Bible In A Year - Luke

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Our Father in heaven, we would dare to have our hearts aligned with the psalmist who said,
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Oh, come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our maker.
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For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
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Lord, we are amazed that you would be our God, that you would consider us.
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If you think of the scripture, what is man that thou art mindful of him, that you would think upon us and that you would so care and so be so moved for us that you would in your mercy reach down and save us from the horrible pit and from the miry clay and set our feet upon a rock.
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You would reveal to us your son, Jesus Christ, so that we could be rescued, so that we could be purchased with the precious, the valuable blood of Christ, your son.
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We're grateful this morning that you've given us another opportunity to gather in this place to worship you, to learn of you, to glorify you.
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We pray that our hearts may be ready even now as we sit here and think about how great you are and how wonderful the gift of salvation is that you've given to us for the unspeakable gift of your son.
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Lord, for the way that you so care for us that you even have given us your word to study and so that it might be the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path.
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So God, please teach us, help us to think aright this morning, to block out that which has crowded our lives this week and may be pressing upon us in such a way that it is causing a diversion where we should be focused on Christ and focused on our great
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God. Help us to worship and to learn that we might be more pleasing in your sight,
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Lord, in such a fashion that we're used in such a way that Christ would be exalted in our lives.
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Bless us now as only you can. Give us ears to hear and hearts to receive the word, in Jesus' name, amen.
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As a young child and into my early teenage years, believe it or not,
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I know that I gave my mom much grief. I was an immature child in such a way that things didn't connect with me.
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I didn't see the whole picture. I didn't understand what my mom was going through in the 60s and early 70s, being a single parent, going to work, coming home.
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At one point I remember her making like $90 a week, no child support, and there
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I am doing my thing. I didn't identify, I didn't understand, and I was immature,
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I was ignorant, and really I was kind of busy with the things that I wanted to do, especially as a young teenager and into high school.
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I was so busy that I didn't appreciate what my mom was doing all those years until, one,
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I became a parent myself, but particularly when the Lord saved me and gave me an understanding of what it means to truly look at other people and have compassion and care.
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And you're probably saying, well, Dave, why are you saying that? In the
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Church of Christ, sometimes we're either immature as believers, we're out of touch as children of God, we're so busy doing the things that we think we ought to be doing, that we don't really appreciate the
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Lord as much as we should. We go about doing all this work for the work's sake so that the work is kind of looked at and the horn is tooted about what great things that we're doing, but we can miss, as Martha did,
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I think in a measure, not that what she was doing was wrong, that's brought out in this book in chapter 10, at the end of chapter 10, that she was just so cumbered about with all the things of life that she was doing.
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She just had to get that meal together and the house ready and all of it was good and all of it was proper, but here the
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Lord Jesus is in her house and she's missing that opportunity to sit at His feet and to learn because who knows how long
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He'll be there and how long she'll have that opportunity, that means of grace. And I'm not scolding us,
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I'm just reminding us that it is so easy to be a
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Christian and not easy to be a Christian, I mean by the grace of God we can do what we do, but it's so easy as believers to go about doing good, to go about living as we should for the glory of Christ, to preach the gospel, to work in the church, to roll up our sleeves, but we forget to sit at Jesus' feet.
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We forget to draw nigh and have a desire to draw close to the
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Lord and we can miss the blessedness of that sweet communion and fellowship.
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And we can read the New Testament and we can see what Jesus did and we can say, oh that's just another time or you know that is great and let's go on doing what we're doing.
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And I so want us to not only be obedient to the Lord in studying
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His Word, not only to get an overview of this book and the other books that we're looking at, not only to understand how it kind of all fits together, but my desire as a teacher of the
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Word of God with my brothers and sisters in Christ is for us to be so captivated, so stirred in our hearts when we read and look through a book like this and we can't of course cover everything and when we look at the intent that Luke had in this book of his historical biography so to speak of Christ, that as we see what
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Jesus is doing and how He, what His ministry is, what His attitude is, how
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He's identifying with people, that it might not just be an academic exercise where we say oh yes, we understand that Jesus did this and He did this and He did this and He did this, but that is and He is our
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Savior and we walk with Him and we fellowship and desire to fellowship with Him every day and He thinks the same towards us as He thinks and thought and acted and identified with those on the pages of the book.
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Our God is a God who is a present help in time of trouble and our God loves us even now as we sit here and as we look at this book and I know this is a long introduction but I can't even put in words because I'm an expert at this how
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I can get so busy and miss what's so vital and I remember probably in my mid to late twenties
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I sat down with my mom for the first time and I told her how much I appreciated what she had done for me.
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I mean it was like it clicked with me what she had gone through and I kind of identified because now
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I was a parent and God had saved me and I knew what love and compassion and caring for my children.
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I just don't want us to miss being able to sit at Jesus' feet this morning and just look at our great
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Savior our loving God who cares for us and as Luke writes this book his theme is
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Jesus Christ the Son of Man. We've looked in Matthew that Jesus is the promised
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Messiah that was the theme there the promised Messiah and King and Mark he is the suffering servant and Luke he is the
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Son of Man and John will bring out that he is the Son of God and whoever believes upon him might have life through his name.
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Luke though his theme is the Son of Man. You have a sheet and if you don't I think there's a few left on the table over there but Luke is the author not much is known about him.
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He is a Gentile. Paul seems to confirm this in the book of Colossians and that would make
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Luke the only Gentile to pen any books of Scripture. He was a frequent companion of the
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Apostle Paul. It's apparent that he was inseparable from Paul from the time of his
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Macedonian vision in Acts chapter 16 right up to Paul's martyrdom in 2nd
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Timothy chapter 4 where Paul says only Luke is with me. Others have forsaken him but Luke is with me.
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He knew the
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Apostle Paul and what's interesting about the writing of Luke is that of course he certainly wrote in his own style.
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He was an astute observer of everything that was around him or the facts that he received from other people.
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He was a careful thinker and this is a historian's view of the
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Lord Jesus' life and ministry. He is an effective biographer using as a biographer would good sources of input interviewing people who had firsthand accounts who were the eyewitnesses and because he used eyewitnesses and if you turn to chapter 1 you'll see this and we'll get there in just the first few verses.
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It is apparent to see that Luke himself most likely he was not an eyewitness but he used the eyewitness accounts to write his record of the
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Lord Jesus and of course through the early church and in the book of Acts and in the ministry of the
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Apostle Paul. But Luke is giving a connected orderly narrative of the life of Jesus as seen by other eyewitnesses.
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His opening verses in this gospel describe in detail how he gathered his materials and why he decided to compose his biography.
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He told why he was doing it. What's the purpose behind all this? You will see and if you study even further that he writes using the most sophisticated literary
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Greek and he was a careful researcher and an accurate historian.
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He opens the book and he says I'm reading the King James for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believe among us.
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So there's there's folks that have have put it to their mind that they're going to declare write records of the things that we believe.
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He says even as they delivered them to us which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.
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So he's receiving this information from those who were eyewitnesses.
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He says in verse three it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write under the in order most excellent
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Theophilus kind of get back to that in just a second. And here's his purpose that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou has been instructed
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Luke's purpose writing the book is that there there may be an accurate account an orderly account a chronological account although not everything in the book goes chronologically but it's pretty much a he gives the most the fullest record of the ministry of the
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Lord Jesus in his humanity the son of man giving almost half of his gospel is is is new additional information than the other gospels.
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He has countless and in the notes you'll see it is different miracles or there's discourses or sayings that no one else wrote about question.
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He was a doctor. Yes a physician Luke Luke the physician and even in bringing that out you'll see that there's accounts that he when he describes things he brings that out.
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He has the medical physical aspect of illnesses. He's the only one who writes of in the
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Garden of Gethsemane the sweat the sweat drops of blood. He's the only one who records that.
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And also you remember what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane. What miracle took place there the ear right.
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Malchus's ear gets cut off by Peter and the Lord Jesus as it says and it almost give this this indication for I remember studying the past that that it wasn't like Jesus took to pick the ear up and put it back on and kind of fixed it.
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It was as if it was recreated when he touched it was a miracle. His ear came back and and he was restored whole.
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But we have accounts like that with fevers and different descriptions that Luke does bring this out as far as his his met his medical black background.
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But his his desire is that he's writing these things so there can be a certainty.
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It reminds me of John who does the same thing. You know I remember in John chapter 19.
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I think it's when when he's recording about the crucifixion. John goes to great lengths and he says this record is true because basically
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I was there and I was an eyewitness and I'm writing it so that you know and then his purpose is writing about Jesus so that you might believe upon him and have life through his name.
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But this is this is those were eyewitnesses accounts. But Luke is taking eyewitness accounts and he's writing them down very carefully so that we will have them.
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And God recorded them for us so that we would have them and we could also stand upon the foundation of the truth that is given to us.
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I mentioned in in verse three that he wrote this unto this person named Theophilus.
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If you turn to Acts chapter one hold your place in Luke Acts chapter one verse first the former treatise or the former account have
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I made that referring back same author Luke that referring back to the gospel of Luke he says the former treatise have
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I made all Theophilus of all that Jesus began to do and teach and then he goes on with the history of the early church.
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So you will see that Luke is is got a full account and it begins with in Luke chapter one with with the birth and the ministry of John the
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Baptist and then Jesus's birth and he goes into great lengths about the birth there and some instances there more than any of the other writers and then the life of Jesus that his ministry his all that he went going about doing good his death his burial his resurrection and then when he writes the book of Acts it's just a continuation of this historical biography of everything that's that took place not only of Jesus but then he gets into the early church and then he gets in the apostle
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Paul's ministry until his martyrdom. I mean a full account and it's wonderful that the Lord has given.
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But Luke is part one. Acts is part two. So just kind of make sure that you always make that connection and putting them together.
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This book The Gospel of the
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Son of Man and Luke portrays Christ in his fullest humanity by devoting more of his writings to Christ's feelings his humanity and he emphasizes the sympathy of Christ the compassion of Christ the pity of our
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Lord and his sympathetic attitude toward the poor and the lowly and the women and the outcasts of society and that is in contrast to who who in the book here is dogging him or in the in all the gospels who is it that is coming after and attacking
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Christ the Pharisees right these religious leaders and their position is they're the they're the they're the elite they're the cream of the crop they're the ones who won't identify with these filthy sinners with these if Jesus if you had known what kind of a woman she was you would not be letting her wash your feet with her tears and the hairs of her head you if you knew what she was like and you can just you can just see it in the in the mind in the heart of Christ I know exactly what she's like and the
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Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost that's my purpose for coming was for for sinners like her
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I mean he eats with the publicans and sinners and you can just hear the tone of their voice in the sarcasm in the in the pride in the in the arrogance that's coming forth from in their murmuring in their in their complaining
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Jesus heal somebody on the Sabbath it's what they're always doing they're always after him and he of course is showing them what the true
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God of heaven and earth is really like not like them who are uncompassionate uncaring distant from people who are in need
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I mean they go to the to the uppity ups the mucky mucks in the society that's the people that they're gonna they're gonna deal with they want the position they want the prominence they they want to they want to be able to have the horn blown and tooted and and everybody kind of look at them and here they come with their pomp and with their robes and and and with their position and Jesus comes as the son of man he comes to love and he comes to have pity upon and he comes to put feet to mercy and pity that's just the way that I can kind of put it put make it real that he is going to identify as coming in the flesh as the son of man as taking upon sinful flesh and identifying with us as we looked at last time where Jesus was hungry and Jesus wept and Jesus grew tired and he slept like everybody else had to sleep and he ate like everybody else had to eat in any any identified with human kind Luke is recording his sympathetic attitude is identifying with the sorrow and the plight of sinful man sinful man with all of the consequences of sin with death with sickness with separation from God with the blind and the lame and the paralytic in the lepers and all of that Jesus identifies with sinful humanity so that he can carry our sorrows remember the prophet
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Isaiah said surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows Jesus comes to sinners he cares about sinners in the in the in the lowly and the in the outcast that the religious leaders could care less about any
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I love this he touches them I mean they would you remember in chapter 10 if we can get here the story of the
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Good Samaritan I mean the the Levite and the religious leaders they see this man who's just about dead laying on the side of the road and you know what we as observers of the of the law cannot touch someone who may be about to die we might defile ourselves and we won't be able to go to church on Sunday basically is you know where we're not gonna be able to go do what we want to do and that's what
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I'm talking about this legalistic harsh critical you know this this arrogant pride religious pride we got to be careful we really really need to be careful because because we as believers can do the same thing we can we can enter into the same plight of the same attitude there to where they'll be people that we don't want to identify with and we don't want to talk to and we don't want to touch and we don't want to invite over our house we don't want to go anywhere with because it's just you know we're gonna stay with our own little clan we're gonna be with our own little group and it's gonna be we're not gonna step out of the comfort zone and we get busy and we get focused and we're doing the things that need to be done but what else why why are we taught why is it that not only not only for our salvation not only that the truth of what it means to be saved by such a great
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God and have such a great Savior is Jesus Christ but are we not learning of him so that we might walk like him
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I mean John said you know that that's the desire that we that we ought to those if we believe upon him we ought to walk like him and we ought to follow are we not disciples followers and we ought to follow in his footsteps and the
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Pharisees are ones who won't touch Jesus will touch then we ought to touch and we ought to come alongside of and we ought to love those who are the unlovable and the outcasts and the and the ones who nobody else will will will deal with and and the
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Lord help us to do that and the Lord forgive us for not doing that I mean I I'm an expert like I said when it comes not to Scripture and all there is to know about Scripture but I'm an expert on what
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God did in my in my life and and I'm an expert about my sin and my lack of compassion and pity and mercy and the times where I know that I had the opportunity and I could have reached down and and and touch someone's life and help them in pity gone come alongside them and I did not and God forgives and and the slate is wiped clean when we confess it and forsake it and and repent and thank
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God for the opportunities when we have helped other people by the by the moving of God upon our hearts so to speak by the by the the the compassion and the love that God gives us for other people and and and here's a key
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Deb and I were just talking about this this morning we understand what
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God did for us and because we know how God saved us and God accepts us in Christ Jesus and God did pull us out of the the muck of sin and cleaned us and set us upon a rock a solid eternal foundation where we are the children of God forever and if we don't think about what
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God has done for us it's going to be easy for us to close the eyes or to look the other way when there is need all around us we have this gospel where Jesus is shown in contrast that he blows the doors off the
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Pharisees so to speak when it comes to showing what true compassion and care is really all about and we see that over and over again and as Luke is expressing the events recorded in the gospel that he's received from eyewitnesses we see that it just keeps unfolding and it's just a wonderful account and a wonderful record of how
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Jesus would identify with our griefs and sorrows carry them and accomplish the work of salvation and Luke does this by repeatedly in the book giving accounts of Gentiles Samaritans the downcast the outcast the lowly how those people found grace in the eyes of Jesus Jesus Christ is the only answer to the needs and the hopes of the human race therefore
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Luke portrays him as the son of man who came to seek and to save that which was lost let us look at some of the accounts in this book first to kind of tie the
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Old Testament with the new I'd like for you to turn to the New Testament turn to chapter 2 and look at this account when
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Mary and Joseph I think it's in sorry it might be in 3 yes chapter no it is 2 2 is very long that's right it's in chapter 2 when
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Mary and Joseph bring Jesus into the temple and there is a gentleman there named
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Simeon verse 25 adjust man and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the
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Holy Spirit was upon him here is one who's waiting for the consolation awaiting for the
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Messiah to come who would bring consolation or comfort to Israel he longed for deliverance he longed for the
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Messiah to come in the Holy Spirit revealed to him in verse 26 it was revealed unto him by the
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Holy Spirit that he should not be before he had seen the
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Lord's Christ so he would not die until he had seen the Messiah Messiah prophesied in the
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Old Testament the one who would come to deliver his people and he comes into the temple in verse 27 when the parents were bringing the child
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Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law and it says in verse 28
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Simon took he Simon took him Jesus up in his arms and he blessed God and he said
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Lord now let us vow by servant depart in peace according to my word for mine eyes have seen by salvation what a wonderful text what a wonderful declaration here notice what
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Simeon what is Simeon holding in his hands well he's he's not holding in his hands a creed he's not holding in his hands a piece of paper about his church membership or a doctrinal statement or program or a plan of salvation he's holding a person in his hand he's holding the person in his hand he's holding
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God in the flesh in his very hands and he's saying that mine eyes have seen
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God's salvation mine eyes have seen the one that the Holy Spirit told that I would see and he would reveal it to me the consolation of Israel the
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Messiah and he says in verse 29 Lord now let me depart your your servant depart in peace according to your words because I've seen him he wouldn't die until you seen him and really if you think about this
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I've I've preached this at a at a nursing home as a as a message that no one is able to die unless they first seen the
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Messiah they've seen Christ and he's seen him this one that's been foretold of this one that in Luke brings it out in this book that not only is
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Jesus Christ the Savior of the Jews but he's also the Savior of the
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Gentiles of and that the gospel is to come to all nations and that they can receive it and they can be saved also we see that in chapter 2 and in verse in the note you'll see that someplace
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I think it's near the end of the sheet where it brings up those verses what I'd like to do is to kind of look at some of the examples of Christ ministry and what he does and how he showed you know how
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Luke records that he shows himself to be the son of man who came for the outcasts of society and first let's turn to chapter 5 you remember the story that there is this paralyzed man in chapter 5 and his friends bring him to Jesus to be healed and because of the multitude in verse 19 they will go up on the housetop and they take the tiles off to load let him down upon his bed and when
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Jesus saw their faith in verse 20 he said unto him man my sins are forgiven me and here they come verse 21 and you could just whenever I read this verse
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I always go in the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason saying who is this which speaks blasphemy and this word their reasoning their deliberating and casting this in their mind they're musing about this they're just thinking they didn't say this they're thinking who is this who speaks blasphemies who can forgive sins but God alone that's a true statement only
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God alone can forgive sins Jesus has just said to the man who's got a physical issue man your sins are forgiven you
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Jesus verse 22 perceives their thoughts and don't we need to be careful the
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Lord knows our thoughts this isn't spoken openly he knows their thoughts and he answers them what reason you in your hearts or in your thoughts or in your mind whether it is easier to say thy sins be forgiven the order say rise up and walk but that you may know that the son of man has power upon earth to forgive sins he says unto the sick of the palsy of the paralyzed man the paralytic man
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I say unto you arise and take up your bed your couch and go to your into your house what basically
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Jesus is saying here yes anybody anybody can say your sins are forgiven
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I was raised in a in a church I went to church when I was younger that the that the religious men in the church they would they would absolve you you could go into the confessional and they would say you're going to do this everything is is going to be okay with your sins and then you can go on and live your life as you always have a lot of change no repentance and you know what
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I'm talking about must believe you must have a heart that's ripped by God and changed well
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Jesus is saying he's he says you know which one is easier and think about it which one's easier you have somebody who's in front of you on a bed paralyzed which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or rise up take your bed and walk which one it's easy to say your sins are forgiven right anybody can do that but Jesus is saying to show that I have power to show that I have the authority to show that I am the sovereign
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God the one who has come to seek and to save that which is lost the one who has come not only to to heal but to spiritually heal he says take up your bed and walk and the man does and it proves that not only not only is he have the power to be able to heal but he also has the power and the authority to forgive sin he's
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God who's come to do that a wonderful a wonderful account but you see you know his all these people pressing in can't even get in the door
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I mean it's it's this place is packed and this one is lower down I mean can you see the
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Pharisees and scribes hey you're ruining the house you know get that get that man out of here you want get in line over here but no he cares and he has he has compassion and he deals with with this man he deals with them such a way that the man immediately rises off and everybody rises up off his bed and everybody is amazed at the power in this case here the power and the and the splendor of the
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Lord let's go to let's go to chapter 7 in chapter 7 verse 12 now when he came nigh to the gate of the city behold there was a dead man carried out the only son of his mother this woman had an only son and she was a widow her husband's dead also this is this son was all she had left and much people of the city was with her verse 13 and when the
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Lord saw her he had compassion on her and said unto her weep not
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I mean the Pharisees may not even have given this widow in this plight a second look they probably just want to walk by her
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I mean I mean just think of women in this time we're we're not treated quite well in this culture and the
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Pharisees and the scribes I mean you you take a look at the way that that what they said if you know what kind of woman she was it's just just just no pity and no compassion but Jesus sees and he has compassion and you remember when
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Mike was preaching once and he talked about how I think was about how Paul yearned in his bowels for the other believers and the
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Greek word has that that root in it that splinton you know it's I don't have it exactly right but but this word is like a splinton it's a lie in the
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Greek and it has to do with the fact that Jesus sees and he has compassion and you remember when Mike was preaching once and he talked about how I think was about how Paul yearned in his bowels for the other believers and the Greek word has that that root in it that splinton you know it's I don't have it exactly right but but this word is like a splinton it's a lie in the Greek and it has to do with the fact that Jesus sees and he has compassion and you remember when Mike was preaching once and he talked about how I think was about how Paul yearned in his bowels for the other believers and the Greek has to do with from the intestines or from the spleen and the Greeks what they that was the innermost being of the person it was it was the all of the person and Jesus is
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Jesus this word is means he is yearning in his bowels or he is feeling compassion he's feeling pity he's being so moved with compassion that he's going to do something about it it's one thing to be compassionate and say that you are and say that you're burdened for the world and burdened for the lost and burdened for those who are down and out it's another thing to do something about it and we see the
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Lord putting feet to mercy putting feet to pity and he he comes and again this he's in verse 14 he's he's saying to her don't we don't cry
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I mean think of and hear his words
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I mean to you you read it and it's like and the Lord saw her and had compassion on his senator weep not you begin you know we're reading our daily reading we got to get through it and when the
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Lord saw her he had compassion on her and senator weep not and he came and he touched the beer or the coffin and they that bear him stood still he said young man arise and he rises oh this is neat Jesus somebody rose from the dead but we miss he comes up to this woman who is the lowly the outcast of society and he comes alongside of her and he's and he's saying woman don't we
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I mean he's identifying with her grief and her sorrow and so much so that as the son of man he's going to do something about it he came and he touched the coffin what were the scribes and Pharisees have done or not done they wouldn't get anywhere near that coffin because what they would have been defiled polluted they wouldn't been able to go into the church service that day and do their duty but he touches the coffin and they that bear him stood still and he said young man
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I say unto the arise and he that was dead sat up and began to speak and he delivered him unto his mother what pity and before I forget
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I run out of time if you think of every instance in here when Jesus has this compassion this moving of his his bowels so to speak of his of his heart and his sympathy and his just to come alongside and to touch and to care for and to do something about it and to uplift and to raise this man from the dead think of what he did for you and me brother think of how he raised us from the dead and trespasses and sins think about all the times when when no one else cared but as the great songwriter said no one ever cared for me like Jesus what love amazing love amazing pity to those who do not deserve this all we deserve is to be cast out of his presence really because of our rebellion and hatred toward God and our past life if we look about how how we could could have we lived in our pharisaical attitude didn't we look at others and we thought we were better than other people until God humbled us and showed us our great need of him and I was thinking this to even this case here here's the
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God of the universe who's come and wrapped himself in flesh and he's he's going to deal with those that are in such a great plight as the consequence of sin and and he's unlike the other gods what are the other gods like the false gods they're so distant they're ogres they're always demanding there's no pity it's you got to give and so the people are sacrificing their babies and they're and they're cutting themselves with stones trying to please this
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God who who is so far away they're they're false God and never can be happy they never know how much they need to do and they're trying to get to God and here
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God gets to us God comes down and visitors visits us in our great need and he does something about our horrible condition let's move on to try to get a couple other ones in chapter 7 here also you notice the story in verse 36 where the
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Pharisee asked Jesus to come over to his house and there's a woman in the city who was a sinner verse 37 when she knew that Jesus was eating with the
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Pharisee she brings him this alabaster box of ointment she goes to his feet she begins to weep and cry and she's washing his his feet with with her tears and wiping and kept on wiping with the hairs of her head and she's kissing his feet can you imagine what the
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Pharisees were thinking about that Jesus is letting a sinner touch him and kiss his feet and isn't it isn't it just amazing that the
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Lord would allow us to love him and to express that love and this woman abandons herself she doesn't care care what anybody else thinks.
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And she does this in the Pharisee in verse 39, of course, when he sees this, he's talking within himself, he's talking to himself, not audibly, if this man were a prophet, he would have known what manner of woman that touches him, for she is a sinner.
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And Jesus immediately answers him. His thoughts internally, he openly answers him,
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Simon, I got something to say to you. And he gives the idea, the story here about the creditors and somebody owed a little, somebody owed a lot, and who do you think would love the person more, the one who was forgiven little or forgiven a lot?
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And Simon answers right. And he says, do you see this woman? From the time that I came into your house, you didn't give me any water for my feet.
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You didn't give me the customary washing, the foot washing, which was what everybody, you didn't even give me any, anything for, you know, you gave me no kiss.
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But this, he said, you didn't give me any water for my feet. This woman has given me the tears from her eyes. You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet.
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You didn't anoint my head with oil, but she's anointed my feet with anointment.
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And where I say to you, verse 47, her sins, which are many are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.
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And he says to her, your sins are forgiven. Now, we can kind of look at this account and see there's a lot, there's a lot that's going on here.
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But the idea that I see is that Jesus identifies with and allows this woman to express her love for the
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Lord and does not cut her off, does not look down upon her, doesn't treat her like the Pharisees would, but he cares for her and he stands for her.
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He supports what she's doing. And his heart just goes out to her and he explains the whole situation.
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And mainly the thing I'm trying to bring out in this case here is that here is a woman who is known in the community to have a poor reputation, but she comes to see that Jesus is the only salvation, her only hope, and that he loves her and does not put her away, does not send her away.
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And it reminds me of when John wrote that those that will come to him, he will never cast out and never push aside.
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Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't push aside the sinner like the Pharisee. He doesn't go around or divert himself from their need.
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Okay, let me see if we can pick out a couple. The idea of this having compassion is brought out of course in Jesus' account of the parable of the
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Good Samaritan in John chapter 10. You know the story. I kind of touched on it. The man is dead, half dead on the side of the road.
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They left him there. And the priest sees it. He goes to the other side. He saw, didn't do anything about it.
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The Levite, he comes to the place. He looks at him too. He passes by on the other side. But the Samaritan, as he journeyed, came near where he was and he saw him and he had what?
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Verse 33, 10 -33, the same word back that we looked at in 7, he has compassion on him.
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And he goes to him and he does something about it. And see, mercy sees the condition.
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Mercy sees the suffering. Pity sees the condition. Pity sees the suffering of the poor and the destitute and the needy.
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And it does something about it. Mercy is love with shoes on. And mercy is seen in the sacrificial action here.
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And basically, Jesus, of course, is answering the lawyer's question, one of these others that are supposed to be in the know.
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And he's putting him straight to tell him how it is that you are supposed to deal with those who are in great need.
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And the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He's come to relieve the pain and the suffering of those that are needy.
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And he's going to go anywhere and to anyone. And we see that over Samaritans, the half -breeds, the ones that the
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Jews hated. They were the dogs. And he goes to them.
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The women who are of the lower caste in society and not really taken care of properly at times, he goes to them.
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The lepers, if you want to look in chapter 17, verse 12, as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers.
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So ten lepers come to him. And they're standing afar off like they're supposed to do. The lepers are not supposed to come close to those because it was just told to do so.
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And it was the right thing to do. In verse 13, and they lifted up their voices.
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So they're raising their voice. And they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Now, if Jesus was a
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Pharisee, he wouldn't get anywhere near them again because he doesn't want to deal with them.
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He doesn't want to get polluted. And he doesn't want to be able to miss out. What does he do?
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In verse 14, notice the words. And when he saw them, he says to them, he does something about it.
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Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And you know what's so interesting here?
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Notice in verse 15. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified
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God. And he fell down on his face and his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Notice Jesus heals a
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Samaritan leper. I mean, we're talking about this guy had all the strikes against him. But Jesus is concerned about him.
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He's going to do something about it. And you know what's interesting? I think I preached a message on this one. Where are the other nine?
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Where are they? I mean, they were healed too. But this one comes and really think about it. Don't be one of the nine who when
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God visits you and helps you and it has compassion on you and delivers you from some plight that you're in.
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Don't don't forget to give thanks. Well, we're not going to be able to look at them all, but maybe as far as the word compassion, what about that great account?
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Jesus is again dealing with the religious leaders and showing how they just don't understand what God is intending and being compassionate to other people.
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When you have the the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal lost son in chapter 15, we see in that in the prodigal son story, even you'll remember that when the son comes to his senses and he comes back home, that the father, what he sees him, he has compassion upon him.
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He runs to him and he kisses him and he gives him the ring and he gives him the robe and he gets the barbecue out and he gets everything for him.
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He's so, so moved for his son who has come back. And that basically to me overall is just showing us that that is how
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God deals with sinners. That's how God dealt with you and me, brothers and sisters in Christ.
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And it's brought out over and over again in this book. I mean, Mary Magdalene and those that are delivered from the demons, the demoniac in chapter eight, the great sinner like Zacchaeus, the publican, the chief tax collector.
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He's so small, he can't see Jesus goes up in the tree. Jesus is coming by and he and Jesus, what does
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Jesus do? What did the, what would the Pharisees do in that parade? They're going to go by, you know, but Jesus stops, calls up to Zacchaeus and says,
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I'm coming to your house today. And he says, and salvation is coming to your house. And God saves this man.
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God cares about those who others would not all the other, all the other Jews would look at him and say, man, this guy is just scrounging out.
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He's just taking our money. And God has compassion upon him. And, you know, one of the greatest displays that I see in all of this book, if you think about it, here is
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Jesus being crucified, two thieves, one on either side, both of them are casting it in his teeth.
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They're just railing on him, it says in one of the other of the other gospel accounts. And then one of them says,
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Lord, remember me. And Jesus dying upon the cross, taking upon all of our sins, the grief and the sorrow and the agony that he's going for going through there upon the cross, he turns to him.
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And in great compassion, isn't it in great mercy and in great pity today, you will be with me in paradise.
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I mean, from the time he comes on the scene to the time he's dying upon the cross,
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Jesus is showing himself over and over again. And Luke records it for us that he is the son of man who came to identify with sorrow and the pity, the pitiful plight of sinful humanity, carrying our sorrows and working and accomplishing the work of our salvation.
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We have a wonderful savior, don't we? We have reason to worship this morning. We have reason to now go from this place and walk in the footsteps of the master and have compassion upon the outcasts of society.
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Dan, question. Yeah, it's 26 times it's mentioned in this book, but it's dealing with his humanity.
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John is going to talk about the son of God, but he's dealing with how he came in flesh to identify, to carry our sorrows, and he did something about it.
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That's how I see it when I put it in a nutshell for me. That's makes it easy for me to get. Any other questions?
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Yes. Oh, OK. All right.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time. We are again awed of the goodness of our
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Lord to care for us in this way. And we look back and we think about how you had compassion upon us and your bowels moved for us.
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And Lord, we're just we're amazed and at times just brought to tears over it just to think of what you've done.
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Help us, Lord, to be more grateful. Our hearts might be tuned to worship this morning and help us leave here by the grace of God.
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Go about doing good as we follow in the steps of the Lord and pleasing you in all our ways.