Luke 1:1-4
We begin today a new sermon series
on Luke’s gospel. By all measurements, it looks
like it will take about two years to get through Luke’s gospel.
The best outlines I’ve seen have roughly a hundred passages. And
so you will know where we are. Most of our other sermon series
have taken six weeks, eight weeks, maybe a year like the book of
Hebrews, but this will be one of the longer ones. Let me encourage
you to read Luke’s gospel. Also read along with it the book
of Acts. Luke and Acts make up the most
content of the New Testament, both written by Luke the physician.
And in Luke and Acts, and Acts is probably where we’ll go next,
but that’s a long ways off, so we won’t think about it too much.
But Luke and Acts present a picture of the redemptive work of God
Almighty in history through the life and ministry of the Lord
Jesus, especially in his death and resurrection, his ascension
into heaven and his giving gifts to the church, but then on through
the book of Acts as God blesses the world through his church. And so today we have a brief
introduction to Luke’s gospel. Let us hear God’s word together.
This is Luke chapter one, verses one through four. In as much
as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that
have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the
beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered
them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all
things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account
for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning
the things that you have been taught. Pray with me. Our Lord and God, we want nothing
more in this life than to have certainty, certainty that you
are the God of the universe, that you are the savior of mankind,
and that you indeed have sent your son, the Lord Jesus, not
to be a great teacher, a moral man, or a fine example, but you
have sent him as the everlasting lamb slain before the foundation
of the world to be both the offering and the offerer, the great high
priest who gave himself up for us, his children. Let us be assured
of that today as we hear from your gospel. Let us be assured
of that as we taste and see in the Lord’s Supper that you are
good. We ask for your help and grace and pray it in the name
of Jesus, our Savior. Amen. How can you be sure that
you are a Christian? Can I trust the Bible? How do I know that the gospel
is true? These are real questions that
real people from time to time ask. These are real questions
that some of you may be asking even now. Or maybe you’ve heard
it said, I watched a television special on the other evening,
and it says that they have new information about the real Jesus. Or maybe you’ve heard someone
say, a young person in particular, I went off to college and the
religion 101 professor took his Bible, opened the window, tossed
it out and said, now we can really get started. Or maybe some of
you have heard it said, the preacher up the road says that the gospel
is about Jesus as the greatest example of self giving love. of forgiving his enemies, of
challenging injustice, and love without boundaries. You’ve heard
these things said. You’ve heard these questions
asked. Maybe you’ve said these things
yourself. Maybe you have these questions in your own mind and
heart. Well, dear brothers and sisters,
you have come to the right place. You have come to the right place
because before us and before us for the next little while
is the gospel according to Saint Luke. In it is the story of God’s
saving work in real space and time. In it, you’ll see the ministry
of the divine Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. A couple of questions for us
today to understand these first four verses of the Gospel of
Luke. The first question is this, who
is Luke? Some of you are readers of biographies. You want to know about Winston
Churchill or Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan or some famous
sports coach or sports figure. And so you go to Barnes and Noble
or the local bookstore and you look for a biography about this
notable person about whom you want to learn. Well, what do
you want in a biographer? You want someone who has studied
every detail carefully. You want someone who knows the
person. You want someone who knew them
well, who also knows the right people to ask, to speak to the
widow and look at the letters and the writings of this person. And so we go into the bookstore
looking for a biography of a notable person, but we want it to be
written by a person of great reputation and skill. So the
question before us, who is Luke? Luke was just the man you would
want to write about Jesus, to write of his life and his teaching.
Luke was a Gentile, he was not a Jew. He was a Gentile and he
looked in from the outside. He came to faith in Jesus Christ
at some point, and he followed the work of the church of the
Lord Jesus. He was a Gentile. He was a physician. He was a medical doctor by training.
In fact, in today’s passage, when he speaks of the word, there
were eyewitnesses, it’s the word we get autopsy from. It’s one
who laid eyes on the body. and saw with his own eyes and
took in the information for himself and therefore was a faithful
and credible eyewitness. He was a Gentile, a physician.
He was a travel companion of the apostle Paul. We catch bits
and pieces of Luke in the gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts.
He’s back in the shadows, but you hear glimpses of him in Paul’s
writings later. in his 13 epistles, but he was
with Paul very much to the end. You read at the end of 2 Timothy
where the apostle Paul is facing execution and he says, Luke alone
is with me. He is a faithful travel companion
of the Apostle Paul, a physician, a Gentile. But friends, he is
also a meticulous historian. Look at what he says in verse
2, chapter 1. Just as those who from the beginning
were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, they have delivered
them to us, the narrative, He says, it seemed good to me also,
having followed all things closely for some time past, to write
an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus. If you
look at the beginning of the book of Acts, look at the beginning
of the book of Acts, where he writes his introduction there
to Theophilus. He says, in the first book of
Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and
teach until the day when he was taken up. After he had given
the commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he
had chosen to them, he presented himself alive after his suffering
by many proofs, appearing to them for 40 days and speaking
about the kingdom of God. Luke is a man who has watched
and carefully researched the life and the ministry of Jesus,
as well as the life and the ministry of the early church. And under
the inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit, he has put down these
words for us. Some might say that Luke was
a man for all seasons, or what we might call a Renaissance man.
He knew a lot about everything. He wasn’t a one-dimensional man
or a one-subject man. He knew a lot about everything.
He was rich in music, rich in theology, rich in history, rich
in the Roman culture, and he put all of that together, and
under the wonderful inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we have before
us the Gospel of Luke. And then it follows with the
acts of the apostles. So who is Luke? He is all those
things that I just mentioned, but ultimately, he is a holy
man of old, as the Apostle Peter says, who was carried along by
the Holy Spirit so that we have the word of God, not the will
of man or the words of human authors, but we have before us
the very gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke. A man
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So who is Luke? Another question, what is a gospel? Some of you in recent weeks have
received good news. We’ve had a couple in our congregation
who’ve had surgeries and had these mysterious masses inside
their bodies removed. And the best phone calls and
text messages that I have received have been good news. From Carol
Erb this week, I had a text message that says the mass that was removed
was not cancerous. Several weeks ago, Fran Haynes
was sick and in surgery, and Bill sent me a message saying
Fran does not have cancer. That’s good news, isn’t it? What
is a gospel? It is good news. What is good
news? It’s something that brings refreshment
to our lives, joy to our souls, and hope for the future. What
is a gospel? Well, we can think of gospel
under the heading of good news in three different ways. First,
it’s good news in literary form. In the Bible, we have all kinds
of literary forms. We have history, we have Psalms,
we have Proverbs, we have poetry, we have wisdom literature, we
have historical narrative, we have didactic teaching, we have
parables, we have all kinds of wonderful literary terms that
we can give to the Bible. And the gospel or a gospel is
just one such of those literary devices or forms. There are four
gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We call three of them,
at least, the synoptic gospels. They see alike. There’s a lot
of common themes and shared stories in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John takes on a bit of a different
flavor, yet is still a gospel. And in Luke, we have some unique
literature. We have several parables and
stories that are unique to Luke alone. But it can be considered
a literary form. The other thing it can be considered
is by its content. Look at, if you will, at verse, well, my eyes have messed me
up here. Oh, look, if you will, at John
chapter 21, verse 25. This is a really interesting
verse. Look all the way at the end of John’s gospel, where in
verse 25, this is speaking of the gospel as a literary form. It says, now there were also
many other things that Jesus did. were every one of them to
be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain
the books that would be written. So what is a gospel? It’s good
news. It’s a literary form in the Bible, but it also is significant
in its content. What is the content of the gospel?
This was the subject of our Sunday school lesson. The gospel is
the facts, the facts that we are sinners, the facts that we
are fallen, the fact that we are alienated from God by our
sin, the fact that God is angry with us and that we are under
his wrath and curse that is due to us for the wages of sin is
death. The fact that Jesus came into this world, the fact that
he lived an obedient life, that he obeyed God perfectly. And
when he went to the cross and suffered and died in our place,
he was a perfect spotless lamb, an acceptable sacrifice to God
for a man must die for the sins of a man. And Jesus died in our
place. His sacrifice was accepted by
God. The wrath of God was put away.
Jesus rose again from the dead. He ascended up into heaven. He
gave gifts to the church. And we, who by faith receive
Jesus and rest in him alone for our salvation, have heard the
content of the gospel. We have assented to its truth. And we, by faith, have been brought
into the family of Almighty God, having had our sins forgiven,
and the Spirit of God come upon us. So the gospel is a literary
form. The gospel is a matter of content. But there’s also a third thing
we must understand about the gospel. What is a gospel? Well,
the gospel comes to you. And I don’t mean y’all here,
it does do that, but I mean you, and you, and you, and you, and
to me. There’s a point in time in your
life where you realized, I am a sinner. And that God is displeased with
me, not with everybody else, with me. And that I deserve his
wrath and his curses that are due for sin, ultimately death,
for the wages of sin is death. But you hear the gospel and you
realize that through Jesus Christ, that there is redemption possible,
that there is the forgiveness of sins, that there is life everlasting
and that there is this whole idea of being made a new creation
in Christ Jesus. And so the gospel is a literary
form for sure. It has content, but it also becomes
real to you. And you can tell of a time in
your life when the gospel meant something to you and you put
your faith, hope and trust in the Lord Jesus. One of the things
we must understand when we think of this question, what is the
gospel? Is there is content. There is truth in the gospel,
in the literary gospels. There is truth in this Bible
that is gospel truth, and it cannot and it must not, and it
should never, ever be tampered with. Otherwise, you don’t have
the gospel. And we are living in a time,
not just with religion and Christianity, but it’s also in the political
arena, where if we just redefine a term, Or we change the rules. We think that all is hunky-dory. But friends, if you tamper with
the gospel, you have no gospel at all. And we must remember,
dear brothers and sisters, that no man, no woman, no child can
stand before the righteous judge of the universe and say, you
should let me into your presence. You should let me into your heaven
because of the good things I have done or because of the sincerity
of my heart or because of the desires that I have to do great
things. We can only come to God through
Christ who died in our place. and we can only come to him by
faith. And then he justifies us. He sees us as if we’ve never
sinned. He sees us as if we have always
obeyed. And so what is a gospel? Yes,
it’s literary form. Yes, it has content. Yes, it
does come to us directly. But friends, what is a gospel?
It is everything. No gospel, no hope. No gospel,
no salvation. Who is Luke? What is a gospel? Here’s a third question for us.
Can I be sure that I am a Christian? Jesus tells a parable in, I believe
it’s in most of the gospels, but it’s in the eighth chapter
of Luke and we’ll come to it one of these days. And it’s called
the parable of the soils. A man goes out one day and he
sows the seed and the seed is the word of God. He scatters
the seed and some falls on the path. Other seed falls on the
rock. Some falls among the thorns and
then some falls on good soil. Later, Jesus tells his disciples
without having eyes to see, without the Holy Spirit, you can’t understand
these parables of the kingdom of God. But he gives to them.
He gives them the key to unlock this parable. And he says, the
seed that falls on the path, the gospel goes out and it falls
upon the path and people’s feet trample on it and the birds snatch
it away. Some seed falls on the rock,
it grows up, but without moisture, it withers. Other seed falls
among the thorns and it grows, but it is soon choked. The other
seed falls on the good soil and it grows and it bears fruit a
hundredfold. Jesus does go on to explain this.
And he says, the parable is this, the one along the path or those
who have heard the devil comes and takes away the word from
their hearts. So they may not believe or be saved. The ones
on the rock are those who, when they hear receive it with joy,
but they have no root. They believe it for a while.
And in a time of testing, they fall away. And as for what fell
among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their
way, they’re choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life
and their fruit does not mature. But as for the one that falls
on good soil, they are those who hearing the word, hold it
fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. Can I be sure I’m a Christian?
Can I be sure the seed fell on good soil? And with joy and with
delight, it has been received and it grows and it bears fruit. That’s the question that maybe
Theophilus is asking. That’s the question that maybe
Theophilus is asking. And so. Luke, the physician,
Luke, the historian, writes to our brother in the faith, Theophilus,
and he says in verse 4, Theophilus, I write this orderly account
that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. Can I be sure that I’m a Christian?
Can I have certainty that the things I have been taught are
true? You know, for some of you young people, In the congregation
today, your parents have taught you the word of God. Your parents
have taught you the catechism. They brought you to church. They
put you in the path of godliness. But there is a point in time
where you have to make your faith your own. You have to look at
the facts and say, am I really a sinner? You have to look at
the facts and say, is God really angry with sin every day? Does
God really punish sin with death? You have to look at those facts.
And indeed, if you see with your own eyes that you are a sinner,
if you see with your own eyes that there is a savior, and if
you see with your own eyes that Jesus, the Redeemer, can be yours
by faith in him. And what a wonderful and gracious
thing that the seed that your parents have been sowing, the
seed that the church has been sowing in your life has fallen
on good soil and is producing good fruit. The word of God says
you can be sure. Now, some of you may sit in church
and you say, I don’t know about this faith business. My parents
make me come. They get me out of bed on Sunday
morning when all my friends are sleeping. Let me encourage you in this
way. You keep coming. Your parents want something good
for you. They want something everlasting
for you and it may be a chore for you to come to church. But
let me assure you the Word of God does not return void and
Jesus through his gospel will make himself plain to you. And
so though you may come to church kicking and screaming, though
you may protest at the door and you may make it difficult for
the family on the way to church. It is a good thing to be in the
house of the Lord, and it is a grace of God. And I pray that
God would open your eyes, that you would see the glories of
the gospel, the darkness of your sin, and the beauty of Jesus,
and all that he can do to save you. Can I be sure that I am
a Christian? Let me give you the ultimate
and final answer. You can be sure. And it comes
with the inward work of the Holy Spirit of God, making his word
true to you. The gospel comes to you when
the Holy Spirit opens your eyes and says, Dear child, you are
a sinner. but Jesus is a greater savior
and you come by faith and the Holy Spirit makes you understand
and know that Jesus is real to you. Dear friends, Luke’s gospel
is a wonderful adventure and all that is written by Luke in
his gospel is the true word of God that you may believe. Pray with me. Our Lord and God,
we pray that your word, especially this wonderful gospel of Luke,
would be ours, that we would treasure it, that we would delight
in it, and that we would make it our own, and that it would
see us and encourage us and take us safely home to heaven. We
pray in Jesus’ name, amen.