Worship

Festival of St. Luke, Evangelist                       October 18, 2026
Luke 1:1-4; 24:44-53                                         Pastor Ryan Wolfe

Faith Means Forgiveness

That day will be an overwhelming day for humanity. It will start as just any regular day, perhaps a dreaded Monday, with the prospect of a whole week of work or school ahead of us. Or maybe it will be the first day of a vacation you’ve been saving up for years to take. Whatever the case, we’ll be playing or working or relaxing, planning weddings and funerals and birthday parties, and all of a sudden the air will be filled with the sound of trumpets. The sound will miraculously fill the earth so that the whole world will take notice, from one end of the planet to the other.

But it won’t just be our ears. Those trumpets will be played by God’s holy angels, on that day finally made known to us in all their glory and brilliance. But our eyes will barely have a chance to take them in before our attention is turned to something greater – Jesus himself coming down from the clouds in full power and glory. Not hiding himself as a servant this time, but as he truly is – bright and shining as he was on the Mount of Transfiguration. Every knee will bow to him, believer and unbeliever, at the recognition of his divinity. And every tongue will confess that he is indeed Lord.

The dead will be raised, the wicked and the righteous all together, all people of all time. And all will stand before the Creator of all things and wait for his words of eternal assignment. “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come to my heaven.” Or, “I never knew you. Depart into the eternal fires prepared for you.”

Wait, what? It’s that last part that takes the End of Days to a whole different level. The end of the world, the appearances of the angel and Jesus – that all seems so big. It’s beyond us individually. But remembering the judgment that happens that day? Well, that’s personal. It’s permanent. I can see myself in that, and I don’t like to think about what that judgement should be. I know my sin, and though I know Jesus has saved me from it, there will always be a part of me that instinctively fears that moment before God. I suspect that’s true for anyone who’s truly honest about who they are and who God is.

About 1900 years ago, the man we know as Luke tasked himself with an assignment. He had a friend, or benefactor, or elder (we don’t know their exact relationship but calling him “most excellent Theophilus” would seem to steer us toward something more official than just friend). Whatever the relationship was, Theophilus had been taught about Jesus, but Luke wanted to give him more. In verse four here Luke gives the whole reason he undertook this project of writing. “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”

Now Scripture tells us that faith can be simple, like that of a child. And that simple faith in Jesus for salvation, even if it’s small as a mustard seed, connects us to the Savior who died for us. Simple faith can be deep and lasting and that’s a blessing when we think about our brothers and sisters in faith with learning disabilities or cognitive disabilities, or those who suffer from dementia or brain injury – faith is trust from the heart just as much, even more, than knowledge in our heads.

But learning more can make those things we believe in faith more certain. Christian faith can be blind, but it doesn’t have to be. That was the whole principle behind Luke’s Gospel. By 60 or 61 AD when Luke writes that Gospel, Matthew and Mark’s accounts of the life of Jesus were already being spread throughout the church. Matthew, of course, was one of the original 12 disciples. Mark seems to be the record of Peter’s account. The Holy Spirit used their personal knowledge of Jesus’ words and works to inspire their record. But the Spirit worked differently through Luke.

Luke had accompanied Paul on his third missionary trip, so he knew the teachings of Jesus and what they meant. But Luke was a doctor, and even though medicine was different in those days, good doctors of every time period learn to treat people by observation and study. So that’s how Luke set about writing his Gospel. In verse three he says, “since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning…” Luke investigate. He interviewed. And what we have because of that is a record of Jesus’ life that is more personal and more detailed in many ways than either of the Gospels that came before.

For example, it’s Luke’s Gospel that records the Christmas account in chapter two. And not just the things that happened, but how it made the people feel. Luke tells us that “Mary pondered these things and treasured them up in her heart.” How could he know? Certainly, the Holy Spirit could have given him the insight, but don’t you think that among his interviews, the mother of Jesus would be at the top of the list? Time and again, it’s Luke that gives us insight into what the women were experiencing during Jesus’ ministry. As a Gentile himself, Luke explains for us some of the Jewish customs that we don’t know either. Luke pours his medical knowledge into his gospel as he doesn’t just tell us that Jesus healed people, but what he healed them from.

Like a musician blowing breath through an instrument, the Holy Spirit breathes through the men who wrote God’s Word down. The Word is “flavored” by the penman in the same way that the quality of an instrument flavors the tone or richness of a song. In Luke’s case, that meant a Gospel written for Gentiles, like us, with details meant to make us more certain of the things we’ve been taught. A Gospel that points to Jesus’ humanity again and again and shows us that Christian faith means forgiveness from our sins. A consistent message from both those who were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection, AND the evangelist who investigated it and found it all to be true.

When I was in college, there may have been a time or two when I didn’t have, or didn’t take, time to read a whole assignment I was supposed to. Happens to us all, right? What does every smart student do then? Well, now they go to the internet, but that barely existed back then. No, you read the first chapter and the last and then try to bluff your way through the class discussion!

We’re not bluffing our way through the sermon today, but I definitely can’t share 24 chapters of Gospel excellence with you in one message. So our text from Luke’s Gospel today follows that old college shortcut. We’ve talked about the four verses at the beginning of the letter. Now let’s look at the verses at the end.

Luke’s investigative Gospel comes to a crescendo in the last chapter, chapter 24. It begins with Jesus dead in the tomb, three days after his crucifixion. But then, in those familiar words, we walk with the women to the tomb and find the stone rolled away. Jesus, not dead but alive! Luke names the women coming back from the tomb. He tells us about two disciples on the road to Emmaus – their despair at Jesus’ crucifixion and then their joy in seeing their Lord alive. Finally, Luke’s account returns to Jerusalem and the disciples gathered there. And then Luke, who was inspired to write this account for our certainly of faith, records Jesus doing exactly that for his disciples. He told them, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. “Then he opened their minds so 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.’”

Everything that the Spirit recorded through the pen of Luke had happened exactly as it was supposed to. Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures that described the Savior’s coming and work. He had died and risen on the third day just as was foretold. And Jesus says as a result that “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” would be preached, not just in Jerusalem but to all nations. By the hands of men and the breath of God the inspired Word calls us away from our sins and to our Savior’s promises.

The Savior who prayed from the cross, “Father forgive them,” has in fact accomplished the very thing he prayed for. That’s the comfort we have as we thank God for His work through Luke’s Gospel. It’s the hope we know made more certain as we wait for the Last Day, standing as we are at the beginning of the End. Through Luke and others we have heard and seen what the Lord has done. And that faith means forgiveness for us, and for all who believe through our telling.

Luke ends his Gospel with a simple account of Jesus’ ascension back into heaven. A group of believers gathered around their Savior, watching the heavens open to receive the King of Kings. In Luke’s sequel to his Gospel (what we call the book of Acts) Luke records that there were angels at Jesus’ ascension who told the disciples that Jesus would return the same way he left. As we begin this last season of the Church Year, may we find peace in God’s Word and certainty in his promises. The God who died and rose, who ascended, who gave words to Luke, who gives faith to us – He will return and bring his forgiven people home. God bless us in faith and keep us in forgiveness. Amen.