An Account Of The Things Fulfilled Among Us Series

Introduction

We have four gospels about Jesus. Among them, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which have similar contents, are called the Synoptic Gospels, and the Gospel of John is called the Fourth Gospel. There are many explanations for why there are four gospels about the life and ministry of Jesus, but the most important is to provide a more complete picture of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Matthew expresses Jesus Christ as the Messiah who came to this earth as King, and the recipient is a Jew. So, in the Gospel of Matthew, starting from the genealogy of Jesus Christ, it is revealed that he is a descendant of David.

The Gospel of Mark expresses Jesus Christ, who came to this earth as a servant who serves, and the recipients are Romans. Therefore, Mark does not have a genealogy or birth story of Jesus Christ, but begins with his ministry.

The Gospel of Luke mainly highlights the human side of Jesus, and the recipient is a Greek. Therefore, the preface we read today reveals the contents, materials, recipients, and purpose of the Gospel of Luke.

The Gospel of John emphasizes the divinity of Jesus, and its recipients are people from all over the world.

The Gospel of Luke was written by the Greek physician Luke, who also wrote the Acts. Both of these books are dedicated to a man named Theophilus.

I. An Account of the Things that have been fulfilled Among Us (v. 1)

When Luke wrote the Gospel about Jesus Christ, it was not to write a biography of Jesus. Look at verse 1. “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.” What Luke wanted to record was ‘an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.’ ‘An account of the things that have been fulfilled among us’ is not about finding out how the prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament were fulfilled. Jews are more interested in the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Therefore, in that regard, Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew for Jews.

Because the recipients of the Gospel of Luke were Greeks, Greeks did not know the Old Testament and had a hard time understanding the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Therefore, what Luke said was ‘an account of the things that have fulfilled among us’ was about God’s blessing that came to this world through the coming of Jesus. In other words, it meant to explain what changes occurred in people when Jesus came to this world and how they experienced God's amazing blessings. All those who met Jesus and believed in him were liberated from the power of sin and lived a new life. This did not just happen to one or two people, but it happened to most people who met and believed in Jesus. Luke is trying to testify about this amazing and joyful fact.

God's amazing blessings that began with Jesus Christ continued to spread wherever Jesus Christ was testified. Anyone who hears the gospel of Jesus Christ and believes in it will receive amazing blessings, just like those who heard the words directly from Jesus. So the most amazing thing in this world is that everyone continues to spread the amazing things about Jesus. Luke was neither a disciple of Jesus nor an apostle. However, when Luke believed these amazing words about Jesus and preached them to the Greeks, the amazing work of salvation happened to the Greeks as well through Luke.

Most believers in the early church were Jews. It was not that difficult to tell them about Jesus Christ. Because they believed in the LORD God and were looking forward to the Messiah. They hoped that when the Messiah came, the Jewish nation under Roman oppression would become independent and things would become like the time when King David and King Solomon ruled. However, Jesus did not talk about building an earthly kingdom on earth, but about the kingdom of God that focuses on the salvation of souls. So the Jews thought that he was not the Messiah they were expecting and crucified him to death.

However, when Apostle Peter quoted the Old Testament and explained the phenomenon of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and preached that Jesus, whom they had killed, was resurrected, ascended to heaven, and poured out the Holy Spirit, the Jews realized that Jesus was the Messiah. And 3,000 people repented, were baptized, and became Christians. They naturally believed in Jesus Christ and came to church.

But the case of the Gentiles was different. It was not enough to tell Gentiles, such as Greeks, to come to church unconditionally and believe in Jesus Christ. They did not know what it was to believe in Jesus. So the church needed to teach them who Jesus is, what it means to believe in Jesus, and why they should believe in Jesus Christ. As a result, they needed systematic content about faith. That was why Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke to help the Greeks live their lives of faith. How did Luke write the gospel? Luke revealed that when he wrote the Gospel of Luke, he referred to previously recorded fragmentary information about Jesus and other materials, and also met and interviewed living people who actually saw or received teachings from Jesus.