Luke's Story

by JERRY JENKINS

  I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,

  That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.

  “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Barnabas and me, and expelled us from their region.

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  This report encouraged Luke and made him want all the more to one day travel with Paul and join him in ministry. But over the next few years, every time he suggested that to Paul, the evangelist wrote back that Luke must continue to grow in faith and in training by helping lead the church in Antioch. Paul expressed certainty that when he and Barnabas returned, even more Gentiles would be welcomed into the church at Syrian Antioch.

  While Luke continued to write and labor in the clinic and in the church, he eagerly awaited Paul’s letters. For a long time, Paul and Barnabas stayed in Iconium, preaching and teaching, and Luke heard nothing for months. Finally the report came that it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed.

  “But,” Paul wrote, “the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against us. We stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders done by our hands.

  “But the multitude of the city was divided—part siding with the Jews, and part with us. And when both the Gentiles and Jews made a violent attempt, with their rulers, to abuse and stone us, we fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region.

  “While we were preaching the gospel in Lystra, a certain man without strength in his feet was there, a cripple who had never walked. I observed him intently and saw that he had faith to be healed, so I said with a loud voice, ‘Stand up straight on your feet!’ And he leaped and walked!

  “Now, when the people saw what I had done, they raised their voices, saying in their own language, ‘The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’ They called Barnabas Zeus and me Hermes.

  “Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when we heard this, we tore our clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.’ But we could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to us.

  “Then Jews from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium arrived, and having persuaded the multitudes against us, they stoned me and dragged me out of the city, supposing me to be dead. When Barnabas and other disciples gathered around me, however, I rose up and went into the city. And the next day we departed for Derbe.

  “When we had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, we returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying , ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’

  “So when we had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, we commended them to the Lord in whom they had believeAnd after we had again passed through Pisidia, we came to Pamphylia, and when we had preached the word in Perga, we went down to Attalia. From here we will sail to Antioch, whence you and the brethren there commended us to the grace of God for the work that we have completed.

  “With great anticipation, we long to be reunited with you in the Lord.”

  TWENTY-THREE

  Syrian Antioch, A.D. 47

  Had Luke any doubt of the peril associated with his aligning himself with the new Christian movement, it had been dashed not only by the reports of Paul from his missionary travels, but also by news from Jerusalem. James, head of the church there, had been beheaded at the direction of King Herod, and Peter had been imprisoned. He had miraculously escaped, but there could no longer be any doubt that Christians remained the enemies of both the Romans and the Jews.

  The assembly where Luke served had been spared much of the persecution because its members were not outspoken. While they proselytized friends and neighbors and associates, unlike Paul they did not challenge the existing authorities or argue in the synagogues.

  When Paul and Barnabas returned, the church seemed revitalized by their oral memories and especially Paul’s deep teaching about the ramifications of the Spirit-filled life. Luke soon gave up all outside activities, including his work at the clinic, and devoted his every waking hour to helping lead the church, tending to the medical needs of the body of believers, and his writing. Theophilus had encouraged this and agreed that his future held traveling as an aide to Paul on his missionary journeys.

  Luke pleaded with the evangelist to be able to accompany him and Barnabas to Jerusalem for the council of leaders but Paul said, “Do not be disappointed that I am declining your request, Doctor, but I have prayed about this and believe you are of more value here in our absence. I am, however, planning more trips in a few years and will be looking for just the right addition to our team.”

  LUKE LIVED ON THIS PROMISE for years but was bitterly disappointed when Paul returned from Jerusalem with a most engaging and spiritual man named Silas who was clearly being groomed to be another traveling companion. And when Paul and Silas set out on Paul’s second missionary journey in A.D. 51, again Luke remained in Antioch. Through much prayer and good counsel from Theophilus and other elders, he was able to accept this—with difficulty—as God’s will and committed himself to remaining devoted to the work.

  Night after night, however, he paced and prayed, beseeching the Lord for the reason He had planted such wanderlust in Luke’s heart if he was to remain in Antioch. From all over the surrounding area came letters from Paul, recounting exploits in northern Syria, then Cilicia, Derbe, and Lystra again, where Timothy joined their company. They continued through Phrygia and Galatia, but Paul reported that they were “forbidden by the Spirit” to go to Asia.

  When Luke’s eyes fell on the next paragraph, he could not stanch his tears. “Our plan is to travel through Mysia to Troas. We have need of the beloved physician Luke Ba had become a believer, along with her whole family, and they were baptized.

  Then she fell to her knees before Paul and said, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So Paul and the others lodged there for several days as they ministered in the city.

  One day a slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination—who brought her masters much profit by fortunetelling—began following them wherever they preached and taught and cried out, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”

  At first Luke thought she was of God, but she did this for many days and it was clear that Paul was greatly annoyed. Finally he turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And she was delivered. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

  Luke followed and watched as they told the magistrates, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city. They teach customs not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.”

  Then the multitude rose up against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them int
o prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. He put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks.

  Paul told Luke the next day at Lydia’s home that at midnight, as he and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, the prisoners were listening. “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But I called with a loud voice, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here!’

  “The jailer called for a light and ran in, falling down trembling before us. Then he led us out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

  “Of course I told him, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ Then we spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took us that same hour and cleansed our wounds. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.

  “Now when he had brought us into his house, he set food before us and rejoiced. When the sun rose, the jailer told me that the magistrates had sent officers, saying, ‘Let those men go.’ So he said, ‘Now therefore depart, and go in peace.’”

  “Praise God!” Luke said. “And that is why you are here.”

  “‘No!’ I told the jailer, ‘They beat us openly, and we ourselves are uncondemned Romans, and threw us into prison. And now they want to put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out’”hilus and wrote him regularly. He also heard frequently from Paul and longed for the day when he might again join him in his travels. Meanwhile, various church leaders from Jerusalem and other elders from all over the world occasionally passed through Philippi and preached in the growing church. Luke, never interested in making a name for himself or putting himself above others, carefully led and managed behind the scenes, nurturing others into positions of leadership so the church would not forever be dependent on him.

  Whenever anyone visited who was a personal friend of Jesus, like John or Peter or Matthew, Luke tried their patience by keeping them up until well after dark, plying them with questions and digging for every fact and detail they could remember.

  While all fascinated him and added to his storehouse of knowledge, he was most impressed with the apostle John. “You should write your own gospel,” he told the man as he was packing for his return to Ephesus after having ministered in Philippi for several days. Luke had interviewed him every day.

  “Perhaps one day,” John said. “I have much traveling to do, yet I dare not be away from Mary for too long a time. She has already lived many years past her contemporaries, and while her mind is still sharp, her vision, her hearing, and her limbs have grown weak from age. I have much help in caring for her from many of the women at Ephesus, but I fear she is not long for this world.”

  As Luke helped carry John’s things down to the wagon, he said, “Is she too frail to reminisce about the birth of her Son?”

  “Let me say it this way, young man,” John said, making Luke feel good, for though he was not much younger than John, he was already well into his fifties. “If it were up to me, I would say don’t go to the trouble to travel to Ephesus and stretch an old woman’s strength to satisfy your own curiosity. But you know what she would say?” He chuckled. “She would welcome you with open arms, for there is nothing she would rather talk about. Of course it’s a fascinating, miraculous story, and I have heard it many times. She has amazing recall, having pondered these things in her heart and rehearsed them for decades to anyone who would listen. Why, she even has a record of Jesus’ genealogy, and it is not short.”

  “I would be welcome, then?”

  “Only because I know it would warm her heart. Your earnestness has loosed my tongue. I can only imagine how it would be for a willing subject. Just don’t wait too long, son.”

  Luke burned with desire to find the time and resources to make that trip.

  Meanwhile, word came that Paul and many who traveled with him remained under constant persecution. After one uproar he departed again for Macedonia, where he encouraged the church with many words before going to Greece, where he stayed three months. When the local Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. He wrote Luke, “Sopater of Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia are all with me. As soon as you can, could you join us again in Troas, where first we ministered together years ago?”

  Luke did not have to be asked twice. How wonderful it felt to be needed. He haat Philippi until after the Days of Unleavened Bread, so five days later he sailed and joined Paul and his party in Troas, where they stayed seven days.

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  Paul then knelt and prayed with them all, and they all wept freely and fell on his neck and kissed him, many expressing sorrow most of all for his prediction that they would see his face no more. They accompanied him and Luke to the ship, Luke wondering what the future held but taking courage from Paul’s attitude.

  For the next few weeks, Paul and Luke and the others made several stops and changed vessels, finding in many places believers they could encourage. In Tyre well-meaning followers of Christ warned Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. And when Paul and his band departed, these men brought their wives and children and accompanied them until they were out of the city. Before boarding ship, Paul and his people knelt in the sand and prayed with these.

  They voyaged to Ptolemais, where they greeted the brethren and stayed one day, then finally departed and came to Caesarea, where they were welcomed to the house of Philip the evangelist. Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied and warned Paul against going on to Jerusalem. After many days, a prophet named Agabus came from Judea, took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”

  Luke, like the others, had heard enough. How much more was needed to persuade Paul to end this suicidal mission? He and the other associates pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.

  Paul listened passively, and when they were finished, he said, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

  Luke had to admit that none of the prophecies said the Spirit was telling Paul not to proceed. They merely foretold what would happen to him. So when he would not be persuaded, they ceased their pleading, saying, “The will of the Lord be done.”

  AFTER THOSE DAYS they packed and went to Jerusalem along with some of the disciples from Caesarea. The brethren of Jerusalem received them gladly, and Paul greeted them and told in detail those things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. They said, “Many myriads of Jews have believed, and they are all zealous for the law; but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. In this way all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law.

  “But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

  Paul did as they had said, and the next day, having been purified with the four men, entered the td bound a Roman c
itizen.

  THE NEXT DAY, the commander released Paul from his bonds and set him before the chief priests and their council. Paul said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.”

  The high priest commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Paul said, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?”

  Those who stood by said, “Do you revile God’s high priest?”

  Paul said, “I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

  But Paul later told Luke he perceived some of the council were Sadducees and others Pharisees, so he cried out, “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!”

  Immediately, dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, for Sadducees say that there is no resurrection—and no angel or spirit—but the Pharisees confess both. The scribes of the Pharisees arose and protested, “We find no evil in this man; but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.”