Luke:  The Doctor of Theology

Luke 1

[scroll down for part 2]

 

We need to learn about Jesus.  To know Him is to love Him.  And to love Him is to be changed by Him.  To learn about Jesus will help us learn about ourselves.  We are sick.  We have an underlying condition.  It is genetic.  It is also environmental.  It is deadly.  We cannot survive this way.  We need an appointment with the Great Physician, who will reveal our diagnosis, and give us a prescription and the cure.

 

In the gospels we learn about Christ.  We are about to learn from a very unique perspective as we learn about Jesus from someone who knew Him very well, even though he never met Him in person.  Luke was not an apostle, but he was a follower of the Lord.

 

His perspective is most unique.  He was a doctor, and he introduces us to the Great Physician. 

 

Luke, apart from the apostle Paul, was the most influential force in writing the New Testament.  In fact, the writings of Luke come in two volumes — volume one is the gospel of Luke, volume two is the book of Acts — they add up to fifty-two chapters.  The gospel of Luke is the longest of all the gospel narratives and therefore it's the most thorough and complete. The total of fifty-two chapters make Luke the author of one-third of the New Testament. His friend and companion, Paul, is author of another third of it. So, together the two of them penned two-thirds of the New Testament.

 

So I say, next to Paul, Luke is the most powerful writing force in the New Testament, and yet he is basically unknown.  His historical narrative spans over sixty years.  It starts with the conception of John the Baptist and it continues until the end of the book of Acts, with the gospel being preached at Rome, which means the gospel has extended to the world. 

 

Luke never once refers to himself.  He lets the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the theme of his writing, dominate. 

 

vv. 1-4     These four verses, in fact, are one, long, unbroken sentence, written in the polished style of literary classical Greek.  It’s obvious that Luke was highly educated.  If it didn't tell us in the Bible that he was a physician, we would assume that he had had some kind of high level education because of his handling of the classical form of Greek.

 

Luke was with Paul from the time of his second missionary journey, the time when he was at Philippi recorded in Acts 16, to the end of his life. 

 

Colossians 4:14

Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

 

The ‘beloved’ aspect just indicates to us that he was an endearing man, that he was a man who had charmed the heart of the apostle Paul and come to be a close friend.  Obviously if he left his practice to be a missionary and travel all those years with the apostle Paul, we can assume that he continued to be Paul's personal private physician.  And for the oft ill and oft injured Paul, that was some luxury.  And to have a man who was not only a physician but also a friend was a double blessing.  And isn't it interesting that as often as Luke must have ministered to Paul, he never ever mentions that he did that?  Again you see the heart of this man is a heart of humility.  So he was a beloved physician. 

 

When you study the gospel of Luke you see Luke's interest in those matters that are physical, those healings that Jesus did. 

 

There was a woman who came to Jesus with a disease and one of the other gospel writers says, "She had suffered many things at the hands of many physicians."  Luke leaves that line out.  So, that will give you the idea that he viewed things maybe a little uniquely.  But he gives high profile to Jesus' healing ministry. 

 

We should take great comfort that Jesus wants to heal us, both spiritually AND physically.  He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.  He cares for what we are going through.  He created our bodies, fearfully and wonderfully, in His image.  He made us an incredible machine with an amazing ability to take care of itself.  And when it fails, He still works miracles of healing, and when that’s not in His will, He works miracles of grace to get through it.  [Testimony from our resident doctor]

 

You can see the heart of a caring doctor as he tells us about:

• Elizabeth being barren and very old, and yet God opening her womb.
• That baby, in utero, John the Baptist, leaping when he heard the good news from Mary that she, a virgin, had conceived the Messiah.
• How the Holy Spirit filled that not yet born, but very much alive, human boy, John, as well as his parents, and how his father’s mouth was restricted from speaking for a while.  It’s a doctor’s understanding that humans are not just physical and emotional beings, but also spiritual.
• How Mary gave birth in a place that wasn’t sterile, and wrapped up God’s gift to mankind.
• He makes a point of telling us how Jesus grew physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually – very complete.
• Then, it was important to him to tell us about Jesus in the temple with the doctors and lawyers.
• He gives great detail about Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness.
• He’s the only writer to tell about the healing of the 10 lepers, and several other healing accounts.
• Only Luke tells about hemathydrosis, or bloody sweat, of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
• While the other gospel writers use lay language when addressing medicine, only Luke uses the technical medical terms when describing fever [Peter’s mother in law], dysentery [Publius’ father], fluid retention [man suffering from dropsy]
• In chapter 13 he tells us of a woman loosed from an infirmity, using terms for curvature of the posture and how she was straightened out.
• In his recounting of the good Samaritan, he alone mentions the application of oil and wine…the alcohol for its antiseptic qualities and the oil as a protective coating.
• When Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood Luke tells us that her condition ‘stanched’, which is the technical medical term for the stoppage of a bodily secretion.
• He tells us of apoplexy in a person who had a sudden stroke.
• He uses the term atrophy when telling us about the man with the withered hand, and points out, unlike the other gospel writers, that it was his right hand, as if that matters to us! [Tom’s thumb]

 

Here is the last thing Paul ever wrote.  He was about to be martyred for the cause of Christ.  He was executed in Rome. 

2 Timothy 4:11, "Only Luke is with me." 

 

Boy, that's sad.  Down in verse 16 he said everybody deserted him…everybody.  Why?  Nero had cranked up the persecution to a high level and Christians were paying with their lives.  And frankly, many believers had fled from Rome.  And, you know, they might have had a reasonable motive to do that, to carry on the preaching of the gospel.  It's not that they were all just cowards.  But Luke didn't go.  Everybody left.  And there was a lot of desertion.  Demas left him because he loved the present world, verse 10 says.  And you do get the idea that some of the rest left in desertion from verse 16, but he says, "May it not be counted against them."  But not Luke, loyal, faithful, brave, long-term friend, fellow worker, companion to Paul over thousands of miles of walking. 

 

Paul was a Roman citizen, so he had a right to a Roman trial when the authorities were trying to put him to death.  So they put him on a boat and they shipped him to Rome.  You remember the story in Acts 27?  Well Luke was on the boat too.  Remember the terrible storm, and the shipwreck?  Luke was there.  They ran aground on the little island of Melita, and as Paul was laying down sticks for a fire a poisonous snake bit him, and it is Dr. Luke who tells us about how everyone expected him to die, and said God is judging a wicked sinner, but then when it never swelled up and he was fine, they said, “He’s a god!”

 

And when he finally got to Rome, Luke was there when he became a prisoner and when he was just about to be martyred he said in 2 Timothy, Luke is still with me.

 

Quite a remarkable man, this Luke, and we didn't know much about him when we got here today, but all of a sudden he sort of comes alive, doesn't he? 

 

As an educated man, he was also an ideal historian.  Luke was personally acquainted with apostles, with firsthand eye witnesses of the events of Christ's life.  He must have known Mary because, after all, when those two years when he was in Caesarea there right near Jerusalem, he must have interacted with the church in Jerusalem and he would certainly have met this wonderful Mary, the mother of Jesus, and could well have heard the birth of Jesus story from her.  It’s the famous Christmas passage of Luke 2. 

 

There must have been a lot of folks whom Jesus had healed, right?  Or who had been there at some of the moments of His teaching and His miracles.  And so there were all kinds of accounts. Luke had undertaken to compile an account of the things. 

 

The gospels, all four of them, are salvation history.  And the book of Acts is salvation history.  As the church begins, 3,000 people are saved and thousands more are added and pretty soon there are twenty thousand.  And the gospel leaps beyond Jerusalem and it goes into Judea and then it finds its way into Samaria and it finds its way into the uttermost part of the earth.  It's salvation history.  It is the story of God saving sickly sinners.  That's why it's the greatest story ever told. 

 

And now I have my story and you have yours.  It’s still being written.  Perhaps today will be the day that you get saved!

[w/ helps from Dr. John MacArthur]

 

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Luke:  The Doctor of Theology, pt. 2

Luke 1:1-5

 

This gospel 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, and something of his intentions 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 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. 

 

He takes the gospel and elevates it beyond just the common people.  As you know, the apostles were very common.  They were a rag-tag group of Duck Dynasty like guys.  But the gospel was not just for the common people, it was not just for the lower classes of people, the gospel was also for people of learning.  And Luke's writings make that fact more established. 

 

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 hid himself behind his great saga.

 

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.

 

We're looking at Luke the physician, Luke the historian, Luke the theologian and Luke the pastor.  I’m calling him the Doctor of Theology, and last time we looked at the doctor part, and now the theology part of this pastor.

 

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.

 

But Luke's material is wonderfully unique.  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 recorded.  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.  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 only found in the gospel of Luke.

 

Now we meet Luke the theologian.  Now what is the mark of a good theologian?  A good theologian is someone who is analytical, who is systematic, who is logical.  Generally Luke is chronological.  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. 

 

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. 

 

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.  In chapter 10 he's concerned about the rejection that occurred in Samaria.  He wants to see 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 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 is very interesting.  When Matthew wrote a genealogy of Jesus to show where Jesus had come from, he started 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 Luke 3:38 where he does his genealogy in reverse and it all goes back to Adam. 

 

In chapter 14 he focuses on 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 hedges 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 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 nations, but for all kinds of people.  He's very concerned about prodigals, you know, and he 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 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.  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, he spends an awful lot of time focusing on Jesus' ministry to the worst of the flotsam and 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.  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, and 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.

 

Of course we learn about Jesus Christ.  Luke is the only gospel that mentions the doctrine of justification.  The Doctrine of Justification is the heart of Christian theology…that we have been declared righteous.  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 to justification.  And justification is also in the story of the prodigal because this wretched, wicked sinner comes home and he has no value, no virtue, no worth, 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 who washed His feet with her tears.

 

So, Luke understands theology and he makes a point of these great doctrines.  Other theological themes he deals with...the fear of God, praise to God, forgiveness, joy, wonder, worship.  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.  Ten chapters, from chapter 9 verse 51 all the way in to chapter 19 Jesus is going toward the cross.  In chapter 19 He arrives there, and all the way to chapter 23 it's all about 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, "Even as the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

 

One other thought in his theology, Luke is interested in 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.

 

So, he’s a theologian.  Now, 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 I did a full investigation of the facts and have written it all out for you.

 

Wow!  That's just unbelievable.  You can easily imagine a person writing a book to be published.  But 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 actually a nice name.  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.  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 things about Christ.  Maybe the teaching was unclear or incomplete, or needed verification.  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, or, that he was a new Christian, a new believer and he needed to have a greater understanding of his faith.

 

It's a pastoral work intended to teach this man that he had met, to bring him to exact truth.  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 the truth of God, isn't it?  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 hoped it would go further.  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. 

 

Here’s some pastoral advice I once received:  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.  I put my text versions of sermons online for the sake of a married, deaf couple.  Now it goes all over the world.  And millions of people have been converted by the account that Luke wrote for Theophilus.

 

v. 4  “Certainty”

He gave him exact truth.  What a great statement.  It 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.  He wanted that man to know the truth.  I can say the same.

 

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. 

 

You know what my prayer is?  That that work will go on as we go through Luke.  That many more will be saved as we preach Luke's gospel here, as it goes on the internet.