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Introduction

Here is a way to distinguish the four Gospels. (I’ve slightly altered their normal order to make their logical distinctions easier to recognize and remember.)

• Mark – the shortest Gospel
• Matthew – the Jewish Gospel
• Luke – the Gentile Gospel
• John – the deepest Gospel

For information about the author of this Gospel, see Luke.

Even though Paul was a Jew, he was sent to preach to Gentiles. Therefore, it would make sense that Paul might want there to be a Gospel for his disciples which did not assume a great knowledge of Jewish heritage and culture. In the first four verses, Luke says that he is writing his Gospel for Theophilus – a person whose identity we do not know. It is quite possible that, because this name means “lover of God” in Greek, it is a way of referring generally to all Gentile believers. There are numerous facets of Luke’s Gospel that make it appear tailored to a Gentile audience – especially when it is compared with Matthew’s Gospel.

The chapters in Luke are longer on average than those of the other Gospels, and the first chapter is a notable example of this extra length. In fact, even though Matthew is divided into 28 chapters and Luke into 24, Luke is longer by word count. Matthew added a birth account of Jesus that Mark did not have; Luke provides a more extensive birth account of Jesus than Matthew did, and adds a birth account of John the Baptist to accompany it. These are just some of the reasons that Luke has 5% more words than Matthew even though Matthew’s chapter count is higher.

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Luke 1

Only Luke begins his Gospel by explaining what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. That said, his explanation is very brief. John eventually gets around to stating his purpose near the end (Jn 20:30-31), but he’s even more brief than Luke. (On the other hand, Matthew and Mark just start by laying out facts and never pause to explain why.)

AT 80 verses, Luke 1 is the longest chapter in the four Gospels. It describes the origins of John the Baptist, and also of Jesus – but stopping short of telling of His birth, which comes in the next chapter. Although John the Baptist conducted his ministry in the wilderness of Judea and was known for his ascetic lifestyle, his father was a priest serving Jerusalem’s temple. Thus John chose the rough life he lived over the more refined one he would have inherited. In his time, priests were revered and prophets were reviled; but John was willing to be reviled in order to serve his God and save his country. Alas, some would believe him, but the nation as a whole would not.

Lk 1:1-4 – As for “Theophilus,” see the introduction to Luke’s Gospel above. ***** As an example of what Luke means by seeking “the exact truth” about something, see what he wrote about Apollos, Priscilla (Prisca), and Aquila in Act 18:25-26. (We want to be as precise about the truth as we can.) ***** As for being “taught,” we do have to be taught the things of Christ because they do not come instinctively to us. What comes instinctively often leads to sin. We need to be disciples of Jesus Christ so that He can train us to be more like Him and less like animals who operate on instinct alone.

Lk 1:5-7 – Although Zacharias and Elizabeth don’t know it yet, they are going to be the parents of John the Baptist. They are both descendants of Aaron – the brother of Moses and ancestor of all the priests of Israel. Abijah was one of the 24 descendants of Aaron who were established as heads of divisions in the time of King David. The priests of Israel were highly respected in 1st-century Israel.

Lk 1:8-17 – An angel announces to Zacharias that he will have a son named John who will fulfill Old Testament prophecy. (Of course, people did not call it “the Old Testament” at that time. They called it “the Scriptures” or “the Law and the Prophets” or something like that.)

Lk 1:11 – Luke will soon tell us that this angel’s name is Gabriel.

Lk 1:13 – The Hebrew name from which we get the name “John” was Yohanan. (The Koine Greek name “Iōannēs,” from which we get the English name “John,” was a transliteration of the Hebrew name – that is, there’s no separate Greek meaning.) In Hebrew, Yohanan meant “Yahweh (YHWH) is gracious” or “The LORD has been gracious.” Yohanan (or Yahanan) comes from two words: (Yô) – a short form of Yahweh, the divine name of God; and (ḥānān) – a verb meaning to be gracious, to show favor, to have mercy. ***** Compare the meaning of the name “John” with the meaning of the name “Jesus,” described in note on Matthew 1:21 (in  BSN: Matthew).

Lk 1:15 – Abstaining from alcohol was associated with what was called a “Nazirite” vow, which is described in the Law of Moses (Numbers 6). Samson was a Nazirite (Judges 13-16). The word is not directly connected with Nazareth, though there is an obvious similarity in the words, both in Hebrew and English. ***** As for his being “filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb,” I guess this means we really are human beings when we’re in there. Who’d’a thunk it?

Lk 1:16-17 – Gabriel here quotes from the prophet Malachi (Mal 4:5-6) to describe John’s mission. 

Lk 1:18-23 – Zacharias has trouble believing the angel and so asks him for a sign. Paul says that, in the struggle to believe, Jews typically ask for signs while Gentiles typically ask for wisdom (see BSN notes on 1 Cor 1). The problem for Zacharias and the reason he was rebuked is that the angel speaking to him in the temple of God was the sign. Zacharias was, in effect, complaining that the sign he was being given was inadequate for him to exercise faith. Although Zacharias was by no means a Pharisee, this specific behavior was very much like the Pharisees who constantly asked the miracle-working Jesus to show them a sign!

Lk 1:24-25 – Although Luke makes clear in verse 6 of this chapter that the barrenness of Elizabeth’s womb had nothing to do with God’s displeasure with her or her husband’s behavior, people at that time were prone to assume that was the case. For example, upon encountering a man blind since birth, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” (Jn 9:1-2). Jesus said it wasn’t because the man or his parents sinned, which is what Luke, in effect, is saying here about this family. (Living a life of faith means not having to understand everything all the time; if we did understand everything all the time, what would be the need for faith?) In any case, Elizabeth obviously didn’t want to talk with people about her pregnancy until the evidence was right in front of her for people to see. Otherwise, they’d just think she was a wacky old dame who needed to be placed in a dementia ward rather than an obstetrics ward.

Lk 1:26-38 – Gabriel tells Mary she’s going to be the mother of the Messiah.

Lk 1:26 – By now, Elizabeth is back out in public with her good news. ***** Zacharias had his audience with Gabriel in the stately and majestic temple which was in Israel’s greatest city – Jerusalem. By contrast, Gabriel goes to meet Mary on her turf in Nazareth – considered a dirt water town in the flyover region known as Galilee.

Lk 1:27 – That Joseph’s lineage could be traced to David was critical because the prophecies of Messiah in the Old Testament said that He would be a descendant of David.

Lk 1:29 – Mary was a thoughtful person (“kept pondering”). This is not the only place Luke says something like this about her. See also Lk 2:19, 51 and accompanying notes below.

Lk 1:31 – Both of the births Gabriel was announcing were miraculous – though in very different ways. The first birth would be considered as coming too late for the mother while the second would be considered as coming too soon for the mother. In both cases, however, the parents were being spared the task of deciding what to name the child.

Lk 1:32-33 – This is when Mary realized her child would be the Messiah, for the description Gabriel gave her was recognizable in Scripture and could apply to no one else. That said, keep in mind that no Jew in that time period, no matter how great they thought Messiah would be, could have imagined him to be as great as we now know Him to be.

Lk 1:34 – Some people consider Mary’s question to be similar to the one Zacharias asked (in verse 18), and therefore wonder why she wasn’t similarly rebuked. However, her question was actually very different from the one Zacharias asked. Unlike Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph were only betrothed and therefore their marriage had not yet been consummated. Mary was wanting to know her role in achieving the pregnancy, whereas Zacharias had no doubt about his role and was only wanting another sign because he wasn’t satisfied with the first one. 

Lk 1:35 – Gabriel assures Mary that she will not have to move up her wedding date with Joseph because this “Child” would literally be “the Son of God,” not “the son of Joseph.”

Lk 1:36 – Even though Elizabeth and Mary were relatives, Gabriel was the one to deliver the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy to Mary since the two women lived some distance apart – Mary in the region of Galilee which was in northern Israel and Elizabeth in the region of Judah (Judea) nearer Jerusalem where her husband ministered in the temple.

Lk 1:37-38 – Unlike Zacharias, Mary needed no extra sign. The word of an angel was good enough.

Lk 1:39-56 – Mary travels to be with Elizabeth. As Jesus would go to John the Baptist (Mt 3:14), so Jesus’ mother goes to John’s mother. That both Messiah and his forerunner could come from the same extended family is testimony to the quality of this extended family. All experience that follows will confirm this.

Lk 1:41-45 – This was not just John the Baptist being filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb (“the baby leaped in my womb” – verse 44) just as Gabriel had prophesied (verse 15); it was also Elizabeth herself being filled with the Holy Spirit (verse 41). Elizabeth is not speaking from herself, but rather from the Spirit – which is how she could call her relative “the mother of my Lord.” Otherwise, how could Elizabeth know this about Mary’s child?

Lk 1:45 – Further confirmation that Mary had believed Gabriel while Zacharias had asked for more testimony than Gabriel’s before he’d believe. (By the way, we should note that Zacharias did get the extra sign he asked for, though speechlessness was probably not what he had in mind.)

Lk 1:46-55 – Mary gets caught up in the Spirit and says things which indicate that much more is at stake in childbearing than we realize. Consider this moment also in the light of what God said to Satan after his temptation led to Adam’s and Eve’s sin which brought pain and death into the world. 

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

genesis 3:15

Messiah is the “seed” about whom God is speaking and “her” refers to the virgin birth that Gabriel had announced, that Mary believed, and that Elizabeth’s prophecy was confirming. I’ve never understood why people struggle to believe the virgin birth. If there is a God, He can bring people into existence any way He wants to. The virgin birth is no more miraculous than a regular birth – it’s just more unusual. Shall we think lightly of a miracle of God because He performs it frequently for lots of people?

Lk 1:57-79 – Elizabeth gives birth to John the Baptist.

Lk 1:59-64 – Now demonstrating his faith in Gabriel’s prophecy, Zacharias heeds every aspect of it – declaring “His name is John” (in verse 63) because Gabriel had said “you will give him the name John” (in verse 13). Thus did Zacharias get his voice back.

Lk 1:65-66 – The buzz about John the Baptist was palpable in that region. He would create even more of a stir as an adult – a stir that would affect his entire nation.

Lk 1:67-79 – Now Zacharias is filled with the Holy Spirit and begins prophesying. He picks up where Elizabeth off. These are godly people. 

Lk 1:80 – We are not told at exactly what age John took to the deserts (wilderness), but the point is that he forsook the privileges that would have been his by virtue of his father being a priest in the temple. The time to support the status quo was over. God would be building a new temple comprised of human stones…and the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth would be serving the cornerstone of it (Ps 118:22; Act 4:11-12; Eph 2:19-22).

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Luke 2

In this chapter, Luke tells of events that occurred…

• when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
• when Jesus was presented as an infant at the temple in Jerusalem by His parents about a month or so after He was born.
• when He was 12 years old and visited the temple in Jerusalem during the annual Passover Feast.

This, plus what we learn of Jesus’ birth and His family’s temporary flight to Egypt and their settling in Nazareth (from Matthew’s Gospel) are about all the Gospels tell us about Jesus’ early years.

Why do the Gospels spend so little time on Jesus’ childhood? He began His public ministry at age 30 – a ministry that lasted two to three years before it was brought to an abrupt end by His trial and crucifixion. Apart from the exceptions I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the Gospels focus exclusively on the few years. One of the main reasons for the focus on these years is that this was the time that His apostles were with Him. In other words, this is the time that made them eyewitnesses. It is also the main period of time that the Old Testament prophecies addressed – His public adult life. Prior to His ministry, Jesus lived, to borrow a phrase from Paul, “a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” – 1 Tim 2:2. Since the prophecies didn’t have a lot to say about these years, we have no need of eyewitness testimony about them. Such knowledge might be a “nice to have,” but it’s not necessary to faith.

Lk 2:1-7 – Jesus is born.

Lk 2:1-3 – So far as we know, Luke was not a professional historian…but he sure writes history professionally. He is neither sloppy nor skimpy with facts. He’s detailed and thorough. Here he gives the societal context for Jesus’ birth.

Lk 2:4-7 – The prophet Micah had written that the Messiah would go forth “from Bethlehem,” yet we can tell from Luke’s reports that it was only because the Roman emperor called for this census that Joseph and Mary ended up in Bethlehem when she was to have the baby. What woman wants to take a road trip when she’s due? But this was a case where God was going to demonstrate that only this child could fulfill all the prophecies of Messiah’s dwelling places (Messianic Geography). Oh, the surpassing wisdom, power, and providence of God!

Lk 2:4-5 – Here, Luke shows how Joseph and Mary fit into the societal context sketched above. Bethlehem is about 5-6 miles due south of Jerusalem. ***** Note that Joseph and Mary were still “engaged” – that is, they were not yet fully married. This is all consistent with the prophesied virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14).

Lk 2:6-7 – A manger was a feeding trough for stable animals. When God tells us to humble ourselves, He’s preaching what He practices.

Lk 2:8-14 – Kings and princes spent this night oblivious to what Almighty God was doing. Whom did God choose to inform about His activities? Not kings and princes but rather humble people doing their jobs – demanding jobs – and minding their own business. (God pays attention to the kind of people the world ignores.)

Lk 2:15-20 – To the shepherds’ further credit, they acted on what they heard from the angels. As a result, they were able to exchange information about this Child with the parents. (This is life abundant: when people get together and share things with each other that they know about Jesus.)

Lk 2:19 – This was a pattern with Mary. (See Lk 1:29 above and 2:51 below, along with accompanying notes.) May this pattern be found in our lives as well. (Catholics tend to over-venerate Mary; Protestants tend to under-venerate her. The best way to understand her is as a strong woman of faith, but who had weaknesses just as strong men of faith can have weaknesses. As for her weak moments, see Mark 3:20-21, 31-35 where she and her other children, thinking Jesus has gone off the deep end, try to get him to come back to Nazareth and, presumably, the family business of carpentry.)

Lk 2:21 – The rule that circumcision was to take place on the Jewish male’s eighth day of life goes all the way back to Abraham (Gen 17:12) – about two thousand years before Jesus’ birth. (Oh, the patience of God to work out His plans!) ***** As for the angel’s instruction that the Child should be named “Jesus,” that came in Lk 1:31.

Lk 2:22-24 – Given that Bethlehem was to the south of Jerusalem, Jerusalem would have been on their way back to Nazareth in Galilee. ***** As for the Old Testament quotes (all caps) about the firstborn male in verse 23 (Ex 13:2, 12; Num 3:13; 8:17) and about the birds in verse 24 (Lev 5:11; 12:8), Luke is explaining that these rituals were what was required of Joseph and Mary by the Law of Moses (which was used synonymously with “the law of the Lord”). Luke is also demonstrating that Joseph and Mary were people of limited means because the two birds were allowed for someone who couldn’t afford to offer a lamb.

Lk 2:25-32 – As the Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth and spoke through her in Lk 1:41-45, then spoke through Mary in Luke 1:46-55, and then filled and spoke through Zacharias in Lk 1:67-79, so He now speaks through the old man Simeon in verses 29-32 here.

Lk 2:32 – I love this line. Jesus was “the glory” of the Jews in that He was the finest specimen of humanity that they ever produced, and, by being so, He became a ‘LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES,” alluding to Isaiah’s frequent refrain about Him (Isaiah 9:2; 42:6; 49:6, 9; 51:4; 60:1-3). In other words, the best that Israel had to offer was given to the world as its King!  Jews should be proud of Jesus and Gentiles should love Him. Both groups should fully embrace Him as their own.

Lk 2:33-35 – Simeon spoke this also by the Holy Spirit. This is another expression of what the prophet Micah had said (Mic 7:6), and which Jesus quoted (Mt 10:35). A fulfillment of this prophecy is shown in Lk 8:19-21 (see BSN note below on that passage.) ***** The great irony of “The Prince of peace” (Isaiah 9:6) is that He aroused – and still arouses – great hostility. How can a man of peace polarize people? The answer is that it’s a free-will world and lots of people misuse their will. And just as Simeon said, even Mary and her family became divided over Jesus once He began preaching (Mark 3:20-21, 31-35) – though they did eventually come around to His way of thinking (Act 1:14). Further to this last point, the New Testament books of James and Jude were written by two of his siblings who had previously not believed in Him (Jn 7:1-5). ***** It’s interesting that Simeon, while with the infant Jesus and His parents, “…blessed them and said to Mary…” (italics added). Why didn’t Simeon direct the warning to both of them – could it be that the Lord directed him to speak this way because Joseph would not be around for Jesus’ ministry which would create the division and which wouldn’t begin until He was about 30 years old? The Gospels never explicitly say that Jospeh was deceased by the time Jesus reached 30, but everything they say about Jesus’ family seems to imply it.

Lk 2:36-38 – While we don’t get any direct quotes from Anna, it’s obvious she was filled with spiritual insight. She was like the sons of Issachar, “who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do” – 1 Chron 12:32.

Lk 2:39-40 – This is the way of God: as trees and grass grow quietly, slowly, and surely, so also do spiritual things. (See also verse 52 below.)

Lk 2:41-51 – From this story we can infer how quiet and obedient Jesus was as a child – so obedient that His parents took Him for granted and therefore weren’t alert to changes in His thinking that were normal to a maturation process that leads through adolescence into adulthood. Another way of saying this is that being an obedient teenage son requires a transition from worshiping your earthly father to worshiping your heavenly Father. A godly child has been conscious of both fathers, but becoming a man means reversing the priority which the two fathers (heavenly and earthly) are assigned.

Lk 2:51 – Compare “his father [Joseph’s father Jacob] kept the saying in mind” in Gen 37:11 with “His mother treasured all these things in her heart” here. Also compare Lk 1:29 and 2:19 above. We do well to think on the things Jesus said and did, says and does, even though we may not at first understand them.

Lk 2:52 – This is a continuation of the process Luke was describing in verse 40 above. Good growth is steady growth, even though it’s hard in the moment to see grass or trees grow. See 2 Pet 3:17-18 where Peter exhorts us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” and keep in mind that growth takes time and is seldom visible in the moment.

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Luke 3

In this chapter, Luke first gives some historical and geographical context. Then he describes the ministry of John the Baptist, including the baptism of Jesus. Last, Luke gives a genealogy of Jesus.

Lk 3:1-2 – In setting out to talk about John the Baptist, Luke does what he often does, which is to set the broader historical context. Matthew, writing for a Jewish audience, did not take the time to mention all the Gentile officials that Luke does. This is one of many ways that Matthew’s Jewish Gospel differs from Luke’s Gentile Gospel. It’s the same Gospel – just presented differently for different audiences.

Lk 3:3-6 – In describing John the Baptist’s ministry, Luke quotes Isaiah 40:3-5 – indicating that John was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. Recall that the angel Gabriel had already signaled that John would be fulfilling Old Testament prophecy (Mal 4:5-6) in Lk 1:16-17. Then Zacharias confirmed that John would fulfill Old Testament prophecy (Mal 3:1) in Lk 1:76. All three of these references show that Messiah was to have a forerunner who would announce Him…and John the Baptist was this forerunner who clearly pointed people to Jesus as someone far greater than himself. Thus an important theme in Luke’s writing of the story of Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. I say all this because we need to remember that just because Luke is writing for Gentiles, it does not mean that Jews and the Old Testament are unimportant. Gentiles needed to know the prophecy and history of Jesus because their faith depended on it; Jews just had a head start on learning those things. Of course, the head start was much greater for them in the 1st century than it is in the 21st century. This is because 21st-century Jews have wandered far from their 1st-century roots, just as 21st-century Christians have wandered far from their 1st-century roots.

Lk 3:6 – #Hints When Luke writes “all flesh will see the salvation of God” it is not too much of a stretch to say that when we’ve seen Jesus, we’ve seen God. The apostle John says that Jesus Himself agrees:

John 14:8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Lk 3:7-9 – The more familiar we become with the Old Testament prophets, the more clearly we see that John the Baptist fits that mold perfectly. They warned against wrath to come (Jer 36:7), he warns against wrath to come. They called for people to repent (Is 30:15), he calls for people to repent. They spoke of men as trees (Ps 1), he speaks of men as trees. They used fire as a metaphor for wrath (Jer 4:4), he uses fire as a metaphor for wrath.

Lk 3:10-14 – Gentiles, because they were not familiar with what the Old Testament prophets preached, would especially appreciate examples like this from John’s teaching. Repentance is hard to execute if you only know what you’re repenting from and don’t know what you should be repenting to.

Lk 3:15-17 – Here we see another example of John the Baptist fulfilling his forerunner role for Messiah while continuing to fit the prophetic mold. The main difference is that the Old Testament prophets from Moses onward all preached that Messiah was coming, but John would be the first prophet to be able to see and touch Him.

Lk 3:18-20 – John the Baptist did not “steer clear of politics.” When the king was unrighteous, he got called to repent just like everybody else.

Lk 3:21-22 – Jesus never sinned. Therefore, the only justification for His being baptized was His affiliation with us.

Lk 3:23-38 – This genealogy traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Adam. Matthew’s genealogy (Mt 1:1-17), given that his Gospel is Jewish in orientation, only goes back to Abraham. Thus Luke’s genealogy is another example of how he oriented his Gospel to Gentiles. ***** Another difference between these two genealogies is that Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage through Joseph and Luke traces it through Mary. This is consistent with Luke’s emphasis on Mary’s role in the birth of Jesus and Matthew’s emphasis on Joseph’s role (or lack thereof). (Luke and Matthew are the only two Gospel writers to provide information about Jesus’ birth.) ***** With both His birth mother and His legal father being able to trace their ancestry back to David, Jesus’ claim to be a son of David – a requirement of being the Messiah – was doubly impressive.

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Luke 4

We learned in the previous chapter that Jesus did not begin His public ministry until He was about 30 years old. His first step in that ministry was to be baptized by John the Baptist, but Jesus did not immediately begin ministering to people at that point. Instead, as we see in this chapter, He sought solitude, spending 40 days fasting in the wilderness. Even after living 30 years, He was not fully prepared for the mission He was about to undertake. He needed these additional 40 days. Afterward, He began ministering to the general public, going from city to town to village throughout all Israel – but not beyond. He was given wholly to Israel, and only to Israel. His full embrace of the Gentiles was to come…but not while He was on earth. (Luke describes the door opening for Gentiles in Acts 10.)

The primary thrust of Jesus’ ministry was preaching (proclaiming) and teaching (explaining) in the synagogues that were found in practically every locale in Israel. A synagogue was where Jews gathered on the Sabbath to hear the Law and the Prophets (what we call “the Old Testament”) read aloud. This was because at this time in history, most people were illiterate and, even if they were literate, few could afford their own copies of all the Scriptures, which had to be hand-copied on rolls of papyrus or other relatively expensive material. Jews, because of the importance of their Scriptures, were more literate than most peoples, but it was still the case that hearing the Scriptures read in the synagogue is the way most Jews at this time learned them (Act 15:21).

Jesus’ primary preaching and teaching topic was the kingdom of God. Jesus also performed miracles of healing almost everywhere He spoke – on a scale never before approached by even the greatest of God’s prophets. Thus did Jesus’ earthly ministry consist of bringing good news and performing good deeds…with the help of God (Act 10:38).

Lk 4:1-13 – Temptation in the Wilderness – For additional insight, see also Matthew’s version of this experience (Mt 4:1-11), including the accompanying BSN notes.

Lk 4:1-2 – Luke takes pains to note the presence of the Holy Spirit at key points in his narrative. We’ve seen him do so several times in the previous three chapters. He continues to do it throughout this Gospel and in the book of Acts which he also wrote.

Lk 4:3-4 – Temptation 1 – Jesus responds with Scripture.

Lk 4:5-8 – Temptation 2 – Jesus responds with Scripture.

Lk 4:9-12 – Temptation 3 – Jesus responds with Scripture.

(There must be more to the Bible than just words on a page.)

Lk 4:13 – Just because Satan backs off doesn’t mean he’s not coming back. Be on guard! Peter says he “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” – 1 Pet 5:8. When he does come back, “respond with Scripture.”

Lk 4:14-15 – Having gained strength through being led in the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, Jesus now enters His ministry being led by that same Spirit…and He finds initial acceptance in the synagogues. That’s about to change, however, and in an ironic way, when He finds opportunity to teach in His home town.

Lk 4:16-30 – Jesus Teaches in Nazareth’s Synagogue

Lk 4:16 – In Mt 4:12-17, Matthew tells us that when Jesus began His ministry, He moved from Nazareth (an inland town) to Capernaum (which was a coastal city on the Sea of Galilee). It appears that Luke is describing to us how that transition came about.

Lk 4:17-21 – Jesus is reading from Isaiah 61:1-2.

Lk 4:22 – The home town folks thought Jesus was getting too big for His britches to claim that Isaiah’s prophecy applied to Him. Hence their reference to Jesus as a mere carpenter’s son. Yet notice how Luke seems to be alluding to a prophecy of Messiah in the Psalms when he writes “the gracious words which were falling from His lips…”

Ps 45:2 You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.

Lk 4:23-27 – Jesus proceeds to quote examples from the Old Testament through which He was implying that Nazareth was one of those communities that was not willing to honor a prophet in its midst – and so would have to do without the prophet’s miracles.

Lk 4:28-30 – The locals got so worked up at what they considered to be Jesus’ insolence that they chased Him out of town.

Lk 4:31-37 – Jesus gets a very different reaction in Capernaum than He did in Nazareth. This demonstrates the truth of what He’d said in Nazareth: “No prophet is welcome in his hometown” – Lk 4:24.

Lk 4:32 – (For a similar reaction of amazement, see Mt 7:28-29 just after the end of the Sermon on the Mount and the BSN note on it.)

Lk 4:38-39 – Jesus heals us so that we can serve – not be served (Mt 20:28).

Lk 4:40-41 – The terms “Christ” and “Son of God” are virtually synonymous terms in ancient Jewish parlance. That is, both are titles of the Messiah found in the Old Testament.

Lk 4:42 – Jesus here seeks solitude as He did at the beginning of His ministry (and this chapter), though obviously of a much shorter duration. Jesus was human. He had to seek times of re-charging.

Lk 4:43 – Jesus was not looking to build a base of support in one location as most leaders would do in trying to build a movement. Rather, He just wanted to get His message out – the message of the coming kingdom of God.

Lk 4:44 – He kept going to synagogues because that’s where Jews gathered to hear the word of God.

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Luke 5

In this chapter, Jesus’ ministry continues with His demonstrating the power of God not just in healing people but also in forgiving their sins – and even in exercising dominion over the laws of nature.

Lk 5:1-11 – Following Jesus Proves More Compelling than a Successful Business

Lk 5:1 – If any human being has ever spoken the word of God, Jesus did. ***** The Lake of Gennesaret is just another name for the Sea of Galilee.

Lk 5:2-3 – Jesus was a resourceful man. He saw the unused boats and realized he could use one of them as a sort of speaking podium – making Himself more visible and more audible to more people. Even with all the miracles He did – and they were more and greater by far than attributed to any other human being – He employed them sparingly. He mainly lived life the way we have to live it – without miracles. Where He really got active with miracles was in helping other people by meeting their most profound needs from the supply of what only God could give.

Lk 5: 4 – Jesus is returning the favor bestowed on Him by Simon and the others in loaning Him the boat as a speaking platform. God is not one to receive a benefit without giving a return for it (2 Chr 32:25; Heb 6:10).

Lk 5:5-7 – These verses demonstrate how God is “able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20). 

Lk 5:8-10 – Simon Peter demonstrates the strength of his character when sees the haul of fish that the teacher has produced. Instead of thinking about what this ability could mean for the long-term success of Peter’s commercial fishing partnership with the Zebedee brothers, he goes to his knees confessing his sins and his unworthiness to be associated with a teacher so holy. 

Lk 5:11 – All the men do what the rich young ruler (Lk 18:18-30) was unwilling to do.

Lk 5:12-16 – Jesus Was Willing and Able to Heal

Lk 5:12-13 – Jesus wastes no time or motion. What the man asks of Jesus, Jesus grants. It’s done, and He moves on to the next person in need.

Lk 5:14 – Contrary to the accusations against Him, Jesus is not encouraging His fellow Jews to abandon Moses. On the contrary, Jesus wants to fulfill all that Moses hoped for.

Lk 5:15 – Although Jesus engaged in no self-promotion, His crowds kept growing.

Lk 5:16 – Jesus keeps returning to solitude…which is really not solitude. (Luke has shown us this human solitude as a source of strengthening for Jesus in Lk 4:1-13 and Lk 4:42.)

Lk 5:17-26 – Matthew also records this incident (Mt 9:2-8; see accompanying BSN notes), as does Mark (Mk 2:3-12; see accompanying BSN notes).

Lk 5:27-28 – This is the apostle Matthew (Mt 9:9).

Lk 5:29-32 – I hear a lot of people saying these days that Jesus hung out with sinners. Technically, that’s true, but the only kind of sinners I see really connecting with Him in the Bible are repentant ones.

Lk 5:33-39 – Jesus explains why He chose fishermen and tax collectors rather than members of the professional religious class to be His students and representatives. Old wineskins cannot handle new wine. Jesus’ judgment was validated over time. His message reached the world – even to us 2,000 years later – through the men He chose.

***

Luke 6

This chapter begins with a couple of Sabbath controversies. Such controversies were commonplace in Jesus’ ministry because 1) His miracles frequently occurred on the Sabbath because that’s when he had the chance to reach the most people at synagogue, 2) Jesus’ opponents could find no legitimate basis to criticize Him so they argued about what were, at most, technicalities.

Next, after an all-night, one-man prayer meeting, Jesus chooses from among the ranks of His disciples (students) twelve men to serve as His apostles (representatives). The disciples were those coming to Jesus to be taught, while the apostles were those He was sending out to make more disciples. To reinforce the point, the apostles were a subset of the disciples – not a separate group from them.

Lk 6:1-5 – Jesus’ men were hungry. The Law of Moses explicitly allowed them to do what they were doing (Dt 23:25). The Pharisees were making an issue of their doing it on a Sabbath, speaking for Moses (which was a role they liked to play, according to Jesus in Mt 23:1-2). However, they played it poorly, for they “strained out gnats and swallowed camels” (majored on minors, as we would say) as they’re doing here by denying hungry men simple sustenance. Jesus corrects the Pharisees’ misinterpretation of Scripture with other Scripture, just as He had responded to Satan’s misuse of Scripture with other Scripture during his 40 days of fasting in the wilderness (Lk 4:9-12). A theme of the Gospels is that the religious “experts” of Jesus’ day did not really understand it and often misinterpreted it. The Pharisees acted liked lords of the Sabbath, but that role had been reserved for someone else – the one Moses had prophesied in Deut 18:15. Jesus. The lesson for us: know and understand Scripture! The most effective way to keep from misinterpreting Scripture is to let Scripture interpret Scripture.

Lk 6:6-11 – How hard does your heart have to be to see “a withered right hand restored” and be “filled with rage”? ***** The religious authorities in Israel were constantly complaining that Jesus was violating God’s law by healing on the Sabbath. Of course, the first thing wrong with that thinking is that the healings couldn’t take place if God wasn’t involved so it should go without saying that God Himself had no objection to people being healed on the Sabbath. Secondly, the Sabbath was the one day a week that people were completely free to come to Jesus for teaching and healing. It was their regular time for coming to the synagogue to hear the word of God. Thirdly, it wasn’t as if the complaining religious authorities had a way of healing people on the other six days of the week.

Lk 6:12-16 – Notice from this paragraph that apostles (meaning “sent one,” “messengers,” or “representatives”) were a subset of disciples (meaning “student,” “pupil,” or “learner”). ***** Just as Jesus spent special time in prayer the night before His crucifixion, so He spent special time in prayer before choosing His first twelve apostles. If I had followed Jesus’ example in this regard, I would not have had to learn the hard way that making important decisions in life without consulting the Lord first is a big mistake.

Lk 6:17-49 – The Sermon on the Plain

Lk 6:17-19 – Because the content of this speech is much like the content of the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew (Mt 5-7), and because Luke is describing Jesus as standing “on a level place” to deliver it in contrast to Matthew describing Him as sitting “on a mountain,” the following discourse by Jesus is sometimes called “the Sermon on the Plain.” Even though Matthew does not use the term “Sermon on the Mount” and Luke does not use the term “Sermon on the Plain,” there’s nothing wrong with using these two terms to identify and differentiate the two passages. That said, it’s important to remember that “the kingdom of God” was the central theme of Jesus’ teaching. Since there were no audio or video recording devices in those days, it’s likely Jesus had a stump speech about the kingdom that he delivered in each and every Israelite town He visited. It’s also likely that each delivery of that stump speech was slightly different because it wouldn’t be natural for a stump speech to be delivered word for word the same in every locale as if it had memorized and was being recited. Therefore, what we are reading in “the Sermon on the Mount” and “the Sermon on the Plain” are two different accounts of a speech that was probably given many times – not two different accounts of the exact same speech. There is no telling how many times Jesus taught these lessons during the three years that He traveled throughout Israel. ***** Notably, Luke presents the teaching without any reference to the Pharisees, the scribes, or the Law of Moses – all of which figured prominently in Matthew’s version and which would have been of particular interest to a Jewish folksa but not as much to Gentiles. For the many instances of differences like this, it’s reasonable to think of Matthew’s version as being written as an expansion of Mark’s version but with a Jewish orientation, and Luke’s version as being written as an expansion of Mark’s version but with a Gentile orientation.

Lk 6:46 – See related BSN note on John 2:5.

***

Luke 7

In this chapter, Jesus heals an unknown person long distance and then interrupts a funeral procession by bringing the deceased back to life – and yet even John the Baptist struggles with his faith in Jesus. The problem is expectations. Jesus keeps confounding expectations of what the Messiah will say and do. This disorients not just His opponents, but His followers as well.

Israel’s Messiah has been promised for generations but expectations for what He will say and do vary greatly. An open-minded Pharisee, for example, assumes that Jesus will think and act toward people as the Pharisee does. It’s the age-old problem of people, upon realizing that God thinks and acts differently from them, assuming that God is the one who is off track.

Lk 7:1 – The “discourse” was what has been called “the Sermon on the Plain” (another rendition of Jesus’ stump speech about the kingdom of God) in the previous chapter (see notes on it above). Capernaum was Jesus’ home during the years of His ministry (having been raised in Nazareth, and having been born in Bethlehem).

Lk 7:2-10 – Matthew also records this incident with the Roman centurion who had exemplary faith in Mt 8:5-13; see also BSN notes on that passage).

Lk 7:11-17 – This incident (bringing back to life the dead son of a widow from the city of Nain) is recorded only by Luke. It is, of course, a dramatic illustration of the miraculous power at work in Jesus’ ministry. ***** This incident helps explain why Jesus’ disciples had such a hard time understanding what Jesus meant when he kept telling His disciples that he was going to rise again. (See related BSN note on Mk 9:10.) ***** As was usually the case, what motivated Jesus to perform this miracle was compassion – in this case, compassion for a widow who would have no man to provide for her. He was in no sense a magician.

Lk 7:16 – Both of these statements contained much more meaning than the people who spoke them realized. As for “great prophet,” consider Moses’ prophecy of Messiah in Deut 18:15; and as for “God,” consider Isaiah’s prophecy of Messiah in Is 9:6. #Hints

Lk 7:18-35 – Matthew covers this same incident in Mt 11:2-19 (see BSN notes on it).

Lk 7:36-50 – Two Debtors – In this paragraph, Jesus is going to tell a parable of two debtors. But first, Luke is going to introduce us to two debtors – a Pharisee and a woman seeking forgiveness for her sins. The debts they owe are the kind we’re speaking of when we pray, “Forgive us our debts” (Mt 6:12; Lk 11:4).

Lk 7:39 – “If this man were a prophet, then…” sounds like Satan saying to Jesus, “If You are the Son of God, then…” and subsequently prompting onlookers of Jesus’ crucifixion to voice it in Mt 27:40 (“If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross”). It also sounds like people today who say things like, “If there was a God, then…” Such statements arise from our ignorance and the erroneous expectations that arise from ignorance. Ignorance is bad enough, but we make its effects worse when we form our expectations from it.

Lk 7:47 – If we want to love Jesus more, we should admit more of our sins to Him. He’s proven His deep and abiding interest in forgiving us.

Lk 7:49 – Indeed, that is the $64 question! Would that more people asked it!

Lk 7:50 – Jesus is the One offering forgiveness. Faith is the hand with which we grasp that forgiveness. Without that hand, the forgiveness doesn’t fully become ours. 

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Luke 8

Perhaps the most notable portion of this chapter is Jesus teaching the parable of the sower and the seed. In Mark’s Gospel, this same parable shows up in the 4th chapter and in Matthew’s Gospel it shows up in the 13th chapter. This particular parable is foundational to all the others because it describes how the word of God works in human hearts – which, alas, is sometimes not at all.

Lk 8:1-3 – Luke’s mention of the wife of Herod’s steward indicates that while the bulk of Jesus’ support came from the common folk and the bulk of his opponents came from the ruling classes, there were exceptions to this general rule. Other such exceptions would include Pontius Pilate’s wife (Mt 27:19), Nicodemus (Jn 3:1, 4, 9; 7:50; 19:39), and Joseph of Arimathea (Mt 27:57; Mk 15:43; Lk 23:50; Jn 19:38). Paul also indicated that there were exceptions to the rule when he wrote the Corinthians, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble” – 1 Cor 1:26. “Not many” means there were a few. Generally speaking, however, the gospel of Jesus Christ finds the greatest acceptance among the poor (Mt 19:23; Jas 2:5).

Lk 8:4-18 – (See BSN notes on the parable of the sower in Mark 4 and in Matthew 13.)

Lk 8:19-21 – An old man named Simeon had warned Mary that Jesus would polarize Israel and even her own family – and that even she herself would become double-minded about Him for a while! (See notes on Lk 2:33-35 above.) Lk 8:19-21 shows a fulfillment of what the old man prophesied in Lk 2:33-35.

Lk 8:22-25 – The point of James 2:14-26 is that faith can be observed in our behavior. This reality is also demonstrated when the friends of a paralytic lowered him on his pallet through a roof to get to Jesus (Lk 5:17-26; Mk 2:3-12; Mt 9:2-8), for in the report of that incident, it says of Jesus: “Seeing their faith” (Lk 5:20; Mk 2:5; Mt 9:2). In this storm-tossed boat, Jesus was not observing any faith in their behavior and this is why He asked His men the question, “Where is your faith?”

Lk 8:26-39 – Mark and Matthew also report on this incident. (I wrote BSN notes at Mk 5:1-17 and at Mt 8:28-34.)

Lk 8:39 – This verse hints that Jesus was God, though it wasn’t time to reveal that truth while Jesus walked the earth; that time would come with the Second Coming (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again). #Hints

Lk 8:40-56 – Mark and Matthew also report on these two incidents (ie. Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the hemorrhage). (I wrote brief BSN notes at Mk 5:22-43 and at Mt 9:18-26.)

Lk 8:43-48 – The woman’s focus on Jesus’ garments calls to mind the prophecy of Zech 8:23.

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Luke 9

This is the pivotal chapter in the Gospel of Luke. From this point forward, the action moves toward Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem where Jesus will be tried, crucified, buried, and…raised from the dead. Thus, in this chapter, Jesus looks to transition His ministry from earth to heaven, for when He ascends to heaven He will not be going there to rest. Rest will occur only when the kingdom of God comes which was for Him and His contemporaries almost a generation away. Thus Jesus spends about 33 years living and ministering on earth, and then will spend about another 40 years ministering from heaven through His apostles. After that, He comes in His kingdom and rests forever on that throne because it is an eternal kingdom. (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again)

This chapter begins with Jesus sending out His apostles to minister in His name and in the same way He has been ministering – which is by preaching, teaching, and healing. This is a rehearsal of what they will do when He sends them into the whole world on the day of Pentecost (and about which Luke will write near the beginning of the book of Acts). Once Jesus perceives that more people are picking up on the fact that He is not just a man of God but actually the Messiah, He begins to prepare the people for the inevitable – which is that those in authority in Israel would feel compelled to stamp out any potential challenge to the political or religious status quo that a new king – which is what the word “Messiah” meant – would bring.

While the disciples don’t fully understand what Jesus is telling them about His fate, they do start wondering how they will hold things together if Jesus departs the scene. That’s what is behind their question about who is the greatest. They weren’t entirely being vain, they were worrying about who would be in charge if He was no longer the one giving the orders. They would eventually come to understand that He would continue to communicate with them from heaven, but with the Holy Spirit as His messenger.

Lk 9:1-6 – Jesus deputizes the twelve to do everything He has been doing. Remember that at this stage in history, Jesus is only focused on the Jews. Therefore, at this stage He’s only sending the twelve throughout Israel – not to the whole world. And, therefore, His instructions to them are tailored to that limited geographic and cultural scope. Since they are only going to fellow Jews in their home country, they will encounter fewer unknowns than they will when He later sends them out to the whole world. Therefore, the preparations and luggage taken did not have to be as substantial.

Lk 9:7-9 – Recalling what Luke wrote in the previous chapter about the wife of Herod’s steward being a supporter of Jesus’ ministry (Lk 8:1-3), it’s easy to see how Luke’s sources would have inside knowledge of what Herod was thinking about the gossip that was circulating about Jesus.

Lk 9:10-11 – Jesus always stayed on mission. He taught His disciples to do the same.

Lk 9:12-17 – Jesus feeds the 5,000.

Lk 9:18-22 – When Jesus asks His disciples who people say that He is, the disciples answer with the same speculations Luke reported in verses 7-9 above. Jesus then makes sure His disciples know who He is…and what is going to happen to Him as a result. Notice that He did this in a quiet place. It is just the same today. People in the world will argue about who Jesus is, but in quiet places He makes sure His disciples know who He is. Let us be genuine disciples of Jesus.

Lk 9:23-27 – Jesus goes on to tell His disciples that they will experience the same hatred that He is going to experience…and that the kingdom of God will come before their generation completely passes away. (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again)

Lk 9:26 – As for the fact that Jesus would come in “the glory of the Father,” this was prophesied by Isaiah in Is 22:24 (see BSN note on same).

Lk 9:28-36 – The Transfiguration – When Luke begins this paragraph with the words “Some eight days after these sayings…” he is signaling that what’s about to happen is related to what just happened. In other words, the vision that Peter, James, and John are about to see is related to the Q&A session Jesus had with them and the other disciples about His identity. For more on the Transfiguration, see extensive BSN notes on it at Mt 17 and at Mk 9.

Lk 9:30-31 – The Greek word (Strong’s Greek 1841) translated as “departure” here is literally “exodus,” and translated as such in Heb 11:22. The only other usage of this word in the New Testament is 2 Pet 1:15 where Peter uses it to refer to his impending death.

Lk 9:37-43a – Contrary to current pop culture conceptions, Jesus is not a namby-pamby nice guy who would never criticize another human being (as, for example, the “He Gets Us” people are suggesting); rather, Jesus is a no-nonsense, flame-breathing truth teller.

Lk 9:43b-45 – The disciples remained ignorant because, like us, they didn’t want to ask Him a question that might make them look stupid. Why are we afraid of looking stupid? Jesus already knows we are stupid – that’s why He came to teach us!

Lk 9:46-48 – Only as children get older do they become afraid of asking questions that might make them look stupid. This subject arises again at the Last Supper (see Lk 22:24-27 and accompanying BSN note below.

Lk 9:49-50 – Just because someone doesn’t follow Jesus the way I do doesn’t mean that he’s my enemy.

Lk 9:51-53 – Notice when Luke previously mentioned (in verse 31 above) what would happened when Jesus went to Jerusalem the next time, he called it Jesus’ departure (literally, “exodus”). This time, referring to the same outcome, he uses the word ascension. Jesus’ departure from the world would ultimately be upward – distinguishing His death from every other human death that had occurred up to that time. ***** I also love that Luke writes “His ascension,” just as he wrote “His departure in verses 31, instead of “His crucifixion.” Jesus never saw crucifixion as His end; He always saw it as a new beginning. That perception – which He strengthened through prayer – helped Him overcome His dread of it. ***** The importance of Jerusalem as the place to worship was a key point of contention between the Samaritans and the Jews (see John 4:1-20, especially verse 20). Thus the Samaritans took offense that Jesus wasn’t coming to see them, but rather was “just passing through” to get to Jerusalem.

Lk 9:54-56 – No wonder Jesus called these two brothers “Sons of Thunder” (Mk 3:17)! They are alluding to an Old Testament account of Elijah the prophet’s dealings with hostile forces in which he called down fire from heaven that destroyed 50 soldiers each time he did it (2 Kings 1:9-16). Given the supernatural power James and John had seen over and over in Jesus’ ministry, and that Jesus had previously delegated supernatural power to them (such as in verses 1-6 above), they just assumed that all Jesus had to do is say the word and they could do for Him what Elijah had done for himself. What they did not yet understand was that Jesus’ kingdom was not going to be installed and maintained by conventional methods of warfare. Jesus was engaged in spiritual warfare at a level and with a sustained intensity that the OT prophets – great as they were – had never attained. I can understand the brothers’ thinking; what’s harder to understand is how Jesus could read the Old Testament and come to the conclusion that God did not want Him or His disciples to have to fight battles the way Joshua, David, and other OT men of God had fought them. That, to me, is as striking as anything else Jesus said or did. And it makes me want to follow Him even more closely because I could never read the Old Testament on my own and come to the conclusions He did. He alone knows God well enough to teach the rest of us about Him (Jn 14:6).

Lk 9:57-62 – Matthew records the first two exchanges in Mt 8:18-22, so see BSN notes there. As for the third question, it might sound reasonable to us but Jesus must have seen something in the man or in the way he asked the question that revealed he was making the same sort of mistake that Lot and his wife made when they hesitated about leaving Sodom. In any case, the image of a plowman looking back is vivid; no one in that posture can plow a straight row.

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Luke 10

The previous chapter began with Jesus sending out the twelve apostles to conduct the same sort of ministry He Himself had been conducting. They returned giving Him an account of all they had done. This chapter begins with Jesus sending out seventy others to do the same thing; and they also returned giving Him a report of all they had done. In both cases, Jesus succeeded in extending the reach of His ministry through others. He was setting the stage for His crucifixion, resurrection, and then ascension to heaven, from which He would continue to send out even more workers in His name – most notably, a man named Paul.

This chapter also includes the story of a man who came up a day late and a dollar short – and was commended for it! He has come to be called “the good Samaritan” because he showed compassion when and where it was needed without regard to the identity of the person in need or with regard to what it would cost him in time and money.

This chapter ends with a vignette about two sisters and Jesus that powerfully conveys much more meaning than one would initially expect. Part of that meaning is that frustration with circumstances leads to more frustration…while contentment with Jesus leads to more contentment.

Lk 10:1 – Most people know of the twelve apostles, but here are seventy more that the Lord sent out. ***** As for sending them out in pairs, we see them following this pattern throughout the book of Acts. Because Jesus extolled Scripture as the word of God, it’s reasonable to assume that Solomon’s writing had informed Jesus’ thinking on this point: “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up” – Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. ***** As for the idea of sending apostles ahead of Himself, John the Baptist provided the mold into which the apostles were poured. That is, John the Baptist was a forerunner of the Messiah. The apostles also were forerunners of Messiah – in the flesh during the days of the Gospels, but in the spirit during the days of the book of Acts. That is, the apostles were in the flesh in both cases; but Jesus came in the flesh in the first case, and in the spirit in the second.

Lk 10:2-16 – Instructions to the Seventy – Jesus gave these instructions in a particular place (Israel) at a particular time (the early ’30’s of the 1st-century AD) for a particular purpose (to advance His earthly ministry). We cannot read these instructions as if He were speaking directly to us today. Of course, we can and should seek principles we can extract from such a passage and apply them to our lives today, but we shouldn’t jump too quickly to that – otherwise, we’re just putting words into the Lord’s mouth and not letting Him speak to us for Himself. Rather, let us first read these words seeking to understand them historically. As we absorb the history, we will then be able to identify and extract principles we can apply in our own lives.

Lk 10:2 – In that time and place, the harvest was plentiful, but the workers were few. In this chapter they’re increasing in size from 12 apostles to 70, so we can assume some folks in Israel had been praying for God to send workers. Today, we who want to be harvested by the Lord should pray that He send workers. Not apostles per se, because the age of apostles was restricted to New Testament times. But still, we should have preachers today, herald’s of the kingdom of God, men to proclaim the gospel of Jesus. Where are they? There are church builders, yes – but where are those who blow the trumpet for Jesus Christ and Him alone? Let us pray! The land we live in desperately needs healing (2 Chronicles 7:14)!

Lk 10:3 – In the Gospels and in the book of Acts we can surely see that the apostles are lambs in the midst of wolves. But because those lambs were lions in heart, the good news of Jesus was spread and we ourselves have heard it all these generations later!

Lk 10:4-7 – These apostles were being sent to their fellow countrymen. Israel was about the size of New Jersey; its citizens were homogeneous. Arrangements that were suitable for them would be quite unnatural for us today. The larger point is that while the apostles would experience persecution in serving Jesus, they would find acceptance, too. It’s not as though everyone was going to reject them. 

Lk 10:8-9 – To have been able to heal the sick was quite the calling card! People had more than ample reason to believe the message these men preached.

Lk 10:10-11 – In the wake of healing the sick in a town, a rebuke like this surely carried a lot of weight! It would have given the unbelievers a sobering reason to reconsider their unbelieving posture, and even if the unbelieving individuals remained obstinate, the rebuke would have strengthened the resolve of those who had believed.

Lk 10:12-15 – We do not know how many Israelites took Jesus’ stern warning seriously, but we do know that those who did knew not to expect the Lord to save the nation  when the Romans decided to crush it. Jerusalem itself was burned to the ground by the Roman army in 70 AD. If God judged the cities of ancient Israel, will He not judge our modern cities?

Lk 10:16 – The Lord does not forsake His servants; rather, He vindicates them. As this was the case in OT times, it is so also in NT times: 

“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.

isaiah 54:17

Lk 10:17-20 – The Seventy Succeed! – The apostles exercised powers with which most of us are not familiar.

Lk 10:21-22 – Had I been present at the moment Jesus spoke these words, I can only imagine standing there dumbfounded and slack-jawed. I wouldn’t have known what to say; I almost still don’t. “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks” – Jn 7:46.

Lk 10:23-24 – If the disciples there that day were blessed, we are even more blessed because 1) we have it all documented for us, and 2) that documentation includes an explanation of what it all means. In other words, we have a completed Bible – Old and New Testaments…and we have the Holy Spirit to help us understand what it all means.

Lk 10:25-28 – Sometimes we actually know the right answer, and therefore don’t so much need information from the Lord as we need assurance from Him. It’s good to know He’s willing to give it!

Lk 10:29 – Why must we always seek to justify ourselves? God justifies us – by first creating us, and then redeeming us. What we need to do is just trust Him and obey Him (1 Jn 3:23).

Lk 10:30-37 – The good Samaritan showed up in Jericho a day late and a dollar short, but the Lord judged him a successful man. Likewise, when we get to heaven, we won’t be judged on the quality of the plans we had for life and our execution of those plans – rather, we’ll judged on whether we showed compassion to others when our plans were frustrated by circumstances. This is a point that that is also made by Jesus’ parable of the King who separated the sheep from the goats (Mt 25:31-46).

Lk 10:38-42 – If you’re reading your Bible today instead of worrying about your problems, you’re behaving like Mary.

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Luke 11

This is a typical Gospel chapter in that it describes Jesus teaching both His disciples and His critics, addressing one and then the other without seeming to skip a beat.

Lk 11:1-13 – Prayer

• Lk 1:1-4 – Luke and Matthew are the only two Gospel writers who give us the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew gives it to us (Mt 6:9-13) in the context of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7), whereas Luke gives it to us in the context of the disciples requesting Jesus to teach them about prayer.
  • Lk 11:1 – Seeing Jesus pray inspired curiosity in His disciples. ***** Some of them had previously been disciples of John the Baptist.
  • Lk 11:2-4 – When you compare Matthew’s version of the Lord’s prayer with Luke’s version it is clear that what Jesus is teaching is the proper structure of prayer – not an exact set of words to recite. Just as existence was chaotic (“The earth was formless and void”) until order came from God’s words (“Let there be…”), so our minds can be chaotic and in need of order. This structure gives order to any interaction we want to have with God. Whenever we see Jesus praying in the Gospel – such as in the garden of Gethsemane – He follows this structure. It interweaves God’s interests and man’s interests so that God’s interests have the priority but our needs are still met. In other words, this structure makes sure that prayer is a mutually-beneficial exchange between God and man. It’s beautiful!
    • Lk 11:4 – See Lk 7:36-50 (and related BSN notes on that passage above) for the story of two debtors. It adds understanding to “forgive us our sins” by teaching us that “he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
• Lk 11:5-8 – In this little parable, Jesus teaches us that God can’t help but hear our prayers – even if it grates on Him. If a sleeping man can be awakened by the sound of someone banging on his door, how much more can a God who hears everything hear us when we pray – so much so that His natural interest is to respond to our request if for no other reason than to be able to get back to what He was doing and be left alone. Why do we ever pray with uncertainty in our minds about whether God is noticing?
• Lk 11:9-13 – Matthew’s version of this segment (Mt 7:7-11) is set in a later part of the Sermon on the Mount, not in the same chapter as the prayer itself – as it does here. ***** The last line of Matthew’s version has “…what is good…” in place of Luke’s “…the Holy Spirit…” It’s reasonable to assume that Jesus gave most of His teachings multiple times at various locations and that He did not usually repeat Himself word for word. It’s also reasonable to assume that “the Holy Spirit” is “good.” ***** The main point is that God designed prayer to be answered – not ignored. We don’t always pray rightly; but when we do, it’s going to be answered…one way or the other.

Lk 11:14-26 – God versus Satan

• Lk 11:14-22 – God and Satan are at odds. One is anti-demon; the other is pro-demon. One brings healing; the other brings disease. Jesus is pointing out that it’s nonsensical to think that the force behind demonic possession is also delivering people from demonic possession. This is also a fitting subject to address in the wake of a discussion about prayer. God is the author of good things. Anything at war with a good thing cannot be a good thing. And anything at war with an evil thing cannot be an evil thing. Good and evil are definitionally opposed to each other! God can use evil for His purposes, but He is not the author of it and He does not like it. He hates evil and wants us to hate it (Ps 97:10; Prov 8:13; Amos 5:15).
• Lk 11:23 – We’re either pro-Christ…or we’re anti-Christ. There is no middle ground. People tend to think that “the antichrist” is some particularly evil person. On the contrary, anyone that is not acting for Christ is acting antichrist.
• Lk 11:24-26 – This is further proof that God and Satan are at cross purposes. When Jesus casts out a demon, Satan doesn’t go along with it. On the contrary, he looks for ways to come back even stronger.

Lk 11:27-36 – Responding to God

• Lk 11:27-28 – Correlate with Psalm 1:1-3, especially verse 2. ***** Mary wasn’t blessed because of who she was; she was blessed because of what she believed and acted on in response to the word of God she heard. In other words, she responded rightly to God and that’s why she was blessed. That’s something any of us can do…and that was Jesus’ point.
• Lk 11:29-32 – Jesus was preaching the word of God and looking for repentance from the people to whom He preached it – just as Jonah had preached the word of God to the Ninevites and looked for their repentance.
• Lk 11:33-36 – The word of God is light. God gives light that we might respond to it by walking in it – not hiding it under a basket.

Lk 11:37-54 – Not Responding to God

• Lk 11:37-52 – Matthew’s Gospel provides a similar but even longer indictment of the professional religious class, taking up the entirety of Mt 23. (There are extensive BSN notes there.)
• Lk 11:53-54 – Far from repenting, the scribes resolve to shut Jesus up. Like fools, they hated reproof (Prov 5:12-14; 12:1; 15:10) and, as a result, will suffer greatly. God didn’t bring this destruction on them so much as they brought it on themselves. That is, they chose the kingdom of darkness over the kingdom of light. They preferred complying with Satan to complying with God.

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Luke 12

In this chapter, Jesus is both comforting and alarming in the sense of that old adage that a truth teller should “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” That is, Jesus is comforting the repentant about how God will be providing for them during the hard times that are coming, while He warns the comfortable that, unless they repent, they will experience the wrath of God as a consequence of their sins against the poor and weak.

At the end of Lk 11, Luke was describing how the opposition to Jesus from the professional religious class was increasing. Here in the beginning of Lk 12, he describes how support for Jesus was simultaneously growing. How striking to see opposition and support rising at the same rate. Recall how the elderly Simeon prophesied to Mary in Lk 2:34-35 that Jesus would polarize people. Thus the last part of the previous chapter and the first part of this one show just how intense that polarization was becoming.

Lk 12:1 – Luke’s phrasing of “so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another” paints a vivid picture of the interest – positive and negative – Jesus was arousing among His fellow Jews. It also helps explain why Jesus sometimes attempted to keep the crowds from getting too big (and therefore too dangerous to the people comprising the crowds) by encouraging folks to be silent about this miracle or that. Jesus cared about people. ***** The reference to the Pharisees is logically linked to what Luke had been reporting at the end of the previous chapter. (Don’t let the chapter and verse divisions block this from your view.) ***** As we know, leaven inflates bread. Bread is one of the Bible’s most common metaphors for the word of God. Hypocrisy is, of course, saying things but not doing them. A man of God is supposed to restrict what he teaches his children to the word of God that he actually does. Recall Ezra’s threefold formula of study the Bible, practice it, then teach it (Ezra 7:10). A man who’s willing to teach from the Bible things he knows but does not yet practice will have a lot more to teach than a man who restricts what he teaches to the portion word of God that he actually practices. But the lesser amount will be far more useful to children; the rest is bloviating.

Lk 12:2-3 – In the end, all hypocrisy will come to light – so the sooner we shed it, the better.

Lk 12:4-7 – Let us not live our lives for the approval of judges who have limited visibility; rather, let us live for the approval of the One judge who can see everything. ***** The word “hell” is an unfortunate translation of the Greek word “Gehenna.” Jesus’ point is that there is a judgment that comes after death (Heb 9:27), and we want to have as good a resurrection as possible (Heb 11:35). Everyone is going to heaven, but everyone is not to the same place in heaven.

Lk 12:8-9 – When Jesus gets to heaven, He is not going to forget or ignore those who confess Him on earth. If we confess Him before men, he’ll confess us before forces much more numerous and powerful than men. (See 2 Kings 6:15-17)

Lk 12:10 – People can be forgiven for being slow to recognize who Jesus really is, but when they insist on attributing the works of God to the devil (such as, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons” in Mt 9:34), they’ve blocked their own way to forgiveness. Another way of saying this is that when people start calling good, evil; and calling evil, good (Is 5:20), they’ve gotten themselves into a corner and deprived themselves of a way out. ***** While He was on earth, Jesus followed the Holy Spirit (as we try to do); but once He got to heaven, Jesus began directing the Holy Spirit. Just think for a minute about how enormous that difference is.

Lk 12:11-12 – What a promise! Think of all the time this saves us, all the scenarios we don’t have to think through in advance (“If they say this, I’ll say that; but if they say…”).

Lk 12:13-59 – Each of the teachings Jesus gives in the remainder of this chapter must be understood in the context of knowing to which group He was directing each teaching. Luke is describing everything in this chapter as taking place at the same time. This seems obvious just from the way the writing flows, but is confirmed in Lk 13:1. Though it’s taking place on one occasion and in one setting, Jesus is alternately speaking to the various groups who were present, and perhaps even intermingled, at the time. We need to keep them sorted out.

Lk 12:13-21 – Jesus Speaks to the Crowd

• Lk 12:13-14 – Jesus never got out of His lane. Nor did He ever try to take on jobs that were above His pay grade. Neither did He ever jump the gun. By this last point, I mean that even when He was on the verge of inheriting all final decision-making authority in heaven and on earth (Mt 28:18-20), He was not about to exercise that authority prematurely. Let us not jump the gun either; everything in its time. ***** The questioner was not really interested in recognizing Jesus’ authority; instead, he was interested in using Jesus to get what he wanted. There was nothing wrong with the man wanting his rightful share of the inheritance, but he should have been more curious about how Jesus might want him to go about getting his fair share. Instead, the man was only interested in getting Jesus to do his bidding and to do it on the spot. Jesus goes on to show that the man’s real problem was not his brother, but his greed.
• Lk 12:15-21 – As Paul succinctly puts it, “For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either” – 1 Tim 6:7.

Lk 12:22-40 – Jesus Speaks to His Disciples

• Lk 12:22-32 – Matthew presents this teaching as a component of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:19-34; see also BSN notes on that passage). That was also directed to disciples (Mt 5:1-2). Recall that disciples are students and followers of the Lord.
• Lk 12:33-40 – Since He’s speaking to a crowd of His fellow Jews living in Israel, Jesus seamlessly brings up the topic of His Second Coming (the coming of the kingdom of God, the day of the Lord, etc.). This is because it had a very direct bearing on the topic of greed and material well-being that He was addressing in this chapter. His disciples are not going to be able to stay put in Israel and survive because the nation was going to be crushed by the Romans in their generation.

Lk 12:41-53 – Jesus Speaks to His Apostles

• Lk 12:41-48 – (Recall that the apostles were a subset of the disciples.) Peter, being alert to what Jesus was just saying to all the disciples, asks Jesus how it applies to the apostles – those disciples who were working for the Lord, spreading His word to the rest of the disciples. To this point, notice that Jesus uses the metaphor of a “steward” who is a worker for a master. Jesus’ answer to His Peter and his co-workers was “keep your mind on your work.”
• Lk 12:49-53 – Jesus longs to get things over with – that is, get the judgment started. As we saw in the previous chapter, the leadership of Israel had become completely corrupt and was actively leading the Jews away from the Lord – not toward Him. The sooner the fires of judgment were kindled, the sooner God could move on with His people. God was through with the nation of Israel. For the next generation, His vehicle for salvation would not be a nation, but rather a multi-national church. After that, it would be the kingdom of God forever. Recall that Jesus had promised that He would come again before His generation passed away (Mt 10:23; 16:28; Mt 24:34). (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again)

Lk 12:54-59 – Jesus Speaks Again to the Crowd

• Lk 12:54-56 – Jesus tells the crowd that just as there are weather patterns, there are spiritual patterns. He wanted them to recognize the decadent condition Israel was in and how it spoke of the storms of judgment to come. We, too, should recognize the decadent condition of America and that, because of this, storms of judgment are its inevitable future.
• Lk 12:57-59 – As Paul succinctly puts it, “keep yourself free from sin” – 1 Tim 5:22. Because when judgment comes, you do not want to be found with in an unrepentant state – that is, with unforgiven sins. Thus Jesus was encouraging the crowd to all become active disciples.

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Luke 13

In this chapter, as Jesus is approaching Jerusalem for the final time, He continues to warn His fellow Jews of the judgment that is coming upon their nation. As with everything else Jesus said, some believed and some did not. This is just the same as it is today in the kingdom of God. Back then, He was going to become the King. Today He is the King. And forever will He be! (Dan 7:13-14) And people are forever being people.

Lk 13:1-5 – When Luke writes “Now on the same occasion,” he’s wanting us to see a logical connection with the preceding text (Lk 12). The connection is His Second Coming (the coming of the kingdom of God, which was to be in that generation – about 35-40 years hence). Jesus is pointing out that the tragedies occurring in Israel at that time were but a foretaste of the judgment to come on the nation as a whole. Likewise, we today see tragedies that are but a foretaste of the judgment on our nation to come. (Judgment Is upon Us)

Lk 13:6-9 – Jesus here tells a parable to illustrate and emphasize the point He’s been making to the crowd, His disciples, and His apostles (the three groups He individually addressed on the same occasion in the previous chapter). Israel was the fig tree, and it was in its last stage. This “tree” had disappointed God repeatedly and the nation was in its last stage. Jesus was the fertilizer, but the tree was so problematic that not even this fertilizer could help. Of course, God knew the nation would disappoint Him and so His plan was to use that failure to create something better for every single one of the nation’s citizens, high and low. All they had to do was believe in Him. And if they didn’t believe in the beginning, they could do so later. Paul, James, and Jude – all New Testament authors – are prime examples of this. And this plan not only made provision for every single Jew, it also made provision for every single Gentile. But the plan was only beginning to unfold at this point. It wouldn’t reach full blossom until Acts 10 when Luke reports how Peter preached the gospel to a Gentile military officer and his household.

Lk 13:10-17 – Here we have a break in the narrative. That is, Luke is signaling that he’s now talking about a different time and a different place than he has been. From Lk 12:1 through Lk 13:9, Luke had been describing exchanges Jesus had with people at the same time and place.

• Lk 13:10-12 – As is so often the case, Luke is giving us details – and details that indicate the public nature of Jesus’ miracles. What Jesus did, He did not do “in a corner,” as they say. People in the synagogue would have known this woman. They would have known that her affliction had been ongoing for years – 18 of them. Over and over, the Gospel accounts read like we would expect them to read if miracles really took place.
• Lk 13:13 – No matter how short or tall we are, we were made to stand tall.
• Lk 13:14 – How blind can we be? God was the only one capable of healing the woman, so it was impossible that He could have been opposed to healing on the Sabbath. God does things He’s against?
• Lk 13:15 – Beware of any culture that shows more compassion to animals than to people. Animals, even the most beloved of pets, have only a finite lifetime; humans have infinite lifetimes.
• Lk 13:16 – Jesus is pointing out that the professional religious class was not even thinking about the purpose of the Sabbath, which was about release and rest. Therefore, even if there was one day of the week that was better than another for setting this woman free it would be the Sabbath. Notice also the word “long” in Jesus’ sentence. What a contrast he was from the religious class. They were concerned about the rules while Jesus cared about that woman and what she’d been through.
• Lk 13:17 – Alas, Jesus’ opponents were too hard-headed to learn anything from their humiliation. When we are right with God, we can find happiness when God does good to others. But when our hearts are turned away from Him, nothing makes us happy. We’re just miserable creatures. And we cannot recognize obvious truths that are staring us in the face.

Lk 13:18-21 – Jesus tells two short parables of the kingdom of God.

• Lk 13:18-19 – Matthew reports this parable in Mt 13:31, 32; Mark reports it in Mk 4:30-32.
• Lk 13:20-21 – Matthew reports this parable in Mt 13:33.

Lk 13:22-30 – It was in Lk 9 that Jesus determined it was time for Him to start heading toward Jerusalem for the last time. It was in Jerusalem that He would be crucified according to the plan of God, and it was there He would rise from the dead according to that same plan. Therefore, all that has been occurring since then in the narrative may be considered as a sort of “farewell tour” for Him. This was His last chance to warn His people of the things to come. Early in His ministry, Jesus was introducing Jews to the kingdom of God; now He’s trying to make sure they remember what He’s taught them.

Lk 13:31-35 – Israel’s rulers – Herod and the professional class in the capital of Jerusalem – were particularly hardened to Jesus’ message. Yet Jesus lamented even over them. ***** Given that the Herod family were probably Edomites rather than Jews, and certainly not in the line of King David, the references to “fox” (v. 32), “hen” (v. 34), and “house” (v. 35) in Jesus’ answer calls to our mind that the Romans had put the fox (Herod) in charge of the hen house (Jerusalem). Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, had been the apple of God’s eye, but that age was coming to an end and all Jesus could do was weep over the situation. But to anyone who heeded the call of the Lord, rescue was guaranteed.

• Lk 13:31-33 – Since King Herod killed John the Baptist, no one was going to be surprised if he sought to kill Jesus, too. But because the Jewish Sanhedrin was able to stir up the crowds to push the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to do it, Herod didn’t have to lift a finger.
• Lk 13:34-35 – Is Jesus speaking like a man here…or more like the God of the Old Testament? #Hints ***** See the parallel passage in Matt 23:37-39 as well as the accompanying BSN notes. ***** See also BSN: The Posture of Jesus.

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Luke 14

In this chapter, Jesus heals on the Sabbath and then teaches various parables about entering the kingdom of God – or not – and the cost of being a disciple of that kingdom.

Lk 14:1 – It’s good that “they were watching Him closely,” but instead of looking for behavior to imitate, they were looking for behavior to criticize. If ever there was a waste of time!

Lk 14:2 – Google says “dropsy” is an “old-fashioned or less technical term for edema.” They say “edema” is “a condition characterized by an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body.”

Lk 14:3-4 – Jesus was often criticized by the professional religious class for healing on the Sabbath. The event being described was taking place in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, so the only way a man with dropsy could be “in front of” Jesus is if the leader arranged or allowed it. Therefore, Jesus could see that their intent was to “set him up” for criticism once He did what they assumed He would do. So Jesus puts them on the spot. As was so often the case, however, they did not answer because they didn’t want to commit to a position. They wanted to reserve the right to change it. This scene is very much like the one we’ll see in Lk 20:1-8 where Jesus asks them “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” They did not answer Him in this case or in that one because agnosticism – which is a form of double-mindedness – always wants to keep its options open. But not deciding is itself a decision – and a bad one at that when it comes to Jesus.

Lk 14:5-6– Yet another question the supposedly smart people don’t want to answer. ***** Note that Jesus’ question makes the issue personal. He’s asking them to think about what they’d do if the victim was their own child or animal. A subtle implication of Jesus’ question was that the man with dropsy was God’s. That was directly counter to what the Pharisees thought, for they assumed God was on their side since they didn’t have dropsy. Just because we’re not having as hard a time with life as someone else is no guarantee that God thinks more of us than He does that someone else. ***** Once again, Jesus’ critics are rendered speechless.

Lk 14:7-11 – Jesus speaks this parable because it illustrates a point he wants to make about what just happened with the man who had dropsy, as well as with the gathering itself. Satan regularly tempts us to “take a look around the room and see where we think we fit in.” As a result, we are prone to think a lot about our “status” in the eyes of the other people. Jesus teaches to save time by foregoing the analysis and just assume that, until God says otherwise, everyone else in the room is more important than we are. Paul puts it this way: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;” – Phil 2:3.

Lk 14:12-14 – Jesus takes the opportunity to build off of the parable He’s just told by using it to make another important point. For all their religiosity, the Pharisees were atheists at heart. The same is true of many religious people today. That is, the majority of religious people think and act as if God is not in the room. Secularism is the dominant mindset in the world today. It’s practiced even by people who are opposed to secularism. God is a fully-present third party to every single human interaction. When the poor can’t return our kindness, God takes on the debt; conversely, when we fail to show kindness, God holds us accountable. It comes naturally to human beings to return favors and keep accounts; the problem is that our minds tend to leave God out of the transactions. Jesus is here pointing out that this sort of selective amnesia is preventing us from receiving many blessings God would like to bestow upon us.

Lk 14:15-24 – Jesus is still in the same Pharisee’s house. The response He gives to the man who says, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” is yet another attempt on His part to break through the spiritual dullness of these religious people. They profess to seek the kingdom of God, but they’re missing it when it is right in front of them – a point He will make explicitly in Lk 17:20-21. ***** This parable can be first understood as a portrayal of how the general refusal of the Jews to enter the kingdom opened the door for Gentiles – (a point which Paul covers extensively in Rom 9-11). However, the next level of analysis shows that any of us who have knowledge of the kingdom are vulnerable to the risk of losing sight of it. The kingdom of God must be sought daily and continually. That’s why we re-read the Bible every day. And we can even go through that exercise with dulled minds. We must keep stirring ourselves to stay spiritually awake!

Lk 14:25-35 – Luke is telling us that this is a change of scene. Jesus is no longer at a dinner in a home, but there is still a logical connection with what He has been saying in this chapter. ***** Remember that Jesus is making His final earthly trip to Jerusalem, so He’s exhorting the crowds because it’s the last time many of these people will hear Him – at least the last time they’ll hear Him as a flesh-and-blood man. ***** The main point of this teaching is that the really hard part of walking with Jesus is not starting the walk – however hard that start may be. Rather, the really hard part is finishing. We have to change the way we think – and that’s the hardest task any human can take on. (Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh)

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Luke 15

Luke 15 is sometimes called “the lost-and-found” chapter in the Bible. This is because it consists of three parables Jesus told, all of which were about something that was lost and then found – a sheep, a coin, and a son. The third parable – the longest, and the most memorable of these three parables – is usually called the story of the prodigal son.

These three parables can be understood individually, but they are best understood as they were presented: which is as a string.

Lk 15:1-2 – Understanding the three parables of this chapter as a group begins with understanding the context in which they were given. Specifically, Jesus told the parables in response to the scribes and Pharisees making this complaint about Him: “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Now we need to understand this statement in context, too. Therefore, let’s compare it to the beginning of the previous chapter.

• Luke 15:1-2 Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
• Luke 14:1 It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely.

Thus we see that Jesus was eating with everyone, and this is what bothered the scribes and Pharisees. Because, as Jesus said of them, “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues” (Mt23:6), it’s clear that they didn’t want Him going from their houses to the houses of riff-raff. They wanted special audiences with Jesus. By giving equal access to tax collectors and other deplorables, Jesus was denying the professional religious class the special treatment they felt they had earned. Thus the complaint from the scribes and Pharisees that launches the telling of these three parables was “Jesus, you are not being fair to us!” This is exactly the point on which the third parable concludes and dwells. Therefore, though we call that third parable “The Prodigal Son,” it would be more aptly titled “The Offended Son” because it is the prodigal son’s older brother who is analogous to Jesus’ critics.

As Paul’s eloquent ode to love in 1 Cor 13 was a sidebar in his discussion about spiritual gifts (which ran from 1 Cor 12 through 1 Cor 14), so Jesus’ story of the prodigal son was sidebar to the point Jesus was wanting to making to the scribes and Pharisees with these three parables. The first two parables don’t include the element of taking offense when something lost is found. On the contrary, the assumption in the first two parables is that when the person finding what had been lost says, “Rejoice with me” (Lk 15:6, 9), that everyone did. That’s what should make the older son’s response stand out even more to us. It’s not an appendage to the story of the prodigal son – rather, it’s the point that the story of the prodigal son was setting up.

The problem with the older son was not his attitude toward his younger brother; it was his attitude toward his father. The older brother did not love his father. He did not care about his father’s interests; he only cared about his own. It was as Jesus had once rebuked Peter: “You are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” For years, the older son had not been setting his mind on his father’s interests; he’d been setting it on his own interests. The mercy shown the younger brother simply revealed the problem that had been there all along. He was serving himself, but wanting credit for serving his father.

We know from experience that it is possible to obey without loving. Yes, God wants our obedience, but He wants obedience that flows from love – not an obedience that bypasses love. The older brother had obeyed his father, but he shows no signs of loving his father. Something good happens to his father and he can’t even be happy for the old man!

The scribes and Pharisees, contrary to all public opinion, and even contrary to their own opinion, were just not that into God. That is, they were not interested in what mattered to Him. Their hearts were hardened to His interests and focused entirely on their own interests. They couldn’t even be happy when sinners took an interest in righteousness. Everything about the lives of these elites that appeared to men was pious and reverent, but their hearts were thoroughly secularized – pursuing self-interest. This is a theme that runs throughout the Scriptures and the parables of Luke 15 are part and parcel of that theme.

• Is 29:13 Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”
• Matt 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
• Matt 16:23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Once we profess a faith in Christ, we automatically become susceptible to the occupational hazard of the professional religious class. Jesus did not address the teaching of this chapter to prodigals (“tax collectors and sinners”); rather He addressed them to offended older brothers (“scribes and Pharisees”). Let us therefore take heed and read the three parables of this chapter as yet another reminder that we must walk in the spirit (Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh). That is, we must hold our faith as “our own conviction before God“ – Rom 14:22. Otherwise, we’ll start out humble but end up proud.

If anyone ever had the right to feel like the older brother, it was Jesus. But He didn’t. If we keep our eyes on Him, we’ll remain like the younger brother and not become like the older. Joseph didn’t resent his brothers; on the contrary, he did all the work and absorbed all the pain so that his brothers could eat at the same table he did. Why did he do that?

…whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.

1 john 5:1

Lk 15:3-7 – The Man’s Lost Sheep

Lk 15:8-10 – The Woman’s Lost Coin

Lk 15:11-32 – The Father’s Lost Son (“The Prodigal Son”)

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Luke 16

This chapter consists mainly of parables. Wedged between them is Jesus’ declaration of the major pivot He is bringing about in the work of God on the earth – a shift that is boldly demarcated in the Bible’s division between Old Testament and New Testament. To be more specific, Jesus is stating in this chapter that what came before Him was “The Law and the Prophets,” and what came with and after Him was “The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.” More simply and more profoundly, Jesus is describing the shift from several thousand years of preparation for Messiah’s kingdom…to actually entering and experiencing that promised kingdom. We who live today do not have to wait for that kingdom to come because it is here in our midst. It has been ever since the late 1st century AD. (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again) Yet it is invisible, which means that without faith we cannot seek and find it.

Lk 16:1-13 – By leading with “Now He was also saying to the disciples,” Luke is indicating that what Jesus is saying here is connected with what He’s been saying in the preceding verses. He seems to confirm this when he writes at the beginning of verse 14, “Now the Pharisees…were listening to all these things and…”. (Don’t let chapter and verse divisions block your view of connected thoughts.) ***** That said, since Lk 14:25, Luke has been describing various interactions Jesus had with a mixed crowd. The mixture consisted of His disciples (including the apostles), His opponents (including the Pharisees), and the broader crowd (including people wanting to be healed as well as many people just curious about Jesus and all the buzz surrounding Him). Keeping straight which group Jesus is addressing is necessary to understand His various points. In this segment (Lk 16:1-13), for example, Jesus is speaking to His disciples. If we forget this, the first part of this discourse will confuse us. We need to understand the parable He teaches (verses 1-8) in light of the explanation He gives of it (verses 8-13).

• Lk 16:1-8 – This parable assumes what we would call a strictly secular point of view. That is, Jesus describes how secular people normally act. The rich man is as unrighteous as the manager. It’s as if one thief admires the way another thief stole something. Jesus is not promoting thievery; rather, He is describing how secular people understand and profit from the system of which they’re a part. This is a system with which we are all familiar, because it’s just the way the world works. Jesus is using the parable to describe how His disciples ought to similarly understand the system in which they operate.
• Lk 16:8-13 – This is Jesus’ “therefore” to the parable – as in, “Therefore, you disciples of Mine should do such and such.” The “such and such” is that we should recognize and remember the invisible kingdom in our midst. In other words, we should abandon a secular mindset. By embracing the unseen dimension as well as the seen one, we realize that God will recognize and reward our charity – that just as secular people do favors for each other, so we and God can do favors for each other. When we do favors for God – like, say, giving to the poor who have no means to repay us, He will return the favor in due time. And “due time” often means, at the moment we most need it. That’s what we see happening in the life of Jesus – the things He needs in the moment (whether it’s fishes, loaves, a donkey, a room, etc.) just show up. Jesus is teaching His disciples that these things are coming from the invisible storehouses of an invisible God. Or we could say invisible bank accounts of an invisible God – bank accounts to which Jesus had been making deposits for years, and from which He could withdraw when and as necessary. And since He was always withdrawing to help others, His bank account just kept growing instead of getting depleted. To sum up, disciples of the kingdom can operate in an economy of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” just like the secular folks – it’s just that our economy includes God. And it includes Him first and foremost.

Lk 16:14-31 – Everything Jesus says in the remainder of this chapter is directed to the Pharisees.

• Lk 16:14 – Luke says the Pharisees were “scoffing” because the parable and its explanation seemed like gibberish to them. Though they were religious by definition, they were as secular-minded as an atheist because they did not walk in the spirit (Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh). That is, they did not perceive God as an active player in all the situations of life. The idea of doing a favor for God – a good deed that no one but He could see, and expecting a favor in return when needed – was completely foreign to them. That would seem like wasted motion from their point of view.
• Lk 16:15 – Strange as it may seem to us, the Pharisees thought very little about God. They walked in the flesh, just like secular people. They talked about God to others, but they didn’t think their thoughts before God, seeking His approval of those thoughts. In other words, they had no authentic faith.
• Lk 16:16-18 – The Pharisees had a reputation of being zealous for the Law of Moses and the Prophets – what we call the Old Testament. Yet they were not keeping it, and their abuse of divorce was a prime example. As they could not force their way into the benefits of keeping the Law, so they would not be able to force their way into the benefits of the kingdom.
• Lk 16:19-31 – Jesus tells this parable about a poor man and a rich man to the Pharisees to illustrate what He just said to them in Lk 16:16-18. Recall also that Luke said in Lk 16:14 that they were “lovers of money.” The Pharisees only saw “poor and rich” in physical terms, which means that they only saw it in terms of this life, this world. The parable opens the spiritual dimension – which applies to this world and the next. Jesus is showing them how a man who is rich in this world could be poverty-stricken in the next world if he is not generous in this one. Generosity is fostered by faith because faith says that there’s a God who is promising to reward generosity when it is shown to the poor who cannot repay it. To the secular mind, it is wasteful to be generous with someone who will not or cannot repay. To the mind of faith, however, generosity is just expanding the concept of “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” beyond the physical dimension of life to the spiritual dimension as well. God is a player in this life, and if we don’t recognize that in this life, we will surely recognize it when this life is over and the spiritual dimension is the only one left. But that’s when regret will cease to be actionable because what’s done is done. The bitter and permanent lament of the rich man in the parable is what Jesus is using in His quest to awaken the religious elites from their slumber. Because, contrary to their reputation, the Pharisees weren’t listening to Moses and the Prophets at all. They were only using Moses and the Prophets to justify themselves in the sight of men.

***

Luke 17

In the first half of this chapter, Jesus teaches about faith. In the second, He teaches about the coming of the kingdom of God – what we more commonly call “the Second Coming.” The main point Jesus makes about His Second Coming is that it will not be an observable event. That is, the kingdom of God would not be a spectator sport…where people can just sit in the stands and watch. The only way to recognize the coming of the kingdom of God was to be “in the game.” As for the stands, they are reserved for those in heaven – both angelic and human. For the sake of clarity, by “angelic” I mean angels, and by “human” I mean those human beings who have died and gone to heaven. They are the watchers and we are the watched.

Lk 17:1-4 – Jesus was just talking to the Pharisees (Lk 16:14-31), rebuking them for the stumbling blocks they were putting in the way of their fellow Jews who were seeking to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus now turns to His disciples and tells them they should do with each other what He just did with the Pharisees: rebuke whoever among them is putting stumbling blocks in front of people who are seeking to enter the kingdom of God. What a contrast with the namby-pamby nice guy that pop culture would have Jesus to be…if they would have Him to be anything at all. The only Jesus that secularists will accept is one who doesn’t want to hurt their feelings and therefore would never say anything bad about their conduct or the choices they’ve made in life. But that is a Jesus history knows nothing about.

Lk 17:5-10 – Upon hearing that Jesus wants His disciples to both rebuke and forgive each other much more than they were accustomed to doing or could imagine themselves doing, the disciples confess that they lack the faith to live this way. Jesus responds by saying something that stretched their minds even more. We can know that because it stretches ours. Jesus is saying we should do what He tells us without thinking it’s too hard or that He’s asking too much. In this case, we should rebuke and forgive as much as He’s saying without thinking it’s that big a deal to do so. Of course, we need to remember that He elsewhere said that we should get the log out of our own eye before we rebuke a brother for the speck in his. But that said, what kind of love am I showing to my brother if I stand by silently while he puts stumbling blocks in the way of people trying to follow Jesus? Such a brother is making life harder for himself as well as others. He needs and deserves my honesty.

Lk 17:11-19 – This is the second time Luke has reported Jesus as having something good to say about a Samaritan. The first was when He told the story of “the good Samaritan” who helped a man who’d been victimized by robbers after both a Levite and a priest passed by the poor man without lifting a finger (Lk 10:25-37). Jesus was so focused on the Jews during His earthly ministry (Mt 10:5-6; 15:21-24) that it was not always easy for Gentiles to believe that they could receive equal treatment. Samaritans were despised by Jews, so accounts like these reinforced in Gentile minds that Jesus’ exclusive focus on the Jews was just a temporary phase of God’s plan to reach the whole world with His love.

• Lk 17:11 – Since Lk 9:31, Luke has been periodically inserting reminders like this that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem (to die…and rise from the dead). (Other such reminders between then and now can be found in Lk 9:51, 53; 13:22, 33-34.)
• Lk 17:19 – It appears that the nine got healed because of the faith of the tenth…like Lot got saved by the faith of his uncle Abraham, like Joseph’s brothers got saved by the faith of Joseph, like the world got saved by the faith of Jesus. Let us be more like the one than like the nine.

Lk 17:20-21 – The Pharisees thought of the kingdom of God as a spectator sport because that’s how they treated the Law of Moses. The Pharisees, like those frustrated and would-be athletes who call in to a sports radio talk show, spent their lives Monday-morning quarterbacking everyone else’s game without applying the same critical eye to their own. The kingdom of God was present and being demonstrated in Jesus right before their eyes – and they weren’t seeing it. How in the world were they going to see it when it started operating in other people to lesser degrees? Even today, there are “believers” who are waiting for Jesus to appear in the sky while they sit in the stands watching and applauding the whole thing. The kingdom of God is game for athletes on earth; the fans watch from heaven .

Lk 17:22-36 – The Pharisees just asked Jesus a question about the coming of the kingdom of God and He gave them a terse answer because they were only seeking the kingdom of God to critique it, not enter it. His answer was intended to wake them up. Jesus now turns to His disciples and answers the question as if they had been the ones asking it – and it is a relatively extensive answer. The essential thing to understand about His answer is something He just made clear to the Pharisees – the kingdom of God is invisible because it is a spiritual reality, not a physical one. Its presence can be indicated by physical events, and Jesus now lays out for His disciples what some of those physical signs would be. In a nutshell, they have to do with the demise of Israel. I explain this in a relatively short book titled The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact, the link to which you can find at Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again.

Lk 17:37 – This brief exchange has to do with the demise of Israel mentioned above. That is, the nation of Israel, which God Himself had formed, was not going to survive the coming of the kingdom of God. It was like a booster rocket that gets the spaceship out of the earth’s atmosphere and then is jettisoned because otherwise it would be dead weight for the rest of the mission. (For a less modern analogy, see Lk 13:1-9 which includes the parable of fertilizer for the fruitless fig tree; see also the accompanying BSN notes above.)

***

Luke 18

In this chapter, Jesus teaches on prayer – first, that God wants to respond quickly to our prayers, and, second, that our attitude toward others affects God’s attitude toward our prayers. Next comes the story of the rich young ruler who, though zealous for God, backed off when he felt the cost of continued growth in God was too high for him. The chapter closes with Jesus healing a blind man – a healing with which every follower of Jesus can identify, as in the line from Amazing Grace – “…was blind but now I see.”

Lk 18:1-8 – If an unrighteous judge can be pestered into action, how much more will a righteous God act promptly on behalf of those who righteously call on Him for help. The problem is not God’s unwillingness to answer our cries for help, but our unwillingness to recognize the help when it arrives. Jesus makes this point when He closes this parable by asking a rhetorical question.

“However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

Jesus is offering Himself as a prime example of the point that He is making. In the 1st century, Jews all over Israel were crying out in their prayers for God to send His long-promised Messiah. It was a messianic age. Yet here was Jesus the Messiah standing right in front of them, performing miracles right and left, fulfilling the Scriptures, and yet only a subset of those Jews praying for Messiah recognized Jesus as such. The same thing would happen at the Second Coming when church leaders, in their desperation to preserve what they had built, missed His coming in the same way that Israel’s religious elite, in the same mode of self-preservation, missed His first coming. (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again)

Jeremiah had warned of this phenomenon centuries before:

Thus says the LORD,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
And whose trust is the LORD.
For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.

jeremiah 17:5-8

Especially note the line “And will not see when prosperity comes.” As Israel’s professional religious class missed Jesus’ first coming even when it was staring them right in the face, so the church’s professional religious class missed His second coming when it stared them right in the face. Granted, the second coming was invisible, but that the first coming was visible made it no easier to see. It takes spiritual eyes to see the spiritual dimension – even when there are physical manifestations of it.

The main lesson from all this is that the way to increase the productivity of our prayers is to 1) keep at it by recognizing that God is more than willing to answer, and to 2) simultaneously recognize that we need improved spiritual vision so that we see the answers when they come. Israel rejected its Messiah because He did not match their preconceptions of how He would behave. Preconceptions are limiting.

Lk 18:9-14 – God is humble. He wants us to be humble, too.

Lk 18:15-17 – The best way to be humble is to assume the posture of a child before a trusted adult.

Lk 18:18-30 – A Rich Young Ruler Comes to Jesus – Matthew reports on this interaction in Mt 19:16-30 (see accompanying BSN notes there), and Mark reports on it in Mk 10:17-31 (see accompanying BSN notes there).

Lk 18:31-34 – Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is no guarantee we’re going to understand everything He says when He says it. (I’m not trying to excuse our spiritual dullness; I’m just trying to manage expectations.) ***** Since Lk 9:31, Luke has been periodically inserting reminders like this that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem (to die…and rise from the dead). (Other such reminders between then and now can be found in Lk 9:51, 53; 13:22, 33-34; 17:11.)

Lk 18:35-43 – What a striking similarity this blind beggar on the road to Jericho bears to the widow in the parable at the beginning of this chapter (Lk 18:1-8). Both had legitimate and pressing human needs; that is, they were not greedy or pursuing selfish desires (Jas 4:2-3). Both were pesterers par excellence. And both received what they sought.

***

Luke 19

In the previous chapter, Jesus stated that though it was difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, it was still possible with God. Therefore, it is particularly interesting that this chapter tells of a rich man that Jesus welcomed warmly. We see for ourselves that what made the difference is that this rich man had a generosity that the rich young ruler did not. (Thus, “with God,” it is possible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.)

Next, Jesus told a parable in order to emphasize to His followers that His kingdom was not going to appear immediately – that they would have work to do first. The rest of the chapter consists of how Jesus entered Jerusalem at the beginning of what would be a fateful week – not just for Him, but for the whole world.

Lk 19:1-10 – Recall from the previous chapter how dismayed the rich young ruler became when he learned how much it would cost him to enter the kingdom of God (Lk 18:18-27). Jesus reacted to the young man’s dismay by saying this:

“How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” – Luke 18:24-25

Those who heard this response from Jesus couldn’t help asking “Who then can be saved?” For if a man who is keeping all God’s commandments can only enter the kingdom of God by giving up all the blessings God has bestowed on him for that obedience, what hope is there for any of us to think we can get into the kingdom of God? If this “most likely to succeed” candidate cannot get into the kingdom, who can? Jesus gives a comforting answer:

“The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.” – Lk 18:27

And now here in this passage, not too long after that one, Luke seems to want to strengthen that comfort by illustrating just what Jesus was promising by reporting what happened with a rich man named Zaccheus. In his interaction with Jesus, Zaccheus illustrates for us what Jesus meant by “with God” and how that can get even a most unlikely candidate into the kingdom.

Lk 19:11-27 – The main point of this parable is, of course, that we should be faithful in working for the Lord knowing that He will be faithful to reward us appropriately for our work. This point had specific application for those who would be working up until they died, or else, if they were among the few who would live long enough, the kingdom came. Since the kingdom has come (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again), its application to us refers to the time we arrive in heaven for the final judgment on our lives. But there is another striking element of this parable: the people who did not want this man to reign over them. There are people today who do not want this man to reign over them. (I ought to know; I used to be one of them.) They are slain in His presence for He has come and they do not see Him in His glory. They are dead to Him and given over to sin, resisting His ways at every turn. Some of them will only come to their senses when they meet Him in heaven for His final judgment on their lives. Only then it will be too late for them to achieve “a better resurrection” (Heb 11:35). They’ll be happy to be in heaven, but they’ll have to live with the regret about the opportunities to serve Him that they squandered.

• Lk 19: 11 – See note on Lk 19:28 just below, which applies here as well.

Lk 19:28 – Since Lk 9:31, Luke has been periodically inserting reminders like this that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem (to die…and rise from the dead). (Other such reminders between then and now can be found in Lk 9:51, 53; 13:22, 33-34; 17:11; 19:11.)

Lk 19:29-38 – Matthew reports on this event in Mt 21:1-9 (see also accompanying BSN notes), and Mark reports on it in Mk 11:1-10 (see accompanying BSN notes).

Lk 19:39-44 – Jesus finally arrives in Jerusalem. This has been His intended destination ever since He privately told His disciples a week before His transfiguration that He would be killed and then raised up on the third day (Lk 9:18-31). (Although neither Luke nor Mark state that Jesus explicitly mentioned “Jerusalem” at this time, Matthew does in Mt 16:21.) Luke’s explicit references to the destination of Jerusalem – and there are nine of them – can be found in Lk 9:31, 51, 53; 13:22, 33-34; 17:11; 18:31-34; 19:11, 28. Even though Jesus was mindful all this time of what would happen to Him in Jerusalem, He still had to pray in the garden of Gethsemane with extraordinary fervor the night before it was to happen in order to find the will to follow through with the plan. Just because you’re struggling mightily to do something you know God wants you to do, does not mean you are necessarily off plan or out of bounds. It could be that you just need to pray fervently to get that extra dose of grace you’ll need to get into the end zone. ***** Jesus had sounded a similar lament for Jerusalem on His way here (Lk 13:33-35). In the prior lament, He had said, “you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” In this setting, a significant subset of the common folk are saying that very thing (Lk 19:37-38), but the leaders of the nation are wanting them to be silenced (Lk 19:39). Alas, by 70 AD all the voices of praise for Jesus had been banished from Jerusalem and the Roman army would light the fires that would burn the great city to the ground. It was from that point that the fallen stones of the temple began crying out…and they’ve been crying out ever since. ***** Alas, Israel’s ruling class did not recognize “the time of their visitation” and thus they missed their opportunity to escape judgment. Let us not miss ours.

Lk 19:45-46 – For Matthew’s account of this incident see Mt 21:12-13 and accompanying BSN note, and for Mark’s see Mk 11:15-18 and also accompanying BSN note.

Lk 19:47-48 – Abraham had shone hospitality to strangers and thus was able to find himself the opportunity to negotiate with angels for the salvation of his nephew Lot’s family (Gen 18-19). Thus did all the descendants of Abraham know that hospitality to strangers could result in unforeseen benefits (Heb 13:2). But Israel’s ruling class at this time was as far from showing hospitality to this stranger as could be – they were trying to destroy Him! Many of the common folk, by contrast, heralded this stranger as a gift from God and hung on His every word. For this reason, they were saved individually while the collective nation had to be destroyed because of how its leaders had so corrupted it. May we hang on this Visitor’s every word so that we may likewise be spared when judgment comes to our nation.

***

Luke 20

This chapter includes a succession of particularly memorable passages. The events recorded take place during the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. They begin with a challenge from Israel’s chief religious leaders at the temple – that nation’s most holy site. Jesus refutes their challenge by asking a question they are afraid to answer. Then Jesus tells a parable to the crowd that reveals what will be His fate – one foretold in the Scripture, but that they did not recognize. At this point, the Pharisees pose a question to Jesus that they are sure will embarrass Him in front of the crowd but He answers in a way that embarrasses them instead. Then the Sadducees take a shot a Jesus and they, too, go down in failure. In the course of these exchanges, Jesus makes known that human resurrection will lead not back to earth again – but to heaven. Yet the tension between increasing acknowledgement that Jesus is indeed Israel’s Messiah and the religious/political opposition to that acknowledgment crowds out all other thoughts – including those of how much more wonderful resurrection to heaven would be than any prior human conceptions about an afterlife.

All that Luke reports in this chapter is reported by Matthew and Mark as well. Therefore, I’m going to refer you to the BSN notes previously written in those two Gospels. (What Luke reports in Lk 20, Matthew reports in Mt 21-23 and Mark reports in Mk 11-12; more specific chapter and verse numbers are given below.)

Lk 20:1-8 – From Where Does Authority Come? – See the BSN notes on Matt 21:23-27 and on Mark 11:27-33.

Lk 20:9-19 – The Parable of the Vine-growers – See the BSN notes on Matt 21:33-46 and on Mark 12:1-12.

Lk 20:20-26 – The “Render to Caesar” Conversation – See BSN notes on Matt 22:15-22 and on Mark 12:13-17.

Lk 20:27-40 – The Sadducees’ Challenge-Flop – See BSN notes on Matt 22:23-33 and on Mark 12:18-27.

Lk 20:41-44 – The Riddle of Psalm 110:1 – See BSN notes on Matt 22:41-46 and on Mark 12:35-37.

Lk 20:45-47 – Warnings about the Scribes – See BSN notes on Matt 23:1-7 and on Mark 12:38-44.

***

Luke 21

In this chapter, Jesus answers questions from His disciples about His prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction and what it has to do with the coming of the kingdom of God.

Lk 21:1-4 – This little moment in Jesus’ ministry speaks volumes. It shows how differently God thinks from the way humanity thinks. Our way of thinking is myopic and petty. We’d be much wiser to start thinking more like He thinks.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.

isaiah 55:8

God gave up so much to come to earth and be crucified for our sins. He gave all that He had. No wonder He’d appreciate someone who was giving their all.

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ means to learn new and better ways of thinking. We live in a world where a rich person can buy the reputation of a righteous man with a shrewd campaign of philanthropy – precisely because the world still thinks in the way it did during Jesus’ day. Give enough money to charity and the world will fawn all over you. What celebrity doesn’t have his or her own charity? This poor widow would escape notice today just as she did then. At what point are we going to stop thinking the way the world thinks and start thinking like Jesus thinks? It’s so much healthier…and far more honest!

Lk 21:5-36 – The bulk of Lk 21 is teaching about the end times for Israel and lines up with Matthew 24-25 and Mark 13, which both report the same interaction between Jesus and His disciples. See BSN notes on Mt 24-25 and on Mk 13.

Lk 21:16-19 – There is wording here that is unique to Luke and needs to be navigated. At first glance, the latter part of verse 16 may seem contradictory to verse 18. However, the Lord would never contradict Himself. I take Him to mean “Not a hair of your head will perish apart from your Father’s will.” It is rare and exceptional that God wills someone to die for Him. It was the case with Messiah, of course. It was also the case with Peter (Jn 21:18). But when such is the will of God, it is God who chooses the time and place – not those who do the killing. Thus Jesus could escape the mob in Lk 4:28-30. Thus also Peter was granted an escape when James the son of Zebedee wasn’t (Act 12:1-19). It was God’s will that James’ death occur at that time and place and in that way, but His will was that Peter die later in Rome per the prophecy in John 21. Again, it’s rare that God doesn’t deliver someone who prays a “Gethsemane” type prayer. When He doesn’t, as He didn’t with Jesus, it’s because that person is special and God has a specific purpose to be accomplished through that death. Jesus was trying to make sure His disciples understood, not that they wouldn’t have to die, but if they did have to die, no one was going to be able to kill them until and unless God authorized it. Thus they did not have to be afraid of people who hated them and wanted to kill them for such people had no real power over them. As Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above…” (John 19:11).

Lk 21:37-38 – One of the most wonderful things about Jesus’ teaching was how public it all was. He was not teaching people in secret at night on Olivet. On the contrary, He was teaching during daylight hours in the most public of all places in the most populated city in all of Israel. If the apostles had been lying about Jesus’ teaching in their preaching and in the New Testament documents, His movement would never have gotten off the ground because even His critics knew what He taught. Jesus emphasized this point at His trial by the Sanhedrin:

John 18:19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching.
John 18:20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret.
John 18:21 “Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.”

The reason the world didn’t want to talk about Jesus then – and still doesn’t want to talk about Him now – is not because they don’t know what He taught…but because they do.

***

Luke 22

This chapter describes what happened to Jesus the day – and mainly the night – before He died. It was a Thursday. This includes the Passover meal (also called the Last Supper), His prayer in Gethsemane, His arrest, His trial before Jewish authorities, and Peter’s denials.

This chapter generally lines up with the content of Matthew 26 and Mark 14. John deals with what was spoken at the Passover meal much more extensively than the others do (see John 13 through 17 for lengthy discourses by Jesus).

The following table shows how the synoptic Gospels match up in terms of their coverage of these four critical days. The final three chapters of each of the synoptics happen to be neatly divided into corresponding content.

(Be aware that just because the events are recorded within the chapters noted does not mean the events are described in the exact same order or include the exact same details. As to order, for example, Luke records Jesus’ conviction at trial after Peter’s denials, while Matthew and Mark record it before. But these two events were probably occurring simultaneously, so the order in which they’re recorded is hardly important.)

	Matt	Mark	Luke
Thursday (The Last Supper)	Mt 26	Mk 14	Lk 22
Friday (Good Friday)	Mt 27	Mk 15	Lk 23
Saturday (the Sabbath)
Sunday (the first day of the week) (Resurrection)	Mt 28	Mk 16	Lk 24

Rather than write additional notes for Luke’s Gospel on events for which I’ve already written notes on the other two synoptics, I’m just going to refer you to the existing BSN notes on Matthew and on Mark. That said, there are four paragraphs in Luke 22 which contain information, or at least significant details, that are not found in the other two synoptics. I will now comment on these four paragraphs one by one. They can collectively be considered a single long paragraph since they seem to describe a connected conversation Jesus was having with the apostles. (Paragraph demarcations are decisions of the translators, not of the authors.)

Lk 22:24-27 – The question about which of the apostles was the greatest arose earlier in Luke’s Gospel (see Lk 9:46-48, including brief BSN note above). (This earlier exchange is also recorded in Mt 18:1-5 and Mk 9:33-37; and there is BSN note on Matthew’s account, but you don’t need to look it up to understand what I’m saying here.) It’s understandable that this subject might arise again in this particular setting for a couple of reasons. For one, a lot of Jesus’ explanations didn’t immediately take with apostles; like us, they often needed repetition and elaboration. For another, the way Jesus has been talking leads them to feel the need for a contingency plan; for if Jesus is removed from the scene, they need a backup plan including what the temporary organizational structure should be. Since Jesus, as Messiah, was expected to become the king of Israel, the apostles expected to be soldiers like “the mighty men” of David (2 Sam 3 and 1 Chr 11). Therefore, they would expect things to get hairy as Jesus is preparing to take the throne. Plus He has been periodically speaking to them lately about “dying” and “rising again.” Though they did not know what He meant, it was enough for them to be uncertain about who they should listen to if the fog of war descended on them. Jesus charitably gives them some elaboration on the answer He’d given them in Lk 9:46-48 – which was that the humility of childlikeness should guide them. His elaboration focused on the service (servanthood) aspect of childlikeness. He did not stop there.

Lk 22:28-30 – I’m not sure why a paragraph break needs to be here since Jesus is continuing to give the answer He began in Lk 22:24-27. He is assuring the apostles that they will all have places of privilege and responsibility in His kingdom (except Judas, of course). Indeed, the books of Acts and all the Epistles that follow demonstrate that the apostles led the New Testament church. And they did so, not as a hierarchy, but as the sort of humble servants Jesus taught them to be. Peter did not act like a pope; Paul even corrected him publicly on one occasion (Gal 2). Jesus was the Master and they were all on the same level. Nor did they seek to pass on their authority by naming apostles to succeed them. The apostles were a one-generation phenomenon for a one-generation church (The Greatest Generation of All).

Lk 22:31-34 – This paragraph break, like the previous one, does not seem fully warranted. I get the the translators’ rationale, but, as with chapter and verse divisions, we have to remember that these demarcations are not decisions of the authors. In this case, the rationale for a paragraph is stronger because Jesus is clearly digressing on His directions to the group in order to focus on Peter. Yet what He was saying to Peter applied to the rest as well because they all boasted of their loyalty just like he did (Mk 14:31). There is no denying that Peter was the most prominent of the twelve apostles, just as there’s no denying that Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (James and John) were the three most prominent. But nowhere in the New Testament do we see any of the three exercising authority over the rest. Instead, we see all the apostles speaking with the same authority – the authority that comes to a slave by virtue of being sent by a master. Jesus wasn’t going to cease giving these men instructions once He ascended into heaven. He was just going to speak to them through the Holy Spirit rather that through a flesh and blood body. That obviously required a significant adjustment on the apostles’ part…but they handled it well.

Lk 22:35-38 – Jesus goes on to assure the apostles that He’s going to be with them in their future travels. The fact that He alters His previous instructions to them (Lk 9:3-5) reminds us that context is usually important – and sometimes extremely important – for understanding the Lord’s commands recorded in Scripture. Some of the Lord’s instructions, such as the two greatest commandments (Mt 22:34-40; Mk 12:28:-34; Lk 10:25-37), apply to all people at all times in all places. But others, such as these we are considering here (Lk 9:3-5 and Lk 22:35-38), were directed only to the twelve apostles. Moreover, those instructions for the apostles changed with a change in circumstances. That doesn’t mean that rank-and-file disciples like us can’t learn principles from such instructions; it just means we cannot pluck them from their contexts and apply them literally and woodenly to ourselves or others. The Bible can easily be abused this way, as when “the great commission” (Mt 28:18-20) is imposed on all disciples.

***

Luke 23

This chapter describes the critical events of what is called “Good Friday.” In other words, it describes how Jesus was killed. It wasn’t a good day for Him; but because He endured it for humanity’s sake, it was a good day for us.

As the table I gave you in the previous chapter shows, this chapter generally lines up with Matthew 27 and Mark 15 (and John 19 as well). Allow me to refer you to the BSN notes I’ve written for Matthew and for Mark regarding events of this day. I’ll restrict my comments here to details Luke provides that the other two men don’t.

Lk 23:6-17 – Luke takes the time to report this sub-plot involving King Herod. (It’s possible that “Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward” whom Luke mentioned in Lk 8:3 is the source for this information; in any case, we know from Lk 1:1-4 that Luke relied on eyewitness testimony to write his Gospel.) The Romans had appointed their own military man (Pontius Pilate) to govern Judea, the region in which Israel’s capital of Jerusalem was located. However, Rome allowed “the local” King Herod to retain rule over the less important region to the north: Galilee. Both men were subject to, and a part of, Roman government, but obviously each had different backgrounds and different support groups. The “Herod kings” reigned over one portion of Israel or another from 37 BC to 93 AD, but seldom with much respect from the Jewish population since their heredity to David, and even to Jacob, was questioned.

Pilate could tell that Jews were divided over Jesus, so he tried to pass the buck about what to do with Him to Herod. Herod, however, was as shrewd an operator as Pilate…so he passed the buck back. The key sentence in the passage is this one:

Luke 23:12 Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.

This turn of events obviously made an impact on Luke. We can see this in the fact that he reports it, but we can also see it in how he returns to it in his writing of the book of Acts. The passage below comes immediately after Peter and John have been released by the Jewish authorities. The two apostles had been arrested for healing a crippled man; their release came with warnings and threats that they had better stop spreading the word about Jesus. I’ve underlined the parts I want to focus on; the rest is included only for context.

Acts 4:23 ¶ When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
Acts 4:24 And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, “O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM,
Acts 4:25 who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said,
‘WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE,
AND THE PEOPLES DEVISE FUTILE THINGS?
Acts 4:26 ‘THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND,
AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER
AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.’
Acts 4:27 “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
Acts 4:28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
Acts 4:29 “And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence,
Acts 4:30 while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

In verses 25-26, the apostles and those praying with them are quoting the first two verses of Psalm 2. Now connect what Luke writes in verses 27-28 with what he wrote in Lk 23:12 – the key verse I showed above. Luke saw, as did the praying group in Acts 4, the thawing of relations between Pilate and Herod as a fulfillment of Psalm 2 – and thus yet another sign that Jesus was the Messiah and that His crucifixion was not a surprise or a Plan B, but rather what God’s “hand” and “purpose” had “predestined to occur” all along. Or, as Peter put it in Acts 2:23, “the predetermined plan of God.” Thus if God cannot count on our righteousness, He will use our unrighteousness to achieve His goals. To Him, stumbling blocks merely become stepping stones.

How ironic that Jesus’ religious critics were constantly demanding that He show them signs that He was from God and yet such signs – miracles galore and observable events like this new friendship – were more than abundant. Jesus’ critics were willfully blind and could not see such signs no matter how many of them there were. Pilate and Herod were the “RULERS…GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.” Whenever we see traditional enemies uniting in their opposition to Jesus or those who love Him, we can know such enemies are operating in the spirit of antichrist – that is, “AGAINST HIS CHRIST.”

Lk 23:27-31 – This is the third time Luke has reported Jesus lamenting the fate of Jerusalem, the first two coming in Lk 13:31-35 and Lk 19:41-44. Luke is wanting his Gentile readers to understand the depth of grief Jesus feels over the fate of Jews who did not believe. It is the same deep grief Paul expressed over them (such as, in Rom 9:1-5).

Lk 23:30 – Jesus is quoting the prophet Hosea (Hos 10:8).

Lk 23:31 – This statement by Jesus should call to mind the story of Ichabod in the days of Eli the prophet when the loss of the ark of the covenant to Israel’s enemies signaled the loss of what gave Israel life (the sap of the tree). See 1 Sam 4:19-22 and accompanying BSN notes. Also recall Israel’s defeat at Ai in the book of Joshua along with the accompanying BSN notes on Josh 7:6-9.

Lk 23:34 – Luke’s is the only Gospel to report this statement. Jesus was on the cross for six hours so it’s unlikely that any single witness heard and remembered every single thing He said during that extended time. Therefore, we are blessed to have multiple Gospels, and multiple witnesses supporting each of them.

Lk 23:39-43 – Matthew and Mark both report the abuse Jesus took from the criminals being crucified with Him, but only Luke got the scoop that one of them repented during the six-hour ordeal.

Lk 23:46 – As with the statement Jesus made in verse 34, Luke’s sources are the only ones who give us this statement. How blessed we are to have them!

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Luke 24

This chapter describes how Jesus’ disciples learned of His resurrection from the dead. We also see that Jesus explained to them how everything that happened to Him had been prophesied well in advance by Moses and all the prophets in what we call the Old Testament. (What NT People Called the Old Testament)

The content of this chapter generally lines up with the content of Matthew 28, Mark 16, and John 20-21. That is, they all cover Jesus’ post-resurrection earthly appearances to His disciples. Acts 1 does also.

With respect to the synoptics, we saw in the case of Thursday (the Last Supper, etc.) and in the case of Friday (the Crucifixion, etc.) that there was a great deal of uniformity in what Matthew, Mark, and Luke reported. To be sure, each Gospel writer provided slightly different details just as three witnesses in a trial would provide slightly different details. But in the case of Sunday – and the 39 days following, until His ascension into heaven, the synoptics provide much more variety in their testimony. Each man has considerable testimony that is unique to his own experience or research. This variety comes not just in the details but in the events reported. Jesus made many post-resurrection appearances so as to bring the apostles to a state of deep conviction about the uniqueness and durability of His resurrection from the dead. The variety and depth of the testimony strengthens our conviction about the reality of that inaugural resurrection.

Of the synoptics, Luke gives the most information about the resurrected Jesus. To that point, Luke gives more than Matthew and Mark put together. And when the resurrection appearances reported in John’s Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles are added to what the three synoptics report, we have a very robust file on what happened during those noteworthy forty days between Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven.

Lk 24:1-12 – Luke here reports on discovery of, and initial reactions to, the empty tomb. See also the BSN notes on Mt 28:1-8 and on Mk 16:1-8, as well as the passages themselves. Some people get hung up on differences in details about how many angels, women, men, or soldiers were present in the various Gospel accounts, but this is completely unnecessary and distracting. If I tell someone that I saw George on the street the other day while someone else says they saw George and Herman walking together on the same street, we haven’t given contradictory accounts; I’ve just given fewer details than the other person. Maybe who was walking with George was inconsequential to me, but meaningful to the other person. People who expect the Gospels to match in every single detail are being unrealistic about how human beings observe and report events. The reason that we have multiple witnesses give testimony in a trial is to obtain multiple perspectives. Taken together, they give us a fuller understanding of the facts. They needn’t be in word for word agreement to all be true. In fact, if they were word for word, we would rightly be concerned about conspiracy or collusion between the witnesses.

Lk 24:13-27 – This paragraph is so rich with information!

Lk24:13-21 – In this first portion of the paragraph, we get to see how the disciples felt about Jesus’ life and death somewhat independent of His resurrection. We can consider this a representative sample of the way people who leaned toward Jesus felt about Him prior to His death, and then the impact that His death had on their view of Him. They believed Jesus was a prophet and that He was going to redeem Israel. This would imply that He was the Messiah, but they did not say this, of course, because His death would have ruled Him out of consideration for that title. No Jew thought the Messiah would be unsuccessful. They’re mainly just puzzled at this point that a good and godly man got stopped dead in his tracks just when it seemed he was about to accomplish greater things for God and the nation.

Lk 24:22-24 – Here Luke lets us see the unbelief of the disciples. It was not a malignant or hostile unbelief. It was a lack of ability to believe because they had never taken to heart what Jesus had told them would happen to Him. While they hadn’t digested Jesus’ personal prophecies about Himself, they didn’t give in to paranoia or start making hasty judgments. That is, both in this section of the paragraph and the previous one, the disciples majored on the facts they knew and minored on speculation about those facts. Of course, it was only the third day since His death and it was the same day they were hearing about an empty tomb…so there hadn’t been too much time for speculation so far.

Lk 24:25-27 – This section of the paragraph is the payload, and it is a rich one! I could pour over these three verses all day long. They say so much. There are four themes found here – themes which are useful in trying to understand any part of Scripture.

• • The Scriptures Prophesy Messiah
  • These Prophecies Are of Sufferings and Glories
  • The Sufferings Come First, Then the Glories
  • Jesus Is the Messiah

These four themes set the stage for an announcement (that is, a gospel) to the world. This will be demonstrated later in the chapter (Lk 24:44-49).

Lk 24:28-35 – Here Jesus finally reveals Himself to the group.

Lk 24:30-31 – It’s interesting to see that their eyes were opened at that particular moment. Was it the cumulative effect of their interaction with this “stranger,” or was it His “signature” method of sanctifying a meal, or was it something else? We are not told. ***** And it’s also interesting that He chose to vanish at that point. He had given them plenty to think about; I guess He wanted to give them time to do the thinking. ***** The vanishing demonstrates that a post-resurrection body has powers that a normal human body doesn’t. Jesus is behaving almost as an angel – and this is just what He said resurrection for humans would be like in Luke 20:36 (also in Mt 22:30; Mk 12:25). 

Lk 24:32 – Can we not say something similar when He opens our eyes to something in the Bible that we had read many times before but never understood until “our hearts (were) burning within us”?

Lk 24:33-35 – The disciples start sharing experiences with each other. A lot of this kind of sharing took place and we see a very succinct summary of it 1 Cor 15:1-11, and in the even more succinct Acts 1:3.

Lk 24:36-43 –

Lk 24:36-40 – This is the spiritual body Paul is describing in 1 Cor 15:42-49. ***** Jesus continues to express surprise and disappointment when the disciples don’t “get” what’s going on. The Scriptures – and He Himself – had pre-announced this outcome many times.

Lk 24:41-43 – Sharing food with Jesus makes clear to his disciples that they’re not hallucinating. See a similar meal described in John 21:12-14; see also a general reference to such post-resurrection meals with Jesus in Acts 10:40-41 and in the accompanying BSN note. 

Lk 24:44-49 – This paragraph repeats and elaborates on the themes set in Lk 24:25-27 above.

Lk 24:44-46 – Here we see repeated, in paraphrased language, the four themes.

• • The Scriptures Prophesy Messiah
  • These Prophecies Are of Sufferings and Glories
  • The Sufferings Come First, Then the Glories
  • Jesus Is the Messiah

Lk 24:47-49 – The initiation of the glories of Messiah is to be accompanied by an announcement (that is, a gospel) that is to be heralded to the whole world – and this announcement would have three key elements.

• • Witnesses to the life of Messiah
  • Testimony to His Sufferings and the Beginnings of His Glories
  • Told Throughout the World

These themes of the gospel will appear again and again in remainder of the New Testament beginning with Acts 1:8.

Lk 24:50-53 – This is Luke’s shorter version of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. His longer version is in Acts 1:1-11.

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