“Do They Call You Theophilus?”

10/21/2001 

Let’s bow in prayer.

Father we thank you that you are the lifter of our head. Father as we think of the 23rd Psalm we know that the sheep once in awhile would get cast down, they would lie down wrong and their insides would twist and they wouldn’t be able to get back on there feet and the Good Shepherd would come and stand them back on their feet and hold them and rub their legs and sides until they were able to stand on their own again. Father, you are the lifter of our head there are times when we are down and discouraged and upset with life and things and you are the one who lifts our head and we thank you for that. So we do sing and say, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah you are the lifter of our head. We thank you and praise you that you are that. In Jesus Name, Amen

If you have been listening to your tapes, you should be in the first couple chapters of Luke and so I would like you turn there today, if you would. Luke Chapter 1, we are going to look at four different verses and they are the very first four verses of the Book because Luke has a very particular reason for writing and he is a very interesting character. I think that when you get to understand a little bit about who he is and why he wrote you understand the book as we listen to it the next few days much more. He is called by Paul the beloved physician. We know that he was a doctor. Now in our society a doctor is a fairly revered position because of the years of schooling, for a number of different things, for one thing they help pain go away when we want it to. In those days, often times a physician was a slave that their master had trained in the healing arts just for himself. Sometimes he would share with other people and sometimes the owner would actually give the physician slave freedom. So it was possible that Luke was actually a slave physician for sometime and then freed because we know for part of Acts at least he traveled with St. Paul. He was not a contemporary of Christ at least he was not an eye witness of Christ, he tells us that himself. He got much of his material through research.

In fact the first four verses of Luke say this, ‘Inasmuch 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 us us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.” Now this guy, Theophilus, has been variously explained as either a person named Theophilus or a general term meaning, friend of God. Because Theus is God, Philus is friend. So Theophilus is Friend of God. If Forest Hampton were here he would tell you a really bad joke about the kid who was born and they called his Theoophulus because he was the awfulest looking kid you had ever seen. But since Forest isn’t here we won’t talk about that.

If you haven’t seen Forest it is because he is not here. He is in Alpena in an interim position in a church in Alpena for the next few months yet. Enjoying himself immensely, he stopped in the other day to bring we up to date and let me know what is going on and he is enjoying himself very much. Carol and he are enjoying the people up in Alpena and the work there and feeling like God is using them greatly up there. So each Sunday they are up in Alpena ministering in an interim position up there. So we do miss Forest but not his jokes. Actually we do some of them.

But Luke was writing for Theophilus, either a person named Theophilus, it is very possible that this man actually commissioned Luke to write this book for him. To compile, to make a compilation of the history of Christ for him. Or Luke is saying since so many have been writing these things down I thought it best for the friend of God, a person who really wants to know, to find out what the exact truth was because I have an interest in these things. So for whatever reason, Luke says I have investigated everything carefully. I have talked to eyewitnesses and servants of the word who handed them down to us and I have written them down in a consecutive order most excellent Theophilus. So if you want a book that writes things down in consecutive order, investigated for historicity, that means historical accuracy, and in such an order that you can follow it from beginning to end, this is the book. If you are a friend of God who wants to know about Christ’s life this is the book for you.

The other books that were written, the other gospels, Matthew, Mark, and John were written for different reasons and different audiences. Matthew wrote his book to Jews, to prove that Jesus Christ is the Messiah that had been promised to them to come from the Old Testament. Many times he says this is to fulfill what the prophets said would happen. So Matthew writes to the Jews to convince them that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and they should believe in him. Mark writes with the Roman mind. A very simple straight forward account of Christ. John writes to convince you that Jesus Christ is the Savior and to believe in him. Luke writes to give you a carefully investigated, consecutive history of Christ and with the purpose of this, to show you that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. To show you the incarnation of Christ, to show you the humanity of Christ. Because the Greeks that Luke was writing to, he was most likely a gentile Greek. He was most likely writing to those people who were not Jewish, who did not have a full history of the Jewish Old Testament behind them. They did not know the Old Testament scriptures, they did not know all those things, what they knew was there own Greek mythology. There own Greek religion, and in there mythological religion the God’s had nothing to do with you. They were supposedly just creatures up there that kind of did there own thing, they had no real interest in us, they had no real value to us on earth, they were separated and far from us. Luke wanted them to understand that Jesus is God in the flesh, Immanuel, God with Us. God cared so much for us that he came down and lived among us. Was a person who lived among us and got to know people and did things with people and he was not a God who was separated and far away. He was a person who came to be with us, Immanuel God with us, so he talked greatly about the humanity of Christ.

It is very interesting, some believe that Luke never married and died at the age of eighty-four as a martyr and that he was artist. There is a legend that says that Luke carried around with him two pictures that he had fashioned himself. One of the Virgin Mary, one of Jesus himself. To talk about the humanity of this God that we worship, Christ. So that his people, the Greeks, who believed that the God’s were far away and just mythological creatures and had nothing to do with us, that No this is what Mary looked like. This is what Jesus, the man, God in the flesh looked like. He would use his own paintings as illustrations of the fact that Jesus is God come in the flesh. Now that is legendary, we don’t know if that is actually true or not but there are legends that suggest that he did that after his traveling with Paul. We don’t know how true that is but it makes a nice story and if it is true, then it would be a very effective tool.

But his goal was to present the historicity of Christ. To give a time line, to chronologically account for Christ’s life and to make Jesus human to us. He is one of the very first people, one of the only of the gospel writers to include many, many, many, many, many people in his writings. If you take a look at the very first chapter. The first person you meet his Herod, the king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughter of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Now if you want to trace these things back you would find out that Herod was king of Judea. That there was a certain priest named Zacharias from the division of Abijah and his wife was named Elizabeth and she from the daughters of Aaron. This is a historical setting. This gives a historical context, this says this took place at a certain time in history. And if you want to check it out you can go back in records and and check it out. So he is establishing the historicity of Christ, that he was a real name at a real point in time. It says they were both righteous before God. Later on we see that Elizabeth had a child, Zacharius was of course the Dad, and instead of naming him Zacharius they named him John. John the Baptist, is who he became actually. Luke records what we call the hymns actually, they are songs of praise. If you look in chapter 1, after Mary and Elizabeth have met and Elizabeth reveals her pregnancy and Mary reveals her pregnancy, that they knew it was going to be the Messiah coming and in verse 45 it says, ‘Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken by the Lord.” And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord., my spirit has rejoiced in God my Father.” This is what is called the Magnificat, if you have ever heard that name or not. This is Mary’s song of praise and later on you see Zacharius make a prophecy and later on after Jesus is born they take him to the temple to be circumcised, to be dedicated. You see Simeon in the temple making prophecies, you see Anna there, who has been waiting for the coming of the Messiah. So Luke says this God is not far away, he is close. He was there with Anna, and Simeon, and Mary, and Elizabeth, and Zacharius. And Mary and Martha, and Lazarus and all these people and he records about the ten lepers and the one who came back to thank Jesus and the rest of them didn’t come back and thank him. So he makes Jesus very human to us. He let’s us know that he is not some far away disinterested God. He is not the deistic God that many of our nation’s founder supposedly believed in. The watchmaker God who kind of wound up the watch of the world and let it go and now they just kind of stand back and watch. No, he is a deistic God, a God who is very interested in every aspect of our life. As Psalm 139 says, ‘he knows our thoughts, he knows are words, he knows everything we think and do, when we stand up, when we sit down. Everything about us he is interested in. He is with us, he is close to us, he is interested in us. So Luke wants us to understand just how interested God is in us. How interested he is in your life.

I was talking to a group the other night, and years and years ago, had a person attend our church and left a Bible study and said they didn’t think they really cared to come to our church because during the Bible study one of the women prayed and ask a prayer about some trivial thing and ask the other ladies to pray for it. And she said I know God does not have time for the trivial things of our life. And so I don’t like that attitude. I don’t think God has time for the small things in our life. Do you think God has time for small things in our life? Of course, he does. He is interested in every aspect of your lives. Says when a sparrow falls, he sees it fall. He sees every aspect of his creation, he is infinite in knowledge of every aspect of his creation. He is intimate with every detail of your life and is not only intimate he is interested. He is concerned about it. He is concerned about hearing your prayers, he is concerned about what is going on in your life, he is concerned about your disobedience, he is concerned about your obedience. So Luke is saying, This Jesus who lived at a certain point in time, and we can prove that he was at that point in time, he is a man, God in the flesh, who came to be with us and to be one of us. And hear the names of the people that he dealt with. In fact, he carried it further, he says, Now this gospel that Jesus came to present is not just for the Jews. He is the one that tells the story of the good Samaritan. The Samaritan fellow that half breed kind of guy where the priest refused to help the person who had been beaten and then the leviate came along and he refused and the good Samaritan came along and he was the good guy. He says, Now I understand that God is interested in every race. He is not interested in just the Jews, he is interested in us gentiles, he is interested all of us who are his creation not just the certain ones. Luke has a whole book full of psalm and praise. He records the ones early on and later, he records many times when people expressed their joy, their praise and their hope in the salvation of God.

But if you want to look at the central theme you have to turn to Chapter 15. Chapter 15 is full of the hope in Christ and God’s interest in you and me. There are three parables there all of which you know. You may not be able to quote them word for word but you know what they are and you will notice that they are common in two or three different aspects. By the way, the parables are often called the parables of the kingdom. Often times they are presented as saying, this is how it is in the kingdom of God. This is how it is where God rules. When God is in charge this is how things happen. This is how it works in God’s world. He says in verse three, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, And when he came home, he called together his friend and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep with was lost! I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, that over ninety-nine righteous person who need no repentance.” What is the theme here? He says there is a person, a sheep who has lost, the shepherd goes to great lengths to find that sheep. When he finds that sheep and rescues that sheep. What would happen often times is the sheep would separate themselves from each other, they would get feeding off in different directions and of course with wool coats on you get into certain thorns and thistles and sometimes they would get caught. They would get either lost so they couldn’t find them or they would get stuck somewhere. Some of us guys have gone down and hunted in southern Ohio and they have certain kind of weeds down there that you can not get out of. If you get in the middle of them, I am surprised I never found skeletons there because there are places where you get into those weeds and they have certain things that hook onto you and you can’t get out. In fact, my sister says in Africa there is a bush that is called the Policeman’s bush because they arrest you. They hold you and you can’t get away. Well, there are some of those in Ohio too and you seen some of those in Illinois and Iowa. You can’t get out. If you are a sheep and you get stuck in there and you have a wool coat on you can’t get out of there until somebody comes and helps you. So the shepherd goes to great length and great pains to release you from the trap you found yourself in. So this is the story, the theme, of all of Luke, is that we are the ones you have gotten ourselves in trouble and God has taken great pains to leave the comfort of home to find us and to release us from the trouble we have gotten into.

In the next parable he says, “What women if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!” In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Another common theme, something was lost, something valuable was lost. The value of the thing that was lost, the history of the day was if a woman was divorced by her husband, all she had was what she was wearing. Often times women would wear jewelry of great value because if the husband found some displeasure in her, he could divorce her just by saying I divorce thee three times and she was gone. And therefore the coins she wore, the clothing she wore was actually very valuable to her. And so the losing of this part of her money was very important to her so she searched high and low trying to find it and when she found it she would rejoice. It says in the same way there are people in heaven, angels in heaven rejoice when one sinner repents, one person who is lost and they are found in Christ. It talks about the great pains that are taken by God to find the sinner who has been lost and that is all of us.

And then of course, we see the parable of the lost son. This is the one that you are probably more familiar with than those two. A man had two sons, the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ And he divided his wealth between them. Now this is not proper, by the way. It was improper for the son the ask because he was almost saying, Dad you are not dying soon enough. I would really like my part of the inheritance and so since you are not dead yet can I have it so I can go start spending it. He was the younger son so he is not going to get the major portion, he was going to get about a third rather than two thirds. The older son would get all the property and would get the farm and everything and the younger son would get a portion and he would go off and do whatever he wanted to start his own life. It is time for me to start on my own so why don’t give me what belongs to me even though you are not dead yet and I will go off and start on my own. Of course, you know the whole story.

How does it picture God? It pictures God as a loving human father who rejoices because his son comes home. That is how Luke wants us see God. He wants us to see God not as the God who is separated far away, created the world and then walked away and ignores it. He says, No. God is the God who said I have created the world, I take an active, intimate interest in everything person in this world and not only that I go to great pains to save every soul, who would be saved. And so you see Luke records the pain of the crucifixion, he records the crucifixion in physician’s terms. It is interesting as you read, I don’t know all the language and things like that tell us how all these things take place but you have heard the saying that the other writers use, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God. Well the needle that Luke uses is a surgeon’s needle. It is not just a regular needle, it is a surgeon’s needle, he uses a different term. When he talks about a woman or man with sores, he talks about the exact form, he tells the exact medical term of those. When he talks about the crucifixion he uses term to let us know that God took great literal pain to find us, the lost. And that he suffered for our sake, because of our sin, because of our losses, because we are the sheep who got off in the brush, because we are the coin that somehow got lost in the home, because we are the son who left the home and went off and did our own thing in disregard to God’s love and God’s commands. When we come home he rejoices and not only him but all of heaven rejoices because we who were lost have now been found.

When you listen to Luke this week listen and hear for a God who is a God who is intimately interested in every aspect of your life and who has taken great literal pain upon himself to bring you salvation.

Let’s Pray,

Father, I ask this morning that every person here would accepted that gift of salvation that came at the great expense of Jesus Christ. The God who came in the very flesh of humanity. Human mother, a divine father who became Jesus in the flesh that knew people that knew people by name who had friends, who healed people, who touched them, who handled them, who spoke with him, who walked with them and appeared to them after his resurrection. We read about the two men on there way to Emmaus, and he rode with them in their chariot and said here is how things are and talked with them and spent time with them and they were amazed at him. So Father, I pray that you would help us understand that you are intimately acquainted, intimately interested, in every aspect of our life. Our lives are not hidden from you, they are open in every aspect. Our rights and our wrongs are there before you. Help us to appreciate the fact that you took great pains, literal pain, upon the cross you took the pain that we should rightfully bear as a result of our sin. And that we have the ability the right now to become children of God if we receive you by faith. Father, I pray that would be true in every heart this morning. If it is not I pray today they would accept you as their savior. The God who cared s much to become one of us that we might live through him.
In Jesus Name, Amen 

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