2024_10_23 Insight Post- Rusty Coram
This week’s reading- Colossians 4:14, Acts 16:10-17, Acts 20:5-16, Acts 21:1-18, Acts 27:1-28, Luke 1:1-4
Years ago, when New Hope was in our first year, a young lady began attending and was eager to investigate faith in Jesus. I suggested that she read Luke’s autobiography of Jesus. After reading it, she and I met to discuss it. She started her impressions by saying she loved Luke’s description of people, all kinds of people, and his attention to detail. As she continued, I realized that she was giving the same kind of overview and introduction that many study Bibles have. She was experiencing all of this for the first time, and her excitement was contagious. Not long after this, she became a follower of Jesus and has helped many others join in!
I love how God uses all sorts of personalities, levels of education, and experiences to communicate the amazing story of His redemptive plan to us. Having a doctor like Luke is so cool, and he writes with a clear purpose to make sure his readers have an accurate, clear, and compelling picture of Jesus and the work of His followers. Luke isn’t writing to parade his own importance and seldom refers to himself at all. In our current age of unbridled self-promotion, this is really refreshing for sure! Luke explains his purpose and method: “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. 2 They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. 3 Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus, 4 so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.” Luke 1:1–4 (NLT) We don’t know who Theophilus is, but we know that Luke cared enough about him to make sure he had a solid and trustworthy report about Jesus – who He was and why He came. Later in his introduction to the book of Acts, Luke tells his friend that he is further reporting what the disciples and church were doing in light of Jesus’ assignment to “go and make disciples of all the nations.”
As we read, we discover that Luke is a solid investigative reporter. He goes directly to eyewitnesses and becomes embedded in the action as an eyewitness himself. I don’t know how long it took him to travel, interview, write, and edit, but I am deeply grateful that he did!
Rusty Coram
Senior Pastor