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The Church of Joy, Williamson Ga

Introduction - The Gospel of Luke

Introduction - The Gospel of Luke

Sunday Morning Sermon by Pastor Vaughn Drawdy

Locations & Times

The Church of Joy

3080 GA-362, Williamson, GA 30292, USA

Sunday 10:45 AM

Solomon asked this question as he dedicated the temple.
"Will God really dwell on earth?"
This is a good question, indeed!

1. God had dwelt with Israel-
God’s glory had dwelt in the Tabernacle: Ex. 40:34
The Israelites finished the tabernacle as instructed by Moses… Once completed: Exodus 40:34-36 (NIV) 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
2. God dwelt with His people in the Temple: 1 Kings 8:10-11
1 Kings 8:10-11 (NIV) 10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

3. But God’s glory departed from Israel because of their disobedience:
Ezek. 9:3
Ezek. 10:4, 8
Ezek. 11:22-23

For many years God was silent. His glory did not appear.
Then the marvelous thing happened.

4. The Glory of God came to His people again, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The writers of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) have given us “snapshots” of our Lord’s life on earth. Though the Gospels give us a good picture of the life and ministry of Jesus, we still don’t know it all, even John said this:
John 21:25 (NIV) 25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

There is still much that we do not know...
I will say this, there is more here in the Gospels than we will have time in our life to understand and live out.

A Quick Comparative Look:
Matthew wrote with his fellow Jews in mind and emphasized that Jesus of Nazareth had fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies and that He was the Messiah.

Mark presented the Servant, ministering to needy people.

Luke wrote his Gospel for the Greeks and introduced them to the sympathetic Son of man.

But John had a different focus and purpose. The Holy Spirit inspired his words to be for both the Jews and the Gentiles. John presented Jesus as the Son of God.
We know that John had (non-Jews) Gentiles in mind as well as Jews, because he often “interpreted or ("which means") Jewish words and customs for his readers: (a few examples)
John 1:38, 41-42
John 5:2
John 9:7
John 19:13, 17
John 20:16
John’s emphasis to the Jews was that Jesus not only fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies, but He also fulfilled the types.

TYPES: Typology is a special kind of symbolism in Jewish writing. (A symbol is something which represents something else.) We can define a type as a “prophetic symbol” because all types are representations of something yet future. More specifically, a type in scripture is a person or thing in the Old Testament which foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament. For example, the flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 6-7) is used as a type of baptism in 1 Peter 3:20-21.
John uniquely reveals Jesus as:
>The Lamb of God (this is language regarding the sacrificial lamb)
>Jesus is the Ladder from Heaven to earth (John 1:51/ Gen. 28)
>Jesus is the New Temple (John 2:19-21)
>Jesus gives new birth (John 3:4)
>Jesus is the one lifted up (John 3:14)
>Jesus is the bread of God that came down from Heaven (John 6:35)

The first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) major on describing EVENTS in the life of Christ, John emphasized the MEANING of these events. For example, all four Gospels record the feeding of the 5,000.

SEE: (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:31-44; Luke 9:12-17)They all read about the same way…
John start out by telling you the event as well:
John 6:1-25
But John does something that the other Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) did not do: John emphasized the MEANING of these events.
See John 6:26-35
Last thought for this morning:
There is one MAJOR theme that runs throughout John’s Gospel: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and if you commit yourself to Him, He will give you eternal life (John 20:31).

We will explore this truth as we unpack the amazing book.

Next week we will look into the first chapter at the seven names and titles of Jesus that identify Him as eternal God.

Spend some time in John this week. Start by praying… enjoy reading it… don’t get bogged down in list and comparisons yet. Just read it and soak it in.