Tag: Luke
Holy Spirit descended like a dove
What does it mean that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32)?
Good tidings of great joy
What were the good tidings of great joy in Luke 2:10?
Road to Emmaus
The events on the road to Emmaus are discussed in Luke 24. In this final chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we read of two disciples (Cleopas and one unnamed) of Jesus who were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the day that Jesus rose from the dead. As they traveled, a man joined them—the resurrected Jesus, although they did not recognize Him. The man asked, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” (Luke 24:17).
The two disciples were surprised that the man had not heard of the recent events that had Jerusalem in turmoil. They proceeded to tell the stranger of Jesus’ crucifixion and the report of His empty tomb. Jesus responded, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27).
So, as they walked, Jesus taught what the Old Testament had predicted about Himself. When they arrived in Emmaus that evening, the two disciples stopped to eat, and they asked Jesus to join them. He did, and as He broke the bread and blessed the meal, “their eyes were opened” (verse 31), and they recognized Him. Jesus then vanished.
Their response? Luke reports, “They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen’” (verses 33-34).
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus gave a lesson on the prophecies of the Old Testament which were fulfilled in His death and resurrection. What a lesson that would have been! The Author of the Book explains His work, making connections from Scripture to the events they had recently experienced.
The disciples’ reaction to Jesus’ lesson was one of deep conviction of the truth of what He was teaching. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?” they ask each other (verse 32). Their physical eyes were blinded to the identity of Jesus, but their eyes of faith were being opened as Jesus opened the Scriptures to them.
Following this account, Jesus appears to His other disciples, removing all doubt that He was alive. Jesus had promised that He would show Himself to those who love Him (John 14:21), and this is exactly what He does on the road to Emmaus.
The story of the disciples on the Emmaus Road is important for many reasons. It provides an emphasis on the Old Testament prophecies related to Jesus, evidence regarding an additional appearance of Jesus, and a connection regarding the many eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus. Luke 24 is often seen as a model of the journey that Jesus makes with many of us today, as He opens our eyes, points us to the Word, and reveals Himself along life’s walk as the resurrected Savior and Lord.
Passion Week, Holy Week
Passion Week (also known as Holy Week) is the time from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday (Resurrection Sunday). Also included within Passion Week are Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Passion Week is so named because of the passion with which Jesus willingly went to the cross in order to pay for the sins of His people. Passion Week is described in Matthew chapters 21-27; Mark chapters 11-15; Luke chapters 19-23; and John chapters 12-19. Passion Week begins with the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday on the back of a colt as prophesied in Zechariah 9:9.
Passion Week contained several memorable events. Jesus cleansed the Temple for the second time (Luke 19:45-46), then disputed with the Pharisees regarding His authority. Then He gave His Olivet Discourse on the end times and taught many things, including the signs of His second coming. Jesus ate His Last Supper with His disciples in the upper room (Luke 22:7-38), then went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray as He waited for His hour to come. It was here that Jesus, having been betrayed by Judas, was arrested and taken to several sham trials before the chief priests, Pontius Pilate, and Herod (Luke 22:54-23:25).
Following the trials, Jesus was scourged at the hands of the Roman soldiers, then was forced to carry His own instrument of execution (the Cross) through the streets of Jerusalem along what is known as the Via Dolorosa (way of sorrows). Jesus was then crucified at Golgotha on the day before the Sabbath, was buried and remained in the tomb until Sunday, the day after the Sabbath, and then gloriously resurrected.
It is referred to as Passion Week because in that time, Jesus Christ truly revealed His passion for us in the suffering He willingly went through on our behalf. What should our attitude be during Passion Week? We should be passionate in our worship of Jesus and in our proclamation of His Gospel! As He suffered for us, so should we be willing to suffer for the cause of following Him and proclaiming the message of His death and resurrection.
Kingdom of God does not come with observation
What does it mean that the kingdom of God does not come with observation (Luke 17:20)?
At the end of the Old Testament, the Israelites were left anticipating the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. The Israelites believed the establishment of this kingdom would result in political independence for themselves: the Messiah would remove the yoke of Rome from the Israelites. Jesus’ statement, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation” (Luke 17:20, NKJV) was in answer to a Pharisee’s question about when the kingdom would come (verse 20). Jesus’ reply was shocking to His audience because it went against centuries of anticipation of a kingdom that is observable!
The New Testament begins with John the Baptist announcing that the kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 2:2). Jesus, the King, begins His ministry also announcing that the kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 4:17). Jesus performs signs and miracles proving His statement and revealing who He is (Matthew 8:14–17; 9:1–8). Even with Jesus presenting the proof and fulfilling prophecies regarding the Messiah, He is rejected by Israel (Matthew 21:42; Luke 9:22; Mark 8:31; cf. Matthew 12:22–29). This rejection of Jesus leads to His death, resurrection, and ascension. Again, God’s people were left anticipating the coming of Christ as King (Revelation 19:11–19). One day, He will establish His kingdom on earth (Revelation 20:1–7).
In Luke 17:20, when Jesus says that “the kingdom of God does not come with observation” (NKJV), He is stating that the kingdom will not be preceded by observable signs. The kingdom of God would not be inaugurated with spectacle or splendor. Contrary to popular opinion, there would be no great and magnificent leader who staked out a geographical claim and routed the Romans; rather, the kingdom would come silently and unseen, much as leaven works in a batch of dough (see Matthew 13:33). In fact, Jesus says, the kingdom had already begun, right under the Pharisees’ noses: “You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you” (Luke 17:21, NLT). God was already ruling in the hearts of believers, and the King Himself was standing among them, although the Pharisees were oblivious to the fact.
The first coming of Jesus was accompanied by signs, miracles, and wonders, but He never sought the public eye. His second coming will be different. Jesus was rejected during His first coming but will reign at His second. The establishment of the kingdom has been postponed and will be fulfilled at a later date (Luke 19:11–27; Revelation 19:11—20:6). Jesus described the nature of His return as sudden and obvious: “For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other” (Luke 17:24).
The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day were correct in their belief that, when Jesus establishes the kingdom of God on earth, it will be physical and triumphant. Jesus will rule from Jerusalem on the throne of David (Psalm 110:1–2; 2 Samuel 7:16). However, they disregarded prophecies such as Isaiah 53 regarding Jesus’ rejection and suffering.
The Pharisees looked for the Messiah to be a conquering king who marches into Jerusalem with grandeur and a great show of might. What they got was not much to observe: a nondescript man “lowly and riding on a donkey” into Jerusalem (Zechariah 9:9; cf. Matthew 21:1–11). The kingdom had come, but not with observation.
Your faith has made you well
What did Jesus mean when He told people, “Your faith has made you well”?
The first recorded instance of Jesus saying, “Your faith has made you well” is found in Matthew 9:22 (ESV) where Jesus heals the woman with the issue of blood. The KJV translates Jesus’ words as “Thy faith hath made thee whole,” and the NIV says, “Your faith has healed you.” The same incident is also recorded in Mark 5:34, where Jesus says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (ESV).
Jesus also says, “Your faith has made you well,” to a leper He had healed (Luke 17:19) and a blind beggar (Luke 18:42). Other times Jesus links faith and healing without using the exact words, “Your faith has made you well,” such as in Matthew 8:13 and 15:28.
The healing that these people experienced is expressed, in Greek, by a form of the word sozo, which means “to preserve, rescue, save from death, or keep alive.” Sometimes, sozo refers to spiritual salvation, which is also linked to a person’s faith. For example, when the penitent prostitute washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, He told her much the same thing: “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 7:50; for other examples, see Mark 10:52 and Luke 17:19). When Jesus spoke of the faith of the woman with the issue of blood in Matthew 9, His healing was very likely more than physical; it was a spiritual healing as well, as she is told to “go in peace” (Mark 5:34).
When Jesus said to certain people, “Your faith has made you well,” He was saying that their faith (their confidence in Him) had been the means of their restoration. The power of Christ was what effected the cure, but His power was applied in connection with their faith. Just as the faith of some enabled them to receive healing, so healing was sometimes stymied by a lack of faith (see Matthew 13:58). In the same way, salvation comes to a sinner through faith. Everyone who is saved must believe, but it is the power of Christ that saves, not the power of faith. Faith is only the instrument, not the power itself.
In other words, the value of one’s faith does not come from the one who expresses it but from the object in which it rests (Mark 10:52; 11:22). Ultimately, healing is not contingent upon the quality of one’s faith, but upon the Healer. It was through Christ that the woman in Matthew 9 was able to receive a bodily peace as well as a spiritual peace.
We must recognize that Jesus did not indiscriminately heal all the people all of the time. For example, in the scene of the disabled man at the pool of Bethesda where multitudes gathered to be healed, Jesus chose only one man to heal (John 5:1–11), and his is an interesting case. Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made well. His answer was steeped in superstition: there was no one to carry him to the pool, and he wasn’t fast enough to get into the water at the right time. This confused and needy man was healed by God’s grace. He had no faith in Jesus; he didn’t even know it was Jesus who had healed him until later (John 5:12–13).
Another example of someone who was healed before faith is the man born blind in John 9. He did not ask to be healed, but from many others, he was chosen to be healed—another example of God’s grace. In the case of the man born blind and in the case of the man at the pool, Jesus dealt with their physical problems separately from dealing with their spiritual need—the man in John 9 later comes to a full realization of who Jesus is and exercises faith in Him (verse 38). Jesus’ healing of these men was not about their faith as much as it was about His will.
Everyone whom Jesus willed to be healed was healed. Sometimes He healed those who expressed their faith in Him, and He made a point of emphasizing the condition of their heart: “Your faith has made you well.” Other times, in His great mercy, He healed those who had no faith and later drew them to Himself.
Do this in remembrance of me
Why did Jesus say to “do this in remembrance of Me” in Luke 22:19?
On the night before He died, Jesus Christ shared a Passover meal with His apostles. Traditionally, Passover commemorated God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Yet, during the meal, Jesus gave fresh meaning to the bread and wine, identifying them as symbols of His impending death. In this way, Jesus transformed the Passover observance into a memorial of His own sacrifice and established a new and enduring ordinance for the Church.
At a pivotal moment in the meal, with the apostles reclining around a table, Jesus demonstrated this transformation in a tangible way. After He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and distributed it to the apostles, He said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19, ESV). Even though Jesus’ directive only refers to the bread in Luke’s Gospel, Paul added that it extended to the wine or “cup” as well: “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’” (1 Corinthians 11:25).
With these instructions, Jesus commanded His followers to regularly participate in this commemoration later named the Lord’s Supper (e.g., Acts 2:42; 20:7; cf. 1 Corinthians 11:20). To understand the reason for the repetitive nature of the ordinance, it’s important to recognize that Jesus redefined the bread and cup to symbolize something greater than freedom from Egyptian slavery. The bread symbolizes Jesus’ body. Consuming it during the Lord’s Supper recalls the sacrificial purpose of His death for sinners (Isaiah 53:12; Galatians 1:4, 2:20; Titus 2:14). The cup symbolizes Jesus’ blood, shed for the forgiveness of sin (Matthew 26:28; Ephesians 1:7). This transformation of the meaning of the bread and cup highlights Jesus’ death as the ultimate fulfillment of what the Passover event and meal only foreshadowed.
With the bread and cup imbued with fresh meaning, Jesus instructed His followers, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This instruction means that Jesus’ followers are to regularly consume the bread and cup to memorialize His death on the cross for sin.
The act of remembrance, illustrated in the Lord’s Supper, is an important theme in the Bible. It often contrasts the behaviors of those who obey God with those who don’t. For instance, disobedience is associated with forgetfulness of God (e.g., Judges 8:34), and obedience is the result of remembering Him (cf. Psalm 78:11, 35, 42).
Furthermore, in the Bible, remembering often implies more than just mental recollection. As seen in the tradition of the Passover meal, those who partake do more than merely think about their ancestors’ escape from Egyptian slavery; they also symbolically reenact parts of it. For instance, participants consume maror, a bitter herb, often represented by horseradish, to symbolize the misery of slavery (Exodus 12:8). Similarly, they eat unleavened bread called matzah to represent the Israelites’ hasty departure from Egypt—they had no time to wait for the bread to rise (Exodus 12:18).
In a similar way, observing the Lord’s Supper involves more than just cognitive recall. It is a multisensory experience in which eating bread and drinking the cup deepens the engagement of those who partake. Contrary to the beliefs in some traditions, the point of the commemoration isn’t to re-crucify Jesus, just as the purpose of the Passover meal wasn’t meant to re-enslave and free the Jews. Instead, the Lord’s Supper enables participants to identify with God’s deliverance of sinners through Jesus’ death on the cross.
While the observance of the Lord’s Supper in modern churches is often a solemn and reflective experience, its theologically nature is celebratory. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), has provided sinners with the ultimate sacrifice. His death on the cross fulfilled what the sacrificial lamb of Passover meals only foreshadowed (Hebrews 9:27). When Christians regularly partake of the bread and cup to memorialize Jesus’ death, they aren’t only obeying a command, but praising and thanking God for the victory and freedom that is theirs in Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Abundance heart mouth speaks
What does it mean that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45)?
This verse is from what is sometimes called the Sermon on the Plain. In this part of the sermon, Jesus tells us how we can judge a person’s character. We do it in much the same way we look at a tree or plant to tell if it is a “good” plant or not: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers” (Luke 6:43–44). If you want to know what kind of tree or plant you have, you have to look at its fruit. A pear tree sounds like a good tree, but, if you have a Bradford pear tree, you will get small, inedible pears about the size of marbles. What is on the inside—what the tree is really “made of”—will determine what kind of fruit it produces. Jesus says that the same is true of people.
In Luke 6:45, Jesus says that people can be judged by what they say and do because these things reveal what is really inside the person: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” If you want to know what is on the inside of a person, you simply watch his actions; listen to what comes out of his mouth on a regular basis. This is not being judgmental; this is being realistic.
If a person is angry, rude, lewd, or immoral on a regular basis, you can be assured that this is what he is like “on the inside.” If a person is consistently kind, encouraging, and polite, then you can be sure that is what he is like “on the inside.” Of course, it is possible that someone might put up a façade to deceive others regarding his character, but eventually what is inside will come out. The mouth speaks out of the abundance—the overflow—of the heart.
The primary point of application in Jesus’ words seems to be this: when we see evil consistently coming out of a person in word and deed, we should not deceive ourselves by saying, “I think he really is a good person inside; he just has some bad habits” or “That’s just the way he talks, but he’s not really like that.” How many people fall in love and get married, thinking that the bad behavior they have observed is only an aberration? How many parents deceive themselves regarding the spiritual state of their children, thinking that they are true believers because of a childhood profession of faith, even though their lives demonstrate a heart of evil?
When Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” He meant that consistently sinful words and deeds are indicative of a sinful heart. Rather than always giving people “the benefit of the doubt,” we would do well to recognize the “fruit” we observe and respond accordingly. Being a “fruit inspector” does not mean we consider ourselves to be without sin; it does mean that we are realistic about whom to trust and whom we allow to exert influence over us and the people for whom we are responsible.
