Open your Bible, if you will, to the gospel of Luke.
Now I confess that this morning's message to you, like last morning, is going to seem more like a history lecture than anything.
One of the exciting things about being a preacher, one of the wonderful things about being a Bible expositor is, that you sort of have to become somebody different depending upon the passage that is before you.
Sometimes... Sometimes you are a historian as you create the background scene to the writings of Scripture.
And I confess that that's one of the things that I love the most. Frankly, I can... I can pretty well go down into the biblical background category and stay submerged for a long, long time.
That's very fascinating to me. I love to study history and backgrounds and try to recreate the reality of things.
And as we embark upon this incredible gospel of Luke, the...the longest of the gospels, a remarkable, remarkable gospel, we have to face the fact that initially Luke is so obscure to us as an individual.
We don't know much about this individual.
And I wanted you to get acquainted with him. And we have to do that at the beginning because once we launch into the study of the gospel itself, which begins in verse 5, once we actually get in to the narrative story, we will never meet Luke.
So if you can just be patient and endure last Sunday and this Sunday, we're going to give two weeks to Luke, this incredible and gifted and inspired writer of this gospel, and then he will disappear from the scene altogether for the remaining decades of our study of the gospel which he wrote.
We're... We’re doing our very best to give honor to whom honor is due, this wonderful, wonderful man named Luke.
And so, like last Sunday morning's message, this morning's message is going to be a bit of a history and a bit of an explanation as Luke intends to give to us in the opening four verses. Let me read them to you.
"Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eye witnesses and servants of the Word have handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught."
Now as I told you last time, that is a prologue to the gospel of Luke which really begins in verse 5 with these words, "In the days of Herod," etc. That's where the history begins.
But before he begins his history, like any good, classical Greek writer, he writes a prologue in which he discusses the sources of his history. He wants us to understand that he is not writing in a vacuum. He's not musing. He's not writing intuitively or he's not writing some tale that he himself has invented, but rather he is writing a valid history and he wants us to know something of his sources, something of his intentions, his purpose and the direction that he's going to go in the history that he will write.
Actually the arrival of Luke on the sacred record of Scripture is unannounced and unexpected. He just appears there. He comes out of some obscurity into the full glare of public presence through his marvelous inspired writings, namely the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. He first appears on the scene here in the gospel of Luke in verse 3, "It seemed fitting for me," and that's all we know is "me." He doesn't even name himself ever in this gospel.
We begin to see something of his appearance in the 15th chapter of Acts where he is writing about Paul and he uses the word "we" and "us" indicating that he was there. He was there. From the 15th chapter of Acts, verses 9 and 10, we have the first "we" passage all the way to the end of the book, chapter 28, where Paul is a prisoner in Rome and he's still talking about "we." So, Luke really was a partner of Paul, as we noted last time, for a great many years of Paul's ministry. He never names himself in the book of Luke, he never names himself in the book of Acts, but he was a long-term companion of the apostle Paul, first appearing in Acts 15 in the "we" passages. All the way to the end of the book he is with Paul. And even at the end of Paul's life, recorded in 2 Timothy 4:11 in one of the three passages in the New Testament where Luke is named, Paul says Luke is still with me, only Luke. So at the end of Paul's life, in his final Roman imprisonment, Luke was still there.
He was the only Gentile to write any Scripture. We know he was a Gentile. In Colossians chapter 4, verse 11, Paul introduces his Jewish companions, his Jewish fellow workers. He says they are of the circumcision. And then after having introduced those who were Jewish, he refers to Luke who therefore is understood to be a Gentile. This... This Gentile who never names himself, who was only mentioned three times in the New Testament, and about whom really nothing is known in terms of Scripture explicitly, this unique Gentile wrote more of the New Testament even than Paul, or any other writer. So we need to know a little bit about him.
And we can discover some things in just looking at his writings. First of all, as I said, because he uses "we" we know that he was a companion of the apostle Paul. That leads us to a lot of conclusions. He must have been faithful. He must have been enduring. He must have been loyal. He must have been brave because of all the things he went through with the apostle Paul. But what we learn in the gospel of Luke about him in this prologue is that he was educated. He was well bred. He was skilled in language. How do we know that? Because the prologue is done in classic Greek, classic Greek. The rest of the gospel record starting in verse 5 and going all the way through the book of Acts is in the more common Koine Greek, the language of the people. But he introduces this gospel with a very classical form of language and he is writing here a prologue in the same form and style that any Greek classical writer would typically introduce his writings. So he follows a form that the educated would know. And we could conclude then that he is trying to appeal to someone and to some group of people who are very educated. That would be supported by the address that he has in verse 3, "Most excellent Theophilus," and I'll say more about that. It does indicate even at first reading that Theophilus was somebody of a higher caliber than normal.
And so, he is writing for people of culture. He is a man of culture himself. And he...he takes the gospel, as it were, and elevates it beyond just the common people. As you know, the apostles were very common. The people who were known as apostles to us in the New Testament and those who were associated with them were common people. The majority of the early church leaders were, of course, the apostles and their associates who were equally common people. The unsophisticated Galileans...unsophisticated Galileans, they were known as, and the populace basically identified them as ignorant and unlearned men. But Luke doesn't fit into the category of ignorant and unlearned, neither does Paul. Paul was educated in the Hellenistic culture of his day. He sat at the feet of the greatest Jewish teacher of his time, a man named Gamaliel. And when Paul came into the apostolic ranks it became apparent at that juncture that the gospel was not just for the, for the weak and the ignorant, the gospel was not just for the common people, it was not just for the lower classes of people, the gospel was for people of learning. And Luke's writings make that fact more established. Luke starts with a very formal high-brow introduction. The gospel is not just for the untutored, it is not just for the ignorant, it is...it is for all, all men and all women at every level of life and every level of society. And the record of the gospel is not some kind of a low-level tradition. It is one that can stand the test of the most careful historic scrutiny and it belongs on the shelf with other great histories as well.
Luke was humble. We know that because he never mentions himself. And that's true of humble people. Proud people talk about themselves. Humble people don't. Luke never did. He never mentioned himself in Acts. He never mentions himself in the gospel of Luke. And though his writings certainly gained great acclaim, and though he is a great and gifted historian, he never mentions himself. We know he is the author because tradition going all the way back into the second century indicates that. We know he's the author because through the process of elimination in the book of Acts it comes out that he is the most logical one who wrote Acts. And whoever wrote Acts also wrote Luke because the book of Acts begins mentioning the former treatise to Theophilus, which is the gospel of Luke. So, Luke was humble. He hid himself behind his great saga.
He was also a...a careful scholar, very careful scholar. You notice in this text words like "carefully, investigated, and exact truth." That's characteristic of Luke. He's very, very precise. When it comes to the geography, as we'll see as we go through the gospel of Luke, when he's talking about geographical locations, he's very precise. He's very conscious also of the right titles for political rulers and he is very exact in the way he uses those titles. He is a very fastidious writer, very careful. And we see that all the way through.
He was very aware of the fact that Matthew had written a gospel and Mark had written a gospel, no doubt. But he wanted... He wanted certainly under divine prompting, but he wanted to add another gospel that was larger, longer, more comprehensive, more complete, a more detailed comprehensive record of Jesus and the gospel.
Luke was a select man in that he belonged to a group of four — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — who were enabled by God to write the greatest story ever told, the story of God's salvation of sinners through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this narrative that he wrote swept over sixty years from the birth of John the Baptist to Paul's preaching the gospel in Rome, and took up about...takes up about a third of the New Testament. It is... The fact is that Luke is the most complete story teller of the saga of salvation.
So, we can learn all of that about him. And we kind of went over that last time. We're dividing this...this look at Luke in the prologue into four sections. Remember what I told you what they were. We're looking at Luke the physician, Luke the historian, Luke the theologian and Luke the pastor.
Let me review, first of all, Luke the physician. It doesn't tell us here that this is Luke the physician, but Colossians 4:14 tells us that Luke was a physician. He is identified there as Luke the beloved physician. So the first thing to know about the man is he was a physician, he was a scientist. That would tell us that he was an analytical man, that he was a careful thinker, that he was educated. He may well have been educated in Antioch, Antioch in Syria which would probably had some...some kind of university, some kind of educational system in which he was trained as a physician. He perhaps even came to Christ in the influence of the church that was planted in Antioch. Among the five pastors was the apostle Paul himself. It may have been Paul who even led Luke to the knowledge of the gospel. But Luke is known, first of all, as a physician. He was a Gentile. He was not an apostle. He was not an eye witness to the life of Christ. He wasn't even converted till after Christ had died, risen and ascended to heaven and the gospel had been and brought to the Gentile world, so he was not an eye witness. Only mentioned three times in the New Testament, we don't know much about the back... We don't know anything about the background. We can only know that tradition tells us he came from Antioch and perhaps that's where he heard the gospel, even from the apostle Paul.
We do know he was loyal because he stayed with Paul for so many years. We know he was brave because there were a number of imprisonments. He was with Paul in three imprisonments, one in Caesarea, two in Rome. We know about his faithfulness because he traveled with Paul over thousands of miles and would have been exposed to the same terrors and the same robbers and the same hostilities and the same illnesses and the same deprivations of travel in the ancient times that Paul was. We know also about him that he must have been a kind and tender hearted man because Paul called him beloved. And as you go through the gospel of Luke you will note there's a graciousness about him; he's not an in-your-face type of guy. There's a sweetness about Luke, there's a graciousness about him that comes through. He was beloved. He was Paul's private, personal physician and he endeared himself greatly to the apostle Paul. So we met Luke the physician.
Secondly, last time, we began to look at...look at Luke... We began to look at Luke the historian. I'm trying to go fast because I've got a lot to say. we began to look at Luke the historian. The first three verses introduced us really to Luke the historian. As a historian he is greatly respected because of his precision, his exactness, and because of the fact that he was a research historian who looked at available accounts. He had good source material. Let's look at it, verse 1. As he introduces the gospel in this classic prologue, he says, "Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us." Verse 1 then is saying to us that I have sources, I have sources. He goes back to his sources as he begins. He knew that there were many enemies of the gospel. He knew that there would be many people who would like to criticize his writings and try to discredit his writing. So he made every effort to base his writing on accurate sources so that it might, as he notes in verse 4, be exact truth. He was careful to be fastidious, as it says in verse 3, in investigating everything carefully from the start, from the beginning. Verse 2, he...he sought out eye witnesses and servants of the Word who handed down their first-hand accounts.
He is going to give us exact, historical details that he has himself done great research on. In addition to that, of course, the Holy Spirit will reveal things to him that he didn't know, a combination of which, as we'll see in just a moment, comes together in the gospel of Luke.
Tradition says that Luke died at the age of 84. So he lived a long life and no doubt was immensely respected by people for this marvelous, historical account that he provided of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. As well as the gospel, he wrote the book of Acts.
Let's look at verse 1 and look at his sources, just a comment or two, then we'll go on to verse 2 where we left off. He says, "Many have undertaken to compile an account." There were many. This is including Matthew who had written his gospel by the time of Luke, and Mark who had written his gospel. There were other apostles, of course, who probably had written down memoirs of the experiences and the teaching of Jesus. There were other disciples, associates of the apostles, who had written. There are many, he doesn't tell us who they are. There were many sources, many sources that were chronicling “the things accomplished among us.” What does he mean by that? Well he looks not...he could have said that "wrote about the life of Christ," but the gospel record is more than the life of Christ, it's more than the story of Jesus, it's the story of redemption, it's the story of salvation accomplished among us. That's the issue. Christ is the main character, but the main subject is salvation. The four gospels are the saga of salvation. They are the saga of redemption, the story of God saving sinners through Jesus Christ. Again, Jesus Christ is the main character, but the story is the story of what God accomplished through Christ in us by way of salvation. He says there were many of these accounts, many of these.
Further, verse 2, he adds, "These accounts that have come to us of what God has accomplished among us come from eye witnesses and servants of the Word who have handed them down to us." This is very important for a historian, very important for any writer, I know as a writer myself, to have primary sources, to be able to go back to the original source. That is particularly true of those who are historians. If you're going to write an accurate history, you have to have first-hand source material, you have to get back to the first-hand source material. Luke is a true historian, a true historian. Not only a physician trained in the science that had to do with the physical body and caring for it, but a historian of great care, a man who knew how to give attention to detail in the process of doing research. And he knew that his critics would shoot him down if he didn't say his sources were primary sources. So he introduces the sources in general in verse 1, and then he introduces the sources in specific in verse 2, coming down to the fact that they were those who from the beginning were eye witnesses and servants of the Word who have handed them down, "them" meaning the accounts, to us. We are building our gospel, he is saying, really on first-hand eye-witness-source material. This is affirming the reliability of what he is going to write from apostles, from associates of the apostles who were there with Jesus, who were there, who can give us accounts, first-hand authenticity brought the message to Luke.
And remember what I told you last time, he may well have interviewed people who were there as well. Certainly Matthew was there and he would have met Matthew most likely during the two-year imprisonment in Caesarea which is just west of the city of Jerusalem and Matthew would have been alive and in the area. He certainly knew Mark well. Mark traveled with Paul and so did he, they traveled together. And Mark had received first-hand eye-witness records from Peter and he had been exposed to those through Mark. There were other disciples and other associates that he would have met. I suggested last time that some commentators believe it was very probable that Luke himself could have interviewed Mary and gotten her first-hand account of the virgin birth. And so he had eye witnesses, critical to getting to the truth, eye witnesses who had passed the information to him.
These eye witnesses are further described as servants of the Word. In the Greek language when you have one article — an article is like "the" — when you have one article and two expressions, those two expressions modify or describe the same entity. If it said in this verse, for example, there were those who were the eye witnesses and the servants, we might conclude he was talking about the two groups. But when there are the eye witnesses and servants, we know that “servants” is further modifying the eye witnesses. So these were eye witnesses who became servants of the Word.
Now “the Word” Luke uses for “the gospel,” for the gospel. “The Word” refers to “the gospel.’ In fact, I'm not going to take the time but he uses it that way in Acts a number of places. Just maybe one or two to sort of show you how he uses it. Acts 8:4, "Therefore those who had been scattered” scattered under the ravaging persecution of the apostle Paul against the church in Jerusalem “those who had been scattered went about preaching the Word and Philip went to Samaria." That Word that they were preaching was the gospel. It was the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 10 verse 36, "The Word which he sent to the sons of Israel.” What was it? “Preaching peace through Jesus Christ," Acts 10:36. So the Word is the gospel of peace available to sinners, peace with God through Jesus Christ. And Luke uses it that way in chapter 11 verse 19, chapter 14 verse 25, and even in chapter 6 verse 4.
So he said there, very important to follow this, there were eye witnesses who were there and they saw it and they were given the responsibility by God to become servants of the gospel. That is they were to carry that gospel out, they were the proclaimers, the preachers. They knew Jesus, they watched His life and His ministry and they went about preaching with regard to that personal, first-hand experience. So they were the ones out of the many who really established the truth. They were the faithful preachers. And they, he says, have handed down to us the true accounts, the true accounts.
That phrase "handed down to us," you see it at the end of verse 2, is a technical term used in Greek literature for possessing something authoritative, something authoritative. They handed down the authoritative truth to us.
So, Luke is a historian. He makes no claim to be an eye witness, but he does make a claim to having eye-witness sources who were apostles and their associates. They were eye witnesses and they were the servants of the gospel. What does that mean? Well they were given by God the responsibility to care for the gospel, to protect it. It kind of works like this: God gave them the firsthand, eye-witness experiences, then God enabled them to preserve those until such a time as writers could be inspired to write them down. That's part of the preservation of the truth that is involved in maintaining the message. So Luke is saying, from original sources, preserved by the servants of God, who both preserved and preached the truth, has come to me a true understanding of the story of Jesus and the gospel. He took advantage of all the available sources. And since he had all of that opportunity and all of that exposure, he says in verse 3, "It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out." And we'll stop at that point.
Fitting, what does that mean? Right, good, suitable, noble. Since I had all of this information, since I had garnered it all and it was all first-hand accurate information, it seemed fitting for me as well. And then he further strengthens his case for credibility: “Having investigated everything carefully from the beginning.” What would that mean? Well that would mean that if he had two accounts and there was a discrepancy in one, he would go find the accurate one. The NKJV, the New King James has a wonderful translation of verse 3 where it says, "Having investigated everything carefully from the beginning." It says this, "Having had perfect understanding of all things from the very start." Now this man is a consummate historian. He has come to a perfect understanding of everything from the beginning of the gospel. He's...he's got a grip on all of it. He has by careful investigation, he has by fastidious research come to a perfect understanding of everything from the start. Because he had acquired such precise understanding, he was compelled to write. And when he did write, verse 4 says, people reading it would know the exact truth. They would know the exact truth.
The word "carefully" there in verse 3, having investigated everything carefully, could be “accurately.” That would be a synonym. A first-rate historian, h e didn't just copy down his sources. It wasn't just a sort of an assembling of all kinds of source material, that's not the case. He didn't just copy Matthew, or copy Mark, or copy other things that had been written. In fact, Luke is very, very unique in a number of ways. There is material in the gospel of Luke that is not in Matthew, that's not in Mark and a lot of it that's not in John. Luke found this material through his sources and what he didn't have through his sources the Spirit of God gave to him supernaturally. And even what he did have through his sources, the Holy Spirit guarded supernaturally, so he recorded it accurately, precisely and exactly as God wanted it to be recorded without error.
But Luke's material is wonderfully unique. Half of Luke... Almost half of Luke's material is unique to his gospel. Almost half of what is in Luke is nowhere else. For example, if you chronicle the gospels and you go through, you'll find about thirty-five miracles, thirty-five specific miracles recorded in the gospels. Twenty of those are in Luke. Of the twenty in Luke, seven are only in Luke. So if we didn't have Luke we would miss seven miracles that Jesus did. There are about fifty parables that Jesus taught, depending on, you know, how precisely you define a parable, but about fifty parables. Thirty-five of the parables are in Luke, and nineteen of the parables are only in Luke. And if Luke hadn't recorded them we wouldn't have them. And also there are about thirty events in the life of Jesus which Luke records and no one else does. Seven miracles, nineteen parables and thirty events in the life of Jesus are inimitable to the gospel of Luke.
So he was... He was studying and he was doing research, but he was not limited to that. He didn't just copy out of Matthew and Mark's gospel because there's so much that wasn't in those gospels. In the end he knew what was in Matthew, he knew what was in Mark, he didn't use all of it in his gospel. He didn't repeat everything that was there. He knew what was in all of the sources but in the end it was the superintending work of the Holy Spirit to pull it all together. And Luke's study and research, listen carefully to this, in no way negates Holy Spirit inspiration. What the Holy Spirit did was superintend what Luke knew, give him what he didn't know, guide his selection of material out of his personal knowledge and his personal research, add to it what he had never ever found anywhere else, bring it all together and make sure Luke wrote exactly what God wanted written, no less, no more and wrote it without error. The Holy Spirit kept Luke from error in every sense, from errors of fact and from errors of doctrine so that he wrote exactly what God wanted written.
He was under...he was under the same process that any other Bible was...Bible writer was under, any other one. Here's the definition of that, 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture...” That would include the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. “All Scripture is inspired (by whom?) by God." God-breathed, theopneustos, God-breathed, it all comes from God. It was God taking all of his experiences and all of his research and all the information and all the material and all the sources that he had become familiar with and all the oral tradition passed down and all the people that he may have talked to, it was God taking all of that, it was God taking his knowledge of Matthew or Mark's gospel, if as we assume he had read those, and it was God then moving in the mind of that man so that he would record precisely what God wanted said.
Second Peter 1:20, "No prophecy, no proclamation, of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation." No book of Scripture is ever one man's ideas, or thoughts. Next verse, 2 Peter 1:21, "No prophecy, no proclamation of Scripture was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Luke was a historian and he was a very good historian, he was a very faithful and diligent historian. And in the end that does not obviate the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit took all of that, blended it together in a powerful expression of what we call the doctrine of inspiration so that Luke wrote a perfect account. Not only perfect because he had exact knowledge, but because God enabled him to say exactly what God wanted said in exactly the way God wanted it said without error.
Thirdly we meet Luke the theologian. I confess at this moment, trying to give you an idea of Luke the theologian here could consume a lot of time and I'm going to resist that. Luke is a theologian and I'll show you where we're introduced to that. Look at verse 3. He says, "It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you” here's the key phrase “in consecutive order," in consecutive order, or as the New King James says, "An orderly account,” in an orderly account.
Now what is the mark of a good theologian? A good theologian is someone who is analytical, who is systematic, who is logical. And that's exactly what that's saying. When he says "in consecutive order," that's probably not a good translation. He probably could have a better translation then "in consecutive order," because it sort of gives the idea that this thing is strictly chronological, that he starts with John the Baptist, ends with Paul, and everything else is just a series of chronological events in perfect succession.
Let me... Let me say this. Generally Luke is chronological. Certainly the gospel of Luke is generally chronological, it starts with the birth of Christ, goes to the boyhood of Jesus, the baptism of Jesus, moves to His public ministry, goes to the cross. And you've got ten chapters of Him traveling to Jerusalem to die, the cross, and then the resurrection follows the cross. I mean, generally it is chronological. The book of Acts, of course, is chronological. It starts with the Spirit of God being promised. Then the Spirit of God comes. The gospel goes to Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth. So there's... There’s a a flow of chronology, and there has to be in any good history.
But, it is not strictly chronological. There are times when Luke wants to make a theological point, so he gathers material thematically around that theological point. So he will not become slavishly chronological if at some point he needs to deviate from his chronology to enrich a point with issues or with discussions or events pulled from various times but to illustrate a point that he's making in that very chronological flow he'll do that. So it is both chronological and it is thematic at certain points and he'll pull things from various parts of the history of the life of Christ and bring them into one focus in a given text in order to enhance the point that is being made there.
Bottom line then is, the way to understand the phrase "in consecutive order," is to understand it as in logical order, in logical order. It doesn't strictly mean chronological. At times, as I said, he's thematic and puts material together around a theme rather than historical sequence. The phrase helps us to understand Luke as a theologian. He is writing systematically. He is writing logically. He is writing in a progression that is intended, here's the key phrase, in a progression that is intended to persuade. A theologian's job is to persuade someone to believe, to lead you to understand a truth, to lead you to understand a doctrine by a thoughtful, logical, progressive, systematic, persuasive explanation. And that's exactly what Luke is going to do in this gospel. And the goal of this gospel is to persuade a person to believe, to persuade a person to believe. That's a theologian's desire. It is a distinctly, logical, sequential effort to bring someone to full persuasion about Christ. His goal is to lead the reader to believe the gospel, to believe the full truth of God's saving purpose in Christ, to believe the story of redemption, to believe the message of salvation. I like to think of it this way: Luke is saying this, I'm writing this out for you in logical, persuasive clarity. That's what he's doing, that's a theologian's task. Not just a historian, I'm not just dealing with linking events together in a chronology, but rather in the process of moving through this chronology focusing on persuasive, logical understanding of divine truth.
So he's going to show us the theological significance of what happens. And as he shows us the theological significance of what is happening, he'll build around that theological theme a little bit to increase that persuasion. And there are a number of things that he deals with. As you look at Luke the theologian, he was...he was quite a remarkable theologian. The first great area of theology that concerns Luke is God's sovereignty in history. He was a believer in the sovereignty of God. Luke was a Reformed theologian, though he didn't know it. He believed in the sovereignty of God. He saw salvation history as God's sovereign plan of redemption unfolding through Jesus Christ. Salvation had come. In fact he uses the word “now” fourteen times. He follows salvation history through the birth, the boyhood and the baptism of Jesus, through His ministry as God continues to work His saving plan. And then he follows him for ten chapters from Galilee as he comes down to Jerusalem, coming toward the cross and his movement toward the cross chronologically and historically is filled with theological implications as he heads for that monumental, redemptive, substitutionary death on the cross. The great passion week of Jesus is from chapter 19 to the end of chapter 23, and chapter 24 ends with the resurrection of Christ. All through this you see God's hand working the great work of redemption. He follows salvation history and sees God ruling in all of it.
Second thing, he not only understood that God's sovereign rule over history, but he understood the universal extent of salvation. He understood that salvation was for everyone. He was a Gentile. He was writing to Theophilus, who was a Gentile. He was a part of the Gentile world and he wanted it to be made very clear that this wonderful reality of God's saving purpose, this great saga of redemption, involved Gentiles. He's very concerned about what's going on in Samaria and in chapter 10 he...he's concerned about the rejection that occurred in Samaria. He is very concerned about salvation extending everywhere.
By the way, as a footnote, Matthew never uses the word "salvation." Mark never uses the word "salvation." John uses it once. Luke uses it six times in his gospel and I think seven times in the book of Acts. He emphasized salvation. And he emphasizes that it was not just for Jews. One of the ways he emphasizes it... And I could give you many, but just one of them is very interesting. When Matthew wrote a genealogy of Jesus to show where Jesus had come from, he started with...you remember who? Matthew 1:1, where did Matthew start his genealogy? With Abraham, the Jew. Luke gives the other genealogy of Christ. You know where Luke starts the genealogy? With Adam, the father of all men, because Luke is very concerned that we understand the unfolding saga of redemption embraces the world, not just the Jews. That's in... That's in Luke 3:38 where he does his genealogy in reverse and it all goes back to Adam. He is concerned about a Roman centurion and so he tells the story of Jesus reaching out to a Roman centurion who is a Gentile and an enemy of Israel. In chapter 14 he's concerned to tell the story of Jesus when he told the parable about the man who was going to give a feast and he invited the guests, who would have been the Jews who were already pre-invited. They wouldn't come and so he says go out on the highways and byways and get everybody you can get. That's again an expression of the universality of salvation. And when he comes to the great commission at the end of the...of his gospel he is concerned to let everybody know that we're to preach the gospel to the whole world.
In fact, he sees the gospel not only for all...all nations, but for all kinds of people. He's very concerned about prodigals, you know, writes about the prodigal son. He's concerned about Samaritans, who are half-breed outcasts. He's concerned about women who were seen as low class in the society. He's concerned about really fallen women, sinful women, demon-possessed women, prostitutes, outcasts. He's concerned about tax collectors. He's concerned about a despicable man by the name of Zaccheus and tells us the story of Zaccheus, which is nowhere else. He's concerned about lepers. He's got a lot of lepers in here, at least ten in one passage, who were the pariahs of society. He's very... He likes to talk about tax collectors and every time he mentions a tax collector, who was the most despicable person in the Jewish culture, it's always in a favorable light. Though he doesn't ignore the salvation of the rich, he makes a lot out of the salvation of one rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, who gave his tomb to Jesus. Although he doesn't ignore the salvation of the gospel to the wealthy and the upper class, and I think he wrote for them in mind indicated by the prologue, but he spends an awful lot of time focusing on Jesus' ministry to the worst of the...the flotsam and the jetsam of humanity. He saw that the ministry of the great physician was to those who were desperate, that salvation was for everybody.
Luke makes a major thrust in discussing the ministry of the Holy Spirit, much more so than any of the other gospel writers. He focuses on the Holy Spirit, particularly early in the gospel of Luke. The Holy Spirit is just everywhere in the first few chapters. The Holy Spirit is involved in the birth of John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit is involved, of course, in the birth of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is there early on talking to Mary, talking to Zacharias. The Holy Spirit is leading Simeon to come and worship the Christ child. The Holy Spirit is involved in the baptism of Jesus and the temptation of Christ and we learn about the Holy Spirit.
Of course we learn about Jesus Christ. Luke has a great theology proper, the doctrine of God as sovereign over everything. He has a good pneumatology; he understands the role of the Holy Spirit. He has a great Christology, which, of course, is the theme of the whole book, the doctrine of Christ. You want to know something very interesting? Luke is the only gospel that mentions the doctrine of justification. The Doctrine of Justification is the heart of Christian theology. It's the heart of Reformation theology, that we have been declared righteous. That doctrine of justification is Luke's to discuss and he does it when he writes about a publican and a sinner who went into the temple to pray and the publican who was a tax collector, again an outcast, a pariah, a despised and hated man went home justified and Luke gives us our first introduction into justification. And justification is also in the story of the prodigal because this wretched, wicked sinner comes home and he has no...no value, no virtue, no worth, nothing and his father puts on the robe and gives him the ring and has a feast. And that's what justification is; it's taking an unworthy sinner who belongs in the pig slop and covering him with the robe of righteousness. And even Zaccheus is a picture of God's justification, as is the sinful woman in chapter 7.
So, Luke understands theology and he makes a point of these great doctrines. He...other theological themes he deals with...the fear of God, praise to God, forgiveness, joy, wonder, worship. He says a lot about worship as we'll find out when we go through. He shows the majesty of Jesus and his ministry to people in need. He focuses on the prayers of the Lord.
But in the heart of his theology is the cross, the cross, the cross, the cross. Ten chapters, from chapter 9 verse 51 all the way in to chapter 19 Jesus is going toward the cross, going toward the cross, going toward the cross. Chapter 19 He arrives there, all the way to chapter 23, that's all about the cross. You could say from chapter 9 to the end of 23 it's the cross, because that's where God fulfilled His redemptive plan, Jesus moving relentlessly to the cross. The Son of Man, the key verse in Luke, Luke 19:10, "The Son of Man has come to seek, to save that which was lost."
One other thought in his theology, Luke is interested in the Second Coming, the Second Coming. He records much of what Jesus said about His glorious return. He tells us salvation is future, salvation is eternal and there is a glory to come and the Savior will be back for His people.
Well, that's a...that's a fast overview. Luke the physician, Luke the historian, Luke the theologian, he's quite a guy, isn't he? Lastly, Luke the pastor, Luke the pastor.
Oh it doesn't say in here that he's a pastor, but I'll tell you what, this never ceases to amaze me. Verse 3 he says, "It seemed fitting for me having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in logical, persuasive clarity, most excellent Theophilus, so that you might know the exact truth about the things you've been taught."
Wow! That's just unbelievable. You can imagine a person writing a book to be published. Can you imagine a person writing a book to be given to one person? That's a pastor's heart, isn't it? I don't know how he met Theophilus. We don't know anything about Theophilus. He has a nice name, beloved of God, it's a nice name. We don't know anything about him. We know he was probably on the upper side of society, "most excellent." That little modifier is used in the book of Acts by Luke to refer to Felix the governor and Festus the governor. And that occurs in Acts 23 and 24 in the case of Felix and 26 in the case of Festus. So it meant somebody who was elevated, somebody who is high up, most excellent.
This was a formidable person. And what was Luke's goal here? Well, Theophilus had been taught. It says at the end of verse 4, he had been taught, he had been taught things about Christ. Obviously we could conclude, however, that the teaching was unclear or incomplete. And so Luke says, "I want you to have the exact truth." What a pastor's heart. So he does all of this research, all of this incredible writing to give to this man, to either bring him to saving faith if he was just on the edge and didn't have a complete enough understanding of the gospel to believe. He was certainly interested and he had been taught something about the gospel. Or, that he was a new Christian, a new believer and he needed to have a greater understanding of his faith. Whatever it is, and we don't know in the case of Theophilus. Probably more likely that he was a believer and needed a more perfect understanding.
In that case, it's a pastoral work intended to teach this...this man that he had met, to bring him to exact truth. Let me tell you, anything short of that is a failure to understand the responsibility of the pastor, isn't it? My job as a pastor is not to fuss with your emotions. My job as a pastor is not to make you feel good about yourself. My task as a pastor, it's just like Luke's was, is to bring you to an exact understanding of what? Of the truth of God, isn't it? As I say, we don't know anything about him. But we know enough about Luke to know that Luke cared enough about this man's soul to bring him to the exact understanding of truth. Cared enough about him to write this long, intense, complex, monumental history and theology of salvation and give it to Theophilus. That's a remarkable evidence of personal concern to shepherd the soul of one man.
Now that fact that Luke gave this to Theophilus doesn't indicate that he didn't expect anybody else to read it. I'm sure he did. I'm sure he expected the friends and family of Theophilus to read it. But the fact that he knew the others would read it and that it might even go beyond that in no way diminishes the graciousness of his heart and his love for that one man. He knew that every soul was precious to the One who came to seek and to save the lost. And like his Lord, he had a shepherd's heart.
Isn't it wonderful that he served one man so well and God took the service that he rendered to one man and has spread it across the globe in thousands of languages? And millions of people have come to salvation through the letter that Luke wrote to this man. I've always said that through the years. You take care of the depth of your ministry and God will take care of the breadth of it. You do something as profound as what Luke did and, believe me, it will go to whatever end that God desires it to go. Millions of people have been converted by the account that Luke wrote for Theophilus.
He gave him — and this is where we need to wrap it up — he gave him exact truth. What a great statement. "Exact" is the word asphaleia. It means reliable, certain. He gave him a precise, reliable, accurate, complete understanding of the amazing. saving story of Jesus and the gospel; clear, complete, sifted from all error and persuasive, persuasive. He wanted that man to know the truth. I don't have any...any different desire than he did. I want you to know the truth.
So this remarkable physician, historian, theologian and pastor had the greatest privilege this life could ever offer any man, to be inspired by God to write an exact, reliable, powerful, precise, persuasive history and theology of the saga of salvation. And by this writing has become the instrument God used for the salvation of millions.
You know what my prayer is? That that work will go on as we go through Luke. That many, many more will be saved as we preach Luke's gospel here, as it goes onto tape and as it goes onto radio all over the world. We're going to pray that God will again use this wonderful physician, historian, theologian, and pastor as an instrument to bring many to the knowledge of Christ. Let's pray.
Our hearts are filled with anticipation, Lord, as we approach now the study of this wonderful book and plunge, as it were, into the great record that Luke has given us under the inspiration of Your Spirit. We pray, oh God, today that we might realize that the greatest story ever told is the story that You forgive sinners, that God desires to be reconciled to sinful men, the story of salvation, that a sacrifice was made for our sins, namely Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins that we commit. And that the extent of that salvation is that it embraces the whole world and all who in every nation, tongue, tribe and people desire to come can come and receive that salvation. We thank You that it provides peace with God for the wealthy and for the poor, for the moral and for the immoral, for the esteemed and the respected and the outcasts. We thank You for this great, great message. We pray that there would be no one here who would turn away from the great truth that You are a saving God who sent Your Son to this world to save sinners. That is the greatest story ever told. We thank You that for those of us who believe it is a story we live with joy and gratitude and shall forever. Work in every heart, Lord. Wherever there is one who doesn't know Christ, who has not received salvation, the forgiveness of sins, may it be Your mercy and Your grace that is bestowed upon them today that they might believe and be saved. To that end we pray, for Christ's sake. Amen.
Luke 1:1–4
Can we trust the Gospel accounts to give us an accurate understanding of who Jesus is? In this sermon, R.C. Sproul begins his series in the book of Luke by examining its author, the man considered by some to be one of the greatest historians of the ancient world.
Transcript
I have decided to move in the direction of preaching, by way of exposition, through the Gospel According to Saint Luke.
It is the only of the four that I have not preached upon since Saint Andrew’s began, and this is an occasion where I have already preached on Luke’s second volume, the book of Acts, which is the sequel to his gospel. This morning we will begin our study of the prequel to the book of Acts, namely, the gospel of Luke itself, the longest and most extensive of all the Gospels. This morning we will begin with Chapter 1, and I will ask the congregation to stand for the reading of the Word of God.
Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had the complete understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
These words come to us from Luke, the gospel writer, who wrote not alone or in his own power, but as he was moved and superintended by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost so that the words that you have just heard are indeed the very Word of God. Let us pray.
Father, as we once again embark upon the study of this precious gospel that gives to us a narration of the person and the work, the words, the sayings, and the teachings of our dear Lord, we pray that you would fill our minds and our hearts with the knowledge of and the love for Jesus, the central topic of this book. For we ask it in His Name. Amen.
Luke, the Medical Missionary
Before I begin an exposition of the text of the gospel of Luke, I want to say a few words about Luke himself. Ironically, in my own life, before I ever read Luke’s gospel, or indeed anything of the Bible, before I was even a Christian, I became acquainted with this man named Luke. It was due to my lack of performance in the elementary study of the Latin language when I was in high school, a study that I abhorred from the very first lesson. Our gracious Latin teacher gave us the ability to get five bonus points per six weeks’ testing if we would read certain novels that she kept in her library in the Latin room; novels that went over the history of biblical times, such as The Silver Chalice or The Robe.
I read a book called The Road to Bithynia, written by Frank Slaughter, which traced the life of the beloved physician Luke that the Apostle Paul identifies in his letter to the Colossians. Of course, this was a novel with the free use that the author had for fiction, but nevertheless, he incorporated everything that he could learn about this historical character from biblical sources and the historians of the second and third centuries. It was a moving work.
We find Luke mentioned in several places in the New Testament, not the least of which is in his own book of Acts, where Luke served as a companion with the Apostle Paul in Paul’s missionary journeys. We see that this man was not only a doctor but a medical missionary who was a close companion and friend of the Apostle to the Gentiles, Saul of Tarsus. Luke was born and raised in Antioch, of Gentile descent, and died in his eighties in a peaceful way, unlike most of the other writers of the biblical narratives and epistles.
Paul’s Beloved Companion
Before I look at this text, I want to direct your attention to the final words given to us by the Apostle Paul in the second letter that he wrote to his disciple, Timothy. Recently, we were in Rome with the Ligonier tour of the Cradle of Christianity. While in Rome, we videotaped several of the famous sites, including the Colosseum and the Church of Lateran with the sacred steps. We also made a special visit to the Mamertine Prison where the Apostle Paul endured his second Roman imprisonment and final imprisonment before his execution under that emperor whose nickname in the Roman Empire was “the beast”—Nero himself.
The holding cell the Apostle was kept in prior to his execution under Nero was situated across the street from the Roman forum. This was not a large prison, as we imagine prisons to be. It was simply a large cistern that had been cut out of the rock and had originally been used to keep a supply of water for the Romans. But, as history would have it, it was emptied of water and turned into a cell for those who were on death row and about to be executed.
It was a moving experience to go down the stairs into that cistern—that dank, dark, cold, wet place where the great Apostle was held and presumably wrote his final letter to Timothy, whom he had left behind in Ephesus. In that epistle, Paul writes these words that I’d like to call to your attention this morning:
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and the books, especially the parchments. (2 Tim. 4:6–13)
He continues in verse 17: “The Lord has stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”
Paul then gives final greetings to his friends before making his last admonition to Timothy: “Do your utmost to come before winter.” Paul tells him, “Come before winter, bring the parchments, bring my coat, and bring Mark, because I am alone except for the Lord and for the beloved physician, Luke.”
That last statement of the Apostle Paul speaks volumes to me about this companion of his who went with him on his missionary journeys and stood next to Paul in all the trials and tribulations that are recorded in the book of Acts. Most significantly, he stood side-by-side with Paul in that dreadful, dank prison cell. All the rest had fled and departed.
So Luke, we know, was a physician. Luke, we know, was a missionary. But Luke has also emerged as one of the most important, if not the most important, historian of the ancient world.
The Great Historian Checks the Sources
If we look back now at how Luke begins his gospel, he acknowledges at the outset that others had taken time to give a narrative account of the things they knew of the person and work of Jesus. We have the inspired writings of Matthew, Mark, and John that have survived to this day. Presumably, besides those gospel writers, there were others in the first century who tried their hand at writing a summary of the history of Jesus.
Luke acknowledges at the beginning that he is aware others have gone before him in this venture of providing a history. So, he says in verse 1, “Many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word”—that’s a descriptive phrase for the Apostles, those who had been disciples, like Matthew and John. Mark, of course, was not one of the Twelve, but he was considered to be the amanuensis, or secretary, for the Apostle Peter. But Luke was not a disciple. He had been converted by the Apostles and came under the tutelage of the great Apostle Paul.
Much of what Luke knew, he gained from his association with Paul as well as the others who were among the first disciples. These are those who, from the beginning, were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word. Luke is saying, “I am not an eyewitness, but I am a historian, and as a historian, I check the sources.”
Luke gives us more information about the birth of Jesus than anybody else, and it’s with almost total certainty that we know that Luke had the privilege of interviewing Mary, the mother of Christ, and that all the infancy information about Elizabeth, the visitation of the Magi, and the rest came from those who were the eyewitnesses of the birth of our Lord.
Luke continues, “After we have received these from the eyewitnesses, it seemed good to me also, having had a complete understanding of all the things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus.”
There is a lot of conjecture about the one who is addressed here in the book of Acts: Theophilus. It’s said that he has “the awfulest” name in all the Bible. Of course, the name Theophilus, if you analyze its meaning, means friend or lover of God. So, some people think the person mentioned here represents, in a certain way, the Christian everyman. I, however, don’t think so.
I think Luke is addressing this volume, as was commonplace in the ancient world for scholars, to some person of noble position. He is devoting or dedicating this to a man by the name of Theophilus because he calls him “most excellent Theophilus,” a title not given to symbolic characters but rather to real historical persons.
The Most Accurate Historian of the Ancient World
Luke goes on to say the reason that he’s writing: “That you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.” That was his burden, that was his passion: I am writing these things down that you can be sure of the things you have heard, the things that have been preached to you, the things that have been declared to you by the eyewitnesses. I am writing an orderly, historical, carefully documented account to strengthen your faith and give you certitude, that you might have the full assurance of the truth of the gospel that you have heard. That was his task as a historian.
The ancient world had many notable historians, whether Roman, Greek, or Jewish. You have the historians Thucydides, Xenophon, Herodotus, Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny, and the Jewish historian Josephus, all of whose works are still read. I have a collection in my house of all the works of the great Greek historians—and there were many. They were excellent in the work they did. But no historian of the ancient world has been subjected to as much academic and archaeological scrutiny as Luke, the writer of this gospel.
Historians have sometimes been skeptical about the biblical writers, and in the early part of the twentieth century, a British atheist historian set out to debunk the truth claims of the Gospels. He decided to follow the alleged footsteps of the Apostle Paul throughout his missionary journeys, going to all of those places that the archeologists have examined.
This fellow, by the name of Ramsey, was converted to Christianity along the way because he discovered that every time a spade of dirt was turned over in those days, some historical aspect of the Gospels was being verified and authenticated. Ramsey and other secular historians have said that Luke, apart from inspiration, apart from the divine assistance that he enjoyed, was the most accurate historian of the entire ancient world.
It Was What It Was
Language changes as time passes and as cultures go through upheavals and changes. Of course, going through the decade of the sixties, there was so much attention given to the discovery of hallucinogenic drugs.
Timothy Leary was the great high priest of LSD while he was teaching at Harvard University and encouraged his students to drop out and turn on. He also said that you could not trust anyone over thirty years of age. There was much discussion about the credibility gap between generations of that time. This skepticism and cynicism about truth telling was emphasized by the colorful sports commentator, Howard Cosell, who said that we should always do what? “Tell it like it is.”
So, we have this emphasis of telling something the way it actually is, except we had a president who raised questions about what the meaning of “is” is. Nevertheless, we have this currency now in our language—I hear it all the time, to my endless annoyance—“It is what it is.”
One thing I do every week is record the press conferences of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach, Mike Tomlin, where he answers questions from the media about the status of his football team. When critical issues come up about weaknesses displayed by his team, he will shrug his shoulders and say, “It is what it is.”
What can be more redundant than saying, “It is what it is”? Of course it is what it is. It can’t be what it is and not be what it is. Even Hamlet understood that: “To be or not to be, that is the question.” You can’t have it both ways. Why am I talking about that silliness? Because not only is it true that it is what it is, but even more important for us is that it was what it was.
Luke’s task, under God, was to set forth for us and for our certainty how it really was; what really took place in space and time in real history. The New Testament is committed to the historical foundation of the truth of our faith.
The first four verses of Luke’s gospel are one sentence in the original Greek.
They are written in refined, academic, classical style.
But then, for the rest of the gospel, Luke didn’t use the language of scholars but of the common man, the language of the village and the street.
Through this, Luke said to us, “This account has all the proper academic and scholarly credentials.
But it is written for the man on the street.”
Luke wrote so that people would understand Jesus, not so they would admire his brain and literary skill.
1. (1-2) Mention of the prior accounts of the life of Jesus.
Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us,
a. Many have taken in hand:
Luke wrote his gospel knowing that many had already written histories of the life of Jesus.
This may be a reference to the works of Mark and Matthew (most people think John was written after Luke), and it may also refer to other biographies of Jesus not directly inspired by the Holy Spirit.
i. Some researchers claim that the writings about Jesus did not come about until two or perhaps three generations after His death on the cross.
But the work of German papyrus expert Carsten Thiede (in December 1994) suggests that we actually possess copies of Matthew that date close to the very time of Jesus.
Thiede’s findings are based on a careful analysis of the handwriting script used on the recently discovered fragments.
b. Those things which have been fulfilled among us: The previously mentioned writings contain things already commonly known and believed among Christians of Luke’s day. When Luke wrote, most Christians already knew all about the life of Jesus, both from the oral accounts passed on by the original disciples, and by the biographies that had already been written.
i. With the word us, Luke put himself in the community of Christians who believed and received the accounts of Jesus’ life. Luke was a companion of Paul (Acts 16:10-11; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 1:24) and Paul called him the beloved physician (Colossians 4:14). Luke was a doctor and therefore a man of science and research, and this is reflected in his history of the life of Jesus.
ii. By every indication, Luke was a Gentile. Colossians 4:10-11 and 4:14 show that he wasn’t Jewish, because he was not included in the group who are of the circumcision. This makes Luke unique in that he is the only New Testament writer who was a Gentile.
iii. God gave this lone Gentile writer a great privilege. Because he also wrote the book of Acts (which makes up the second volume of this Gospel), Luke wrote more of the New Testament than any other human writer did (assuming that Paul did not author the letter to the Hebrews).
c. Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us: Luke tells us that the prior accounts of the life of Jesus were based on the words of eyewitnesses.
i. Those who from the beginning were undoubtedly the apostles, who were with Jesus from the very start. But those who from the beginning would also include people such as Mary herself, whom Luke probably interviewed in his research for this history of the life of Jesus.
ii. Luke wrote to a first century world that was burnt out on “if it feels good, do it” living; yet it was offended by the crazy superstitions of most religions. The world then, as today, longs for what Christianity offers: faith founded on fact.
2. (3-4) Luke explains the reason for the writing of his account.
It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
a. It seemed good to me also: Luke was not one of those who was an eyewitness of events from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Yet he put himself in the same line as others who wrote their accounts of Jesus’ life from first-hand experience (such as Matthew and Mark), because his account was based on diligent research and a perfect understanding of events.
b. To write to you an orderly account: Having already read Matthew and Mark’s account, Luke wanted to give a third account with an emphasis on comprehensiveness and order. Therefore, Luke is the most comprehensive gospel. He documents the story of Jesus’ all the way from the annunciation of John the Baptist to Jesus’ ascension.
Luke is the most universal gospel. In Luke, Gentiles are often put in a favorable light.
Luke’s gospel is the one most interested in the roles of women, children, and social outcasts.
The gospel of Luke is the one most interested in prayer. He has seven different references to Jesus praying that are found in this gospel alone.
Luke’s gospel is the one with the most emphasis on the Holy Spirit and on joy.
Luke’s gospel is the one with the most emphasis on preaching the good news (the gospel). This term is used ten times in this Gospel (and only once in any other Gospel) as well as fifteen additional times in Acts.
c. Most excellent Theophilus: Luke addressed his gospel to a man named Theophilus, but it was also written with a wider audience in mind.
i. By his title (most excellent), we gather that Theophilus was probably a Roman government official. It is entirely likely that the books of Luke and Acts make up Paul’s defense brief for his trial before Caesar, since Acts leaves Paul waiting for that trial.
ii. Whoever Theophilus was, he had already had some instruction in the faith (in which you were instructed).
1. (5-7) The time and people beginning the history of the life of Jesus.
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
a. in the days of Herod: These events happened at a definite time. This was the man known as Herod the Great, who was at the end of a long and terrible reign. Ethnically, he was not a descendant of Israel, but of Jacob’s brother Esau – therefore an Edomite, or an Idumean. He was known for his spectacular building programs, but even more so for his paranoid cruelty, which drove him to execute many, including members of his own family.
b. A certain priest named Zacharias…His wife…was Elizabeth: These events happened to definite people. Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous and obedient, yet also stigmatized by their barrenness (but they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren).
c. Of the division of Abijah: Priestly divisions (including the division of Abijah) were noted in 1 Chronicles 23-24.
2. (8-10) Zacharias’ temple service.
So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.
a. According to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense: Only priests from a particular lineage could serve in the temple. Over the years the number of priests multiplied, (there were said to be as many as 20,000 priests in the time of Jesus) so they used the lot to determine which priests would serve when. The lot to serve might fall to a priest only once in his life.
i. To a godly man like Zacharias, this was probably the biggest event of his life, a tremendous privilege, a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Surely he wondered what it would be like to enter the holy place, and if God had something special to speak to him in this special event of his life.
ii. It is also easy to imagine that Zacharias asked the other priests who had already performed this service what it was like; asking them if they had any unique spiritual experience when they ministered before the Lord. The whole event was filled with enormous anticipation.
b. To burn incense: According to the Law of Moses, incense was offered to God on the golden altar every morning and every evening (Exodus 30:7-8). By this time, there was an established ritual for the practice.
i. There were several lots cast to determine who did what at the morning sacrifice. The first lot determined who would cleanse the altar and prepare its fire; the second lot determined who would kill the morning sacrifice and sprinkle the altar, the golden candlestick, and the altar of incense. The third lot determined who would come and offer incense. This was the most privileged duty; those who received the first and second lots would repeat their duty at the evening sacrifice, but not with the third lot. To offer the incense would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.
ii. Before dawn, hundreds of worshippers gathered at the temple. The morning sacrifice began when the incense priest walked toward the temple, through the outer courts, he struck a gong-like instrument known as the Magrephah. At this sound, the Levites assembled and got ready to lead the gathered people in songs of worship to God.
iii. The other two priests chosen by lot that morning walked up to the temple on each side of the priest chosen to offer the incense. All three entered the holy place together. One priest set burning coals on the golden altar; the other priest arranged the incense, so it was ready to go. Then those two priests left the temple, and the incense priest was left all alone in the holy place.
iv. In front of him was the golden altar of incense; it was 18 inches square and 3 feet high. On that small table lay the burning coals, with little wisps of smoke rising up, ready for the incense. Behind the gold altar was a huge, thick curtain, and behind that curtain was the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place, where no man could enter, except the high priest, and that only on the Day of Atonement. As he faced the golden altar of incense, to his right would be the table of showbread, and to his left would be the golden lampstand, which provided the only light for the holy place.
c. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense: When the people outside saw the two men exit the temple, they knew that the time to offer the incense had come. Those hundreds of people bowed or kneeled before the Lord and spread their hands out in silent prayer. They knew that at that moment the incense priest prayed in the holy place, in the very presence of God, for the entire nation.
i. There followed several minutes of dead silence in all the temple precincts – as Zacharias lingered in prayer in the holy place during this, the most solemn experience of his life.
ii. The connection between the burning of incense and prayer might seem strange to some, but in the Bible the burning of incense is a strong picture of prayer (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8).
iii. What did Zacharias pray for? He must have thought about it carefully beforehand. He may have even taken out a prayer list, though it is more likely he memorized it. He also knew how long to pray, because he had attended the morning sacrifice as a worshipper many times before, and he knew how long the incense priest stayed in the temple. He must have prayed for both needs of the nation of Israel, which was occupied and oppressed by the hated Romans. He must have prayed for God to send the Messiah. He probably would have thought it wrong to throw in his personal needs at such a holy moment!
3. (11-17) The angel’s announcement to Zacharias.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
a. Then an angel of the Lord appeared: The angel simply stood on the right side of the altar of incense. Zacharias probably had his eyes tightly shut in passionate prayer, and when he opened them he saw this angel.
b. When Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him: The angel who appeared to Zacharias was not a romantic figure, or a naked baby with wings. This angel was a glorious, fearful, and an awesome creature. Like most angels in the Bible, the first thing this angel has to say to his human contact is “Do not be afraid.”
i. Zacharias must have thought, “Does this happen to everyone who does this? The other guys didn’t tell me anything about this!”
c. Your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear a son: It is doubtful that Zacharias prayed for a son when he was at the golden altar of incense. First, it might have seemed like such a selfish need. Second, since he and Elizabeth were both well advanced in years (Luke 1:7), they had probably given up on this prayer a long time ago.
i. Sometimes we pray for something for a long, long time. We pray for the salvation of a spouse or a child. We pray for a calling or a ministry. We pray that God would bring that special person to us. But after years of heartfelt prayer, we give up out of discouragement. Zacharias and Elizabeth probably prayed years of passionate prayer for a son, but gave up a long time ago, and stopped believing God for so much anymore.
ii. When we are in that place, we sometimes begin – in the smallest of ways – to doubt the love and care of God for us. But God always loves, and His care never stops.
iii. Zacharias’ reaction to the angel’s promise was probably thinking, “I don’t know what you are talking about. I didn’t pray for a son. We’re old, you know. I gave up on that prayer a long time ago. I’m praying for the salvation of Israel. I’m praying that God will send the promised Messiah.” Zacharias didn’t know that God would answer both prayers at once, and use his miracle baby to be a part of sending the Messiah!
iv. Zacharias had no idea that God would answer the two greatest desires of his heart at once. He had probably completely given up on the idea of being a dad; it was a hope that was crushed over the years of disappointment. But God hadn’t given up on it, even though Zacharias and Elizabeth had.
d. You shall call his name John: The boy was given a name before he was even conceived. This was a command from the Lord to name the boy John.
e. He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink: This is probably a reference to the vow of a Nazirite found in Numbers 6. Their son John would be specially consecrated to God all the days of his life, as Samson should have been.
i. Though John would be great in the sight of the Lord, by the grace of God, he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (Matthew 11:11).
f. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb: Their son John would have a unique filling of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit even while in the womb.
i. Calvin, on John being filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb: “Let us learn by this example that, from the earliest infancy to the latest old age, the operation of the Spirit in men is free.”
g. He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God: John’s great work would be to prepare the way of the Messiah by turning hearts to God before the Messiah came. The pattern for his ministry would be the great prophet Elijah – in the spirit and power of Elijah. Jesus later said this was fulfilled in John (Matthew 11:14 and 17:12).
h. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children: This quotation from Malachi 4:5-6 is meaningful for more than its reference to Elijah. These were essentially the last words in the Old Testament, and now God’s revelation is resuming where it had left off.
i. Elijah was a man who called Israel to a radical repentance (1 Kings 18:20-40).
4. (18-20) Zacharias’ doubt and muteness.
And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
a. How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in years: Zacharias’ attitude was, “Thanks for the promise, angel. But knowing the condition of my wife and I, this is a big one. Can you give us a sign to prove it?”
i. It isn’t that Zacharias doesn’t want to believe this; he does. It is simply that he feels it must be too good to be true, and he has probably protected himself from disappointment by not setting his expectations too high. We rob ourselves of many a miracle by the same attitude.
ii. Zacharias looked at the circumstances first, and what God can do last; we are tempted to think this is logical; but if God is real, there is nothing logical about putting circumstances before God.
b. I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God: Gabriel reminds Zacharias of who he is and where he has come from. There is a big contrast between I am an old man and I am Gabriel – which held more weight? Gabriel also “preaches the gospel” to Zacharias (brings you glad tidings).
i. It was nothing but good news to Zacharias that he would not only have a son, but that the son would have a significant role in God’s plan of redemption. This is the good news that Gabriel brought to Zacharias.
ii. This gives a better idea of what it really means to preach the gospel – it is to bring good news to people who need it.
c. My words which will be fulfilled in their own time: If there is no Zacharias, there is no John the Baptist. If there is no John the Baptist, there is no herald announcing the coming of the Messiah. If there is no herald announcing the coming of the Messiah, the prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the Messiah are unfulfilled. If any of the prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the first coming of the Messiah are unfulfilled, then Jesus did not fulfill all things. If Jesus did not fulfill all things, then He did not complete God’s plan of redemption for you and me, and we must perish in our sins! This was good news!
d. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak: Zacharias paid a price for his unbelief. His unbelief did not make God take his promise back; it just kept Zacharias from enjoying it.
i. When we do not believe God’s promise for our lives, we do not necessarily destroy the promise; but we do destroy our ability to enjoy the promise. What made this such a severe punishment was that Zacharias had such great news to tell.
ii. Strangely, many Christians would not consider this a punishment – they don’t mind keeping quiet about the good news of Jesus.
5. (21-23) Zacharias appears to the multitude.
And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple. But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. And so it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house.
a. And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long: The custom was for the priest to come from the temple as soon as he was finished praying, to assure the people that he had not been struck dead by God. Zacharias’ delay had started to make the crowd nervous.
i. After the incense priest finished, he came out of the holy place through the great doors of the temple and met the other two priests right outside the doors. Then the incense priest raised his hands and blessed the people with the blessing from Numbers 6:24-26. The hundreds of gathered worshippers knew what to do; they responded by saying, “Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.”
ii. After all this, the Levites got the worship singers and musicians started. They began with a blast from special silver trumpets; then a priest struck the cymbals, and the choir of Levites began to sing the Psalm of the day. The choir was made up of not less than twelve voices, which mingled young and old for a full range of sound and probably some great harmonies.
b. But when he came out, he could not speak to them: When Zacharias came out, he was supposed to stand on the temple steps, overlooking the crowd, and pronounce the priestly blessing on the people (Numbers 6:24-26), and the other priests would repeat it after him. But Zacharias couldn’t speak!
i. Doing the best he could through hand motions, he told the story of what happened to him in the temple. It’s hard to know if everyone believed him!
6. (24-25) Elizabeth’s conception and joy.
Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
a. His wife Elizabeth conceived: Zacharias had normal relations with his wife; he partnered with God to fulfill the promise. He did not count on this child coming from a miraculous conception.
b. She hid herself five months: Elizabeth did not go away to hide her pregnancy; she was gone for the first five months, the time when she would be least noticed as pregnant. She went away to spend time with the Lord, and to meditate on the destiny of the child within her.
1. (26-27) Gabriel is sent to Mary in Nazareth.
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
a. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel: Gabriel’s work was not finished with the announcement to Zacharias in the temple. In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, he came to a village in Galilee.
b. A city of Galilee named Nazareth: Chronologically, this is the first mention of Nazareth in the Old or New Testaments. Nazareth is perhaps remarkable for its unremarkable nature; it was unmentioned in the Old Testament, in the Apocrypha, and in the writings of Josephus.
i. Though Nazareth is in the general region of Galilee, it is 15 miles away from the Sea of Galilee. It is six miles from the closest major road. Nazareth had no good water supply; only one fairly weak well in the center of the village.
ii. Jesus would forever be identified with this place, being repeatedly called Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 1:24, John 18:7, John 19:19, Acts 2:22). His followers were also called “Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5).
c. To a virgin betrothed: Mary was betrothed to Joseph. There were three stages to a Jewish wedding in that day.
Engagement (a formal agreement made by the fathers).
Betrothal (the ceremony where mutual promises were made).
Marriage (approximately one year later, when the bridegroom came for his bride at an unexpected time).
i. When a couple was betrothed, they were under the obligations of faithfulness, and a divorce was required to break the betrothal. This was not a casual promise.
d. The virgin’s name was Mary: Mary is clearly said to be a virgin. There is no ambiguity about the idea here – Mary had never had sexual relations with any man.
i. The conception of John the Baptist, the forerunner, was miraculous; we should expect an even more remarkable conception of the Messiah.
ii. “The name ‘Mary’ is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Miriam, the sister of Moses. It means ‘exalted one,’ a fitting description of the soon-to-be mother of the Messiah.” (Pate)
2. (28-29) Gabriel greets Mary.
And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
a. The angel said to her: Gabriel said three things to Mary. Each of these were certainly true of Mary, who had a unique privilege among any person to ever live.
She was highly favored.
That the Lord was with her.
She was blessed.
i. However, all these things are true of the believer in Jesus. We are highly favored as Mary was (Ephesians 1:6), the Lord is with us (Matthew 28:20), and we are blessed (Ephesians 1:3).
ii. The Roman Catholic prayer that begins “Hail Mary, full of grace” is accurate. Mary was full of grace, and so is the believer. But Mary’s grace was a received grace, not grace to give to others.
b. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying: The fact that Mary was troubled at his saying shows her humility. Mary was surprised to hear such extravagant words said of her.
3. (30-33) Gabriel announces the birth of the Messiah, born to Mary.
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
a. You have found favor with God…you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son: The focus was not on Mary, but on a Son, to be named JESUS (a common name). This Son was unmistakably identified as the Messiah predicted by the Old Testament.
i. He will be great: No one has influenced history more than Jesus Christ. “Is it not proven that he is great? Conquerors are great, and he is the greatest of them. Deliverers are great, and he is the greatest of them. Liberators are great, and he is the greatest of them. Saviours are great, and he is the greatest of them.” (Spurgeon)
Jesus is great in the perfection of His nature.
Jesus is great in the grandeur of His offices.
Jesus is great in the splendor of his achievements.
Jesus is great in the numbers of those He rescues.
Jesus is great in the estimation of His people.
ii. He will be called the Son of the Highest: Jesus would be the son of Mary, but not only her son; He would also be, and be known as, the Son of God.
iii. The throne of His father David: He will be the Messiah prophesied to David (2 Samuel 7:12-16), who has the rightful authority to rule over Israel, and of His kingdom there will be no end.
b. You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son: Mary knew exactly what Gabriel was talking about because she was a woman of the word of God. When Gabriel said this, Mary knew he quoted from Isaiah 7:14: the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son.
4. (34-37) Mary’s question and Gabriel’s response.
Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”
a. How can this be, since I do not know a man? Mary’s question was logical. She asked the same question Zacharias asked (Luke 1:18), but his question was asked in skeptical unbelief, and her question was asked in wonder-filled faith.
b. The power of the Highest will overshadow you: Gabriel answered that the power of the Highest, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, would overshadow Mary.
i. The word overshadow means “to cover with a cloud,” as in the cloud of Shekinah glory (Exodus 16:10, 19:9, 24:16, 34:5, 40:34) or the cloud of transfiguration (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:34).
ii. This cloud was a visible manifestation of the glory and presence of God; this means that the same power of God that was with Moses and others in the Old Testament was now going to do a unique work in the life of Mary.
iii. “This delicate expression rules out crude ideas of a ‘mating’ of the Holy Spirit with Mary.” (Morris)
iv. “Technically speaking, however, the angel predicted a virginal conception, rather than a virginal birth. As far as anyone can tell, the actual birth of Jesus was normal; not so his conception.” (Pate)
c. That Holy One who is to be born: Because this will be the manner of His conception, He would be the Holy One (different from all others), and He will be called the Son of God.
i. This doesn’t have the same impact on us today because of our unfamiliarity with the idea of being a Son of God. But Mary (and all other Jewish people from her culture) knew what this meant: this child would be equal to God (John 5:18).
ii. Jesus did not become the Son of God; He was called the Son of God, recognizing His nature from all eternity.
d. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age: With such an amazing promise, Gabriel also brought evidence, explaining that Elizabeth was pregnant. If God could do that, He could do what He promised for Mary.
i. “Though believers are satisfied with the bare word of God, yet they do not disregard any of his works which they find to be conducive to strengthen their faith.” (Calvin)
e. With God nothing shall be impossible: The point is clear. More literally, one could translate this for no word of God shall be powerless. God will absolutely perform what He has said.
i. The words, ‘for nothing’ (literally, ‘no word’) ‘will be impossible for God,’ recall the divine promise of a son addressed to Sarah (Genesis 18:14 [Septuagint]) and, in so doing, provide another confirming example of God’s ability to carry out His promise to Mary.” (Pate)
5. (38) Mary’s response of faith.
Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
a. Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Mary first responded by agreeing with what Gabriel said about her. She was the maidservant of the Lord, and it was not her position to debate with her Master, but to accept what He said.
i. “It was inevitable that clouds would gather around her character, which would sorely perplex the good man to whom she was betrothed. But as soon as she realized that this lot was ordained for her by God, she humbly acquiesced, with these model words of patient faith.” (Meyer)
b. Let it be to me according to your word: Mary then responded with an affirmation of faith. “Let it be to me according to Your word” is the proper response of every believer to every promise of God.
i. All this took more trust in the Lord than we might think. Mary agreed to receive a pregnancy that would be seen as suspicious, and this in a culture that had a potential death penalty for adultery. Mary identified herself with sinners so that the purpose of God would be fulfilled.
ii. Spiritually speaking, there are similarities between God’s work in Mary and His work in every believer.
Jesus lives within the believer spiritually, as He did in Mary physically.
Jesus lives within us spiritually by His word, as He did in Mary physically.
Jesus is made visible to the world through us, as He was through Mary physically.
iii. “Truly did our Lord speak when he said to his disciples, ‘These are my mother, and sister, and brother.’ We bear as close a relationship to Christ as did the Virgin mother, and we in some sense take the same position spiritually which she took up corporeally in reference to him.” (Spurgeon)
c. And the angel departed from her: We don’t know the exact moment Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary. It may have been when Gabriel spoke to her, or soon after. Whenever it was, the cloud of God’s glory overshadowed Mary (Luke 1:35), and Jesus was miraculously conceived in Mary’s womb. Jesus’ birth from this conception is what we call the Virgin Birth.
i. When we approach the event we call Virgin Birth, we have to agree with Paul’s analysis: great is the mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16). But the message of the Scriptures is clear regarding the Virgin Birth. There can be no question about the Virgin Birth, only questions on the authority of Scripture.
ii. The Virgin Birth is unique. Many mythologies have legends about a god who had sexual relations with a woman and produced offspring, but the idea of a virgin birth is unique to Christianity.
1. (39-41) Mary’s visit to Elizabeth.
Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
a. Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste: Mary heard from Gabriel that her relative Elizabeth was pregnant (Luke 1:36). So she went the considerable distance (somewhere between 80 and 100 miles) from the region of Galilee to the hill country of Judea for a visit.
i. Mary probably understood that not many people could understand her experience with Gabriel and miraculous conception. If anyone could understand, it might be Elizabeth.
b. The babe leaped in her womb: When Elizabeth saw Mary, her unborn child – John the Baptist – leaped, because he was filled with joy. Though John wasn’t born yet, he had a spiritual awareness and could respond to the Spirit of God.
i. “Such comfort there is in the presence of Christ (though but in the womb) as it made John to spring. What then shall it be in heaven, think we?” (Trapp)
2. (42-45) Elizabeth’s blessing to Mary.
Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
a. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! John the Baptist had not yet been born, and Zacharias was still mute. Yet Elizabeth believed the word of the Lord given to her husband Zacharias when he was in the temple. In the temple, Gabriel told him that their promised son would make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17).
i. Elizabeth believed that, and also believed that the baby in Mary’s womb was the Lord who Elizabeth’s son would prepare the way for (the mother of my Lord). This faith was in Elizabeth because she was filled with the Holy Spirit.
b. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things: Elizabeth recognized that Mary’s faith played an active role in receiving the promise. God promises should never make us passive; they should prompt us to seize them by faith. Elizabeth wanted to encourage Mary’s faith, so she declared “there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
3. (46-56) Mary’s song of praise to the Lord.
And Mary said:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.”
And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house.
a. My soul magnifies the Lord: This song (often called the Magnificat, after the Latin translation of the first few words) resembles Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, but it also has at least 12 other allusions to the Old Testament. This means that Mary was a woman who studied and knew God’s Word. The Scriptures were on her heart, and came out through her song.
i. “It appears by the whole frame of this holy song, that the blessed Virgin was well versed in the Scripture, which she here makes so much use of in sundry passages…She had by her much reading made her bosom Bibliothecam Christi, Christ’s library, as a Father saith; and may seem to have been exercised in the good word of God from her infancy.” (Trapp)
ii. Mary was greatly gifted and highly privileged. She did exactly what such greatly blessed people should do: Mary magnified the Lord. This remedies pride and self-congratulation and is something every blessed believer should do.
b. My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior: This means Mary needed a Savior, and she knew that she needed a Savior.
i. “Mary answered the Roman Catholic dogma of the immaculate conception, which holds that from the moment of her conception Mary was by God’s grace ‘kept free from all taint of Original Sin.’ Only sinners need a Savior.” (Liefeld)
ii. “Mary was a member of the sinning race…but the honour conferred on her was of the highest, and our thoughts of her, our language concerning her, should at least not lack the dignity and respect manifested in the word of Gabriel. Hers was the crown and glory of all Motherhood, and we should ever think and speak of her reverently.” (Morgan)
c. He who is mighty has done great things for me: This song mainly celebrates God’s goodness, faithfulness, and power. Mary’s song shows the futility of trusting in self, of trusting in political power, or of trusting in riches. Mary’s trust was in God, and it was rewarded.
i. Trapp on has done great things for me: “No small things can fall from so great a hand. He gives like himself.”
ii. Mary rejoiced and gloried in God, though the child was not yet born. “Brothers, there are some of you who cannot even sing over a mercy when it is born, but here is a woman who sings over an unborn mercy.” (Spurgeon)
iii. “To Mary was granted the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of God…Yet that very blessedness was to be a sword to pierce her heart. It meant that some day she would see her son hanging on a cross.” (Barclay)
1. (57-66) The birth and naming of John the Baptist.
Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.” But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” So they made signs to his father; what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him.
a. She brought forth a son: The promise was fulfilled just as God said it would be. God always keeps His promises.
b. They rejoiced with her: This fulfilled Gabriel’s promise recorded at Luke 1:14 (many will rejoice at his birth).
i. William Barclay relates the custom of the time: “When the time of the birth was near at hand, friends and local musicians gathered near the house. When the birth was announced and it was a boy, the musicians broke into song, and there was universal congratulation and rejoicing. If it was a girl, the musicians went silently and regretfully away!”
c. They would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias: Both Zacharias and Elizabeth knew the name of the child had to be John, according to the command from the angel (Luke 1:13).
d. They made signs to his father: They treated Zacharias as if he were deaf, not mute. This must have been constantly annoying to Zacharias.
e. His name is John: Now, Zacharias responded in total faith. It wasn’t “I think his name should be John.” For Zacharias, this was recognition of a fact, not a suggestion.
i. Even though he had failed before, God gave Zacharias a second chance at faith. He gives the same to us today.
ii. “This was a return from the point of unbelief, and the exercise of will in the appointed way.” (Morgan)
f. Immediately his mouth was opened: Just as Gabriel said, Zacharias could speak again. He spoke, praising God. It was fitting that Zacharias’ first words were praise to God. His chastisement for disobedience had not made him bitter. Instead, it made him want to trust God all the more, at every opportunity.
2. (67-80) Zacharias’ prophecy.
Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying:
“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.
a. Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied: The prophetic voice of the Lord had been silent for 400 years. Now, God spoke through Gabriel (Luke 1:13, 1:28), through Elizabeth (Luke 1:41-42), through Mary (Luke 1:46-55), and now through Zacharias. When God spoke again, it was all connected to the theme of Jesus and His work.
i. Zacharias could truly say, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.” It was as if God was present for Israel (has visited) in a way not experienced for a long time.
ii. Zacharias’ song has been called the Benedictus, from its first words in the Latin translation.
b. Has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David: We know this was truly Spirit-inspired prophecy because the first focus of his prophecy is the unborn Jesus, not Zacharias’ new son John.
Jesus is the horn of salvation for us (Luke 1:69).
Jesus is the One who saves us from our enemies (Luke 1:71).
Jesus is the One to perform the mercy promised to our fathers (Luke 1:72).
Jesus is the One to remember the covenant (Luke 1:72).
Jesus makes us able to serve Him without fear (Luke 1:74).
i. “It was a song of salvation, and has within it truth deeper than most likely the singer then understood.” (Morgan)
ii. Zacharias didn’t even know Jesus yet, but he praised Him, he loved Him, and he was passionate about Jesus. We know so much more about Jesus than Zacharias did, so what can excuse the coldness of our hearts?
iii. Trapp on by the mouth of His holy prophets: “There were so many prophets, yet they all had one mouth, so sweet is their harmony.”
c. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest: After the initial focus on Jesus, the Holy Spirit then led Zacharias to speak of his new-born son and his place in God’s great plan.
John was a true prophet, the prophet of the Highest (Luke 1:76).
John had the unique calling to go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways (Luke 1:76).
John would teach and give knowledge of salvation to God’s people (Luke 1:77).
John would show people the remission of their sins (Luke 1:77).
John would give light to those who sit in darkness (Luke 1:79).
John would guide God’s people into the way of peace (Luke 1:79).
d. The child grew and became strong in spirit: The promise of God came to fruition in John’s life. John was in the desert till the day of his manifestation because that is where God trains many of His prophets.