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Scoop: Under the Steeple are ALL My People! Luke scoops the other three gospel writers by specifically applying Isaiah's prophecies concerning God's people to all flesh. Israel, according to Isaiah as well as Luke's citation of Isaiah, was not to be the sole recipient of God's blessings announced by the Messiah's forerunner. As we will see, both Matthew and Mark cited a part of Isaiah's prophecy about the comfort that was coming to God's people, but only Luke extended the prophecy to its rightful end, i.e. the Gentiles seeing the salvation of the Lord!

Luke writes, “And he [John the baptizer] went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”'” (Luke 3.3-6). In this citation, Luke referred back to Isaiah 40.3-5. Matthew and Mark, in parallel passages refer back to the same general text, but they left off with verse 3 of Isaiah 40, thus leaving the Gentiles out of the picture (that is if one considers ONLY their writings in Matthew 3.3 and Mark 1.3).

Luke's audience included the Gentiles and it would have been only natural for him to have furthered the citation in Isaiah 40 through the verses that explicitly stated that all flesh (this included the Gentiles) would see the salvation of the Lord. This was not something of which the Jews were particularly proud at this time. Even after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the concurrent confirmation of His teachings that all men could be saved, it still took devout Hebrews years and years before they willingly admitted Gentiles into the congregations of the saved. However, the inclusion of the Gentiles was God's plan from the beginning and to have acted in any other way would have made Him a respecter of persons and less than the absolute just being that He is.

Jesus Christ did not come to establish two churches, one for the Jews and one for the Gentiles. In fact, He did not come to establish anything other than a body in which His desire for all flesh to enjoy equal fellowship would become a practical and eternal reality. If we extend this practical lesson, it is equally true that He did not come to establish the white church, the black church, the brown church, and ad infinitum. I have heard this truth from childhood, but it strikes me that, for the most part, these were merely empty words among the folks with whom I was acquainted. I first learned just how true this was when I baptized a black man in the baptistry of an all white congregation. Not long thereafter, I was instructed on just how to guide this man to “place his membership” with a nearby “black congregation”. The reason: “They know how to deal with the problems and needs of the black man better than we do.” Now lest someone think that the prejudice is on “one side” and not the other, I have personally witnessed the same type of ungodly distinctions made by blacks when it comes to whites.

The truth of the matter is this: God intended for ALL His people to assemble under just one steeple! I once observed that it could not be a question of whether the church of the Lord would be integrated; God had already taken care of that question. Rather, the question was whether or not those of us who called ourselves Christians would be a part of the church of the Lord! I believe this more strongly now than ever before. Putting up a sign does not make a congregation part of the body of Christ any more than hanging out a shingle makes a quack a real physician.

Questions:

1. To what group of people did Luke write his gospel account? Why would it have been natural to have extended his quotation from Isaiah to include the Gentiles in the blessings of the Gospel?

2. Who decided that the church of the Lord should include all peoples (Jew, Gentile, black, white, free, bound, etc., etc.)? Who has the authority to rescind or ignore this decision?

3. The word steeple in this message does not literally mean steeple? From the context, what does it mean?

4. What reasons have men historically given for not obeying God's wishes in uniting all people under just one steeple?

"Bible verse and quote" from Jan Couns

Bible and Quote - March 4-8