It's interesting to think about the men the Lord chose to be His Apostles. For instance, He chose no less than four fisherman. Fisherman are hard-working, used to putting in long hours. They drop their nets and depend on the Lord to bring in the fish. They would be perfect apostles. They would need that work ethic as they dropped the net of the Gospel, but then depended on the Lord to catch men's hearts. The Lord chose fishermen, because He Himself is a fisher of men.

Or take St. Luke for example. St. Luke was a physician. Who better to have serve as an evangelist than a physician? After all, the Lord was a physician. One time He said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." Jesus is the chief physician of souls. And who better to serve under Him than the one St. Paul calls, "The beloved Physician," St. Luke? The Lord took this physician of bodies, and made him a physician of souls. Let's consider why it's true that a physician like St. Luke would be the perfect man to serve under Jesus, the chief physician of souls.

What are some qualities you look for in a physician? Let's say that you're new in town and you ask around about finding a doctor. Certainly one of the qualities you want your doctor to have is wisdom. You don't want a doctor who schluffed off in medical school and who hasn't spent a moment reading up on new treatments since his graduation day. You want a doctor who is smart, who is knowledgeable.

Well, St. Luke was such a wise, knowledgeable, studious man. As a physician he was well-accustomed to research, to learning, to study, to wisdom itself. The greatest wisdom of course, that St. Luke found, was the wisdom that found him - and that wisdom is the cross and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. All we know about St. Luke's earlier life was that He was a Gentile from the city of Cyrene, which is in Libya, on the coast of Northern Africa. But somehow, Luke made it up to northern Turkey, to the city of Troas, where he met St. Paul. Perhaps it was St. Paul himself that preached the Gospel to St. Luke, perhaps St. Luke was already a Christian and purposefully met up with St. Paul - we don't know. But we do know this - that from that point on, St. Luke become a constant companion and coworker of the Apostle Paul. Now that He had gained that wisdom that is Jesus, St. Luke wanted to share that wisdom, that knowledge of God's love, with others. After all, once a Physician has experienced a cure, wouldn't he want to share it with his patients?

And speaking of that, doesn't it take a great deal of wisdom and knowledge for a physician to diagnose the symptoms and then apply the cure? As a Physician, St. Luke was well-accustomed to doing just that. But now as a coworker and evangelist, St. Luke would no longer be diagnosing diseases and symptoms of the body. He would be diagnosing the diseases, and the symptoms of the disease for the soul. See, what is wrong with every soul? What disease does every soul have? Is it not that we are sinners? We've had that disease since we were conceived, as it was passed on to us from our parents. Our sins of thought, word, and deed are the outward symptoms of that disease - being sinful. And of course, that disease is deadly too. There was no cure for it known to men. In fact, we did not even know we had the disease hardly, and we did not really think the disease was all that bad, and we even thought we could cure the disease. But all of that was a lie.

St. Luke had found the truth and the cure in Jesus, and so have we. Jesus is the great physician. He came right down into the hospital of this world without contracting the disease of sin. He came to help the poor, sick world of sinners - so sick they were delusional - thinking that sin wasn't deadly, but was life. And the way He helped us, was by taking up our infirmities into His own body. He took our place - not in the sick bed, but on the cross. And there, flowing from the wounds inflicted by our sins, is the cure for sin. The cure is Jesus' blood. The cure is Jesus' death. Only Jesus blood and death takes away the disease entirely, the disease of sin. Only Jesus' blood and death gives us an entirely different prognosis: You will not die, but live!

That's the cure St. Luke applied to souls - how? By preaching with the Apostle Paul, and by writing his Gospel and the book of Acts. And what does Jesus do in those books? Jesus, the chief physician, is still applying the medicine! He is still applying the cure to poor, sick, sinful souls. It's in Luke's Gospel where we read about the sinful woman who came to Simon the Pharisee's house to see Jesus. It's in Luke's Gospel where we read about the Pharisee and the Publican - the publican who was so ashamed of himself that he could not even lift up his head, but instead beat his breast and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." It's in Luke's Gospel where we read about the lost sheep that was found, the lost coin that was found, and the prodigal son who was lost, but now was found. It's in Luke's Gospel where we hear about Zacchaeus the tax collector who became rich in Jesus' love. It's in Luke's Gospel where we read about the thief on the cross. Luke was all about giving examples of sick sinners finding in Jesus the cure of their souls, the forgiveness of their sins. He says at the beginning of his Gospel that he carefully investigated all these things, so that with his doctor's mind, his wisdom and knowledge of souls - he would apply the cure of Jesus' mercy. And Jesus, the chief physician is still using Luke's wisdom and knowledge to apply the cure to our souls today.

Now there are a few other qualities you would look for in a physician. One is that he is a hard-worker. St. Luke was, without a doubt, such a hard worker. He traveled with St. Paul all over the Mediterranean world, all over the Roman empire practically, proclaiming the good news about Jesus. It was Luke who went with St. Paul on the rest of his second missionary journey, and again on his third missionary journey. It was Luke who even accompanied the apostle Paul on his fourth journey, in which Paul was a prisoner going to trial in Rome. Luke was with him in the great shipwreck that happened on their way to Rome. Luke was with him in Rome in both the first imprisonment and then in the second, final imprisonment we hear about in the text. In fact, Paul says, "Only Luke is with me."

In this we see a final quality of a physician that would make him the perfect man to be the Lord's apostle and evangelist. It is this: St. Luke was a compassionate man. One of the most important things you look for in a physician is a good bedside manner, is it not. After all, a physician is dealing with you when you are at your lowest. St. Luke was such a man. After all, remember St. Paul had that thorn in the flesh, that horribly painful disease? Paul prayed for the Lord to take it away. Instead, the Lord gave him St. Luke, a physician!

And that Physician stuck with St. Paul, as we mentioned, to what turned out to be St. Paul's deathbed. He would not leave St. Paul's side. And think of how great St. Luke's compassion was in this! His compassion was greater than his fear! After all, to be with St. Paul during his second imprisonment was to be with a criminal, a condemned man. How easy it would have been to run away and save his life! But what good is a physician who flees during a plague, or who runs from an emergency! No, this was the hour St. Paul needed him most - and he did not leave Paul's side. Perhaps Luke's face was one of the last faces Paul saw before his execution. How many good doctors are not the last face that a dying patient sees before he closes his eyes in death! Yes, only Luke was with Paul - and what a blessing he was to Paul.

We don't know much about the rest of Luke's life. All we know is that he seems to have died of natural causes at the age of 84, having continued to preach the Gospel after Paul's death. But we do know this - the Lord was able to use Luke the physician in his service, using those qualities that made him a physician of bodies, so that he was a great physician of souls. What about you? What qualities do you have as a mother, a father, a teacher, a sailor, an air man, an eye doctor, a real estate agent? What qualities do you have in your profession in the world that, I'll bet when you think about it, Jesus is already using in His service? I'm going to conclude the sermon there, leaving you with that simple question - the Lord used a Physician like St. Luke for specific reasons in His kingdom. What specific qualities do you have, that when you really think about it, the Lord is already using in your daily life in this world to serve Him? You're the perfect man. You're the perfect woman for the work. May God bless your service to Him! Amen.