Reading the Bible Together for August – Luke

Who wrote the book?
The writer was Luke, a Greek Christian doctor.
Luke was a companion of Paul and also wrote the book of Acts.
Luke wrote to a man named Theophilus who was most likely a Roman official, since Luke addresses him in his opening dedication as ‘most excellent Theophilus’, using the title generally reserved for such officials. Luke speaks of him as someone who’s been instructed in the Christian faith and says that he has written ‘an orderly account’ (1:3) so that Theophilus might ‘know the certainty of the things’ (1:4) he had heard.

Luke wrote to help Theophilus – and all people – know what is true about Jesus.

What is the purpose of Luke?
to assure followers of Jesus that what they had been taught about him was true and completely trustworthy
to show that the true God is faithful and can be trusted completely
to show how God invited non-Jews (Gentiles) to follow Jesus as well

Luke was probably written about A.D. 60.

What is the big idea?
Luke is the third of the four gospels. Matthew, the tax collector, wrote to show us Jesus was the King of the Jews. Mark wrote to convince us that Jesus was a servant and Luke wrote to show us that Jesus was God but was also fully and completely human.

From a doctor’s viewpoint, Luke gives us a lot of details about things doctors care about.

The RBT community group question sheet and also a full copy of the outline for Luke can be found on the downloads page.