Luke
19:10 “for the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost.””
What we will study this morning
in the review of the third Gospel, known as The Book of the Son of Man…the
01. The Author (Luke 1:1-3a); 02. The Audience (Luke 1:3b); 03.
The Purpose of the Book (Luke 1:4); and 04. The Theme of the Book (Luke 19:10).
01. The Author (Luke 1:1-3a)
Luke is only mentioned 3 times in the New Testament. Each of
these occurrences is in the Prison Epistles written by Paul (Colossians 4:14;
Philemon 24;
2 Timothy 4:11),
and from these passages, as well as his firsthand accounts in the Book of Acts
(Acts
16:11-17; Acts 21:1-6) we can safely assume that he was
a faithful companion of Paul. In Colossians 4:14, we are told by Paul that Luke was a
doctor by trade. The Gospel of Luke is filled with more precise
medical terms compared to other New Testament books, and Dr. Luke was very
detailed in recording dates and doing exhaustive research (Luke 1:1-3a), thus making him
essentially the 1st church historian. Dr. Luke is the only
evangelist (writer of a Gospel book) that wrote a sequel to his Gospel, the book
of the Acts of the Apostles. Most identify Dr. Luke as a Gentile, and many base
this belief off of his name not being mentioned by Paul along with other Jews
in Colossians
4:10-11, but then Paul mentions him later (Colossians 4:14),
and from this many have gathered that Dr. Luke was a Gentile. If this is true,
than Dr. Luke is probably the only Gentile writer chosen by God to write part
of the Bible. In size, the combination of the Gospel of Luke and the book of
the Acts of the Apostles make up about 28% of the New Testament and are larger
than all of Paul’s epistles combined.
Luke 1:1 Dr. Luke records for his reader that he himself
gathered written accounts of Jesus. We do not know for sure who these writers
were. There is a chance that the Gospels written by Matthew (for the Jews-45ad) and Mark
(for Gentile Roman Christians 57-59ad) could have been among these accounts, as
they were written before Dr. Luke wrote this Gospel (circa 60 ad). Obviously,
whatever these written accounts were (aside from Matthew and Mark), they were not inspired (G2315 θεόπνευστος theopneustos God-breathed- 2 Timothy 3:16) as they were not included in
the canon, the Bible as we know it today.
Luke 1:2 Dr. Luke records his 2nd source of
information: eyewitness accounts. Notice that Dr. Luke does not claim himself
as being an eyewitness. So he obviously had to interview eyewitnesses to glean
from them what they heard and saw Jesus say and do, including His miracles. The
disciples were there at the beginning with Jesus when He performed His 1st
miracle of turning the water into wine at the wedding feast (John 2:1-11).
Many believe that one of the people that Dr. Luke interviewed was Mary, the
mother of Jesus, which would explain why he had more information on the
childhood of Jesus (Luke 2:1-52) than the other three Gospel
writers.
Luke 1:3 “having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first,”
can actually be translated as “having, by diligent and careful investigation, followed
up everything to the source, to obtain an accurate account of the matter.”[1] When Luke says here that he wrote “to write to you an orderly
account,” (Luke 1:3) he was saying that he took all the
fragments and eyewitness accounts and was guided by the Holy Spirit in writing
them down in an orderly account so they can be easily read. So with both the written
and eyewitness accounts, Dr. Luke studied methodically like you would expect a
doctor to do, and guided by the Holy Spirit he compiled the 3rd
Gospel.
02. The Audience (Luke 1:3b)
Luke 1:3b “most excellent Theophilus,”
Even though the Gospel of Luke,
as well as the Book of Acts (Acts 1:1) was both addressed to Theophilus, we
really don’t know much about him. The name Theophilus means “lover or loved of God”. There are some who
think that Theophilus might have been a ruler of some sort, because Luke uses
the title “most
excellent” (Luke 1:3) or “most noble” in reference to
Theophilus. The
title “most excellent” was a title like
“Your Excellency” and shows that he held office, perhaps a Knight. So of Felix
(Acts 23:26;
Acts 24:3) and Festus (Acts 26:25).[2] Even though this Gospel
was written primarily for Theophilus, reading through this book seems to reveal
that Dr. Luke also had the Gentiles in mind as well.
Some examples of this would
include:
-Dr. Luke rarely focuses on
Jesus fulfilling prophecies, because that wasn’t as important to the Gentiles
as it was for the Jews.
-Dr. Luke never used the Hebrew
term “Rabbi” (G4461) for teacher, whereas Matthew used it in his Gospel.
-Dr. Luke referred to Roman
Emperors in designating the dates of the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:1) as well as the
beginning of John the Baptist’s teaching ministry (Luke 3:1).
-Dr. Luke explains certain
feasts and customs that a Jew would have known and been familiar with, but not
for someone who is a Gentile (Luke 2:41-42; Luke 22:1; Luke 23:17).
-Dr. Luke traced the genealogy
of Jesus all the way back to Adam (Luke 3:23-38) rather than just to Abraham,
which is what Matthew (who wrote his Gospel to the Jews) did (Matthew 1:1-17).
This seems to suggest that Jesus represents all of mankind and not just the Jews.
-Dr. Luke repeatedly explained
locations in Israel (Luke 4:31; Luke 8:26; Luke 21:37; Luke 23:51; Luke 24:13). This clearly would
be pointless if he were writing to Jews who were familiar with the Promised
Land.
-Luke used the Greek Septuagint
(which is the Old Testament written in Greek in Egypt in about 284bc by 70
scholars, hence the name Septuagint which means 70) when quoting from the Old
Testament (Luke
2:23-24; Luke 3:4-6; Luke 4:4; Luke 4:8; Luke 4:10-12; Luke 4:18-19; Luke 10:27; Luke 18:20; Luke 19:46; Luke 20:17; Luke 20:28; Luke 20:37; Luke 20:42-43; Luke 22:37). Though Dr. Luke’s quotation found in Luke 7:27 does not seem to be from the
Greek Septuagint or the Hebrew Masoretic text, but from some other text.
Here are some other important
aspects of this Gospel:
-More than any other Gospel, Dr.
Luke mentions the prayers of Jesus (6 times-Luke 3:21-22; Luke 5:16;
Luke 6:12;
Luke 9:28;
Luke 11:1;
Luke 22:40-46), mentions two parables
relating to the importance of prayer (Luke
11:9-14; Luke 18:1-8) and Jesus’
two teachings on prayer (Luke 6:28; Luke 11:1-4).
-The Greeks were always looking for the perfect combination
of God and mankind. They wanted one who had the best characteristics of both
men and women, but with no faults. Throughout this Gospel we see Jesus as both
strong and compassionate. Jesus’ sympathy and compassion are often brought up, and
this could be why women and children hold a prominent place in this book.
03. The Purpose of the Book (Luke 1:4)
Dr. Luke had 2 main reasons to
write this Gospel:
01. To confirm the faith of
Theophilus, showing him that his faith in Jesus was not based on fables but of
well-founded historical facts (Luke 1:2-4).
02. To present Jesus as the Son
of Man (emphasizing the humanity and humility of Jesus) who was rejected by
Israel. Because of this rejection by Israel, Jesus was also preached to the
Gentiles so that they could know God personally and receive salvation.
26 times (out of 46 times in the New Testament) the title
“Son of Man” is mentioned in the Gospel of Luke about Jesus (Luke 5:24; Luke 6:5; Luke 6:22; Luke 7:34; Luke 9:22; Luke 9:26; Luke 9:44; Luke 9:56; Luke 9:58; Luke 11:30; Luke 12:8; Luke 12:10; Luke 12:40; Luke 17:22; Luke 17:24; Luke 17:26; Luke 17:30; Luke 18:8; Luke 18:31; Luke 19:10; Luke 21:27; Luke 21:36; Luke 22:22; Luke 22:48; Luke 22:69; Luke 24:7).
“Son of Man” is used throughout the Book of Ezekiel, but every time
it is in reference to the prophet Ezekiel himself. But “Son of Man” is used
once in the Book
of Daniel, in reference to the coming Messiah (Daniel 7:13) and once of Daniel
himself (Daniel
8:17). Dr. Luke wrote this Gospel to the Gentiles to emphasize the
humanity and humility of Jesus, and the title “Son of Man” speaks of that. Jesus had a true human body (cf. Luke 2:7;
Luke 2:51–52; Luke 24:39-43; Philippians 2:5-8;
Hebrews 2:14). He was the perfect man.
04. The Theme of the Book (Luke 19:10)
Looking at this verse, we see
the theme of this Gospel, as well as the divisions of this Gospel. This verse
breaks Dr. Luke’s Gospel into three clear parts:
01. Luke
19:10 “for the
Son of Man has come” Dr. Luke records in Luke 1-3 how the Son of Man was born “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it
robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no
reputation, taking the form of a (SLAVE) bondservant, and coming in the
likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:5–8) First the Son of Man came, which
Dr. Luke covers at the beginning of this Gospel (Luke 2:6–16).
02. Luke 19:10 “to seek” Next
we see that Dr. Luke records for us in Luke
4-19:27 the ministry of the Son of Man who came to seek out men who were
lost, ministering to the dregs of society, healing those in need of healing,
forgiving sins, as well as piercing into the emotions, thoughts, and feelings
of mankind, exposing the depravity and hypocrisy of man and their manmade
religion of Rabbinic Judaism. In Luke 9-19:27, Dr.
Luke records the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem, and gives us the accounts of
his interactions with various people along the way to the cross (cf. Luke 9:51).
03. Luke 19:10 “and to save that which was lost.” In Luke
19:27-24:53, we see the final days of Jesus here on earth, from His
triumphal entry, the cleansing of the Temple, His final week before the cross,
then His death, resurrection and ascension
(Acts 1:4–11).
[1] Notes on the New Testament by Albert Barnes
[2] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word
Pictures in the New Testament (Lk
1:3). Nashville, TN: Broadman Press.
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