From the Manger ---> To the Cross ---> For the World

This past Sunday my church just started a study on the gospel of Luke. This week Josh gave an overview of the entire book, which he entitled “From the Manger, to the Cross, for the World.” He said he almost named it “Our Humble God,” and you can see why by simply scanning the book. Soooo, I’m going to share the notes I took.:P And I will post the link to the sermon once PHBF gets it online.

Luke has 3 main emphasis – humility, discipleship, and salvation.

Pastor Josh quoted Andrew Murray, from his book Humility; The Journey toward Holiness, saying “There are three great motivations to humility: it becomes us as creatures, it becomes us as sinners, and is becomes us as saints.”

Humility in Luke appears as prayerfulness and joy – Jesus prays more in Luke than in any other Gospel. Luke is also the only book that speaks of our Lord having joy – which is why some call it “The Singing Gospel.”

Humility is something that I personally struggle with BIG time, always have, and probably always will. But, as Josh pointed out, God resists the proud and draws near the humble. Why does He resist the proud?  Because our perfect God can not get near those He is opposed to – God is opposed to you, God is opposed to me.

To go back to the fact that Jesus prays more in Luke than any other book – what are prayerful people/ Prayerful people are humble people. Jesus prayed at the baptism (chap. 1), for the disciples (12), at the transfiguration (8), etc.

Prayerfulness conveys a sense of need – non-prayerfulness (for lack of a better word) conveys a sense of self-sufficiency. Lack of prayer means that you are telling God you don’t need Him.

The book of Luke is unique from the other gospels in the fact of prayer, and the fact that it’s the only book that conveys Jesus’ joy. Luke is not simply a record of the historical facts, but so much more.

We can see Jesus joy in 1:14, and in 24;52.

Anxiety is pride. This statement surprised me. Now, I personally am diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety. And I know my pastor was referring to anxiety in general, but still. Anxiety – like non-prayerfulness says that you perceive yourself sufficient. You believe that you can do it on your own. I do believe I can do most things on my own – and I get angry when I can’t, which goes to show the pride in my heart.

Other characteristics that are actually pride in disguise?

Thanklessness – pride

Immaturity – pride

Boredom – a sign of pride – a sign that God’s Word doesn’t impress you. THAT got my attention.

Criticism of others – pride (yeah………I struggle with that more than a lot of things)

Moving on to the second emphasis – discipleship.

If Luke were a movie, it would be shot in 5 scenes:

1:1-2:52: The Infancy Scenes

3:1-4:13: Jordan River Region

4:14-9:50: Galilee

9:51-19:27: Journey to Jerusalem (why is this journey so focused on? Because Jesus is calling you to a journey of your own)

19:28-24:53: Jerusalem

While Jesus is going to the cross he is beckoning all to the WAY of the Cross.

According to Luke 14:26 the love of family should look like hatred compared to your love for Jesus. Does it?

He calls us to name Him our Master, our Savior, and our Treasure – anything else that holds that place are idolatries of the heart (9:23-26).

Discipleship means hard core commitment to the local church – how can you say that you love Jesus – the head of the church – if you do not love the body. How can we walk this difficult road? He provides us with the power of the Holy Spirit (12:8-9, 1:67, 2:25, 3:22, 4:1, 4:14, 11:13).

Salvation – the universal reach of the Gospel. Luke contains a special emphasis on women. We must share the gospel by our own initiative. Luke was written so that one can know it really happened. Most scholars agree that Luke and the other gospels were written only one generation after Jesus life – meaning that there were still eyewitnesses alive. We have more evidence of the Life of Jesus than of Caesar’s invasion of Gaul – we have 1 manuscript written 900 years after his invasion. But for Jesus we have 5000 manuscripts written during or 1 generation after his life.

In conclusion – according to Luke 19:10 – we must look to Jesus as our Saviour, the high calling of discipleship, and the low calling of humility.