St Michaels Church Podcast
Luke Chapter 1 | Sam Banner | 01.09.2024
(soft music) - Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapters one, verses one through four, and then continuing on to 68 through 75. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who are from the first eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know certainty of things that have been taught, continuing on 68 to 75. Praise be the Lord the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he said through his holy prophets long ago, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all whom hate us to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. This is the word of the Lord. - Good morning, I'm Sam, one of the clergy team here. It's great to be with you. Stranger than fiction was how I heard the events described a couple of weeks ago when the luxury sailing yacht Bayesian sank, tragically killing my Lynch, his daughter and friends. And that same weekend, Lynch's former code offended in a US trial, fraud trial, in which they'd both recently been acquitted, that friend Steven died after being hit by a car while jogging in Cambridge. Stranger than fiction, that two men whose lives have become so intertwined should die that same weekend and entirely separate but equally tragic events. And the article was saying that, if you were to take that plot line to your editor, they would turn around and say, it's implausible, no one's gonna believe you, you'll lose all your readers, you can't do it. And yet, that is the story that unfolded a couple of weeks ago. Today, the first of September, we are beginning a new sermon series in the gospel of Luke. Over the next couple of months, we're gonna follow Jesus from the start of his ministry through his early ministry and mission in Galilee, through to the transfiguration in chapter nine. And one question you might like to have in mind today and through this series is, is this stranger than fiction? That is, could it be fiction? Or is it so strange that actually, it's more plausible the events really did take place? There are copies of Luke's gospel on your seats, these pink booklets. They're spread around, if you don't have one, they might be on free, on a spare seat, so do grab one. And you'll have found the reading, just copies in the first page of full text. These are for you to take away their gift, for you to take home, to read, to annotate, to bring back with you. Week by week, as we journey through Luke together. We heard last week, Melanie told us how, she used the thing that being Christian meant having a pristine Bible that you could show off, but actually the freedom to scribble in, to make it yours, to jot down your thoughts, your questions, your prayers in the margin, said a free to enjoy a relationship with God, which is really what it's all about. So do that, make it yours, use it as it's helpful for you. A bit of context on this new series we're launching into, a different king, a different kingdom. We're starting off right at the beginning of Luke, chapter one, verses one to four. And it's a slightly odd passage for reading, it doesn't feature Jesus sort of saying or doing anything incredible. I hope you'll bear with me. I felt it'd be helpful at the start of this series to kind of look at Luke and sort of his aim and method. But we're going to skip from the introduction in verses one to four. We're going to skip over the birth of John the Baptist, we're going to skip over the birth of Jesus in chapter two. We'll save those for Advent, which is coming around in a couple of months' time. And we had a snippet of Zechariah's song, "Red to Us." Verses 68 to 75 of chapter one. And he praises God for coming to rescue his people, for remembering his promise. He's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. And a few months later, the angels come to the shepherds in the field, bringing good news. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you, he is the Messiah, the Lord. This is the Jesus. This is the promised Messianic king that we're going to be journeying with and learning more about these coming weeks. And the plan is to take a chapter each week, starting in chapter three, through to chapter nine. And if you have a quick glimpse even at chapter one, we're not gonna have time to read Luke's lengthy chapters. We'll just choose a five, 10, 20 kind of verse segment to read, to preach on as it sort of catches a bit of the kingdom that Jesus is revealing, the sort of king that he is. So taking one of these away, you might like to reach out to three before next Sunday morning so that when the baptism of Jesus is preached on, you can see that and you can appreciate it in its full context. And then chapter four for the following week and so on. As the leadership team, we pray and trust that this series will be an encouragement to us, that it will bring life to us as we spend time dwelling on Jesus. His kingship, his kingdom, things he began to do, things he calls us to join in with. And a final introductory note is that Mark and I found the Bible Project video really helpful on the first half of Luke. So if you want a 10 minute video overview of this series to help you find your bearings, we'd recommend that to you, just Google, Bible Project, Luke, part one. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you. Please would your spirit take what I say to point to and reveal Jesus in greater clarity. Amen. Amen. So in our time together, we are gonna look at three aspects of Luke's instruction that will inform us as we delve further into what he has to say over the coming weeks. Three things, prior events, process and purpose. Prior events, something significant has taken place. Process, that's Luke's, how has Luke done what he's done. Third, process, that's Luke's, why? Why has he said about doing what he's done? So point one, these prior events. The very first thing we learn is that something has happened. There has been an event or a series of events. Luke is the longest of the four accounts of Jesus' life and it's the only one with a sequel, the Book of Acts. Luke begins by referring to these prior events. Events which we now 2000 years later are less familiar with, especially if it's the first time that we've read Luke's gospel. These prior events are what have precipitated Luke writing his two volume 38,000 word account of Jesus' life, death and legacy. If we're new to Luke, this is intriguing. What are these events? What is Luke referring to? In verse one, things that have been fulfilled among us. Why have so many undertaken to draw up an account of them? What are they, why so significant? What time for end is Luke have in mind? Are they recent events or historic events? We might be wondering those questions, but if you were one of Luke's contemporaries reading his work, you'd be nodding your head, you'd have known exactly which events Luke was referring to. You'd be well aware that every man, woman and dog had attempted to record and explain what had happened. Everyone was talking about it. It's thought that Luke was writing around 80 to 90 AD towards the end of the first century. In chapter one, verse five, dates the beginning of Luke's account, the sort of first of these events, as in the time of Herod, King of Judea, Herod the Great, he ruled for Rome from 37 to 4 BC. And the events probably took place near the end of Herod's life, around 4 BC. And it's thought that the last events of Acts take place around 62 AD, so from 4 BC to 62 AD, that's a window of about 70 years in which these events, the things fulfilled among us took place. And Luke's writing compiling these reports, 20, 30 years afterwards. These events were in the living memory of most people. They'd been aware of the events, and if they hadn't been there themselves, they'd been aware of what people were saying, what people had written about them. If it were now, they'd be aware that social media was full of pictures, reels, posts, about the events of the last few years. They'd be asking, can we trust them? Are they reputable? Were these people there themselves? The Paralympics are currently in full swing, and I was pleased to see GB in second place in the medal table this morning. A few weeks ago, 7th of August, we had the men's Olympics, 400 metre final. And if you're watching the BBC coverage of that event, you'd have been aware of our GB athlete, Matthew Hudson Smith. But you'd have also come across the name Eric Little. There was a reference to prior events. We were told that Hudson Smith would be running in lane six, just as Little did when he won gold 100 years ago. Our interest was Pete, who was this athlete over 100 years ago, what had he done? How had he done it? Something that few GB athletes have done 100 metre gold. There was a prior event that had his meaning and significance that was brought up in the context of this year's 400 metres. And the word 'fulfilled' adds weight to the matter. Things that have been fulfilled amass. Have you recently used the word fulfilled? Ever described something as a fulfilment? It's a weighty word, it presupposes promise or prophecy. Maybe the closest we get these days is sort of the weather forecast, or prophecy of a sunny spell at the start of September, being gloriously fulfilled, we hope. Or the predictions of election pundits. But even that's a stretch. Maybe we talk about fulfilling a contract. You fulfil your side, provide a phone, cell service, our fulfilment and our pay the monthly subscription. Luke's opening line is if prior events, things fulfilled amass. These aren't the specifics of a phone contract or political affairs. Luke's view is a big view, a historical view. He's looking at the last 2000 years of God's covenant story with his people and his story of acting in the world. These are events worth recording, events worth handling carefully. They've been handed down to Luke in his peers by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. So first thing, prior events. Second thing, Luke tells us about his process, his how, his method. How has he put together the document we're holding this morning? He tells us that he's carefully investigated everything from the beginning in an attempt to write an orderly account. Luke's received these accounts a bit here, a bit there, and it would seem he's a man who likes a job done thoroughly. A complete finisher, maybe you can resonate. He realizes it's no good to have patchy information, some written, some oral, a hodgepodge tapestry. He takes it upon himself to investigate for himself, to look into these things. This might not be language that we tend to associate with faith or the scriptures. We might more readily associate it with science or investigative journalism, asking those questions what actually happened, what the eyewitnesses have to say, why did it happen? You might have questions about Luke and his method or the account that he tells. But for his part, he spells it out, he's attempted to turn over all the stones on our behalf, categorize his findings and put it into a helpful order. Like a lawyer presenting evidence, eyewitness accounts first or secondhand and summarizing them for the jury. Luke invites us to consider to evaluate his report. What do you make of it? If you read it, if you take it at face value, does Luke seem to be true to his word? Do you find it to be an ordered account carefully investigated? Whatever you make of the contents that follows, let's note, Luke isn't claiming to tell a different story. He's not trying to correct things. He's not saying, "Theophilus, you heard this, but I'm telling you this." Rather, he's claiming to pull together to synthesize what has been heard and received. He's also not just telling a sort of interesting story or a bedtime story, a kind of fun, you know, as you're going off to bed story. It is a story, it's a great story, absolutely. There's a narrative. But it's even greater because it's true based on real-life events. It's not a historical drama, sort of embellished for our entertainment. Luke doesn't invite us to doze off or to leave our thinking caps at the door. His careful investigation, his ordered account invites us to ask questions, to think with him about the possibility of the significance of the events purportedly fulfilled. On the whole, we're pretty good at recognizing the genre of what we're reading. The title gives us clues, the synopsis, how it's formatted in prints or on our devices, which are clues. There was one time though I did devour a book thinking that it was a true story of one man's life events. And I was bitterly disappointed to find out at the end that it was a work of fiction, a work of this author's extraordinary imagination. But I recently read this book. It's called For the Glory, The Life of Eric Liddell, who we heard about a moment ago. What are the clues as to the sort of book that it is? Well, it claims to be about a particular person, but are they a real person? Well, the next clue is that it says, "From Olympic hero to modern martyr." You could make that story up, but it would be easy to check, wouldn't it? Quick Google, For the Glory, Eric Liddell, Olympic hero. And as it turns out, I was led to the page of an Edinburgh-based clothing and living store Biscuit, whose shop window this summer was inspired by Liddell's 400-meter gold 100 years ago. And they wrote this on their website. An Olympic gold medalist gifted athlete and inspiration behind an Oscar-winning film. Eric Liddell was born in 1902 in China, the son of dedicated Christian missionaries. Little came to the UK with his parents at the age of five, attending the school for the sons of missionaries, later known as Alton College. Sounds like a real guy, doesn't it? Sounds like he existed. You could check those things, but there's no sense of kind of fiction or tale, a tale being told. The website went on. In 1980, the Eric Liddell's centre was set up in Edinburgh to honour his beliefs in community service and support. In 2002, when the first inductees were inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, Eric Liddell topped the public vote for the most popular sporting hero Scotland had ever produced. Sounds like he existed. Sounds like it's a true story of a man who really did live and die. And the clues carry on as you open the book. There's a map of China. There's dates, there's places. It's a great read. But by contrast, you pick up Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, and you know it's a novel. He's not claiming to write about any one particular person. It's fun. It's a story about oxygenarians solving murders. Great. Have a read of Luke and see what you make of it. Duncan Halton, the author of Liddell's Biography. He's taken time to get to know Liddell's late wife, his daughters. He's examined photos. He's read the letters that were exchanged. So Luke has carefully investigated the life and death and legacy of Jesus. Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're glad that the author has done the hard work. Perhaps you enjoy reading the opening pages, the beginning of the story, and you want to read more, find out more. Carry out an investigation of your own. Or go for it. Your efforts won't be wasted. Have a read of Luke's Gospel. See how it reads. See what you make of it. See what you make of Jesus. Third and final point. Luke introduces his account, and he introduces us to his purpose. Luke, in his first breath, spouts out his purpose, his why. The reason that he's gone to such painstaking efforts to investigate the events fulfilled, and to produce this orderly account, he's written, he tells us in verse 3, "For most excellent theophilus." Verse 4, "So that you may know the certainty of the things you've been taught." What does that tell us? Theophilus, whoever that is, has been taught the Christian faith, so it would seem, but his faith needs undergirding its foundations, needs strengthening. Something that theophilus is a reference to Christian believers at large, it means "beloved of God." The name means "beloved of God." However, referring to theophilus as "most excellent" suggests more likely that he's an individual of high-standing, probably a gentle, relatively new to the faith, perhaps the wealthy person who's funded Luke's work. Whether an individual or the church, Luke writes to strengthen, to reassure, to provide reinforcements for the foundations of faith. And he goes so far as to speak of certainty, not likelihood or probability, certainty. These things you've heard have been fulfilled, these stories, these accounts, they're not just wishful thinking. certainty is a big word, one that we don't often associate with matters of faith. Starting with a friend over the weekend, he said, "There's not much I'm certain about." What are you certain about? What would it take to be certain about Jesus? Luke's writing in an attempt to provide certainty for theophilus and for us. You might have questions about how Luke did what he tells us, did he do what he tells us. Well, he would have undermined his own objective of reassuring if his account had gone against the eyewitnesses of the time. And you might wonder about the validity of Scripture, where we can trust what's been passed down to us. But before Luke's account became part of the Scriptures, it was like this, a document, an account of Jesus' life. Maybe you like theophilus have been taught the Christian faith, but don't feel like you have grounds for certainty. You don't feel like you can quite trust it, trust Jesus, put your faith in him or build your life on him. Maybe you've never been taught these things at all, it's all new to you, or keep reading and come back over the next few weeks. Maybe you already have that certainty, maybe you're reassured. Great, I hope this series is an encouragement to you, a reminder of what we can be certain about. Certainty isn't very fashionable, especially when it comes to truth with a capital T, and we don't want to appear dogmatic or fundamentalist. Certainty doesn't have to be in the absence of questions, but it does at the very least, I think, me and the certainty to base your life on what Luke has to say. As we continue through the chapters and discover the different king that Jesus is, the different kingdom that he brings, Luke invites us to be certain. His message is reliable, these events, however improbable, actually happened. And they have ramifications for us today. Luke doesn't want us to be caught between believing and not believing a foot in each camp tossed to and free. He knows that being certain of these things will bring life, will bring freedom, will bring hope. Take the example of Jesus promising the thief on the cross next to his own. Truly, I tell you, today you'll be with me in paradise. What we can take heart, Jesus, Luke says, actually said it, actually meant it, and had the power to keep his word. Stranger than fiction, a story that begins with a tale of two related women giving birth to two miracle boys. One who goes on to be the forerunner of the Messiah, the other, the Messiah himself, one beheaded, the other crucified, buried, and raised again to eternal life. Stranger than fiction, I think so. How are you? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for your son, Jesus, and for Luke taking their time making the effort to investigate carefully all that happened. Thank you that he wrote it down. Thank you that it's been passed down through the generations and that we can read this morning of who your son, Jesus is, of what he did for us, of that, the things that he fulfilled. Though we pray that as we read through Luke's gospel together over the coming weeks, that you'd give us reassurance of the things that we've heard and received, things that have been passed down to us. Would you give us encouragement and hope and life in your son, Jesus? Amen. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]