Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Luke? Luke, chapter 1, the first four verses.
Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us,
even as they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,
it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus;
that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed.
Chapter 19, verse 10.
For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
And then chapter 24, verses 50 through 53.
And He led them out until they were over against Bethany: and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them.
And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.
And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
and were continually in the temple, blessing God.
There we look to the Lord.
Dear heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee for the privilege of knowing Thy Son, of knowing Thee, because knowing Thee is eternal life. Father, we do praise and thank Thee that we can gather together to worship and to remember what Thy Son has done for us.
Our Father, as we continue in Thy presence, we pray that Thou wilt open Thy Word to us. Open our eyes to Thy Word, that we may really see Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We know that Luke was a Greek, and he was a physician by profession. Antioch was Greek, and he was a physician. Therefore, you find that he was very much interested in human beings.
He tells us that, even though he was not an eyewitness of what had happened, yet he had investigated accurately. Out of his investigation, he desired to write what he had found to Theophilus, that Theophilus might understand that all that he had believed was reliable.
We do not know who Theophilus was. Probably he was a nobleman of that time, because it was the custom of that time that whenever a writer wrote something, he usually dedicated his writing to a nobleman.
Whether Theophilus was a nobleman at that time or not, it really does not make much difference, because we know that the name Theophilus means “lover of God.” So here you find one who is a lover of God, and for the lover of God this Gospel is presented, that he may know the Jesus in whom he believes.
Dear brothers and sisters, in a sense we are all Theophilus. We are all lovers of God. And if we love God, then we need to have a revelation of who Jesus is.
In the Gospel according to Luke, Luke finds that Jesus is the perfect Man. He is the Son of Man. He is the God-Man. He shares what he has understood with us. Therefore, in this Gospel according to Luke, the Lord Jesus is presented to us as the perfect Man, the Son of Man.
You know, brothers and sisters, God is always interested in man. That is why He created man in the first place. And when you think of redemption, Hebrews 2:16 says that God does not take hold of angels, but He takes hold of the seed of Abraham. In other words, redemption is for the sake of man.
In Psalm 16, which prophesies of our Lord Jesus, it says:
As for the saints that are in the earth,
they are the excellent in whom is all My delight.
Again, you find Proverbs 8, which is also speaking of the Lord Jesus. It says that His delight was with the sons of men. So you see, God is always interested in man.
You know, sometimes we make a very serious mistake. We do not want to be human beings; we want to be angels. But God is more interested in human beings than in angels. He wants us to be human beings.
The problem today is that man is subnormal, abnormal. If only we can be normal, if only we can be the man after God’s own heart, then you will find this is what God is really looking for.
Sometimes we think that to be spiritual, we have to be less human. But that is a serious mistake. I remember our dear brother Watchman used to say, “If you want to be spiritual, you must be human first. If you cannot be human, how can you be spiritual?”
To be not of the world, to be heavenly, does not mean that you become less human. On the contrary, the salvation of the Lord is to bring us into that humanity which God ordained from the very beginning.
Look at the Lord Jesus. He is that perfect Man. He is a Man after God’s own heart. He is the Man that God looks for. Therefore, we find that God’s interest is really centered upon man. So do not try to be angels, but try to be human beings.
From the Word of God, we find that God’s interest in man is very evident. For instance, in Genesis 1:26-27, you find that God created man in His own image. In His own image He created him; male and female He created them.
And as God created man, He blessed them and said to them:
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
That shows how God’s interest is in man. Then, when you come to Psalm 8, you find:
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?
For Thou hast made him but little lower than God,
and crownest him with glory and honor.
Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands.
We know that Psalm 8 is literally fulfilled first, basically, in our Lord Jesus. In Hebrews 2, we find:
But we behold Him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus,
because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor,
that by the grace of God He should taste of death for every man.
Then, when you come to 1 Corinthians 15, you find that we who have borne the image of the earthy shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
In other words, you find that our Lord Jesus actually is the second Man. You know, in the eyes of God, in the whole world throughout all the centuries, there are only two men. Now we see millions of people, but in God’s eyes there are only two men.
In 1 Corinthians 15, we are told that the first man was made of earth—that is Adam—and the second Man is from heaven—that is Christ. There are two men, and Christ is the beginning of a new mankind, a new race. As He is, so shall we be, we who believe in Him.
So from all these verses, you can see that God’s interest is really upon mankind, upon human beings. He wants us to be men and women after His own heart.
When you come to the history of a man, several things are of great importance: first, birth; second, growth; third, work, service, or ministry; and fourth, death. In the Gospel according to Luke, these four things are recorded with method.
Of all the four Gospels, the Gospel according to Luke gives us the most detailed story of the birth of our Lord Jesus. In the Gospel according to Mark, His birth was not even mentioned. Why? Because the Gospel according to Mark presents to us Christ as the Servant of God, or as the slave of God. Who is interested in the birth of a slave?
But here, because Christ Jesus is presented to us as Man, His birth is very carefully described.
Now, we know that the birth of John the Baptist was supernatural because his parents were far advanced in age. They had no children, and they had no way of having children. They had given up hope completely. Yet, in a marvelous way, God came in, and John was born.
So John, the forerunner of our Lord Jesus, was born supernaturally. But even though he was born supernaturally, he was naturally supernatural, because he was born of natural parents.
But, dear brothers and sisters, when you come to the birth of our Lord Jesus, you find that it is really unique. It is completely supernatural. Why? Because our Lord Jesus was born through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit upon the womb of the virgin Mary.
This is of tremendous importance. Why? Because if our Lord Jesus had been born of natural human parents, He would invariably have inherited the sinful nature of Adam.
Adam, the first man, is the federal head of mankind. Therefore, everyone who comes out of Adam inherits from Adam the sinful nature. If the Lord Jesus had been born of natural parents, He would have inherited that sinful nature. And if He had had a sinful nature, then He could not be our Savior. He could not be our Substitute, because only the sinless can be the Substitute for the sinful.
That is the reason why the incarnation of our Lord Jesus was through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. When the Lord was born, He was fully sinless. He is the Holy One of Israel. He is the sinless One. He did not inherit from Adam that sinful nature. He who knew no sin not only never committed anything sinful; He did not even have a sinful nature. He did not know what sin was.
He was born by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit upon the virgin Mary.
When God wanted to use a virgin to bring forth His beloved Son, of all the thousands and tens of thousands of women, God chose one virgin, Mary. Why? She was the favored one, the blessed one. But why was she chosen? Because God found in her a spiritual suitability for His purpose.
When the angel told her that she would bear a Son, at first she did not understand. How could it be? When it was explained to her that it would be through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, do you know what she said?
Behold, the handmaid of the Lord;
be it unto me according to thy word.
This was most difficult, in a sense, because a virgin carrying a child—what would people say? What would her husband say? According to the custom of the Jews, if any woman bore a child before marriage, she was considered an adulteress, and those who accused her could cast stones upon her.
Yet here you find the virgin Mary, who was willing to give herself completely to God, that the Son of God might become the Son of Man. There was a spiritual suitability there.
Christ was born. In God’s eyes, He is the second Man. That is to say, He is the beginning of a new race, the beginning of a new mankind.
This is very clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 15. If you turn to 1 Corinthians 15:45-49:
So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
So, brothers and sisters, we once came out of Adam, the first man, made of dust. We bore the image of Adam, the one made of dust. But thank God, through our Lord Jesus, we now come into the second Man. We come out of the second Man, and because we come out of the second Man, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly One.
This is the Gospel. This is the reason why we must be born again.
Once we were born through natural parents, through the seed of Adam. We were born out of Adam, and because we were born out of Adam, we were made of dust. We inherited the sinful nature in us. We were sinners when we were born.
Oftentimes we think that we become sinners after we commit sin. But according to the Word of God, in Romans 5, we are told that by the disobedience of one man many were constituted sinners. In other words, because we all belong to Adam, our father, we have all been made sinners. When we were born, we were already sinners, even before we had committed anything.
But thank God, even though once we were born of Adam, we were sinners and were of the dust, yet when we repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, we are born from God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We are born into the family of God. We receive a new life, the life of the second Man, a heavenly life. That is what we are today by the Gospel, by the grace of God.
So, dear friends, if anyone here has not been born again, no matter how moral you are, no matter how good you are, remember: if you are of Adam, in Adam all die. But in Christ all shall be made alive. How important it is that we be found in the second Man, in Christ.
Now, the second thing that is important in the life of a man is his growth. Of the four Gospels, only the Gospel according to Luke gives us some history of His growth.
In the Gospel according to Luke, you find that after our Lord Jesus was born, He was circumcised on the eighth day. Why? Because this brings in His covenant relationship with God. God made a covenant with Abraham that every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day. Circumcision is a sign of His covenant with the children of Israel.
If any child of Israel was not circumcised, he was not considered as belonging to the commonwealth of Israel; that is, he was outside the covenant of God. So our Lord Jesus, when He was born, was circumcised on the eighth day. On the day of circumcision, He was given the name Jesus, the name given by the angel. Of course, we know it was given by God. It means, “He shall save His people from their sins.”
After He was circumcised, in Luke 2 you find that His parents went to the temple to present Him to God. This was according to the law, because according to the law the firstborn belongs to God. Jesus was brought to the temple to be presented to God, that He might have not only a covenant relationship but also a divine relationship with God.
Then He went to Nazareth. There is just one sentence telling us what happened in His childhood. It is in Luke 2:40:
And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him.
After He was born, circumcised, and presented to God, His parents brought Him back to Nazareth. There you find that He grew up. It is said that He waxed strong; that is physical. Physically, He was getting stronger. He was filled with wisdom; that is, mentally, He was developing. And God’s grace was upon Him; spiritually, He had the grace of God. It was a most normal growth.
When you think of normal growth, you must think of three sides: the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. With a child, the physical comes first. The Bible says He waxed strong. Physically, He became stronger and bigger. Then, mentally, He was filled with wisdom. Thirdly, the grace of God was upon Him. It was a perfect growth in His childhood.
We do not know anything about Him until He reached the age of twelve. Again, you find that this is the only place recorded in the Gospel according to Luke. When He was twelve years old, He was brought by His parents to Jerusalem, to the temple, to worship.
During those days, when a boy reached the age of twelve, he was made a son of the law, a bar mitzvah. Today, among the Orthodox Jews, bar mitzvah is at age thirteen, but at that time it was at the age of twelve.
Evidently, when the Lord Jesus was twelve years old, His parents went to the temple, and there He was made a son of the law. What does it mean to be a son of the law? It means that before the law He was now a true member of the people of God. He had the right to read the oracles of God, to ask questions, and to answer questions. He became a full-fledged member of the synagogue.
Something happened. Usually, when they went to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, after the feast was over, everybody went home. The parents did the same thing. Those who came from Nazareth usually traveled in groups. The adults traveled together and talked together, and the children traveled together.
The parents thought that Jesus must be with the other children of His age. It was not until night that they discovered that He was not there. It took them three days to find Him in the temple. In other words, His parents returned home, but He remained in the temple.
When His mother said, “Child, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? Behold, Thy father and I sought Thee sorrowing,” the Lord Jesus said:
How is it that ye sought Me?
Knew ye not that I must be in My Father’s house?
In other words, at the age of twelve, when He was made a son of the law, He was fully conscious of His relationship with God His Father. Of course, the Lord Jesus is God, but He is also Man. He is perfect God and perfect Man.
From the human standpoint, as He grew up, there was increasingly within Him a consciousness of His divine relationship with God—a consciousness that He was God’s Son. This consciousness grew increasingly until, at the age of twelve, He was fully conscious of His relationship with God His Father. Because of this, He must be occupied with His Father’s business. So He stayed behind in the temple.
But even so, He was still a minor, only twelve years of age. Though He was fully conscious of His divine relationship with God the Father, He was also a perfect Man. Therefore, as a minor, He obeyed His parents. He went back to Nazareth and stayed with them. What a balance between humanity and divinity.
From twelve years of age to thirty years of age, He remained hidden in the hilly village of Nazareth, out of the way. He had never been to school—that is, to a formal school—yet He was in the school of God His Father.
Humanly, you find that He learned the trade of a carpenter. He must have been a tremendous carpenter, because they called Him the carpenter. He learned the trade of a carpenter and lived a perfectly normal life, a perfect human life.
During those hidden years, He was trained in the school of God. We do not really know what happened during those formative years, but the Bible gives us one sentence, in Luke 2:52:
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
From babyhood to childhood, the most evident growth is physical. As a teenager and young man, from twelve to thirty, the most evident growth should be mental—wisdom. So you find that Jesus advanced in wisdom. His mind grew. He advanced in wisdom, but also in stature, until He was thirty years old.
Then you find that He was in favor with God and men. He was in favor with God through all these years, until He was thirty years old.
When He stepped out, the first thing He did was to be baptized by John the Baptist. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. But here was a perfect Man who had nothing to repent of.
Brothers and sisters, is there anyone in the whole world who has nothing to repent of? I am afraid we have too many things to repent of. Many things we have forgotten, which we should repent of. But here you find our Lord Jesus, the perfect Man. He had nothing to repent of.
Yet He came to be baptized by John. At first John wanted to prevent Him, because John saw something in that Man—so perfect, so noble. He said, “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” But the Lord said, “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”
Here you find that our Lord Jesus identified Himself with those repentant souls. God was calling men to repent, and here was the perfect Man who had nothing to repent of, yet He identified Himself with those who repent in order that He might offer Himself as their sacrifice.
Therefore, after He was baptized, the Holy Spirit came down upon Him as a dove. Now, the dove in Scripture is the sacrifice of the poor. When a poor man could not afford a lamb, then a poor man’s sacrifice was a dove.
Here you find our Lord Jesus offering Himself to God by the eternal Spirit, spotless as a dove, as a sacrifice for the poor. Thank God for our Lord Jesus.
My brothers and sisters, this is the growth of our Lord. In a sense, in our union with Christ, we also need such growth. After we are born again, there should be an increasing consciousness of our relationship with God.
We are now children of God. As children of God, should we not be occupied with our Father’s business? I do believe that, in union with Christ, as we grow in Christ, there should be a growing sense that we belong to God, that we are here for His sake, and that we are not here just to live for ourselves.
We are not here to be occupied with our own business, but we are here to do the Father’s will, to be occupied with the Father’s business. Because of that, how we need to commit ourselves to Him for that purpose. I believe this should be an increasing consciousness within us.
Now, it is true that we have other duties and other obligations. But just as our Lord Jesus, when He was twelve years old, was fully conscious of His relationship with His Father and desired to be fully occupied with His Father’s business, yet, being a minor, He still had His duty to obey His parents—and He did.
Even though we have other duties and obligations, these are not contradictory to our consciousness that we must serve God. On the contrary, through all these conflicts and combinations, we will grow in a balanced way, and we will mature.
As we grow in the Lord, we can be occupied with the Father’s business even when we are occupied with other things. We begin to realize that the Father’s business is our vocation.
Under His rule and ordering, we may be husbands, wives, students, physicians, teachers, or this or that. But all these are our occupations. Our vocation is to serve our God, our Father. By doing these occupations, we fulfill our vocation.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we need to grow spiritually as our Lord Jesus did, because He is our Head.
Thirdly, in the history of man is his work, his service. After you have grown up, of course, you need to work, to serve, to do things. Here you find that when our Lord Jesus was thirty years old, He stepped out into the limelight of the world.
You read the Gospel according to Luke, actually from chapter 4 to chapter 21, and it tells us what our Lord Jesus did and what He said. He traveled from village to village and from city to city. He preached the Gospel, cast out demons, and healed the sick.
He spoke words of grace, and He did deeds of authority. Our Lord Jesus did many things, even though He only worked for three years, perhaps a little over three years.
According to the Gospel of John, John said that if all that our Lord Jesus did while He was on earth were written, even the whole world could not contain the books. In three and a half years, He did a great deal. He said a great deal. But whatever He said was truth, and whatever He did was grace.
Dear brothers and sisters, remember one thing: in spite of the many things He did and the many words He spoke, He was not on earth for success or popularity. He said these things and did these things because He was doing the will of His Father.
Throughout His life, especially during those public years, everything He said and everything He did was not out of Himself. It was for the will of His heavenly Father. That was the one thing within Him: He gave His whole life to do the will of the Father.
Another thing you can notice is how interested He was in human beings. He was interested in all men—not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles; not only those who were respectable, like Nicodemus, but also sinners and publicans. He was interested in all.
He touched them not only with divinity but also with humanity. This is the goodness of our Lord.
In a sense, brothers and sisters, in union with our Lord Jesus, we are also here to serve. God may use us in many different ways. We may do many different things. But one thing let us remember: whatever we do, whatever we say, it must be for the glory of God.
We are not here working for success. We are not here seeking popularity. We are here to do the will of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the grace of our Lord Jesus. That should characterize everything we do and everything we say.
Finally, of course, there is death. This is recorded in Luke 22 through 24. We call it the death of our Lord Jesus, but the death of our Lord Jesus is unique.
His death is supernatural in a sense. He did not die a natural death. He did not even die the death of a martyr.
When martyrs die for the Lord Jesus, thousands and thousands of them glorify God in their death. For instance, Stephen, the first martyr in Acts, when they stoned him to death, saw heaven opened. He saw the Son of Man standing there, waiting to welcome him. When he knelt down, he prayed, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Glorious!
But, dear brothers and sisters, when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He did not die a martyr’s death. Why? Because He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Is that a martyr’s death? No.
He died a death that was substitutionary and vicarious. In other words, He died a holy death.
Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf;
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
When He was hanging on the cross, during the first three hours, He was suffering from the hands of men and from the enemies of darkness. But at twelve o’clock, the sun was darkened, and He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
From twelve o’clock to three o’clock, He suffered not from the hands of men, nor from the devil. He suffered at the hands of His beloved Father. God judged Him on the cross. Why? He became the sin-bearer of the world. His death was vicarious and substitutionary.
Because of His death, we die no more. He was raised from the dead on the third day. He appeared to His disciples, and then He ascended to heaven.
There is now a Man in glory. Brothers and sisters, the Gospel according to Luke begins with a baby in a manger, and it ends with a Man in glory.
In union with Christ, in His death and resurrection, we are raised from the dead. In His ascension, we are now seated with Him in the heavenlies. Thank God for all that He has done for us.
But, you know, brothers and sisters, the most important thing is the life of a person. Even more important than what he says or what he does is his person—his personality. What kind of person is he? What kind of personality does he leave with the world? I think that is the most important thing.
What you say and what you do are simply the outward expression of your person, of your personality. What is personality? To me, personality is the sum total of character. Throughout the years, you build up your character, and the sum total of your character is your personality. That is what your person is. That is what you are.
Brothers and sisters, I often think that God never wants to get rid of our individuality, but certainly God wants to change our personality.
Each of us is a person, an individual, and God made us that way. No two persons are exactly alike. Physically, no two persons are exactly alike. Even twins are not one hundred percent alike; there is something different.
A friend of mine used to tell me, “Look at the face. How many elements do you have in that small area? Only a few: two eyebrows, two eyes, one nose, one mouth, two ears. That is all you have. Only a few factors. Yet God can put all these few factors in a small area, and among billions and billions of people, no two persons are alike. Is that not a miracle?”
God has something more than that. Not only are your features different, but your temperament is different. God makes our souls all different. You have one temperament; I have another temperament. That makes us our individuality. You are you, and I am me.
It is not God’s will that you should be me and I should be you. We like to copy and copy, you know. God does not like copies. Everyone is the first thing. So be yourself. That is what God wants you to be. He made you that way. That is what you are. This is our individuality.
Our individuality remains to eternity. Even in the New Jerusalem, the twelve foundation stones are different stones, because one is Peter and one is John, and Peter and John are vastly different. Peter was an extrovert, and John was an introvert. But thank God, God can use everyone. No matter what your temperament is, if you let God control you, He can use it.
Individuality remains, but our personality must be changed. In other words, the character of Christ must be built up. You have the character of Adam, and I have another combination of Adam’s character. That is all Adam’s character—no good.
Our character has to be changed and developed. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, this new life in us has a new nature. If we follow that new nature and cultivate that nature, then we will develop a new character, even the character of Christ.
When people see you, they do not see you; they see Christ. Christ is expressed through you. His personality is being produced through your individuality. That is glorious. This is the purpose of God with mankind.
Here you find our Lord Jesus, the perfect Man. God sent Him into the world to be a model, in a sense. God says that we shall all be conformed to Him. He is more than a model, of course, because He puts His very life within us. As His life is allowed to develop in us, then He will be formed in us.
The Bible says, “Conformed to His image,” and it says, “Christ formed in you.” So, brothers and sisters, when we come to this record of Christ as the perfect Man, we need to know His personality. We need to know His human character, the character with which God is well pleased.
Now, if you read the Gospel according to Luke, there is too much for us to explain in a few minutes, but I think there are a few things that stand out.
Number one: if you read about Christ as a Man, the one thing that strikes you most prominently is that He is transparent. He is real. He is true.
What does it mean? It means that He is not a person who lives one way privately and another way publicly. He is not a person who lives one way before men and another way behind men. He is not a person who says something one way and does something another way.
Our Lord Jesus was the same within and without. Before God, this is what He was. Before men, this is what He was. Before His enemies, this is what He was. Before people, strangers, this is what He was. He did not put on anything. There was no façade. He was crystal clear. He was transparent.
Brothers and sisters, can you find a man more transparent than our Lord Jesus? Sin makes us hide ourselves. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, when they heard the voice of God coming, they hid themselves among the trees.
Sin makes us hide ourselves. That is the reason why no person on earth is transparent. We cannot afford to be transparent. If there were an X-ray that could show all that is going on in your mind, brothers and sisters, you would want to sink into the depths of the sea.
We are not transparent. We are hiding all the time. We hide from each other. We cannot afford to be open or transparent because we know there is too much in us that cannot go into the light.
But not our Lord Jesus. He is transparent. Even His enemies had to concede this. They came to Him to tempt Him, and they said, “Master, we know that Thou teachest the way of God in truth, and regardest not the person of men.”
That kind of person never tries to be political, to maneuver, to be diplomatic, or to play hands. He is so transparent. That is the kind of person our Lord Jesus was.
Because He is so transparent, He can see you through. Nothing can be hidden from Him. You do not need to say anything to Him; He already knows. He is transparent.
Sometimes we are honest—though most of the time we are not. But suppose we are honest. We can be honest, but we can also be naïve. Many honest people are very naïve, unfortunately. Even though we are honest, we can be deceived.
But being transparent means that you are not only honest; you are real, you are true, you are crystal clear. You see things through. That is the reason why the Bible says the spiritual man discerneth all things. He can see through everything.
This is our Lord Jesus: transparent. Why is He transparent? Because He lives by His heart. He lives by the truth. There is nothing before and behind. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is one character that needs to be developed. How opaque we are. How dark we are. How we need the blood to cleanse us. How we need the cross to purify us, that transparency may be developed within us.
Before enemies, people, friends, people in secret, and people in public, may we be the same person.
One day, thank God, when the work of God is complete in eternity, in the New Jerusalem, you know what? The New Jerusalem is a city that is transparent. Even the gold is transparent, clear as crystal.
You never can find gold on earth that is transparent; there is no such thing. But in eternity, you find the streets paved with gold, and the gold is like clear glass. Transparency.
Spiritually, a street means fellowship. Fellowship is in transparency. There is no shadow, no shade, no hiding. It is open. It is clear. That is what the grace of God is able to do. May the Lord bring more transparency.
Then you find in the life of our Lord Jesus as a human being that He lived a life of dependence—utter dependence.
When God created man, He created man to be dependent upon Him. Sin is a declaration of independence toward God. Adam and Eve said, “We do not need God. We are gods ourselves.” That is sin.
But here you find our Lord Jesus, the perfect Man. He lived a life of utter dependence upon God.
Dependence does not mean that you are weak, that you have no backbone, or that you become very passive. Not at all. You find our Lord Jesus very dedicated. His life was full of power. Yet His power and dedication were dependent upon God His Father.
He said, “I can do nothing of Myself.” “I do it because My Father does it.” “I can say nothing of Myself, because I have heard My Father say it.” In other words, His whole life was dependent upon God. He never acted independently from God.
That is a man whom God desires, because in our dependence upon God, we find our fulfillment.
How do we know that the Lord Jesus lived a life of dependence? I think there is one sign that is very evident. Of all the Gospels, in the Gospel according to Luke, you find more records of how our Lord Jesus prayed.
Why do you pray? Why do we pray? If you are independent, you do not need to pray. You do not need to ask anything for anything. You do not even need to pray to God, because you are able; you are independent.
Why do we pray? We pray because we know that we cannot. We know that we have to depend upon Him. We have to look up to Him. We have to wait upon Him. Prayer is an outward sign of our dependence upon God.
In the Gospel of Luke, I hope you will read through it. I do not have time to go through it all, but you can see how our Lord Jesus prayed. When He came out of His baptism in chapter 3, you find Him praying.
Before He chose His disciples, He went to the mountain and prayed the whole night. He encouraged people to pray and not faint. He told Peter, “I prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.”
On the mountain of transfiguration, how He prayed; and when He prayed, He was transfigured. In Gethsemane, how He prayed. Even when He was on the cross, how He prayed.
Dear brothers and sisters, you find that our Lord Jesus lived a life of dependence. How we need to develop that kind of life.
Number three: if you read the life of our Lord Jesus as a Man, you find that He was a big Man. I do not mean physically, but I mean that His heart was large. He was a universal Man.
The Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. When He was thirty years old, He began to travel. During all those three-and-a-half years of travel, He never traveled beyond two hundred miles.
Today, two hundred miles is nothing. You can travel two hundred miles in a day. But our Lord may never have traveled beyond two hundred miles.
Yet you find a Man who was so great. He was never affected by the prejudices or the legalistic system of His time. He was never narrow or small. You find that He was a big Man. His heart embraced the whole world.
He was so big that even children could come to Him. He was so big that even sinners and publicans could feel comfortable in His presence. Brothers and sisters, He was big.
How small we are. Our hearts are so narrow. We are full of prejudice. May God deliver us from our smallness and narrowness. A little thing can disturb us. May we be delivered that we may be big.
Our Lord Jesus is great. He embraces all.
Finally, the Lord Jesus was single-minded. You find that His life was single-minded. He set His face toward Jerusalem. He was on earth for one thing: the Father’s will, no matter what happened to Him.
This is the kind of man that God is looking for. Dear brothers and sisters, may the character of our Lord Jesus as the perfect Man be formed in us: that we may be transparent, that we may be great in heart, that we may be dependent upon God, and that we may be single-minded in honor of Him.
Today we have a Man. He is not only God; He is also Man. He is a Man in glory. This Man in glory guarantees that one day there will be many men and women, because He shall lead many sons to glory.
So, brothers and sisters, thank God that we are born again. But if we follow the Lord, He will work in us by His Holy Spirit. He will transform us and conform us to the image of our Lord Jesus, so that one day, when He returns, He may find many like Him.
He will be the firstborn among many brethren. There will be many men and women like Him.
Dear heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thy Son, our Lord Jesus, is not only God, but He is Man. We thank Thee that He is a Man after Thy own heart. He is the perfect Man, and Thou art seeking such men in Him.
Father, we do praise and thank Thee that by Thy grace we have been born again, and that we are now in Christ. Our desire today is: Lord, work in us, and may Thy character be fully built within us, that Christ may be found in us.
Mayest Thou have many sons according to Thy only begotten Son. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.