Tag Archives: Hope

One Stronger

The first thirteen verses of the eleventh chapter of Luke’s gospel are in essence Jesus’ response to one request, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Jesus responds first with the Lord’s Prayer, providing a succinct model or pattern for our prayers, followed by a parable teaching us the attitude we are to have when we pray, all of which presumes that we pray. Knowing how to pray is of course no benefit if we don’t do it. But what exactly is prayer?

The Yes but How of Prayer

Jerry Bridges tells of a man who when reading a book would often write “YBH” in the margin. When asked what the letters meant, the man replied, “They stand for Yes, but how? I agree with what the author is saying, but I need to know how to apply it.”[2] In the first thirteen verses of this eleventh chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples to pray but instead gives us the “YBH” of prayer.

When You Pray

Let us then be faithful to pray as our Lord taught us, following the pattern and petitions he has given. Consider that our Lord Jesus has given us a prayer, which contains, as Calvin says, “all that he allows us to seek of him, all that is of benefit to us, all that we need ask.[14] Such is the kindness and mercy of God, who has given the prayer he desires to hear from us.

The Good Portion

Mary’s Christ-centered worship was of eternal significance, while Martha’s distractions were a form of idolatry. What Jesus graciously revealed to Martha is that worship is the one thing necessary, taking precedence over everything else. In Christ, the good portion is ours forever. Let us be faithful to feast upon it today!

The King’s Heralds

It is his word by his Spirit that does the work, as he told the seventy-two, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). We are simply called to be the King’s heralds, but where the gospel is preached the kingdom is near.

What Does Following Jesus Look Like?

Jesus traveled from region to region, from town to town primarily on foot. And he didn’t travel alone. At this point in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus had a large following, made up not only of his chosen twelve but many more, some of whom he would commission into vocational ministry, as we will see in the next chapter. And as he traveled, he conversed with those who followed him as well as those who would, such as the three types we find our passage today, whom I call the naive, the preoccupied, and the half-hearted.

Serving As Christ’s Church

And so, serving as Christ’s church, alongside those who are for us, we advance the gospel to our neighbors and the nations, trusting God for the increase. For, as undeserving sinners saved only by the grace of God, we too desire others to receive the same. Indeed, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace [we] have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5). Such is the testimony of Christ’s church.

Let This Sink In

Though Jesus’ disciples did not understand in the moment, they would, and through their testimony we do too. Indeed, the Son of Man was delivered into the hands of lawless men, that he who kept the law might make us the righteousness of God.[10] May this truth sink into our ears forever!

The Glory of God’s Son

After Jesus’ disciples confessed his true identity as “the Christ of God” (Luke 9:20), he confronted their confession with the cost, saying, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (9:23). What he described is essentially what citizenship in his kingdom looks like here and now, but it was a stark contrast from what his disciples had envisioned (How can a kingdom be built through a cross?).