After his own neighbors rejected him in Nazareth (4:14-30), Jesus went to one of the larger cities in Galilee. This passage of Scripture recounts the events of a single Sabbath day when he taught in the synagogues. As the day unfolds, we “witness” four of the miraculous signs that would mark his ministry. But Luke…
Luke chose to begin his account of Jesus’ public ministry with his preaching tour in Galilee. This tour took him back to his hometown, Nazareth. In the synagogue there, Jesus’ closest friends and acquaintances heard him preach for the first time. His message and their response set the trajectory for the rest of the Gospel…
Immediately following Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit directed him into the wilderness for a grueling fast. At the end of the fast, the devil presented him with a three-fold temptation. He tempted Jesus to satisfy himself apart from God, to achieve success through false worship, and to promote himself by testing God. Jesus passed the…
This Lord’s Day we come to the place where Luke introduces the public ministry of Jesus. Unexpectedly, Luke interrupts the narrative to give us the genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23-32). Matthew presented his genealogy the very beginning—even before his account of the conception and birth of Jesus. That leads us to ask, what connection did…
In Luke 3:21-22, the public ministry of Jesus began. When he participated in John’s baptism, God the Father announced his pleasure in Jesus. Immediately, the Spirit of God visibly descended on Jesus, anointing him to serve as the Christ. The sermon, in part, will explain why Jesus participated in a cleansing ritual (baptism) intended for…
The sermon text for this Lord’s Day brings Luke’s account of the ministry of John the Baptist to an abrupt end. John preached the truth and it offended the petty, immoral ruler, Herod Antipas. Herod rejected John’s message and imprisoned him. The other gospel accounts tell the story of the John’s subsequent execution. John was…
As John the Baptist preached the gospel of the Kingdom and immanent unveiling of Israel’s King, the crowds who heard him wondered if John might be the promised Messiah. John emphatically declared, “I am not the Christ” (John 1:20). In Luke’s account, John stresses the vast difference between himself and the Christ. He described Jesus…
The sermon text for this Lord’s Day introduces John the Baptist’s powerful ministry and message. The key word that summaries his message is “repent.”
The storyline of Luke’s Gospel fast-forwards from the childhood of Jesus to the beginning of his ministry at about age 30. Chapter 3 begins with a description of the ministry of Jesus’ cousin, John (elsewhere called “the Baptist”). The sermon text for this Lord’s Day identifies John as a prophet who served as the forerunner…
The sermon text for this Lord’s Day contains the only information found in the Bible about the childhood of Jesus. It seems clear that Luke did not include this story simply to fill in some details to satisfy the curious. The account of Jesus’ first trip to Jerusalem serves to make a theological statement about…