Archive for the Category ◊ New Testament ◊

16 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #16)

Luke (Program #16) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (7)

Try to picture meal-time in the home of a prominent religious leader.  The guests include Jesus of Nazareth, other religious leaders and followers of Jesus.  And then, an uninvited guest shows up, a woman, well-known in the community because of her sored background and sinful past.   The picture is a vivid one, isn’t it?  And what transpired is so unique and profound as to forever be considered when the gospel of God, love and grace to man is told.

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15 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #15)

Luke (Program #15) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (6)

Have you ever noticed that shortly after introducing and baptizing the Lord Jesus, John the Baptist himself was imprisoned and held there until he was beheaded? But during his imprisonment, the Lord Jesus was healing and liberating many oppressed and suffering people. Yet for John the Baptist He offer no such miracle. Even pressed to do so by John and some of His followers. What He did offer to John, was a very unique word that outwardly seem to offer no help. But likely became an inner strengthening to John, even through his martyrdom. We will look at this case and two other interesting cases from Luke chapter 7.

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14 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #14)

Luke (Program #14) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (5)

Human history has witnessed many great moral and ethical teachers, Plato, Socrates, Confucius just to name a few. The Bible also contains wonderful teachings of morality and ethical behavior but no one say the Lord Jesus Christ Himself ever claimed as He did in John 6, “that the word that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” We all need to ask ourselves this fundamental questions, “Is God’s word to us just a book of ethical and moral teachings or is it a book that brings us to spirit and life?”

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13 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #13)

Luke (Program #13) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (4)

The Bible tells us to love our enemies. Even to treat those who hate us well and to the ones that beat us in the cheek we should turn the other. Well we all heard such teachings and we may agree with them and even strongly desire to be such humble and meek persons. But when confronted with evil treatment or slander we lash out in anger and hatred of our own. But there is One in whom this kind of behavior does not come with difficulty and strife, in fact it matches the very character and nature of His life. For there was a time when we were His enemies and even His haters but He captured us with His love and now He blesses us by imparting His very life into us with the same capacity to love and forgive and forget.

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12 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #12)

Luke (Program #12) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (3)

In Luke’s gospel, we find the account of just how the Lord Jesus called and attracted many of His disciples and followers.  With some He performed mighty miracles, yet with others it was simply His word or His sympathetic care that captivated them and drew them out of whatever held them to follow Him and serve Him absolutely.  What about you?  Are you waiting for a miracle?  Or is the realization of what He has already done or even the promise of His sweet presence enough to cause you to want to give up everything and follow Him?

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11 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #11)

Luke (Program #11) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (2)

After passing through a full and thorough preparation, and even an inauguration, the Lord Jesus was ready to begin His earthly ministry.  He does so by quoting from the Old Testament pages of Isaiah, speaking words of grace to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, ushering acceptable year of the Lord, the Jubilee.  Well, these words were amazing to the Jews of Galilee as they are to us today.  But as we will see today and the coming days as we continue on this life study from the gospel of Luke, His living and His ministry became a living portrait of this Jubilee and in Him, all we as the real captives and the real blind ones find our freedom and our sight.

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10 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #10)

Luke (Program #10) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes in Galilee (1)

The Bible is full of inspiring stories recounting the miracles performed by the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry.  Surely this demonstrates Christ is none other than the Son of God.  Yet it’s interesting that many of the touching stories are the ones not demonstrate not His divinity but His humanity.  It is His humanity that attracts us and causes us to love Him.  The gospel of Luke is particularly meaningful in this regard for in Luke more than any other book of the Bible, we see Christ as the Man-Savior.

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09 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #9)

Luke (Program #9) – The Preparation of the Man-Savior with His Divinity (8)

Here is a story we all know quite well – the story of an angel paying a visit to a humble virgin in a lowly city in a despised region.  “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, Rejoice, you who have been graced!  The Lord be with you.” (Luke 1:26-28) “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of David His father, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33)  This is the declaration of the arch angel Gabriel in the first chapter of the gospel of Luke.  But it is just one of many pronouncements concerning the preparation of the Man-Savior Jesus as recorded in Luke’s gospel.  We will look at several of these marvelous declarations today.

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08 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #8)

Luke (Program #8) – The Preparation of the Man-Savior with His Divinity (7)

Following the account of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in Luke chapter 3, there are two very interesting items. First of all, the genealogy of Jesus – beginning with Jesus and working its way back to God. The second is the temptation or the testing of Jesus – forty days in the wilderness with Satan directly tempting the Lord, yet Jesus in His perfect humanity, fully withstanding every temptation and thereby defeating God’s enemy. But it’s interesting that the Lord was led there to face that temptation by the Holy Spirit. We will look at both the genealogy of Jesus and His passing this test of tests in today’s life study of Luke.

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07 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #7)

Luke (Program #7) – The Preparation of the Man-Savior with His Divinity (6)

In America, every four years after the legal election of a new president, we pass through the ritual known as inauguration. On one hand, the person is thought of as president immediately following his election; but it is the inauguration that actually makes him president. Do you know that the Lord Jesus passed through a kind of inauguration as he began his earthly ministry? It’s true and it’s recorded in Luke chapter 3, we will look at the inauguration of the Man-Savior in today’s life study of the Bible.

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