Luke 4:38-44

Luke 4:38-44

These seven verses are so filled with applications for our daily life that they could alone fill an entire volume. Notice how Peter's mother-in-law responds to being healed. Luke, as a doctor, describes a serious medical condition, a high fever was often the precursor to death. The Lord heals the woman and please notice that she immediately got up and began to serve.

What is our response to grace? Within much of Western Christianity there is a near complete absence of service. We act and often teach that once converted the new Christian is expected to do little more than attend worship, as if sitting and singing is service enough. Dare we say that we were saved to serve and not to just sit? We do not need lessons on giftedness as much as lessons that the normal Christian life is serving. That is why being part of a faith community is so important; it gives us a place to be a part and it gives us a place to serve.

It appears from vss. 40-41 that Jesus served all night long and in the morning He went to pray. Serving is exhausting and that is why there must be the season of refreshing in prayer. Jesus didn't use this prayer as an escape from service nor was the exhaustion of service a reason not to pray.

Finally, notice that the people wanted to keep Jesus to themselves in a cozy little religion club. For these people, comfort trumped the mission. That is often the case of the contemporary church. We are tempted to stay in our comfort zone, with Jesus doing for us what we want, enjoying the good things of church life and the sweet fellowship of our friends and forgetting and ignoring the lost world and the church's mission.

“Lord, let my life of service be a reflection of and a thank you toward Jesus. AMEN”

Luke 4:38-44

 Luke 4:38-44

These seven verses are so filled with applications for our daily life that they could alone fill an entire volume. Notice how Peter's mother-in-law responds to being healed. Luke as a doctor describes a serious medical condition with a high fever often the precursor to death. The Lord heals the woman and notice that she immediately got up and began to serve.

What is our response to grace? Within much of Western Christianity there is a near complete absence of service. We act and often teach that once converted the new Christian is expected to do little more than attend worship, as if sitting and singing is service enough. Dare we say that we were saved to serve and not to sit? We do not need lessons on giftedness as much as lessons that the normal Christian life is serving. That is why being part of a faith community is so important; it gives us a place to be a part and it gives us a place to serve.

It appears from vss. 40-41 that Jesus served all night long and in the morning He went to pray. Serving is exhausting and that is why there must be the season of refreshing in prayer. Jesus didn't use this prayer as an escape from service nor was the exhaustion of service a reason not to pray.

Finally, notice that the people wanted to keep Jesus to themselves and a cozy little religion club. For the people there, comfort trumped the mission. That is often the case of the contemporary church. We are tempted to stay in our comfort zone, with Jesus doing for us what we want, enjoying the good things of church life and the sweet fellowship of our friends and forgetting and ignoring the lost world and the church's mission.

"Lord, help me never to too busy to pray or so praying that I never serve. AMEN"

Luke 4:31-37

Luke 4:31-37

The first time we see Jesus cast out an evil spirit in Luke's history it happens in the synagogue. This man was in the synagogue; that is more than to say he was in the building, he was part of the synagogue community. We have been shaped by popular expectation that a person possessed of an evil spirit will be a raging, raving madman, the kind that we see in Luke 8:27. The popular, spectacular, Hollywood presentation does not always fit the reality of demon-possessed individuals. This one was not apparently there because of a special occasion. It appears that his presence was normal. He doesn't appear to come bursting in. No one came to Jesus asking him to cure the man. His behavior was apparently within the range of what might be called normal. It was not until the demon was in the presence of the Son that he manifested his true identity. An important lesson here is that in the house of worship the demonic resided and was perhaps comfortable. Another lesson is that the demon was not evident for some time; he was the perfect spy and saboteur, one that was hidden in plain sight. A third lesson is that when the Lord is present the demonic manifested. In Jesus' day some people mistakenly thought Jesus’ presence was the problem. The problem was, in fact, that they could not discern the power of darkness because of an absence of the power and the presence of God.

We should not be surprised to find the demonic in our churches. In fact, of all places the Prince of Darkness would want to place his agents it would be in the church and its leadership. With his agents in the church and its leadership the church could be steered away from her first priority of making disciples. It could be distracted into fights over music, kitchens, curriculum, etc. etc. The church could be directed to bring self-serving in its ministry and indifference to the loss around her. There is more than a slight possibility that the enemy is in the church.

The objective is not a witch-hunt, to be afraid of a demon around every corner and under every rock, or to assume anyone who disagrees with us is possessed. But to realize the demonic cannot tolerate the presence of God. The objective is to be drawn closer to God and filled with His Spirit. When that happens He is more than able to deal with the powers of darkness near us and in us.

"Lord, grant me the insight to see any strong hold of evil in my life. AMEN:

Luke 4:13-30

Luke 4:13-30

Luke opens the public ministry of Jesus with the teaching in the synagogue of Nazareth. Jesus had apparently done some things in Capernaum. (v.23) But for the first time we see Jesus’ teaching ministry. The passage from Isaiah is often discussed, but less often do we notice the reaction to Jesus. In the course of six verses a radical change occurs in Jesus’ audience. In verses 22-23 “all were speaking well of Him”. The word “speaking well” is most common in Johns’ Gospel and generally means to “testify positively”. This was a moment when a lot of people who knew Jesus were all delighted to say, “I know Him and we go way back.” In this moment, Jesus was the hometown hero who had done some great things and who was destined to do more great things and everyone was happy to be associated with Jesus. But by verse 28 things had changed. Now they are ready to commit homicide and throw Jesus over the cliff. They, the listeners, the ones who in verse 22 were offering their personal support and proud of their connection, are now “filled with rage.” They have a passionate outburst of fury.

Jesus goes from hometown hero to a person to kill in the span of one teaching session. Jesus passes through their midst and “He went His way.” More than just walking out on them Jesus stayed true to His way, teaching, ministry and calling, and left his hometown behind. In Luke, we never see Jesus going back to Nazareth.

There are two points of application. First, it is complete folly to use popularity as the measurement of our discipleship or ministry. While this is one of, if not the most common measurement we use for churches, it is perhaps the least stable. If we are driven by our commitment to God and His message then human approval will always be fickle.

Second, most religious groups don’t want outsiders. What apparently offended the crowd was not the reading of the Scriptures, but Jesus reminding His hearers that the two great miracle-working prophets of old were sent to Gentiles, not Jews. The hearers did not want to hear about “accepting Gentiles”. One saying of the Jews was that, “God created Gentiles as fuel for the fires of Hell.” In many, perhaps we should say most, churches the fastest way to move from local hero to hated pariah is to invite undesirable outsiders to be part of the congregation.

“Lord, help to have Your heart, to fear no loss except of the loss of You, and to deeply desire seeing outsiders become insiders. AMEN”

Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:1-13

This passage could be reviewed and studied every day by both individual disciples and the church and never be exhausted. It is most often applied to individual believers. But it can have application for the collective body of believers. These applications should not be lost on the church. Jesus has two bodies, the one born in Bethlehem and the one called the Church.  We can be sure that the tempter will assail the body of Christ the church with these same kinds of temptations.

In the first temptation, Satan challenges the Lord to turn stones to bread. The language indicates this is not just for a single meal, but also for the whole of his ministry. Jesus could attract a crowd with a bribe. How often has the church tried to draw the masses to the Lord by means of a grand prize? One church even gave away a motorcycle to some lucky attender. Giveaways and parties can get a crowd, but they will never make disciples.

The second temptation is to suggest that a supposedly minor compromise is a shortcut to the masses. The world's centers of power were firmly in Satan's grasp. To wrestle them away would require long, house-to-house, street-by-street fighting. This shortcut would avoid the hard fighting. There can be no compromise with the enemy. It may be tempting to tell the person in sin a compromise message, but it is not good news. The advocates of a compromised kind of Christian morality tell us it is a lost hope to preach holiness. We can never worship and serve a holy God by compromising holiness. Note how Jesus closely links worship and service. Those two are never distant. We always worship the one we serve and we will always serve the one we worship.

The final temptation is the temptation of the spectacular. The grand show draws the crowds. The greater the show the greater the crowds will be. Using His special place before God Jesus could “wow” the crowds. The problem in doing this would be to try to put God on the spot. We do this when we put our expectations on God and insist that He do our bidding. We in effect try to become god over God. As with all temptations, this is fraught with problems. The spectacle if done in Jerusalem would have to be repeated in Rome and Corinth in London in New York and endlessly. Man has an insatiable appetite for the spectacular. Another problem is revealed in Jesus' answer. Emphatically, He says to Satan, “Remember your place. God is your God, I am your God.”

There are no shortcuts to accomplishing the will of the Father. It is the way of the cross; a message lived by Jesus and is for every believer and the church.

"Grant me and Your whole church, Lord, to resist the temptations of short cuts, no matter how subtle they are.  AMEN