Dr Luke - Travelling With Paul

SERMON OUTLINE:

• (1). Luke was a Doctor.

• Colossians chapter 4 verse 14.

• (2). Luke was a Faithful Friend.

• 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verses 9-11.

• (3). Luke was a Fellow Worker.

• Philemon verses 23-24.

• (4). Luke was a Historian.

• Luke chapter 1 verses 1-4.

• (5). Luke was a Believer.

• Luke chapter 1 verses 1-4.

SERMON BODY

Ill:

Famous opening lines in literature.

• ‘Call me Ishmael.’

• Moby-Dick’, Herman Melville.

• ‘All children, except one, grow up.’

• ‘Peter Pan’, J. M. Barrie.

• ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’

• ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Jane Austen

• “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it.”

• ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ by C.S. Lewis

• ‘Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.’

• ‘David Copperfield’, Charles Dickens.

• ‘I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good Family, tho' not of that Country, my Father being a Foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull; He got a good Estate by Merchandise, and leaving off his Trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my Mother, whose Relations were named…’

• ‘Robinson Crusoe’, Daniel Defoe

• “In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.”

• ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, Eric Carle

• ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”

• Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

• TRANSITION: Our character study today is an author;

• He penned two books, the opening lines are:

“Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us”

“In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven,”

• Those lines may not be quoted in any quizzes on ‘famous opening lines in literature’.

• But these two books have impacted innumerable lives.

Quote: Warren Wiersbe.

“If ever a man wrote a book with good news for everybody, Dr Luke is the man. His key message is, “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke chapter 19 verse 10). He presents Jesus as the compassionate Son of Man, who came to live among sinners, love them, help them, and die for them”

• The two books of the Bible that he penned (Luke’s Gospel & Acts of the Apostles);

• Have impacted and transformed the lives of so many people.

• To Christians they are more than just the words of a man;

• They are also the words of God.

• The Bible had many human authors but one divine editor.

• We can always study the Bible two levels;

• The historical and the existential.

• On the historical level we ask the question:

• Why was I written?

• On the existential level we ask the questions:

• Why is this book in the Bible?

• What does God want us to know through these writings?

• So our character study today is an author, a man named Luke;

• So let’s delve a little deeper and found out who exactly he was!

Question: Who was Luke?

• It might surprise you to know;

• That Luke is only mentioned three times by name in the New Testament.

• The name checks come when the apostle Paul refers to him in his letters;

• Letters we have in our New Testaments (Colossians, 2nd Timothy & Philemon)

• So let’s look at those references.

(1). Luke was a Doctor.

• Bible Reading: Colossians chapter 4 verse 14.

• N.I.V.: “Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings”

• K.J.B.: “Luke, the beloved physician…”

Ill:

• Luke was a doctor:

• Which may well mean that at one time he had been a slave;

• Most physicians in Roman times, were educated slaves.

• Theophilus who Luke wrote his books for,

• May well have once owned Luke as a slave,

• He had him educated and trained as a doctor, and at some time later he set him free.

• The 4th Century historians Jerome & Eusebius;

• Refer to Luke as being a citizen of and also trained and educated in Antioch.

• This is where he may have acquired his excellent writing skills & medical training;

Note: We see hints of his occupation revealed in his writings:

• i.e. #1: Luke is the only gospel writer that recorded Jesus’ statements about doctors