The third gospel was written by \u201cLuke the physician\u201d (Colossians 4:14). It is the first of two historical volumes he wrote to Theophilus (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-2), who was possibly a Roman official or even Luke\u2019s publishing underwriter. Luke stated his goal was to provide a clear, well-researched (although not necessarily strictly chronological) account of Jesus ministry (and, later in Acts, the beginning of the Church).<\/p>
Whether it was intentional or not, Luke\u2019s account places a heavy emphasis on Jesus\u2019 humanity<\/strong>. From the details of his birth and boyhood to the specific names, dates, and locations, Luke provides a unique view of the finiteness of the infinite, yet incarnate, Son of God. Several parables and miracles exclusive to Luke offer insight into Jesus\u2019 humanity \u2013 especially his compassion toward fellow humans. The parables of the prodigal son and the good Samaritan, the raising of the widow\u2019s dead son, and Jesus\u2019 meal with Zacchaeus all show a man of great love and sympathy. In Luke, we are invited to embrace God in the flesh.<\/em><\/p> Chapter one<\/strong> introduces a series of pairs: two birth announcements, two mothers, two sons, two hymns of praise. Yet the differences are as important as the similarities: two adults long past child-bearing years and an unmarried, virgin teenage girl; one announcement received with skepticism, the other in pure faith.<\/p> In addition to Jesus\u2019 humanity, Luke points to the purpose of his coming immediately \u2013 Jesus was to be Israel\u2019s long-awaited Messiah-Deliverer. Gabriel told Zechariah that his son, John, would fulfill Malachi\u2019s prophecy (Malachi 3:1; 4:5-6) of Messiah\u2019s predecessor, pointing people to Jesus. He told Mary that Jesus would fulfill God\u2019s promise to David (2 Samuel 7:8-16) that his royal dynasty would never end. One day Jesus will sit on David\u2019s throne in Jerusalem forever (Luke 1:31-33). In their songs of praise, both Mary and Zechariah focused on the deliverance of Israel as promised throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Allusions to several psalms can be found throughout their songs.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The third gospel was written by \u201cLuke the physician\u201d (Colossians 4:14). It is the first of two historical volumes he wrote to Theophilus (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-2), who was possibly a Roman official or even Luke\u2019s publishing underwriter. Luke stated his goal was to provide a clear, well-researched (although not necessarily strictly chronological) account of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,36,30,38,114],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-studies","tag-2-samuel","tag-acts","tag-colossians","tag-luke","tag-malachi"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The third gospel was written by \u201cLuke the physician\u201d (Colossians 4:14). It is the first of two historical volumes he wrote to Theophilus (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-2), who was possibly a Roman official or even Luke\u2019s publishing underwriter. Luke stated his goal was to provide a clear, well-researched (although not necessarily strictly chronological) account of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}