Read Luke 22:13-20. What is the significance of the Lord’s Supper taking place at the Passover? Jesus founded the Lord’s Supper against the historic context of the Passover feast. The Passover setting underscores human impotence in contrast to God’s great power. It was as impossible for Israel to free itself from Egyptian bondage as it … Continue reading –>
Read Luke 20:20-26. How do we take what Jesus taught here and apply it to our own situation in whatever country we live? During the time of Jesus, taxation by Rome was a volatile issue. Around A.D. 6, according to Josephus, Judas the Galilean, a revolutionary leader, declared that paying taxes to Caesar was treason … Continue reading –>
The parable of the wicked vinedressers (Luke 20:9-19) gives us a lesson in redemptive history. The center of that history is God and His continual love for erring sinners. Although the parable was specifically addressed to the Jewish leaders of His time (they knew He had spoken this parable against them [vs. 19, NKJV]), it … Continue reading –>
It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves (Luke 19:46). After the triumphal entry, during which Jesus wept over Jerusalem, the first thing He did was to go to the temple. Read Luke 19:45-48, Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-19. What important lessons can we take … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: Luke 19:28-40, Zech. 9:9, Luke 19:45-48, Matt. 21:12-17,Luke 20:9-26. Memory Text: Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it (Luke 19:41, NKJV). The last week of Jesus’ earthly life unfolded in Jerusalem. What tumultuous events marked that week too: the triumphal entry; Jesus weeping over … Continue reading –>
Of the poor in spirit Jesus says, Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom is not, as Christ’s hearers had hoped, a temporal and earthly dominion. Christ was opening to men the spiritual kingdom of His love, His grace, His righteousness. The ensign of the Messiah’s reign is distinguished by the likeness of the … Continue reading –>
Read Acts 1:1-8. What important truths about the kingdom of God are being expressed here? The kingdom of God was foremost in the mind of Luke as he wrote a sequel to his Gospel, in the form of a brief history of the early church. In the opening lines of that historical account, the book … Continue reading –>
When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, He spoke of two certainties: (1) God’s activity through Christ in history to save humanity from sin and (2) God’s closure of history by restoring the saved to His original plan-to live with Him forever in the earth made new (Rev. 21:1-3). The first, as already noted, … Continue reading –>
Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom of God. In His first public proclamation at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21) Jesus affirmed that through Him that day Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy of the kingdom and its redeeming ministry had been inaugurated. Luke records another saying that attests the kingdom’s present reality. Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom would come, … Continue reading –>
The Gospels are replete with references to the kingdom of God, all cumulatively testifying that a new order has been inaugurated in and through Jesus. What does Luke 11:2 say about the kingdom of God? Whose kingdom is it, and why is that so important? To say that this kingdom is God’s is not just … Continue reading –>
