Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: Luke: Written for the Thinking Man

Luke: Written for the Thinking Man

At the close of the nineteenth century, there was a wave of skepticism that swept over Europe and the British Isles. There was delusion and disappointment with the optimism the Victorian era had produced. There was, on the lighter side, a rebellion against it, which produced the “Gay Nineties.” Also, it caused many scholars to begin a more serious investigation of the Bible, which had been the handbook of the Victorian era. They were skeptical before they began, and others had been cynical.

There was at that time a very brilliant young scholar in Cambridge by the name of William Ramsay. He was an agnostic and wanted to disprove the accuracy of the Bible. He knew that Luke had written a historical record of Jesus in his Gospel and of the missionary journey of Paul in the Book of Acts. And this brilliant young scholar knew that all historians make mistakes and many of them are liars. In Will and Ariel Durant’s work in the field of history appears this statement:

It is safe to say that this was the same attitude of Sir William Ramsay when he went as an archaeologist into Asia Minor to disprove Dr. Luke as a historian. However, it didn’t work out quite as he thought it would. He checked on the journeys of Paul. He is probably the man who has made the most thorough study of Asia Minor, and he came to the conclusion that Dr. Luke had not made one historical inaccuracy. It caused this man to become a believer and a defender of the faith.

Dr. Luke wrote his Gospel of the person of Christ for a twofold purpose. First of all, he had a historical purpose. Luke wrote the most complete historical narrative in the Bible of the Lord Jesus Christ. He definitely had a literary aim. He has more wide-reaching references to institutions, customs, geography, and history of those times than does any other Gospel writer. For instance, notice how he dated the birth of Christ in Luke 2:1, 2 — it was in the days of Caesar Augustus, and he even pinpoints it down to the time that Quirinius was governor of Syria.

I have great respect for Luke personally. He is the only Gentile who wrote or made any contribution to the canon of Scripture. He wrote two books, Luke and Acts. You may say to me, “How do you know he was a Gentile?” I think we have good evidence that he was. Paul, who knew him as a close companion, when giving a list of early church saints of that day, names a group of those who were “of the circumcision” (Israelites). He concluded this list by commenting, “These only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, who have been a comfort unto me” (Colossians 4:10, 11). That is, those named were Israelites who had been a comfort to Paul. But there are others to mention: “Epaphras, who is one of you” (Colossians 4:12) — the Colossians were Gentiles. Then in verse 14 he wrote, “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.” So in the list of Israelites he did not mention Luke, and when he mentioned Gentiles he included Luke. This leads me to believe that Paul, who knew him intimately, knew that he was a Gentile.

Now Luke was a medical doctor. He used more medical terms than did Hippocrates, the father of medicine. And as we’ve just read, Paul called him “the beloved physician.”

Luke was a companion of the apostle Paul, and went with him on at least two (and probably three) of his missionary journeys. When I say three, I consider his trip to Rome a missionary journey. A section in Acts 16 makes it very clear that Dr. Luke traveled with him. On the second missionary journey, Luke tells about Paul going through all the area of the Galatian churches, and that he wanted to go by Bithynia, “but the Spirit allowed them not” (Acts 16:7). And then Luke writes:

And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis. (Acts 16:10, 11)

This is called the “we” section of the Book of Acts because it makes it evident that Dr. Luke joined the missionary party in Troas. By the way, that was a place for him to join it because they were going into Greece, and Dr. Luke probably was a Greek. Many believe he was a convert of the apostle Paul. At the very end of Paul’s life, when he wrote his “swan song” in 2 Timothy and knew he was going to die, he could say, “Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11). Luke stayed with Paul right down to the very end. He was a faithful friend.

Luke was also a poet. He alone records the songs of Christmas. If you’ve never read them, you ought to go through the first two chapters of his Gospel and read those songs. They are quite lovely.

Luke was an artist. We saw that Mark majored in the miracles of Christ, presenting the Lord to the Romans as the Man of action. But here in the Gospel of Luke, Christ gives His marvelous, matchless parables. Luke alone records the parables of the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, and the rich fool.

Dr. Luke was probably equal to Paul in scholarship and in IQ. They wrote the best Greek we have in the New Testament. It was my privilege for two years to teach first-year Greek, and we always concluded the last semester by reading the Gospel of John in Greek. Very frankly, it’s easy to read. Any of you could learn to read it in Greek. And many of the students, when they had finished reading it, thought they had Greek mastered. So I always turned them to the first sentence in the Gospel of Luke, which made them wonder if they knew anything at all about Greek. It is without doubt one of the most profound sentences ever composed. It reveals the fact that his purpose, the first one mentioned — the external purpose, as some like to call it — was historical. Notice this:

Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed. (Luke 1:1-4)

There are several things in this first sentence that are important, but I must pass over them. I’m lifting out only two very important words: “eyewitnesses” and “ministers.”

“Eyewitness” is the Greek word autoptai. Does that sound like a word you have heard before? Auto is the same word you find in “automobile,” meaning that which is of itself. And from opsomai we get our word “optic.” It means “to see,” and “to see for yourself ” would indicate an eyewitness. Although that is a good translation, we miss something in the translation because it is a medical term, and it means to make an autopsy.

The word “minister” here is another interesting term. It’s not the word from which we get our word “deacon.” Rather it’s the Greek word huperatai, meaning “an under-rower on a boat.” In a hospital, “the under-rower” would be an intern. Dr. Luke is saying that all of them were just interns to the Great Physician. But what Dr. Luke is telling us is that as a physician and a scholar, he made an autopsy of the records of those who had been eyewitnesses. And, friend, an autopsy of Jesus is very important. It means to dissect, examine, pour Him in the test tube, and look at Him under the microscope. An autopsy is used today by a coroner to determine the cause of death. Often this information is of vital importance. Dr. Luke who knew of this importance, said, “An autopsy was made of Jesus.” Friend, that is important. If you are a skeptic, you ought to listen to a man who is a brilliant scholar, and he’ll tell you the results of the autopsy.

Dr. Luke put his spiritual stethoscope of Inspection down upon the baby at Bethlehem, and he is the one who declares that He was virgin-born. I’d rather take his word than the word of any theologian in any seminary today.

Also yonder at the cross Dr. Luke put that stethoscope down upon Him and said, “He’s dead.” And then on the third day he said, “He is alive.” Do you want evidence? Read Dr. Luke; he’ll give you evidence.

Now Luke had another purpose in view when he wrote his Gospel. He presents the perfect, divine Son of God. In the Gospel of Matthew, He is the Messiah who fulfills all the prophecies of the Old Testament. He is the King, and as you go through the Gospel of Matthew you think of the words King Lear uttered, according to Shakespeare: “Ay, every inch a king.”¹⁴ He is King in Matthew, but He’s the Redeemer here. In the Gospel of Mark, He’s the mighty Conqueror, the virile Ruler of this universe, the only One who can rule it. But in the Gospel of Luke He is our Great High Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And today He can extend help and mercy and love to any other human being because He went through it all down here.

Dr. Luke wrote for his countrymen, the Greeks, just as Matthew had written for his people. We have seen that Matthew’s Gospel was directed to the religious element, the nation Israel. Mark’s Gospel was directed to the Roman government, which believed law and justice would solve the problems of the world. But Greece was another great segment of the population, and it was one of the most important segments of humanity.

In the fourth century BC, Greece placed on the horizon of history the most brilliant and stimulating display of human genius the world has ever seen. To this day no age has even approximated it. They attempted to bring humanity to the place of perfection.

They thought they would develop the perfect man. You find it in their art and in their statuary. They attempted to produce the perfect man physically. And no one has ever sculpted or painted like Phidias and Praxiteles. They not only attempted to make him the beautiful person, but also mentally developed, to make him a man of reason, a thinking man. They produced Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in that period. And there is no system of philosophy in the world that’s not indebted to these three men. Not only that, they produced literary giants. If you would choose ten of the outstanding poets, you would have to put Homer with them. Also, they produced the playwrights Euripides and Sophocles, and the most golden orator of all, Demosthenes. They attempted to attain the universal man. The world-man was the one they were after. Also, they made their gods in the likeness of themselves. They made beautiful statues of Apollo, Venus, Athena, and Diana. They deified, however, all of man — his noble qualities but also his base passions, such as in Aphrodite (you talk about sex — the Greeks knew something about it, too), Cupid, Bacchus, and Pluto. Not only did they make lovely graces, but the avenging Furies because they were making a projection of mankind. This was the culture they produced.

Then Alexander the Great came along. Of him, Conybeare and Howson said:

That city is Alexandria in Egypt, of course. This is the contribution the Greeks made to the world.

However, the Greeks lost sight of the spiritual. This world was their home, it was their playground, it was their schoolroom, it was their workshop, and it was also their grave. And when the apostle Paul entered the city of Athens, he began his message on Mars Hill by saying:

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are very religious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. (Acts 17:22, 23)

They didn’t know Him. The cultivated Athenians were skeptics — they called Paul a babbler and mocked him when he spoke of the Resurrection. And Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the preaching of the cross was “foolishness” to the Greek (1 Corinthians 1:23). When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he was writing for the Greek mind, for Asia Minor was settled by the Greeks, and in effect, he said to them, “In the past you were Gentiles, having no hope and without God in the world.” You see, Greek culture had not brought man to God.

It was then “when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,” to redeem them (Galatians 4:4). And down a Roman road came Paul with the gospel in a universal language. God had raised up Rome to build roads so that the gospel could penetrate that great empire. Over those roads went a global gospel about the perfect Man who died for the men of the world. The vehicle was the Greek language. And down yonder in Alexandria in Egypt, during the third century before Christ, seventy scholars got together and translated the Old Testament into Greek so that one of the best manuscripts we have today is that Septuagint. Also the New Testament was written in Greek. Neander made this statement:

This is the picture: The religion of Israel could produce only a Pharisee, the power of Rome could produce only a caesar, and the philosophy of Greece could produce only a global giant that was a baby at heart. And Dr. Luke wrote to the Greek mind. He said, “Here is your perfect Man, Jesus of Nazareth. Here is the universal Man. Here is the One you’ve been looking for. Here is the One who can solve your problems if you’ll come to Him.” In the fullness of time, God sent His Son.

Will you look with me at the birth of this One? Since in Luke’s account He is the perfect Man, He has to be a perfect baby. You won’t find a baby in Mark, but you’ll find Him in Luke. The gods of the Greeks had offspring, but this account is so different. A peasant maid gave birth to a divine Son. Would you like Dr. Luke to tell you how it came to pass? He was in a better position to tell us this than is any man living today, regardless of who he is. Read Luke’s Gospel, beginning with chapter 1, verse 26. After the angel had appeared to Mary and made the startling announcement to her, Mary herself was the first one to question the virgin birth. She said, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34). Now listen to Dr. Luke:

And the angel answered, and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

You either take it or leave it; that’s your privilege. But I don’t like these preachers who say the Bible does not teach the virgin birth. I’m not for sex education in the schools for little folk, but I think some preachers in the liberal wing need it because they don’t seem to understand what he is saying. It seems to me Dr. Luke made it very clear how it came to pass. He made it clear that Jesus is virginborn. Dr. Luke is the obstetrician.

Now he has something else to say in this wonderful account of the birth of this boy:

And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. (Luke 2:10)

Don’t miss that — it’s to all people. He is the universal and perfect Man.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)

Greece was sinking, Rome was sinking, Israel was sinking. And Dr. Luke says, “He’s the Savior for all men.”

This is not only superb literature, but this is a doctor’s report.

And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7)

George MacDonald, in his lovely poem “The Holy Thing,” said,

He was born of a woman, and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes. Let’s put it in our language today. Dr. Luke says that she put diapers on God — God the Son is born “a little baby thing!”

Dr. Luke is not through. He was not only the obstetrician, but he also became the pediatrician. He’s the only one who tells us anything about the boyhood of Jesus:

And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. (Luke 2:42)

He gives us the incident that took place when He was a boy. He put his stethoscope down on Him and gave his report:

And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them; but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:51, 52)

He increased in wisdom — mentally, He was all right. He didn’t need to go to a psychiatrist. He increased in stature — physically, He was growing. I don’t like these people who say that He carried all the diseases in this world in His body. He did not. He was an example of perfect humanity. When He went into the temple that day to cleanse it, they saw His muscles, and that crowd of money changers went for cover because they were afraid. They saw that He was physically able to put them out. Also He increased “in favor with God and man.” He grew spiritually as any other boy might grow.

Dr. Luke is not through. And if that’s where you are going stop, you’ve missed even the Christmas story. Luke was there to record His death:

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, and, having said this, he gave up the spirit. (Luke 23:46)

Dr. Luke had been present at the deaths of many people, but Jesus didn’t die like other people. When man goes after the last breath, that’s called the death rattle. Jesus didn’t die that way — He dismissed His spirit. That’s different. He is the divine Man.

Not only does Dr. Luke give us a record of His death, but he was also present to put his stethoscope down upon Him after the Resurrection. Listen to Jesus as He talks with His disciples:

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here anything to eat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. (Luke 24:39-43)

A great many folk miss Jesus’ point, but C. S. Lewis, the brilliant satirist, did not. He said that it is very peculiar to watch a spirit eat a piece of fish! Of course this was not a “spiritual” resurrection, as some say. Jesus came back in a body.

But that’s not all. Listen to Jesus as He continues:

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:44-47)

Notice that He says all nations. He’s the universal Man, the Savior of the world. But the thing I want you to notice is that He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. Oh, that’s devastating. The Greek had attempted to develop man mentally, and there were mental giants — Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and many others. Dr. Luke says, “You need more than a high IQ to know Him. The Holy Spirit will have to open your understanding.” And today there are those who are missing the point even as they read this. The Spirit of God will have to open your heart to see Him and know Him.

Not only did the philosophy of the Greeks fail, but today we’re in the same predicament, only now it is science that has failed us. Science cannot solve the problems of the world. Science is making our world a great big garbage can, and man is perishing in it. The air is polluted, our rivers and streams are polluted, and we can hardly move on our highways. It is difficult to get a clean breath of air or drink of water today. We make detergents that clean clothes, but those same detergents dirty the rivers. Man is smart, let me tell you! We can walk on the moon, but we cannot make the city streets safe to walk on at night. We can invent gadgets that give man comforts of life and packaged foods, but still we have the poor with us, and they’re getting hungrier every day. Not only is man sinking in the filth that science has made, but science created an atom bomb that has put fear in his heart. The wisdom of the Greeks only brought man to the position where he could see that he was helpless. And that is the reason the gospel had its greatest entrée in the Greek world of that day. They saw their need. And I can’t help but believe that in America sometime, somewhere along the way, we’re going to wake up to the fact that we are not nearly as smart as we think we are. We are going to face the fact that science cannot solve the problems of the world.

The thinking man needs a Savior.