Falling In Love With Jesus Series

Falling in love with Jesus

Luke 1:1-4

This series is based on the book by the same name written by Rubel Shelly.

Quotes are taken from the book

Part one

Objectives of this series:

1. This gospel tells us the single most important story in the world for believers. No church that gets sidetracked with secondary issues will thrive WITHIN the will of God. (NOT JUST THRIVING ON MAN’S TEACHING)

2. We want members of the church to know the story of Christ thuroughly, so they can share it with others. Jesus Christ is the only one who can save.

So it is critical that we be able to tell His story correctly and

meaningfully.

3. This series is to help us all to do a more meaningful study of the word of God.

There are a few things we need to look at first before we get into the study of the book of Luke. This will be a general study of the book not a verse by verse study.

I. What is a Gospel? Literary genre

A. The word gospel is spelled with a lower case g refers to the core truth of the Christian faith.

It is the message of salvation for all on the basis of God¡¦s grace that has been enfleshed in Jesus the Christ. Of all the truths that collectively make up the total body of information that pertains to the Christian faith, it is the gospel that is, to use Paul¡¦s language, ¡§of first importance¡¨

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance„T: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter,„T and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time (NIV 1st Corinthians 15:3-6a)

When we speak of the gospel in this sense, there is one and only one gospel. It is the good news that salvation is offered to undeserving people on the merits of

Christ finished work at Calvary.

B. When we spell the word with an upper case G it has a different meaning; it identifies a particular literary form. As distinct from the thirteen Epistles of Paul, for example, these are four Gospel. The Author¡¦s purpose is to tell the one gospel story for a particular audience and from his own sources of information about Jesus.

To make it simple think as the four Gospels as tracts designed for distribution in the first century world. Short documents that set Jesus as the Son of God who alone can save us.

Circulated among non-Christians; The Gospels presented a basic ¡§salvation truths¡¦ about Jesus that could bring someone to a faith in Him.

Circulated among Christians: The Gospels preserved the memory of Jesus¡¦ saving work, offered His life as a model for imitation and contained His teaching¡¦s for study and reflection

They were circulated separately. Why.

Because they were (and are) adequate to bring a seeking heart to a saving encounter with the Son of God

The nature of the Gospels is summed up best by John;

¡§Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.¡¨(NIV John 20:30-31)

II. The Author of the book of Luke:

Luke has the distinction of being the only non Jewish person to write any part of the New Testament. Paul list several coworkers in his ministry in Colossians 4:10-17 he names only Jews among my fellow workers in verses 10&11

¡§My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.¡¨ Luke is therefore included among the Gentiles whose names are given.

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.

Not only his name is given but his occupation is given as well in verse 14

Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.

The sequel to Luke is the book of Acts of the Apostles. Together, these two books cover the account of Christianity¡¦s earliest days from the birth of Jesus to the time of Paul¡¦s first imprisonment at Rome.