Posts

Luke 12 - "Here Comes the Judge!"

Warnings and Encouragements  The crowd continued to crowd in around Jesus. The text says, " many thousands ". He took a moment to instruct his disciples saying, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees." What does this mean?  Yeast never has a positive connotation in the bible. Though it was was not very sizeable and fairly hidden, it could make its way through the whole dough and cause the bread to swell and create a great mass. Kind of like gossip could start out with a seemingly innocent comment, but can stir up quite a big quarrel and bring dissension to the body of Christ.  The Pharisees' teaching was like that. Though it wasn't obvious how harmful it was, it created a legalism that only put heavy burdens on people's backs. On top of that the Pharisees were secretly very hypocritical. In some of the ways only God would haven seen it. Eventually the legalism of the Pharisees and teachers of the law created a guilt and shame ridden environment devoid of

Luke 11 - Why Trying to Be Religious Always Fails?

Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 11 Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer As the disciples saw Jesus live out his life with such power and authority, they wanted him to teach them how to pray. Likely they had seen Jesus in prayer many times, as they did today. They were curious as to how access this power he lived in on a daily basis. This shows us that faith is often more " caught than taught ". The way we live our lives demonstrates our commitment to Christ. I love that Jesus gives a very simple model for prayer. What is important to Jesus in prayer should be our guide as we pray. Jesus reminds us that God doesn't look for long and windy prayers but more from our heart to his heart.  Father, hallowed be your name.   As Martin Luther said in his Small Catechism, "God's name is surely holy, but we pray in this prayer that we might keep it holy."   We start this prayer giving God's the proper adoration, for God is holy. There is no one like him. No, not even one.

Luke 10 - Do You Do Things For the Lord or With the Lord?

Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 10 Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two As Jesus is nearing Jerusalem, he spends more time equipping his disciples for when he will be gone. He spent time with the 12 disciples and sent them out to do the things he did. Now he sends out 72 disciples, in pairs of two. In this case he sent them out to the places where he was going to go. They were doing reconnaissance missions.  Jesus says the famous phrase,  “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. " I think we could probably say the same today with how many unreached people groups there are in the world. Jesus also commanded them to pray for the Lord to send out more workers. Prayer is such a vital part of preparing the harvest field and the harvesters.   “Can you picture the distress of a farmer when he sees his fields golden with harvest, and there are no servants to gather that harvest in? It was such a

Luke 9 - More Than A Prophet!

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve  Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 9 "When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." Luke 9-12 What do you notice about these words? Jesus was now sending the 12 apostles out to do the SAME things that he had done. The big three are: proclaiming the Kingdom of God, driving out demons, and curing all sicknesses and diseases.  Notice Jesus gave them BOTH power and authority. This was the same authority and power God the Father had given God the Son.  Jesus gives us a great training model. I do and you watch. You do and I watch. You do and someone else watches. This is the model that the early church used and we should use today. We often complicate strategies in the church rather than employing the simple strategies Jesus used. Jesus did not need to have spreadsheets or complex strategic planning to

Luke 8 - The Day Jesus Spoke to the Wind and the Waves!

Click Here to Read or LIsten to Luke 8 The Parable of the Sower This is one of Jesus' most famous parables. Since a lot of people were farmers, it was a parable a lot of people could understand. Today Jesus might use a parable talking about business or Internet Technology. Jesus was going from town to town preaching the Good News about the kingdom of God. As we have mentioned this included acts of healing and deliverance from evil spirits/demons.  In addition to the twelve disciples, Luke mentions three women who were had given up everything to follow Jesus. They were also supporting Jesus' ministry financially. Joanna was a financial steward to Herod's household, which was an unusual position for a woman. Indeed one of the radical aspects of Jesus' ministry was his inclusion of women. Jesus was not doing this to be politically correct, but because the Holy Spirit had called these women and gifted them to help Jesus bring in the Kingdom of God.  As a large crowd gathere

Luke 7 - Why Jesus Loved Hanging Out With Sinners?

Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 7 The Faith of the Centurion After Luke records Jesus' Sermon on the Plain, Jesus enters into Capernaum. Jesus encounters a Roman Centurion, whose servant was very ill. A centurion was a leader of 100 Roman troops. He was a man of authority. Apparently he was in a good relationship with the Jewish elders, because he sent them to Jesus asking him to heal his servant. The elders reveal that indeed this Roman Centurion had helped them build their local synagogue.  We see that the centurion is very respectful, as when he hears Jesus coming, he humbly says he does not deserve for Jesus to come to his home. The centurion was a man who knew the meaning and role of authority, and he recognized Jesus as an authority higher than him. He had so much faith in Jesus and his authority over sickness that he said, "Just say the word and my servant will be healed!" Jesus recognized his great faith and said he had not found such faith in all of Israel.

Luke 6 - Jesus' Model for Ministry, We Might Want to Try It!

Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 6 Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath Jesus continues to battle with the Pharisees over the true intent of the Mosaic law. This time it was over the Sabbath. The Pharisees turned the Sabbath laws into legalistic rituals and forbade all kinds of activities on the Sabbath. Later Jesus will say, "The Sabbath is not made for man, but man made for the Sabbath." Simply put God gave us the Sabbath as a way to rest from work and be replenished by spending time with him.  Jesus uses two examples to teach how the Pharisees were misconstruing the Sabbath. First, the disciples were rubbing grains into their hands on the kernels so they could eat. The Pharisees took offense to this, until Jesus reminded him that even David and his companions ate consecrated bread in the temple when they needed nourishment to stay fit for battle.  Also, he illustrates the principle when a man comes in with a shriveled hand. The Pharisees were looking for a way to accuse Jesus