Sunday – November 26, 2017 – Read the Word on Worship
Sunday – November 26, 2017 New Series – Introduction to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:1-4) from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.
***** NEW SERIES IN THE GOSPEL OF LUKE *****
Word On Worship – Sunday – November 26, 2017 Download / Print
Luke 1:3-4
“Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
Years ago, a friend passed along this bit of advice, given to him by an elderly Christian statesman: “The older I get the more I find myself in the Gospels.” While I don’t want to admit that I’m getting older, I do find myself strangely drawn to the Gospels. While each of the Gospels makes its own unique contribution to the message of the Bible, the Gospel of Luke is one of the high-water marks of biblical revelation.
None of the gospels are biographies, strictly speaking, but rather are selective, interpretive sketches of the life of Christ, each with a different purpose. Matthew was penned with a view toward the Jews to show that Jesus is the Messiah-King of Israel. Mark was written with a Roman slant to show Jesus as the suffering servant, focusing on His deeds. John, written both to the Jew and Gentile, portrays Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, so that the reader might believe and have eternal life. Luke is aimed at the Greek to show Jesus as the Son of Man, the Savior of all people.
The author, Luke, was a doctor, and a traveling companion of Paul, whose second inspired account (the Book of Acts) is the only recorded history of the birth of the church, and of the expansion of the gospel from Jerusalem to the “uttermost part of the earth.” It is Luke’s Gospel which provides us with the details concerning the births of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. His genealogy of our Lord is distinctly different from the only other genealogy, found in Matthew’s Gospel. Luke gives us an account of the divine visitations to Zacharias and Mary, the circumstances surrounding the birth of our Lord in Bethlehem, and the announcement of Christ’s birth to the shepherds. We are told by Luke about the recognition of Jesus as the promised Messiah by Simeon and Anna, and the visit of our Lord to Jerusalem at the age of 12. The parables of the prodigal son and of the rich man and Lazarus are found only in Luke. Luke’s account alone includes the story of the appearance of our Lord to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Luke has given us an extensive account of our Lord’s final journey to Jerusalem, where He is rejected and crucified, and where He is raised from the dead. And the greatest source of beauty and wonder is not the skill of the human writer, but the glory and majesty of the subject of the Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. We will study the account of a man who apparently never laid eyes upon the Lord Jesus personally, but who did a very skillful job of researching the accounts of his birth, life, death, and resurrection. You will meet Jesus here over and over again, and you will find Him even more lovely in the light of Luke’s description of Him. I invite you to come along with us as we begin this study of the Gospel of Luke. It is my prayer that you will never be the same because of the journey.