How many people do you think Luke had to interview to get the details right in his gospel?
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is February 14, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called Doing the Research. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Genesis 47, Luke 1:1–38 (only half the chapter), and Job 13.
Please open your Bibles to Luke 1.
When I was in about fifth or sixth grade, I had to write a paper for my English class. In this paper, I had to interview someone who lived through something significant. The assignment wasn’t much more specific than that, but I found someone who had lived through something significant: my grandfather fought in World War II. He was on a submarine in the South Pacific and was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery in battle. In this paper I wrote, I was able to give my readers a pretty good idea of what life was like on a World War II era submarine because I went right to the source—to someone who was there, and got eyewitness testimony.
In today’s Scripture for Students, we’re going to read how Luke did the same thing, but with an even more significant subject matter.
Follow along with me as READ Luke 1:1–4,
1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us,
2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,
3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
There are a bunch of things we could look at in Luke chapter 1. In this chapter, we’ve got the story of the angel Gabriel appearing to Zechariah in the temple, announcing that Elizabeth is going to have a baby, who would become known as John the Baptist. Zechariah doesn’t believe Gabriel, so Gabriel takes away Zechariah’s voice until the baby is born. Then Gabriel goes to Mary and tells her that the baby Jesus is coming. She does believe Gabriel, so she gets to keep her voice. Mary visits Elizabeth, she’s overcome by what is happening and sings a song, then John is born and Zechariah gets his voice back. Lots going on here.
For today, I want us to pay attention to the first few verses of this chapter. Several things we learn here. First, let’s notice that Luke is writing for a guy named Theophilus. You may have heard before that the name Theophilus is the Greek word meaning, “lover of God.” Some people think that because of this, maybe Theophilus isn’t a real person, but a kind of stand in for every Christian who might read his gospel. But notice that Luke calls him, “most excellent Theophilus.” “Most excellent” is an honorific title that someone would typically use to recognize a person of higher social standing, so some people think that Theophilus was a real person and may have donated money to Luke to support him as he researched and wrote.
And look at all the research Luke has done. First, in verse 1, he says that many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things accomplished among us. And in verse 2, there were eyewitness accounts. Luke has read up and interviewed people to find out what happened and why. By the way, this is a really good reason to believe in the truthfulness of the Bible. Luke’s gospel was carefully researched, painstakingly written, to be sure that we have an accurate report of the life of Jesus.
Finally, did you notice why Luke wrote this gospel for Theophilus? It says in verse 4, “that you have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” Luke is a good friend and a caring Christian. What he wants to do for Theophilus, God wants to do for all of us. We have this book, and the other 65 books of the Bible, so that we can read and check for ourselves, how did these things really happen? These books bolster our faith by convincing us that the stories we learned in Sunday School as children are true, that the sermons we hear every week are true, and every verse we read in every quiet time we have are true.
Luke says explicitly what is true of the other gospels: he worked hard to get the story right. He read other written accounts. He chased down leads and interviewed people who were there. Think about these stories that we know so well. If you could have followed Luke around for some of his research, what would you have wanted to ask people who were there and saw Jesus and experienced his teaching and miracles? This is fun to think about.
I might want to ask:
- What was your favorite parable that Jesus told?
- What did the bread that he multiplied taste like?
- Peter, what was it like to walk on water? Did your feet get wet?
- Lazarus, what was it like to be dead?
I’m sure Luke asked great questions because he seems to have put together great stories into this amazing book called a gospel. What is a gospel, exactly? Well, there are a lot of ways people have described it, but think of it as a theological biography. It’s not all the biographical details about Jesus that we might want: what was he like as a kid? But it is a careful theological examination of the parts of his life that matter the most for our salvation.
As we read Luke for the next three weeks or so, pay attention to the many details that Luke has carefully collected and recorded for us. It is evidence that he did the work to connect to eye witnesses and get for us an accurate story about Jesus.
Then, tonight at dinner, this will be a fun discussion: ask your family, If you could interview someone who was there for one episode in the life of Jesus, who would you talk to and what would you ask? I think that will be a fun discussion!
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!