Eyewitness Testimony

Dr. John Clayton's sermon on Luke 1:1-4 from our service on April 7, 2024, the first in her sermon series The Gospel of Luke.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1–4).[1]

Each of the four Gospels begins with its own perspective of Christ’s coming. Matthew’s Gospel opens with a genealogy of Jesus. Mark’s Gospel begins with the prophetic fulfillment of John the Baptist. John’s Gospel starts with a poetic description of the preincarnate Word. But Luke’s gospel begins with a personal note and the purpose for which he writes.  

While he never names himself, Luke, the Gentile physician from Antioch, has historically been accepted as the author of both the Gospel of Luke and Acts, a two-volume set. This is for good reason, as Luke employs the inclusive “we” in Acts, identifying himself traveling with the apostle Paul, as well as less direct inferences, such as a keen interest in the sick and the evangelizing of Gentiles. We perceive that he is educated and intelligent, with a skill for research and attention to detail. If you want the summary version of Jesus’s life, read Mark. If you want the detailed account, read Luke.

Written originally to the “most excellent Theophilus,” perhaps a Roman official or wealthy patron, Luke’s Gospel did not rest on a shelf but was thankfully disseminated, and so we enjoy it today as one of four Gospels in our canon of Scripture. We use the word “Gospel” (capital “G”) as a literary term referencing the first four books of our New Testament, but so also the Gospels contain the essentials of the gospel, which we believe for salvation. Or put another way, the Gospels give us four perspectives of one person, Jesus Christ, and in his life, death, and resurrection, there is gospel, that is good news, that we are saved from our sin and its consequence of death, reconciled to God and given eternal life, through faith in Jesus Christ. Good news, indeed! This is certainly Luke’s intent, in which we have a well-researched and well-written orderly account of things fulfilled that we may know the truth.

An Orderly Account

Let us note carefully how Luke describes his writing of this “orderly account.” First, Luke refers to “many” who have “undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us” (1). Luke is drawing from the written and unwritten testimonies of the early “eyewitnesses and ministers of the word” (2), the firsthand observers, including the apostles. Such is the careful and diligent work of Luke as an investigator, knowing, as New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham explains, “all history, like all knowledge, relies on testimony.”[2]    

But Luke’s intent is not only historical accuracy but theological distinction. In his Institutes, John Calvin explains this distinction, writing,

…the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ to heaven were obvious events seen by men. Now when they are brought to our attention the believing soul should not pause to look at them from the outside, but because it knows that all God’s works are done in wisdom it should weigh up the reason why these things were done. So the goal and focus of our faith is the story of events; the ultimate objective and purpose is to contemplate, on the basis of the story, things we cannot see or grasp. So, for example, our soul derives from Christ’s death confidence in his atonement, and from his resurrection hope of immortality.[3]

To Calvin’s point, we read and enjoy the stories of Luke’s Gospel, but in them we find life himself. In this first chapter, Luke introduces the miraculous in his narrative, describing supernatural intervention in the natural world, through angelic revelation, a virgin’s conception, even in utero celebration. Luke is not merely telling the happy history of John the Baptist’s birth but of prophetic fulfillment in preparation of the coming of Christ. He is not only telling of the virgin birth of Jesus but confirming the sinlessness of our Savior. 

This is the testimony of Scripture which God has delivered to us that we may hear and believe, for “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Yes, Luke wrote his “orderly account,” but he did so, as the apostle Peter describes it, “carried along by the Holy Spirt” (2 Pet. 1:21). Luke draws from a compilation of narratives to write his Gospel, but what he delivers is, as the apostle Paul explains, “breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16a), and therefore “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). In the Gospel of Luke, we have received the Word of God and which is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that [we] may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16b-17).

Things Fulfilled

Referring to his written sources, Luke says that they have been compiled to document “the things that have been accomplished among us” (1). The word translated “accomplished” (ESV) here is perhaps better translated “fulfilled” (NET), as Luke is not writing as a historian but as an Evangelist, not merely recording what has taken place but specifically ordering his account to convey what God has done in sending his only Son. Luke’s orderly account is written with interpretive intent. For example, following the prologue, Luke begins with the prophetic fulfillment of the forerunner of Christ, in the conception and birth of John the Baptist. We read of Gabriel’s announcement to the virgin Mary, of Jesus’ miraculous conception in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. We read every word of Mary’s Magnificat and Zechariah’s Benedictus, which flow full of prophetic references to be fulfilled in Christ’s coming. (And all of this before we start the second chapter!) Fast forward to Luke’s conclusion, we hear Jesus’ words to his apostles, saying, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44-45).

Furthermore, Luke is writing as the fulfillment continues, “among us,” he says. The verb translated “have been accomplished [or fulfilled],” is in the perfect tense, denoting a completed action that is ongoing. In saying, “among us, as one commentator says, “Luke has in mind the Christian community, with its organic unity across generations.”[4] For this reason, Luke begins before Christ’s birth and concludes after his resurrection. It’s also why he begins Acts with Christ’s ascension and concludes, as if abruptly, with the advancement of the gospel and church planting well beyond Jerusalem. Why? Because, onward it continues, until the gospel has reached the ends of the earth. The extraordinary power of the gospel advances, as it began.

Carl Sagan famously said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,”[5] a quote borrowed by skeptics who deny miracles, such as those recorded in the Gospel of Luke. The irony is that Luke agrees, which is precisely why he is writing. In fact, Luke includes himself, “among us,” as a witness, along with the early “eyewitnesses,” of the extraordinary. Angelic appearances and revelations? Extraordinary! Supernatural conception in the womb of a virgin? Extraordinary! The host of heaven proclaiming Jesus’ birth to shepherds? Extraordinary! Jesus’ miracles? Extraordinary! Jesus’ sinless life? Extraordinary! Jesus’ propitious death? Extraordinary! Jesus’ resurrection from the dead? Extraordinary! What other word better describes what Luke captures in his orderly account? It’s …. extraordinary!

And Luke has undertaken his task to describe the basis for God’s extraordinary work in us. For, what could be more extraordinary than the salvation of a sinner like you and me, who once were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked, but by God’s grace have been saved through faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ? What could be more extraordinary than to be forgiven of our sins, justified as righteous, reconciled with God, even adopted as his children, and filled with his Spirit, a guarantee of our eternal inheritance? Luke writes, then, as one who has personally experienced the result of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and wants Theophilus, and us all, to know the same.

That You May Know

Luke concludes his prologue to Theophilus, with his purpose for writing, “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (4). We, unfortunately, do not know precisely what Theophilus had been taught, but we may deduce that he has some familiarity with what Luke is writing but requires more information that he “may have certainty.” One scholar observes that Luke’s prologue is written in a style similar to a first-century technical manual, such as a medical handbook, which is certainly in keeping with Luke’s profession but also his intent.[6] His desire is that his reader “have certainty,” not a guess or a close approximation but the exact truth concerning Jesus Christ. He has not recorded everything that happened but only that which contributes to his purpose for writing. His objective is not comprehensivity but certainty of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

Likewise, as recipients of Luke’s Gospel, we too read that we may know, with certainty. We need to know that all the promises of God find their “Yes” in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). We need to know that Christ was born of a virgin and thereby avoiding the seed and sin nature of Adam that he might save us from our sins. We need to know he lived a sinless life, taught his followers as the Word of God, and worked miracles in the power of God that he might work in us. We need to know he is the Son of God, died upon a cross of torture and shame, bearing God’s wrath in our stead. We need to know that he resurrected to life from the dead and made himself known to his thousands, for our life is in his. We need to know not as disassociated fact gatherers but believers. And we desire to know because we are known.

We also need to read the Word consistently and diligently, because we are prone to forget, to doubt, even struggle in our faith. We need to know, because, as the Westminster Confession of Faith explains, “faith is different in degrees, weak or strong; may be often and many ways assailed, and weakened, but gets the victory: growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance, through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith.”[7] So, we go to God’s Word daily, hide it in our heart faithfully, sit under the preaching of it regularly, and strengthen our faith in its testimony “to the attainment of a full assurance, through Christ” to his glory. And when we are faithful to go to God’s Word, what we find is that the assurance we have in Christ rests not on our religious performance or striving for obedience, rests not on a spiritual experience or our personal testimony, rests not on our heritage or how long we have believed, but in Christ alone. And so, Luke points us to Christ, that we may have certainty. Let us pray,

Almighty God, who called Luke the Physician, whose praise is in the Gospel, to be an Evangelist, and Physician of the soul: May it please that [you], by the wholesome medicines of the doctrine delivered by him, all the diseases of our souls may be healed through the merits of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.[8] Amen.

[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006),

[3] John Calvin, trans. Robert White, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2014), 209.

[4] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke Green (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 40.

[5] Quoted in Peter J. Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels? (Wheaton: Crossway, 2018), 131.

[6] Loveday Alexander quoted in Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006), 117-118.

[7] “The Confession of Faith” 14.3, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 63-64.

 [8] The Book of Common Prayer (1662) quoted in Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2009), 15.