Sermon Tone Analysis

I think it’s best if we’re honest and just acknowledge that the Bible is a bit of a unique and peculiar book.

In his book, Life Lessons from Luke, Max Lucado reminds us that “The words of it were crafted in an ancient language.

The deeds, customs, and traditions were done in a distant land and era.

The events recorded were in a far-off land.

And, the counsel offered and history given was sometimes for a foreign people.

It’s a peculiar book.

It’s surprising that anyone reads it.

It’s too old.

Some of it’s writings date back 5,000 years.

It’s too bizarre..

The book speaks of floods, fires, earthquakes, and people with supernatural abilities.

It’s too radical.

The Bible calls for undying devotion to a carpenter who called himself the Son of God.

Logic says that this book shouldn’t survive.

Too old, too bizarre, too radical.

The Bible has been banned, burned, scoffed, ridiculed.

Scholars have mocked it as foolish.

Kings have branded it as illegal.

A thousand times over the grave has been dug… but the Bible has never stayed in the grave.

Not only has it survived, it has also thrived.

It’s the single most popular book in all of history.

There is really no way to explain it.

Which perhaps is the only explanation.

The millions who have tested it’s claims and claimed it’s promises know and understand that there is only one answer: The bible is God’s book and God’s voice to us.

[1]

But it doesn’t mean we don’t have questions… I believe that sometimes those that have never stopped to think about the absurdity of Scripture haven’t truly discovered it.

We should have questions.

We should struggle with what and why and hows that Scripture is asking of us.

In light of Football season approaching there was a discussion about one crucial word in the game of football that keeps enduring—Hut!

An article in The New York Times pondered why this word keeps hanging around:

It is easily the most audible word in any football game, a throaty grunt that may be the sport's most distinguishing sound.

Hut!

It starts almost every play, and often one is not enough.

And in an increasingly complex game whose signal-calling has evolved into a cacophony of furtive code words—"Black Dirt!" "Big Belly!" "X Wiggle!"—hut, hut, hut endures as the signal to move.

But why?

Most football players have no idea why.

A pro ball center said, "I guess because it's better than yelling, 'Now,' or 'Go.' Some people have used 'Go' and that's awful.

That doesn't sound like football."

A former quarterback reckons he shouted "hut" more than 10,000 times during games and practices.

"I've been hutting my way through football for 55 years—but I have no clue why."

The article conjectures that "Hut" may come from the military backgrounds of many early pro football players.

But that's just a guess.[2]

Sometimes we continue on with tradition and have zero idea why and what for.

During this series, we’re going to invite you to not only bring your questions… but to question answers.

We want to know for certainty of what we believe and if it really matters.

And, you’re in luck… because the author of this letter says that is exactly his purpose for writing!

1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,

3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.

THE AUTHOR:

LUKE

In the letter itself, the author never actually reveals his identity intentionally.

It’s linked however very closely with the second portion- what we call acts.

In it, the writer mentions Paul and himself in the we pronoun several times.

And, in Paul’s letters- he references his great traveling companion, Luke.

All throughout church history, Luke was almost universally ascribed as the author.

Luke’s letter was accepted and referenced at early at the first half of the second century.

Irenaeus speaks about the gospel accounts and gives background on each one.

Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church.

After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also handed down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter.

Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the gospel preached by him.

Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned on his breast, himself published a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia (Haer.

3.1.1).[3]

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers.

II Timothy- 4:10-11 Paul writes that “only Luke is with me”…

However, perhaps the most intriguing passage about Luke that gives us more detail about who he is comes from Paul’s letter to the Colossian church.

Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Barnabas’s cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him); and also Jesus who is called Justus; these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me.

12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

14 Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings, and also Demas.

Luke is evidently a Gentile Physician- He’s not a Jew and schooled in Jewish traditions.

This comes out in his writings as he avoided using Semitic words as well.

But what this all means is incredibly important.

1- Luke is a very well educated person.

-He has the ability to research, investigate, and take meticulous notes on what his sources inform him of.

This is evident in his family research of Jesus’ genealogy.

In chapter three- Luke extensively traces the family tree of Jesus all the way back to Adam in the garden.

It’s remarkable.

-He thinks very logically and answers many questions before they are raised in his text.

-Most Scholars would say that Luke’s Greek in the introduction of the letter is more prolific and well structured than any other writing in the New Testament.

But it’s interesting… that after verse 4, Luke transitions to a basic and common man Greek.

Its as if he is purposefully writing so that everyone would know and understand the complexities of the gospel.

2- Luke is a Gentile and writing to one as well.

THE RECIPENT:

THEOPHILUS & THE MARGINALIZED

Writing to the Gentiles- Includes women and the poor, social outcasts, and sinners.

“He frequently stresses Jesus’ compassion for those who would have been social outcasts in Jewish society.”

[4]Luke is making claims at every turn that the gospel is for everyone.

Jesus isn’t fazed by the leapers, the broken, the unforgivable and unlovable.

GOOD SAMARITAN- There is a story that Luke tells in chapter ten of his letter.

He recounts a story that Jesus told- you may have heard of it.

It’s called the parable of the Good Samaritan.

It’s starts out because someone is testing Jesus on what it means to love your neighbor to a primarily or maybe even exclusively Jewish audience.

Jesus was teaching and a lawyer stood up and asked him… “who is my neighbor?”.

Jesus then tells a story of a man who was beaten and left for dead on a difficult road.

The priest and a Levite passed, but a Samaritan stopped and helped the man.

This might not sound too controversial, but the Jews had a long standing prejudice and hatred for the Samaritans.

There are even accounts that they built roads to go around Samaria that would make their journey much longer- just so they wouldn’t have to see them.

And Jesus says… the Samaritan was the one who proved to love his neighbor and Jesus told the lawyer to “go and do the same”!

Jesus was elevating the morality of a Samaritan over the Jew who obeyed all of the religious sanctions…

ZACCHEUS- There’s another passage in where Jesus goes and chases down the most hated man in town- Zaccheus.

Zaccheus was hated because he was the known thief that hid behind the government and his occupation as a tax collector to commit his crimes.

He would extort money from the poor and threaten to have them arrested if they didn’t pay two or three times what they owed.