A Certain Faith

Luke 1:1-4

Main Idea: A belief isn’t worth having if you can’t be certain it is true. Christianity is the only certain and therefore trustworthy faith.

1. Why Does Luke Write His Gospel?
   1. A biblical faith
   2. A historical faith
   3. A verifiable faith
2. How Does Luke Order His Gospel?
   1. Chronological order
   2. Geographic order
   3. Dramatic order
   4. Theological order

The powerful and penetrating writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates challenges me. I think Coates captivates so many readers because of his plain and sometimes painful statement of things. As a writer, he strikes me as someone attempting to be honest—bald and bare honesty, no sheltering hats or pretty clothes, just the full truth as he sees it.

Coates writes with a rare certainty—even about religious things. In his book Between the World and Me Coates retells the story of a young man in Baltimore pulling a gun on him when he was a child. He then offers these words:

I could not retreat, as did so many, into the church and its mysteries. My parents rejected all dogmas. We spurned the holidays marketed by the people who wanted to be white. We would not stand for their anthems. We would not kneel before their God. And so I had no sense that any just God was on my side. “The meek shall inherit the earth” meant nothing to me. The meek were battered in West Baltimore, stomped out at Walbrook Junction, bashed up on Park Heights, and raped in the showers of the city jail. My understanding of the universe was physical, and its moral arc bent toward chaos then concluded in a box. (Coates, Between the World and Me, 28)

Later in the book Coates writes, “You must resist the common urge toward the comforting narrative of divine law, toward fairy tales that imply some irrepressible justice” (Between the World and Me, 70). It’s not merely that faith claims were no comfort to Coates; rather, those claims must be resisted. He continues:

Raised conscious, in rejection of a Christian God, I could see no higher purpose in Prince’s death. I believed, and still do, that our bodies are our selves, that my soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that my spirit is my flesh. (Ibid., 79)

What strikes me about Coates’s writing on religious matters isn’t his atheism. I am not surprised by unbelief. I have lived in unbelief enough years to understand something of its grip. What surprises me is how certain he is in his unbelief. Ironically, while rejecting Christian faith, he cannot help but make faith claims of his own—even if they are non-religious claims. He writes, “I believed, and still do.”

Here’s the truth: We cannot live without belief of some sort. We may believe in God, or we may believe, as Coates, in our bodies and a material universe that has no meaning. In either case we are believers. There are no unbelievers in the world, just people who believe in different things.

In such a world certainty becomes a rare and precious gift. The quest for certainty poses real dangers. We can give up on the quest prematurely, concluding that certainty itself is a hoax. Or we can be certain about things that are wrong or false. We all face that danger. So we’re left with a question: Can we be sure that what we believe is true?

Why Does Luke Write His Gospel?

The Gospel of Luke belongs to what we call “the Synoptic Gospels”—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They “see” (optic) “together” (syn-). They tell the same basic story about the Lord Jesus Christ. There are places where one of the Gospel writers includes stories or teachings that the others do not, but by and large they relay the truth about Jesus’s life and ministry from the same vantage point.

A man named Luke wrote what we call the Gospel of Luke and its sequel, the book of Acts. In Colossians 4:10-14 the apostle Paul lists people who were partners with him in the ministry. He first lists Aristarchus, Mark, and Justus, and says of them, “These alone of the circumcised are my coworkers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me” (v. 11). These were Paul’s Jewish partners. Then Paul lists Epaphras and describes him as “one of you” (v. 12)—a Colossian. And finally Paul refers to “Luke, the dearly loved physician” (v. 14), letting us know that Luke was (a) a companion of Paul’s, (b) a physician, and (c) a Gentile.

Luke opens his Gospel by telling us his purpose in verses 3-4. “Theophilus” (v. 3), the name of the addressee, literally means “lover of God.” It could be a name for an actual person; Luke addresses him in Acts 1:1 as well. Or it could be a code name for the entire church. In either case Luke intends his Gospel to provide believers “certainty” (v. 1) in the things they have been taught about Jesus Christ and the Christian faith.

Can we be certain of the teachings of a faith? Is not faith something you just believe without certainty? Is not faith a leap into nothingness? And is it not proud and arrogant to think your faith is certain and others are wrong?

The Christian claim is that the things the Bible teaches about Jesus are true and certain. We take this position for three reasons.

A Biblical Faith

First, we may be certain because Christianity is a biblical faith. That’s what Luke means when he says in verse 1 that certain events “have been fulfilled among us.” The word “fulfilled” has the sense of something being “accomplished” (ESV). Why that word choice? Why “fulfilled” or “accomplished” rather than merely “happened”?

Luke is referring to the promises of the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures. One simple way of understanding the Bible’s organization is to think of the Old Testament as “promises made” and the New Testament as “promises kept.” The Old Testament looks forward to God keeping promises that he made to men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and King David. The New Testament books, like Luke’s Gospel, record for us how God kept or fulfilled those promises.

Now, if Christianity is “certain,” then we should expect it to finish or fulfill all the promises made in the Old Testament. We should expect the Christian claims to be thoroughly rooted in previous biblical promises. We should expect the New Testament to be more than current events. These are not things that “just happened.” These are foreseen and fore-promised events that have now come to pass. One of the major themes of Luke’s Gospel is his emphasis on the plan of God and its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

In fact, when Luke sets out to give us certainty by showing us how Jesus fulfills the promises of God, he reads and studies the Old Testament exactly the way Jesus himself did while on earth with his disciples. Luke 24:44-48 forms a bookend with 1:1-4, emphasizing the same idea that biblical promises are being fulfilled.

He told them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms [the entire Old Testament] must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

Two of the same key words are in Luke 24 as in Luke 1: “fulfilled” (v. 44) and “witnesses” (v. 48). The entire Gospel is about God accomplishing his plan and humans seeing him do it.

What is God’s plan? The heart of biblical faith is the person and work of Jesus Christ—it is the gospel message.

We may be certain of the Christian faith because Christianity is a biblical faith.

You may object, “Wait a minute! That’s circular reasoning. You can’t say Christianity is certain by saying, ‘The Bible says so.’” You are correct. I mean, people could make up religious ideas and stories, right? Or they could just be mistaken about what they saw since that was a prescientific era, right?

If all we had were circular references to the Bible, we would not have much. But the fulfillment of the Bible’s promises and prophecies is not the only reason we believe in the certainty of the faith.

A Historical Faith

Second, we may be certain because the Christian faith is a historical faith. Luke points to evidence outside the Bible for believing what is inside the Bible. Verse 2 specifically refers to those who were “eyewitnesses . . . of the word.” That refers to all the people at the time who saw these things. He refers also to the apostles who were “servants of the word” and companions with Jesus. This is not third-person hearsay. In the Gospels we have eyewitness evidence admissible in a court of law. In fact, some scholars believe that Luke and Acts are companion volumes written as a legal brief in defense of the apostle Paul. If this forms part of a legal brief, then Luke roots his account in evidence, not imagination.

This is a major difference between Christianity and every other major world religion. I wavered between agnosticism and atheism as a young man in my mid-twenties. That time of uncertainty followed a period when I lived as a practicing Muslim. I feel as if I have been around the religious block! In Islam there is so much certitude. Muslims are convinced that Islam is the final religion and culmination of all religions and that Muhammad is the final prophet and greatest of all prophets. Do you know what there is very little of in Islam? There’s very little external historical evidence for its religious claims. For example, every Muslim believes in Muhammad being miraculously transported to Jerusalem and from there into heaven. That’s why Muslims claim the Dome of the Rock and the temple grounds in Jerusalem as a holy site. Yet there is no historical evidence that Muhammad ever went to Jerusalem. None. It’s the stuff of dreams; it’s not the stuff of history. In Christianity we’re receiving history fulfilled in view of all.

The things we claim as Christians were not done in secret. They were done in space and time and leave a historical footprint. Consider how Luke gives us specific historical dates and figures as he recounts the life of Jesus:

In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah’s division named Zechariah. (1:5)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. (2:1-2)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, . . . (3:1-2)

What do these passages have in common? They give us the specific names of actual people and places. They also give us specific time references. This means we are not left dependent on the Bible’s claims to have certainty. We can look outside the Bible to test what is inside the Bible.

Archaeology and history both confirm the accuracy of Luke’s account. In fact, whenever archaeology makes a discovery, it tends to confirm the accuracy of the biblical text. And time and again those who have examined Luke for historical accuracy have found the text completely reliable. It is as if God not only put his word on paper, he also carved it into stones. For our certainty, God left us a record inside and outside the Bible.

A Verifiable Faith

Which brings us to a third reason for our certainty. Christianity presents a verifiable faith. Luke’s Gospel is a “carefully investigated . . . orderly sequence” (v. 1).

Many others had written accounts (v. 1). We have three other divinely inspired accounts in the Bible: Matthew, Mark, and John. But Luke may not be limiting his reference to just those accounts. “Many” is a wide word. Though “many” have tried to write a narrative, only four have been recognized as Scripture. From the very start of Christianity, Christ’s followers have set his teaching and life to writing. The early church attempted to be a biblically literate church.

And they were careful about what they accepted. They rejected the false Gospels that were not associated with an apostle and often written very late. You may hear of the so-called lost books of the Bible. Those “lost books” include things like the Gospel of Thomas. Do not let such writings trouble you. The early church worked prayerfully and faithfully to preserve God’s Word. They had five tests for whether a writing should be part of the canon of Scripture:

1. Was the book written by a prophet of God?
2. Was the writer authenticated by miracles to confirm his message?
3. Does the book tell the truth about God, with no falsehood or contradiction?
4. Does the book evince a divine capacity to transform lives?
5. Was the book accepted as God’s Word by the people to whom it was first delivered?

These tests help us establish what should be regarded as Scripture. These tests give us a foundation for rejecting the Apocrypha, those books dated between the close of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament. Roman Catholics include these books in their Bibles, but these books were never accepted by first-century Jews or the early church. They fail the test of canonicity, and so we reject them as Scripture, however useful or edifying they may be in other ways. These tests help us assess and reject later books falsely attributed to apostles, like the so-called Gospel of Thomas and others.

Because the church wrestled through these questions of canonicity, we can be confident that the sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible are the same books used by the early church. We see this same carefulness in the Gospel of Luke, which, by the way, was always received by the early church as Scripture—even by heretics like Marcion. Marcion was the “Edward Scissorhands” of the early church, famous for cutting out parts of the Bible he did not like. As it turns out, he did not like most of the Bible. But even Marcion accepted Luke’s Gospel as Scripture.

What am I saying with all of this? Christianity can be tested. Because it can be tested, it can be trusted.

What sets the Gospel of Luke apart is Luke’s critical and logical analysis. The Gospel of Luke is a kind of investigative journalism. He “carefully investigated everything from the very first.” He was not an eyewitness, but he apparently interviewed the eyewitnesses. That is why Luke’s Gospel includes unique incidents like the conversation between Mary and Martha when the two women were pregnant, the Magnificat (the song Mary sings when she visits Elizabeth), and the details about Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy. How would Luke know these things? He likely had access to Mary and others who knew these details. Luke has been investigating, verifying, testing the truth as he compiles the narrative.

If you have ever been told that to be a Christian “you must check your mind at the door,” I am here to tell you somebody lied to you. Bring your mind to this book, and both your mind and your heart will be satisfied. To be a Christian is to be a thinking being and to think most deeply about the most profound things—the nature of God and the ways of God in the universe. Do not check your mind at the door. If you ever meet a pastor who gives you that impression, find yourself another pastor and another church. Was it not the Lord himself who told us that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Bring your brain to church. You’ll be lost without it! Bring your mind and open it to the truth of God’s Word.

Our faith can be tested because it is a historical faith with external evidence. Consequently, when we talk about Christianity we are not talking about mythology, superstitions, or manmade traditions. We are talking about truth. I stress that because some people think that any religious claim must be a myth or legend. But when they say that about Christianity, they prove they don’t know much about mythology!

C. S. Lewis was a student of literature, including mythology. Lewis came to faith in Christ late in life. He knew what it was to study literature as a non-Christian and what it was to appreciate literature as a Christian. He addressed the notion that Christianity is mythology head on.

All I am in private life is a literary critic and historian, that’s my job. And I am prepared to say on that basis if anyone thinks the Gospels are either legend or novels, then that person is simply showing his incompetence as a literary critic. I’ve read a great many novels and I know a fair amount about the legends that grew up among early people, and I know perfectly well the Gospels are not that kind of stuff. (Christian Reflections, 209)

In another place Lewis writes,

Now, as a literary historian, I am perfectly convinced that whatever else the Gospels are they are not legends. I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear that they are not the same sort of thing. They are not artistic enough to be legends. From an imaginative point of view they are clumsy; they don’t work up to things properly. (God in the Dock, 169)

What is Lewis saying? He’s saying that you can tell a work of fiction or legend when you read it. Legends have the feel and scent of unreality. Legends have a fantastical quality about them. Lewis, who taught at Oxford for many years, knew his legends and myths. He assures us that the Gospels feel and smell like reality because they present the gritty truth about life.

If you are considering the claims of Christianity, let me give you a tip. The only religion you have to test, the only religion you can test, is Christianity. Test it with your whole mind. Test it with your whole heart. Ask all of your questions. Go honestly to the answers. If you find Christianity lacking, then walk away from it. And you can walk away from all religions in the world. But if you find it compelling, then submit yourself to it. Trust it. It will be the only religion you need.

The reason you may walk away from all other religions if you reject Christianity is Christianity makes a unique claim among all the world’s faiths. All other religions teach humanity how we may climb up to God; Christianity teaches, “This is how God came down to you.” It’s the only faith where God in his great love and mercy wraps himself in our humanity, lives in our places, suffers and dies for us, then rises for our forgiveness and right standing with God. As a consequence, all who believe in the Son of God are reconciled to God, forgiven their sins, and joined together with God by faith. Those who believe in Christ will most certainly see God face-to-face on the day when time is ended and eternity begins. No one else promises that—not Buddha or Muhammad, not Zoroastrianism or any other religion. Only Jesus promises this.

Test it. Seek him. Look for the truth while it may be found. The Truth will find you and keep you.

If you are not yet a Christian, I ask, Do your beliefs offer you this kind of certainty? What do you believe about God? About Jesus? About the purpose of life, and what happens after death? Is what you believe certain to be true? I am not asking if you feel certain about what you believe. I am asking you something about the beliefs themselves. Are the beliefs certain to be true? Can you verify them with history, eyewitness accounts, or fulfilled prophecy? Or is the only authority for your belief the fact that you believe it and imagine or want it to be so?

Here’s the key question: Do you really want to base your life and risk all of heaven and hell on your own thoughts?

Before you risk your soul on your own thoughts you should consider at least two things. Consider how little we know as limited, imperfect human beings. Then consider the biblical and historical evidence for Christianity.

Friend, the only things worth believing are true things. Religions can be very beautiful and contain a lot of good. But if they are false, then they are futile. A person’s faith is only as good as the object they rest their faith on. We can be confident in what we believe only if what we believe is true. What we offer you in Christianity is a faith that is biblically, historically, and verifiably true and therefore trustworthy.

Believe the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is true. That is the only reason to do so.

How Does Luke Order His Gospel?

Luke tells us he has set out to write an “orderly sequence.” He means to give his story structure. As we work our way through the Gospel we can see something of the order Luke has given it.

Chronological Order

While the narrative is not strictly chronological, there remains a chronological flow to the book. We might divide the Gospel into four sections:

• Before Jesus’s birth to age twelve (chs. 1–2)
• Beginning of public ministry (chs. 3–9)
• Training of his disciples and teaching about the kingdom (chs. 10–19)
• Betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection (chs. 20–24)

Geographic Order

Second, the Gospel of Luke follows a geographic order. In chapters 1–9 the bulk of the action takes place in and around Galilee. Galilee included Jesus’s hometown area and his ministry headquarters in Capernaum.

Chapters 9–19 find Jesus on the move, traveling to Jerusalem (9:51). Though the Lord enters many towns and villages, Jerusalem looms in the distance as his ultimate destination. Every step Jesus takes brings him closer to his cross.

• As they were traveling on the road . . . (9:57).
• While they were traveling . . . (10:38).
• He went through one town and village after another, teaching and making his way to Jerusalem (13:22).
• Then he took the Twelve aside and told them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished” (18:31).
• As he approached Jericho . . . (18:35).
• He entered Jericho and was passing through (19:1).
• When he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem (19:28).

The remainder of the Gospel (chs. 19–24) takes place in Jerusalem.

Dramatic Order

This geographical movement helps reveal the drama of the text. While Jesus moves, he moves into greater conflict and toward his earthly purpose.

In Galilee (chs. 1–9) Jesus lives at the height of popularity. The people seem to love him. He has a spreading fame. As a boy in the temple he amazes the religious leaders with his knowledge (ch. 2). John the Baptist announces him as the promised Messiah (ch. 3). Then Jesus begins his public ministry by defeating the temptations of Satan in the wilderness and reading the scroll of Isaiah as autobiography (ch. 4). He goes on to heal various people and call his first disciples (chs. 5–9). He begins to teach about the kingdom of God. The people received all of this with gladness.

The mood changes when he begins to journey toward Jerusalem in chapter 9. The Lord begins to face opposition and rejection. In chapter 11 people accuse him of casting out demons by the power of Satan and ask for a sign to prove he is the Messiah. So Jesus calls them a wicked and perverse generation. The Lord begins to warn openly against the scribes and Pharisees (ch. 12). He once privately warned his disciples about them; now he calls them hypocrites openly. He also begins to stress that repentance from sin is imperative for escaping hell (13:1-5). People must follow him or they are not worthy of the kingdom of God (14:25-27,33). These confrontations go on until 19:45-48, when Jesus forcefully cleanses the temple.

In Jerusalem things turn murderous. Jesus openly teaches in the temple every day. But behind closed doors the religious leaders plot to kill him (ch. 22). The ones who should have recognized him and told the people “This is the one” put thirty pieces of silver as a bounty on his head. One of his twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot, sold the Lord out, and his other followers denied him after he was arrested (ch. 22). The religious leaders put the Lord through a sham trial before crucifying him just as he had predicted they would (ch. 23). But that is not the end of the story! After being put to death for claiming to be the promised Messiah, three days later God raised Jesus from the dead—defeating death and hell, the grave and condemnation (ch. 24).

Theological Order

Finally, Luke’s Gospel contains a theological order. Luke 1–6 and 10–18 present to us Jesus Christ the Great Prophet. In these sections we meet Jesus as the one who teaches the very word of God, who John 1 tells us is the Word of God in the flesh. The Lord Jesus is the one who teaches the word of God perfectly and fearlessly even in the face of opposition (13:31-34). Picture the Lord Jesus, arms stretched out over the entire globe, crying out not only to ancient Jerusalem but to all the neighborhoods of your city, to all people everywhere. The Prophet calls the nations to come to him. He cries out, “How I stretch my arms to you. I would receive you, but you’re not willing.” He says, “I have been crucified, resurrected, ascended into heaven where I now reign. What more proof do you need that I am the Son of God and that I save sinners from condemnation? Oh, come to me!” Here stands the Great Prophet of God giving the word of God that the life of God might inhabit the souls of men!

In chapters 7–9 Luke also presents the Lord Jesus to us as the Great Priest of God. In those chapters we see Jesus healing the broken, cleansing lepers, and forgiving sinners. Luke 6:17-19 provides a good summary of our Lord’s priestly ministry. In the Old Testament worship in Israel, the law required unclean people to present themselves to the priests for inspection before they could worship with Israel or live in the city gates. If they were found unclean they were forced to live outside the city and away from contact with others for the duration of their uncleanness. Think of it as an ancient quarantine against disease. Once the uncleanness passed, they had to present themselves to the priests for inspection before resuming life with the covenant people of God. The Levitical priests had no power to make a man clean, only to pronounce whether they were or not. But when people came to Jesus, they were not quarantined but cleansed, healed, and forgiven! The Lord Jesus is the real Great High Priest who makes us clean and whole.

One of the things I love about Luke’s Gospel is Jesus most often serves as High Priest to lowly people. He comes in tenderness and compassion to those society has forgotten, those who are left out. He has sharp words for the religious elites, the rich and powerful. He does not have to cozy up with elites of this world. He preaches to them that they should repent or perish, then he leaves them. He goes in great tenderness to the thieves and lepers. He eats in the homes of tax collectors and accepts worship from prostitutes. I love that Luke shows us a Savior who goes to the broken and makes them beautiful.

Luke shows us that Jesus loves women. Luke often takes a woman of questionable background and places her in the context of men professing to be holy. Think, for example, of the woman who anoints the Lord with oil and washes his feet with her tears. Sitting across from her and the Lord is the owner of the house, Simon, a strict Pharisee indignant at the scene. He said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—she’s a sinner!” (7:39). Jesus, knowing Simon’s heart, uses the woman’s devotion to him to expose the self-righteousness of the Pharisee. The woman is honored and cared for.

Luke 8:1-3 shows us women playing a vital trustee role in our Lord’s earthly ministry. The Savior does not skip over people society likes to overlook. He stops. He loves them. He heals them. And he uses them in his kingdom.

Luke also shows us that Jesus is King (chs. 19–24). Luke 20:41-44 includes an argument wherein religious leaders attempt to snare Jesus with a trick question. The Lord’s answer is a “mic drop” that ends all debate before he enters Jerusalem. The Lord uses the Psalms to show the beauty and intricacy of Scripture. Jesus uses David’s words to prove that the Messiah would not only be a descendant of David but also be David’s Lord who sits at God’s right hand. The son of man would also be the Son of God. The Son of David would be none other than the King of kings himself, the second person of the Trinity. This King comes into the world not only as King but also as sacrifice and servant. Luke holds out to us the certainty that Jesus Christ is the Great Prophet, Priest, and King who redeems from their sin those who believe in him.

Conclusion

As we travel with Luke through his Gospel, I pray that we travel to Jesus, the main point of the Gospel. I pray we get to know him better and love him more than we ever have.

If you are not yet a Christian, you may begin to know him now by repenting of your sins and placing your faith in Jesus as your Lord and God. He will not forsake you. He will save you.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What is certainty?
2. In what ways is certainty important or unimportant to daily life?
3. Can we have certainty in matters of faith and religion?
4. How is religious certainty like or different from scientific claims to certainty?
5. What effect does uncertainty tend to have on us?
6. What is the difference between certainty and arrogance? Can one be certain without being intolerant or proud?
7. Can you recall a time when uncertainty gave way to certainty? What was that like? What difference did it make to you?
8. Luke aims to give his readers certainty about the things taught about Christ. Which test of certainty—biblical fulfillment or historical reliability—helps you most and why?
9. How might Luke’s prologue be useful in defending the Christian faith against the idea that it is mythology?
10. Can you think of anyone who struggles with certainty about the claims of Christ? Prayerfully consider reading the Gospel of Luke with that person in order to help that person gain certainty.