Good News: An Introduction to the Gospels (Luke 1:1-4)
Good News:
An Introduction to the Gospels
Luke 1:1-4
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. S. Randall Toms, Ph.D.
St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Baton Rouge, LA
Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed. (Luke 1:1-4)
After the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Father and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the Church, the followers of Jesus began to fan out across the world, telling the story of Jesus' life. In the beginning, the spread of the good news was done by word of mouth. But eventually, these accounts of the life and teaching of our Lord were written down. We might wonder why it was necessary to write the stories and teachings. Most modern New Testament scholars believe that Mark was the first gospel to be written, but it wasn’t written until the 60s. If that is true, why did Mark wait 30 years, and at that point, why bother? It is often said that the church had been doing well by word of mouth for 30 years. Actually, if you look at the stories of the churches described in the epistles, it is difficult to make the case that church was doing just fine.
As we know from reading the epistles and the subsequent history of the church, not all accounts of the life and teachings of our Lord circulating in the first century were accurate or factual. No doubt, many stories were being told about Jesus that were false and even heretical. Therefore, it was necessary that reliable witnesses write down the story of Jesus and that such accounts should be accepted as authoritative. The Westminster Confession of Faith, written in 1646, explains that the great truth of our faith needed to be written down “for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world.” The early church understood that the world, the flesh, and the devil would always try to introduce falsehood into accounts of Jesus and his teachings, so God inspired certain men to write down, by the power of the Holy Spirit, inspired, inerrant, and infallible accounts of the life and teaching of our Lord.
In the opening verses of the gospel according to St. Luke, he writes, “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed. Notice the emphasis on “perfect understanding” and “certainty.” Luke claims to have a perfect understanding of what Jesus did and taught. His account is so accurate that anyone reading, such as this Theophilus to whom this account is addressed, could be certain, absolutely assured that what was written in this account of the life of our Lord was true. If any other writings or oral traditions did not align with these authoritative accounts, they were considered false. No doubt, one of the reasons the story of Jesus was written down was that there would soon come a time when all the eyewitnesses would be dead, so accounts needed to be written by an apostle or by people who were intimately acquainted with an apostle.
The accounts that we have of the life of Jesus, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we call “gospels,” which are not exactly biographies in the modern, accepted sense of that word, but they are a kind of biography written with a unique purpose in mind. So, what are the gospels?
Quite often, we look upon them as history books. We could say that the church needed a history of who Jesus is, why he came into the world, the significant events of his life, and what he taught. In a sense, the gospels are history, despite what you might hear when some people say, “The Bible is not a history book.” Well, it is a history book — an absolutely accurate one. But it is far more than a history book. It is history written with a theological purpose.
The gospels are also a story, and by “story,” I don’t mean fiction. God chose to reveal the truths about his son in a narrative framework. I suppose that God could have given us one sheet of paper with a brief statement about Jesus. As a matter of fact, such a statement could have looked just like the Apostles’ Creed. God could have handed his Church a statement that said, “Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” Period. God could have said, “Believe that statement and you are saved. No other information is needed.” But God didn’t reveal the truth about his Son to us in that method. He did it in the form of a story.
Stories are a powerful way to reveal the truth to us. Stories interest us, excite us, and move us emotionally. The gospels themselves are filled with a wide range of literary genres. In the gospels we find history, parables, canticles, prayers, laments, apocalyptic language, and prophecies, combined in such a way that we have the most wonderful story told most beautifully so that the truth about Jesus comes to us in such a way that we not only know facts, but Jesus is presented in such a way that we know him as a person, a person we love, and a person that we know loves us. It is the story of the most exciting quest of all time—the quest to save human beings, all of whom are sinful, wicked, and rebels against God.
The gospels give us the story of Jesus in a particular way. The word “gospel” in Greek is “euangelion, which means “good news.” When we see the word “gospel,” we almost always think of a book, particularly a book about Jesus. But if you had given someone a document in the first century and told him that this document is a “gospel,” that person would have thought of a “gospel” differently. The word “gospel” was actually a well-known word in the Roman Empire, long before any of our “gospels” were written. It was especially used to describe an event that people thought might usher in a new era, such as the accession of a new emperor. For example, when the reign of Caesar Augustus was described, they wrote about him: “whereas the birthday of the god [i.e. Caesar Augustus] marked for the beginning good tidings[that is, “good news,” “gospel”] through his coming.” So, a gospel could have been good news about anything. But in the Scriptures, it is usually good news about salvation.
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, Isaiah 40:9, reads, “Isa. 40:9-11: O Zion, that bringest good tidings [there’s our word, good tidings, gospel—good news], get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” As Christians, we see prophecy as the good news, the glad tidings, that our Lord Jesus Christ would come as the good shepherd who would save his people by giving his life for the sheep.
In Isaiah 42:7, the Septuagint would use this word for good news again: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings [“good news,” “gospel”], that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” St. Paul in his epistle to the Romans, chapter 10, uses that verse to describe the preaching of the good news about Jesus Christ.
Again, in Isaiah Isaiah 61:1-2 we see another description of this good news: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings [“good news”—"the gospel”] unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” When Jesus begins his public teaching ministry in the synagogue, we read in Luke 4 that Jesus uses this particular prophecy from Isaiah 61 to describe his own ministry. He has come to be the one to preach the good news.
Eessentially, the gospel was simply a pronouncement of good news.
It is only later that the word “gospel” comes to mean a book or books,”the Gospels,” as we have come to know them, for these books do contain the most wonderful news that has ever been spread in the world.
Later on, these books will become known as “the gospel according to Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John. But we must remember that when they were originally written, these writings were not called “gospels.” When people added titles to the manuscripts, they didn’t say, for example, “The Gospel according to Mark,” but rather, they added a heading that would read something like, “According to Mark,” “According to Matthew,” “According to Luke,” and “According to John.” We often refer to the “four gospels,” but there is really only one Gospel. We have one gospel told by four different people from four different perspectives. But each one of these perspectives is still about the same person—Jesus. Each of these writings that we call “gospels” is the good news about him--who he is and what he came to do.
We should be thankful that we have four accounts of the life of Jesus because, even though there is some repetition among them, each author brings out different aspects of Jesus that the others don’t, enriching our understanding of Jesus. They are writers who group the events in the life of Christ in a certain way because they each have a particular purpose in mind.
Now, we need to ask the question, “For what purpose were the gospels written?” As I said, the gospels are a kind of biography, but a very different kind of biography from those written in the ancient world or even in our modern times. They are not attempts to record every detail of Jesus' life. We know that the gospel writers had to be highly selective about what they included in their descriptions of the life of Jesus. They couldn’t have possibly told everything that Jesus said and did. Remember how John said, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book” (John 20:30). Don’t you wish we knew more about those other signs that Jesus did? Then, remember how John says at the close of his account in John 21:25, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” Since Jesus did many other things, more things than could ever be contained in all the books in the world, why do we only have the few things we have in the gospel accounts? For example, in the gospels, there is very little information about his childhood. Between the ages of 12 and 30, we know absolutely nothing. When we finally get to his public ministry, the gospel covers roughly three years, and most of that is given over to the last week of his life. Martin Kahler, in his book, The So-Called Historical Jesus and the Historic, Biblical Christ, says that the gospels are “passion narratives with extended introductions.” We need to keep in mind that the primary purpose of the gospels is to get us to that last week of his, because he came into the world to suffer, die, and rise from the dead. Everything else in the gospel is to prepare us as readers to understand the significance of his passion, death, and resurrection.
People have pointed out several reasons why the gospels were written. We know we need the gospel because we need to be familiar with Jesus' teachings. In the gospel accounts, we hear from Jesus himself how his people are to live as his followers. Jesus tells us what is right and what is wrong, how to live in our relationships with one another, and how to use our money, time, and talents. His followers need the gospels so that we can frame our lives to be like his and follow in his steps.
Then, some have said that there is an evangelistic purpose in the gospels. But we need to remember that the primary purpose of the gospels was to be read by the church. After all, they weren’t able to hand out thousands of copies of the gospel of John on the street corner in an effort to convert people to the Christian faith. Although there is some disagreement about John’s purpose in writing his account, it does seem to have an evangelistic thrust. In John 20:30-31, the apostle says, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” That explanation of John’s purpose in writing this gospel certainly sounds as though it was written to convince people, specifically Jews, that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. But there is some argument about whether the word “believe” means “to believe for the first time,” or “to go on believing.” It may be both. The gospels were probably written so that people would become Christians and also to strengthen the faith of those who were already Christians.
Luke's explanation to Theophilus is probably the most elaborate in the New Testament. First, Luke is writing to him to give him an orderly account of the things most surely believed among Christians. The words “most surely believed” come from a word meaning “fullness.” It was sometimes translated as “full understanding” or “full assurance.” It is the word St. Paul used in Romans 4:20-21 to describe Abraham, when he said, “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:20-21). Those words “fully persuaded” and “most certainly believed” are the same Greek expressions. Abraham was fully persuaded that God would keep his promises. Luke is telling Theophilus that he is writing to him so that he can be fully persuaded that certain things have been fulfilled, certain things have been accomplished. Jesus said and did things, and we can be fully persuaded that Jesus said and did those things. So, to the skeptics and unbelievers who say that they need some scientific or some kind of miraculous proof that Jesus is the son of God, already have it. People need nothing other than the Holy Scriptures to be fully persuaded that Jesus is the Son of God. Paul also uses this word in II Timothy 4:17: “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” How is it that the truth about Jesus can be fully known? Scientific proofs or philosophical arguments could never give people the certainty that people need. The certainty that the gospel is true comes to people through the preaching of the Holy Scriptures. St. Paul writes in Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Indeed, full persuasion of the truth of the gospel comes simply through the Holy Scriptures and the preaching of the word of God. Nothing else is necessary. Remember the story that Jesus told about the rich man in hell. The rich man wanted Abraham to send Lazarus to preach to his brothers so that they wouldn’t come to the horrible place of torment where he was. But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” But the rich man says that Moses and the prophets are not sufficient to convince people of the truth, but if a man were raised from the dead, if that kind of miracle were performed, then they would unquestionably believe. But Abraham said, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” The same thing is true now. We can say today that if people will not believe Moses, the prophets, the gospels, and the epistles, they will not believe, no matter what miracle is performed. If I had the power to invite people to the Mississippi River this afternoon and divide the waters as Moses did the Red Sea, it wouldn’t cause a single person to believe the truth of the gospel. God does not persuade people of the truth of the gospel in that way. He persuades them through the powerfully applied word of God to the heart. This is the purpose of Luke’s writings. Certain things can be known fully about Jesus: what he did and what he taught. St. Paul used this word for “fully persuaded” again in Colossians 2:2: That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.” This is why the gospel of Luke was written--so that we might have full assurance of understanding,
Theophilus, to whom Luke is writing, may have been a catechumen, someone being prepared for baptism, because Luke uses the word for catechizing in verse 4: “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.” The word for “instructed” is the word “catechesis,” from which we get our words, catechism and catechize. So, Luke says that Theophilus has been catechized, and he is writing to Theophilus so that he might be certain of the things he has learned while he was being catechized. Again, Luke was not a liberal, progressive theologian who was uncertain about which parts of the gospel were true, or if any of it was true. Luke did not tell Theophilus that he was going to describe some miracles that Jesus did, but don’t take them as historical fact. Luke didn’t tell Theophilus what the modern theologians tell, that we must demythologize the text to get rid of those silly fables and perhaps find some kernel of spirituality that lies beneath the ignorant superstition of an ancient people. Luke didn’t tell Theophilus that everything in the Bible is a mystery, and we have to hope that we haven’t misunderstood the whole thing. No, Theophilus has been instructed, and Luke wants him to know that the things he has been taught are most certainly true.
Since the Scriptures are most certainly true, the Apostles took great care to hand these facts down to us. Luke admits in these verses that he did not see these things himself, but he had spoken to eyewitnesses, most likely the apostles, for he calls them eyewitnesses and ministers. He compiled what the apostles and others had told him so that he might give an accurate account. There has been much speculation about exactly from whom Luke may have obtained his information. Still, all we really need to know is that what Luke wrote for us is entirely accurate. What Luke, and the other gospels writers have written is the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God. As Bishop J. C. Ryle put it:
“We have no good reason for supposing that he [Luke] saw our Lord work miracles, or heard Him teach. To say that he obtained his information from the Virgin Mary, or any of the apostles, is mere conjecture and speculation. Enough for us to know that St. Luke wrote by the inspiration of God. Unquestionably, he did not neglect the ordinary means of getting knowledge. But the Holy Ghost guided him, no less than all other writers of the Bible, in his choice of matter. The Holy Ghost supplied him with thoughts, arrangements, sentences, and even words. And the result is that what St. Luke wrote is not to be read as the “word of man,” but the “word of God.” (1 Thess. 2:13.) Let us carefully hold fast the great doctrine of the plenary inspiration of every word of the Bible. Let us never allow that any writer of the Old or New Testament could make even the slightest verbal mistake or error when writing as he was “moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1:21.) Let it be a settled principle with us in reading the Bible, that when we cannot understand a passage, or reconcile it with some other passage, the fault is not in the Book, but in ourselves. The adoption of this principle will place our feet upon a rock. To give it up is to stand upon quicksand, and to fill our minds with endless uncertainties and doubts.
Luke uses a significant word in our text. He writes: “Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word.” The word “delivered” is important because it means “handed down.” These great truths of the word of God have been handed down to us, and these truths that they handed down to us must be regarded as truth, and we must stand firm in that truth. In Jude 3, we read, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Notice that Jude describes what we believe as “the faith.” “The faith” is that body of truth which has been handed down to us by the apostles. Notice again that Jude does not tell his readers to hold fast to those myths and fables that may in some way teach a spiritual truth, but on the other hand may not. No. It would be a hard sell to tell people to contend earnestly for myths and fables, to be eaten by lions for myths and fables. No, we must earnestly contend for those certainties, for those things most certainly believed among us. In II Thessalonians 2:13-15, the Apostle Paul said, “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” Remember that the Apostle Paul had said in the book of Ephesians that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The church is built on the authoritative teaching of the apostles, whether it came from their mouths or from what they wrote in the epistles in the New Testament. It’s a hard sell to tell people to stand fast for myths and fables. As a matter of fact, the modern progressive theologians are finding it difficult to get people to come to church, period, to listen to a preacher demythologize the myths and fables of the New Testament, much less to hold fast to them. In II Thessalonians 3:4-6, St. Paul writes, “And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.” So, there is a body of truth that the apostles have handed down, and we are to receive it, believe it, follow it, obey it, and even withdraw ourselves from so-called believers in Christ who will not believe and obey the teachings that we find in Holy Scripture.
What we must always keep in mind is that what we have recorded for us in the gospels are historical facts. They are not myths and fables that illustrate spiritual truths. To quote Bishop Ryle again,
Christianity is a religion built upon facts. Let us never lose sight of this. It first came to humanity in this shape. The first preachers did not go up and down the world, proclaiming an elaborate, artificial system of abstruse doctrines and deep principles. They made it their first business to tell men great plain facts. They went about telling a sin-laden world that the Son of God had come down to earth, and lived for us, and died for us, and risen again.
Let us rejoice that God has given us the gospels and all the other books of Scripture that we may never have to live in doubt. We can know with certainty who God is, who Jesus is, what he taught, and what he did. We can know with certainty what we are to believe and how we are to live.
Since God has given us such a wonderful treasure in these gospels, let us spend our entire lives poring over them, gazing upon the story of Jesus, seeing all that he sacrificed and suffered for our sakes that we might have eternal life. Let us always be studying his life and teachings, that in him we might see the glory of God revealed to greater and greater degrees as we pore over these blessed gospels.
In the gospels, God gave us the perfect account of what he has done to save us. The gospel is good news because it is the story of how God came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ to save sinful human beings. As I close, I want to go back to a point I made earlier. When Jesus had done so many other things, why is it that so much of the gospel accounts is taken up with the last week of his life? I said that the gospel writers were very selective in the material they chose to set down. The whole purpose of the gospel accounts is to get us to that last week so that they can tell us about his death and resurrection, for this is the primary reason he came into the world. Yes, we need his moral and ethical teaching so that we might know how to live, but Jesus was not just another philosopher or religious leader. He was God in the flesh who came to do a specific thing—to reconcile the world to himself, and the only way he could reconcile us to God was by dying in our place on the cross, taking the penalty of our sin upon himself. Jesus said, “…the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). He came to pay the ransom price so that we might be set free from guilt and the power of sin. That is the gospel! As we study the gospels, we may sometimes be confused about what Jesus meant, why he did certain things, but we always have to keep one eye on the cross. Everything he says and does points to the cross, and we find the answers to our deepest needs there. The angel told Joseph, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” This is the gospel, this is the good news, that God gave his only begotten son to die on the cross for our sins that we might have eternal life through faith in him. As we go through the gospels, let us always remember that we as human beings rebelled against a holy God, and we deserve nothing but his wrath and eternal displeasure, but in the Gospels we find this wonderful, true, historical story--God sent his son to save us from eternal misery. Now, repent and believe the Gospel. Amen.