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[0:00] First of all, a brief overview of Luke's Gospel, and then we're going to spend most of our time, as you'll see on the outline, thinking about three things. Fulfillment, what is the Gospel in Luke, and then certainty. If we have time, other things will do that.

[0:15] If we don't, we won't worry too much, but it'd be nice before we finish the evening, given the fact that we are in our growth groups, to pray together as well. I want to leave good time for that.

[0:26] So Luke 1 to 4.13 is very much an introduction to Jesus' ministry. Chapter 4.14 to 9.50, we see his ministry in Galilee.

[0:40] And Luke is very well structured, and so I've put the different sections there. And the climax of the first half of Luke's Gospel, if you turn to chapter 9, the climax really is the point at which the disciples rightly recognise who Jesus is.

[0:59] So chapter 9, verse 20. So his identity, he is indeed the Christ of God.

[1:18] And then his mission is what immediately follows, verse 22. The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, or on the third day be raised.

[1:34] So that is the kind of climax of the first half of Luke's Gospel, a grasp of Jesus' identity, and then Jesus explaining precisely the kind of Messiah, the kind of Christ that he is in terms of his mission.

[1:52] The second half of Luke's Gospel, you'll see, splits into two sections, 951 to 1944, Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, and then his time in Jerusalem, his arrest, his trial, his crucifixion, and resurrection.

[2:08] But remember too that Luke also wrote Acts. Acts begins in the first book, Theophilus, I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.

[2:21] In other words, Luke is very much laying the foundations for Acts. So when we think what is Luke doing, we also need to think in terms of where Acts is going to be going, and we'll say more about that in just a moment.

[2:37] When was Luke written? Probably in the early 60s AD. Luke Acts mentions, it doesn't mention anything, for example, about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

[2:51] For the death of the Apostle Paul. Now let's turn to the very beginning of Luke's Gospel, which in a sense shows us Luke's two big ideas.

[3:05] Would someone be happy to read for us Luke 1, verses 1 to 4? Marcus, thanks so much. Thank you. In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

[3:41] Great. Okay. You can see there, there are just his two themes which I want to pick out. The first is chapter 1, verse 1. That word accomplished is really the word fulfilment, those things that have been fulfilled among us.

[3:57] And we'll see in a moment the idea of fulfilment as a big theme in Luke. And then the second big idea in verses 1 to 4 is his purpose in writing, verse 4, that you may have certainty concerning the things you've been taught.

[4:13] So we're going to look at fulfilment. We're then going to look at certainty. And then in the middle, and hopefully it will make sense as to why we're looking at it in between those two things, we're going to ask the question, what is the gospel in Luke?

[4:27] Now, let's start then with fulfilment. And immediately in the first four chapters of Luke, we get a sense that everything that has been written in the Old Testament is now being fulfilled.

[4:44] There's so much Old Testament being quoted. So Luke begins, chapter 1, verse 5, onwards with a childless couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth. And immediately, of course, if you're familiar with the Old Testament, our ears kind of prick up.

[5:00] We think of other Old Testament childless couples, Abraham and Sarah, Elkanah and Hannah, who gave birth to Samuel, Manoah and his wife, who gave birth to Samson.

[5:12] And our Old Testament ears are prick up. And we're full of expectation. What is God about to do? Who will this child be? So, for example, we see fulfilment very clearly in the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary, verses 31 to 33 of chapter 1.

[5:34] Verse 31, And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High.

[5:45] And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Jesus is the Son, the Son of Psalm 2, the one who rules over all things, the one who is the judge of all people.

[6:07] And he is the descendant of King David, who God said would rule on David's throne forever. Indeed, I've put a whole list of other Old Testament fulfilment quotations there on the outline, which you can look up later, all of them, just in chapters 1 and 2.

[6:25] This great sense of anticipation and expectation as God is now fulfilling his Old Testament promises. Turn to the end of Luke, because Luke also finishes on this same note of fulfilment.

[6:39] And could someone read for us Luke 24, verses 44 to 47? Luke 24, 44 to 47. Someone else would be happy to read for us.

[6:50] Thanks, Michael. Then he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

[7:02] Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer on the third day and rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

[7:18] Great. Thanks so much indeed. Notice verses 44 to 45 introduce the theme of fulfilment. Everything written about me must now be fulfilled.

[7:28] Everything written in the Old Testament. And therefore, of course, the key to understanding Jesus, who he is, why he's come, lies in understanding the Old Testament.

[7:40] Notice then verse 46 is in essence a summary of Luke's gospel. It's a summary of what has been fulfilled. Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.

[7:55] And then verse 47, we're given a summary of what has still to be fulfilled. In other words, what is going to happen in Acts. Verse 47, Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things.

[8:17] Indeed, Acts begins by picking up on that. I'll put Acts chapter 1 verse 8 on the outline, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

[8:34] And then Acts finishes with the gospel having been rejected by the Jews on the whole and the apostle Paul declaring, Acts 28, 28, Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, they will listen.

[8:50] In other words, what is Luke's gospel doing? Luke's gospel is laying the foundations for, in Acts, for the gospel to go global.

[9:02] So, in Acts, the gospel to go out from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That's why I said at the beginning it's really helpful not just to study Luke in isolation, but to think what are the foundations Luke is laying in his gospel where it's to show that in Acts the gospel is going to go global.

[9:24] which seems to me it means there are two things to look out for as we study Luke's gospel. Firstly, why it is that Jesus was rejected by the Jewish religious establishment.

[9:39] And secondly, look out for the extraordinary number of outsiders who are welcomed by the Lord Jesus. So, Luke loves to show us the outsider being saved.

[9:52] The outsider following Jesus, whether it's the tax collector or the children or the prostitute, the leper or the religious outsider, paving the way for the gospel going to the nations.

[10:09] Now, before we go on to think about certainty, let's ask this question. What is the gospel in Luke? Now, you may be thinking, hang on a moment, that's a rather odd question.

[10:21] You know, as if Luke's gospel is going to be any different from any other gospel that we see or from the gospel that we see in the rest of the New Testament. But I want to spend some time on it because you sometimes hear people saying that Luke has a particular emphasis on the poor, that he has a bias to the marginalised and dispossessed and oppressed.

[10:48] Led, as we are reminded, in Summer Focus a few weeks ago by the Liberation Theology Movement in South America in the 1970s, which argued that the mission of the church is to help the poor and the economically oppressed.

[11:03] one widely used definition of mission amongst UK churches includes mission as transforming social structures, transforming society so that unjust structures are reformed and overturned and a desire to safeguard the integrity of creation.

[11:27] And the justification for all of that is Luke chapter 4 verses 16 to 19. So I want to spend some time together in Luke chapter 4 verses 16 to 19.

[11:42] Perhaps someone else would be happy to read those verses for us. Perhaps, yeah, yeah, Luke 4, 16 to 19. So I'll be happy to do that. Emily?

[11:53] Great, thank you. And he put on Azareth where he'd been brought up and as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

[12:06] He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.

[12:25] Excellent, thank you. I'm keen that we do some group work this evening rather than just listening to me. So why don't we just spend a few minutes in our groups just looking at Luke 4, 16 to 19 and just thinking about those questions.

[12:39] Who are the poor and the captives? How does this passage help us to understand what the gospel is? Don't feel, you may feel slightly kind of put on the spot with this.

[12:50] Don't feel that you have to come up with the perfect answer. Just share thoughts as you are able to around the tables. I hope that was a helpful exercise at least in terms of beginning to think about the issue.

[13:03] I think there are two ways we could approach this. The first is simply to ask the question what is the gospel in Luke up to this point? Because it would be rather strange, wouldn't it?

[13:14] Or indeed at any other point in Luke because it would be rather strange if these verses in some way contradicted either what Luke has already said or what he is going to go on to say.

[13:29] So, let's ask the question what is the salvation that Jesus Christ has come to bring? I'll turn back to chapter 1 and could someone read for us chapter 1 verses 76 to 79.

[13:42] Thanks so much indeed.

[14:09] So, what is this salvation that John the Baptist is going to herald and the Lord Jesus is going to bring? Well, verse 77 it is salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins which verse 79 results in peace.

[14:30] Peace with God. That I take it is why the shepherds when they announce the birth of the saviour what is it that is proclaimed to the shepherds by the angel chapter 2 verse 11 for unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour who is Christ the Lord and they then proclaim verse 14 this same message of peace.

[14:59] It's why in chapter 2 verses 29 to 31 Simeon is now ready to die to die in peace because he has seen the salvation God promised in the Old Testament the salvation notice for all people verse 32 for both Jew and Gentile it's this same salvation chapter 3 verse 3 that John the Baptist preaches and he went into all the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance repentance for the forgiveness of sins and it is that same gospel if you like that is then being announced by the Lord Jesus in chapter 4 verses 16 to 19 and I think we see that by I said there are two ways we can answer this question one is to ask the question what is what is the gospel in Luke up to this point and indeed beyond this point the second way to answer the question this is obviously as I think you all spotted is a quote from Isaiah chapter 61 so it's by asking the question well who are the poor in Isaiah chapter 61 who are the captives and the oppressed and so on well in Isaiah 61 the poor those in captivity those who are oppressed are those who are under the judgment of God in exile indeed that is so often the case in the Old Testament so in the Psalms for example the poor are a variety of people but they include

[16:35] King David as he says in Psalm 40 verse 17 I put it there on the outline as for me I am poor and needy but the Lord takes thought for me you are my help and my deliverer do not delay oh my God King David obviously materially very rich and yet he recognises his sin and spiritual poverty before God I put a couple of very helpful quotes on the outline the first is Kenneth Bailey in his well-known book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes 600 years of use before and after Jesus confirmed the poor as meaning primarily those who tremble at the word of God or David Sackham who used to be the principal of George Whitfield College in Cape Town Theological College did his PhD on this issue and he concludes there is nothing socio-economic or socio-religious about Luke's use of poor terminology in the pages we have considered to seek to ground an ethic of poverty upon these texts would be to misunderstand and misuse them in other words who is God's favour proclaimed to well the spiritually captive the spiritually blind the spiritually oppressed those who are under the judgement of God this is not the social gospel it's not the environmental gospel and very strikingly the very next thing that happens is that Luke gives us an example of two people the very kinds of people

[18:16] Jesus has come for so 24 sorry Luke 4 25 to 27 as he says but I tell you there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over all the land and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow and there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha and none of them was cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian now what do those two have in common clearly they are not both physically poor and oppressed I take it the widow was I take it Naaman was not he was a powerful soldier general now what they have in common is they are both Gentiles they are non-Jews you see it's as if

[19:18] Luke is setting as soon as we have Jesus manifesto what is the very next thing Luke does he is setting the direction of travel for the rest of Luke's gospel and interacts as the gospel then goes to the nations so in summary why has Jesus come chapter 5 verse 32 in the words of Jesus himself I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance what is the gospel that is to be proclaimed to the nations to the world well turn again to Luke 24 this is the gospel that the Lord Jesus wants to be taken to the nations Luke 24 verse 46 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 it's exactly what we've seen throughout Luke's gospel right from the very beginning chapter 1 verses 77 to 79 repentance and forgiveness of sins lies at the heart of the gospel

[20:31] Luke doesn't have a different gospel to any other part of the New Testament he has come for all the Lord Jesus comes for all who are under the judgment of God let's move on and think about certainty you'll remember back in chapter 1 verse 4 this is the purpose for which Luke is writing to give us certainty about the Lord Jesus and I think we are now in a better position to see the kind of certainty that Luke wants us to have I think it's worth spending a little bit of time on this which is what I'm going to do for the next few minutes or so because it means that in a sense the primary application of any study in Luke's gospel is going to be certainty and confidence but obviously if your growth group leader simply says to you at the end of each study how does this passage give us certainty and confidence that's going to be slightly dull isn't it so I want us just to think a little bit about the kind of different areas of certainty so that our application of this idea of certainty and confidence is broad so I'm suggesting three areas on the outline where Luke is wanting to give us certainty firstly certainty in terms of the content of the gospel in other words to help us to define the gospel it's what we've just seen

[21:50] Luke defines the gospel for us who Jesus is he is Lord and Saviour why he's come he's come to bring the forgiveness of sins which leads to peace with God and there are some references you can chase there on the outline secondly to give us confidence as to the credibility of the gospel or as we might say to enable us to defend the gospel and to do so publicly I think many of us are well it's interesting I was reading a survey recently which was undertaken in a number of churches and people being asked the question what's the biggest thing that holds you back from talking to friends neighbours and colleagues about the Lord Jesus or perhaps that holds you back from having a Christian conversation with someone and I don't know what you think the biggest thing would be just kind of off the top of your head or what you feel the biggest thing is for you but the biggest thing was a lack of confidence what to say or what if someone asks a question the answer to the question or someone puts me on the spot so Luke is going to be really helpful for us in giving us confidence in terms of seeing the gospel is credible so that we can defend the gospel credible in terms of historical certainty so go back to Luke chapter 1

[23:20] Luke sets out his stall very early on chapter 1 verse 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us it seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you most excellent Theophilus Luke lays out his stall these are eyewitness accounts he is putting together and in good order an orderly account I've come straight from the city as you can tell by what I'm wearing if I had gone home I was wanting to bring with me a scrapbook which I don't know I've got it really I think it's one of those things that slipped through the net when I was sorting things out just before getting married anyway it's a scrapbook of a family holiday which we had when I was 12 and all the completely random bits and pieces that a 12 year old collects and sticks in the scrapbook and it is pretty random you ask the question is there much order and logic to this and no doubt there was in my mind as a 12 year old but it's hard to see it now and I think often when we read the gospels it's easy to have the 12 year old scrapbook view of the gospels but you imagine

[24:42] Luke sitting down at his desk he's on the next bit of his scroll scratching his head what should I write about today oh yes there was that thing I'll write that parable down the Lord Jesus told and oh yes and there was that miracle I'll write that down as if it's all kind of very higgledy piggledy whereas all the gospel writers have an order a shape to what they write and Luke is very explicit about that so historical certainty based on eyewitness accounts and as you read through Luke's gospel you cannot help but see the precision with which he writes so chapter 2 verse 1 for example in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered this was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria and so on his historical particularity secondly in terms of credibility of the gospel he gives us writing to give us theological certainty not just historical certainty but theological certainty back to chapter 1 verse 1 this idea of Luke writing to show what's been accomplished fulfilled in other words the point he's making is look what I'm writing here it's not some new fangled religion that's just kind of been made up on the hoof this is all about the fulfilment of God's promises you can be certain and confident thirdly socio-political certainty and one of the things that Luke seems to emphasise again and again is how the gospel how the

[26:22] Lord Jesus is rejected by the political and religious establishment turn back to chapter 1 verse 3 we don't know who Theophilus is that he's writing to I'm writing an audly account for you most excellent Theophilus was he a new believer possibly we don't know but why is it that Luke seems to highlight the unbelief of the establishment so much well presumably it's because Theophilus and no doubt others were saying to themselves hang on a moment why did the Jewish political and religious establishments those who you thought would understand their Old Testaments those who you thought if Jesus really was the Messiah would welcome him with open arms why is it that time and again they reject him perhaps they were right especially given the ongoing opposition to the gospel which we see in Acts and let me read out this quote from

[27:26] Daryl Bok in his commentary on Luke any Gentile feeling out of place in the originally Jewish movement could benefit from the reassurance Luke offers any Jew or Jewish Christian troubled by the lack of Jewish response to the gospel or by the Gentile openness to the gospel could see that God directed the affair and that he gave the nation multiple invitations to join in God's renewed work Christianity conflicted with Judaism not because the new movement consciously tried to isolate itself from the nation but because it was forced out so you know you imagine your first century perhaps Jewish new Christian or perhaps Gentile new Christian very much seeing themselves on the edge of society as a Christian well Luke is going to give them confidence and certainty just of course as increasingly Christians today in this country feel on the edge why is it that so often that is the case so certainty in terms of content of the gospel certainty in terms of credibility of the gospel enable us and give us confidence to defend the gospel thirdly certainty regarding the communication of the gospel such that we are equipped to declare it

[28:52] I won't read it again but it's where the gospel finishes as the Lord Jesus commissions his church to take the gospel to the nations and we'll see both that being anticipated in the second half of Luke's gospel and we'll also see what kind of responses there are in the second half of Luke's gospel as the gospel is taken to the nations now what I've done I hope you find this helpful is to begin or certainly show the first three studies the kind of application table which I think could be really helpful in terms of helping us to apply Luke's gospel in greater depth and breadth so you'll see I just put the first three studies down the left hand side of the table and I'll put our three areas of certainty along the top not suggesting at all that you'll be able to fill in necessarily each box for each study but nonetheless I hope it gets us thinking actually what kind of certainty does this particular study really help us with and hopefully that will be a useful exercise in pushing us to really grasp the applications for ourselves as we go through week by week if you find it helpful then you can draw up your own table with all the studies or badge someone else in the group to do it and then send it round right how we're doing time for one or two other things just one or two sort of general things on studying the second half of Luke firstly the structure turn if you will to

[30:32] Luke chapter 9 verse 51 so remember how Luke says he's written an orderly account and the structure the second half of the gospel is very much focused on Jesus journey to Jerusalem so let me just show us that with these verses that I put there on the outline chapter 9 verse 51 when the days drew near for him to be taken up he set his face to go to Jerusalem that is then repeated in chapter 10 verse 38 now as they went on their way no reference to Jerusalem but that cannot be a coincidence given the number of other times it is clearly on the way to Jerusalem chapter 13 verse 22 he went on his way through towns and villages teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem chapter 17 verse 11 on the way to Jerusalem he is passing along between Samaria and Galilee and 1928 and when he had said these things he went on ahead going up to

[31:34] Jerusalem so Luke deliberately seems to have these sections and one of the things we're going to do in our studies when we get to the end of each section is to try and review the section as a whole and think what are the big things Luke's been wanting to show us from the section as a whole so I'm not going to tell us now what each section is about but it would be really helpful as we go through week by week to bear these sections in mind and to be thinking what is the whole section seeking to teach us so do think about that let me say something about Luke's agenda I mean this isn't particular to Luke's gospel but just any of the gospels I guess but Luke includes a lot of material which Matthew and Mark also include now I think one of the dangers is that we can assume that Luke has the same purpose for everything as the other gospel writers but actually that's not always the case so for example if a number of us all went to watch a football match or a tennis match or something like that and we had to write an article on the match afterwards

[32:52] I guess there'll be things won't we that we would have seen which we well there are some things which some of us would have seen which not everyone would have seen so I take it we'd have all kind of said the same two people were playing if it was tennis and you know what the who won and what the score was and all that kind of stuff but actually there are different things we would have picked out and it's exactly the same with the gospel writers so I think one danger of studying Luke's gospel or any of the other gospels is oh yeah I know we're in Luke's gospel but I heard that sermon you know whenever it was on the parallel passage in Mark's gospel and we make the assumption that Luke is wanting to make exactly the same point as Mark now it may be useful to compare how you know where Mark puts the feeding of the 5,000 or whatever compared with where Luke does just to see you know how they are using it to make slightly different points that may be helpful but don't just kind of import the way which one gospel writer is using material and assume the other one is using it the same way let's think about purpose so do remember how we said that Luke is writing an ordered account

[34:10] I think it means that as we're preparing each week and it's such a help by the way to prepare each week I know your growth group leaders will be encouraging you to prepare each week I'm told by growth group leaders you can generally tell who has prepared each week it is such a help to have prayerfully read the passage through beforehand and I think a really good question to be asking of any passage or any bit of a passage is why is this here in other words here is Luke sitting down to write his ordered account why is he writing this particular thing both in terms of helping us to understand what the passage means and also in terms of helping us to apply the passage correctly now sometimes Luke will tell us so turn to Luke chapter 18 so Luke chapter 18 beginning of verse 1 the ESV helpfully tells us this is the parable of the persistent widow not of course that those headings are in the

[35:11] Bible originally and sometimes they can be very unhelpful but you can't really go wrong can you calling this little section the parable the persistent widow and verse 1 Luke tells us why the Lord Jesus told this parable he told them a parable to the effect that they might always pray and not lose heart see so he gives us a nodded guide if you like to this parable you get exactly the same thing in verse 9 here's the Pharisee and the tax collector he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt so again we're told you can't really go wrong he tells us why those two parables are there so sometimes we're told straight off other times it is more rather than being explicit it is implicit in other words we have to try and work it out by the way in which Luke groups stuff together okay so one of the things I didn't tell you about my my holiday scrap album as a 12 year old is that

[36:21] I had done a previous one I think that the previous year not that that one did survive September 1997 but in that in that one I kind of wrote a sort of commentary you know so sort of day one you know we did this we think there was a kind of explanation to what everything was in the one the following year I don't quite know what happened but anyway I guess the school holidays came to an end or I had better things to do with my time and to finish my holiday scrapbook anyway if you look at it now you basically have to try and work out you know what we did on each day by kind of what is put next to next to each other and sometimes you know Luke and the other gospel writers do exactly the same thing so you don't get the explicit this is what this parable is designed to tell you you have to work it out from the way in which Luke puts different things together so just the last bit of our time together this evening back in our groups round tables and have a look in chapter 18 verses well the rest of chapter 18 really up to verse 43 and just skim through it and pick out what you can and see if you can work out what do the different elements have in common how are they different what is it

[37:40] Luke seems to be showing overall and again we're not going to come up with a complete answer or certainly not the perfect answer but just pick up the things which you can pick out together who just want to chip in what were some of the things which these sort of different things have in common or the differences any suggestions that what Luke seems to be showing yeah it's usually not what they expect it's something different yeah so the unexpected okay yeah unexpected yeah yeah we were thinking about something we were thinking about who might have a relationship with God it wasn't who he he would have expected so it wasn't the Pharisee it wasn't the rich man who had who did good works obeyed the commandments yep so about who who is in who is in

[38:43] Jesus kingdom and who isn't in Jesus kingdom so the unexpected thing that Chris was saying it's not the Pharisee it's the it's you know it's the blind beggar and so on yeah any right yes so spiritual blindness and then the end you have the blind man being healed yeah the need to humble yourself the need to humble yourself right yeah so it's all so it's funny isn't it so you have you you have this thing when you have the Pharisee and the tax collector you then have the children coming to Jesus you have the rich ruler Jesus in the middle of it all speak about his death and then you have the healing of the blind beggar and actually when you begin I think you know we've we've we've seen it when we when you begin to see what's what's in common what's different there seems to be a theme running through of who who does get into God's kingdom and who isn't in God's kingdom and clearly Luke puts the foretelling of Jesus death bang in the middle because that is the grounds on which anyone gets into

[39:53] God King God's kingdom just like the little children by simply coming to Jesus or like the blind beggar crying out have mercy on me unlike the rich ruler or the Pharisee you think they can earn their way into God's kingdom I was going to do a similar thing on parables but I don't think I'll do that now just because of time but just as the explicit explanation again and also the the implicit and I don't think I'll say anything about the Pharisees and the religious establishment but just notice as I said earlier Luke has a lot to say about them and it's worth thinking as we go through why is it that he has so much to say about them anyone wants to ask a question before we get into our groups to pray do you think Christians in South Africa were right to oppose apartheid do I think Christians in South Africa were right to oppose apartheid I do but I don't think they'd have been right to oppose it if they describe that as part of their gospel proclamation so in other words you know Luke Luke has the rest of the Old Testament is very clear on what the gospel is I take it they'd have opposed apartheid on the grounds of seeking to love their neighbour but I take it that they'd have sought to proclaim the same gospel throughout just mechanics in your categories of certainty in defining defending and declaring how does certainty in declaring differ from either certainty in defining or certainty in defending what's the different element yeah thank you so back to the back to the table I suppose in defining is simply helping us to to understand the gospel for ourselves defending is as I especially you know as I as I outlined those three particular areas so you know the person who I was talking to someone at lunch last Tuesday you know for whom he had real issues of historical certainty or there may be theological issues of theological certainty and so on declaring it's really helping us to see giving us the confidence to then to then to then speak the gospel and see what happens as the gospel is then proclaimed so you know you could obviously be doing all three things in one conversation in terms of your thinking to yourself what is the gospel I'm seeking to explain to this person and so on but I thought it was just helpful in terms of you know rather than asking the kind of just the question how does this passage give us confidence

[42:31]  I thought was probably quite helpful in terms of just splitting that down into different areas so we can see a sort of breadth we'll see that when we in terms of declaring the gospel we'll see both that it is the gospel that is to be taken to all nations so who is the gospel for we'll see who is it who is to take the gospel to all nations we'll see how does the gospel go to all nations and we'll see the response when then the gospel goes out as well okay um okay