God’s Word is our Shield of Faith in Battle
In our church we observe the saints’ days not to worship the saints in heaven, or pray to them, but only “so that we may follow the example of their faith and good works” (Augsburg Confession, Article 21). We hear from Scripture about them. The point is that they made it to heaven; they were sinners like us, and we’ll make it too. This is about being exhorted from God’s Word to keep going, to keep following Jesus no matter what, to be encouraged in faith and love.
October 18 is the day set aside to remember St. Luke. He is one of the four evangelists. “Evangelist” to us means someone who is sharing the Gospel. But in Luke’s case – while he did do that as the traveling companion of Paul – it means he published the Gospel. The four evangelists are the men who wrote the divinely inspired gospel accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
It’s moving to hear that Luke gave the ultimate witness in his death as a martyr. But his real importance is that God chose him to write the words that became the third gospel. He wrote as directed by the Holy Spirit (2Pe 1:21), meaning that God speaks through the words Luke wrote down. As God’s Word, it’s also “the sword of the Spirit,” a strong means of protection for you from the devil’s schemes and influence.
St. Luke 1:1-4; Ephesians 6:11, 16-17. Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil … above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Guard our faith by the truth; Your Word is truth. By Your Word written through St. Luke, help us to have certainty in those things in which we were instructed, that we may be healed eternally. Amen.
In the name of Him who heals You by His Word, dear fellow redeemed:
The gospel according to St. Luke is a letter. You know how letters begin? “Dear (name),” called a salutation, that’s how they begin. Then you sign your name at the end. Luke starts with a salutation to a man named Theophilus: “It seemed good to me to write you, most excellent Theophilus …”
But when you get to the end of the 24th and final chapter, he doesn’t sign his name. He does say, “Amen.” But it’s a letter that’s “to be continued,” in The Acts of the Apostles. Acts begins with another salutation, to the same man: “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.” The book of Acts doesn’t end “Signed, Luke.” It ends with Paul in prison, preaching the Gospel “with all confidence.” Who could write this? Someone who was with Paul, of whom Paul writes from prison, “Only Luke is with me” and “Luke, the beloved physician, greets you” (2Ti 4:11, Col 4:14).
We’ll talk first about Luke as the human author of this book. Who was he?
Luke was a doctor. He was highly educated. Along with Paul, he’s about the most educated person you meet in the pages of the New Testament. Unlike Paul – who was tutored by the great Jewish rabbi Gamaliel – Luke got the best secular education available. Of the 66 books in the Bible, the only ones not written by a Jew are Luke’s. He’s the only Gentile author in the Bible. He didn’t grow up learning the Old Testament, the Bible of Jesus’ day. He read Greek philosophers, including Hippocrates, who was important in the medical field.
For a long time in life, Luke didn’t know the true God. His culture was plastered with idols representing the Greek gods. We don’t know the effect it had, but in Acts 17 he records Paul’s agitation with all the idols in Athens. He put into writing a condemnation of the religious life he grew up in. Apart from that, there was another obstacle for him to be open to the Lord: his field of work valued intellect and science over faith. He saw lots of death and disease, and what medicine could or couldn’t do. He probably had no time for talk of angels and demons and the supernatural but only what medicine and science could do, what the intellect could know.
And yet I think it’s obvious that Luke was not won by great arguments. He was not persuaded into God’s kingdom. Luke the doctor was won by compassion, the compassion of Christ. Luke who is associated so closely in Christian tradition with art and poetry was won by the Savior who is divine Beauty in human form. Christ, the Word made flesh – which speaks to how human flesh can be hurt, which spoke to the physician in Luke.
This happened for Luke through the Word that was preached to him – for “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” As he describes the conversion of Lydia in Acts 16 – “the Lord [Jesus] opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul” – he’s describing what happened to himself.
This is the story of the human author of the third gospel, Luke the doctor. But we are seeing God’s side of it now. First the miracle that Luke came to believe in Christ, to say “Jesus is Lord,” that the Holy Spirit overcame Luke’s reliance on the evidence of observable things in medicine and science, so that he would see by faith. And then the miracle of the inspiration of the Scriptures, that Luke was chosen quite unexpectedly to be one of the “holy men of God who spoke [wrote] as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
We ask: Why did God choose Luke, of all people, to write one of the gospels? This brings us to the words of today’s epistle about the kingdom of Satan and everyone’s need to “put on the armor of God.” St. Paul writes: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.”
You would expect a physician trained in human wisdom like Luke to downplay the role of the evil spirits and demons, and even of the angels, and to direct people to medicine and science and observable things. We live in a world steeped in these same rationalistic ways of thinking, where we are bullied into believing in human progress. But it’s not just that “the elites” or higher education are opposed to Christianity and the Bible. Satan’s behind it.
Satan wants you to think of the world only in terms of what you see. The devil wants you to lean on your own resources, to judge yourself by how you make your own way or avoid doing stupid things. He wants you to not make use of or have recourse or connection to God’s gifts, and what God says to you in His Word about how things really are. He wants you to think that out there is the “real world,” and we do talk that way, foolishly and sinfully and trying to be worldly wise. But most importantly in so doing we cut ourselves off from what God’s doing, from His reality and including you in it.
So God chose Luke, the physician, to especially bring this message, not to downplay the reality of the devils but to highlight it. When Luke tells about Jesus healing the sick he also says that “demons also came out of many.” In his gospel and in Acts he shows what the demons are like, how strong they are. But he also shows how Jesus’ word is powerful over the devil.
It’s Luke who records that the seventy whom Jesus sent out to preach, when they came back said to Jesus, “even the demons are subject to us in Your name,” and He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” It was in their preaching of God’s Word! Jesus was saying – and God caused Luke the physician to write it down – that His Word conquers the devil and undoes his work. His Word is truly “the sword of the Spirit,” which is the only offensive weapon in the armor of God. But it’s also “our shield of faith in battle.” It protects you against all that the devil can do.
But how His Word protects you is something Luke shows in a special way. Luke is the “gospel of the compassionate Savior.” It’s Christ’s compassion that defeats the devil. It’s tempting to think such a thing as compassion is too weak to fight Satan with. But when the arrows of guilt and shame pierce you, when you feel too weak and don’t overcome – Luke’s is the gospel for you.
Though he’s so highly educated, his gospel is like a little child, full of wonder, telling the story. He loves the songs – Zacharias’ song, Mary’s, the angels’ song, Simeon’s. The only story of Jesus’ childhood is in Luke. The parables he writes that no one else did, they’re the ones a child understands: the good Samaritan, the Pharisee and tax collector, the rich man and Lazarus, the lost sheep, the prodigal son, the widow who just keeps asking.
Luke shows us that while you do have a foot in this world that’s haunted by the devil, sickness and death, a world with grown-up problems – he remained a practicing doctor, after all – you’re walking in God’s kingdom, which is only children’s voices, angels singing, and the Lord Jesus embracing you. And what you receive from God, even in this life, is only compassion.
Look at what only Luke shows us: Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, picturing His compassion even for people foolishly rejecting Him. Jesus anguishing so that an angel has to comfort Him. Jesus forgiving the sinful woman who’s crying all over Him. Jesus telling the grieving mother “do not weep.” Jesus raising her son from death and giving him back to her. Jesus having mercy on the lepers. Jesus forgiving the dishonest wee little man Zacchaeus, then going to be a guest in his house and declaring “salvation has come to him.” Jesus praying for Peter before his denial. Jesus giving Peter a look of love right after Peter disowned Him. Jesus saying from the cross:
· “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
· “Truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
· “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
Luke reveals that this compassion is for you, to heal you from all your sins and to provide healing for your wounded soul. The Word of God, the words of God, written by Luke by inspiration, are for you the Spirit’s sword that attacks the devil and his lies, and the shield of faith that protects you so that although you have sins they don’t hurt you. The Gospel heals you. Amen!