Week 19
The Lords Day, Week 19!
Thoughts on 2 Corinthians 6-8:
· 2 Cor. 6 - This continues from chapter 5, do not receive the grace of God in vain, in other words, don't turn to any other teaching or gospel, you have been reconciled to God, (ministry of reconciliation) why would you now chase after something else. For God said that this is what He would do, and now He's done it, today is the day of salvation! As human being we get so easily distracted, we continuously chase after idols that make empty promises. That's taking the grace of God ini vein. Chasing after prosperity teachers is taking the grace of God in vein. Paul says the proof of his message is sin how much he's suffered for it. Consider that next time you see the person dressed in a fancy suit, with he fancy car telling you about how much God wants you to be happy. For Paul, the truth in the message, was partly in the trials of the messenger. The problem is, we see teachers who have undergone hardships, who are sorrowful but always rejoicing, and many of us want that joy, but are not willing to accept the sorrow that led to that joy. We want the power of God, but won't speak truthfully, we want to live, but not if it means we die to ourselves and there is none of this if we aren't willing to submit to the hardships that get us there. Recently another celebrity pastor died, and it looks like it may have been a suicide, the reports are still conflicting there. But He is someone who went through trials early in his ministry because he lacked maturity and he suffered a great fall because of it. But he submitted to correction, and after 2 years returned to ministry and he acknowledged it was his fall that truly set him up to understand ministry. How we get through trials and suffering, tell us who we trust and where our faith is. I know, we don't want to hear that, no one wants to hear, "trust God" in the midst of a crisis, in the midst of loss, in the midst of suffering! But brothers and sisters, that's exactly what you and I must hear and though it may make our circumstances seem small, that's only because they are small compared to Him. Paul understood this, and he was explaining it to the Corinthians, and by way of them, to us!
· Unequally yoked - I have to touch on this, so I may not speak much on the other chapters today! Notice, in context he is not speaking of romantic relationships, but of the church! The Church of God, which is His temple, has no business partnering with the world, we have no place making unbelievers part of His house, they are not part of His house, they are not part of His temple, they are outside of His temple, and the only way in is the Gospel. If they do not repent and believe in Him then they remain outside. All unbelievers are idolaters, and to allow them to believe they are part of Gods family, part of His church is to allow them to set up their idols right smack in the middle of His house. No! If they want in, they must lay down their idols, or they can't come in. This is the problem with the whole "belong before you believe" movement in the church. We have attempted to rework what God has said in His word to include those He specifically says are not included. This doesn't mean they can't attend a service, it doesn't mean we don't witness to them and have them over our homes to show the love of God, but it does mean we are clear. No matter how many services you attend, no matter how many times you come over for dinner, no matter how much I care for you, unless you repent of your sin, and trust in Jesus there remains a separation, we are not citizens of the same kingdom. Now, this does have application that flows out of this into romantic relationships, personal relationships and business relationships, but that's only because we first understand it appropriately in context.
· 2 Cor. 7 & 8 - Paul rejoiced over the fact that his other letter to the Corinthians produced grief, not because of the grief, but because their grief led to repentance which led to salvation. We cannot be afraid of hurting peoples feelings, we cannot be afraid of speaking truth to them. Yes they may get upset, but if your goal is speaking the truth in love, that they would see themselves for who they are and repent and trust in Jesus, then you do it! Now, I need to be careful, because this isn't license to be a jerk. Paul himself says it was painful for him to send that letter, he didn't rejoice in sending it, but he rejoiced in the results of it. If you get excited over the thought of correcting someone, or rebuking them, or telling them they are a sinner, then you are doing it wrong! That's not the goal, and that should never bring us joy. Our joy is in seeing others come to Christ and having sin forgiven being reconciled to Him. Recently I've been involved in some difficult conversations, and my stomach turns having these conversations, I have to pray and ask the Lord for boldness, ask Him for wisdom, and I mourn and worry about possibly even losing friendships over them. But Ii do them, because I desire to see people trust in Christ, I desire to see brothers and sisters grow in Christ, and be conformed to His image. But with speaking out, also means that we must be willing to accept criticism as well. That we have to model our own expectation. We want others to listen we must be willing to listen... Chapter 8 concludes with giving, and here's the only thing I'm going to point out, for the sake of space, each gave according to what they were able, according to their means. We have a Christian duty to give to the local church for the work of the gospel, but that duty is also in accordance to our means. Right now churches are hurting, and it's understandable, a lot of brothers and sisters are not able to give. If that's you, you shouldn't feel guilty about that. Pray for your local church, and trust that the Lord will provide, and when you are able, you should begin giving again!
Whey! O.k. brothers and sisters, today is the Lords Day, worship Him, sing of Him, be in prayer and take part in some sort of fellowship as you are able with His people. I am prayerfully considering holding some sort of Communion service at the park in the upcoming weeks. If you are interested, PM me and I'll put you on an email list so you can be given notification and details. Don't forget to let me know how we can pray for you. God bless!
Monday, Week 19!
Thoughts on Exodus 21-24:
· Exodus 21-23:30 - This is going to be long, because there is so much here that I don't want to overlook. At the same time, I can only cover so much in giving just my thoughts and not an in-depth exegetical analysis. But this whole section is Gods application of His law on regular life. He setting up His precedents with examples in both penal and civil case law which the Israelites are to use in order to govern. So let's start where God starts:
· Slavery - The Israelites were just freed from being slaves, and so it makes sense that the first place God would go is to create boundaries around this practice. The first thing we see, is that the type of slavery being addressed here is, indentured servitude. One selling of themselves or perhaps even a child, into service, either because they had no money and it was the only way to survive, or because they owed a debt. Here is what you and I cannot do, read into slavery a 21st century understanding and picture of the type of slavery that took place here in America. If we are going to deal with the text honestly and fairly, we must remove that image from our minds, because that is not what the text is addressing. In the context of the Israelites coming out of Egypt, this was a very viable option for many of them. God is setting the boundaries up that are necessary to protect the humanity of the slave, something that the Israelites themselves had largely been denied during their time in Egypt. We see that among these boundaries the Lord institutes a maximum period of service. No matter the debt owed, a person was to be freed after 6 years, and they were able to take their family. But what about in the case where a master gives the slave a wife, well, then the overarching idea is still that if the wife has more time than the husband in what she is to serve, she must finish her service to the master. But at the conclusion, she to would have to be freed. There was also a provision for a slave to entire into a life of servitude willingly, if a family is being provided for well, it may very well be that they decide to remain in the service of their master. The more difficult part of this is in the selling of a daughter as a slave, as the implication is that the daughter is being sold as a wife, this is why she isn't able to go out. Even in this, we need to start by understanding how little value woman had at the time, especially in the surrounding cultures. But God says, the woman must remain within the Israelite community, she can be redeemed, in other words purchased back by the father, or the master can decide to giver her as a wife to the son, but the emphasis is on her provision. That in no situations can they stop feeding her, clothing her or providing for her, and if they fail to do this, then she is free to go without owing him anything. Next, I want to touch on what happens when it comes to this is with murder, which we will look at more in this post as well, but notice, if you kill your slave then the slave was to be avenged, this meant that the punishment could be as severe as death. Yes if he didn't die, then there was no avenging, but note verses 26 and 27, if you do any harm to the slave, then he was to be set free. So, kill him you could be killed, harm him, you have to let him go. The last thing I want to look at when it comes to slavery, is something that many people won't connect to it, and it's actually the one verse that does have application to salvery the way it was conducted here in the US, and actually the way it's still conducted here and in many places around the world when it comes to women and sex trafficking. Verse 16 says this, "Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found ini possession of him shall be put to death." This one verse tells us that the slavery that took place in our land was worthy of death, both for those responsible for stealing and selling their own people, mostly in Africa, and those from the Americas and European nations who purchased these people. That all, according to the Bible deserved death for what they did. There is no justifying what took place here. Today, women primarily are the ones taken and sold into sexual slavery, though we still see in many places men are also stolen and sold as well, but in all of these cases the proper punishment is death to both the one selling, and the one buying! That's what the Bible says about chattel slavery and the sex trafficking.
· Murder and the Death Penalty- Here the Bible makes a distinction between premeditated and manslaughter. Any killing that has premeditation is worthy of death, period. Any death that occurs out of passion, or an altercation that was not premeditated, that was not intended to bring about death is not worthy of death but other punishments are still permissible. In this case the person is to be sent to a sanctuary city, for us we may think, but that doesn't seem like a punishment. But that meant they were stripped away from all they knew, from their livelihood, and forced to live somewhere else as a sojourner. Next we see the death penalty given for several other offenses that include the diminishment of authority. Mother and Father were the first representatives of authority in a persons life, and an offense towards them meant a refusal to submit, and this itself was punished by death, because it was also a refusal to submit to God, God is the one who instituted this authority in ones life He tells us to honor our mother and father.
· Abortion - verses 22-24 are clear in that they are addressing what takes place if the life in the womb is harmed. Notice even if the baby is unharmed, but a woman is harmed there will be some sort of damages that will have to be recovered. But in the case where the baby is killed, it will be life for life. I'll say it again, LIFE for LIFE, informing us that the baby in the womb, is in fact a human life. This is defined by God, not by us, and if there is any harm done that doesn't bring death, then the one who caused the harm will be punished accordingly. hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn. For the Christian this is not up for debate, and the only reason it is debated in our world today is because the world denies God. But when we agree with the world, we too are then denying God. Murder is always murder, and when it is premeditated it is worthy of death. That is Gods standard, and we should be calling our world to submit to it. Abortion is premeditated murder, it is worthy of death according to Gods law. We must stop taking innocent lives and sacrificing them to the god of comfort, convenience and the god of ME.
· Punishment for other crimes - Now I'm going to speak out against our prison system. Gods law required restitution, what you take you replace, what you harm you must make right. That is equal justice. In todays system, a person takes from you, then you also have to pay to put that person in jail for years and never receive anything back to replace what was taken. This is not a just system. It's not just for the person who was wronged, and is the very definition of injustice. I take from you, and when I'm caught you now have to pay, through your taxes, to give me food, clothing, and lodging for a period of time that the government deems is right. At the end of which, I am set free never having made any kind of restitution or even being forced to seek any type of reconciliation with the party I've wronged. God's ways are just, I take from you, I pay it back, or I work it off, in the process you and I are forced to reconcile through having to work together to make right the wrong.
· Other Laws governing society - Verses 22:16-23:9 - these deal with other situations such as idol worship and false charges... In all of this we should be asking ourselves what is the general equity of these laws, what situations or circumstances could these be transferred into today given the different contexts. That God gave them, makes them good, but that they were given at a specific time for a specific people means their application today would look very different, but there would still be application.
· Exodus 24 - This section concludes with the affirmation by the people, they accept Gods laws and agree to live by them, in all the He has said, they agree they will do. Moses then goes up the mountain to receive the tablets and further instruction.
O.k. I think I gave us more than enough for today! lol I hope you all have a wonderful day today, and that you take the time to work through all of this. Even the stuff I didn't work through in this post because all of it is important. May the Lord bless you and keep you! Please keep my family in your prayers, and let me know if there are any needs or prayer requests that we can be making on your behalf as well. God bless!
Tuesday, Week 19!
Thoughts on 2 Samuel 10-14:
· 2 Samuel 10 - David must have had a relationship with Nahash that he intended to honor, however the sons of Nahash, did not intend to return the favor. Instead they humiliate the servants of David and send them back ultimately leading to their own destruction as David sends Joab in to destroy them. Joab recognizes that this will not be an easy victory, and completely trusts the Lord to do that which seems good to the Lord. It's only when the victory has been mostly secured that David then enters the fight and finishes off the Syrians bringing the other Kings to submissions and gaining peace. It's the Lord that brings them victory, David cannot be credited with this victory, he didn't even enter the battle till the heavy lifting was over. Even when God uses people, our eyes should never shift from God to the person, it's always God working.
· 2 Samuel 11 & 12 - David and Bathsheba, here's a portion of the narrative that we are all familiar with. But notice a couple things at the outset, David was supposed to be out to battle and yet he stood home. This at least implies David was up to no good, whether or not he intended to sleep with Bathsheba, is not clear, but that he was not supposed to be home is clear. The next thing his that some want to assert that Bathsheba was raped, the truth is the text doesn't say that, nor is there anything in the language that asserts or even implies that. We don't want to go beyond the text and so all we have is that David wasn't supposed to be home, he sees her bathing, which she had reason for doing and tells us she wasn't out to seduce him either. David is struck by her beauty, he sends for her, she comes, they sleep together, she conceives a child, anything else is simply not clear from the text... That they slept together is itself sinful, that she was married makes it adultery for both of them, but the true wickedness is revealed in Davids actions following this. Uriah was an honest man who loved Israel and it appears honored David. He did as he was told, and wouldn't do anything that his own men could not do. He seems like the type of person whose men would have followed him anywhere. This I am speaking from my own military experience and reading his actions in the text. He was obedient to the king, but wouldn't leave his men, also shows he had a sense of politics about him which is something necessary in good leadership! When David sees that he is not able to trick him, the plot only grows more wicked and David sends him away to his own death. Here's what we see, sin only gives way to more sin, and with each step it becomes worse, more wicked, and it often also becomes easier to execute. The first sin was not David looking at Bathsheba, it was David not going to battle when Kings do. Him not leading his men from the front the way a shepherd does, Davids abandoning of the position that the Lord granted him only led to his own ruin and destruction. This began in chapter 10, not 11, David sending Joab to do his fighting. When we stop doing that which we are supposed to do, when we begin to sin by way of omission, meaning not executing the positive commands of God, it will lead to sin of commission meaning going directly against those negative commands of God, do not commit adultery, do not lie, do not murder, etc... all of which David broke, but it started by him abandoning that which God told him TO do. Focus on that which God has told us to do, preach the gospel, disciple each other, be part of a healthy church, pray, pray, pray, take part in the sacraments, read the word daily, and you'll find it that much harder to go against the other commands of God!
· 2 Samuel 13 & 14 - The unraveling of Davids house begins here with greater sins committed by his own children. Do you know how you make it easier for the next generation, by stopping your sins now! Start being obedient now! "oh but I've already done so much!" yes, possibly, but doing more will only make it worse. Our children will not inherit our guilt, but they will inherit our habits, and when we have sinful habits, such as fornication, lying, murder, you have good odds that you will see these again in your line, but if you repent and continuously seek the Lord, you also have good odds that you will see this too. Davids sons greatest challenge was that they were his. My kids greatest challenge is that they are mine, and it'll only be by Gods grace that they will do better than I have... My responsibility for now, is to give them the best example I can and not make it any more difficult for them. In all of this, Davids line is still the line that brought forth our Lord and Savior!!! God does not abandon David, even after all of this, God will not abandon us either!
Tonight I will be starting a bible study on apologetics, if you'd like to join, please send me a private message with you email address so that I can send you the link. We are having a special guest tonight that is going to lay all the groundwork for us, Anthony Uvenio of New York Apologetics, and the Reformed Rookie will be joining us at 730 for our time together. Hope you can join us. God bless you and if there is anything we can be praying for please let me know.
Wednesday, Week 19!
Thoughts on Psalms 54-56:
· Psalm 54 - Do you trust the Lord with your life? Or do you think that you can do a better job with it? Do you think you know better than He does? This Psalm was written by David when he was being pursued by Saul. David had done nothing wrong, but Saul felt threatened by him and wanted to put an end to his life. David had been nothing but faithful to Saul and more importantly faithful to the Lord. We also know, if you've been following along daily, that David had opportunities to kill Saul, and yet he didn't take those. Instead we have insight into what his prayers looked like, and how he found comfort in the Lord during those difficult days. His trust was in the Lord. He looked too God to vindicate Him, to protect Him, to deliver Him. He cried out that God would hear him and believed that it was the Lord who was his helper and the one who held up his life. When our lives seem out of control, and like the world, or at least those around us are against us, what is our response? Is it to lash out? Is it to begin to plot our way out and to turn people on someone else? Or will we trust the Lord with out lives? The difficulty here is that most of us don't trust Him with today, let alone our lives. We complain when we see rain instead of sunlight, we complain when there's another day of cold weather instead of warmer weather, when we stub our toe, or get even a paper cut (this was me just a couple days ago!) Davids circumstances were dire, death was coming for him via King Saul! But his trust in the Lord was cultivated as a young shepherd boy, trusting that God would provide the pasture for his sheep, or keep him safe from the lions and bears, and eventually see him destroy Goliath, that when he get's to this point in his life he can pray, I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For He has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies." If we won't trust the Lord when getting out of bed, we won't trust Him when things get really hard, we most learn to see God as the one who upholds our life in every moment of every day. That when death comes looking for us we would be able to pray with David, for He has delivered me from every trouble... and even death has lost its sting.
· Psalm 55 - This Psalm has to much sentimental feeling for me, it was the last sermon I preached to the people of CP Bay Shore, and by Gods grace I was asked to preach it again at PCI. Here is that sermon if you are interested... The link is below.
· Psalm 56 - I could ultimately repeat the sentiments that I posted for Psalm 54 here, but instead I want to focus on the source for such trust. We find it in verse 13, "FOR you have delivered my soul from death, yes my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life". The "For" here is telling us this is the source of his trust, of his hope. Christian, this is the source of ours too! He has delivered us from death. We once walked only in darkness, but now, because of Jesus we have been brought into the light! What greater hope do we need? There is no greater motivation than knowing that we have been reconciled to God and made His child. Twice in this psalm we have the refrain, "in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?" Memorize this, have it written on your hearts, don't allow the troubles of this world to blind you to the truth of this. Fear has made us powerless and fooled us into thinking that God is without power, but you and I are living testimonies to His power, we were dead and are now alive! In Him we trust, how can we ever be afraid??? He has delivered us from death, and brought us from darkness into light. Praise be to our Lord and God Almighty!!!!
Thank you all so much for persevering in your bible reading, I know that at times it can be hard, but honor you relationship with the Lord. If we love Him we will obey Him, If we love Him we will continue to seek Him, so show your love. Pick up His word that He gave us that we would know Him and be transformed by. If you forgot yesterday, pick it up today. If it was a bad day yesterday, please pick it up again today, if you hate my commentary, then stop reading it and still pick up His word today!!! God bless you all and I hope you have a wonderful day.
Here is the Sermon:
Thursday, Week 19!
Thoughts on Job 37 & 38:
· Job 37 - It does seem here that there is a sense that God is about to speak, "at this also my heart trembles", with God about to speak Elihu continues to point to Gods majesty and power. God is over all things, in control of all things in nature, in control of all the animals down to when they eat and sleep. In comparison we are nothing and we know nothing, there is no comparison. He is clothed with awesome majesty, great in power, justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate, in other words God does not sin, He is guilty of nothing. God has not regard for anyone who seeks wisdom apart from him, those who don't trust sin Him are fools and prideful for thinking they can gain anything apart from God. This wraps up Elihu's response against Job, it is the wisest of all the responses, focusing on where Job was right, and where he was wrong. More importantly he is reminding job of who God is in the midst of His suffering. God is the same always and doesn't change because of our experiences, if you knew Him in prosperity then that should be visible in trial and suffering. Job, for being such a righteous man, still had short comings, for a righteous man is still just a man. Here is something else we need to remember about Job, and this I hope encourages you. Just because we begin to waiver in the midst of trial, or just because we may begin to ask questions and perhaps even doubt Gods affections, none of it means we have apostatized and abandon the faith. It's God who keeps us, and what's most important is where we end up at the end of the trial, and at the end of this life. We will have moments like job in life where we say, Where is God? Now, it's a foolish question, without a doubt, but we at times are all fools. We forget and need to be reminded. Here's what we can't do, and this is something I've even heard Pastors be guilty of. In the midst of someone's trouble, of someone's pain, I've heard some say, "don't just give a trite response like, God is in control, or God is working this out for your good, or God is always there and He knows your pain... Just listen and be there for a person in their trial" Have you heard that before? It's even been recommended to me before, and I'm afraid I've been tempted to listen to the advice. Someone has something horrible happen to them, and we become afraid to point them to God out of fear they will think we are minimizing their problem. Out of fear they will think we don't have compassion or aren't sympathetic. The problem is that the most compassionate thing we can do is point them to God, is speak truth into their life, in the midst of a trial what we all need to do is see our trial realistically against the backdrop of who our God is. So the first thing we should all do is speak the truth to our brothers and sisters, while also offering that shoulder to cry on. While also allowing them to vent and get it all out, even if they cry out "where is God?" Elihu was the most faithful of Jobs friends because He listened to Job carefully, and had compassion by helping him to focus on the reality of his situation. God listens, He is always present, He is always righteous and all He does is for our good, at times using the greatest suffering to bring us closer to Him.
· Job 38 - Now the Lord speaks... and rather than go in detail here I think I'm just going to wait till next week to cover it all... But I want to leave one of my favorite songs that's out of this section of the book of Job. So check it out in the link below.
I want to hear from you... With this pandemic I can't help but feel disconnected from the world. Let me know ini the comments, how has your walk either become stronger or maybe been challenged during this time? How can we pray for you? Are there any tips you want to share with the rest of us that's helped you stay consistent with your reading? Please share...
Friday, Week 19!
Thoughts on Jeremiah 32-36:
· Summary - The Lord gives the people every opportunity to repent. But the people don't, they throw Jeremiah in jail for speaking the truth, they threaten to have him executed, finally they just burn up the Word of the Lord, at least the king does, who is the representative of the people. Speaking Gods truth is hard, and will always be met with resistance by some, often by many, but we must not be afraid to speak it. It's the Word of God that convicts, we see this in chapter 36, Baruch is reading this word to the officials, and the turn to each other in fear. They heard the Word of the Lord and their own guilt was made clear to them. They knew enough to even tell Baruch and Jeremiah to go into hiding, because they recognized that the King was not going to receive the well, but they didn't stop from sharing it with him. The kings heart was completely hardened, there was no fear of the Lord in Him. We see in these men some of the responses we should be looking for when we share the gospel. After all, isn't the what Jeremiah was ultimately sharing? Think about it, here's what Jeremiah was saying, you have done wicked things in the sight of the Lord, He calls on you to repent and turn back to Him, trust in Him for the forgiveness of your wickedness or He will bring judgement and destruction upon the people. In Chapter 33 we have the promise of the eternal Covenant which Jesus established in His blood, the final and permanent sacrifice that stands now as the eternal priest and eternal king on the throne of David. The gospel starts with pointing us to the judgement we deserve, and that should scare us, if it doesn't its only because our hearts are hard, it's because we don't believe it. When Christians don't want to speak of the judgement of God, I think it's often because they don't really believe it. They are like King Jehoiakim, ripping off pieces of the scroll and throwing them into the fire because they don't like what it says. "No, no, no, we don't need none of that judgement stuff here... let's just talk about the love of God, God is love, yes just love, no judgement, we don't want to offend anyone with all that creepy judgement talk..." Well, we've been in Jeremiah now for a weeks... you tell me, how often has the love of God been mentioned as a means to motivate the people to repent? It seems that the Lord, in speaking through Jeremiah believed that speaking of His just judgement was the only motivator they needed. It's funny, we have 1st Corinthians 13 which is said to be the "love" chapter, and then we have some verses that really do give us these great descriptions of the love of God... But you know what we see everywhere? God is just and He has and will punish wickedness, He has and will punish nations, He will one day Judge the whole world, and all the peoples of the earth will have to face Him. Here's what I hope doesn't happen, that on that day when those I have had the privilege of sharing the gospel with have to face Him, I hope that they aren't thinking, man Ryan, you didn't mention this judgement stuff to me! I thought you said God was all love?... Of course I understand the ultimately we will all be without excuse, but are we doing our part??? You want to amplify the love of God? Then do so by starting with the judgement of God.
God bless you all, I hope you have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather the Lord has given us! I hear today in NY is going to be one of the nicest days yet. I want to ask that you all please pray for those who are suffering with depression and other mental illnesses... Most of you know that I am a retired Marine, and I have been receiving some information about the veteran population that is just heartbreaking, these men and women who served and gave so much for their country feeling completely alone and hopeless during these difficult times are turning to suicide as a way out. We were already losing something like 20 veterans a day to suicide, but with all that's happening these numbers seem to be increasing... That's my prayer request for today! Thank you all, God bless!
Saturday, Week 19!
Thoughts on Luke 1 & 2:
· Summary - Of all the Gospels, this is the most detailed when it comes to the finer details. Luke himself tells us that his purpose for writing is to give an orderly account that he, Theophilus, would have certainty concerning the things he has been taught. So first, don't lose sight of the purpose, the entirety of the gospel needs to be read within this context. Luke tells us why he is writing, so we want to pay attention to how he goes about providing that certainty. The first thing we see, is that Luke is man who cares about the facts. He gives us specific names of rulers, in the ancient context this was the way he would have identified time periods, when things took place. Then he gives us specific locations, people involved, if there were eyewitnesses he gives us names and even tells us specifics about things that were said that aren't available in any other gospel. Luke himself wasn't an eyewitness, but he goes through the trouble of letting us know he has done his homework by pointing to all of this. His orderly account is also, at least to start off, chronological, John the Baptist is mentioned first, he was the forerunner, pointing to Jesus, then we have Jesus and all that took place leading to His birth, and even into his childhood. Here to Luke is the only one to give us these details, much of what we celebrate at Christmas, is taken from Lukes narrative being that he gives us the most detail. Notice here too, he doesn't cover the same facts that Matthew and Mark do, he leaves out the Magi for example, but includes the shepherds. He also goes through the trouble of making sure to inform the reader that Jesus took part in all that was required ceremonially of children born into Jewish families. Here's what I see when I read through this, I see a master apologist at work. Make no mistake, he is writing from a clearly biblical perspective, showing both that Jesus is the one promised from the scriptures, he was born of a virgin, in the place and for the purpose that scriptures had promised and here is all the proof or evidence that you need to verify it took place. Granted for you and I, it's not as easy to go and verify all the facts that Luke gives us, but in the first century it would have been. To those Luke is first writing to it would have been, and this is why context is so important. If you were in the original audience all you needed to do is some investigating to check out his claims and yet here we are 2000 years later and though there are many who want to write things attempting to disprove what Luke by inspiration of the Holy Spirit has left us. They do so without any ties to history, and their main presupposition being, God cannot exist. Be encouraged today, that God does exist, and He left us His word written in a manner that shows, He didn't intend for us to take a "leap" of faith, but rather left us a perfectly reasonable faith. The reason people reject Jesus has nothing to do with reason, it has everything to do with the fact that we love our sin and apart from a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives we would rather stay in our sin than choose God.
I promise that I didn't plan things this way, but we also just started our Apologetics book study. It's still a good time to jump on in. Week 1 is posted on my YouTube channel, and in case you aren't sure what apologetics is I am also leaving you a link to a recent podcast I was on to discuss apologetics. If you decide you want to join us, just shoot me a message. If you are struggling with certainty in the Christian faith, you should join us. We all wrestle with doubt at different times and for different reasons, but it's important that we have the answers we need to remain strong and bold in our faith. God bless you all and I hope you have a wonderful day!