A Falisifiable Faith

Scripture Introduction:

You ever find yourself in one of those situations where you feel incredibly out of place? This happened to me several years ago when I got a job as a customer service rep for Swiss Colony. They sell candy and cheese and all kinds of other Christmas-time knick-knacks. I could handle that somewhat well.

But they also serviced calls for other magazines. Seventh Avenue—they sold furniture, decor, home furnishings, electronics. I wasn’t too far out of my element here. But the one that gave me a particular difficulty was a little magazine called Midnight Velvet. The tagline: “Extraordinary Style for Extraordinary Women”.

For the most part folks could say, “I’d like that dress on page 87…item number MV184376.” I can handle that. But on occasion I’d have these ladies call in and ask me all sorts of questions that I had no idea about. Mam, I don’t know how that stuff works. Can I put you on hold for a second and find out the answer to your question...

They used terms that I didn’t know anything about…they were talking English but it seemed like a foreign language to me. And then somehow by the end of the call I was supposed to upsell them… “Boy, wouldn’t that giraffe necklace go really well with that dress you just bought....I bet you’d look awful pretty with that stuffed parrot attached to that sport coat”.

Can I tell you of another time where I felt really out of place? When I first started going to church....these people were using weird words and doing really weird stuff that I didn’t understand. “Bow your head and close your eyes...” What they gonna do to me?

“Let’s dig into the Word...” which word?

They tried to hook me when I was a kid with this thing they called Vacation Bible School. I liked the phrase vacation…I showed up…and it was extra heavy on the bible school and I still wasn’t sure what the vacation was....I think it was mom and dad getting a vacation from me.

I didn’t know anything about hedges of protection. Didn’t understand the singing. Didn’t know about angels and their prostrates falling. It was just really foreign to me.

Now why am I telling you all this? Because Luke is going to be writing a 2 volume work to a guy named Theophilus. We don’t know much about him, but most believe he is some sort of Roman leader. And Luke is going to tell us his purpose here in just a moment…he wasn’t to reassure Theophilus that this stuff that he has been hearing about this Jesus is in fact true and that it does matter to him personally.

We need that, don’t we. You’re part of this story. You belong here. You’re part of us. Even though we might be weird and say weird things and talk about a history that you didn’t even really know you were part of, it’s true, it’s about you, and you matter.

Now Luke is going to sound like a big ol’ nerd in these first four verses. These four verses are the most heightened Greek language—most nerdy—in all of the New Testament. At least that’s what I read. He’s using elevated language…why? Actually, it’s because he’s from the beginning trying to speak the language of Theophilus. Listen in...

READ LUKE 1:1-4

Here is what Luke just said… “Other people have written about Jesus and all he did, some of them even eyewitnesses, I’m not an eyewitness but it seemed like a good idea for me to look into all of this and put together an account just for you. I’m doing this because I want you to know for sure that what you’ve been taught is truth.

Now that begs a few questions for us.

Who is Luke…who is the guy writing this? Who is Theophilus?

What has been accomplished?

How can we know for certain?

And if you’re here this morning and thinking, “why does any of this matter to me”…then you’re actually in a really good position to hear this word. Because the aim here is our aim. To help us all see that this is our story and that we’re part of the story. So let’s get to work.

First, who is Luke. We can piece together a few things from the Bible about this Luke. He wasn’t an apostle. He was likely a Gentile (fancy word for non-Jew). He wasn’t an eyewitness but somewhere along the way he became a partner of Paul. (Paul is the other guy who wrote most of the NT). There are places in Acts where Luke says, “We did this...” So he’s saying that he was with Paul on those journeys. He was with Paul during his second imprisonment. He has been called a historian, a theologian, a physician, and some have even hinted at him being a musician because of all the “music of praise to God” found throughout and his poetic way of saying things. There isn’t much more about Luke. But he was faithful in all of these things. You can trust his work.

Second, who was Theophilus. Now some of have put together a theory that Theophilus is just a catchy way of referring to all Christians? Why is that? Because the name Theophilus is a combination of two Greek words. Theos and phileo. It could be translated one who loves God. Or one who is a friend of God. That’d be an apt description for Christians.

But what leads many to say it’s not is because of the title “most excellent”. That’s a somewhat technical phrase which is often used of Greek nobility. For many that’s a nail in the coffin as to why this is an actual person. As for me, I’m not quite as convinced because I see John doing something a little similar to this in 2 John and when he refers to the church as dear lady. To me it’s at least plausible that he’s noting the exalted status of Christians.

But the truth is…it really doesn’t matter. Just historically I’d lean towards saying it’s a real person. But even if it’s not the point is the same either way. What was said to convince Theophilus is said to convince Mike. And if Theophilus is part of the story then so am I. That’s the way this story works…it’s all of ours.

Which is where we turn now.

Look at verse 1. You’ll notice a little phrase there. “Have been accomplished among us....”

That word “accomplished” could easily be translated fulfilled. What this tells us is that Jesus is the climax of a story that has been being told for ages. It goes all the way back to the first couple.

CREATION

FALL

REDEMPTION

GLORY

We saw so many of these promises in Isaiah. And we’ll see them over the coming weeks as well. There was promise of a rescuer and we’re going to see from the beginning pages of Luke that Jesus Christ is that deliverer. Here is one example:

Isaiah 49:6–8 ESV

he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” Thus says the Lord: “In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages,

Those words are going to be picked up in the Christmas story. Jesus is the fulfillment of that. He has accomplished....he has fulfilled....what God has called Him to do. He is the answer to all those promises. We will see this shine in the Christmas story the next few weeks and we’re going to see it beautifully in a few weeks as well...

Luke 4:16–21 ESV

And he came to Nazareth, where he had 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. 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 favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Did you hear the word “fulfilled”? Same root word as we have here in verse 1. And so what Luke, a Gentile, is saying to Theophilus (likely a Gentile) is that this story is OUR story. We’re part of that. Gentile inclusion was in those promises in Isaiah. The gospel gets the last word. All that stuff.

Okay, that’s the claim. Jesus is the promised rescuer of history. He is YOUR promised rescuer. How do we know that we can trust this.

v2-3. It’s one that you can trust.

Story of Lee Strobel....

As a journalist, I've learned to investigate the reliability of documents. And when you look at the documents that make up the New Testament of the Bible, they meet the tests of reliability that historians use. For instance, the four Gospels in the Bible have ties to the apostles themselves. They're either written by apostles or by people who were working with the apostles, like Mark, who worked with Peter, and Luke, who was a close associate of Paul, the eyewitness to the resurrected Jesus. So, we have eyewitness testimony that goes into the Gospels that are in the Bible. They also come very soon after the events themselves, so soon that we don't have legend coming in and wiping out a solid core of historical truth."

I really do believe that when we come to the claims of Christ and the fact that it’s historically plausible. We really come to the place where CS Lewis said when we are confronted with this we have to say he is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. That’s what Luke is doing here…he’s saying, I’m giving you an accurate account…this is what happened. This is the story. This is your story. What are you going to do with that?

Look now at verse 4...

You can have certainty. “To discern something clearly and distinctly, or as true and valid; often with a personal acquaintance that necessitates reaction.” What Luke wants Theophilus to do is to take the claims of Christ and to weigh them. Put it under the microscope.

Something that I heard a few years ago that really encouraged my faith was the point that Christianity is the world’s most falsifiable religion. Michael Patton was the name of the guy who wrote these words that I found so helpful:

The central claims of the Bible demand historic inquiry, as they are based on public events that can be historically verified. In contrast, the central claims of all other religions cannot be historically tested and, therefore, are beyond falsifiability or inquiry. They just have to be believed with blind faith.

Think about it: The believer in the Islamic faith has to trust in a private encounter Muhammad had, and this encounter is unable to be tested historically. We have no way to truly investigate the claims of Joseph Smith (and when we do, they are found wanting). Buddhism and Hinduism are not historic faiths, meaning they don’t have central claims of events in time and space which believers are called upon to investigate. You either adopt their philosophy or you don’t. There is no objective way to test them. Run through every religion that you know of and you will find this to be the case: Either it does not give historic details to the central event, the event does not carry any worldview-changing significance, or there are no historic events which form the foundation of the faith.

And here is the real kicker. In the first 2-3 centuries of Christianity there were many people looking to stamp out this belief system. The Jewish leaders attempted to stomp it out. The Roman government attempted to extinguish these “atheists” but it couldn’t happen. And, now listen to this, all the while this whole thing is falsifiable. It’s not just a group of people who are saying, “believe me on this…this happened to me in a cave somewhere…God spoke to me...” It’s people who are saying, “There is an empty tomb, right here. This guy right here…he saw that angel on Christmas morning.” Or as Mike Patton summarized:

The amazing thing about Christianity is that there is so much historic data to be tested. Christianity is, by far, the most falsifiable worldview there is. Yet, despite this, Christianity flourished in the first century among the very people who could test its claims. And even today, it calls on us to “come and see” if the claims are true.

Now again you might still have some doubts. Well press into those. I love these words of Os Guinness:

Find out how seriously a believer takes his doubts and you have the index of how seriously he takes his faith. For the Christian, doubt is not the same as unbelief, but neither is it divorced from it. Continued bout loosens the believer’s hold on the resources and privileges of faith and can be the prelude to the disasters of unbelief. So doubt is never treated as trivial.

Yes, there’s a type of searching that’s really unbelief. Barnabas Piper speaks well of this:

When unbelieving doubt poses a question, it is not interested in the answer for any reason other than to disprove it.  Unbelieving doubt is on the attack.  It is much more interested in the devastating effect of the question itself to erode the asker’s belief and hope in what is being questioned.  The asker is not asking to learn; [he] is asking in order to devastate.  [He] does not want to progress to an answer.  [He] wants to show that there is no answer.  Unbelieving doubt is not working toward anything, but merely against belief.  These doubts are the wild monsters that wreck faith and destroy the simplistically peaceful Christian lives so many people try to lead.

Luke is confident that if you are truly a seeker…truly going to assess these claims…truly going to wrestle with this, put it under a microscope, truly seek out Jesus, then what’s going to happen is that you’re going to verify that this Jesus stuff is true.

That word certainty, we’ll see this word again later in Luke 24. It’s a story of the disciples after the resurrection. Their walking with this dude on the road and sharing the anguish of their heart. We thought this Jesus guy was the promised deliverer but he wasn’t. And they are telling how they are all bummed. And 24:16 says...

Luke 24:16 ESV

But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

But something happens the guy that was walking with them speaks and says...

Luke 24:25–27 ESV

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

But then he eats with them…he breaks bread with them…gives thanks…and then something happens…Luke 24:31

Luke 24:31 ESV

And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.

They are now able to see Jesus. Same word. And that’s Luke’s hope for you and I this morning and as we trek through this book…that we’ll see Jesus. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what Christmas is about.

Dig. Search. See if it’s true. Not with the skeptic…I’m gonna prove this wrong b/c I want to. It can’t be true. But just an honest and open seeking. Weigh them honestly. You don’t have to slant the scales to make Christianity true. Just let it speak. Let the Bible speak. Let the lion out of the cage and it’ll defend itself.

If you do believe that…then all these promises are true. Have a rock solid assurance. Hope. If he can accomplish these promises then he’s going to complete the story. You can trust in Christ. 2020 hasn’t caught God off-guard.