Today’s passage: Luke 5:12-26

Helpful thoughts:

• When lepers touch normal people, they make them unclean.  When Jesus touches a leper, the leper becomes clean.
• Jesus, God the Son, withdrew to desolate places to pray.
• The formerly paralyzed man had two reasons to leap and glorify God.  One of them was far more significant than the other.

Questions to consider:

1. Even though the leper was physically healed, what was still true of him?  Did he obey Jesus afterward?  What did he need more than clean skin and social acceptance? (Hint: The next man definitely received it!)
2. Why do you think Jesus would want and need to spend time in prayer?  What was it that He rightly desired to have with the Father?  How can this encourage us to prayer?
3. What miraculous gift seemed to pique the interests of people the most?  What, however, was truly the most incredible thing that Jesus did in this passage?  What reason to all believers have to love God with all our hearts?

Today’s passage: Luke 4:42-5:11

Helpful thoughts:

• If you could have a man that can heal all diseases and cast out all demons, you might want him to stick around.  But that was not why Jesus came.  He had to go preach the good news!
• Crowds also pressed in on Him to hear Him preach the word of God (5:1).
• Jesus graciously chose and changed these men, they left everything and followed Him.

Questions to consider:

1. What was unique about Peter’s response to Jesus compared to many others who wanted to be close to Jesus?  What did Peter understand?
2. Why was Peter allowed to remain in Christ’s presence?  (Think back to a similar occurrence in Isaiah 6:1-7)  What brings you into relationship and what grants you access to fellowship with God?
3. Why did it make perfect sense for these fishermen to leave all their gear behind to become fishers of men at the command of Jesus?

Today’s passage: Luke 4:31-41

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus exercises His own authority.
  • In His words/teaching
  • Over demons
  • Over sickness
• When Jesus healed people, they were healed immediately.  These people were not pre-selected.  They were not turned away.  This is not what the prosperity gospel faith-healer false teachers are doing today.
• Jesus did not allow the demons to bring Him any kind of popularity.

Questions to consider:

1. Why did this start in the synagogue?  What was Jesus’ primary objective, to heal, to exorcise demons or to teach? (Verse 43)
2. What was the demon afraid of?  What might he have thought Jesus had come to do at that time? (Revelation 20:7-10)
3. How would the demons’ proclamations of Jesus’ identity have caused confusion?  Why would it make sense for Jesus to command their silence?

Today’s passage: Luke 4:14-30

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus read from Isaiah 61.  Whether they realized it or not, He had just announced Himself as the Messiah.
• When Jesus promised good, the people marveled and wondered how it could be that Joseph’s son could be this wonderful.  When Jesus spoke truth of sin and rejection, the people were filled with wrath and tried to kill Him.  Same people…only moments apart.
• Jesus came to a world that was spiritually impoverished, captive to their sin, blind to the truth, and oppressed under the curse.  He is the Savior of the world.

Questions to consider:

1. What kinds of messages and commitments were going to make these people happy?  Is that much different than people in general today?
2. What kinds of people did God help in the illustrations that Jesus used?  The strong or the weak?
3. What must a person come to realize before they can receive the good news of the Gospel?  If you are already “good to go” what do you think Jesus ought to do for you?  If you know you are hopeless and helpless on your own, what has Jesus done for you?

Today’s passage: Luke 4:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• After all the proof of the first three chapters, Satan tries to bring doubt, “If you are the Son of God…”
• Jesus responded to each of the temptations with the truth of scripture.
• Satan also used Scripture, out of context, to push Jesus toward sin.

Questions to consider:

1. How should Satan’s mishandling of scripture be a warning to us?  Is everyone on TV, online, or writing books who uses a Bible teaching the truth?
2. What would have happened if Jesus had fallen to these temptations?  What was Satan trying to accomplish?
3. What did Jesus accomplish for us by denying Satan’s attempts and fulfilling righteousness?

Today’s passage: Luke 3:23-38

Helpful thoughts:

• The final piece that Luke adds to Jesus’ credentials as the Messiah, prior to the telling of the story of Jesus’ earthly ministry, is this genealogy.
• This genealogy has significant differences from the one in Matthew.
  • It is most usually understood that this genealogy is that of Mary, not Joseph.
  • As a result, several of the names in this genealogy and the one in Matthew are different between David and Joseph.
  • Joseph is listed here as the “supposed” father of Jesus since Jesus is not Joseph’s biological son.  Luke omitted Mary’s name according to custom (Something that Matthew did not do).
  • Jesus was a son of David through Mary, and legally through Joseph.
  • Matthew was written with the Jewish people in mind, Luke wrote his Gospel for a larger intended audience.  This may have been the thinking behind taking the genealogy all the way back to Adam and not just to Abraham.
• God had declared that no one descended from Jeconiah could sit on the throne (Jeremiah 22:24-30, 36:30-31).  Joseph was a descendant of Jeconiah and Jehoiakim.  Any biological son of Joseph’s could not be king.  Jesus’ miraculous virgin birth fulfilled this promise.

Questions to consider:

1. With all of the prophecy fulfilled, how many people ever on the face of the earth could have been the promised Messiah?  (I’ll give this one to you…there’s only one!)
2. Looking back through the first three chapters of Luke, what were the evidences that Luke has given about Jesus’ background that point to His identity as the Son of God?
3. With the evidence clearly outlined, what keeps people from believing that Jesus is the Christ?  Why can we be encouraged even if others choose to respond in disbelief?