Introduction

In this Advent sermon introducing the Gospel of Luke, Revd. Mark Fletcher explores why Luke wrote his “orderly account” for Theophilus—and for us. Discover how this revolutionary first-century text invites us not merely to learn facts about Jesus, but to encounter the “luminous figure of the Nazarene” and be transformed by the living Word of God.

At the end of all of our exploring will be to arrive where we first started and to know the place as if for the first time. It’s a lovely line by T.S. Eliot, and one of the beautiful things about the rhythm of the church year is that year by year we return to these stories. We return to the beginning to tell the story afresh and to know it as if for the first time.

And so here at the beginning of Advent, of the beginning of our church year, shall we set out on this adventure once again? And where should we begin? Well, how about we begin with the bare facts? So history tells us that in the early first century in Roman occupied Judea, there emerged a radical Jewish rabbi who taught in an unprecedented way and challenged the religious and political authorities and the status quo.

He gained a large following and quickly came to the attention of the authorities, and he was arrested and tried and executed. But far from dying out, his followers grew rapidly in number and spread beyond the borders of Judea and within a few years, despite often brutal suppression, they could be found across the Roman Empire.

These are the bare facts as history teaches us. But the question is, well, what does it mean? Who was this clearly remarkable figure and what do we make of him? And it remains an essential question because no one has influenced history as much as this man. As Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist says, no one has been able to imagine a higher ideal of humanity or virtue than is given by this Christ.

No one is more widely considered able to answer the essential questions of life. Jesus is like a meteor strike in history, after which nothing is ever the same again. So who is he? And then that brings us to this text known as the Gospel of St. Luke. And what we are looking at is, well, remember the Bible is not a book.

It is a collection of documents. And what we’re looking at here is an amazing mid to late first century text, which begins, verse one, many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events which have been fulfilled amongst us. And the events that are referred to, there are exactly that, the life and death of this Jesus.

These are the events of which we speak, and it is such an important question, as I’m sure you know, there are four accounts. Four of those many orderly accounts of these events in the Bible, and this is just one of those. Who is it written by? Well, the author never gives his name. Did you see in verse two it said these things were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses. So it’s somebody, not an eyewitness, but somebody who was associated with the eyewitnesses, the disciples, the apostles as he describes them, the servants of the word. But the early church was clear and confident that this writer is an associate of the Apostle Paul.

A physician and quite significantly a Gentile non-Jewish convert named Luke, who’s referred to elsewhere in the New Testament, in the Epistle to the Colossians. And I think it is particularly significant that he’s non-Jewish because that sort of makes sense of some of the particular style and emphasis of this particular text.

And then did you see? Rather intriguingly it is addressed to someone. Verse three. With this in mind, since I have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus. So who’s this Theophilus? Well, most excellent is a sort of honorific title in the ancient world.

So the suggestion is it’s someone of high status, someone influential, perhaps wealthy and educated, and it could be a particular person. But there’s a very interesting detail in that Christianity was being quite persecuted at this time, and so it’s possible that it’s a pseudonym. And the name Theophilus means friend of God.

And so it could be that it’s to a person or even a kind of category of people—educated, sophisticated, cosmopolitan, kind of Greek or Roman people in the wider world. The style of writing is really distinctive. It’s written in a sophisticated type of Greek. And its phraseology and its style is really different to the rest of the New Testament.

It’s more similar to Roman historical and political document writers like Josephus or Tacitus. It’s written, I think, to educated, sophisticated, cosmopolitan people. It has that audience in mind. It is a text written for the wider Roman world. And so it’s written with a purpose. Verse four, so that you may know the certainty of the things that you have been taught.

So if you remember, the good news about Jesus was communicated word of mouth. It was spread person to person, people telling the stories of what happened, and then significantly, those disciples, those apostles would travel around and teach and recount their firsthand experiences of what had happened. And it spread like wildfire in that way.

And can you imagine what an amazing experience it would have been to have, I don’t know, St. John or St. Peter arrive at your church and be like, okay, let me tell you what happened. It would have been a huge privilege to meet those first eyewitnesses. But here at the end of the first century, those eyewitnesses are coming to the end of their lives. In fact, many of them had been killed. And if those stories were going to continue to be taught, then there needed to be a new way of doing it. And also there is this kind of wider global audience as the early Christian faith had spread across the Roman Empire. And so innovation was needed, and this is it.

We take this for granted, but this written text, this gospel is a revolutionary document. It is a technological revolution transformation. It could be readily shared and passed from person to person. People could read it for themselves and they could know this orderly account of what had happened, they could put it all together.

This text changed the world. So two observations on this beginning. The first is, as the writer, Luke says, this is an orderly account. And life is complicated. Truth is often disputed. It’s often hard to cut through the propaganda and the noise. But Christianity has always been a force for great education.

It helps us to make sense of the world. And as he says, you can know the truth. You can know with certainty. And so my first challenge for you here as we begin a new church year, as we begin to look at this gospel is to not settle for a kind of limited understanding. Don’t settle for the confusion because you can know the truth.

And God’s word is there for us to make sense of life and faith, to do theology, and that is for all of us. That’s the gift of scripture. Everybody can read it for themselves. And I would encourage you to be doing just that. We’re going to be working through Luke’s gospel over the coming months and why don’t we get to know this amazing first century text a little better for ourselves?

Read it with us. Study it, understand it. It is an orderly account to help you to understand these things better. And then secondly, the purpose of this isn’t simply to learn abstract intellectual facts, but it is to know God. So the word truth that is used in verse two is none other than that famous word logos as in the beginning of John’s gospel.

In the beginning was the word, the logos. And scripture, the reason for all of this is not simply for you to know things, but to know a person, to know the word of God, who is Jesus. And of course, that logos has cosmic implications because the logos is the reason behind the universe, the meaning behind life.

And this text is there to help you to know that. Know him for yourself. Because you know by the work of the Holy Spirit, something revelatory happens when we read these texts because God speaks through it. That’s been the experience of God’s people over the centuries, and in fact, there’s an amazing quote by none other than Albert Einstein, who is not a Christian.

But he says this, I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene, of Jesus. No one can read the gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus, his personality pulsates in every word. Isn’t that an amazing quote by Einstein? And if that’s true of Albert Einstein, how much more should that be true of us?

This text is a gift for you. That you might encounter that luminous figure of the Nazarene. The job of this written word is for you to know the word of God. The word made flesh who is Jesus. It’s not simply information, but it is formational. It’s intended to challenge us, to confront us, to change us through an encounter with Christ.

And in a world which 2000 years later is still stumbling in the dark, there is a need both for the world and for the church to be confronted by the light of the world. This luminous figure, this remarkable figure in history, who is able to cut through the confusion and the noise and remind us of the truth about ourselves, of our humanity and the truth about God.

We call this the gospel, and it means the good news. And it is the greatest news. And Luke is going to tell us a story which has changed the lives of countless people in history. In fact, it changed the world. It’s a story of God who cares for ordinary people like you and me. Who grants dignity to the marginalised and raises up the humble and blesses the poor and sets the captive free and gives us a future and an inheritance.

So here at the beginning of Advent, shall we return to the beginning? Shall we pay careful attention and hear this story again as if for the first time. Shall we set out on this adventure once more and let this gospel, this good news do its work that we might know the truth, that we might know the logos, the word of God, and that the truth might set us free.

Amen.