The Gospel of Luke: Dear Theophilus

Transcript

JRNT 55
05/05/2024
The Gospel of Luke: Dear Theophilus
Luke 1:1-4
Jesse Randolph

There are countless amenities that we take for granted in our day. Like when we turn a knob or a lever on this thing called a faucet. We expect a cool drinking water will come out or just cool water of any sort. When we flip a switch on a wall in a dark room, we expect a light will suddenly flood its every corner. When we start our cars in the winter, we expect that within a relatively short period of time, we’ll start regaining feeling in our fingers, as warm air starts to blow out. I don’t even need to mention some of the more modern advances in technology, like high-speed internet or 4K quality cameras or cloud storage or smart phones or AI. To make the point, which is that the fact that our most basic needs are taken care of with the flip of a switch or the push of a button really doesn’t impress us the way it ought. We tend to take these things for granted. Well, in the way that we can take amenities like heat and light and running water for granted, we can also find ourselves taking for granted something of far greater and more eternal significance, that being the message of the gospel.

Now, we would never openly admit it or say it this way, but we can often find ourselves treating the message of the gospel as though it was something that was of some value to us in the past. And it’s going to have some sort of faint and hazy value to us in the future. But in the present, in the midst of the business of life, the gospel gets pushed back into the recesses of our mind, into the junk drawer of our affection, into that top shelf closet of our thoughts. And when this happens, during this period of spiritual drift, or spiritual complacency, or misplaced priorities, frankly we can find ourselves developing a dimmer and dimmer view of God and His perfections. Losing sight of the fact that we are sinners. Forgetting that there is this curse that has fallen on Adam and, likewise, has fallen on each of us. Tuning out the reality of wickedness, not only in this world, but in our own hearts. Neglecting the truth that we were once tumbling our way through this world, deluded and deceived and enslaved in our sin. Yawning over the fact that God has offered a way by which we would be delivered of all that delusion and deception. And delivered from the wrath of God that once hung over our heads. Disregarding the magnitude of the statement that the Messiah, promised to Israel, came to earth, proved Himself to be the Savior, not only for Jews but for Jews and Gentiles alike, indeed, for all of mankind.

That man’s name, the Messiah, of course, was Jesus. He ministered and He spoke the word of God. He grew in wisdom and stature and favor, both with God and with man. He taught great truths and performed great miracles. But He was, nevertheless, rejected. Turned over to the rulers of His day to be crucified. And it would seem that all hope was lost when He breathed His last breath here on earth. Three days later He rose from the grave. He rose from the dead. And that wasn’t some Houdini-like trick, by the way. Rather, that certified the claims He had made in His life, to be very God of very God, God in human flesh, fully man and therefore a sympathetic Savior, and fully God and thus capable of dying a death that would be sufficient to pay for the sins of each and every one of us. After His resurrection, of course, Jesus ascended into heaven, where right now He rules over the entire universe, including you and me and every person and creature which has ever lived.

What I’ve just stated is the message of the gospel. It’s a message that most of us have heard. It’s a message that many of us in this room have believed in. It’s a message, indeed, that one must believe in, in order to be saved and to be granted eternal life. But it’s also a message which can be crowded out and become overly familiar to us, somewhat losing its edge. Not because of any deficiency in the message itself, but rather because of our own fallen and forgetful hearts. And that’s what we’re going to get after this morning. We’re going to get after our collective curse of familiarity with the gospel. And how we’re going to get after this is by going back to the first century, and specifically the Roman Empire of the first century. I want you to picture this scene with me for a moment. While most of the 66 books of the Bible had been written. They hadn’t yet been compiled into a single volume, like we have them today, in a leather-bound volume, in a zipped-up volume. Some citizens back then were capable of reading, but most of the population was illiterate. While the Roman road systems were a marked improvement over previous forms of travel, word still traveled very slowly. There were no church buildings like we think of them today. There was no printing press. There was no internet. There were no podcasts. But somehow, and against all human odds. The very gospel message that I just shared with you, was expanding and spreading with both Jews and Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus Christ. And that’s where we’re going to begin as we start our verse-by-verse journey through the Gospel of Luke.

Turn with me, in your bibles to Luke 1:1. And the title of this morning’s sermon is “Dear Theophilus.” We’ll be starting in verse 1 and working our way through verse 4 of chapter 1 of Luke’s gospel. God’s word reads, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as those, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught.”

These four verses make up the prologue to Luke’s gospel. And while we see four verses in our English bibles, this is actually one incredibly long sentence in Greek. But it’s not just a long sentence, it’s really a sophisticated and a complex sentence; it’s an elegant and artistically crafted sentence. And it’s so much different, by the way, in the tone that it sets, compared to the introductory sentences of the other three Gospels.

For instance, Matthew starts his gospel in Matthew 1:1 with these words, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” and then Matthew proceeds, in the next 17 verses, to list out this genealogy from Abraham to Joseph. Mark starts his gospel this way in Mark 1:1, he says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” And then he gives two Old Testament references, Mark does, in verses 2 and 3 of chapter 1. And then he goes immediately in verses 4 through 8 of his first chapter to a description of the appearance and the preaching of John the Baptist. John, like Luke, starts his gospel with a prologue. But unlike Luke’s prologue, which is so focused on historical accuracy and research and precision as he starts his gospel, John’s gospel starts with this relatively detached, soaring summary of these majestic truths concerning the person of Christ. Here’s John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.” John’s prologue then, has its own focus and its own literary beauty.

But Luke’s prologue, our text for today, is entirely different. In fact, in the 43 Greek words that Luke devotes to his prologue, he demonstrates this keen interest in laying out this accurate, historical, trustworthy narrative of the life and the ministry of Jesus. And his writing style, by the way, mirrors and resembles that of certain historians of antiquity, like Josephus. I’m going to read us a section of Josephus’ introductory words to “Against Apion,” an apologetic he wrote. (He’s the old…) Josephus is this Jewish historian from the first century. See if you can’t hear traces of Luke in what he says.

He says, “In my history of our Antiquities, most excellent Epaphroditus, I have, I think, made sufficiently clear to any who may peruse that work the extreme antiquity of our Jewish race, the purity of the original stock, and the manner in which it established itself in the country that we occupy to-day. That history embraces a period of five thousand years, and was written by me in Greek on the basis of our sacred books.

“Since, however, a number of persons, influenced by the malicious calumnies of certain individuals, discredit the statements in my history concerning our antiquity and adduce as proof the comparative modernity of our race the fact that it has not been thought worthy of mention by the best known Greek historians”, that’s a very long sentence, “I consider it my duty to devote a brief treatise to all these points; in order at once to convict our detractors of malignity and deliberate falsehood, to correct the ignorance of others, and to instruct all who desire to know the truth concerning the antiquity of our race.”

Similar. Back to Luke’s Gospel. As I mentioned, it’s a single sentence in the original Greek. And in it, we’re going to see these three movements of thought which are going to inform our three points for this morning. First we’re going to see “Luke’s Investigation” in verses 1 and 2. Second will be “Luke’s Inspiration” in verse 3. And then third will be “Luke’s Intention” in verse 4. So, it’s Luke’s investigation, his inspiration, his intention. (We’re alliterating, I’m back, it’s good to be home.)

We’ll start with “Luke’s Investigation” in verses 1 and 2. Again, it says, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as those, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, handed them down to us.”
So, Luke here is playing the role of historian or you could even say journalist as he seeks to deliver and flesh out the greatest news that’s ever been shared, the good news of the gospel. And he’s doing this to the recipient of his gospel, this man named Theophilus who we’ll encounter later. And note, as he’s writing out this gospel, we see that Luke is revealing his sources of which there are primarily two. We see the first one in verse 1 where it says he had drawn from those who had “undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.” And the second source is in verse 2, where he goes to “those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” We’re going to take those one by one, starting with the first group in verse 1 and the second group in verse 2.

So, let’s look at this first group first. He’d gone to those who had “undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.” Who is he talking about, who’s Luke referring to here? What is he referring to here? This is actually really fun to work through and geek-out for a guy like me. In fact, if you look at the end of verse 1, chapter 1:1, you’ll see a verb there, “fulfilled”. Some of you might have it as “accomplished” in the NAS. But that verb, “fulfilled” or “accomplished” is what’s really driving Luke’s thought here in verse 1. And it’s in the perfect tense and what the perfect tense typically does in Greek is that it records some action that took place at some point in the past whose results are now being felt in the present. What would be a better tense to capture what Luke is attempting to capture here than the perfect tense. Since what he’s doing, in writing out his gospel, is giving this thorough report surrounding the life of our Lord, the events surrounding Jesus. Events which had taken place in the past but now they’re still being felt in the present of Luke’s day, just as they’re felt in the present of our day.

Like, have you ever stopped to think about that? How we gather week after week to worship a Jewish man who died on a tree 2,000 years ago halfway across the globe. The perfect tense (no pun intended) is the perfect way to express what we’re doing here right now in Lincoln, Nebraska, worshiping a crucified Nazarene. So, there are these events centered around the life of Christ which were, verse 1, “fulfilled among us.” And Luke here in his gospel, verse 1, tells us that he was looking to “compile an account of [these] things.” Now note, he’s not starting from scratch in giving his account. It’s clear, rather, from the language of verse 1 that he’s gathering and drawing from other sources. Apparently, he had read other accounts of the life of our Lord and gleaned information from them and was familiar with them. So, what he’s doing here, is he’s building, carefully, on precedence.

And some have asked the question, was Luke here writing to compile this account because he was unhappy with previous accounts? Or critiquing the work done by others before him? I don’t think that’s the case at all. And there are a couple of reasons I say that. First, look at the first word here of this gospel, that first word there is “inasmuch.” Another translation, or a way to translate that word would be “since,” “since many have undertaken.” That is not in any way a word that disparages the work of those who had come before Luke in giving their own accounts of the life and the ministry of our Lord. On the contrary, as he begins his work here in his own compilation, Luke is actually acknowledging his debt to those who’d put the work in earlier to compile and record the events of the life of Jesus. And actually, if Luke had wanted to disparage those who came before him and those who wrote before him, he would have used a word like “although” or “notwithstanding,” notwithstanding what those bozos wrote about Jesus, I’m now going to write something. That’s not what he does though. He says, “inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account.”

Now, the second reason I don’t think Luke here is disparaging the work of earlier authors or compilers is, down in verse 3, where he says at the very beginning of verse 3, “it seemed fitting for me”. In using that language, Luke is actually joining himself with those who wrote of Jesus before him. He’s not looking here to supersede their thoughts. Rather, he is joining the stream of those who had reported on the facts surrounding the life of Christ. He again, is not saying since others have done such a poor job, I’m now going to do a better job than they. Instead, he’s corroborating what’s already been done and what’s already been said and what’s already spreading about the life of our Lord.

Now note, back in verse 1, he says: “inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account.” Now, who are those many? Well, at a minimum, basic English definition, “many” means more than one. But the exact number of this “many” is unclear to us today. Some have suggested two or three, some have suggested many dozens. We don’t really know, but, in fact, we don’t really need to know. Because Luke’s point here, is not to provide us with a precise idea of what the word “many” means. His point, rather, is that before he wrote his gospel, others had written their own accounts concerning Jesus, and there wasn’t just one account out there, there were many accounts. And don’t get me wrong, he’s not saying there are many gospels, like many paths to salvation. (Like the United Methodist Church said this week.) He’s saying there are many different recordings and accounts of that singular, saving gospel.

Now, here’s something worth considering just for a moment, a slight detour. People don’t write about other people, unless those other people have done something significant or of some significance or value. Think about it, in 150 years your name, and my name, our names, they might come up in conversation every 15 to 25 years as our descendants try to figure out some branch or twig on our family tree. But other than those rare occurrences in which somebody just happens to stumble upon our name, we will all be long forgotten, memories of us will have totally faded. Now, we’re not going to care, of course, because we’ll be worshiping the Lord in glory. But the reality is every single one of us in this room is a highly-forgettable blip on the radar of history. It won’t be long before no one remembers who we are. That wasn’t the case with Jesus, Jesus’ life and ministry, His person and His works, His teaching and His miracles, His death and His resurrection impacted people, many people. So there were, as we see here in verse 1, many who wrote about Him.

So now we have Luke, early 60’s A.D, pulling together these reports of the “many” who had “undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.” That is, those who had put pen to papyrus and had put into writing those things they had seen in Jesus or learned from Jesus. None of those earlier writings, by the way, exist today, they’ve long since dissolved into dust and that’s ok. Had God seen fit to include those writings in the canon of scripture He would have preserved them, but He didn’t. And they weren’t now. What we do have, now though, is Luke, and the other Gospel writers compiling from those earlier written materials their own Spirit-directed account of “the things that have been fulfilled among us.”

Now, we need to lock into another word here. What are these “things” that Luke speaks of? In what sense were they “fulfilled among us”? A couple of items to note there. First, the Legacy Standard Bible that I’m reading from has the word “fulfilled,” which we’ve already seen is in the perfect tense, past tense action with present day implications. But if you’re reading from the NAS ’95 or the ESV, you’ll see the word “accomplished.” So, which is it? Is it fulfilled or is it accomplished? The answer is “yes.” Either is a perfectly-fine translation of the Greek term there, either fits the context very well.

Second item to note here though, is that when you see or hear that word “fulfilled,” as I see it here in my LSB -- especially in a church like ours which has been so well-taught and so well-grounded in matters of eschatology and prophecy and future things -- we might be quick to rush to the conclusion that when Luke here says, “things that have been fulfilled among us,” that this is referring exclusively and solely to Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Well, that would actually be overshooting the mark. While there certainly were aspects of the life of Jesus as recorded in Luke that, of course, were in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, there were other aspects of His life and His ministry which had no clear connection to a specific Old Testament prophetic account. So while the Gospel of Luke, as we’ll soon see, is full of examples of Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecy concerning Israel’s promised Messiah, when Luke here speaks of himself adding to these other earlier accounts of “the things that have been fulfilled among us,” he’s speaking more broadly about all that was recorded about all that Jesus ever did, whether or not it was specifically connected to an Old Testament prophecy.

Now, another matter. What does Luke mean when he refers to these “things that have been fulfilled” (or accomplished you might have it) “among us”? In other words, who’s the “us” that’s in view here? And we know that Luke himself was not an eyewitness, a personal eyewitness to the life and ministry of Jesus, more on that in just a moment. So in what sense were these things, as he calls them, “fulfilled” or accomplished “among us”? The simple answer is this. “Us” here is not referring exclusively to Luke or exclusively to Theophilus, the immediate recipient of his Gospel. Instead, it’s a broader use of “us,” that includes Luke, that includes Theophilus, but it also includes all those who were there to witness the various events surrounding the life of Christ, and also, all of those in Luke’s day who were still feeling the ripple effects of the life and the ministry and the death of Jesus. Remember that verb, I mentioned it in the beginning, is in the perfect tense, so it’s describing something that occurred in the past from Luke’s vantage point, but its effects are still being felt in the present. I think a fair example, or a fair reference for us today, would be to think of economic policies that have been implemented by U.S. Presidents back in the 60’s, the 70’s or the 80’s. Some of us weren’t around back then, but all of us are still feeling the impact of those policies and those decisions today. So were the works and the words of Jesus being felt all around the then-known world during the time that Luke wrote his gospel. They were still being fulfilled among us.

With that, we can drop down to verse 2. We’re still under our first major heading here of “Luke’s Investigation.” We see that the first source of his investigation, back in verse 1, was to undertake this, to compile this account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.
Now, in verse 2, we get to a second source. So, in addition to the written accounts that Luke was consulting back in verse 1, now in verse 2 we get to these oral, or verbal accounts of all those who had seen and witnessed and encountered Jesus. Luke is doing the whole ‘belt and suspenders’ approach to investigation, he’s leaving no stone unturned, he’s being thorough in his research, he’s being sure of the evidence that he’s gathering.

By the way, Luke is a real interesting case study in what we mean when we talk about the doctrine of inspiration, divine inspiration. On the one hand, there’s this divine element, as to how we got the scriptures, in that the Holy Spirit moved human authors of scripture to write what they wrote. 2 Peter 1:20 says, “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” So the scriptures came from God, 2 Timothy 3:16, all scripture is “breathed out by God,” as men of God were moved to record the thoughts of God, giving us the word of God. But at the same time, as God moved men like Luke to write holy scripture, He did not, in any way, override their personalities or their natural abilities or their unique methodologies or writing styles, like here in Luke. The writers of scripture, the human authors of scripture, were not robots or automatons. No. God used each man uniquely, to deliver His divine message through them perfectly. And such was the case with Luke. He was this thorough, precise, meticulous doctor-turned-historian-turned theologian and God uses Luke’s commitment to detail and historical accuracy to move Luke to write the most detailed and thorough gospel account.

So, we’ve seen, again back in verse 1, his precision, Luke’s precision and his commitment to detail, in collecting these written accounts of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, as we get to verse 2, we see Luke’s razor-sharp focus on accuracy come through these verbal interviews of eyewitnesses. He says, “just as those, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” Now, as Luke wrote those words and gave us this prologue, we have to remember that he was a part of a second generation of Christ followers. The first generation was made up of the apostles and the disciples and those who had known and encountered and seen Jesus personally. And for that first generation they didn’t necessarily always need books or written accounts to tell them about what they had seen with their own eyes. They had witnessed Him, they had encountered him. They had heard His teaching with their ears, they had seen His miracles right before them. They were close to the events themselves and, as a result, their memories, for the first generation, they were fresh and their minds were clear and their recall was sharp. But Luke didn’t belong to that generation; he wasn’t a personal eyewitness to the Lord’s life. He was a part of that second generation. So, to get down to the root of what the Lord actually did and said, Luke needed to get to work and get to studying. He needed to dig deep. But that wasn’t going to happen in a library somewhere. He wasn’t going to get behind a carrel and just put the air pods in and start digging into the research himself. No, he lived in a time in which there were living witnesses to Jesus’ ministry, so he had access to the first generation themselves. So, as a good researcher, as a good historian, he goes out and talks to and interviews them so that he could put together this exact well-ordered account of the life of Christ. That’s all wrapped up in verse 2 here, “those, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.”

Now, a couple of things about these “eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” The first thing to mention is, and this is clear from the way this sentence is structured in Greek, Luke here is taking about one group of individuals. He’s not talking about eyewitnesses and servants of the word as though they’re two different groups of people. They are one group of people, the eyewitnesses he interviewed were servants of the word, they were a single group, they were one-and-the-same. And who was in this group of eyewitnesses, servants of the word? Well, we get a clue from the first few words of verse 2, where he says, “just as those, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” “From the beginning” there is not talking about from the beginning of time or from the beginning of creation. We’re not talking about Genesis 1:1 here, no. Luke here is referring to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. He’s conducting his investigation here, he’s doing his historical research here, and he’s digging deep by going back to the beginning of the Lord’s earthly ministry.

So, who’s in this group? Who makes up this group of these “eyewitnesses and servants of the word” who were there from the beginning? Well, at a minimum, this would have included the Twelve: Peter and Andrew, James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, the other James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James, and Matthias who replaced Judas Iscariot. And being apostles these individuals would have had a unique and specific ability to recall information as Luke interviewed them. In fact, you could turn there if you’d like, but in Matthew 10, we have Jesus speaking to the Twelve before He sends them out. In Matthew 10:16, the Lord says some important words to the Twelve, before having them go do His work. Matthew 10:16, Jesus says: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given to you in that hour what you are to say.” So, the Twelve would have this ability to recall in moments of trial and oppression and persecution what to say. Jesus said something very similar, you don’t have to turn there right now though, to Peter and James and John and Andrew in Mark 13:11, where He says, “And when they lead you away, delivering you up, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.” The Twelve, in other words, were made a promise by Jesus Himself, that the Spirit of God would bring recall and the words to speak in their times of trial and distress.

But now, as we go into the gospel of John… in fact, turn with me over to John 2. We’ll see this similar concept broaden out and fan out beyond the original Twelve to a broader group of disciples. Look at John 2, where we’re going to see a couple of instances of this ability by the apostles and the disciples to have supernatural recall and remembrance which was brought about by the Holy Spirit. Look at John 2:13, it says, “And the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, ‘Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.’ ”
Now, look at verse 17. As this whole, wild scene is unfolding look what happens, it says, “His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume Me.’ ” In other words, with this visual of the Lord’s whip snapping in the wind still fresh in their mind and the sound of tables having just been overturned still ringing in their ears and perhaps with a coin or two still spinning on the ground, God brings to the disciples’ minds Old Testament scripture, specifically Psalm 69:9, “zeal for your house has consumed Me.”

Now, reading on, still in John 2, look at verse 18, it says, “The Jews then said to Him, ‘What sign do You show us as Your authority for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, “it took forty-six years to build this sanctuary, and will You raise it up in three days?’ ” That’s a reasonable question if you’re thinking purely in earthly terms. And if you, like the Jewish religious leaders here, reject Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah, and the Son of God. But look at what John 2:21 records, it says, “But He was speaking,” this is John narrating now, “about the sanctuary of His body.” And then verse 22, “So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.”

So as this event, this encounter, is happening real time, the disciples were not at all clear as to what Jesus was saying and what Jesus was promising. They were ‘fuzzy on the details,’ you could say. But when Jesus died and when Jesus rose and when He sent His promised Spirit, there was recall and there was clarity and connections were suddenly being made in the minds of these disciples brought about by the Holy Spirit.

Another example of this is just over the page at John 12, a few pages over. John 12, where we’ll see another example of this Spirit-directed recall ability given to the disciples. John 12, we’ll pick it up in verse 12; this is the account of Jesus’ triumphal entry. John 12:12 says, “On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.’ And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.’ ” This is what we think of, of course, as the classic Palm Sunday verse. And while it might be clear to us sitting here today what’s happening here as we read this portion of John’s narrative in its context, in real-time it wasn’t so clear to Jesus’ disciples. Look at verse 16, it says, “These things His disciples did not understand at the first.” And then note the rest of the verse: “but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they had done these things to Him.” In other words, this ‘a-ha moment,’ came later, but it did, in fact, come.

And there are more and more examples of this happening throughout the Gospels. I mean, think about it, Jesus was absolutely clear in communicating to His disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to die. He even specified the way that He was going to die. And He even specified that He was going to come back from death to life and be resurrected from the grave. But they didn’t get it. While the Lord was living, the disciples were largely clueless. But after He died and after He rose and after He ascended and after Him the Spirit came, things started to click as the events of Jesus’ life all started to make sense to them, as they now had greater insight and clarity into the things that Jesus did. And they had greater insight and clarity as to the things that Jesus taught. And it all became clear to them because of the Holy Spirit, this same Spirit who would later move many of them to write out the very word of God, 2 Peter 1:21, men moved by God spoke.

All this to say, back to Luke, Luke 1:2, the prologue, when Luke began interviewing “those, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” The point is this: he was interviewing men who had Holy Spirit-directed clarity and Holy Spirit-directed insight. Luke wasn’t performing your average, you know, “i-phone-in-the-face”, “average-guy-on-the-street” type of interview that we see on YouTube today. No. He was interviewing Holy Spirit-guided eyewitnesses, who had not only seen what they had seen, but now, they had supernatural clarity in describing the things that they had seen.

Moving on, as Luke was interviewing these living Spirit-guided eyewitnesses, we also see them described here as “servants of the word.” And what a beautiful expression that is. Meaning that though these men had apostolic titles, and though these men had this unique privilege of being these disciples who had personally encountered Jesus during His life and ministry, they’re described here by Luke as being servants of the word. There’s no exaltation of man here, there’s no focus or emphasis on titles or expressions like that, not at all. Rather, no matter how close to Christ these interviewees had been, they are now being described by Luke as mere “servants of the word.”

And we do know, we can chase down a rabbit trail of any one of these apostles, or interviewees, or servants of the word, and we can see that they really were, as they’re described here, “servants of the word.” I mean, consider just Peter. Peter was there… In fact, go with me, if you would, we have time, to 2 Peter, I’ve alluded to it a couple of times already, but let’s see with our very eyes, 2 Peter, written later in the apostle Peter’s life. Peter describes in 2 Peter 1, starting in verse 16. (And we know this by cross checking this with Matthew 17, Peter was there at Jesus’ transfiguration, at the Mount of Transfiguration.) Look how he describes it in verse 16 of 2 Peter 1, he says, “For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly devised myths, but being,” and look at the word here, same word as our word back in Luke 1:2, “eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased’ - and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” And then Peter says this in verse 19, “and we have as more sure the prophetic word.”

Peter then, is exactly as Luke describes him and the other eyewitnesses to be, back up in Luke 1:2, he was a servant of the word. So were the other apostles and disciples. Meaning, Luke had not only a trustworthy knowledge base from which to draw, since these were eyewitnesses, but he had a humble and godly group of men that he was interviewing. These were truly “servants of the word.” And these “eyewitnesses and servants of the word”, back to verse 2 here, says they “handed them,” meaning their eyewitness accounts, “down to us.” Meaning, to Luke and to others in Luke’s generation who were not eyewitnesses themselves.

So, as we tie the odd the end here of verse 2, we note that Luke relied upon a variety of different means and different sources in accumulating the information and the material that he needed to write out and compile his Gospel. He had previously written accounts. And he had prior eyewitness testimony. And, most important of all, of course, is that Luke, being an inspired author, had the Holy Spirit; he was under the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit as he wrote his gospel, which, of course, guided him and kept him from error.

Alright, so far, verses 1-2, we’ve looked at “Luke’s Investigation,” the written accounts, the eyewitness testimonies. Now, as we move to verse 3, we’re going to see “Luke’s Inspiration.”
Verse 3 reads: “it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus.”
Now, with those words, we’re going to start getting into some of the ‘why’ behind Luke’s decision to write what he wrote. He begins by saying, “it seemed fitting for me as well.” In other words, it seemed “good” to Luke. It seemed “appropriate” to Luke. It seemed “right” to Luke. In other words, Just as the compilers and eyewitnesses of verses 1 and 2 had valuable information to share concerning Christ and His ministry, so, too, did Luke, “it seemed fitting for me,” he said, as well.

He then goes on to say, middle of verse 3, “having investigated everything carefully from the beginning.” What this is telling us, is that Luke didn’t treat his work like a frazzled high school or college student throwing a term paper together the night before everything is due. He wasn’t like an undisciplined or lazy pastor cobbling together a Saturday night special, before he preaches it. Instead, it says he “investigated everything carefully.” And this makes total sense. Putting it back in the context of Luke’s training and his background as a doctor. As he goes about his efforts here to record the history of Jesus’ life and his death and his resurrection. He does so, very clearly and evidently with the mind and the skill and the precision of a surgeon. It’s like he’s a doctor with his patient on the table and he’s ready for surgery. The gloves are on and he knows that he has to get everything right. One missed incision, one slip of the scalpel, one shaky hand, and the results can be disastrous. He’s like a skilled surgeon here. He’s all about precision, tracing out the history and the details of the life of Christ. His aim, verse 3, was to investigate “everything carefully from the beginning.” No stone left unturned, no leaf unturned, no account unread, no witness ignored. He wanted to read it all and see it all, so that he could communicate it all.

And again, he was investigating everything carefully. We saw this word back in verse 2, as well. He was investigating everything “carefully from the beginning.” Not from the beginning of time or the beginning of creation, but to the period of the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Actually, going further back than that. We’ll see, as we get into the text of verse 5, next week, he goes back, Luke does, to the conception of Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist. Which ties his writings, Luke’s writings, to the very last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and its promise that a forerunner would come before the arrival of the Messiah. So, he goes way back. But we also have to remember that Luke (we saw this last time I was up here) was also the human author of the book of Acts. So, if we consider the body and the breadth of Luke’s historical writings as a whole -- from the announcement to Zechariah and Elizabeth, in Luke 1, that they would conceive a son who would be the forerunner to the Messiah -- all the way to Paul, in Acts 28, some sixty-plus years later, now imprisoned in Rome for sharing that same Messiah’s gospel message -- it is really safe to say that Luke was not only meticulous in his research, but he was sweeping in the scope of his research, he was covering it all.

Luke, though, was not only reading all this material, from John the Baptist, to Paul and his life and his account, he was not just reading and interviewing and digesting a massive amount of information. It was also his ambition, or as I have it here in our heading, his “inspiration”, to write it all out. Look at how he phrases it in the second half on verse 3 here, “having investigated everything carefully from the beginning,” he sought “to write it out for you in orderly sequence.” So Luke here is adding to his credentials. Not only a doctor, not only a traveling missionary with Paul, not only a researcher, not only a historian, not only a theologian, he was a writer. And a writer, as we know him today, of one of the four Gospels. And again, note the precision, note the care with which he undertook his task. He sought to write the Gospel, his Gospel, “in orderly sequence.”

Now, some have taken that phrase, “in orderly sequence,” to mean… this must mean purely and strictly chronological order. But that actually is not the meaning of that word “orderly” there. Rather, what‘s being described there is meticulous research and careful organization of his material. Luke was focused on writing in logical order so that we could follow it, not always purely chronological order.
For instance, over in Luke 3:19-20, the arrest of John the Baptist is mentioned. And it’s sandwiched between Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s baptism of the masses and John the Baptist’s baptism of Jesus. There’s just this reference to John the Baptist’s later arrest. Well, there is no better place to put that, no better logical place to put the mention of John’s later arrest, than in mentioning his account with Jesus early on. It’s just an example of Luke not writing purely chronologically, but rather logically, putting thoughts and pieces where they made most logical sense.

Another example of that would be over in Luke 9:14. That would be the example of the feeding of the five thousand, the story of the feeding of the five thousand. And Luke very meticulously mentions the number of people that were present in that account, the five thousand. And right next to it, he mentions the exact amount of bread that was needed. That’s just an example of Luke writing in a very orderly, thought-through, meticulous way. He puts thoughts right where you would expect them to be, he puts together what belongs together, he says next what needs to be said next. His account was not confusing, but clear. He wrote in very straight lines. And again, I think it bears repeating so we don’t lose sight of this truth and don’t allow the human element of the Gospel of Luke to override the divine element. But we have to remember that it was the Holy Spirit who was guiding each and every one of Luke’s choices and arrangements of the material that he was writing down. The Holy Spirit supplied Luke with thoughts and sentences and words and phrases. And even how things were ordered. And the result is that when Luke wrote what he wrote in his Gospel, these were not the mere words of men, but instead, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, these were the very words of God.
And given that these are, not just these four verses, but the remaining 1,147 verses that we need to cover in the Gospel of Luke, given that these are from God, we know from Hebrews 4:12, that like any section of scripture, this prologue and the rest of Luke’s Gospel is
“living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and of spirit, of both joints and of marrow, and able to judge,” discerning, “the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” And that means, as we work through the remaining 1,147 verses of the Gospel of Luke in the days and years ahead, we can trust that God will be convicting us and growing us and sanctifying us and molding us into the image of His Son.

And I’m getting ahead of myself. Because before this Gospel landed in our laps, it first landed in the hands of Theophilus. And so as we come to the end of verse 3 here, we see that it was Luke’s aim, in his original context, “to write it out for you in orderly sequence,” and the ‘you’ there is: “most excellent Theophilus.” Who was Theophilus? Some have taken this to be a symbolic name, like it’s not really pointing to a real person, but, instead, to a profile of the type of person that Luke was trying to reach. There’s absolutely no evidence of that. The better approach, as always, is to take God’s word for what it says and to understand that this name “Theophilus” is referring to an actual person by this name. Luke wasn’t living in fantasy land. He was writing to a person. And by the way, that name “Theophilus” was a Greek name, which means “lover of God” or “friend of God.” He would have been a Gentile, just like Luke. And the only other thing we know about him is that he is addressed here, at the end of verse 3, as “most excellent Theophilus.” And that’s significant, because what that tells us is that Theophilus held some form of high-ranking office within the Roman government of Luke’s day. And we know that because the only other human author of scripture, to use those words – “most excellent” – anywhere in the New Testament, is Luke himself, in the book of Acts. When he refers to both Festus and Felix in Paul’s interactions with those two rulers, as both being “most excellent Festus” or “most excellent Felix.” Theophilus, then, would have been a highly ranking Roman official.

And the last thing we learn about Theophilus, we find in verse 4. And that takes us to our final heading or point for this morning, “Luke’s Intention.” So, we have “Luke’s Investigation,” “Luke’s inspiration,” and last, in verse 4, “Luke’s Intention,” where we see it here: “so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught.” Here we find another key detail about Theophilus, which is that he was a believer who apparently needed to be built up in his faith. Verse 4 starts with those two familiar words; we see them all over the New Testament, “so that.”
That’s a hina clause, a purpose clause, where Luke is expressing to Theophilus his purpose in writing him and giving him this Gospel. And then he says, “so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught.”

Now, the first few words there, “so that you may know,” that really underscores Luke’s desire to emphasize the truth of what he’s now sharing with Theophilus. In fact, that verb there, “know,” it’s an intensified form. The normal Greek verb, to know, is “ginoskot,” means to know something. The Spanish speakers in the room might hear that “conocer” idea.
But here in verse 4, it’s “epiginosko,” it’s a strengthen verb. Meaning, this could also be translated, “so that you might fully and completely know”, most excellent Theophilus. In other words, Luke here wasn’t loading this man, Theophilus, up with rumors or theories or suggestions or suppositions. Instead, he was giving clear and direct statements of truth to him.
For you who have an NAS ’95, that’s how this verse ends, right? “So that you may know the exact truth.”

And by the way, these were not new truths that Luke was delivering here to Theophilus. No. Theophilus had been taught these truths before. Look at the last part of verse 4, where he says, “so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught.” So, Luke was writing to strengthen and encourage and fortify Theophilus in his faith. As a Gentile, as Theophilus was, he would have been brought up in some form of paganism, some pagan religion, which was in competition with all the other forms of pagan religion of the day. But like pagan religion tends to do, even in our day, it’s ultimately proved meaningless, it had no purpose, it offered no ultimate answers, there was no firm grounding in truth.
And now, though he was a Christian, it was very possible that Theophilus still had questions, and maybe he had some lingering doubts, and perhaps there was even a tug back in the direction of his old paganism. We don’t know.

What we do know is what it says here in verse 4. That Luke is saying to Theophilus, with this air of confidence, that only one who is saved can truly have . . . he’s saying to him, I’ve given you this account, so that you may have certainty about the things you have been taught. In other words, “Read what I’ve written to you, Theophilus. So that You can have certainty, so that you can come face-to-face with the core facts of the very message of the Christian faith, so that you can truly understand who Jesus is, and was, and what He came to do.”

Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one more detail here, as we wind down. Which is that in the Greek New Testament of this text that we’ve been in today, the prologue to Luke’s Gospel, that word, “certainty,” or if you had an NAS translation, “truth,” is the very last word of the prologue. Now, there are two different ways a writer of New Testament Greek could have emphasized an idea or a concept. One would be to front load it and to put it right at the beginning of a sentence or paragraph. The other would be to put it at the very end, like a punctuation mark. That’s what we have here. Luke put that word “certainty” or “truth” at the very end of the Greek sentence here, in verse 4, for emphasis, focus, priority. He ends his prologue, to the beginning of his Gospel here, saying to Theophilus, “I have written all of this, Theophilus, so that you can be sure, so that you can be certain, you can be certain of the truth.”

And that’s a key point of application for us here this morning, as we finish up, and get ready to start our overall study of the Gospel of Luke. Though in his immediate context, Luke is writing to Theophilus, so that he may know, with certainty, the truths of the details of Jesus’ life and His ministry and His death and His resurrection. So that he can be certain. And that’s something we all need, even today as followers of Jesus Christ. We need to be reminded, over and over, day by day. Like the fact that faucets give water and furnaces give heat, we need to be reminded, day over day, as Luke was doing for Theophilus here, what Jesus did. That He came, that He lived, that He died, that He rose. We all need those reminders, we all need those reassurances, so that we “may know,” verse 4, “the certainty about the things [we] have been taught.” Lord willing, that’s the reassurance the Lord will be giving us, week over week, as we work through this Gospel in the weeks ahead.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You, for this privilege that we’ve had this morning to get into these first few words, these opening words of Luke’s Gospel. A Gospel he gave in his immediate context to this man Theophilus, but a Gospel that has been given to us, by You, as members of Your church. God, thank You for the clarity of Luke’s writing. Thank You for the conviction that You bring through the preaching of Your word through him. Thank You that we can open this book, written all these years ago, and understand what’s being said, have the Spirit guide our understanding and interpretation of what’s being said, so that we may live more faithfully for You. God, I do pray that, as we get ready to embark on the meat of this Gospel, that we would do so with anticipation and excitement and joy, knowing that what You have for us is going to be reminding us, and bring to remembrance for us, all that You have done and purposed through Jesus Christ, our Lord. May He be the center, the core, of all that we do, not only today, but every day you have us here. It’s in His name we pray. Amen.