Studies in Luke #2
Luke 1:1-4
Meet Luke
God is full of surprises! About the time we are ready to give up hope, He comes out of nowhere with a solution in His hands. God has surprised His people in history.
The Red Sea must have looked like the end of the road for the newly freed Hebrew nation . . . then, surprise! God parted the waters.
The walls of Jericho must have towered ominously over Joshua and his army. Surprise! One shout and they fell down flat
David and Goliath
The hungry widow of Zarephath must have thought her life was over when she went to scrape her last meal out of the bowl of flour and jar of oil Surprise! "The bowl of flout was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord" (1 Kings 17:16a). We could go on with Daniel in the den of lions. The three Hebrews in the fiery furnace. The Saviour stopping the storm, changing water to wine, feeding the multitude.(Think of the woman who prepared the lunch for boy.) The list goes on and on.
Perhaps the Lord has done a few surprises in your life. We can't count God out of any situation, because, as Jesus said, "With God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26b; see also Luke 1:37). He is omnipotent, infinite, unrestricted, and self-sufficient. Those attributes blow our minds, because we are just the opposite. We are impotent finite, limited, and needy. Unlike us, He feels no frustration, faces no barriers, entertains no fears and never acts in an emergency.
Luke introduces us to a number of surprises which God pulled of. Since the end of the Old Testament the voice of God had fallen silent. No prophet arose to say "thus saith the Lord". For Israel the night had been long and at times very dark. But through it all hope had persisted that the night would at last end and, as Malachi put it, "the Sun of righteousness would arise with healing in his wings" (4:2)
There was the surprise for Zacharias meeting an angel while ministering in the temple. There was the added surprise to hear that his wife would give birth to a son in her old age. There would yet come surprises in Nazareth where Gabriel visited Mary. The surprise of the birth of the Saviour in Bethlehem. The shepherds in the field. The surprise the Saviour’s family being made refugees in Egypt.
Let us back up a little bit. We left off last week having looked at Theophilus and the matter of assurance. Let us say something about Luke and his account of his Gospel narrative.
There is a suggested outline for this book within the book. Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man is come… The Son of Man sent
1:1- 4:13 - Thirty years
For the Son of Man is come to seek… The Son of Man seeking
4:14 – 21:38 - Three years
For the Son of Man is come to save… The Son of Man saving
22:1- 24:53 - Eight Days
"For the Son of Man is come to save that which is lost."
"Jesus Christ is for all [people] without distinction."
He came for the Samaritans 9:51-56 10:30-37
He came for the Gentiles 4:25-27 7:6-10
He came for the Poor 16:19-31 21:1-4
He came for the Outcasts and Sinners 7:36-50 19:1-10 23:39-43
If you sometimes feel lost in a world that degrades and dehumanizes, allow the ancient physician to acquaint you with the Son of Man-the divine One with the human touch.
He identifies with the real world. Jesus knows where we live and work. He toiled under the harsh sun and felt the hard earth under His feet. He understands what real life is all about.
He is touched with real needs. We might see Jesus as deity, standing in raiment of shimmering white; but we also need to see Jesus as the Son of Man, kneeling beside a ragged leper. As the Son of Man, He views our human suffering through the eyes of One who suffered Himself. As the Son of Man, He feels out pain as if it were His own.
He brings real comfort. Knowing that someone understands is reassuring, but Jesus takes us even further. He offers us real comfort as the Great Physician who not only sympathizes with souls lost in sin but saves them through the power of the Cross.
Luke: Luke is unique amongst all the Bible writers. The Bible is very much a Jewish book. Luke was a Gentile, a Greek. It is also reputed that he was the most intellectual of the New Testament writers. Historians say that he was educated at the learning centre of Tarsus and probably Paul and Apollos were contemporaries of his at that school and as a result perhaps led him to Christ and subsequently invited him on Paul’s famous missionary journeys. Luke was a true friend. "Only Luke is with me", the aging Paul wrote to Timothy from his death cell (2Tim. 4:11). Being a man of letters and science you will find Luke to be exact and a stickler for details. See 3:1
A Christian. We are not sure how or where he was saved - some one witnessed to him.
A Physician. He was the beloved physician. Who can measure the depth of Paul's gratitude toward Luke He was more than just a physician; he was a lover of people, a healer of the soul.
He was also humble.
An Historian. Having also authored Acts, Luke penned 28 percent of the New Testament, more material than any other writer, and his Greek has been recognized as the finest in the Bible.7 Yet not once did he include his own name in his work. The closest he came was in the "we" sections in Acts, in which he referred to himself in a most understated manner, beginning in 16:10:
First, the gospel is a sizable work, written with extreme care. Luke wanted Theophilus and anyone else who might read his book to know the "exact truth" about Jesus' life (Luke 1:4). With the care of a physician examining a patient's charts, he not only studied the accounts of "eyewitnesses and servants of the word" (v.2), but he also compiled reams of data and methodically recorded the events "in consecutive order" from the beginning (v.3).
Second, Luke is not the first gospel account. Mark wrote the first gospel, casting Jesus in the role of a servant. Then he passed the gospel pen to Luke, who wrote his book sometime during the decade of the A.D. 50s. As a doctor, Luke gave a "second opinion" of Christ, seeing Him through the eyes of a cultured Greek as the ideal man.
Third, Luke is a book for the detail-oriented person. If you like knowing all the facts, you'll like Luke. Compare, for instance, the different ways Mark and Luke introduce John the Baptizer. Mark writes simply, "John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness" (1:4a). But notice the precision with which Luke, the historian, writes:
"Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was Tetrach of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness". (Luke 3:1-2)
Fourth, Luke highlights the humanity of Jesus. It makes sense that, of the gospel writers, the physician would be the one most interested in the man Jesus. Reading Luke, you get the feeling you are listening through the doctor's stethoscope to the heartbeat of our Lord, feeling His empathy as He reaches out to those who cross His path. Let's examine a few of the events in Jesus' life that are unique to Luke's account and that particularly draw out Jesus' humanity.
A Theologian. His theme is salvation Jesus identified with a real world – toiled in sun
Systematic "set in order" Jesus is touched with real needs - shimmering
Authoritative "declared." Jesus brings real comfort - Great Physician
A Musician - He gives a melody in your heart.
He gives three four songs Magnificat The Benedictus and the Nunc Dimittis – Gloria
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