Foundations: The Gospel of Luke - Day 1

Read Luke 1

It is a few decades after Jesus’ death and news of Him is spreading rapidly throughout the Roman Empire. A well-educated Gentile has devoted himself to discovering as much as possible about this man from Nazareth. The result was the Gospel of Luke. In this account of Jesus’ life we see a great hope for people today. Luke wasn’t Jewish and he didn’t know Jesus personally. Despite this, he wrote with a great intimacy of Jesus. As Luke grew to know more about Jesus, he grew to know Jesus personally. As we study Jesus’ life we too can build a personal intimacy with Him.

In the first chapter we are given a detailed account of the birth of John the Baptist as well as the blessing of Mary as the future mother of Jesus. From the beginning of his Gospel, Luke develops a key theme: people’s responses to God matter. We are given a great amount of detail about how Zacharias (v 12, 18) and Mary (v 29, 34, 38) each responded to the angels’ announcements of their sons (John the Baptist and Jesus). Further, Luke chose to include some of the most beautiful, poetic responses of praise to God found in the Bible. Mary praised God for His mercy and how He acts toward people (v 46-55). Zacharias offered God grateful praises revolving around salvation and the forgiveness of sin (v 68-79).

Journaling and Prayer
1.   Luke earnestly desired to get to know Jesus. Do you have the same desire? Ask God to 
      help you hunger for a deeper intimacy with Jesus as you study the Book of Luke.

2.   We are so blessed to see how people responded to God in Scripture! Look back over Mary’s and Zacharias’ responses to God.  They make some great declarations about God’s character: He is holy, merciful, deliverer, saviour, righteous, and forgiving. Do you believe this? If you have trouble believing any of these confess it to God and ask Him to help you know these areas of His character.

3.   Pray for each member of your family by name. Ask that God would give them a hunger to get to know Him. Ask that He would teach them about Himself and His Word. Ask that He would reveal Himself in the midst of their struggles (for example, if someone struggles with feelings of sadness you can pray that God would reveal His joy to them).