Luke
Luke 1:1-4
Servants of Righteousness
Introduction
Luke was a
doctor who was a companion of Paul during some of his missionary journeys.
The book
consists of 24 chapters in which he wrote to a man named Theophilus to
strengthen Theophilus’s faith in Jesus.
1 Many
Servants of Righteousness verse 1
i) All who receive Christ should
tell about him. They should tell who Jesus is to them and why they decided to
accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. I was about 14 when I accepted the Lord.
At that time I considered myself a Christian because I went to a church and I
accepted in my mind that Jesus was God.
However, it
was one day I was on my way to class when 2 of my school mates stopped me and
asked me if I had accepted Jesus as my Saviour. When they asked I said “No”.
They asked if I would like to and I said I would do that when I get to church.
They then showed me Romans 10:9: -“If you use your mouth to say, ‘Jesus is
Lord,’ and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead,
you will be saved.” They asked if I would like to do it then. I told them may
be later and we parted ways. That night I did.
ii) God does things in the open. The
whole Book of Luke narrates from the events surrounding the beginning of Jesus
ministry until His ascension to Heaven. Anyone who reads through will see that
all the events were not hidden from anyone.
God does
not work in mystic secret ways that only a few people who want to exploit
everyone else can see. From Elizabeth’s and Mary’s pregnancies that were
obvious to everyone to the empty tomb and ascension which happened before many
followers, the whole ministry was open for anyone to inspect and enjoy. In the
same way, any ministry from God is open for all to inspect and enjoy.
There
should be no secret meetings where certain people hear God and no one else. God
- who died to have a relationship with each person - does not talk to others
just so the so called hearers exploit everyone else by taking their money and
using them as objects for their pleasures.
iii)
He does His things for people. The reason Luke could say, “Many have tried to
report on the things that happened…” was that Jesus’ ministry was for all
people. He had shepherds visit Him at His birth –who were the poor of their
society- and wise men from the East
visit Him when He was a toddler –who were the rich of their society- to show he
accepts all who acknowledge Him.
Jesus ministry also changed people.
Matthew was called Levi before Jesus changed His name. Matthew was a tax
collector whose job was to take as much money as possible from people for the
Roman government which in turn did little or nothing for the people. He even
kept some of that money for himself. However, Jesus turned him into a preacher
of the Good News of Jesus death, burial and resurrection.
2 Serve by
telling the Message of Righteousness verse 2
i) God ensured that there were
people who saw everything from the beginning. {Acts 1:21-22} Peter makes it
clear that there were at least 13 men who saw the whole of Jesus ministry. The
point is that when God is doing something He ensures that there are at least 2
or 3 witnesses {Deuteronomy 19:15} to it. This is one way to recognise things
from God. There is always evidence to support it unlike things from other
religions which are always based on lies.
ii) All people telling God’s message are saying
the same thing. The message they preached is the one found in Luke, that Jesus
lived, died, was buried and rose from the grave {1 Corinthians 15:1-11} and
that forgiveness of sins and a new life are obtained by accepting this truth
{Luke 24: 45-48}. (Give examples)This is the true message of the Gospel which
was told by the first believers, is being told by believers of today and will
be told by future believers because it is God’s core message for humanity
{Romans 1:16}.
iii) They served by telling people
his message. Those who told the message were all sorts of people. From
fishermen like Peter to tax collectors like Matthew. In obedience to Jesus’
command they told the message to all people as recorded in the book of Acts.
Today the Lord expects all believers
to tell His message to all people.
3 They have
studied Righteousness verse 3
i) Read the whole thing. The book of Luke
starts from the preparations for the birth of the Lord and ends with His
ascension. It goes to show that God wants people to have a full picture of what
He does. That picture comes through study of the whole Bible {2 Timothy 3:16}.
ii) Be sure before speaking. Luke
had interviewed the eye witnesses of the events surrounding the Jesus’ life on
earth to ensure the accuracy of the things he said. One can only imagine the
pains he went through to get the information .
In the same
way, believers should take out time to ensure they get information about Jesus
and what He wants us to do.
iii) Use everything you learn. Luke used all He
had learnt to teach Theophilus. Everything a believer learns from God is to be
passed on to other believers {2 Corinthians 1:3-7}. If not by words, then by
deeds.
Invitation
verse 4
We speak
the truth. We get the truth of what happened in regards to any event, science
and philosophy from the Bible. God’s Word tells things exactly as they happen,
when they happened and why they happened. Like Jesus explained in Luke
24:45-47, forgiveness of sins come from Him. Since He was the one who paid the
price for the forgiveness of all sins, it is through Him that sins are
forgiven. Anyone who believes this and has not received forgiveness for their
sins may do so by simply asking the Lord Jesus to forgive him/her.
Luke 1:5-7
Zechariah - a righteous man
Introduction
In these verses
Luke paints the picture of how God continued the preparation for the Messiah to
come. Imagining this is a historical movie, the camera points straight to
a)
Circumstances of Zechariah’s Life. Verse 5
At this time, Herod who was an evil man ruled
of the
So to no
discerning person’s surprise, when Jesus came into the world, Herod tried to
kill him. He did so because he was afraid that Jesus would replace him as king.
When he could not kill him, he just killed thousands of babies and toddlers.
Read Matthew 2.
Herod is a
classic example of a leader from the devil. He was not made overnight. It
started with pride over being the ruler. It progresses to greed for material
possessions to validate the pride, then stealing from people to provide the
possessions. Later to bribing those who are supposed to know God to quite your
conscience, then hypocrisy to appear to people that you are righteous when you
are evil. And finally, to killing people to ensure that all the wicked things
done are not punished. Read Isaiah
14:12-14, 2 Corinthians 11:12-15, John 8:42-47
This is who lead
b) Substance of Zechariah’s Life.
In one sentence, Zechariah was a
righteous man. He was from the tribe of Levi from the
family of
Abijah who was a grandson of Aaron, the first high priest of Isreal. The book
of Leviticus gives instructions about the functions of the priests in regards
to the ceremonial laws (sacrifices and offerings) among other things. Leviticus
8 describes the ordination of the first priests. Leviticus 9 describes the first offering. The
priests were supposed to obey the laws of God just like every other person just
like it is today. The difference between the priests and people was the priests
were to devote most of their time to the service of God in the temple and
teaching the people to obey God.
Zechariah
was a direct beneficiary of this system. He evidently grew up being taught to
obey God and seeing the examples of those who did. Then Zechariah decided to
obey as well. These are the things that build up people and help any person
choose to obey God.
Zechariah’s
righteousness was seen by his obedience to God. Obeying God’s Law does not make
a person righteous. Righteousness is by faith (Read Romans chapter 3 verses 20
to verse 28 and Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 10). However, the faith that
produces righteousness also produces obedience to God (Read James chapter 2
verses 14 to verse 26 and Luke chapter 6 verses 43 to verse 49). The first mark
of his obedience was his choice of a wife. He chose someone who obeys God too.
He and Elizabeth were reported to be righteous in God’s sight. An individual
decision to obey God is helped by keeping companions who do the same. This is
why God has commanded that a believer must marry another believer.
Zechariah
and his wife also were careful to obey all God’s commandments. People living in
obedience to God will try and obey all His commandments not just choosing the
ones that suit them at the time.
c)
Commitment of Zechariah’s Life.
Although
Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous people, they did not have a child. This
means that people’s righteousness is not measured by how well they are doing
but by how they act in every circumstance. Imagine them living under Herod who
was such a wicked person who was known to have killed some of his sons because
he suspected them (not proved but suspected) of trying to remove him from his
throne. Meanwhile Zechariah who was living righteously did not have any
children because he was obeying God’s law not to commit adultery by having
another wife.
Israel then
is much like Nigeria now. Couples are considered cursed if they don’t have
children. Despite all of this Zechariah did not divorce his wife or marry a new
one.
Righteousness
is shown by how a person acts when it is not convenient to obey God.
Invitation
Just as
Zechariah was a righteous man in the wicked world he found himself in, God is
calling every person to be righteous in the wicked world they find themselves
in. Righteousness, as has been explained above, is by faith. A person must have
faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus the Christ as the finished
work that turns God’s anger from the person’s sins. If you have this faith,
then express it by asking the Lord Jesus to make you righteous.
Luke 1:8-10
Living in Righteous Devotion
Introduction
Display of
devotion
1) Comes from love
2) Comes from determination
3) Comes from prayer
As we
continue our examination of Zechariah, we see that living righteously means living
in devotion to God. We see Zechariah’s devotion came from his love for God, his
personal determination to follow God and his/others prayers.
Verse 8 Serving God in the temple
a) What the Temple was
The temple was originally David’s idea (2 Samuel 7:1-17). It was to be a place where the Ark of God –the symbol of God’s presence- would reside. God told David to hand the project over to Solomon because David’s life was to be dedicated to fighting the wars that would bring the peace and prosperity that would allow Solomon to build the temple. Everything in it’s proper time. Solomon built the temple and dedicated it to be primarily a place of prayer for God’s people (1 Kings 5:1 - 8:66).
This is one of the functions of the church building a place to pray and receive answers to prayer.
b) Serving God in the Temple –In the temple to serve
The temple replaced the tabernacle. Consequently it was the place where the priests (descendants of Aaron) and the Levities (descendants of Levi) taught the Laws of God, performed the sacrifices, sang praises to God and prayed for the people.
Zechariah was a descendant of Aaron which automatically qualified him as a priest. In the same way, being a Christian automatically qualifies a believer to be a priest to those who are not.
c) In the Temple not serving God -Scattering
The Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians were also in the temple. A Pharisees was actually high priest, Aaron’s own position, and had Jesus crucified. They were for the most part men who had memorized Bible verses but as Jesus illustrated in the parable of the evil farmers (Luke 20:9-19) they did not recognize Him as the Son of God.
Zechariah did not let his love for God diminish because of others hypocrisy. He kept obeying God’s law.
God calls all believers to serve Him despite what position a hypocrite might hold in the church.
Verse 9 Doing his duty [a-z]
a) Knowing his duty –gifts, needs and interests
The law of Moses required many sacrifices and ceremonies. It dictates how and when the sacrifices were to be
performed. Therefore in order for a priest to know what to do, the priest had to be familiar with the first
five books of the Bible.
Zechariah would have learnt to perform his duties by familiarizing himself with the law.
Believers are also called to learn the Epistles in a view to performing their duties like prayer and services in the body of Christ.
b) Performing his duty –accepting his duty
The priests’ tasks included killing animals to purify themselves and the people from sin. For example, on the Day of Atonement the high priest sacrificed a bull for his sins and his family’s sins (Leviticus 16:1-10)
c) Being consistent –doing it always
Verse 10 Other believers
a) They are not there all the time –Job, David, Jesus so pray for your self.
b) They are God’s gift –Others bring you to the Lord, others help lay the foundation, others help keep you going.
Invitation
A call to prayer
God does
not always do things when we want Him to-even things He has promised to do. In
the meantime we have to pray and follow Him in obedience.
Every person’s most important prayer is the one to become the temple of God. Joel 3:23 those who call on the Lord shall be saved. Just ask Jesus –the one who is fully God and man, the one who died for all your wrong doing to save you. Once you do. Ask Jesus for a good local temple where you can learn to follow the Lord Jesus.