Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

  Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 21 Holy Saturday - The day the women (the two Mary's) and Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate to take Jesus' body and lay him in a tomb which had never been used. The Widow’s Offering As Jesus has been teaching in the temple the past few days between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, he sees a poor widow put a couple of copper coins in the offering box. Jesus immediately praised her gift, because she gave "all she had". Though those who were wealthy put in their offerings out of their wealth, but this woman gave all she had to live on.  This shows that though Jesus did not necessarily overturn the Old Testament law of tithing, but he introduce a new standard for giving, generosity. This woman was " radically generous ", whereas for the rich it might have been it might have been a drop in the bucket. The widow's gift was sacrificial, the rich person's probably not. Generous and thoughtful giving in response to what Jesus...

Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 20   The Authority of Jesus Questioned Jesus continued to both teach and preach in the temple. One day the chief priests and teachers of the law challenged his authority and asked him, "Where do you get the authority to do these things?" Jesus was the master of answering a question with a question, especially when he knew they were trying to trap him. So he turned the tables on them and asked where the authority came from for John's baptism.  They were in a pickle. If they said from heaven, they would be indicting themselves for not believing in him. If they said it was only of human origin, they would have a riot on their hands. The people John the Baptist was a prophet from God. When they did not answer Jesus, he told them he would not answer their question either.  By replying with this question, Jesus did not evade their question. Instead, He used the question to explain who He is and to expose the hypocrisy of the leaders. If John...

Zacchaeus the Tax Collector This the famous story about the "wee little man" named Zacchaeus, who climbed up in a sycamore to see Jesus, as the Lord passed by. I've been singing this song about Zacchaeus for the last 30 years in Preschool chapels and Sunday School rooms. It is one of those stories you just can't make up.  Zacchaeus was not only a tax collector, but a chief tax collector, which made him very rich. But apparently his wealth wasn't satisfying the deep desires of his heart, because when Jesus went by that day, he was so intent on seeing him, he climbed up a tree. This was a pretty bold move for a rich man. Obviously he didn't care what others thought in that moment.  Jesus noticed Zacchaeus right away and probably admired his faith, because he said to him, "I must stay at your house today" . That's right, Jesus invited himself into a hated tax collector's home. It wasn't surprising that the people started murmuring amongst th...

Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 18 The Parable of the Persistent Widow Jesus starts out chapter 18 with two parables. The first one is on the topic of prayer, and specifically why we should not give up when our prayers seem unanswered, as is often the case. The story is about a widow who is trying to get justice from those who are taking advantage of her. The judge in that town did not seem very scrupulous. He really didn't care what people thought of him and did not really think much of God either.  This reminds us that authority is given by God, so that every person who has been given authority is ultimately responsible to God for how they use it. But, in this case, the judge didn't really consider the accountability he would have before God one day. But the widow kept incessantly demanding justice, so just to get her off his back he gave her justice.  Jesus then compares to the unjust judge to the Just Judge. If this immoral judge grants justice after being tired out b...

Click Here To Read or Listen to Luke 17 Sin, Faith, Duty Jesus warns those who might cause others to stumble in their faith. We typically see this as someone who tempts someone to do something bad. But since Jesus has been so hard of the legalism of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, he could be referring to the heavy burdens they tie on the backs of people. More than one person has stumbled thinking since they could not keep the law perfectly, God must have written them off already.  So, the question becomes how should those in the body treat each other when someone has sinned them. Jesus says to confront them directly. Note not "backstab" or 'gossip'. If the person admits they are wrong AND commits to changing their behavior, one should forgive them. Note some people can say they are sorry and never intend to change anything. We see this all the time. There is no genuine repentance if the behavior in question doesn't change.   Repentance is a change of mind ...

Click Here to Read or Listen Luke 16 The Parable of the Shrewd Manager Jesus once again uses his favorite teaching tool parables. Parables were earthly analogies which put forth a spiritual truth. Parables showed how God’s kingdom came on earth as it is in heaven.  The subject of money has always been challenging for Christians. Though the love of money is the root of all evil, in itself it is amoral. This is why this parable Jesus teaches his disciples is so interesting.   In the parable, a manager has not being doing a good job and is about to be fired. So, he goes to his existing clients and reduces their bill, which is better than collecting nothing. When he returns to his master, he is commended for being  a shrewd manager   Then, comes the punchline  Jesus says one use wealth in this world to make friends in this life. He says that people in the world are more shrewd than his followers. This tells us that when God blesses Christians with money, he expects...

  Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 15 A pastor I was most influenced by frequently said, “Lost people matter to God, so they should matter to us. Nowhere is that principle illustrated as strongly as the parable of the lost sheep.    The Parable of the Lost Sheep   The tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus. Jesus was available to all people. The Pharisees took offense at this. Why?  They thought they were better than them.  Remember these men were supposed to be shepherds of God’s flock. So  Jesus tells them a parable to show them what God’s love looks like.  In the story a shepherd realizes one of his 100 sheep is lost. So he leaves the 99 to find the lost one. Note he would have had to keep a count to realize one was gone. He must have done a lot of sheep counting. So we realize numbers matter. Every number represents a person who God loves and Jesus died for.  When he finds the lost sheep he puts it over his shoulder an...

Click Here to Read or Listen to Luke 14 Jesus at a Pharisee’s House Jesus is at the home of a prominent Pharisee, when the issue of healing on the Sabbath comes up. By this time not only is the Sabbath a big issue, but the passage says Jesus is, "Being carefully watched!" In front of Jesus, there was a man with "abnormal swelling". It could have been an infection, or some other ailment. This time Jesus asks the Pharisees a question,  “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" By this time they know well enough to not try and answer Jesus' questions, so they remained silent. Jesus healed the man by taking hold of him and sent him on his way.  When Jesus healed the man, His accusers believed that He worked on the Sabbath, and violated God’s command, but that wasn’t true. With this question, Jesus reminded them that there was no command against healing on the Sabbath. - Guzik Jesus then pointed out again how they would probably react if an ox, or a child fe...

Click Here to Read or Listen To Luke 13 Repent or Perish Jesus teaches that some people are not better than others, and that bad things don't happen to people because they are bad. Jesus focuses on the fact that no one is good before God. Though bad things happen to good people and bad people alike, their relationship with God is based on repentance and trusting in him.  The death from failing to repent, is worse than natural death, because it has eternal consequences.  Jesus mentioned two disasters that were well known in His day. One was an evil done by the hand of man, and the other was seemingly a natural disaster (eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them). We normally think of some people as good and some people as bad and find it easy to believe that God should allow good things to happen to good people and bad things to bad people. Jesus corrected this thinking. Jesus tells a short story about a landowner. who had a fig tree that had not borne any fruit...

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 ...

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....