SE121204
GOSPEL TRUTH
2. Luke
INTRO: LUKE UNDER THE GUN
The holidays always seem to bring out the obligatory religious articles in news magazines. This week, Time has an article on the birth of Jesus*. The ironic thing about these articles, is that they sell a lot of magazines to Christians…. But the starting assumption is always that Christianity is more myth than reality.
- It’s like this is our yearly anti-indoctrination in how we’ve been indoctrinated by the Bible.
- It’s our yearly programming to deprogram us from what our lying churches are telling us.
Especially under the gun in this year’s attack is Luke, the writer of the third biography of Jesus in the New Testament – and that’s who we’re talking about today. Whereas Mark starts with Jesus all grown up, Luke adds early background info which has become the source of our Christmas traditions:
- Mary and Joseph
- Bethlehem, donkey
- Stable, manger
- shepherds
- angels
WHO WAS LUKE?
So who was Luke? Do we know anything about the man? Can we know when he wrote, why he wrote, and what kind of guy he was?
- Was he a myth maker, a tale spinner?
- Was he totally removed from the events or close to them?
- Did he care about accuracy?
Well, to understand LUKE you need to understand it’s ties to another book called ACTS. Acts is the sequel to Luke. LUKE is about Jesus, ACTS is about the church that started after his death and resurrection. They were written by the same guy! How do we know?
- They have the same style and themes
- They have the same opening, addressed to the same man. “Dear Theophilus.”
- The second book refers to the first… Acts 1:1 “Dear Theophilus: In my first book I told you about everything Jesus began to do and teach.”
But the most interesting thing is that the guy who wrote Acts puts himself INTO the story. In Acts 16 the author starts using the person pronoun “WE”. “WE did this, and we did that…” so he joins his own narrative and therefore, it’s at this point in the story that he becomes an eye witness as the companion of Paul.
That’s pretty amazing! In fact, Paul mentions Luke by name in several letters. So though Luke never saw Jesus, as a companion of Paul, he would have met Jesus first disciples, Peter, James, John even Mary. Luke was in a unique position of access to Jesus’ story.
Here’s ONE other detail about Luke. He was a physician. So Luke was a professional, highly skilled and educated person. His Greek is the most polished in the New Testament and kind of verifies this. And doctors would be the closest thing in the first century to a scientist. So Luke would be accustomed to the fact that in medicine, you need evidence, and verification and investigation to find cures that actually work.
THEOPHILUS
This makes him a first rate historian. Why is he interested in history? Because Luke is writing directly to a friend, who needs historical proof before he can be certain about Jesus Christ. Luke mentions his friend by name…
Theophilus.
Theophilus was probably a seeker investigating the message of Jesus Christ. Now, what we do every week in this service is to provide a place to investigate the claims of Christ, and some of you in this room may be in Theophius’ shoes in this very moment.
You see, what Theophilus needed was verification. He needed facts. He needed background information so he could make up his own mind; he needed to have his questions answered. Just listen to Luke’s introduction:
Luke 1:1-4 Most honorable Theophilus: Many people have written accounts about the events that took place among us. They used as their source material the reports circulating among us from the early disciples and other eyewitnesses of what God has done in fulfillment of his promises. Having carefully investigated all of these accounts from the beginning, I have decided to write a careful summary for you, to reassure you of the truth of all you were taught.
So note this, friends: Luke is not making this stuff up, he gets it from eyewitness sources. Later he says to Theophilus, this stuff wasn’t done in a corner – check it out! One of the hallmarks of Judeo Christian religion is that it is built primarily on historical events marked by multiple attestation.
What does that mean?
- it’s not one guy getting visions from an angel in a cave
- It’s not one guy getting special glasses to read secret heavenly scrolls that magically disappear.
- It’s not one guy taking dictation from heaven
- there’s multiple independent witnesses, five if you include Paul, and they reference hundreds of others…
Now this has some serious implications for you who might be investigating Christianity here today. Luke sets down the pattern for you…
He says to his friend, here’s what I did, I INVESTIGATED everything… I sought answers, I interviewed eye witnesses, and here’s what I found.
Friends, God is OK with your questions and your need for some evidence. And, because Luke was such a diligent question asker, you can benefit from him. He can be one of your sources as YOU seek the truth about Jesus Christ. But why should you trust him?
LUKE’S DETAIL
Because on the areas where we can test Luke’s research, he is amazingly accurate, which gives us a lot of confidence in the areas were we can’t. Luke puts himself on the line by listing dozens of countries, cities, islands, rulers and dates which we can test. For example:
- Luke lists Lysanias as the leader of Albia when Jesus started his public ministry. Well, scholars knew that a Lysanias has actually a leader of a different Roman province 50 years earlier. If Luke couldn’t get a simple thing like the name of a politician right, how can we trust his other claims about Jesus?? Ah, but that’s when archeology stepped in. An inscription was later found from the time of Jesus that names A DIFFERENT Lysanias as the leader of Albia – just as Luke had written!
And more than any other writer, Luke is careful to ground his account in history. So here’s the bottom line for anyone in this room who is in Theophilus’s shoes.
If Luke was so painstakingly accurate in his historical reporting, on what logical basis would we assume that he was easily duped or inaccurate or gullible in his reporting on stuff that was far MORE important?
Now, there’s always another side to the story. Some people still dispute Luke and the whole Bible, you and I both know that. But you research this with an open mind and I think you’ll agree that Luke is a sane and sober historian – and he’s a historian with an agenda… He wants you to believe what he has come to believe… that something amazing has been fulfilled in our midst, something cosmic, something for ALL people.
JESUS IS FOR RACIAL OUTSIDERS
Which leads us to Luke’s special emphasis in his reporting on Jesus Christ. Luke emphasizes a couple of things… The first is
- the international and pluralistic element of Jesus message
Why would Luke emphasize this? Because he was not a Jew. His friend Theophilus was also not a Jew and so they might both be wondering, why should we bother with some Jewish sage from 40 years ago? Because what God was doing through Jesus Christ was part of a plan to bless ALL people…
though God had set the stage with the Jewish people, and though Jesus himself was Jewish… God’s plan was always for the whole world.
This emphasis is seen beginning with the famous Christmas story. It starts out with a simple Jewish couple, but even in these small beginnings, Luke let’s us know that this was a story with cosmic proportions. Simple shepherds in Bethlehem on the night of Jesus birth were suddenly overcome with a vision of angelic armies who tell them…
don’t be afraid, I bring good news of great joy with shall be for ALL people.
When Jesus was circumcised and dedicated to God at the temple, Luke says an old prophet was moved by God to recognize this baby as Messiah. So with joy, the old man took the baby and prayed:
- God, let this old man die in peace, because I’ve seen it! I’ve seen the day you promised… the day you send your Salvation which you prepared for all people everywhere…. A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations too…
Luke is saying, this story that starts so small, is really a fulfillment of a very big plan God had cooking for centuries. Matthew specializes in that department as Dan with teach on after Christmas. But Luke’s purpose is to show off how God’s plan was always to include as many as possible,
- from all skin colors and nations!
- Jews and non-Jews alike!
What’s so ironic about this, is that some people assume that Jesus story is for white, Europeans and their descendants. That’s ridiculous. Sure, in the Middle Ages, the center of gravity for Christianity was Europe, but it isn’t so today… now it’s Africa and Asia.
And it wasn’t so for the first four centuries of the Christian era. Until 400, the biggest Christians thinkers were all African! And today Christianity is growing more south of the equator than anywhere. In 50 years Philip Jenkins says the picture of an average Christian as white and western will seem about as strange as a Scandinavian Hindu.
Jesus Kingdom was never a political or a national kingdom. It was never to be the sole possession of any people group or language or tribe. Jesus was for ALL people, red and yellow, black and white. Jesus was for Jews and non-Jews alike. You didn’t have to be a Jew to come to God… all you needed was faith.
Later Luke tells the story of a Roman centurion who sends for Jesus to have his dearly loved servant healed. He was not a Jew, he was an outsider to the O.T. life and promises. But someone he cared about was dying and he came to Jesus empty, without options, and more importantly… trusting in him.
But while Jesus is on the way, the centurion sends other messengers to intercept Jesus and say,
“no I’m not worthy for you to come to my house… but Just Say The Word and my servant will be healed. I’m a man under authority, and I understand how that works. I say go and my soldiers go. You just say the word, and it will happen. I trust you have such authority Jesus”
When he heard that, Jesus was astonished. That’s right, the Son of God was surprised! Taken aback, Jesus said to the crowd:
“I’ve yet to come across this kind of radical faith anywhere in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know about God and how he works.” When the messengers got back to the Roman centurion the found the servant up and well!
JESUS IS FOR SOCIAL OUTCASTS
Luke is telling us Jesus love was for everyone… not just racial or religious outsiders, but social outcasts as well.
Luke 5 tells of the time Jesus saw a man named Levi collecting taxes. Back in Jesus day, tax collectors were not like IRS agents. They were authorized to get money but without strict rules, tax collectors would often cook the books and pocket whatever the government didn’t expect back from them.
Now, Imagine how well it would go over in Iraq today if America levied taxes in Baghdad that went to OUR country and we conscripted Iraqis to collect them. Imagine how popular those IRS agents would be!
That’s how locals felt about Levi. He was considered a sinner, a cheat, a no good conspirator, a collaborator with the enemy. And what did Jesus say to a notorious, controversial good for nothing like that? He said,
Come with me. Follow me…
Levi left everything and followed Jesus. That was a life changing encounter for Levi. For just as the centurion realized that his nationality and skin color did not exclude him from God’s love and promises, this tax collector realized that his prior selfishness and greediness and sin did not exclude him either.
Do you know how we KNOW Levi got it? Because Luke the physician tells us that he promptly went out and threw a party at his home for Jesus, and guess who was on the invite list? All his buddies, his fellow tax collectors and other disreputable characters.
Many years ago Dick Staub attended a birthday party for his gay friend and co-worker, Julian. Sixty gay men and four straight women had gathered to celebrate in a high-rise penthouse with a sweeping view of the San Francisco Bay. Greeting him warmly, Julian exuberantly kissed him on both cheeks - something that never happened at the office.
Dick took a deep breath and ventured into a scene that was well outside his comfort zone. He chuckled, asking himself a question:
‘What in the world am I doing here?’
And he reminded himself exactly what: He was a follower of Jesus Christ and he had prayed with some friends about this occasion just a few hours earlier. You see, Dick thought of events like Julian’s party as Levi party situations. As so often happens if we follow Jesus into the world, opportunities to do what he did appear.
And because Dick Staub listened as the partygoers told him about their journeys, by 2:00 a.m. five of them were gathered with Dick in a corner talking about the Kingdom of God.
You know I think the exact same thing happened with Jesus and those tax collectors which Levi loved. But that’s not the end of the story. There were some religion scholars who noticed this get-together and they were really offended.
“what is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and sinners?”
That when Dr. Luke records Jesus saying:
Who needs a doctor? The healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders… I’m here, not for those who think they’re righteous before God as they are, I’m here for those who KNOW they’re not righteous before God as they are! I’m offering an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out… do you get that?
But no, they didn’t get it. They didn’t understand that the first prerequisite to come to Jesus is a humble acknowledgment of our spiritual sickness. To come in truth, about the reality of all the junk that lives on the inside of us. Listen,
- I have no strong desire to convince you that this junk really exists,
- I have no desire to beat it into you that you are a desperate, fallen person, who is guilty and needy
No, if you don’t get that, you might be running from your spiritual desperation, your fear and your guilt by putting on a brave face – so be it! You’re well, you’re healthy, you’re put together, you have no need of a doctor. As long as you’re living there, then as CS Lewis says,
"you’re not a part of the audience Jesus came to save."
Jesus sometimes tried to shake those self assured people out of their fool’s paradise, but the lion’s share of his time was spent with those to whom desperation, fear and guilt were givens.
To them, he wasn’t a monster telling people how bad they were, he was a LIFE SAVER telling people the way out of the sickness they ALREADY knew and felt acutely. To the sick, he was medicine! Some people say Christianity is a crutch. They’ve got it so wrong! Christianity is so much more than a crutch,
it’s the cast, the ambulance – the whole flippin’ hospital!
Jesus was a lover of sinners. Was it because he turned a blind eye to immorality? No! It was because he knew everyone was immoral. He saw everyone on the same level before a holy God. And if you didn’t see yourself with a big debt before God, guess what? You won’t love God very much.
FORGIVEN MUCH WE LOVE MUCH
But Luke tells us Jesus said to another woman with dubious character and past:
“the person who is forgiven much, loves much!”
If you see yourself as a person with a very tiny debt before God, you won’t love God very much. You won’t cling to God like a life saver. You won’t feel gratitude to him for releasing you of a big debt and so God will always be for you a status symbol, a security blanket, anything but what Jesus WANTS to be:
A Savior! A rescuer! A healer.
Luke the doctor, had a simple conviction: a Healer of Souls had come. And just like any bodily physician, he couldn’t cure until he was allowed to make a prognosis. Until the symptoms were fully known. Until a full account of the warning signs were taken and the desperate status was out in the open. Then he could work his magic.
But as long as the patient hides or wavers in his confidence in the doctor,
- if he thinks he needs to put on an act to look healthy when he is not,
- as long as the patient is proud and self righteous and looks down on others who don’t have the right politics, the right look, the right skin color, the right sexual habits…
- that person is not ready for the doctor to work his magic.
And his magic is Grace. Your sins are forgiven, he says to the immoral woman, go and sin no more. I don’t care how sick you are… I care more that you HIDE how sick you are than that you are sick. I’ve come to save you, and you’ll have to just come into the truth about the cancer before I can cut it out.
Will you? Can you sense the word of the Master ring in your soul, now in this moment? I will not condemn you… your sins have already condemned you, I don’t need to. Jesus said that! He said, I don’t have to condemn you, just comparing you up against God’s moral law shows we all stand condemned!
I didn’t come for condemnation! I came for salvation! For the sick, to make them well again. I will not condemn you, I’ll forgive and I’ll forget it all… and then you, with renewed heart, will let me change you as you live in repentance – as you break away from your old life. I’ll help you Go and sin no more, and be a new person…
- with a new heart, from the inside out,
- you will have new habits and
- then a new marriage, and
- then a new home life,
- a new sexuality,
- a new way to handle your money,
- a new family,
- a new hope,
- a new peace,
- a new love for your neighbor,
- a new LIFE!
This is Good News. This, is the kingdom of God. Will you come? And do what?
- believe
- be baptized
- join a church
- study the Gospel
