The Gospel of Luke

… Luke, Chapter 1, Verse 1. Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely the means of honour, even as they are delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were our interests and ministers of the Word, it seems good to me also, having had a perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order of most excellent preoperative, that thou mightest for the certainty of those things wherein thou must be instructed. Chapter 7, Verse 36. And one of the Pharisees desired Jesus that he would eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at least in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have someone to say unto thee. And he said, Master, say on. Then said the creator, which hath two fetters, the one of all five hundred fences, and the other fifteen. And when they had brought him to bed, he promptly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love thee most. Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou art as rightly judged. Now chapter twelve. Chapter twelve and verse thirteen. And while the country said unto Jesus, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who may be a judge or a provider for thee? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he prohibited. And he spake unto them, saying, The grant of a certain rich man brought forth twenty grains. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to store my goods. And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my garments, and build bread. And there will I store all my goods in my house. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods, laid up for many years. Take thou these, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this might thy soul should be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So it seemed that the earth had treasure for himself, and is not rich for God. Lastly, chapter 18. Verse 9. And Jesus spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a covenant. The Pharisee stood and prayed unto himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as ever may of, extortionous, unjust, adulterous, or even of this publican. I fast twice a week, I give tithe of all that I possess, and the publican standing afar would not lift up so much as his eyes unto him, but smote upon his breast thing, God be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for every one that exalted himself should be abased. He that humbled himself should be exalted. And they brought unto him all for infants, that he would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not. For of such is the kingdom of God. Very I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter into it. In our attention to what God has to say to us through the Scriptures, sometimes it's very useful to use the microscope and to collect standard of detail of incidents and to focus upon it and to learn something special about a particular setting or a particular story or a particular verse or even a particular word. But in other occasions it's helpful to use the telescope instead of the microscope and to try and see the whole vista that God brings before us over a whole range of chapters in the Bible. Nor ever we might have our minds fastened upon some basic lesson that God wants us to learn. And it's the latter view that I would encourage you to take with me tonight as we look at the Gospel according to Luke. I read that introduction, the first four verses of the first chapter, because he says there, the writer, the evangelist Luke, he says what he is assured God wants him to recall as one of his particular acts of service for his Saviour in putting down on record certain impressions or overriding impressions that he has gained as a Christian. And we need to bear in mind perhaps that Luke was a doctor. Now perhaps there are various reasons for being a doctor. For instance, some people might wish to be a doctor because their grandfather or grandmother or one of their parents was a doctor. Other people might think, yes, I might be a doctor because they would give me an introduction to the right sort of clubs or affiliations. Other people might think it's good to take a job as a doctor because it might enable them to live life on rather a grand scale. But my impression of the best reason for being a doctor, which was true in many cases I'm sure, is that Luke was interested in people. He was a person who was interested in the welfare of others and for that reason he was known not only as the physician but as the beloved physician. So we can expect that if he was taken up and used by God to record one of the facets or impressions that we need to gain of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour, that he would be constrained to take up and to dwell on those things which impress us with the realisation that the Lord Jesus Christ when he came on earth was interested in people. He spoke many parables. He gave much teaching. But overridingly, we can at first get the impression that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world because he was interested in people. And we are people. Now Luke, Dr. Luke, was selected by God to cause this particular record to be left for us to consider in order that we might get this sort of impression. And in his introduction he says in verse 3, It seemed good to me also to write to thee in order. Now no matter what translation of the Scriptures you prefer, you will get again a singular impression of what Luke has set out to do. Because you'll find that whatever translation you take, you'll get this sort of impression. Luke says, I want to write to you with method. I want to write to you in an orderly way. I want to write to you to give an orderly account. And the order he takes up is not a historical, chronological order. His order is a moral order. He's interested in people. He sets things out in a specific sort of order. An orderly sequence of events. That enables us to build up this progressive impression of what the Savior came on earth to do. So we can look perhaps for some sequence, some evidence of method in the story that Luke has to tell us. He tells this story. He gives his records of what Jesus began both to do and to teach. Until we get to some sort of climax in chapter 14. And in that chapter, we find a little picture here that God is extremely anxious that we should all enjoy the blessing that he has arranged, that he has planned, that he has made available through the Savior. And we get this little picture given that a great feast is prepared. And when we come to this orderly point in the Gospel Bible, how disappointing it is to notice that when God makes all the arrangements, God prepares the feast of good things that he wants people to enjoy. We find that some have recorded that with one consent they all began to make excuses. They weren't interested in what God was making available for them. And of course, bringing this up to date, one of the many difficulties from an earthly point of view in encouraging people to enjoy Christianity is because they just couldn't care less. People just aren't interested. I'm speaking in a general way. I'm not speaking only of people outside our home tonight. But if we consider ourselves, what we are in ourselves and our aspirations, there's time to be told that when God makes his blessing available, it must be said of one and all that with one consent they began to make excuses. Now again, we must ask ourselves the question, why? Why, when God has been so anxious that we should enjoy the very best that he has planned? Why should it be that men and women, boys and girls, should continually ignore what God wants us to enjoy? Ignore the pleadings of God and the sermons of God? Why do we should ignore what God beseeches in the gospel that people might come to him? And I think if we quickly read through the chapters of the Gospel of Luke, we get certain impressions which not only demonstrate the orderly way in which Luke gives his account, but gives us one of the reasons whereby with one consent they began to make excuses. Let me demonstrate this for you rather than just quote it to you. Look in chapter 14, if you would. At the end of chapter 14, just after this occasion where God makes the very best available, we get a parable of two kings at war, and so on through the chapters. Now what we're going to look for is a basic reason why people may be entirely disaffected by the gospel of God's grace. And why does he need for the gospel before we look for Dr. Luke's solution? We will find as we look through these chapters again and again and again, we are left with the evidence on record that man is at a distance from man, and men are at a distance from God, so that they can't even recognize the very best that God wants to make available. Now in chapter 14, where we have two kings at war, in verse 32 we read, One the other is yet a great way off. A great way off. Distance between the two. Now in chapter 15, the parable of the younger son, in verse 13 of chapter 15, it says, The younger son took his journey into a far country. A far country. Tremendous distance between himself and the blessing that he left behind. Verse 20, it says, he came to a point, while he was yet a great way off, Dr. Luke, with his clinical physician, is beginning to build up this case as to why the gospel, in all its essence and blessing, is refused. In chapter 16, the next one, the story of the rich man in Nazareth, verse 33, In hell, the rich man looked at his eyes, he sees Abraham afar off. Afar off, again this reference to the distance between man and God. Now in chapter 17, again, the story of the ten lepers. Verse 12, we are told that they stood afar off, nor was they conscious of their leprous condition. Again, in chapter 18, in the incident that we read, it says, He heard them standing afar off, not even lifting up his eyes towards heaven. Chapter 19, yes, the power of the kingdom. It says, the nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom. Then chapter 20, I think there's another one somewhere, yes, the power of the vineyard. It says, a certain man climbed to the vineyard, let it fall to help him, and went into a far country for a long time. We can expect a doctor who's conscientious. Before he comes to any conclusion, before he makes any diagnosis, he looks for signs and symptoms, won't he? He wants to find out what the trouble is before he prescribes the remedy. And it is most painstaking of manners, after he has decried and lamented, that when the great feast is prepared, and there is one consent, there is this complete lack of interest in enjoying what is to be there for their blessing. In this painstaking way, he examines and probes and diagnoses the conditions responsible, and he finds that again, and again, and again, and it's left on record for our notice that there's this distance between man and man, that there's this distance between man and God. After chapter 20, where we read the climax of the Gospel starts building up, we get the prophetic sequence of events outlined, and then we come to the climax of the Gospel. But by the timing of this thought, and let us not exclude ourselves, let us think of ourselves in relation to God, do we, are we aware of distance between ourselves and Him? Is it only occasionally that our conscience strikes us, and that we realize that things aren't as they should be between ourselves and God? Even on a lesser plane, do we find that there are disturbances, disagreements, disillusionments between man and man, man and woman, that give an indication when in our better moment perhaps we realize that things aren't quite what they should be? We need to look again at the Gospel of Luke, and to see if there's some reason can be given whereby we, as part of mankind in general, are at a distance from God. I think at least some of the clues are given in those three incidents that I read, in chapter 7, chapter 12, and chapter 18. There won't be time for a lot of detail, I want you to get an impression. But let me say this to link them together. In chapter 7, we read of a man who spake within himself. In chapter 12, we read of a man who thought within himself. And in chapter 18, we read of a man who prayed thus within himself. But isn't this the answer? That one of the reasons, the main reason, whereby we are not only at a distance from God, but whereby the things that will lead up to the wars and the rumors of wars, which are getting increasingly prevalent in the world, complete disenchantment between nation and nation, one part of a country and another, one family and another, between members of a family, is because, basically speaking, we are too interested in ourselves, too concerned with what we can do for ourselves. One of the paradoxes of the present time, to me, is that we find, whether white men or men, whether employers' federations or trade unions, whether government or the electors, that everybody seems to want more and more for doing less and less. And of course, in any claim that is made, it can be summed up in one word, can't it? If we want, we want more. Indications of lack of satisfaction with what we have at the present time, thinking that this may be satisfying, if only we could have more of what we have. I met two people one day who were hard at work. One person was hard at performance, the other was hard at work for £50,000. The little girl was hard at performance, she wanted a loan. A man I met was hard at work for £50,000 because he wanted to build a factory. And I'm sure the sense of need was the same degree in each case. They couldn't supply from their own resources what they needed at that time for what they thought would be a satisfaction to their heart. Fastly different in scale, but the same principle. They wanted more. They had a little bit. The little girl had £10,000 she wanted for this. The man had £10,000 and he wanted £50,000. Each of them wanted more. They had a little bit. And if each of them thought that they had a little bit more, they'd be satisfied. Redemptive, perhaps, in one of the instances. But let us look briefly at Chapter 7. Here we have a man who seems to think that there are certain people who would make a suitable companion for Australia and that there are those who don't. In other words, there are those who qualify by their social or intellectual distinction or by the spices tied with their backgrounds and there are those who don't. He obviously thought it was quite important that Jesus should come to his home. He invited the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was graciously pleased to go along. But a woman comes along, takes opportunity to be in the presence of the Saviour. But the man who was that day a host of the Saviour thought it was completely excusable that a woman of that sort should be present. And he thought within himself if Jesus knew what sort of woman he was, she wouldn't be welcome in his presence. God says, My thoughts are far higher than your thoughts. In my ways, in your ways. This man spoke within himself. But even though he was speaking within himself, the Lord Jesus Christ who knows us all through and through, he was able to discern where the error was in this man's heart. And he says something very encouraging to me. He said to the man, Simon, I have something to say to you. The man said, Master, say on. The Lord Jesus said, Consider two people. They each owe the same man something. One man owes him fifty units, pence, pounds or whatever. The other man owes five hundred units. Then the Lord Jesus said a delightful thing. Consider, he says, that the man frankly forgave them. Frankly, without grudging, without reservation, without any strenuous pride, he forgave them all. Which, I wonder he said, will be the most grateful, which will love him most. I said, Simon, I suppose, he who was forgiven most. If any of us here feel discouraged, knowing our own parts, and feel the world, if only the preacher or the people who come to the meeting knew me as I know me, they would know that I was beyond a fail. The consistent teaching of Scripture is not being lowly. Or wicked. Or profane. Is in itself no prior to blessings from God. In fact, in many ways, it seems to be the reverse. God is looking for those who will be shining trophies of His grace. Shining examples of the victory of the Gospel. Shining examples of the difference, the change that the Gospel can make in lives. I ask you to think of some of the most shining examples of Christian conversion if you know them. I would think at most cases as some of the bladder that you ever met. And I came to the conclusion, I suppose, he who was forgiven most. Let none of us think that we are either too good or too bad. Just as they did. In chapter 12, another man who was a gambler. A gambler who gambled everything and lost everything. The interview starts and one of the company says to Jesus, Master, speak to my brother. It's always one of my many favorite quotations because it fits the bill on so many occasions when we hear the word of God and we apply it to somebody else. Shouldn't this man be saying, Master, speak to me. He doesn't. He says, Master, speak to my brother. If God at any time searches your heart and conscience, whether in Gospel readings, private conversation, or in the reading quietly from the Scriptures at home, don't be deceived into immediately applying it to your brother, your sister, your friend, your neighbor. Master, we might feel you say, speak to John, or Bill, Aunty Betty, or someone else. What we need is, Master, speak to me. Perhaps because this man was anxious that any blessing that was going along should be his. Any judgment should be his brother's. Some businesses fall into difficulties, don't they? You can't say, let the bills pile up, but cash all the checks. Now this man, perhaps, was tarred with this sort of brush. Anything that was good and blessing, he thought, that's for me. But anything that fears the conscience, that's just the word for my brother. Let us pray to him. Let us, after we get charmed by the gospel, let us remember, is God's message to us or tonight? To me, as an individual, to you. Master, speak to me. The parable is told, not that the man was able by his ability or resources to bring forth fruit unto the ground. I think it's significant that the word is given, the ground. The ground which God gave, the ground, brought forth plenty of fruit. But he thought with himself, chapter 7, of a man who spake with himself. Here, again, a man whose thoughts are self-centered, whose thoughts are limited, doesn't see God with God's vision, doesn't see what God makes available, because his thoughts are self-bounded, self-limited. And he thought with himself, what shall I do? Now, if you think I'm stretching this point a bit too much, when you get home, read through chapter 12 and see the number of times in which he refers to himself. What shall I do? Because I have no role whether it is for my fruits. This will I do. I will put on my garments. I restore my fruits, my goods. I will say to my soul, and so on. He's thinking about himself, what he can do. And the universal message of the Bible is this, if our thoughts are limited always to our achievements, what we can do, and what we can bring about, this can end in nothing but condemnation and judgment before a righteous God. Not by any works of righteousness, God says, which we have done. So, Dr. Luke, with his clinical precision, builds up the story. Before I pass on, let me remind you of this. This man, because his thoughts are limited to himself, he thought many years. He said, I've made my plans, I'll get bigger barns, filled with plenty, much goods, build up for many years, I'm going to have it good. Life will never have been so good for me how it's going to be. He thought many years. What a contrast. God says this much. What God says is very much different to what I think. This is the contrast that Luke draws to our attention. The man thought many years. God said this much. And then God, a very strong word is used by God to this man, a word which we should use very sparingly, and we have the Lord's authority for saying that. God said, thou fool! The fool says in his heart, no God. It doesn't mean that he thinks there's no God. But in a most impressive way, the man who's called a fool in the Bible is the man who says, no God for me. I don't want anything to do with God. And this man, who gambles everything on the laughing money of his material possessions. He gambled everything, put everything at stake. He said that he thought to himself for many years. He lived his life in such a manner in that he excluded God completely from all his plans. We men, of course, are the same in a definite manner. I want nothing to do with God. But we may very well live our life in such a manner that we could very plain that there is no place for God in the plans of life that we have to make. And if so, it's exactly the same condition of heart that this man was in. The man thought for many years what God said this night. So it be, the Lord said, that he hath a treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Do we make our plans as creatures in the light of what God has arranged for our blessing? What he makes plain to us day by day? Or do we completely ignore in all our plans and daily activities the fact that there is a God who is anxious to secure for us such abundant blessing? He thought for himself. In chapter 18, we'll get a man, a record of a man whose prayers were completely ineffective. They never reached heaven. He didn't pray to God. He prayed thus with himself. The purpose to the parable is this. The Lord keeps in his spirit the parable unto certain which trusted in themselves. Prayer is the fruit and the evidence of trusting in God. This man trusted in himself and he prayed thus with himself. Oh, how sad if prayers, whether in public or in private, are done in such a manner that it is either to impress others or ourselves with how God would like them to think we are. And yet we are conscious either of ourselves or other people while we are praying more than being aware of the one in whose presence we are but himself. This man prayed thus with himself because he trusted in himself. He placed his reliance in himself. He thought he had the resources at his disposal to bring a solution to his problems. And whatever our confession, we need to take stock of ourselves before the God is so anxious to bless us and every possible aspect of the blessing is to what the motive in our prayers is, what the centre of our prayers is, where we put our reliance. And we may have to confess ourselves to be in the position of this man if our confession is true and pray thus with himself. The publican, as in so many times in the Gospel Bible, he seems even by his physical stance to give evidence of his acknowledgement of his moral and spiritual condition. He took the place of one standing apart, head bowed, God be merciful to me, said. This is what we need. The person who speaks within himself, whose thoughts and words and our visions are centred on self-love of God, ignores the fact that anything that we gain from God comes from the hand of God as a good and faithful creator day by day. And if we are to enjoy eternal blessing, the salvation of the soul which is precious, it needs to be accepted as one and asked for a merciful God. God who offers us in the Gospel such wonderful mercy, not because we deserve it, but because we freely acknowledge we deserve nothing, but judgement because of our sins. God be merciful to me, said. The comment by the Lord Jesus is this man, the man who took the holy place, the man who understood and acknowledged by his stance that he was at a distance from God, did his sins, unclenched, unforgiven, and because he acknowledged his true position and condition before God, God was happy to bless him. He went to his house just as I did, rather than her. I think we can agree with Luke. He has fully proved our spiritual case. Luke has come to the conclusion, and rightly so, that if we leave God out of our lives, little wonder we are at a distance from God. Little wonder that men are at odds with each other and themselves. But it would be a poor doctor, wouldn't it, who comes and tells you what's wrong, and then gives you a good day and goes away. Have you, the doctor, the beloved physician, have you any antidote to this? Have you any answer? He's torn his chair, he's proved the case, he's made the diagnosis, but is there any happy ending to this? But is there any happy ending to the story? Is there any blessing to enjoy when once it has been ignored? Well, let us look at the last chapter, and we get a most happy contrast to the story that Luke has felt it necessary to paint. Chapter 24, verse 15. Think of all that we've considered tonight already, and then, by way of happy contrast, think and consider these blessed words. It came to pass that while they were moved together, unpleasant, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Notice this now. The privilege, the opportunity of companionship with the Savior. Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Is this inconsistent with Luke's story today? Is this something that stands in stark contrast? Is this a contradiction of the picture that Luke has painted? Or has something occurred which has removed the distance, which has removed the energy that caused the distance? Has something happened which means that it's possible to transfer our thoughts, our ambitions, our motives from ourselves? Well, between all those many occasions where we have to agree necessarily that there were people who were far off, out of it, on a distance, a great deal fixed in the rest, there has been a record of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You may, if you will, read all the great books of literature, but none of them ask a sweeter story to tell than this, that despite the distance of the human race from God, despite the energy of the human heart, God will give us through and through to remove the distance that has done Jesus into the world, that his love might go into the distance and darkness of death and judgment for us, and all of it he might remove the distance and bring us into the nearness and the joy of the presence of God, forgiven and cleansed by faith in his beloved Son. Any gospel which ignores the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ which is another gospel which is not a gospel, only by understanding that when Jesus died on the cross, not only was it so that cruel wicked men took him and slew him and nailed him to a tree, this token again of the wickedness, the rebellion of the human heart, but that he went there willingly. I like the way in this Gospel of Luke, the way the attention is concentrated at the end of the gospel upon this perfect man, the man of Christ Jesus. After necessarily probing our case, telling us where we are wrong, when we come towards the climax of the gospel, chapter 23, let me just read a few verses. Pilate said, I find no fault in this man. He who brought this man to me, I have examined him and found no fault in this man. The crowd cried with a warm voice, away with this man! And so on. Again, even after Lord Jesus gave himself on the cross, the testimony by the centurion, he's certainly this righteous man. After Luke tells us about us, necessarily, once he's told us of our need of salvation, he turns from us and he draws our attention, concentrates our gaze on this man, this man, this man, this man, the man who was called Jesus. But after telling us of his perfection, he says, even the good deeds, even the perfect one, even the compassion, even the healing power, even the mighty works and preaching of this man, was not what God required to take away our sin. It must mean that Jesus, this perfect man, lays down that perfect life in sacrifice for our sin. If it needed the death of Jesus to lay the fitness for my salvation, how futile it would be for me to attempt any other way, to attempt anything that were the fruit of my thoughts, my activities, my words, could only end in failure, as in the cases of the men we read about in chapter 7, 12 and 18. And the less we are assured, as we read of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, that because he came alive from among the dead, from among the dead, we can be sure that nothing remains. God has demonstrated, by bringing Jesus alive from among the dead, not by raising him from among the dead, God has freely decreed, nothing more remains. Nothing that you can do could affect your salvation. The consistent testimony of Scripture, the consistent testimony of Dr. Luke, not the perfect life of Jesus, but the death of Jesus. But God says, he who was delivered from your offenses, was raised again for your justification, you can be sure, that nothing remains to be done. The work is complete. God lures us through and through, gives the life of anyone who says, the death of Jesus is all right, never coming into place, but something more from you is required. God says, accept with simple, childlike trust, what Christ has done on your behalf. The distance will then be removed, and like the tomb, on the way to a mess, you'll be amazed that Jesus draws near and goes with you. I think there's perhaps one further occasion in the Gospel where we find someone whose thoughts come to themselves, but in a happy way this time, perhaps by way of contrast and character of their deed, the younger son went to the far country, wasted his substance and riotous living, the turning point for him came when we read in him that it said, he came to himself. I would suggest this is very much different to the man who spake with himself, the man who thought with himself, or the man who prayed thus to himself. The younger son, when he came to himself, he arrived at the right estimation of himself. He said, I've been stupid. I must go, turn her around now, turn her back on what I've been doing. Confess. I have sinned. One of those in Scripture who, in the right way, comes to the right conclusion and says, I have sinned. I am no more worthy. This is the way in which we can be entered into blessing by accepting that through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, by thinking about him in such a way that we get a true estimation of him and a true estimation of ourselves. And then the Scripture so happily reads, then and only then will we know the companionship, the joy, the blessedness, the intimacy of life with Jesus. …