“It matters not what your position or title is, what matters is your commitment to the cause of Christ.”
Sermon Title: LUKE THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN
Scripture Text: COLOSSIANS 4:14, PHILEMON 1:23-24, 2 TIMOTHY 4:11
Sermon Series: FINE PRINT: HONORING THE LESSER-KNOWN AND CELEBRATING THEIR FAITHFULNESS
Sermon Notes:
COLOSSIANS 4:14 ESV
14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas.
PHILEMON 1:23-24 ESV
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
2 TIMOTHY 4:11 ESV
11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
LUKE 1:3 ESV
3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus
ACTS 1:1-2 ESV
1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
I. COMMITMENT
PHILEMON 1:23-24 ESV
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
REFLECT:
What is your equivalent set of gifts and responsibilities? And how committed are you to both be available and to use your gifts with other believers to expand the kingdom of God?
MATTHEW 5:41 ESV
41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
“It matters not what your position or title is; what matters is your commitment to the cause of Christ.”
II. COMPETENCE
COLOSSIANS 4:14 ESV
14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas.
COLOSSIANS 4:10-13 ESV
10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions--if he comes to you, welcome him),
11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.
LUKE 1:1-4 ESV
1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us,
2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,
3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
“Any philosopher, any theologian, any educator, any historian in the ancient world who was of high quality who wanted his volume to stand on the shelf with the classics would start his writing with such a prologue. Herodotus did it. Thucydides did it. Polybius did it. Even Josephus did it. And Luke does it.”
John MacArthur
“Luke’s history is unsurpassed regarding its accuracy.”
Sir William Mitchell Ramsay
“Excellence is doing the best with what we have, by the grace of God, for the glory of God.”
ECCLESIASTES 9:10 ESV
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:31 ESV
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
REFLECT:
Is there an area of competence that you are not giving your best for the Lord?
PROVERBS 22:29 ESV
29 Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
III. COMPASSION
2 TIMOTHY 4:11 ESV
11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
2 TIMOTHY 4:16 ESV
16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!
LUKE 1:3-4 ESV
3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
REFLECT:
So how’s your heart?
“The measure of our maturity is our love for God and our love for others.”
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-3 ESV
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
I. COMMITMENT
II. COMPETENCE
III. COMPASSION