Luke 1:1-4 

In the opening verses of Luke, we find the main purpose of the book: to build certainty. 


We need to understand the times.

The Jewish people are full of pride and religion.   

The Roman culture is one of power, pleasure, and pride.  

Respect of life, love for people, love for your enemies, seeing other people as equals, is foreign to their thoughts. 

It is into this world that, unbeknownst to either group, the King of Kings is born, bent on transforming lives and the world.  

Tertullian wrote at the end of the second century, “Christians were filling the palace, the senate, the forum, and the camp, leaving their temples only to the heathen.” 

Christianity was on the move. The call to disciple the world was moving forward against all odds because of the power of the Holy Spirit. 

He also wrote, “To persecute Christians at this time [the close of the second century] would be to decimate Carthage.” 

This is one of the standards of certainty we can hang our hats on. 

Two powerful cultures bent on holding onto power, killing a revolutionary thinker, and persecuting His followers who overcomes them on the foundation that this dead leader is really alive and His message begins to change the world. 

This is impossible on its own. 

Luke’s writing strikes to the very core of the events and teachings of Jesus that will transform hearts and cultures. 


Can we be certain that what we read is what really happened?

Two basic rules for certainty with historical reporting:

1. How close in time to the events or original writing is our present day information?
   
   
2. How many copies do we have and do they say the same information?

Some people say that the New Testament was written much later. However, many of the writings of the early church contain quotes from the New Testament books.

Most unbiased scholars today confirm that the New Testament books were written within the first century.   


How did the books come about?

In the early days of the church and the tradition of the day is that most teaching was oral.   

That was fine while the church was small and confined to Jerusalem.  

But the church grew, and the persecution of the church caused the church to disperse around the known world and so did the message.  

The growing church needed to know with certainty more than the simple message of Jesus risen from the dead; they needed His teaching. 

So, in those early days, the first Gospel, Mark, was written.  

As time passes, other books begin to circulate. Luke says that “many have undertaken to write a narrative.”Many of them were not accurate.  

It is at this time that Matthew is written, and shortly after that Luke.  

Most believe that both Matthew and Luke were written before A.D. 70.

Luke 21:20-24 

It shows that by the last decade of the first century the first three Gospels had been written, and were used as authoritative revelation of Christian teaching. 

At first they were alluded to as the “memoirs of the apostles.”

Faith With Certainty

Let’s study it with confidence.