We’re starting the year off by walking through the Gospel of Luke together. It’s a common New Year’s goal to read the Bible more, but I’ve found a common hurdle to this goal…where do I start? I want to help!
First, take a look at this post from a couple of years ago, 5 Steps to Understand the Bible. It’s a great place to start your new goal. Second, if you are beginning in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, I wrote a series of posts on the story of Joseph. Joseph is a major character at the end of the book of Genesis, but the story of Joseph and his brothers is a little messy and complicated. These series of those posts should help you: Joseph: A Story of Redemption.
Finally, I’ll cover a few chapters of Luke each week, and I’ll include some of my thoughts on each chapter. Read along with me, and share your thoughts on these chapters with me in the comments!
Be sure to check out the other chapters too:
Luke 4 – You have an enemy.
There are two camps we tend to fall into when thinking about Satan. Either we give him too much authority, or we ascribe to him nearly no power. Honestly, I fall into the later – I don’t usually believe Satan has much power. I really don’t think about him.
Yet, reading this chapter about the temptation of Jesus, I’m forced to think about our enemy. He’s real. Satan does have power. He wants to destroy us. Satan is a creation of God who has fallen, and he now wants to see the rest of creation fall with him.
Here’s one revelation I had about Satan. He’s not God.
Satan does have power, but he’s not all powerful. Satan does have knowledge, yet he’s not all knowing. It seems Satan can by physically present, but he’s not present everywhere. Satan is limited, and we need to make sure we don’t give him more power than he actually has.
Bonus thought: Jesus, the man, defeats Satan with scripture. Scripture is more powerful than Satan, so it’s your secret weapon.
Luke 5 – What do you think? What do you know?
Up until this point, Jesus has already endured struggles and trials. He went through desert temptation and was rejected by his own community, but neither of those things compared to the consistent adversity he would face the rest of his life.
Enter the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were a sect of the Jewish faith who believed the rules surrounding entry into the temple, given by Moses centuries before, applied to every day life. Over the course of a few hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the Pharisees became the default experts on Jewish law and tradition.
Jesus and the Pharisees both loved the law. What this love looked like in every day life was vastly different from one another. The Pharisees loved the tiniest detail of the law. The detail was as important as the intent. Jesus loved the spirit of the law. The focus for Jesus was the intent of the law, so the details became secondary.
This chapter of Luke captures the Pharisees first run-in with Jesus, and immediately we see the conflict in philosophy and theology. Jesus has the audacity to forgive a man’s sins, and then proves his power by healing him. Jesus and his disciples don’t openly fast (a sign of of purity in the Pharisee tradition), but instead Jesus sits and eats with sinful people. Each of these actions make Jesus unclean in the Jewish law and tradition.
Through these encounters, Jesus pecks away at the heart of the Pharisees. The difference comes down to thinking and knowing. The Pharisees think they know truth. Jesus knows truth. While eating with “sinners” Jesus says,
“I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.” -Luke 5:32
Jesus wants to spend time with those who know who they are, not with those who think they are something else.
What do you think? What do you know?
Luke 6 – Purpose. Design. Call.
For two chapters Jesus and the Pharisees have been like two boxers trading jabs back and forth feeling each other out. The Pharisees don’t realize it, but Jesus keeps coming back the idea of purpose, design and call.
Without asking these questions, this is where Jesus keeps probing. Why was the law created? What is the reason for these rules? Why are we alive?
The Pharisees miss it, and if you’re not careful, you will miss it too. What Jesus is really saying comes in his famous sermon on the mount,
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” -Luke 6:43-45 NLT
There is an intent or purpose for everything God creates. This is true nature, humanity, the church. What is your purpose? Are you fulfilling that purpose and creating what you were made for? We either produce what we were made for, or what we allow our hearts to devolve into.
You may not know your specific purpose, but I know you were created for life, hope, joy. Are you fulfilling that purpose?
What did you see?
Those are (some of) my thoughts from the first three chapters of Luke. What did you see? What seemed to jump off the page or screen as you read? Share them in the comments and let’s learn together!
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