Today’s passage: Luke 11:14-26

Helpful thoughts:

• Seeing miracles does not bring repentance and conversion out of the hearts of man (Luke 16:31).
• Jesus is stronger than the devil and all demons (Verse 22).  He will not lose.
• If we are not gathering with Jesus, we are scattering.  There is no middle ground.  There is no neutral position.
  • The man in verses 24-26 serves as the illustration for the truth in verse 23.
  • This man “cleaned himself up” but in a moralistic self-righteous way.  This only invited more demonic activity.
    • Jesus is declaring this man better off having acted demonically than to be outwardly righteous without Christ!
    • He was obviously scattering in the first place.  Now he might think he is gathering, but instead is doing far scattering than he was ever before.

Questions to consider:

1. What was Jesus’ posture towards these people in this conversation?  Was the love of God being communicated passively with an appeal to their felt needs or were they being warned that the Kingdom of God had come upon them?
2. What should be most exciting for us to see at church, a new family that looks cleaned up and shares our same interests and hobbies who do not know Christ, or a person from an entirely different background with different interests who comes to know and love Christ?  How should the answer to this question also inform the way we “do” church, how we view people, and how we present ourselves to the mission field around us?
3. Is it possible for a church (And church goers) to be scatterers?  How would you be able to identify a pastor, church, ministry that is scattering instead of gathering?

Today’s passage: Luke 11:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• God wants us to pray!
  • He is to be hallowed (Greatly revered, honored).
  • He is a loving Father.
• A sincere heart is far more important than many words.
• A good father will not give his children “serpents” and “scorpions”, even when they ask for them.

Questions to consider:

1. What kinds of things did Jesus include in this prayer?  How could it serve as a model for us? (See also Matthew 6:9-13)
2. Is it possible that some of our requests that seem to be good are in fact “scorpions”?  What might be some examples?  What kinds of gifts does God give (James 1:17)?
3. How does the fact that God deserves to be hallowed and that His kingdom is assuredly coming reinforce your prayers?  How does it reinforce your faith in His goodness, even if things don’t go they way you thought they should?

Today’s passage: Luke 10:38-42

Helpful thoughts:

• The things that Martha was doing were not wrong in and of themselves.  She wanted to show great hospitality.
• Martha wanted to provide Jesus with a banquet.  Jesus was already providing a banquet and Martha was declining.
• “No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word.” – Don Whitney

Questions to consider:

1. Even though both sisters desired to honor Christ in this passage, which one was showing Him the greatest honor?  What about Mary’s action honored Christ more?  What had Jesus desired to give to His hosts in that moment?
2. Do you ever feel like you aren’t “getting anything done” when you are spending time in the Word?  Why do we think that way?  Why is that thinking incorrect?
3. What are the things that most often distract you from hearing from God in His Word?  How can learning from Him help you to better think about the things that distract you?

Today’s passage: Luke 10:25-37

Helpful thoughts:

• Questions are better than accusations when you genuinely desire to learn before coming to a conclusion.  Questions asked to corner someone and point out their faults is misleading and manipulative.
  • Jesus’ method of confronting this was simply to ask the “asker” to answer their own question.
• A perfect love for God and our neighbors would result in perfect righteousness.  Only Jesus has accomplished this!
  • The lawyer was an “expert” in the law…but that expertise was utilized not to grow in humility and love, but instead to reinterpret and redefine terms in order to self-justify.  This is our natural condition.
• The lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” (Who do I HAVE to love?) Jesus answered with this different question, “Who was a neighbor to the man?” (Who CAN you love?)

Questions to consider:

1. How do you use questions in your conversations?  How should love of God and love of your neighbor shape the way you ask questions?
2. Why was the lawyers interpretation of the law and the greatest commandments anti-gospel and anti-love?  What was he hoping to accomplish?  Who was he trying to protect and endorse?
3. How does Christ’s imputed righteousness free you and enable you to genuinely love God and love people?  How does knowing that you already measure up to God’s standard in Christ enable you to give of yourself for the benefit of others without regard for what’s in it for you?

Today’s passage: Luke 10:1-24

Helpful thoughts:

• Some repeats of helpful thoughts from when Jesus sent out the twelve in Luke 9:1-6.
• Fire and brimstone coming down from the heavens is not the sole indicator of the greatest severity of sinfulness.  Neither is sunshine and earthly prosperity an automatic indication that all is well. (Psalm 73)
• When you share the gospel message, you are an answer to prayer.  If/When people tell you “no”, they aren’t rejecting you, they are rejecting the King of Kings.

Questions to consider:

1. What were the two reasons Jesus gave the seventy-two to not be so impressed with their power over the demons (Verses 18-20)?  (1) Whose power was on display?  Who has ultimate authority?  (2) What miracle is most amazing and worthy of our awe and wonder?
2. How does verse 22 compare with John 6:40-47?  Who will believe the gospel message that we share?
3. What is our role in evangelism?  When have we succeeded (Our obedience to proclaim or their conversion)?  Who guarantees the ultimate victory of the church (Matthew 16:18 – “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.“)?

Today’s passage: Luke 9:51-62

Helpful thoughts:

• John 12:47 – “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”
• Matthew 8:18-20 identifies the first man in verse 57-62 as a scribe.  From the world’s perspective, Jesus would have had much to gain by adding a scribe to His “entourage.”  But, Jesus knew why the man had come.
• “Bury my father” is being used for more than the literal burial.  Burials occurred on the day of death in that time.  This man wanted to see out his father’s life in order to get his inheritance.
• Look back to Luke 9:23-24.

Questions to consider:

1. How can verses 51-56 teach us concerning how we speak to the lost?  And about the lost?  Should there be a group of people we hate?  Should we desire to see people suffer?  What kinds of words should come from our mouths (James 3:8-12)?
2. How would you describe these barriers to following Jesus presented in verses 57-62?  What did these men want more than to follow Christ?
3. What would you be (Or have been) most prone to say, “But let me first” about before following Christ?  How do you remind yourself of the promises of God in Christ which outweigh the value of our earthly temporal desires?

Today’s passage: Luke 9:46-50

Helpful thoughts:

• After not one of the disciples understood what Jesus was saying, they argued about who was the best…
• Praise God for those who work in our Children’s ministries!  None of us are too important, too cool, too big to serve “the least of these.”
• Verse 49 depicts a moment when the disciples were perhaps the most like the Pharisees.  They had just failed to cast out a demon (Verse 40), and now they were trying to prevent someone else from doing it because it wasn’t within their realm of influence.

Questions to consider:

1. What seems to be the theme of these two instances?  What was the consistent problem in the hearts of the disciples?
2. What is your goal for ministry and service in the church?  Who are you serving/working for?  What do you hope will be the result?  What kinds of things tempt you want to quit and give up?  When those times of temptation come, how should we correct our thinking?
3. The gospel message is immensely profound and yet simple enough to explain to a child.  How would you share the gospel with a child?

Today’s passage: Luke 9:37-45

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus’ sadness at the lack of faith in the people could have been aimed toward the man and his son (Or Israel as a whole), or He could have been referring to His own disciples who failed to have faith (Believing in the power of God as opposed to their own – Matthew 17:19-20).
• Jesus’ disciples followed Him around willingly for three years.  Even they did not understand until God graciously opened their minds (Luke 24:45).
• Man never overpowered God.  Jesus was delivered into the hands of men by God’s design for God’s glorious purposes.

Questions to consider:

1. What was of primary interest for the different people in this passage?  What did the people marvel over?  What stuck out in Jesus’ mind?  How does faith change our perspective on the events of the world?
2. Why would the disciples have been afraid to ask what Jesus meant?  What didn’t they want to admit?  What would this reveal about their hearts at the time?
3. Who is in complete control of events and of our understanding of spiritual things?  Whose power are we under before God graciously intervenes and saves (Ephesians 2:1-5)?  How should we respond to these truths?

Today’s passage: Luke 9:28-36

Helpful thoughts:

• On the heels of the disciples hearing Jesus speak of His coming rejection, death and resurrection, these three disciples got to see the kingdom of God in Christ’s glory.
• God used Moses and Elijah to speak to Jesus in the presence of Peter, James and John about what was to come.  They had just heard it from Jesus.  Now they heard it (Unless they were still sleeping!) from these prophets in the presence of the glorified Christ.
• If that wasn’t enough, God the Father confirmed the identity of Christ Himself.

Questions to consider:

1. Unless Moses and Elijah were wearing name tags, what might Peter’s ability to identify them mean for our knowledge of people in eternity?
2. What was so upside down and inside out about Peter’s suggestion?  Was Jesus lucky to have Peter and the disciples there?  Is THAT why that was a big moment?  Who was receiving the gift?  When we praise Jesus and give Him our all in obedience, is that a generous kindness we are showing Him or is that what He is due?
3. What command did God give after identifying Christ?  Are there any “tents” that you have built to have a sense of doing things for Jesus (Your own way) that have distracted you from simply listening and obeying Him?

Today’s passage: Luke 9:18-27

Helpful thoughts:

• For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 16:17 (See Matthew 16:13-20)
• Jesus came to suffer, to be rejected, to be killed and to rise from the dead.  And He’s coming again.
• Jesus’ promise in verse 27 would come to fruition about eight days later (And in the next several verses).

Questions to consider:

1. How do verses 18-20 compare and contrast with verses 7-9?  Why might Luke have placed these sets of questions and answers within the same passage?
2. Who is Jesus?  What results from knowing and believing in the correct answer?
3. What does it look like in the 21st century in our culture to take up our cross and follow Jesus?  What does it look like to be ashamed of Him and the Gospel?  How are you growing in this?  How can you continue to grow?