The True Story Of Jesus

Why Luke writes

why does anyone ever write an account of something?

Why Writers Write:

To release their often complex and convoluted thoughts, providing an effective source of grounding and stress release, taking a greater burden off of their shoulders

To speak to an audience — to get something off their chest

To create and maintain relationships with people around the world

To share their lives, their travel, their experiences

To help readers by educating or inspiring an audience to develop any number of greater understanding, skills, or expertise in any given topic from baking to mountain climbing to puppy training or parenting

To find rest and repose amidst an incredibly busy and bustling life — an oasis found through the writing process and its fruition

To find themselves…. out of a search through hundreds of thousands of letters, words, and phrases linked together by only one unique thread of commonality, that which is the writer who steps forward with pride and craftsmanship

(https://writingcooperative.com/7-reasons-why-writers-write-and-you-should-too-900262b455b)

many people write for many reasons. We have here in the beginning of Luke a clear explanation of Lukes reason for writing.

Luke was writing an account of his findings for the sake of a most excellent friend to have CERTAINTY about the things he had been taught.

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive The True Story of Jesus

There was no reason for the ancient writer to write that down, except that the eyewitness source of the story remembered it. It was there because someone remembered it. See, these can’t be legends. Legends weren’t written like this. C.S. Lewis, who was a professor of literature at Oxford and Cambridge, puts it perfectly and rather devastatingly, for people who think, “Well, these are just legends,” when he says about the Gospels …

I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends, and myths all my life.  I know what they are like.  I know none of them are like this (the gospels).  Of this text there are only two possible views.  Either this is reportage...or else, some unknown (ancient) writer...without known predecessors or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic, realistic narrative...C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

Paradosis

Eye Witness accounts

Written witnesses that they know of and that are being examined for truthfulness

The Gospel is about Jesus

The inescapable watertight argument that is a person.

Like the sun doesnt need to be argued for as being bright and warm, Jesus doesnt need someone to argue for his reality. It’s in the person we see the truth.

The Gospel is True

some would say that Luke begins by answering some of the most obvious questions…like, where did this information really come from and is it reliable.

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive The True Story of Jesus

There was no reason for the ancient writer to write that down, except that the eyewitness source of the story remembered it. It was there because someone remembered it. See, these can’t be legends. Legends weren’t written like this. C.S. Lewis, who was a professor of literature at Oxford and Cambridge, puts it perfectly and rather devastatingly, for people who think, “Well, these are just legends,” when he says about the Gospels …

I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends, and myths all my life.  I know what they are like.  I know none of them are like this (the gospels).  Of this text there are only two possible views.  Either this is reportage...or else, some unknown (ancient) writer...without known predecessors or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic, realistic narrative...C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

Paradosis

Eye Witness accounts

Written witnesses that they know of and that are being examined for truthfulness

The Gospel is a story

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive The True Story of Jesus

The fact that it’s a story means it’s not the teachings of Jesus but the actions of Jesus that saves you.

every other religion system in the world teaches that you are saved by HOW you live. You’re saved by how you live within a particular set of standards and criteria.

Buddha - Heres how you find enlightenment

Muhammed - Heres how you gain the mercy of God

Confucious - Heres how you become a Gentlemen

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive The True Story of Jesus

The teaching of Jesus would be nothing but an eternal horror, and that’s the reason why Luke says, “I have not given you a compendium, an anthology. I’m giving you the story of Jesus,” because the teaching of Jesus proves that we don’t need teaching; we need a story. We don’t need a way for us to live the right kind of life, but we need the actions of Jesus Christ to come in and live the life we should have lived and die the death we should have died.

We don’t need a teacher; we need a savior. We don’t need someone who tells us what to do; we need someone who does what we should have done.

over the next few weeks you’re probably going to be hearing a lot about the birth of Jesus. does that work for us a a parable? think about it. If Jesus’ birth is a parable what does it teach us? To become a shepherd and watch the sky at night for singing angels? To have kids out of wedlock? To give birth in a cave? if it’s not history it’s useless for anything but a fable to be forgotten but if its true....its everything.