April 26, 2026 - The Gospel of Luke - Week 1 - Certain in an Uncertain World

Highland Christian Church - Asheville, NC

Communicator - Jason Garris

Luke 1:1-4 - "So you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught."
Jesus’ story isn’t about wishful thinking – it truly is a foundation you can build your life on!

Transcript

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In other words, Luke didn't write this so you would walk away impressed by his research. He wrote this so you could walk away confident in the things you have been taught and believe. Specifically when it comes to Jesus. Because if this is going to shape your life, this is go and it's gonna carry you through doubt, and it's gonna carry you through suffering, and it's gonna carry you through questions, it has to be more than inspiring, it has to be true. Welcome in, everyone. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the pastors at Highland Christian Church. And on behalf of our team, I just wanted to say thanks for taking some time to journey with us through the scripture. Our hope is that these words would cause you to think carefully about this Jesus we proclaim, and that you would choose to trust him in your day-to-day. And as always, if you're in the Asheville area, whether you live here or you're visiting, we'd love for you to come join us at the corner of Livingston and Depot Street in person at the Dr. Wesley Grant Senior Southside Center. Our prayer is that God's words would equip you for every good work that He's prepared for you to do today. One of the worst phrases I can actually hear from somebody today is I read on the internet. You open your statement that way, I read on the internet, I'm turning you, tuning you out mostly. Some of you have probably been down that road where you posted something online that turned out not to be true. Some of you have done it. You won't raise your hand because you already deleted that post, right? But some of you have posted something that's not true. Maybe you clicked on one of those age-appropriate advertisements and we're like, ooh, I need that in my life. You bought it and it broke and it didn't meet the need that it said it would. But sometimes when we're wrong about something, it's not small, right? Sometimes it's bigger than that. Maybe something you were told about life, maybe something you were told about God, maybe something about how life and God works, and then life actually happens to you. And then you start to ask questions. Prayers don't get answered the way you thought they would. Suffering shows up in an unexpected way, and your doubt gets louder than you're comfortable admitting. If you were to sit with someone and go, if I were to share with you how I'm doubting God right now, it might freak you out. We've been there. And there's somewhere along the way questions start forming in us. Maybe they're quiet right now for some of you, but maybe they're urgent. Can I actually trust this? I mean, we live in a society where broken trust seems like it happens around every corner. A relationship, a job, a friendship, right? Online, you find out, oh, they believe that. Well, they're not my friend anymore. Like it just keeps happening. Broken trust happens everywhere. So you can't tell me it doesn't leak into your relationship with God. You can't deny those opportunities that that are thrown at us that cause us to go, is this really true? Is what I'm thinking, is what I'm what I'm talking about, is the Bible that I've opened up this morning, that I've done so for the last 20 years, is it true? We all go through that. All of us, when life gets hard, we don't need something that just feels good. We need something that holds up. Jesus never intended us to go, I just feel this out. Hopefully, it'll feel good. Everywhere you look in the gospels, you're gonna see Jesus asking, Walk with me. Put this into practice. Trust. So now think about this. If someone today were to claim that a man rose from the dead, you wouldn't just take their word for it. I hope. I hope you wouldn't just take their word for it. You would do some digging. You'd be asking questions. Who saw it? When did it happen? Can anyone verify it? If there's no video, it didn't happen, right? Is there any evidence? Any extraordinary claim demands serious investigation. Now, granted, I know we live in a day and an age where critical thinking is not something we're great at. And I blame all the different ways that we are processing information and all the things. It's the over information world that causes us to go, nothing is important. So we don't know how to think anymore. But I want to challenge you to be a thinker. I want to challenge you to go, if Jesus' outrageous claims that he is the Son of God, that he has died and risen and ascended and will return, I hope you don't just kind of blanketly go, Well, I'm a Christian. I remember when I was in high school, for me, when that all I understood about Jesus was the forgiveness of sin. But then I started reading into what does a Christian really believe? What does a Christ follower actually put into practice? What are we saying about ourselves if we desire to put that label little Christ on us? What are we saying? And I dove deep into evidences and apologetics and the study of all of those things, and I'm like, Well, the evidences are there. What am I gonna do with it now? Some of you need to just get to that point where you're like, the evidences are there. What am I gonna do with it now? And that's where Luke is actually gonna take us. Verse one of the very first chapter of Luke. Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They use the eyewitness report circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught. In other words, Luke didn't write this so you would walk away impressed by his research. He wrote this so you could walk away confident in the things you have been taught and believe, specifically when it comes to Jesus. Because if this is going to shape your life, this is good and it's gonna carry you through doubt, and it's gonna carry you through suffering, and it's gonna carry you through questions, it has to be more than inspiring, it has to be true. You can get somebody in a room and inspire thousands, but when hardships come, it becomes hundreds. If it's inspirational, it doesn't matter. Is it true? That's the question you and I have to wrestle with. And I wish this generation would wrestle with it more. We have to be a people who wrestle with. Is it true? So for the next few minutes, we're gonna lean into that and we are gonna actually nerd out a little bit. I hope you will. It's okay. Uh, we'll go quickly, your eyes will roll back in your head, some of you. But who he talked to, what sources Luke used, so but but not for the sake of information. I want you to be able to see that the Christian faith is one of things built on true, true history, true people, true places, true things, that you might walk out with some certainty. Because Luke's goal is not that you would just hear the story of Jesus, but that you would be certain it's real and that you can trust it. Luke tells us something really important at the very beginning. He says, Many people, verse one, have set out to write accounts. What does this mean? In other words, Christianity didn't start as one guy with one story. There were already multiple accounts circulating about Jesus. People were writing down what they had seen and heard. Luke steps into that world, not to invent something new, but to carefully examine what was already happening. All right. So what is a gospel? There are a couple of things, just so you can see it. We'll put it, you know, it'll be online. You can take a screenshot of it, whatever you want to do. What is a gospel? It's a certain type of writing, it's a form so that it can be passed to people so that they can see it, they can read it, and the lengths that they go to to these, do these writings should cause us to read them regularly. It's a narrative or an account of something that happened. Luke's gospel is made up of true stories about Jesus that come together into one connected narrative about him. It's it's about things that have been fulfilled. You're gonna see in Luke, he's just be like, hey, this happened in the Old Testament and this happened now. This happened in the Old Testament and this happened now, this happened in the Old Testament, and this happened now. And there's a reason he did it that way. But a gospel is about things that have been fulfilled. It's based on firsthand accounts of people who knew Jesus from the beginning because they listened to him and they observed. It involves effort and research done by its author. Luke compares well with the most reliable historians in the ancient world. If you've never studied ancient history, I want to encourage you to. The method. Now, here's the deal: you're probably gonna have smart alex tell you, well, the science disproves the Bible. Folks, the Bible is not a scientific book. You do not test the accuracy of the scriptures using science. Can you repeat these things? No, right? It's a document, it's a historical document, and there are ways that you begin to dig into the evidences for a historical document that are not scientific based, right? Science, it repeats it. Historical document studies, can you know, uh always about context and always about manuscripts and always about the copies and the dates and all the things. It's really important to the study of historical documents. Luke did those things. It's so it's written so that people can gain a well-grounded faith in God. It's not just meant to impress, but to cause us to stand firm in our faith. Luke finishes that phrase. Many have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us due to the high skepticism. There was high skepticism about new religions that would come out. Luke aims to legitimize the Christian faith by showing how promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all fit together in Jesus. The Christian message is rooted in old, awaited promised salvation of God. And you see a lot of that in the first two chapters. If you read the first two chapters, they're usually the Christmas chapters that we used. We looked at them in December. Lots of Old Testament conversations. Jesus' story fulfills God's story, Israel's story, and the whole world's story. Luke chapter 2, verse 32, he's quoting Isaiah. Luke has an intention. He says, He, Jesus, is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people, Israel. Luke's going somewhere with this. The good news of Jesus is intended for both Jews and Gentiles, as Luke records the very first time a disciple stands up before a crowd of people. Luke actually wrote two volumes, the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. And they are kind of, they're meant to be part one and part two. Jesus' life on the earth and Jesus' church growing on the earth. Like you're supposed to read those things together. And in Acts chapter 2, this is what he records Peter saying, who preached the very first sermon after the Holy Spirit fills his people. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away, all who have been called by the Lord our God. These circulated texts were not just for the religious elite, but for everyone. Everyone was meant to hear these words. Not just fulfilling, Luke says, but among us. It's an important phrase, right? Plenty of people were around to witness key events of Jesus' life. Unlike Muhammad, who claimed to receive his revelations in private in a cave. Joseph Smith with the Mormons, who based his new religion on his supposed discovery of inscribed plates that conveniently went missing after he translated them. Jesus was completely public. His life, his work, everything done out in the open. This is great news for us because what Jesus said and what others said about Jesus are open to critical examination. Somebody could say something about Jesus, and there were people who were alive and around when that happened, and they could say, No, that's not true. I was there. I saw it. I heard him, right? It's an invitation to take on the challenge. Many of us will not take on that challenge, especially if we're skeptical. We won't take on the challenge, but it is an invitation to take on the challenge to examine evidence to the life and claims of Jesus. This isn't fantasy, it's history. And some of us need to be brave enough to take our skepticism to the gospels, to history. Verse 2, they use the eyewitness report circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an account for you, most honorable Theophilus. And these weren't just second-hand rumors. Luke says these accounts came from people who were there, who were eyewitnesses, people who saw Jesus teach, saw him heal, saw him crucified, and claimed to have seen him alive again. And in that culture, this mattered deeply because the stories weren't just floating around unchecked. There were recognized, trusted voices, people who walked with Jesus, who made sure the story stayed accurate. It's like when you get together at family times and you have that one person who's always telling those stories, and they get to the point where they're telling the story, and you're all like, oh, we know how this ends. And maybe they forgot a detail, or maybe they added a detail. Someone in that room is ready to go, no, no, no, no, no, that's not how that happened. You know. You know what happened, right? Like, that's not how it happened. But you forgot this detail. They were very meticulous with oral tradition and written history because people were so dependent upon how they got their news. If there was an earthquake, or there was a king visiting, or there was a battle that was won, or there were all these, they had to have trusted storytellers so they knew what was true. It wasn't careless storytelling, but it was very specific. The early church actually built safeguards into how the message about Jesus was going to be passed down. When the 11 disciples needed to replace Judas, they didn't pick someone with potential. Right? It's great. Listen, in Acts chapter 1, Luke records this. So now we must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus. From the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us, whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus' resurrection. They said, We need someone who was there from the beginning, someone who can testify to the resurrection. In other words, accuracy mattered, truth mattered, and consistency mattered. That's really good news for us. So now we'll take a time out. Some of your eyes rolling back into your skulls. I can see this is interesting, but why does it matter for my life? It's a fair question. We're not just talking about ancient documents here. We're talking about what your faith is actually built on. And here's why this matters. If your faith is built on something shaky, it will not survive real life. If your faith is built on an emotional, inspirational moment, real life happens. And all the lights and all the smoke and all the things disappear. Someone betrays you, someone hurts you, someone stabs you in the back. Sickness, a diagnosis, all the things start coming in. Your inspirational quote that you've hung on to by a thread that you're not even sure if it's true or not is not going to be enough. Truth matters. You don't need something that just sounds good. You need something that is solid enough to stand on. And Luke's saying, I didn't write this so you'd have more information. I wrote this so you'd have certainty. So this isn't a history lesson. This is about whether your faith can actually hold you up. And some of you have to be able to answer that. Now here's where Luke steps forward personally. Luke says, I have myself carefully investigated everything. Luke himself was not an eyewitness to Jesus, but he had become a believer. He's a second generation Christian, which is good news for us, right? He's not Christian, he wasn't Jewish, he wasn't, you know, he was not a part of all the stuff that was happening. He himself wasn't one of the original twelve. Luke is just like us, and that he's totally dependent on the witnesses who had seen and heard Jesus. Luke is like you and me. We have to be able to ask the questions, which makes this even more powerful because he's asking the same kind of good questions we should be asking. Instead of accepting things at face value, he goes looking. Some scholars suggest that if Luke is in fact the author of this letter, there's a good chance that while he was traveling with Paul, he was a traveling companion of Paul. That's what we we think of him in history, and Paul was spending time in prison. Luke may have taken the time not just to wait around for Paul to be released, but they actually believe he may have begun that investigation process while he was waiting on Paul. I mean, you know, if your guy's in prison for this message, no better time than the present to go figure out if it's true or not, right? Paul's in prison. Do I really believe this? And he begins the process, interviewing people, tracing events, examining accounts. He's not guessing, he's investigating. And Luke looks to written accounts, possibly Mark's gospel. Mark's gospel is the earliest gospel we have. Eyewitness testimonies. Some believe that because we have so many great details about Mary's pregnancy and Mary's journey, many believe he actually got to interview Mary. And as he traveled with Paul, he was able to speak to trusted leaders in the church and those who walked with Jesus. Luke's work is presented as serious research. I need you to hear me say that. Luke's document is presented as serious research in history and not just a random set of dear diary entries. So many of us, we shudder at the idea of somebody confronting us about us believing the scripture to be true. But in history, this document is trusted as a historically accurate document, which means that if there's something else that you should give us confidence, Luke is writing within a generation of these events, not hundreds of years later, like so many skeptics would suggest, throwing us into a loop. Most would suggest that Luke was written around the mid-60s A.D. That's important considering Jesus' life was around 30 A.D., while eyewitnesses were still around, and not after legends had time to grow. It's an important timing for the gospel, which means that if something was off, if something was exaggerated, there were people who could have said, that's not what happened. And in fact, we don't have those records. In fact, we have non-Christian historical accounts, Jewish historians, Josephus, Roman historians, Tacitus confirming Jesus' actual existence, some of his teachings, and some of the supposed miracles. In history, we have these things. Skeptics have tried to claim that vital biographical data about Jesus was lost before anyone could write anything down. Not true. Jesus was a nobody until the gospels were written much later. Not true. And some have tried to say Jesus never existed that the Biblical books are fiction invented by Greek mystery religions. Not true. But you see it on the internet and you're like, oh, that's true. Right? Sometimes it just takes a minute to step back and go, can I have certainty in my faith? Luke has done a lot of work for us. If what Luke is saying is true about written documents and oral traditions about Jesus already being in circulation shortly after his resurrection, the skeptic argument of we just don't have access to the early life of Jesus is difficult to hold up. Evidence begins to mount for the existence of Jesus, not against. Now don't miss this. Luke is not doing all of this so you'll walk away impressed. He's doing it so you'll have certainty. Because at the end of the day, this isn't just about whether Luke was careful, it's about whether or not Jesus is trustworthy. That's the question. Luke is not just a guy that puts events in some kind of order. Luke has a message. Salvation is here. Over and over, Luke introduces us to people whose lives are impacted and transformed by God's grace, as you will see all through the gospel. Salvation has come to your house. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Who are the lost? Man, Luke does a great job. He brings in the social outcasts, those on the margins, the disadvantaged, the poor, the sick, the harassed, the demon-possessed, widows, parents who have lost children, women, children, the dark underworld of prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners, even Gentiles and Samaritans have a place at the table. Luke takes great care and joy to detail Jesus being good news to the poor and the dawning of the kingdom of God being here. Most excellent Theophilus. Many believe that it could be an actual real Roman official that he was writing to, a non-Jewish person who had become a Jesus follower, and Luke wanted to reassure him that what he'd been taught was trustworthy, kind of reinforcing. But most scholars, including many of the early church fathers, suggest that by using Theophilus, Luke was using a writing technique that meant for his letter to be for any follower of Jesus to reassure them. Theophilus means lover of God in Greek. If you are loved by God, lover of God, we are all theophilics. Theophosi. I don't know how you plural that. And the gospel is for us. Jesus' words and works went on during a relatively peaceful and stable time. And that time was closing in the window of Jewish history. By 66 A.D., just 30 years after Jesus, Jewish rebellion against Rome had been going on. And in 70 A.D., Rome marches in and destroys Jerusalem. The older generation that had been front row seat of Jesus was dying out in communities and villages, had witnessed all these things, were being dispersed and completely destroyed. Luke believed these historical facts had changed the world and they couldn't be vague and they could not be muddied, but they had to be crystal clear and pointed. Because life is going to test your faith. There will be moments that doubt creeps in when suffering doesn't make sense, when God feels distant, and in those moments you don't need a fragile faith. You need something solid. Something grounded, something true. And Luke is saying, I did the work, I checked the sources, I talked to the people, I investigated the story so that you may have certainty. And if this is true, then it isn't just history. This is the story of the Savior who came to seek and to save the lost. The same Jesus that Luke wrote about still changes lives, he still restores, he still forgives, he still saves. So the question isn't did Luke get it right? The question is, what are you gonna do with it? What are you gonna do with it? What are you gonna do with the reliability of the historical content that Luke includes in his gospel? Luke knows his culture, Luke knows his country, Luke knows his cities, Luke knows his names, Luke knows his leaders in the time of the exact same time that he was right. Like there are reasons people, historians, look to the gospel of Luke. They check for the accuracy of other historical markers using the scripture. Why Luke's gospel? The stories that make up Luke's gospel have been given to us for a definite reason to awaken our interest, answer our doubts and questions, lead us to faith in Christ and to nurture our knowledge and following Him. That's why. That's why. And you might be in one of those two places, four places, you might be two of those four places. Maybe, maybe you're just like, I kind of need to have some interest awoken in me. If Jesus is as big a deal as you're talking about, maybe I just need to be stirred up. Gospel of Luke. They answer doubts and questions. I've got doubts and questions. We all have doubts and questions. You're not alone, and it's not new. Okay, so quit wearing the I've got doubts and questions label like you're the only one. You're not. We're all doubters and questioners of some kind. Question is what do we do with our doubts and our questions? If this is true, this isn't just something to study, it's something to build your life on. Luke wrote, so we could be certain. Now the question is, will you trust what he's found? Let's pray. Father, you are so good. And you thought of the strangest things so that the gospel would go out. The fact that that most of Israel was at peace and roads and systems were developed in this window of time, like so the gospel could go to places that it never been to before. Even though it was a short window of peace and stability, there were people that you were gonna inspire to make sure Jesus' story was told correctly. That we didn't add or take away, but that we in our human finite thinking, by your spirit, would be able to understand Jesus fulfilled among us. The salvation of God. The church, the bride of Christ. Would you wake in our hearts and thank you for being able to nerd out on things that are true? Thank you that it's not just inspirational or feelings we're looking for. We're looking for what's true. That's what the human heart is longing for. Thank you that Jesus, you are the truth. In your name we pray. We just wanted to say thank you for listening to the Highland Christian Church podcast today. And if you ever want to connect with us, send prayer requests, ask questions, or for any other reason, you can visit our website, www.highlandchristian.com, or you can send us an email at info at highlandchristian.com. God bless you guys.