We are messengers, but it’s not our message – it’s God’s. We had better be extra careful to check our sources, be silent until we know what we’re talking about, and then deliver an accurate message – or better yet – show people where to learn for themselves. Good News that’s false – is not Good at all. Nothing hurts more than false hope.
In Luke 14 at the dinner, Jesus tells a story about another dinner – the Kingdom feast. We will look at the characters in Jesus’ story and we find ourselves there: we are the “slaves,” the messengers. Scriptures used: Romans 10:1-2 James 3:1-2 Luke 14.15-24; Matthew 22.1-14
Practical steps for killing Excuses, Justifications and Rationalizations, and replacing them with adaptations, improvisations and overcoming. We can categorize our lives, and look for them – to root them out. Then, connect with a Godwor disciple for accountability & help. Finally, choose one or two and work on them one bit at a time.
Satan’s Sirens … Excuses, Justifications and Rationalizations. These three are alluring, enticing, just like the beautiful singing sirens of mythology that lured sailors to their death – Satan’s sirens kill us. The solution is for us to recognize things that tempt us to these things, then treat them as challenges and opportunities. We should adapt, improvise, overcome … we should put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6).
Grow Some Go Some … congratulations are due to those of you who are still listening & studying, and especially to those of you who are DOING the assignments. Following Jesus was hard when he was in human form, and it’s still hard. Now … time to get to work for real.
From now on … these lessons will be less formal, shorter … and use excerpts from Luke to continue our studies. Most importantly, it’s about helping you to start actually doing the stuff Jesus did … on purpose. Make a real change. Do three things, right now: memorize our Purpose, Actions and Priorities. Plan to start “heal” work Start asking others to join you.
it’s time for us to review and settle some things. Remember our purpose, our actions and our priority. And then … DO what Jesus said.
This lesson is about the parable of talents (found in Matthew 25.14-30 & Luke 19.12-27). It’s about how you live as a disciple of Jesus … steadily giving more in quality and quantity purely for the purpose of bearing increasing fruit and glory to God.
Jesus explains why he left the religious folks to go seek sinners and call them to repentance. We are introducing the “Lifecycle” of disciples … those who come to Jesus for various reasons, then go all-in, are born again, and then live and grow. Scriptures highlighted in this lesson include: Luke 15, Matthew 6.20-21, Colossians 3.1-2, Philippians 3.12-21, and Matthew 25.14-30.
Teleios is a Greek word used commonly to describe a certain kind of maturity – the maturity which is understood to include productivity. Only when a thing has reached ‘ teleios’ is it considered to have arrived at its full potential. Each one of us should strive to arrive at our full teleios state
This lesson is an attempt to “put it together.” To provide you with the pathway to growth. “Do what you’re told” is the short answer, another one might be “trust and obey.” So to grow stronger, start by teaching, healing & reproducing. Find an act of service and/or fun, and invite a friend to join you. Then do it again. Then do it better, and do it more. Start somewhere, and increase steadily in quantity and quality for the rest of your earthly life.
Combining basics learned from 1 John 5.4, Hebrews 11, James 2.14-26, Luke 17.5-10 and 1 Samuel 17.34-37, we learn the basics of growing faith. We learn that faith is what we need in order to obey. Sometimes it seems like we need more than we have – this lesson teaches the basics about how to grow that faith.
What tasks you? What tempts you to fear, frustration, stress, or anger? What habits would you like to overcome? How can you grow stronger, more durable and more obedient to God? This is the first of what (hopefully) will be a 2 part series that will teach you practical truths so you can do things that are otherwise impossible. The power to overcome – it’s one of God’s great gifts.
Telling the story of the rescue club to serve as a reminder of our primary purpose, because “rescue” = “seek & save.” Like good rescuers working together, we teach, heal and reproduce … that’s rescue, recruiting, training and developing rescuers. As we move forward, we’ll talk about growing up into stronger, wiser and more mature rescuers.
Visit chapter 9 & 10 … where Jesus (the sent) sends the 12 as 6 pair, who also send 6 pair. These were their first “baby steps,” in which they start taking responsibility to do God’s will and “go” to make disciples by healing, teaching and reproducing.
We cover chapter 8, briefly discussing each of the chunks, but focus mostly on the Parable of the Sower and the Seeds.
This lesson started out as a quick overview of chapters 7 & 8, but I ran out of time. Remember the two layers: 1) Jesus & his audience – and 2) Luke and his audience. We skimmed over the bits and put it into “chunks,” as Luke laid it out for his audience … mostly to show them how Jesus dealt with his own people (Jews) and other groups of people. You should practice doing this as you study through any gospel … break it into chunks, stories, thought ideas, parables, etc. Then see the messa...
This is a review of the sermon on the plain from Luke 6.17-49 … but our focus in this lesson is on the disciple’s view of scripture. The steps are these: Review the “chunk” of text, and then break it down into mini-chunks, being sure to keep it in context, to know who Jesus is talking to, who he is talking in front of, and what he’s trying to accomplish. Pay special attention not only to what Jesus is saying, but also how he’s saying it. Then review the same text, and this time look at Luke’s la...
We want to learn to understand the bible as disciples of Jesus, not scholars or preachers or Sunday school children. To do that, we need to keep each section in context. The goal of this short lesson is to give you an intro to this idea … to see the text as Luke portrays it: Jesus’ introduction to his new dedicated disciples, and a reminder that they’ll become unpopular, but need to love the bad guys, anyway. Now you have lots of homework: study the section of Luke 6.17-49. Break this lesson int...
This is the lesson where the principles introduced so far should begin to merge together into the story of Luke. Remember, Luke’s original audience were active gentile disciples of Jesus, and their version of church and Christianity was very different than ours, and much more like what Jesus intended. So it was necessary to help you also understand the nature of discipleship … before we begin to see the text from which it’s taken. Here I introduce you to the major characters in the gospel: Jesus...
Up until now, Jesus has been working alone – teaching & healing. Now he reproduces by asking Peter, James, John & Levi (Matthew) to follow him. He is rescuing them from their lives of slavery to sin and a religious system – to become fellow workers with Jesus for God. From now on, they’ll be working together as a team. They will often leave the religious people to mix with the “sinners.” We must also understand these principles: we are to leave the religious people and go to the lost, th...
Jesus’ preparation included study of the Torah, and spiritual maturing in wisdom and favor with God and man. Once he was baptized and endured the temptation in the desert, he began his ministry among his home communities. The area of Galilee became his base of operation. The same was true of Paul. He also became an expert in the bible and then allowed his ministry to grow first in the town of his conversion, and later in his home town and surrounding area. It wasn’t until more than a decade afte...
Jesus began his ministry in his home region, preaching in synagogues, among his own people. Let’s imitate him – begin your work right where you live. Also we discuss the concept of slavery and freedom. It’s helpful to begin to see our world as flesh vs. spirit … that natural desires aren’t evil by themselves, but when we pursue them too far, we become enslaved by them. Instead of seeing our world as “evil vs. good,” let’s rather decide who or what we will serve: our own appetites, or God. And wh...
This lesson was about these lessons. Before we get any further into the book of Luke, I need to make it clear that this teaching is about an activity – not mere knowledge. Knowing how to diet doesn’t make one thin, and knowing how to lift weights doesn’t make one strong. So learning about discipleship doesn’t make one wiser, stronger, or more valuable to God’s kingdom & business. To become those things, one must actually start Do ing what we’re talking about in these lessons. Our purpose, ac...
In discipleship overview, I explain what it means to “seek first the Kingdom .” Seeking the kingdom is about 2 things: expanding it & strengthening it . When you meet a person, seek to understand that person from God’s perspective. If the person is a born-again, committed disciple of Jesus, then your job is to encourage, motivate, equip and spur this person on to love and good deeds. If the person isn’t a disciple, you’re job is to make them a disciple and help them then to enter the kingdom...
Reviewed purpose, actions, and introduced the priority of Jesus: “Seek first the kingdom of God & His righteousness.” Also introduced the idea of justice/righteousness in the bible, so we’d know what it means to pursue justice. (See Luke 11.37-44, especially verse 42) Returned to review several scriptures that cover the ideas of “pathway” in the bible. The idea is to help you understand what it means to “make straight” your pathway, or to ‘prepare’ yourself and your field. The scriptures men...
Luke 2 & 3 describes two elements of Jesus’ life that are also true of any disciples’ life: preparation. This preparation has two aspects: 1) to prepare ourselves for service, and 2) to prepare the way. John the Baptist was sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus – to help people have expectations and be open to his teaching. Meanwhile, Jesus had been preparing himself for service. He learned through suffering (Hebrews 5.7-9), he knew the Torah well (as evidenced by his interaction with the...
People are passionate about baseball, music, their families, and even hockey. The most passionate learn their craft, and work hard and seek out others who share their interest. I'm passionate about Jesus. My family and friends are fine, music is the greatest thing ever, and I even like my church (sometimes), but none of those things compare to Jesus. He was perfect! He was so strong and wise and compassionate ... it's just amazing how great he was. I hope you'll find others like me/us and feed t...
Living and growing as a disciple is the most rewarding life possible, and it offers each of us an opportunity to serve, love and care for others in the best possible way. We get to be rescuers, and grow stronger while we’re in training. Discipleship is very hard and very expensive. We discussed this in the last episode, and will see it in explicit detail as we work through Luke. And though it’s hard and expensive, God has provided two things that can be helpful to us all: the bible, and the chur...
Before we can understand the development of disciples in Luke, we must first understand what it means to be a disciple … and how that differs from our traditional understanding. It is a common misconception that those we refer to as Christians also fit Jesus’ definition of “disciple.” In actual point of fact, most of today’s Christians are much more like the religious people of Jesus’ day: the Pharisees, Sadducees, Lawyers (bible scholars), elders, Rabbis, priests, etc. Following Jesus is not an...
