We continue, again, the theology of the New Testament this afternoon. We're looking at Luke and his theology or doctrine of the Christian life. I'd like you to turn to Luke chapter 1. Luke 1 and verse 6, they were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. Then Luke 14, 25-35, Now great multitudes were going along with him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has ought to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. So therefore, no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions. Therefore, salt is good. But if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is either thrown out. It is thrown out. He who is ears to hear, let him hear." Then in Acts 9, in the second verse, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he find any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." And then finally Acts 24, verse 14, "'But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the law and that is written in the prophets, verse 22. But Felix, having a more exact knowledge about the way, put them off saying, when Lysias, the commander comes down, I will decide your case. Let's pray. Father, the Lord, Writer Luke, by your Spirit did indeed teach very clearly what the life of a Christian was to be. We ask for illumination to understand it as He did, and for the conviction that this is authentic, this is true, real Christianity. Life that because of love for you seeks to be lived in a manner that is pleasing to you, according to your word. Grant it, O Lord, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. You notice in each of those four selections from Luke's writings, two from Luke and two from Acts, that the emphasis in those selections was on the life of the Christian disciple being distinct from the world in which he lives. It can be referred to simply as the way, because there is a difference in the life of the regenerate individual than in the lives of the unregenerate. And Luke stresses the necessity of true and genuine discipleship, what it means to be a follower of Christ in one's very life. The easy-believism, which is so widespread today, finds no common ally in the Scriptures. The Scriptures know nothing of a life that supposedly is motivated by love for Christ, but doesn't demonstrate itself in obedience of life, in conformity to the Word, the Law of God. The Old Testament prophets prosecuted God's covenant against the nation. It did not walk in the way of the covenant. Being a part of the people of God determined how one lived. And Luke stresses that fact, that when you claim the name of Christ, your life ought to demonstrate the reality or genuineness of that claim. If you are Christ, you live like Christ has said you ought to live. And as he himself and patterned it as the perfect example. It is the same thing, the same concept in the New Testament with Luke and the other writers as it is in the Old Testament. One who loves God walks with God. in the presence of God self-consciously. Every writer of the New Testament demands that the life of the one who believes in Jesus must be radically different from the life of one who is not committed to Jesus. Luke has his own peculiar manner of making it clear, that easy believism, that an unchanged life is not according to the gospel. Luke stresses that one who has come to know the Lord Jesus Christ lives much differently now than he did once live while apart from Jesus. It is a characteristic of Luke to refer to Christianity as the way. There's something objective and distinct about what a Christian looks like in antithesis to what a worldling looks like. And so Luke likes this terminology of the way throughout his writing. Acts 9 verse 2, "...and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so he found anyone belonging to the way." There was something objective that Saul could see that would convict them as being followers of this Christ. And then Saul would haul them back to be punished or imprisoned. Luke or in Acts 19.9, but when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people, He withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. Verse 23, about that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way. Acts 22.4, I persecuted this way to the death, binding and putting men and women into prisons. Various other texts. Luke very much obviously likes the terminology of the Christian life, of the gospel, religion of Christ as the way. In Acts 18, 25 and 26, Luke writes for us, this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus. Being acquainted only with the baptism of John, he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Every time that Luke uses a terminology, the way, he always uses the definite article, the. Stressing that there is one unique authorized way of life. One way. for the heart, including how it thinks, the truth, the cognitive truths, and the affections, and the resolve of the will as in terms of obedience to the objective commandments of God. One definite, definable way. And Christ has defined what that way is. Every alternative, Luke declares, is a deceit and a lie. Only the life that is committed to Jesus is right before God. All other alternatives are under God's judgment. It should not be missed that this exclusivity of Jesus Christ is a major impetus for all of Luke's missionary activity. as the Apostle, as the companion of the Apostle Paul, that there is only one way and the way is in Christ. And therefore, everybody must be told of the way in Christ. There are no alternatives. Luke stresses the totality of wholehearted allegiance to Christ Jesus. And he stresses this. One of the ways you see Luke's stress is he records little details that the other gospel writers do not record on various statements by which Luke underscores the totality of allegiance to Christ. that it's not an easy believing thing where, oh yeah, I know certain things and I love Christ and I'm glad I got my ticket to heaven and my escape policy from hell, but I don't want to take it too seriously here and now, day in and day out, as to being committed to Jesus Christ. Luke does not like, he is against that false kind of view of being a disciple of Christ. In Luke 5.28, Luke tells you that Matthew left everything behind. But if you read the account of the same thing in Matthew's Gospel and also in Mark's Gospel, all you'll read there is that Matthew followed Jesus. It is Luke who adds this detail. He followed Jesus and he left everything behind. Luke wants to stress the definiteness of this allegiance and the cost of following Christ, the discipleship of one who is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 5.11 of James, John and Simon Peter, we are told, they left everything. Whereas again, in the record of that calling, over in Matthew 4 and in Mark 1, you only read that James, John and Simon immediately followed Jesus. It's Luke that adds this little detail, they left everything. Matthew 8, 19-22 are recorded two responses of Jesus to His would-be followers. Turn if you would. to the Matthew 18 passage. I want you to see the difference here in what Luke is doing and Matthew does not do to emphasize this call of discipleship. Matthew in 8, 19 and 22, in a certain scribe came, said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him, foxes of holes, birds of the air of nests, but the son of man is nowhere to lay his head. Another disciple said to him, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, follow me, allow the dead to bury their own dead. If you turn over to Luke 9, notice a detail that Luke gives us on this subject of the call of discipleship. His emphasis becomes apparent. Luke 9.57, And as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I'll follow you wherever you go. And she said to him, foxes of holes, birds of the air, of nests, son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And he said to another, follow me. But he said, permit me first to go bury my father. And he said to him, allow the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God. And another said, I will follow you, Lord, but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home. But Jesus said to him. No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Luke, as he records those little details that the other writers do not record, stresses the necessity of wholehearted subjection to the Lordship of this One who is the Christ, the Son of David, the King. Jesus does not think well. Luke is clear to tell us Jesus does not think well of those who profess to be his disciples, but then with nostalgia long for the fish, which they did eat in Egypt for free, along with the leeks and the onions. Luke stresses that the life of the Christian is a life of radical discipleship. It is a whole-hearted, whole-souled, whole-bodied commitment to this One who is the Christ, appointed by the Father from all eternity. Because discipleship to the Lord Jesus is so demanding, requiring the whole man committed to the whole Jesus, Luke is the one who records in his gospel Jesus' words regarding counting the cost. Luke 14. a passage which we have already referred to and read, of counting the cost. And there's parallel there, of course, in Matthew. But those two parables that Luke tells, that records Jesus telling about counting the cost, are only to be found in Luke. He wants to stress the cost of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke teaches us that we are to live all of our lives before God. Saints, older saints spoke of this, and Judy Rogers has an entire album that is titled this, Quorum Deo, that we live our whole life in the presence of God. Luke tells us that both Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous, and he includes before God, they were righteous. Zachariah, we're told by Luke in 1.6, did his priestly service in God's sight. In Luke 12 and 6, sparrows die before God. In the sight of God, Luke 16 and 15, the things that men esteem are detested. Peter and John knew that their lives were in the sight of God, as Luke records it in Acts 4.19. David in Acts 7.46, Luke speaks of him as having found favor in the sight of God. Cornelius' prayers, you remember the Gentile praying that he would hear the gospel and his family would hear the gospel. The one that God had appointed to preach the Gospel to him and to his family is Peter, and so Peter has to see this vision about it's okay for a Jew to go into the house of a Gentile now. But there we have the record that Cornelius' prayers and alms were remembered before God, Luke tells us, Acts 10.31. Cornelius' family, close friends, met before God, Acts 10.33. By writing in this manner, where Luke continually records before God, in the sight of God, Luke is stressing the fact that all of life is lived in the sight of God. There's nothing secret, nothing hidden from Him. And that all of our life is to be brought into conformity with Christ. Because Christ demands, rightfully demands, all of our life. He doesn't want profession. without a reality of the possession of Christ. Doesn't want a profession, isn't satisfied. Luke is not satisfied with a profession of Christ if there's not a life behind it that proves that one is in fact the disciple of Jesus Christ. Luke describes pretty accurately, or rather over and over again, some highlights of Christian life, of the disciple of Christ. And one of the things he does is he teaches us that the life of a disciple is marked by praising God. It's immensely interesting how often Luke points out the fact that Christians are just praising God. Because they think of everything in the light of God, in the sight of God, and everything teaches us something about God. We learn about His providence and His power and His wisdom and all the things that are occurring around us. And so the attitude of a true, genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is the attitude of praise, Luke 1.64. And that once His mouth was opened and His tongue loosed, and what's the first thing He says? Now He's no longer unable to speak. And he began to speak praise of God. Luke 2.20, the shepherds went back. They come and they see Jesus according to the announcement of the angels. And they return back to the sheep, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just like it had been told to them. Luke 5.25, immediately he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home. glorifying God. 13, 13, he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. Acts 2, 47, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. It is significant. that Luke records the growth of the church, the addition and the membership of the church in the very context of the fact that the people of God are praising God. Praising God may be what makes your neighbor interested in your God. griping, grumbling, complaining, won't interest anybody in your God. Luke just continually stresses the praising, the glorifying of God that was a mark of the disciples of Jesus Christ, a mark of those who had a genuine encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 7, 15, Fear gripped them all. They began glorifying God, saying, A great prophet has arisen among us. God has visited his people. 17, 15, Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. In the context of that, you remember those lepers, the nine that did not return to give thanks, did not glorify. But the one did. He glorified God for what He had done. Acts 4.21, when they had threatened them further, they let them go, finding no basis on which to punish them on account of the people. Because they were all glorifying God for what had happened. Acts 21 20. And when they heard it, they began glorifying God. And they said to him, you see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed and they are all zealous for the Lord. Luke is the one, interestingly, as he stresses, look, this is what a disciple of Christ looks like. This is what a disciple of Christ really does. He is continually praising God and glorifying God and thanking God and everything in his life he sees in the light and in the context of God. And so he gives God praise for all that's going on, even the difficulties, even the being persecuted, he praises God for it and glorifies God for it. Since Luke stresses that aspect of the Christian life and says, here's how you can tell a disciple, a true disciple, is he always praising God, glorifying God, thanking God? He's the only one that gives us the record of a very famous individual who publicly refused to glorify God. You know who I'm talking about? Herod. He gives this great speech, or at least the people thought it was great, and he gets a standing ovation in the crowds. That's not a mere man, that's God speaking to us! And he's kind of there, yeah, yeah, that's me, come on, a little more applause. What's God do? Luke records in Acts 12, and immediately an angel of the Lord struck him. Why? Because he did not Give God the glory. And the judgment is grotesque. He was eaten by worms. And he died. Got the order there? He didn't die and then worms came and consumed so he didn't have to bury anything. He was eaten alive by worms and killed by the worms eating him. He had a little time to think. He had a little time to recognize. the immensity of his sin to refuse to glorify God. The life of the disciple of Jesus Christ, Luke tells us, is marked by praising and glorifying God. And you must remember, of course, that Luke did not have an easy life as a Christian. He's with this guy that he keeps having to deal with because he's been beaten up for preaching about Christ. Luke also records in terms of the discipleship of Christ and what Christian living looks like, aspects of Christian living, the disciple of Christ Jesus is characterized by joy and rejoicing. Luke's Gospel opens up with two hymns of exaltation, the hymn of Mary in Luke 1, 46-55, where she exalts in God that He's heard the pleas of her and the people, He's answered, He's fulfilled the promises that He has made, and she's glorifying, exalting, rejoicing in what God is doing in her own life in this time of space and history. Zacharias likewise, also in Luke 1. Luke presents us with Zacharias who is rejoicing the saving work of God in sending His Son, Jesus Christ, and preparing the way by sending prior John the Baptist. Then we read in chapter 2 of the joyous song of Simeon. Turn and look at this song of Simeon. Luke 2, 29. Now, Lord, Thou dost let Thy bondservant depart in peace according to Thy words. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to Gentiles, the glory of thy people Israel. This man, this righteous, devout man is now willing and able freely and joyfully to die. I've seen what you do. It's great. Kept your word. And he rejoices. And he's full of joy and longing to go home. The angels are rejoicing. The shepherds rejoice. They're full of joy. They're thrilled with God's redemptive act in sending Jesus to earth. Luke 10, 21. Jesus. greatly rejoiced. Jesus tells us various parables turn to Luke 15, in which at the end of the conclusion of all three of these, Luke 15, they conclude with this statement of rejoicing. Luke 15, you have a lost sheep, 99 but one lost. 6. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I tell you, in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Then he tells a parable about the woman with the ten silver coins. Lou can't find one, sweeps the house, finds it, and then she gathers her friends, verse 9, and when she has found it, she calls together her friends' neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost. In the same way, I tell you, there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. And then that very famous parable of the prodigal son. Jesus concludes it, but we had to be merry and rejoice. For this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, was lost, has been found. Jesus tells these three parables and ends them with this point. There's rejoicing, there's joy, it's a delight that sinners have repented and found." Upon believing in Jesus, we find Luke recording the rejoicing of various individuals. Zacchaeus. Jesus says, I'm going to go to your house. He has his full joy and he rejoices with that. The Ethiopian eunuch, after he met with Philip, went on his way rejoicing. The Gentiles in Antioch of Pisidia rejoiced. The Philippian jailer with his family, upon receiving, hearing the good news and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ and believing on him, they rejoiced. But the record that Luke gives to us of joy among the disciples of Christ Jesus as they fellowshiped together. Acts chapter 2, if you'll turn. Acts 2, 46-47. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. Joyful, glad, rejoicing. It was an exciting thing to be with the Christians, with the disciples of Christ in the first century, because they were full of joy in their salvation of what God was doing. In Acts 13.52, the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. And earlier in Acts 5, so they went on their way from the presence of the council, rejoicing, and note this, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. Everything caused the Christians in the first century to rejoice. How do we respond to the brother of Jesus when He exhorts us? Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Luke says the genuine Christian, the real disciple of Christ, seeks to conform his entire life to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is one who praises God. He's one who sees everything in the light of God and recognizes He's always in God's presence. And so, as a result, He is continually praising Him and exalting Him and thanking Him. And He has joy because of the Holy Spirit's influence in His heart. Luke tells us also another characteristic of the Christian of the genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is that he is a diligent student of God's Word. Consider Luke's stated purpose for writing Luke and Acts. Luke tells you in chapter one of Luke's gospel, and as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well. Having investigate everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you might know the exact truth about the things that you have been taught. Supposedly someone at some point had commented to John Owen or a comment got back to John Owen about how difficult it was to read him. And Owen's remark is so useful. The remark was, well, I labored and worked hard to write. I expect you to labor and work hard to read. And you see that with Luke. He says, look, these things that I'm writing are so important that I diligently studied. I checked them out. I checked with other sources of things I'm not an eyewitness of. And I checked all these things out and I compiled them and I organized them, sought to organize them in a consecutive chronological order. And now I have compiled it and put it together and written it. And here it is, Theophilus. Read it. Study it. Know it well. Acts 1, again, first account, I compose the office about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up. And after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen, to these he also presented. And he writes and continues to write now about the work of Christ, no longer in the flesh on the earth, but now seated in heaven, ruling who has now sent his spirit. But he's still describing the work of Christ on earth. The disciple of Jesus Christ, Luke tells us, is a diligent student of God's Word. Referred to it earlier, say it again, Acts 6, 7, the Word of God kept on spreading. The number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. A great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. Notice the subjection to the faith, the objective revelation of God in His Word. Acts 12.24, but the Word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. 19.20, so the Word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. You see Luke's stress upon the Word and the Word's going out and it's prevailing and more and more people are coming to honor and reverence the Word and to acknowledge it's the very Word of God and it must govern my life. It must govern my view of the world and of all of life. stresses on the Word of God. The genuine student, the genuine disciple of Jesus Christ will be a diligent student of God's Word. If you were to study the preaching of the first century church, the ministry of the Word, you'd be very wise to pick Luke as your primary subject material, because Luke records the preaching of the Apostolic Church, that centeredness upon the Word, the diligence, the love for the Word, the study of the Word, the treasuring of the Word. So you read the sermons of Stephen and of Peter and of Paul in Luke's record of them. Luke sets before you not easy believism, but the the reality of this discipleship of Jesus Christ. It is costly. It requires bearing your own cross, which is not a reference to all. It's so hard this or that went wrong today. The cross is not simply some affliction or burden you have to bear. The cross is an instrument of crucifixion. And Jesus saying, you must be crucifying yourself daily if you're my disciple. Luke stresses this cost of discipleship and demands that his readers understand you can't take this lightly. You can't just say, oh, I think I'll be a follower of Christ. You have to count the cost. You have to recognize what the gospel demands. It demands total, complete subjection to Christ as King. One could only imagine what Luke might write, were he to write this day to our Christian churches. Luke makes it very clear that the Christian life is comprehensive. That there is no area of life that is outside the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. He allows no neutrality anywhere. For Luke, Christian discipleship demands radical separation from the ways of the world. Radical separation from satanic discipleship. No longer following the ways of the world, which are in fact the ways of Satan. Christian discipleship breaks with the world. Luke describes this in various aspects. We'll not look at those at all except to mention them. Luke describes Christian discipleship in terms of its break with the world in its view and obligation of children, in its view and obligation to the poor, to the outcasts of society and to women. These we cannot investigate. But there is one aspect of Christian world and light view and its comprehensiveness that I do want to at least mention a little more than just briefly. That is the view of the Christian toward women. And we need to study this and we need to understand it because we are going to increasingly have to deal with it in our congregations. It is a fascinating thing what God is doing today, and there's many really very, very interesting things going on. A number of good books are being reprinted and apparently read, at least they're selling. is an exciting thing, a good thing. The number of new authors who are referring to the good old books, reading them and kind of putting them into maybe a little more modern language and teaching the people of them. That's an exciting thing to see what God is doing in this day. There are many who are what we would call in the conservative side of things, and they are in fact, they would self-declare that they are Calvinists, that they are part of the Reformed Church, and then there's this movement that is in, and the movement by and large is decent and good, but most things, you remember of course, or know, that there's always this fringe element that that somehow doesn't have the balance of the major proponents of a particular movement or understand of things and this fringe element makes a lot of errors and part of that is some of the fringe element of patriarchy and we have to deal with it and their view of women, their view of children, of females in the home, of daughters And we have to understand that there was a patriarchalness in the first century. And we have to look and say, OK, what do we find of Christ's interaction with the radical patriarchy of the first century? Now, not everything about it is wrong. I don't want to be misunderstood, and I'm not about to take time to go into any details. I'm actually probably not very well equipped to go into some of the details. But there are certain aspects of those who will say, well, we're in patriarchal movement, we're in this and we're Calvinist. There are certain aspects of that that Jesus Christ stands in direct antithesis to. And Luke records this. When you go through Luke and his writings, Luke and Acts, but particularly the gospel Luke, because particularly with the life of Jesus Christ during his incarnate ministry, and look at Christ's interaction with women, you will find that sometimes there is very blatant contradiction to what is now coming back to us as radical patriarchy in terms of the life of Christ. Leon Morris writes, Quote, with respect to women, the Christian attitude was revolutionary. The way Jesus worked, talked, companioned with women in the first century was a direct refutation of certain aspects of the then prevailing patriarchal views of things among the Jews. The Talmud, Yevamoth 115a says, quote, women, even a hundred of them, are legally equal to one witness. How's that for the view of women? We are finding in our day husbands that are tyrants, who have this sort, apparently, this sort of view of their wives. They don't confide in them. They don't tell them any of their plans. Even such radical plans as, well, I'm going to sell the house and I'm going to move to another state. They don't even talk to their wives about it. They don't seek the counsel. Do you want to go? What do you think? What are the good ideas about going? What are the bad things about going? A hundred women, get them all together, that's only equal to one. Good opinion. Jesus taught women. Yeah, He had them around His feet, talked to them, instructed them. Rabbis wouldn't do that. Turn to Luke 10. Luke 10.38, Now as they were traveling along, he entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. And she had a sister named Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord's words, seated at his feet. Martha was distracted with all her preparations. She came up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me. The Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, You are worried and bothered about so many things, but only a few things are necessary, really only one. For Mary has chosen the good part, but shall not be taken away from her." Jesus was delighted. Delighted with the good meals that Martha prepared also. But Jesus was delighted to have a woman, Mary, sit at his feet, asking questions, being instructed in the word of God. Jesus taught women. Dealt with them with respect. Not as second class citizens. Jesus allowed and enjoyed the companion of women in His retinue. Look at Luke 8, the first three verses in Luke chapter 8. And it came about soon afterwards that He began going about from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God, and twelve were with Him, and also some women. Imagine that. Just a single guy traveling. And he's got women with him, traveling. Oh, that'll create scandal. Liars lie. People that believe in myths make up their own stories. He had women traveling with him. Yes, it's the whole group. It's not Jesus alone. Don't misunderstand. He had 12 men. And Luke's carefully recorded. It's Jesus with these 12 men and women. So it's a substantial group here traveling. Some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses. Mary, who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out. Johanna, the wife of Puzza, Herod's steward. And Susanna and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means. Jesus and His disciples travel with women and their retinue. Jesus allows a former prostitute to touch him, washing his feet. Luke 7 begins in 36. And one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him. He entered the Pharisee's house, reclined at table. Behold, there was a woman in a city who was a sinner. And when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume. Now, that's expensive. This isn't cheap stuff that she picked up at JR Outlet. This is expensive perfume. Some estimates are as much as one year's normal average wage for this alabaster vial. And standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, kissing his feet and anointing them with the perfume. Now when the Pharisee had invited him in and saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman she is and he'd never let her touch him. Jesus answered. Isn't this fascinating how Luke records this? He makes it clear that this Pharisee says this to himself. So there's not something mumbling that Jesus can overhear what he's saying. He's saying this to himself, Luke tells us. And Jesus knows exactly what that man has said to himself silently. He turns to him and he answers what he's conversing silently, secretly. So he thought it was secret. It wasn't to Jesus in his head. answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he replied, say it, teacher. Certain money laundered two debtors, one owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them, therefore, will love him any more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more He said to him, you have judged correctly. Turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I answered, your house. I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. She's wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has forgiven little, loves little. When he said to her, your sins have been forgiven, those who were reclining at table with him began to say to themselves, who is this man? But he announces to the sinner, your sins forgiven. He said to the woman in your faith, the Savior, What an account that Luke gives us. One who in the sight of the righteous men of the city was dirt, should be associated with, certainly should never be allowed to touch. Jesus speaks highly of her, exalts her. Actually, comparing Simon to her, Simon comes out poorly. Jesus is using her to rebuke Simon. Jesus' attitude to women, Maura said, was revolutionary in the first century. His behavior toward this woman astonished and offended the Pharisee. Jesus honors the widow who gives two mites who find the account here in Luke 21. You see, Luke gives us more information than the others about the women around Jesus. Luke knew something of their plight in the first century. And he just wants to say, look, I want you to know how Jesus deals with women. He doesn't deal with them the way many in our culture are dealing with them in the first century. Luke 21, he looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and he saw a certain poor widow putting in two small copper coins, and he said, truly, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them. Because they have put into the temple, oh, lots of money, to be sure, lots of gold and silver, but in every case, it's been out of their surplus they've put into the offering, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on. Again, he sets before a patriarchal society an example of righteousness and reverence for God. And that example is this poor widow, a woman. To teach men about what righteousness looks like, about what love for God looks like, he sets before their eyeballs an example of a woman. someone they would normally not even see in their culture. Women are mentioned many times in the Gospel of Luke and in Acts, and they're mentioned with great favor and great dignity. Women were vital in the support and spread of the Gospel. Turn over to Acts 17. Acts 17.4, and some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas along with a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. Verse 12, many of them therefore believed along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. Isn't that interesting? Women before men, not men and women, but women and men. Maybe we ought not make too much of that. It seems He wants to accentuate the women. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing there would be a place of prayer. And we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. And a certain woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshipper of God, was listening. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken. by Paul, and when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us." Women were vital in the support and spread of the gospel in the first century. And Luke takes pains to let us know of the dignified position of women in the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, none of you will make this error, but our culture will hear what I just said through their hearing aid of Marx, Karl Marx. And they'll hear, oh, equality, radical equality. Women can be preachers, women can be elders, that's not what you find in the Bible, not what you find in Luke. They have different assigned roles, assigned and defined by God. But we best not make the mistake that by having a different role, they are thereby somehow less important or inferior in dignity and value to Christ. Much of patriarchy is commendable. There are those on a certain fringe of it, and I have no concept of percentage-wise, but there are those on the fringe of it who would call themselves patriarchal. who have a view of women that is radically contrary to the view of Jesus Christ. And Luke wants that known so that we don't copy the patriarchalness of the first century without critical and biblical evaluation. Leon Morris concludes this section in which he's talking about women in that textbook, New Testament Theology, with these words, quote, Luke then helps us see the tremendous change in status that Christianity brought to women. He did not go along with the accepted standards of His day, relegating women to an inferior place and treating them as of small account. He had learned something better than that from His Master, and no one in the New Testament makes the new place for women clearer than does Luke." Young men who are studying for the gospel ministry. have an amazing number of battles you're going to have to fight. Heresies that the church dealt with in the first five centuries and nailed. I've had their coffins reopened. And they're roaming in a little bit of new dress all over the church today. This issue of women. Of the structure of family. is something you're going to have to know well, better than we do, to deal with the current and coming errors in the church. True Christianity is the way, Luke refers to it, Discipleship claims everything of life without exemption. True Christianity sees everything placed in service, everything about your life, your time, your talents, your skills, abilities, training, everything to be placed in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. The concept that one can kind of pick and choose his allegiance to Christ, that someone can embrace Christ's left arm and have nothing to do with his right arm or his leg. They can kind of take just a part of Christ, the part of Christ I want, you know, buffet kind of Christianity. That's not Christianity. It's all or nothing. Christ. Is a son of David, he's king. He allows no treason, anytime, anywhere. He demands everything. Luke says, count the cost, because there is a cost. And the cost is death, self, crucifixion.