Trans World Radio - India

Chapter 1

Historically, Dr. Luke begins his Gospel before the other synoptic Gospels. Heaven had been silent for over 400 years when the angel Gabriel broke through the blue at the golden altar of prayer to announce the birth of John the Baptist. Luke gives us the
background as well as the births of John and Jesus. Neither Joseph nor Mary was God’s accidental choice. They both possessed certain noble human character traits. Joseph was an unselfish, humble and dependable man of high ideals. Mary possessed the same character traits. She was obedient and uncomplaining, with a definite knowledge of the Old Testament. Long before medical science gave any attention to heredity, Dr. Luke placed a great emphasis upon it.

Dr. Luke makes it abundantly clear that Jesus is virgin born. No other conclusion can be drawn from the definite, direct, and dogmatic statements of the angel Gabriel to Mary. Until man knows more about the origin of life, he is in no position, scientifically, to refute
dogmatically the statement of Dr. Luke. A true scientific approach is that of humble inquiry and patience.

Three songs are in this chapter:

1. Elisabeth’s greeting of Mary, vv. 42-45;
2. The magnificat of Mary, vv. 46-55;
3. The prophecy of Zacharias, vv. 67-79.

Chapter 2

This is the careful historical record of the birth of Jesus tied into the record of the Roman government. The simple record of the visit of the shepherds is tied into the sublime record of the visit of the heavenly host.

Jesus was brought to the temple when 8 days old to be circumcised according to Mosaic Law:

But, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to
redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:4, 5)

As a result of this visit to Jerusalem, we have the songs of Simeon and Anna. The one isolated incident from the boyhood of Jesus is recorded by Dr. Luke to let us know that Jesus had a normal human childhood (see vs. 52).

1. Jesus increased in wisdom (mental),
2. in stature (physical),
3. in favor with God and man (spiritual).

Chapter 3

Luke, with a true historian’s approach, dates the ministry of John the Baptist with secular history (see vv. 1, 2). Luke places the emphasis upon John’s message of repentance as the condition for the coming of the Messiah. From the Mosaic system of washing in water, which was a common custom of immersion in that day, John baptized those who came to him as merely a preparation - a moral reformation - for the coming of Christ. Jesus would baptize by the Holy Spirit - a real transformation.

The genealogy in this chapter is Mary’s, which reveals two facts. First, it goes back to Adam, the father of the human family. Jesus was truly human. Matthew, in presenting Jesus as king, traces the genealogy back only as far as Abraham. Luke, in presenting Jesus as man, goes back to Adam. In the second place, Mary was descended from David through another than Solomon; that is, from David’s son Nathan (v. 31; compare 1 Chronicles 3:5).

Chapter 4

Jesus is tempted as a man by Satan. They were human temptations such as come to all of us. They cover the entire spectrum of human temptations, and are threefold:

(1) Make stones into bread to satisfy needs of the body. There is nothing wrong with bread; it is the staff of life. The body has need of bread and Jesus was starving. What is wrong? To use His great powers to minister to Himself would be selfish. He must demonstrate the truth of the great principle, “Man shall not live by bread alone”
(Matthew 4:4). This is contrary to the thinking of this crass materialistic age that lives only to satisfy the whims of the body. Modern man in our secular society says, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” And as far as man is concerned, that ends it all. Selfishness is the curse of a creedless secular society. Our Lord, in meeting this temptation, refuted the popular philosophy of the world.

(2) The nations of the world derive their power through brute force and political intrigue. War is a way of life. Hate and fear are the whips that motivate the mob. This is satanic, and Satan offers the kingdoms of the world on these terms. Men must be changed to enter
God’s kingdom:

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

The answer of Jesus has a note of finality, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:8; see Deuteronomy 6:13).

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds), casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

(3) The temptation to cast Himself down from the temple seemed a logical procedure for Jesus to impress the crowd as to His person and mission. But Jesus followed no easy way to the throne. He had to wear the crown of thorns before He wore the crown of glory.
Stifler states succinctly, “There are two ways of despising God, one is to ignore His power, the other is to presume upon it.” Both are sin. It is easy to do nothing and then mouth pious platitudes about God providing for the sparrows and that He will take care of us. But God says, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (Genesis 3:19).

The missionary to a foreign land will have to study to learn the language, and then God will help him. We are partners of God, not puppets. Dr. Edward Judson, after considering what his father, Adoniram Judson, suffered in Burma, said, “If we succeed without suffering, it is because others have suffered before us. If we suffer without success, it is that others may succeed after us.” Jesus rejected a false and phony spiritual stance. His answer was devastating: “Ye shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as ye tested him in Massah” (Deuteronomy 6:16).

Actually, Jesus began His public ministry in His hometown of Nazareth where He was rejected and ejected. It was in the synagogue where He announced the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1, 2. He broke off the reading before He came to “the day of vengeance of our God”
(compare Isaiah 61:1, 2 with Luke 4:18-20).

Chapter 5

Dr. Luke carefully records the cleansing of the leper and the healing of the paralytic.

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