Trinity Evangel Church

Luke weaves together the stories of two sons in the first couple chapters of his book. There's an announcement for each, and then the birth of each. But the section we're considering today is in between, when the two moms meet. Mary's response to Elizabeth's response lets us stop and worship a little though no kid has even been born yet.

Mary got more of a sign than she expected. The angel told her that her barren relative Elizabeth was going to have a baby. Mary went with haste, with spoude. It was probably a 3-4 day walk over 80+ miles and, though the text doesn’t explicitly say one way or another, it seems that she went alone.

Elizabeth had been staying at home; she hadn't really talked to anyone, including her husband Zechariah, for six months. Enter Mary. And when Mary said hello, Elizabeth didn't jump as if startled, but her baby jumped as if recognizing something. Elizabeth was excited, but the baby moved on his own. Inside-baby John was taking his first prophetic steps.

We know this because the Holy Spirit enabled Elizabeth to know this. She knew why her baby leapt, she knew something about Mary that maybe no one else on the planet knew, maybe more than even Mary at that very moment. Elizabeth knew that Mary was pregnant, and the window for conception was probably just a week or at most two. And somehow, again by the direct communication of the Spirit, Elizabeth knew that Mary's child was the Lord.

You’ll sometimes hear the term Theotokos/Θεοτόκος, “bearer of God” or interpreted as “mother of God” in the Hail Mary prayer. This is not meant to focus on Mary’s status as much as it is to clarify that the human baby Jesus was also God from the moment of conception. The Council of Ephesus (AD 431) affirmed this truth against the idea that the divine and human natures of Jesus were completely separate.

It's blesseds all around. Mary is blessed because of her calling to mother this Son of God (verse 42), and Mary is blessed because she believed the revelation of God (verse 45). Both of these are passive forms, emphasizing again that Mary is a recipient of God’s favor (as in 1:28). The fruit of the womb is also blessed, and Elizabeth knows who He is and that she has been blessed to even be in her Lord's presence. This is the first, but not the last time, Jesus is identified as Lord in Luke.

By the Spirit Elizabeth is able to interpret the womb jumping as a conscious reaction of her son and also interpret it as his joyful reaction. John was jumping for joy that Jesus was there.

Mary believed that there would be a fulfillment . God does what He says He will do.

One part about this scene that is easy to see as quaint/serene that is anything but, is the small number of people that know about any of this and the location of the revelation. Two women, one past child bearing age and the other pre-wed, and an old man who's been mute and deaf for half a year, couldn't tell anyone if he wanted. The Holy Spirit Himself, not an angel, has come and made known that God is moving, but the spiritual forces of evil are in the dark. More is at play than two hormonal but giddy pregnant ladies getting together one afternoon.

More than wondering how Mary could talk like this, maybe we should ask why don't we? We have our own complete copies of the canon, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and we should be talking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Mary makes us look quite immature, and ignorant.

Luke is the only author who included the "songs" of Mary and Zechariah; one commentator pointed out that they are like what we think of as an aria, a solo. Such poetic hymns are not out of context, but they are interruptions to the action. The pause helps us. Life is not quite a musical, but sometimes you need a song to sort of let you sit in the moment and soak up what's happening around you.

Mary's song came to be called the Magnificat after the first word in the Latin translation (see also Psalm 34:2-3). It's a hymn of praise. She praises God for how He's treating her, how He's working for all those who fear Him, and how He's fulfilling His covenant with Abraham in particular to the house of Jacob. It’s full of Old Testament echoes, Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-2) and Habakkuk (3:18), Psalms of conflict and of covenant. Was it an immediate impromptu? No matter, it is persuasive.

Look at all the first person singulars, "my" and "me." Mary understands that the Lord is great and that God is her Savior. She is not great, she is of humble estate. She wasn't powerful or influential in a way the world would recognize, though now we do recognize her as the recipient of great things that God did for her. Here we are, another generation, calling her blessed.

God has been working from generation to generation. His work includes mercy, protection, and food for those who depend on Him.

God has scattered the proud. He resists those who self-exalt their own self-sufficiency.

One of the themes we'll see throughout Luke is the rich and the poor. I read a book called The Good of Affluence (by John Schneider) and will be referencing it, and recommending it, throughout this series. There is a simplistic way to become a Marxist, believing that "all the rich are evil and all the poor are saints." It is true that many of the "haves" deserved judgment. But there are at least four groups, not two.

There are Haves and Have-Nots, and there are the humble and the proud. There are humble Haves and proud Haves, even if having is a great temptation to pride. There are also humble Have-Nots and proud Have-Nots, those who think they don't deserve the trouble. A genuine Marxist is mad at the mistreatment, and can take matters into his own hands like nobody's business.

In other words, the economic status is a visible factor, but it is the spiritual condition that is determinative. God does not endlessly bless the proud, even if for a while it seems like they are getting away with it. God does not endlessly burden the poor, even if they go through long stretches of struggle.

Taking the long view of history, generations at a time, those who fear God see God reversing the surface answers. Mary sees another application of this through the boy in her belly.

We can celebrate a lot of things in addition to the things in these two verses, but we cannot change what Mary celebrates.

The Lord has helped his servant Israel. It's common in some circles to hear that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises to Israel. That Jesus Himself is the servant, the true Israel. And while that is one description of Him, Mary is talking about her nation not about the Messiah. In fact, God is helping Israel at this very moment by sending Israel's Messiah. This is because God loves to show his mercy.

It's an ancient promise. The patriarchs (Isaac and Jacob) and others, starting with the covenant to Abraham to give Abraham offspring plural, while also recognizing Jesus in a unique way as the offspring singular. They became a nation, and Jesus came "for the Jew first and also for the Gentile," though the work of her Son for those outside Israel was not in Mary's mind at this moment.

The Church that Jesus is building is great (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 3:10), but the church is not the fulfillment of this praise. Mary’s praise is more particular.

According to verse 56 Mary went back home about the time that Elizabeth was due. The next scene is of John’s birth, but Mary isn’t mentioned.

Of course there are people, especially “scholars,” who think they know so much that they know that there's no way Mary could have come up with all this. Again, maybe her verbal first draft got some later edits. But she had something to say for praise because she’d heard what God had said previously. Mary sang because she knew the Bible (without actually having one). Do we?

And one of the reasons Mary responded by believing the revelation she was given is because she'd already been meditating on the revelation she had heard. When the Word dwells in us our words are full of wisdom and lyrics and thankfulness (see Colossians 3:16). Is our confidence in God low because we’re consuming other things?

Certainty (1:4) comes from God’s Word by God’s Spirit! Even Luke’s words are written that the Found would be faithful to magnify the Lord!

Beloved, walk by the Spirit. Let the Spirit lead as He fills you with hope in God’s Word. Live by the Spirit, and keep in step with the Spirit, as He enables you to LIVE IN HUMILITY, not becoming conceited, or provoking, or envying one another. (Galatians 5:25–26)

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

The birth of a son to an old, barren couple would be doubtful, highly improbable. The birth of a son to a virgin would be unheard of, truly unimaginable. John would be great before God. Jesus would be great because He is God. John would fulfill prophecies in turning hearts to the Lord. Jesus would fulfill prophecies and be the one to whom the people turned.

Luke starts off with quite a bang in the first chapter of his history book. There are, on the one hand, some details that just don't fit with what you expect on the day to day. And on the other hand, the more we read, the more Luke may have actually understated some of the reality.

Luke 1:26-28 is a second birth announcement, of a different son to different parents, who would also fulfill national expectations. No one else has been born like this, no one else has a life like His.

Luke recorded the setting of John's birth announcement: in the days of Herod's rule in Judea, and the appearance took place in the temple in Jerusalem. Luke also provides the setting for Jesus' birth announcement: a place nowhere near as important, which makes it all the more unprecedented.

In the sixth month refers to how far along Elizabeth was in her pregnancy (the angel says so in verse 36). And now the angel appears in a city, more like a small town, named Nazareth. Galilee was a region like Judea, north of Judea (and Samaria). Nazareth was the kind of place not printed on most maps. It was Nothing-special-ville.

The angel Gabriel is back. Readers who've continued from the beginning might either ask, "Another angel appearance?" or "Is Gabriel going to be a big player in this book?" Spoiler: this is his final scene, never mentioned after this in the rest of the New Testament. Gabriel doesn’t give his name to her; maybe Mary and Zechariah compared notes later.

But this time Gabriel surprises a small town, unmarried, unknown young woman. Since a young woman could become betrothed after 12, she’s also likely a teenager, though we’re never told her age. Before we learn her name, we learn that 1) she is a virgin, which turns out to be cosmically and soteriologically significant, and 2) she is betrothed, as in promised in marriage, to a Davidson, first name Joseph.

New sentence at the end of verse 27, just so we can catch the key point: And the virgin's name was Mary. Old women have been blessed with babies on occasion, but this has never been done before.

Did Gabriel try a different approach based on how Zechariah responded? Now Gabriel starts with a greeting. Some parts of this interaction were re-ordered in the 11th century into the liturgical prayer, Ave, Maria, meaning, "Hail, Mary." At least the angel tries to start off with something positive.

Mary, as I think is fair, is at least confused. Luke doesn't say that she knows she’s talking to an angel, he does say that she's not sure what sort of greeting this might be. Favored one, how so? The Lord is with me, in what way?

Like he did to Zechariah, Gabriel tells her "Don't be afraid." But unlike to Zechariah, Gabriel hasn't come to say her prayers have been heard, he comes to say you have found favor with God.

In other words, you're not in trouble. In other words, you've been chosen for something. In other words, your life is about to be forever changed.

Roman Catholic “theologians,” who are philosophical eisegetes, claim that Mary is “full of grace.” This claim is partially based on a misunderstanding of the Latin translation of this verse, and partially based on wishful and willful ignorance. They present Mary as a dispenser of grace, as if God sees her and wants her on his team. That is not what this text means. She is the object of God’s favor, she is not a source of it.

I like the formula, "little did he know." It's a literary device called the third person omniscient, found in some books where the narrator says things he knows that the character does not.

In these three verses, Gabriel says less than he knows. But at the same time he says more than what the Old Testament books put together reveal. It’s also more than what Mary could have fully grasped. Some of these things took early church a few centuries to realize. Jesus fulfills God’s Word.

Behold, and here it comes. The announcement to Zechariah fulfilled a promise, this is bigger. For Mary, she's going to get pregnant, the gender is male, and his name already chosen. Not only does that take some of the fun out of it, how's she going to explain this?

For her son, this is a Christological cornucopia. This Jesus:

Some of this is corroborated again in a moment, and a couple more parts are added. And, this isn’t even all that her Son will be or do. Mary, did you know?

Of the increase of his government and of peace

At least according to Luke, Mary only asks one question. It is a good question, and her question reveals a couple very important things. But also, she's really accepting of all the rest?

Unlike Zechariah she does not express disbelief (verses 18, 20), she apparently believes the what but wonders at the how. How is she going to get pregnant "since I do not know a man," a euphemism for the intimacy of the marriage bed.

The question is unnecessary unless she knew that the angel was talking about a miraculous conception. She was betrothed, she would get married, then she could have a kid. That's the how of most conceptions. But she realizes that she's going to be pregnant before that.

The angel does not rebuke her, and also gives her a sign, but a good one.

First he says that the conception will be by the creative power of the Holy Spirit. Human agency is great, and often used by God to accomplish His purposes, but there’s none of that here. Her pregnancy will result from the power of the Most High, and so her Son will be the Son of the Most High (verse 32). Therefore, as a result, the coming Son will be called holy--the Son of God.

Second, the sign will be that Elizabeth, her relative, is also pregnant. Elizabeth had been hiding herself for the last five months, Mary would not have known, but the barren one was going to have a baby. For nothing will be impossible with God. All the repeated emphasis on Mary’s status as virgin is to point to God not her. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14). No!

We might be tempted to say, "Wait a minute." Mary says, amen. According to Luke's retelling, and of course Mary herself would be the source of this interaction, there are no more questions, and more importantly, no apparent doubts. "Okay, we're strapped in to the ride, let’s go.” She’s got a five-point harness of faith.

This is what submission to God looks like: improbable, unlikely, and clear.

Then Gabriel left. Always get out before the Q&A starts.

We’re still in the first chapter and the birth of the Messiah has been announced. John is good, Jesus is God.

When you have hope when it’s heavy, when you forgive those who sin against you and hurt you, when you love your enemies, when you walk by faith, and others ask how it’s possible. Tell them, there’s even more where that came from. Tell them you serve the God of the impossible.

Vive fide = Live by faith. Each one of you who confess that Jesus is Lord are favored by God. The Lord is with you, His own Spirit dwells in you. You serve the Son of a virgin, you serve the God of the impossible. What can man possibly do to you? Live by faith!

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. (2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESV)

I said this morning that it’s easy, but foolish, to assume that everyone is thinking and doing all the good things. When it comes to the glorious responsibilities and privileges of parenting nothing goes without saying.

So, let's say some things. Here are nine (9 is my favorite number) hard earned pieces of wisdom for your parenting life. A parent's work is never done, and that means more than just another load of laundry. You are on the job, there's a lot to learn on the job, and here’s a laundry list.

The hospital does not hand out Owner's Manuals to new parents when discharging a newborn. This appears to be a great oversight. No one even asks if you know how to install the carseat.

And, if you are old enough to figure out how to reproduce, then you are old enough to figure out what to do with the fruit. You are certainly responsible to do the adulting.

Being the adult does not mean being the biggest child. It does not mean you get to have the winning bad attitude.

So much of life is a "wicked learning environment" (a category I find helpful that I read about in the book, Range by David Epstein). In this environment the rules aren't immediately clear, the feedback doesn't immediately come, and the consequences are significantly high. Playing checkers and being a doctor in the emergency room are different. Life is tough. But it's not your kids job to figure it out or tell you how to do your job.

Let's use productivity as an analogy for parenting for a moment. What pen you use does not make you a better writer no matter how many podcasts you listen to about it, what app you use does not make you a better thinker. Fiddling with the system, ad nauseam, may feel like progress but it is just productivity theater.

Not only that, outsourcing your care (to AI) or delegating it (to a person) so that you don’t need to learn or care misses the point. It's one thing to find a force multiplier, it's another thing to hand off care that costs you nothing.

It is your job to care. No one else's care is the same, nor is anyone else going to care like a parent.

Kids say the darndest things. Kids say the most honest and rude things. These days, the most protected kids still get exposed to crazy, and wicked, things. They will have questions that will tempt you to flip out, let alone reports about when they already flipped out in front of your friends.

I am not saying to be unshockable, I am saying to be an unshakable person your kids know they can talk to about anything, and keep your shock to conversations between spouses. More on this below in #8.

This is not because you are the 21st century Inquisition, but because you are interested and because you don't want to be a fool.

When you answer a matter before you hear it, you are the fool (Proverbs 18:13). When you only listen to one side of the story, you are the fool (Proverbs 18:17). When the surface story seems convenient, when the details don't match up, when you want to find out how better to bless and encourage and affirm, get them to talk.

Note: not every kid opens up the same way, or even the same way to both parents. Find the right spot, a good angle, use your strengths, and have a curious approach.

Answer a fool according to his folly, or don't (Proverbs 26:4-5). How do you know which and when?

There are a lot of options. Push or Punt, Plead or Lead, Ask or Exhort, Gas or Brake. Are you dealing with delicates or denim, sweat or grass stain?

If you get value from personality type sort of discussions, or you get value from talking through characters in books and movies, or you get value from being ruthless with your own strengths and sins, even temptations to sin, let it keep updating the system, your radar, your vibe-sensors, your response arsenal.

This kind of "gut" is a way to talk about wisdom in the moment.

Another way to summarize Ephesians 6:4 is that we are raising Christians. Almost every time I talk about this, a tender-hearted father comes up to me and explains that he doesn't think this is possible. We can do everything right, but it's a crap shoot whether or not all the kids turn out alright, let alone believe in Jesus.

Parenting is not a vending machine, but it is hard enough without doing it and always wondering if what you’re doing matters.

“He that winneth souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30 KJV). Grace! Faith! Win!

Galatians 6:7-9. God is not mocked, effects have causes just like fruits have roots.

Read the book Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt; it’s not about parenting per se, but by analogy, the point is that your decisions and work take effect in layers. When God blesses you to see your children’s children, it will be more a blessing if your children don’t have to warn their children about you.

Do NOT ramp up or reward their envy, self-pity, or otherwise lack of emotional self-control. Bad things happen, people are mean and jerks, but we want our kids to learn both that we care and also that we don't need to move into Bitterville.

But also, DO look to affirm and pile-on to half-baked in the right direction sort of ideas.

Changing analogies, you move from being the rudder to wind in sails. You are helping more and more to move this ship, less and less to steer. Wind doesn't wait for sails, and wind makes it harder to go in some directions, which can be used for good.

The diaper blow out, the dried spaghetti sauce, the ripped knee, the outgrown shoes, the slow progress, the late-night question, the developing skills that need extra resources and the unique struggles that need extra attention, these are part of God's will. “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Get GREAT at gratefulness, about your kids (to God, to your spouse, to others), and to your kids. This does not mean there are not (big) problems to solve. But if you wait to be thankful until there are only things to be thankful, more will be lost than just your own joy.

As Jonathan says, thankful people are more fun to bless, and they are also more fun to follow/obey.

It is a lifelong effort with seasonal changes, but the most frustrating part will be thinking that you can get it all figured out and then be done. Take off that wrong expectation that burdens, and embrace that the work is never done.

You are on the job, learning on the job. There is always something to learn and work to do and care to show. Praise God!

If you were to summarize the culture we're building at Trinity Evangel Church, what would you put at the top of the list? Gratitude? Blessing? Jealousability? All Are Yours? Kuyperian Dispensationalism? All worthy candidates, but none hit the spot.

What is the thing that unlocks and leads to all the rest? What do we start every calendar week nourishing?

The proposed TEC rallying cry: Fide Vive - Live by Faith.

Faith enables gratitude. Faith begets blessing. Faith lives jealousably. It's by faith that we can say "All are ours." Faith is the summary of our Christian walk.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" - Romans 1:16-17

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." - Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the simple, strong, and single-minded surety that what God has told us we should expect, we will receive. No doubt. No wavering. A single, solid assurance.

That's why James says the one who doubts is "like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind... he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

To doubt is to be double-minded, wanting one thing, but expecting another. If we are not living by faith, we are unstable in all our ways.

Our goal is to form stable kids who grow into sturdy adults. We are raising people to be sturdy and full of faith.

What we see in today's culture is believers who are not stable and not sturdy, like chaff in the wind, blown in whatever direction the current mood drives them. When faith is lacking, people are either babies or bloats.

When faith is lacking, adults act like babies. They cower and quiver in the face of the slightest pressure.

The onslaught on the church through wokism, governmental overreach, the gay-Christian agenda, and compromising leadership is not a safe space for babies. Too many good men stare into the corruption with uncertain hesitancy - not because they don't know what to say, but because they are double-minded. Good men are sinfully careful when cowardice, not confidence, lies at their bedrock.

Christians can barely handle the stress of normal dominion-taking efforts. Just taking responsibility for what's in front of us - our own discipleship, our family, our kids, our church - is a crushing burden for those who are babies full of doubt.

The bloat is the confident dimwit, too sure of himself to learn from his own failure. King Solomon warned his son of the fool who can't enter a room without thinking he's the smartest one there.

This fool feels full of himself. But what he's full of is arrogance-carbonation producing pride bubbles covering up his emptiness. One big burp and all is made clear - noise and stench and not much else.

The bloat has faith, but not with any substance. He simply believes in himself. But the "Believe in Thyself" philosophy is straight from the pit.

We don't want our kids to grow up to be babies. We want them sturdy. We don't want them to be bloats. We want them to have substance. If our aim is for them to live by faith, we are to build sturdy substance.

Parenting is an ongoing job with no quick-fix formula. But in building sturdy substance, two components we want to instill: Confidence and Competence.

Sturdiness comes from confidence - rooted and grounded, not blown by doubts or outside pressure. Substance comes from competence - real results, not just words.

At Jesus's baptism, before any ministry, miracles, or teaching, the Father declared: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Attention: At Jesus's baptism, "a voice came from heaven." The Father was paying attention. A dad's active presence means knowing his kids: their strengths, struggles, fears, and fortitude. This attention isn't just for instruction and correction, but for the child's security. "Dad is with me. I'm okay."

Acknowledgment: The Father not only pays attention but identifies with the Son: "My Son." A child's identity is reinforced when dad acknowledges them, through encouragement, feedback, instruction, discipline, or reassurance. This means slowing down and actually talking to kids about their lives. Attention without acknowledgment isn't sufficient.

Love: The Father's acknowledgment includes "Beloved." The foundational reality holding everything together. A father's attentiveness and acknowledgment must flow from love. The confidence we're building in our kids is rooted not in performance, but in dad's love. Love changes how attention and acknowledgment look and feel.

Pleasure: Attention, acknowledgment, and love culminate here: "With you I am well pleased." Kids sense when they're a burden versus when they have dad's pleasure. A hard-to-please dad is a familiar stereotype, but not what we see in our Heavenly Father. In Christ, God is well-pleased with us despite our instability. We reflect that fatherhood to our kids.

The Father's pleasure precedes the Son's performance.

Christ received the Father's attention, acknowledgment, love, and pleasure before the wilderness temptation, before the ministry began. He didn't earn it through work - he received it first, then went out to work.

Fathers reflect to their kids the pleasure of God the Father. In Christ, we have our Heavenly Father's pleasure despite our instability. We are secure in that. We ought to reflect that fatherhood to our kids.

How do we raise confident adults sturdy in their faith? We are pleased with them, even when they're unstable kids.

Character matters - but it's measured by actions and results, not words and intentions. Too often, "character matters" justifies incompetence among Christians: "Sure, he's not good at his job, but he's faithful to his wife."

This is a falsehood. You cannot choose character at the expense of competence. Real character produces real competence. Does high character demand valuing hard work? How is that demonstrated except by working hard?

You can't be a good parent if you're a lousy worker. Teaching our kids excellence demands that we excel ourselves.

"Competence" comes from Latin com (together) and petere (to strive) - literally, to strive together. To compete. To be competent means to compete and to win.

How do we raise winners? How do we train our kids for the competition?

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things... But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." - 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Through discipline. Through control. Through training.

Paul wants discipline so he wouldn't be a bloat, full of sound words but no results. Paul is after real substance.

As the father's pleasure leads to confidence, so the father's discipline leads to competence.

"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves... For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." - Hebrews 12:5-6, 11

The word "discipline" here (paideia) implies training an instructor provides - painful, but with a benevolent end. Training is not simply harm. Training always has purpose.

Fathers are to train their kids to carry responsibility. If that burden is heavy, teach them how to carry it. Many parents quickly relieve their kids of burden lest it hurt them, and in doing so, hurt them. Mothers are nurturing by nature, prone to relieve the burden. This is why fathers' discipline is what children need.

The father must have the nerve to let his child remain under discipline, not to crush, but to train unto competence, unto substance, unto winning.

We want kids with substance that commits, endures, and wins. Substance that doesn't tap out when things get difficult or tedious. Faithfulness can seem dull - it's not always exciting. But substantive competence developed through discipline endures.

When the faithfulness of the competent is to the brim - when they are faith-filled - it overflows with abundant fruit, real results, visible good works.

Sturdy substance is faith-filled and overflowing.

To raise kids who live by faith, we raise them to be sturdy and have substance - confident and competent, faith-filled and overflowing.

How? Through pleasure and discipline.

Colossians 3:21 tells fathers not to discourage their kids, literally, not to make them "lose heart." We want them to live by faith.

So do the opposite: instead of discouraging, give courage. Instead of making them lose heart, give them heart.

As parents, we're not only to win the hearts of our kids. We are to give them a heart - fill it with sturdy substance, fill it with faith, so that it overflows with fruit. Instill the sturdy confidence that comes from our pleasure in them, and the substantive competence that comes from our discipline for them.

Don't only go after winning your kids' heart. Give them one.

Some Q&A with the elders

“Blessed the man that fears Jehovah and that walketh in His ways!” That’s one of our favorite psalms to sing (Psalm 128). Blessings from the Lord include children all around a man's table like olive plants (verse 3). Blessing includes seeing his children's children (verse 6). It's not just the fact of family and generations, it's a gift from God to able to enjoy family and family fruitfulness.

This blessedness, and the purposes and principles and practices involved to get it, does not go without saying. It all has to be said, again and again, in public and from house to house, clearly and with illustrations. It’s easy, but foolish, to assume that everyone is doing the same work in their houses. When it comes to the glorious responsibilities and privileges of parenting nothing goes without saying.

So, let me say some things.

The God who created heaven and earth invented the idea of parents. God gave breath and souls and a mandate to the first parents. The same God calls us to pray to Him as our Father and to see ourselves as His children. When image-bearers, husband and wife, make love, God gives them children. Fruitfulness is a feature of blessed intimacy. God made it so, praise God!

But we do not always see our kids as gifts until they’ve been asleep quietly in the crib for a couple hours. Parenting can feel more like burden than blessing, and boy, diapers are expensive and potty-training is annoying and orthodontists aren’t in the office on the days we’re free. In our day and place, kids are costly and inconvenient, let alone when they learn enough words to say that they’re ungrateful. But for all that, we are not the first people to have parenting problems.

It's easy to miss that the last prophecy in the Old Testament is the Lord's promise to fix hearts in the household.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Malachi 4:5–6 ESV)

Not mentioned here, but the most important heart turn is to the Lord, away from self and the world. That’s earlier in the chapter (in verse 2), so the good is for who fear the Lord’s name. The next most important turn is a generational turn, with emphasis on the fathers. Fathers will turn to their kids, kids will turn to their fathers. This does not mean that the family only looks at each other, but there is a loyalty.

What does this look like, practically, concretely, rubber gloves meet the dirty dishes sort of thing? That's good to ask, though I would point out from the passage itself that the turn is first internal and spiritual and attitudinal and obvious in the same way that gravity works. There’s a time to think about the pattern for laying bricks, but not if you’re trying to lay bricks on top of smoke; you need a solid foundation. The foundation for parenting is turned hearts.

We've made it to our first Parenting Tune-Up day. A tune-up is an accessible and workable analogy. A tune-up is not the same as collision repair after the train dragged your car down the track for a quarter mile. I'm going to speak as if your hearts are turned to your kids, that maybe you need to make some adjustments, but not heart overhauls (though those can be done with God’s help!). There are some basic checks, always relevant, and like I said, nothing goes without saying. I'm not one of those possessive mechanics trying to guilt you for waiting until 3005 miles to change the oil, though I do care for your sake. The goal here is a running car, by which I mean a household running in glad fellowship and increasing fruitfulness.

These checks are for potential parenting breakdowns not problem children. Kids have problems, parents do need to deal with those problems, but you can be problematic while dealing with problems.

So assuming your heart is turned toward your kids, here are some reminders for sake of your heart being tuned up.

Being a dad or mom is a relentless vocation. You should want not just to endure, but to excel. There are helps, but remember, “The unmotivated are notoriously invulnerable to insight” (Friedman).

It really does require care and constant attention, lifelong learning, and dying to bring life. We're talking about being high agency parents, who have clear thinking, who are willing to disagree with their kids (for their good), and who have a bias to action (even if that is the action of waiting on the Lord).

High agency by itself, in the flesh, will just keep dragging the plow through the field and so nothing good will grow. We need high agency (human responsibility) multiplied by grace. High agency x God's grace = abundant blessing.

I like to play around with my disdain for "tips" in such big subjects such as parenting. So how about TIFS instead.

Deuteronomy 6 (see especially verses 4-7) implies presence, parents with their kids sitting down, walking around, at bed time, and breakfast. Presence is not only measured in minutes-per-day, but a parent trying to calculate the least minutes-per-day is already missing the point. Looking at your calendar/schedule and acknowledging that the minutes aren't enough is one thing, but trying to find the lowest possible minutes is abdication.

Someone should be available, it’s often the mom. Go to their stuff.

All the time in the world doesn't matter if you're merely drifting out in the middle of the ocean heading nowhere. It's not just amount of availability, it's aim. You are raising Christians, raising future parents. If nothing else, know what to avoid, since the apostle Paul requires fathers to avoid provoking to anger (Ephesians 6:4) or discouragement (Colossians 3:21).

Hanging out can be intentional. It’s not just planning the next lecture, but you should be able to see where things are going.

Having great intentions, or at least intentions for them to do great things, could be an anxiety fest. High expectations can suffocate, setting you up for frustration, and you can want the right things in brutal ways.

By grace through faith, not self-willed manipulation, also not doubting. Keep on trusting God, in front of your kids, and for your kids.

High agency parenting by grace is not the same thing as everything going according to your plan. It's not just that you're sacrificing to make a plan, which you should, it's that you should "plan" that key moments will happen that weren't on the list for that day.

Yes, you make sacrifices to earn a paycheck and prepare dinner and drive them to practice and buy them birthday gifts, as it should be; sow bountifully to reap bountifully (the principle in 2 Corinthians 9:6). But they are going to ask for counsel when it is not convenient. They will bring you bad news when you’re already full up on bad news. They are going to need you to care about things that aren't in your wheelhouse. They are going to require you to say things, because nothing goes without saying, and you’re the one God gave them to say it.

TIFS: time, intention, faith, sacrifices.

Parents should expect THIQ obedience from their kids; there are verses for it. Kids should obey totally, happily, immediately, and quickly. That is the standard. When our kids were younger we wrote THIQ on our five-gallon paint-stirring "rods" to remind us all what we’re after.

But I think this has a second application for the one holding the rod.

Your discipline should aim to pull the whole weed. Part of what this means is that you're looking for their attitude to be right, not just for them to stop hitting their brother, as good as that would be, or parrot back the forgiveness formula.

This is a place that you've got to know your kids. With the dig and dung analogy for discipline, dig with your gut, and let the dung be full of grace. With certain kids what you see is all there is. With other kids they might not even know what’s inside, so help them figure it out.

Of course we're not talking about being giddy. There's no godly glee in inflicting pain received through the ears or the bottom.

What this does mean is that you must not do it angry. Discipline should not start, continue, or end with your frustration, or resentment, or anxiety. Could you start singing a psalm at any point? And I don’t mean “understand, O stupid people, when, O fools, will you be wise?” Against anger, annoyance, and anxiety discipline in love, joy, and peace.

Don't let disobediences pile up. Of course there are times when you wait to get out of the store into the car. In some cases you need to leave the store and go to the car while the half-full shopping cart sits in the aisle. As kids get older they can remember why they earned the talk, or the rod, and fine. But in general, don't let sin build up. It's not good for them, or the watching siblings, and isn't going to help you be happy.

The conversation takes as long as it takes, as does the spanking. Again, we're looking for turned hearts which isn’t about a stopwatch. And also, when the heart has turned, don't keep the heavy drama going just to drive the point home deeper. Pray, hug, sing, go back to the dinner table, and get back to whatever was disrupted. Don't prolong the break in fellowship.

For that matter, when it’s appropriate to “cover” their sins (1 Peter 4:8), cover quickly. Don’t just put a lid on your boiling water, take remove the pot from the stove and turn off the burner.

THIQ discipline: total, happy, immediate, quick.

Do you know what your kids are for? Your kids are not for your happiness like pieces of art for your collection, though God is kind to give us happiness through them.

Are you attending to how God framed them and what He wants from them? There are foundations of love and faith, worship and obedience. Then there are many particulars. Are you learning about them, connecting with them, exercising your wisdom and authority for them, enjoying them?

May your heart be turned to them, and theirs to yours, and nothing go without saying.

Fathers, turn away from anger and frustration with your kids. Mothers, turn away from anxiety about or fussiness with your kids. Kids, turn away from know-it-all-ism and dismissiveness to your parents. Turn to your kids, turn to your father, turn to fellowship for Jesus' sake.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV)

It's delightful how Luke set us up to expect an orderly, historical account before slamming us in his next move with a part of the story so crazy that it's almost unbelievable. Really, after his short and formal preface, the first main section of his book is about two incredible birth stories; one of the kids doesn't even have a human father.

Luke's done his homework. He went back to the beginning of things and, unlike Matthew or Mark, Luke tells us more background about the announcements and the arrivals of John and Jesus. There's a back and forth, announcement about John then announcement about Jesus, followed by the birth of John then the birth of Jesus. And when we put it like that, it sounds like normal timeline accounts.

But while giving us the expected parts of the setting—some of the basic who, when, and where—Luke says, in a rather nonchalant manner, that one of only two named angels in Scripture showed up while a priest was burning incense and said it was time for the fulfillment of a 400 year old prophecy, and then made the priest mute (and deaf, see verse 62) because he didn't accept what the angel said immediately. That. Is. Crazy.

As we're getting strapped in so that we can be certain about what we've been taught (the purpose of the book of Luke according to Luke 1:4), Luke gives us a bridge. In fact, he bridges a few things. The account itself bridges from the Old Testament to the New, with echoes of previous barren couples who looked to the Lord. John in particular is the last prophet before the coming of the Christ and His kingdom, the fulfillment of old promises moving into new stages. And looking ahead, if you can't believe this, you're definitely not going to believe what happens next.

Luke 1:5-25 tells us about the angelic announcement of the birth of a prophet who would precede the coming of the Lord and turn the hearts of his people to the Lord.

We're introduced to the two main human characters (verses 5-7), given the setting (verses 8-10), then the appearance and announcement of the angel (verses 11-20), and then the aftermath (verses 21-25).

We meet a new sort of Abram and Sarai, a couple who are serving God yet with no offspring to show for it.

It starts with a traditional time marker: In the days of Herod, king of Judea. This puts it around 5 BC (since multiple sources say Herod died in 4 BC). For those who might be rereading Luke's book, there's a little bookending with Jesus crucified as "the king of the Jews" (23:37-38), a more definite description, and of course, Jesus is the true King. But here at the beginning, the Roman senate granted this kingship to Herod who promised he could keep the peace and keep the tax money coming in.

We meet Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, both Jews, and both from priestly families. More than bloodline, they were both righteous before God. The feared the Lord, they worshipped God, they obeyed the Law. But, like many of the Old Testament characters they had no child, and by this point they were too old to expect any kids.

Psalm 119:1 says that those whose way is blameless are blessed. But Zechariah and Elizabeth probably didn’t feel so blessed. They had at least two massive heartaches: living under a Roman’s rule, and living under reproach/disgrace (verse 25) because they had no child. Their heartache is like heavy rain that they couldn’t get out of.

Verses 8-23 all take place in one week, and most of it on just one day, in the temple in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah established the 24 divisions of priests as part of his work of reformation when Israel returned from captivity. Each division served semi-annually, that is, two weeks a year. Zechariah lived "in the hill country" (1:39), but his division was on duty in Jerusalem.

There were about 750 priests in each division (making a total of around 18,000), and so they cast lots to determine who would get to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. It was a once-in-a-lifetime honor, not every priest even got a chance, and the lot fell to Zechariah for what appears to be the afternoon offering, when a bunch of Jews outside the temple who were gathered to pray. The incense even represented their prayers.

Everything through verse 10 is normal enough, but no one, Zechariah most of all, was expecting what happened next. We’re only ten verses in and the story turns hard.

And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord. An angel shows up? And an angel of the Lord? So yeah, Zechariah was troubled...and fear fell upon him.

The first words quoted in this history: “Fear not." These are actually frequent words when there is some sort of supernatural occurrence, including eleven more times in Luke.

The angel doesn't warm Zechariah up with any chit chat, but gets right to the point. "Zechariah, God heard what you asked for. He's giving you a son, and not just any son, but a prophet."

That’s a lot to take in. Zechariah might have first wondered, What prayer? Was he praying for a son that afternoon? Probably not, he’d likely be focused on his priestly role representing the people. When was the last time he'd prayed for a child? Might it have been decades? Was the angel referring to “cold”/old prayers? Or was Zechariah praying for the Lord to come and deliver Israel from unrighteousness and unrighteous rulers? Was Zechariah praying for the promises of the Messiah to be fulfilled? The angel doesn't say.

But Zechariah's second question would be, Why the name John? That wasn't a family name. Naming is a sign of authority, and this was God taking the authority. But, still, it was another surprising piece.

What does it mean, he will be great before the Lord? He's not supposed to have wine or other alcoholic drink. No priests on duty were allowed to drink, and those who took the vow of a Nazarite also didn't partake. While similar, this kid was being set apart. In fact, he would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. The Spirit came upon people in the OT, but didn't start dwelling in people until some thirty years after this interaction.

Verses 16 and 17 describe his prophetic work, which would be prophetic fulfillment.

And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:16–17 ESV)

Some of this was the very last promise in the last book of the OT, and you can read it in Malachi 4:5-6.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Malachi 4:5–6 ESV)

John would preach, and by God's grace, many would turn. Israelites would turn back to God, so there would be vertical restoration. Fathers would turn to their kids, so horizontal and family restoration. And the disobedient would turn to the wisdom of the just, the goodness and blessing of living in obedience. All three turns would prepare a people for the Lord. John would be the turning prophet.

Again, this is a lot to take in. Zechariah heard it but he wasn't accepting it. I'm not saying I'd have known what to do. But still, if he thought he was dreaming, why argue. If he knew it was a real angel, and since he’s a guy who knew the OT stories, the part he wondered about is pregnancy? “Zechariah, you really don’t remember the stories?”

The angel responds with some credentials. "Look, man, I'm the angel who talked to Daniel about the end of times and the restoration of Israel. Maybe you remember Daniel 8 and 9. What's more, I'm one of those who are in God's immediate presence. So yeah, I’m here as heaven’s messenger, sent to bring you this good news."

Without a pause for Zechariah to accept it, Gabriel gives Zechariah a sign, but not really the type he was asking for. Because Zechariah did not believe, he would be mute until the baby was born.

This interaction took longer than expected, so the people outside were wondering what happened. When he came out and couldn't talk, the people rightly assumed something special like a vision occurred, but they apparently gave up trying to get him to say what it was. What sort of charade gestures get this news across?

Once he got home, we can assume that Zechariah and Elizabeth worked out some system of communication. And the fact that she conceived, without further note, suggests that it happened in the old fashioned way, but with God’s special blessing to make fruitful.

Maybe because Zechariah couldn't say anything anyway, and because we’re about to find out that she’s related to a young woman who is about to become pregnant, the attention shifts to Elizabeth. Why she hid herself for five months isn't stated. Seems like it would have been a cause for unshame, since now being a mom was a taking away of reproach. But she's rejoicing, and taking it as a sign of personal blessing from the Lord.

Just in this opening scene heartache turns to hope, and this is a theme in Luke, it is the point of the gospel. The lost are found. The barren are made fruitful. John would be a turning point, the turning prophet. This message from Gabriel is a fulfilling birth announcement, fulfilling the prophecies of a prophet, and fulfilling the prayers of a faithful priest and his wife.

You live in a world where God is working. He sees and hears. He sends messages. He interrupts schedules. He turns hearts. He calls us to blamelessness AND belief.

Keep turning to the Lord. When you feel lost, turn to the Son for wisdom in your walk. When you feel unstable, turn to the Rock and rest on Him. When you are living under the heavy rains of heartache, turn to the God of hope. He hears your prayers, He will not forsake you.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)

Maybe you've heard some version of this counsel before, "When someone tells you who they are, listen." This comes in contexts where a person is revealing his true character, but maybe you've got other reasons for not wanting to believe what he says. The point is: the point is not always so hard to find, but we have to be willing to accept it.

This is most certainly missed by a lot of Bible readers, and specifically by people with wishful thinking about who they want Jesus to be. But the authors of Scripture tell us what they’re trying to communicate. Jesus certainly communicated who He is. Non-Christians miss the signals because they’re trying to miss Jesus, otherwise they'd have to submit to Him. Even Christians can miss it by not observing the text in its context.

Luke opened volume one of his historical record of Jesus with a formal preface unlike Matthew, Mark, or John. So also Luke, unlike those three, wrote a second volume with the historical record of Jesus' disciples, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the beginning of the church. Luke wrote more of what we have as the New Testament than any other author, and as an author Luke tells us up front where he got his info and what purpose he had for writing. It's all in verses 1-4.

To start with the end, he wrote so that his reader(s) would have certainty about the things they had been taught. This certainty gave their already existing faith an even more firm foundation. This certainty would encourage them to be faithful (as in the story of the minas in Luke 19). The book of Luke was written so that the found would be faithful.

What we have as verses 1-4 are one long sentence in the original language, which is acknowledged by most English translations. It's more than, though not less than, a dedication to the patron who probably paid for the publishing of the book. It also introduces us to a little background and the big goal for this long history.

Luke didn't start from scratch. He also didn't make up a story. He wasn't the first to write, but he did have firsthand sources.

There are good reasons to think Luke probably started writing this book in the early 60s. That means that the apostles had been preaching and disciple-making and church planting for almost three decades. Word about Jesus was going around.

Luke says, many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us. Men—and many makes the plural part clear—did work to make their own account. To compile a narrative means it required intention and effort, which could be spoken or written, though the original word has the nuance of “taken in hand” (KJV), leaning more literary than oral.

The study of when and how the books of the Bible were written is great, and grueling, because of how many men seem motivated to not have to believe it. They expect to find problems, and turns out they can “find” some. But we're blessed to have the Bible, we're blessed to be able to read and compare parts with other parts.

There's good reason to think that Luke at least knew about or even had access to both Matthew and Mark. Comparing Luke to Matthew and Mark has led to the label for all three as Synoptic Gospels, they share a general synopsis or overview of Jesus’ life. There's also good reason to think that Luke had more than those two sources. But things had happened, guys were telling each other and even writing down some of what happened.

Verse 2 appears to describe a second group, who would actually be the key group: those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses. There were guys who saw from the start. And yes, it's possible to see something and still be wrong about it, but here, the guys seeing were also a plurality, so not dependent on just one pair of eyes, and also, they'd been seeing over time, not a one-off event. There was time to watch and question and compare notes, and there were others to argue and correct if someone was wrong.

These eyewitnesses were ministers of the word and delivered [the things] to us. It’s one group; they saw and they spoke. They had been present, then they passed on what happened.

One, we know that some of these men paid for their witness with their lives; the story was worth dying for. Two, again, the whole process functioned as kind of a quality control. So putting it all together: these are certain materials that give us certain history.

Even with the many accounts, Luke knew that there was more that could be included, more that could be written, more certainty that could be provided. That's obvious just considering that there is no book of "Acts according to Matthew"; only Luke went further than the Ascension. But even in the first volume, we'll see that Luke alone gives us the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth and birth of John the Baptist, Mary's response to Gabriel's announcement of her conception, a different genealogy of Jesus, Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and more. How much we've got to be thankful for from Luke!

So praise the Lord when Luke said, it seemed good to me. Yes, it “seemed good to the Holy Spirit” as well (which is true based on the doctrine of inspiration, and some later copyists even added the phrase to Luke 1:3 based on Acts 15:28). This is Luke’s key decision, leading to Luke’s contribution.

What seemed good to him was to really deep research this thing. He followed all things closely for some time past. There are other ways to understand what he wrote here, but they all get to the bottom line that he investigated, he didn't invent. He did his homework, he wasn't hallucinating. He researched closely or “carefully” (NASB), and “from the beginning” (NASB), at least back to the birth of the Messiah’s forerunner.

It was so that he could write an orderly account. This doesn't mean strictly chronological, though Luke is generally following the timeline. It does mean that he paid attention to what comes after what.

This is always valuable in our observation. How do things relate? How does what comes before, or after, matter? These are not questions that box-checking-readers have time for, and they are questions that some theological-readers don't think matter. But it mattered to Luke.

Luke's intended audience was most excellent Theophilus. Theophilus is named at the beginning of Acts also (Acts 1:1). As usual, people argue about who exactly this “excellency” was, if he was a real historical person or if the name was a representative stand-in for any "friend of God." But the tone of the whole preface points to this as probably the patron of Luke's work.

The purpose of Luke's work is verse 4: that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught. It's certainty about the facts, which increases certainty about faith. This is the burden of the book of Luke.

We get to stand on the same firm foundation. At the beginning of the 1900s the cultural mood was to question the historicity of Jesus and the Bible; they didn’t listen to Luke. At the beginning of the 2000s the cultural mood is to question if meaning even exists; we also should listen to Luke. It used to be Science, now it’s stories, but with whatever meaning you want. We have something more certain.

So Luke was careful and comprehensive about what has been fulfilled and what God will fulfill next. God has been and is at work.

The burden of the book of Luke is certainty about what we’ve been taught to believe, and when we teach it there is a burden of proof to believe it. It’s what compelled Luke, it’s why his narrative is compelling. The narrative of Jesus' life and miracles and teaching isn't an imaginative, fiction, myth. Jesus said who He is, many heard and watched and then said who He is. Nations are accountable to repent and submit and give witness that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord every man. We are obligated to believe certain things.

That’s part of our job as a church in Marysville. We’ve received certain things in the Bible, and as we pay close attention to it we then are responsible to pass it on. We’ve got certain things: prophecies fulfilled, woes pronounced, comfort offered, forgiveness secured, Christ risen and ascended.

Reread this preface with your kids. Talk about what it would have been like to talk with eyewitness. Talk about why the Bible’s account requires us to believe it. For that matter, make sure you believe it.

God did not leave us to guess. Just as He gave certainty to Theophilus, He gives us more than information. He delights to make us His people with the framework so that the found would be faithful.

Read, believe, and obey the Bible like your life depends on it. Don’t be driven by wishful thinking, let your thinking be driven by God’s Word. Your faith is in CERTAIN things. The world is lost and drowning in uncertainty, but you are built on the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25–27 ESV)

Jesus said that "The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” There's a lot in that one sentence. What's the significance of the title, "Son of Man"? If He "came," where was He before? Any emphasis on the two verbs, as in, why "seek and save" rather than just "save"? And what does it mean to be "lost"? Who are the "lost"?

Luke wrote to answer all these questions and more.

Let’s consider some background things the original audience who read what we call "Luke" would have understood, some things we can put together.

Nowhere in these 24 chapters does the author name himself. Even in the more formal preface (1:1-4) there's no "from,” which is unlike what we read in the epistles. But the author of this book also wrote the book of Acts, and in Acts there are some "we" sections where the author is traveling with Paul (for example, Acts 16:10-17). Based on who is and isn't named, and based on a comment Paul included to the Colossians, Luke is the obvious candidate. No one in the first few centuries questioned it, and by around AD 175 (in Papyrus 75) this book had the designation: "εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Λουκᾶν" (Gospel according to Luke).

In that comment in Colossians (4:14), Paul calls Luke “the beloved physician” and includes him in a group of Gentiles. That would make Luke the only non-Jewish author of a New Testament book. That also makes a Gentile the author of more inspired words in the New Testament (taking Luke-Acts combined) than even all of Paul's letters added together (2,138 verses; Paul wrote 2,033, per Wilkinson and Boa in Talk Thru the Bible).

This also means that Luke was a second-generation disciple. He did not travel with Jesus, he was not one of the Twelve, he so did not meet the qualifications to be an apostle (Acts 1:21-22). He was close with Paul, he traveled with Paul, and so he certainly crossed paths in church circles with many eye-witnesses. In some ways this is an advantage to us. Luke had to work at his research. He says that he “investigated everything carefully” (1:3 NASB). And though he started with some reference materials, he thought there were still more things that could be said.

As the longest of the four gospels, Luke shares some of the same stories with Matthew and Mark. Luke also has a lot of Luke-only material, including the parable of the Good Samaritan, the parable of the Prodigal Son, the interaction with Zacchaeus, and more. For that matter, Luke spends almost 10 chapters (9:51-19:27) on the last half-year as Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to be crucified, and Mark covered that same period of ministry in only 20 verses.

It's near the end of the long, standout section that Luke records Jesus saying, "The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10).

Luke also provides more about Jesus’ background, His birth and boyhood and baptism, than any other gospel writer. For sake of a big picture outline of the book:

The book of Acts is Volume 2 of the same work, which sets Luke apart from the other gospel writers.

I've found the following not just interesting, but profitable, for my own thinking as a disciple and also as a pastor beginning this study/series that will probably take a couple years for us to work through together.

We don't think of Acts in the genre of “gospel.” We don't think of reading/preaching Acts for evangelism, for getting people saved. It's a history of the early church. What we call “The Gospel of Luke” is the same writer using the same style, but about the time period immediately before the church. Luke is a history of Jesus' life and teaching and miracles and death and resurrection. I’d argue that Luke himself thought of it more for edification than evangelism.

Luke addresses this narrative to Theophilus with the stated purpose "that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught" (1:4). Theophilus was already a believer. Theophilus already had been taught, at least some. What Luke investigated and curated and communicated was a framework for one who was already found. Jesus came to seek the lost, Luke wrote so that all who were FOUND would be FIRM in their faith concerning the facts of about what Jesus did and fulfilled.

What did Luke want us to get from following his orderly account about the Son of Man?

Luke 19:10 is arguably the key verse of Luke. It comes in response to Zacchaeus believing in Jesus. Jesus says it about why He was there, and He didn’t just mean Jericho.

Christians don't use the language of "the lost" maybe as much as we used to. It's fine, there are as many or more appropriate labels for unbelievers as there are for believers, all with a helpful nuance. But "lost" does a lot of work in Luke, especially in chapter 15 (maybe the key chapter), with the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. It’s a relational separation, with the implication that self-rescue is out of the question.

Those who know they are lost are discouraged, maybe even in despair. Those who don't know they are lost are in bigger danger. Jesus did not wait for us to cry out to Him, He pursued. He came to find, to bring us to His Father. And that means, we who believe in Jesus are The Found.

After His resurrection Jesus appeared among His disciples and reminded them of what He had taught them about His purpose. They had learned that Jesus was the one who came to fulfill whatever the Law, Prophets, and Writings had said (Luke 24:44).

Another summary of Luke’s account, from Jesus Himself, would be,

“Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:46-47 ESV)

The lost are sinners, and when Christ finds us, He grants us repentance. He turns us from our sin to Himself. He died and rose again for sake of forgiveness. That means we are The Forgiven.

Dig and Dung comes from Luke 13:6-9. Luke is the only one to record this parable of the barren fig tree. In context, it comes immediately after Jesus exhorts a group to repent. More specifically in context, it’s a wonder that Israel had not shown the fruit of repentance.

It is a story of expectation, a story of opportunity, a story of intentional effort, a story of fruit. We are, by faith in Jesus, The Fruitful.

Right after the conversation with Zacchaeus, Jesus tells the parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-27). In one way it is about being fruitful, but the emphasis is on faithfulness. We’re servants of the King. He’s given us resources and the responsibility to “engage in business until I come” (19:13). That first servant worked his one mina into ten, and Jesus said:

“Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.” (Luke 19:17 ESV)

Jesus told this parable because His audience "supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately" (19:11), but Jesus explained that He was going to leave and return, and when He did, He would see what His servants “had gained by doing business” (19:15). There will be rewards. We want to be found among The Faithful.

This gets us back to Luke's stated purpose in writing. He expended all the effort he did so that his readers "may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught" (1:4).

You believe, can you explain why you believe? You were found by Jesus, and good, praise the Lord. And, are you living confidently, that is, with-faith-edly? You know, do you know with certainty? There’s a roof over your head, are your load bearing walls in good condition?

We are not following myths, we're not depending on guesses. There were eye-witnesses, there are orderly accounts. They reveal that Jesus is the Son of Man, the one who fulfills the prophets, the Lord of life, risen from the dead. We have Luke’s account so that we too can be The Firm.

The book of Luke is for those who were formerly lost, guilty, barren, afraid, and unstable. And also, that means it is for those who are currently ready to repent unto forgiveness.

Luke is written for our certainty. It is a framework for our faith, a foundation for our fruitful and faithful living as disciples of Jesus. We’ll pray for the Spirit to give us understanding that the found would be faithful.

Jesus told His disciples that they would know the truth, and the truth would set them free. This truth also makes believers firm. Christian, love the truth, it is your foundation. Hear the truth, and obey it, and you will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24–25 ESV)

Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It's not a national holiday, though it did originate in a presidential proclamation. It’s not a biblical feast, though it’s consistent with biblical teaching. I've mentioned it a few times in years past, I have not preached a sermon related to it. But it fits as the end of the series on our worship for this year.

Sanctity means not just special but sacred. It is important because it is holy. Human life is valuable, and human life is set apart more than and above any other kind of life. In the creation week God made vegetation and trees to live and bear fruit, and it was good. God spoke living creatures into being and multiplying, and it was good. But only the life of Man, male and female, is created in God’s own image, and He said it is very good.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday came a little over 10 years after the United States Supreme Court decision in 1973 of Roe v. Wade which gave the abortion-style-murder legal protection under federal law. It is true that the Dobbs decision in 2022 overturned the federal decision, sending responsibility for dealing with abortion back to the individual states. We’ve recognized that incremental mercy of God at our June Life Jubilee the last few summers. And also, even after Dobbs, and after an estimated 65 million abortions since 1973 in the US, we have even more blood on our hands as a nation than ever.

It was horrific to see so much celebration of Charlie Kirk's killing. But at least his truth telling made people angry; his bright light was a big target for the angry darkness. Millions of babies are aborted who are merely inconvenient. We are killing the smallest fruit of our own lack of self-control. We destroy the most defenseless, the most personal, little lives. Now you can do it by taking a pill. Hardly anyone needs to know.

TEC was well represented at the Cascade Women’s Health Gala last October, and many of you followed up at a dinner a couple Saturdays ago. The seeds of attention have been sown, and we continue to look for strategic places where our faith can bear fruit. This increased awareness is good, the increasing network of relationships is good, and while ending abortion can't save anyone's eternal soul, it is good to rescue the weak from death.

Not only is it good, it is required. “Rescue those who are being taken away to death” (Proverbs 24:11, see verses 10-12).

I get that it's easy these days to be over-outraged. We have been outraged-out. All the negative news fires us up until it tires us out. As Christians we see that we live in a society that God is giving over to its lusts (as in Romans 1), and yet, the very gospel that we believe as Christians means that we have reasons not to give up. The gospel is the power of God to salvation, and so we do not need to be ashamed of it.

Let's look at God's Word on His knowledge of and care for humans while He knits us together in the womb. The sanctity of life from conception is a reason to protect life and, even more than that, to praise God.

Hear the lyrics of this song of life.

For you formed my inward parts;

Not only because it's not verse 1, but even the first word in verse 13 asks us to consider the context.

The Psalm itself, written by David, praises God for His knowledge. Verse 1: "You have known me.” In fact, seven times in the song, and four times in the first six verses, David emphasizes God’s knowledge. This is not just a fact, it is a comfort. Because God knows David, David knows that he is cared for.

The first stanza (verses 1-6) emphasizes God's omniscience, that is, God's all-knowing knowledge. The second stanza (7-12) emphasizes God's omnipresence, that is, God's everywhere-existence. Combined, He knows all things everywhere. There is no place, and so also no person in any place, that God does not know.

The first word in verse 13, for, introduces an illustration of that comprehensive knowing. One of the places that is hard to get to, difficult to know what's going on in there, is a mother's womb (it takes at least six days for the embryo to implant in the uterine wall before even our modern pregnancy tests can give just a positive or negative result, let alone any other information). God doesn't just know what’s happening, God does some of His best work in what's dark to the rest of us, the mother herself included.

The Lord knows exactly what's happening: not hidden from you (15), your eyes saw (16). But this knowing is also knitting. God is more than observer, He's the life-giver. In verse 13, you formed, you knitted. In verse 14 life is wonderfully made, considered a wonderful work of God. In verse 15 life is being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths .

This is body and soul. The phrase in verse 13 translated as inward parts, is fine, but in Hebrew it's actually "kidneys." When we were kids, when my sister and I were fighting, we used to joke that we wouldn't give the other one a kidney; kidney donations seemed to be in the news a lot in those days. But the Hebrews referred to the kidneys as the seat of affections, not the organ that filters fluids.

The unformed substance in verse 16 emphasizes that even in the tiny and shapeless life, the earliest stages of the embryo, God saw. This isn’t waiting for higher brain function, self-consciousness, let alone taking a first breath or first step.

There are reasonable options about what book David is referring to. Is it God’s standard operating procedures, so to speak, of how babies are formed, or is it the narrative of the individual's life to come? There is a bit more weight in the context that it's the process of the life of the not-yet-born (even though we wouldn't argue about the whole of our lives being known by God, and see verse 4 about Him knowing our words before we say them).

Human beings are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and so God’s “deeds are awesome and amazing” (an alternate translation in the NET of some tricky Hebrew grammar). The point, however, is not tricky. We praise God for creating life!

These are part of God's "thoughts" (verse 17). God's baby body-growing, life-giving work in every mother's womb is more than can be counted. It's a reason for praise, and part of praising that can’t even get a total number of reasons: “if I could count them” (verse 18).

We know the truth that God knows us, everything about us, everything whatever we will say, wherever we might go, including and starting with our smallest and most invisible beginning at conception. Praise God!

And it is a reason to pray for protection. In David's case, he was singing this psalm as an adult, and there there "men of blood" that were on his trail (verse 19), men with no respect for life. They were men who speak against God (verse 20), men who hate God (verse 21), and one way they demonstrated that was by pursuing David. When they did so, they were attacking an image-bearer. They were ready to malign, and murder, what God had been carefully making since conception.

How much more wicked and bloody and hateful are those murdering the little lives God is intricately weaving in the womb?

Before some practical things, we should 1) hate those who hate God and God's creation. This is uncomfortable language for many, and I think it still applies even though we are also able to love our enemies in another way (Matthew 5:44). It’s one thing when we have opportunity to turn the other check to a personal affront, it’s another thing when we see the weak targeted for death by those who declare themselves to be enemies of God. 2) We must avoid hypocrisy. The Psalm ends with a prayer that invites God to attend to our thoughts and intentions and make them right (verses 23-24).

Pray. And pray for God to do justice to the haters, even destroy those who seek to destroy others. That’s what we sing along with David in verse 19.

Worship God. Praise God. Give Him thanks for your life, the life of your kids, the life in the wombs. When you hurt something, or do a little web md search to treat something, yeah, don't hold back in saying that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The details are amazing, thank God!

As you are able: Attend events. Ask questions. Consider ways you could serve. Give money. Support adoption, as well as foster care. Post about it online. Vote…. Pray that God would lead you in the way everlasting, including showing you what you can do.

The most significant illustration of life from conception may be Jesus Himself. Mary left to see her cousin Elizabeth immediately after the Annunciation (the traditional moment of conception), so her pregnancy at the time of the meeting in Luke 1:42-45 was only as old as her travel time, somewhere around one week. The Holy Spirit enabled Elizabeth, and John who still had another three months to go in the womb, to recognize Mary’s child. Jesus was still a week or two from his heart beating.

By faith in this Jesus, any and all sins are forgiven. By faith in this Jesus, we have life and we learn to love and praise Him for the life He’s made.

True praise destroys numbness. The more we worship, the more we recognize life as a gift from God. Sanctity of Human Life Sunday fits with our reminders of worship and liturgy because every human being, from conception, is made by God to worship God.

You may have difficulty sleeping some night and wonder to yourself, am I just spinning my wheels? You can't see obvious progress. But, are you sowing seeds? Are you sowing by the Spirit? If yes, there is a promise for you to hold. Your labor is NOT in vain. Wait for the WIN! (1 Cor. 15:57)

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.