So if you have a Bible, if you picked up one of these purple Luke's Gospels, this is where we're going to be this Sunday and right through till Easter Sunday, just thinking about some of the big themes and claims that are made in here.
This morning we're kicking off thinking about certainty. You'll see it on the screen. Find the certainty that you're looking for.
So maybe you want to turn to page one in that. We're going to take in verses one to four of Luke chapter one.
So please do have it open in front of you and we'll refer to it as you go. We're going to read it in about 10 minutes time.
But maybe to get us into this theme this morning, Alex isn't here so I can talk about her when she's not here.
Here's one of Alex's dreams. She'd love to own a baby grand piano.
And so we've got this bay window in our house that would be perfect to sit in and we've got this view of Arthur's seat.
If you've been to our house, you'll know the one I mean.
And you kind of look out over it and you think, goodness me, that would be a lovely dream to have, wouldn't it?
She's got this dream of owning a baby grand piano.
And so you wouldn't believe my luck when I got an email last summer saying, it came into the church account, saying, free baby grand piano to the first person to respond.
And I couldn't believe my luck. I thought I was in for husband of the year.
So I emailed back and said, I'd be interested. Could you show me the dimensions and I'll work out if it's going to fit.
And the person emailed me straight back, gave me those dimensions and we're going back and forth.
And this person on the other end of the email chain is telling me about how her husband used to love playing hymns on it.
And the fact that maybe we were going to do the same thing, it would have meant an awful lot to him.
And this story is going on and on.
And the person on the other side of the email says, all you need to do, they've thought ahead.
They've got a removal company who are going to do it for her and bring it down.
All you need to do is just transfer the money to this account and we'll sort everything else.
You don't need to worry about a thing.
And there's images of what the grand piano looks like.
And I'm thinking, this is incredible.
But for some reason, I stopped and I thought, I'll just Google this.
And you know where this is going, don't you?
Threads everywhere.
Scam.
Beware.
Warning.
People change.
It's the same email, just they've changed the name of the person who's deceased.
And on and on this goes.
And see this feeling.
There she is.
This feeling that I got in that moment where I'd almost been duped.
If you've ever had that feeling in your life, you'll know how horrible it is.
That you almost were taken in hook, line, sinker by this deal.
And in a way, is that not kind of symptomatic as to how everyday life feels sometimes?
Yeah?
So we used to talk in generations gone past.
We used to talk about how our word is our bond.
Remember that phrase, if you were a certain generation, my word is my bond?
We used to talk about things like gentlemen's agreements.
But today, we're much more used to hearing about things like NDAs and offshore bank accounts
and fact-checking, summed up in the runner-up of the word of the year in 2023.
And I'll tell you the winner in just a moment.
The runner-up of the word of the year in 2023.
Deep fake.
Meaning that today, total trust is in short supply.
Total trust, short supply.
And we think, we can be tempted to think, we don't trust people out there.
So who can we trust?
Where do we go?
Will we run in here?
Maybe the only person that I can trust in life is myself.
And you think you can get away with that for a little bit.
But we all know when we look inside, it's just not quite as simple as that.
In fact, here's a little thing for you.
Did you know that in 2014, there was a study done on science.org?
And believe me, this actually is a thing.
That found that when given the choice, people preferred getting a mild electric shock than being left alone with their thoughts.
It's a real thing, right?
67% of men preferred an electric shock than being left alone with their thoughts.
25% of women.
Now that, you have to say, is a really niche study.
And it sounds so strange, doesn't it?
But I'll tell you what's even more strange.
Is that I kind of get it.
Tell you what I'm afraid of at night.
I go to bed each evening.
The thing I'm scared of isn't the dark.
It isn't the monsters in the cupboard.
It's not being able to sleep.
And sitting there, just lying there, staring at the ceiling.
Just me and my thoughts.
You like me?
Yeah?
Your body's sitting there going, I just want to go to sleep.
And yet your mind is, yeah?
Wide awake.
It's active.
It's ready to go.
And you think, the last thing I want to do is be left alone with my thoughts.
Because we are complicated creatures.
Right?
Our moods, they fluctuate.
They go up and down.
Our emotions change from one day to the next.
Our motives are a mixed bag.
I mean, I look back on things that I was sure of in terms of decisions in my life from years ago.
And I think, goodness me, thank you, Lord, that you saved me from that decision.
Yeah?
Our knowledge is limited.
We only know so a little fraction of the whole picture.
And that's the problem, is it not?
When our world tells us to be true to ourselves.
I always think of Buddy's line in the film, The Incredibles, if you've ever seen it.
Do you know the one when little Buddy is speaking to Mr. Incredible, the guy who he just wants to grow up and be like?
And he says this line, and I love it.
He says, you always say be true to yourself, but you never say which part of yourself to be true to.
And who knew Pixar could be so deep?
Yeah?
So where does that leave us then?
In this world that's searching for certainty, where does that leave us?
If we can't find it out there and we struggle, we definitely can't find it in here.
Where does that leave us?
Well, I've got a pastor friend called Sam.
Sam is a pastor of a Redeemer church in Collington, the south of the city.
He was telling me just this during the week about how a man rocked up in his church a few Sundays ago
and said to him, cards on the table, I don't think I believe this stuff.
I'm not sure where I am on this whole Jesus thing, but I'm here because the one thing that I'm searching for in life is integrity.
Isn't that interesting?
Integrity.
You know, the runner-up in that 2023 word of the year was, were you listening?
Deepfake.
Do you know what the winner was?
Authentic.
Again, really interesting, isn't it?
Where we're at as a culture, authentic.
And maybe that's you this morning.
Maybe you're craving for something that you can base your life upon.
Maybe it's a friend that you have.
Maybe it's a family member that you can think of.
If that's connecting with you in any sort of way, here's the wonderful news.
You've come to the right place.
That's what's on offer here today.
That's what Luke, as we read these first four verses, is going to hold out to us today.
It's the word certainty.
Now, who's this man called Luke?
Well, Luke is this doctor turned historian.
Luke is this professional guy who has an eye for facts.
And Luke is a man who has written this two-volume account of Jesus' life and the acts of the early church called Luke and Acts.
And Luke is writing for this man.
If you've got it there, verse one.
This man called Theophilus.
Whose name that you'll see if you have it there at the end of verse three.
Whose name means Theophilus.
Theophilus.
It just means lover of God.
Friend of God.
That's this man.
And the fact, you see, that Luke calls him not just Theophilus.
He calls him most excellent Theophilus.
Shows that this man is someone who has big esteem.
Right?
He's a big deal.
He carries a bit of gravitas, this guy Theophilus.
And what's happened is Theophilus has likely commissioned this man called Luke.
A bit like a private investigator.
He's commissioned them to do a research project on Jesus.
Because what is Theophilus seeking when it comes to Jesus?
This man who he's clearly heard so much about.
What is he seeking?
He's seeking certainty.
Do you see it there?
In other words, Luke, I want to know that I can trust this stuff.
And so Luke takes up the challenge.
And he writes this account of Jesus' life.
And he states up the top that he wants to provide Theophilus with certainty.
Why don't we see what he writes?
Here's the first four verses of Luke chapter 1.
So Luke writes this.
Have you got it there?
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.
Just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.
Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning,
it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may know the certainty of the things that you have been taught.
So see over the next 10 minutes, folks, whenever you think about this stuff,
whenever you're at on this stuff,
can I just point out three things that Luke's trying to do in these first four verses?
Three things that he wants Theophilus to know before he reads on.
Here's the first thing.
He wants him to know about his sources.
Do you see that?
His sources.
So before Luke gets to what happened when it comes to Jesus,
Luke tells us where it happened and why it happened.
Do you see that in verse 1?
He says the things fulfilled among us.
Do you notice that phrase?
The things fulfilled among us.
So all the things that he's about to tell us about,
all the things that Luke has written about in the remaining 24 chapters
happened not in a galaxy far, far away.
Do you see it?
Nor did they happen in a distant land long, long ago.
No, all of this happened, end of verse 1, among us.
So it happened right here.
You can meet people.
You can talk to people.
He's going to tell them that he did that.
It happened among us.
Luke can't get his head around us.
It happened here, right here.
And it wasn't random.
Jesus showing up.
The words fulfill, or maybe you've got there, accomplished,
shows that Luke perceives that with all these events,
with the coming of Jesus,
all of this is part of a bigger story.
That's what he perceives, that with the arrival of Jesus,
what was happening was God making good on the promises that he made to his people
and to the world in what we call the Old Testament.
All these promises are coming to fulfillment.
And because that is such a big deal,
Luke wants Theophilus to be sure about where he got his intel from.
Yeah, do you see how he's not gone Wikipedia?
If you're a student, you know, you don't put that in your footnotes, okay?
He doesn't carry any kind of gravitas.
He's not gone Wikipedia.
He's not gone YouGov poll saying,
can I have five minutes of your time to complete a survey?
Here's the survey.
What do you think happened?
He's not done that either.
He's not gone hearsay.
Where's he gone?
Do you see it?
He's gone straight for the eyewitnesses.
Now that word in Greek is where we get our word autopsy from.
If you're interested,
I've watched enough episodes of Silent Witness in my time
to know what an autopsy is, okay?
It's somebody who was there
and who saw it with their own eyes.
And historicity really matters, doesn't it?
In life, historicity really matters
when it comes to this kind of stuff.
Because Luke would have been well aware
that the leading historians in his day
were convinced that for anything to be considered,
credible history,
it had to be written
when events were still in people's living memory.
Makes total sense, doesn't it?
Josephus, others around about the time,
it has to be in living memory.
And that eyewitness testimony
strikes you as you read Luke's gospel
all the way through.
And that's the challenge off the back of this.
If you've never read it for yourself,
or maybe you've read it
and you think I've done it a long time ago,
go back and read it through these lenses.
He gives us tons of details, yeah?
Look for these.
People's names everywhere.
Names that stack up as being common
for those used in the days.
So, for example,
it shouldn't surprise us in this gospel
that there's more than one Mary.
Yeah?
Shouldn't surprise us.
Really common name back in the day.
The flip is true, I think.
It would be way more suspicious
if there wasn't.
Luke records people's reactions.
He records numbers.
He records place names.
He records geographical details.
He records the names of governors.
He records the names of historical events
like the census.
Now, many of you will be in jobs
where they say,
and this is what they said to me
when I started as a lawyer,
they said,
what we value
is attention to detail.
Yeah?
You had that?
What we value is attention to detail.
Luke's that guy as well.
Luke tells Theophilus
about his sources.
And then secondly,
do you see how he tells him
about his method?
So,
go back to a minute,
Luke's method.
Building on those eyewitness sources,
what did Luke do?
Do you see?
He carefully investigated everything.
So, he's really thorough.
That's what he's saying.
What would we say today,
our phrase that we have?
He left no stone unturned.
Yeah?
And notice from when?
So, from the beginning.
So, Luke's gone right back
to the start.
And what he's done
is he's sought with all this
data that he's collected
to produce it in a way
that Theophilus is going to follow.
So, that's what the phrase there,
orderly account, means.
From the birth of Jesus
right through to his death
and resurrection,
he's thought about
how he's going to present
the facts that he's gathered.
And see,
when you add that together
with the other three Gospels
that we have.
So, there's four Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
What that means
is summarized by a man
called Peter Williams
who works for a
biblical research center
down in Cambridge
called Tyndale House.
And he's written
this great book called
Can We Trust the Gospels?
And this is what he writes,
and there's a quote
on the screen.
It may be thus concluded
that Jesus has more
extended text about him
in general closer proximity
to his death
than his contemporary Tiberius,
the most famous person
in the then known world.
It's amazing the amount of facts
that we have
in Jesus' life.
But before we think
this is just an exercise
in facts,
we've got to appreciate
that Luke goes
further than that.
He's not just a historian.
He's also a theologian.
He goes further than that.
He wants Theophilus
to make a response
to the facts.
And that's the last thing
we need to see here.
Luke tells Theophilus
about his method.
And then thirdly,
he tells him about his goal.
That's what he means
when he says,
beginning of verse 4,
you see it in the text,
so that,
that's what that phrase
indicates,
so that,
so that you may have,
and there's our bingo words,
certainty about the things
that you've been taught.
So he's saying
that you can trust
this stuff.
You can really trust it.
And it really matters
that Theophilus gets that
in his head
from the start.
Because just flip over
just a few verses,
and all of a sudden
you're into
supernatural stuff.
This is not life
as we know it,
right?
So you have angels,
you have a virgin birth,
you have healings,
you have feedings,
you have a man
risen from the dead,
you read this
all the way through.
This isn't stuff
that normally happens.
But Luke is saying
that in a sense
it's not about
whether we believe
it happened,
it's the fact
that we can trust
the credibility
of the fact
the people around
and we're telling us
that it did happen.
And just in case
I've lost you
at this point,
you think all this
kind of supernatural stuff,
I don't know
what I think about that.
Can I just put it
to you that
many people today
believe,
and perhaps you're
one of them,
that what we can see
in front of us
isn't all there is.
You know,
I was listening
to Welsh singer
Catherine Jenkins
on the Ryland show
on Radio 2
last Saturday
and she's talking
about how
before each performance
she has,
she goes to her
dressing room
and she just has
10 minutes
alone with her dad.
And you think
there's nothing
strange about that,
what on earth is that?
But she went on
to explain the fact
that her dad died
when she was 15.
Tragically.
And she's now 45.
So her dad
has been dead
for 30 years
and yet she still
spends 10 minutes
before every show
just speaking to him.
And I guess
the question is,
when we think
about this stuff,
is on what basis
do you think
that there's
something more
beyond this life
than what we can see?
Luke says to Theophilus,
don't go with a hunch,
don't go with your gut,
right?
Go with the facts.
Because that phrase,
do you see how he writes it?
Of the things
you have been taught.
Do you see that phrase?
It suggests,
doesn't it,
that Theophilus
has perhaps heard
snippets of things
about Jesus.
He's heard rumors,
he's been given
certain things
and he's just not sure
what he makes of it.
Now listen,
maybe that's exactly
where you're at this morning.
Maybe you're,
you've heard things
about Jesus.
Maybe you've assumed
things about Jesus
from friends
and family
and maybe what you've seen
on the television.
Here's the challenge
as we draw this
to a close this morning.
Is,
is let Luke
as he writes this
challenge you
to think about
why you believe
what you believe
and on what grounds
does it hold?
You know,
some of us,
just as we draw this
to a close
from a certain vintage,
will remember
those
Looney Tunes cartoons.
Two of the main
characters in that
were Roadrunner
and Coyote.
And if you're
struggling to picture it,
you think,
I've never seen this before.
You might have heard
the phrase,
meep, meep.
That's Roadrunner.
And Coyote
was always chasing
Roadrunner.
This was,
this was the thing.
And before Slapstick,
in the days
when Slapstick comedy
was still a thing,
I'm trying my best
to bring it back.
Coyote used to be
an all-out pursuit
of Roadrunner.
But what would happen
is in the end
that he would run
into a cactus
or there would be
a 10-ton weight
that would fall
on his head
or something like that
which was hilarious.
But one of the scenes
that I remember
from that
was that the two of them
would be running
towards the edge
of a cliff.
And at the last minute,
Roadrunner would make
a turn
and Coyote would run,
and this is 90s graphics,
but run with it.
Coyote would run
straight off the ledge.
But the slapstick comedy
element of it
is that Coyote
would still be running,
not realizing that
there was nothing
underneath his feet.
And all of a sudden
he has that moment,
and there's the moment
in the thing
where he stops
and he realizes
there's nothing holding him,
and he plummets down.
And it gets me every time.
And it was a lady
called Rebecca McLaughlin
who put me on to this.
I remember she said
this years ago,
and it stopped me
in my tracks
and made me think.
She said,
how many of us
tried to live our lives
like Coyote
in that moment?
We're running
and we're running
and we're running.
Boy, are we running.
But we're failing
to realize that
we're not standing
on anything.
And so here's the question
as we close.
Whoever you are here today,
whatever you think
about this stuff,
whatever you believe in,
is what is the basis
for what you believe?
What are you basing
your life upon?
And will it hold?
That's what Sophie
was saying, wasn't it?
Will it hold?
When everything else
is stripped away,
what can we trust?
Why not let Theophilus
and his example
inspire you
to find out
like he did
from Luke
that he wants
to know the truth
about what he can
be sure about?
He wants to be certain.
And Luke wants him
to be certain.
He wants him
to be certain
about the life
of Jesus.
He wants him
to be certain
about the teachings
of Jesus.
He wants him
to be certain
about the death
of Jesus.
He wants him
to be certain
about the resurrection
of Jesus.
He wants him
to be certain
about the call
of Jesus
to deny self,
take up our cross
and follow after him.
He wants us
to be certain
about the fact
that that is going to cost us as disciples.
It's going to feel like we're walking
not the wide road, but the narrow road.
But he wants us to be certain
that it's so worth it.
You can be certain
about the purpose of which Jesus came,
he lived, he died, he rose again.
You can be certain that because of him,
if your faith is in him,
you are right with God
and you can know him as Father.
You can be certain about the church,
the early church,
and about how people took the gospel to the world.
You can be certain about the fact
that Jesus says he is the one with all authority
and he's given a commission to his church
to take it to their friends,
family members, neighbours, colleagues,
to tell them about Christ Jesus.
Maybe this morning you've never read this before
in your puff.
Wouldn't it be a great thing today
to begin it for the first time?
Do that and you'll find,
like billions of Christians have
throughout the ages and across the globe,
that faith isn't blind.
Faith is belief based on the evidence.
I'm going to pray,
just as we close,
a really short prayer,
but I'm just going to pause
just for a moment of quiet
before we do that
and why not maybe just gather your thoughts
and respond in your own way
and your prayers as well
as we think about the things
that we've heard and read this morning.
And so, Heavenly Father,
we thank you this morning
that we can have certainty
in a world that seems to be changing,
just like Sophie said,
all the time.
In our own personal lives
that seem to be so up and down
and unreliable.
Father, thank you that we have
your words, Luke's gospel,
the facts about Jesus.
Thank you that we can be certain
about him.
And so, Lord, I pray
that as we draw our time together
to a close this morning
and as we move into a time of communion,
that you would remind us
of the trustworthiness
of all of these things.
Lord, for those of us here today
who are perhaps on the fence,
we think to ourselves,
we don't know what we think about this.
May even today be the day
when you open their eyes
to the truth of who Jesus is.
Father, thank you
for your steadfast love for us.
And we pray all of these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.