The New Piney Grove Baptist Church monthly theme commentary for the month of March 2014.

1. NEW PINEY
GROVE
MONTHLY
THEME
COMMENTARY

2. MARCH
The
Gospel According
To
LUKE

3. Luke’s gospel can be considered
an “authorized biography” of our
Lord Jesus
Christ. Unlike the
other three gospel writers, Luke
was not an insider. He had not
seen Jesus’ miracles or heard Him
teach, nor did he see Him after
the Resurrection. Luke had to rely
on other resources for his written
account. But Luke examined the
life of Jesus as the “God-man,”
more than the other gospel
writers. The humanity of Jesus’
was the primary focus of Luke.

4. For Luke, Jesus was not just God
pretending to be human; He was
fully human. He came from heaven
to pay the sin death for all
humanity. Therefore, He had to die
as a human. Jesus lived in the real
world with all its pain, sorrow and
disappointment. Luke presents
Jesus as a man moved to
compassion by human suffering.
From His own personal
experience, He knows what human
existence is all about. Luke
captured this human sensitivity
through his gospel.

5. Luke’s gospel is written to an
unknown person named Theophilus.
His purpose in writing was to
convince Theophilus of the truth of
the things he had heard about Jesus
being the Jewish Messiah and the
Son of God. Luke, being a Gentile
like Theophius, adjusted his account
of Jesus’ ministry and purpose by
explaining
to
his
reader
the
meaning
of
unfamiliar
Jewish
customs. This was important to the
Greek
understanding
of
the
parables of Jesus.

6. WHAT CAN WE LEARN?
• How Jesus sets the example for
treatment of minorities
• The importance of compassion
and concern for children
• Being a neighbor applies to
more than just our
neighborhood
• Forgiveness of the public
disgraced has far reaching
affect

7. FINAL THOUGHT
When
Jesus
was
crucified,
Theophilus may have questioned
the validity of Jesus being God
in the flesh. He may have
doubted that Christianity could
survive when its Founder died
such a shameful death?” The
Acts of the Apostle was written
by Luke to put to rest any doubt
and fear that may have come to
Theophilus’ mind. The gospel of
Luke was the rest of the story.