Luke 9:1-10:24
21Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
23Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:21-23
Sound like an invitation you have heard before?
This is similar to the invitation Paul provides timothy:
8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel 2 Tim 1:8
Here in Luke’s gospel Jesus describes a life of self-denial, servitude and suffering. But boy it’s worth it:
24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? Luke 9:24-25
And a life free from shame:
26If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26
Thanks for pointing out the similarities Stew. Eternal life is something hard to comprehend in this life, but definitely worth living/dieing for.
Could whoever is doing today’s passage please explain what Luke 11:37-41 means? Thanks guys for helping and encouraging us to keep going at reading the whole Bible in a yr! Having someone help explain stuff and point to Jesus along the way makes a big difference!
Yeah David… I really like this one:
24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? Luke 9:24-25
I have to keep reminding myself again and again:
The man with the most toys… doesn’t win… but DIES!
It can be hard living in a materialistic society, I keep being told to: “buy this, buy that”… “you need this, you need that”
It distracts me from my first love: Christ
May I lose my life for him
Hi David, sorry I didn’t get to blogging on Tuesday.
Just reaching for my biggest, heaviest commentary…
In Luke 11:37-41 Jesus rebukes the pharisees’ attitude towards purity – they think it is somehow “outside-in” rather than “inside-out”, or even that it is only the “outside” that matters. His rhetorical question about the maker of the outside and inside is a dig at the pharisees hypocritical habit of separating the two. Verse 41 is a bit hard to understand. It seems that Jesus is using “giving to the poor” as a metaphor or even perhaps as an example of righteous behaviour but only when it comes “from the inside” i.e. from true God-honouring motives.
It reminds me of what I was teaching to the kids in scripture on Tuesday from Matthew 6:
“When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
The issue really comes down to who are we living to please – ourselves, by gaining a good name, or our Heavenly Father, by glorifying him through worshipful acts of pure love?