Text: Luke 22:35-53 | Listen to Message Falling Apart for You Over the course of history, millions of martyrs have faced horrific executions more stoically, and with more apparent bravery, than the Jesus we find in The Garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed. Have you ever stopped to think about that? The physician Luke says Jesus was in agony – a word that indicates extreme psychological and emotional anguish – and his angst was so intense his capillaries burst and he began to sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). Seriously, what was that about? Our text gives...
Text: Luke 22:24-34 | Listen to Message The Rightside-Up World of Jesus How do you define “greatness”? What makes a person great or important? What, to you, are the primary indicators of a person’s significance? The world defines greatness in terms of power. In various contexts, that power might be exercised as brute force, authority, or influence, but the bottom line is the ability to command and control other people. The world also defines greatness in terms of prestige. Who are the celebrities, the rich and famous, the people whose reputations precede them? What qualities – tangible or intangible – do...
Text: Luke 22:1-23 | Listen to Message A Divine Conspiracy of Grace On the night of “The Last Supper,” two separate conspiracies that pursued diametrically opposite ends converged in the death of Jesus on a cross. Israel’s religious leaders had wanted Jesus dead for a long time. Though he gave ample evidence that he was the true Messiah, they refused to believe. His power, authenticity, and popularity proved to be too much for their pathetically impotent and hypocritical souls. They were jealous – and terrified of losing control over a system that made them important – and that was reason enough...
Text: Luke 21:5-38 | Listen to Message Jesus' Take on The End Times It’s been said that talking about the end of the world always seems to bring out the crazy in some people (Philip Graham Ryken, Reformed Expository Commentary: Luke, Vol. 2, p. 413). You know the types: I call them preppers, preservationists, and prophets. Preppers think they’ve stockpiled enough camouflage, guns/ammo, and MREs to survive a nuclear holocaust, WWIII, or a civil war. In reality, should any of those things break out, they will survive only 4 minutes longer than everyone else. Preservationists are completely freaked out over the...
