Dear Theophilus Series

SERMON SERIES: “The Gospel of Luke”

SERMON #1: “Dear Theophilus…”

TEXT: Luke 1:1-4

OPENING JOKE: “The candle of quiet” When asked to explain what the four candles of an Advent wreath represent, seven-year-old Luke began to explain, “There’s love, joy, peace, and . . .” His six-year-old sister piped up, “I know!” She then finished her brother’s sentence by proclaiming, “Peace and quiet!”

INTRODUCTION: This is the beginning of a new series which will be the longest that I have ever attempted in my ministry.

I am going to attempt to preach a series of messages through the entire Gospel of Luke, taking it as much as possible, verse by verse.

Why attempt this type of series?

Because I believe that expositional preaching, where the whole counsel of God is exposed and taught, is being lost today and being replaced with a “pick and choose” method of preaching.

For centuries great Bible teachers did not make it their business to jump from “this” passage to “that” passage week after week searching for the parts of Scripture that they “liked”. They preached concisely through a whole book of Scripture so as to better understand the full content and context of the writer’s affirmations.

Illustration: “Didn’t miss a beat” There is even a true story of a 16th century pastor and theologian who was preaching through a certain book of the Bible, verse by verse, when he was asked to leave his church over a town dispute. Three years later the church called him back and his notes show that he never missed a beat. He picked up his preaching from the very verse he had stopped on when he left.

This type of biblical exposition is rarely heard from the pulpit today

The reason for this is simple: When a pastor preaches concisely through the Word of God he is bound to come across subjects that “step on toes”

Jumping from one passage to another allows many preachers today to be “ear ticklers” because they are able to avoid subjects that they consider as better left “unaddressed”.

And by ignoring the deep things of God, we have become a people who do not truly understand the nature and attributes of God.

Why choose to study the Gospel of Luke?

Matthew’s Gospel focuses on Christ the King of the Jews, Mark focuses on Christ the suffering servant, John focuses on Christ as the Son of God, all of which are necessary traits of the “Messiah”

But Luke’s Gospel is different from the other Gospel writers in the sense that, while he fully affirms that Jesus is divine and is the Messiah, Luke focuses more on Jesus’ humanity

We know that Jesus is the God-Man, fully divine and fully human, being perfect and impeccable

But sometimes this overshadows our understanding of His humanity and causes us to forget that the Bible says that He “was in all points tempted as we are” Hebrews 4:15

Luke’s objective in writing was so that we could see Jesus, as if He were walking right next to us – and that is the picture of Christ I hope that we can see during this study –

A Christ who came to earth as a poor carpenter, never owned property, never wrote a book, never established a monument – but He with His ragtag group of fishermen and social outcasts turned the world on its ear

That is the Christ I want us to see in this study

***Today we are going to study the prologue to Luke’s Gospel to see what the writer says about his own work.

Important Note: Luke goes to great lengths to stress the authenticity of his writing

This is probably due to the fact that he is the only “Gentile” writer to ever pen a book of the Scripture.

He wanted his reader to understand that his writing was…

1. An Accurate Account (1-3a)

a. Luke was a man of God who was meticulous in his writing

i. His is the most detailed of all of the written Gospels

ii. It contains the longest and most comprehensive picture of the ministry of Jesus Christ in the Bible

iii. In fact, most of the narrative found in Luke 9:51-18:35 is not found in the other three Gospel records

iv. The general vocabulary and diction show that the author was an educated person, which fits with Luke’s character as he was a physician by trade

v. Colossians 4:14 calls Luke “…the beloved physician…”

b. It is important to note, however, that his research and style used by the Holy Spirit to produce this Gospel does not deny its inspiration

i. For some the opening words of Luke may seem confusing

ii. He mentions other “narratives” and “eyewitnesses” as sources of his writings

iii. But this does not steal away from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit