Have you noticed how many people decorated early this year for Christmas? I mean, between social media and driving through our neighborhood it seemed as if trees were up sooner and lights were one houses brighter this year. Even our kids noticed. I have been thinking on this quite a bit and my thought is...these have been a pretty rough few years globally and regionally. From illness and lockdowns to loss of life and loss of sanity it seems as if we are just weary. In an increasingly secular world, people are having a longing for something, anything in the darkness of despair. In comes...Christmas lights! They make people happy. The twinkle of lights, the beautiful decor...something about the beauty of light shining out in darkness.
Sound familiar? Those who are in Christ, those who are familiar with scripture, our hearts might quickly jump at this connection...those who once walked in darkness have seen a great light. 1 John 1 tells is it is their joy to write " that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."
Which brings us to today's portion of scripture. We will again read Luke 1-2:40 to gain an overall with where we are going. But, lets consider the historical context of Luke specifically.
Luke was written sometime in the 60 a.d. period. Luke was a physician and gentile who was not one of the 12 disciples. He did however travel with Paul on some of his missionary journeys. Luke sets out to write " an orderly account," for a person by the name of Theophilus so that he too might have certainty in the message of Christ. (more on him tomorrow)
J.C. Ryle writes in his commentary on Luke, that he feels he must keep his book short and readable because "we live in a hurrying age." Ha! Imagine what he would think of society now. Not only do we live in a hurrying age but we like in a don't know, don't care age. May we challenge ourselves to pause as we work through Luke this Advent, that we would long to know with certainty the things of Christ, and that we can bask in the methodical and systematic way in which Luke has broken down the order of the events of Christ.
Luke contains many things not found in the other three Gospels. The histories of Zacharias and Elisabeth, the angel's announcement to the virgin Mary and a lot of the content from chapters 1 and 2 to name a few.
J.C. Ryle sums it up, this is a "sketch of the nature of the Gospel- he (Luke) calls it a 'declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,' it is a narrative of facts about Jesus Christ." "The Gospel is neither more or less that the history of Christ."
This season, pray to know Christ with certainty. Pray for chances to share the history of Jesus birth with others. With so many longing for light this winter season, I pray ours is not kept under a bushel but set up high for all to see.
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