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Tuesday, 10 January 2017

Luke 1:1,2 - Eyewitnesses

1:1
It was common in those times for historical works to begin by declaring their purpose and the recipient. “Many have undertaken ...” There were many people who wrote accounts of of some sort of what Jesus had done. It should be noted that none of these were the “other gospels” you sometimes hear about in news articles. The “other gospels” were written in the 2nd or 3rd century and were not gospels at all.
Note that Luke talks about “things that have been fulfilled”. The life of Jesus and the events of Acts are the fulfillment of many aspects of God’s plan. The gospel is about God acting in history.

1:2

These things were handed down by the first eye-witnesses, ie the apostles. They were also servants of the word. “Handed down” implies authoritative passing on of information. So Luke’s account is based on first hand accounts. The apostles were “servants of the word”. God has spoken, as the writer of Hebrews says (11:2), by His Son. The apostles were servants of God’s word, we too need to be servants of the Word. If someone is in the church and then starts teaching things that are contrary to God's words, then such a person should not imagine that they are any longer a servant of Christ.

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