Good News

Everyone likes good news! Good news gives us hope, and hope keeps us going, even in dark days. Good news ranges from something as insignificant as someone bringing a hot toddy when you’re working outside on a freezing cold day, to the phone call that says, “We’re having a baby!”

Luke wrote a booklet that came to be known as The Gospel of Luke. The word Gospel comes from the old English meaning Good News. Why did Luke and others write these good news booklets? They were inspired by the teachings of Jesus, and then most profoundly affected by his death and resurrection.

After a generation of listening to the gripping stories from eyewitnesses, the old ones began to die off. They felt an urgency to write down their testimony. Luke was a younger companion of the great Apostle Paul. After Paul was imprisoned in Rome, Luke wrote down the words he had often heard and which he had carefully researched for himself. He began this way:

Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught (Luke 1:1–4; New Living Translation).

Was Luke just regurgitating a line of propaganda? He claims not. He wants to present the facts, not just preferred beliefs. If there were already lots of accounts, why did he think he had to repeat what was already written? I can only conclude that he wanted to get out only what was true, rather than hearsay or fanciful tales. He wasn’t content to just repeat stories—apparently even if they came right from the great Apostle Paul told. He carefully investigated everything. He wanted to write a trustworthy account that people could rely on.

Who was Theophilus? We don’t know. Since Luke’s second volume ends with Paul imprisoned in Rome, we can guess that perhaps Theophilus was a Roman interested in the teachings these new Christians were buzzing about.

But the reality of it today is that we are invited to identify with “Theophilus”—to seek the truth behind the buzz.