My current series on Luke has a different approach.  It was originally a letter.  We usually read letters quickly – then perhaps we go back and read it again.  I decided to take Luke more along the lines of how Theophilus would have read it the first time, looking at the broad themes.  Below is a more complete form of what I handed out yesterday, summarising some key themes from Luke’s early chapters.

Some Key Words in Luke’s Early Chapters

Chapter 1 – Joy

The concept of joy pervades the entire first chapter, and Luke used the word repeatedly.

1:14 “Thou shalt have joy”

1:31-33 Mary’s joy

1:44 “The babe leaped in my womb for joy”

1:47 “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour”

1:58 “They rejoiced with her”

1:64 “His tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God”

1:78 “The dayspring from on high hath visited us”

Having established a theme of joy, there are also hints in chapter one (such as verses 65-66) of something to which Luke wants to draw our attention next – wonder.

Chapter 2 – Wonder

Though Luke doesn’t use a single word repeatedly as he did in chapter one, the concept of wonder is strong in chapter two.  He describes amazing events, and uses several words with similar meanings.

2:9 “The glory of the Lord shone round about them”

2:18 “All they that heard it wondered at those things”

2:33 “And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things”

2:38 “Spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption”

2:47 “All that heard him were astonished at His understanding”

2:48 “And when they saw Him, they were amazed”

3:1-4:31 – Spirit

For the next one and a half chapters, there is a strong emphasis on the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost), and His relation to and work in the ministry of Christ. 

3:16 “He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire”

3:22 “The Holy Ghost descended”

4:1 “And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost”

4:1 “And was led by the Spirit into the wilderness”

4:14 “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee”

4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me”

There are also several references in this section to the Father (even the genealogy points back that far).  The entire Trinity is in view in this section.

Luke never again mentions the Lord Jesus as being led by the Spirit, full of the Spirit, or working in the power of the Spirit, or anything comparable.  All these references were pointing forward to His great claim in 4:18.  Having established the working of the Spirit in His ministry and the complete agreement of the great Three-in-One on His work, Luke moves on to emphasise the power and authority of the incarnate Son of God. 

4:31-6:19 – Power / Authority

There is more than one word in view here (both in English and in Greek), but the concept of Jesus’ power and authority is very strong in this section, and Luke uses these words repeatedly.  Even the incidents he relates which don’t use an actual word meaning “power” reveal His power and authority.

4:32 “His word was with power”

4:36 “With authority and power He commendeth the unclean spirits”

5:7 “And they came, and filled both the ships, that they began to sink” — power over nature

5:13 “And immediately the leprosy departed from him” — power over the incurable

5:17 “The power of the Lord was present to heal them”

5:24 “The Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins”

5:36-38 Authority to institute a new covenant

6:5 “The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath” — authority

6:19 “There went virtue out of Him, and healed them all”

After repeatedly using the word “power” (or a synonym), Luke never again uses either “power” or “authority” to refer to the Lord’s earthly ministry except in reference to His delegation of authority and power to those He was sending out.

Luke is telling a story (a true story).  He draws in his readers with an account of joy and wonder.  He tells us that this One who has come is working in the power and leading of the Spirit, endorsed by the Father.  He has come both claiming and demonstrating His power and authority. 

6:20-49 — The Teacher Who is Lord

Having established those truths, he moves on in the last part of chapter six to his first major account of Jesus’ teaching.  Jesus, sent by the Father, filled by the Spirit, ministering with authority and power, teaches with that same authority, challenging His hearers:

Luke 6:46

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say?

Psalm 138:6

Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

The Lord’s eyes and His attention are on the humble, the lowly.  In Paris, we saw a lot of things that human rulers did to exalt their own prestige.  The Lord exalts His glory by turning His loving attention to humble and lowly people.

There’s another kind of people — the proud.  The Lord knows them, too.  He knows all about them, He knows their hearts, He knows them just as well as He knows the humble.  He knows them when they are afar off — and that is where they will stay.  You’ll never get close to the Lord when you hold to your pride.  He’ll know you all too well, but you’ll not know Him.  You’ll always be known from afar.

I thought about blogging about some of the things I’ve seen there, since the British Museum posts have been so popular, but it would be stupid for me to do so.  It has already been done, so instead, I’m going to give you a site that will help you use up loads of time that you may not be able to afford.

Visit the Louvre with the Bible appears to me to be a great site, comparable to my Bible in the British Museum posts, only it includes many, many more pages.  It is written by a Frenchman who has this to say on one of his introductory pages:

This chiefly cultural site presents the research efforts of a Christian for whom the Bible is authoritative. A Christian who considers it not as “the word of man, but, as it truly is, the word of God.” – 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

…

The concern is however to avoid imposing religious beliefs or opinions but rather to present the facts which bear witness to the truth of the Book.

In general the English translation is superb — you won’t have any trouble following it.  And if you are interested in how history sheds light on Biblical statements, it’s a great resource.

For instance, the Bible often uses the imagery of being caught in a net, and we learn that this imagery of a defeated foe being portrayed as caught in a net goes back to before the time of Abraham in the Ancient Near East.

We learn something which sheds light on the interaction between Jacob and Laban in Genesis 31:

An archaeological discovery made at Nuzi revealed the existence of a patriarchal law under the terms of which the possession of household gods gave a man the ownership rights over the property of his deceased father-in-law.

I’ve only looked at a fraction of this site, but haven’t encountered anything that was inaccurate.  It does use some Bible translation which I’m not sure of — it may be a translation back into English from the French.  In any event, I won’t give it a blanket endorsement as to its accuracy or the soundness of the theology, but there is much of value here.

What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

This post includes a few thoughts from / following on from an interesting conversation on Sunday.

Deuteronomy 6:5

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Mark 12:30, 33

30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Matthew 22:37

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

The Key Point — to Love God

The point of these passages is not to give a full theological definition of a human being, but rather to emphasise the command to love the Lord our God with all of our being.  Thus, while these passages use slightly different terms to describe our total being, it is secondary to the key point, which is to love God.

The Secondary Question — What is Man?

This secondary question, admittedly not the primary focus of the passages, is what do these terms tell us about the nature of man?  What aspects of man are in view when Christ talks about the mind?  The heart?  The soul?

The scribe to which Christ was talking in Mark replaced “mind” with “understanding” (or intellect), and Christ said that he answered wisely, so perhaps that helps us know a little better what “mind” meant.  But there are other passages which talk about the nature of man.

Perhaps directly related to these that we’ve looked at is Hebrews 8:10:

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Then, there is the well-known verse in I Thessalonians 5:23, which uses “spirit” and “soul” in parallel:

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then there is Luke 12, where Christ simply refers to the body and the eternal nature of man:

4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Genesis 2:7 says that man became a living soul when God breathed into him the breath of life — but animals which breathe and live are not made in the image of God, and are not souls in the same way we are.

Can We (and Should We) Answer This Question?

So, sometimes man is talked about as body, soul, and spirit.  Sometimes, he is heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Sometimes, he is body and something else.  What is man, and how do we Biblically define the components that make up a human being?  It is an interesting philosophical question, but it isn’t really the focus of Biblical teaching.  Perhaps we should step back and look at the first mention of man in the Bible.

Genesis 1:26

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

We’re made in God’s image.  He intended us to be a reflection of Him.  The Bible tells us much about man, but does not precisely define him, in part because it’s not where Scripture turns our focus.

If I’m standing next to a mirror in a public place, and I see my wife coming in the mirror, I’m not going to carefully analyse her reflection, I’m going to turn around and look at her.  God wants us to see Him in His created reflection, and look to Him.  Perhaps that’s part of the reason that Biblical discussions of the nature of man are limited and fragmented.  Man is only the reflection.

But the very fact that we are made in God’s image makes us ponder — if we can’t really entirely nail down the nature of man, if we can’t really define who and what we are, and man is but a reflection, a limited-dimensional image of a multi-dimensional and multi-faced Being, then….

How will we comprehend God?

And how great is our God!

Romans 11:33

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Pilgrim at Defending-Contending gives us a fun (but with a point) test to find out if you are loving or unloving.

1). You’re sitting in a coffee shop when a woman at another table gets up–leaving her coffee unattended–to get a napkin. As she does, a man walks by her table, pours a powdered substance into the woman’s coffee and quickly exits the shop. You immediately warn this woman of what just happened. Your reaction is:

A. Loving

B. Unloving. This is none of your business. Quit interfering with other people’s lives.

Are you Loving or Unloving?  It’s only six questions, it won’t take you long to find out if you pass or fail.

You ask me why I see no charm nor glory
In this world’s pleasures or its wealth and fame?
And why I love that Galilean story
Of One who died upon a cross of shame?
It is because my soul hath known her sinning,
The grief and darkness of that cry “undone,”
And at that Cross has found a new beginning,
Life through the death of that dear Dying One.

You ask me why I find no rest nor gladness
In paths where selfish ease would while my hours?
And why I toil where hearts in bitter sadness
Lie crushed beneath sin’s fierce o’erwhelming powers?
It is because I know Life’s thread is slender,
But one short hour, one little stretch of road.
Then yearns my heart with love divinely tender,
To seek the lost and bring them home to God.

You ask me why what gifts I have, what graces
Are poured an offering at His holy feet,
And why I brave the cold contemptuous faces
Of those who love this world and find it sweet?
It is because I see a distant morning
When stand God’s sons around His jasper throne;
I see bright crowns those holy brows adorning,
And I, too, long to hear my Lord’s “Well done.”

Plan Purposefully

Determine the specific steps you need to take, and plan a way to help you accomplish spiritual growth.

Prepare Prayerfully

Pray about what you need to do to prepare yourself, to be able to carry through despite your own personal weakness.

Proceed Positively

Carry out your plan to accomplish the goal, with the confidence that God will see you through and give you the strength to succeed.

Pursue Persistently

Don’t give up even if you fail.  Keep on even when it is hard.  If you have started and failed, you have at least started — so start again.  Never give up.