and how God might be wanting to use you. I'd be delighted to talk to you about that. Acts chapter 16 introduces us to our topic for today, but it introduces us somewhat obliquely. Let's see if you can figure out what our topic is going to be. In Acts chapter 16, In verse 9, you read about what happened when Paul was at Troas. It says, a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. When he had seen the vision, immediately We sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. I said that we're introduced obliquely to our topic in these verses. What do you suppose is the topic? Well, you probably need a hint or two. So let's look at verse 10 in particular. I'm going to emphasize something and kind of lead us into our topic. I'll read it again. When he had seen the vision, immediately, we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Are you picking up on the topic yet? Well, you notice that I emphasize the we and the us. So who is or who are the we that are talking here? Well, it clearly is including the author of this book. So that brings the next question, who is the author of the book of Acts? Well, the consensus is that this is written by Luke. What I want to do today is look at the missionary example of Luke, the beloved physician, the missionary example of Luke. I've had the privilege of teaching the history of missions many times, and maybe my favorite character in all of that is Luke, because Luke was a missionary. You might not think of Luke as a missionary. I wonder what you do know about Luke, actually. If we were to give a test today about what we know about Luke, how would we fare? What would you know about him? Is he worthy of a biographical study? Of course, we won't be able to do a thorough study, but we'll get some high points about this man. I want to propose that this missionary, his missionary example, has application to every one of us. So who is he? Well, first of all, Luke was a single man, as far as we can tell. There are some early historians, Eusebius and a guy named Jerome, who claimed that Luke was never married. And that would seem to fit because he moved around a lot. It seems it would be very difficult to take a wife and do what Luke did. It seemed like he was often with Paul. And of course, Paul was not married. We also find that Luke was probably a single Gentile. which makes him unique in Paul's company, pretty much. There are some others, but when you think about the apostles, of course, almost you're thinking of Jewish people. But he uses a word that indicates something that may suggest that he was a Gentile. The other writers talk about Golgotha, which is a Hebrew word. When Luke begins to talk about Calvary, he uses the word chronion, which is the Greek word for skull. He doesn't use Golgotha. He's listed with some Gentiles in Colossians chapter four. So we would say in the first place, Luke seems to have been a single Gentile. I'll make some applications about how God can use singles, single people in a few minutes. But secondly, Luke was a scholar. He was a culture scholar and an accurate historian. It really is amazing to think about how accurate Luke was. Let's look at his claim. If you would now turn to Luke chapter 1. Under inspiration, this is what Luke says about his gospel. Luke chapter 1. and verse one. He says in as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us. And of course we have other gospel accounts just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. So Luke is getting information at times from eyewitnesses, which is always the best. He says, it seemed fitting for me as well. Now notice this. Having investigated everything, everything carefully from the beginning, I mean, he just keeps piling up what I would call evidence of accuracy. thoroughness to write it out for you in consecutive order most excellent Theophilus and Then notice this verse 4 So that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught so Luke Who's called later the beloved position has great skill and with the Greek language. This is some of the best language, the best Greek in the world, really, this introduction to the gospel of Luke. And he tells about all the effort that he went into to learn about the content. And when you think about it, it really is precious. What would we do without Luke's gospel? We're coming on Christmas. Think about Luke and some of the information he gets. The shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. That beautiful story is only in Luke. Mary's Magnificat is only in Luke. The meeting with Elizabeth and learning about the birth of this John. is only in Luke. We have that wonderful parable about the prodigal son only in Luke. What would we do without the parable of the good Samaritan only in Luke? And then at the end of this great gospel, he gives us that wonderful story about the two walking on the road to Emmaus. Did not our hearts burn within us as he explained to us? And they didn't even know it was Jesus. So Luke, probably a single Gentile. Secondly, he is a scholar. a cultured scholar, an accurate historian. His prologue is a literary masterpiece. His approach to writing history, and there may be some history teachers in here, is a perfect example of how to do it. You talk to eyewitnesses, you get all the information you can. You investigate everything carefully from the beginning and then you lay it out in an orderly way. That's as good as it gets. That's the man we're talking about. And therefore he is considered the proper father of church history. That's saying a lot, but notice this too. Actually, Luke wrote more of the New Testament than anyone else, unless Paul wrote Hebrews. I don't think he did, so I'm gonna say Luke wrote more of the New Testament than anyone. He wrote 27% of the New Testament. Paul wrote 25.6%. And John wrote 17.7%, if you want the decimals. So what a man to study. Scholar, single Gentile, but at the heart of it all, and this is why I'm talking about him today, you have that statement in Acts 16. And if you would, let's go back there. Turn back to Acts 16. Point out something here, if you would. I think this will help make the point. In Acts 16, in verse 10, you have we and us. Verse 11, you have we. Verse 12, we. 13, we. All the way down to verse 17, we have this continuation of one of the we passages in Acts. Following verse 17. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out. So Luke is with Paul at this time. Well, what did God call them to do? And I say them, not just Paul. But Luke says, I was called to do this. Look at it again in verse 10. God has called us to do what? To preach the gospel to them. Here is this scholar We're gonna see that he's a medical doctor and he is a missionary. He is a recipient of the Macedonian call. God has called Paul, yes, but he says God has called us to preach the gospel. Do you think Luke did that? I think he did. He says, God has called us to do this. So I think Luke was a missionary preacher. You have these other sections. I'll just point them out. They're just two in the book of Acts where we have these wee passages. Go over to chapter 20 and look at verse five. But these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. So once again, Luke is with Paul. It seems that sometimes he's with Paul, sometimes he's not. I guess when he's not with Paul, he's trying to write 24 chapters, which he didn't have chapters, but he's trying to write the gospel of Luke. Wow, what a busy man. And to investigate Luke, I mean, this is not shallow writing. This is the most investigated book ever made. given his sources. So here he is. I'm going to call him a missionary preacher. You say, well, you just mentioned those two. Well, there's one more. And this one is, in a sense, kind of staggering because of what happened. Look at chapter 27. Go to Luke chapter 27 and look at verse 1. This is the third section and the last one, because it's pretty much toward the end of the book, of the wee passages where Luke is with Paul in his activities. He may have been with Paul at other times, he no doubt was. But here we have inspired evidence that Luke was with Paul. What's Paul doing? Verse one, when it was decided that we would sail for Italy, They proceeded to deliver Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius. And it says they embarked, they went on this journey. Well, what happened on that journey? Well, you know, I think probably they had a shipwreck. Luke was on that ship. He could have drowned. Paul could have drowned. All of them could have drowned, but none of them drowned. None of them. They all survived. So that section goes really all the way down to Acts 28, verse 16, if you'll look over to that. So Luke survives the shipwreck, and verse 16 of 28 says, When we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who was guarding him. So Paul is in prison, he's in Rome, and guess who is with him? Luke. So he is the missionary preacher. No doubt he preached, no doubt he did other work as a missionary, but He was something else. Turn to Colossians chapter 4. We're not going to look at a lot of text because, frankly, there aren't that many that refer to Luke, but this one does. Colossians chapter 4, and look at verse 14. Paul writing from prison says, Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings and also Demas. I want you to keep in mind that Demas, okay? I just noticed this either this morning or last night. I'd never noticed this before. But Demas is important in a sense because of the connection with Paul and Luke. So here we have Luke. Have you seen his name before in any of the other places we've looked at? First time. What is he called? He's not just the physician. Paul says he is the beloved physician. And I don't think Paul's just saying, okay, well, I love Luke. He said, obviously Luke is helping to look after Paul physically. He is a physician, and no doubt that's one of the reasons he's with Paul. But he's beloved by other people. I'm going to make an application about that in a few minutes, so keep that in mind. So you have, let's review, we have Luke is probably a single Gentile. He is consummate scholar. He is a missionary preacher. He's the beloved physician. And he's something else. Look over in Second Timothy. Chapter 4. Second Timothy chapter 4. The last reference to Luke. I'll just go ahead and tell you his name. appears three times in the New Testament, three times. He wrote more than anyone else, but his name appears only three times. This is the second. It says in chapters four, 2 Timothy, Paul is knowing that he's being ready to be slaughtered, beheaded, He knows his time has come verse 6. I'm already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. He's at he knows he's in prison. He knows the time has come. He's going to be executed. Look at verse 11. He says only Luke is with me. At this point no one else pick up Mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for service. So evidently Paul doesn't know how long it's going to be before he's executed, but he knows he's going to be. But Luke is with him. So I'm going to say in the fifth place about Luke, he is a faithful friend, a loyal friend. And that's big because not everyone is. In fact, everyone else at this point could have been, who could have been, is not. Look at it. Look at verse 10. For Demas, we saw him already, remember? Demas was with him. Paul commends him and says nothing negative. But here he says, Demas having loved this present world has deserted me. But Demas is not the only one. Look down at verse 16. At my first offense, no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. So what do you think it meant to Paul to have Luke be with him? Only Luke is with me. What a loyal friend. And it's really obviously related to Luke's spirituality. He's not afraid, apparently. He's with Paul. But you've got Demas mentioned again in the same context with Luke. Interesting. Well, let me make some applications. By the way, while I'm at it, let me go ahead and give you the other reference to Demas. Philemon, you don't even have to turn there, I'll just read it to you, it's just a list. Philemon 124, only one chapter, lists some of Paul's co-workers again, and it says, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. So Demas is mentioned three times in the New Testament. And I noticed that every time Luke is mentioned in the same context. What a contrast, right? Twice Demas is mentioned as a fellow worker who seems to be faithful. The last time he is a deserter. Where are you? So let me make applications here in closing. I want to ask, how are you in these areas? First of all, Luke was humble. You know, humility is the key to usefulness in God's service. Luke's name occurs three times, and he never wrote it. You don't know about Luke from himself. He's not talking about himself. When have you ever heard a message on the man, Luke? Have you ever heard one? Anybody here ever heard a message on Luke? Nobody? Wow. Isn't that amazing? Such a great man and we don't talk about him. Well, that's because he didn't talk about himself. He was humble. He was greatly used. In fact, You can make an argument and he was as greatly used as anyone ever in the history of Christianity. Humble. Secondly, I'll put it this way. We use this terminology these days. Luke was all in. He used all of his gifts in God's service. He was a scholar. He wrote two great books, right? Luke and Acts. What would we do without those two books? He was a scholar. He was a doctor. He was the beloved physician. He used that skill in God's service. He had education, he had training, but he used all of this totally for the cause of Christ. He was evangelistic. God has called us to preach the gospel. You know, I'm guessing that doing that stretch, Luke, that probably wasn't his strongest gift. He probably wasn't a great preacher. But apparently he was very evangelistic, preaching the gospel wherever he went with Paul. He was evangelistic. He was courageous. You know, we have people in very dangerous places. And some of the places you don't think are dangerous are very dangerous. We have missionaries in Cape Town, South Africa, and you should hear their stories. One of them was telling me not long ago, they wondered why their dog was barking. And they found out the next day that a dead body had been left just on the other side of the wall of their house. Cape Town is full of crime. And of course, we have people in the Middle East. We have missionaries in Lebanon. We've had missionaries in Israel. In fact, they're planning and hoping to go back to the West Bank. We have missionaries in many, many places that are dangerous. Do you think it was dangerous where Luke went? Mark turned back, remember? When Mark went the first time with Paul and Barnabas, he left. And Paul didn't appreciate that in the least. It was dangerous. But in the end, by the way, Paul begins to commend, he says it right here, bring Mark, he's useful to me. He went from being not useful to being useful. Luke was courageous, he was with Paul, apparently, even to the end. He was winsome. He was loved by other people. He's called the beloved position. That's an interesting phrase. He was winsome How how was your testimony to others? Are you a winsome person the people are you beloved by God's people? because of your spirit and then finally He was actively available You see him in and out in the book of Acts so apparently whatever he could do he would do it and then he would I be doing other aspects of ministry. Again, probably writing his books. Are you active in serving God or passive? You know, it's easy to be passive when you're in a good church where you're good preaching, have many other people who can do things. How about yourself? Are you active, like Luke was, and serving. Are you all in using all your gifts for God's service and for his glory? Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for giving us the New Testament. Thank you for giving us the book of Luke, the gospel of Luke. We so much look forward to the Christmas season when we hear these stories again and all their beauty. Thank you for the book of Acts. It tells us how churches were started and some of the issues that come up in churches. and how to take the gospel to the world. Thank you for the example of Luke, the beloved physician. I pray that you would stir all of us to be actively serving in every way. Deliver us from being passive, just to be being receivers of truth. Help us to serve as Luke did, to be courageous, to be beloved, to be winsome, to be humble, not worrying about our name and our reputation. Help us to be evangelistic. Help us over our fears and our hesitancy. Work in every heart, I pray, in Jesus' name.