The Gospel Of Luke
Master the message of Luke — the Savior of the lost, grace for sinners, and the risen King, taught verse by verse by Dr. Toby B. Holt.
The Gospel of Luke is the third book of the New Testament — an orderly, historically careful account of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Luke, a physician and companion of the apostle Paul, tells us plainly why he wrote: having investigated everything "from the very first," he composed his account so that readers "may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed" (Luke 1:3–4, NKJV). Luke's Gospel is not legend or myth; it is eyewitness testimony, gathered, ordered, and set down while those witnesses still lived.
The book's theme is captured in one sentence spoken by Jesus Himself: "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10, NKJV). More than any other Gospel, Luke shows Christ seeking the people everyone else had written off — tax collectors, Samaritans, lepers, the poor, a dying thief. Salvation in Luke is entirely of grace: God exalts the lowly and humbles the proud, and the door of mercy stands open to the very last hour.
Luke moves deliberately from the manger in Bethlehem, through Jesus' teaching, miracles, and parables, to His resolute journey to Jerusalem, His crucifixion, and His bodily resurrection — attested by the empty tomb, by angels, and by the risen Christ Himself, who ate with His disciples and opened the Scriptures to show that it all happened "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations" (Luke 24:47, NKJV).
The third Gospel was written by Luke, a Gentile physician (Colossians 4:14) and traveling companion of the apostle Paul. Though Luke never names himself in the book, the testimony of the early church is unanimous, and the "we" passages of Acts — Luke's second volume, addressed to the same Theophilus — place its author at Paul's side on his journeys. Luke was not an eyewitness of Jesus' earthly ministry. Instead, he writes as a careful historian: he investigated everything from the beginning, drew on the accounts of "eyewitnesses and ministers of the word" (Luke 1:2, NKJV), and arranged his material into an orderly narrative. Together, Luke and Acts make him, by volume, the largest single human contributor to the New Testament.
Conservative scholarship dates the Gospel to the early 60s AD. Acts ends abruptly with Paul under house arrest in Rome, around AD 62, with no mention of Nero's persecution, Paul's martyrdom, or the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 — silences best explained if Acts was completed before those events, and the Gospel earlier still. Luke wrote for a Gentile readership, addressing "most excellent Theophilus" — likely a Roman official or patron, and through him every reader who wants solid ground for faith. The occasion is stated in the prologue itself: Theophilus had been instructed in the faith, and Luke wrote so that he might know its certainty.
Luke's first great theme is certainty: the gospel rests on history. Luke anchors his account to named rulers, real places, and living eyewitnesses, because Christianity stands or falls on things that actually happened — above all a tomb that was actually empty. Second is the seeking Savior. Luke, more than any evangelist, shows Christ pursuing the lost: a despised Samaritan becomes the picture of neighbor-love, one cleansed leper — a foreigner — returns to give glory to God, and the Son of Man declares that He came to seek and to save the lost. Grace runs downhill, to the poor, the outcast, and the guilty.
Third is the great reversal. From Mary's Magnificat onward, Luke celebrates a God who exalts the lowly and humbles the proud, who fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty — a kingdom that overturns every human ranking. Fourth is salvation by grace alone. The dying thief, with no works to offer and no time to earn anything, receives Paradise on the strength of Christ's word alone — a portrait of justification by faith that the Reformed tradition has treasured. Finally, Luke displays the compassion and kingship of Christ together: the same Lord who weeps over an unrepentant Jerusalem rises in triumph and commissions repentance and remission of sins to be preached to all nations. In Luke, the King of glory is also the Friend of sinners — and neither truth can be surrendered without losing the Gospel itself.
The King Of Christmas The world loves the baby in the manger — a baby makes no demands. Isaiah met the same Jesus on a throne, and the most righteous man of his age fell down crying, “Woe is me!” Listen & Read → 2 The Wise Men And The Christmas Star The wise men followed a star to a King. Herod followed the wise men with a sword — but no one sits on Christ's throne except Christ. Listen & Read → 3 Jesus Wept As Destruction Drew Near The crowds wanted a king to deal with Rome. Jesus looked at the city and wept — because Jerusalem's deadliest enemy was already inside her walls. Listen & Read → 4 Ten Lepers: One Came Back, The Others Did Not Ten lepers cried out for mercy, and all ten were healed. Only one came back — and he was the last man anyone expected. Listen & Read → 5 Today You Will Be With Me In Paradise (The Cross) Two guilty men hung beside Jesus, and by nightfall one of them was in Paradise. The other used his dying breath to curse the only One who could save him. Listen & Read → 6 The Good Samaritan: Who Is Your Neighbor? The lawyer wanted a shorter list of people he had to love. Jesus told a story that put everyone on it. Listen & Read → 7 The Magnificat: Understanding The Song Of Mary Gabriel carried the greatest birth announcement in history to a virgin in a town everyone despised. Mary answered with the most counter-cultural song ever sung. Listen & Read → 8 He Is Risen: Witnesses To The Resurrection Behind a locked door, the disciples mourned a dead Messiah. Then He stood in the midst of them — and asked for something to eat. Listen & Read → Key Verses In The Gospel Of Luke
These passages, quoted from the New King James Version, carry the heart of Luke's Gospel — from Mary's song and the angel's announcement to the cross, the empty tomb, and the mission of the risen Christ.
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior."
"Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
"I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."
"for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
"Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.'"
"And Jesus said to him, 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.'"
"He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee."
Luke shows us Christ as the Son of Man — true man from conception to crucifixion. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, cradled in a manger, growing in wisdom and stature, weeping real tears over a doomed city, He is God's answer to man's ruin from within our own flesh. Yet the angel's announcement leaves no doubt who this man is: "there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11, NKJV). Luke holds the two together on every page — the King to whom the angel promised the throne of His father David and a kingdom without end is the same Lord who touches lepers, receives sinners, and promises Paradise to a dying thief. His glory is displayed precisely in His mercy.
The risen Christ Himself teaches us how to read Luke — and the whole Bible. On the road to Emmaus, "beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27, NKJV). The Gospel that begins with songs of fulfilled promise ends with the Lord opening the Scriptures to show that His suffering, death, and resurrection were the very center of God's eternal plan. Every sermon in this series follows that method: wherever we stand in Luke, we are looking at Christ — crucified for our sins, risen for our justification, and reigning until He comes.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Gospel Of Luke
The Gospel was written by Luke, a Gentile physician and traveling companion of the apostle Paul (Colossians 4:14). Though he never names himself, the earliest church testimony is unanimous, and the "we" passages of Acts — Luke's second volume — place the author at Paul's side. Luke was not an eyewitness of Jesus' ministry; he tells us instead that he carefully investigated everything "from the very first," drawing on those who were eyewitnesses, in order to write an orderly account. The result is the longest book in the New Testament, written with a historian's care and a pastor's heart, addressed to "most excellent Theophilus" and, through him, to every reader who wants certainty about Jesus Christ.
Luke is a carefully ordered account of the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, written so its readers "may know the certainty" of what they have been taught (Luke 1:4). Its theme is stated by Jesus Himself: the Son of Man "has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). More than any other Gospel, Luke shows Christ as the Savior of sinners and outsiders — tax collectors, Samaritans, lepers, a dying thief. The narrative moves from the manger in Bethlehem through Jesus' teaching and miracles to His resolute journey to Jerusalem, the cross, and the empty tomb, ending with the risen Christ opening the Scriptures and sending His church to all nations.
Conservative scholarship dates Luke to the early 60s AD. Acts, Luke's second volume, ends abruptly with Paul under house arrest in Rome around AD 62 and never mentions Nero's persecution, the deaths of Peter and Paul, or the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 — silences best explained if Acts was finished before those events, and the Gospel earlier still. That places Luke within roughly thirty years of the resurrection, while many eyewitnesses were still alive — exactly the sources Luke says he consulted. Critical scholars often prefer a later date, but Luke's own preface claims firsthand investigation of eyewitness testimony, and the internal evidence fits the earlier dating well.
Luke is the longest of the four Gospels and the only one written by a Gentile for a Gentile readership. It opens with a formal historical preface, gives the fullest account of Jesus' birth — including the Magnificat, the shepherds, and the angelic announcement — and preserves parables found nowhere else, such as the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, and the Rich Man and Lazarus. Luke gives special attention to prayer, the Holy Spirit, joy, and Christ's compassion for the poor, for women, for Samaritans, and for outcasts. Together with Acts, Luke wrote more of the New Testament by volume than any other human author, tracing the gospel from Bethlehem to Rome.
The Magnificat is Mary's song of praise in Luke 1:46–55, sung after the angel announced she would bear the Messiah. It takes its name from the first word of its Latin translation: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior" (NKJV). Saturated in Old Testament language — especially Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2 — it celebrates a God who exalts the lowly and humbles the proud, who fills the hungry and keeps His covenant mercy to Abraham's seed forever. Notice that Mary calls God her Savior: the mother of our Lord confesses her own need of the redemption her Son would accomplish. Dr. Holt devotes a full sermon in this series to Mary's counter-cultural song.
In Luke 10 a lawyer, wanting to justify himself, asks Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus answers with the story of a despised Samaritan who shows costly mercy to a wounded stranger whom a priest and a Levite had passed by. The parable exposes the lawyer's attempt to shrink the law's demand to a manageable circle: the real question is not who qualifies as my neighbor, but whether I will be a neighbor to whoever is in need. John Calvin, in his Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, warned against fanciful allegorizing of this parable and pressed its plain point — the law commands mercy that crosses every boundary of prejudice, a mercy our self-justifying hearts cannot produce apart from grace.
Yes — the penitent thief of Luke 23 is one of Scripture's clearest pictures of justification by grace alone through faith alone. Crucified for his crimes, he had no opportunity for baptism, good works, or restitution; he simply confessed his guilt, acknowledged Jesus' innocence and kingship, and asked to be remembered. Jesus answered with full assurance: "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43, NKJV). The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines justification as an act of God's free grace, pardoning all our sins and accepting us as righteous only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone (WSC Q. 33). The dying thief is that definition in flesh and blood.
Luke 24 presents the resurrection as a public, testable event. The tomb was found empty by named women on the third day; angels announced, "He is not here, but is risen!"; and the risen Christ appeared bodily — walking the Emmaus road, eating broiled fish, showing His hands and feet — to individuals and to gathered groups. Luke, who investigated eyewitness testimony firsthand, opens Acts by recording that Jesus presented Himself alive "by many infallible proofs" over forty days. The transformation of frightened, doubting disciples into bold witnesses willing to die for their testimony remains one of the strongest historical arguments that they had truly seen the risen Lord.
As Jesus approached Jerusalem for the final time, He saw the city and wept over it, because it did not know "the time of your visitation" (Luke 19:44, NKJV). The city that should have welcomed her Messiah was about to crucify Him, and judgment would follow: within a generation, in AD 70, Roman armies leveled Jerusalem and its temple, just as Jesus foretold. His tears reveal the heart of Christ toward the lost — He takes no pleasure in judgment but grieves over those who refuse the peace He offers. The scene is both a solemn warning and a gracious invitation: recognize the day of visitation while it is still called today.
Yes. Luke writes as a careful historian: he claims thorough investigation "from the very first," anchors his narrative to datable rulers — Caesar Augustus, Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod — and fills Luke and Acts with verifiable details of geography, politics, and official titles. The classical scholar Sir William Ramsay, after years of skeptical archaeological fieldwork in Asia Minor, concluded that Luke ranks among the most trustworthy of ancient historians, and subsequent discoveries have repeatedly confirmed details once doubted. Christians do not rest their faith on archaeology alone, but Luke's stated method — eyewitness sources, orderly writing, checkable detail — invites exactly the scrutiny it has withstood for two thousand years.
Luke's Gospel underwrites doctrine after doctrine confessed in the Westminster Standards. The angel's announcement and the virgin conception of Luke 1–2 stand behind the Confession's teaching that the eternal Son of God took man's nature, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary (WCF 8.2), and behind the Shorter Catechism's answer that the only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man (WSC Q. 21). The dying thief of Luke 23 puts flesh on the Confession's doctrine of justification — sinners accepted as righteous not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone, through faith (WCF 11). Luke's persistent call to repentance, from the joy in heaven over one repenting sinner to the risen Christ's commission that repentance and remission of sins be preached to all nations, is the biblical soil of the Confession's chapter on repentance unto life (WCF 15) and the Catechism's definition of it (WSC Q. 87). And the empty tomb of Luke 24 grounds the Catechism's confession that Christ's exaltation begins in His rising again from the dead on the third day (WSC Q. 28). To preach Luke is to preach the theology the Westminster divines confessed.
J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke — warm, searching devotional commentary from the great Victorian evangelical bishop; ideal for family worship and personal study.
John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke — the Reformer's classic exposition of the Synoptic Gospels, still remarkably fresh and pastorally rich.
Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke — a standard Reformed commentary in the New International Commentary series, strong on Luke's historical reliability.
Darrell L. Bock, Luke — the two-volume Baker Exegetical Commentary; the fullest modern evangelical treatment of the Greek text.
Philip Graham Ryken, Luke — a two-volume Reformed Expository Commentary written by a preacher for preachers, applying every passage to Christ.
Leon Morris, Luke — a concise, trustworthy Tyndale New Testament Commentary, perfect for readers who want a brief companion through the whole Gospel.
Study Luke at New Geneva Theological Seminary
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