Faith Healing?

Luke 6:39-7:10

Have you ever had the experience when you are talking to someone, maybe to get information about a purchase, when you realize that you know more than they do? How does it feel at that moment you make this realization? For me, there inside my head the exclamation “Oh…” which is short for “How do I get out of this conversation as quickly as possible without looking rude? Where else can I go to find someone who is actually knowledgeable?”

About a month ago someone left a message on my answering machine at work explaining that he wanted me to do some research for him. So far, it sounded good. Then he went on to explain that it involved the working out of the last details of a perpetual motion machine. “Oh…” The more he talked the more the voice inside my head said “Oh…” until by the end I wondered if I was safe or maybe needed to call the guys in white coats.

To one degree or another, we all have had experiences like this. But what if we are following the advice of someone like this but don’t realize that this is an “Oh…” person? How messed up can we get by allowing ourselves to be informed by those who don’t have a clue? What happens if we listen to such advice for weeks, months, or years? It’s not a comforting thought.

Love vs. Judgement

Luke 6:27-6:38
Dedicated to Larry Norman

Beginning last week, we have been exploring Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain,” as one commentator calls it. Jesus’ began his teaching with a series of blessings and woes. They were almost the complete opposite of what the world teaches. Blessed are the rich? No, blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Woe to the rich, for they have already received their comfort. Blessed are those who can eat anything they want? No, blessed are the hungry, for they will be satisfied. Woe to those who are well-fed now, for they will go hungry. Blessed are those who laugh? No, blessed are those who weep, for they will laugh. Woe to those who laugh, for they will weep. Blessed are those whom others speak well of? No, blessed are those who are hated, excluded, and insulted because of their faith in Jesus, for that is how they treated the prophets. Woe to those who are well-liked, because that is how they treated the false prophets.

And following these general sayings that turn the world’s wisdom upside down comes this:

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. – Luke 6:27-28

How does this square with the wisdom of the world? Upside down! You don’t love your enemies, you destroy them! Who are you supposed to love? Your family and friends! Love those who love you. Treat them right so you keep their love.

Blessings and Woes

Luke 6:17-6:26

How many of you, in the morning while having breakfast, getting dressed, or otherwise getting ready for your day, turn on the TV and watch CNN, or the Today Show, or some similar informational show? At our house we don’t do this; in fact, we have largely gotten out of the habit of watching “live” TV altogether, except for some kiddie shows Hannah watches. With four kids, our mornings, like many of yours, are hectic, busy, and noisy.

But when I travel for business reasons, it is a different story. I am alone. Once I get up in the morning it is quiet. It is too quiet. And I admit it, it is lonely. I miss my wife and my children. So when I travel, even before I take a shower, I turn on the TV to one of these programs, as much to make it less quiet as it is to actually learn what is going on in the world.

If you have watched these types of programs, many of them do not just give news, but equally, or even more so, have a great variety of segments that could be classified generally as “how to live a better life.” Make better food, make better career decisions, get better gadgets, have a better love life… and a million more topics like this.

Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 6:1-6:16
We have been going through the book of Luke, chapter by chapter, line by line, and now we come to Chapter 6. In Chapter 5 last week, we saw the beginnings of tension between Jesus and the priests and teachers of the Law. We heard the story of how a paralytic was unable to get past the crowd to see Jesus, so his friends cut a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching and lowered him in, Before healing this man, Jesus told him “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” That didn’t go over too well – they thought, “Only God can forgive sins!”

One thing I didn’t go into about this last week is the “why” this is true. Clearly, if I sin against someone here, I can go to that person, ask for forgiveness, and that person, if they so choose, can forgive me. What is the difference here? The difference is that Jesus is implying that all of the paralytic’s sins are being forgiven.

What is a Disciple?

Luke 5:1-5:39

Last week we had a glimpse, through Luke 4, of the life of Jesus after his fasting and temptation experience in the desert. He was now going from town to town, teaching with astounding wisdom and authority, and miraculously healing people. He was becoming more and more well known, and whenever news spread that Jesus was back in town, the crowds left what they were doing to find Him and listen and watch.

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around Him and listening to the word of God, He saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then He sat down and taught the people from the boat. – Luke 5:1-3

Experiencing Rejection

Luke 4:14-4:44
Last week we looked at Jesus’ temptation in the desert. Recall that Jesus spent 40 days without food and then was tempted by Satan in three ways. First, He was tempted to use His power as God to turn the stones into bread and satisfy His intense hunger. Second, He was tempted to worship Satan in exchange for having total power over all the kingdoms of the world, to do with as He pleased, even to do things for their good. And third, He was tempted to throw Himself down from a high place at the Temple so that His angels would protect Him. Each of these temptations was ultimately about having Jesus do what He would want rather than what God the Father would want. But Jesus, filled with the Spirit, rejected these temptations and stayed true to His Father. Let’s pick up the account with Luke 4:14.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised Him. He went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue, as was His custom. And He stood up to read. – Luke 4:14-16

Experiencing Temptation

Luke 4:1-4:13
Last week we saw that the previous chapter of Luke dealt with Jesus’ baptism. During this baptism we saw Jesus anointed by the Holy Spirit in the appearance of a dove, and we heard God the Father affirm Jesus by saying, “You are my Son, whom I love. With You I am well pleased.” With such glowing words, one might expect God’s tasks for Jesus to be easy. But as we shall see that with God, “love” does not mean the same thing as “easy.”

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry. – Luke 4:1-2

Why does Luke reiterate that Jesus is “full of the Holy Spirit”? In other locations in Luke we have seen that when he uses this wording he is saying that the person is being led by the Holy Spirit. In fact, in the parallel passage in the gospel of Mark, we see a much stronger wording:

Preparing the Way

Luke 3:1-3:38
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. – Luke 3:1-3

As we have seen in previous weeks in this series, Luke establishes the factual nature of his account with details about the leadership and the time of the events. He is telling his audience that the things they have heard about Jesus are not just stories but fact.

Here he comes back to talking about John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Recall what the angel Gabriel had said of John before his birth:

He will be a joy and delight to you [Zechariah], and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. – Luke 1:14-17

Signs and Wonders

Luke 2:1-2:52

Those of you who are fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy know that the huge epic story is really about the end of an age in the universe of Middle Earth. By the end of the story, after the “one ring” has been destroyed, one age has come to an end, and another has begun, the “Age of Men.”

What about our universe, the real one? Is our history one than can be separated into ages? Yes, I think so. There is certainly more than one way to do it. Matthew, in the first chapter of his gospel, provides a genealogy that is divided into three groups: from Abraham to David, from David to the exile in Babylon, and from the exile to the birth of Christ. This is certainly a valid (and Biblical) way to do it, although it doesn’t go back to the very beginning, but instead begins with Abraham.

Foretelling

Luke 1:1-1:80

Today we begin a new series on the Gospel of Luke. Last year we went through the Book of Acts, also written by Luke. So we are doing these in “reverse order.” I figure if it worked out for Star Wars, and apparently, will work out for The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, it should work out OK for us.

I want to briefly mention some of the things we learned about Luke from the book of Acts. There we saw that Luke was painstakingly careful with accuracy and, often, but not always, detail. He did not sugar-coat things, and he did not make the Apostle Paul out to be a superhero – in fact, he was careful to lay out the good as well as the bad. He never tried to defend the early church, but simply to say what had happened.