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.
Tag Archives: Jesus
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.
The Forerunner
Living as an ascetic, John waited in the wilderness, wearing a garment of camel’s hair with a leather belt and eating locusts and wild honey.[3] Filled with the Holy Spirit since his mother’s womb, he knew his purpose but awaited the Word of the Lord.
Jesus, Savior, Judge, Lord
Jude begins the body of his epistle with a reminder, something they “once fully knew,” or “already know.”[1] Jude is introducing nothing new but reminding them, and us, of what we are prone to forget. What is it?
This Jesus
The cross of Christ is a foreign concept to the world, meaningless except in its finality, or perhaps curious in its novelty. Jesus of Nazareth died upon a cross. But if the one who died was also the Christ, the Anointed One, in fact the Son of God, then the Roman instrument of suffering and shame became the cross of Christ, an atoning altar for sin. Upon the cross, Jesus died a sinner’s death yet committed no sin. The purpose of his death was not his sin but yours: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
The Rock of Our Salvation
Israel was saved in the wilderness through the flowing, life-saving water from the rock. So, we are saved unto eternal life through the substitutionary, stricken, saving rock, our Lord Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation.
Walk by the Spirit
God’s goodness to you includes his empowering presence to make you more like Jesus. That is indeed the good that every Christian wants, walking by the Spirit.
Judgment Day
Judgment Day is coming. Will you be found righteous and rewarded in Christ, revealed in your life lived for him? Or, will you be found cursed apart from Christ, where even your good deeds demand not reward but eternal punishment.
Planter, Pastor, Preacher 