♪ [music] ♪
- [D. A. Carson] Everyone who has even an elementary knowledge of the New Testament
knows that it begins Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We call them the four Gospels.
And sometimes we think "Matthew's gospel" and "Mark's Gospel" and "Luke's Gospel"
but in the original, that's not really what is said.
What we find instead is "The Gospel according to Matthew",
"The Gospel according to Mark", and so forth. Because from the perspective of the
New Testament, there is only one gospel. But it's this one gospel according
to the witness, the presentation of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And that's why there is so much similarity amongst these four. All of them begin
in some way with the beginning of Jesus and end with his cross and resurrection.
Sometimes, often around Easter time, the mass media talk about The Gospel
of Thomas and The Gospel of Peter, second and third-century documents that some
people try to say are as early and as important as authentic as the four gospels
in the Bible. But if you take a look at The Gospel of Thomas, for example,
it's certainly not "The g=Gospel according to Thomas". It's really a fake document
ascribed to Thomas, and it has nothing of the storyline that the New Testament
gospels really have. There is no account of Jesus's ministry,
no account of his death and resurrection. It's simply a collection of 114
sayings or little snippets. It's not a gospel in any first-century
sense at all. But when we come to the four gospels in our New Testament,
all of them have to do with the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ.
But this good news is according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
And in this series, we're going to be surveying a great deal
of Luke's presentation, Luke's ordering of the gospel.
Now, what is really interesting is that these four gospels all begin in slightly
different ways. And Luke begins with four verses that outline how he went
about writing. He did some research. He said that many people had undertaken
to summarize and write documents regarding the things
that surrounded Jesus' ministry.
But he did some research, he studied these, he talked to people.
You can place Luke in all of the early Christian centers. He talked to people,
he knew Paul personally, he knew Peter personally.
He asked questions, he read early church documents. And then he decided to set
out what he calls an orderly account of the things that happened among them.
And he does all of this. He says in order that this chap that he
mentions called Theophilus, this most noble Theophilus might know the
certainty of the things that had happened. Now, who Theophilus is we really
don't know. He may have been some kind of patron. In those days publishing was
very, very labor-intensive. There were no printing presses,
so manuscripts have to be copied out a few at a time by a number of scribes
taking dictation. So, copies were expensive and sometimes
patrons paid for the copies and that's what the publication involved.
So, he may have been some rich person who helped to pay for the publication
of Luke's Gospel. But he was at least apparently a young Christian who needed
to be assured, reassured, of the truth of the gospel. And so Luke dedicates this
to him. That's worth remembering. There are a lot of people who think that
faith is merely a subjective choice. "You have your faith, I have my faith.
And faith has nothing to do with truth, faith only has to do religious preference.
Who are you to criticize my faith?" But in the Bible, the word faith is never
used that way. In the Bible faith, amongst other things is the God-given
ability to perceive what is true. And that is why in the New Testament, when
the Bible wants to increase faith, faith in the truth of who God is,
faith in what Jesus has done, faith in his death and resurrection,
faith in Jesus personally, what it does is underscore truth.
And by the articulation and defense of the truth, faith is born and grounded.
So, that's what Paul says that he is doing when he writes to the Corinthians,
it's what Luke here says he is doing when he writes to Theophilus, "that you might
know the certainty of the things that have happened among us." And all of these things
he says, are in fulfillment of what has already been predicted. In other words,
the things that he's about to unpack regarding Jesus are the accomplishment,
the fulfillment of the things already predicted in Scripture that was given,
in centuries before now coming to a crisp focus in the birth, life, death,
resurrection, ascension of the Lord Jesus.
♪ [music] ♪