Life In Greencastle

Luke 8:4-9:20 Introduction Luke, like a master story-teller or persuasive lawyer, is building his case.  He is guiding us into an essential and life-changing discovery.  There is something about this man from Nazareth.  There is something profoundly beautiful and good and powerful in Jesus. In fact, all that Luke has been telling us through the first eight chapters of his gospel will come to a head in chapter 9.  There Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, will declare what we’ve been waiting to hear:  Jesus is “The Messiah of God.”  Jesus is the One. Luke 8:4-9:20 steadily shows us why Jesus is deserving of this title.  We have a continuation of Jesus living out powerful demonstrations of his role as prophet.  But, it goes beyond that.  Luke is – piece by piece – building a picture of Jesus’ truest identity as Lord. It begins with Luke linking Jesus’ actions with his words.  In fact, it is more than that.  Like John, th...

Luke 7:1-49 Introduction In the fourth and fifth chapter of Luke , we saw Jesus bringing healing to the blind, the hurting, and those in bondage.  In the sixth chapter of Luke , Jesus presents us with the core of his teaching and allows us to know more deeply what it means to be his disciple.  We have now seen Jesus living into the two most beautiful words we have for him:  Savior and Lord. As Savior, Jesus presents to us the treatment for our deepest disease:  sin and death.  Through him, there is power to overcome all that restricts us in this life - be it physical or emotional or psychological or even spiritual.  The devastating and lasting effects of sin means that all of us are diagnosed with mortality.  "The wages of sin is death," a sentence that hangs around our neck whether we care to recognize it or not.  But, the good news in Jesus Christ is epitomized in his interaction with the leper in Luke 5:12-16 .  Jesus "does choose...