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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Luke 1:1:
Luke 1:1-4
Excerpted from: Things Pertaining to the Kingdom!Acts is a second volume of a two volume history written by Luke, the companion of the apostle Paul. The first volume is the gospel according to Luke, and sometimes scholars refer to these books as Luke/Acts. Luke says the former account I made of O Theophilus—this is in reference to the gospel of Luke, which has a similar introduction.
The book of Luke begins with a dedication to a man whom he calls the most excellent Theophilus. Luke mentions Theophilus again in the Acts of the Apostles, as we just read, referring also to Luke's former book; and the name Theophilus means friend of God.
First we find an emphasis on the historical basis of Christianity. Luke tells Theophilus that he is going to continue the history that he began in his gospel. In Luke's earlier book, he said he had very carefully investigated the details of the life of Jesus Christ and had written them down only after this investigation. So Luke wants to continue that procedure and acts; he wants to be very careful and continue to investigate and make sure his facts are correct.
It is impossible to separate the Christ of faith from the Jesus of history; the Christ of faith that Christ presented to us in the pages of the New Testament is the Jesus of history, and there is no other. This is what Luke says as he begins both his gospel and Acts.
Luke 1:1-4
Excerpted from: Four Views of Christ (Part 5)The opening to the book of Luke is entirely distinctive from the other accounts in that it is a personal, man-to-man greeting. He (God, through Luke) is sending us a signal right from the very beginning. It is a personal letter. It is approaching Christ from a different perspective. A Man is going to be described, so Luke begins to draw Theophilus by the cords of a man by showing his personal knowledge of Jesus' life.
The opening chapter in the book of John begins by showing Jesus' origins as not being of the world. Matthew begins with a genealogy of a King. Mark jumps right in and shows Jesus serving. But Luke begins by giving a background for a simple tale. Verse 5 says, "And there was in the days of Herod . . ." That is kind of interesting. It almost starts off like some fairy tales or novels that I have read.
You begin to see the different approach altogether. He is drawing us with a warm, human story, not of the divinity that is out of reach, but rather somebody that is warmly human. Immediately we are introduced to human feelings and relationships. There is nothing like this in the others. We begin to get intimate circumstances of His birth, the infancy of Jesus Christ, of John the Baptist, and even His family relationship to John the Baptist.
ArticlesSpotlight on Luke
SermonsThe Magnificent Work of God
Acts (Part One)
Using God's Irrevocable Gifts for His Glory
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