Luke

When the angel Gabriel came and spoke to Zacharias he brought wonderful news. He and his wife who were now too old to have children were going to have a son, his name was to be John. His very name, "John" means, "Jehovah has been gracious; Jehovah has graciously given" ¹or simply, “the grace...of the Lord” ²We know him as John the baptist and we have some idea about who he was and what he did. But try for just a moment to consider the perspective of this old priest standing in the holy place in the temple hearing that he was going to have a son who's name proclaims God's grace.

Of course the first thing we usually think of when a baby is to be born is joy. Never a truer word was spoken for these parents. But their great joy is not just for a child - that would not necessarily cause many to rejoice at his birth. This child is different, it is his name which points to the great grace and Mercy of God about to be revealed.

There are three different and very distinct words in use here expressing various shades of rejoicing. The first ( χαρά ) is translated joy and represents that exuberant yet fleeting happiness which we are all familiar with. ³The second (ἀγαλλίασις)

Read the final words of Malachi and then pause for as long as you can before reading beginning with Luke 1:5-25.  There is roughly a 400 year gap between the close of Malachi and the announcement of John the Baptist's birth.  (I was going to be silent for 6 and ½ minutes, one second for every year but I didn't think you could stand it.  I know I couldn't stand it any longer.)  

For some 400 years since the last words of Malachi were penned - most Jews believed that since there had been no prophets, that God had been silent.  History bears out that God had indeed been active - even as 2000 years of History since Christ have demonstrated God working, but there have been no writing prophets bringing us a new word from God.  The canon of scripture is closed.  But many people today still believe that God is silent.  But something happens when we begin the actual story of Luke with verse 5.  God breaks the silence.  

This morning I want to begin talking about what happens when you feel like God isn't speaking and more importantly what happens when God breaks the silence.

When God breaks the silence

The theological truth is that God is not silent.  He never is.  But the experience of our lives is that often our prayers sometimes go on and on without obvious answer, and still we keep praying; hoping with faith that God will somehow break the silence and send down an angel to proclaim his favor to us. Sometimes as Christians we despise those stretches of time when God is not putting burning bushes in our paths, but the truth is that while he will never leave us or forsake us, still he grows us and matures us by causing our faith to be faith.  

This morning we are beginning a fresh study in the Gospel of Luke. It has long been my desire to study our Lord Jesus' life and only now has God's leading taken me in this direction, and I am excited. I've been steeping myself increasingly in the third gospel with pleasure, allowing it's words and accounts to wash over me in it's ebb and flow. This morning I invite you into a fantastic faith building journey through the gospel of Luke.

Begin at the Beginning

Let's begin with the first four verses of Luke, which in some respects is nothing more than an introduction but it also serves as an important statement of purpose.
Imagine receiving a scroll of some considerable length, fortunately it's all rolled up so you begin by unraveling the first few inches just to see what's in it. In fact you would be hoping that you'll be able to figure it out in the first few inches or else it becomes a massive undertaking to unroll and re-roll the scroll to peruse the whole thing just to figure out what it was about. Not many would pick up a featureless book and read through several chapters to figure out it's purpose. Fortunately for us, books have dust jackets, and scrolls like the one that Dr. Luke wrote begin with a quick introduction telling you what you can expect as you go through it.
Luke's singular purpose is to reassure his reader of the exact truth of what he had been taught.

The Source of the gospel message

For starters, Luke sets his writing up against the many different accounts that were available in that day. Pay attention to what he lists here because it points to the trustworthiness of the gospel message.