Hey, podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. And right now, your generous gift will have twice the impact thanks to the Light the Darkness matching challenge.
It's active now through December 31st. To give a special year-end gift, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. You know, I have found that there is nothing that rejuvenates our Christian life anymore than getting back in touch with the person of Jesus Christ.
By studying his words, by mimicking his actions, attitudes, and affections. Today, we are launching a verse-by-verse study of the most detailed account of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress.
At some point, just about every Christian starts to feel stagnant in their walk with God. And the best way to jumpstart your Christian life is to study the words, actions, and attitudes of Jesus himself. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress begins a new series aimed at reigniting your passion for Christ. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Next month, families around the world will celebrate the most festive holiday of the year. Christmas provides an opportunity to celebrate the history-shattering moment when God broke onto the human stage in the form of a little baby, Jesus.
Well, we've set aside the next few weeks to help you get ready for Christmas. Beginning today, I'm launching a study in Luke that's designed to help us fix our eyes on who was and is the centerpiece of our faith. Our study is titled, Reigniting Your Passion for Christ, and I'm praying that this important teaching series will rekindle a bright flame of passion for Jesus and his power in your life.
Later in today's program, I'll describe an exclusive gift I want to send you. It's the brand new 2025 Pathway to Victory daily devotional. But before we begin today's message, this is the very first day to tell you about our exciting Light the Darkness matching challenge in the amount of $1.5 million.
This means that every dollar you give toward this year in challenge will be automatically matched and therefore doubled in size and impact. Your generous gift to this matching challenge will empower Pathway to Victory to carry the gospel message into 2025 with strength and boldness, and I'll say more about this opportunity later on. Right now, it's time to get started with our study in the Gospel of Luke. Nothing will rejuvenate our Christian faith any more than looking at the words, actions, and attitudes of Jesus himself. I titled this first message, Reigniting Your Passion for Christ. One writer describes the impact of the life of Jesus Christ on the world this way. Along with two thieves, Jesus was executed by the authorities about 2,000 years ago. Yet today from countless paintings, statues, and buildings, from literature and history, from personality and institution, from profanity, popular songs, and entertainment media, from confession and controversy, from legend and ritual, Jesus stands quietly at the center of the contemporary world as he himself predicted.
He so graced the ugly instrument on which he died that the cross has become the most widely exhibited and recognized symbol on earth. You know, it's easy for our Christian faith to go stale. It's easy to say the right words, go through the right motions while still having a cold heart toward God. One thing that causes our Christian faith to become stagnant is we forget that Christianity is not about a set of ideas. It's about a real person, the most important person of all of human history, the person of Jesus Christ, who came from heaven to earth not only to provide a way for us to escape hell after we died. He came to show us a better way of living before we die.
Yet we often forget that. You know, I have found that there is nothing that rejuvenates our Christian life anymore than getting back in touch with the person of Jesus Christ, by carefully observing his examples of how to live, by studying his words, by mimicking his actions, attitudes, and affections. And that is our goal in this new series we're beginning today. Today, we are launching a verse-by-verse study of the most detailed account of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It's found in the Gospel of Luke, and we're entitling this series, Reigniting Your Spiritual Passion for Christ. I want you to take your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Luke, and we're going to begin looking today at verses one through four of Luke chapter one. Now, unlike the three other Gospels, Luke is written to a specific individual, and we find him named in Luke one, verses three and four. It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent, Theophilus, so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. This Gospel was written to a man named Theophilus.
That is the audience to whom this was written, Theophilus. Now, what makes this Gospel unique? I want to talk about two characteristics of this Gospel of Luke. First of all, Luke is carefully researched. Now, unlike Matthew and John, Luke was not an eyewitness to the events of Jesus' life. But that doesn't mean Luke's account is not reliable.
It is very, very reliable. It is carefully researched. Look again at Luke one, verses one to four, in as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us. In other words, there are other Gospels out there.
There are already Gospels out there. But he goes on to say, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, O most excellent Theophilus. I want you to notice the three sources of Luke's information that we're going to study in this Gospel. First of all, he consulted eyewitnesses.
Notice that in verse two. He talked to eyewitnesses. Not only that, he consulted servants of the word who have handed them down to us. That is, those who had already written down accounts of the Lord Jesus Christ's life. Most likely, he's referring to John Mark, who wrote the first Gospel. The first Gospel is the Gospel of Mark, which was sponsored by the Apostle Peter. And it was a very quickly written Gospel that concentrated on the activity of Jesus Christ.
But Luke took none of this at face value. Not only did he talk to eyewitnesses and servants of the word, he also, look at verse three, carefully investigated everything. Not only is Luke carefully researched, but secondly, it is extremely detailed. It's extremely detailed. Now you would expect that from a doctor, wouldn't you?
To go for the minute details. Let me give an illustration of how detailed Luke's Gospel is. Take the appearance of John the Baptist, when John the Baptist appeared on the scene. Now, Mark's Gospel says it this way, quote, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, period.
That's a pretty quick and to the point to count, isn't it? John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness. Now look how Luke describes it in Luke three, verses one to two.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituria and Traconicus, and Licinius was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. Now that's detail, isn't it? You know, that kind of detail ought to give every one of us great confidence in the trustworthiness of the Bible. As one writer said, Christianity is a religion that is built upon facts. And that leads to a fourth consideration, the purpose in the writing of Luke's Gospel. You know, if you've ever had the experience of publishing a book or trying to publish a book, you know, one of the first things the publisher wants to know is, what makes your book different than all the other books out there? Why should we invest money in publishing your book?
What makes it unique? Just imagine for a moment, Dr. Luke was going to submit his account of Jesus' life for publication. The publisher would probably want to know, Luke, we've got Matthew, we've got Mark, we've got John, why do we need another account of the life of Jesus Christ? In fact, in Luke 1-1, Luke himself confesses there are many other accounts out there. Well, here's what makes Luke's Gospel unique.
You know, Matthew was one of the disciples, and he wrote from a Jewish perspective. You look at Mark's Gospel, it's completely different in the sense that it's written very quickly, it reads more like a newspaper than it does a book. Then you look at John's Gospel, it's not synoptic, it doesn't take a chronological view of the life of Jesus Christ. John's Gospel is theological, it's built around seven miracles of Jesus to show that Jesus was in fact the Son of God. But Luke is different, because Luke is the most detailed account of all of the Gospels. It contains information about Jesus' life, his teachings, his ministry that none of the other Gospels include. And you find three unique themes in the Gospel of Luke.
Write them down. The first emphasis in Luke is on the humanity of Jesus Christ, the humanity of Jesus. And Luke emphasizes that Jesus, yes, was fully God, but he was also fully man.
Now, in theology, we call this the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ was 100% God, and he was 100% man. And that's important to understand. That's why, isn't it great that we have a high priest like Jesus, who was like we are in many ways. He went through the same trials, the same temptations, the same problems you and I face every day. And that's why he's able to sympathize with us. That's why he prays for us regularly. He understands what it means to be like we are. That is the emphasis of Luke, the humanity of Jesus. And one would expect that from a doctor. A doctor would be interested in the man, Jesus Christ.
One writer says it this way. Reading Luke, you get the feeling you are listening through the doctor's stethoscope to the heartbeat of our Lord, feeling his empathy as he reaches out to those who cross his path. Let me show you how Luke emphasizes the humanity of Christ. We see it in the opening account of Jesus' birth. Luke gives us the most detailed account of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Wouldn't you expect that from a doctor? They want to know how this baby got here. That's why he has such a detailed account of the birth of Jesus. He also gives us an account of Jesus, not just spiritual, but his personal and physical and emotional development.
In Luke 2, 52, we find this word. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. It's also only in this gospel that we find the story of his dedication in the temple and his experience as a 12-year-old when he amazed the teachers of the temple in Luke chapter 2. And it's Luke the doctor who gives us the most detailed description of the physical suffering Jesus experienced on the cross. You don't find a more detailed explanation of the crucifixion than you find in Luke 23. As you read that, you can almost hear the clanging of the hammer as it drove those spikes into Jesus' arms and his feet. That's what you find in Luke, the humanity of Christ. A second theme in the gospel of Luke is the program of God. As you read through Jesus' life, you realize he was a man on a mission. Nothing happened by circumstance in his life.
It was all a part of the plan. In Luke 19, 10, Jesus said about himself, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus' death wasn't some horrible, accidental, terrible thing that happened. Jesus' death wasn't the result of a bunch of bad men ending Jesus' life prematurely.
No, this was all part of God's plan. Now, remember I said this was written to Gentiles? That's one reason I like Luke because it's written to people like you and me, non-Jews. It was written to Gentiles, Theophilus being the first one. And the natural question Theophilus and probably other Gentiles had was, Now, wait a minute, if Jesus really is the long predicted Son of God, why didn't his own people accept him? Why did the Jewish leaders reject him if indeed he was the Messiah?
That's a logical question, isn't it? Well, Luke goes to pains in his gospel to show how even Israel's rejection of Jesus was a part of God's plan. To bring about salvation for people like us who are Gentiles. You see that, for example, in Luke 14, verses 15 to 24. In a parable, Jesus told about a man who gave a dinner and he invited all of his friends to come. He sent the invitation out, but every one of his friends declined and they gave lame excuses for not coming. And therefore, this man who wanted to have a big party told his servants to go out and invite other people.
He said, Go out into the streets and invite the blind, the lame, and the crippled to come in so that my house might be filled. Believe me, the Jews understood what Jesus was saying. They were infuriated at that idea that non-Jews, Gentiles, swine would be allowed to become a part of God's kingdom. Remember in Luke 13, verses 28 and 29, Jesus said to his Jewish audience, There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all of the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves being cast out. And they will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. He was saying to the Jews, You're going to be on the outside in hell looking in, and you're going to be surprised when you see people from the east and the west, the north and the south.
He's talking about Gentiles who are going to be coming and occupying the place you should have been in. And that's what you see in Luke. You see Jesus taking the gospel, not to the Jewish leaders, but to the publicans, not the republicans, the publicans and the sinners. Somebody said, Luke is the gospel of the underdog. That's what you find in Luke's gospel, the program of God. The third thing that you find in this gospel is the perseverance of Christians. The perseverance of Christians. Again, Luke is not about how to be saved. It's about how to live after we are saved. Over and over again in Luke, Jesus said, A true disciple is not somebody who intellectually believes the right things about me.
It is someone who follows me, who imitates my life. Over and over, we'll see in Luke's gospel that the mark of a true disciple, a follower of Christ, is someone who loves other people unconditionally, somebody whose life is marked by continual prayer, who persists in spite of suffering, who refuses to be attached to material things in this world. You know, several times we're going to see in Luke's gospel, Jesus said there are going to be many people who are going to be surprised on the judgment day when they're going to be denied entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus said they will cry out, Lord, Lord, how could you not allow me in? And Jesus says in Luke 6, 46, And why do you call me Lord, Lord, if you do not do what I say?
That's a sobering question, isn't it? No, a disciple is not somebody who just believes the right things about Jesus. It is someone who obeys and follows Jesus Christ.
And that brings me to the last consideration today. Why are we studying the gospel of Luke? Why Luke, why now in our church? You know, just as hopefully you go to the doctor for a physical checkup to know how your body is doing, every now and then we need to take time to do a spiritual checkup, to see how our spiritual life is. If Dr. Luke were to place his stethoscope against your heart, your spiritual life, the real you, what would he discover about the condition of your relationship with God? In fact, what standard would he use to know whether you're close to God or far away from God? You know, the standard by which God uses to measure the condition of your spiritual life, the standard is Jesus Christ himself. How closely do you resemble Jesus? It's not how many Bible verses you know. It's not whether you can explain the difference between being a premillennialist and a non-millennialist. Here's the question of whether or not you're a disciple. How closely do you resemble the actions, the attitudes, the affections of Jesus Christ?
Someone said it this way. Here's what it means to be a disciple. To be a disciple means for me to live my life as Jesus would live my life if he were I. Let me say it again.
To be a disciple means for me to live my life as Jesus would live my life if he were I. Sometimes we get it backwards. We think what we need to do is try to mentally imagine we lived 2,000 years ago and we're walking around dusty Palestine in sandals like Jesus did. How would we live back then?
No, that's not the question. The question is if Jesus were transported now, if Jesus occupied our place in our family, how would he relate to the different members of our family? If Jesus had our job, how would he relate to the boss? How would he relate to his employees? How would he do his job? If Jesus were driving my car down the tollway, how would he drive that?
Well, that's too convicting, but you get the picture. I mean, that's what it means to be a disciple. To live my life in every way as Jesus would live my life if he were I. By the way, this idea of being a disciple is not optional. I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, the greatest heresy that has entered the church of Jesus Christ today. It's the heresy that you can become a Christian, know that you're going to go to heaven when you die, and yet not have one single change in your life as a result of that.
That is heresy. No wonder the church is so weak and anemic today. It's not in spite of what we're teaching.
It's because of what we're teaching. No wonder the rate of adultery and divorce is exactly the same among Christians as it is among non-Christians. Why is it we are teaching this heresy that salvation is essential, discipleship is optional?
No, no, no. Again, James says, where there is no fruit, there is no faith. Faith without works is a dead, non-existent faith. Or as Jesus said, why do you call me Lord if you do not do what I do? Discipleship is not optional.
It is essential. Well, how do you pull that off? How do you walk as Jesus did? How do you adopt God's priorities as your priorities? How do you keep yourself from being entangled in material wealth and possessions? How do you live with a peace of mind regardless of what is happening around you?
The best way to pull that off is to look and examine carefully the only person who has pulled that off. His name is Jesus Christ. We're going to carefully examine Jesus' attitudes, his affections, his actions, so that we can walk as Jesus walked. And in doing so, I believe God is going to reignite your passion for Christ.
There's so much more I want to show you in the Gospel of Luke, and I hope you'll continue joining us for the remainder of this series as we reignite our passion for Christ. Earlier, you heard me talk about the matching challenge, which is a great way to double the impact of your year-end giving to Pathway to Victory. Through the Light in the Darkness matching challenge, your $100 generous gift becomes $200. A $500 gift becomes $1,000.
There's really no limit to how much you give that will be matched by a group of friends. It's all because of this wonderful matching challenge in the amount of $1.5 million. I couldn't be more excited about the matching challenge because I know God will use your gift to inspire people around the world to follow Jesus with boldness.
And in addition to doubling the impact of your investment, there's another benefit I'm pleased to offer. Right now, when you give toward the Light in the Darkness matching challenge, we'll say thank you by sending you the brand new Pathway to Victory daily devotional for 2025. This beautiful, leather-bound devotional includes a reading for every weekday in the coming new year.
And it's intentionally written to guide you through each season. You'll begin 2025 by discovering God's will for your life. Then in spring and summer, you'll grow stronger in Christ with insights from the book of Colossians. And in the fall and winter, you'll journey home to the Father who loves you as we explore the marvelous parable of the prodigal son. That's a lot of information, so I'm asking David to repeat these details and to give you our contact information. Thanks for your generous support of Pathway to Victory.
We couldn't do this without you. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you give a generous year-end gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'll send you a copy of the brand new leather-bound 2025 Pathway to Victory daily devotional. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965, or you could visit our website at ptv.org. Now, when your gift is $100 or more, we'll also include this month's teaching series, Reigniting Your Passion for Christ, both on DVD video and MP3 format audio discs.
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Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. When it comes to Christmas, most people think about Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus born in the manger.
But they often forget about the other child that was born around the same time. Hear a message called, Touched by an Angel. That's Tuesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
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