Luke: The Orderly Account of Truth - Know for Certain What is True - Luke 1:1-4

We're starting a new series this week and it is called Luke The Orderly Account

of Truth. Luke, the Orderly Account of Truth. I feel like there

was like a bunch of things I wanted to say to you, and they're

like rattling around and here before we got this far in. So maybe I'll

remember them in the middle of talking and then we'll just go back to him.

We'll see. But no, we are starting this new series. We're

going straight through the book of Luke. We're gonna go verse by verse through

the whole book of Luke, and we're going to be looking at Luke's when

I'm calling Luke's studied account of what happened when Jesus walked the Earth, his

studied account and why Luke. Well, it's been like I think when I

look through back through our series, it's been like three years since we've gone

through a gospel, straight through a gospel. So it's been a while.

So we're excited to go through a gospel. And we've gone through pieces and

parts of gospel, going through the Sermon on the Mount that's going through a

good chunk at the beginning of Matthew. But it's been a long time since

we've gotten to go through a full on gospel. So we're really excited to

go through the Book of Luke. And what better way to help us understand

what God said and what he meant by what he said then going line by

line. We're gonna go line by line through the whole book, and our

job is to discover what God said and what He meant by what he said.

So, guys, ready to start. You got your bibles with you,

Okay? Open up to the Book of Luke. It's a third Gospel,

Matthew Mark Luke. If you don't have a Bible, we do have

some available on the back table back there. If you've forgot your Bible today,

can grab it and use it. If you don't have a Bible,

please take it and keep it. We really want you to have access to

a Bible. And yes, the one on your phone does count too.

I used to call it a fake Bible, but it's the same gets God's

word, it's just a different medium to get it across. Okay, let's

pray before we go any further. God, we thank you for tonight.

We thank you for this chance to open up the Book of Luke and to

just discover your message for us today. And so God, I pray that

every bit of the rest of this service, everything's already gone, is all

being led and guided by you now that you are taking us through your word

to us. And God, let it just jump off the page and come

alive in our hearts and help us understand it. God, open our minds

to understand your scripture and to see the beauty of your gospel message in all

of it. God, we thank you for this in your name. Everybody

said, Amen, Okay, we're gonna be in our text. Will be

chapter one, Luke, chapter one, verses one through four. Just four

verses. That's it, only four verses. It's not that hard, right,

We'll see. Let's read our text. 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 from the first were 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 Theophilous, so that every time we say excellent, we have

to say like that, to say excellent, excellent, They awful us,

so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

That is our four verses, And most of the books are the Letters and

the New Testament actually start with some form of an introduction that has information that's

super helpful in understanding why the book was written, or just helpful information for

us to learn what it's actually trying to say. Oftentimes we get who the

author is, We'll get who it's written to. Sometimes we'll even get a

historical information so that we can better place it on a timeline. And you're

like, well, why does that matter? We'll get to that we can

better place it on a timeline. But we also often get the purpose of

the letter, the reason that it was written. So if I were to

ask you what is the purpose of the Gospel of Luke, what would you

say? Why did Luke write this book? Stop and think for a second,

and argument is SIT's in verse four, so that you, if they

awful loss, may know the certainty of the things you have been taught,

so that he would know that they are in fact true, those things that

he was taught. Okay, there's a point, you guys, ready to

eat just kidding. We're gonna break it down. We're gonna dig in,

even though I am hungry. Today's message is titled this no for certain what

is true? No for certain what is true? Luke wrote an orderly account

that was carefully investigated. It's very important about all that happened, so that

they awful loss would be I mean they offul us or they aful loss,

however you want to say it. I just got corrected when I was looking

at up online this week, so I'm trying to say it the new way,

but so that he would be certain of what he has been taught.

He was taught about the word, and that's important to talk about the word

because we'll talk about what that specifically means later from eyewitnesses. And then he

went and investigated everything to make sure it was all true, and now he

wants the awful loss and know that it is all true. Before we actually

start breaking down the individual verses, I think it's helpful to talk about the

book as a whole, though, So we're gonna we're gonna go through.

I consider this stuff like the nerdy fun stuff, because I am a nerd.

But so I'm gonna try to go through it fast, but don't check

out, because it's really important to understand this information about the book as a

whole, because it will help us understand what the whole book means. The

Book of Luke is believed to have been written in the early sixties. No,

not the nineteen sixties, the sixties a D. Like there was no

more numbers before that in the early sixties a D. And we know this

because the Book of Luke was written by the same excuse me, the Book

of Acts is written by the same author, and the Book of Acts references

the Book of Luke as a previous book Luke was written, or excuse me,

Luke was written before Acts because Axe references Luke. Does that makes sense?

I said? That really confusing. Okay, as long as you're as

long as you're tracking, then we're good. But the Book of Acts,

so if AX was written after Luke, the Book of Acts includes Paul's imprisonment,

but it doesn't include Paul's death. Okay, And since we know that

Paul is killed by the Emperor Nero in the mid sixties, that means we

can know that the Book of Luke was written in the early sixties or the

early to mid sixties. Okay, does that makes sense? Very logical.

We're just putting things on a timeline so we can know when it was written

because it's helpful. Okay, still tracking, sweet. So that's when the

Book of Luke was written. But who is the author? Who's the author

of Luke? Everyone? How do you know that? It's a great question

because it says his name, which actually is a lot more astute than everyone's

thinking, because says his name, the author of the Book of Luke is

Luke. And the biggest there's a bunch of reasons, so we don't have

time to get into, but there's a couple of big ones I want to

talk about. The biggest proof is that all of the oldest manuscripts for the

Book of Luke are titled with the Greek text. And I'm making up how

to say this, Kata laukin, how'd I do? All my Greek scholars?

It means according to Luke the oldest manuscripts. So that means when the

Book of Luke was written, somebody wrote at the top according to Luke,

and then everyone who copied that same thing wrote at the top according to Luke.

But we call that church tradition. That's one thing that helps us understand

who wrote the Book of Luke is it says the Gospel according to Luke.

And not only that, but if you go through the lists of everyone who

was with Paul throughout his imprisonment in the Book of Acts, Luke is the

only one who actually stayed with Luke is the only one who stayed with Paul

the whole time. It's in Second Timothy four eleven, he says, And

that's one of Paul's letters that he wrote while he's in prison. He says

that Luke alone is with me. So Luke is the only one left with

Paul. And since Paul didn't write Acts, because the author of Luke who

wrote Acts, then it had to be someone who was with him the whole

time. Plus Luke, Luke is the one who's with him the whole time.

So now we know it was Luke at who is the author? But

who is Luke? Like, who is this guy Luke we're talking about like

the fundamental or like the foundation piece of the whole book, And understanding who

wrote it is very important for us to stay for us to understand what he

meant when with what he wrote Luke was a gentile born follower of Jesus.

Gentile is just the opposite of a Jew. So you're either Jewish or you're

not right the gentile born follower of Jesus. He was a physician or a

doctor, and he was a companion and friend of the apostle Paul. How

do we know all this? Does anybody know how we know all this?

Information? Says it in the Bible. That's how we know. Let's look

at Colossians four, verses ten through fourteen. My fellow prisoners, Aristarchis sends

you, excuse me, prisoner Aristarchis sends you his greetings, as does Mark,

the cousin of Barnabas you've received instructions about him. If he comes,

you welcome him. Jesus, who is called Justice. How crazy would that

being to the same name as Jesus. Back then I'd be like, no,

not that Jesus started to make sure like I would just go by Justice.

Yeah. Jesus who is called Justice also sends his greetings. These are

the only Jews among my co workers for the Kingdom of God, and they

have proved a comfort to me. Epaphrus, who is one of you,

one of the Colossians. From Colossi, one of you and a servant of

Christ Jesus sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you. I

love this. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may

dan firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. That's

a great thing to be praying for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at

Laodicea and Hieropolis. Our dear friend, Luke the doctor and Demas sends greetings.

Why did I read all that? This is Paul's letter to the church

and Colossie. He gives a list of people, and then he finished that

list by saying, these are the only Jews with him. Well, what

does that mean about Luke? Because he wasn't on that list. It's not

a Jew. Luke is a gentile. He's listed as one of the gentiles

who were working with Paul for the spreading of the Gospel. And did you

also see one other important fact about Luke that's right here in the end of

the verse four the what That's how we know he's a physician. That's how

you know he's a doctor because our dear friend Luke the Doctor is with Paul.

Let's look at Fileman because we get there's a couple more spots I want

to go to to kind of learn more about Luke, and Fileman's the next

one. We're gonna read two chapters. Just kidding, it's one chapter.

The whole book is Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ. Jesus sends you

greetings, and so do Mark Aristarchus Demas and Luke my fellow workers. You're

starting to see some repeat names, right. Paul's writing letters all over the

place, and there's a certain crew that he ran with, and Luke is

in those in that client and that crew who's working with Paul fellow workers for

well, I mean spreading the gospel Love my fellow prisoner in Christ. And

this is for those who want a little bit more history on phi Leeman.

It's Paul and Timothy's letter to phi Leeman. It's great when you read the

whole thing. In content, we don't have time to talk about today,

but here we just see that Luke is one of Paul's fellow workers. So

what else do we know about Luke? He's the author of Acts as well.

Let's look at Acts one one. In my former book, Theophils,

I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach. That sounds

very similar to our main text today, doesn't it nailed at June. That's

great. See she's paying attention, and we're going to talk more about specifically

Acts one, one and two in a little bit. But here we see

that acts reference the other book written to this, Theophiloss guy. So the

Book of Luke is that former book. And the last thing that I want

to say about Luke is that he's a second generation believer, meaning he's not

one of the original disciples or apostles, nor is he an eyewitness to the

things that Jesus did. And we're gonna kind of break that down a little

bit more in depth later. Of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark,

Luke, and John, those are the gospel accounts. Only Matthew and John

were actual apostles. Mark was you could call him like the secretary or the

scribe for Peter who was an apostle, so he was very very close to

a lot of stuff. But all four gospels were either written by an eyewitness

or they were written by someone who was with the eyewitness, which is very

important. But why does any of this actually matter? And there's this word

historicity that's important. The historicity of the Bible matters. The historical authenticity.

Put those two words together, of the Bible matters. Why because it's more

factual evidence that it's true. Luke is a doctor, He's a facts guy.

He wants the facts. He wants the awful loss to have all the

evidence, all the facts, so that he will know that everything that he

was taught is true. And I was reading an RC Sprowl commentary on Luke

this week and there was a cool paragraph. I'm not gonna put on the

scraam and read it because there's a lot to type out. I'm just gonna

read you this little paragraph in his commentary says historians have sometimes been skeptical about

the Biblical writers, and in the early part of the twentieth century of British

atheist historian William Mitchell Ramsey set out to debunk the truth claims of the Gospel.

He decided to follow the alleged footsteps of Apostle Paul through his missionary journeys,

going to all the places where the archaeologist had examined. Doctor Ramsey was

converted to Christianity along the way because he discovered that every time a spade or

shovel of dirt was turned over in those days, some historical aspect of the

Gospel was verified and authenticated. Ramsey and other secular historians have said that Luke,

and this is important, apart from inspiration, apart from the divine assistance

that he enjoyed, was the most accurate historian of the entire ancient world.

The guy who wrote Luke not acts. I mean yes, but like Luke,

we're talking about Luke today, the guy who wrote Luke the most accurate

historian of the entire ancient world. That's high praise from secular people. That

just means people who are not Christians, people not of God, are talking

about his historical accuracy. That is why the history of things is important.

And as much as Christianity is a religion of faith, it's not faith devoid

of facts. It's not faith devoid of evidence. There is evidence, there

is truth. We can study it and we can and that's that's Luke's whole

point. Look at all this evidence, what you have been taught is true.

And I'm going to prove it to you. Guys. Ready to get

to the first verse, find me, we made it. Yay, we

did it. Many have undertaken and to draw up an account of the things

that have been seen excuse me, that have been fulfilled among us. So

the very first party here is Luke is not the first person to put together

an account. Many have undertaken to do it. But it's not just an

account of what happened. It's not just saying, hey, this is what

happened. There's a specific word used here, fulfilled. The things that have

been fulfilled among us are some translations used the word accomplished, which I think

is a great word to help us understand this text. So it's something that's

more significant than just a series of events, something a little bit deeper than

that. It's talking about a series of events that has that have accomplished or

fulfilled something that has accomplished or fulfilled something. And Luke is trying to emphasize

here that Jesus, because we were getting this from acts right, that Jesus

and all that he did, that this religion to the world, it would

have been a new religion called the Way Right. That's what they understood it,

which is Christianity. It's not actually a new religion that this following Jesus

thing is not a new thing. No, Jesus came to fulfill the plan

that God's set from the beginning. If you were listening to the lyrics,

what we're just saying, we just sang those words in the third song,

Yeah, the third song. God had a plan from the very beginning.

God had a plan. Jesus is the fulfillment of that plan. So Luke's

not just recording something that happened. He's recording something that happened to fulfill something

or to accomplish something. Jesus is the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy.

He is the coming Messiah that the children of Israel were waiting for. The

whole Bible is about Jesus. Kids, you're tracking Christians discipleship bible should get

those words. And actually, if you read through the first few chapters of

Matthew, you're gonna see a bunch of references to Old Testament prophecy. And

I mean this might be helpful for you guys. Understand if when you're reading

through your Bible most of the time, if it's something that's referencing something else

in the Bible. Two things. You'll see a little number next to the

text, and it will give you a reference. If you have a reference

Bible, it will reference what other scriptures it's coming from. And oftentimes it

will be centered, justified, and bracketed a little or like block quoted in

your Bible. You'll see it looking a little different. So if it looks

different, you say, why does that look different? Why did they why

did they choose to do that? And oftentimes it's pointing back to some other

reference in the Bible. And you'll see a lot of those in Matthew referencing

Old Testament prophecy and how Jesus and his life and what he did in his

life fulfill those specific prophecies. It's amazing. But we're not gonna look at

Matthew. We're gonna take a little sneak peek further in the book of Luke.

Let's go to Luke chapter four. He went to Nazareth, where he

had been brought up to Jesus grew up, and on the Sabbath day he

went into the synagogue as was his custom. What does as was his custom

mean? He normally did this on the Sabbath day. This is what he

normally did. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet

Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it

is written, and then you'll see this in your Bible is bracketed and sent

her justify. The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed

me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim

freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set

the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he

rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down

the I love this. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on

him. They're like, what's he going to say? Now, what's he

going to say next? He began by saying to them, today this scripture

is filled in your hearing. Yeah, I'm not gonna drop the mic for

real. That's a mic drop moment. Today. This scripture is fulfilled in

your hearing. Jesus tells the people in the synagogue, which is their church

service, That's what the Jews church service basically was. He's telling them that

he is the fulfillment of the prophecy from Isaiah or the prophecy of Isaiah.

And if you go ahead and read all of Isaiah fifty three, who's that

about. It's about Jesus. You read through and you're like, whoa,

whoa. You read a gospel. Go back and read Isaiah fifty three.

You're like, all of that happened, and it's all recorded as happening according

to the way God said it would through the mouth of Isaiah back in Isaiah

fifty three. It's amazing. It's all about Jesus. But wait, it

gets better. Let's go a little bit further into the book of Luke.

So this next portion is going to be after Jesus has risen from the dead.

He was walking on the road amazed with two of his followers, and

Jesus made it so that that they didn't recognize who he was because he's God

and he can do that, which is pretty cool. But they basically tell

him everything that happened to him, which I think is comical. They're like,

you are you the only person who has never heard the story? What

happened to Jesus? This is what happened. Then they tell Jesus. What

happened to Jesus as they're walking along, and they were, and they made

a point to be made a point. Let me say this. The Bible

makes a point that they were sad, and why it's because they were hoping

that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel. So we're gonna pick it

up. In chapter twenty four, he said to them, Jesus said to

them, how foolish you are. Remember the Lord disciplines those he loves.

How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all of the prophets have

spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his

glory? And beginning with Moses, the first five books of the Bible,

and all the prophets, basically the rest of the Old test he explained to

them what was said in all the scripture is concerning himself. What does that

mean? All of scripture concerns Jesus. Jesus walked through all of what the

Bible said, the Bible that they had and talked about how they pertained to

him, how he is the fulfillment of them. Jesus is the fulfillment of

all the prophecy, He's the one that script all of scripture is about.

The whole Bible is about him, and that is what Luke is writing about

here in the Book of Luke, the orderly account of all that Jesus accomplished

or fulfilled among them. Okay, we're gonna keep moving. Let's go to

the next verse. And what I'm gonna do is, even though we're moving

on verse two, I'm gonna read verse one and then verse two, because

I think it's cool to build as we go. Many have undertaken to drop

up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as

they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and

servants of the Word. This is the process by which we have the Gospel.

Eyewitnesses saw all that Jesus did, They went and told everyone what they

saw and what happened, and then some of those people wrote down what they

were told. Now we have the Gospels, and this is how we know

that Luke wasn't a first generation Christian. He was a second generation Christian,

or maybe the second it's not a full generation, I'd say a second hand

believer. Maybe we'll say that he didn't say that he was an eyewitness.

No, he said the same thing. He said, just as they were

handed down to who us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses. So

Luke saying, I didn't see these things, but this stuff was handed down

to just as it was handed out to you. It was handed to me,

handed down to us. And I think this is where Luke is basically

citing his sources, which is very helpful when you're an investigator, when you

need to study something, you cite your sources. Who were these eyewitnesses that

he's talking about. Who are these servants of the Word, And they would

be the apostles, all who saw the works of Jesus with their own eyes,

and Luke had access to these people during his travels. Luke was able

to interact with these people. He was with Paul, who Jesus personally knocked

off his horse and blinded. There's a lot more context to that. I

just realize that sounds horrible the way I just said that. There's a lot

more contexts of that story. You should definitely read it all. Jesus didn't

just say like I'm gonna knock you off your horse and blind you for no

reason. There was massive reason and why he did it. So definitely go

and read that. But Luke was with Paul, so Luke had access to

Paul. He also traveled with Mark, which would have him had him rubbing

shoulders and Peter, because Mark was Peter's scribe or secretary and he so.

Luke also mentions in the Book of Luke the seventy two that Jesus sent out,

Let's look at Luke ten one. After this, the Lord appointed seventy

two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and

place where he was about to go. And I know I just said this,

so we probably didn't have to go and read it, but it's nice

to read it to say, see, I'm telling you the truth. I'm

not making stuff up. So he had would have had access to the seventy

two, he would have been able to go interview them and find out the

story from them. What about one hundred and twenty On the day of Pentecost,

Let's look at Acts one fifteen. In those days, Peter stood up

among the believers, a group numbering about one hundred and twenty. Luke is

referencing this first gathering of believers. This is right after jesus death, burial

and resurrection and ascension when this happens, and he would have talked with him.

He Luke would have wanted to get to the bottom of this thing.

He's like, Okay, I heard this story. I want to get to

the bottom of it. I'm gonna go interview and I'm going to talk to

everybody, and we're gonna find out what truth is. What about the five

hundred people? It says more than five hundred that Jesus appeared to after his

resurrection and First Corinthians, well, it's referenced in First Corinthians. After that

he Jesus appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the

same time. When I first read this, I was like, oh,

he individually went and visited more than five hundred people. No, at the

same time, most of whom are what still living? Those some have fallen

asleep or died, Go ask them. That's what he's saying. That's what

Paul sang. I mean, Luke, he's he's got to know that he's

an investigator. He would have gone to interview these people. He said,

I need to know the truth. These are the people that Luke would have

investigated. But they weren't just witnesses. Let's look back at the verse verse

one, one and two. What else were they called? First? Were

eyewitnesses? And what servants of the word? They're also servants of the word.

They served and worked for the word. But what is the word?

Bird? Bird? Bird? But birds the word? I think I have

just a really adhd brain. Let's look at Romans ten, so I get

that song out of my head. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message.

So there's this message, it's going out, and faith comes from that

hearing that message, and the message is heard through what the word about Christ?

The word about Christ? It's the word about Christ. That's what this

word is. It's the gospel message. The apostles were in charge of taking

the gospel throughout the whole world. And it's not just them. Who else

has to take it out all of us, all believers. So the Great

Commission is right. He didn't just It's not just a charge for them,

it's a charge for all believers. We are called to go and make disciples

of all nations. And what's the first step in making a disciple? Telling

him about Jesus. You tell him the good news of the Gospel, so

that they repent and believe and are saved. You tell them the gospel,

which is this word about Christ. Guys, hanging in there, kids,

you're doing amazing. What's another word on the list? What's one I haven't

said yet? Obey the Lord, do not sin? There there's two more.

Okay, look at the next verse. 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, from the first were 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 they awful us With this in mind, or considering

this, considering what, Considering that Luke himself had investigated everything from the beginning,

it made sense to him to write down an orderly account since he'd done

all the investigation. You guys have that friend who never believes anything you say,

you say something, They're like, they're just they always need to be

skeptical. They're like, prove it. I'll believe it when I see it.

Grayson has one. He says is June called out. I think Luke's

kind of like that. Luke's a little skeptically. He's like, are you

sure about that? I'm gonna go study it. I'm gonna go figure this

out. He had to carefully investigate everything before he would believe it. And

he's a doctor. What do doctors do. You go to a doctor when

you have something wrong with you, a symptom, So what does a doctor

do? They investigate to figure out what the cause is. So basically,

Luke is like Batman, the world's greatest detective. See it's a loose connection,

but you know, he has to investigate what's going on. Let's get

back to verse three, though, I too, Uh, let's y'all start

at the beginning verse three 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, they awful loss. Luke just decided to record an

orderly account, or to write an orderly account, which is like a sequential

order of things, something that is in order. And he because I think

part of him might have been saying, since many people have attempted to do

this, I don't know who actually investigated this carefully. I don't know who

actually would have done the legwork I know I have. So if you can't

believe them, believe me because I went back and I investigated everything carefully.

I wanted to know that this was true. Believe me because I proof I

talk to them. But what did he write an orderly account of Can you

go back one slide? Since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning,

an orderly account of things from the beginning, not the beginning of creation,

from the beginning of what he's talking about? And how do we figure

out what he's talking about? Just read the Book of Luke. You'll figure

it out. Just kidding. That is one way to do it. You

just read the Book of Luke and he's like, oh, he starts at

the beginning, and then you're going to figure out what he's talking about.

But we can take a peek at the beginning of acts again, because he

says exactly what he means in Acts one, one and two. In my

former book, the Book of Luke fay off Loss, I wrote about all

that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up

to Heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

So this gives us a little bit of insight that the Book of Luke

is a carefully investigated, sequential account of all that Jesus did and all that

he taught. Well, that's helpful for us to understand what he's writing the

Book of Luke for. And he records it all the way until Jesus sends

back into heaven. So when he says, from the beginnings, from the

beginning of when Jesus showed up on earth and started his ministry, and let's

look back at verse three one more times, there's one very last part.

With this in minds, I myself have carefully investigated everything. I hope we

have this memorize because of how many times to read it by the end of

the day. 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 they afu Loss. Okay, we're at the very last part.

Who did Luke write this orderly account for? Yes, it's catching on for

the aful Loss, that's who we wrote it for. But who is this

guy? Who is this most excellent? Do you guys think of Bill and

Ted's excellent Adventure at all? Because I totally think about that, But who

is this? And most biblical scholars have come to this very astounding conclusion.

They're not actually sure, they're not positive who it actually is. The only

other place that the Afloss has mentioned is in Acts one one in the beginning

of Acts. But some scholars have pointed out something that I think is super

important to consider is that they afful Loss. What the name means is friend

of God. So there's potential that these books could have been written to the

people of God, anyone who calls theirself a friend of God. That's potential.

But the fact that he says most excellent is a personal way to reference

a specific individual, So we can't rule out that there may be an actual

dude out there named fieful Loss that these two books were written too. So

it's it's kind of cool to consider both of those. But either way,

Luke's point remains is that he wrote a carefully investigated, orderly account of everything

Jesus did and taught for the reader, even us as we read it.

And now we get to the last verse, verse four, which I think,

like we talked about before, is the crux of why Luke did all

of this and kind of the band come up? Please let's look at verse

four. Starting in verse one, 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 from the first were 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 they awful loss, so that you may know the certainty of the things

you have been taught. This is the why behind the what. I'm a

why guy. You tell me something, I'm like but why, which my

parents loved growing up. I want to know why. If I know the

why behind something, I can run with the what, because I've been it's

been explained to me. I'm not all I don't always get afforded the why,

and I'll still be obedient. But this is the why behind the what.

So I'm going to rejoice when we get it. It's the whole reason

that Luke wrote the Book of Luke so that the aful loss would know the

certainty of what has been taught. But I actually love how the NASB translation

puts it. So I want to read this verse four in the n ASB,

so that you may know the exact truth about the things you've been taught,

the exact truth about the things you have been taught. Luke wants the

awful us and in turn anyone who reads his letter, which includes us,

to know the exact truth about what we've been taught. Someone taught us something

about Jesus. He wants us to know the exact truth. He's saying,

I carefully investigated everything about Jesus from the beginning. I investigated at all.

So use this book as a manual or like a reference manual, to validate

what you've been told, but more specifically, to validate what you've been told

about who Jesus is, what he did, and what he came to accomplish.

So what do we do with all of this? What do we do

with all this? We have this book, the Book of Luke, who

is written by a specific person in the early sixties eighty written to another specific

person named Theophilous, or maybe all of the people who followed God, and

the book's intent was that the reader would know the certainty or the exact truth

about what we were taught to have certainty about what is true? So what

do we do with that? And my question for you today is are you

certain about the things you've been taught? Are you certain about the things you've

been taught about? Who Jesus is, what he came to do, and

what he came to accomplish. Are you certain? When we stand up here

and we're preaching from God's word? How do you know the exact truth about

what we're preaching? How do you know what true is? How do you

know the exact truth? And my argument is we should do what the Brians

did when Paul showed up and taught them, which is an Act seventeen,

also written by Luke. As soon as it was night, the believer sent

Paul and Silas away to Barria. On arriving there, they went to the

Jewish synagogue. Now the Barrie and Jews were of more noble character than those

in Thessalonika, which is a cool just title to have, for they received

the message with great eagerness and examine the scriptures every day to see if what

Paul said was true. And there's a small little thing I want to just

pause and say. Here. They examined it every day. Why did they

have to do it every day? That means Paul was saying it every day,

which means we're not going to figure this out in one sitting. We

need to continually do this. Paul continually taught them, and they continually went

back and examine the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was what

true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a

number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. Give me another word,

say it loud. Love. You got that one on the list, kids,

love, you have another one, Say it loud. Faith. That's

a great one. Faith. The Borean Jews eagerly received the message that Paul

brought. But what do they do after that? They examine the scriptures every

day to see if what Paul said was true. That's how we know the

exact truth. We examine scriptures. We examine the scriptures. Don't take my

word for it. I'm parton We wanna say, don't believe me, but

I'm speaking truth. But check me on it, because if I say something

squirrely and I say something the Bible doesn't say, or any of us up

here say something the Bible doesn't say. Like, we're all submitted to this,

we're all submitted to God's word. But think about that skeptical friend you

have when they say something. Aren't you inclined to believe him a little bit

because you're like, I know this guy looked into it. I know he

studied everything, so you're a little inclined to believe what he says. But

my argument is, maybe we should be a little bit more like Luke.

Maybe we need to be a little bit more skeptical. Be the skeptical friend

in your group. God. Yeah, God gave us what we need to

look into, so look into the account for ourselves. I do want to

say, like, there's lots of voices out there. So if you're like

I'm skeptical about something, and then you go start listening to lots of voices,

careful the voices you let speak in your life. Brother Link says something

awesome. Have an open mind, but an open Bible at the same time.

So somebody says something and it's not in alignment with God's already revealed in

his scriptures. Well, then they're off. Don't listen to that voice.

The world is skeptical, but they will use worldly wisdom to try to answer

their questions or their skepticism. God gave us orderly accounts of who Jesus is

and what he did, orderly accounts from eyewitnesses and investigators like Luke. And

he also gave us an account of history that goes all the way back to

when He created everything. He gave us all of this. And here's one

way to say it. God's word is sufficient to be certain of what is

true. God's word is sufficient. That means it's enough to fulfill all its

purposes. All the facts are there, all the facts are there. We

have everything we need to know that all of it is true. God's word

is complete. It lacks nothing but in order for us to know the certainty

or how true it really is. For an order for us to know that,

there's one very important step that we need to take. God's word won't

help you know what is true if you never read it. God's word won't

help you. It won't help you know what is actually true if you never

open it up and read it. The only way we know that something is

counterfeit is we study the real things so well we know that the counterfeits obvious,

the fake is obvious. We study God's word. It's on us to

know these accounts, these orderly accounts, to go and investigate the writings of

those eyewitnesses which are recorded in scripture, Read them, study them to know

the exact truth about who Jesus is and what he did. That we know

with certainty, or know the certainty of the gospel message. And I think

we need to be certain of the truth of Gospel for ourselves and so that

we can share that truth with others. Because you won't share something that you

don't truly believe to be verified or true. You won't share something you don't

actually believe, I mean, at least not with any conviction. We need

to know the truth of the Gospel, know the exact truth about who Jesus

is, what he did, and what he taught, so that our foundation

of faith is firm in him. And then once we have that wrong foundation,

we can share with all confidence because we know it to be true.

And as God who brings out alive in us and challenges us to do that.

Amen, Can you guys please stand at your feet and we're gonna go

into a time of worship, and while we're singing this last song, our

elders who are available will be on the side for prayer. Pray for anything

you need. Use the connect card. If you don't feel comfortable coming up

and getting prayer. Please write your prayer requests on the back. You can

drop him in the offering box on your way out of the sanctuary or on

your way to come back in here, because we're gonna eat food in a

little bit, which is exciting. But also if you want it to be

a private prayer request, because we basically send him out to everybody to pray

for. I remember I was gonna see the be service. Continue to pray

for Jerry. So Casey has been doing an amazing job on drums. Let's

give Kasey hand first. But Jerry has been recovering from his surgery. Lots

of complications in the surgery, if anyone who's been checking out the updates online,

but things are getting better, So continue to pray for him and for

healing. It's awesome. It's a long slow road recovery, but it's it's

going well. So thank God for that and the other thing I was to

say, pray for Sasha. She's not here and our awesome kids team that

she works with us. She's sick tonight so she couldn't come to church.

So be praying for those people. Okay, that I knew is in there.

It's gonna come up at some point how to do a prayer. But

yes, if you don't feel comfortable with your prayer request going out to everybody,

just write private and then we'll make sure that only the elders get the

prayer request. What we do want to be praying for those because we believe

in the one we pray to. He's the one who can do something about

it. And then if you can prepare to give, you can use the

offering envelope and drop that in the offering box outside the sanctuary as well.

All right, let's pray before we close up this part of service. God,

we thank you for this time spent in your word. God. I

pray that you continue to reveal more about who you are directly to our hearts.

God, that you help us understand your word, the investigated accounts of

who you are. Jesus, all that you did and all that you taught.

Please make that reel in our hearts. Please give us complete confidence that

we can trust it as truth in our lives. God, that we understand

the Gospel message and we are able to confidently share it with others. God,

we thank you that you've even given us your word. God, we

thank you for this time of worship we're about to go into. We pray

that it is pleasing to You and God that as we get to fellowship in

a little bit and take communion, God, we pray that you are glorified

in all of it. So, God, we just thank you for tonight,

and we thank you for your word Jesus name. Everybody said Amen.