By Al Johnson
Luke 1:3-4 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
Luke was not one of the twelve apostles. He was a physician and later became a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. Paul refers to him as “Luke the beloved physician” in Colossians 4:14, and Luke would eventually write more of the New Testament by volume than any other individual author. He wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, giving the church a two-volume account of the life and ministry of Jesus and then the continued work of the risen Christ through His apostles by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Luke tells us that before writing his Gospel, he investigated. He followed the events closely. He considered the testimony that had been handed down by eyewitnesses. He knew that others had already undertaken to compile narratives concerning Jesus, and he gathered the evidence into an orderly account of his own. He wanted to know what actually happened.
Think about the magnitude of the claims he was investigating. Did a virgin really conceive a child? Did Jesus actually heal the sick? Did He feed five thousand people? Were demons actually cast out? Did the blind receive their sight? Did He raise the dead? Was Jesus really crucified under Pontius Pilate? Was He buried? And most importantly, did Jesus Christ actually rise bodily from the grave?
Luke essentially tells us at the beginning of his Gospel, I set out to determine what happened. The Gospel of Luke is the result of that investigation.
This should change the way we read Luke. When Luke tells us that Jesus entered a village, encountered a particular person, performed a miracle, spoke certain words, or stood before a particular ruler, he intends for us to understand that he is describing something that took place in history. We may reject his testimony. We may attempt to explain it away. We may refuse to believe what he records. But we cannot honestly reduce Luke’s Gospel to a collection of inspirational religious stories without ignoring what Luke himself tells us he is doing.
THERE WERE WITNESSES
Luke writes his Gospel within the living memory of the events he records. For those skeptical of the Bible, you need to understand that Christianity did not emerge centuries after Jesus. The message of the crucified and risen Christ exploded across the Roman world while eyewitnesses to the events were still alive.
The Apostle Paul makes this argument explicitly in 1 Corinthians 15. After declaring that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day, he begins naming people who saw the risen Jesus. He writes that Christ appeared to Peter, then to the twelve, and then “to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive” (1 Corinthians 15:6).
Paul was not speaking about some unverifiable spiritual experience from the distant past. He was writing while many of the people he said had seen the risen Christ were still breathing. The early Christians proclaimed the resurrection in a world where their claims could be questioned, investigated, challenged, and proven wrong if, indeed, they were false.
And those claims have continued to face scrutiny ever since. One striking example is the work of Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, a renowned archaeologist and scholar of the ancient Roman world. Ramsay began his study of Acts convinced that it had been written long after the events it described and was historically unreliable. But as he studied the geography, political structures, cities, and customs of the world Luke described, the evidence changed his mind. Ramsay eventually concluded that Luke was “a historian of the first rank” and that his history was unsurpassed in its trustworthiness. Luke was not carelessly inventing a religious story. He was writing about real people, real places, and real events in a world that could be investigated.
This is part of what makes the opening verses of Luke so important. The most significant event in human history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, was not presented as something that happened secretly in some unknown corner of the world. Jesus was publicly crucified under a known Roman governor. His followers publicly proclaimed that He had risen from the dead. Eyewitnesses publicly testified that they had seen Him alive.
MOST EXCELLENT THEOPHILUS
Luke addresses his work to “most excellent Theophilus.” This would have been a title given to a person of noble position and the ancient Roman world. Luke uses similar language elsewhere when addressing men of rank and status of Roman governors such as Felix and Festus. Luke is writing to a man of prestige, to a likely very well educated and prominent man.
We don’t know if Theophilus was Christian who needed greater confidence in what he had been taught. Or that may have been investigating Christianity and attempting to determine whether its extraordinary claims were actually true. Luke does not tell us enough to settle that question. But he does tell us why Theophilus needed this Gospel: he needed certainty.
We live in a culture drowning in information while increasingly uncertain whether anything can actually be known. We are told that truth is personal, identity is self-created, morality is relative, and religious claims belong to the realm of private preference. The result is moral chaos and confusion. Men and women are surrounded by voices, internet clips, instagram posts, podcasts, so-called experts, influencers, and algorithms, all telling them what to believe, while confidence that objective truth can even be known continues to erode.
My prayer is that as we examine Luke’s account that kind of fog begins to clear. Luke does not tell Theophilus to discover his own truth. He does not tell him to look within himself. He does not tell him that it ultimately does not matter whether these events happened as long as believing them gives his life meaning. Luke investigates what happened and writes so that Theophilus can have certainty. Because if Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead, your personal opinion about Him does not change who He is.
CHRISTIANITY IS NOT AFRAID OF YOUR QUESTIONS
Christians should never be afraid of honest questions about our faith. If Christianity is true, investigation is not its enemy. Christianity does not become weaker when serious questions are asked. In fact, Luke begins his Gospel by telling us that careful investigation took place. Christians, therefore, should not be threatened by difficult questions, nor should we pretend that there are no complexities involved in the historical study of ancient events. But neither should we accept the lazy assumption that believing the Bible requires shutting off your brain. The biblical writers repeatedly appeal to witnesses, places, rulers, events, testimony, and history.
The Bible is divine revelation, but it is revelation delivered in history. God did not save us by giving humanity an abstract religious philosophy. The eternal Son of God took on flesh. Jesus was born. He lived. He spoke. He touched lepers. He ate meals. He traveled roads. He stood before rulers. Nails were driven through His hands and feet. A sword pierced his heart sac as he was pronounced dead. His body was placed in a tomb. Christians confess and believe that on the third day, that tomb was empty because Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead.
If that did not happen, Christianity is false.
The Apostle Paul was willing to say exactly that: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Christianity does not give itself an escape hatch. Paul does not say that the resurrection can remain spiritually true even if it never actually happened. He stakes the Christian faith on an event that either happened in history or it did not.
So should we.
YOU CAN HAVE CERTAINTY
At The Well, we have people who are convinced Christians, along with others who remain skeptical of Christianity altogether. Every Sunday, there are people in the room who do not yet believe. There are also believers who genuinely love Jesus but still wrestle with questions and occasional doubts. Some grew up in church and eventually realized they inherited answers to questions they had never personally asked. Others have been battered by skeptical arguments online or have walked through suffering that has shaken things they once believed without difficulty. Perhaps you truly believe that Jesus is Lord, but somewhere beneath that confession, you still find yourself wondering whether any of this is actually true.
Luke wrote for people who need certainty.
We have a real enemy who delights in confusion, distortion, accusation, and unbelief. From the beginning, the serpent’s attack has been directed at the Word of God: “Did God actually say?” The question continues to echo through every generation. Can God really be trusted? Is His Word actually true? Is Jesus really who Christians claim He is? Did the resurrection actually happen? Those questions should not drive us away from Jesus or His Word. They should drive us closer to Him and deeper into His Word.
My burden as a pastor is very similar to Luke’s burden for Theophilus. I want to see a generation of Christians who know what they believe and why they believe it, men and women who are not blown around by every new objection, cultural trend, viral video, or confident idiot with a microphone. I want believers firmly grounded in the true history and unshakable reality of who Jesus Christ is and what He has accomplished.
Luke investigated so that Theophilus could have certainty. You can too.
