Today’s passage: Luke 15:11-32

Helpful thoughts:

• This parable is often read and taught alone.  But, it’s helpful to remember that it is the third illustration along with the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.
• When the Prodigal Son “came to himself” he saw himself in truth, the way God saw him.  This is a gift of God’s grace.
• The Prodigal Son didn’t earn a party and all the presents.  His father chose to give them because he chose to forgive and love his son.
• The Prodigal Son had been brought to life and was found.  The older son believed he had kept every one of his father’s commands and was worthy of being praised (Verse 29).  He had not “come to himself”.
  • Being with the father and sharing in the inheritance wasn’t enough for the older brother (Verse 31).

Questions to consider:

1. People who grew up in Christian homes but are not following the Lord can sometimes be referred to (Or even refer to themselves) as “prodigals”.  But, in truth, who must see themselves as “prodigals” and become aware of their need before they will turn to the Father in humility and ask for mercy?  Who are the Pharisees in this parable?  Who are the born again Christians?
2. What specifically did the older brother want to celebrate in verse 29?  Who did he want to celebrate with?
3. Who will we all be boasting in when we see the glory of God in eternity (Ephesians 2:8-9)?  Why is legalism so evil?  How does it flip the focus of praise in the opposite direction of where it should go?  How does it destroy churches?

Today’s passage: Luke 15:1-10

Helpful thoughts:

• The Pharisees should have been rejoicing.  Jesus was willing to eat with them too.
• Instead, the Pharisees were thrilled with their own manufactured false self-righteousness.  They thought themselves superior to others who couldn’t “keep up”.
  • Though they viewed shepherds and poor women as second class citizens, they still would have been happier to hear about them finding a sheep and a coin than they were to hear of a sinner’s repentance.
• When sinners repent, there is real joy in Heaven!

Questions to consider:

1. Are there ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance?  Outside of Jesus, is there one?  What was the point of Jesus’ illustration?
2. Who “sought diligently” your repentance?  Are you thankful for their obedience to pray for and to share Christ with you?  Who might be a “lost sheep” or “lost coin” that you know and could be praying for and seeking diligently?
3. How does hearing of the joy of Heaven encourage you in evangelism?

Today’s passage: Luke 14:25-35

Helpful thoughts:

• There is no mistaking what the cross represents.  When Christ died we died.  All selfish ambition and self-preservation are contrary to what we have been called to do and be.  We are new creations in Christ Jesus.  We have a new master. (Romans 6)
• If my mother, father, wife/husband, children, siblings, friends, co-workers, or bosses tell me to leave Christ and follow them instead, I must follow Christ.  “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
• Christians are ambassadors.  Christ did not save us to keep to ourselves.  He gives us (Within the church) to each other and He gives the church to the world.  We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Questions to consider:

1. What people or what fears are the most likely to give you pause or “prevent” you from following Christ?  Why was it right to put quotation marks around “prevent”?  Who deserves our whole obedience?  Who has purchased our freedom from the bondage of sin?
2. What things would you do first and what things would you do more if/when you had victory over those fears?
3. In what ways are you adding to the good kind of “saltiness” of our church?   (Not just “official” ministries…but as an ambassador of Christ to our community)

Today’s passage: Luke 14:1-24

Helpful thoughts:

• When the Pharisees ate together in these settings, they would only invite their equals or people who would elevate their status.  There was a reason for Jesus and a man with “dropsy” to be invited on this particular day, and it wasn’t benevolence.
  • “They were watching him carefully” because they they wanted to catch Jesus touching the unclean man and healing on the Sabbath.
• Jesus “took” the man and healed him.  Jesus left no doubt in his compassion.  He didn’t secretly touch the man on the shoulder or heal from a distance (Which he surely could have done).  He grabbed the man up with vigor and lovingly healed him as the Pharisees watched in silence in order to protect their own selves.
  • The unclean man didn’t make Jesus unclean.  Jesus made this man clean.
• When one of the Pharisees declared, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”, he was actively disagreeing with Jesus and defending the honor of the Pharisees’ way of life.
  • Jesus’ response makes clear that if the Pharisees lived for the honor they were receiving in their banquets and among men, it was all the honor they would ever receive.

Questions to consider:

1. What should the church look like?  What “kinds” of people should we be excited to serve and to see coming?  How might our varying levels of excitement be an indicator of our own struggle to be respecters of persons?
2. In a culture where helping “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” can enhance our reputation, how can we know we are growing in the application of Jesus’ teaching?
3. When the invitees chose not to come to the banquet, who was the master upset with?  What role did the servant play?  What was the servant responsible to do?  Who was to be held responsible for the response to the invitation?  How should this inform our evangelism still today in the “highways and hedges”?

Today’s passage: Luke 13:22-35

Helpful thoughts:

• The question asked in verse 23 was a good one.  The disciples were seeing many people who cheered the miracles, but not as many who were being converted and therefore being saved from the wrath of God.
  • The door is narrow. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6
• Many of these Jews believed they were already “in” simply because they were Jews.  Jesus tells them something very different.  Many of them would be outside looking in with despair, while others from the rest of the world would enter.
• Jesus was not in Judea when the Pharisees came to “warn” Him.  They were trying to get Him to go back to Judea, where they had jurisdiction.  It wasn’t Herod who was trying to kill Jesus…
• In verse 35, Jesus is referring to the second coming (“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”).

Questions to consider:

1. Is everyone going to Heaven?  What does it mean to enter through the narrow door? How does a person become “saved”? (twowaystolive.com)
2. What does it mean when we call someone a “good person”?  What must I realize about myself before I see the gospel as truly wonderful news? (Verse 27)
3. Even though Israel as a nation had continually rejected God, how did He view them? (Verse 34)  What things do we learn about God in this passage?

Today’s passage: Luke 13:1-21

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus told the Jews that judgment was coming.  They responded by pointing their fingers at others.
  • Jesus’ response, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
  • It is easy to be shocked by the sin of others while turning the blind eye to our own.
  • The parable of the fig tree is an illustration for this teaching.  Israel had been cared for and were receiving this gift of the ministry of Jesus Christ.  Whoever does not repent and bear the fruit that comes with salvation, they would come under judgment.
• The ruler of the synagogue did not refute the miracle.  He believed the woman was healed miraculously.  Miracles do not create faith.
  • The ruler was not courageous enough to rebuke Jesus, so he rebuked the woman instead.  He told everyone to come be healed on other days…not the sabbath.
  • Once again, Jesus did not break the law, he broke the extra rules that had been laid down by the legalists.
  • The mustard seed and leaven are the illustrations for this teaching.  The kingdom of God had not come in the way that these Jews

Questions to consider:

1. When people ask why God allows disasters to happen or why certain people perish in them, who are they pointing their fingers toward?  What does God want us to remember ultimately?  Who must we pay attention to first?
2. If miracles didn’t convert people, why did Jesus perform them?  What do miracles (Or the truth of God’s Word) reveal from people’s hearts?  Should we refrain from sharing the gospel when we think people won’t respond positively?
3. What might I be treating like a mustard seed or leaven?  Is there something (e.g. Prayer) that God has said is a big deal that I treat as though it is insignificant?

Today’s passage: Luke 12:49-59

Helpful thoughts:

• The Jews thought the Messiah would come to bring judgment on all the Gentiles.  Instead, they were under judgment as well…all who reject Jesus as the Christ are under judgment.  But, the final judgment would not come before Jesus Himself was “baptized” with the judgment we deserve!
  • 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 – We hear the truth and by God’s grace find it wonderful!  Others hear the truth about Christ and find it terrible…these are under judgment.
• See Matthew 12:46-50.  The church is our family.  When our physical family is also our spiritual family, it is a great blessing.  But, even when your physical family shuns you because of your faith, you have an eternal family in the church and you are forever God’s child.
• The Pharisees, scribes and lawyers were “experts” in the Law and the Prophets (Old Testament), but they didn’t know God and they didn’t know God the Son was in their presence or what He had come to do (Isaiah 53!).
• Hebrews 9:27 – And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.

Questions to consider:

1. How does this passage compare/contrast with John 3:16-18?  How did Jesus’ life and death bring life to some and promise judgment to others?  Why are some condemned already and others (Believers) promised that there is now no condemnation?
2. When you have to choose whether to follow Jesus or follow your earthly family, who do you follow?  How does baptism provide the means of displaying the fruit of conversion and allegiance to the King?
3. How must the church (Our church) interact with and welcome people in when their earthly family is not in the family of God?  Why is it so important for us not to take it for granted when our parents, siblings or children are believers?  What kinds of things would make you feel like you were a welcomed member of the family?