Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Luke The Testimony of Jesus Christ

I'm glad you're here walking to the roots where it's

all about Jesus. With just over two years, ninety nine

sermons in almost five thousand minutes, four thousand, four hundred

and ninety seven minutes, to be exact, I did the math.

We've read through and studied the entire Gospel of Luke.

Now you probably thought we were done. Nope, got him.

We're done. When I say we're done, I'm just kidding.

We're still in Looke though that far I wasn't a joke.

But what I'm gonna do today is more of an

overview of sorts. More than that, I want this to

be a time for each of us to think about

all Luke has shown us about Jesus and ask the questions,

do I believe what Luke has shown me about Jesus?

And what do I do with that belief? Do I

believe what Luke has shown me about Jesus? And what

do I do with that belief? What do I do

with it? What even is the point of this? What's

the point? I, as someone who spent a decade in retail,

I always ask myself that question, what is the point

of this? Any other fellow retail workers. You know that question. Well,

what is the point of this I asked myself that

even more, being a state employee, What is the point

of this email? What is the point of another meeting?

Et cetera, et cetera. Thank you Lord for my job.

Governor Ferguson, if you're watching this, praise Lord, also, thank

you for the job. But what is the point of

even going through this book? Why on earth wood would

we your pastors, choose to take you through a book

of the Bible for over two years, almost five thousand minutes.

For the same reason that Luke wrote this gospel account

to Theophilus. It's for us to have certainty of all

that you have been taught. To have certainty about all

that you have been taught, certainty about the life, ministry,

sacrificial death, and miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ. To have

certainty of all of Jesus's words and works, His words

and works that testify to who he is, His words

and works that testify that he is the anointed One,

the Christ, the Messiah, that testify he is King, he

is Lord overall, as we saying earlier, His words and

works that testify he is the Savior, God's promised salvation

for his chosen people. So grab a bible and lock in,

because we're going to be going over a lot of scripture.

If you need a Bible, we have some on the

connect table. Just pass those double doors. But we're gonna

be covering a lot of scripture today through Luke and

other places in the Bible to support this claim that

Jesus' words and works testify to who he is. Let's

pray first, Heavenly Father, I thank you. I thank you,

Lord for your servant Luke, who so long ago puts

so much time and effort in to investigates and speak

to eyewitnesses about the life of your son Jesus, and

to collect all this evidence that we here today can

read through it and trust in the truth that he

is your anointed King and Savior. I pray Lord that

you would open our hearts to trust in your word,

that we would be changed by it. And Lord, please

be with me as I preach it. Bless his time together,

and may you be glorified in your name. Amen. My

sermon today is titled Luke the Testimony of Jesus Christ.

Luke the Testimony of Jesus Christ. And as I said,

his words and works testify first that he is the

Anointed One. He's the anointed One of God. Before Jesus

even spoke a word or performed and miraculous work, he

was proclaimed as the Anointed One by an Angel of

the Lord to a group of shepherds keeping watch over

their flock by night. In chapter two, verse nine, it reads,

and an Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and

the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they

were filled with great fear. And the Angel said to them,

fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of

great joy that will be for all people. For unto

you is born this day in the city of David,

a savior who is Christ the Lord. For unto you

is born this day in the city of David, a

savior who is Christ the Lord. And again, at just

forty days old, Jesus the Anointed One was revealed by

the Holy Spirit to a man named Simeon, who was

promised by God that he would not die until he

saw the coming Messiah. In Luke chapter two, verse twenty five,

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the

consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him,

and it had been revealed to him by the Holy

Spirit that he would not see death before he had

seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the spirit

into the temple. And when parents brought in the child

Jesus to do for him according to the custom of

the law, he took him up in his arms and

blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your

servant depart in peace according to your word. For my

eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in

the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to

the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. Now

for contact. Christ in Greek means the anointed One, the Messiah,

as the Jews called him, the one the Jewish people

were waiting for, and the one we are now waiting

to return. So when we say Jesus Christ, we're saying

Jesus the anointed One, the one set apart by God.

And later in Luke chapter four, shortly after resisting Satan's temptations,

Jesus goes to the synagogue verse sixteen, and he came

to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, And as

was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the

Sabbath day, and he stood up to read, and the

scroll of the Prophet Isaiah was given to him. He

unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he

has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at

liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of

the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and

gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and

all the eyes of all the eyes of all the

synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say

to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Don't take lightly what just happened here. Jesus goes to

the synagogue for his custom and the custom of the

other Jews. The synagogue attendant hands him the scroll of

the Prophet Isaiah, a prophet of God. He reads from

what we know to be Chapter sixty one, verses one

through two, which says the spirit of the Lord is

upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good

news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim

liberty to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim

the year of the Lord's birth. He reads that and

takes that scroll, gives it back to the attendant, sits

down and says, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

I have fulfilled this prophecy. I am the Anointed One

that Isaiah spoke about. I am the Christ. Which is why,

after saying that many there were filled with wrath, they

became enraged at him, saying that is the highest form

of blasphemy. You're calling yourself God. They tried to throw

him off a cliff for making that claim. He just

claimed that the word of God given to Isaiah, the

prophet that spoke of the coming Anointed One, was about

himself and the Pharisees, the Sadducees, that the teachers of

the law and others that didn't believe him. The others

that didn't believe him wanted to kill him for it. Now,

by the will of God and Jesus Christ's submission, to

the will of God. They were successful in killing him.

More on that later, shortly after his arrest in Luke

chapter twenty two, You're also with me. When day came,

the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together,

both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away

to their council, and they said, if you are the Christ,

tell us. But he said to them, if I tell you, you

will not believe, and if I ask you, you will

not answer. But from now on the son of Man

shall be seated at the right hand of the power

of God. They all said, are you the son of God?

Then?

And he said to them, you say that I am.

Then they said, what further testimony do we need? We

have heard it ourselves from his own lips. By not

denying the title of Christ, by not denying the title

of Christ, he accepts it. He stands for the truth

that he is who they say he is. And when

I was around sixteen or seventeen, and I'm not sure

why I'm sharing this story because it's embarrassing. When I

was around sixteen or seventeen, I worked the graveyard shift

at Joeyanne Fabrics. Withhold your laughter, imagine I imagine you're

like a lady who's up there in age. Anyway, you

go in to get your fabric cut and you see

me at the fabric counter, have that image in your head. Anyway.

I worked at fabrics and my job was to unload

the delivery truck sometime between you know, eleven PM and

two am, whenever it arrived, and then put out the

product for the following morning. For anyone who's ever worked

in graveyard or in the warehouse of a retail store,

you know, it typically attracts a person who's a little

rougher around the edges, the people who are only out

at night. And one day, at around three am, I'm

unloading the truck with my coworkers and the topic of

smoking weed comes up, and they asked me, well, how

do you like to smoke it? And I just simply

respond while I don't, And when asked why, I just

responded with I'm a Christian and I Bible tells me

to be sober minded. Now, after sharing that, I received

all kinds of grief and jokes made it my expect

Oh mister perfect, oh Jesus Love or Jesus Boy, etcetera, etcetera.

You've probably heard them yourself, hopefully not about me. Well,

I actually no, I don't mind hearing about me. I

hope you do. But it would have been so much

easier in that moment for me to simply say I

don't smoke. I don't smoke weed and just have left

it at that. It would have been even easier for

me to flat out why and tell them, oh, yeah,

I like it, you know this way, Yeah, so I

do it. But then I would have been denying the truth,

the truth that I do love Jesus and I do

believe God's word and I do my best to follow it.

I would have been denying all that, and I told

a half truth or lied. It's easy to stand for

truth when everyone arounds you agrees with you. It's an

entirely different thing to stand for truth in the face

of people that disagree with you or want to harm

you because of it. In Jesus before that council, in

the face of certain death, surrounded by those that didn't

believe his claim, he doesn't deny it because then he'd

be lying. He stands for the truth that he is

who these unbelievers say he is. Now. There were also

many that did believe he was the Christ? In Luke

chapter nine, verse eighteen. Now it happened that as he

was praying alone, the disciples with him, and he asked them,

who do the crowd say that I am? And they

answered John the Baptist, But others say Elijah, and others

that one of the prophets of old has risen. Then

he said to them, who do you say that I am?

And Peter answered, the Christ of God. You are the

Christ of God. Based on all that he'd seen Jesus say,

and do Peter believed that Jesus was the Christ? Do

you do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? The

Angel of the Lord proclaimed it to the shepherds. The

Holy Spirit revealed it to Simeon in the temple in

front of Mary and Joseph. Jesus claimed the prophet Isaiah

was speaking about him. He accepted the title before the

Jewish elders. Peter believed that based on all of Jesus'

works and all that he said, do you believe it?

Because his works and his words testify that he is

the anointed one, the Christ. The question we are left

with is do I believe it? But anointed as what

anointed to do? What If you go back and reading

the Old Testament, you can like the story of Samuel

and King David, for example, Samuel was sent by God

to anoint a king to take Saul's place or sorry,

when Samuel came to Saul to annoint, annoying him as

the first king, I have that right. I think I'm

confusing my stories. Samuel was sent to anoint the king.

I'm pretty sure it was Saul. Duncan fact checking on that. Okay, Saul,

thank you. I failed to put this in my notes,

and I'm confusing my stories. But just like Saul was

anointed king, Jesus was anointed by God to be king.

In the beginning of this book, the angel Gabriel proclaimed

to the virgin Mary all the way back in chapter one, greetings,

oh favored one, the Lord is with you. But she

was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern

what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel

said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you

have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive

in your womb and bear a son, and you shall

call his name Jesus. He will be great and will

be called the son of the Most High, and the

Lord will give to him the throne of his father David,

and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his kingdom there will be no end. You

shall call his name Ji Jesus, and the Lord will

give to him the throne of his father David. This

is talking about King David, who God promised his lineage

would forever hold the throne and his kingdom would never end.

And that very same David is found in Luke chapter three,

where Luke, in his masterful investigation, lays out the entire

genealogy of David, going from Mary all the way back

to King David, showing that Jesus by law is the

rightful anointed king. And it's another, yet another prophecy that

Jesus fulfilled. I don't think it's going to be up

on the screen, but it's found in Isaiah chapter nine.

For to us a child is born, to us a

son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called Wonderful counselor Mighty God, Everlasting,

everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the increase of his

government and of peace. There will be no end on

the throne of David and over his kingdom. To establish

it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness.

From this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the

Lord of Hosts will do this. In just a short

time before his arrests and crucifixion, Jesus arrives at Jerusalem

and is welcomed as this anointed King, as this prophesied King,

the son of David. In Luke nineteen, as he was

drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives,

the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and

praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty

works that they had seen, saying, blessed is the King

who comes in the name of the Lord, Peace in

Heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the

Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.

Remember in the eyes of the Jews, in the eyes

of the Pharisees, the teachers of law, they're spouting heresies,

calling this man king. But Jesus answered, I tell you,

if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

If Jesus's own disciples didn't proclaim the coming king, as

here nature itself would have cried out for his arrival.

And during his trial, when he's brought before Pilot in

Luke chapter twenty three, then the whole company of them

arose and brought him before Pilot, and they began to

accuse him, saying, we found this man misleading our nation

and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar Lie and

saying that he himself is Christ a king. And Pilot

asked him, are you the King of the Jews? And

he answered him, you have said so again by not

denying the title, he accepts it. He accepts the title

of king, and even dies with it hanging above his head.

When he was crucified. You find this in the Gospel

of Matthew. When he was crucified, they nailed a sign

above his head that said, this is Jesus, King of

the Jews. And in an attempt to mock God's anointed king,

the spotless lamb of God, they actually fulfilled God's will

that Jesus would be crushed for our iniquities for the

redemption of his children. And the king now sits on

his throne at the right hand of the Father. Thank

you Jesus. Jesus's words and works tests that he is king.

He was anointed to be king, and the King was

meant to die at his first coming. Emphasis on first coming,

He's coming back. He was meant to die, but he

was meant to die so that you could live. Because

Jesus was also anointed to be savior. He was anointed

to be the Savior. Throughout this entire gospel account, Luke

records over twenty instances where Jesus healed individuals and groups

of people from all of their ailments, from blindness, from

being mute, death, and delivered many from demonic oppression and possession.

I don't have time to go through them all. We'd

be here for another day, but please go read them

for yourself to see the compassion that Jesus has for

the sick and the oppressed. But throughout this gospel account

we see Jesus constantly healing people around him, and in

doing so, he fulfills another of the many prophecies about him,

which which he quotes to John the Baptizer's disciples. In

Luke Chapter seven, John sends his disciples to Jesus, and

he wants them to ask him, are you Are you

the guy? You're the guy. We're waiting for it, And

Jesus tells him, go and tell John what you have

seen and heard. The blind receives sight, the lame walk,

lepers or cleanse and the deaf. Here the dead are

raised up, the poor have good news. Preach to them,

and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

I love the He ends with that, because throughout my

study in this book and preparing for the sermon, I

saw there are two ways people respond when Jesus speaks.

There are two ways people respond when Jesus performs a miracle.

They either rejoice and love him for what he did

and recognize who he is, or they reject him and

are filled with wrath and hatred and refuse who he is.

There's only two ways that you can respond to Jesus.

You can be offended by him and reject him, or

you can accept him as king and savior. But throughout

all of his miraculous works, we see that he was

and is the healer. Jesus did and does heal. He

did and does heal, but as the anointed Savior. He

heals us from a much greater and absolute affliction, our sin.

That is the greatest need of healing in our souls

that we have. It's our greatest need of healing, it's

from our sin. Earlier this year, just a few days

before Easter, I had a scare with my own health

and I was went to the hospital and I was

experiencing a heart rate of two point fifty and they

had shock me to reset my heart and I was

later diagnosed with severe heart failure. And it's completely changed

my life, in the life of my family, and over

the last several months, I've dealt with a lot of

a lot of confusion and a lot of frustration, a

lot of thoughts of why did this happen to me?

Why is this happening to me? Why is this in

God's plan for me? Also the thought of I just

want this to be over. I'm done with living with this.

But one thing I've never felt, one emotion that has

never plagued me throughout this entire experience, is fear, and

all thanks be to God for that. I'm not if

you're just trying to puff myself up and tell you

I'm not afraid it's all thanks to God for that.

But throughout this entire experience, I've never felt fear. Why

Because even if this condition never goes away, even if

my heart never recovers, my heart has already been healed

by the healer. My heart has already been healed by

the Savior. The condition of my heart of stone, my

heart that was darkened by my own sin, has already

been made clean by God's anointed Savior. That means He

paid the price for my sin. I have no fear

in death because I have nothing to be afraid of,

because I trust in the promise he said he will

welcome me into His kingdom by placing my faith in

his accomplished work on the Christ on the Cross. Now,

contrary to what's prosperity gospel, the hucksters, as my grandpa

would call him, contrary to what they teach, the Bible

doesn't promise us comfort. The Bible doesn't promise we will

never be sick. The Bible doesn't promise that we will

be healed of our physical afflictions. As I said earlier,

the Lord did and does heal, but he does it

for his own good pleasure, and he does it for

us to proclaim his works. For anyone that places their

faith in Jesus Christ, whose words and works testify that

he is the Savior, they are granted eternal salvation and

healing and comfort and security and joy and life forevermore.

That's the healing we all need. In Isaiah fifty three,

the prophet wrote, surely he has borne our griefs and

carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God,

and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He

was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement

that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed.

With his wounds, we are healed. I don't know. I

don't know entirely why it was God's plan that I

have this condition, but I do know if I didn't,

I wouldn't be here right now sharing this testimony of

why I have no fear in death despite the condition.

Maybe this moment right here was the reason. And if

it was, that's enough for me, because it's for God's

glory and his good pleasure, not for my own comfort

or even my own understanding. His ways are above my own,

after all. But it's not my testimony you need to

believe in. It's the testimony of Jesus Christ and his

recorded words and works that give us certainty that he

is the anointed One, that he is the King, that

he is the Savior. That's the testimony you need to

believe in. If you don't take it from me, fine,

look at the testimony Luke wrote down. Pick it. The

band come up. Over the course of this book. Jesus's

recorded words and works prove that he is the anointed

one of God, he is the King, he is the Savior.

This carefully compiled account is now meant to give us

that same certainty in the truth of who Jesus is

and what he did, in what he said, and in

what he accomplished, give us certainty of what was fulfilled

through him, to give us certainty in all that he

promises to do next. So the question that we're left with,

the question for every single person that reads this testimony

of Jesus Christ Christ, the question for each of you

right now must answer. And you don't have to do

this aloud, but this is the question we're all faced with.

Do I believe, do I believe? Do you believe it?

If not. If you answered no to that question, I

am praying for you. Sincerely. I am praying for you.

I am praying that the Holy Spirit will give you

belief in the words and works of Jesus Christ, that

he would bring you to repentance of your sin and

grant you faith that Jesus really lived, that he really died,

that he really rose again, and that you two would

know him as the Anointed King and Savior like I do,

so that you'd so that you would be forgiven of

your sin and be freed from any fear of death.

If you answered yes to that question, If you answered yes,

I believe, Praise God. Praise God. Now live like it,

Live like it. Live like you believe it. Live like

you have certainty of Jesus' words and works. That certainty,

it bolsters our belief, It strengthens it, It bolsters it.

But that belief produces action, produces action. If you believe

that he is the anointed One of God, then you

believe he is king. If you believe he is king,

then you are his subject. You are a subject in

the Kingdom of God. You are a children. You're as child, Yes, yes,

and amen. You're also subject to the King. You are

a part of his kingdom. So if you believe, then

repent and turn away from your sin. Forgive others as

Christ forgave you. Don't hang on to bitterness and anger

and unforgiveness. Don't harbor that in your heart. Forgive like

He forgave you. The King said, so give generously, Give

generously of your money, of your time, of your valuables

to people who don't have it, because Christ gave everything

for you. Love your wife. Love your wife. Love your

wife as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up

for her. Submit to your husband, Submit to your husband,

as to the Lord. Turn away from pornography, from alcohol,

from drugs, from the pursuit of money, from all the

things you're filling your quality, your closet with for fulfillment,

because your fulfillment is found in Christ. So saith the King.

And I know I'm beating you up right now. This

is for me too. This is for me too. Any

any conviction you may be feeling right now, any guilt

that you may be feeling right now based on anything

I've said in this application, or maybe things I haven't

said in the Holy spirits, just putting it on your heart.

Praise God for that conviction. Pray what Jordan, Praise God

that I feel guilty. Yes, a piece of the promise

of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you is that he

convicts us of sin. It's God's way of telling his

children stop running. Stop running. This is not you anymore.

Your identity is in me now. As Paul writes in

Romans six, you are no longer slaves of sin. You

are slaves of righteousness. You are shackled to Christ. The

shackle of sin was broken. You are shackled to Christ.

You are slaves of righteousness. Stop trying to refit your

old shackle. Stop trying to refit your old shackle. That's

not who you are anymore. So praise God for the

conviction that you may be feeling right now because he's

telling you stop running. Come home. I love you, I've

forgiven you. You are my child. Come home, and I'll

end with another comforting truth, indeed, the most comforting truth.

If you answered yes to the question do I believe

this testimony of Jesus Christ. If you answered yes, then

you believe he is king and you must live like it.

That also means that you believe he is the Savior,

and you can now rest in him.

You can rest in him because to those who believe

in Jesus Christ, the anointed One as King and Savior,

you can rest in him and the forgiveness of sin

that He's secured on you, that he secured for you

by his sacrificial death on the cross.

You can rest in the assurance of full salvation. And

you can rest in the truth of the promise that

he's coming back, that he's coming back to receive the

father's children and bring them to His kingdom, where you

get eternity of peace and joy in the light of

the sun, s o n healing security. These are all

just benefits. You get an eternity with your heart of

stone melted away, your ear with the new heart that

He gives you. I pray that you would believe. I

pray you would believe