A Look at Luke: God Took on Flesh

by David Chadwick

This week, throughout the Christmas season, and even into the new year, our church is going to be doing an in-depth study of the Gospel of Luke. After doing a brief overview of Luke himself, we will be looking more specifically at the characters at the cradle. Somewhere along the way, from the conception of Jesus until his birth, you will see how each of these characters had a divine intersection with the incarnation of Jesus– the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This week, we will focus on Luke 1:1-4. Let’s take a look at Dr. Luke. Who was he? To whom was he writing? What clues do these four verses give us into Luke’s perspective, life, and writings?

Who was the man who authored this book of the Bible? Without this piece, you will have a hard time understanding the lens with which he wrote this book.

He was a physician, evangelist, apologist, and historical writer. He was so multi-gifted, you can readily see why God chose him to write this account.

The name Luke means “light of the world.” This book is the only one of the four Gospels that was written by a Gentile and Greek, which suggests that it was primarily also written for the Gentiles and Greeks. Luke’s style presented some of the finest Greek writing in early Greek antiquity. He was obviously very intelligent and masterfully skilled in his writing craft.

Luke wanted his readers to see the fully human side of Jesus, whereas John had a stronger emphasis on Jesus being fully divine. Both of these disciples’ descriptions of Jesus are incredibly important in establishing a full and complete understanding of the Savior of the world!

If you look at the Greek statues that were sculpted during biblical times, you will quickly see how much the Greeks loved the human body. Luke’s writings, specifically in stories like The Good Samaritan, placed a strong emphasis on Jesus’s desire to care for the hurting and the sick. He also emphasized the importance of women in a culture that often degraded them.

Every day this week, we are going to look at some specific insights into the book of Luke, a beautiful Gospel that points to Jesus, the light of the world! Written by a man who deeply loved and respected Jesus.

Join me as we learn together!

Money Matters: So What? Or So That!

by Marilynn Chadwick

Are you growing in your faith merely to become a “deeper” disciple? I call this a “so what” faith. I believe Jesus is calling us to more. God’s Word urges us to grow in our faith “so that” we’ll give our lives away to the least and lost.

I hope our lessons from the Gospel of Luke will encourage us to reflect on the question, “Is my life a so what or a so that?” How can we make a difference in our world?

Remember how Jesus always noticed the least and the lost. So often the poor are invisible to us. We may have to ask the Holy Spirit to help us regain our sight to see those who need Jesus—they are all around us.

Or God may call us to speak out for someone who can’t speak out for themselves. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God’s people have been called to side with the poor, speak out for them, and use our time, talents, and treasure to help.

Jesus affirmed the poor widow’s sacrificial gift. He said, “Truly I tell you; this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:1-4).

Do you see what happened here? In the race to be righteous, against all the rich leaders who wanted to appear holy, this poor widow won the prize. She won God’s favor.

In a desire to learn more about the widow’s sacrificial gift, I called my friend Angela. Her insights proved eye opening because she had experienced both great poverty and God’s great provision. She read much more into the story because of those life experiences. Angela confided, “Years ago, I gave all I had to live on. I put my last $6 into the church offering.” In a very short time, provision came from an unlikely source. The Lord gave me many times what I had given.” She smiled, “You can’t outgive God.”

For Angela, like the poor widow in Luke’s account, giving was an act of faith—tied to worship. This is a woman who knew Jesus as her provider, her Jehovah Jireh. She had seen God come through before and she trusted him with her life.

So what does that mean for you and for me? Are we to sell all we have and follow Jesus? Some believers do. I know a pastor’s family who sold everything and moved as missionaries to Thailand.

The widow in Luke’s story gave just two mites, the least coin. And she was the least in her community. But Jesus said she gave all. Remember, small things matter to God.

Give your time, your treasure, your love. As someone wisely said, “You can’t do everything, but you can do something.”

Money Matters: God Loves Small Things

by Marilynn Chadwick

Luke stresses the importance of the widow’s sacrificial gift. Jesus tells us the Father loves this kind of faith. We bring him glory when we trust him as our loving Provider. Such a message is vastly different from what the religious leaders were teaching. Jesus rebukes them, “What sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden” (Luke 11:46 NLT). Can you imagine? These teachers of the law even got mad when Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath.

Luke encourages us to see God through the eyes of society’s least, especially the little ones. I find myself wondering, “Why is it so hard to have simple faith like a child?” Perhaps it’s because most people long to be important. Even the disciples hungered for greatness. They once came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1).

Jesus shocked them with his answer: He called a little child to him and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-3).

We can spend our lives searching for “greatness,” only to end up self-sufficient, far from God, and just plain tired. Life wasn’t meant to be this complicated. What can we learn about keeping it simple from children?

We can learn to be humble: “So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:4). Spend time with children. Be teachable and learn from them.

We can learn to love our neighbor. Don’t look down on children or the childlike. If you’re a parent or grandparent, guard little eyes. Don’t push them to grow up too fast. A lost childhood is hard to regain.

Cultivate a childlike faith. Remember the pathway to heaven is only by grace through faith—faith like a child. The Bible promises we will experience God’s favor when we minister to those who are childlike—the least and the lost. “When you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me” (Matthew 25: 40).

Luke’s story of the widow’s mite (Luke 21:1-4) is about an open door that all can enter. God is the God of Small Things. If a poor widow’s small gift is accepted by Jesus, then anyone can be welcomed and loved by Jesus: Little children, babies, tax collectors, Samaritans. Even people like us.