< Luke 3 >

Luke gave details of rulers and places which are omitted by the other gospel writers. In the past, some of these historical details have been challenged, but with the discovery of more information, e.g. through archaeology, they have been proved correct, as we should expect of the word of God.

John was preparing the way for Christ, as prophesied by Isaiah Isaiah 40:3-4Isaiah 40:3-4XWaiting for response

The Holy Spirit, God’s power, came upon Jesus so that he, being anointed by God with the Holy Spirit Acts 10:38,Acts 10:38XWaiting for response became the LORD’s anointed, which is what the word "Christ" means - anointed.

Luke was just one of the gospel writers and he wrote of Jesus as the Son of man, emphasising the human aspects of his character and work. For this reason he was the only one to trace the genealogy of Jesus from the first man to prove that he was a human being of Adam’s race, as are we all. This was most important in the purpose of God for Jesus had to endure the same temptations as those for whom he died.

People sometimes confuse this genealogy with the one given in Matthew which traces Jesus’ legal line through his foster father back to Abraham, to prove Jesus is legally Abraham’s seed and heir of the promise. Although people supposed Jesus was the son of Joseph his actual line of descent from Adam was through his mother Mary, whose father was Heli.