The Gospel of Luke is one of the four Gospels and is the third book of the New Testament.
Who was he?
Luke was a medical doctor and travelling companion of the Apostle Paul. Luke also wrote the New Testament book of Acts, which documents the journeys of Paul up to his imprisonment in 62AD and he had completed this gospel before then. Luke focuses on the complete history of the Lord Jesus Christ from His birth and ministry to His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.
What are his themes?
Luke gives us the most complete Gospel account, containing some of Jesus’ most famous teachings such as the prodigal son who left home (Luke 15), the lost sheep, and the good Samaritan (Luke 10).
Luke shows us the importance of women in the gospel story. The first two chapters relate two births: John and the Lord Jesus. We have the story of Mary and Martha and we read of the women who supported the disciples and ministered to Him of their substance.
Luke teaches of the danger of riches: we read of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16) and the Rich fool (Luke 12), who built bigger and bigger barns but did not plan for eternity.
Luke shows us how that the Lord Jesus Christ is fully God, and fully Man. He is perfect humanity: loving, compassionate – able to enter into the sufferings and sorrows we have, able to identify with those who are outcasts and strangers - in Luke we have the story of the dying thief who turned to Christ (Luke 23)
Why does he write?
In the opening verses Luke tells us that his purpose is to establish the facts of the life and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke’s gospel is an orderly account of these events provided to Luke by eyewitnesses. Luke was a most careful and exact historian. This Gospel is filled with details about history and surrounding events of the times. One of the greatest archaeologists of all time was Sir William Ramsay. He wrote:
‘Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy, he is possessed of the true historic sense...in short, this author should be placed along with the greatest of historians.’
The Christian faith is based on historical facts, not hearsay, or fables. These are relayed to us by eyewitnesses. In a court of law, such direct evidence is particularly important. Luke’s gospel provides us with such evidence.