Luke 19 and verse 10, the Bible says this, "'For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.'" The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. The Gospel of Luke, Luke portrays Christ as the Son of Man. If you remember, Mark portrays Him as the suffering servant. And John Mark was a servant. He was a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. but Luke portrays him as the son of man and focuses some on his humanity. We know some things about Luke, and we'll get into that in a little bit, but that'll shed some light on why would Luke... Again, it's the blessing of seeing some different people's perspective. on the same person, the life of Christ, and to see how somebody that, as Luke was, he was a physician, the things that he paid attention to and that were important to him. And as John Mark, a servant and a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, that part of it, the suffering servant that he saw in Christ and the different things, it just is amazing to watch those things and to pay attention to those little nuances that really are what shapes the Word of God. And what makes it come alive, what makes it a living book is having some understanding about the people that wrote it and maybe where they were at in their life, what God was doing in their life, which helps to lend some light to why would they write that? Why would they say that? Why is this so important to them? And Luke, he says in that key verse there, the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. The key word, Son of Man, used 26 times. First used in chapter 5, verse 24. Most significant use is the verse that we just read, Luke 19, verse 10. And again, I mentioned last week All of the uses are significant. There's not any insignificant uses of any word in the Word of God. It was a blessing. Speaking of that, I won't get into it this morning, but the last preacher yesterday afternoon, Brother McNeese, took us to a passage in Revelation and just four words that the verse, whosoever was not found written in the book of life, and the four things that we have. He's talking about those that are not cast into the lake of fire, but he says those of us that are saved, we are found, we are written, we are in, and then we have the exact definite article of the, the, the Lamb's Book of Life. There is only one God. There is only one Lamb. And just to take those four words, the words in the Word of God, and to look at those things, they're so significant. But this use that we read right here, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, that kind of encompasses, sums up the entire gospel. That sums up the entire gospel. Jesus Christ came, yes, to save those that are lost, but also to seek those. He went looking for the lost. He went looking for the lost. And He still is looking for the lost. He still is seeking. And that, you know, kind of flies directly in the face of some Calvinists and other people like that that say, well, the Lord will draw who he will or who, you know, he doesn't, but he is seeking and he is using us to seek and to find those that are lost. And, you know, I can't help but think of somebody like the couple of young people that Doc and Miss Pat brought a couple of weeks ago, and they came with their mom a few weeks before that, they're both their parents actually, and you think, Those young people, what if people had just sat back? What if we just sat back and said, well, if God wants them to be saved, he'll save them. Or you think of Tom Gomez, who got saved a few weeks ago, and I've had opportunity several times a week, I talked to Brother Tom, we've had lunch together a couple times, and God is working in his life and seeing what God's doing there. And you think, well, what if we just said, well, if God wants him saved, he'll save him, instead of going and seeking. In fact, he came seeking. God came looking for the lost. And we today are to be seeking the lost. We're to be looking for them, not waiting for them to just come knock our door down, but virtually. I mean, literally, we ought to view the lost world as if every single person out there Their house is on fire and they're inside of it. And we are the ones with the opportunity to do something about it. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, come to seek and to save that which was lost. What a blessing. The theme of the book, The Humanity of Christ. The perfect man. The humanity of Christ. He's portrayed as the Son of Man. Luke just emphasizes his humanity. He was a man, but also 100% God. Written about A.D. 60. Some things about the writer Luke. He was a Gentile. He was a Greek. This wasn't the typical Jew. He was an educated man, very well educated. Of course, we know he was a medical physician. Very keen observer. It's pretty important It's obviously not important that doctors have good handwriting, but it is important that they pay attention to detail Right. They got it. They got a no details. They've got they have they have secretaries or wives that make up for bad handwriting, but the the fact of the matter is I'll tell you who's got to be able to read hieroglyphics or the people that work at the pharmacies Because can you imagine? I mean, the importance of getting the right medication, and I've read a lot of prescription, those prescription slips that they give you. I can't ever read what it says on any of those things. And it just amazes me. But you know, Luke, as a medical doctor, as a physician, he was somebody that paid attention to detail and noticed things that a lot of other people wouldn't notice. I can't help but think sometimes you'll be talking to Dr. Williams and he'll say something about, just something he noticed about a person's complexion or the way a person was talking or walking, things that a doctor would notice that other people wouldn't notice. It's kind of like when you have, in working in the reformers program, working with the addicted, Somebody that has been around addictions and things like that They can see somebody walking in the door and tell you man That person's high as a kite and me a farmer from Wisconsin doesn't never been around. I'm like, how can you tell that? How do you how do you do they look normal to me? but same thing with you know, somebody that's a Medical physician like Luke he notices things that other people didn't notice, right? Things that were important to him that he said, well, that's, you know, it flew under the radar maybe for other people, but Luke said that's important. Important enough that he wrote down a number of things that you don't see in any of the other Gospels. He made a count of some things that you don't see anyplace else. He's a keen observer. Not one of the 12 apostles. Again, this is the second one. We saw that about Mark and now about Luke. Not one of the 12 apostles. But God used him. to record the Gospel, the life of Jesus Christ. He was a companion of Paul. You see him in several of Paul's epistles mentioned about Luke. I'm sure with all the physical ailments that Paul suffered, partly because I'm sure of all the beatings and everything else that he suffered, that he was a man that had need of having a doctor close by. And not just that, but I'm sure that they were great friends as well, but they served the Lord together and he spent a good deal of time with the Apostle Paul. And so they, I'm sure, leaned on each other some, but just the blessing of that and what it was to Paul, he was a companion of his. He was the only non-Jewish writer of the New Testament. Is that a big deal? Not necessarily to us today, but it's important to note. The only non-Jew that God used to pen a book, actually two books, of the New Testament. Author also of the book of Acts. He was a medical doctor, as I mentioned, and a native of Syria. That's where he was from. And all of those things, remember, keep in mind, he's a Gentile, a Greek. He'd been schooled in the Greek schools and very well educated. There's a lot that's mentioned down through history about the book of Luke and his literary style and the way that he wrote. an educated person, different way about writing. I mean, if you take somebody that's college educated, got their doctor's degree, a medical doctor, all these different things, and you take somebody else that's a fisherman, What you're gonna find is they have different styles of writing. They have different, you know, his command of the language and the way that, but the attention to detail, all those things. Just both of the books that he wrote, tremendous. literary significance in the way that they're written, in his style of writing. Not that they're any more important than a book that's written by a fisherman or a tax collector or whatever else, but it's a different perspective. It's different. It was written to Theophilus, that word theos means God, Phileo is love, lover of God. It's the name Theophilus, what it means. It was written from most likely Caesarea. The book is the 42nd book of the Bible, 3rd book of the New Testament, 24 chapters, 1,151 verses. And the purpose of the book is to set in order the circumstances and events surrounding the life and ministry of our Lord. Also, secondly, to give assurance and faith to those who follow Him. All of the Gospels, all the Bible really, in different ways, have that as a purpose, but Luke wanted us to know, wanted those that he was writing to know, that he was writing to, to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of Man, that he is who he says that he is, and that he did what he said that he did, and the significance of that for us today. Don't be mistaken at all. He's one that traces the lineage of Christ back to Adam to establish his lineage. In all of those things you see a lot of Old Testament passages referred to by Luke. Some things about the divisions of the book. First of all, the introduction in chapter 1, verses 1-4. Then the background in verse 5 through the end of chapter 2. The beginning of his ministry in chapter 3 and 4. His ministry of Galilee, chapter 4-9. Journey to Jerusalem, chapter 9-19. His last week in Jerusalem, 19-23. And then his resurrection and ascension. There's some things, even as we get into this outline, that just as I read some of these statements, if you know the Lord, and if you know the Bible and you're familiar with the Bible, just reading some of these things, for instance, His journey to Jerusalem, if you just take a moment and think about what that journey really meant, where He was headed and why He was headed there and the fact that He knew it the whole time. He knew why He was going to Jerusalem. You think about that and then you think about the last week in Jerusalem. What must have been on His heart and His mind? It was you and I. On His heart and on His mind. And then of course, the resurrection and ascension. I can't even read those two words without getting excited. The resurrection and ascension. What that means for us today. Let's look at this outline. First of all, the introduction 1, 1-4. The events relating to the Savior's coming. And then His birth at Bethlehem. His boyhood at Nazareth. His baptism at Jordan. his background in history, and his battle with Satan. All those things significant. And Luke is the only one that records... Well, there's a number of things we'll see at the end. There's a number of things that are only recorded in Luke. And I'm thankful that they are. We don't necessarily consider that, but you think about if the other three Gospels had been written and not Luke, some of the things that we would miss out on. Romans 2, the events relating to the Savior's commission, chapters 4-21. First of all, the work in Galilee. His work commenced, criticized, and climaxed. His work in Galilee just through chapter 9. Luke dedicates a great portion, half of the book of Luke, to Christ being on His way to the cross. and then the crucifixion, the resurrection, etc. I mean, that's half of the book. And it's important. Those details are important. The way to Golgotha, chapter 9 to 21, first of all, his enemies used a variety of approaches to stop him. And it's no different today. It's important for us to realize that the devil doesn't just try one thing to hinder us or to tempt us or to test us, and then if that doesn't work, he just gives up and says, well, they must just be impervious to my attacks. No. If one tactic doesn't work on you, the devil's going to change his tactics. And can I say, for us today in Christianity, to go knock on somebody's door or to try to give a tract to somebody and they reject it or they don't want it, or to try to share the Gospel once with a family member or a friend and they don't take it, to just say, well, I tried, and give up. The devil doesn't do that with us. Why in the world would we just say, well, I gave it a shot and obviously it's not going to work. Look at all the different ways that they tried to attack the Lord. The different ways that they came after Him. First of all, the scholastic approach in chapter 9 and 10. They tried the books and the learning and that kind of thing, and that didn't work. So let's try slander. They began to try to slander Him. And while that didn't work, we'll try to get sophisticated. We'll come up with a really sophisticated plan Try to go about it that way, and that didn't work. How about a systematic approach to things? We'll take a more systematic look at things and really lay things out, see if that works. Nope. Sermonic approach, the approach through a sermon. The scare approach, scare tactics. Hey, let's see if we can scare them off, scare them into quitting. The subtle approach, the old sneak attack. Try to sneak up on them. That didn't work. Sarcastic approach. We're gonna mock him and be sarcastic about it. Maybe that'll have the desired effect. The scoffing approach. The selfish approach. The snobbish approach. Straightforward approach. Hey, if all else fails, just be straightforward about it. Just come right out and say what you're trying to do. Maybe that'll work. Didn't work either. And then the seductive approach, try to seduce him into quitting or changing or giving up. The devil will try all of those approaches and more in your life and mine. He'll try all those approaches in our church, in the ministry. He'll try those approaches on our children. He's always changing, always willing to change his tactics. And the attacks, as you know, you see Brother Hudson yesterday when he preached, preached out of Ecclesiastes on a time for change, everything there's a season and a time and how things are changing in Christianity and in the world today that we live in. And there's some things about that we have to be so cautious. That number one, we have to understand that yes, we don't live in the 1950s anymore. We don't live in the 1850s or the 1700s. We live in 2016. And so our world has changed. There are some things that we have to do. We obviously don't still say, well, we're only gonna use candles for light in our auditorium. When that's all that they had, they used candles. Now we have light bulbs, so we use light bulbs. We're not gonna, you know, there's some things, obviously, yeah, we have air conditioning now, praise the Lord for that. Those of you that were here before there was air conditioning here, I'm sure you're very thankful for the air conditioning, right? My dad's church, they got air conditioning in the auditorium when I was later on in high school. Before that we always had, you know, it got hot even there in the summertime. But, you know, there's some things that change, but the Word of God doesn't change. Our approach, now there's some people that would say, and there's some, I know some good preachers that are pastoring churches that say, well, soul winning doesn't work anymore, so we quit going soul winning. Door knocking doesn't work anymore, so we don't do that anymore. The bus ministry doesn't work anymore, so we quit doing that. I don't believe any of those things. I believe that all of those things still work. Now, how we go about it, hey, I'll tell you right now, if you're gonna have a bus ministry, if we're gonna have a bus ministry, you have to do it differently than they used to. It used to be, I mean, man alive, back even when I was in high school, you'd have, now I didn't do this, but you had bus captains and bus workers that would put their hands on a kid and slam them down in a seat when the kid wasn't listening and you better sit there and behave, I'm gonna tell you right now, you better not touch a kid in today's society, why? because we live in a different world. We have to change our tactics in some ways. There's a lot less parents that are trusting enough to send their kids on a bus to church. And I always tell parents, you know, I've had a lot of parents say, well, I'm not going to send my kids on some bus to church that I've never been to. And I always say, fantastic. I'd rather have you bring them. Well, that's not what they want either. They don't want to bring them either. They just tried to find a reason not to send them. The fact of the matter is we have to understand, and there are some people that are stuck in their ways, and, well, when I was a boy or when I was coming up, this is the way we... And there's some things you just can't do that way anymore. But at the same time, God's Word hasn't changed, the Bible hasn't changed, the command of God on the things that we are to do has not changed. He says, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. The devil is adapting, the devil is adjusting. You know there's some things, my dad and I were talking when he was here a couple weeks ago and he said a young preacher, actually a young man that had gotten saved and come up at Dad's church and now is the assistant pastor at Pastor David Brown's church that Doc's friends with. Brother Brown's been here. Jared Longzine is his name. Brother Jared is a very intelligent, worked in the banking industry, very, very smart, younger man. I'd say he's in his early 30s, I believe, and maybe mid-30s. He was at a preacher's fellowship and there was a bunch of older pastors there. And Dad and I were talking about this and how Jared just said, there's a lot of older pastors in churches that have been around for a long time, churches that are dying. And Brother Jared said, he said, we have to change our tactics, we have to change our ways. He said, the fact of the matter is, and this is a good point, Dad brought this up to me and him and I were discussing it Jared asked all these pastors, he said, how many of you have had anybody in the last five years come to you and say which Bible is the best Bible? And of course, there was maybe one or two pastors out of a group of 50 that raised their hand and said anybody in the last five years. Jared took his cell phone he had there with him, and he pulled up a search he'd done on Google Just asking Google, which is the best Bible? He said that's where people go nowadays to find those things out it's it was an Eye-opening thing even for me as dad and I were talking about the importance of hey, you know, it is important for us today I appreciate dr. Williams and all the work that he's done to get a website up and running for us. Those things are important You know that 75% of people today that are looking for a church the first place they go is the Internet probably more than 75% now, that number's several years old. That's the first place they go. For those of you that are newer here, I don't know how many of you have done that or have searched that, but the fact of the matter is, when I first got the call, I don't remember if it was, I think it was Brother Leo that first called me about the opportunity to come here and we talked a little bit. You know the first thing I did? I went and looked up Zion Hill Baptist Church on the internet in Cleveland, Georgia. That's the world that we live in today. But the importance of those things, the importance of us realizing that we don't live in the same world that we lived in before. Now, let me clarify something. There won't be any compromise. We're not gonna compromise on the Word of God. We're not gonna compromise on our music. We're not gonna compromise on our standards. None of those things. But understand that the world we live in today is always changing. And we need to be aware of that. We need to be aware of those things. Romans 3, the events relating to the Savior's cross, first of all, the table, of course, the Lord's Supper, the tears that were shed, the trials. The first several things, the table, the tears, the trials, and the tree make me want to cry just to read those words. When I go to the next word, it makes me start to smile a little bit. The tomb, you say, why would the tomb make you smile? Because I love the fact that it was a borrowed tomb. This is just temporary. When you borrow something, it means you intend to return it. I'm only gonna need this for a little bit. He had no intention of staying there. And then of course the triumph. He rose victorious. And that, just when I was reading over this again this morning, and I could feel myself, I could feel myself getting sad reading those first few words. And then I could feel my emotions change as I read those last couple of words. Why? Because it's real. It's real. The tomb was just a borrowed tomb and the triumph today is real and essential for you and I. That's why you and I can call on Jesus Christ as our Savior. That's why we can call on Him in our time of need. Because He triumphed. So miscellaneous things, things mentioned only in Luke. The full particulars of the mystery of the virgin birth. Luke gives us more detail on that. The visit of the shepherds, that's only mentioned in the book of Luke. And what a blessing it is for us to look at that and to see that the childhood of Jesus, his visit to the temple at the age of 12, Luke is the only one that records that. He's the only one that tells us anything about that. And he felt it was significant enough to write it down. And I'm glad that he did for us to see that even at 12, because otherwise you have his birth. And then the next thing you see is he's 30 years old. But even as a child at 12 years old, an adolescent, he said what? Wished you not that I must be about my father's business. Even then, he had a heart for things. Now he was obedient to his parents. He grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God and man, and we know all those things. But he knew what his calling was. He didn't just start at 30 in his ministry, even though he called it the beginning of his ministry. He was ministering at 12. We see his childhood, the emphasis on the manhood of Jesus. We see how he toiled with his hands, how he wept over the city, and how he suffered while kneeling in prayer. The other things that are mentioned here, the healing of Malchus' ear. Luke's the only one, of course, he's a medical physician. That's pretty cool. As a medical doctor, to see the Lord pick up an ear that just got sliced off and put it right back on, that's something a doctor would say, hey, people should know that. That's something pretty cool. Especially if he was a surgeon that was tasked with doing things like that, he'd say, you know what it would have taken me to put that thing back on? He'd pick it up and put it back. But it's, again, just a unique perspective. The Gospel to the outcasts. Of course, what was Luke? A Gentile, a Greek. He's the only one that records the Good Samaritan. Luke's the only one that puts that down. The story of the prodigal. The story of the publican. The story of Zacchaeus. He's the only one that gives us those records. Imagine, you know, you look at those stories the Good Samaritan the prodigal publican Zacchaeus Those are some of the main stories that I remember hearing as a child about Jesus and his ministry Luke's the only one that gives us a record of those things The bloody sweat that when the Bible says he sweat great drops of blood as it were great drops of blood That's the only place that that's recorded. Why Luke's a medical doctor. I He had probably a better understanding of that and appreciation for what that really meant, what was physically going on in the body of Christ at that time. Some facts about Luke. He was devoted to God. He was obsessed with compassion. Of course, he emphasized the humanity of Christ. Consecrated to work. Talented in his field. Observant of facts. Again, we mentioned earlier, he was very observant. He was reliable in tasks. Somebody that could be counted on. Somebody that was loved by his fellow workers. He understood the Gospel. He was kind to all. And he enjoyed the blessings of God. And I believe that all the things before that are why he enjoyed the blessings of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for today. Thank You for this lesson. Thank You for the book of Luke, Lord. I thank You for using this physician, this Gentile, this man that loved You and loved others to pen this Gospel. And Lord, what a treasure it is as I think of some of those stories and the only recording, the only accounting we have of some of those things. I thank You for this book, God. I ask that You'd bless our service here to follow in just a few minutes. We love You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.