St. Luke, Evangelist (commemorated October 18) – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Timothy 4:1-8

In Christ Jesus, who did extraordinary work through ordinary men, dear fellow redeemed:

If you could have one person with you on a trip somewhere, who would that one person be? How about if you could have one person with you while you were recovering from serious injury? What if you were on the front lines of a battle—what person would you want next to you? If you were in jail anticipating your death, what one person would you want with you? It may be that you would not choose the same person to be with you in each of these situations.

The apostle Paul experienced these things. He traveled extensively on at least three missionary journeys through Asia and Europe. He sustained serious injuries on multiple occasions. He often found himself on the front lines of a great spiritual battle. And at the time that he wrote his Second Letter to Timothy, he was jailed in a Roman prison. In each of these cases, the friend who provided the most care and encouragement to him was a man named Luke.

Luke was a Gentile by birth and not a Jew like Paul. We don’t know exactly when he met Paul, or whether he was a believer before they met. But from his reports in the Book of Acts about Paul’s work, it seems that he traveled with Paul on his second and third missionary journeys. In two of his letters, Paul refers to Luke as a “fellow worker” (Phi. 24), and “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14).

It is not surprising that Paul would appreciate the companionship of a physician. In another one of his letters, Paul detailed the many physical punishments he endured for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Several times he was brutally whipped and beaten with rods; once he was stoned and left for dead. He was in constant danger from natural obstacles and bad characters. He experienced “many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure” (2Co. 11:23-27). This must have taken a terrible physical toll on him. A physician would have been instrumental in treating his injuries and keeping him going.

In his Second Letter to Timothy while stuck in prison, Paul said that Demas, Crescens, and Titus had all left him, but not Luke. He wrote: “Luke alone is with me” (4:11). His presence was important not only or even especially for addressing Paul’s physical issues. He was there to provide spiritual support for Paul as Paul prepared for the end of his earthly life.

Luke was well-positioned to comfort Paul with the promises of Jesus because he had done extensive research about Jesus’ life and work. At the beginning of the Gospel that bears his name, Luke wrote that along with others who had written about Jesus: “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, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (1:3-4).

We have very little information about this “most excellent Theophilus,” whom Luke names at the beginning of his Gospel and in the Book of Acts. He could have been a prominent member of the early Christian Church and a dedicated supporter of Paul’s missionary work. Or possibly it is a name that is meant to refer to any who read these books, since “Theophilus” means “friend of God.” Every friend of God needs what Luke provides in his orderly account of Jesus’ life. Each one of us needs “certainty concerning the things [we] have been taught.”

How can we be certain that God loves us? How can we be certain that in His love, God the Father sent His only-begotten Son to take on our flesh and die on the cross for us? How can we be certain that our sins are all paid for? How can we be certain that Jesus rose from the dead? How can we be certain that He will come again and take us to be in His heavenly kingdom forever?

Countless voices around us today say, “You can’t be certain. You can’t really know if there is a God. And if there is one, it’s anyone’s guess what He could be thinking. You can’t really know what Jesus did and said because His followers almost certainly made up stories about Him to increase His following. The safest thing to do is read about the miracles and the wild predictions that Jesus supposedly made with a cautious skepticism. What we should do is focus on His moral teachings that everyone can agree are good and wise.”

It all sounds reasonable enough, but it is garbage—filthy, smelly garbage. If you want to know the source of this stench, you will find it oozing and emanating from the foul old dragon known as the devil. Jesus called him “a liar and the father of lies” (Joh. 8:44). The devil’s goal is to steal away the comfort we have in Christ and His forgiveness, and instead make us comfortable in our sin.

If our inheritance of original sin is like being bitten by a venomous snake, the devil is our worthless travel companion telling us that the sting we feel will wear off; it’s nothing to be worried about; just keep doing what you are doing. And if our habitual sins are causing us to be spiritually sick, impaired, and drowsy and are a direct threat to our faith, the devil speaks soothingly in our ears: “relax, eat, drink, be merry” (Luk. 12:19).

In today’s reading, Paul warns Timothy and every Christian: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” The internet today can expose people to the truth of God’s Word, but it can also perpetuate and disseminate countless lies and myths. Any lie can be packaged in such a way as to seem believable, as people promise to reveal the “secrets” that no one wants you to know about. These false teachers often claim that they have uncovered previously hidden secrets that the authorities—and especially the authorities in the church—deliberately tried to cover up.

These lies are appealing to us. By exposing the so-called “secrets” and evil schemes of others, it makes us feel better about ourselves. Our ears are always itching to hear that we are the good people, we are the honest ones; everyone else is corrupt. It is certainly true that there are wicked things happening all around us. But it is not true that we are somehow immune to wickedness ourselves.

By nature, we are the same as every other human being. We are spiritually sick. We need comprehensive and constant spiritual care if we want our condition to improve and our soul to be saved. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luk. 5:31-32). The way that He shows us the extent of our sickness is through the diagnosis of His Word.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The Word of God’s Law shows us the ugliness of our sin. It identifies not only our sinful actions and words, but it also exposes the sins of our heart and mind. We need the Law like a person with cancer needs the doctor to level with him. (“Give it to me straight, Doc.”)

Once we know the state of our spiritual condition, then we are ready to receive the cure. The cure is the Gospel, the message of Jesus’ righteousness, forgiveness, and life secured for you. This is what you need as you look back on a lifetime of bad choices, mistakes, and missed opportunities to love your neighbor as you love yourself. You need to hear that God is not angry with you and punishing you for your sins, but that He still loves you, forgives you, and cares for you.

The devil does not want you to hear this, and your own sinful flesh resists it. The devil, the world, and the flesh want you to ignore your spiritual sickness, reject the truth, and embrace self-serving lies. Paul said to Timothy that “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.” The word translated “sound” in “sound teaching” can also be “healthy teaching,” or the teaching that promotes good spiritual health.

The teaching that frees you from your spiritual sickness and strengthens your faith is the powerful teaching that Jesus the Son of God did everything necessary for your salvation. God the Holy Spirit inspired Paul and Luke and the other apostles and evangelists to write about what Jesus accomplished through His perfect life, death, and resurrection (2Pe. 1:21).

We still read and hear and find comfort in Luke’s inspired words. We see ourselves in the half-dead man saved and cared for by the good Samaritan, in the prodigal son whom his father forgave and welcomed home, in the beggar Lazarus who was taken to heaven when he died, and in the tax collector who went home justified by God (Luk. 10:29-37, 15:11-24, 16:19-31, 18:9-14). These are all pictures in the Gospel of St. Luke about God’s rich grace toward us.

As a physician, the evangelist Luke knew how to diagnose and treat sickness. But God also utilized him for another and higher purpose. He inspired him and guided him to convey His sound and healthy teaching to us. In these Spirit-inspired writings, St. Luke Has What the Spiritually Sick Need. They are words of comfort that Luke brought to the Lord’s apostle Paul in his last days, and they are words that still comfort us today.

Through God’s powerful Word, our souls are renewed, our wounds and pains are healed, and the medicine of immortality is given to us to eat and to drink. Our spiritual sickness will no longer result in our eternal death because the great Physician of our souls accepted our sin, died our death, and rose again to give us new life. In Him, we are never alone. In Him, we receive a clean bill of health and have the certain hope of eternal life.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

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(picture from a 15th century Greek painting of the evangelist Luke)