• On 2 or 3 occasions, Liz and I have taken our boys to an art museum. And we always hit the same problem. I am trying to take my time looking at the exhibits, and reading the background details of every painting. But the kids are running ahead looking for something to entertain them.
During those museum trips, I often look with envy at those who stand in front of paintings for ages, examining every detail. The real art connoisseur meditates over a painting. If it’s a really good painting, they will revisit it again and again.
Why do they do that? Well art connoisseurs will tell you they see something different every time. They see the painting from different angles and discover something new.
And I think that’s why there are 4 Gospels in the Bible. 4 biographies of Jesus – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There are several stories repeated across these 4 Gospels, but each writer uses these stories in different ways, to cast a fresh light on who Jesus is and why he matters so much. It’s like one giant painting that has 4 different angles on the life of Christ.
And this morning we are beginning a series on Luke’s Gospel. So we need to ask ‘what particular light does Luke shed on the message of Jesus? When you place Luke alongside the other 3 Gospels – what does Luke say in particular about the Jesus story, that we don’t find so much in the other Gospels?
That way we’ll discover what Luke is all about. And that’s important because Luke wrote more of the New Testament that any other writer – more even than Paul. 28% of the NT is written by Luke, if you combine Luke’s Gospel with the book of Acts, which he also wrote.
So Luke is the most prolific author in the whole of the New Testament. Why is he so important? What is he saying about Jesus that we really need to hear?
Well I want to point to 4 major themes of Luke’s Gospel this morning. 4 emphases that present a unique angle on the life and message of Jesus.
Firstly Luke shows us that the message of Jesus is
• Reliable
• It’s real history. A lot of people today think that the Gospels are just a load of invented stories. Some religious zealots, thousands of years ago, made up some fantastic miracle stories and built a religion round it that has managed to fool weak minded people ever since.
o But that view comes from people who simply have not looked at the evidence. There is nothing fanciful about how Luke writes this biography of Jesus. Quite the opposite.
? Luke was a doctor by profession. A man of science, and also a historian. He wasn’t from Israel. He was a European like us, probably from a non Christian background.
• This is not the hysterical account of a religious extremist. The Greek text of Luke is sophisticated and precise. Luke is a highly educated man. If he was around today, he would be writing for the Times, not the Daily Star!
And he’s writing to another highly educated European called Theophilus, who was probably a recent convert to Christianity. He calls him ‘most excellent Theophilus’, a title that was reserved for political leaders. And this is how Luke opens his biography of Jesus,
He writes, (v.1) ‘Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word.
Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus.’
Luke tells us he has spoken to the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and carefully gathered their testimonies together to form this Gospel of Luke.
And we have every reason to believe that this Gospel is reliable.
For one thing, Luke regularly gives specific dates and times for the life of Christ. When he introduces John the Baptist, he gives no fewer than 6 time references. ‘In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Traconitis, Lysinias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John the Baptist.’
It is extremely impressive that Luke is so accurate about these time frames, not only for who the Roman emperor was, but for the exact political power structure in Israel of Jesus’ day. And scholars have confirmed that Luke is accurate in every detail.
You may remember the account of Jesus’ birth begins, ‘In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be taxed. This tax took place when Qurinius was governor of Syria.’
Luke wants to write an accurate, orderly, historical account of the life of Jesus.
Sir William Ramsay is a famous archaeologist who doubted Luke as a historian, because of the many miracles in Luke’s Gospel. So he set off to do a detailed study of Luke’s historical credentials, and he summed up his study by saying, ‘Luke is a historian of the first rank…this author should be placed along with the greatest of historians.'
Another historian A.N. Sherwin-White, who spent his lifetime examining Luke and the book of Acts said: ‘In all, Luke names thirty-two countries, fifty-four cities, and nine islands without error. For Acts the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming. . . . Any attempt to reject its basic historicity must now appear absurd.'
Luke’s attention to detail is also impressive. You remember the story of Zaccheus, the tax collector, who climbed a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus? Can you remember what kind of tree he climbed? Luke says it was a sycamore tree, and sure enough, if you go to the precise spot outside Jericho where that encounter took place, you will find a set of unusual sycamore trees by the roadside.
That’s impressive detail from a European man, collecting eyewitness evidence about a foreign country. And this is where Luke is so troubling to atheists today. Luke combines these accurate historical details with miracle stories of Jesus’ virgin birth, Jesus healing the blind, the deaf, curing lepers, and ultimately rising for the dead.
Luke spends more time on the resurrection of Jesus than any other Gospel, because he knows he has a skeptical audience, and he wants to give them tangible reason to believe that these miracles really happened.
You can’t dismiss Luke as a crazy religious zealot. This is a historian and scientist of the highest order, telling us amazing stories, but using objective eyewitness testimony to do it.
Luke was a travelling companion of the Apostle Paul. From Acts 20 onwards, Luke stops saying ‘Paul went’, and starts saying ‘we went.’
Luke was with the apostle Paul for years, and would have met Mary the mother of Jesus, Peter the leading disciple, as well as listening every day to the message of Jesus that Paul was preaching to people all over Asia and Europe. He was ideally placed to gather the evidence.
Richard Bauckham, a professor from St Andrews University, wrote a book recently called ‘Jesus and the eyewitnesses’, where he examines all the Gospels, including Luke, and finds time and time again the kind of detail in the Gospels that point to eyewitness testimony.
The kind of testimony that we use all the time for witnesses in a court. So if you have come to church today thinking, ‘The stories of the Bible were just inventions.’ Then Luke will really make you think again. He is a reliable historian in every detail.
Don’t dismiss Luke because you think he is telling fairy tales. See how reliable he is as an historian, and open your mind to the possibility that the God who created this incredible universe, and all the marvels we see around us, from the aurora borealis to a child growing in a womb – that same God has come into our world in the person of Jesus, and demonstrated he was God through miracles – the most amazing of which was rising again from the dead.
Don’t close your mind. Open it. Read the Gospel, examine it, question it. There is real substance behind this incredible biography of Jesus.
So Luke tells us that the message of Jesus is reliable. Secondly he tells us that the message of Jesus is
• Universal
• What strikes you right away in Luke is that Jesus spends most of his time with people who were considered second class, second rate, despised. The average Jewish man would often wake up in the morning and say a prayer,
? ‘Lord, I thank you that I am not a Gentile, a woman or a slave.’ But Jesus became such a controversial figure because he spent so much time with Gentiles, he took women seriously, and gave hope to the poor. He even made time for children when the disciples were urging him to get on with more important things.
He was a champion of the outcast, and the socially unacceptable. Jesus’ message was that the Gospel is for everyone. It is universal. Zaccheus was a despised tax collector, but Jesus not only meets with him, but offers him God’s forgiveness, and changes his life so much that Zaccheus gives back 4 times over the money he had swindled from people.
It’s in Luke’s Gospel where we find the parable of the good Samaritan, where the samaritan is the hero of the story, but Jews hated Samaritans, as much as loyalists hate republicans in West Belfast. It’s in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus praises a woman who had been a prostitute, for pouring perfume on his feet and worshipping him, when the religious leaders were scowling at how much Jesus welcomed sinners.
But that’s the whole point of Luke’s Gospel. The key verse of the Gospel is Luke 19:10 ‘Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost.’ It’s not that Jesus did not want to save religious leaders and sophisticates. He had dinner parties in Pharisees’ homes, and a profound conversation with a rich young ruler who Jesus praised.
But it’s that the sophisticates don’t think they are lost. Don’t think they need saving – so Jesus focused on people who did realize their spiritual need before God.
The Gospel is for everyone. It is universal. There is not one person in this room today who is excluded from God’s grace. From his free forgiveness.
We are all lost, and Jesus came to save us. Every single one of us. And that message is either so offensive that we walk away, or it’s so compelling that we cry out for forgiveness.
Either way, this Gospel is for all. It is universal. Because all of us have been separated from God by our sin, and Jesus is the way back or all of us.
The Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost. Are you prepared to admit that you are lost? Estranged from the God who created you? Are you prepared to at least investigate if that may be true, in a way you have never thought of before? That’s really a decision you have to make.
And there’s a real challenge for us as Christians here today. Jesus came to seek and save lost people of all shapes and sizes, colours and creeds. He went looking for them. He didn’t expect them to drift into church on a Sunday. In your workplace there are real opportunities in our day to share Jesus with work colleagues.
There is a spiritual hunger out there which is not reflected in our media, or our political world, but you can see it when you talk to ordinary people. People don’t know who they are or where they’re going, and if you probe a little deeper, they will discover how lost they really are.
And it’s our job to seek them out. To take an interest in their lives. To ask the kind of questions no one else asks.
In all 24 chapters of Luke you find Jesus in a synagogue only once, and he gets thrown out. The rest of the time he’s in peoples’ houses, or in the city square, or walking from Jericho to Jerusalem, talking to people, healing the sick, asking penetrating questions, teaching the Bible.
Some churches are called ‘seeker sensitive’ churches, with the idea that we want to put on a programme to draw people who are seeking God. But Luke tells us that Jesus is the true seeker, and we need to take this message outside these 4 walls.
What are we doing to take this message of Jesus out there? Who are the 5 people in your life, or even just the one person, who you are looking to share Jesus with?
Will you share the Gospel this week with the person sitting next to you on the plane or the train or the bus? With a work colleague over lunch? With a school mum you meet for coffee? Will you ask if they want to read the Gospel of Luke through with you?
This Gospel is for everyone. It’s universal. But only 2.5 percent of ‘everyone’ in the UK ever comes to church. Our mission field is out there, as well as in here. Jesus is the seeker, and you are his mouthpiece. So go and seek the lost, for Jesus’ sake.
Luke tells us the Gospel is reliable, it is universal, thirdly it’s
• Spiritual
• Luke mentions the Holy Spirit more than any other Gospel writer. He emphasizes that Jesus was born by the power of the Holy Spirit. When he was baptized the Spirit came up on him like a dove. Luke says Jesus was filled with the Spirit when he began his ministry. He rejoices in the Holy Spirit when he sees his disciples healing the sick.
? You cannot read Luke without thinking about this mysterious person called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is often called the 3rd person of the Trinity. And because of that many people think he is the least important member of the godhead.
But actually the Holy Spirit is God living within us. Which is just astonishing. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus seeks power for living from the Spirit.
He does miracles in the power of the Spirit. He feels joy that comes from the Spirit when God’s work is being done. He is guided to know what to say and do, and where to go, by the Spirit. It is the Spirit who sends him into the desert to be tempted.
And if Jesus the man was constantly aware of the presence and power of the Spirit, then so should we.
The Holy Spirit helps us to pray and talk to God, and bring our lives in line with God’s will. I’ve started 1 Peter for my devotionals this week, and 1 Pet 1 says the Father chose us, Jesus died for us, but it is the Spirit who makes us holy.
He is the one who wrestles with our sinful natures and purifies our thought life, so we should be constantly asking for his help. If we’re feeling nervous about witnessing, it’s the Spirit who takes away our fear and clothes us with boldness. He enables to do what we could not do in our own strength.
'Spirit of God, fill me, empower me today. Make me aware of your presence when I’m at home with kids, at lunchtime at work. Fill me with certainty about my salvation, and guide every decision I make.' That should be a daily prayer of our lives.
Think of the Holy Spirit as the daily presence of God in your life.
And if you’re not a Christian here today, please realize that finding God is not just a matter of logic. It’s a spiritual search. It’s the logic of the faith combined with a personal experience of God. Logic only takes you so far. But the Holy Spirit has to open your eyes to understand Jesus.
The Spirit is the one who brings the peace and joy of God flooding into your life, in a way that millions of new believers have experienced. God wants you to experience him in your life. To feel his presence.
We often shy away from talking about spiritual experience. But we mustn’t. The Holy Spirit is at work within us. It’s a glorious thing. Knowing God is an experience as well as a decision of the mind.
Luke tells us that the Gospel is reliable, it is universal, and it is spiritual. The Holy Spirit helps us experience God every day. And fourthly the Gospel is
• Radical
• Luke 9:51 is the turning point of the book. We’re told that Jesus ‘sets his face’ to go to Jerusalem, where he will be tortured and crucified and rise again on the third day. Jesus knows that his mission is ultimately to lay down his life. To be betrayed and beaten, mocked and spat upon, and ultimately to be nailed to a cross as a bloody spectacle.
? This is extreme stuff. We have a radical Saviour. The only way for God to save us was for the Christ to take upon himself the punishment we deserve for our sins. And Jesus has steely determination to do that, and knows that’s what lies ahead of him in his long journey to Jerusalem.
o The cross of Christ is extraordinary. Stained glass windows try to clean it up, poetry distances us from the reality. But this is the bottom line, Jesus was willingly torn apart from us.
o 20% of Luke’s Gospel focuses on the last week of Jesus’ life. The cross and resurrection is the most important bit.
And our radical Saviour demands a radical response from us. Luke leaves us in no doubt that we need to make a decision about Jesus. And it’s not the decision of a moment. It’s the decision of a lifetime. He frequently uses the word ‘repentance.’
Repentance means to make a U-turn in your life. To turn away from what you know to be wrong, and to follow Jesus with everything you’ve got.
And that includes holding lightly to your money and possessions. Luke talks more about money than any other Gospel. The rich young ruler couldn’t repent because he was very wealthy, we’re told.
He had too much to lose. Too much to give up to truly make Jesus the focus of his life. Jesus comes into our world poor. When he is dedicated at the temple in Luke’s Gospel, his parents offer just 2 turtledoves as an offering, the offering prescribed for a very poor family.
Jesus gave up everything to be our Saviour, and he calls us to give up everything that stops us from being his disciples.
That’s repentance. It’s a total life turn around from a self-obsessed life to a Jesus obsessed life. Our former elder Victor Ojabo, has a quote on every email he sends. It’s the quote from Jim Eliot the missionary to Ecuador, who was martyred as a 24 year old.
Eliot said ‘he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.’ That’s Luke’s Gospel.
It is a message about a radical Saviour, who demands radical repentance.
Luke’s Gospel is reliable – we can trust his historical research. It’s universal – Jesus came to seek and save all lost people, you and me included. It’s spiritual – the Holy Spirit brings the power and presence of God into our lives. And it’s radical. Are you up for the challenge?
