Luke

The religious people-controllers, who took every opportunity to criticise Jesus, had very low horizons - they were preoccupied with themselves, their position and what people thought of them.  Their objective was to retain their carefully worked out power hierarchy, so that their authority could continue to dominate people’s lives (Luke 11:46; Luke 11:52).  But the Lord Jesus was so different.  They wanted to bind people to rules, but He wanted to win them to a relationship with God.

Yeast (there are over 1,500 species) gets everywhere!  It is a fungus which grows wherever it can find sugars.  Yeast is the naturally occurring 'bloom' on grapes and other fruit which enables fermentation of the sugary contents into alcohol and carbon dioxide.  We use yeast's ability to produce gas in a flour-mix, enabling it to 'rise' when we make bread.  Yeast is also very hardy; when conditions are not right for growth, spores form which are able to resist the harshest conditions and can live for ever without water.  As tiny light particles, yeast can be blown b

How many people did Jesus win during His earthly ministry?  We do not know, but the accounts in the Gospels indicate that after the disciples were called, initially He became popular with the ordinary people but unpopular with the religious people (Luke 4:22-30).  Later on, even those who followed Him also turned away (John 6:66).  At His trial, Jesus had no friend to stand by Him except Father God (John 16:32).

This urgent exhortation and parable were Jesus' response to the question, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" (Luke 13:23)  The first thing to note is that entrance into Christ’s kingdom involves an eager desire and a willingness to remove obstacles.  ‘Make every effort’ is not passive; it is as active as competing in a race.  This is a recurrent New Testament theme (Hebrews 4:11; Hebrews 12:14; 2 Peter 3:14).  It is a call to willingly engage with the call of God, even though many will not.  The narrow door will not accommodate the ba

Jesus had been teaching the crowds, and the trainee apostles, that just listening to Him was not enough to secure their place in His Kingdom (Luke 13:24-27).  If they did not have a personal relationship with Him, He would disown them at the judgement.  For such people, the scene will be dreadful.  They will be able to see the prophets they claimed to admire, but never listened to; and they will be able to see the huge influx into God's kingdom of those who have put their faith in Jesus - while they will be excluded for ever.

The Pharisees did not like Jesus (John 5:16-18).  So why did they come to warn Him of Herod's intention to kill Him?  Herod Antipas was the governor of Galilee, where Jesus was based at this time in His ministry, so the threat would appear to be real.  But really, the local religious leaders just wanted to get Jesus to move on, to get out of that northern province ... and go anywhere.  If He was somewhere else, and away from them, their power and authority would be undisturbed once again.

True love hopes that the loved one will respond in love - but can never demand it.  The intensity of genuine love is not weakened by silence, carelessness or even antagonism; but eventually hopeful joy gives way to pain.  God had a long history of loving Israel, although His people failed to respond in faithfulness (Hosea 11:1-3).  The prophet Hosea was instructed to love and marry an adulterous wife, so that he would know how God felt about His people (Hosea 3:1).  Despite many blessings and promises, Israel rejected God’s love; despite allowing His people to be taken i

You would think that religious people would want to know the truth from God. Yet when Jesus came, they tried to trap Him by asking questions which they thought He would not be able to answer (Luke 20:20) so that they could accuse Him in the courts.  They were trying to prove that Jesus has no authority for God and no right to exercise a spiritual ministry – especially on God’s special day of rest for His people.  But Jesus always asked them another question to show the hollowness of their opinions and the godly authority of His ministry.

Jesus had just healed a man who had an abnormal swelling (Luke 14:1-4).  It was the Sabbath and the people were all watching to condemn Him for breaking the extensions to the Sabbath law - which Moses never commanded.  So, Jesus asked them where Moses said that people should not be healed on the Sabbath.  Their silence was appropriate because Moses never said that people could not do good on the day of worship.

Jesus did not only respond to questions which sought to trap Him; He also exposed the motives of their hearts: He knew what they were thinking (Luke 11:17).  On this occasion, at a banquet given by a prominent Pharisee (Luke 14:1), Jesus saw how other guests tried to get places near the host because that would make them look more important.  His parable in these verses was not very subtle because, although the story was set in a wedding feast, the parallels would have been embarrassingly obvious.