The Gospel of Luke
Rev. Mike Browder
July 10, 2011
Today we are studying Luke’s Gospel. Luke was one of the greatest writers who ever lived. So, when you pick up a book by a great writer, and start reading, what do you expect? You expect a good beginning, don’t you? Something that really grabs you, right from the start.
Look at Luke’s Gospel. What does he start with? That’s it. After a very brief preface, he jumps right into the Christmas story, one of the greatest that has ever been told. It’s like a great book all by itself. The announcements to Mary and Elizabeth. The birth of the baby Jesus. The shepherds. The angels singing. What a wonderful story! We remember it and celebrate it every year. And all this is just the beginning of Luke’s Gospel.
How does a good writer, a good reporter get a scoop? He finds witnesses that no one else has ever interviewed. That’s just what Luke did. He has the best Christmas story because he has the best witness. The things he tells us about could only have come from Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Acts, Luke tells us that Mary was participating in the meetings of the early disciples after Jesus’ ascension. Luke must have met her there. He recorded her powerful testimony so that it would never be forgotten. And many, many people have come to love Jesus Christ because of that testimony.
What are some more things that we can say about Luke and his writing? In the first place, we must remember that Luke wrote two books in the New Testament. The book of Acts is actually the sequel to Luke. If it were a movie, we might call it Luke II. Look at the first verse in Acts (1:1). He says, “In the ‘first book’ (that is the Gospel of Luke), I wrote about the beginning of all that Jesus did and taught.” So Acts is the sequel to Luke.
If we had time to compare the four Gospels closely, we would see that Luke uses the same basic outline found in Mark’s Gospel. Mark was written earlier. Luke uses Mark and expands on it. Matthew does the same. Because they use the same outline, Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels. “Syn-” means together as in “synthesis,” and “optic” means to “see,” as in the optic nerve. So Matthew, Mark and Luke look at the life of Jesus from the same point of view. The Gospel of John, on the other hand, uses a very different outline.
Luke was the best educated of all the writers in the New Testament, in fact, the whole Bible. He wrote in Greek, the lingua franca of the educated class of the Roman Empire. Luke uses the best Greek in the New Testament. He wants the leaders of the world to learn about the life, and the mission, and the salvation of Jesus Christ. He also tells about the world-changing work of Christ’s followers, including Paul. Beginning in chapter 16 of Acts, Luke is an eyewitness, traveling along with Paul. In II Timothy 4:11,
we see that Luke is the last one visiting with Paul in prison, in Rome, where he is awaiting his death. Some think that Luke might have hoped to save Paul’s life by publishing his Gospel and Acts.
There was no more accurate historian, in ancient times, than our Dr. Luke in his New Testament books. When Jesus lived, there was no common system of dating such as the A.D. and B.C. that we use today. Dating was done by linking the event to the world, national, and local leaders at the time. Turn with me to chapter 3, and let’s see how Luke does this.
Luke 3:1-2 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius (1), when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea (2), and Herod was ruler of Galilee (3), and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea (4) and Trachonitis (5), and Lysanias ruler of Abilene (6), 2 during the high priesthood of Annas (7) and Caiaphas (8), the word of God came to John son of Zechariah (9)
That’s 9 different points of dating. Let me tell you, in ancient times, historians didn’t get any better than that. Whenever I hear one of these sensationalized television programs saying, “Oh, we know that the writing in the Bible is not accurate,” I want to just scream. Let me tell you this. If the history in the Bible is not true, then there is no ancient history. We have later documents and better documents in the Bible than for any ancient history. We have manuscripts from the Bible written while eyewitnesses were still alive. The earliest manuscripts we have from Herodotus and Plato are from a thousand years later. A thousand years! I am telling you, if the history in the Bible is not true, there is no ancient history. And Luke is our best example.
We know that Luke was a doctor; because, in Colossians 4:14, Paul calls him “the much-loved physician.” We see evidence of this fact in Luke’s Gospel. Somehow Luke manages to mention more different medical terms than are used by the most famous classical physician Hippocrates. Whereas the other Gospel writers might say, “he was sick.” Luke will qualify the matter by saying, “He had a high fever,” or “She was about to die.” Luke is the only one who mentions the healing of the ear chopped off by Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane.”
In telling the story of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, only Luke says, “She had spent all her money on doctors, and they were not able to heal her.” [] (Some things have not changed since Bible times.) But this is a frank admission by a doctor about his own profession.
So, Luke tells us how Jesus brings healing. This is so important to us today. We still suffer from sickness and death. We still need Christ’s healing touch.
And we know that healing comes through prayer. More than any other Gospel, Luke talks about prayer, and he shows us the prayer life of Jesus. We see Jesus praying before every important moment of his life: Before his baptism, at Caesarea Philippi, in the Garden of Gethsemane. In Acts, we see the miracles that happen when the Disciples pray. And, Luke mentions praise more than any other New Testament writer. Luke is pointing us to the blessings that each of us finds through prayer, and praising God. So important. Prayer and praise should be in the very center of our lives. []
Naturally, along with prayer and praise, Luke emphasizes the Holy Spirit. No other Bible writer tells us more about the Holy Spirit. We see the Spirit guiding Jesus in the wilderness, and in the dove of baptism. We see the touch of the Spirit at Emmaus, and of course, in the outpouring at Pentecost. Finally, we see the Spirit guiding and empowering the Apostles. This guidance and power of the Holy Spirit continues today. John Wesley liked to say that the witness, and the guidance, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit is the privilege of every person who has faith in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel of Luke lifts up the fact that Jesus came to save the lost. No matter how poor. No matter how downtrodden. Luke says there is a special place in God’s heart for a sinner who repents. That’s truly good news for you and me, because you and I are that sinner. I guess that’s why we love the Prodigal Son story so much. It is one of the many parables found only in Luke. And the Prodigal story reminds us of how God always loves us, and how he forgives us, when we return to him in repentance.
Luke stands out in the Bible as he reminds us that God wants to save all people, not just a few. Luke himself was a Gentile. He was writing for another gentile, Theolophilus, and for the Gentile world. It’s a good thing that God’s salvation is not just for Jews, because you and I are Gentiles.
If Christ had not come to the gentiles, you and I would be lost.
Luke really expands the parameters of God’s salvation. For instance, he shows how important women were to Jesus and to the early church. This was almost unheard of in ancient times. Luke shows how the message of Christ spreads wider and wider, from Judea and Samaria, to Samaritans, and then Greeks and Romans, and then among all the peoples and cultures of the world.
A great example of this message is the parable of the Good Samaritan, found only in Luke. Through this unforgettable story of a Samaritan, Jesus shows us how God intends to work through people of other races and nations. And Jesus challenges us for being proud, and exclusive, and self-righteous.
So, to summarize. Luke lifts up the great truths of the Gospel: God is reaching out in love to us, who are lost. We come to Christ and find his salvation through repentance. And God blesses us with the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray: Lord, we thank you for Luke, this beloved physician, this great scholar. We thank you for his legacy to share with us the Gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ and his salvation. May we never forget his unforgettable stories of Christmas, and the Good Samaritan, and the Prodigal Son. And may Luke’s witness lead us sinners and gentiles to the repentance, which is the doorway to God’s unlimited love and unending salvation. Amen.