Well, let's go ahead and pray and we will get started here. Lord, we thank you that you have given us a very clear picture of what and who you are like. When it comes to these gospels and we get these varied pictures, it gives us a greater understanding of who you are. And so Lord, we pray this evening as we look at this gospel of Luke, may we understand the aspects that are being magnified for us to see. and the character of Christ, that we may rejoice in what it means if we understand the message of the book. So, Lord, we thank you for this gospel, and may we learn from it. In this we pray in Christ's name, amen. We are in the book of Luke, which you go, OK, so who wrote this gospel? And I'm sure you're waiting with this this one with bated breath. I think I left this one. Yeah. Yeah. Already answered. It's Luke. The interesting thing about this is that he is probably a Gentile. You say, well, why is that unusual? Well, as you go through the scripture and you look at all the authors of the Bible, as far as we can tell who they are, they are in general going to be Jews. I mean, that's the assumption. There are people who are part of the tribes and all of this. This would make him the only Gentile writer in the New Testament. Unless you, you know, talk about perhaps who wrote and authored Hebrews, which I kind of tend to say Paul, but that's up for controversy. No one knows. But as far as the authors we do know, he's the only Gentile. would say there are a couple of people that are Gentiles that authored certain sections of our Bible. Anybody aware of the one section that's a major one that it's obvious that a Gentile is writing at that point? Anybody know? Yes. Nebuchadnezzar, yeah, Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel chapter four, you read that story, it's his story. It sounds like he's the one that's writing it. It's not third person, it's first person. He's doing the telling of this and the whole chapter is his. And so you kind of go Nebuchadnezzar, not a Jew, if you didn't know that. Yeah, he's a Babylonian who conquered Jerusalem. But beyond that, it's unusual that you would have this, that you would have a Gentile writing this. He is a physician. What does that mean? It is not on the level of what we would talk about medicine back then. Some of the medicine was quack medicine, as it is today. It's a little bit more obviously so back then. They were doing a lot of guessing. But even then, some of the Greeks were very well educated on the anatomy of the body and things with that. They had an understanding of it far better than a lot of people around the globe. He was a physician. Part of that education would have been that he would have had to write and have that kind of thing going on as part of his education. So as you read the book of Luke, it's probably the, I wouldn't say highfalutin, but it is a very high level of Greek as far as the language and construction of it. So it's very well organized, but it's also a gospel that is researched. You say, how do you know that? Well, look at verse number one of Luke chapter one. Luke starts this way, for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us. So he's saying there's a whole bunch of people that have tried to attempt to give what happened amongst us as far as Jesus and who that is. You say, were there more than just four people that wrote this, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? Did other people perhaps try and write accounts of what happened? The answer is yes. But we only have four that are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Did other people attempt this? Yes. Verse two, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, because he wasn't an eyewitness, Luke didn't see these things that happened with Jesus. It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee, in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. I mean, he is saying I've gathered material from eyewitnesses. And when you read the account in chapters one and chapters two, especially of Mary and the birth announcement and the birth story, it's from the perspective of Mary. You just read it and he says she kept these things in her heart and all of these things. It's her story. So he is writing, did he perhaps interview Mary? And the answer is probably. I mean, Mary went with John. We talked about that on Sunday. Mary went with John and John kind of ended up in multiple places, including Ephesus, which is a place that Luke had been to. And so very well could have been that he interviewed her directly. So he is one who does his research like a good scholar would do. And you see that in his account. You say, how long did Luke travel with Paul? Well, we don't know when he actually met Paul. There's, you know, assumptions of where he's from. They don't know. But we do know when he starts traveling with the apostle Paul, and it's in Acts chapter 16. You go, how do you know that? Well, in Acts chapter 16, you have this story where Paul tries to go to Bithynia. It doesn't happen. He tries to go to Asia Minor or the city of Ephesus. He can't do that, and he goes and he's sitting on the western end of Asia Minor at the place that we know as the city of Troy, but we know in the Bible as Troas. He's sitting there and going, oh, I'm at the end of the map. Okay, where to next? And it's at that point that the Lord sends over Messenger in a dream and he's dressed in the clothing of Macedonia and he says this, come over and help us. And it's at that point where the account in Acts goes from they were doing this and they were doing this to we did this and we did this and we did this. Suddenly Luke becomes a part of this adventure. And I would say probably long before that he was saved, but as far as his being with the Apostle Paul officially as part of the mission, seems like at that point, how he met him, we don't know, but we know at least by Acts chapter 16, he's a constant companion with Paul. He sees a lot of the stuff that happens in the latter part of Acts. And so he is, we know his contact is with Paul, but it seems perhaps that it went even beyond that, where he was doing some research on this. You say, what is this book about? And we'll give this theme here for a second, and we'll be more upon it later, is that Jesus is man. Okay, he's human. Okay, it's not that God is not a part of this, that Jesus is God, because there are gonna be certain occasions in this gospel that it's gonna be obvious he's God. But the emphasis is the humanity of Christ. And we'll talk about what some of those details are that point to the fact that Luke is trying to show this and be able to do this. Which then goes along with who it's written to, the Greeks. Say, why the Greeks? Well, the Greeks spent much time glorifying human wisdom and strength. They were looking for the ideal man. One who was smart, think about the Athenians and all of their history where they were promoting philosophy and wisdom and that was a part of their culture was that you would see how wise an individual was, but you also had as a part of their culture, think about where the Olympics started at. Okay, the Olympics started in Greece. They had multiple athletic events that happened across Greek culture, and it was just a glorification of human achievement, much like when you watch the Olympics today. They're glorifying what human beings are able to do, that they jumped an inch further than they did four years ago. I mean, these type of things, they magnify that. But this is part of Greek life. They were magnifying the human body, the wisdom that's there, and this is a part of their life. They were looking for someone who was the ideal man. They didn't know about it yet, but they were looking for kind of a renaissance man, an individual that could do everything. And so the Greeks had this in their culture, they were looking for this, and so This is part of why this book was written, to give us a reflection of what Jesus is like for mainly a Greek culture, but also as you look at it, this book is written specifically, and we read the name of one who is most excellent Theophilus in the first four verses there, that Luke said he's writing this book for. Theos means God, philos means friend, so this is a individual who's a friend of God, but it probably is not this individual's name. It seems because this book and then the book of Acts, as you start that off, that book is written to Theophilus also, and it's, well, a continuation of the book of Acts of the things which Jesus began to do and teach. When he's talking about what I previously wrote to you is what Jesus began to do and teach, and when we get to Acts, we'll say, what's the book of Acts about? It's the Acts of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord. What he's doing in his body in the church really is what the book of Acts is about. But there are people that say either this was an officially commissioned enterprise on Luke's part, that Theophilus was a government official that didn't want his name known, and thus he's going by a pseudonym, a fake name, but he's interested in what's going on with Christianity. He may have been a Christian himself, but he wanted something that he could use to then share with others going, this is what Christianity's like. This is how it got started. It got started with this Jesus. And then you get into the book of Acts, you say, well, how did this Jesus figure who was only in Palestine and in that region suddenly get all over the globe at that time? How did his message get out? And even though it's a document that is written, you know. that was always used for a government official, this individual is having this book written by Luke for him, either directly to him or that this person said, I want this and is paying for this book, this research to be done so that it could be used later. We have this in our day today where the government asks for official documentation and so you have these people who appear before the Senate and they have these large tomes. You know, here's the paperwork and now you've got an official written document that's entered into the record. That seems to be one of the purposes of the book of Luke. Okay, the Theophilus wants an account of Jesus that is well researched and well set that he can then present to other individuals. and even in his own mind, perhaps be more strongly convinced that Jesus is who he says he is. And so we don't know who this Theophilus is. It would have been ironic if that was truly his name, but most people think that this is a pseudonym for him, whoever the official might have been. The other thing about this book is that this gospel is the longest book in the New Testament. So when you talk about research documents and scholars and those type of things, they tend to be rather lengthy. And Luke works this out as you go through the chapters that you have there. It's 24 chapters. You go, well, Matthew's got 28. Yes, I understand that. But Luke's chapters are much longer. And so as you read through it, it's the longest book in our New Testament. And in reading it, you'll find that out. A time that is written, generally scholars believe that Luke was written between A.D. 60 and 64. Why is that? It's because of the sequel to Luke. I remember reading the end of that book, Acts, as you get to the story where Paul gets to Rome. And it just kind of says he was there for two years encouraging and preaching to the Jews that were there and preaching Christ. And it's kind of the end of the story. And everything seems to be okay. And in the book of Acts, the only persecution that is really going on is from Jewish individuals chasing after Paul. There is an occasion when the Roman government starts pursuing. And you go, well, what event was that? Well, it was Nero who most people suggest he burnt down Rome himself. He had a plan that he wanted to redesign Rome, and the Senate said, no way, and suddenly Rome is on fire, and he's fiddling while Rome burns. And you go, why? Because he's happy that it's burning down, that he can rebuild part of it. but you don't want to be the one to be blamed for it. So who does he blame? He blames this new group of individuals that are well-known throughout the empire that are stirring things up amongst different places, and he starts accusing the Christians of having set fire to Rome. And this is when official persecution begins. Would have Luke written in this time? Possibly, but it seems like the book of Acts ends at a time where there's still Somewhat good feeling with the Roman government. But 8064 is when Rome burned. So a lot of people say they think that it was perhaps written before then, most definitely written before the temple burns or is destroyed in 8070. But many people kind of reading Luke and Acts together kind of go, hmm, seems like he may have written this at the two years that he had in Rome to do some interviewing and this as he waited for Paul to be cleared of charges there in Rome. So that's why many kind of guess that that's the case. The emphasis of this book is the humanity of Jesus. And you say, OK, well, how do we get to this? Well, it is really hard to miss when you start off in the book of Acts. It's almost impossible to miss. You know, why is this? Because you have these lengthy birth account stories. One of John the Baptist, his parents Zacharias and Elizabeth, having a child when it's beyond the possibility of them having it. And then now you have a woman, it's beyond the possibility of her having it because she's never known a man. You have these two situations and you have these incredible birth stories, but both of them have children and you have detailed things going around those birth events. and the story's directly taken. So here you've got this story where John the Baptist is born, who's gonna play a role in the Gospels, and then Jesus and his account and everything that surrounds this with the choirs of angels and the shepherds who come. You have this very lengthy account of, well, the birth and even the day of the birth of Jesus. The second thing that points to this is that you have the genealogy, and most of us ignore the genealogies because we don't like names. You know, I don't know how to say that person's name, and okay, I don't know who that is, and okay, fine, let's get to the end. But as you read through the genealogy of Luke, it's different than the one in Matthew for several different reasons. One was because it's the line of Joseph and the line of Mary. Okay, those are the two differences between the genealogies. But in the genealogy in Luke, excuse me, it doesn't deal with like Matthew does, that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham, and only goes back to Abraham because Matthew was interested in Jews. Okay, he's writing this for Jews. Well here, if you want to know somebody's a human being, go back to the first human being and see if this person's attached to him. Well, the genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. And so you have in the genealogy, OK, you think this one may not be human, but his genealogy goes back to the first person. And then you as you go through the genealogy and you get into chapter four and you look at the story that's there, it's the temptation. And in the story of the temptation, there are three things that Jesus faces that Adam faced and failed. You know, what is that? The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Because you remember when he's faced with this temptation from Satan, that's what Adam's faced with because he sees that the fruit is good to the eye, it will make one wise, and that it was good to eat. Those three things. You go through the account in Luke, and the Lord is faced with all three of those types of temptations, and he succeeds where Adam failed. So right from the start, you're going, okay, this is a unique man. Or you might say, the Greeks say, your ideal man. One who doesn't fail, one who doesn't sin. You have Adam who fails, but here, this second Adam, He's different. He doesn't lose, he does not fail. Where mankind first failed, this one does not. And so just reading through the first three or four chapters of Luke, you're going, okay, this man is a success. He's born, has great choirs and all of this, and then even when he's faced with the greatest enemy that we all have, that's Satan, he doesn't fail. So you have that as part of the story. Second thing that you'll find is that Jesus's book calls himself the son of man 24 times. Now, many times in the other gospels, when the word son of man is being used, Jesus is not going around and going, hey, hey, I'm human. You know, I'm a human being. You know, people are looking at him and they're not going well. But it was hinting at the fact of what Daniel 7 says is that the son of man is going to one day come and rule and reign on the earth, that God is going to give him all the kingdoms of the world to rule and reign, and it was the son of man that was going to receive this, all the kingdoms of the world. And so many times that's why that is used, but it seems that in Luke, he is using this more so to emphasize the fact, as Jesus says this, he goes, I'm a human being. I'm a son of man, I'm a son of Adam. Okay, I'm a human. And so this is a part of this, and so it hints at the fact of Jesus' humanity. Now, humans are in constant need of communication with God. Okay, when God created us, he created us in his image. And he designed us to fellowship with him. Okay, if you're not fellowshiping with him, you're not hearing his communication, communicating back to him, there's a big empty spot in your life. And what God did with mankind is he created this desire for fellowship and communication. And what you see in this gospel is that Luke records half of the 20 times where Jesus prayed. You find him going out and praying. sometimes early in the morning, or he goes and finds a deserted place somewhere. He doesn't go out and find a desert, as some of you read the context. It's not that he's going to find a desert to go, he's just going to find a place where there's not people. It's deserted. And he would go and pray, and at times people would go looking for him and disturb him in his prayer, but he finds this to be something that he delighted in, to communicate with God the Father. And so what it does is that it gives an example for us as human beings. As you go through the Gospel of Luke, there are three unique parables. Actually, we'll talk about that there's actually more than that, but Luke has a bunch of parables that Jesus tells that are unique just to Luke. But there's three of them that are some of the more famous ones. The one where you have the story of the widow before the judge, child, or somebody knocking at the door of their neighbor. Luke chapter one, I am drawing a blank here for the second what that one is. Shouldn't be, but I am. Luke 11. Yeah, that's the knocking on the door. And then Luke chapter 18 verses nine through 14 is the one where you have this Pharisee and publican praying before God. And how does a person get accepted before God? It's not their impressive status in human society. No, it's the fact that they're a repentant sinner. In that story here, this guy is just doing this and saying, I am not worthy. Have mercy upon me, a sinner. And the Lord goes, well, who does God hear? The Pharisee who goes around with a trumpet and stands in the corner and prays, or the one who's just simply going, I need your mercy, and God says, I listen to that person, not one who's coming into my presence thinking they've got something that is greater than God. They're prideful. And so you have those parables that you have. And then as you look through, God gives many good gifts. And the book of Luke records the praise and singing of people who receive great things. There's a lot of psalm like qualities, especially in Luke one and two. But there are occasions as you go through the book where people are praising God. You know, we're supposed to communicate with God, but we also should magnify God and thank him. It does a lot for us, and so these elements of human life is recorded in the book of Luke. Yeah. Compassion is hopefully another part of humanity. As you go through the story of Luke, there is a lot of interest and people who are not doing well. They're suffering. And Jesus is not just merely going, oh, I feel sorry for you. No, him going and doing something about it. But you see this compassion throughout the scripture. I mean, he shows compassion on people who are poor. He reaches out to those that most people would consider to be outsiders. And you say, what example of these outsiders? Okay, how about the tax collector Zacchaeus? That story's only recorded in the book of Luke, but it's the story of a man who everybody else in society doesn't care about. He's short. So from that, from a physical standpoint, he's unimportant in some people's eyes and he's a tax collector. And the Lord goes and intentionally goes the direction that Zacchaeus is and calls him down and says, I am going to go and eat a meal with you. I mean, he has a crowd of people and he specifically finds the one who's probably the most outside of the whole group and finds him and says, I'm gonna eat with you today. you have the story of the widow who lost her son. Back in this society, if you lost your husband, you hope you had sons to be able to take care of you, but in this story, you have the only son of this woman who dies, and this widow of Nain, Jesus, meets in the middle of the funeral, the procession, where everyone is crying, and he goes and stops this. and raises this woman's son. I mean, basically with her son dying, she was going to fade out of society. She had no connection. And so there was this element of that society where the Lord is restoring to her her son, showing that he's God because he can raise somebody from the dead, but yet there's this compassion of humanity. that is there. One of the things I don't have in the notes there, there is a number of occasions where it notes something about that these are the only children or the only son. The story of Jairus's daughter. The book of Luke is the only one that indicates that this is the only child of Jairus. So there is this understanding of the loss of a family or the importance of even a single child to a family. The Lord is a part of that. And then you have a very detailed story in Luke chapter seven of this woman who comes and everyone goes, she's a sinner. And she's coming to wash the feet of Jesus. And Jesus has no problem being seen with the sinner. There is a feeling of compassion that goes a part of this throughout the book of Luke. There's a humanity that is seen, that is moved not just merely in emotion, but to do something about the situation. Many of the parables in Luke are unique and show a compassion and interest in human life. The parable of lost things. Okay? We forget about this because we always kind of go directly to the prodigal son and go, oh, here's a parable of the prodigal son. But you have three stories about lost things. Here you have a woman who's lost coins, and you go, well, that's really not important, okay? You know what? All right, I lost a dime today, okay? Big deal. What you have in that story is here this woman, this was kind of her dowry when she got married. Oftentimes in that society, they would wear a chain of coins across their head. And this was kind of the thing that was from their wedding day. And to suddenly lose this would be like, you know, You know, I've seen occasion, yeah, you lose a ring, you know, I mean, there'd be that kind of thing. You know, some ladies preserve their wedding dress and it'd be like, you know, losing the wedding dress to a fire or, you know, there's a sentimentality to this story. And this is why she's going through and looking for it. Or you have the parable of the lost sheep. Hey, 99, you're okay, you've got 99 sheep, who cares about the one? No, the one is important. And the hinting here is, okay, as you get through the story, that he's not just merely talking about sheep here, he's actually talking about there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth. The 99 who are righteous. Now, that story, as you read that one, Understand that parable, it says that there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels. Who's doing the rejoicing? It's not the angels. It's God. He's rejoicing over lost things. He's got a concern for humanity. So you're seeing this compassion of God right there in that story. And then, of course, the story of the lost son where the father is looking down the road for his son that's gone off and wandered away, and you see this pathos that's there, this passion for his son when he returns, and even for the son who's been there, the one who's the self-righteous one who's an example of the Pharisees. But there's a love and compassion even in that story as the father goes, listen, I have always loved you. And so you have those three stories unique to Luke, where you have that kind of passion. Poor man Lazarus. Here you got one who lives his life outside the gates of a rich person's house. He's got sores. His only friends are dogs. And you go, oh, wow, that's great. I like dogs. No. It would be like saying he was friends with the vultures. or friends with pigs, okay? The Middle East, when our soldiers went over to the Middle East and our men were fighting over there and they'd pick up dogs and they'd make them part of their companions and whatever else, they were just kind of in that culture, what are you doing? Yeah, I got a dog, I got a gun at home, I need a dog here. And in the Middle East, dogs are scavengers. And here you have this man who's laid outside the gate, and he's only getting the scraps off the table, that's all he's able to get, and here he dies. And the angels take this one to glory. You kind of go, wow, does God care about the most outside individuals? Now, I think that story of Lazarus and the rich man is a true story. I don't tend to call it, I call it a parable, but it's not a parable because it's actually a true story. If you read the context in that story and you go for the full context and look at it, he names Lazarus, he doesn't name the rich man, and you go, why is that? Because the group of individuals he's talking to, he's talking to Pharisees and religious leaders, they would have all known who that guy was. So does God have compassion for the people that would be considered an outsider, even by the religious leaders? And the answer is absolutely. That one I don't believe is a parable because he's talking about the realities of hell. I mean, it's specific. It's not a hidden meaning there. He's going, this is what it's like. So that story, though it's categorized as a parable, it is really, to me, out of that category, it is a story about a true story rather than one that is a made-up story. The story of the widow and the judge, I mean, just this lady who has nothing and you can just see her day after day coming and knocking at the tent door or the street door or wherever it may have been to this judge as he goes off to work and is going, please, please, I need you to work on my case. I don't have money, I don't have this, just have compassion, please. Now the judge, Well, kind of goes, listen, I don't want this lady to keep bothering me, so I'll take care of it. But the story goes, well, if you have an unjust individual like that, think about what your heavenly father is like, who is full of compassion. loves you, what that story is going to be like. So Luke contains 17 different parables that are unique just to that book. A lot of them are repeated, Matthew and Mark. Luke's got some of the ones that are in Matthew and Mark, but there's a whole slew of new stories in the book of Luke that he has and he includes in his book. So concluding here, it's this, Luke's gospel, even though it shows that Jesus is God, okay, you do have elements of him doing miracles, is designed for this, is Jesus is one who can sympathize with humans just like us. Okay, and that word sympathy means to feel with. Okay, did Jesus ever have to come across a situation where someone lost a close loved one? He did. thought about this, we have no account of Joseph other than the birth story, but somewhere along the line there, Joseph died. Okay? He's been through those kinds of experiences. Granted, John tells a story, but he sees the mother suffering at the cross. I mean, he feels what we feel. He's been through it. It's not that he is someone distant. He's experienced it. He lived the human experience. It is important for him to be human on the other side, not just because he can sympathize with us, is that he can be our substitute. I mean, how could he be the one to take our punishment on if he wasn't the same as we were? And so for him to be human is vitally important. You go, well, he could have just been God and come down here and done everything and went away. No, because God can't pay for our sins. There has to be payment of like replacement. Now, he could have had his son suffer, but if he wasn't a human being, it still wouldn't replace what we had done and what we deserved as human beings. but he has to be a human being, and so this book magnifies it. And to think about the fact of even reading the crucifixion account. Here he is, he's agonizing in the garden. I mean, he's not, and I don't like art museums. You know, I still have to go to the Art Institute of Chicago. Never been there. Lifelong, whatever. You know, you go and pat the lines as you go by, and I've never been in there. So I've missed out on, I think, the Lady in the Rocking Chair and the American Gothic, I think, is there. I've missed those, but I don't like art, but I really get frustrated with art when it misrepresents. And what I feel like in the Renaissance is that a lot of the guys misrepresented what Christ was like, He's feminine, he's wimpy. He doesn't look like someone, if you go to Israel, you realize no one over there was wimpy. Everything's uphill. You talk about people, oh, we went uphill both ways. No, it's uphill everywhere there. You're thankful that you got a tour bus when you go from place to place, because it's very good exercise. Tour guide we had, he did trips where it's in the footsteps of Jesus. And so he would take people on hikes for miles. But he says, you know, there's warnings on this. Please don't come and be overweight and obese and whatever else and out of good health, because you'll not finish this tour just going up and down the hills there in Jerusalem or in Jerusalem, in Israel. Jesus was one, when you read the account in Luke, you begin to realize he is enduring stress that no human being had ever undergone. And yet he's still able to accomplish his tasks and do it well. So you think about this, he is the perfect human being. But he's perfectly God, too. So how does that work? Well, we won't even try and explain that to you, because that's something that people argue over. How could Jesus be 100% God and 100% man? It's not a mixing of the two characters in the sense that he is, you know, maybe 50% God, 50% human. No, he's 100% God, 100% man. How does this function? Maybe we'll get a better understanding when we get to heaven, but that's the truth there. But he is the perfect human being. And we'll look at John when we have an opportunity and see that he is the perfect God. Holy and perfectly God. And so Luke magnifies that message. We're thankful that he was a human being. Lord, we thank you for Jesus, son of man. One who could come and feel our agony, our pain, our sorrow, but even experience the delights that there are as far as a human being when it comes to the joy of family and friends and people and all of this. He enjoyed these things. He experienced life like this. And so he knows. And he knows about our sorrows. And now he is our perfect high priest that sits at the right hand of you. And we thank you that he can intercede for us with an understanding and a sympathy. So, God in heaven, we're thankful for your son that he came into this world, took upon him human flesh, and that now he is our great high priest who's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. So we're thankful for the son of God. what he is doing and what he will continue to accomplish in our lives. And this we pray in Christ's name. Amen.