Gospel of Luke Course

In this expositional study of the book of Luke, Prophet Russ brings dynamic, inspirational insight into the study of the Gospel of Luke that will impact your life and supercharge your understanding of the life of Jesus. In the first chapter of Luke, we are introduced to the author as a Gentile and physician who was also an insider to the company of those men who walked with Jesus in His earthly life. Luke is writing to a nobleman named Theophilus regarding the origins of the Jesus narrative, beginning in our chapter with the birth of John and Jesus, just a few months apart.

The book of Luke opens with the author presuming the right to speak with authority regarding the life of Jesus, presenting himself as an insider with the right not only to present the facts concerning Jesus, but to exclude many of the circulating narratives that are substandard at best, and false at worst. Who was Luke? He was known to be a companion of the apostle Paul, a Gentile by birth and a physician by occupation. He is thought by some to originate from the city of Antioch from whence Paul’s ministry originated. The book is addressed to a certain Theophilus, a Roman official, and also a believer in Christ. He was possibly a patron of Luke and may have been instrumental because of his position and wealth in overseeing the duplication and distribution of early copies of Luke’s gospel. The timing of the writing of Luke is approximately 40 to 50 years after the resurrection of Christ, during the Jewish revolt led by Simon Bar Copa that was put down by the Romans at the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

Luke begins with the previously unknown details of the birth of John the Baptist. As it was true of the prophet Samuel in ancient times, John was born to aged parents who had believed to have a baby for a very long time. It is often found in the lives of great men and women of God that the circumstances of their births are visited upon by unique circumstances and divine intervention to bring them into the earth at particular times and specific seasons to coincide with the call upon their lives. John the Baptist is no exception to this. John’s father, Zechariah, was an influential priest who regularly took his turn serving before the Lord in the Holy Place or Inner Court of the temple before the veil beyond which it was believed the ark of the covenant was found. We say it was thought that the ark was there, when in fact, it has not been seen or reported of since the days of King Josiah.

Each of the four gospels is unique, presenting the claims of Christ and the narrative of Jesus’ life in a particular light:

1. In Matthew, we find Jesus as the Messianic Savior, the hope of the Jews.

2. In Mark, Jesus is the Servant sent to fulfill the purposes of God.

3. In Luke, He is the Savior of all mankind, very human and approachable.

4. Finally, in John, Jesus is the Cosmic Christ, the living essence of the Creative Principle of the Universe, clad in the flesh, paying for our sins.