Take Nothing With You

Luke 9:1-9

As I shared last week, this week it is you who will share on our passage today in Luke – this will be the content of our expanded sharing time. Actually, I thought we could break our sharing time into three parts. The first portion will focus on this particular passage in Luke, the second portion will be a bit more general – feel free to share anything the Lord has been teaching you recently. And the third portion will focus on prayer requests. Following this, we will spend time in prayer and then we will take communion, remembering our Lord with the bread and the cup.

Why do we do sharing times? Because God gifts each one of us to be a blessing to one another, and because God wants us to use our gifts. If you gave someone a wonderful gift, such as a new car, how would you feel if that person just left the gift parked in their driveway and never drove it? Imagine that you went to talk to the person. “Don’t you like the car I gave you?” “Oh, yes! I love it! It is so pretty to look at!” “Look at? I think you don’t understand. I didn’t give you the car to look at it; I gave it so you could drive places.” And just as our imaginary car would be given to drive, in the same way God’s gifts are given to be used.

The Apostle Paul, in the book of Romans, reminded people to let others use their gifts.

Resurrection

Luke 8:40-56

I want to start today by talking about time. We in our culture are very aware of time; perhaps only Japan is more obsessed with time than we are. One way you can see how different cultures reflect on time is by seeing what they mean by “officially” or “offensively” late when it comes to coming to a meeting or gathering. For many parts of the world, a few hours late can be acceptable. In America, I think it is more like 10-15 minutes when it comes to business meetings, perhaps even less.

Speaking of being late, perhaps some of you have had an experience similar to mine when traveling by airplane. Your travel requires two or more separate flights, and your schedule shows a one-hour layover at the connecting airport. You check at the airport, and it shows that your first flight shows an on-time arrival. So far, so good. But as you get to within a few minutes of when your flight is to take off, you notice the plane isn’t at the gate yet. Of course, they don’t update the information on the TV screens at the gate. It turns out that the flight arrives right when you were to take off. They announce that they will try to get everyone on the plane as quickly as they can and don’t expect any significant delays. “Good,” you think. But by the time they close the flight door, you are already 20 minutes late. Your flight seems somewhat slow in leaving the gate, but you aren’t really paying attention. But you do start paying attention when it seems like you have been waiting in line behind other planes for a very long time. 

Legion

Luke 8:26-39

We continue our study through the Book of Luke, continuing this week in the middle of the 8th chapter. What happened last week? We learned about the incredible storm that suddenly swept across the lake of Galilee and fiercely attacked the disciples in their puny, flat-bottomed sailboat and capsized it, sending them to their deaths. Well, not quite. But that is what the disciples thought was about to happen! Recall that while they were panicking, Jesus was sleeping soundly. The disciples woke him and basically accused Him of not caring about them. With basically no effort, Jesus suddenly and completely stilled the storm, asked them how they could have so little faith (as to think He didn’t care about them, after all they had gone through together and seen of Him), and they sat there, still not getting it, amazed that He could stop a storm like that.

Our passage today picks up right where this left off. Still reeling from this episode, the disciples and Jesus continued to sail…

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. – Luke 8:26-27

Nothing Stays Hidden

Luke 8:16-25

Today our passage, I believe, is a direct continuation of the parable of the soil discussed last week. In order to better understand our passage, I want to go back to Luke 8:5.

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." – Luke 8:5-8

The disciples, as was often the case, had no idea what He was talking about, so Jesus explained it to them. He first explained that the seed represented the word of God. Picking up with Luke 8:12,

Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. – Luke 8:12-14