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*Read Luke 1:1-4*: Our theme this morning is: It matters what you believe.
A neighbor asks Henry’s mother, “Where’s Henry?” “I’m not sure,” she replies.
“If the ice is as thick as he thinks -- he’s skating.
If it’s as thin as I think it is -- he’s swimming.”
The point is it matters what you believe.
There is not Henry’s truth and Mom’s truth – there is absolute truth – true truth to which both must ultimately concede.
Henry is either skating or swimming -- but not both.
And if he can’t swim, he could be in trouble.
The Gospel of Luke is one of four ancient accounts giving the “true truth” of the life of Christ.
That is three more accounts than we have of almost any other ancient life.
God not only revealed Himself; He documented it thoroughly.
Matt.
18:16 says, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.”
God gave us four.
Each gospel has a unique perspective.
In Matthew Jesus is presented as king, fulfilling a raft of OT prophecies.
Mark writes Peter’s memoirs to the Romans, minimizing Jesus’ teaching and maximizing His actions as a servant.
John demonstrates the deity of Christ.
Luke presents Jesus as fully God, but emphasizes His humanity.
His is a flesh and blood and sweat and tears Christ – victorious over all temptation, pain and suffering.
The 4 together present a fully developed picture of this unique individual who was fully God and yet fully man all in one supreme person.
But the question is why?
Why in the world would God take on the limitations of manhood, suffer and die, then top it all off with His amazing resurrection?
Why?
That is exactly the question Luke sets out to answer for Theophilus in what became a two volume work: Luke and Acts.
Theophilus’ name means “loved by God” so some suggest it’s made-up to represent all of mankind.
But when Luke says “things you have been taught, and calls him “most excellent Theophilus”, it sounds like a real person.
Given that Luke uses the same title in Acts 24 and 26 for Roman governors, it seems likely that Theophilus was a high official.
But his name is no accident.
This book is about God’s love for all mankind.
It emphasizes the universality of the message of the gospel – so while Theophilus is real, Luke’s letter to him is inspired by the Holy Spirit to address all of mankind.
Luke’s purpose is to show that while “no one seeks for God” (Rom 3:10), yet, thankfully, God seeks for mankind.
Thus the key verse in Luke is found in Luke 19:10 where Jesus says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
This is special delivery of the best news ever given to mankind.
Those who claim Jesus came only to correct the injustices of a corrupt political system have literally ripped the heart out of the gospel.
Is Jesus on the side of those who have suffered injustice?
Yes.
Did He embrace the disenfranchised of His day?
Yes.
Will He one day make it all right?
Yes.
Does He want His followers to champion the cause of social justice?
Yes.
Was that His primary mission?
Absolutely not!
Those issues address only the temporal needs of mankind.
None would have required the cross.
To make them primary is to short-change His mission by an eternity.
He came to seek and to save those who were lost in sin, enslaved by their own selfish hearts.
To hold that Jesus’ primary mission was social justice is like applying a band aid to a ruptured artery.
Jesus came to reconcile sinful man to a holy God.
He came to apply eternal tourniquets, to stop the bleeding once and for all, not to apply band aids.
The Jews in Jesus’ time wanted the same political solutions that some today claim was His mission.
But Jesus’s message to that crowd as to ours is, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
It was the repent part that they refused.
They could not get behind that.
But Jesus was adamant.
I can be your king outwardly only if I am your king inwardly.
Would you marry someone whose heart belonged to another?
Neither will Jesus.
He demands nothing less than your whole heart.
It matters what you believe.
Luke’s prologue compares favorably with others written by the most noted historians of ancient times: Notice v. 1, many have undertaken.
Others have written – perhaps short bios.
Probably both Matthew and Mark had been written by this time.
But as Luke writes, around 62 AD, 30 years after the death and resurrection of Christ, there is a need for a complete historical record.
The church is spreading.
The apostles cannot be everywhere.
Eyewitnesses are dying.
So, Luke, the most educated of the gospel writers, undertakes to make a definitive and precise record of redemption as lived out and taught by Christ.
In this prologue, Luke emphasizes 4 things that he will flesh out throughout the gospel that will reinforce what Theophilus has been taught.
*I.
It is Certain*
The Christian faith is not some ethereal, ambiguous spiritual feeling or elevated emotional state.
It is not about ritual.
Christianity is not about feelings; it is about facts – about the radical surgery required to address the sin problem that separates man from God.
It is demonstrably certain.
Luke gives 3 proofs.
*A.
Rooted in History *
Christianity is rooted in real life.
It is not “out there”, but “right here” -- comprised of the blood, sweat, tears and joy of everyday life.
It can be seen and touched and examined.
Luke’s concern for Theophilus, and thus for us, is expressed in verse 4: “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”
That certainty is possible because God invaded human history.
Thus, his purpose expressed in verse 1 is to “compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us.”
Redemption thru Christ is historical.
Luke explains it all.
He explains in detail of the virginal, but very human mother of Christ.
He shows how God became a man through the natural, bloody process of birth.
Whereas Matthew traces the genealogy of Christ to Abraham -- Jewish Messianic roots, Luke traces his genealogy to Adam -- His humanity.
Christ developed like any human being – physically, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
He was tempted as man just like us.
Luke dwells much on the prayer-life of Jesus Christ, necessary because of His humanity.
Jesus never makes a move but He looks first to His Father.
Luke records Jesus as a guest in the homes of various people.
He sat, ate and talked with them.
No other Gospel presents Christ going out to dinner as often as Luke does.
Luke records Jesus’ emotions, particularly His compassion.
He died in painful humiliation -- and -- He rose again bodily, physically, verifiably in glorious victory.
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