I want you to enter into a thought experiment with me. I want you to picture yourself. You've been encapsulated for 30 years. You have no idea what's going on in society, and the Lord wakes you up. 30 years of history has gone by. You only have the experience level of what you knew up until 30 years ago, and you wake up and you turn on the news, what do you think you'd be thinking? I think we might be thinking, this can't be true. This can't be true that we're talking about these things and that we see these kinds of evils brought forth in our world and brought forth as good. And you turn the channel. And you turn the channel and you find a different broadcast that said similar things, but said in a different way. And some of those conflicted with the last channel. And so you think, I'm going to turn the channel again. And then you get to someone who gives you the completely opposite story about what's going on in the world. And they have a completely different opinion about everything. And you flip the channel and you keep turning the channel. And then you start asking people that you knew. And some people that you knew have changed in the last 30 years, some for the good and some for the bad, but you get all different pictures of what's going on. What would be your goal? Your goal would be to figure out what is true. You're waking up into a reality that is completely changed and all the opinions about this reality sound completely different. So your goal would be to find out the truth. Bring it a little closer to home more recently. What if you just heard about the proceedings that went on in the courtroom with our former president and do not think this is political, this is about truth. Hear me say, this is about truth. And you listen to people who describe what happened in the courtroom over the last several weeks who were not in the courtroom. and you get their opinions about what happened. And maybe they've talked to people who were in the courtroom, maybe they haven't, but you hear their opinions and you switch the channel and you switch the channel and you hear different opinions, different opinions about what was right or wrong, whether the judge was right or wrong, whether constitution is active or not, whether constitutional rights were set aside or not, whether the judge acted according to the law, the jury acted according to proper jurisprudence, what people think about the president, what people don't think about the president, And where are you gonna go to find the truth? You're gonna find someone who's invested in it and listened with their own ears and saw with their own eyes. When you listen to the reports of people who were actually in the courtroom from both sides of the aisle, you got a much more clear picture of what happened than all the pundits and all the news. You're looking for truth and eyewitnesses brought the truth. This is what Luke wants us to see. It's what you know experientially in your life. If you have a decision to make, the larger the decision, the more you investigate for the outcome, right? If you're just choosing between two different kinds of chocolate bars at the store, you may not have much investigation, but if you're buying a new house, You investigate it. You have inspectors come in. You want to know all the information that you can get about that house and its value and what it's being sold for and how truthful the people who are selling it have been. How truthful are the real estate agents involved? What is the actual value of the house? What are you going to walk into after you buy the house? You investigate the most important decisions with the most accuracy and the most passion and the most desire to get to the truth. And this is what the gospel of Luke does for us. The gospel of Luke lifts us above all of these decisions I've just talked about. How to make sense of the world, how to make sense of what happened in the courtroom, what house to buy, what chocolate bar to buy, and lifts our eyes to the most important decision in history, and that's who do you say Jesus is and how will you respond? And he wants us to know that he has done his homework. He wants us to be able to trust what he says. Now, let me just jump to the end of the whole section today and tell you what Luke's main point is. Luke's main point is that we would be sure about what we've been taught. That's his primary idea for us. He wants Theophilus to know that, and he wants anybody who reads his gospel to know that, and he wants you today to be sure about those things that you have been taught. You may be here today and maybe you don't even know Jesus. You're here and you know in your heart that you're not his child, but you're playing the external game and nobody can really tell because they don't really know you that much. Luke wants you to be sure about the things that you've been taught. He wants you to respond to those in a way that glorifies God and brings you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Maybe you're here and you struggle with your surety, your assurance in your salvation. You're one who just cannot see your sin paid for on the cross. You're one that you just, you cannot think about salvation without thinking about something you must still do, that you must clean yourself up a little bit more, that you must live in a certain way for a certain while before Jesus would actually love you. Luke wants you to know with certainty about the things that you've been taught and that you don't have anything to add to the gospel because Christ died for sinners. He wants us to know in our lives, with our children, with our discipleship, that the things that we have been taught from the scriptures, those things we can know with certainty. It may be that we walk through life in a certain season and we have doubt about certain things, but Luke wants us to know, return to the word, return to the carefully inspected and investigated eyewitness reports that he's about to bring us. Now, this is his goal for the whole gospel. So for as long as we're in the gospel of Luke, maybe a while, as long as we're in the gospel, that's what we keep at the forefront. Luke wants us to know with certainty the things that we have been taught. If we keep that in our mind, then every time we see something else that might be unbelievable, every time we see something else that we may think, I already know about that, we're going to listen more intently. We're going to see what Luke intends for us to know about that particular spot of scripture. Now, Luke brings a lot of scripture to us that are not in the other gospels. We'll cover that in just a minute. But if we just turn our head and say, well, I've read the gospels before. I basically know the life of Jesus and what he does. Well, if you haven't read Luke closely and investigated Luke's claims at the same level of investigation that he has done, then you don't know the whole story. because he brings to us many parables and stories and comments and pictures of things that we don't have in the other gospels. So today, we want to be able to understand the passion that Luke has and his primary goal for writing his gospel. And not only just understand it intellectually, but understand it for our lives. Understand it for our lives. We talked this morning in Sunday school that the sufficiency of scripture means nothing if we don't know how to interpret the Bible. We can say the scripture is sufficient all we want, but if we don't know how to read and understand and interpret and apply the Bible rightly, then the sufficiency will die in the next generation. Well, this is what Luke wants us to know. He's investigated and he wants us to be sure about what we're reading. Now we can back up one more step. Let me not focus at all on Luke. We can back up one more step. And this is part of the scripture that Paul tells us that is God breathed, right? This is the breathe that word of God to us. God uses men to write scripture and he uses them in their personality and in their purposes of what they want to do. And they're bullied along by the Holy Spirit to do the will of God as they write. Luke is no different. He writes from his personality. He writes with his goals in mind, as do all the gospel writers. And they all give us that picture of who Jesus is, what he's accomplished, and how we should respond. So this morning, we want to look at his introduction and begin the journey. Stand with me, if you will, as I read these first four verses of Luke. Luke 1.1. Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word 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 an orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus. so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught. The grass withers and the flower falls. You may be seated. Now, I'm not gonna spend this sermon doing all of the background information on Luke that we could do. We'll scatter that through the sermons as it's important for us and as the text brings it to us. But I do want you to know a little bit about where we're headed in Luke. Luke, we've moved from Isaiah, which is the fifth longest book in the Bible, fifth longest book to Luke, which is the longest book in the New Testament. Eighth longest book in the Bible, but the longest book that's in the New Testament. And if you take Luke and Acts together, both of them written by Dr. Luke, many people think Luke and Acts are one, two volumes of the same work. And in one sense, that is true. If you turn to, just keep your finger in Luke one and turn to the beginning of Acts, just so we can demonstrate this. You don't just listen to me say it, but you can see it from the text. Acts 1.1, the first account, O Theophilus, that's the gospel of Luke, the first account, O Theophilus, I composed about all that Jesus began to do and teach. until the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over forty days and speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God. And gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And then he begins the story of when they'd come together. And he picks up with the ascension again. So this is the second volume of Luke's work, both addressed to Theophilus. And there are some people that think they always should be taken together. And I understand why they say that. It's a picture in the gospel of Luke of what Jesus did in his person as he lived his life, died, and was resurrected and ascended, and then met with all the people he met with and then was ascended. And in Acts, it's the Spirit working through his disciples and the people that they witness the gospel to and how that gospel starts spreading throughout the world. So they are two different works and they're united together by one author with one purpose, to Theophilus, so that he would know with certainty about the things that he has been taught. But we need to take Luke on its own as well. Because if we have to take Luke and Acts together the entire time, I have to preach Luke and Acts together at the same time. And I'm not capable of doing that. And you're not capable of hearing that. So we're going to stay in Luke and get the idea of the gospel. Will there be times that we have to go to Acts to see how this is carried out? Absolutely we will. But primarily we are going to stay in the gospel of Luke. So the second longest, Luke is the first longest book, Acts is the second longest book. So you put them together and Luke has written 27 and a half percent of the New Testament. That's a lot of writing, isn't it? That's a big portion of the New Testament that Luke is laying out before us with the express intent of our assurance that we know who Jesus is and how to respond. Now, there are many things in Luke that are not in the other gospels that we see. Luke has the most parables of any gospel. Luke has 33 parables, and 14 of them are unique to Luke. 14 of them. If we didn't have Luke, we wouldn't have a picture of these other parables that are given to us. Matthew has 27 parables with 10 of them being unique. Mark has 11 with one being unique. John has three, and all three of them are unique, but Luke has 33. And these parables, these 14 parables, listen to the list of things that we will see in Luke, but not in the others. the parable of the two debtors, the good Samaritan, the friend at midnight, the rich fool in his barns where he wants to store all of his wealth, the barren fig tree, the tower builder, the warrior king, the lost coin, the prodigal son, the unjust manager, the rich man in Lazarus, the parable of the unworthy servants, the unjust judge, and the Pharisee and the tax collector. All of those are unique to Luke. So as we open up Luke, we are going to see things that Luke wants us to know, and we're gonna find out in just a minute why he puts those in. We also see only in Luke the connection between John the Baptist and Jesus in the first few chapters. That's all material that is only in Luke. It's all material that we only find there in Luke. The songs of Mary and Zachariah, the stories of Zacchaeus, also the feast repentance on the cross, only in Luke. the disciples on the road to Emmaus, only in Luke. It's the longest travel narrative, where the journey changes from the north and heads to Jerusalem. It's the majority of the book of Luke, from chapter 9, verse 51, all the way to 19, 27. So that gives us more information and more detail about that part of Jesus's life. Depending on how one counts the unique information, there are almost 50 parables, accounts, details, or pieces of information that are unique to Luke. Luke also has a few emphases for us. He has an emphasis on salvation. And you might think, well, all the Gospels do. Well, yes, but it's a particular emphasis for Luke. He wants us to see with clarity the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. He also has this idea of fulfillment before us through the entire book. Other Gospels do as well, but Luke has the idea that the promises of the Old Testament are kept in Jesus. And he wants us to see that. He's constantly going to be pointing our gaze to that. He also has a stronger emphasis on the poor, a stronger emphasis on a positive counter-cultural view of women and their ministry that he records. It's stronger than the other Gospels. He also brings to us much rejoicing. And I want you to capture this. Look for this as you read through Luke. The idea of rejoicing is constant in Luke. And I think it's something that we as Christians are losing because we're just being overwhelmed by the world around us. It's hard to rejoice with all the craziness going on, isn't it? It's hard to keep that focus of joy and rejoicing. But Luke, he brings this strong. He has songs. He's very musical. The songs of Mary and Zechariah and Simeon and the angels at Jesus's birth. The words rejoice and joy are found more in Luke than any other New Testament book, not just the Gospels, but any other New Testament book. Rejoice is found 12 times. Only Isaiah has more with 15. and Psalms with 29. There's more occurrences of joy, 10 times. Only again, Isaiah and Psalms have the recurrence of the idea and the words of joy, 23 and 38 times each. So there is much to learn about Luke that I want you to be prepared for in advance. Now, let's set some interpretive rules for us as we go through. We don't always have to look at Luke's gospel and look back at the other gospels and see how they compare and what's different and all that. Sometimes that will be helpful, but we want Luke to stand on Luke, right? Luke chose specific things to tell us. Again, our text is going to demonstrate this. I'm preparing us to hear what the text says. And we wanna let Luke stand as what he has decided to tell us with the depth and clarity, or whether he's told us something the other authors didn't, or whether he's not telling us something or not emphasizing something they did. He has a purpose. Every gospel writer has a specific purpose that they want their people to know about Jesus. They're all writing about Jesus. They're all telling us his story, but they have different purposes in what they tell us and how they tell us. So we're going to park in Luke and not do tons of comparison to the other gospels. Well, let's talk just briefly about Luke, much more briefly than I've given you some of the distinctives of the gospel. Luke, we don't know a lot about Luke, actually, except that he's written a large percentage of the New Testament. It's traditionally and from the internal evidence and external evidence clear that Luke wrote both Acts and the Gospel of Luke, even though Luke doesn't mention his name in the Gospel. The title that you have, the Gospel according to Luke, was added later. That's not Luke's writing that does that, it's added later. It was the unanimous opinion of the church that Luke wrote it, and that's where we stand, that Luke is the author. We do know that he's a physician, Colossians 4.14 says, We also know that he is a Gentile. He is a Gentile. Probably, we think we might know he was born in Antioch, but he's a Gentile. Colossians 4, verse 11 lists the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and then it lists that, and then lists Epaphras, Luke, and Demas. So he's listed the only people that are serving with him that are of the circumcision of the Jews at that time when he wrote Colossians. And then he lists the others who are not of the circumcision. So we know he's a Gentile and we know he's a fellow worker with Paul. Philemon 24 mentions Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers. Second Timothy 4.11 says only Luke is with me. So Paul, in this last letter that he writes, nearing his death, says, only Luke is with me at that time. There's also passages in Acts that are known as the we passages. And those passages are Luke switches from third person, they, and sometimes you, but they, to we, including himself in what he's about to describe. And so we know a little bit about where he's been when he writes in Acts, in Acts 16 and 17, Acts 20 and 21 and 27. Those we passages help us to know a little bit more about Luke. Enough background, okay? I know I've already lost some of you. Some of you are glazing and tilting your head. But you need to know these things. These things are helpful. When we say the gospel is according to Luke and we know a little bit about Luke, isn't that important? It would also be important if we knew a lot about Luke. to be able to know his character and what he's about and what his experiences are. But the fact we know little about him helps us understand that this writer who's written so much of the New Testament, his physician background shows us that he has an attention to detail, and his introduction to his gospel remind us of that as well. So, let's get to our text. It's not a complicated text, but it is a text that is incredibly well written and well structured. And in these verses, the first four verses, Luke presents three reasons he writes his gospel history for Theophilus. Three reasons he writes his gospel history for Theophilus. Now I'm tipping my hand to what the genre is, aren't I? The genre, it is a gospel. We know that Luke is writing the story of Jesus, and we have our four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, known as the synoptics. The synoptics means one eye, one view of the life. Now, they're not all writing monolithically, but they hang together in the same way. And John, if you've read John, you know John's a bit different in the way that he brings the life of Jesus. So Luke is one of the synoptics. And we need to know one thing about the gospel writers. When they wrote in the first century, they were not bound by chronological order all the time. And that makes some of us twitch, doesn't it? If we see something in verse 21, we assume that it follows in history from verse 20 and whatever happened there. Gospel writers don't do that. And yet Luke tells us that he does his writing in a very specific way. So there is freedom for them to bring the events in any form that they want, because they have the purpose of telling us Jesus in their way. So these three reasons that he starts out with, the first is, I write because others have compiled accounts. Look at the beginning. inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us." So they have compiled accounts. I want you to look at the form here for a minute. When we talk about structure, the structure is important for us to understand because we're trying to figure out what the author is saying to us. And we've talked before about statements that are if-then statements. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There is a connection. If the first statement is true, then the second statement follows. We have a version of that when we have in verse 1, 1, in as much, and then verse 3, it seemed fitting for me as well. So he's gonna set out a truth, and then he's gonna move to himself and what he has done. So verse 1, when he talks about the others compiling accounts, the many have undertaken to compile an account. What's he talking about here? And he's talking about both written and oral traditions about Jesus. Now we could go into all kinds of source criticism of what documents the different gospel writers have, but I just want you to know that Luke probably already was familiar with Mark, and very easily could have been familiar with Matthew. He could have already had those Gospels, been familiar with them, maybe had them in his possession. Now maybe it was only Mark, I don't know for sure, nobody is for sure which one he has, but there are very many similarities between Luke and Mark and Luke and Matthew. And so these are the written sources he had, and he probably had other sources that we don't have, that are not extant anymore. But the way this passage is written, he also has oral traditions as well that he is investigating. So there have been many people who have undertaken to compile an account of what? about what has been fulfilled among us. You see that in the middle of verse one, at the second half of verse one. Many people have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us. So from the very first verse, you see this emphasis on fulfillment. And we're going to find that a lot in Luke. And I want you to see that he is saying this is an account, not just of what Jesus has done, but representing that what Jesus has done is a fulfillment of what's been written before. So the Old Testament is in clear view. And Jesus comes as the one who, through the will of the Father, comes and fulfills their Old Testament accounts. And notice that he says it's been fulfilled among us. Now Luke was not an eyewitness. We see that in the next verse. So what does he mean by fulfilled among us? Well, he's still living at the time where other eyewitnesses were with him. He's living in a time where he could still go interview them and investigate them. We're going to find that that's what he does. But I want you to notice the community orientation that's here right at the beginning. The community orientation is this happened among the people. And the people are the one who are passionate about gathering the stories. It's the people are the one who have endeavored to compile these accounts about Jesus. There is a community passion to say what Jesus did, what happened to him, and how we are to respond to that, and they're passing that on. And so he recognizes that, and he says, inasmuch as that is true, that they are compiling an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us. And then he qualifies it again in verse two, just as eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. Look at verse two. just as, so he is saying those people who have undertaken to compile an account, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. So the compiling an account is probably the written accounts. The compiling is actually to write with your hand or to gather with your hand. But he's also talking about eyewitnesses who are talking about what they have seen. Look at how he describes it in verse 2. Just as those who from the beginning... Now what does he mean by that? From the beginning of what? From the beginning of time? From the beginning of creation? From the beginning of the day? From the beginning of his memory? Well, we only have to look at verse 5 to find out what the beginning is for Luke, isn't it? He begins to talk about the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. And I just want you to just look at your headings in your Bible. You don't have to go through all the text, but look what he does in these first couple of chapters. In verse five, he begins the the story of the foretelling, the announcement of John the Baptist's birth. Verse 26, he gives the foretelling of Jesus's birth. Then in verse 39, he has Mary and Elizabeth, the mothers of both of those who have been announced, meeting together. And that's where John the Baptist jumps in the womb. Then we have what we call Mary's Magnificat. Mary magnifies the Lord in verses 44 through 56. Then we have the birth of John the Baptist, and then his dad's prophecy, the Benedictus it's called. His dad's song, his dad's prophecy. And then in chapter two, we have the birth of Jesus, And then he's presented in the temple and returning to Nazareth. And then there's yet another song that comes after that. So he is tying these together and you see what he's doing, right? He is tying the birth, the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist and the announcement of the birth of Jesus, then their mothers and then their birth. He's tying them all together and weaving them together. That's where he starts at the beginning. So he starts at the beginning, for Luke is the beginning of the foretelling of John the Baptist and his birth. Just as those, verse two of chapter one, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants. I think that refers to one group of people, not two. There are grammatical reasons that I could give to you for that, but I'm pretty sure it's one group of people described in two terms, eyewitnesses and servants of the word. So these are people who were eyewitnesses of Jesus and his ministry and what he accomplished and what happened to him, but they were also servants of Jesus. And they're the ones that we're gonna see their story acted out in the book of Acts very clearly, aren't we? But they're eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Now that word is Jesus himself. It's not just words about Jesus. The word is Jesus. Everything that the gospel writers bring to us is about Christ. It talks about Christ. It gives what he did, what the responses to him were, good and bad, sinful and righteous, how he was talking about salvation, how he addressed sin. It gives his ministry leading to Jerusalem, which led to the cross, and it gives his death. and his resurrection, and Luke brings clearly his ascension, and all of what happens after that. So when Luke is talking about they are eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, they are eyewitnesses and servants of Jesus himself. It's a Jesus-centered work. It is a Jesus-centered, Christ-centered letter, gospel that's being written to us. And he is talking about those who have undertaken to compile and account of the things that have been fulfilled, just as those who witnessed it and were servants of the word handed them down to us. That's where we learn Luke was not an eyewitness of Jesus, But he's having it handed down in his second generation. The people who are witnesses are still around. How do we know that? Because he does the investigating. So the first thing that we see, the first reason that Luke writes his history is, I write because others have compiled an account. Secondly, he says, I write because it seems fitting. Verse three, here is the mirror image. Here is the if-then part. Since others have taken to compile an account, it seemed fitting for me as well. Now, why does it seem fitting for him? Is he taking issue with these other writings, with these other testimonies, these oral traditions? Is he saying that they're lacking in some way? And I don't think it's a negative thing at all. I think he's saying, and there's room for another one. And it seemed fitting to me to write it. We have to jump to the end constantly, the way he develops his first four verses, but he has a specific reason to write him for a specific person, and he's telling him why he's doing this. There are other accounts, but it seemed fitting to me, it seemed right to me, it seemed like what God would have me do for me as well, and he's gonna say what that is, but then he gives these reasons in verse three. He says, first, I've investigated everything carefully. Look what he says. It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning. So there's that word, from the beginning, that he is writing from the beginning, from the beginning of the events that matter to him. As we looked ahead, we saw that was the birth of the prophecy, the announcement. of the birth of John the Baptist, I have investigated everything carefully. I've looked deeply into these things, and I've done it for everything. I've not just taken anything for granted. Everything that I'm gonna tell you, I've investigated. He's the one who's gone to people. He's gone to the eyewitnesses. He's gone to the servants. And we're gonna see that all the way through the gospel. How does he know what Mary's thinking? Because he's talked to Mary. How does he know what Zacharias was thinking in the temple? Because he's talked to Zacharias. How does he know these things? Because he's talked to the people. He's done his due diligence. He's the guy we want to listen to. If Luke was around, we'd be finding him to find out what actually happened in the courtroom. because what he is passionate about is truth. What he is passionate about is reality, and he's investigating them carefully. He's not gonna say anything that can't be trusted. He's not gonna say anything that's his own opinion. He's not adding things to it. He's investigated everything carefully. But secondly, he says, I've recorded it in an orderly sequence. Just reading verse three again. It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in orderly sequence. Now don't think that this means sequentially. This is an order that he has put together to convey what he wants to convey. And he has done so in a way that makes sense. It proves his point. It mows his story from one point to the next, to the next, to prove to him that what Theophilus has already heard, he can trust. He can have assurance that it is true. So there are things that are sequentially in order in Luke, but there are also things that are clearly not, as we see the other gospel writers that have brought forth. Luke takes some things and he puts them in a different place because it serves his purpose, the same as Matthew and Mark and John do. It serves their purpose, and they're well within their rights to do that. There's no expectation in the first century that things are brought to us chronologically. Now, when we're reading books today and we read a novel where somebody jumps back and forth between different times periods, it takes us a minute to get used to that, doesn't it? We might have to go back and read some things again because we're not used to that convention. We're used to hearing everything develop. We can see characters develop from the beginning and on to the end. But the gospel writers are under no requirement to do that. What we need to always remember is he has one point. that we have certainty about the things we've been taught about the word, about Jesus Christ himself. Notice the connection. In as much verse one, as many have undertaken to compile an account, he says, verse three, it seems fitting for me as well. to write it out for you, compiling an account and writing it out for you. And as much goes with it seems fitting for me as well. They have written out the things that have been fulfilled among us and I have investigated that and I'm bringing it to you in this orderly sequence. And then we have this mysterious person, most excellent Theophilus. We have no idea really who he is. Some people would say that since his name means beloved by God, that Theophilus is just a name that represents anybody who loves God. They would say that this is a generic letter written to anyone who loves God. I just don't think that holds up with what he's doing here, because he brings out this name at the beginning of Luke and the beginning of Acts. It's a real person, and he calls them most excellent. The only other time he uses that is to talk about rulers in the book of Acts, Felix and Festus. Two times for Felix, one time for Festus. It's the only other time he uses this word most excellent. So Theopolis seems to be this person who is in a leadership position, has some recognition and some power. He is looked up to in the community, and we don't know whether he's a believer or he's about to become a believer, if he's a seeker. I think he's probably a believer, but we don't know that from the text. What we know is that Luke is writing for him. He has written it down in an orderly sequence, most excellent Theopolis, And then he mows us to his primary point. The third reason that he writes gospel history for Theophilus, I write because I want you to know with certainty what you have been taught. I want you to know with certainty what you have been taught, what you have been catechized. The taught is the word, the Greek word, where we get our word catechized from. So what he has been taught, look at verse four, so that, those are important words in scripture, right? So that, but, for, and, but especially so that, we want to see what the purpose is. He's showing us either the purpose or the result of what he's writing. Here it's the purpose, it's the reason. I write for you in this way Other people have written, but it seemed fitting to me to write in this way for you, so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught." So is he a believer who's doubting? Or is he one who is around the community of faith and asking questions and he wants more answers. He wants to be able to know for sure. I don't know which one it is, but does it matter? The purpose is for Theophilus, and he has one purpose, that you would know with certainty what you've been taught. So if he's a believer, there is some doubt in this, or Theophilus is saying, listen, Paul, you need to write something down for me so that I can give it to other people. Because I need to be sure of this as well, and I can't remember all this stuff, but I need you to write it down for me. It could be that, or it could be Luke's ministry to Theophilus, and he knows that he just needs to see Jesus more clearly. He needs to hear about him in more detail. He's read it from others, he's heard the oral traditions, but he's got questions, and Luke is answering those questions. because he's presenting it in the right order for Theophilus. I want you to see that this idea of certainty, so that you may know with certainty, that is what's emphasized. It's the last word in this sentence. Now, as we look at this, verses 1 through 4, it's one sentence. It is organized in a way that every academic and every well-read person in the first century would have understood that Luke is writing a history. That's why I say that it's the gospel history written for Theophilus. It's not merely a gospel. It's intended to be a historical account of Jesus. And if you've done your dig and discover principles, we should be able to look at the entire gospel and see the introduction and a rise in conflict, a rise in tension, all the way to the climax and the resolution of that climax for the whole book. Because this is a historical narrative about Jesus. Everybody who would have read it at the time would have read other histories of the time. Histories by names that you would know, like Josephus, who has written a history, and he's written a couple of different volumes of that. He starts in the very same way, the same kind of structure. There's other reports been written, but I think I need to write to you this one, and I'm pursuing the truth. So it would have been well known, and his emphasis is on certainty. It's the last word in the sentence. which in Greek means it's adding emphasis to it, it would be an exclamation mark for us. Or it would be putting certainty in bold or italics to draw attention to it. That's what Luke is doing in the original language. He's drawing our attention to the idea of certainty. So Luke writes so that Theophilus would have assurance. Now, is he just writing for Theophilus? He's writing to Theophilus, but I think he's well aware there will be others. there will be others that read it. And the way we read our scriptures and when we read them and interpret them, we know that it's speaking to us as well, right? So you can insert your name there in one extent and understand that Luke is writing so that you will have assurance. Now, maybe you struggle with assurance today. And if you don't, maybe you'll struggle tomorrow. And Luke wants you to know that you can have certainty about what you've been taught. And notice that there's been something taught. We're not just talking about Jesus's love. He lived and died and died on a cross, rose again, and you need to trust him. That's all we need to tell people. That's all we need to tell people about Jesus. Well, Luke doesn't think that, does he? Luke wants us to know Jesus intimately. And Luke knows that Theophilus has been taught. That's why we teach. That's why we catechize. That's why the families in our church are teaching their children. Some of them are using catechism questions because they know that if their children are not saved yet, those are just words in their brain. But the Holy Spirit then, when the Holy Spirit saves them, lights those words up. And they already know so much truth about God and what he's done in the world and about his Son and about his Spirit and about how they are to live and respond to God because the Spirit lights them up. They have been taught the Spirit is... I guess, I don't know whether it's a good or bad thing, but I ain't done yet, so. A balloon, I'm assuming, is that what that was, a balloon? Our security team didn't jump, so I guess... Or maybe they did jump, I don't know. I don't know where I was, but I was going, I was going someplace. Taught, this is why we teach. This is why our sermons are full of teaching and doctrine. Because we want you to be sure. If we just tell you Jesus loves you, you'll be sure about that until you're not. Because there will come a time that you're not sure. You will sin so heinously, even as a believer, that you will not be sure. But you are to remember what you've been taught. that Jesus and his death on the cross paid the penalty for your sin. Jesus and his death on the cross, he was your substitute. And even when you feel like you did not deserve it, that's when you really see reality clearly because you never deserved it. Even on your On good days you do not deserve it. So you're remembering what you've been taught so that the realities around you don't overwhelm you, your emotions do not overwhelm you. Sufficient is the word of God for our lives. And that's what Luke wants us to know. Be sure, be certain about those things that you've been taught. And he's saying, I'm giving them to you again and I've investigated them, I've talked to the eyewitnesses. I'm not just hearing rumors. I've talked to the people who lived it and walked with Jesus. I've talked with them. I've gotten their statements. I've filled in gaps from all those other people that wrote. I've filled in gaps for you, Theophilus, so that you would have surety about Jesus and who he is. Because even in these first four verses where Jesus is not mentioned, he is the center of the verse because it is the word that everyone is concerned about. It is the Word that everyone is concerned to write the accounts about, to teach other people about. It's the Word that Theophilus is questioning whether he's lost or saved. It's the Word that Luke is bringing and confirming with him. And the Word is Jesus Himself. His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension, and everything tied to that. And that's what He's about to give to us. Now you may say, well, what does this have to do with us? We're not theophilus. I mean, yeah, maybe we can be assured as well, but we're not theophilus. We're listening to Luke and we know that it's breathed out by God. So surely it's truth. But Luke is writing for a man to convince him of the truth and God is superintending it for him, just as he does for us. So I've already identified the community aspect of this. the us, the many fulfilled among us, eyewitnesses, plural, servants, plural, handed down to us. The Christian life is lived in community. There are no islands in the Christian life. If you've heard preaching from me from 20 sermons, you've heard me say that. If you've heard 200 sermons, you've probably heard me say it 10 or 20 times. And yet we still have Christians who try to live on their own, unconnected from community. That is not anywhere in the scriptures. What's in the scriptures is that we are brought into the family of God. We are sons and daughters of God, brothers of Christ. We are brought into community to live and the gospel is lived and taught in community. If you're one of those folks who come maybe on a Sunday morning and you're not connected anywhere else, let the word of God wash over you and say, man, I'm missing the center of the gospel working out among God's people. because it happens in community, it happens life on life. If you're unconnected from the body that you serve with, if you're unconnected from the teaching of the word, not just from the pulpit, but the way it works out in multiple discipleship groups, in multiple growth groups, in multiple meetings around coffee and different coffee shops in town, in multiple times of crisis, when someone has a crisis in their life and they seek help from another believer, if you're disconnected, you miss all of that. And God intends it to be so, and it's clear even in the first four verses of the gospel of Luke. Luke depends on the oral witnesses and the written witnesses of the community of faith, and so do you and I. The gospel lives among us. We live it out together. We grasp arms together and walk into the world with the power of the gospel. And when I trip because I'm having a bad day, the two on either side of me are hauling me along. And then when they start to trip, I'm hauling them along because we all fight sin. And when you live disconnected from community, guess what happens when you fight sin? You don't fight it very well. End of my plea. Community is clear in the first four verses. Second, this is about truth. This is clearly about truth. The things fulfilled, accurate accounts, investigated everything carefully, written in an orderly fashion. Luke is communicating in a way that the educated world would understand. He's writing for his audience. This is why I think Theophilus is a real person, an excellent, the most excellent, an office holder, well-read, understands what he reads. Luke is writing to convey to him in a way that he understands. but he also writes in a way that the simplest among us can completely understand. The truth is about Jesus. Remember, these are the witnesses and the servants of the word of God. It's all about him. Their message is Jesus and our message is Jesus, amen? We have to have that being our message out of our lips, out of our lives, what we teach our children, how we disciple. If we preach, teach, disciple, lead our families without Jesus at the center of that, then what different are we from the Old Testament folks who didn't look forward to the Messiah? They had the law, and they tried to obey the law, but they didn't look forward to the truth that all of the law and all the sacrifices pointed forward to. Christ is the center of the new covenant. He is the new covenant, and that gospel needs to drip from us. And that's the truth that Luke is absolutely passionate about. We live for him. We serve him. We die for him. We speak for him. We speak about him. We study the word about him. We meditate upon him. We worship him. We sing about him. We teach our children about him. It's all about Jesus. Luke is not concerned about the other things. He's concerned about the eyewitnesses and the servants of the word. And the Theophilus knows why. So he can be sure. He doesn't need to worry. He doesn't need to doubt. I also want you to see how passionate these verses are. I've tried to convey that in the way I preach these. These are not just dry words organized in an academic way. They're full of passion about Jesus. so that you may know the certainty about the things that you have been taught." Not just know the things you've been taught, not just know about them, but that you can have certainty about them. This is where he's speaking to all of us. For those of you who have a struggle with assurance of your salvation, I want you to listen. Well, let me not get ahead of myself. I'm about to wrap this up, but let me not get ahead of myself. There's passion all through the gospel of Luke, full of music, full of joy, full of rejoicing. And there's passion here because everything is brought with a conviction that drives forward the truth. And we need to have that. We've lost that in our church today. We witness out of duty. We don't live our lives with joy or passion about the one that we serve. And I lead the way in this at times. I mean, do you fight depression in the world today? Do you fight blue and melancholy and things like that? I fight that all the time. And I have to rise above that to remember what I've been taught. And just as Luke is passionate and all those people who were passionate, all the people that gave their lives for their testimony in this, not the least of which of Jesus Christ, there was a passion that exuded from everything because everything else was set aside. Their nets were left, their homes were left, their towns were left, all to follow Jesus. And Luke wants us to grab that kind of a passion as well. And the only way that we can have that is to know our subject. Luke knows Jesus. Luke interviewed people who knew Jesus. And it fuels how we witness to people because we must witness the truth of the gospel, not the truth as we see it on that day, but the truth of the way we've been taught. And finally, the idea of assurance. I've told you this is Luke's primary point. I tipped our hat there from the very beginning. I've shown you all through these verses how it all leads up to the last word in the Greek sentence, certainty, to know the certainty about the things he's been taught. So it's his primary point. It's the point that we need to understand. The original audience, Theophilus himself, was to take away what Luke says and be sure about the things he's taught, so he can be sure of his own salvation. If he doesn't know Christ yet, that he'd come to Christ because he can be sure that the miracles that are brought in here are true, that the life and death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus are true. So we preach and teach about Jesus. So the believers can be strengthened in their assurance and non-believers, the Holy Spirit would draw to themselves because what they're hearing is confirmed by the Spirit of God. Do you see that connection? When we preach truth to non-believers and the Spirit of God is moving in them, the Spirit of God responds to the truth of God's Word. And when the Spirit of God responds to the truth of God's word in someone, that's the beginning of their drawing. That's the beginning of them being drawn to salvation. Now, maybe that happens instantaneously, that drawing. Maybe the drawing happens for a while. I don't understand the length of that. But the truth of the word preached is what is sharp. It's the two-edged sword that separates everything that needs to be separated. And it is true. And we have to, ourselves, be pushing forward for the truth in the same way that Luke is doing. If you're a believer who struggles with assurance, struggles that the promises of God in Christ are actually applied to you, struggles with the idea that your sins are too grievous to be forgiven, then Luke writes for you. And what does he have to say to you, dear Christian? He says this certainty must be founded on Christ. He's writing so that he would have certainty, but it's not Luke's writing that gives the certainty, is it? It is the picture of the Lord and Savior, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Many of us are caught in this trap that we need to do something, that we need to add something to our salvation. Maybe you think in your head intellectually that you know that it's not true, that you need to add something to your salvation, that you need to clean yourself up a little bit, that you need to live a good life for a little while, that you need to prepare yourself and be a little bit better to come to Jesus. You may know in your head that that's not true, but your life is marked by the failure to understand the completed work of Christ on the cross. It is all founded in Christ. I'm looking for a quote that must be sitting on my printer. It was my closing quote. So all the best practices, all the best preparation sometimes come to naught. But Dale Ralph Davis wrote in his little commentary, he wrote a quote that you will never have assurance until you base it completely and solely on Jesus Christ. He said it more pithy and more heart grabbing than I'm saying it, but that's what I want to leave you with. If you are reaching anywhere but Jesus for your assurance, if you are grabbing onto anything that you think you need to add to the gospel, Jesus plus anything is gonna lead you to destruction. It's Jesus plus nothing. And that's Luke's point. He's writing about Jesus, the King of the universe, who comes, lives, dies, is raised again, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. And all who repent of their sins and come to Him will be saved. It's not all who clean themselves up. It's not all who live a perfect life. See, sometimes we think we're in the club, but we might lose our membership if we don't live in a certain way. as if it depends on our righteousness and not his. Now, I'm not saying you can confess Christ and then never live a life that looks like Jesus. I'm not saying that. But don't think you have to live a life at every turn that looks like Jesus and never fail, because then your works are what you're depending on to save yourself. And it is Jesus and Jesus alone. And that's what Luke is going to have us see in the next 18, almost 20,000 words he's going to write, over 1,100 verses, all about Jesus, because he will not exhaust Jesus and the truth about him, and we will not exhaust Jesus and the truth about him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your love to us, your kindness. Thank you for the word that you've given. We pray, Father, that even today as we begin the study of this, grand and glorious history of Jesus. that you would keep our hearts and minds open, that throughout this time we would have children saved, we would have those among us who need to be saved and no one knows it yet, we would have those among us who are living a false life and a false conversion be saved and brought into your grace, that you would drag them into your presence for salvation. We pray, Father, you would use this gospel to make us stronger gospel preachers, that we would preach the gospel in such a way that our homes and our communities would be overturned because the power and beauty of Christ would take hold of our community. Would you do all of these things as we begin this study and continue this study of the Gospel of Luke? Do it for your glory and our benefit. We thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen.