Text: Luke 24:13-45 | Listen to Message The Heart & Soul of The Whole Bible It’s such an odd and inexplicable story. How could some of Jesus’ closest friends walk and talk with him for hours and not even recognize that it’s him? I’m referring, of course, to that first Easter Sunday when Jesus joined two of his disciples on the 7-mile road to Emmaus, “but their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16). There had been an unprecedented whirlwind of activity in Jerusalem that week. It was Passover; so the streets and Temple Mount were crowded with Jewish worshipers...
Text: Luke 23:26-49 | Listen to Message Witnessing Jesus’ Death On Friday, Christians around the world reflect and remember the death of Jesus. We call this day “Good Friday.” But why is it good? Why is remembering Jesus’ horrific torture and death good? In the end, how are we supposed to remember Good Friday? And how are we supposed to respond to this news of Jesus’ death on the cross? Prior to Jesus’ death, he had been awake all night, paraded to various houses, and experienced mock trials. Jesus was in emotional and mental anguish. He was then ordered to be...
Text: Genesis 3:1-13, 21 | Listen to Message Trading Dishonor for Honor In Part I, we talked about what shame is and where it leads if you don’t respond to it in a healthy way. Honestly, Part I was pretty discouraging – and was never meant to be read as a standalone piece. While it helps explain the world we find ourselves in, it doesn’t show us the way out of our pain. That’s what Part II is for! Immediately after Adam and Eve fell into sin and shame in Genesis 3, God gave us a little hint about the ultimate...
Text: Genesis 3:1-13, 21 | Listen to Message Grasping for Fig Leaves Even if we struggle to define it, we all know shame the moment we feel it. Ever since our first father and mother, shame has been a part of our human experience. The moment Adam and Eve sinned that very first sin, they sensed not just nakedness, but exposure. They were disgraced. They were ashamed. We all know the feeling. Maybe we’ve done or said something sinful. Maybe someone has done something sinful to us. (Think of the shame of being on the receiving end of abuse or adultery,...
Text: Luke 22:63-23:25 | Listen to Message Thoughts on Putting God in The Dock One of the most bizarre things about the last day of Jesus’ life (pre-resurrection) is how many people simultaneously felt comfortable acting as his judge, jury, and executioner. Think about it: Sinful human beings put the Son of God on trial, found him innocent, and were determined to murder him anyway. Why – and what’s this got to do with your life? The why is actually not a single reason, but rather a tangled web of several reasons: 1. Control. Jesus was the real deal, and the...
Text: Luke 22:31-34, 54-62 | Listen to Message When You Fail The Unfailing God He boasted, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death!” He promised, “Though they all fall away, I will never fall away!” He bragged, “Even if I must die with you, I will never deny you!” Yet before the rooster crowed in the wee hours of the following morning, Peter had completely disavowed his relationship with Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times: “I’m telling you I don’t even know him!” To enhance the credibility of his bold-faced lie, he...
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...