Week 24

Monday, June 9

Luke 3:1-22

         

Commentary

Luke now fast-forwards his narrative to Jesus’ adulthood, as John the Baptist begins his public ministry. As a careful historian, Luke dates the beginning of John’s ministry by the reign of Emperor Tiberius, somewhere along 27-29 AD, and notes several of the rulers under him. Generally, these men were known for corruption, greed for power, jealousy, sexual immortality, and more. J. C. Ryle made wonderful application from John’s arrival unto this political scene: “Let us work on, and believe that help will come from heaven, when it is most needed. In the very hour when a Roman emperor, and ignorant priests, seemed to have everything at their feet, the Lamb of God was about to come forth from Nazareth, and set up the beginnings of His kingdom.”[1]

 John received God’s message and immediately shot out like a cannon to preach it with boldness, fulfilling the prophecy that he would prepare the hearts of people to hear and receive Jesus. John preaches a message of sin and conviction, but also of repentance. He details this repentance to different kinds of people, telling them how they can show they have turned from sin by living rightly. Our works do not justify us – whatever good things we do, those good things cannot make us right before God and cancel out our sin. Yet, true repentance and faith in God should be accompanied by a transformed life. John did not hold his punches about the necessity of real repentance or the consequences of continuing in sin. He did not hold punches about the sin even of the governor, Herod, ultimately costing John his life. John was on fire for Jesus and pointing others to him.

Jesus now begins his public message after being baptized by John. Jesus did not need to be baptized as a symbol of God’s forgiveness, but since we are called to be baptized, Jesus was baptized to obey God just as we are called to obey. God was pleased with his obedience – so pleased that when Jesus died for our sins, he was the perfect and final sacrifice for our sins.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Application/Discussion

1. Why would Luke historically situate his account of Jesus’ life? How do details like these give us confidence in the truth of the Bible?

2. Have you repented of your sins and put your full trust in Jesus? Are you spiritually fruitful and living a godly life? Remember that tomorrow is never guaranteed, be right with God today!

 

Points of Prayer

Adoration: Praise God for his justice to punish sin and his mercy to rescue and redeem sinners.

Confession: Confess any ways you have fallen short of God’s perfect goodness recently.

Thanksgiving: Thank God for warning us of our sin and sending Jesus to be our Savior.

Supplication: Pray for the Holy Spirit’s help in turning from sin, trusting in Christ, and living a godly, fruitful life.

Tuesday, June 10

Luke 3:23-38

I recommend using an audio Bible for this passage so you can focus on the passage rather than pronunciation.

 

Commentary

Luke’s account of Jesus’ genealogy differs noticeably from Matthew’s account. Why do we have this discrepancy? Did one of them get Jesus’ heritage wrong, or were they both just guessing? Since the Bible is without error, our task is to harmonize these two accounts rather than debunk them. One difference is which son of David the lineage is traced through, Solomon (Matthew) or Nathan (Luke), and another is who precedes Jesus’ earthly father Jospeh, Jacob (Matthew) or Heli (Luke). The most common and likely solution to the differing lines is that Matthew traced the lineage of Joseph and Luke traced the lineage of Mary. If Mary had no brothers, her father would have legally adopted Joseph as his own son upon their marriage. It’s also helpful to note that like other ancient writers, biblical authors often omitted names of less importance or thematic relevance, using “father” and “son” more like our “ancestor” and “descendant.”

Beyond the things about this passage that we can piece together or speculate about, we can learn important and straightforward truths as well. As Leon Morris explained, “That the genealogy is recorded at all shows him to be a real man, not a demigod like those in Greek and Roman mythology. That it goes back to David points to an essential element in his Messianic qualifications. That it goes back to Adam brings out his kinship not only with Israel but with the whole human race. That it goes back to God relates him to the Creator of all. He was the Son of God.”^[2] Luke follows his baptism story with Jesus’ genealogy to highlight that Jesus was both fully God and fully man, simultaneously the Son of God and the Son of David. What a Savior!

 

Application/Discussion

1. Why did Jesus need to be descended from David? Read 2 Samuel for extra homework and see the answer.

2. Whatever the reason for Jesus to have two differing genealogies, note that Joseph fully accepted Jesus as his son. Family is more than blood; it is love and commitment. All of us who Jesus saves are part of God’s family. If you ever feel alone, remember that God is with you and his people can be too!

 

Points of Prayer

Adoration: Praise God for the glory, wonder, and mystery of the incarnation of Jesus. How great is our God!

Confession: Ask God’s forgiveness and help for any lack of reverence for or interest in the Bible.

Thanksgiving: Thank God for making and keeping his promises to send us a Savior.

Supplication: Pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in sanctifying and uniting your church to love and serve each other as family and welcome others into the family.

Wednesday, June 11

Luke 4:1-30

 

Commentary

          Now that Luke has told us of Jesus’ baptism and reminded us that he is both the Son of Man and the Son of God, he details Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. In every temptation, Jesus replied with Scripture. What an encouragement to commit Scripture to memory! I. Howard Marshall observed that “The temptations were all directed… against his inner relationship to God on which his status as Messiah rests. Where Israel in the desert distrusted and disobeyed God [in their forty years of temptation] (Dt. 6–8), its Messiah was trusting and obedient [in his forty days of temptation].^[3] In every temptation, Satan tempted Jesus with things that only God could truly provide: provision, power, and protection. Jesus perseveres in these temptations, relying on God to care for him in his perfect wisdom and timing. Satan withdrew from Jesus but the temptations did not end here. Jesus was repeatedly tempted, in all the same ways we are, yet never once gave in.

From the wilderness, Jesus goes out and begins his public ministry. He reads Isaiah’s prophecy about him in the synagogue and quite boldly declares that he is the fulfillment of that promise. Though amazed by the profound authority in Jesus’ teaching, all the synagogue folks can do is say, to paraphrase ever so slightly, “Ain’t that the neighbor’s boy?” Jesus’ replies to them by implying that the prophets of old also faced skepticism and jeer, yet were nonetheless right. The townsfolk then decide to throw Jesus off the town cliff, but Jesus miraculously escapes them. Jesus came to his own people and they did not receive him, even the ones who knew him best. Yet, to those who do receive Jesus in humble repentance and faith, God’s very kingdom is given. This is the mystery of the gospel, revealed in Christ and even in passages like this one.

 

Application/Discussion

1. Do you fail in the face of temptations? Do you have opportunities to speak encouraging words, but do not share what God’s Word says about the situation? Memorize Scripture so that you are always able to quote it when needed. What passages would you like to memorize?

2. How does familiarity with Jesus and the Bible sometimes make people less than receptive to the gospel?

 

Points of Prayer

Adoration: Praise God for his goodness, wisdom, and perfection.

Confession: Ask God’s forgiveness for your own hard-heartedness to his Word.

Thanksgiving: Thank God for his patience and mercy.

Supplication: Ask for the Spirit to move in the heart of someone you know who has heard the gospel yet persists in unbelief.

Thursday, June 12

Luke 4:31-5:11

 

Commentary

In our passage today, Jesus’ divinely authoritative teaching is accompanied by his divinely authoritative command of the demonic. The demon cries out and calls Jesus “the Holy One of God” and Jesus commands him to stop. Jesus will already encounter accusations of blasphemy and demonic influence without anyone’s help, so he usually stops public declarations like the one from this demon. Jesus also exerts his power over illness, healing Simon’s mother-in-law so completely that she immediately serves Jesus a meal – from sick and helpless to humbly serving the Lord, this is the gospel!

Jesus’ popularity increases to the point that the whole town shows up to be healed by Jesus. He does heal them but the next day he moves on to other towns. Jesus’ mission was not simply to heal the sick or help the demon-oppressed; his mission was “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus then shows his divine power as Simon catches a literal boatload of fish after not finding anything all night. Simon (aka Peter) recognizes the divine power Jesus possesses and, much like the demon, falls at Jesus' feet and pleads with him to leave. James Edwards wisely commented, “Only an encounter with the grace of God can evoke true acknowledgment of sin and repentance. Recognition of guilt and unworthiness does not drive one from God. Rather, in a paradox of grace, it draws one to God. Earlier, Jesus drew apart from the villagers who wanted to keep him for themselves (4:42-43); here, as ‘the friend of sinners’ (7:34), he draws near to Peter in the latter’s awareness of his unworthiness. Jesus does not call the righteous who seek to justify themselves by some standard other than himself; he calls sinners like Peter who drop their defenses and yield to his transformative love and forgiveness.”^[4]

 

Application/Discussion

1. Luke mentions several times that Jesus made time to withdraw the noise and busyness of his life to spend time with God. Do you also make intentional time to focus only on God?

2. Both the unclean spirit and Peter fall in front of Jesus and ask him to leave. Jesus rebukes the demon but comforts Peter. What is the difference between these two figures, and why did Jesus treat them so differently?

 

Points of Prayer

Adoration: Praise God for his holiness, goodness, and authority.

Confession: Ask for God to show you any ways in which you neglect spending time with him.

Thanksgiving: Thank God for his grace, mercy, and salvation through Jesus despite our sinfulness.

Supplication: Pray for God’s comfort and relief for a church member who suffers from illness or discouragement.

Friday, June 13

Luke 5:12-39

 

Commentary

In today and tomorrow’s passages, Luke tells us several stories of how Jesus clashed with the Pharisees. First, Jesus heals a man with leprosy. Notice this man, like Peter, humbly acknowledges his unworthiness. Yet, he asks if Christ would heal him, fully confident that he could. Jesus heals the man, even touching him despite his uncleanness. Ritually unclean people would spread their impurity if they touched others, but Jesus spreads healing with his touch, which is stronger than sin. The man then, against Jesus’ direction, spreads news of this event all over. As Jesus becomes increasingly more popular and thus probably busier, he still makes time to go by himself to pray. Jesus also heals a paralyzed man, using the miracle to demonstrate that he has the divine authority to forgive sins and to heal the unhealable. The religious leaders cry blasphemy because only God could forgive sins, but they miss that Jesus can forgive sins because he is God the Son.

Jesus then calls a tax collector, Levi (better known as Matthew), and spends time with Levi and all his sinful, outcast friends. The religious leaders are again offended. Jesus’ reply to them does not mean the religious leaders were not sinful. Instead, Jesus means that he came to save those who recognize they need saving. The religious leaders then ask Jesus why his disciples do not follow the common (but not required by the Bible) custom of regular, specific days of fasting and prayer. Jesus replies with two sets of metaphors, teaching that he is the focus of his disciples and he is bringing something newer and better than the artificial, stale, manmade religion of the scribes and Pharisees. This passage helps us see Jesus’ mission with clarity. He came to bring healing, forgiveness, and transformation for all who humbly come to him in faith.

 

Application/Discussion

1. Why would it be a big deal for Jesus to touch a leper? How does Jesus’ personal interaction with someone nobody else would be near, let alone touch, encourage you to love and care for the downtrodden and discouraged people around you?

2. How do the stories shared by multiple gospels and the stories included in only one or two give us a fuller picture of Jesus and a greater confidence in the truth of the Bible?

 

Points of Prayer

Adoration: Praise God for his loving kindness towards the hurting and the broken and his just wrath towards the evil and unrepentant.

Confession: Ask God’s forgiveness for any times you have intentionally avoided people who most need you to show them God’s love.

Thanksgiving: Thank God for the freedom and peace found in Jesus alone.

Supplication: Pray for the Holy Spirit’s help for your church to focus on Christ and his Word and not be caught up in any legalism or disobedience.

Saturday, June 14

Luke 6:1-19

 

Commentary

The controversies continue as Jesus “works” on the Sabbath and the religious leaders are shocked and angry. First, Jesus’ disciples pick and eat some grain as they were walking. Second, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand. The Law did not say that something as simple as grabbing a snack or as God-honoring as healing the sick was work, but the extrabiblical traditions of the scribes and Pharisees made nearly everything into work. They worked so much to avoid working that the Sabbath became about vain attempts at perfectionism rather than a humble, thankful recognition that God is the great Provider.

          We then see Jesus call the twelve disciples out of the abundance of people following him. Jesus spent the whole night in prayer to prepare for calling these twelve men. Luke again highlights that Jesus’ life was marked by regular, intentional prayer and that he sacrificed his sleep if needed to spend time in prayer. After Jesus calls his disciples, he comes down from the mountain to teach and to heal. As David Gooding described, “The power of the Lord was with him to heal, and the healing character of his teaching was manifested as he first forgave a paralytic’s sins and then released him from his paralysis and gave him the power to walk to the glory of God. And so now, as his newly appointed apostles stood with him on the plain, power came out from him and he healed the crowds; and in that context of healing he ‘lifted up his eyes on his disciples’ (6:20) and taught them what the pastoral epistles would later describe as ‘healthy, wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Tim 6:3).”^[5]

 

Application/Discussion                                                                                                

1. Jesus taught that the Sabbath should involve taking care of oneself (by allowing his disciples to eat the grain) and others (by healing the man’s hand) as the need arose. Sabbath rest, then, does not entail a complete lack of activity. How can we rest in Christ even as we do the work he calls us to complete?

 

Points of Prayer

Adoration: Praise God for his compassion and care for his creatures.

Confession: Ask for God’s forgiveness and help for any ways you neglect opportunities to serve him or find rest anywhere other than in Christ.

Thanksgiving: Thank God for the great rest and peace we can find by trusting in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Supplication: Pray for the Holy Spirit’s help for your pastors to humbly pray, serve, and teach to equip your church members to reach and teach the lost in your community.

Sunday, June 15

Luke 6:20-49

 

Commentary

If this passage feels familiar, you are right – this seems to be a condensed version of what Jesus taught in Matthew 5-7. Luke either describes this same event or a similar teaching event. Jesus went from place to place and would have often given similar messages to his varying audiences. Jesus accompanies his “blessed are” statements with a series of “woe” statements. The kingdom of God operates upside down to how the sinful world operates. Those who are on top of the world and living their own way will find God’s judgement and wrath, but those who are impoverished or persecuted for the sake of the kingdom will have God’s eternal blessing.

Jesus calls us to be merciful and patient towards the wicked and to be humbly reliant on God to bless and watch over us as we obey him. James Edwards summarized, “In their ethics, Christians are not to be determined by the prior behaviors of others toward them, but by the character of God. Hence, believers are not to reciprocate in kind, but to respond in ways unlike and disproportionate to the ways they are treated: enemies are to be loved, haters are to be treated with goodness, revilers are to be blessed, and maligners… are to be prayed for.”^[6] While we often treat others how we feel they deserve or how we think we can get away with, Jesus calls us to treat others as we would want to be treated. If we have come to know Christ, we already know how we should want to be treated because God has treated us that way by redeeming us. We should live and show others that same love, in God’s strength and for his glory.

 

Application/Discussion

1. How do the “blessed are” and “woe” statements help us consider what we value and how we spend out time?

2. In the next week, how can you live out what you read here today?

 

Points of Prayer

Adoration: How can you praise God based on what you just read?

Confession: Is there unconfessed sin in your heart today?

Thanksgiving: How can you thank God based on what you just read?

Supplication: What can you ask for God’s help with based on what you just read?

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[1] J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke, on Luke 3:1-7, accessible at https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/expository_web.html#lukec3.

^[2] Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries vol. 3 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 119–120.

^[3] I. Howard Marshall, “Luke,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 987.

^[4] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 156.

^[5] David Gooding, According to Luke: The Third Gospel’s Ordered Historical Narrative, Myrtlefield Expositions (Coleraine, Northern Ireland: Myrtlefield House, 2013), 118.

^[6] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 197–198.