Luke 1:1 to 4
Read the title of this book in the Bible and you will see it is “The Gospel according to St. Luke.” The word “gospel” means “glad tidings,” and is a history of the life and words of the Lord Jesus written by a man named Luke.
It is not now known where Luke lived, but he had learned of Jesus from the disciples or others who were “eye witnesses” of His great works, and who “ministered,” or told, His words to others.
There was another man, named Theophilus, who had heard about the Lord Jesus, but not as directly as Luke. Since this man had a Greek name, and Luke addressed him as “most excellent,” it is thought that he was a Greek official who probably lived a long distance from Palestine where the Lord Jesus lived.
Luke wanted that man to know that the things which he had been told about the Lord were true, so he wrote this account of the life of Jesus for him very carefully, and in good “order.”
He wrote the facts of the birth and early life of Jesus, not told by the other writers, to show that Jesus was the holy Child, promised by God long bore (Isa. 9:6). And to show that He was the Son of God Who came to earth taking the form of a man, but pure, without sin, perfect in all His ways.
Luke wrote the names of the rulers in Palestine that the exact time of the events he told could be known. He wrote several very interesting stories told by Jesus, not given in the other gospels. Later Luke wrote another long account for him, of the work of the men who went to tell people the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus. That writing is called “The Acts of the Apostles.” In that he often used the word “we”, so Luke was with Paul, going with him to cities of Greece and Asia, to Jerusalem, and last of all to Rome, telling every where the same gospel.
When Paul afterward wrote to those they had visited, he greeted them for Luke; and then we learn that Luke was a physician. But his great work seems to have been for the work of Christ (see Colossians 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11).
Luke and the other men writing the New Testament did not use the word, “Saint” (St.), as a title; that has been given by later men. All who believed in the Lord Jesus were called saints, because they were set apart by God, for His own, “the household of God,” a very wonderful place, which only God can give (Eph. 1:1; 2:19; Col. 1:12; Acts 9:13; Psa. 37:28).
Luke began his gospel by writing of the coming of the prophet who was promised to come before the Lord, and this we will read next time, the Lord willing. And from the Gospel by Luke may we all learn “the certainty of those things, wherein” we have “been instructed” (Luke 1:4). God has sury kept these writings, that all who will read, may be certain, as those men were.
ML 09/17/1944