In this sermon, the preacher discusses the characteristics of a "big man" or a true follower of Christ. He emphasizes that the more one is criticized, the more they should love others, just as Jesus did. The preacher also highlights the importance of being humble and having a single-minded focus on God's work, just like Jesus demonstrated throughout his life. The sermon encourages believers to seek God's glory and transformation in their lives, and to be a testimony to His name.

This is Monday evening, August the 7th, 1972, in Richmond, Virginia. Ministry given to Brother Stephen Kahn. Praise unto the Lord, we pray. O Lord, as we gather together tonight, the one desire of our hearts is that we may see Thee. Lord, we do pray that we may see Thy glory, even the glory of the Son of Man. We pray that in our spirit we may see Thee. We pray that as we behold Thee with open face, we may be transformed from glory to glory, according to Thy image by the Holy Spirit. Lord, we do desire that Thou should be highly exalted in our hearts. And we do desire that we may be a testimony to Thy name. We commit this time into Thy hand, trusting the Divine Spirit to perfect the new creation. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. We have been fellowshipping together at this time on the gospel according to Luke. First of all, we fellowship a little bit on the life of Luke. Luke, the beloved physician. Luke, our fellow workman. And Luke, the evangelist. Luke is a physician, but his profession does not hinder him from serving the Lord. Quite contrary, we find, serving the Lord as a physician. But more than that, he serves the Lord. By the way, we mentioned how in the early days of the church in Philippi, most likely he is the one who is used of God to help that in church. And we know what a church it becomes. And of course, his ministry to Paul is most valuable. Even to the very end, Paul says, Luke alone is with me. And then, God chooses him to be an evangelist, to present to us one aspect of Christ which is unique. And that is, Luke is used of God to present to us Christ as a son of man. Now, brothers and sisters, God is always interested in man. And he has never given up that interest. In the very beginning, when he created man, he created man in his own image. He had a great purpose for man. He wanted to unite himself with man. And even though Adam failed, God had not given up his grand desire. So we find 3,000 years later, David, as a prophet, in Psalm number 8, he wrote, What is man that thou art mindful of him? Thou shall a man that thou shalt visit him. Thou hast made him a little lower than an angel, but thou hast given him honor and glory, and so forth. After 3,000 years, thou still hast not given up his interest and his design and his hope in man. Then another 1,000 years pass, and we find that man in Christ. So in Hebrews chapter 2, we see Jesus made a little inferior than angels, that he's crowned with glory and honor. But this man is a corporate man, not an individual man, because we find when God created Adam, God created man. In his own image, he created male and female. So man is a corporate being. It is a type of Christ and the Church. It is not only in Christ God has found his man, but this man is a corporate man. So he includes all those who are the Lord, patent after Christ. Now this evening we would like to go to the third point, and that is God wants men. But this man is very special. In other words, it is not just any man. It is a man at God's own heart, and we would like to know that man. In other words, we would like to know what is the personality exhibited by that man when you read the gospel according to Luke. Or do you see this? It is true that in gospel according to Luke, as Luke said in the very beginning, even though he is not an eyewitness of all the things that happened, and yet he made very careful investigation, and then out of his careful investigation he put all these things together in a systematic way and present the record to Theophilus. Now we do not know who Theophilus is. Probably there is such a noble man, Theophilus, at that time, because it is a custom of those days when a person wrote a book. Usually he dedicated that book to a certain person. Now even today we find it is being practiced. You write a book and you dedicate it to a certain person. So Luke, in writing this gospel, he in a sense addressed this gospel to Theophilus, probably a noble man at that time, a believer in Christ. Or probably Theophilus is not a person. It is a pseudonym because Theophilus means lover of God. So whoever is a lover of God, now this gospel is presented to him. Now that is also possible. But anyway we find Mark, Luke, collecting all this information put them in a methodical way and present it to lovers of God. If you are a lover of God, the gospel according to Luke is presented to you. But after you have read the gospel according to Luke, what do you see then? You see the words and the deep of our Lord Jesus. No doubt about that. Because this gospel records the words spoken by our Lord Jesus and the deeds that our Lord Jesus has performed, has done. He has spoken many words and he has done many deeds. But is that all that you have got? If all you have got after you have read the gospel according to Luke are the words and the deeds of our Lord Jesus, you miss the very purpose of the gospel according to Luke. Not that the words and the deeds are not important. They are. But they are not the very purpose of the gospel. The very purpose of the gospel is that after we have read the gospel according to Luke, after we have heard the words and we have witnessed the deeds, we are to see the person. It is the person that the Holy Spirit is trying to bring before us. Not just the words, nor just the deeds, but the person who speaks these words and the person who performs these deeds. In other words, the words and the deeds are the expression of a personality. If all you have seen or heard are only the deeds and the words and yet you fail to meet that person, you fail to see that personality, then you fail in the very purpose of the Holy Spirit in giving us this gospel. So we have to go beyond the words and the deeds to meet that person. It is not because of that person. There won't be such words and deeds. So the Holy Spirit is trying to draw us through all these words and deeds to that person. And that person is the Son of Man. The Man at the God's own heart. The new humanity. The new human. That is what we have to see as we read the gospel. Otherwise, we are just touching the surface and we fail to really come into the very source of all things. So in reading the gospel according to Luke, it is most important that we catch a glimpse. Not only a glimpse, but we may gaze upon the glory of the Son. And if we gaze upon the glory of the Son of Man, then we give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to transform us into that humanity. That we may be conformed to His humanity. In other words, what Christ is as the Son of Man, God wants us to be like Him. A new mankind, a new human being with a new personality should be manifested in this world. And this is the real purpose behind this gospel according to Luke. So this evening, we hope we will share together something on the characteristics of that personality. I do not know if I'm correct to say this. Personality is the sum total of characters. In a person, there does not develop certain characters. And the sum total of His characters form His personality. Now we as believers, God does not want to wipe away our individuality. It is not God's purpose that we should lose our individuality. We will be different forever. When God created, He created us all differently. When He put us in the body of Christ, we are different members of the body of Christ. And our individuality will remain through eternity. Peter is Peter. Paul is Paul. John is John. Forever. It is true we must lose our individualism. That is true. God has to deal with us that we may lose our individualism. But it doesn't mean we should lose our individuality. And yet, what is the personality of the church? What is the personality of a Christian? Christ should be the personality of a Christian. He should be the personality of the church. In other words, when you see a Christian, he should manifest Christ. Because Christ becomes his personality. He is not to manifest himself. His former self. When you see the church, you should see Christ. You do not see people, but you see Christ. Because Christ becomes the personality. And that is the reason why character building is so important to us Christians. Because unless the Holy Spirit is able to build Christ in us, the character of Christ becomes our character. Then it is impossible for his personality to be expressed through us. So in the gospel according to Luke, the Spirit of God is presenting Christ to us. He wants us to see Christ. The Son of Man. What is his personality? What kind of a person he is? What kind of character he has? Because as we behold him, and as we see him and his character, then the Holy Spirit wants to transform us. To work that character in us, that the personality of Christ may characterize this new mankind. Now this is really the purpose behind the gospel according to Luke. If you are reading the gospel according to Luke, dear brothers and sisters, you have to meet that person. You have to notice his character. You have to see a new personality that is totally different from anybody else in this world. And this personality is to characterize the church. This personality is to be manifested by all of us. By all of us. We will not read any passage in the gospel according to Luke. Because if you read this passage and that passage, you may get some words and some deep. If you want to know a personality, you will have to take the whole thing in. So we will not be reading any special passage. But remember, the whole gospel according to Luke is before us. This evening I would like to fellowship with you just on a few points. In other words, a few features. A few characters that characterize this personality, Christ, as the Son of Man. Number one. I do not know whether, after you have read the gospel according to Luke, what impression impresses you first, almost, and most of Christ after you have finished the gospel according to Luke. Whenever you meet a person, you know, you hear what he says, or you observe what he does, an impression will be formed as to that person. His personality, you know, will impress upon you. Now after you have read the gospel according to Luke, what impression of this man does he leave with you? The first one. I believe it will be different with everybody. You know? You may be impressed with Christ in certain character. Another person may be impressed with Christ with another character. So there is no uniformity there. But if you allow me to share my impression, I feel that after I have read the gospel according to Luke, the foremost and the deepest impression it makes upon me is what a man, a real man, a true man, a transparent man Christ is. Now that's the impression he leaves with me. Have you ever met a real man in this world? Have you ever met a true man in this world? Have you ever met a man so transparent as this man Christ is? Have you ever met such a person? Since the fall of man, man is no longer what he ought to be. Man is no longer what he should be. Man is no longer what God means him to be. No longer. After the fall of man, man is under a man. There is one verse probably it will strike you. You know when I read, when I was a young Christian, when I read Genesis, God created man and then Eve came, and then you'll find in at the end of second chapter that is after God created man, it says Adam and Eve were naked and they were not ashamed of it. Now I really don't know what that means. They were naked and they were not ashamed of it. Most likely, you know, they must be clothed with glory. Because God clothes every animal with something and he cannot leave man without any clothing probably. Probably they are clothed with glory. But anyway, I think the problem is when God created man, man was naked and they were not ashamed of it. In other words, they were very real. No covering. No human covering. God covered them with glory, that's true. But in a sense they are naked. They are naked. When they came out of God's hand, one thing we may say of them, at least, and that is they were real. They were naked. There was no covering. And they were not ashamed of that. That immediately add to man's need. What happened? The first thing they did is to try to cover themselves. They began to use the thick leaves and try to make aprons to cover themselves. Even though it really did not cover them. They thought they were covered. You know? Why? Because it's very humorous, in the cool of the day the Lord came. And when the Lord came, they hurriedly hid themselves among the woods. Why? Because they were naked. They were covered with aprons and yet when the Lord came, they hid themselves because they were naked. In other words, these aprons made of leaves could not cover their nakedness. Especially in the cool of day. Not only leaves will not give you warmth, but probably there is some wind there. It's not covered. They had to hide themselves among the woods. And even among the woods they could not cover themselves. Not only physically it was so, even morally. You find Adam was no longer true to Eve. And Eve was no longer true to herself. When God said, What have you done? Here you find Adam said, Well, it was Eve. Not my fault. Her fault. He was not true. He tried to cover himself. He tried to cover his sins. But the Bible said, Sin came in by one man and that was Adam. Not Eve. Because Eve was deceived, but Adam committed sins deliberately. Deliberately. Then what's the difference? But here you'll find Adam tried to cover himself. He said, It was that woman. You gave me that woman and that woman gave me this forbidden fruit to eat. And here you'll find Adam was not true to himself. He was not true to Eve. He was not true to God. And the deception. The same thing was true with Eve. When God came to Eve, Eve said, Now you are perfect. Dear brothers and sisters, sin is the fault of man. The habit of the fallen man is to cover up. That's the habit. We are no longer real. No longer true. No longer transparent. And we dare not. We dare not. The wisest and the most prudent of men is he who can cover himself most skillfully. A man will be a fool if he tries to be real. Now this is what the world is. This is all mankind. It is just deceiving ourselves and trying to deceive one another. The whole world is under a great deception. And the Bible says, Lies under a lie. The whole world lies under a lie. It's all false. It's all unreal. It's all untrue. It's all opaque. It's all darkness. The very character is opposite to God's character. No wonder when I was a boy, we read in our English premier saying that one day a Greek philosopher, he was in the daytime, in the noontime, he used, he lighted a lamp and was searching for something. And when people asked him, What are you doing? He said, I'm looking for man. He couldn't find a man. A real man. A true man. A transparent man. All mankind is false. Unreal. Not true. Deep darkness. What with the Lord. As you read the gospel according to Luke, the one thing that impresses me most is here is a man who is so true, so real, so transparent. There is no hiding in him. There is no pretension in him. There is no falsehood in him. He is the one real man that you have met in this. He is real. He is true. He is transparent. You know, there is a difference between honest and true. You may be honest, but it may not be true. You know? Sincerity does not mean reality, mean truth. No. You see here a man. He walks on this earth. Whether he is alone before God, or he is with his disciples, his friends, or even when he is in the midst of his enemies, you'll find he is the same person. What are we today? Behold, mankind is, you ask, as different, differently, under different situations. When you are alone, you are one kind of person. When you are with your friends, you are another kind of person. And when you are with your enemies, you are still another kind of person. We are actors. We are not real. We are diplomatic. All because we have to protect ourselves and we have to take advantage of others. Our whole human being is based on selfishness. And because of selfishness, we are under a great deception. We cannot afford to be real. Because if we try to be real, people will take advantage of us. But here you'll find our Lord Jesus. Before man, before God, there is no change, no contradiction, the same thing. He is the same. What he says outwardly is what he thinks inwardly. Oftentimes you'll find we may say one thing, but we may think another thing. That's sometimes because we want to take advantage. At other times, we just want to be diplomatic, that's all. But here you'll find how often we say one thing and we think another thing. But that's not our Lord Jesus. You'll find everything he says comes out of his heart. There is no lip service with the Lord. It comes out of his heart. Does it mean to say, because he's so real, therefore he is foolish? No. The Lord said, Be guileless as a dove, but wise as a serpent. He is real, but that doesn't mean because he's real he is foolish. Not at all. To put it in another way, only a real person, only a transparent person, is wise. You know what I say? Sometimes you have here a transparent glass. Now if you have a transparent glass, then you can look through everything. If that thing is opaque, you cannot look through. That's the reason why you'll find our Lord Jesus, he can look through everybody. Because he's so real. He is so transparent. Therefore when he comes in contact with people, he knows what is in your heart. He knows. You don't need to tell him. He knows. And whenever people come before him, everything is exposed before you say anything. That spiritual discernment is the result of being true and real and transparent. If we are not real, we are not able to see people through. And in the first place, we do not even see through ourselves. You know? We do not even know ourselves. How can we know other people? But if we are really true and real and transparent before God, you'll find whenever people come before us, they are exposed. They don't need to say anything. It's exposed. And you will look through them. So it doesn't mean that because you are real you become foolish. Not at all. You become wise. You have discernment. And because of that, you are able to minister to people's needs. Fellas and sisters, I don't know how you feel. I feel very deeply in this world. We are living under a cloud. Everyone puts a veil upon himself. We may be together. We may have contact. But after many years, we don't know each other. Nobody does. Everybody puts up a fence. A wall. And we all hide behind a wall. Why? We are afraid. We may be hurt. We cannot afford to be real. And you know this is the most painful thing. Suppose you go out to work in the office and you find you cannot afford to be real. You have to be diplomatic. You have to deal with people and try to be nice and diplomatic, you know. It's a burden, you know. And if you come home and find you have to be like that in your home, my, I don't know how you can live. At least in your home you can be real. Your true self. Right? But dear brothers and sisters, even in this world, you cannot get that. But where can you get that? I sometimes tell brothers and sisters, in the world you cannot afford to be real, but in the church we must be real. If we cannot be real and true and open and transparent to each other, it is just too much. It is just too much. And you know this is what God wants. Because when you come to the end of the book, of the Bible, in Revelation chapter 21 and chapter 22, the New Jerusalem, you'll find even the gold is transparent. You do not have a transparent gold today. No matter how fine and refined that gold may be, it's not transparent. But in New Jerusalem the gold is transparent. Everything is transparent. Real. No hiding. No hiding. Open. And this is the new mankind. The new mankind that God is after must, first of all, have the character of being real, true, and transparent. This is quite frightening. But dear brothers and sisters, how can we be real? How can we be transparent? How? What is real? What is true? What is transparent? What is it? First, if we live by the outward man, we are unreal. But if we live by the inward man, we are real. Even with the Lord Jesus, there is a oneness, a harmony, between his outward man and our inward man. But with us it is not so. With us, the inward man is Christ in us. But the outward man is our own ourself. That's the outward man, to put it simply. So you find that in our Christian life we may live by the outward man or we may live by the inward man. And sometimes we live by the inward man and sometimes we live by the outward man. Whenever we live by the outward man, we are not true. We are not transparent. It is only when we live by the inward man, that is the time when we are really true, real, and transparent. To put it in another way, if we live by the flesh, we remain as the all creation, the all mankind. That is corrupted, unreal, and true. But if we live in the spirit, if we live in the spirit, then we belong to this new mankind. And it is recreated. It is new. It is true. It is real. So the whole thing will come down to this point. And that is, how do we live on this earth? Do we live on this earth by the old life? Then we are unreal. Or do we live by the new life, the life of Christ, life in the spirit. And if we do, brothers and sisters, we are real. We are real. We are true. We are transparent. That is why it is so important we have to walk in the spirit and not according to the flesh. Why? Because there is a difference of the old mankind and the new mankind. There is the difference of personalities involved. One is your name. The other is Christ's name. And God's purpose is that Christ may live. And only when you live in the spirit then Christ is able to manifest his character. And you find it's real. One thing that God hates most, one thing that our Lord Jesus denounced most strongly, and that is hypocrisy. Why? Because it is not real. It is not true. It is form. It is darkness. So this new humanity is marked by realness, truth, transparency. That is the first point. Now the second point. As I read the Gospel according to Luke, another character of Christ as the Son of Man impresses me. And that is his dependency upon God. His childlike dependency upon God. You know what characterizes the old man? Independence. When God created man, God created man in his image. He put man in the garden of Eden with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil by his side. In other words, God's purpose for man is that man should eat the tree of life and death depending upon God. You become a person with no backbone. You become like a reed that will turn by the wind. Not at all. That's a different thing. It is not a depending upon people, leaning upon people with no will of your own, with no strength in yourself. Not that kind of dependent life, no. That is weakness. And yet you'll find that new mankind is characterized by a dependence upon God in childlike manner. And because there is such a dependence, you find that life is strong, healthy before man. It's not weakness. It is strength. How do we know that our Lord Jesus, as a man, he lives such a dependent life? How do we know? In reading the gospel according to Luke, you'll find of all the four gospels, Luke is the one gospel in which you'll find our Lord Jesus prays most. Now, not that our Lord Jesus does not pray in the other gospels. But in the gospel according to Luke, his prayer life is most prominent. It's most prominent. If you try to read the gospel according to Luke and try to find out all the places that is related to the prayer life of our Lord Jesus, you will be surprised how many times he prays. For instance, in chapter 3, while he was baptized, came out of the water, he walked freely. In chapter 6, he spent all night in a mountain praying before he chose his prophesy. Before he did anything, he prayed. Then you'll find before he asked any question, he prayed. He prayed to God by himself and then he asked his disciples, whom do people say that I am? Before he asked any question, he prayed first. And here again you'll find when he took his disciples, three of them, to the Mount of Transfiguration, he went there, for he was praised. He is praised. And if you go down still further, you'll find our Lord Jesus was praised and the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. And in chapter 18 you'll find the Lord Jesus teaches a parable that we may pray persistently and do not faint. And further on, you'll find of course, our Lord Jesus was praying for Peter, saying that I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail, even before things happened. And the God above the famine, of course, he was praised. Even out of cross he was praying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. And before he died, he prayed, Father, I give my spirit to you. You'll find the whole life of our Lord Jesus is characterized by prayer. Dear brothers and sisters, what is prayer? We think of prayer more in terms of we ask something and we repent. But actually, you see, prayer is an expression of how much you depend upon God. If you can depend upon yourself, you don't need to pray. Is that so? If something you can do by yourself, do you pray? Well, you just go ahead and do it. But when you cannot do it, then you begin to pray. Why? You feel you're so dependent on him. The trouble is, we are so independent. Therefore, we do not pray much. But with our Lord Jesus, you'll find his whole life is characterized by prayer. He waits upon God before he does anything. Before even he asks a question. Big things and small things. He lives a childlike dependent life before God. When he is troubled, we turn around and pray, Father, I thank you because this is your good pleasure. Like a child, depending upon the Father. Dear brothers and sisters, this is one character of the new mankind. If we should live on this earth so independently, if we should live on this earth doing everything by ourselves, we may be doing Christian work, but we are living in the old creation. This is not the man that God wants. The man that God is after is one who is dependent upon the Father in everything. No wonder you find in the Gospel of John the Lord says, Ephraim, I cannot do anything by myself. I cannot say anything by myself. I speak because I've heard my Father spoke. I do this because it is Father who is doing in me. In other words, you find it is a perfect dependent life. And do you see that life is a weak life? Not at all. It is the strongest of all lives. The Lord does not give you any impression that He is weak. He is a weakling. Know that, Lord. Now you'll find He can stand up before man. He can go to the cross. Why? He knows the Father's will. He depends upon the Father. So this is another character of the man after God's own heart. Number three. As I read the Gospel according to Luke, another thing impressed me about Christ as the son of man. Dear brothers and sisters, let me ask you a question. Have you met anyone who is really big? I don't mean big inside. I mean big inwardly. A big man. A really big man. Have you ever met a big man? Very rarely. Very rarely. We are all very small. Very small. Why? Because we are so self-centered. And our self has, what do I say, has diminished us. Makes a breath out of us. But when you read the Gospel according to Luke, what do you see? You see a big man. A big man. A man with a heart that embraces everyone. You do not see just a small person. It is true. Christ was born in a manger. He was reared in a hill. Nazareth? And throughout his life, he walked around within 200 miles of boundary. He never traveled more than 200 miles. He had never been to school. We will say now a person with such a background sure he must be a very small person. But you find our Lord Jesus. He transcends the tradition of his time. The Jewish people at that time were very narrow in their concept. Later they were God chosen people and God's blessing would not come to anybody else but to them. They were very prejudiced, very narrow people. But our Lord Jesus transcends the tradition of his time. He was a universal man. He was not a small man. A universal man. His heart is open not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles. He cannot only talk with Nicodemus. He can talk with a Samaritan woman. Here you'll find his heart is so big he encloses everyone. A big man. A universal man. In one particular case you can see it. He chooses Judah to be one of his disciples. Does he know Judah? Yes. Before he chose him. Probably that's one of the reasons why he prays the whole night. In the Father's will he has to take in one who is a traitor. A betrayal. And he knows it from the very beginning. And yet our Lord Jesus took Judah by his side for over three years. He knows everything that Judah does. And yet does the other eleven disciples know anything about Judah? The Lord never gives a hint. He knows him all the time and yet it never comes out before the other disciples. He treats Judah the same as the other disciples for three years. Isn't that big? Suppose you know a person who is betraying you. You will not have him in the first place. Now if you have him within an hour everybody knows. But for three years nobody knows. Even towards the very end when Judah has determined to betray the Lord Jesus. When they were eating the Passover the Lord said one among you is to betray me. But nobody knows. Every disciple asks is it me? Is it me? Is it me? And Peter you know he nods to John who sits by the Lord's side and says ask the pastor. So John leaned upon the breast looked up to the Lord and said who is he? And the Lord said the one to whom I dip the bread in the vinegar and give to that person. This is the one who betrays me. Now that is clear. And the Lord took the bread dipped in the vinegar and handed it to Judah but the strange thing is the disciples still do not know. You know why? Because according to the custom of that time this is a gesture to the most honorable guest. The host dips the bread in the vinegar and hands to the most honorable guest. So even after the Lord has done it in such plain words they still couldn't get it. Why? Because the whole concept is the Lord treats Judah in the most honorable fashion. The Lord for the last time tries to restore Judah. But when Judah refused the Lord said go ahead and do it. Nobody knows. Isn't that great? What a big man our Lord Jesus is. There is nothing small here. I remember our dear brother Washington he sometimes say to us he says it's very rare to meet a big man. Even among Christians we are so small. We are so self-centered. And because of that we are small. But this new mankind is big. As you read the last two chapters of Revelation the New Jerusalem you cannot imagine how big that city is. It is beyond our imagination. And it has twelve gates open to the four directions universal. And that is what the church is. That is what we are to be. Big. Big man. Big man. This is the new mankind. But dear brothers and sisters how can we do this? In Psalm number 4 he says In pressure thou hast enlarged us. Naturally we are small. But we have that big life of Christ in us. Therefore God when he puts pressure upon us instead of you crush and get him smaller. You know? If we do not have Christ in us when we are crushed we become smaller. You know anything is pressed becomes smaller. But because we have Christ in us when we are crushed we become bigger. We are crushed but he is not. Look at David. The more pressure he is under the bigger. His bigness is expressed in his way of seeking Saul. How big he is. He is a big man. Look at Paul. The Corinthian believers misunderstanding to sit and expect even questioning his apostleship. And get Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 says My heart is expanded towards you. If you are in any way strengthened it is in yourself not in me. The more you attack me the more expanded I am. The more you criticize me the more I love you. You know what? Paul is a big man. He is a man of the God of heart. And after the Lord he is the new mankind. Brothers and sisters isn't that the one reason why the Lord allows pressure to come upon us? Isn't that one of the reasons why we may be surrounded? We may be beaten and the earth and the castle may be broken. But the power of the treasure within us is manifested. That is the secret to bigness. Finally just mention it as the last point. Of course there are many other points but I'll just mention one more and that is this man is characterized by a single mindedness. Throughout the life of the Lord Jesus as you read the gospel according to Luke you are impressed by one thing how single eyed, single minded he is. Even when he was twelve years of age he said should I not be occupied in my father's business? With him there is only one thing the father's business. He set his faith towards Jerusalem. He never wavers from it. He cannot be distracted. He cannot be threatened. He is single minded to do the father's work. And that characterizes the new man. That's why the Lord Jesus said if your eyes are single then your whole body is full of light. If your eyes are wicked they're not sighted. Then your whole life within you is dark. And when the light that is in you is darkness, what darkness it must be. A man cannot serve to master. He either honors the one or despises the other. You either serve God or you serve man. Where your heart is where your treasure is, there is your heart. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be handed to you. In other words, a seriousness a single mindedness in the life of Christ as the son of man. That is the reason why in chapter nine of Luke one man comes to the king comes to the Lord and says now Lord I want to follow you. And the Lord said the fox sits at home. The bird hath nested that a son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And to another of his disciples he said come follow me. And the disciple said let me go home and bury my father and then I will come and follow you. The Lord said let the dead bury the dead. And still another disciple said Lord I want to follow you but I have to say goodbye to my family and then I'll come. The Lord said whoever his hand is upon the plow and the best is not fit for the kingdom of God. There is a seriousness there is a single mindedness that characterizes this new man, this man Christ. Brothers and sisters how we need to be characterized by that. We need to be occupied with the Father's business. Maybe in different capacities but it is God who we serve. We seek him his kingdom and his righteousness. We do not look back but we follow him to the very end. And this is the character of the new man. The new mankind. Now when you take these characters together and many more you can find in the gospel according to Luke then you see a personality. It is the personality of Christ the son of man. And as the son of man he is the beginning of a new mankind. In other words we who are his. He wants us to be human but divinely human. And he wants us to have all these characters. These characters should be our characters. And these characters should form a personality of the church. Dear brothers and sisters if we can see him we can see him. Then the purpose of the gospel according to Luke is served. Otherwise we may read it. We may touch the surface but if we do not see him it's vanity. It doesn't accomplish God's purpose. So may the Lord have mercy upon us. Shall we pray? Our heavenly Father thou dost present thy son our Lord Jesus Christ to us as the son of man. A new mankind. The man that is at thy heart. O Lord we pray that we may see him and in seeing him we may be transformed by the Holy Spirit from glory to glory according to his name. This is the prayer of our hearts. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.