Scripture tells us, in the second chapter of Genesis, that “on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (Gen. 2:2-3). He who has no need to rest, rested from his work in creation. He who created every day of the week purposefully blessed the seventh thereby making it holy, set apart, from the other days, establishing the precedent of the sabbath and the principle of one full day of rest in seven.
Category Archives: Luke
A Time for Every Matter
Reminding us that Luke’s orderly account to Theophilus was originally written as one, long narrative, our passage begins today with the words, “After this,” tying the passage to the previous. Before, Jesus was teaching, and the crowds grew larger and larger. Jesus witnessed the heroic efforts of a paralyzed man’s friends. Jesus witnessed faith and forgave sins. Jesus confronted the unbelief of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus healed the paralyzed man, commanding him, “rise, pick up your bed and go home,” and “amazement seized [the crowd] and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen extraordinary things today’” (Luke 5:17-26). All of this was before, but after this, Jesus went and found a tax collector named Levi and said, “Follow me.” And he did.
He Will: Be Clean
Such is the case in our passage today, where a man “full of leprosy” approached Jesus. And this was a problem.
All for Jesus
Upon this seashore, Luke tells us, “the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.” But it’s not the place or the people I want to draw your attention to. It’s this little phrase: “to hear the word of God.”
The Authority of the Word
Just as Jesus defeated the devil’s temptations in the desert with the Word of God, so we endure the devil’s rage and stand against his schemes, which don’t typically come at us in the form of demons in the middle of a Jewish synagogue but through the ways of the world, the lies of our sinful flesh, and the devil’s distortion of truth.
Believing Without Seeing
The irony of Nazareth is that the embodied favor of God stood in their presence, but they would not receive him. He who was conceived, anointed, and empowered by the Spirit of the Lord, proclaimed the good news of his coming explicitly, revealing his identity.
Preaching the Word, the Word Preached
For those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the spiritual and physical realities of Isaiah’s prophecy will be reconciled. In the new heavens and earth, there will be no poverty or captivity or blindness or oppression. For we will dwell with God as his people forever…
Tempted As We Are
As we proceed from the third chapter of Genesis through the rest of the Old Testament, we see evidence of God’s sovereign preservation of individuals, such as Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then a people, Israel, chosen by God with prophetic purpose to fulfill his promise. But we also see Satan’s sinister attempts to unravel the mystery, to destroy the woman’s offspring, to thwart God’s plan.
Truly God and Truly Man
We can read through Jesus’ genealogy and find encouragement and inspiration from some of the names on the list, but there is only one who saves, only one who lives in us, only one to whom we may draw near, and he is at the top of the list.
How Deep the Father’s Love
In our passage today, he comes. But he comes not with the fanfare of a king but in the humility of a man among the people, Jesus of Nazareth.
