The Gospel of Luke: A Survey of the Gospel of Luke

Transcript

JRNT 53
April 14, 2024
The Gospel of Luke: A Survey of the Gospel of Luke
Luke 1-24
Jesse Randolph


I love road trips, I always have. There is just something about the anticipation of the night before, getting up early, making that first gas station stop-off, getting that cup of coffee in the coffee cup the size of a 5-gallon bucket, hearing the hum of the highway. There is that sense of anticipation about where you are going, what you'll do, who you'll see. All of it has always been incredibly appealing to me. A part of the road trip experience, I think, that has sadly been lost on our generation is the use of a map in figuring out where you are going to go. I mean, I'm old enough to remember when there was such a thing as the old foldable paper map. Remember those? You would kind of try to stuff it back together and follow those lines and creases to get it back into place, never successfully. I'm old enough to remember that there was this phenomenon of printing the driving instructions off a website like Map Quest and then putting the directions on your dashboard and then measuring the odometer in front of you by how many miles were on that printout to make sure that you weren't going to blow past your exit. Some of you remember that, right? Maybe not for the college age students and the high schoolers and junior highers in the room, but that is how we once lived, back pre-Y2K and it was marvelous.

Well, road trips, road maps, I'm not mentioning these to wistfully long for a bygone era but instead because I think it's a fitting way to start the message this morning as we go on this road trip, as it were, through the Gospel of Luke. That's what we're going to be doing this morning, surveying the Gospel of Luke. What we are doing essentially is laying out our map on the kitchen table ahead of time, looking at it the night before, charting out where we are going to be headed and what we're going to see on the journey ahead as we survey the road before us.

Now last week, you'll recall, we did this flyover survey of all four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In last Sunday's message we saw that there is one gospel, there is one good news message of salvation which is that Jesus Christ, God's divinely sent Savior, left heaven to come to earth and He did so ultimately to die for our sins. Not only was He sent to die, though, He actually did die, and He actually was buried, and He actually did rise on the third day so that anyone who would repent of their sins and believe upon His name would be forgiven of their sins and have eternal life. That is the gospel message; and that one gospel message, then, comes through the writings of these four different Gospel authors—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We saw last week that each wrote from a slightly different perspective. Matthew wrote from the perspective of Jesus being the Messiah King who had been promised to Israel. Mark was writing from the perspective of Jesus being the Servant Savior, Luke is writing from the perspective of Jesus being the Son of Man and John is writing from the perspective of Jesus being the Son of God. Now Matthew, Mark and Luke who wrote what are known as the synoptic Gospels, meaning they are the similar Gospels, they essentially each told the same story in a similar way, starting with the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry in the northern region of Galilee and then later His move down to Jerusalem, Judea, the area around Jerusalem, which culminated in His trial, His crucifixion, His burial and His resurrection. That's the general structure of Matthew, Mark and Luke. John's Gospel is a little different, in fact it's more than a little different, it's more than slightly different, it's really different. That's why it is not one of the synoptic Gospels. John tells the account of Jesus' earthly ministry really through the lens of these seven miracles—Jesus turning water into wine, Jesus healing the royal official's son, Jesus healing the paralytic at Bethesda, Jesus feeding the multitude, Jesus walking on water, Jesus healing the man who was blind from birth and Jesus raising Lazarus. Those seven miracles are essentially the engine which drive John's Gospel up until around John 13, then we get to John 14, the Upper Room Discourse, and then John tracks the standard death, burial, resurrection accounts of each of the other three Gospels. When you put all four Gospel accounts together, what you get is this really rich and full picture of Jesus' life, death, burial, resurrection prior to His ascension to the right hand of God the Father.

That was all last week, that's by way of review. What about this week? Well, like last week this week's lesson is going to be less sermonic than what you normally hear from up here. This week's lesson like last week's will be more like a Bible college style lecture. Now as I mentioned last week, next Sunday's message will be more of the same of what you're going to get today, it's going to have a similar feel as we survey the book of Acts. So, this week we are surveying the Gospel of Luke, next week we are surveying the book of Acts. Why are we surveying the book of Acts next week? Because Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. These two books really go together, they fit together like two giant puzzle pieces, the Gospel of Luke giving Luke's account of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ and the book of Acts giving the account of the early history of the church which Christ bought and which He continues to build.

With that let's start with our survey of the Gospel of Luke. This morning's message will really follow along two lines. First, we're going to look at some of the key features of the Gospel of Luke, where we'll look at things like authorship and date and literary style. Then second, we're going to look at the form of the Gospel of Luke, meaning we're going to look at its structure, its outline, and we're going to survey it all the way from Luke 1 to Luke 24. If you are a notetaker you're going to need to write fast today, but the two main headings are The Features of the Gospel of Luke and The Form of the Gospel of Luke.

Let's start with The Features of the Gospel of Luke. Let's start with talking about the authorship of Luke. Who wrote this Gospel? Now we take it for granted, we've seen our English Bibles here, the translation says right at the heading of Luke 1:1, The Gospel According to Luke. Well, those words are nice for our English eyes to fall upon, our English-speaking eyes, but those words, The Gospel According to Luke, don't appear in the original Greek manuscripts. So how do we know? How can we be sure, and can we be sure that Luke actually wrote this Gospel? Yes, we can and for multiple reasons. First there is the internal evidence of Luke being the author of this book. For instance, when we look at the prologue to this book, that would be Luke 1:1-4 and we'll get into that in just a moment, it is evident that whoever wrote this Gospel was not an eyewitness of the life and ministry of Jesus. He says such in Luke 1:2 where he says he is relying upon “those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word.” So, whoever wrote this was not himself an eyewitness. Note the fact that this author of the Gospel of Luke was not a direct eyewitness to the events it records immediately eliminates any of the twelve apostles as being possible alternate authors of this Gospel. Since one of the requirements of being an apostle was that you had to have been a firsthand witness of certain miraculous events or miracles performed by Jesus during His earthly ministry. So, if it wasn't an apostle who wrote this Gospel, who was it?

Well, that then takes us to our next pool of likely candidates for authorship. For that we go to the book of Acts, and in the book of Acts you have these various “we” statements where whoever wrote the book of Acts moves from describing people doing or they are doing or him doing something to saying we did or we went or we traveled or we accomplished something. For instance, Acts 16:10 says, “Immediately we sought to go into Macedonia.” Or Acts 16:13 says, “On the Sabbath day we went outside to the gate by a riverside.” Acts 20:6 says, “We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread.” Acts 21:3 says, “When we came in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we kept sailing to Syria and landed at Tyre.” So that's just a sampling of some of these “we” references in the book of Acts. What's important to note here is that when you work your way through any of these sections of the book of Acts where you see that word “we” used, in those very sections you'll see the names of Paul's other traveling companions mentioned by name, names like Silas and Timothy and Aristarchus and Secundus and Gaius and Tychicus and Trophimus. They are all mentioned by name. There is only one person who we know was a traveling companion of Paul who is not mentioned by name in those “we” sections and guess who it is. Luke, Luke is not mentioned. The reason Luke is not mentioned, I would argue, is that he is writing it. He is describing all these other people as third parties, but he is the one not mentioning himself because he is the one authoring the book, the book of Acts. Because we know the book of Acts goes with the Gospel of Luke, the two are hand in hand and we'll see that in a minute, we know that whoever wrote Acts, and that would be Luke, wrote the Gospel of Luke. That would be internal evidence.

How about external evidence of Luke being the author of this Gospel. Well, there is plenty of that, I'll just mention a few sources. But there are many extrabiblical resources or sources like the works of Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, these are early church fathers who testify from the very earliest days of the church that Luke in fact was the author of this Gospel. So, Luke is the author.

How about the date. When was Luke written? I put the writing of this Gospel in the early 60s A.D., and how do I get there? Well, like a lot of what we'll describe and summarize in Luke here, the dating of Luke is tied to the dating of the book of Acts. Remember this is a two-part work, Luke and Acts. What is the date of the book of Acts? That's where we start. Why don't you turn with me to Acts 28:31. Look at Acts 28:31 which reads this way, this is in reference to Paul, and it says that Paul was “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence unhindered.” In other words, the book of Acts ends on this high note, the gospel is going forward with all confidence, it says, “unhindered.” So now we can take that statement and we can really drill down and zero in on the dating of the book of Acts. We can do so by remembering that there were some pretty significant events happening in the world in both the 60s and the 70s A.D. For instance, the destruction of the Jerusalem temple happened in 70 A.D., and it's not mentioned anywhere in the book of Acts. Paul's martyrdom, we know, happened in 67 A.D. It is mentioned nowhere in the book of Acts. We know that Nero's persecution of Christians, those of The Way, was happening in 64-65 A.D. It is mentioned nowhere in the book of Acts. The fact that none of those events are mentioned in the book of Acts, that is a significant omission, in fact it's a glaring omission when we consider how meticulous a historian Luke was, how scrupulously attentive to details he was. What are we to conclude with the fact that the book of Acts doesn't mention any of those events—the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, the martyrdom of Paul, the persecution of Nero? Well, we can conclude that they happened later, and Luke wrote earlier. Had they happened earlier and had Luke written later, he would have mentioned those events in the book of Acts. The fact that he doesn't mention any of those events means that we can confidently place the dating of Acts somewhere before 64 A.D., likely 62-63 A.D., and because Luke was written before Acts, remember it's the prequel and not the sequel, it was likely written somewhere around 60-61 A.D.

There is the authorship of Luke, it was written by Luke. There is the dating of Luke, maybe 60-61 A.D. Now we're going to get into the identity of Luke. Who was Luke? Now I know we covered this a bit last week, but as we go deeper into the study of the Gospel of Luke, I think it would be worth being reminded of. First, we know that Luke was a Gentile. We know this from Colossians 4:11 which we ended our study in Colossians not too long ago, and we see that list of Paul's traveling companions and he has a whole list of those who are of the circumcision, he says, and he names three people there. Not one of them is Luke. Luke appears in a different list, meaning he was not of the circumcision, meaning he was a Gentile. A second thing we know about Luke is that he not only was a Gentile, but he was a trustworthy traveling companion of Paul's. We see in Philemon 24 that Paul calls Luke his fellow worker. We know from just reading the book of Acts that Luke was with Paul on more than one missionary journey. We know from II Timothy 4:11, Paul's final inspired letter, that Luke stuck by Paul until the very end. In fact, in II Timothy 4:11 Paul would say, as he is mentioning others who had deserted him, that “only Luke is with me.” Third we know that Luke was a medical doctor. We don't really need to belabor this one, Paul says it so clearly in Colossians 4:14 that Luke is the beloved physician. And last, we know that Luke was a meticulous historian, which we are about to see as we survey the book of Acts.

Next, we want to look at the audience of Luke, as we look through some of these features. Who was Luke written to? Well, we know immediately his immediate recipient was Theophilus. Again, back in Luke 1:3 in the prologue it says, “It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in an orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus.” We know nothing else about this man except that he was a Gentile. He had a Greek name, a name that means lover of God and apparently Theophilus needed some form of assurance or reassurance. Look at Luke 1:4, here is the purpose statement, “so that you may know the certainty,” or some translations say know with certainty, “about the things you have been taught.” So, the immediate audience, the immediate recipient of the Gospel of Luke is Theophilus. Though Theophilus was an actual and immediate figure in history to whom this Gospel was written, it is fair to point out here as we think about this concept of the audience of Luke, that Luke here was writing from his own Gentile perspective. He is seeking to reach not only Jews but the Gentiles of his day. Through his literary style, as we'll see in our study of Luke, and his recounting of certain events and the way he communicates certain terms and concepts, it is clear that he is trying to get the message out that salvation is not only for the Jew but also for the Gentile. To the Jew first and also to the Greek.

One last thing to mention here as we look at the features of Luke would be the literary style of Luke. Luke is distinct, Luke is different in a number of ways from the other Gospel writers. First of all, the Greek language that Luke uses in his Gospel is highly complex, it's some of the most difficult Greek you'll encounter in the New Testament. You can be praying for me each and every week as I try to figure it out. Second, the vocabulary that Luke uses in his Gospel is expansive. In fact, there are 319 Greek words in his Gospel that we don't see anywhere else in the New Testament, he has an impressive command of the language and vocabulary. Last, his writing style is undeniably complex, rich and beautiful. Think about the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. That is considered, even by nonbelievers, to be an incredible work of ancient literature. A French rationalist named Ernest Renan called the Gospel of Luke the loveliest book in the world. William Barclay who wrote several commentaries said, “If ever I had to choose to keep one book of the New Testament and one book only,” not that we would ever make such a choice, “the book I would choose would be Luke's Gospel.” The language of Luke is vivid and gripping and moving and we really are all in for a treat as we work our way through it in the months and years ahead.


that's a little bit of a racehorse summary of the features of the Gospel of Luke. Now we're going to look at the form of the Gospel of Luke, meaning the structure of this Gospel, how it is all laid out. Now different authors and theologians and pastors and preachers, they lay out Luke's Gospel in different ways. You'll read one commentary, laid out one way. You'll read another; they lay it out a different way. I'm going to lay it out according to that often-used term that we see throughout Luke's Gospel, Son of Man. What I'm going to do is I'm going to start with a broader outline and then we'll work through a more detailed summary through all 24 chapters of the Gospel of Luke this morning as we turn our pages and turn our eyes to these pages. Here are the broader six headings for how I've outlined Luke for you here this morning. Each one is tied to the term the Son of Man. In Luke 1:1-4 we have The Prologue to the Gospel of the Son of Man. In Luke 1:5-4:13 we have The Arrival of the Son of Man. In Luke 4:14-9:50 we have The Galilean Ministry of the Son of Man. In Luke 9:51-19:27 we have The Season of Rejection of the Son of Man. In Luke 19:28-23:56 we have The Suffering and Sacrifice of the Son of Man. Then last in Luke 24 we have The Final Authentication of the Son of Man. So, we can just pray and go home now, right? That's the outline, ready to go? No. We're going to work through every single one of these chapters if it kills me this morning, starting with The Prologue to the Gospel of the Son of Man.

Why don't you turn with me to Luke 1:1. As I mentioned last week, and I don't think there were too many emails last week, I'll be reading from and working through the Legacy Standard Bible here this morning. Luke 1:1, it says, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word 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 an orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught.” I'll reserve too much detailed comment on this passage this morning since we will be working line by line and word by word through this very passage in just a couple of weeks. But it is worth noting this morning that what we see in this prologue are traces of what I've already mentioned in the first few minutes we've been together today. First of all, we see Luke's immediate audience, this Gentile named Theophilus. Second, we see Luke's secondhand perspective. Note that he is referring to these eyewitnesses and servants of the Word who are handing this account down to him. Then third, we see Luke's historical precision. His account stems from “having investigated,” he says verse 3, “everything carefully from the beginning,” and his desire to write it out in an orderly sequence for Theophilus, and why? So that Theophilus may know with certainty the things he's been taught. That's the prologue to Luke's Gospel. That will be our shortest point for this morning. We'll save more for that in a couple of weeks.

We now move on to the second major section of Luke's Gospel where we see The Arrival of the Son of Man. That's our second major heading. This spans from Luke 1:5-4:13. Now the story of the coming of Jesus, of course, begins with the story of the coming of His predecessor, John the Baptist, which we see in Luke 1:5-25. This is the account of Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth; this aged couple who were told that when the angel Gabriel visited Zacharias that they were going to have a son in their old age and not just any son but a son who would become the forerunner to the Messiah. Look at Luke 1:17, it says, this is the angel Gabriel speaking to Zacharias about this child that would be born to him and Elizabeth who we know as John the Baptist. Luke 1:17 says, “And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Well, the angel Gabriel wasn't done because the next scene in Luke 1 is the announcement of the birth of Jesus Himself. It starts with Gabriel saying this to Mary in Luke 1:28. He says, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you” and then he elaborates down in verse 31 saying, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of His kingdom.” Soon thereafter in Luke 1:46 Mary prays this prayer which has historically now been known as The Magnificat in which she not only praises God for who He is and for His faithfulness in fulfilling His promises, but she specifically, and note this, refers to God as her Savior. Look at Luke 1:46, it says, “And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” In other words, contrary to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church Mary wasn't sinless, Mary was not immaculately conceived, Mary is not worthy of worship. No Mary was a sinner just like you and I are sinners and Mary needed a Savior just like you and I do, and she knew it; hence her prayer.

Well, the rest of Luke 1 tells the story of the birth of John the Baptist, including this prophecy by his father Zacharias in Luke 1:76. This is Zacharias speaking of his own son, John the Baptist. He says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go on before the Lord to make ready His ways, to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace.” That's chapter 1, 23 to go.

Now we move to Luke 2. We get to that part of Luke that we all know and love, this is the part of Luke's Gospel that we see embossed on Christmas cards every year. This is the part of Luke which inspires adorable Christmas plays every December with angels and shepherds and wise men. This of course is the account of the birth of Jesus, the birth of our Lord. Look at Luke 2:7, speaking of Mary here, it says, “And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the” ............ My Legacy Standard Bible says, “guest room.” Uh oh, more on that later. Israel's long promised Messiah has arrived which the angel Gabriel communicates to this group of shepherds who were out tending their fields and watching over their flocks. Look what he says, the angel to the shepherds in Luke 2;10. “But the angel said to them, do not be afraid for behold I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For today in the City of David there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” Then in verses 13-14 it says, “Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” Later in chapter 2 after the scene describing the aged Simeon and Anna there in the temple, Luke skips ahead all the way to when Jesus was 12 years old and, in that scene, when Jesus is now 12, we have this picture of Him getting separated from His family while visiting Jerusalem. He finds Himself in the midst of the teachers of the Law of His day in the temple and look how Luke records in Luke 2:47 how they responded to 12-year-old Jesus' teaching. Luke 2:47, it says, “And all who heard Him were astounded at His understanding and His answers.” And then some familiar language at the end of Luke 2:51, it says, “And He went down with them,” that's with His family back down to Nazareth, “and came to Nazareth and He continued in subjection to them, and His mother was treasuring all these things in her heart. And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.”

Now when we get to Luke 3 the camera pans back over to John the Baptist, the prophet of God, the forerunner to the arrival of Jesus the Messiah. John the Baptist, we see, is preaching this message of repentance to the people of Israel. Look at Luke 3:3, speaking of John the Baptist here, it says, “And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Not one to tickle ears, not one to win friends and influence people, look at what John says in Luke 3:7. He says, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” It's a hard message, a hard-edged message and that message caused people to wonder whether John the Baptist himself might be the Messiah. Look at Luke 3:15. “Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were reasoning in their hearts about John as to whether he was the Christ, John answered saying to them all, as for me I baptize you with water. But One is coming who is mightier than I and I am not fit to untie the strap of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” John, we know, would then go on to baptize Jesus, at which point we see in Luke 3:22, “A voice came from heaven saying, You are My beloved Son,” this is God the Father, “in You I am well pleased.” The rest of Luke 3 records the genealogy of Jesus. You see the long list there. Pray for me as I unpack those in a sermon or sermons in the future. But you see the genealogy here goes not just back to Abraham but all the way back to Adam. Luke 3:38, “the son of Adam, the Son of God.”

Then in the first 13 verses of Luke 4 we have this account of the temptation of Jesus. That's built around these three different “if You” statements made by Satan, made by the devil. Luke 4:3, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Luke 4:7, “If You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Luke 4:9, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.” The response of Jesus to each of Satan's attempts to tempt Him involved what? Scripture, quoting Scripture and in each case citing a portion of the Mosaic Law, Deuteronomy specifically as Jesus refuted the falsehood and the temptation that the father of lies was throwing His way. Well, that gets us through the second major heading of Luke's Gospel, the second section of Luke's Gospel about The Arrival of the Son of Man.

Now we turn to the third major section of his Gospel, and we come upon The Galilean Ministry of the Son of Man. Here we are referring to Jesus' ministry in the northern region of Galilee to His own countrymen, to His own people, and this section extends all the way down to Luke 9:50. We will run through it very quickly. This section, section three, starts with this very clean transition statement in Luke 4:14, where it says, “And Jesus returned to Galilee,” that is from being tempted by Satan, “in the power of the Spirit and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district and He was teaching in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” Now it's here in Luke 4, it's this scene in the synagogue in Nazareth where Luke records that Jesus read these words out of the Old Testament in Luke 4:18. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And then just a couple of verses down in verse 21, “In the sight of all He said, today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He is referring to Himself, He is saying that prophecy, that Old Testament Scripture is about Me. Of course that enraged many, prompting them, Luke 4:29, “to drive Him out of the city, leading Him to the edge of the hill on which their city had been built in order to throw Him down the cliff.”

Well, from Nazareth, Jesus goes on to Capernaum, which was a 40-mile trek from His hometown, and it was there in Capernaum that Jesus began to demonstrate His miraculous powers that included driving out a demon possessed man and healing Peter's mother-in-law. But even as He was performing these healings, as we're going to see throughout Luke's Gospel, He had this greater purpose. We see this at the end of chapter 4 in Luke 4:42 where it says, “The crowds were eagerly seeking for Him,” they wanted to see Him do something, heal somebody, “and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. But He said to them, I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”

Moving into chapter 5, Luke here gives more accounts of more healings and more miracles, the healing of a leper, the healing of a paralytic, a massive haul of fish and then interspersed through all these miraculous events we see Jesus calling His initial disciples out of the world. That includes the call of Peter in Luke 5:8, the call of James and John in Luke 5:10, the call of Levi or Matthew in Luke 5:27. Luke 6 starts with the Pharisees challenging Jesus and His disciples for gleaning from the fields on the Sabbath, to which the Lord says, Luke 6:5, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Then He goes on, the Lord does, to perform a healing on the Sabbath and we're told in Luke 6:11 that “they themselves,” the Pharisees, the Jewish teachers and law keepers of the day, “were filled with rage and were discussing together what they might do to Jesus.” Well, the rest of Luke 6 records two items, broadly speaking, of great importance. First is Jesus' appointing of the twelve in Luke 6:12-16 and then second is the sermon on the plain which takes up the rest of Luke 6. When we get there, we'll see that this sermon on the plain of Luke 6 has many similarities to the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew 5-7 but has some key differences as well.

Moving on to Luke 7, 8 and 9 we're going to see how multifaceted the Lord's earthly ministry really was. For instance, in Luke 7 we learn of Jesus' ministry to a Roman centurion, a grieving widow, a doubting prophet, a repentant prostitute. That's the summary of Luke 7. Now Luke 8 we're going to see more of Jesus' multidimensional ministry. Luke 8 really records Him both performing miracles but also being very committed to teaching. For instance, in Luke 8 we see both the parable of the Sower but also Jesus stilling the storm. In Luke 8 we learn of the healing of Jairus' daughter, but we also have Jesus like in Luke 8:16 saying, “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a container or puts it under a bed, but he puts it on a lampstand so that those who come in may see the light.” His ministry, in other words, is multifaceted. He is both healing and performing miracles at the same time. He is very much a teacher. Now into Luke 9:1-2 we see that this is exactly what Jesus wanted His disciples to do, to be both those who would heal and perform miracles in His name but also to be a teacher in His name. Luke 9:1-2 says, “And calling the twelve together He gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.” So that's the miraculous side. “And He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” So, there is teaching and a miraculous component. Now the remainder of Luke 9 has some of the more well-known accounts of Jesus' earthly ministry, some of the more well known accounts in all of the Gospels even, including the feeding of the 5,000, Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ in Luke 9:20, and then these infamous words on the cost of discipleship in Luke 9:23 which says that “If anyone wishes to come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” It's also in Luke 9 that we encounter Luke's account of the transfiguration in verses 28-36, then down in Luke 9:44 Jesus predicts His own death and resurrection. Luke 9:44 He says, “Put these words into your ears, for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”

All right, we're halfway there. Those are the first three sections of the gospel of Luke. We've seen The Prologue, we've seen The Arrival of the Son of Man, we've seen The Galilean Ministry of the Son of Man. Now as we get to our fourth major section of Luke's Gospel it starts right in the middle of Luke 9:51. This is our fourth section which is titled The Season of Rejection of the Son of Man. Luke 9:51 says, “Now it happened that when the days for Him to be taken up were soon to be fulfilled He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” Now at this point or up to this point Jesus has been primarily up in that northern region of Galilee but here the focus shifts to Jesus' journey down to Jerusalem and ultimately toward the cross. What we're going to see in this section of Luke's Gospel is Jesus facing stiffer and stiffer headwinds as He gets closer and closer to touching the core of Jewish tradition and Jewish legalism and in His day Jewish power structures. For instance, in the remainder of Luke 9, after He set His face toward Jerusalem, Jesus is rejected first by Samaritans. Luke 9:53 says, “But they,” speaking of Samaritans, “did not receive Him because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.” After that just a bit down the page in Luke 9:61 we see that Jesus was rejected by those who wanted to cling to the world rather than accept the cost of following Him. Luke 9:61 says, “Another also said, I will follow You Lord, but first permit Me to say farewell to those at home. But Jesus said to him, no one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Now when we get to Luke 10, and really all the way through Luke 18, we're going to see everything here is built around this series of instructions given by our Lord on a variety of different matters related to what it means to follow Him.

Now the backdrop to Luke 10-18, geographically speaking, is Jesus advancing toward Jerusalem and the context here, thematically speaking, is Jesus facing opposition and rejection at various terms. That's the historical setting and the historical context. But it's in that setting and in that context that we are going to see Jesus giving a series of teachings and instructions that in many ways really make up the heart of this Gospel as He lays out what it means to live one's life as His follower. This section starts with Him appointing and commissioning these 70 additional disciples in Luke 10 as He gives them their instruction to carry out their ministry. Look at Luke 10:2, He says to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go. Behold I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” Then down the page a bit He gives instruction to a lawyer who asks the question in Luke 10:25, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He lays out for him all the way through verse 37, the parable of the good Samaritan. Then after that, while in Bethany, He gives instruction on worship and service by bringing up the examples of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42.

In Luke 11, He gives His disciples instruction on prayer, first by giving them this model for praying in verse 2. He said to them, “When you pray, say Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” Also, in the same chapter He implores His disciples to pray. Look at Luke 11:9, He says, “So I say to you ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened. “Moving on in chapter 11 we see that Jesus even gave instruction to the Pharisees who were starting to encircle Him and they were starting to cling to His every word and starting to condemn Him. This includes the instructions He gave where in Luke 11:29-32 He compares Himself to Jonah and Solomon of the Old Testament and declares Himself to be greater than both. This also includes, in terms of His instructions to the Pharisees, the woes that He declared on the Pharisees and the law teachers for the hypocrisy of their empty religion. Look at Luke 11:42, he says, “But woe to you Pharisees, for you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb and yet disregard justice and the love of God. But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, for you are like concealed tombs and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” And then in verse 46 He goes on to condemn the teachers of the Law of that day. It says, “Woe to you, scholars of the Law as well, for you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets but your fathers killed them.”

Now Jesus' words of instruction shift back to the disciples, and in Luke 12 He speaks against hypocrisy in Luke 12;1 where He says, “Be on your guard for the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy.” He speaks against greed in Luke 12:15 where He says, “Watch out and be on your guard against every form of greed.” He speaks of the importance of living a life of watchfulness in Luke 12:35 where He says, “Gird up your loins and keep your lamps lit.” He speaks of the importance of living a life of faithfulness in Luke 12:48 where He says, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask for all the more.”

Turning to chapter 13 we come upon our Lord's instructions related to repentance. Luke 13, Jesus wasn't tickling ears when He said this in verse 5, “I tell you no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Not only that, Jesus stresses in this chapter that repentance is always accompanied by the fruit of repentance. We see that in Luke 13:6-9 in the parable of the vine dresser. In the rest of Luke 13 He gives more instructions and warnings about the cold, dead religion of the Jewish leaders of His day. He points out the hypocrisy of their religion when they are confronting Him over healing a woman on the Sabbath who had been dealing with the same sickness for over 18 years. He is highlighting their empty religion and where it was taking them in Luke 13:28 where He says that “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves being cast out.”

Turning to Luke 14 here we see Jesus going right after the heart of various groups of people, including Pharisees who are hypocritically scrutinizing Him and invited guests who were selecting their own places of honor at the table, those who invited to their feasts only the rich and the famous and the familiar, and those who rejected invitations to dinners and banquets based on the false premise that they had something better to do. And what each of these series of instructions in Luke 14 point to ultimately were the heart-level motivations undergirding those who profess to be Jesus' followers. Again, He is going after the heart of what it means to be His follower, the cost of discipleship. Look at Luke 14:26 for a summary statement here. He says, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry His own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

Then we come to Luke 15, and we come across what is probably, outside the birth account and the resurrection account, the best-known portion of the Gospel of Luke. Here we see through a series of parables Jesus giving instruction on God's love for lost sinners. In fact, look at the context here in Luke 15:1-2, this is the context for the parables He is about to give. It says, “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.” So, the problem the Pharisees had with Jesus was that this supposed holy man of God was associating with those who were lowly. Jesus proceeds to share with them the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and then the parable of the prodigal son. There is so much there that needs to be said that I can't say right now, but the heart of His instruction here in Luke 15 is God's love for lost sinners.

Moving on to chapter 16 the theme of the instruction Jesus gives here is directed toward His disciples and it's on the topics of wealth and money. Here He is delivering first this parable of the unrighteous steward, the punch line of which is found in verses 10-13. Look at Luke 16:10, He says, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. And He who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” This misplaced prioritization of earthly wealth is further driven home in the story of the rich man and Lazarus and there are certainly more eternal principles being communicated here as well, but there certainly is the principle of possessions and wealth and one's heart attachment to them. Look at Luke 16:22, it says, “Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom and the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. But Abraham said, “Child remember that during your life you received your good things and likewise Lazarus bad things. But now he is being comforted here and you are in agony.” Now Jesus here was not teaching as a maxim that rich people go to hell and poor people go to heaven. What He was teaching, though, was that when a person's priorities aren't focused where they ought to be the state of their heart, and by extension the state of their soul, is going to be revealed.

Turning to Luke 17 Jesus here is still providing instruction to His disciples. Now He is on the matter of forgiveness and faithfulness and proper attitudes of servanthood and thankfulness. It's also in Luke 17 that Jesus speaks of future things, namely His Second Coming. Look at Luke 17:22, it says, “And He said to the disciples, The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you will not see it. And they will say to you, look there, look here. Do not go away and do not run after them. For just like the lightning when it flashes out of one part of the sky shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.” So much more could be said there, so much more will be said when we exposit this passage.

We move on, Luke 18. Jesus' words of instruction to His disciples continue here and in this chapter, He addresses the subject of prayer but He also gets into the perils of self-righteousness and that comes through in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, that infamous account of the Pharisee who proudly declared in Luke 18:12, “I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get.” Then the tax collector, who Luke 18:13 tells us was “standing some distance away and was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his chest saying, God be merciful to me the sinner” and then Jesus is recorded by Luke as saying in verse 14, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified,” that would be the tax collector, “rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18 also includes Jesus' teachings about the undivided spirit a person must have to inherit eternal life and one day inherit the future kingdom of God. Look at Luke 18:29, He said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times more at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” In Luke 18:31 Jesus gives His inner ring of Disciples instructions about His coming death. Look at Luke 18:31, it says, “But when He took the twelve aside, He said to them, behold we are going up to Jerusalem and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be completed. For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon. And after they have flogged Him, they will kill Him and the third day He will rise again.” But the disciples didn't get it, did they. No, look at the very next verse, verse 34, it says, “But the disciples understood none of these things, and this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.”

Now with the accounts at the end of Luke 18 about the healing of a blind man named Bartimaeus and Jesus' interaction with Zaccheus at the beginning of Luke 19, what those really highlight is this summary statement that Jesus gives in Luke 19:10 where He says, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” To finish out this section finally, in response to those disciples who thought that the kingdom of God had arrived, you see that confusion in Luke 19:11 where it says, “They thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately,” Jesus goes on to deliver His parable of the ten minas, the point of which was to instruct His disciples in faithfulness by pointing to that faithful slave who has wisely invested the ten minas that his master had given him. You see him commended in Luke 19:16, it says, “So the first,” the first slave, “appeared saying, Master, your mina has made ten minas more. And he said to him, Well done, good slave. Because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.”

We're four sections in, now we come to our fifth section where we're going to encounter The Suffering and the Sacrifice of the Son of Man. In this section we have Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19:28-44. There we have the colt being untied and coats being laid on the colt for Jesus to sit on and coats being spread on the road. Then in Luke 19:38 we have the people saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” It truly was a celebratory occasion as the Lord descended, came down to Jerusalem but went up to Jerusalem. But it didn't last long. We see by Luke 20 that Jesus is now being bombarded with a series of questions from the chief priests and the scribes. They're asking Him questions about taxes, they're asking Him questions about the resurrection, they're asking Him question about His lineage, and each of these questions ultimately was part of this subterfuge to call into question Jesus' identity and His authority. Then in Luke 21, in response to these questions He was facing about His authority, He goes into this discourse about the authority He possessed not only in His day, meaning during His first coming, during His earthly ministry, but the authority He will wield at His Second Coming and how important it is to live faithfully for Him in the meantime. Look at Luke 21:27, it says. “And then they will see,” it's talking about the Second Coming, “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place straighten up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near.” Down in Luke 21:36 it says, “But keep on the alert at all times, praying earnestly that you may have strength to escape all the things that are about to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.” Big picture time. In response to all the challenges to His authority He is saying here that I am the One that has ultimate authority, so much so not only to wield My authority in My first coming but in My Second.

Well, teachings like that we know only fanned into flame further the desire of the Jewish leaders of the day to kill Jesus. Luke 22:2 says, “And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put Him to death for they were afraid of the people.” We know that these leaders found an ally in Judas who in the first verses of Luke 22 is recorded as partnering with the Pharisees to betray Jesus. In the meantime, from Luke 22:7 all the way down to Luke 22:38 Jesus is with His disciples, celebrating the Passover in an event that we know as the Last Supper. After that meal He goes into the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22:44, and it says, “He was praying very fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground.” Soon after we see in Luke 22:47 Jesus was arrested, He was mocked, He was beaten, He was blindfolded. And then we see that He was dragged before various groups of rulers to answer the charges of blasphemy that were being asserted against Him. First, He appears before the Sanhedrin, this Jewish council, this group of priests and scribes. Look what it says in Luke 22:70, this is the question they ask Him. Luke 22:70, “And they all said, Are You the Son of God, then? And He said to them, you yourselves say that I am.” Next verse, it says, “Then they said, what further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.” Equating Himself with God, that would be blasphemy under the Jewish system.

Well, from there He is sent to stand before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Look at Luke 23:3, and it says, “So Pilate asked Him saying, are You the king of the Jews?” So, first question by the Sanhedrin is are You the Son of God? Now it is, are You the king of the Jews? “And He answered to him and said, you yourself say it.” Next, He is sent over to King Herod whose territory expanded to Galilee, he was over Galilee and so he technically had jurisdiction over Jesus who was a Galilean. Luke 23:9 says, “He,” meaning Herod, “questioned Him at some length but He answered Him nothing.” Reading on in verse 11 it says, “And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a bright robe and sent Him back to Pilate.” While Pilate simply planned to punish Jesus and release Jesus, the crowd which by that point had been whipped up into a frenzy by the Jewish religious rulers of the day were clamoring instead that a murdering insurrectionist named Barabbas be released while Jesus faced further punishment. Then look at Luke 23:20, it says, “But again Pilate addressed them, wanting to release Jesus. But they kept on calling out saying, Crucify, crucify Him.” That's what we see recorded in the rest of Luke 23, Jesus' crucifixion, His death and His burial.

That then leads us to the sixth and final section of Luke's Gospel which we're going to call The Final Authentication of the Son of Man as we turn to Luke 24. We now come to the account of the empty tomb and the resurrection which we studied and looked at just a couple of weeks ago on Easter. Look at Luke 24:1, it says, “Now on the first day of the week at early dawn they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold two men suddenly stood before them in dazzling clothing. And when the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ And they remembered His words. And when they returned from the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.” The rest of Luke's 24th and final chapter is dedicated to describing Jesus' various post resurrection appearances, including to the two men who were on the road to Emmaus.

And then finally Luke records the risen Jesus' ascension. Look at Luke 24:50, it says, “And He led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up His hands He blessed them, and it happened that while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.” That detail, that last detail related to the Lord's ascension is exactly where part two of the story picks up in the book of Acts. In fact, why don't you turn over with me to Acts 1:1, it says, “The first account, oh Theophilus, I composed about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when He was taken up to heaven.” and that's where we're going to pick it up next week.

That's been our survey of the Gospel of Luke. We made it through 24 chapters. We're getting closer and closer to embarking on our road trip through our verse-by-verse treatment of the book, but first one more pit stop next week, the book of Acts.

Let's pray. Lord, thank You for this privilege this morning just to take in the forest of the Gospel of Luke, to be reminded of the general outline of Jesus' life and ministry as recorded through the pen of Luke. God, I do pray that You would prepare our hearts for the more tree level study of the Gospel of Luke in the weeks and the months and the years ahead. I do pray that as we read through Luke and study Luke and are convicted by what You gave him to write that we would grow in our love for You, that we would grow in our commitment to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we would be conformed in greater and greater degree into His image. God, I do pray that through this study of this book for however long it takes that we would have a deeper love for our Savior, deeper appreciation for the salvation He bought and bring You glory with our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.