Thank you, Pastor Brad.
And it is always fun to get together,
to open the word of God, and to
enjoy his presence, isn't it?
Well, a couple of things I need to
mention.
First of all, there are two group leaders
not here this morning, and so they asked
me if I would say a word for
them.
And the first one is Sean Oliver, and
Sean is going to be teaching on Thursday
nights here at the church in the sort
of boardroom upstairs on spiritual gifts.
So if you're wondering about spiritual gifts or
seeking to know what your spiritual gift might
be and how to connect into serving the
Lord in the church and those kind of
things, come on along on Thursday nights.
I'm actually filling in for him the first
one this Thursday night, so you'll be stuck
with my Irish accent as we start the
subject Thursday here at seven.
And the groups just run for eight weeks,
so they'll be done in good time for
Christmas, so you'll be free for all of
those Christmas activities.
And a second one is from Bruce Nickel,
and Bruce is doing a study also on
Thursday.
Every second week, he'll start this coming Thursday
at his home, and his home address is
23 University Park Drive.
He told me on the phone yesterday there
will be refreshments, and it's entitled A Night
with C.S. Lewis.
So there'll be lots of good things to
think about and talk about there on every
second Thursday night.
And then lastly, there's another small group leader
in that I am leading one Sunday nights
here at the church, and it's entitled The
Deeper or Victorious Christian Life.
And so if you're thinking about how do
I get to the place of seeing victory,
and what is all this talk about deeper
life, higher life, sanctified life?
There's about a million terms that try to
describe it, but I guess I would just
say if you're looking for more, come out
Sunday nights at seven, and we'll study the
word of God together, and we'll pray together
as well.
Wonderful.
I'm also happy to say that as of
last weekend, my traveling is done for a
great number of weeks, and I praise the
Lord for that.
So this morning in our kickoff Sunday, we're
gonna start our look at the gospel of
Luke.
That's a play on words if I ever
heard one.
That's look at Luke.
It's only with my accent.
Ah, sure, I don't have an accent.
So if you want to turn in your
Bibles to Luke chapter one, and just while
you're turning there, let me mention a couple
of people.
Joan and Jerry Van Noos, would you just
stand up for a minute?
And would you be interviewed by the pastor
for a minute?
Would that be okay?
Have we had the privilege of working together
for the kingdom of God, you and I?
We have.
Been actually quite a few years that we've
done that, and I wanted just to use
this as a means to make them known
to you.
They're a wonderful couple.
They've just moved to Regina, and we'll let
them sit down.
I'll say, Jerry, you shouldn't have hit her
so hard.
As you, and Joan and Jerry often ran
the prayer room for me in meetings here
and there and everywhere, and if you like
prayer, you're welcome to ask the pastor, but
if you'd really like to get prayed for,
go and ask Jerry and Joan.
They are a wonderful couple with great counseling
skills and abilities just to lead people to
the throne of grace.
So I'm delighted to welcome them here this
morning.
Luke chapter one, and our first segment is
the first four verses, and that's what we're
going to look at this morning.
It's the introduction to the gospel of Luke,
and so just follow along as I read.
Excuse me.
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an
account of the things accomplished among us, just
as they were handed down to us by
those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and
servants of the word, it seemed fitting for
me as well, having investigated everything carefully from
the beginning to write it out for you
in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that
you may know the exact truth about the
things you have been taught.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, and
thank you for the opportunity to worship you
this morning.
Thank you for the Glencairn family, and for
each family that is represented within the church
body here.
Lord, as we come before you this morning,
we come confessing our need.
We need you, Lord.
Many are the challenges of our days and
our times, and we need you, Lord.
And many, too, are the opportunities that you
set before us, and we need you, Lord.
And so this morning, as we come to
worship you in the word of God, we're
praying, Father, that you would take your word
and bring it to our hearts with strength
and truth, and that you would bring about
life change in each one of us because
of the time that we take just to
meet you, the living word, here in the
written word, in the power of your Holy
Spirit.
So, Father, we surrender these moments to you,
and we ask you just to take them,
to minister to our hurts and challenges, and
to lift us above the things of this
world, and to focus our eyes and our
attention upon Jesus.
For, indeed, Lord, we need you.
And so may this be a time, in
these next few moments, where we encounter you
in the word of God.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Excuse me.
Luke is called the Beloved Physician by Paul,
as he writes in Colossians 4 and 14,
he says, Luke, the Beloved Physician is with
me.
And that's kinda neat to know, isn't it?
We know that some people who were fishermen
and tax collectors and all kinds of things
were involved with the Lord, and some who
wrote various accounts of his life.
But Luke was a physician, and so I
thought I'd title the thoughts this morning, The
Beloved Physician.
And I remember a few years ago doing
a crusade in Saskatoon with the Billy Graham
people.
I had walking pneumonia, and my doctor up
there gave me some stuff, kinda big red
depth charges to try to blow that out,
I think.
And nothing was happening, and so he eventually
looked at me and said, you need to
talk to the Great Physician.
And that's so true of Jesus, isn't it?
He is the Great Physician.
But Luke is the Beloved Physician.
And as you think about Luke and this
book that we're beginning to study Sunday mornings,
what are some of the distinctive things about
it?
And so let me just give you a
brief look at things that make this book
distinctive from Matthew and Mark and John.
First of all, this is the only book
that was, in human terms, authored by a
Gentile.
The others were written by Jews, and it
shows to us just that the gospel is
for everyone.
And that's one of the distinctives about this
book in particular.
It's the gospel of grace, and it's extended
to all people.
Now, there is a teaching, you know, these
days that we're all good people, and we're
just getting better, and education and other things
help us to get better.
And let me just clearly say this morning,
the Bible doesn't teach that.
The Bible gives us the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and it's a gospel of
grace.
It's not about the things that we can
do, nor the things that we can perform.
It's about the Lord Himself.
Thank you, Brother Gary.
That's great.
At the chance of being accused of being
a water-driven windmill, I'll have a sip.
His grace.
The Bible, in fact, teaches us not only
are we not good people, but spiritually we're
dead people, and we need life.
And that is the truth of His gospel.
And it comes to us through repentance and
the forgiveness of sins.
The gospel of grace.
And as Luke writes the account about the
life of Jesus, it's all about His grace
in touching hearts and lives, and changing them.
The gospel of Luke is the gospel of
the Son of Man.
In Matthew, He's the King.
In Mark, it's about the servant, Lord.
In Luke, it is the Son of Man.
And it reminds us of His humanity.
And we'll look at that a bit further
in a moment or two.
His attitude toward people, and the poor, and
the lonely, and the outcast, and those who
nobody would bother with.
Jesus is the Son of Man who identifies
with you and me.
It's also the gospel that shows us a
devotional life.
Now you know, this is kind of interesting
to me, because usually when I sit with
someone and they're saying, well, I'm having trouble.
We're having trouble in our marriage, or we're
having trouble as individuals.
And one of the first questions I like
to ask is what is your devotional life
like?
And most of the time, you know, we're
mad at somebody else because we have no
peace ourselves on the inside.
And that goes back to that sense of
meeting with the Lord day by day, and
knowing His word, and knowing how He changes
lives, and brings His touch to marriages, and
so on.
And here, there's an emphasis on prayer.
And Becky can say, woo-hoo, there in
the back row.
In Luke's gospel, there are three parables about
prayer, and there's a great deal of a
picture for us of the prayer life of
the Lord Jesus Himself.
And if you ever feel like studying prayer,
that's the very best place to begin, just
to look at Jesus.
And if the Son of God needed to
pray, oh, how we need to pray also.
It's also the gospel of joy and praise.
And I like this because it lets me
do a little woo-hoo in there again.
You ever notice in this gospel, Brad, it's
all about singing, isn't it?
Zachariah sang, Mary sang, the angels sang, the
angels sing again in chapter 15 over one
who repents of sin and comes to the
Lord.
There is so much joy and praise in
this book and in this gospel.
And one of the things I love about
Glen Cairn is as I look at you
on Sunday mornings, you're not sucking on a
lemon.
We better not maybe put this sermon on
the internet.
Sometimes some places I go, you know, I
get up and look at the faces and
say, God help me.
There is great joy, is there not, in
the forgiveness of sins and of knowing that
closeness with Jesus and that nearness with Jesus.
And it's such a thing that just raises
praise within us.
There's another distinctive in the gospel of Luke.
It is that gospel that shows forth women
with prominence.
They appear prominently in the life of the
Lord Jesus in the account of Luke.
And that's something that you don't always find
in the other three gospels.
He's given to us a biography of Jesus
under the influence of the Holy Spirit as
he put these words that we study together.
And there are four things I want to
say thanks to Dr. Luke for this morning.
And so here's the first of those four
things.
Because as I look at this account, and
see verse one, he says, I've written an
account of what was accomplished.
And it is what Jesus accomplished, not what
Luke accomplished.
He says, I've written this account.
And I'm thankful that he wrote this account
because out of it comes great security.
And that's the first thing I'd thank him
for.
Security comes as we consider this gospel.
Why would I say that?
What's the gospel of Jesus got to do
with security?
Well, in these first four verses, he's writing
to a man called Theophilus.
We don't know a lot about Theophilus.
We know he was an important person because
of how Luke describes him.
Most excellent Theophilus.
And Luke also penned the Acts of the
Apostles, and they're written to the same man,
Theophilus.
But they are also written to you and
me.
He writes that he says in verse four,
so that you may know the exact truth
about the things you have been taught.
And those things that we are taught give
us a sense of security.
Those things that the Bible teaches us.
Now, there's all kinds of confusion and all
kinds of ideas out there.
But if you want to be secure, there's
only one place that you'll find it.
And that is to come to a security
in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ
and to base your life upon Scripture.
Because as you think about this book that
is written for us, it is Christ from
Genesis through to Revelation.
It is all about the work of God.
And it is to give us a standard
whereby to live and to walk.
And then I don't have to be tossed
around with every idea.
At my ordination many years ago, I remember
a lot of the questions were about the
second coming of Jesus.
And there are different opinions about when that
will happen.
And one dear brother was honest in the
midst of it.
He sort of got up and said, I
don't think you should persecute John for the
position he takes.
Personally, he said, I read a new book
and I become a windmill.
I just shift direction every book that I
read.
And I thought, well, that's really honest, isn't
it?
But the fact is that the Bible is
given to you and me so that we
can have a sense of security through the
detailed and consecutive account that Luke has written.
And you know, there's a searching that goes
on in the human heart.
Maybe you're sitting here this morning and there's
a searching going on.
What really is the truth?
Pilate asked that question long ago as he
looked at Jesus.
What is truth?
But Jesus is the truth and the way
and the life.
We read in John 14, six.
He is solid and true.
It gives me and you a sense of
security as we meet the Lord Jesus and
see how He worked with people and how
He changed lives and hearts and how He
continues to do that even to this day.
You see, religion cannot save anyone.
In fact, some years ago, I wrote a
newspaper article called Religion Stinks.
What was I talking about?
I was talking about the fact that sometimes
people put their trust in tradition and in
religion, things that they do religiously, but religion
cannot save anyone.
Security only comes in a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ.
And you see, I believe that's one of
the reasons why Luke wrote this Gospel.
So that you and I could know beyond
a shadow of a doubt that Jesus saves
and that He has saved me, that He
has saved you.
And if you're here this morning and you're
not sure, let me just encourage you with
every ounce of fiber that I can muster,
don't leave this place without Jesus.
It's great to come and to worship, but
if we go away unchanged, we've missed it.
And the Lord, through His Word, changes our
hearts and our lives.
So I am thankful that as this account
was written, it brings security.
I have a friend who labors in a
Bible school in Toronto for the Lord.
And a young Islamic man from a different
land got a job as a cleaner there,
and he asked my friend for a Bible
one day.
And then a little bit later, he said
to my friend, can I come to the
school chapel?
And Dennis said to him, well, sure you
can, but why do you want to come
to the chapel?
He said, well, I've been reading the book
and your God speaks.
My friend Dennis said, what do you mean?
He said, as I've been reading the Word,
God has been talking to me.
And I know that I'm a sinner.
I know that I need a Savior.
I'd like to come to chapel because maybe
could somebody help me to find Him.
Woo-hoo!
We will find great security for life as
we study the Scriptures.
They make us wise to salvation.
They make us equipped for every good work
and for all the other things that life
can bring.
I thank Luke this morning also because there's
a sense of identity.
This is apostolic truth.
It is from the apostles.
It's a realistic portrait of the humanity of
Jesus by those who were there.
It's not hearsay.
It's not secondhand, adjusted.
It's not reformatted to fit your screen.
It's just apostolic truth from those who walked
with Him.
That is the strength and the power that
changes our lives.
And there is one, you know, in Jesus.
There is one who experienced everything that you
and I experience.
Yet, He remained sinless.
Brad's gone, so I can't pick on him.
I wouldn't pick on my friend Ben.
No, I won't pick on anybody in the
front row.
I just think about this one who experienced
everything.
Do you have challenges in your life?
Are there people who get in your face?
Are there difficulties in relationships and struggles that
go so deep?
Is it not so wonderful this morning to
stop and think that Jesus, this Savior that
Luke is writing about, this Jesus, understands it
all.
You ever talk to somebody and you get
the idea that they really don't understand what
you're talking about?
I've had a few of those kind of
conversations and I see I'm not alone this
morning as I look around, see a few
smiles and nods, yeah.
But oh, how much different it is when
you go to someone who really understands.
You know, I smile as I say that
because Henry Hildebrand used to be the chancellor
at Briarcrest Bible School.
And I remember him telling me of a
student who came to see him one day
and he said, I have a recurring sin
in my life, Dr. Hildebrand, I just can't
get rid of it.
And Henry said to him, well, why don't
you talk to your professor about that?
And he said, you know, I would, Dr.
Hildebrand, but he's such a holy man.
I don't think he would understand, Dr. Hildebrand,
but you, on the other hand, yeah.
It's something about going to someone who understands.
And not only does he understand, but he
has the power to do something in you
and through you about the circumstances that you
face.
So when Luke is writing about the Son
of Man, he's writing about Jesus who understands,
who knows what it is to have that
humanity that you and I walk in every
single day.
And you read and discover that Jesus knew
what it was to be tired.
And he knew what it was to cry
and to grieve.
And he knew what it was to be
rejected.
Seven times in Scripture we see the rejection
of Jesus.
Understood all of these things and pressures.
And he's one that we can go to
and he will help us.
He cares about the needs and the hurts
that we face.
And there's testimony after testimony about the One
who identifies with us.
Now when we baptize people, we say they
are identifying with Jesus as they go into
the water with His death and as they
come out of the water with His resurrection.
But do you ever stop to think that
Jesus also identifies with you and with me?
And in the challenges and fears and struggles,
He knows.
He understands.
We can come to Him for that very
reason.
And really our identity is only found in
Jesus.
I used to think as a young fellow
that my identity would be found in playing
soccer.
And so I climbed a ladder of sports
fame.
And when I was about the size of
Ben here, come on up beside me for
a minute.
Thank you.
You make me feel like a giant this
morning.
But I have a complaint.
You're getting a little close here, buddy.
When I was young like Ben and playing
soccer, I got to play in the second
division of Irish League football.
Woo-hoo!
I could see the dollar signs except they
were pound signs over there.
I mean, the big money and the stardom
and woo!
But I only played there for three weeks
and then they invited me to leave.
Thanks, Ben.
You never find fulfillment there.
You never find identity in those things.
They just come and go.
And the greatest of people just seem to
vanish off the scene in very little time.
But real fulfillment is found in identifying with
Jesus, even as He identifies with you and
me.
And when you're in the throes of the
most difficult things of life, He is there.
If you know Him as Savior, He is
there.
He will not desert you.
He will not disappoint you.
He will be there through every valley and
every mountaintop as well.
You know, we tend to think of Jesus
as Savior.
But there's so much more.
Not only will He save us from our
sins and give us the gift of eternal
life, but He gives Himself to us.
And it takes a while to really come
to understand this.
The funder of our denomination put it in
the form of a hymn.
Let me read you the words and see
if it doesn't ring in your heart so
true this morning.
He's talking about Jesus, and he said, once
it was the blessing, now it is the
Lord.
Isn't that where we start?
Lord, bless me.
But as Jesus gave Himself to Him, He
was more interested in Jesus than just the
blessings that Jesus could give.
Once it was a feeling, now it is
His word.
Oh, boy, I'll tell you, feelings are great,
aren't they?
Somebody comes along and says, you can really
play guitar, man.
And we feel, oh, yeah, I can.
Or you can really play soccer.
Yeah.
And somebody comes along and says, you missed
a note in there.
And we live life like this roller coaster
ride up and down with the feelings.
But away beyond the feelings, there is the
Lord Himself and His word.
How good it is in these times when
there's so much depression and discouragement around to
just come to rest on what Jesus says.
I had a man one time in a
series of meetings.
He said to me, I want you to
pray for me.
I don't want you to read any Scripture,
and I don't want you to give me
any pat answers.
I've been looking at the music industry and
I've been down in Tennessee making a new
CD and I'd like to just vomit because
it's all about money and it's all about
politics and it's all about this and that
and the other thing.
And he said, it's supposed to be Christian,
but I don't see anything of Christ in
it.
So I said, OK, let me just read
you a few verses from the end of
the Gospel of John.
And I read them.
And Peter, you know, is saying about John,
what about him?
What's he going to do?
And Jesus says, don't worry about him.
You follow me.
So here's this sense of, oh, don't worry
about him.
You follow me.
That's what Jesus calls us to do as
individuals.
You follow me.
Very quickly, because we want to be ready
for our barbecue and be able to visit
together.
And Brad is hungry.
There is so much more in Jesus.
There's acceptance there as well.
You look at the record.
There's so much of his compassion and how
he in compassion touches lives.
It's so much need that supernatural touch.
Those who are blind, he gives sight.
Those who are sick, he gives healing.
Those who are struggling, he gives help.
He doesn't turn them away.
There's an acceptance as we come to him
in repentance and truth.
And time and again we see him do
that.
And, you know, it's a wonderful thing to
be accepted, isn't it?
I'm glad that no matter where you go
in the world, there's a family of God,
because no matter where I go, I know
there's brothers and sisters there.
I know there's some help there.
I know there's people who'll pray there.
Pastor Tom and I were in Ireland together
a few years ago, and we were in
an Irish church in southern Ireland where they
speak a fair amount of Gaelic.
And, you know, from the north of Ireland,
we didn't bother with those people from the
south.
In fact, you were told, don't even go
across the border.
That's kind of a betrayal to go down
there and do anything.
And you get these precepts and so on,
you know.
And as we came to the end of
the series of meetings that Tom and I
shared, we were given a word of thanks
in that church.
And I thought, I'm going to try to
respond in Irish.
That's a difficult language.
And I did my best with it.
And as I responded in Irish, I got
some smiles from the congregation.
The pastor's wife teaches Irish in the local
school.
And it had been a long time since
I'd spoken any Irish.
We had soup and sandwiches after the service.
And with the soup and sandwiches, we were
tucking in, Tom and I, because we were
going to run to the train and go
to the north.
And do some more ministry.
Lo and behold, they're gathered around us a
group of people.
And Fidelma, the pastor's wife, is in the
center.
And as I looked up at the circle
around me, I thought, uh-oh.
She's going to correct my Irish.
And I looked and smiled and Fidelma smiled.
And this is what she said.
John, just want you to know something before
you leave.
I said, okay.
And I'm waiting for the correction.
You know, you didn't say that right.
She said, we're quite sure that somebody should
tell you this.
First of all, you're not British.
Now, the north of Ireland is British.
And she's telling me I'm not British.
And then she said, second of all, you're
not Canadian.
And then she looked and cracked a smile
and said, we want you to know you're
one of us.
I wish I could put into words this
morning the sense of what that acceptance did
in my heart.
You're one of us.
Isn't it like that when we come to
think about the acceptance of Jesus?
You know, there are times when people accept
us and times when they don't.
But there is one to whom we can
go who accepts us, who loves us.
Luke will remind us of Jesus all the
way along.
And lastly, I'm thankful to Dr. Luke because
in his account, which he wrote so well,
we find forgiveness.
We find that the simple truth that no
matter who we are and no matter what
we've done, there is forgiveness in Christ Jesus.
Luke 19.10 says, He came to seek
and to save the lost.
So there's in this book an account of
the life of Jesus.
The accomplishments that Jesus has done.
It's apostolic truth.
It's from the apostles who worked and walked
with him.
It's acceptable truth.
Carefully investigated, set out for us in consecutive
order.
And it is trustworthy so that we can
know the salvation of God.
Let's pray together.
Father, we are grateful this morning that as
we open the Gospel of Luke, You too
have a word for us here.
A word that brings security.
A word that shows the identity of Jesus
as a man and as God.
A word that shows us acceptance and forgiveness.
And Father, as we close the worship session
this morning, we just want to come before
you.
And perhaps under the sound of my voice
this morning, there is someone who would say
deep in their heart, Oh, I wish I
knew for sure that things were right between
me and God.
I wish I knew for sure the saving
grace of God.
Perhaps under the sound of my voice, there
are those who would say, Pastor, my heart
hurts this morning because of the circumstances of
my life.
And oh, how I need a touch from
Jesus to bring healing and to bring help.
Father, I pray this morning that for each
of us, we would just take this quiet
moment with you and that you would speak
to our heart.
Dear friend, if you're here this morning and
you long to know for sure the forgiveness
of God, that new life in Jesus Christ,
that this book speaks about, you need simply
to come to him and to speak to
him in prayer.
Just as we're at the place of prayer
right now.
Just to cry out from your heart to
God and to say, Lord, I long to
know, are you real?
Lord, can you forgive?
And so I come to you and ask
you, Lord, forgive me and give yourself to
me, Lord.
Live in my heart and guide me and
help me.
Father, we would just pray that you would
make yourself real and known in every heart
in these moments.
Now, as we just pause, we want to
thank you, Father, that you're so able to
touch our lives.
You know our hurts.
You can help us with every difficulty.
So, Lord, we ask that in the power
of your spirit, as this service closes, that
you would minister to hurts and to hearts.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Now, as we come to our benediction, I
want to just mention that some have been
running the barbecues and the food will be
ready out there in just a moment or
two.
But let's stand together and receive the Lord's
benediction.
And we'll also pray a blessing upon the
meal together.
If you are here this morning and you
would like prayer, we want to encourage you
just as others leave to get the food,
you step this way.
And our elders and wives will be here
to pray with you and to meet that
need for you.
So let's pray together as we dismiss.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that we live
in a land where there is plenty.
And thank you that you are the one
who meets our needs.
And as we go from this place out
into another busy week at work or at
school or wherever we may go, thank you
for Jesus who has pledged himself to walk
with us no matter where we go.
Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to fellowship
together around this meal.
And we ask that you would bless the
food to our bodies and our conversation around
it.
Cause us, Lord, to know what it is
to love you and to love one another
in the things of Christ.
Would you bless us, Father, as your people
with that blessing that makes rich spiritually and
adds no sorrow.
And would you send us forth from this
place with the blessing of God, the Father,
and God, the Son, and God, the Holy
Spirit.
In Jesus' name and God's people said, amen.