The Gospel According to Luke "Jesus - The Son of Adam the son of God"
Each book in the Bible gently guides God's people into a more intimate relationship with their Creator, as He knows must occur, for His people to receive Him in the depth of the relationship that He purchased for them. Each day we are covering, in sequential order, one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament and expecting people’s lives to change through the revelation of His leading in this way.
Today is the third day, and the book is, The Gospel According to Luke the third book in the New Testament as it appears in our Bible. Luke is known as the only non-Jewish author in the Bible, and his account of the gospel is written to a non-Jewish leader named Theophilus.
In Luke’s first chapter he tells the recipient of his letter it seemed good to Luke to set in order the things that were delivered to him from people who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. This clearly lets us know that Luke was not with Jesus and his ministry from the beginning, but had done research to guarantee his record to be an accurate account from several reliable sources.
Let’s get into how Luke furthers the cause of Christ and the ability to receive God’s deeper revelation through Luke’s writing than from the two previous books.
Luke records Jesus’ relatives and how they interacted before His birth, the infant Jesus being laid in a manger, and shepherds having angels appear to them and then going to see Jesus the night he was born, Jesus being circumcised, and then two highly respected Jewish people at the temple witnessing of who He was and what He was going to do; all of this making Jesus more relatable to the common person than Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth. (Normal family events, God revealing Himself to “common people” through uncommon ways, and expert witnesses.)
Luke then tells of how Jesus’ family accidentally left Him for a few days during an annual pilgrimage to the temple and when they found Him His reply was, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (A typical family with family challenges and the Son of God knowing His purpose)
Luke’s rendering of the voice from heaven after Jesus was baptized says, ”Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” Which steps up the relational communication between the voice and Jesus from the others by saying, “in thee” instead of, “in whom,”
In Luke’s account of Jesus being led into the wilderness, Jesus was filled with the Holy Ghost instead of being led by it. Luke is also the first to record Elisabeth and Zacharias, Jesus’ aunt and uncle, being filled with the Holy Ghost. (This displays an inward relationship with God that was not in the previous books.)
Luke’s record of Jesus genealogy is from Jesus backward through Adam being the son of God, and thereby Jesus was the Son of God. (Yes, Jesus came through Abraham like in Matthew’s account, but it flowed all the way back to Adam, and so does everyone else that we are aware of that has ever lived on this planet. This also makes Jesus relatable to everyone.)
Jesus’ first preaching started in a synagogue, according to Luke’s account, and the first thing Jesus did, was to stand up and read a proclamation of who He was and what He and come to do and told them it had been fulfilled that day. The people who were present questioned because they thought they knew whose son Jesus was and where He had come from, and therefore they rejected Him. When this happened, Jesus told them how God had taken care of foreigners instead of the Jews during other times through other prophets. (This is again taking the ability of the gospel to all peoples instead of just the Jews.)
Luke’s account and Matthew’s account of Jesus’ longest sermon were two different settings and therefore two distinct different sermons; however, Jesus’ “beatitudes” were recalled by both Luke and Matthew. Luke’s account has Jesus “Blessed are ye…”; and Matthew says, “Blessed are the…” (The difference is a personal level of communication instead of a general statement.)
Luke’s “Lord’s Prayer” says, “…as in heaven so in earth,…” and Matthew’s says, “…done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Luke has his understanding of the importance of the focus being heaven first instead of earth. This is again a subtle change of our mindset as God progresses us through His Holy Bible.)
Luke is the first one to tell about Jesus bringing someone back from the dead, and it was a lady’s only son; which occurred during what we would call a funeral procession; thereby demonstrating Jesus’ compassion and supernatural power.)
Luke tells how Jesus was praying and, “and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Sharing how Jesus had real emotions and a real physical body.
Luke tells how one of the men who was hanged beside Jesus asked Him to remember him when Jesus went into His kingdom. Jesus responded, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” letting us know that Jesus has compassion and the ability to save a person’s soul until the person’s last breath.)
“The Great Commission” in Luke’s recollection is, “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Jesus tells His disciples what should be done instead of telling them what to do. (The word “should” is not a suggestion. it is a definitive (a prophecy) of what the future held for His people. This again deepens the relationship between Jesus and His people.)
The examples in this blog are only a limited sample of the differences of the relational depth described through Luke’s depiction of Jesus as it is compared to the previous two accounts, and it is like this throughout his account of it.
I want to make certain that you do not misunderstand the intent of this blog. The blog is not to enlighten people about the differences in the Bible due to God’s people writing it and having their own understanding of the events as they occurred. The intent of the blog is to demonstrate the difference in the revelation that God gives to His people as they intently follow Him and focus on what He has told them through their individual lives and the revelation they’ve received through the Holy Spirit and His Holy Bible.
