Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
The Inclusive Gospel: Uncovering Jesus' Mission in the Book of Luke
What if the marginalized voices in society were actually at the heart of the Gospel? Join us as we journey through the Gospel of Luke, uncovering the profound emphasis on God's care for those often overlooked: women, children, the poor, and sinners. Luke’s Gospel gives prominence to women in a culture that frequently disregarded them, providing a unique perspective that’s essential for understanding the depth of Jesus' mission. With key verses from Luke's introduction, we explore his detailed account of Jesus' childhood and his theme of good news for the poor, while also noting his authorship of the Acts of the Apostles and the continuity in his writing style.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
Here we are viewers. We're back again and I think we've had enough of Mark and we are going to go on to the Gospel of Luke. So we're going to start walking through Luke. This is part one. Now you may see that from my previous messages I haven't actually realistically gone through every chapter and verse of each one of the Gospels, purely and simply because there's such deep content in there that later on, as we continue to do our messages and everything, to do our messages and everything, we will naturally be talking about certain scriptures from certain gospels throughout the year.
Speaker 1:But I want to get into Luke, because Luke is the largest of the four gospels and the major theme in Luke's gospel is God's care for people who were seen as insignificant in society. You know the same as we have today. There are specifically certain dynamics or groups of people in society that are not necessarily looked upon as being part of the general overview of people living in certain suburbs, but in Luke specifically, this mainly refers to women, children, the poor and disreputable sinners. Luke thus gives us a prominent place for women in the gospel and this will be highlighted as we study parts of the gospel here Now. The reason I'm saying that is because there are a lot of churches, different denominations and whatever. No names, no pactual. But the reality of the fact is that throughout the scriptures God is gender neutral in a lot of aspects, but he does speak specifically about certain women and their role that they actually play, because they were almost classified as a second-class citizen back in these times and to a certain degree, over the centuries, that has remained fairly prominent. Now I'm not trying to make a political statement here or anything, but I want to state that even if you look at something like women's wages today, their salary is less than a man who's doing the same job. So here in Luke's gospel, god wants to actually highlight women in particular, who they were and how they were dealt with in their culture.
Speaker 1:But always remember you don't have to wait for me or a pastor to start teaching and preaching on any of the books throughout the Bible. You can read a passage of scripture and you can actually do your own research and find out about what it's all about. I just dive right into sometimes different parts of the scriptures that I think that will be prevalent in relation to this. I remember years ago I was writing my book. I'd started writing my book and my first draft because I'd actually finished Bible college and everything. It was all scriptures, scripture, scripture, scripture and the thing is, to the layperson that really didn't give any content into what I was talking about. So I found that you can't read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation as a novel or as a general history book or as a general history book. You have to actually delve into parts of it and take bits of it out and analyze them to truly understand certain things.
Speaker 1:In my morning reading I'm just working my way through the Bible, getting to know God more, looking for scriptures to pray or hoping to hear from him speaking through me in a personal manner. I don't have to do any research before. I just read the Bible, I just read the Bible. That being said, knowing who wrote the book, to whom it was written and what happened in that place and in that time it was written, can really open up a greater understanding as you read. But always better to be able to want more from the scriptures, better to be able to want more from the scriptures. So for Bible reading, introduction is nice to have but it's not essential. Don't let it stop you from starting or continuing reading the Bible on a daily basis. My personal preference is to dive in and start reading the book and then go back and read an introduction to a study bible or a commentary, or to highlight sections that jump out at me.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we can find out that the first lines of a book who wrote the book and whom it was written to and why it was written, but it's not always that case. For example, in the first four lines of the Gospel of Luke, the author gives us a little introduction. He tells us what kind of book this is. That's in Luke 1.1. Now I want you to note these scriptures down and read them in your own timing. Otherwise, as we go through the Gospel of Luke, we could be still going come Christmas time. I'm just saying that that's the way it is. Now he tells us to whom he is writing it. That's in Luke 1.3. And he tells us how he went about writing the book. That's Luke 1.2.3. And he tells us the reason he wrote the book in Luke 1.4., 1.4. And so this is a huge start for the book and the gospel of Luke.
Speaker 1:But not all books are that expressive, so that is why you do need to listen to my podcast. No, sorry, I'm just kidding. You need to listen to podcasts, you need to listen to sermons and you need to listen to what people are actually saying about the scriptures and a lot of people don't highlight the fact that you know, obviously you think Matthew, mark, luke and John. It's obvious that those people wrote those books. But then you look at Luke, he actually wrote the book of Acts and without actually seeing the similarity between the writings, a lot of people, if they did not have that knowledge, would not understand that or would not know that.
Speaker 1:But he has a similar writing style as he's going through that. He's the only writer who records a scene from Jesus' childhood. Now, I'm saying the only writer, as in. I'm talking about the only writer in the four Gospels. Right, if you look at Luke 2, 41 to 51, he shows Jesus proclaiming good news to the poor 4.18, and the blessings them while they are also pronouncing woe to the rich people. That's in 6.20 and 6.24. He writes about Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners like Zacchaeus. That's in 530. Chapter 15, verse 1, and chapter 19, verse 1 through to 10. Now the reason I'm giving you these scriptural references is so that you can actually read these and get a bit of an understanding about that.
Speaker 1:But related to this is a theme that's been called the Great Reversal In Luke, where God flips the world's values on its head. Mary sings about how God brings down the mighty and exalts the humble in Luke 2.52. In a parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee, it is the tax collector who is right in God's eyes, not the Pharisee who is right in God's eyes, not the Pharisee. So you can get a better explanation of that. In 18.9 through to 14. The beggar, lazarus Now don't get this confused with Lazarus who was raised from the dead two different people. Lazarus the beggar is carried off to paradise after death, while the rich man ends up in a place of suffering at 16, 19 through to 31. And it is the Samaritan who has mercy on a man in need, not the Jewish priest and the Levite 10, 25 to 37.
Speaker 1:If you see where I'm going with this, there's a theme here that, like I said before, luke is really focusing on those that are normally back in, those shunned by society. It's like some people how do I say this without really offending anybody? It's like if you have a really nice church and you've got a really nice congregation and all of a sudden, a couple of homeless street people walk in hearing the praise and worship and they really want to go up the front and listen to it. And the ushers one doing their job and two trying to minimize a disturbance, sort of like ushers them away from the front of the congregation and gets them to sit at the back. Now, it's not because they're judging them or anything. It's just because they're looking at their standing in society in comparison to those that are in the church.
Speaker 1:Now, I know it's wrong and the doors should be open to everybody who needs to hear the gospel, but sometimes this is done not intentionally, but basically it's judging a person and categorizing them in a certain light. Now, we need to make sure that we never do that, and I know you're just like me, you never would. But there is always that possibility that you can come across a situation where, without intentionally doing it, you have actually judged a person for their circumstances or their look. Do you know, I always had this desire and I'm not saying this would actually happen, but I mean it's something that one of these random things that goes through your head sometimes. I always thought it would be really, really good to be be a millionaire, have a lot of money like win cross lotto or something like that, but just be rolling in the benjamins and to go into somewhere like barbaghallows now, if you're not in western australia wouldn't know who they are, but it's prestigious car company where you buy Audis, mercedes, you know you get your Ferraris and your Lamborghinis and all that sort of stuff you buy from these prestigious you know car yards. But I'd like to go in there looking like I got nothing. You know two pennies to rub together, be all scruffy, just have a t-shirt with holes in it, maybe thongs or flip-flops, some people call them and a pair of daggy shorts and go in to there and say, oh, the new Mercedes Benz that's just come out, I want to take it for a test drive. Not saying that this would happen, but I believe there was a very strong possibility that a car salesman would come out in his nice new fancy suit and would try and talk me out of going for a test drive, assuming that I had no money. And then I'd like to come back later and just show him print out from my bank statement, say this is the money I had and this is the commission you lost. Don't judge a book by its cover. That's just me. I have a tendency to be quite cynical sometimes. But back to the message, sorry. Okay Now, in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was called to be the hope for all of the fallen humanity, and this, though, is never far from Luke's mind.
Speaker 1:He's tracing Jesus' genealogy all the way back to Adam. In 323 to 38, he indicates that Jesus is the hope of all humanity. Now you notice that in Matthew. The book of Matthew starts off with the genealogy, but it only goes back to Abraham. He traces the genealogy all the way back to Adam. He indicates that Jesus is the hope of all humanity, not just Israel. He records elderly Simeon calling the infant Jesus a light for revelation to the Gentiles. You look that up in chapter 2, verse 32.
Speaker 1:And while Matthew, mark, luke and John all quote Isaiah 43 when talking about John the Baptist, a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. Cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Only Luke goes on to quote Isaiah 40, verse 5, and it says all flesh shall be seed for the salvation of God in 3.6. See, so Luke highlights the fact that this relates to everybody, jew and Gentile, whereas the others, basically, are talking about it from the Jewish perspective. Additionally, we see Jesus making a Samaritan that's, a person hated by Jews the hero of one of his parables. You'll find this in Luke 10, 25 to 37. He holds up the faith of a Roman centurion as something for Israel to emulate, and that's in chapter 7, verses 1 through to 10. And he tells his followers that repentance for the forgiveness of sin not shin, my shin needs repentance anyway should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. The theme becomes even more prominent in Acts, where Luke shows how the message about Jesus moves from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and eventually to Rome itself.
Speaker 1:Giving you a like this is a really full introduction to the gospel of luke, because there's so much in there. When I go on to other sections, I want to make sure that you understand the depth that luke goes to, to actually make sure that everybody knows that this is all about Jews and Gentiles, not just segregating one dynamic group of any kind. Luke also frequently refers to the Holy Spirit in his writings, especially in Acts. Now I'm going to mention Acts several times as well, as we go through the book of Luke, purely and simply because of the similarities in the writing and realistically, I know we have the Gospels Matthew, mark, luke and John and then you go on to Acts. But realistically we know that Mark should have been the first gospel and Luke should have been the last gospel, because then it goes straight on to Acts.
Speaker 1:A lot of people think that the entirety of the Bible is in chronological order. It's not in chronological order because of how it was structured out, but scholars and historians over a very, very long period of time. If you want to study the history and the development of the Bible as it stands today, you will see that it definitely is not in a chronological order. But it is made that way to try and simplify the way that we can actually read the Bible so that we can get it into its right context and we can understand it from a factual document. For example, let's talk about how Luke reveals the Holy Spirit. He refers to the Spirit several times in the birth and the infancy narrative of Jesus, in 1.5, 35, 67, 225 to 27. Jesus is anointed with the Spirit in 4.18 and 3.22, and he is also led by the Spirit in the wilderness and returns, in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.
Speaker 1:Prayer is another thing that is frequently highlighted and focused on by Luke, and he recounts Jesus himself praying in 321, 516. 6-12, 9-18, 28, 10-21, 11-1, and 22-41. Now I know you're not going to be able to write all these scriptures down, but if you listen to my podcast, if you scroll down, you actually have a transcript of my message there, and so you could pull out all of these scriptures and go through them in your own time. Jesus' parables were also about prayer In 11.5, and there's just a couple of them and 18.1 through to 8 and 9.14. The numerous other encouragements for his disciples were to pray, so we're just going to exhort just a couple of them here, and so then next week we'd actually get into the meat of the Gospel of Luke.
Speaker 1:The Gospel of Luke according to the first part of a two-volume work and that's what I've said before it's all about Luke and the Acts. It continues the biblical history of God's dealing with humanity found in the Old Testament, showing how God's promises to Israel have been fulfilled in Jesus and how the salvation promised to Israel and accomplished by Jesus has been extended to the Gentiles. See a lot of the time. You will see that the scriptural writings are all focusing on the Jews because they were God's chosen people, but Luke makes a point of highlighting that this also pertains to the Gentiles. The purpose of these two volumes, or these two books, is to provide theologians.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get this guy's name right eventually. Forget it. Okay, I'll spell it to you. You pronounce it your own way T-H-E-O-P-H-I-L-U-S. Now, I'm not an academic by any stretch of the imagination and I will never profess to be one, but there's certain words that have to be used when you're quoting scriptures so people actually understand. So Theopolis and others like him I think I got it right then talks about the certainty, the assurance about early instructions that have been received like in Luke 1.4, to accomplish the purpose of Luke's writings.
Speaker 1:Luke shows that the preaching and the teaching of the representatives of the early church are grounded in the preaching and the teaching of Jesus. The early church are grounded in the preaching and the teaching of Jesus who, during his historical ministry in Acts 1.21-22 prepared his specially chosen followers and commissioned them to be witnesses to the resurrection and all else that he actually did, and all else that he actually did. This continually goes between the historical ministry of Jesus and the ministry of the apostles. In Luke's way of guaranteeing the fidelity of the church. Teaching to the teachers of Jesus, luke wanted to make sure that the apostles knew that it was all about not just Jew but also Gentile.
Speaker 1:Luke's story of Jesus and the church is dominated by a historical perspective. The history is first of all salvation history. God's divine plan for human salvation was accomplished during the period of Jesus, who saw, through the events of his life, fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies stated in Luke 4.21. You see where we're going. Luke is going one step further than the other gospels by letting everybody know that this is more than just telling the story about the life and works of Jesus Christ. It is also saying that, hey, this pertains to both Jew and to Gentile.
Speaker 1:The writer Luke is a thorough historian who researched everything. You see him speaking about this in Luke 1.3, and Luke's attention to detail shows not only this is the longest of the four Gospels, but also the longest book of the New Testament, and that's a lot of content. So this is why this introduction to the Gospel is so important. I've made this a lot more complex to a certain degree and, if you notice, if you look back and you see my introduction to Matthew and Mark. It's not as detailed as this and this is the reason why, not only being the longest book out of the four Gospels, but also the longest book out of all of the New Testament.
Speaker 1:The book of Luke shows us Jesus, who came to seek and to save the lost. Now, that's clearly written in Luke 19.10. We learn about all about God-man in whom we've placed our faith. We see how he lived and how he died and how he rose again. Luke's gospel is written in a way that the Jewish and the non-Jewish people can understand and appreciate. Jesus is indeed the long-awaited Messiah. He is also the saviour of the nations.
Speaker 1:Whereas Matthew traces Jesus' ancestry back to Abraham, like I said before, luke charts his lineage all the way back to Adam. It isn't surprising. After all, luke spent a great deal of time with the Apostle Paul, who shared the good news with both Jew and Gentile audiences. Like I've already mentioned, luke stated his purpose right away. He lets everybody know that this book is meant to give believers an accurate chronological understanding of Jesus' life, his death, his ministry and his resurrection his death, his ministry and his resurrection. Luke investigated the events of Jesus' life by speaking with eyewitnesses, giving Theopolis and us a thorough record of the things Jesus did and said.
Speaker 1:Luke is written to a Christian with little education in the life of Jesus, making this book a terrific starting point for believers instead of studying his whole life.
Speaker 1:Today, the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost Luke 19.10. So if you're listening to this podcast and you are a new Christian or a Christian that's been around for a long time but may not have been to Bible college or studied the word in any way, shape or form, this is the book in the Bible that I believe is probably the most prevalent for any believer and non-believer to read. If you can read through the book of Luke, you will get a greater understanding of who Jesus is and the purpose that he came to dwell amongst us. I hope this has been very, very helpful and it will inspire you to want to listen to some of the messages I'm going to give as we work our way through the book of Luke. We are going to spend a little bit more time on this than we did in Matthew and Mark, but I think it's important because this will help new and old Christians alike. Okay, god bless, and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.
