Assurance(2023)-2

ASSURANCE-II—Luke 1:1-4

ATTENTION:

‘My Children Are Not My Children’

When Lydia Fairchild fell on hard times(in Washington State ca. 2002), she & the father of her children separated. And when Lydia applied for state benefits for their children, DNA tests were required for proof of parentage.

•The state’s DNA test claimed that none of the children she was claiming were really hers. She had two children & was claiming them as her own! She was pregnant with a third, supposedly by the same father.

Lydia received a call from a prosecutor who wanted to talk with her about the test results. He assumed she was using a false name, & was hiding the fact that ‘her’ kids were really someone else’s. She explained her name was not falsified & that though she was not currently married, she had had all of the children thru the same father(Jamie Townsend), so that they were all her biological children. The prosecutor responded that they knew the kids belonged to the father, but also ‘knew’ that Lydia could not have given birth to the children!...Because the DNA test results showed the children to be 99.9% the stated father’s, but 00.0% Lydia’s. She was snidely told by officials, that there was no way possible that she was the mother of the children!

•Lydia was then informed that Social Services was going to take her children away. She was facing charges of fraud & for kidnapping her own children!

•Attorney Alan Tindell looked into Lydia’s case. His job was to prove that Lydia was not a criminal. Or to discover whose children they really were.

•Since Lydia was nearing the due date of her third child, Mr. Tindell had the court order someone to be in the delivery room as Lydia gave birth. DNA taken from Lydia & the baby immediately at birth, again revealed that her new baby was the father’s but was not her own! Obviously the baby was hers but the DNA test said otherwise.

•The obvious conclusion was that the DNA tests were wrong, which could threaten the entire DNA testing regime/system. After all, people have been sent to prison & to even put-to-death based on DNA results!

Lydia’s case baffled the experts. Near the same time, Attorney Tindell became aware that a lady in Boston needed a kidney transplant, but none of the three sons born to her showed any maternal DNA compatibility!

Other tests were ordered for Lydia. It turned out that Lydia’s reproductive parts were not her own!

•Doctors put forth a theory that unbeknownst to Lydia she had started life in the womb as a twin. Early on in her mother’s pregnancy, her twin never fully developed, & that Lydia’s developing body absorbed her twin’s cells without destroying them. The result was that Lydia was made up of two separate sets of DNA. It was discovered that her ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, & cervix were composed entirely of her sister’s DNA, to the exclusion of her own! So technically Lydia was not the biological mother of her own children that she gave birth to!

There are only 30 people in the U.S. known to have this condition, but then again not many people have their DNA tested.

*Truth can be challenging to uncover, but it's certainty brings Assurance!

*Likewise, certainty of the truth gives confident Assurance to your ‘spiritual’ well-being & thus to every aspect of your life!

Luke assured Theophilus of the validity of his faith, because his faith was based on fact.

Likewise, readers of Luke’s gospel can be certain of their faith because it is based on fact.

But What historical assurances are offered/gained thru Luke’s Gospel?

4 historical assurances are maintained thru Luke’s Gospel.

If your heart is equipped for study, then your mind will be also.

Acts 17:11-12—of the Christians in the city of Berea—“These were more fair-minded[noble-minded] than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, & searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, & also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.”

Previously we discovered that

Luke’s Assurance offers us Historical...

1. FACT(:1)

2. TRANSFER Of FACT(:2)

Today we’ll continue to see that:

3— Luke’s Assurance offers us Historical...

DETAIL Of FACT(:3)

Explanation:(:3)Occurance/Focus

:3—“...it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus,”

“It seemed good to me also,...”

Luke took the task to heart, of compiling & presenting his Gospel(‘Good News’).

There had obviously been a great deal of interest regarding the reliability of historical information about Jesus & His ministry.

*Luke is relating his personal commission from God & his unique ability & determination in accomplishing it.