St. Luke, Evangelist
Dear friends in Christ. The Church has set aside today to remember St. Luke the Evangelist. We read in the book of Acts that Luke went with St. Paul on portions of his missionary journeys and Paul lists Luke among my fellow laborers (Ph. 24); and, in fact, Luke was with St. Paul as Paul was in prison awaiting execution under Nero. To Luke's credit, Paul tells Timothy: Only Luke is with me (2 Ti 4.11). From Holy Scripture we know that Luke was a doctor as Paul refers to him as the beloved physician (Col. 4.14).
There are a few things that people speculate about Luke. Some say that Luke was one of the 70 disciples Jesus sent out on a missionary journey; others say that he was the unnamed companion of Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. Since his gospel shows a great concern for Gentiles, Luke, supposedly, was originally a pagan, born in Antioch in Syria. Because Luke’s Gospel has a large number of parables and a poetic imagery showing an appreciation of beauty, there is a tradition that Luke was a painter.
Be all that as it may, what we remember St. Luke for, and what we give the Lord praise and thanks for today especially is that He chose St. Luke to be His instrument to write the account of our Lord’s life—and not only the beginning of what Jesus began to both do and teach (Ac 1.1) but also how the Lord worked with the apostles and confirmed the word through the signs that followed them (Mk. 16.20). That is, the Holy Spirit used St. Luke to be His instrument to write the early history of the Church in the book of Acts.
Luke writes in our text: Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write and orderly account… What we see here is that, led by the Holy Spirit, Luke conducted himself as a proper historian. Today, as we remember St. Luke and his being a historian, we also remember that Christianity is a historical religion; it is grounded in history. Christianity is a historical faith in the divine truth.
1. Of necessity, Christianity is a historical religion. Unlike many religions, Christianity is not a philosophy. The truths of Christianity, the essence of Christianity, is not something that people can arrive at after pondering a great while; it is not the result of human speculation. Paul writes: … when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2.1,2). In fact Paul warns us: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ (Col. 2.8). The point? –Christianity is not a philosophy; Christianity is a religion resting on historical facts summed up and centered in Christ. That is precisely what Luke does in his Gospel and Acts: He investigated everything from the beginning and wrote an orderly account of Jesus and His work to save us from our sins.
How we need to hear this in our day and age today! So many people calling themselves Christians look for comfort and the certainty of their salvation by focusing on themselves. They look at their feelings. If they feel loved by God, if they feel everything is going their way, then they are certain things are right between them and God, certain of heaven. That’s why so much so-called “worship” is based on whipping people up to an emotional high with the praise band, to giving them a warm fuzzy feeling with their weekly affirmation. We have the most popular so-called preachers telling people how they can be the best person they can be; “Christianity” for them in another self-help sort of scheme, another way to self- actualization.
This is why we need the simple reminder from St. Luke—Christianity is history. It is historical facts focused on Christ crucified. It tells us that at the right time and in complete fulfillment of prophecies made centuries before, the one true eternal God, the second Person of the holy Trinity broke into the time and space of our world and became also a true man who was born of the virgin Mary and lived and died under Pontius Pilate, governor of Palestine. Christianity is the historical fact of Jesus, true God and true man, being conceived without sin and living his whole life without sin; that He did this for us as our Substitute since we cannot go even a day without sin. Christianity is the historical fact of Jesus undoing and destroying all the works of the devil. Christianity is the historical fact of Jesus, true God and man, taking all the sins of the world upon Himself to the cross where He suffered the wrath of God for us for our sins, appeasing God’s wrath over our sin and reconciling the world to God. Christianity is the historical fact of Jesus rising from the dead Conqueror of sin, death, devil and hell, rising from the dead because He perfectly paid for our sins, rising from the dead because God declared the world “forgiven!” Christianity is the historical fact of Jesus ascending into heaven and opening heaven to all believers. Christianity is the historical fact of Jesus sending His Christians the Holy Spirit to create and preserve faith in our hearts, to strengthen us to resist and fight sin, to live a life more and more in line with the holy will of God.
Because Christianity is history, because our salvation is bound up in the historical act of Christ Jesus, it is certain. That is what we look to for peace, comfort and joy—even as we are in the midst of greatest sorrow. We recognize all the outward fluff of so-called Christianity for what it really is—a man made religion that places human beings center, as self-centered egotism, not the divinely revealed religion in the Person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. That is why we will daily examine our hearts and lives in the light of God’s holy law—and we will do that unashamedly—we will see all our sin, and recognize it as such, not as mere mistakes or weaknesses, but as rebellions against the will of the one, true, holy God. And in faith we look to the historical facts of the life, suffering and death of Jesus, and there we see that our sin has been paid for and that the holiness God demands of us has been fulfilled. We look to Jesus’ resurrection and see that yes, our sin is forgiven. Knowing that our sin earns us God’s wrath and damnation but that in Jesus that sin is forgiven, how our hearts swell in love of God for His grace and mercy to us who in no way deserved any of it! How in that love, and led and empowered by His Holy Spirit in us, we strive to root that and all sin out of our lives. When we recognize that our salvation is grounded not on us and our works but on what Jesus, that historical person, did for us, we rejoice that Christianity is historical—all based on what Jesus has done.
2. Because history is a necessity in Christianity, therefore there must be the certainty of that history. That’s what St. Luke states in our text—the historical account of the works of Jesus for our salvation are firm historical fact. Our text: Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word delivered them to us… The Lord willed that the account, the history, of His work for the salvation of the world be written down, and although the facts were well known, many wrote them incorrectly. They perhaps used their own judgment of what to include, or perhaps they chose selectively to promote a certain viewpoint, or maybe they didn’t know the whole story. Whatever the reason, Luke was moved to write this Gospel to protect the message, to protect the historical account from becoming skewed by false teachers using these inadequate or false accounts. Luke points to certain written accounts, records, narratives, sayings, etc. already in existence that the disciples had written—those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. Luke is a second generation Christian—he had heard these things from the disciples who delivered them to us. But Jesus promised those disciples, who had been with Jesus from the very beginning of His ministry with His baptism by John, And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. And the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name…will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (Jn. 15.27, 14.26) The apostles had the Holy Spirit and without any error preached and wrote the history of Jesus, the firm, certain historical facts of our salvation accomplished for us.
Now, what does St. Luke do? Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account… Luke has thoroughly, accurately, painstakingly investigated the historical facts. He has talked to eyewitnesses—probably even Mary herself as Luke includes much about the events surrounding Jesus’ birth, things that she certainly would have treasured and pondered in her heart. Luke, the historian, is qualified to write this history and he did so under the inner impulse of the Holy Spirit. St. Peter (2 Pe 1.21) later writes by the same Holy Spirit: …holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit and as the Christians (Ac 15.28) would later write: it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us…. Luke undertook took his work under the impulse and guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit saw to it that Luke’s writing was kept free from error and was eventually preserved and gathered into the Bible.
Because Christianity is grounded in history, those historical facts must be accurate and here to Holy Spirit saw to it that they were.
3. But yet, because Christianity is grounded in history, on historical fact of what God in Christ has done for us in, Satan turns around to try to use that to destroy faith. Let us here be warned: Knowing and believing the historical facts will do us no good if it is not combined with faith in the heart. Another apostle warns: You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! (Jas. 2.19) The demons believe the fact, that these historical facts took place but there is no faith in the heart. That’s why Luke tells his reason for writing the Gospel: so that you, most excellent Theophilus, may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. Luke doesn’t want Theophilus merely to know the historical facts of God becoming man to be our Savior, but to put his confidence and trust in them, to be certain that Jesus paid for his sins and has opened heaven to us and to base his hope of heaven on Jesus and His work. Luke wrote his Gospel for Theophilus, perhaps a Roman official or at least a man with wealth and power, so that he might have a reliable “textbook” for further study and growth in the faith. That’s why we Christians also have the word of God in the Bible—so that we may study in and grow in the faith, grow in our trust and reliance on Jesus as our Savior and so be certain of our salvation.
On top of that, Christianity is not some mere historical facts found in the dust of ancient history, but they are still a present reality to us as we gather around our Lord’s Word and Sacrament. In baptism, Jesus’ death and resurrection become a present reality as we are baptized into them and clothed with Jesus and holy perfection. In the Lord’s Supper it is as if we are right there as we eat His very body that was cursed for our sin and drink His very blood that was shed to bring us forgiveness.
Christianity rests upon historical fact centered in Jesus Christ and His work for our salvation. It is certain because the historical accounts are certain- thoroughly investigated, eyewitness accounts that the Holy Spirit Himself has preserved from any error. Therefore may we place our full confidence in them and the Savior from sin they proclaim. INJ