s gospel comes to about 19,500 words. An average scroll was about 30-35 feet long - any longer and it just got too unwieldy to use. While it depended on the size of the author’s handwriting, a scroll of this length could handle no more than about 20000 words before it got too big. In other words, Luke wrote as much as he could realistically fit on one scroll, and he had to plan to do that before he started writing, since the gospel concludes and doesn’t just stop.
And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.
So, Luke’s gospel is meant to assure us that what we have heard about Jesus’ sayings and doing really happened just like that. So what do we know about Luke and his book that helps us know this?
I. Who is this guy, anyway?
I. Who is this guy, anyway?
One way you can establish the certainty of a book is by knowing more about who wrote it. Is Luke himself someone you can trust? Well first of all, Luke is a quite obscure character in the New Testament. The gospel itself never names Luke, but the leaders of the church just after the apostles were unanimous that Luke the Physician wrote it. Since he barely shows up in the New Testament, no one would pretend to write for him. If you’re going to make something up, choose someone more important, so people don’t go “Luke who?”
But what we do know about him is that he was a remarkable man, eminently qualified to write a book like this.
A. An Educated Gentile
A. An Educated Gentile
Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.
The gospel begins in a quite literary style, a more literary and formal style than most of the NT. Only a man with some education could write that, so Luke had more education than most. Furthermore it is Paul who called him the physician. So Luke was a knowledgable and skilled man, well able to not just write but write well.
B. A Faithful Man
B. A Faithful Man
Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.
Luke is the only one left at Paul’s final imprisonment. This tells us that he was brave enough to stick by Paul, when Paul was ready to be martyred. This took courage since hanging around Paul was a good way of getting killed yourself. So we know this man was faithful under pressure.
C. A Humble Servant
C. A Humble Servant
Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis,
Luke never mentions his own name in either Luke or Acts. There can be no doubt that the first readers of the letter knew exactly who wrote it, but Luke doesn’t brag about himself, even when he has a reason to. In Acts for most of the time Luke uses the third person - they did this or that. But for a few chapters he switches to “we” - that is for those chapters and those chapters only, Luke was actually present. Incidentally that’s one of the sources for Acts. Luke was there for some of it, and where he was present he lets us know very subtly. He wants us to understand that he is an eyewitness of only those events he was actually there, but he doesn’t actually want to draw attention to himself.
D. A Careful Historian
D. A Careful Historian
“Followed all things closely” Luke was not an eyewitness of the events of the gospel himself, but he was quite possibly the greatest historian of the first century. He had at least four different kinds of sources he used to discover what really happened.
He knew multiple written sources. It’s possible Matthew and Mark were written first, and it’s possible Luke saw one or both of them. But the “many” indicates that quite a number of records now lost were made, and that Luke saw them. He neither praises nor condemns these other sources, he simply notes that they existed and that he knows he is in a uniquely knowledgeable position to give a truly accurate report of what really happened
He had heard multiply eyewitnesses explain what happened. Thus, he had interviewed and listened to many people who were there - no list of exactly who, but it must have included some of the apostles and if he was in Jerusalem he would have also met quite a few others. Luke 24:48; Acts 1:8; 2:32; 3:15
And you are witnesses of these things.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.
He also heard preachers (Ministers of the word) who may not have been eyewitnesses themselves but further retold Jesus’ life and words and the early history of the church.
He had been present for a few of the events of Acts, as we said already.
Luke clearly evaluated his sources before writing things down. His account of Jesus’ life and work is balanced and clear, with little “hype.” He has blended all four of these sources together so consistently that it’s virtually impossible to figure out what comes from what source. He’s retold everything in his own words, rather than just copying and pasting information. In an era before printing presses, authors would often fill their works with long quotations, since other people didn’t have access to the originals the way scholars do today. But Luke doesn’t do this. He makes his own decisions, and therefore writes truly superior history.
Luke also spends more time than most in placing Jesus’ life in the context of world history. We can date when Jesus lived with accuracy, largely because of Luke’s historical dating. See v.5, for example, and Luke 3:1-2.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
II. How smart was his audience?
II. How smart was his audience?
Now if you write something to people who know absolutely nothing about the subject, you can pretty much say whatever you want and no one will be the wiser. But if you write to people who already know about it, you’ve got to get your facts straight or you’ll be laughed out of town. There are a few clues about the original audience that show us they already knew about Jesus’ life and work.
“certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” - His audience are Christians. They already believe Jesus, and therefore they already know something about what Jesus really said and did. If Luke were to go way off base, they would know.
Theophilis is Greek for “Lover of God.” It’s a clearly Greek name, not a Hebrew one, so Theophilis is probably a Gentile. But Luke gives him an honorific title “Most excellent.” Some scholars think he was therefore a government official of some kind. This is possible, but it’s also just as possible that the honorific title was simply because Theophilis was the patron of the work. Writing a book this size was very expensive. First, paper and ink were made by a very laborious handmade process, so it was expensive. Second, Luke, an educated man, would need to have his living expenses taken care of for at least several months to have the time necessary to put all this down. That’s not exactly cheap either. Someone had to pay for all this, and Luke, as the travelling companion of Paul, was probably not rich enough to fund it himself. In the ancient world, rich people often payed for books and art to be made. The rich person, as the payer was the “patron,” and the one doing the work was the client. Theophilis was probably the person who payed for the production, which explains why Luke addressed the book to him.
But if Theophilis thought it important enough to spend big on a large scroll about Jesus, a scroll that was about the “things you have been taught,” then he was himself a Christian already. For him to agree to pay Luke, he had to be quite convinced that Luke knew Jesus’ life and works more thoroughly and more accurately than anyone else he could have paid. Before the era of the printing press, no one made much money writing books, since you could only write one copy at a time. So Theophilis could only have a spiritual motive to fund the expenses. Other books might gain the author fame, but this one would be more likely to gain the possessor persecution if anything else.
III. What about what he wrote?
III. What about what he wrote?
Luke has an interesting expression for what he was writing about. While he referred to the gospel as “all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1), he here calls it “a narrative of the things that have been fulfilled among us.” That tells us a couple of things.
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
First, Luke is the only gospel with a sequel, but Luke intended to write two volumes from the very beginning. The “things that have been fulfilled among us” include the history of the early church, something no other gospel writer chose to write about.
Second, this isn’t just history, but fulfilled prophecy. Luke wants us to understand that what happened was in the plan of God all along, and he happened to be within living memory of this tremendous unfolding of God’s plan. Luke 3:4-6; 4:17-21; Luke 22:27; 24:44
as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth;
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.
Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”
Third, this gospel was authenticated by miracles. Luke 7:20-22; Acts 2:22
When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ ”
And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight.
Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—
Fourth, this gospel was authenticated by the growth of the church Acts 5:35-39. Luke repeatedly states in Acts that the “word of God grew and multiplied.” Acts 2:41; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7
And he said to them: “Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men.
For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing.
After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed.
And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing;
but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.”
Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.