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Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000064S
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00:01 - What if there's a particular book of the Bible
00:02 that was specifically written for you? 00:05 Chances are there is, and that's what we're gonna look at 00:08 on today's installment of "Authentic." 00:12 [gentle upbeat music] 00:33 We're right in the middle of a series 00:34 on the four Gospel accounts, 00:36 the four eyewitness accounts of the life 00:38 and teachings of Jesus, who wrote them, why they wrote them, 00:43 and why they're still so important. 00:45 So if you're joining us for the first time, 00:47 you might wanna go to the website, 00:48 VoiceOfProphecy.com and click on the show tab 00:51 for "Authentic" and look for the first three episodes. 00:55 Of course, and I think we're also available 00:57 on a variety of podcast platforms 00:59 so there's a pretty good chance you can find 01:01 the previous episodes on one of those as well. 01:04 Now, today we're moving on to the Gospel of Luke, 01:07 which is everybody's favorite Gospel 01:09 during the Christmas season because it provides 01:12 the most detail when it comes to the birth of Christ. 01:15 Millions of people know parts of Luke's Gospel by heart, 01:19 whether they know it or not, 01:21 because of its seasonal prominence. 01:23 I'm thinking of passages 01:25 like these famous lines from Luke 2. 01:28 I'll read them to you from the old King James Version 01:30 because that's the version most of you 01:32 are going to recognize. 01:33 It says, "And it came to pass in those days 01:37 that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus 01:40 that all the world should be taxed." 01:43 So of course, that's the reason that Joseph and Mary 01:46 were in Bethlehem the night that Christ was born, 01:49 because in order to comply with the census, 01:52 everybody had to report to their ancestral hometown. 01:56 Historically, the need to go home 01:58 probably wasn't a Roman idea because the Romans 02:01 tended to create census data based on the place 02:04 you currently live, the way we do it now, 02:07 and in some parts of the empire, 02:09 like up to the North among the barbarians, 02:11 they simply listed people by their tribes, 02:14 which made pretty good sense because the Germanic tribes 02:17 were often on the move. 02:19 But among the Jews, the idea of ancestral land 02:23 was so important that Herod probably thought 02:26 that doing the census in your family's hometown, 02:29 rather than the place you currently lived, 02:32 made really good sense. 02:34 But now of course, 02:35 I'm wandering off course just a little bit, 02:37 so let's get back to the Gospel according to Luke. 02:40 The first few chapters are easily 02:42 some of the best-recognized passages from the Bible 02:45 because of their popularity at Christmas, 02:48 but they might just be well known 02:49 for another important reason. 02:52 When we looked at Matthew's Gospel, 02:54 we saw that he was creating an account of Jesus 02:57 for people of a Jewish background 02:59 and he was emphasizing that Jesus 03:01 was the legal son of David, the King of the Jews. 03:04 And so the first Gospel has come to be associated 03:08 with a lion, specifically the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. 03:12 Then we saw that Mark was writing for unbelievers 03:15 and focused largely on the acts of Christ, 03:18 the things that Jesus did, 03:20 in an attempt to persuade people to consider Jesus' claims. 03:24 Historically, the church has often identified Mark's Gospel 03:28 with the figure of an ox because it shows Jesus, 03:31 the patient Servant, 03:33 who came to work for the broken human race. 03:36 So today we come to Luke, 03:38 a book that was written by a Gentile for a Gentile audience, 03:42 and it emphasizes Jesus as the Son of Man, 03:46 the member of the Godhead who condescended 03:49 to become a real flesh-and-blood human being. 03:52 This is why the genealogy in Luke 3 03:55 is different from the one in Matthew 1. 03:59 Matthew was tracing Jesus back to the illustrious King David 04:02 through Joseph, through his adopted father, 04:05 to establish that Jesus was indeed a legal heir 04:08 to the royal family, 04:10 but Luke traces the family line through Mary, 04:13 and you'll notice he goes all the way back to Adam, 04:17 who is said to be the Son of God, 04:20 and the reason for that is to prove that Jesus 04:23 is fully human, the Son of Man, 04:25 a genuine member of the human race, 04:28 and so the historical symbol for this Gospel 04:31 naturally was a man. 04:33 So what we have so far in the Gospels 04:36 is a lion, an ox, and a man, 04:38 which are three of the four faces on the cherubim 04:41 that you find in Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4. 04:46 When we finally get to John's Gospel, 04:48 you can easily guess what the symbol is going to be 04:50 because the fourth face of the cherubim was an eagle. 04:54 So, in antiquity, each of the four Gospels 04:57 was thought to be one of the four faces of the cherubim, 05:01 which I think we discussed at some length 05:03 in the first part of this series. 05:05 Now let's zero in on the Gospel of Luke, 05:08 and maybe the first thing we should do 05:10 is simply identify the author. 05:12 Luke is not a Hebrew name 05:14 and that's because Luke was not a Jew. 05:16 He was a doctor who came from the city of Antioch, 05:19 a key center of influence 05:20 for the burgeoning Christian movement of the first century. 05:23 In fact, Antioch was the first place that believers in Jesus 05:28 were called Christians, 05:29 even though the word was originally meant to be an insult, 05:32 it was disparaging, and Luke was one of those Christians, 05:36 a Gentile who accepted that Jesus was God in human flesh. 05:40 And of course that was a rather difficult proposition 05:43 for most Gentiles to accept because it was really hard 05:47 for the Hellenistic or the Greek mind 05:49 to believe that a God would lower himself 05:52 to assume a purely physical existence 05:55 because physical existence, the Greeks believed, 05:58 was far less than perfect. 06:00 In fact, many Gentile philosophers 06:02 believed that the one who made this physical world 06:05 we live in couldn't possibly be the supreme being. 06:09 As far as they were concerned, 06:11 it must have been the work of a lesser god of some kind 06:13 because the Almighty God would simply never lower himself 06:17 to the level of this material world. 06:20 So in other words, Dr. Luke had his work cut out for him 06:23 because if he was going to persuade Gentiles 06:25 that God had come in human flesh, 06:28 well, that was gonna take a lot of convincing, 06:30 and so we find him anchoring the genealogy of Jesus 06:33 in the very roots of the human race, 06:36 all the way back to Adam, and throughout this Gospel, 06:40 Jesus is referred to not so much as the Son of God, 06:44 but as the Son of Man. 06:46 In fact, in Luke's Gospel, 06:47 if I'm remembering this right, 06:48 we see Jesus referring to himself as the Son of Man 06:52 more often than he does in Matthew, Mark or John. 06:56 Now, we probably have a break coming up 06:58 in just a few minutes, 07:00 so let me quickly just deal with one other 07:01 interesting aspect of Luke's Gospel. 07:04 You'll notice at the very beginning that it's addressed 07:07 to a man by the name of Theophilus. 07:10 Here's the way that it reads 07:11 right at the very top of the book. 07:13 It says, "In as much as many have taken in hand 07:16 to set in order a narrative of those things 07:18 which have been fulfilled among us, 07:20 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses 07:23 and ministers of the word delivered them to us, 07:26 it seemed good to me also, 07:28 having had perfect understanding 07:30 of all things from the very first, 07:32 to write to you an orderly account, 07:35 most excellent Theophilus, 07:37 that you may know the certainty of those things 07:40 in which you were instructed." 07:42 Notice that Luke was writing an orderly account, 07:45 and this Gospel isn't the only place he does that. 07:48 He also wrote the Book of Acts, 07:49 which was also addressed to this guy, Theophilus. 07:52 And that book begins like this over in Acts 1. 07:57 It says, "The former account I made, O Theophilus, 08:00 of all that Jesus began to both do and teach." 08:05 So what you have is one account 08:07 really spread across two different books. 08:09 In the first book, 08:11 Luke records the life and teachings of Christ. 08:14 And in the second book, 08:15 he describes the birth of the Christian Church 08:17 in its rapid spread all over the Roman Empire. 08:20 Both of these books were addressed 08:22 to a guy named Theophilus, 08:24 which makes you wonder who in the world he was. 08:27 His name literally means "Friend of God," 08:30 which makes some people think 08:32 that it was just a generic term that Luke was using 08:34 for all Gentiles who were friendly to the Hebrew faith. 08:38 That would make Theophilus, well, a symbol, 08:41 a general name for all of us, but honestly, 08:44 I kind of doubt that interpretation because the way Luke 08:47 talks about Theophilus suggests that he was a real person, 08:51 a single individual, and if that's true, 08:54 you've got to wonder who in the world he was. 08:56 I'll be right back after the break 08:58 to see if we can figure that out. 09:00 [logo swooshing] 09:03 [lively piano music] 09:04 - [Narrator] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 09:05 we're committed to creating top-quality programming 09:07 for the whole family, 09:09 like our audio adventure series, "Discovery Mountain." 09:12 "Discovery Mountain" is a bible Bible-based program 09:14 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 09:17 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 09:19 from this small mountain summer camp and town. 09:22 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 09:25 and fresh content every week, 09:27 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:33 - The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts 09:35 are both addressed to a man named Theophilus, 09:37 which is Greek for "Friend of God." 09:40 Some people think it's a generic term, 09:43 a personification of all Gentiles, people like you and me, 09:47 but it's also possible that Theophilus was a real person 09:51 and there's actually a compelling reason 09:53 that Luke might send what he calls "an orderly account" 09:56 to this single individual. 09:58 When you get to the Book of Acts, 10:00 you'll notice that even though the first part 10:02 focuses on Peter, the bulk of acts really focuses on Paul, 10:06 who was the missionary to the Gentile world, 10:09 and you'll notice it really doesn't say much 10:12 about the other disciples. 10:13 We know historically that Thomas went to India 10:16 and Andrew went to the British Isles and so on, 10:19 but none of that is recorded in the Book of Acts. 10:22 We get a little bit from the life of Philip 10:25 and some more about the lives of Peter and John, 10:27 but then it's really all about Paul, 10:30 which makes good sense because the Book of Luke 10:33 is aimed at Gentiles and Paul was the guy 10:35 who took the story of Jesus out to the Gentile world, 10:39 and Luke was actually with him for quite a bit of that. 10:42 But then we also know that Paul was eventually arrested 10:45 and sent to the city of Rome to be put on trial. 10:48 In fact, Paul was arrested more than once, 10:51 first in Caesarea, and then later in Rome. 10:54 So, what some people think is that Theophilus 10:57 was some kind of high-ranking officer. 10:59 After all Luke, calls him "Most Excellent" 11:02 and that he was somehow involved with the trial of Paul. 11:06 In fact, some people have speculated 11:08 that he may have even been Paul's lawyer 11:11 and he needed some facts about Paul's life 11:13 in order to build his case, details about Paul's work, 11:16 his beliefs, his involvement in various scandals, you know, 11:20 the kind of stuff a lawyer would need to make the case 11:22 that Paul was not a threat to the Roman Empire. 11:25 That would explain why Paul's personal testimony 11:29 appears three times in the Book of Acts, 11:31 and it would also explain why Roman character 11:34 seemed to be portrayed in a mostly positive light 11:37 all throughout Luke's writings. 11:39 I mean, there'd be no point in poking the Roman bear 11:43 if you're trying to convince the Romans 11:45 that Paul is innocent. 11:47 Let me show you what I mean. 11:49 In the 23rd Chapter of Luke, 11:51 you suddenly have the testimony of a Roman centurion 11:54 who was there the moment Jesus died, and he says, 11:57 "Certainly, this was a righteous man." 12:00 That's a good report about a Roman. 12:02 We also see Pontius Pilot, the Roman Governor, 12:05 declaring Jesus to be innocent three times. 12:08 Now, can I prove that the Book of Acts 12:10 is some kind of legal brief? 12:12 No, I can't, all we have is circumstantial evidence, 12:16 but the theory does make a lot of sense 12:18 when you read the books carefully and the fact 12:21 that the Book of Acts suddenly ends with Paul in prison 12:23 and it doesn't tell us what happened to him after that, 12:27 well, certainly makes it seem more likely. 12:29 This was written before Paul was executed, 12:32 so it's entirely possible that it was prepared 12:34 for his trial, and in the process, 12:37 it created an inspired record of Christian history 12:40 that survives to this day. 12:42 Now, if you think about it, 12:44 that would mean it's not just Paul on trial 12:46 in these documents, it's also the entire Christian faith. 12:50 Luke is daring to tell the Gentiles that God had come 12:53 in human flesh and he works very hard to make the case. 12:57 You'll notice that back in Matthew's Gospel, 12:59 the birth of Christ doesn't receive nearly the amount 13:02 of attention that Luke gives it. 13:04 Luke really zeroes in on the humanity of Christ. 13:07 He was born to a real mother, just like you and me. 13:11 He was born in very humble circumstances 13:13 in the presence of mere animals. 13:15 He was laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes. 13:18 The Jesus Luke describes is very relatable 13:22 and it's easily the most human account of his ministry. 13:25 And what Luke is trying to do is portray Jesus as the Savior 13:29 of the whole world and not just the Jews 13:32 and that becomes really obvious 13:34 in some of the little details you find throughout the book. 13:37 Take, for example, the parable of the fig tree 13:39 that Jesus tells in Matthew 24. 13:42 Let me read just a little bit of that to you 13:44 because there's a tiny little difference 13:46 between Matthew's version and the one that Luke tells. 13:49 Jesus is talking about the signs of his coming 13:52 and this is what he says: 13:53 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree. 13:56 When its branch has already become tender 13:58 and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 14:02 So also, when you see all these things, 14:04 know that it is near, at the doors." 14:08 What he's telling us is that we can know when his return 14:10 is close by reading the signs, 14:12 the same way that new leaves in spring remind us 14:15 that summer is certainly going to arrive. 14:18 We might not be able to predict the day or hour, 14:20 but we can know when it's close, and you'll notice, 14:23 Jesus uses a fig tree to make that point, 14:27 which Jesus sometimes used as a special symbol for Israel. 14:31 In another parable, he talked about a fig tree 14:33 that failed to bear fruit and he was clearly talking 14:37 about the covenant people. 14:38 But then take a look at Luke's version, 14:41 and I want you to notice the difference. 14:43 Luke records it like this: 14:45 "Then he spoke to them in a parable. 14:47 Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 14:49 When they are already budding, 14:51 you see and know for yourselves that summer is near." 14:54 Now, did you catch it? 14:56 Matthew only mentioned a fig tree, 14:58 but Luke adds all the trees in his version 15:01 of the same story. 15:03 Why? 15:05 Well, because he wasn't writing to a Jewish audience 15:07 and he was careful to emphasize the gospel 15:09 is meant for everybody, whether Jew or Gentile. 15:13 Luke is showing us a very relatable God, 15:16 the Creator who became one of us. 15:18 He lived among us, laughed with us, cried with us, 15:22 suffered with us, and was moved by compassion 15:25 when he saw our suffering. 15:27 He was so humble that the lowest of people 15:30 could relate to him. 15:31 His very lowly birth was first announced to shepherds 15:35 who were considered the bottom of the social order. 15:38 Shepherds were lowlifes in those days, 15:40 people who watched sheep 15:41 because they couldn't do anything better, 15:44 and yet the angels approached them first. 15:46 Why? 15:48 Because the Son of God had become just like all of us, 15:51 not like the king who sat in a palace 15:53 just a few miles from Bethlehem, 15:55 not like a member of the Sanhedrin, 15:58 a high-ranking member of society, but like us, 16:01 every day, normal people with battered and broken lives. 16:06 The Book of Hebrews reminds us. 16:08 "For we do not have a High Priest 16:10 who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, 16:13 but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." 16:19 What Luke describes is an authentic human experience. 16:23 The life of Christ shows us what humanity 16:26 was supposed to be like 16:28 before we broke away from our Creator. 16:31 You and I were made in the image of God, the Bible teaches, 16:33 made to reflect his perfect character 16:36 and we threw it all away in pursuit of self-sufficiency. 16:41 But instead of getting rid of us, God did the unthinkable. 16:45 He became one of us, and with Jesus, 16:48 we see what human beings are supposed to be like. 16:51 We see the real deal, another Adam, except this time, 16:58 the perfect man is living in an imperfect world, 17:00 the world that you and I live in. 17:02 Christian writer A.W. Pink points out 17:05 that there's an interesting detail in the way 17:07 Luke talks about the temptations of Christ. 17:10 Matthew arranges the temptations 17:12 so they build to a natural climax, 17:15 ending with the devil offering Jesus 17:17 all the kingdoms of this world, 17:19 but you'll notice that Luke's order is different. 17:22 He lists the temptations in chronological order, 17:26 the temptation to turn stones into bread, 17:28 the offer of the kingdoms of the world, 17:31 and then the devil dares Jesus 17:33 to leap from the pinnacle of the temple, 17:35 and when he does that, 17:37 Luke is approximating the order of the temptations 17:40 that you find in the Garden of Eden 17:43 from an appeal to our appetite, 17:45 to the appeal to become something 17:47 more than God intended us to be. 17:49 It's almost as if Luke is underlining the fact that Jesus, 17:54 the last Adam, is succeeding where the first Adam failed. 18:00 All right, it's time to take another quick break, 18:01 but when I come back, 18:03 we'll dig just a little more deeply into the Gospel of Luke. 18:06 [logo swooshing] 18:10 - [Narrator] Life can throw a lot at us. 18:12 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 18:15 but that's where the Bible comes in. 18:18 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 18:21 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 18:22 we've created the "Discover Bible Guides" 18:24 to be your guide to the Bible. 18:26 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 18:29 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 18:32 and they're absolutely free, 18:34 so jump online now or give us a call 18:36 and start your journey of discovery. 18:40 - You find a number of parables in Luke's Gospel 18:42 that the other gospel writers leave out 18:44 and they're pretty telling. 18:46 It shows us what Luke is driving at. 18:49 For example, the story of the Good Samaritan 18:51 is only found in Luke, and it's the story of a Gentile 18:55 who behaves better than a priest and a Levite, 18:58 members of the covenant community. 19:00 The Samaritans were considered as unclean by the Jews, 19:04 just like the rest of the Gentile world, 19:07 outsiders who had settled in the region of Samaria 19:10 and had adopted a form of Judaism that the Jews 19:13 found completely unacceptable. 19:16 The last thing any Jew wanted to do 19:18 was walk through Samaritan territory. 19:21 "They'd be richly defiled," they said, 19:23 and so they usually took the long way around 19:26 in order to prevent that. 19:28 Yet in the parable, it was an unclean Samaritan 19:31 who best demonstrated the love of God, 19:34 and it's an appeal to Luke's Gentile audience, 19:38 but it really runs a little deeper than that. 19:41 The Samaritan helped a man who couldn't help himself, 19:45 a victim who had been ruthlessly beaten 19:47 and robbed of his possessions, and in a way, 19:51 the victim represents us, the entire human race. 19:55 A liar and a thief, according to Jesus, 19:58 had assaulted the human race and left us 20:00 completely destitute and unable to help ourselves. 20:05 So along comes Christ, a member of the Godhead 20:07 who condescended to our level of existence 20:10 in order to save us. 20:11 He found us on the road and he bandaged our wounds. 20:15 In Luke 4, Jesus tells us exactly what he came to do. 20:19 Listen to this story, Luke 4: 20:22 "And he was handed the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, 20:25 and when he had opened the book, 20:26 he found the place where it was written, 20:28 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me 20:30 because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. 20:34 He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, 20:37 to proclaim liberty to the captives 20:39 and recovery of the sight to the blind, 20:41 to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 20:44 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.'" 20:48 You'll notice, by the way, 20:49 that Luke mentions that Jesus had to look that passage up 20:52 in the Bible just the same way that you and I would have to. 20:55 The good Samaritan in this parable is Jesus, 20:58 the one who came to bandage us and pay all our expenses. 21:02 You'll notice in the parable that the Samaritan 21:04 opens an account with the inn keeper and says, 21:07 "Look, this is all on me 21:10 and my expenses are being handled by the Son of God." 21:15 Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians 21:17 that Jesus has wiped out my debt, 21:19 "The handwriting of requirements that was against us." 21:23 And Jesus nailed that to his cross. 21:26 He paid my debt because, well, there's no way I can pay it. 21:31 And of course, this is exactly the right story 21:34 to share with the Gentile world. 21:36 Luke was an educated man who wrote in high-class Greek 21:40 and he was speaking to people with a Greek perspective 21:43 on the universe. 21:44 The physical world was kind of dirty to them, 21:47 something to be shunned, 21:48 something you long to get away from, 21:51 and for a Greek philosopher, 21:52 it would seem, well, illogical that a pure God 21:56 would enter this material world. 21:58 But in the story of the Good Samaritan, 22:00 Luke shows his audience why Jesus did it. 22:03 Not only does he emphasize the God-given love 22:06 to be found in Gentile hearts, 22:08 but he shows us how a man with an ignoble reputation 22:12 came to lead us out of our moral mess. 22:16 This is the reason that God became a man 22:19 to pay our way back to health. 22:22 All right, I have to take one more quick break, 22:24 but I'll be right back after this. 22:27 [logo swooshing] 22:30 - [Narrator] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. 22:34 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 22:39 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 22:41 and come away scratching your head, you're not alone. 22:44 Our free "Focus on Prophecy Guides" 22:46 are designed to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 22:49 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 22:52 for you and our world. 22:53 Study online or request them by mail 22:56 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 23:00 - Well, the clock in the studio assures me 23:02 that I'm starting to run out of time, 23:03 so let's see if we can summarize this, 23:06 or at least give you enough to encourage you to read Luke 23:09 in a way that maybe you've never looked at this book before. 23:12 Here's what I probably like best about Luke's Gospel. 23:16 It was written for Gentiles. 23:18 I happen to be one of those. 23:20 I'm the descendant of Germanic barbarians. 23:22 This Gospel was written for my people. 23:25 I mean, yes, it was written in sophisticated Greek 23:28 for the Romans and the Greeks, 23:29 people who were considered to be much more educated 23:32 and sophisticated than my ancestors. 23:35 My people were considered somewhat less than human, 23:38 living on the fringes of the empire, 23:40 lurking about in dark forests 23:42 and speaking in unsophisticated language. 23:45 In fact, that's where the word barbarian comes from. 23:48 The Greeks were making fun of the way my ancestors spoke, 23:51 suggesting that it was nothing but meaningless babble, 23:55 bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, 23:57 which is why we have the word barbarian. 24:00 But today, my people, 24:01 those reprehensible forest dwellers of old, 24:04 are also part of the Kingdom of Christ, and every December, 24:08 our children also put on bathrobes and cotton-swab beards 24:12 to retell the story of the Incarnation, 24:16 the night that God himself became a real man. 24:19 And when we tell that story, we use the words of Luke, 24:22 the man who wrote the story for us. 24:25 And wouldn't you know it? 24:26 It was those horrible barbarians who ended up inventing 24:29 the printing press and translating this book 24:32 into thousands of very common languages. 24:36 It was Gentiles who eventually pulled the story of Jesus 24:39 out of the ivory towers of medieval Europe 24:42 and put it back where Luke intended it to be, 24:45 in the homes of average, everyday people 24:48 speaking simple languages. 24:51 Jesus came for everybody. 24:55 Luke's Gospel is the story of Jesus, the Son of Man. 24:59 He was born, just like we are, 25:01 and he lived, just like we do, 25:04 and he died, just like we will have to. 25:07 He was an ordinary human whose parents had to register 25:10 for a census, who had to pay taxes, just like you. 25:16 Jesus knew what it was like to be hungry 25:18 or lonely or rejected, just like you do. 25:22 He knew what it was to be misunderstood, to be laughed at, 25:25 to be persecuted without just cause, like some of you. 25:30 Luke is showing us a Jesus we can really understand 25:34 and a Jesus that really understands us. 25:38 The Jesus you find in Luke's Gospel was so human 25:42 that we see him eating food. 25:44 Three times Luke points out that Jesus had dinner 25:48 with the Pharisees. 25:49 In Luke 19, we see him hanging out in the home of a man 25:52 that everybody hated, a lowly tax collector. 25:57 And after the Resurrection, 25:59 when the disciples had some trouble believing that Jesus 26:02 had actually risen from the dead, 26:05 he appeared in front of them, and what did he do? 26:08 He ate fish and a honeycomb in their midst, 26:12 proving that even after the Resurrection, 26:14 he is every bit as human as you are, 26:17 and that he intends to stay in human form. 26:20 Jesus is God in a real, physical body. 26:24 Luke is demonstrating that Jesus was just like us, 26:28 but thank God he was also different. 26:32 His birth was different from ours 26:34 because he had no earthly father. 26:36 His conduct was better than ours 26:39 and he showed us what God is really like. 26:41 And then he died in a way that I don't have to 26:44 because he took the sins of humanity on himself. 26:48 This is God in human flesh, all right, 26:50 who came to experience what we have to live with, 26:53 but he did it perfectly without ever sinning. 26:58 You know, right now there are roughly eight billion people 27:02 living on the face of this planet 27:04 and the vast majority of them are Gentiles, 27:06 the very people that Luke was trying to reach. 27:09 And unfortunately, right now, most of us get our impressions 27:11 of what Christianity is from TV or social media 27:14 and that is not an accurate picture of God. 27:17 It's actually driving people away from Christ. 27:20 So, here's the challenge I wanna give you. 27:23 The Gospel of Luke is the human face of Christ 27:27 and the Book of Acts, it's the real account 27:29 of how the Christian Church was born, 27:31 and I'm daring you to read these books for yourself 27:35 because you're exactly the person 27:36 that Luke wanted to talk to. 27:38 "For the Son of Man," Jesus said, 27:40 "Has come to seek and to save that which was lost." 27:44 Okay, that's it for this week, and of course, 27:46 we still need to look at John 27:47 before we move on to other topics. 27:49 Thanks for watching. 27:51 I'm Shawn Boonstra, and this has been "Authentic." 27:55 [gentle upbeat music] 28:15 [gentle upbeat music continues] |
Revised 2023-01-25