Luke: The Physician with Precision

If you have your Bible turn with me to the book of Luke, that's in the New Testament for those of you who do not know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, it is the third book of the New Testament.

Today is a good day for me, it's a great day for me. I've been studying the book of Luke for the past six months and I have purposed in the ministry of Christ Community Church to make sure that we cover one gospel every ten years. We began Christ Community Church with the study of the gospel of Mark. Now that we're in our eleventh year, we're beginning the gospel of Luke. Sometime around the year 2017-2018, we are going to cover the gospel of John. And sometime around the year 2027-2028, somewhere around there, we will cover the gospel of Matthew.

That's the plan. We do have a plan, believe it or not, as to where we're going. There is a method to our madness. And so it's always been my purpose to cover a gospel every ten years through my ministry, hoping that the Lord would return before I had a chance to get through all four gospels. But the point being is that this is the greatest story ever told. It's the greatest story ever told because it's about the greatest individual who ever lived, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is the greatest story ever told because it is the only story that will transform a person's life.

It is the greatest story ever told because it is a story about how God's marvelous plan is put on display through sending His Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, to come, to live, and to die, and to rise again to gain victory over sin, death, and hell. That is the greatest story ever told. And we had the marvelous opportunity to study that story over the next couple of years. Now understand this. Remember, years ago, ABC did a production headed by the late Acreman Peter Jennings entitled The Search for Jesus.

If you watched that series, you'll know that they never found the Jesus of the Bible. It's because they never used the Bible to find Him. You see, the only place you're going to find Jesus is in the Word of God. And if you don't use the Word of God to search for Him, you're never going to find Him. And I thought about writing ABC News and doing a special series, The Search for Peter Jennings. That didn't go over so well with ABC, so I find myself just being a preacher, preaching week in and week out, so we understand the truth about Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And I've told you before, but I believe it's a great privilege that we have each and every week to come to the Scriptures, open them up, and to see the wonder and majesty of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the sad thing is that there are many people, just like yourself, who are going to a church today, but they never see the wonder and splendor and the majesty of Jesus. Why? Because those churches are not committed to the exposition of the Scripture. They're committed to the experience of man. They're churches not committed to enlightenment, but committed to entertainment.

They're churches not committed to the facts of the Bible, but the feelings in your body. And those people come to those churches hoping to find solutions, but never find them because Jesus is never revealed. The Word of God is not open. The Word of God is not expounded upon. People are not exhorted in terms of the things of God, and therefore their lives never change. You can only have a changed life when Jesus Christ is seen. For when Jesus Christ is seen, you understand your condition, and you know what you need to do in light of who He is.

But if you never see Him, you'll never know Him. If you never know Him, you'll never know what it is you need to do to find Him. So each and every week, we go on a search to see the Jesus, the true Jesus, as presented in the Word of God. And we had the wonderful opportunity to study the Gospel of Luke. And you know, I wonder how many of us have ever heard a sermon on Luke the man. We know very little about this guy. His name means luminous, bringer of light. How fitting, how fitting that this man whose name means bringer of light is going to shed light on who Jesus Christ is.

How fitting that the one whose name means bringer of light understands in great detail how our God would bring the light of revelation to the Gentiles because Luke is a Gentile. He's the only Gentile writer of the Bible. Everybody else is Jewish, except for Luke. And the man whose name means bringer of light understands how the light of the glorious Gospel would come to the Gentile world. And so he spends a lot of time helping us see the marvelous plan of God to bring the Gospel to people like you and me.

We don't even know hardly at all about this man who wrote one-third of the New Testament. He wrote 52 chapters of our New Testament. Luke is the only writer who gives us the greatest exposition of the life of Christ and the ministry of the Gospel in consecutive order. He is the one who gives us its entirety from the time of the forerunner, the birth of John the Baptist, all the way to the Gospel getting to Rome at the end of the book of Acts. His writings span 60 years. And we know very little about this man.

And so our mission this morning is to help you understand Luke the man and then help you understand a little bit about his message as we look at the first four verses of Luke chapter 1.

Let me read them to you. 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 to 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 might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. If you want to know the exact truth, you need to study what Luke has to say about Jesus Christ, our Lord.

This man we know very little about. But as we peruse the Scripture, we come to realize four things about him. One, he is a physician. Two, he is an historian. Three, he is a theologian. And four, he is a musician. Let's look at Luke, the man.

Something very interesting about Luke you need to know. He never mentions himself in the Gospel of Luke or in the Book of Acts. He never one time mentions his own name. Luke is a very humble man. And I want to let you know something about Luke. The reason he never mentions his name is because he knows the greatest story ever told has nothing to do with him but everything to do with his Lord. And if you want to study the Book of Luke and if you come every week, you're going to have to realize if you're here for you, Luke will mean nothing to you.

If you're coming here to church for yourself because you think it's about you, let me tell you something, you'll get nothing out of the Gospel of Luke.

I was at Disneyland with my folks, not my folks, my friends, my family. My family just the other day. And we were going through the line getting ready to ride one of the rides and one of the young girls was with her family and she had a t-shirt on. Her t-shirt said, It's All About Me. And so I was walking through the line and we were weaving in and out of the little corridor they have there and I tapped her on the shoulder and I said, I just want to let you know something. It's not about you. She goes, Excuse me?

I said, Your t-shirt. It's not about you. I said, It's really about me. She goes, What? I said, It's all about me. Ask my children. They'll tell you it's all about me. And her parents came. Oh no, no, it's really all about her. Believe us. We know it's all about her. The point being is that we go through life thinking it's all about us, don't we? Our marriage is about us. Our job's about us. Our family's about us. Life's about me. I got news for you. It's not about you. Nothing is about you. And if you think it is, your study of the Gospel of Luke will mean absolutely zero to you.

Because Luke says, It's not about me. It's about the Lord. And that's why he never mentions his name. He's a very humble man. So how do we even know he wrote Luke? That's important, isn't it? How do you know that Luke wrote Luke? If he never mentions his name, how do we know it's him? Well, you can go through the process of elimination. Because when you begin to study the wee passages in the book of Acts, beginning on Paul's second missionary journey, you begin to, by process of elimination, realize that it's Luke who is with him.

And Paul will make reference to Luke as that beloved physician. That's important. Because Luke was the man who would take care of the Apostle Paul. But you will note that Luke never mentions any time that he binds the wounds of Paul. But you know that Paul's always wounded. You know he's always being beaten, snake-bitten, put in prison. All kinds of things are happening to him. So he has to have his own personal physician alongside of him. And Luke is that one, that physician. And Paul calls him the beloved physician over in Colossians 4, verse 11 and verse 14.

And we know he's a Gentile because in Colossians he is separated from those who are of the circumcision, meaning that he was a Gentile. And Luke was that beloved physician. You know if you're going to go to the doctor, you want to go to the beloved doctor, right? The one that's going to be tender, the one that's going to be gracious, the one that's going to be gentle with you. Luke was that beloved physician, as Paul called him. That's the only characterization we have of Luke, that he was a beloved physician.

So evidently he would take good care of the Apostle Paul. He would be used in a significant way in Paul's life. But Paul also says in the book of Philemon that this man is a fellow worker. A fellow worker. And over in 2 Timothy 4, verse 11, as Paul is at the end of his ministry, he says, everyone's left. Only Luke is with me. You know that tells you a lot about the man Luke, doesn't it? I mean he was always with Paul. That means he would have to go through some of the same conflicts that Paul went through.

That would mean that Luke was with Paul. He had to be a courageous individual. He had to be a loyal individual. He had to be a committed individual. Or he would have left too. But he was with the Apostle Paul. So we see this great physician who would come alongside Paul, not even caring about whether or not his name was mentioned, because it wasn't about him. It was about the great physician, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the great healer of mankind's soul. That's Luke. The great individual who was used in a mighty way as a physician in the life of the Apostle Paul.

He was a doctor of souls, Luke was. And you will notice as we go through this gospel that Luke is that one writer that puts great emphasis, listen, on women.

If you're a woman today, you're going to want to master the gospel of Luke. He puts a great emphasis on women and what the Lord God does with them. He is the one who mentions Mary, Elizabeth, Anna, Martha, the sister of Mary, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, the widow of Nain, the widow who gave all that she had, the daughters of Jerusalem, the women in Jesus' parables. He has a great emphasis on women because he's a doctor of souls. He is that beloved physician and knows that our great God has a special, special touch for women.

Most of us don't even know that, but that's true. And so we need to realize what our Lord does. When women in his day and age were disdained, women were only good to have babies and to procreate. That was the only use for women back in Jewish days. But Luke would spin that and talk about women in how they were ministering alongside of the Lord as well as how the Lord would minister to them. Luke, the physician, but Luke was also an historian, an historian. What does he say in verse number 1? Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of things accomplished among us.

Who were the many? He doesn't name them. He doesn't name who the many are. But we know that Matthew and Mark were written before Luke, and so maybe he got some of his material from them. Maybe he was able to talk with those who had been actually healed by our Lord, who had been given sight because they were blind, who had been raised from the dead. He talks about the widow who lost her son, her only son, who was from a little small village called Nain. No one else mentions her, but Luke does. So maybe he had an interview with this mother.

Maybe he talked to her. Maybe he was able to communicate with those who had a special relationship with our Lord. All we know is that he was able to talk to many people about what had been accomplished by God in their lives. And now he's able to record that. And if you are looking for something, if you're looking for how God is going to accomplish His work in your life through His Son, Jesus Christ, you need to study the Gospel of Luke. Because that's what it's about. He says, I have looked and talked with many who have recorded about the things that God Himself has accomplished among us.

Luke's a historian. He searches out in great detail so that he can understand what's happening. It doesn't mean that this is his own writings because his Gospel is just as much as inspired as every other book of the Bible is. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21. Holy men of God were moved along, born along by the Spirit of God as God would give them His words. These are the words of God. But it doesn't negate the fact that Luke was a historian. He would study the Bible. He would study those Old Testament passages.

He would study those people who had their lives changed by this great physician. And you will know, listen, you will know that Luke is the only writer to record the event in the life of Christ during his childhood. Nobody else does. There is an event when Jesus Christ is 12 years of age that takes place in Jerusalem that is the most historic event of his childhood. And it's the only event of his childhood that's recorded in any Gospel. Because it means so much to what Luke is trying to present in his Gospel that this one, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is not only Son of God but Son of Man.

And so he records that one incident. And let me tell you something. If you were going through life and they could only record one incident in the first 30 years of your life, what incident would it be?

And for Luke, he records one incident in the life of our Lord in the first 30 years of his life, outside of his birth, outside of his flight to Egypt in his early childhood, to that one event that took place when he was 12 years of age.

And we will study that in great detail to help you understand why it's so significant. But Luke is an historian. If you were to study Luke, you'd realize that there are about 35 miracles recorded in the Gospels. Of those 35, 20 are in Luke. And there are 7 that are specifically unique to Luke. Of the 50 or so parables of our Lord, 35 of those parables are in the Gospel of Luke. 19 of them are only in Luke. 30 events in the life of our Christ, in the life of our Lord, that Luke records and no one else does.

This man is an historian. And he writes it out because Theophilus needs to know, listen, the exact truth. So he's a physician. He's a historian. But you know what? Luke's a theologian. Luke spends a great deal of time emphasizing the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God. When we study Zacharias' song, we're going to be in Luke chapter 1, we're going to realize that Zacharias would talk about the Abrahamic covenant. He would talk about the Davidic covenant. And he would talk about the New Covenant.

And Luke is very good at recording for us the sovereign plan of God. How it begins to unfold. How prophecy is fulfilled. How the forerunner to the Messiah does come. Just as was foretold in Malachi chapter 3. And how this forerunner would come and pave the way for the Messiah. And the whole event surrounding the birth of Christ. And how the sovereign plan of God unfolded before their very eyes. He has a huge emphasis on the sovereignty of God. He has a huge emphasis on the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God.

Just in Luke chapter 1, in verse 15, verse 41, verse 67, verse 35, chapter 2, verses 25 to 27, chapter 3, verses 22, chapter 4, verse number 1. It's all about the Spirit of God. He's emphasizing what the Spirit of God's role is in the whole scenario of the coming of Christ. And then Luke is the one who records in the book of Acts the emphasis on the Spirit of God, right? The day of Pentecost. The Spirit comes. And the Acts really are the Acts of the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God acting in the lives of the apostles.

And those people who commit their lives to Christ. But he sets the mood for that in his gospel by telling us about the Spirit of God. So he has a huge emphasis on the sovereignty of God, a huge emphasis on the Spirit of God, and a huge emphasis on the salvation of God. So you got soteriology, you got pneumatology, you got theology. He is a theologian. And he wants us to understand the salvation of God. Matthew and Mark never mention the word salvation. John mentions it once. Luke mentions it six times.

And many more times in his next letter, Acts. Why? Because Luke wants to talk about the salvation of God. And so soteriology is emphasized greatly in Luke's account. Because he wants us to understand how this truly is good news. You see, he's a Gentile. He is the only Gentile writer in the Bible. And he knows that the gospel from the very beginning was designed to reach the Gentile world. All you got to do is read the Old Testament. And he had that light come to him. And that's why he records Simeon's song in Luke chapter 2 when he says this, A light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of thy people to Israel.

Luke is the only one who records Simeon's song. Because he realizes that Simeon understands that the gospel has come not just to the Jews but to the Gentiles as well. He was a Gentile. So he has a big emphasis on salvation. He has a big emphasis on talking about salvation with the Samaritans, the degenerates, the half-breeds. Because he recognizes that salvation is for all men not just for some men. And that's his emphasis on salvation. In Luke chapter 4, we get to the time he goes back to Nazareth.

He's 30 years of age now. He's an adult. He goes back to Nazareth. And they hand him the scroll to read. Because, you know, in the synagogue when it's time for you to read a certain section as a rabbi, they go through sections of the Old Testament. In Luke chapter 4, it just so happens that the day that Jesus arrives at his hometown, they happen to be in the book of Isaiah. And they just happen to be in Isaiah 61. And so Jesus, who is that rabbi that they've already heard about, what's taking place down in Capernaum, what's happening down in Jerusalem, they've already heard about him.

They've asked him to come and read. And it just so happens that it reads Isaiah 61. And in Isaiah 61, it talks about the coming of the Messiah and the message that Messiah will bring. And on that day, he says, today this is fulfilled in your ears. The text says the people were astounded. Why? Because every other rabbi had said, one day Messiah will come and this is what he will do. Except this rabbi got up and said, today is that day. And he goes on and talks about how way back during the days of Elijah, and every Jew knows about the days of Elijah, how Elijah, there were many, many widows, many widows that were Jewish widows.

But Elijah was sent to a Gentile widow. And she believed. And then there was Elisha. He uses the illustration of Elisha in Luke 4. How there were many people in Israel who were hurting, but Elisha was sent to a Syrian king, Naaman, an arch enemy of Israel. And Naaman wasn't sent to the Jewish people. I mean, Elisha wasn't sent to the Jewish people. He was sent to this pagan Gentile who was filled with leprosy. His life was changed because Jesus comes to his hometown and says, I'm going to let you know that the gospel I give is not just for you.

It's for all people, Jew and Gentile. See, Luke gets that. And so he wants us to understand that he is a theologian. So he talks about the sovereignty of God, the spirit of God, the salvation of God. He spends a lot of time talking about the son of God. You must understand that Jesus Christ is the son of God. He spends a great deal of emphasis on the Christology of Christ. Who is this son? What does he do? What was prophesied in the Old Testament? He spends a great deal on the suffering of God. He's a great theologian.

Luke chapter 9, verse number 51, it's at that point that Jesus sets his heart on going to Jerusalem. In Luke chapter 9, all the way to the end, it's about his commitment to go to the cross. And so Luke spends a lot of time talking to us about the suffering of God because that was part of the plan. That's why the key verse is Luke chapter 19, verse number 10. That's the key verse of this gospel. For the son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost. And you can outline the gospel of Luke by that one verse.

He came, Luke chapter 1, verse number 1, all the way through Luke chapter 4, verse number 13. That's his coming. And then from chapter 4, verse number 14, all the way to the end of chapter 21, you have the fact that not only did he come, but he came to seek. And you see the son of man seeking after different souls. And then chapters 22 to the end, you have his salvation. He came to seek and to save that which is lost. So you have the outline of the book just by looking at one verse of Luke 19, 10, which helps us understand the ministry of Christ and all those things that have been accomplished among them.

So you see this man is a theologian because he emphasizes the sovereignty of God. He emphasizes the spirit of God, the salvation of God, the son of God, the suffering of God, and lastly, the second coming of God, the eschatology, the end times, and what's going to happen at the end.

And so he wants to bring it all together by emphasizing the second coming of God. That, my friend, is a theologian. And that's why he says that he writes to Theophilus in consecutive order. It's not that everything is chronological, although the majority of the Gospel of Luke is chronological. A lot of it's thematic. But what he does is give you a good order as to how things unfold before you, and Theophilus needs to understand that. This man is a supreme theologian because he knows how to outline the facts of the Bible in consecutive order so Theophilus can get a grasp on the son of God.

And what's going to happen with us is that as we come week after week after week, we will understand how Luke writes so that we can get an understanding of the son of God so we can grow in our walk with God. Luke, the man, a physician, an historian, a theologian, a musician. He's the only one who records Zacharias' song in Luke 1. He's the only one who records Mary's Magnificat, her great song in Luke 1. He's the only one who records Simeon's song. He's the only one who records, listen, the praise of the angels in Luke 2.

Let me tell you something. Get this and mark it down. Luke is the author that uses the word rejoice more than any other author. He has a great deal to do with the joy of the heart of a man. He has a supreme emphasis on joy. And you will note that the gospel begins, listen, the gospel begins with good news of what? Great joy, right? Now, go all the way back to the end of Luke. Luke chapter 24, verse number 52. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising God.

Folks, the gospel begins with joy and the gospel ends with joy. If you want to find real true joy, you will study the gospel of Luke. See that? I mean, I should at least get a praise-a-lujah, a hallelujah, amen, preach it, brother, something over there, you know. A hallelujah, praise-a-lujah, something that's supposed to go on. I mean, folks, this is about real true joy. And Luke records it. And he, listen, here's the point. Because he's a great theologian, he is a marvelous musician. Why? Because joy comes when you understand the sovereignty of God, when you understand the Son of God, the Spirit of God, the second coming of God.

When you begin to understand the salvation of God, then you will have joy. There is no joy to any individual who doesn't come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. And there is no joy in our hearts unless we come to grasp the sovereignty of God, the Son of God, the songs of God, the salvation of God, the Spirit of God, the second coming of God.

Because joy is about God. See that? And that's Luke's emphasis. That's what he wants to do. And, you know, you have people who, you know, they want to feel good. It's not about feeling good, it's about having true joy in the depths of your heart. And that leads me to the next point, and that is the message, his message. We saw him as a man. Now I want you to look with me at his message. And let me give you four points here in closing this morning.

And it's this. His message centers around the past to which the gospel was indebted. It centers around the past to which the gospel was indebted. He says these words. Verse 2. Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. See, Luke is indebted to the eyewitnesses. That's where we get our English word autopsy, to see with one's own eye. These people were excellent examiners. And Luke had the opportunity to talk to people who were excellent examiners of what took place in the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And those eyewitnesses then became servants of the Word. And if you read through Luke's writings in the book of Acts, you realize that to be a servant of the Word is to be a servant of the gospel. You can read about it in Acts 8, 4, Acts 10, 36, Acts 11, 19, Acts chapter 14. To be a servant of the Word is to be a servant of the gospel. And so he is indebted to those eyewitnesses. He goes back to them. He listens to them. He understands them and begins to record the life and ministry of Jesus Christ our Lord.

So his message is centered around the past to which the gospel was indebted. And number two, it's centered on a person for whom the gospel was intended.

It's centered on a person for whom the gospel was intended. Excellent Theophilus. He was a noble man. We don't know much about him, but in the book of Acts, Luke writes to him again. Theophilus, friend of God, lover of God. Now listen carefully, because you see, we need to understand this. He was concerned that Theophilus understand who Jesus is. So either evidently Theophilus wanted to know more about his Lord, and so Luke would write him and tell him about him. And it gives us a little indication about the heart of a believer, right?

He can never get enough. He never knows enough. The unsearchable riches of Christ can be searched forever and never come to a complete understanding of them, but you want more of them. And Luke says, Theophilus wants to know, so I'm going to write it out in consecutive order so he gets a good grasp of who Jesus Christ is. And then I'll write him another letter so he understands what happens after the resurrection of Christ because the power of God comes upon man and how the Spirit of God moves man.

See that? It tells us a lot about how we should be. We should want to know more about the Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. We should be like Theophilus, a friend of God, a lover of God, who says, Tell me more. Give me more. I want to know more about Jesus Christ. I want to understand my God. I want to follow my God, but I need to understand Him. So Luke would sit down and begin to write to this one individual because that's to whom the gospel was intended. And point number three, he centers on a plan by which the gospel was initiated.

He centers on a plan by which the gospel was initiated. He had a plan. It was to write it in consecutive order, write it very logically, very systematically, so that this man, Theophilus, would understand. Folks, you know, we need a plan, don't we? I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who does a lot of dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses. He says, You know, the thing that concerns me is that most Christians don't have a plan. They don't have the foggiest idea of what they're saying or what they're talking to a Jehovah's Witness about.

We need to help them understand a plan. Give them a way to communicate with people who are of a different faith, who are of a cult, who don't believe the same way we do. Us Christians, we don't have plans. We just kind of fly by the seat of our pants. We need a plan. Luke had a plan. And if you're a teacher today, if you're a preacher today, Luke is an example for us on how we need to set things in logical, systematic, chronological order so that people will get an understanding of what it is we're trying to tell them.

And lastly, this is probably the most amazing thing of all in my mind, and that is the purpose for which the gospel was inspired. The purpose for which this gospel was inspired. It says that Theophilus might know the exact truth. See, that's the heart of a pastor. See, the pastor's job is not to make you feel good. The pastor's job is not to boost your self-esteem. The pastor's job is to give you the exact truth, right? And that's what Luke does. Theophilus, I want you to know the exact truth. Maybe Theophilus was young in the faith.

Maybe he was about to come to faith. We don't know. We don't know where he was. But Luke says, you know what? I want to tell you exactly as it is. I want you to see exactly how it happened, Theophilus, so that you might come to a full understanding of what the truth really is. And the most marvelous thing about this is that this gospel was intended for one man and one man only. And it's gotten all around the globe. That amazes me. That amazes me. Luke had no idea that this gospel would carry on for centuries after his death.

He just wrote to one guy because he wanted one man to know the truth. And I think about that in your life and my life. And I had to ask myself this question this week. If only one of you came every week, would I still be here to give you the truth? If only one came, if Harold was the only one, and there he sat every Sunday all by his lonesome, would I be as passionate as I am this morning because one man came? And it helped us understand that we need to be focused on the depth of our ministry, and God will take care of the breadth of our ministry.

See, Luke was committed to one thing, one man knowing the truth. Can you imagine what it would be if we just committed to just that point? If we were committed to making sure that one person knew the exact truth, that's it, just one person, not 50, not 1,000, not 100 million, just one person. Is that not how the gospel is presented? One person at a time to go into all the world and make disciples? One at a time, right? Just one. And so I thought to myself, you know, if we could just be committed to that through the remainder of this year, what one person, what Theophiluses do you know what friends of God, what seekers after God, what individual do you know that needs to understand the exact truth?

And you have made it your life's ambition and journey to say, you know what? I will make sure that they understand it in consecutive order. Wow, can you imagine there would not be a facility big enough to house the church? Because when you are committed to the depth, Christ will take care of the breadth. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for Luke, his commitment to one man, Theophilus, and what that means to us today. Little did he know, little did he know what he was doing if we could be that humble and that concerned about just making sure that the exact truth was taught and forgot about how many people were listening, just making sure that one individual heard the exact truth.

Forgive us, Lord, for our wanting to be heard. Forgive us, Lord, for our wanting to be put on display. Forgive us, Lord, for thinking that it really is about us because it's not. It's just not. Luke knew it was about his Lord, and his Lord said, I'm going to make sure everybody listens to Luke because he said it right. Lord, may we say it right and may we live it right. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.