You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller. It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk. Now, here's Pastor Miller.

What a blessing. You know, I'm just sitting there next to him and we we're seeing pictures and he's seeing stories. And if somebody just walked around our church and just snapped pictures and showed them to somebody else, it wouldn't it wouldn't mean a whole lot. Hey, flight attendants, let's go. Get down here. We've got some snacks. Everybody pick fast, and we're going to Luke chapter one. We're going to Luke chapter one. So quickly pick a snack. This is flight 66, so we're having in-flight snacks. So get your snack quick, quick, quick. Fast as you can go. There's pretzels and jerky and struof waffles and whatever else they would serve on a plane. So get those as fast as you can go. Those of you right up here in the first class cabin. And those of you in the exit, are you willing and able to help in case of an emergency? Okay. Alright, seatbacks subs and get your oxygen mask on because we're gonna fly. And we're gonna go through the book of Luke tonight. The Gospel of Luke. Alright. I'm thankful for our flight attendants skipping out on youth ministry for just a second. Feel free to go ahead and enjoy your snacks and beverages. If the turbulence gets a little rough, seatbelt sign will come on and you can put up your lap tray, okay? I know we need some tray tables. Don't kick the seat back in front of you. So on an airplane, my my go-to every time is I get the bag of, it's a mixed bag of pretzels. And uh it's got it's it's just got a like a little like a little club mix in there, and then I get a ginger ale. That's my that's my go-to every time on a flight. Except in the morning. In the morning, I get a I get a tomato juice. And I drink a tomato juice with with something salty. Alright. Alright, Luke chapter 1 tonight. We're gonna fly right through this book. Luke is an amazing, amazing presenter of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Um, Matthew presents Jesus as the Jesus, Matthew presents Christ as the king of the Jews, takes his lineage in Matthew chapter 1 back through David to Abraham. He's a Jew. He's born of David, he's of the tribe of Judah. David has a Jesus has a rightful place to the throne. Mark presents Jesus as the suffering servant, no genealogy. The key words are immediately and straightway. He's just busy. He hits the ground running and he gets the work done. John is going to present Jesus in our next study as the Son of God, but Luke is going to present Jesus as the perfect Son of Man. And that's very fitting. Jesus is the compassionate Savior who has come to seek and to save that which is lost. In fact, that's the key verse, Luke chapter 19 and verse 10. The Son of Man. That's a messianic title. The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. If you take that verse and you break that verse into its separate parts, that's the outline for the book of Luke. You'll find the Son of Man is come. That's chapters 1 through 3. The Son of Man is come to seek and to save. So Luke was a physician, he was a doctor, and he was an extremely careful historian. Luke is the only Gentile author of Scripture. He wrote this book of the Bible under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he investigated this by interviewing eyewitnesses. Now you have to remember that Luke himself was not an eyewitness. Luke was not there when Jesus was in his earthly ministry. Luke wrote it why? Let's look at Luke chapter 1. Let me show you why Luke wrote it. For as much, verse 1 number 1, 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, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first. To write unto thee in order, that word in order right there means an accurate or orderly account. I am writing unto thee an accurate, orderly account, most excellent Theophilus. Why? That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. Now there's a reason for this. I'm going to give you some things in just a minute, so hold on for a moment. But he's writing to set these things in order that he was received from eyewitnesses of Jesus. It appears that he began interviewing eyewitnesses during Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea. And his gospel is going to become one of the most incredible, historical, accurately detailed ministries of Jesus Christ. Let me remind you, for those of you that may not know this, Jesus ascends into heaven in the early 30 A.D., A.D. 30s. And sometime later, the day of Pentecost, shortly after Jesus ascends, the day of Pentecost, the church is empowered, the church begins to preach and share the gospel. The gospel explodes in Jerusalem. People are being saved by the thousands. Persecution comes. And if you read through the book of Acts, you're going to find that from Acts chapter 2, at the coming of the Holy Spirit, to Acts chapter 10, when Peter finally goes to Cornelius' house, the Gentile, down in Joppa, that's been 10 years. From Pentecost to Cornelius. Peter has been the lead apostle from Acts chapter 1 to Acts chapter 12. Peter is going to get arrested. He's going to die. And then in Acts 13, you're going to see the rise of the apostle Paul as he now takes the lead. And the gospel goes from the Jew to the Gentiles and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And Paul becomes this missionary. So Paul goes on his first missionary journey in Acts 13 and 14. Then he comes back to the council of Jerusalem. And he's going back out on a missionary journey in chapter 16. Remember, Paul has met, he's met Timothy now at Lystra, where he gets stoned. Paul's going through some heavy turbulence. And Paul is praying, because he's got a thorn in the flesh, Paul's praying that God would remove that thorn in his flesh. Praise three times. God says, I'm not taking that from you, but my grace is sufficient for you. And one of those things that corresponds in time is that in Acts chapter 16, the language of the narrative changes from, and they went here, and they did this, to, and then we. And then we, and it was given unto us. Luke joins the team in Acts chapter 16, a physician, a doctor, you know, after you've been stoned, you need a prayer team, but you really need a doctor. And God gives Luke, perhaps, as part of his means of grace in Paul's life, which is an amazing thing, by the way, because all the way at the end of Paul's life, when he's writing in 2 Timothy and he's in prison in Rome for the second time and he's about to die, he says to Timothy, All men have forsaken me. Only Luke is with me. God's grace goes with you all the way to the end. It is always sufficient. But, so Luke joins in Acts chapter 16. So understand, we're some 30 years removed from the ministry of Christ. And what happens is during Paul's ministry, he goes on his second missionary journey. Then Paul goes back out and he begins to collect a collection for the saints in Jerusalem that are suffering. Remember that? And Paul's going to bring that offering back, and he does, but Paul gets arrested when he's there. Paul has to go stand. Remember, he goes to trial with Agrippa and Festus and Felix and all of that. Well, Paul, in one of those meetings, Paul makes his appeal as a Roman citizen to Caesar. I appeal to Caesar. In fact, I want you to see it. I've got a picture up here when we were in Israel a few years ago. We were down and in Caesarea. That's the sea, uh, that's the Mediterranean Sea right there. This is in Herod's plantation here and his Acropolis out there, all the beautiful things, if you've never been there. But in that very circle right there was where the witness takes the stand. And Paul was in that place where he made in the court, he made his appeal to Caesar. And when he did that, he was taken into custody. And let me show you where they've uncovered where Paul was in jail, the next picture. This is where Paul, down in Caesarea, was put into that dungeon in prison for two years. So now this is all the way, you know, down in time in the book of Acts, decades later. So now Paul's in prison. So what is Luke going to do in Caesarea? He's just 50-some miles from Jerusalem. So what does Luke do? Luke, during those two years, goes to Jerusalem and begins to interview eyewitnesses. And listen, years and years and years and years after the ministry of Jesus, he's meeting people who are validating everything that Jesus did and said. And through eyewitness accounts and the Holy Spirit's inspiration, Luke is pinning this gospel. And it is going to be an amazing two-part work because he's going to write the book of Luke and he's going to write the book of Acts. And Luke is writing to a man by the name of Theophilus. Now, many people think that because he used the phrase most excellent Theophilus, that phrase is also used by Luke in Acts 23 when he says, most excellent governor Felix. Many people believe that that was a descriptive of somebody who was a high-ranking government official. And very well he could have been. Theophilus could have been a high-ranking government official who was curious about the gospel, had been instructed in the gospel and didn't really know if these things were so, and Luke, being a Gentile, knew him and was giving him the gospel. But let me just tell you where I lean. After looking at the account of Luke, and after looking at the account of Acts, Luke's account to Theophilus, let me tell you where I lean. I lean towards the idea. Now, this is not biblical, this is just a dean mellarism. So take it and leave it. Take it or leave it. Take it and leave it. That's what you do most of the time when I give my dean malarisms. Take it, leave it, I'm leaving that. Here's what I think. I think Luke, I think Luke is using the two years. While Paul is in jail, awaiting his extradition to Rome to go stand trial in a Roman court. I believe that Luke has contacted believers in Rome. They have hired an attorney. The attorney is a man named Theophilus, who has been instructed in the ways of the gospel but doesn't really understand all of it. But he's a great attorney. And Luke is writing to set an accurate account of the things that have taken place in Paul's life. Why is Paul a missionary? Why is Paul preaching? Why is Paul in trouble with Rome? It goes back to this man Jesus. And he's making a detailed account so that he can give a detailed evidence packet so that Theophilus can be prepped for his defense. It's interesting that when Luke when when Paul finally gets to Rome, he's put in house arrest. He's kind of free to have people come and go. He's only on house arrest, and after two years, he's set at liberty. I think maybe Theophilus used the evidence and got him off. And then eventually Paul's rearrested and then executed. But he's writing to Theophilus, perhaps presenting this detailed order of the life and ministry of Jesus that Paul preached. And it's really interesting because both accounts, Luke's account in the gospel and Luke's account in the book of Acts, show that the real battle and rejection over this man, Jesus, was not a Roman battle. It was a Jewish battle. He's going to go into great detail about how the Romans were the ones that said, we find no fault in him. It's a Roman centurion that said, Surely this man is the Son of God. Jesus is going to do so many things with Roman and Gentile people. And even when Paul begins to preach and the apostles are preaching, it's not the Romans who are persecuting them, it's the Jewish people who are persecuting them. When Jesus gets to Jerusalem, it's the Jews who have him arrested and turn him over to Pilate. Pilate says, I find no fault in him. This is not a Roman problem. And I think he's using this to make the case that this Rome doesn't have a case against Paul. This is a Jewish, this is an internal Jewish struggle, religious struggle among the Jews. Even Agrippa said, Man, I'm almost persuaded to be a Christian. Felix and Festus were like, I mean, we're pretty much minded to let this guy go, but he appealed to Caesar. We gotta send him to Rome on trial. So all of this goes back to this is not really a Roman issue. And this is the case that Luke makes in the gospel. Luke's account has been really good prep material for perhaps a Roman attorney that was already leaning to becoming a believer. So let's look at the book as we fly through this. I want you to just imagine you're just looking out the plane window down on the life of Christ, and you just got a 30,000-foot view. And I want you to see Jesus in this book. Luke is going to show you his compassion, he's going to show you his power, he's going to show you his teaching, and he's going to show you ultimately his sacrifice and victory. So in chapters 1 and 2, I want you to just mark this. This is the Savior arrives. The journey begins with a celebration. After 400 years of silence, Jesus is born. Gabriel announces the two miraculous births, John the Baptist to Zecharias, and then again to Mary. Zecharias is the one who'll prepare the way. Jesus is the promised Messiah. Luke is the one who records songs of praise more than any other gospel. Unlike any other gospel, he shows Mary's magnificent, he shows Zacharias's Benedictus, he's the angel's song over Bethlehem, Simeon's praise in the temple. Really, I preached a message, a series of messages years ago at Christmas time on the first five Christmas carols. And there are five songs that you find, and most of all of them are in the book, in the Gospel of Luke. Luke is the only one that tells us about the shepherds. He's the only one that reminds us that the first announcement of Christ's birth didn't come to kings, it came to ordinary working men. That would have rung true with his Roman reader. Only Luke records the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple saying, I must be about my father's business. So we already see the heart of Jesus in the first two chapters. And I wish we had time to go through all these chapters. The second thing I want you to see is the preparing of the Messiah in chapters 3 and 4. Look over here, if you will, at chapters 3 and 4. He goes into the detail about John the Baptist. Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being Tetriarch of Galilee, and the brother of Philip, Tetriarch and of Iteria, and the region of the Tetronites and Licinians and Tetrarch of Abilene. That's not Texas. Anas and Caiaphas being the high priest, the word of the Lord came into John. Now he goes into great detail of giving us a specific time in history. I think this is interesting. Israel celebrated the year of Jubilee. How many years? Every 50 years they had the year of Jubilee. And when they did that, the land went back to its original owners, debts were settled, people were kind of off, the land went into arrest. And this happened during a time when most of the people in Israel were no longer working. This is why multitudes were able to go out to John to hear him. John had the nation's full attention during this time. John comes preaching and preparing the way of the Messiah with a message of repentance. Jesus comes to John to get baptized. The Holy Spirit descends upon him in this anointing, and the Father declares, This is my beloved Son. This is an amazing announcement of Jesus. And in fact, I really think that if you look at Luke's gospel and you compare it some with Matthew's gospel, Satan didn't really know which baby was his. So he was killing all of them indiscriminately through Herod's decree. But it wasn't really until the announcement of Jesus Christ by God, this is my son. He was so common and ordinary and human and yet God. And Jesus did not start his earthly ministry. He was living as we are living, subject to his parents, learning the trades of the carpenter shop. And then here's the announcement: this is my beloved son. And notice what happens immediately, immediately after that, Jesus is going to go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. But it's interesting that John, that Luke puts in here after the whole message of John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus, this is when he includes his genealogy. And why is that? Because his genealogy runs all the way back to David, and then through David to Abraham, and through Abraham, and all the way back to Adam. Look at Luke chapter 3 and verse number 21, which is the son of Enos, the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. So Luke takes him all the way back to Adam. Why? To show that he was in fact a human. He was God, God's son, but he was human, and he identifies with all of humanity. That means to the Romans, he's not just Jewish. He is a Jew. He is of the tribe of Judah. He does have a right to David's throne. But what does that mean in Rome? It means nothing in Rome. He's a man, and he's a man like all of us. Luke begins with Adam because he wants every nation to know that Christ belongs to all mankind and that he's the savior of the whole world. Then Jesus goes into the wilderness and there he defeats Satan's temptations, not by miracles, but by faithfully quoting the scripture. Watch this. Where Adam failed in a garden, the second Adam succeeded in the wilderness. Where Adam failed, where Israel failed, Jesus succeeds. Israel failed in the wilderness. And Jesus succeeds and triumphs over Satan there. So that's chapters three and four. And this is an amazing, amazing flight. The next thing I want you to write down is the ministry in Galilee. Luke kind of breaks it up very well. This is a great breakup because he takes you down with Jesus into the wilderness and out into the Jordan and all those places where Jesus was around about Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the early days of his life. And then Jesus immediately goes north. And he goes up into the Galilee, and this is where Jesus has the bulk of his ministry. This is the ministry that accelerates. When he goes north into Galilee, Jesus goes to several key cities. He goes to Nazareth. Remember, he goes back to his hometown, goes out to Capernaum to the synagogue that he was raised in, reads the scriptures, declares himself out of Isaiah 61 to be the Messiah. He opens the book. Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me. They all knew that because it happened down at the baptism. Everybody had heard about this man that God declared to be his son. The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me to preach the gospel. And Jesus gives this thing. And then the Bible says, and then he closed the book. And he closes the book in a comma, in the middle of a sentence. If you read Isaiah 61, this is the acceptable day of the Lord. This is the great day. And then there's the comma, and then it talks about all the tribulation and all of the fire that comes from heaven and vengeance from God. And what separates the salvation, the gospel, from the vengeance of God is a comma. Well, you know who that comma is, right? Us. The church age. And Jesus opens the book and says, This day are these things fulfilled in your ears. And he reads that, and then at the comma, he closes the book. It's a strange place to close the book. But he closes the book, gives it back to the governor. And then Jesus said today, these things are filled in your ears. But by the way, do you know it was sitting right over the shoulder of Jesus when he was saying this? In Nazareth, those of you that were there in Nazareth, at that synagogue, Jesus is sitting in the synagogue, and right over his shoulder is the valley of Jezreel. The tail of Megiddo is right across the valley. That's where Jesus is going to come in fire and vengeance, taking vengeance on the world. And Jesus was simply saying to them, Look, there is one thing standing right here between salvation and that day of vengeance, and it's me. Jesus goes to Nazareth, then he goes down to Capernaum because he wasn't believed on in his own hometown. He goes to Nain, Beth Sadia, Khorazin, and then out to the Sea of Galilee. Jesus in the Sea of Galilee, in his ministry at Galilee, this is where he calls fishermen to be his followers, and they forsake their nets and they follow him, and Jesus makes them disciples. And then notice over in chapter 6 what happens. Chapter 6, look with me here for just a moment. In chapter 6, watch this. The Bible says in verse number 12, and it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray. Mark that in your mind for a minute, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them, so there were many of those disciples, but of them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles. Apostles are just simply sent ones, messengers. He calls twelve out. What is he doing? He is, he knows that he's building the foundation of a new nation. These are going to be the twelve. They're going to represent a new people. Peter's going to write about that in 1 Peter. We are now a chosen generation, a peculiar people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. And so Jesus is choosing out these disciples to s, these apostles to send them out as his messengers. While he's there, he chooses these disciples, then he makes them apostles, and he sends them out. Then he goes down on the plane in verse 17 and he preaches a message very similar to the message that Matthew recorded as a Sermon on the Mount. Now, some think that those are two different things because Matthew has them on a mountain, Jesus and Luke has them on a plain, but those are not, those are not contradictory. The word plain just simply means a flat meadow. Jesus was up in a mountain and then came to a flat place as a plateau, if you will, and then there he gave his message. But nonetheless, Jesus preaches this message with the new laws of his kingdom. Blessed be the poor, blessed be those and woe to the rich and woe to the hypocrites, and all of these things that Jesus preaches, if you if you read through that, that's a great and powerful message. This is where Jesus says, be therefore, in verse 36, be therefore merciful, as your Father is also merciful. Judge not and you shall not be judged. Condemn not and you shall not be condemned. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto you good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosoms. For with the same measure that ye meet with all, it shall be measured to you again. Jesus is giving this thing that listen, the principle of my kingdom is we are givers. I'll tell you something, that's one of the marks of a believer. A believer, a true believer, is a giving believer. They're givers. And Jesus preaches this great message. In his ministry up in the Galilee, Jesus makes his disciples, makes them apostles. During this time, he cleanses lepers, he forgives sinners, he heals the paralytic, he raises the dead, he calms the storm, he feeds the 5,000. Even during this time, up in Luke's gospel, he's up in the north at Mount Hermon, I believe, and he goes up in that high mountain with Peter, James, and John, and he's transfigured before them and shows them his true nature. Luke repeatedly emphasizes in every one of these accounts something that the other gospels mention less often. Jesus prayed. Now, Luke mentioned, I mean, Mark mentioned Jesus' prayer. Matthew mentions it, but Luke really dials into prayer. You understand? He's writing this decades after the resurrection and ascension. The church has been already going to the uttermost parts of the earth. I mean, there are the Holy Spirit has been given to them. That's the other thing that Luke is going to make emphasis of is the Holy Spirit. He's going to talk about the Holy Spirit coming upon John when he's in his mother's womb and he's leaping in his mother's womb. The Holy Spirit given to others. Jesus is going to breathe on his disciples at the end of Luke and say, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. And see, the disciples received the Holy Spirit before the day of Pentecost. Jesus brought his apostles in and breathed upon them and gave them the Holy Spirit before that. Luke is going to say in Luke chapter 11, he said, If ye if ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more should your Father in heaven give to them the Holy Ghost to them that ask him? So he's already writing this gospel from the other side of Pentecost. And he's writing about prayer and power and the Holy Spirit's anointing and unction in the life of a believer. I believe that Luke, as a physician, he may not have been a preacher, but I believe that man could bend the knee and pray. Because he talked about prayer. He said, Jesus prayed before every major decision. He prayed all night before he chose the twelve. He prayed all night before he said, Who do men say that I am? before Peter's Great Confession. He prayed all night before the transfiguration. Before every major decision that Jesus, before he revealed his glory, everything that Jesus did was bathed in prayer. Luke teaches us that the public ministry that a man has begins with private communion with the Father. Luke makes a strong emphasis of prayer. I believe that Luke was a man of prayer, don't you? Here's the turning point. So Jesus has been up in the Galilee. We're familiar with that. He's up in the Galilee, he's preaching and teaching. And in Luke chapter 9, here's the next section. Luke 9, verse 51, through Luke 19, verse 27, this is the journey towards Jerusalem. Look at Luke chapter 9 and verse 51. This is the turning point in Luke's gospel. Verse 51 said, and it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up. He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Jesus has been up in the north and he has had incredible ministry up there. Multitudes following him, incredible things. But now the time has come. He sets his face to go to Jerusalem. Everything now in Luke's gospel moves to the cross. Luke gives ten chapters to describing the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. No other gospel gives that length of time to this section of Christ's life. And here, let me just tell you what it is. It's not a travel log. Luke is not just dialoguing about the travel and describing the trip. He's recording the teaching that Jesus is giving to his disciples about discipleship. This is what it means to follow me. If you're going to follow me, you have to take up your cross, deny yourself. You've got to give your will. You've got to take a cross and follow me and be my disciple. Jesus is teaching them what it means to truly follow Christ. You know what Luke really is from this moment on? Luke is a discipleship curriculum on the road to the cross. This is what it means. You know what we're going? We're going to the cross. You know what it means to be a follower of Christ? The cross. You know what modern day Christianity says? Modern-day Christianity says if you follow Christ, you'll get your dog back, you'll get your bank account back, you'll get health, wealth, you'll get prosperity, all your problems will be solved. That's not, Jesus never said that. Jesus said, if you want to be a follower of me, you better expect men are going to persecute you, men are going to revile you, men are going to cast you out. You're going to be outside the camp. You're always going to be that one that's marked. You're going to bear a shame. And you have to give up your will and your life. But if you do, you'll find life. Everybody who seeks it, and by the way, that's why Luke gets into the whole thing. If you look at Luke's message, and I'll talk about this in just a second, because we've got to land. But Luke's message includes so much teaching on poverty and riches. He's going to talk about the rich man going to hell. He's going to talk about Zacchaeus giving all of his goods back to the poor. He's going to talk about all of these things that have to do with riches, everything that men seek, the covetousness of this world. And Jesus is teaching them look, guys, look at this look at this rich fool who's built these great barns, and he's like, I gotta, they're already packed. I gotta tear these barns down and put bigger. And God says, What a fool. He has no idea that tonight his soul is required of him. Tomorrow you think you're gonna build a barn, but you're gonna actually stand before God. Luke goes into great detail and he tells stories that Jesus was teaching his disciples that the other gospels don't talk about. We're gonna see in here the good Samaritan. Man, what a blow that was to the Jewish psyche. That the hero of the story was a nasty old Samaritan. He's gonna talk about Mary and Martha, these two women who worshiped and served. He's gonna give the story about a friend who comes at midnight, wakes up his friend and says, Hey, give me something to eat. I've got a friend that came to me, and a friend, he's gonna teach about prayer, importunity. He's gonna talk about the rich fool. He's gonna talk about the great banquet that's been prepared and the invitation and people who said, I can't come. I've married a wife. I've bought a piece of land, I've got to go look at it. I mean, who what kind of a fool buys something and hasn't seen it? Hey, my dad died, I've got to go bury my dad. Jesus said, Let the dead bury their dead. Follow me. There's a lot in that I wish I had time to tell you, but Jesus wasn't being cold and calculated and calloused. He was giving that man a truth that you better you better leave your life and follow me. He talks about the lost sheep. The 90 and 9 is in Luke's gospel. He talks about the lost coin, a woman who loses a coin and she lights a lamp and she sweeps the house until she finds it. He talks about the prodigal son, the lost son, who's out in the far country, but he comes home, and it's the kid who's been laying with the pigs that the dad throws a party for, and heaven rejoices over the one sheep. Heaven rejoices over the one coin. Heaven rejoices over the pig pen son. These are blows to the Jewish pride. But man, they resonate with the Roman. The Gentile hears that. Jesus is going to talk about the unjust steward, a guy who got himself into some financial trouble. He was a man managing another man's money and got himself in trouble. And he didn't know what to do about that. And so what does he do? He runs out real quick and he goes to this guy and said, Hey, how much do you owe my master? If I owe him 10,000, I'll tell you what. Can you give me 6,000? Give me 6,000. I'll write the other debt off and I'll get 6,000 back. And hey, what about how much do you owe? And he at least recovers part of the debt. He wasn't going to get any of it back. But he got some of it back, and his master said, Man, the children of this generation are wiser in these things than the children of the light. If we would only know how to steward the riches of God. And then Jesus goes right into, you think I'm talking about money? Let me tell you about a rich man who had a beggar laying at his gate named Lazarus. Rich man was wearing purple, faring sumptuously. Lazarus was sore, and dogs were licking his wounds. Lazarus died, and the angels carried him into heaven. Rich man died and he went to hell. They drugged Lazarus' body out of Gehenna to be burned. No family came to collect his defiled body. The rich man had a funeral. Everybody stood and said beautiful things over him. He's in a better place while he was burning in hell. And Jesus gave the lesson on eternal life and eternal death. Then he turns and gives the story about the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee and the publican go up to the temple to pray. And the Pharisee looks up to God and he said, Oh God, I thank you that I'm not like this publican. And the publican, this tax collector, smites his breast, won't even look up at God, and just says, Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said, Now which one of those men went down justified? What a blow to the Jewish pride. Then Jesus talks about Zacchaeus, this man who climbs a sycamore tree to see him because he can't, he's too short. He can't see over all the people. Zacchaeus is up in the tree, and Jesus comes by and walks right up to him and said, Zacchaeus, come down here. He knew his name. Said, I'm going to your house. And he went to his house, and Zacchaeus got saved, and then Zacchaeus goes and distributes all his wealth back to the poor. The changed life. Everything that he had done, all the things he had skimmed off the top, and everything that he had enriched himself with by enslaving his own brother, Zacchaeus, this hated tax collector, Jesus went to his house, knew him by name, transformed his life. Can you imagine having that kind of a testimony? I mean, think about this. You climbed a tree to see Jesus. You're a wealthy tax collector. Jesus comes to your house. You get radically transformed. You get saved in such a way that you give away all your wealth and you follow Christ, and the best thing that they can give you is a kid's song says he was a wee little man. What do we do with this great banquet? Lost sheep, lost coin, prodigal son, unjust story. What are you about? What about this Pharisee and publican? What are all these stories that Jesus is talking about? He is showing the heart of God that he wants to seek and to save that which is lost. Luke is reminding us that Jesus notices things that people ignore. When they get to the elaborate temple and people are exchanging all these wealthy sacrifices and there's money flying everywhere, Jesus just stands over and looks at the collection box. And Luke records the story of a woman throwing in two mites, and Jesus interrupts the service and says, Hey everybody, listen. Because you gave out of your riches. She gave all that she had. When people were standing there looking at the gold of the temple and all of the money that was flowing, what did Jesus see? He saw the heart of a widow. God notices what other people ignore. If you read the Gospel of Luke, you'll find that Luke gives special attention to outsiders. He talks about Gentiles over and over and over again in his book. He writes primarily to Gentiles. He traces the genealogy all the way back to Adam. He shows that Jesus is related to humanity, not just to Judaism. He records Simeon in the temple when Jesus is dedicated, saying about Jesus that he will be a light to lighten the Gentiles. Only Luke records Jesus praising the faith of a Roman centurion and emphasizing God's concern for the Gentiles, using both Elijah and Elisha. Hey, when there was a famine, where did God send the prophet? Oh, to a widow in in uh Zarephath. And a Gentile woman fed him. What about this one over here going and this is a Gentile that helped Elijah? Luke shows the Samaritans. He talks about the good Samaritan in chapter 10. He talks about the grateful Samaritan in chapter 17 when Jesus healed the ten lepers, and only one came back. And the Bible says, and he was a Samaritan. Luke writes that down. It was only the Samaritan, and Jesus said, Where are the nine? And they were gone. Luke not only calls attention to Gentiles and Samaritans, but to women. More attention is given to women in Luke's gospel than any other gospel. Let me give you some of the great women that Luke writes about: Elizabeth, Mary, Anna, the widow of Nain, Martha, Mary of Bethany, the sinful woman who anoints Jesus. The women who financially supported Christ. By the way, the only people that we know of that financially gave to the ministry of Jesus were women. Women at the cross. The women at the empty tomb. The women who were the first ones to go tell the apostles that Jesus rose from the dead. These women were portrayed as faithful witnesses and devout disciples. That was a blow to that age and that culture. He gives, like I said a moment ago, a lot of detail to the poor. Blessed, he said, in his message on the plain, blessed be ye poor. He talks about the rich fool. He talks about Lazarus and the rich man, Zacchaeus giving to the poor. And Jesus was reading from Isaiah 61 to preach and give to the poor. He said in that in that prophet of Isaiah, the prophecy. He talks about tax collectors and sinners, Levi, Matthew's conversion. He goes into great detail about that. He goes into great detail about Zacchaeus getting saved and what he did. The Pharisee and the publican, this tax collector that walks away justified before God. That had to blow their mind. The prodigal son, the lost coin, the lost sheep. That heaven is rejoicing over lost things being found. He gives a lot of detail to children. He talks about, he's the only one that talks about Jesus 12 years old in the temple. He talks about how Jesus takes a child and sets them in the midst and said, Except you guys come into the kingdom like a little child, you can't come into the kingdom. He talks about the sick and the demon-possessed. By the way, read the Gospel of Luke and look at all the accounts of Jesus healing sick people. Luke uses his medical background to describe the sicknesses in much better detail than the other writers. He starts talking medically, like, oh yeah, this is what that was. He talks about lepers and cripples and blind and the demon-possessed. And then he talks about the outcast. He gives a lot of ink time to beggars and widows. He's the only one who records the prayer of the repentant thief on the cross. Lord, remember me. No one is beneath the compassion of Jesus. Isn't that wonderful? Let's finish this. Luke 19 through 23 is Jerusalem and the cross. We now see Jesus coming in. You can see the city of Jerusalem as we come in on our final approach. Jesus enters in on the cult. The crowd cries, Blessed be the King. Within a few days, he's cleansing the temple. He's cleaning up flipping tables. He shares the last supper with his disciples. This is where he goes into the temple, remember, and he gives the parable about the man who sent his servants and they killed him. And then he sent others and they killed him. He said, I'll send my son. And he sends his son and they kill him. Jesus shares the Last Supper with the disciples. He then goes out and prays and Gethsemane. He endures the betrayal. He faces an unjust trial. He's nailed to the cross. Only Luke records these words. Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do. Even while he was dying, Jesus was continuing to seek and to save that which is lost. And then Luke chapter 24, we see the resurrection and the ascension. When you come to Luke 24, the tomb is empty. Two discouraged disciples are walking down the road of Emmaus. Jesus joins them. Their eyes are holding them. They can't see, they don't know it's him. Jesus goes back all the way back to Genesis and all the way through Moses and all the prophets. He expounds unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. He just opens, I mean, I would have loved to have been on that road. Jesus gave a flight 66. Like nobody could ever give a Flight 66. He opened the scriptures to them and their heart burned. They got spiritual heartburn. Their heart burned within them. Jesus then appears to all of his disciples. Then he breathes on them and he gives the Holy Spirit in Luke 24 and tells them, go to Jerusalem and wait until you are endued with power from on high. They didn't know what that meant. They just had to go to Jerusalem and wait. Jesus blesses them and then he commissions them, and then what does he do? He steps on a cloud and goes to heaven. Unlike the sorrow that filled the disciples at the cross, Luke's gospel starts with singing and it ends with great joy. Luke's gospel is filled with joy. The Savior who has come into the world to seek and to save has completed the mission. He has paved the way. Luke is a gospel of compassion. More than any of the other gospels, Luke emphasizes Jesus concerned for the overlooked, the hurting, the outsider, the outcast, the sinner, the non-Jew. Jesus is, it's a gospel of prayer. He's constantly withdrawing to pray. Luke shows that intimacy that Jesus had with the Father. It's a gospel of joy. There's so much joy in the gospel of Luke. I said a moment, I said earlier that Luke is the gospel of the Holy Spirit. Luke gives so many instances of the Holy Spirit and alludes to the Holy Spirit. Why? He's writing from post-Pentecost. Luke is writing filled with the Holy Spirit. And it's an amazing account. I'll close with this. But Luke invites us to see Jesus with the eyes of a physician. Examine him. That's what the book of Hebrews said. Consider him. Examine him. You can examine Jesus any way you want to examine him, and you know what you're always going to find? He's perfect in every way. He's perfect in what he did. He's perfect in what he said. He's perfect in who he is. He fulfilled prophecies down to the very detail. Jesus is perfect. Examine him through history. Examine him through theology. Examine him scientifically. Examine him in any way you want to examine him. I mean, even go to his, even go to his burial. Everything in his burial was set up in a way to where there was no other explanation for the empty tomb, but he rose again from the dead. Everything that they did to prevent some scandal were all the things that were necessary to prove that he rose. He was perfect in every way. Luke examines him with the eyes of a physician, but listen, he also examines him with the heart of a pastor. He sees Jesus noticing the forgotten, welcoming the sinner, shepherding, healing, forgiving, laying down his own life for the others. He just sees him as a pastor. So I want you to remember this. The Gospel of Luke is not just a biography of Jesus, it's an invitation to know him. It is a perfect and accurate account of everything that Jesus did to prove that the man who walked the dusty roads of Galilee is the very God who made them. The Gospel of Luke is that God became man. And look at him. What a man. What a man. No wonder Theophilus took these things to heart. And I hope he became his namesake. Theophilus is the Greek word Theo meaning God. Phileo meaning love. Theophilus is the lover of God. I think after Theophilus read Luke and Acts, I think he became a lover of God. May we be too. Father, thank you for this flight.