LUKE 1:1-4 KNOW THE CERTAINTY2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 1:1-4 Know The Certainty

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011. This morning as we begin the Gospel of Luke, I want to talk with you and share with you about knowing the certainty that we have in the Scriptures. The certainty that we have here in this Gospel that is recorded for us by Luke.

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And as we begin this journey through the Gospel of Luke, we have included in your bulletin a handout that goes along with this whole book. It's information and meant to be a resource for you as we study through and journey through the Gospel of Luke over the next many weeks here on Sunday mornings.

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And so there's lots of details in there for you to get into and you can study on your own. I encourage you to do so, to be reading ahead as we prepare for the next week and continue on in the Gospel of Luke. It would be really great if you could read ahead and prepare your heart. God will be speaking to you throughout the week and then confirming those things as we study it together on Sunday mornings. It's a great, great time and opportunity for you today.

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to get into the Word and to have those things established in your heart.

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And so this handout is meant to be a resource. I encourage you to check it out. You can spend some time in it. There's a timeline in there that gives you kind of a snapshot at the different Gospels and the time periods that they cover. I'd like to point out in regards to that that it's not meant to be exact and precise without exception, but just generally giving you an idea of what took place, where and when, and who taught about what, who shared about what,

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giving you a general overview and some insights into the life of Christ. Well, as we start out this gospel, the gospel of Luke, Luke begins really in a traditional way for Greek historians. When Greek historians were going to write out an account of something, they would begin their account with, first of all, telling you about the background and how they got the information that they had and

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And why they were sharing it with you. And so Luke does the same thing here in verses 1 through 4. It serves for us today as the introduction of the book where he gives us some insight into where this information comes from, why we can trust it, and what its purpose is.

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And so that's what we'll be looking at here in verses 1 through 4 today, and really specifically focusing on the certainty that we have in this gospel message that Luke recorded for us. Now who is Luke who wrote this gospel? Who is this guy? We don't know a whole lot about him. He was not one of Jesus' disciples, but we do know certain things about him from the rest of the scriptures.

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First of all, we know that Luke was a Gentile. He was actually a Greek. He wasn't a Jewish believer, but he was a Gentile believer. And that makes him unique and really special in that he is the only Gentile that had the opportunity or privilege of participating in the writing of the New Testament.

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All the other writers, Matthew, James, John, Peter, Paul, they're all Jews. But Luke is the only one who is not a Jew who was able to write parts of the New Testament.

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Now, as a Greek, as a Gentile, he had, you know, a certain and specific background. And it's seen in the writings that he gives here in the Gospel of Luke in that he focuses really on the humanity of Jesus. We see Jesus a lot going off and

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spending time in prayer, more in the Gospel of Luke than in any other Gospel. And his reliance upon the Holy Spirit is evidenced throughout the Gospel as well. And so there's certain unique aspects and characteristics that Luke highlights more so than some of the other Gospel writers. We also know about Luke that he was a physician.

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Paul refers to him as the beloved physician in Colossians chapter 4 verse 14. And it's believed that Luke was probably a physician that attended to the Apostle Paul. That as Paul had some physical infirmities that he describes in his letters.

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that it's possible that Luke was there with him attending to his medical needs and using his medical knowledge and training to help the Apostle Paul be able to go forward and continue in the ministry even though he suffered from these infirmities.

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We do know from the book of Acts that Luke joins up with Paul as part of, you know, as Paul's out on the mission field and taking missionary journeys, that there's a point, it's actually in Acts chapter 16, verse 10, where Luke joins with the Apostle Paul. And we know that because the prepositions change.

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Prior to that, Luke is describing Paul's ministry and talking about them and they and they went over here, then they did that. But then in chapter 16, verse 10 of Acts, it changes from they to we. And we went over here and we did that. And so he's describing what took place as he joins with them on that missionary journey. And Luke spent a lot of time with the Apostle Paul and was even with him in his last days.

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As Paul is writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4,

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It's his final imprisonment there in Rome and he tells Timothy that Luke is there with him. And so Luke spent a lot of time with the Apostle Paul and as a result of his time with the Apostle Paul and many others, he's able to write this Gospel account that we'll be studying on Sunday mornings. Now, another interesting thing about this is the Gospel of Luke is the longest of all the Gospel accounts.

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Now there's other gospel accounts that have more chapters, but that doesn't actually make them longer. This is the longest as far as amount of words, amount of material that is written. Luke's gospel is very thorough and complete. I,

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He records over 20 miracles that Jesus does, which is more than any of the other Gospels. He records 23 specific parables that are taught, and 18 of those are found only in the Gospel of Luke. They're not found in the other Gospels. And so he's very thorough. He brings in a lot of information and a lot of detail about the life of Jesus here in this Gospel.

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We also know that Luke was very well trained and educated because his writing here in this gospel as well as the book of Acts is a very high level of the Greek language. It was very technical, very precise. He uses a lot of medical terms, which makes sense because, of course, he was trained as a physician, as a doctor. And so he was very, very technical in his Greek language. His grammar was right on. And it's often used...

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as an example of Greek literature, of how good it can be and how good it should be, even in comparison with some of the other writings outside of the scripture. Now Luke, as he's putting this gospel account together, he's putting it together and writing it for a person called Theophilus. There in verse 3 we see it addressed to Theophilus. Now the word Theophilus or the name Theophilus means lover of God.

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And so some have suggested that instead of an individual, that he's writing to all who are lovers of God. And that is possible, but probably not likely, because he refers to Theophilus as Most Excellent Theophilus. That Most Excellent is a title that would be given to Roman leaders, those who are in power or in authority within the Roman government. And so it's very likely that Theophilus was a Roman official,

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And Luke was writing this account to give him certainty about the things of Jesus that he had been taught. Now it's interesting, back in those days when Luke was writing this, being a physician was not a job that you would have in order to be wealthy or to get rich or anything like that. Being a physician was really a lowly position. In fact, most physicians were slaves.

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And the way that they would be physicians is that their owners, their masters, would get them trained and prepared and then they would be attending to their master in the medical aspect, in their medical needs. And

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And so it's very possible that Theophilus was actually at one time Luke's master and he was, you know, Luke was his physician. But then Theophilus gets saved and allows Luke to go and to be on the mission field with the Apostle Paul and be doing the work of the ministry and attending to his needs out there. And so that's an interesting thing to consider, although we don't have that specifically recorded in the scriptures.

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What we do have recorded though, there in verse 4, Luke tells us the specific purpose of this book. He says that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. The purpose of the Gospel of Luke is that we would know with certainty the things that Jesus taught and the things about Jesus' life.

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You know, there is not a lot in life that is certain, is there? You can't count on the housing market. You can't count on interest rates. You can't count on the people around you. They let you down. They mess up. They fail. You can't count on very much at all.

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Benjamin Franklin is famously quoted as saying, nothing is certain in life but death and taxes. And we could relate to that, right? Because the statistics on death are pretty impressive, right? One out of every one person dies. It's just a matter of fact. It's guaranteed. You and I, we...

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We will die. That's a part of life. And taxes, oh, we can attest to that as well, right? We pay taxes and there's not really a way to get around it or out of it. And if you try, it will be at a high cost to your own personal life. And so there's some truth to that, that those things are certain in life.

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But that's not all that is certain in this life. Listen, you can be certain of who Jesus is. You can be certain about the life that he lived and the salvation that he offers and the eternity that he promised.

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Those are things that you don't have to be, you know, kind of just wishful thinking or doubtful about or skeptical about. These are things that you can be certain about. These are things that are trustworthy, that you can base your life upon. And I am so glad that these are certain truths, that they're truths that we can count on, that we can rest upon, that our faith can be based upon.

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There's certainty to these things. That's so important for us because we're dealing with the things of eternity. We dealt with that quite a bit in the book of Revelation, didn't we? The fact that really what's at stake here is eternity. That you and I are eternal beings and we will spend eternity somewhere. And when you're dealing with eternity, there's really no room for uncertainty. Why would you want to be uncertain? Why would you want to be

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About the rest of eternity. Why would you want to be uncertain about who Jesus is? Because he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. He made some very bold statements, which if they're true, well then we need to be certain of that and we need to follow him. And if they're not true, then it means that Jesus was just a crazy person who made weird claims.

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But the reality is that it is true and that there is certainty to these things that are taught, that we can know for sure who Jesus is, what he taught, the life that he lived and what took place in his life. I am so glad that I have certainty.

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You know, tomorrow is going to be a difficult day and appreciate your prayers. We have some funerals to attend, one for Kim's grandfather, and that's going to be difficult. Anytime you're dealing with funerals, people are facing and dealing with those questions about eternity that they don't like to address. Immediately after that, then we're going to another funeral, which I'll actually be performing. It's a funeral for Kim's little baby cousin.

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Now she was born after she had only been in the womb for six months. She was very premature and she had to fight every day of her life and for a month and a half she fought. And the family and many of you guys were praying, but eventually she ended the fight and she went to be with Jesus.

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Now, even though she's with Jesus, man, as we walk into that situation tomorrow, I'm going to be so relieved to have some certainty, to know for sure what the truth is.

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To know for sure the things of eternity. To not have to walk in there and go, well, maybe, or I hope, or this is what I wish, this is what I want. I can share with the family and minister to the family as well as you can minister to people around you with certainty about this is who Jesus is. This is what he has done. This is what he has accomplished. And so that's how Luke begins the gospel is establishing here the certainty and then also understanding

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Going forward, proving and showing who Jesus is. And so there's five points I want to share with you this morning about how we can know the certainty that is found here in the gospel.

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Five points about certainty. You can know for certain Jesus was born of Mary and he grew up in Nazareth and he ministered for three and a half years. He fulfilled prophecies and worked miracles. He was unfairly tried. He was crucified. He was resurrected on the third day and he ascended to the Father.

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Now as we look at the certainties that are found here, we're really just scratching the surface this morning. I'm not attempting to answer every argument or question that might come up, and there's opportunity to do that later. You can dig into those things. There are reasons for the faith that we have. But I want to just take some time and look here at verses 1 through 4 and see the certainties that Luke shares with us here about the things that are written and recorded here in the Gospel of Luke.

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And so the first point as we begin our study in the Gospel of Luke this morning is found there in verse 1 and it is that there are many early narratives. Verse 1 says this, Now he'll go on and we'll get to that in just a moment.

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But he points out here at the very beginning, right in verse 1, he says that many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of the things that happened. At that time, as Luke is writing this, there already had been many who had written down narratives. There had already been many who were communicating what Jesus did in his life, the things that he taught, the things that were accomplished.

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And Luke's goal as he puts forth this gospel is to write one complete account, including those different accounts, those different things that were set in order and recorded by others. His goal is to put them all together to have a complete and thorough account of the life of Christ. You could think about it this way perhaps. What if 30 years from now this church no longer exists? Now

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Now, I'm not speaking prophetically, it's hypothetically, okay? What if it no longer exists, but you want to write a history of the account of Calvary Chapel Living Water? You want to write about what happened and what took place. How could you do that? Well, you could look back at, maybe there's some

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Letters that were written or some blogs that were kept regarding the things that were going on. And you could get some information from pieces here and pieces there about the things that took place in this church.

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Now, 30 years from now, that would make Pastor Tom probably about 70-something. I'm not exactly sure, but right around there. And so you could probably interview Pastor Tom and you could say, hey, you know, what was it like and how did the church begin and what took place since he's the one who founded the church many years ago?

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You could also interview some of the other pastors who have gone through the church, you know, like Pastor Dion or Rick or Tom Hallman or Gil, and they were raised up within the ministry. They're out on the mission field doing the work of the Lord. And you could touch base with them and talk to them and find out from them and their own account of what took place and what kind of things went on there at the church.

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You could also interview many who attended. There's been a lot of people who have come through these doors and been part of the church over the many years, and you could connect with them and talk to them and find out this event and that account and that retreat and get some information about the things that took place. And all in all, you could come to a conclusion with certainty that

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This church existed and you could learn how it began and what kind of things took place throughout the years. You could know for certain by doing a little investigating, by doing a little digging and connecting in this way. And that is what Luke does as he puts together this gospel. He's talking with those who have set these narratives in order. He's working with them and finding out more information about what took place.

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Now he says that there's many accounts that have been written about Jesus. Pieces here, pieces there, different aspects of his ministry. For us today, we really have four that have endured through history. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And these are the accounts that record for us the life and the ministry of Jesus.

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And they tell us about who he is and what he taught. Now, people who try to discredit the Bible like to claim that the miracles that are written here in these Gospels are just exaggerations by the writers. Or perhaps they're just myths that the writers added in, but they didn't really take place. But the reality is,

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These writings were written in the lifetime of those who were there with Jesus. It was really too soon for those types of exaggerations and myths to be included or for these things to be inaccurate because too many people were still alive.

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For example, if you were investigating and finding out about this church 30 years from now, and you talk to Pastor Sisko, and Pastor Sisko says, Oh yeah, I remember when Pastor Tom started the church. The Lord gave him a message on a piece of toast, and the jelly was writing out the words for him to start this church. You'd be like, Oh really? That's interesting. Maybe you need to take off the medication there and kind of go sober for a little bit, right? You'd say, Oh no, that's too outlandish. Right?

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And then you could go and check. Hey, Pastor Gil, this is what Pastor Sisko said. Is this really what happened? Hey, Pastor Tom, you're the one who started the church. Is this really how the Lord spoke to you? And you could confirm and you could understand what the truth is.

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In the same way as Luke is putting these things together and writing this account, the people that he's talking to are still alive. And so they're able to verify and to authenticate the things that Jesus did.

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Now I put there in the point that there's many early narratives because as Luke is writing this gospel, it's probably around 60 AD that he's writing these things down. Now 60 AD is very, very early as far as history is concerned because it's maybe, you know, at the most 30 years after Jesus was crucified and resurrected and ascended to the Father.

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And so it's within the lifetime of those who were there with Jesus. It makes it very, very credible as an authoritative work on the life of Christ. Now, how do we know that these things were written around 60 AD? Well, Luke wrote this gospel, but he also wrote the book of Acts.

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And you can look at chapter 1, verses 1 through 3 of the book of Acts, and it starts out the same way. He's addressing it to Theophilus, and he makes reference to the gospel of Luke that he wrote, and this former account of the life of Jesus. And then the book of Acts is the continuation of the things that God was doing through the church. Well, the book of Acts ends in chapter 28 with the Apostle Paul in prison in Rome waiting for his trial.

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And that brings us historically to about 63 AD. And so Luke doesn't write beyond that, probably because he was right there. He didn't know the future. He couldn't write the future. He wrote up to the point in history where he was. And he leaves it somewhat unfinished with Paul there in prison with us wondering, waiting, well, what happens next? Because that's where Luke was in history. That's

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what he had known. That's what he had experienced. He was there with Paul and he was writing up to that point. And so that being 63 AD and having written the gospel account prior to that, that puts it around 60 AD or so. You can go forward or backward a couple years. Now some will suggest that Luke's gospel was written more around 80 AD, 20 years later. But even that,

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Even that is still early as far as historical documents are concerned. And there still would have been some people alive during the life of Jesus, as Luke was writing, if that was the case.

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But from Luke, we know the time frame, the historical figures that he mentions are accurate as far as the timeline that he's suggesting. He mentions people like Felix and Festus and Agrippa, and all of the historical markers are accurate. And so I think 63 AD, as far as Paul being in prison and finishing the book of Acts, and 60 AD for writing the gospel of Luke is a very, very safe and secure time.

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understanding of the timing of this book. And so Luke writes it around 60 AD. He says there's already many early narratives. And so we get the understanding there's already been a lot of information that's been shared and spread about Jesus already even 30 years after the death, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

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And so that's the first thing that we see here is we're looking at the certainty of these things which we've been instructed in. The second thing that we see is also in verse 1, and that is that they were fulfilled among us. He says there at the end of verse 1, he says he's writing a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us. What does he mean by that? Well, he means that these events...

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That's recorded here in the Gospel of Luke. They happened in public. These events took place in public. They were fulfilled among us. They were fulfilled with people around. It wasn't done in secrecy, but it was done openly and publicly. The Apostle Paul testifies to this as well. When he's standing trial before King Agrippa, before Festus, he's there, he's giving an account publicly

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of his life, of his ministry, of what happened with Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection. And in Acts chapter 26, verse 26, as he's giving his account there, as he's on trial, he is referring to King Agrippa and he says, "...for the king before whom I also speak freely knows these things, for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner."

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Paul's talking to King Agrippa and he says, look, you know these things. I know that this hasn't escaped your attention because these things weren't done off in a corner somewhere where nobody knew what was going on, but it was out in the open. It was public. As Jesus was ministering, we see in the accounts, many times there were thousands of people that were following him.

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that were with him and traveling with him out in the wilderness and he's teaching them. There's great crowds that are following him. There's great commotion that's being stirred up as the scribes and the Pharisees are coming against Jesus and getting into heated discussions and battles with him. And the commotion that was stirred up within the government as well as Jesus was innocent and yet Pilate was trying to get out of the crucifixion, but the people were insisting and

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He sends them to Herod and Herod sends them back. It was done in public. It wasn't done secretly in a corner, but these things were done publicly.

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Now, if you begin to compare that with other religions, you'll see how important that is. For one example, you have Joseph Smith founding the Mormon religion. And Joseph Smith gives the account of the angel Moroni who appears to him. But it was something that was done in private. And so, you just have to take his word for it. And then he saw the golden plates and he was able to translate and write the Book of Mormon. And then,

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but it was done private. You just have to take his word for it that that actually took place. And maybe you could take his word for it if it weren't for, well, the blatant contradictions with the rest of scripture and God's revelation of himself, the historical errors that are throughout the book that he wrote. Maybe you could take his word for it, but it's really inconsistent with everything else we know about God. The life of Jesus, on the other hand, was in public.

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And there were many who could testify. Many narratives had been written. Luke does record some things that took place in private, but most of it happened in public with crowds of people. And keep in mind that many of the people in those crowds were not fans of Jesus. They were trying to discredit Him and prove Him to be a false teacher. They were trying to remove His authority in the eyes of the people.

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And so there were a great many witnesses. It was done publicly with lots of people around. Jesus himself said that he taught in public. In John chapter 18, as he's being arrested, Jesus says there, hey, I spoke openly to the world. He's on trial. The high priest is asking him about his doctrine. So you can see the high priest there. So what have you been teaching the people?

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And Jesus says, look, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogues and in the temple. He says, in secret, I have said nothing. Jesus's ministry was public. It was out in the open. It wasn't behind closed doors and the disciples would come out and say, well, this is what Jesus taught. No, Jesus taught and everybody heard because it was out in the open for all to hear.

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Jesus went on to say in John chapter 18, he said, ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said because it was open. It was public. Jesus claimed to be God in public before everybody. He worked miracles in public. He announced his death and his resurrection in public. He was crucified and buried in public.

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And he was resurrected, he appeared to many, and then he ascended to the Father in public. These things were fulfilled among them, among the people. The news spread, they'd heard because these things were open. It was common knowledge. It wasn't some secret thing that was done in a corner. Point number three, in regard to the certainty of the things that we've been instructed to

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we can rest assured that these things were delivered by eyewitnesses. These things were delivered by eyewitnesses. Look at verse 2. He says, Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us. Who delivered the teachings and the accounts of Jesus' life to us? Luke says, it was the eyewitnesses. Now that's really important.

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Have you ever had a message that got lost in translation? You remember that old game, perhaps you played it when you were a kid, the telephone game? And you get a long line of people and you start at the first and you give them a message and then they whisper it to the person next to them and they whisper it to the person next to them and it goes down the line and then you have a great amount of laughter at the end because you compare the original message to the one that the person at the end of the line received and it's usually very different from

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Because the communication breaks down as it's passed from one person to another. Things are not heard accurately or correctly or misinterpreted. And as it gets to the end, it's a totally different message. It's all garbled and messed up. You've probably experienced that. You know, you've given someone instruction to go and do something. And what they went and did was not what you asked them to do.

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Or maybe you're the person who went and did something that you understood it to be this way, but that's not what they're communicating. It breaks down. The communication breaks down. And then if you hear something third hand or fourth hand, it breaks down more and more. The truths about Jesus were delivered by the eyewitnesses, by those who were there, by those who saw it for themselves. They were in the mix when it took place.

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This word eyewitness is an interesting word because it's a word in the Greek which we get the word autopsy from. It literally means self-seeing or to see for yourself. And that's what an autopsy is, right? Now you can look on the outside of a body and say, well it looks like this is probably the cause of death. It looks like that's what happened.

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But if you want to know for sure, you do an autopsy. And so the body is cut open and examined and you can know for certain by looking at the details within, oh, this is what happened, this is what took place, this is the cause of death. In the same way, Luke says, we don't know the things about Jesus' life just kind of generally, vaguely, based on some outward things that we can see.

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But we know the details about Jesus' life because it was people who saw for themselves. Now again, going back to the example, if you were writing an account of this church 30 years from now, you could go across the street to the people who worked at Farmer Boys...

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And you could ask them about this place and they could give you some general information. Yeah, we always saw cars in the parking lot probably on Sundays and I think on Wednesdays. Yeah, we think their services ended probably around 12 because we'd get a big rush of people coming over to have lunch about that time. And they could kind of give you some general things.

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But they're on the outside. They're kind of looking in. If you want to get the details, you'd have to talk to the people who are here. Those who are eyewitnesses. Those who are part of it and participating in it.

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And that's what Luke is saying here. The account that we have here in the gospel, it's not from people who said, well, yeah, there was this guy, Jesus, and we saw him and he had people around him and now there's a church and so this is what we think happened. No, it's those who were there, those who were part of the process. They were participating in the work and in the miracles and listening to the teachings and part of the foundation of the church and they were in it all along.

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That's the idea here when he talks about these eyewitnesses. They saw it for themselves. And so these accounts are trustworthy. They're credible because they're given by those who are actually there. Now, in addition to these truths, these eyewitnesses, specifically the apostles, also died for their faith and died for their testimony about who Jesus is and what he taught and what he did.

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They were put to death. They were tortured. And yet they maintained that Jesus is the Son of God to the very end. They maintained the truth of the things that they had written and declared.

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These eyewitnesses who died for their faith are also the ones who spent their life ministering the word, Luke says. These are the ones who are sharing the gospel, who are on the field. They were doing the work, ministering the word to us. And they're the ones who delivered them to us. The truths about Jesus were not delivered by tabloid magazines with great exaggerations and flowery things that, oh, how fanciful.

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Who uses that word, huh? What am I saying? Okay. They weren't delivered by people that nobody had ever heard of. They weren't delivered by people, you know, well, I heard it from a friend who had a cousin who might have been there and he thinks this is what Jesus said. But they were the people who were actually there in the mix.

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Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 16, he says, Peter says, look, when we made known to you the things about Jesus, we didn't figure out some cunning fable and put it all together and figure it out and say, oh, this is what we're going to share. No.

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We were eyewitnesses. We were there. We just told you what we saw. We told you what we experienced. And so we can have a great amount of certainty on the things that are recorded here about Jesus because they were delivered to us by those who were there, by the eyewitnesses. Point number four, as we look on at verse three,

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We can have certainty in these things because they were researched by Luke. Look at verse 3. It says, And there we have the reference to Theophilus, the addressing of the book. He says, He says,

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Luke says he has perfect, or we would probably translate it complete, a complete understanding of all things from the very beginning. This idea of understanding, this word understanding, it's in a particular tense in the Greek which stresses the finished results of an action.

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And the idea here is not that Luke started out with a perfect understanding, but he ended up with a perfect or complete understanding. That is, he heard from the eyewitnesses, he interviewed, he investigated, he talked, he discussed, he looked into the details, and as a result, at the end, he came to these conclusions with a complete understanding of what actually took place.

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The New International Version and the New Living Translation both translate it, carefully investigated. And that's a good translation, that's a good understanding. He carefully investigated these things that are written in the Gospel. He checked with the eyewitnesses that we just talked about. He checked, he cross-referenced, he verified the truth of the things that he recorded for us so that we could know for certain the truths that he recorded.

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I kind of liken it to kind of in our modern day, we have the author Lee Strobel. And I love his story because it's so powerful. Lee Strobel, if you've never heard about him, he was an investigative journalist. And that's what his profession was. He was not a believer. And then his wife got saved. And it really bothered him. It really bugged him. And he decided, I'm going to use my

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my skills, my training as a journalist to investigate the truth of the gospel message to prove it once and for all false and fraudulent so that all these fools will stop believing in it. That was his intent. That's how he started out.

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And so he began to investigate. And if you read his books, The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, Case for Easter, that's kind of the style of books that he writes, you'll find that he's very, very systematic. And he just goes point by point. He goes

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very thoroughly covers all the details. And as he was doing this, he's doing all this investigation. He's interviewing all these different experts in these different fields and putting the pieces together. He brings himself to the final conclusion, the only conclusion that you can come to when you research and when you investigate the truth. And that is that Jesus is who he said he was. And Jesus did what the Gospels record that he did.

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That He is the Son of God. That He is the Savior of the world who died upon the cross for our sins. And He became a believer as a result of His investigation. You see, when you dig in, when you research...

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you'll find that these things are the truth. And that's what Luke did. He investigated. He interviewed. He found out. And so he writes now to Theophilus and says, look, these are the things that I discovered after I investigated. I've come to a complete understanding by talking to these different eyewitnesses.

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Some even suggest that Luke probably spoke with Mary and that's where he learned the insights about, you know, the visit of the angel Gabriel and the things that happened with Elizabeth that we see in the very first couple of chapters. And there's some insight there and he probably spoke with her and that's definitely possible. She would have still been alive as Luke was writing these things. And so Luke is writing this account of Jesus having come to a complete understanding of

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Another way to look at it, the English Standard Version translates this verse saying that he followed all things closely for some time past. He followed all things closely for some time past. What have you been following closely? Perhaps you've been following very closely the situation in Egypt.

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And you've been reading the different news accounts as they come forth, the different headlines, the different articles, you know, the different sources of information. You've been watching, you've been paying attention. And if we asked you to give an account, perhaps you could give an account of what took place and what led to that and how that's happening and what might be happening next.

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Because you've been paying attention, you've been following it, you've been gathering in these different sources. Or maybe you've been following, you know, your favorite TV show. And you've been paying attention from the very first season, you know, Patty, you've been watching Survivor, right? You've been watching it, you've been paying attention, and we could ask you about season 5, and you could tell us about these different characters, and we could ask you, and you'd give an account of all the different things that took place throughout the years and throughout the seasons.

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In the same way, Luke paid attention. He followed closely all the things of Jesus' life and the things that were going on. And having done so, he has a complete understanding and he's able to record for us the truth about the life that Jesus lived and the things that Jesus taught.

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And so Luke's sources are eyewitnesses, those who were there, those who were in the mix. And so now he's able to write to Theophilus an orderly account. After researching the whole history of Jesus, now he puts it all together in an orderly account and presents it to us as the Gospel of Luke. And so there's certainty as we look at these things. There's certainty that we can know that this is the truth because there was many early narratives written

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The information about Jesus was widely known. It was fulfilled among us. The things that happened were done publicly. It was delivered to us by the eyewitnesses themselves. It was researched and checked out and verified by Luke. And finally, number five, Theophilus was instructed by others. Look at verse four. He says that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.

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Luke says, look, I'm writing this. I've put it all together for you, Theophilus, that you can know for certain those things which you were instructed. Again, the point, the objective of Luke's gospel is that we would know the certainty of the life of Jesus. There's certainty here. This isn't shaky ground. This isn't, you know, well, you just have to have blind faith. No, there's reasons to believe in Jesus.

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It's reasonable to believe in Jesus. He gives us the truth. He gives us a foundation which we can stand securely upon. And yes, it does require faith. But it's not just, you know, wishful thinking, blind faith that, well, we have no idea, but this is what we chose to believe. No, this is who Jesus is. It's recorded for us very clearly in great detail.

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What he did, what he taught, who he claimed to be. And so Luke shares with Theophilus, here's all these things, here's the life of Jesus that you can have certainty. And he says about those things in which you were instructed. Now, who instructed Theophilus? Who taught Theophilus about Jesus? Now pay attention here, this is pretty cool. We have no idea. And you know what? It really doesn't matter.

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It really does not matter. Now, we know that it probably wasn't John or Paul or James or one of those who were there because then Luke wouldn't have needed to write to Theophilus about the certainty of those things because he would have heard it firsthand from those who were there. So he heard about Jesus, he learned about Jesus, but we don't really know from who or from where or how

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But that really doesn't matter. And that's one of the strengths of our Christian faith. You know, the cults will tell you that you have to understand the Bible by them teaching it to you. Only they can tell you the truth. Only they can tell you what it means. But you know, real Christianity is not that way. Sure, there's some insight that we can learn as other people teach us the Bible.

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But we can spend time in the Word of God on our own and understand and come to those same conclusions. It doesn't have to be, you know, you have to be taught by a very special group and they have to have this very special training. And if you don't hear from them, then, well, you don't know. And you can't read the Bible on your own because you don't know how to interpret it right. Listen, that's not the reality of the Christian faith. The reality is Acts chapter 17 verse 11. There Paul's on the mission field. He's preaching the gospel and

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And it tells us there that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether or not what Paul said was true. They were checking it out. Wow, the scriptures do say that. They were able to look at the scriptures and come to their own conclusions and recognize that is the truth. That's what the Bible teaches. That's how the Christian faith is. We don't have to just take someone else's word for it.

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Everything we need is found here in the Word of God and we can read it and spend time with God and His Word on our own. And we can come to the same conclusion. That's why you don't have to come to this church to have the truth about Jesus. And we just encourage people, attend a church that teaches the Bible. That's the most important thing. If they stick to the Word of God, they'll be fine. They'll be good.

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No need for worry or concern. It's not only us that has the right answer to all things. It's not only us who has the truth. It's the Bible who has the truth. And so Theophilus is instructed by who knows. But that's not so important because it's the Word of God that has the truth. And so there's certainty in that. You see, because if I have to take your word for it,

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I have no power or means to verify the truth of it. If only you can tell me how to interpret the scripture, I just have to blindly believe and hope that you know what you're talking about. But God has established our faith in such a way that each one of us, we can have our own personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And we can read the word on our own. And the Holy Spirit can speak to us and give us understanding into the scriptures.

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Now, of course, anybody can take and twist the scriptures and take it out of context and, you know, teach some crazy doctrine. But in order to do that, you have to twist, you have to, you know, take it out of context, you have to disregard the rest of scripture in order to teach whatever doctrine that they're trying to teach. But anybody who takes in the Word of God as a whole and keeps it in context,

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It doesn't twist it or distort it or try to manipulate it to make a point. Anybody who just honestly examines and studies the Word of God will come to these same conclusions. That's the Christian faith, guys. There's certainty there. There's certainty because you can check it out on your own. You can verify it for yourself. And you can find out. You can know for sure the reality of who Jesus is, what He did, the promises that He made, the things that He taught.

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and the eternity that He promised to us. Once again, in this life, there is not much that is certain. But we can be certain about the things that are contained in the Gospel of Luke. We can be certain about who Jesus is because there was many early narratives. There were many who testified to these things from the very beginning. And these things happened in public. They were fulfilled among us, Luke says.

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They were not done in a corner secretly and we just have to take their word for it, but they were done openly in front of everybody. And these things were communicated to us and delivered to us by the eyewitnesses. They were researched and investigated and checked out by Luke. And even if you're instructed by others, the truth is verified. The truth is contained in the scriptures. And so what we learn as we begin the gospel of Luke here in verses 1 through 4 is

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is the certainty we have in the gospel message. So important. These things are not built on shaky foundations and wishful thinking. And we don't have to just take someone else's word for it. The truths that are contained in here are solid. The foundation that our faith is built upon is solid. And as we're talking with people around us and sharing with them about Jesus, we don't have to

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Be shaky or uncertain or skeptical. We can know for certain, we can know for sure, this is who Jesus is. This is what He did, this is what He taught. Now you can reject it, but that doesn't make it less certain. Luke says, I'm writing this that you may know the certainty of those things which you've been instructed. And as we study this gospel in the coming weeks, we're going to be learning about that certainty.

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the reality that these things are the truth. We don't have to be scared about opposition or arguments because these things are the truth. We don't have to be worried or freaked out about, you know, future archaeological finds. Listen, every time archaeology finds something else, it serves to confirm the accuracy of the scriptures. We don't have to be worried about science. We don't have to be worried about these different things that happen.

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Because the truth is contained here in the scriptures and specifically in the gospel of Luke. We have that certainty about who Jesus is. So the gospel message is clear. It's for sure. You can take it to the bank. And again, when you're dealing with things of eternity, it makes no sense to be uncertain. It makes no sense to be just wishful or hopeful. When you're dealing with eternity, you want to know for sure that

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that you know the truth. And the truth is that Jesus Christ is God. And He became a man. He walked this earth, ministered for three and a half years publicly, worked miracles, taught that He is God, announced that He would be crucified and then resurrect on the third day. And then He did it, authenticating His claim, proving that He is who He claimed to be.

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the son of god the savior of the world he taught that his purpose was to seek and save that those which are lost he taught that he is the savior the one who can redeem us from our sin the one who can set us free from the bondage of guilt the bondage to sin that we have that as he shed his blood for us as we put our faith in him we can find forgiveness and a new life in christ

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and the promise of eternity with Him. These things are certain, guaranteed, no question, no doubt, this is the reality. Let's pray. God, I thank You, Lord, that You've given for us solid confirmation, solid truths that we can rest upon. Lord, that You don't require us to just blindly believe without any evidence, without any substance. But Lord, You show us the reason why we ought to believe.

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and the certainty that's found in the accounts that are given of what you did for us and what you taught. And so, Jesus, we thank you for that certainty, for that comfort, for that hope that we have. I pray, God, that you would help us to rest in the solid foundation of who you are, to trust in you for salvation and for all other things that take place in our lives. Lord, that we would rest and trust in you. Lord, knowing that you love us,

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And if you loved us enough to die upon the cross for us, Lord, you won't withhold all the other little things that we may need. You'll take care of us. And so God, I pray that you would help us to seek you first and allow you to take care of the rest. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.