Luke's Gospel

I'm gonna read Luke chapter 1 verses 1 to 5. 1 to 4. Many have take many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, Since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you most excellent theophilus so that you may know the the certainty of the things you have been taught. Pizza in the coming preach to us now.

Well, as Dean says, we're starting a a new series. And fight club will be taking most of that on. And this is just really an introduction to the series because these are the 4 verses, that Luke chooses to introduce his whole his whole work, actually. He does 2 2 works, really. He he's Luke and then the book of acts, there's 2 volumes.

And his first volume, he starts off with this. Let's pray. Father help us now, please, to hear what these few verses are really saying to us and help us to respond in Jesus' name. Oh, man. 1 historian wrote this, regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him.

Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in history of western culture for almost 20 centuries. If it were possible with some sort of super magnet to pull out of that history, every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left? The answer is, of course, very little. In other words, he's saying that Jesus is the most important figure in Western culture. He's a a massively important figure.

And it's Luke's gospel where you meet Jesus and that's the whole point of Luke's gospel. He wants us to meet this Jesus. And it's where we learn about his life and his ministry, his teaching, magnificent things that he he teaches. We see lots and lots of encounters that Jesus has with real people. We see a lot of his miracles, things that are done that are just no 1 else can do.

We see his death, his resurrection, and all of it, Luke claims, have massive consequences for you, for me, for all of us. So here's the most important man that's ever lived. Here's Luke putting together to show us that you really need to respond to him. That's that's what Luke is about. Now, how do we know, and this is the question, how do we know that it's true?

How do know that it's not what we call in this country. I don't know whether it's offensive. Chinese whispers, you know, you just whisper it on and then, it gets distorted as we go on and how do we know that the stories in Luke haven't been embellished and exaggerated and you know, they've just sort of whispered on and become fake news in themselves. How do we know that the real Jesus hasn't been made into a myth And there was a book some years ago called The Myth of God incarnate. It was about Jesus.

How do we know that this isn't just the myth of god incarnate become flesh, god become flesh. The popular atheist, Doctor Richard Dorkins wrote, an interesting little letter to his daughter when she was 10 years old, and he published it, of course, in his in his book, the devil's chaplain. And at the end of the letter, this is what he writes, and he's writing about evidence to his 10 year old daughter. He says, next time someone tells you something that sounds important, think to yourself, is this the kind of thing that people probably know because of evidence? Or is it the kind of thing that people only be believe because of tradition or authority or revelation?

And next time somebody tells you that something is true, why not say to them What kind of evidence is there for that? And if they can't give you a good answer, I hope you'll think very carefully before you believe a word they say. You're loving daddy. Richard Dorkings. What kind of evidence is there for Jesus.

It's a good question, actually. I think he's taught his daughter right there. What kind of evidence is there for that? What kind of evidence is there for Jesus. Well, Luke, he actually warms to that challenge.

He wants to give good evidence. And it's really why he wrote the whole book to give really good evidence so that Richard Dorkings, daughter could believe, and Richard Dorkings could believe. There is really, really good evidence here. Now, I just wanna take these first 4 verses because it's the introduction. And, I want to pick out, some of these words, the big main words in the introduction.

The first word I want you see is the word certainty. First word is the word certainty. Look at verse 3 and 4 again. With this in mind, this is Luke writing, with this in mind, since I I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you most excellent theophilus so that you may know the certainty of the things that you have been taught. So Luke is writing this so that we may be certain.

Now, Luke, we know from other parts of the Bible, was a physician, a doctor, a medical doctor. But he's also a great historian. Sir William Ramsey, is considered to be 1 of the greatest archaeologists that have ever lived. Before he died, he'd become the foremost authority in the history of Asia Minor and a leading scholar in the study of the new testament, which obviously Luke is part of. From, his post as professor of classic art, an architecture at Oxford, He was appointed re regus professor of humanity.

That's the Latin professorship at Edinburgh. He was knighted in, 19 o 6 as a mark of his distinguished service to the world of scholarship. I'm just trying to give you the details of this man. Ramsey he gained 3 honorary fellowships from, Oxford University colleges, 9 honorary doctorates from British continental and North American universities and became an honorary member of almost every association devoted to archaeology and historical research. He was 1 of the original members of the British Academy, and it goes on and on and on, but you're already bored.

But it's a he's an amazing bloke in other words. He was brought up to believe that the new testament was nonsense. And Luke and acts in killer were second century forge fraudress. And so he he really didn't believe in them. And he goes on a search to prove that they were they were nonsense.

30 years, of this academic's life. And his conclusion was that the new testament was a first century compilation, and that Luke in particular was particularly accurate. This is what he says. Luke is a historian of first rank. Not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy This author should be placed alongside the very greatest historians.

He goes on and says Luke is unsurpassed in respect to its trustworthiness. So here's Luke then. He's a medical physician. He's called unsurpassed in his trustworthiness in dealing with history. And he says this in verse 3.

Look at it second half verse 3. I too decided to write an orderly account for you most excellent theophilus. So that you may be certain of the things that you've been taught. Here is this most excellent historian working to show the certainties of the truths of Jesus. In his in his writings.

Now look, as you can see, he's writing to this this bloke called Theophilus The name simply means God lover. God lover. And, there's all kinds of arguments whether this is just an individual or whether this is a group of god lovers that he's writing to all or to all god lovers. And in 1 sense, it doesn't matter because his purpose is that these people will be certain, certain of the truths. Now many, it seems to me today, mislooking at the Bible because they say, oh, the Bible's all about faith, isn't it?

And I haven't got your faith, and and immediately without even thinking, they they push Christianity into the realms of sort of religious make belief and this sort of faith faith world. But if you look at the Bible, faith only means trust. It only means trust. And so instead of talking about faith, if you talk about trust, it will sort a lot of things out. If I say, do you have faith?

You may say, oh, no, I don't have faith. But if I say, do you have trust you'll ask the next question, which is trust in what. Do you see that? And that's all it's being said here. Is it trustworthy to trust what Luke is writing?

And he say, I'm writing that you may trust it. I'm writing that you may be absolutely certain where to put your faith, where to put your trust. I don't want you to put your life in some fanciful religious stories. I've worked out whether this is certain. I'm writing this to find out whether this is certain whether there's good evidence for this, that you may trust the certainty.

And that's what Luke Luke wants. Actually, he is writing to those who have already heard about Jesus. Look at verse 4 again, that you may know the certainty of the things that you've been taught. So he's writing to people that have been taught stuff and he's saying, I don't want you to fall into the sort of religiosity of just believing stories that aren't true. I want you to know that you are on the strong rock, the solid ground of truth of certainty.

So there's the first word. Certainty. Got it? Here's the second word. Well, it's 2 words.

Careful investigation. Look at verse 3. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning. So Luke is writing so that you may be certain and in order to do that, he looks for the evidence. That you may, he he does this careful investigation.

And he goes back to the original people Yeah. So there's no Chinese whispers there. He goes back to the original people. Look at verse 2, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants to the word. These are eyewitnesses.

He's not interested in a Jesus that is evolved over time and turned into some kind of mythical figure. He goes back to the original. And when he's gone back there, he asks the questions of the eyewitnesses. For instance, interesting, Luke, because, out of all of the gospels in the Bible, Matthew Mark, Luke and John, Luke spends most time on on the on the birth of Jesus. I mean, when you read it, it really does feel that he took Mary out for quite a long coffee and a bit of grilling and said, what's going on about these angels then?

What's going on about here? And he's asking other eyewitnesses to back up to formulate, to carefully investigate. Seems to take a long time over Mary. The word translated investigate means to sift out, scrutinize subject to a thorough investigation, which is exactly what a doctor would do. That's what doctors do.

So, you know, the the the nurses came to see my mom who is staying with us and she's been very ill. And, you know, 3 nurses, 3 nurses come in. And and they're they're thoroughly investigating the poor lady. There's there's tubes and pumps and pricks of the fingers and urine tests, and they're just investigating. And then they think, well, we need to do a bit more investigating.

Let's take her to the hospital, and then we're gonna do more investigation. That's what doctors do. Carefully investigate to diagnose what is the problem. What's the illness? What needs to happen?

What are the what are the drugs that need to And that's the word that he uses here. Back to sir sir William Ramsey. He said this. You can now listen to this. You can press the words of Luke to a degree beyond any other historians and they stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment.

Luke carefully investigated so that we could be certain. But here's the third set of words, if you like. It's 2 words go together, fulfilled an eyewitness. Let me read verses 1 and 2 again. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

Now I wanna put these 2 words together because I think this is what Lucas is doing. Fulfilled eyewitnesses. So Luke talks to the eyewitnesses of the events of Jesus He talks to those people who were there. It always gets me when people say, I don't believe Luke. Or I don't believe that that happened.

I always asked, were you there? No. Well, why should I believe you when you'll live 2000 years away? I'll believe the people that were there. And Luke does that.

He goes to the eyewitnesses, and he goes to people that knew people that were healed by Jesus, they they knew the outcome of that healing. They knew it wasn't just psychosomatic. They knew it wasn't some kind of crazy religious meeting where, you know, you get all worked up and everybody is manipulated into pretending to believe that they're healed, like so many of of of those sort of healers. The the aftermath is just a nonsense is you investigate it and it's just not true. It's all just made up.

But these people knew that Jesus healed. And they knew the people and they knew it wasn't psychosomatic. They knew lazarus who was dead They knew him. They went to his funeral, and now he's alive. They knew blind body mass.

We knew him. We knew blind man. Now he can see. Yeah. And they could test it, put a stick in front of him, get him to walk along, see if he'd trip up.

Oh, he jumped over it. They could and so Luke presses these eyewitnesses. But but this is the point that I'm trying to make here. I think particularly, Luke is investigating the eyewitness accounts that saw what Jesus was doing in the context of fulfilled prophecies. These words go together.

The eyewitnesses of the fulfillment of statements that were made many hundreds of years before that have come true. Let me try to explain what I mean. 700 years before Jesus Christ was born, there was a challenge put out by Isaiah. In fact, if you could put that those verses up, that first block of verses that we're just looking at at the moment. There's a challenge put out and it's a good test.

It's a really good test. To see whether something's true or not. Do you wanna know whether a god is true or not? Let's see whether he can tell the future. That's basically what Isaiah's doing here.

Have have a look. Look, or god is doing through Isaiah. Isaiah 41. Present your case as the lord. Set forth your arguments, says, Jacob's king.

Tell us you idle. So he's talking. God is talking to the false gods. Tell us you idles. What is gonna happen?

Tell us the future. Yeah? Tell us, what the former things were so that we can may consider them. In other words, tell us what what has happened and what you're making out of that is and know their final outcome or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what the future holds so that we may know you are gods.

Do something. Whether good or bad so that we, will, so so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless. Whoever chooses you is detestable. Yeah.

It's a brilliant challenge to the false gods. You wanna know whether god is true or not, well, he should be able to tell the future, shouldn't he? Tell the future, write history down, write it down so people know what date it was written down, write it down before it happens. So we're not talking like the vague horoscopes, you know, Jess, you're going to have a nice day. It's just when and what day and what is nice or your meat a new person?

Well, of course you will. I can pre you're gonna meet a new person tomorrow. Did you know that? Yeah? You didn't know it, but I'm telling you.

Yeah. It's not stupid silly prophecy or the silly stuff of notre dharmas that says something slightly odd and it might be Hitler. You know, it's just ridiculous. It's not that sort of stuff. Or, you know, people that see a word and sounds like a an English word for someone else, and even though it's a Latin word, and you sort of say, oh, that must have been, you know, all that nonsense.

Yeah. No. This is this is a reasonable test of certainty. If you are a god, tell us what's gonna happen. Now, In this next passage, I won't read it all out.

There's a little proof that god is god. Because this next passage talks about something that is gonna happen in 200 years time. If you read it through, it talks about Jerusalem, and this was written down 200 years before it happened that Jerusalem will be restored. Well, at the time of writing this, Jerusalem hadn't even been destroyed. So Jerusalem is doing well, but he says Jerusalem will be repaired from its destruction.

And the bloke who's gonna help with with preparation is a bloke called Cyrus. Yeah? Well, he didn't even live. This was 2 200 years later. That was written down and it happened.

Yeah? So do you see what's going on here? You can you can read that up. You can look in the history books. So here is a god that says what's happened, it's written down.

It's a prophecy and it's fulfilled. Now, the prophecies in the Bible are not really that bothered about the politics of the Middle East like this 1 was. That's just like a little foretaste. There are hundreds and hundreds of prophecies in the Bible concerning the Messiah. The promised 1, the 1 to come.

Things like where he'll be born, things like how he will die. Very, very detailed promises. And Luke overwhelms us with them. As we read through Luke, your see this. He overwhelms us with these fulfilled prophecies.

These events that were predicted and now they're fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He shows us again. Just just go just just go to the end of Luke, quickly. Go to Luke chapter 24. And this is the bookend if you like.

It's the end of Luke. So he starts with chapter 1 and he's gonna investigate the fulfillment of prophecies. And then you're now at the end of the book, and you'll hear Jesus who had died and had been resurrected And, he's talking to his followers, and he says this in verse 44. He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms.

Then he opened their minds so that they could understand the scriptures. He told them, this is what is written the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things. Do you see what I'm trying to say here or do you see what Luke is trying to say? He's putting the fulfillment of ancient written down prophecies, detailed prophecies, and saying there's the certainty for you.

He's tested the people that saw these things happen and says there's a certainty for you. Carefully investigates original eye eye witnesses. So this is what I don't know whether the title of the sermons up, but this is what it's saying, I think. He's saying, you have the predictions. You have the eyewitnesses to the fulfillment of those predictions and that equals certainty.

So the title of this sermon, which I'm not sure if you've got, is p plus e times f equals certainty. Yeah? Now write that and send it to Doctor. Richard Dorkins. Just write that.

Yeah. If if we all do it, it'd be good fun, wouldn't it? P, you know, it was really intriguing, wouldn't it? Yeah? But boy, that's a good idea.

I'm gonna emailing me tomorrow, and I'll send Brian Cox it as well just for my own pleasure. P plus e times f equals certainty. Profacy plus eyewitnesses times fulfillment equals certainty. Now, look, let me just show you. Let me show you some direct and specific prophecies.

Just turn very quickly to Luke 23. And it's the crucifixion of Jesus. I just wanna show you what Luke is doing here. It's it is amazing. And I haven't get I'm not giving you everything because it would just take us too long.

And, I think they're gonna come up. Just have a look. Do you see this? So you have the prophecy and your fulfillment. Now remember, these prophecies were written down hundreds of years before the fulfillment, but let me just take you through.

So it's almost like Luke, is is is is is writing chapter 23. He's looking at the crucifix of Jesus, and he's got his marker pen down. And he's saying, oh, yep, prophecy, yep, fulfilled tick. Yep, prophecy, yep, fulfilled tick. So that you may be certain.

Just just have a look. Isaiah 53 verse 12, it says, therefore, I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressions for he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgresses. Because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. Here's the fulfillment verse 32 of Luke 23. 2 other men, both criminals, transgressors, were also led out with him to be executed.

When they came to the place of the skull, they crucified him there along with the criminals, 1 on his right and the other on his left. See it? Profacy fulfilled. Tic. Yeah.

Eye witnesses. I tested them to make sure that was right and not made up after the event big tick. Yeah. Okay. Psalm 22 verse 16.

They pierced my hands and my feet. Psalm 22 was written before crucifixion was ever invented. They pierced my hands and my feet first 33 of Loop 23. When they came to the place called the skull, they crucified him there. They put now as threes hands in his feet.

That's what crucifixion is. Psalm 22 verse 8, not 1 tick. See that? Prophecy fulfilled. Tic.

Psalm 22 verse 18, they divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. For fulfillment, first 34. Jesus said, father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing, and they divided up my clothes by casting lots. Take psalm 69 21. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar, for my thirst.

Verse 36. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you're a king, why don't you save yourself. Amos chapter 8 verse 9. In that day declares the sovereign lord, I will make the sun go down at noon and dark and darken the earth in broad daylight verse 44, the fulfillment.

This was how, this was now about sorry. It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until, 3 in the afternoon for the sun stopped shining. Tic You see that? Now Luke went to those who were at the crucifixion and said, right. Did dark this happen?

Yeah. Well, I'm gonna test that. Do you said you were there, weren't you? What happened? What happened at noon?

Well, strange thing is darkness come. What happened at noon? Darkness came. I witnesses were there. Prophecy fulfilled.

Tic Psalm 31 verse 5 into your hands. I commit my spirit deliver me lord, my faithful god. Verse 46, Jesus called out an allowed voice father into my into your hands. I commit my spirit. When he had said this, he breathed his last Psalm 38 verse 11.

My my friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds, my neighbors stay far away. Verse 49, but all who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Gallali stood at a distance watching these things. They all stood at a distance, and then his friends ran away. Do you see that? They're the specific prophecies specifically fulfilled and the eyewitnesses are saying, yep.

Yep. Yep. That's what he's doing here. But the trouble that these are preaching this summer because there is so much more than that That's just a little glimpse at 1 chapter. Luke doesn't just mean the specific and the direct prophecies.

He means that, but he doesn't just mean that. He's talking about the big themes of the Bible. The big patterns and the shadows and the ceremonies and the types all looking forward. To Jesus and the sacrifices. And he's saying that the eyewitnesses said yes, he fulfilled all of them.

Yes, he was the son of David. Yes, he was the new temple. Yes, he was the sacrifice. All of those things. He was the sabbath.

All of that, it was our place of rest. So this isn't just wishful thinking here. This isn't prophecies disguised up, you know, sort of trying to make something that isn't there. There are hundreds and hundreds of things that were foretold realized accomplished and fulfilled in Jesus. This isn't fiction, this isn't Game of Thrones.

This is real, and he's tested those, which leads me onto my fourth word or couple of words, orderly account. Look at verse 3 again. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning. I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent theophilus. At the end of his investigation, making sure these things are certain Going to the eyewitnesses and seeing whether the prophecies were fulfilled.

He writes an orderly account. Now I don't think that means it's strictly chronologically ordered. I don't think it is, but it's orderly in the sense so that you can understand it. This isn't just random stories thrown together. These are written in an orderly way so you could read the prescription and go to the doctor.

They're not just random things. He's a doctor. Remember. He examines tests. A doctor isn't just interested academically in someone.

I hope the doctors up seeing my mom aren't just, oh, yes, it's a good academic 1. Here's an old lady, 89 years old. Right. Okay. Students, let's have a look at her leg then.

Now here's a leg. That's a right leg. It's got 5 toes on it. That's a good leg. That is.

Let's have a look at the other leg. He's not pulling their leg. He's not he's not mucketer, but isn't just academic. I don't want a doctor. It's just academic, I want a doctor that treats me as a patient to give me something to cure me.

And he's writing this in an orderly manner that you may know the cure, which is Jesus. He's doing it so you can know. This isn't mystical. If you try and read the Indian scriptures, if you go back to India, you can't make head no tail of them. You'll just get to sort of a sense of weirdness from them.

The bark of our Geter is just full of nonsense and ridiculous stories. This isn't just random stories written down. This isn't dry, boring Quran that really doesn't say anything. And it is all, so there's no real history in it. This is historic, real, vital, a doctor, describing an orderly account so that you may know god.

Okay. You got it. I hope so. Let me now just gather some thoughts up and then we're we're finished in the sort of way of application. Here is a man that can deeply be trusted.

He is a top historian, and he is a man that has investigated carefully, orderly, gone to the eyewitnesses, seen that there's been fulfillments, and he's writing that you may be at absolutely sure of this evidence. But let's just try and apply it a little bit more, gather some thoughts together. Here's the first thing I want you to think about theophilus. Theophilus. Remember it means God lover.

Now, whether it was just an individual or whether it was god lovers everywhere, the way that that Lucas written the letter just very personal, like it is to someone. And I think he's done that. He's saying are you a god lover? Or do you wanna be a god lover? Then this book is for you.

If it was an individual called Theophilus, when this scroll came, it must have been pretty exciting opening it, mustn't it? Well, I'll just have a look at this. And then you read that he's written it to you And I think the whole feel of it is meant to be that it's written to you that you may know in these pages, what it is to love god and know that god loves you. I think that's the first thing. So can you read it?

Because it's extraordinary. Second thing, it's not fake news. It's not fake news. We live in a world of fake news. We live in a world where a headline is written to get your attention.

And then when you read the article, the headline's got nothing to do with the article. It's a very bland article. But the headline got your attention, and that's the whole point of it. We live in a world of fake news. We live in a world that so full of fake news that people distrust any claim to certainty.

They don't like it. They don't really like certainty to some degree, particularly in the area of any sort sort of religion or trust in god. Because they start saying, well, you're religious extremist, don't you? If you're certain, that's religious extremism. That's what that is.

Yeah. And, and so people are sort of doubtful of anyone that says you can be absolutely certain because that it sounds like I'm just forcing stuff onto you in some kind of weird taking away your opinion way. And then at the same time of us sort of being anti certain and living in this fake news and very doubtful of stuff, we're absolutely gullible It's a very strange thing. On the 1 hand, we're very suspicious of any certainty. On the other hand, and fake news, on the other hand, We seem to believe any nonsense that comes along.

I mean, some of you some of you will remember about 10 years ago, the whole Dan Brown thing you remember that? Well, he he he wrote a fictional novel that was sold under fiction in all of bookshops and on Amazon. Under fiction and it was called the DaVinci code and people were quoting it at Christians as if it was fact. And you have to keep saying, when you bought that book, what was the heading? Yeah?

Fiction. Yeah. And people were prepared to believe the most nonsense. I mean, I went to see the film that was based on it and I was in front of a French lady was behind me. I know she's friends for all kinds of reasons, but don't worry.

And, and, the the end of the film is so ridiculous. I mean, it's just such a ridiculous theory that even She went or rather more. It was like that. That's why I know she's French, but, it it was it's it's just it was so fictional and yet people were saying that they believed it. Now Luke says, don't take anything by blind faith.

God is interested in your mind. This is the trouble with religion. Religion always wants you to leave your mind at the at the door. Don't ever do that. Any religion that wants you to relieve leave your mind at the door is going to be a blind faith thing.

But Luke is appealing to the mind. He's appealing to the reason, to the certainty, to the careful investigation. This isn't chance. These aren't little stories to work you up and get you excited religiously. These are real.

You can be certain of these. So Luke says go for the mind in this world of fake news, which brings me on to trust. If you're a Christian Then you're gonna come across things in your life that will will will be so so problematic that it'll sometimes take your breath away. And if your trust is only on the basis of feelings, you'll fail and collapse. There are whole swathes of Christianity that become very popular, and it's all based on feeling and I'm old enough now to know that you just leave it a few years and it disintegrates into nothing.

It's constantly happening within Christendom. And and what Luke is saying is, no, no, no, I don't want you to be base your stuff just on not the feelings are wrong, but I don't wanna bay you don't wanna base your faith on feelings. Your trust on feeling. You need to be certain, certain, and it's the scriptures. It's it's what Luke has written that you could be certain because he's investigated and he's compared the eyewitnesses to the prophecies.

You see that? So when trouble comes and the feeling goes, you can be certain that this is true. You're not basing your life on untruth. 4 thing I want you to see is quoting doorkings. What kind of evidence is there for that?

Well, for Christianity, we've seen it. But we live in a world where Muslims and Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses will all claim that god has spoken to them and they have god's word. They're all all claim that. Everybody claims that god has spoken to them, and this is god's word. And they've got some kind of revelation from god.

But what kind of evidence is there for that? Says nothing wrong in asking that question, actually. Thank you, Richard. I'm now on personal terms with him. There's nothing wrong in when someone comes up to you and says something to say, well, what's the evidence for your book?

What's the evidence for the Quran? What's the evidence for the book of Mormon. What everything what historian believes the book of Mormon that you've ever read? Is there any historian in the entire world even Mormon historians that believe the history of the book of Mormon. Is there any and the answer's no.

Fifth thing is, I want you to get this. The apostles are put together with the eyewitnesses. And what Luke is saying, and I've never seen this before until yesterday, I think. What Luke I think is saying is that actually you can trust the apostles In other words, the scriptures, the new testament. Look what he says.

Just in verse 1, many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us. Just as they were handed down to us by those who, from the first, were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Now they're the apostles. They're the ones that wrote the new testament. And I think Luke is saying is you can trust you can trust those eyewitnesses.

You can trust those followers of Jesus that have written it down. This is the certainty Move away from this, and you'll be in the area of fantasy or uncertainty or speculation or ideas It's this that brings certainty of the truths of the gospel. So there's the introduction to Luke, and we'll get into the brilliant fulfillment stories. I think, starting next week. Let's pray.

Father help us now to trust this book and what it says, help us to follow it. Forgive us that so often we bring our own mind and expect the Bible to change to our thinking. We pray please that we would be humble enough to believe that this is certainly the word of god to us. And allow the Bible to change our thinking. So help us in this, we pray in Jesus' name, our