The Message of Luke (BST)

Top Highlights

“For Luke the story begins at the point where after four hundred years of silence the voice of God was heard again by his people Israel,² with the announcement, shortly before each was born, of due coming of Jesus and his forerunner John.” (Page 32)

“But Jesus surely intends a contrast, not a comparison.” (Page 164)

“Four guiding lights show them the direction in which they are expected to go. They are given a biblical theology (24:46), an evangelistic programme (24:47), an apostolic authority (24:48), and a spiritual dynamic (24:49).” (Page 212)

“Secondly, the awesome once-in-a-lifetime privilege of serving in the temple must have carried Zechariah’s mind beyond the personal tragedy of childlessness to the even more poignant longings of the nation to which he belonged. In short, we may take it that his prayer was for the coming of Israel’s Saviour; and the ‘good news’ which the angel brings is not so much that Elizabeth shall bear a son, as that she shall bear a son who is to announce the Saviour’s immediate coming.” (Pages 33–34)

“Evangelism, now as then, must therefore include the teaching that they are astray, like the lost sheep; helpless, like the lost coin; foolish, like the lost son.” (Page 155)