Luke chapter 1. Did you ever wonder why God has
given us four distinct gospel narratives, four separate historical
records of the earthly life and ministry and work of our Lord
Jesus Christ? Have you ever wondered why one
gospel writer includes this thing and the others leave it out?
Or why perhaps Luke gives things in a different historic order
or setting than Matthew and Mark give those same records. These
things confuse a lot of people. Satan tries to use them to make
young weak believers question the inspiration and infallibility
of scripture. And they are things which the
fiend of hell has used to hinder many. But they're questions which
really are quite easily answered with clear, thoughtful reading
of Scripture. Each of the four Gospels were
written by divine inspiration, each revealing the person and
work of our Lord Jesus Christ when comprised together. Neither
of the four Gospels gives us the complete story. Not Matthew,
not Mark, not Luke, not John gives us a complete revelation
of our Lord's person and work. But each of the gospel writers
takes a particular purpose by divine inspiration and gathers
together the history of our Lord's work, his life, his ministry,
and puts it together to present a specific aspect of the Lord
Jesus Christ person and work. Now, Matthew was written specifically
to show us that Jesus Christ is the divine Messiah, the King
of Israel, the Son of David. And therefore when you read Matthew's
gospel in the opening chapters, you find a great, great, careful,
detailed declaration of his genealogy as the son of David. And when
the Jews, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees question so many
of our Lord's claims, the one thing they never question They
never even bothered to raise a question was about his genealogy. They knew this man was indeed
the son of David, the son of Abraham. But our Lord's presentation
as the king, the Messiah, is not all that he is, nor is it
all that was prophesied in the scriptures. Mark, was inspired
to give us a record of our Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah's righteous
servant. And so Mark bypasses, in great
measure, the genealogy of our Lord, says virtually nothing
about it. And he moves very quickly through the history of our Lord's
life and ministry, showing us simply how that Jesus Christ
as God, our Savior, lived in this world as a man, obeying
the will of God in all things. The apostle John, wrote his gospel
for the purpose of setting forth the glorious divinity of our
Lord Jesus Christ. John shows him to be God the
Son, the eternal Word, he who is himself one with God, the
second person of the Holy Trinity. And Luke, as he writes his gospel,
wrote with this design and intention. He wrote not only with his own
design intention, knowing that God the Holy Spirit certainly,
when he inspired men, used those men with their thoughts and with
their character and with their various dispositions. but he
wrote with the design and intention of God the Holy Spirit to show
us that Jesus Christ not only is God, not only is he Jehovah's
righteous servant, not only is he the king of Israel, but this
man who is God. This man who is the king of Israel,
this man who is Jehovah's righteous servant, is himself the perfect
man. And so Luke shows us the glorious
humanity, the perfection of our Lord's humanity with greater
clarity than any of the other gospel writers. He shows us that
our Redeemer, whom John says is God, and must indeed be God,
is also a man, but not just a man. He is the perfect man, for he
is the God-man. Now, let's tonight look at verses
1 through 4 of Luke's gospel. And really, I want to give you
just an overview of the whole gospel of Luke, give you an idea
of what to expect as we go through these chapters. In verses 1 through
4, Luke takes in hand to write his gospel, and he addresses
it particularly to his friend, the most excellent Theophilus.
I like the word Theophilus, we have no idea who he was. Apparently
he was a nobleman of some kind, but the word means lover of God. So the word here is taken in
hand by Luke to write to James Jordan, lover of God. To write
to Don Fortner, lover of God. This is a word from God for you
who love God. All right, let's read together,
verses one through four. For as many have taken in hand to
set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most
surely believed among us. Now Luke is saying here there
have been a lot of folks who have written various narratives
of the Lord Jesus. And there were many records of
the life and ministry of our Lord that were written by various
men who were not inspired of God to write. So Luke is not
in any way disbarging their records, but he is declaring that he is
writing from a different perspective. He is writing not only what he
thought, not only what he had an idea to say concerning the
glory of Christ, but he's writing by divine inspiration. Look at
verse 2. Even as they, those things most surely believed among
us, were delivered, even as they delivered them unto us, which
from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. These
things we believe were delivered to us by God's apostles. Those
men who had the distinct office and privilege of being eyewitnesses
of the Lord's majesty, eyewitnesses of the incarnate God, and who
were taught the gospel by Jesus Christ himself. Verse 3, It seemed
good to me also, having had perfect understanding, Now we'll look
at that again later, but let me tell you what it means now
in case I forget. That doesn't mean absolutely
perfect understanding. It means complete understanding,
whole understanding, comprehensive understanding. Perfect, comprehensive,
complete understanding of all things from the very first. Again, the word first is translated
a bit awkwardly, though certainly it might be properly translated
that way. It really means from above. And so this is what Luke
is saying. He said, now I'm writing to you
not as an ordinary man. I'm writing to you as a man to
whom God has given clear, comprehensive understanding of the person and
work of Jesus Christ by his spirit from above. What I've learned,
I learned directly from God. All right, read on. To write
unto thee in order. Now, as you read Luke's gospel,
you can't help but to notice that Luke puts things out of
chronological order. They're not in the same chronological
order as are given by Matthew and Mark. Does that mean somehow
they contradict one another? Not at all. Luke says, I'm putting
these things in order. That is, I'm setting them forth
in a package and giving you this set of truths and this set of
truths and this set of truths in an orderly fashion to set
forth the message that I intend to declare to you. As a preacher,
I endeavor to set the Word of God to you in order. That means
I take the things that I've studied and I try to present a message
in a manner that will best convey to you the message that God has
given me. So Luke is saying, I'm giving
you these things in order by divine inspiration, most excellent
Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things
wherein thou hast been instructed. What a noble ambition. Now, as
we read the Gospel of Luke, we can't help noticing that Luke
tells us many, many precious things that are completely omitted
by the other Gospel writers. Luke alone gives us the histories
of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist.
He alone tells us about the angel's announcement to Mary of the incarnation
and birth of the Lord Jesus. Luke alone describes Simeon and
Anna, that old man and old woman in the temple, who waited for
the consolation of Israel, who spoke prophetic words concerning
the Son of God. Luke alone gives us the precious
detailed description of our master's childhood. Do you ever notice
that? I had never paid much attention to it before. None of the other
gospel writers give us a declaration of what went on in our Lord's
early childhood. Luke does. Luke tells us about
that woman who was bent over with an issue of blood who touched
the Lord Jesus and was made completely whole. He tells us, and he's
the only one who does, about the conversions of Zacchaeus
and of the dying thief. Luke alone gives us these parables. The parable of the good Samaritan,
of the rich man and Lazarus, of the prodigal son, and the
Pharisee and the Publican. And it is Luke alone who tells
us about the Lord's walk with his two disciples on the road
to Emmaus after the resurrection. How thankful we are that Luke
wrote his gospel. These parables that have meant
so much to our lives and been so instructive to us are parables
for which we are indebted to Luke who wrote by divine inspiration. Well, who was this man Luke?
He is the author of this gospel. And he is the earthly human author
also of the book of Acts. In fact, you will read the opening
words of Acts and find out that Luke addressed the book of Acts
to the same man, Theophilus, as he does this gospel. In fact,
Acts really is just a continuation of the history that Luke gives
us here. Acts describes for us the works
of our Lord through his church and apostles after he ascended
up into heaven for those 30 years, those first 30 years of the early
church. Luke describes our Lord's works while he walked upon the
earth until he ascended up into heaven. Luke was a man of such
modesty, though, that even when he was personally involved and
played a very important part in things that took place, never
once does he mention his own name. Never once. And yet it's
clear that he is the one being spoken of. He was obviously a
man of remarkable usefulness in the Church of God. The Apostle
Paul, when he wrote to the Colossians, calls Luke the beloved physician. Not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but blessed be God
somehow. And Luke was one of them. This
man Luke was Paul's constant companion. He accompanied Paul
in his second missionary journey until they got to Philippi and
there they were arrested. And Luke, stayed behind after
Paul left Philippi. God raised up a gospel church
there using the Philippian jailer and using Lydia, the seller of
purple from Thyatira. And apparently Luke stayed to
strengthen the church and he stayed there for seven years.
But then Paul came on his third missionary journey and Luke joined
him again at Philippi. As Paul went on his way to Jerusalem,
Luke was with him. When Paul set sail and went through
the shipwreck and was in peril of sea and in peril of wicked
men, Luke was with him. When the apostle Paul went to
Rome, Luke was there. When he was arrested and held
prisoner at Rome, Luke was by his side. And then he was released
apparently for a little while and arrested again, put in jail
at Rome again, Luke stayed voluntarily right there with him under house
arrest. In fact, he was such a faithful companion that when
Paul was about to die, these are the words he wrote to Timothy,
only Luke is with me. Oh, God make me such a man as
Luke. God make us wise to follow the example of this faithful,
faithful man. Luke was a Gentile, too. He is,
in fact, the only Gentile who was chosen of God to write any
portion of Scripture. His name certainly was not a
Jewish name, but a Gentile name. And being chosen of God, he wrote
this portion of the sacred volume, as well as the book of Acts.
Now, as I said before, Luke gives us a portrait of the man Christ
Jesus. All the gospel writers show us
both the humanity and the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, but
John distinctly shows his glorious deity, and Luke distinctly teaches
us about his perfect humanity. Let us never forget that our
Lord Jesus Christ lived upon this earth as a perfect man. And his life as a perfect man,
Bobby, was as essential to our redemption and our salvation
as is his Godhead and as is his death as the Lamb of God. We
could not be saved except Jesus Christ, God's Son, come into
the world through the womb of a virgin woman and be brought
forth the seed of the woman and live in perfect, righteous obedience
to the will of God in all things. And Jesus Christ did. I think
often when we, in our desire as believers to exalt and magnify
the Son of God, we do ourselves disservice and fail to understand
properly the teaching of Scripture if we don't recognize that Jesus
Christ really was a man, just as much a man as Ron Wood, just
as much a man. with all the feelings, all the
emotions, all the sympathies, all the pains, all the sorrows,
all the trials that you experience except sin. Same man. And as
a man, he was required to live before God just like we do, only
perfectly as our representative. Let me show you what I mean.
Our Lord Jesus was a man of tremendous courage and boldness. Not a man
of brashness, not a man who was rude and hard, but a man who
had a backbone of steel. We see this particularly in as
much as he was Jehovah's servant. As our Lord walked through this
world, from the time he came, he said, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O my God. He walked before God and men
with absolute, unwavering boldness and confidence. He never fledged. He never flinched, not from anything.
Not from anything. Because as a man, he walked as
God's servant. Mark, if we could learn to do
that, oh my soul, what peace we would have. What joy we would
have. You mean, you mean just recognizing
you're God's servant? Oh, that's tremendous. If I'm
God's servant, he'll take care of me. If I'm God's servant,
he'll provide for me. If I'm God's servant, he'll protect
me. If I'm God's servant, all hell can't move against me. Our
Lord recognized that. When he opened his mouth to preach,
he preached with boldness. The Jews setting before him,
he opened the scriptures. First sermon he preached. And
he declared to them God's glorious sovereignty. He said, God's gonna
take the gospel away from you, give it to Gentiles, and they
were ready to stone him to death because he declared the truth.
And he never batted an eye when he did so. Our Lord Jesus was
warned that Herod was seeking his life. You better flee out
of his presence. And our Lord said, you go tell
that old fox, I'm here to serve my God. Now that's a Fortna paraphrase,
but that's what it means. Our Lord said, you go tell that
old fox that I'm doing what I came here to do, and he can do nothing
to stop me. When the time came for our Lord
Jesus to lay down his life as our sin-atoning substitute, he
set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. Everybody said,
don't go there. The Jews want to kill you. Don't
go there. They've sought of late to stone
you. Don't go there. You know what's going to happen
if you go there. And he set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He bowed to the will of God,
and with courage, he determined to drink the bitter cup of God's
wrath to the very last dregs as Jehovah's servant. And so
he willingly went to lay down his life for us. But not only
was he a man of great, perfect courage, our Lord Jesus was a
man of great tenderness, compassion, and sympathy. Now, we have no
difficulty Getting the idea that somehow a man ought to be courageous.
We're taught that from our youth up, or at least we used to before
we got involved in this politically correct society where they raise
boys up to be little girls. We're just taught that men are
supposed to be courageous. But somehow, sympathy, tenderness,
compassion, seems naturally to us to be unmanly. And nothing
could be further from the truth. Our Lord declared at his very
outset as a preacher, in his very first sermon, that he came
here to preach the gospel to the poor, to set at liberty the
captive, to give sight to the blind. Luke constantly portrays
the Lord Jesus as a man of compassion. drying the tears of sorrow from
his friends, pitying the outcast, entertaining despised harlots
and publicans, receiving sinners, and healing all who had need
of healing. We don't read in the scriptures of anyone ever
coming to Christ with a need who didn't have his need met.
Isn't that amazing? Nobody ever came to him for anything
who didn't get what they needed. Nobody, but every man here learned
from the master. Manhood, real manhood involves
courage, but it involves compassion, tenderness, and sympathy as well.
And then thirdly, and this is so very, very important, as a
perfect man, as the perfect man, our Lord Jesus lived before God
perfect faith. He believed God. He believed
God. He believed God perfectly. He
lived in constant fellowship with his Father. What an example
he sets before us of consecration and faith. Listen to his first
recorded words. The first thing our master said,
the very first thing, you remember what it was? The very first words
out of his mouth that are written in scripture. He said, I must
be about my father's business. His first words. You know what
his last words were? The very last words recorded
in scripture that he spoke, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.
Gary, there's a sermon in that. Our Lord lived from the beginning
to the end of His days, from His first to His last breath
as Jehovah's faithful servant, consecrated to the will of His
Father. Luke describes our Lord Jesus
as a man of prayer. You mean He had to pray? That's a bad choice of words. As a man, he got to pray, and
he did. On at least eight occasions,
you'll notice as we go through this gospel narrative, Luke describes
our Lord in prayer. At his baptism, he called upon
his father. After healing the leper, he called
upon his father. Our Lord Jesus went to prayer
before choosing his disciples. Before he allowed Peter and evoked
from him that great confession of faith, he called upon God
in prayer. At his transfiguration, we find
the Son of God bowing before his Father. When he taught his
disciples how to pray, he himself prayed. In Gethsemane, he called
upon God in humiliation, in the midst of great sorrow, and bows
to his will. And as he hung upon the cursed
tree, he still calls upon God in prayer. Now, I stress that
because as God's servants in this world, we must all confess
with shame and sorrow that we are often weak. And we're often hard-hearted.
And we're often full of unbelief. And yet those are the very things
that characterize those who are called God's servants. But blessed be God, that man,
who is our divine Savior, lived before God in the perfection
of manhood, in perfect courage, with perfect tenderness, in perfect
faith. Isn't that amazing? He never
once questioned his Father. He was never once hard toward
a man, and he was never once trembling with fear. Our Lord
Jesus lived for us in his obedience to God in establishing perfect
righteousness, even that life of faith which we ought to live. And Luke presents this holy man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, as God's salvation. We won't take time
to read the second chapter tonight, but when our Lord was brought
to the temple for his circumcision to be made to fulfill the law
at the very beginning, the old man Simeon picked him up and
held him in his arms and lifted up his eyes to God and he said,
now Lord, let your servant depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. Oh God give you grace to hold
him in your hands and to see him as God's salvation. That's
life eternal. Jesus Christ himself. brought salvation. Jesus Christ
himself bought salvation. Jesus Christ himself gives salvation. Jesus Christ himself is salvation. Salvation is not an experience,
it's a person. It's not a doctrine, it's a person.
Salvation is not a creed, it's a person. Salvation is Christ,
the Son of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God's
salvation. Now, let's look briefly at four
things clearly set before us in these first four verses. First,
Luke tells us in the opening comments he makes here in this
gospel that there are some things which are true of all Christians,
which all Christians believe. There's some things that all
true believers do believe. Notice how he describes his purpose.
He's setting forth in order a declaration of those things which are most
surely believed among us. Now I realize that it's not popular
to say this because we all want to imagine that everybody is
going to heaven when they die. And we all like to think that
No matter what the person believes, no matter what they say, no matter
where they go to church or don't go to church, when they've drawn
their last breath and everything gonna be all right. But Luke
tells us that there are some things most surely believed by
all believers. And those who do not believe
these things are not believers. And you were not a believer until
God taught you these things by experience. The Lord God shows
us plainly that all men are sinners in need of God's salvation. Lost,
ruined, doomed, damned, dead in trespasses and sins under
the curse of God's holy law, totally incapable of changing
their condition. This is pictured for us in the
lost coin, the lost sheep and the lost son. Luke said, I want
you to understand, we were lost. He found us. Our being saved
had nothing to do with us finding Him, but Him finding us. Luke
tells us again that Jesus Christ is the incarnate God. Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. This confession, he too
gives prominence as because this is the confession of every believer's
faith. We recognize that that man who is seated on the throne
of glory, that man who lived on this earth for 33 years and
died at Calvary, that man is God. So I can't explain that. You find a fellow who thinks
he can, I'm gonna tell you a fellow who's mighty proud and mighty
ignorant. No man gonna explain how that the incomprehensible
God became a man, but he did. And every believer believes it.
Luke tells us plainly, and every Christian believes that the Lord
Jesus Christ effectually accomplished and obtained salvation and redemption
for all his people. He tells us in the very opening,
as Zacharias utters his mouth in praise to God, the Lord hath
visited and redeemed his people. He hath visited and redeemed
his people. Luke tells us how that our Lord
spoke of the death which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. And
our Lord Jesus Christ gives his spirit to chosen redeemed sinners
by the gift of his almighty sovereign free grace according to the purpose
of God in election. He declared it in the very first
sermon he preached. When our Lord opened the scriptures,
opened up to the book of Isaiah, and he began to preach, and he
told the Jews sitting before him in the synagogue, he said,
now listen, fellas, there were a lot of widows, but God sent
his servant to one Gentile widow. There were a lot of lepers in
Israel, but God sent his servant to one Gentile leper, and thus
he declares God's total sovereignty. And then Luke tells us plainly,
this also that is plainly believed among God's elect. God's grace
in Christ is so abundantly free, so absolutely free. Are you listening
now? It's so free that every sinner
who needs it gets it. Everyone, listen to this word
in Luke chapter nine, verse 11. I think it might be my favorite
text in the whole gospel. As many He healed as many as
had need of healing. And he still does. He still does. Preach, I sure wish God saved
me. I'll tell you when he will. When you need him. When you need
him. I mean when you got to have him.
When in your soul you're made to cry, give me Christ or else
I die, you got him. But until you need him, you'll
never have him. God's grace is so absolutely
free that he gives it to every sinner who needs it. Those are
things most surely believed among us. And then Luke gives us this
word about inspiration as well. He tells us that those who wrote
the word of God were eyewitnesses and they had their word from
above. This book, let us never forget,
is perfectly, infallibly, inherently the Word of God. It's the Word
of God. Whenever you read this book and
you find something here that seems not to fit, you run across
a text and you say, now that, boy, Romans 9, 16, that sure
teaches divine sovereignty. That's right. And then you run
across the text and it says, whosoever will, let him come,
take of the water life freely. So both can't be right. Understand
the problems in your puny brain, not in this book. You know, I
don't see how it all fits together. If I didn't see it fit together,
I'd just bow to it. I'd just bow to it. Because this
book is God's book. This is God's Word. If you could
comprehend it all, if you understood it all, you'd be brighter than
any fellow who wrote it. Our Lord God Himself gives us
His Word by divine inspiration. It is infallibly, absolutely
true. And you say, well, I'm not gonna
believe anything I can't figure out. Have it your way and go
to hell. I'm dead serious. If your faith,
listen to me now, if your faith rests upon logical, historical,
reasonable, educated, figuring things out, your faith stands
in the word of men, and it's no better than altogether atheism. Not at all. Well, what is faith?
Faith is bowing to the word of God. It's bowing to it. And I
want to tell you something. As soon as you bow to it, as
soon as you bow to it, it starts to make sense to you. And it
never will until you do. All right, now here's one more
thing. Here's the purpose of Luke writing this gospel narrative. Here's the purpose of all scripture.
Verse four, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things. He said, Luke, I'm writing to
you now, or he says, Theophilus, I'm writing to you to make you
know with certainty those things you've been taught. That's the
purpose in preaching the gospel. That's the purpose in writing
the things I write and other men write, is to teach men and
women the things of God with certainty. And for you who have
been taught of God, to teach you those things with certainty,
that you may, by the word of God, be able to open the scriptures
and say, now, there, there. So when your neighbor asks you,
Bobby, so what is it you believe? Right there, right there, this
is it. And I know I have eternal life, because God says it right
here. Not because I feel something,
not because I've done something, not because I've made something
myself, oh, no. I have eternal life, because
I believe the record. God gave of His Son. And this
gives me certainty, certainty, certainty before God, and certainty
before men. And it ought to fill us with
courage, with tenderness, and with faith. Amen. All right, Lindsey, you lead
us into hymn, please.