The Gospel of Luke – Jesus is for everyone: Introduction
Luke 1:1-4; 2:8-11; 2:25-32
Luke was different to Matthew, Mark and John. Luke was a gentile. It is unlikely that he ever met Jesus, but he travelled with Paul on some of his journeys. Luke researched carefully and thoroughly the story of Jesus and wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. He wrote these so that his readers could be confident of the truth about Jesus. It is important to know what we believe is based on the truth. Luke’s message is that Jesus is for everyone. Luke wanted his readers to know that:
- Jesus is for people of every type of background – Jesus came to save everyone. He is the saviour of the world. He mixed and spoke to people from every background.
- Jesus is Good News of joy for everyone – In Luke 2:10 the angel said that he brought GOOD NEWS that would cause great joy to ALL PEOPLE. The Jews thought that the Messiah would come just for them. The angel revealed that Jesus had come for everyone. We are not meant to keep Jesus to ourselves.
- Jesus is a light to the Gentiles – In Luke 2:29-32 Simeon declared that Jesus was a light to the Gentiles. These were dangerous words to speak aloud in the temple. There was a riot when Paul came and declared the same thing in the temple years later. Jesus was not just the Jewish Messiah. He came to save everyone. We need to let the light of Jesus shine out of us into the world around us. “Fill us up and send us out” should be our prayer.