Week 1 - countdown to Christmas

(For the next six Sundays, I will be sharing an excerpt from “The Christmas Story in 40 Days”. This first passage is the opening to the New Testament Book of Luke. The Book of Luke tells in detail the events leading up to the birth of Christ. )

So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught. Luke 1:1-4 (The Message Bible)

Luke, a physician with an eye for detail, wrote with the utmost accuracy, verifying his facts and double-checking the stories he had heard. He had never personally met Jesus, but with the information he gathered for this work, he probably knew Jesus better than people who had walked with him in His lifetime.

Luke, as well as Theophilus to whom he wrote this letter, was born a Gentile, not a Jew. He reports on the life of Jesus from the viewpoint of an outsider.

Why is it important that Luke directed this book to people of the time who were not Jews? Wasn’t Jesus a Jew? Of course He was, and most of the people of the time thought He should only associate with the Jews. But He didn’t come just to save the Jewish people. Jesus came to save everyone – the outsiders, the lost, the unsaved. He came to save men like Luke and his friend Theophilus. He came to save us.

Do you know of someone, an outsider, who needs to be saved? How might you share Jesus Christ with that person this week?

(A friend of mine gave me a rubber duckie Nativity set to add to my rubber duckie collection. I went a little crazy with it, but hopefully, if you find my words boring, at least the pictures over the next six weeks will keep you coming back for more. And if you don’t find my words boring, don’t forget to order you copy of “The Christmas Story in 40 Days” before the forty days is up.)