Luke 4:16-19
Sunday, January 17th, 2010From a thematic perspective, Luke 4:16-30 may be the central passage of the Gospel. This passage contains a mission statement from Jesus about His ministry and also provides a foreshadow for how His ministry will be received. The rest of the Gospel of Luke unfolds how Jesus fulfilled this mission, and yet was continually misunderstood [...]
Luke 4:14-15
Saturday, November 28th, 2009The ministry of Jesus finally begins in Luke 4:14-15. And yet, these verses are not really the beginning of ministry for Jesus. Chronologically, they do not immediately follow the events of 4:1-13. There is actually about a one year gap in between verses 13 and 14. When the Gospel of Luke is compared with Matthew, [...]
Luke 4:1-13
Saturday, October 31st, 2009Luke 4:1-13 contains a description of the forty days of temptation Jesus experienced in the wilderness. The placement fits perfectly in the narrative as it immediately follows the genealogy of Jesus and precedes the beginning of ministry of Jesus. The genealogy concluded with a reference to Adam, the son of God (3:38), which recalls for [...]
Luke 3:23-38
Thursday, September 17th, 2009After writing about the baptism of Jesus, and His anointing by the Holy Spirit, it would seem natural for Luke to transition immediately into the ministry of Jesus. But instead, he records the genealogy of Jesus. Issues as to why Luke does this, and how to understand this genealogy abound. The approach here will be [...]
Luke 3:15-22
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009John’s ministry was to prepare the Jewish people for the coming of the Messiah. In such a prophetic role, it was inevitable that people began to wonder if he himself might actually be the Messiah. When questioned about this, John answered that he was not the Messiah, but that the Messiah would come after John, [...]
Luke 3:1-6
Saturday, July 4th, 2009Luke now transitions from writing about the birth and early years of Jesus, to the events immediately preceding the beginning of His mission (Luke 3:1–4:13). Continuing the pattern of alternating between Jesus and John, Luke now turns to talk about mission of John in preparing the way for the Messiah. John’s message is one of [...]
Luke 2:41-52
Saturday, June 20th, 2009Although Scripture does not provide much information about the first thirty years of the life of Jesus, Luke records one event which took place when He was twelve years old. Luke includes this event to show that even at a young age, the prophecies about Jesus and the expectation for Him as the Messiah were [...]
Luke 2:8-20
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009Despite the humble birth and lowly beginnings of Jesus, God nevertheless brings glory and honor to Jesus, though once again, not in the way most people would expect or imagine.
2:8. In the same country, namely, the region around Bethlehem, there were shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. There [...]
Luke 2:1-7
Thursday, April 30th, 2009The first chapter of Luke revealed some of the great Messianic expectations. The Messiah, it was believed, would overthrow enemy occupation, restore righteousness and justice on the earth, set right all wrongs, and remove oppression from the land. The Messiah would then rule and reign over all the earth from the throne of David in [...]
Luke and 1 Samuel
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009In my reading, I recently came across the following insight into the theme and structure of Luke. It comes from N.T. Wright’s book, The New Testament and the People of God (pp. 378-383).
When John begins his work with the words ‘In the beginning…’, we know he is imitating the start of Genesis. When Matthew opens [...]