A Plea, a Prayer and a Promise (Luke 23:26-49)
Jesus was crucified between two others, and in the story of Luke, these two dying men show us two different responses to Jesus. Either we can trust our lives to him, even in the last moments of our life, and be with him in paradise, or we can reject him and his death, and die […]
The Coming of the King (Luke 19:28-44)
As Jesus enters Jerusalem he doesn’t do so like any other king or queen; he enters on a donkey, and he even needs to be helped onto it. He arrives in the city in the most humble way, showing exactly what kind of king he was.
The Shadow of the Cross (Luke 9:28-56)
In the transfiguration, Jesus shows that he was both the son of man and the glorious son of God. But his disciples took a while to realise what this power and glory meant; Jesus was the heart of all glory, but he was also the suffering servant, whose face was set toward the cross, where […]
The Cost of Discipleship (Luke 9:1-27)
Up until this point in the book, we’d been hearing about who this Jesus was. But now, Jesus shows us what it looks like to follow him. And he tells his disciples that if they want to follow a crucified Messiah, they need to take up their own cross, and if they want to find […]
The Outcasts Brought Near (Luke 8:22-56)
In these passages, we see Jesus blessing many sick and ceremonially-unclean people who come to him for help. Instead of shunning them, he embraces and heals them. And unlike the religious systems taught, they didn’t make Jesus unclean through touching him; instead, he made them clean.
Pictures of the Kingdom (Luke 8:4-23)
When the crowds started flocking around Jesus, he spoke in vivid word images to show that not everyone would receive his word. But that those who did would become his family, bear fruit, and shine the light of the kingdom to the world around them.
The Compassion of the Messiah (Luke 7:1-8:3)
After giving his keynote address on the upside-down life in the kingdom, Jesus finds two unexpected people who have great faith: a Gentile military leader, and a woman everyone only knew as a “sinner.” These two people are examples to the Jewish leaders around them, of the compassion of the Messiah to those who love […]
How to Die to the World (Luke 6:17-49)
As soon as Jesus chooses his disciples, he looks to them and gives them this speech. In it, he’s preparing them for what’s ahead, and all the persecution and temptations they would face. To prepare them, he shows them what it looks like for their world to be turned on its head. He turns their […]
Gathering His Own (Luke 5:1-6:16)
In this section, Jesus starts to gather his disciples, and he gathers the most unlikely people. He shows a fisherman how to catch fish, and asks him to come and become a fisher of people; he calls a tax collector, and eats with him. But in the background, the religious leaders are starting to seethe […]
Enemies of the Gospel (Luke 4)
Jesus had just been baptised, and the Spirit descended on him. And it would seem that immediately, the Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. The Spirit leads Jesus to suffer and be tempted, and he succeeds like no human has before. Jesus, the second Adam, says no to the temptation […]