A sermon preached at St Luke’s Maylands on St Luke’s Day, 18th October 2020
It is becoming cool to be an atheist. “New Atheists” are now vocal, and determined to disprove Christianity. “There is no proof that God is real,” they say. “Faith is believing what you do not know to be true.” They see themselves as scientific: “With Science and Reason we can make a better world.” We have heard it before. It was the cry of the Russian revolution, and in a different way of Nazism.
But God is not “unscientific”; he created the natural world with all its regularities, which are the business of science to uncover. And there is proof. God has filled the universe with evidences of himself, enough to demonstrate to anyone with a mind that he is there. Also he has spoken: he spoke into the history of a chosen nation and called them to share their experience and knowledge with the rest of the world. And then he appeared as a man. I could go on, but today is St Luke’s Day and I want to focus especially on the gospel story. The reason we believe in Jesus is because we have heard his story and believed it. Luke is one of those who told it. It is on the basis of his testimony that we believe. His witness was not unsupported. Mark, Matthew, John, Peter and others also confirm what he said.
“But,” they say these all speak of miracles and miracles are against science.” No, they are not. God made the laws of the universe, and there is nothing in science that says God cannot act differently, if there is a reason for it. And with Jesus there was reason for it. “If I do not do the Father’s works, don’t believe in me! But if I do, even you do not believe in me, then believe in the works (miracles), that you may know for sure that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John10.38) God provided evidence that Jesus came from him by miracles, and by his resurrection from the dead. We believe these things happened, because of the testimony of those who saw them, or those who heard from those who did. And this is where Luke comes in.
Who was this man who is responsible for more than a third of our New Testament, without whom we would know very little about the first Christian generation? When you are dealing with someone who claims to know, it is important to know who they are. What was their relationship to the story being told? Were they part of it, or were they writing five hundred years later, piecing together accounts from an earlier time (like the author who put together the life of Gautama, the Buddha)? What were their qualifications? Are their observations worth anything?
Before I set out to answer some of these questions I want to ask another? Who was Theophilus? Most books will tell you we know nothing about him, but that is not strictly true. Theophilus was Luke’s friend; that is something. He was also important: Luke addresses him as “Your Excellency.” He was wealthy: Luke expected him to finance the copying of his manuscripts, the Gospel first, and then the Acts.
I imagine the two of them talking it over. “You know, Theophilus, there are Christian congregations springing up all over Greece. I have been training as many leaders as I can in Macedonia, but they are having a hard time. We need to get them copies of the old Scriptures, and Mark has given us his Gospel. But it doesn’t have much of Jesus’ teaching; I keep getting questions about what he taught about this and that. And people want to know about his birth, and more about his resurrection. We need a bigger Gospel.”
“Well, why don’t you do it,” says Theophilus. “Paul is planning to return soon to Jerusalem. Why don’t you go with him and contact some of the people who knew Jesus; get their stories? You write it; I’ll get it copied and distributed.”
The next time Paul came through Philippi, Luke joined his party. When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and spent two years in custody in Caesarea, Luke was free to get about his task. He dedicated the finished work to Theophilus.
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, your excellency, Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
You see that Luke wants people to be sure that the Christian story is true. He doesn’t want people to believe in something they don’t know to be real. Faith of the Christian kind is trusting Jesus, who has made himself known by becoming a man; who also raised up men to write his story. There were many in Luke’s time who had been witnesses of what Jesus did and said. People had already started writing it down. Mark wrote an account based on Peter’s stories. Luke decided to use that as the skeleton of his amplified Gospel.
I imagine a messenger arriving at Theophilus’s house with the first package, and Theophilus eagerly, but carefully, removing its wrapping and sitting down to read. I think he was pleased: the good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the story of Zacchaeus; he had not heard these before. I think he couldn’t wait to get a group together – as many as his courtyard would hold – for a reading. Their world had no television, no radio, no movies. Many couldn’t read; novels were scarce. What did people do? Gathering in a home to listen to a book being read by an accomplished reader was a popular form of entertainment. All the books in our New Testament were written primarily to be read aloud. This is how churches began. Those who gathered in the home of Theophilus were Christians, interested inquirers – they had heard the Christian story, but wondered about its truth – and friends who just enjoyed listening to any new book being read.
After several readings, Theophilus commissioned scribes to make copies, mostly be for the pastors of the churches Luke and Theophilus knew. The pastors read the book in home meetings. In their worship services they read out sections, and used them as the basis of their teaching. Not long after, Acts arrived, and I am sure it was greeted with great enthusiasm.
Acts is important, because Luke was there for part of the action. Ancient historians prized personal involvement. At the end of Acts Luke gives us the best account of a voyage and shipwreck in ancient literature. Scholars argue about whether he was really there. Who can know? Theophilus knew! He was about to publish a book with his name on it. He could vouch that Luke was there.
But I want to focus our attention on Acts 16, where Luke enters the story for the first time. In verses 6-10 there is a curious account of how Paul got to Troas, where it all started for Luke.
Acts 16.6-10 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
They were actually heading for Ephesus and the Meander River, when God forbade them to enter Province Asia and they went off on this meander, which took them north towards the Black Sea. But the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them into Bithynia, and they found themselves traveling west to the Aegean Coast and Troas (Troy). This was especially meaningful to Luke. It was in Troas that he met Paul; perhaps it was here that he first encountered Jesus. In any case, it was where he became an active player in the Jesus’ movement and, humanly speaking, it wouldn’t have happened had God not led the mission party here for this divine encounter. Paul then has his vision of the man of Macedonia begging them to come over and help, and “we” – Luke signals that it is here that he joined the mission – “we concluded God wanted us to preach the gospel in Macedonia.”
Luke now relates what happened in Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district. This was his first taste of missioning with Paul; it was still clear in his memory when he wrote.
We remained in this city some days. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
Most of the cities Paul preached in had Jewish communities and a synagogue; Philippi did not. A small group of women met at the river for prayer. They were not Jews, but believed in Israel’s God. There Paul and Luke met Lydia, the wealthy cloth merchant. What was it that convinced her that what Pauls was saying was true? Perhaps the realization that what God promised in the ancient Scriptures had actually come true with Jesus. A Jewish man came to my church because of the woman he had fallen for. Then he became disturbed because people seemed to know more of his Scriptures than he did. He began to study them for himself. One Sunday morning he spoke to me in the aisle of the church: “I want you to know that Jesus is now my Messiah.” Lydia didn’t reach her new faith alone, nor did he. Luke says God opened her heart. This is true of everyone who believes. She also opened her large home. Lydia was typical of number of well-to-do Greek women who became patrons of the early Christian mission; they were one reason it spread so powerfully.
John Rinehart tells the story of Selina Shirley, wife of the ninth Earl of Huntingdon, known to history as Lady Huntingdon. In the eighteenth century she made George Whitefield one of her chaplains and provided the financial backing for his campaigns in Britain and America. She was a staunch Anglican, and when some of the Anglican clergy opposed the revival, established sixty-four chapels in England and Wales where Anglican ministers who supported the revival could function. She also founded a theological college and was involved with mission work in America. At a time when a family of four could live for a year on £31, it is estimated that she spent £100,000 on Christian activity. Lydia really started something!
Next, Luke tells us a curious story about a slave girl in Philippi.
Acts 16.16 -18 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
Here we have another example of spirit-possession. The girl was clairvoyant and earned money for her master by telling fortunes. What made her follow the mission party around is not clear, nor why she shouted out as she did. When two entities struggle for control of the one mind, strange things are likely to happen. The man Jesus healed in last week’s reading became mute. This girl was clairvoyant, and we don’t know what else. Perhaps the evil spirit was making trouble by mocking their message, or maybe the girl herself was fascinated by the spiritual power she sensed in Paul. Anyway, it was hindering their mission, so Paul faced the woman and ordered the spirit to leave her. It did, and she lost her clairvoyant powers.
During my curacy, one of my jobs was to lock the church in the evenings. One Monday night I came home late on my motorbike and saw the church door was still open. I went in to close it and found a young woman lying unconscious in front of the communion table. She had overdosed and come into the church to die. Happily, we were able to get help and she recovered. When I visited her at Royal Perth Hospital, she told me another patient had shared with her, and she had given her life to Jesus. I didn’t have to do anything but encourage her to continue in the faith. As I was leaving the hospital her psychiatrist called me into her office and wanted to discuss the case. The girl did not fall into the usual categories of disturbed teenagers, but the psychiatrist learned she had extensive dealings with the occult going back into her childhood. On another visit I met the father, who confirmed this. The psychiatrist was taking it very seriously and told me there were people who were healed by African traditional healers for whom psychiatry could do nothing. It is another reason I have learned to take these things seriously.
Anyway, Paul’s action leads to legal action and he and Silas found themselves in the local prison.
Acts 16.25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” [And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.]
The jailer’s question used to puzzle me. Ever since I started in ministry I longed for someone to ask, “What must I do to be saved?” But never! The jailer’s question only made sense to me when I saw the connection between this incident and the former one. The slave girl was crying that Paul’s group were explaining the way of salvation. What that meant in a Jewish setting was clear enough, but what about for Greeks and Romans? People in the first century lived in fear of bad luck that could ruin you overnight, of evil spirits who could take away your sanity, of the ever-present threat of sickness, and, of course, of death, which weighed upon them much more immediately than upon us. So, salvation for a Greek or a Roman meant rescue from these uncertain forces and particularly from the spiritual powers that caused them. The jailer knew what had brought the missionaries into his care: “they were servants of the Most High God with a message about salvation.” And now disaster has overtaken him, and his life is forfeit. Like the good Stoic Roman he is, he is about to take his life, when Paul stops him. “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” is a most natural question.
Paul’s answer is stunning for its simplicity. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your family.” Luke wants us to hear this story – all three stories in fact: the Gentile businesswoman, the clairvoyant slave girl, and now this Roman public servant. He wants you and me to ask the question for ourselves: “What must I do to be saved?” For we too need salvation. Sin dogs us. Judgement hangs over us. There is the influence of Satan in our own lives, and in addition there is the risk of sickness, insanity, violence, accident, and financial ruin, that can strike anyone at any time. And there is death and whatever may lie beyond death. From all of this we need to be saved. But how? Simply accept Jesus as your Lord and King, and you will be saved. That was Paul’s answer. It is Jesus’ invitation. The Son of God became a man, lived, suffered, died and rose from death, and is now seated with God is the highest position of authority in the universe, all to make this offer possible. Do not push it away! Do not shelve it for another time! Do not let your pride, or perhaps your feelings of hopelessness about yourself, hold you back from grasping God’s promise of an eternal good future, if only you will acknowledge his Son, your Creator, and the rightful ruler of your life, and receive this gift of salvation.
Who, then, was Luke? Friend of Theophilus! Physician and traveler, careful note-taker, writer, pastor-trainer, personal physician to Paul. In short, the ideal person to give us a reliable account of Jesus and the movement which sprang from his life, death and resurrection. And we see in his description of the mission in Philippi that he was more than a teller of history; he wants us to know its meaning. He was an evangelist, appealing to us to believe in this Jesus whom he knew has come from the Most High God, to bring us salvation.