Maybe you've heard some version of this counsel before, "When someone tells you who they are, listen." This comes in contexts where a person is revealing his true character, but maybe you've got other reasons for not wanting to believe what he says. The point is: the point is not always so hard to find, but we have to be willing to accept it.

This is most certainly missed by a lot of Bible readers, and specifically by people with wishful thinking about who they want Jesus to be. But the authors of Scripture tell us what they’re trying to communicate. Jesus certainly communicated who He is. Non-Christians miss the signals because they’re trying to miss Jesus, otherwise they'd have to submit to Him. Even Christians can miss it by not observing the text in its context.

Luke opened volume one of his historical record of Jesus with a formal preface unlike Matthew, Mark, or John. So also Luke, unlike those three, wrote a second volume with the historical record of Jesus' disciples, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the beginning of the church. Luke wrote more of what we have as the New Testament than any other author, and as an author Luke tells us up front where he got his info and what purpose he had for writing. It's all in verses 1-4.

To start with the end, he wrote so that his reader(s) would have certainty about the things they had been taught. This certainty gave their already existing faith an even more firm foundation. This certainty would encourage them to be faithful (as in the story of the minas in Luke 19). The book of Luke was written so that the found would be faithful.

What we have as verses 1-4 are one long sentence in the original language, which is acknowledged by most English translations. It's more than, though not less than, a dedication to the patron who probably paid for the publishing of the book. It also introduces us to a little background and the big goal for this long history.

Luke didn't start from scratch. He also didn't make up a story. He wasn't the first to write, but he did have firsthand sources.

There are good reasons to think Luke probably started writing this book in the early 60s. That means that the apostles had been preaching and disciple-making and church planting for almost three decades. Word about Jesus was going around.

Luke says, many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us. Men—and many makes the plural part clear—did work to make their own account. To compile a narrative means it required intention and effort, which could be spoken or written, though the original word has the nuance of “taken in hand” (KJV), leaning more literary than oral.

The study of when and how the books of the Bible were written is great, and grueling, because of how many men seem motivated to not have to believe it. They expect to find problems, and turns out they can “find” some. But we're blessed to have the Bible, we're blessed to be able to read and compare parts with other parts.

There's good reason to think that Luke at least knew about or even had access to both Matthew and Mark. Comparing Luke to Matthew and Mark has led to the label for all three as Synoptic Gospels, they share a general synopsis or overview of Jesus’ life. There's also good reason to think that Luke had more than those two sources. But things had happened, guys were telling each other and even writing down some of what happened.

Verse 2 appears to describe a second group, who would actually be the key group: those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses. There were guys who saw from the start. And yes, it's possible to see something and still be wrong about it, but here, the guys seeing were also a plurality, so not dependent on just one pair of eyes, and also, they'd been seeing over time, not a one-off event. There was time to watch and question and compare notes, and there were others to argue and correct if someone was wrong.

These eyewitnesses were ministers of the word and delivered [the things] to us. It’s one group; they saw and they spoke. They had been present, then they passed on what happened.

One, we know that some of these men paid for their witness with their lives; the story was worth dying for. Two, again, the whole process functioned as kind of a quality control. So putting it all together: these are certain materials that give us certain history.

Even with the many accounts, Luke knew that there was more that could be included, more that could be written, more certainty that could be provided. That's obvious just considering that there is no book of "Acts according to Matthew"; only Luke went further than the Ascension. But even in the first volume, we'll see that Luke alone gives us the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth and birth of John the Baptist, Mary's response to Gabriel's announcement of her conception, a different genealogy of Jesus, Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and more. How much we've got to be thankful for from Luke!

So praise the Lord when Luke said, it seemed good to me. Yes, it “seemed good to the Holy Spirit” as well (which is true based on the doctrine of inspiration, and some later copyists even added the phrase to Luke 1:3 based on Acts 15:28). This is Luke’s key decision, leading to Luke’s contribution.

What seemed good to him was to really deep research this thing. He followed all things closely for some time past. There are other ways to understand what he wrote here, but they all get to the bottom line that he investigated, he didn't invent. He did his homework, he wasn't hallucinating. He researched closely or “carefully” (NASB), and “from the beginning” (NASB), at least back to the birth of the Messiah’s forerunner.

It was so that he could write an orderly account. This doesn't mean strictly chronological, though Luke is generally following the timeline. It does mean that he paid attention to what comes after what.

This is always valuable in our observation. How do things relate? How does what comes before, or after, matter? These are not questions that box-checking-readers have time for, and they are questions that some theological-readers don't think matter. But it mattered to Luke.

Luke's intended audience was most excellent Theophilus. Theophilus is named at the beginning of Acts also (Acts 1:1). As usual, people argue about who exactly this “excellency” was, if he was a real historical person or if the name was a representative stand-in for any "friend of God." But the tone of the whole preface points to this as probably the patron of Luke's work.

The purpose of Luke's work is verse 4: that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught. It's certainty about the facts, which increases certainty about faith. This is the burden of the book of Luke.

We get to stand on the same firm foundation. At the beginning of the 1900s the cultural mood was to question the historicity of Jesus and the Bible; they didn’t listen to Luke. At the beginning of the 2000s the cultural mood is to question if meaning even exists; we also should listen to Luke. It used to be Science, now it’s stories, but with whatever meaning you want. We have something more certain.

So Luke was careful and comprehensive about what has been fulfilled and what God will fulfill next. God has been and is at work.

The burden of the book of Luke is certainty about what we’ve been taught to believe, and when we teach it there is a burden of proof to believe it. It’s what compelled Luke, it’s why his narrative is compelling. The narrative of Jesus' life and miracles and teaching isn't an imaginative, fiction, myth. Jesus said who He is, many heard and watched and then said who He is. Nations are accountable to repent and submit and give witness that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord every man. We are obligated to believe certain things.

That’s part of our job as a church in Marysville. We’ve received certain things in the Bible, and as we pay close attention to it we then are responsible to pass it on. We’ve got certain things: prophecies fulfilled, woes pronounced, comfort offered, forgiveness secured, Christ risen and ascended.

Reread this preface with your kids. Talk about what it would have been like to talk with eyewitness. Talk about why the Bible’s account requires us to believe it. For that matter, make sure you believe it.

God did not leave us to guess. Just as He gave certainty to Theophilus, He gives us more than information. He delights to make us His people with the framework so that the found would be faithful.

Read, believe, and obey the Bible like your life depends on it. Don’t be driven by wishful thinking, let your thinking be driven by God’s Word. Your faith is in CERTAIN things. The world is lost and drowning in uncertainty, but you are built on the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25–27 ESV)