The Exact Truth • Luke Overview
1:07:19 Teaching begins
Notes
Luke describes the gospel he wrote in Acts 1:1-2 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen. Luke is about all that Jesus began to do and teach. It’s a beginning of that history.
It is a foundation to the work which Jesus began and is still doing to this day. The foundation of a building must be laid correctly and solidly. If that foundation is insufficient, the building itself cannot stand. The foundation of the gospel is the truth.
The point of this gospel is that we would know the exact truth about what we have been taught. When we are expert in knowing Jesus and the gospel, we will be able to accurately transmit that gospel to others.
I’m reading the first four verses of chapter one.
1. Luke is about history.
A. He calls it the things that have been fulfilled among us.
1. The dictionary defines fulfil as to carry through (as a process) to completion.
2. In this case God made promises of salvation in the Old Testament. He gave prophesies about Who this person is, where He would be born, what He would do to make eternal salvation.
3. The promise is great, but the fulfillment is greater. This is putting into effect and making actual what was spoken of earlier.
B. The gospel is not made up by men. The disciples didn’t decide to make up a new religion and market it so that they would make a nice living.
C. This is God making actual today the things He promised in ancient times. These things happened in time and space and are historical. They are not a fairy tale nor are they a scam to get someone’s money.
D. The author makes it clear that he was not the first to write an account. Many have done this, he says.
1. People put the gospel events into writing to make them known. The author is not saying they’re no good, I can do better. He’s saying these things were written down. That’s to preserve them and pass them on.
2. He is one of a stream of people making the events that have been fulfilled among us known.
E. The author makes it plain that he himself did not see the events he describes. But he is dealing with two kinds of sources.
1. There were eyewitnesses who were ministers of the word. The two aspects describe the same persons. They were the apostles.
a. Peter talks about the qualifications for an apostle in Acts 1:21-22 Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” They were with Jesus, they knew Him, they saw Him crucified, they saw Him raised from the dead.
b. Peter also talked to Cornelius the centurion about this in Acts 10:39-41 We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
2. Along with the eyewitness reports the author says that he researched sources carefully. He says, “having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first.” That means that he traced who said what or did what, when. He verified accounts with those who were there, who could confirm, yes, that really happened. I was there. I saw it. He studied out in detail, step by step in order.
3. Is Luke accurate? Is this really history? Sir William Ramsay is regarded as one of the greatest archaeologists ever to have lived. He was trained in the German historical school of the mid-nineteenth century. As a result he was taught that the book of Acts was a product of the mid-second century. He was firmly convinced of this belief and set out to prove this teaching. However he was compelled to a complete reversal of his beliefs due to the over-whelming evidence uncovered in his research. “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy; he is possessed of the true historic sense; he fixes his mind on the idea and plan that rules in the evolution of history, and proportions the scale of his treatment to the importance of each incident… In short, this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.” Sir William Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament, p. 222, quoted in Evidence That Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 73.
F. Therefore the writer composed his work in orderly manner, the way it happened, that you may know the exact truth about the things that you have been taught. God promised and He has fulfilled His promise.
2. This is written to Theophilus. Who is he?
A. We only know two things for sure.
1. The name Theophilus means lover of God.
2. Luke calls him “most excellent”. That is a technical term to refer to authorities. The Roman governor Felix is addressed as “most excellent” in Acts 23:26, and 24:3. Governor Festus is called that in Acts 26:25. That would tend to make Theophilus a Roman official, or someone of high noble birth.
B. Here’s where we need to be careful. You will read things about Theophilus that are contradictory.
1. Sir William Ramsay, in his St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, from 1895, says “We may safely say that in the first century a Roman official would hardly bear the name Theophilus; and therefore it must be a name given him at baptism, and used or known only among Christians,” (p. 388). He needed to protect his identity because it wasn’t accepted for noble-born Romans to say they had become members of a religion that was known to cause riots wherever it went.
2. F.F. Bruce, in his commentary on Acts says, “Theophilus was a perfectly ordinary personal name being used from the third century B.C. onwards,” (p. 31).
3. Who is right here? I would have thought that Sir William Ramsay would have been the last word. He sounds certain. But F.F. Bruce is famous for his knowledge. I’m not either of these guys. You can’t make confident statements when you don’t have exact knowledge.
C. But we do know that Theophilus was someone that Luke wanted to see grow in his knowledge of the gospel and of Jesus.
1. You have been taught some things about Jesus, he says. The word used is a Greek word from which we get the English word “catechism”. That means “oral instruction.” There are set questions and there are set answers, and then you learn the material.
2. I want you to know the exact truth of those things, says Luke. A slight knowledge is going to leave you weak in your faith. You can’t trust someone you don’t know very well. Also you are not in a position to transmit that knowledge to someone else. We’re supposed to make disciples of all the nations. How can you do that when you don’t know what you’re talking about? Who would believe you? How would you have the courage to tell someone about somebody you barely know?
3. Theophilus had a great need to grow in knowledge and become practiced in sharing the gospel. Therefore he had to know the exact truth, the certainty of these things that have been fulfilled among us. Then you can make confident statements, and you can trust in Jesus better.
3. Luke was qualified to write this history. He had the knowledge and the practical skills to write accurately about the gospel history.
A. He was trained as a doctor. That demands a sharp mind, trained to think. He was educated at a university level. His language shows that he knew how to write literature. His very introduction here is a tremendous example of his ability. It’s all one Greek sentence. They loved long sentences. Someone picking this up would read the first sentence and know, this guy knows what he’s doing. It’s expression among the very best of writers.
B. He’s also a follower of Jesus himself. Eusebius in his History of the Church (324-5) said Luke was from Antioch in Syria. This is where Barnabas went to see what God was doing among the Gentiles. When he saw the grace of God he rejoiced, taught them, and also went and got Paul from Tarsus to teach the disciples. Antioch became the centre of Gentile Christianity, as Jerusalem was the centre of Jewish Christianity. Paul and Barnabas were sent out from there to evangelise the world, basically. So Luke probably became a Christian there.
C. He was a friend and co-worker with the Apostle Paul.
1. Luke also wrote Acts, and there are three places in Acts where the narrator becomes part of the action. They are known as the “we” sections. meaning Luke was there with Paul.
2. The first place is Acts 16:6-10: They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now what you get out of that is he’s with Paul, and he’s an evangelist himself.
3. He’s with Paul as they evangelise in Philippi, but when Paul leaves it reverts to “they”. It seems to indicate that Luke stayed in Philippi, most likely as a pastor. A pastor teaches believers the exact truth about the things they have learned. He teaches the Scriptures and he preaches the gospel. That’s great experience.
4. A few years later Paul is passing through Macedonia on his way to Jerusalem and it becomes another “we” section. Acts 20:1-6 After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he had exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he left to go to Macedonia. When he had gone through those districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece. And there he spent three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. And he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. But these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days.
5. This time Luke stayed with Paul until he was arrested and kept in prison for two years. While Paul was going nowhere Luke had a great opportunity to interview people who knew Jesus there in Judea. He could have gathered sources, traced people down.
6. He went with Paul to Rome. He was in the shipwreck. He stayed with Paul right up to Paul’s execution.
7. He had a great friendship with the great apostle and undoubtedly learned a great amount about Jesus and the gospel.
D. So he is university trained, a skilled writer, a seasoned evangelist and pastor-teacher, closely associated with the apostle to the Gentiles, he’s done extensive primary source research in the places where Jesus lived, taught, suffered, died, and rose from the dead. Luke is eminently qualified to write this gospel. He clearly expresses himself so there is no doubt about the meaning.
E. An expert in the gospel is using his skill and sources to help another believer be rooted and grounded in the truth so he can expertly transmit the gospel to others.
4. This is also written to us with the same purposes in mind.
A. That we may grow in knowing the good news about Jesus and knowing Jesus Himself. As we become expert in the things of the gospel we have confidence with God. We can trust Him better and obey Him better.
B. The other great purpose is that we become as experienced as Luke at transmitting the message to others. When we are solid in our knowledge we don’t have to be uncertain in speaking with others. We will be clear and leave no doubt about the meaning.
C. Knowing the exact truth leads to eternal life. That’s what we’ll be studying in Luke.
Let’s pray.