Eyewitness
The Gospel of Luke
God Remembers
December 4, 2022 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 1:5–25
Everyone knows what it's like to feel like God is silent. In those times, the temptation is also to believe that He is absent or not working - perhaps he has forgotten or overlooked the world and our lives. As we begin the Advent season, the opening of the infancy narrative of Luke's Gospel makes abundantly clear that God never forgets or overlooks anything. In fact, he moves and weaves together hundreds of years of history to accomplish his purposes in the world. Even more remarkably, He does all this while still remembering and responding to the prayers of individual men and women.
Nothing Will Be Impossible
December 11, 2022 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 1:26–38
The Doctrine of the Incarnation asserts that God entered human history as a man in the person of Jesus. Why was this necessary and what did it accomplish? While the claim that a virgin supernaturally became pregnant to birth the Son of God may sound and feel outrageous, when examined historically and philosophically, it begins to become more plausible. Further, when considered theologically, we can see that the virgin birth is not just miraculous, but absolutely necessary. This teaching will explore the meaning, implications, and response to the Incarnation.
The Magnificat
December 18, 2022 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 1:39–56
Why and how do you sing at Christmas? In this text, Jesus' mother Mary sings the first Christmas song. Her song indicates that worship is not merely putting words to music, but is meant to have a rich theological content that is reflected in the worldview of the one singing. The coming of Jesus at Christmas was a world and history shaping event. When we understand what it means and express it like Mary, it changes our lives too.
Good News Of Great Joy
December 24, 2022 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 2:1–21
Advent means "coming" or "arrival." During the Advent season, we reflect on the significance of the coming of Jesus into human history. Many liturgical calendar celebrate Advent through four themes - hope, joy, peace, and love. This short Christmas Eve teaching will show how these themes are present and converge in the most famous Christmas passage in the Bible - Luke's account of Jesus' birth.
Christmas Morning
December 25, 2022 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 2:22–38
Jesus has been born. You've enjoyed a nice meal. Everyone has opened presents. The kids are already bored. Now what? Christmas comes and goes in a flash, but the significance is meant to carry on. What is there to learn from Christmas to carry into the New Year? In this text, Jesus is being presented at the Temple after his birth. We'll explore 10 lessons we can take from this account.
About That Business
January 1, 2023 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 2:41–52
As we start a new year, we often examine our priorities and consider the things we'd like to change. But the larger question is what we are really about underneath it all. What purpose and values guide and direct your life? In this text, we see the only known account of Jesus' growing up. Even at a young age, Jesus was about the work of God and sought to fulfill His calling on his life. As we adopt a similar mentality, we also discover how to order our lives for God's glory and our own good.
Who Is Jesus?
January 8, 2023 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 1:1–4, Luke 3:21–38
The church talks a lot about Jesus - but who exactly was and is he? Because of the supernatural claims about Jesus, the common perception is that we are talking about someone who is less than real. However, Luke takes great pains in his gospel account to make clear that what he is recording isn't spiritual speculation, but actual history. This teaching discusses why we can trust the historical Jesus presented in the gospels and his identity as both the eternal son of God and the son of man who entered time and space.
Defensiveness
November 6, 2022 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 4:14–30
We all know what it's like to feel defensive - we put up walls, push back, or withdraw in response to a challenge, correction, or criticism. But this posture also poses a real threat to our hearts - if we become hypersensitive and constantly feel wounded, how can we ever grow or make changes when necessary? Jesus was regularly met with defensive responses. In this teaching we will see how people responded to his preaching and diagnose what made them so defensive against it.
Signs, Wonders, and Good News
January 22, 2023 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 4:31–44
In Ephesians 6, the Apostle Paul says "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." But are the forces of evil he's referring to simply metaphorical and abstract, or are they real? The life and ministry of Jesus shows that these forces are very much real and directly affect everyday life. In this teaching, we see Jesus preaching Good News, but also demonstrating and advancing the Kingdom of God through delivering the oppressed and healing the afflicted. Because of the battle won by Jesus, he now has the authority to take back territory for the Kingdom of God.
Meeting Jesus
January 29, 2023 • Mitch Jordan • Luke 5:1–11
We talk a lot about following Jesus and what a relationship with him means and looks like. But what does it actually mean to meet him? What happens when a person truly encounters him as he really is? In this text, Jesus calls and commissions the first disciples, most notable Simon Peter. As Peter realizes the reality of who Jesus is, he experiences something that is simultaneously unsettling and reorienting. As we begin to see our brokenness and need in relation to Jesus, we find that we are also being exposed and remade at the same time.
Healing and Forgiveness
February 5, 2023 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 5:12–26
What is forgiveness? The biblical word means to be "sent away" - but what is being sent away? Our sin and all of its effects. In this account, Jesus heals two men with dire physical conditions, but in doing so demonstrates that their primary need wasn't just healing, but forgiveness and restoration. In Jesus, God does not simply want to absolve us of guilt and punishment, but also free us from shame and return us to fullness of life.
Winning In The Wilderness
January 15, 2023 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 4:1–15
Our culture is increasingly unfamiliar with the language of "temptation" and "sin" - why? As we have become more and more detached from a transcendent worldview, we no longer have anything outside ourselves to conform to, meaning the highest good is to act solely upon what we feel inside. Rather than resist temptation simply to avoid punishment, we are called to resist in order to pursue a higher and better life. In this text, we learn from the example of Jesus as he faced temptation and won in the wilderness.
Losing Our Religion
February 12, 2023 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 6:1–11
Many today our very put off by religion - the idea that in order to please God we need to conform to all sorts of ethical rules, external rituals, and archaic commands. As we examine the life of Jesus, we find that he was averse to religion too. However, Jesus opposed religion not by dismissing the Bible, but by upholding it and rightly interpreting it. As we learn the way of Jesus, we break from the bondage of mere religion and legalism and enter into gospel freedom. This teaching will help us lose our religion by breaking down the difference between it and Jesus.
Inverse Kingdom
February 19, 2023 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 6:20–36
The teaching of Jesus contains some of the highest ethical and philosophical thought the world has ever seen. However, the content it contains is also highly counterintuitive and countercultural. What does it mean to be truly blessed? How far does the love God requires go? In his teaching, Jesus expounds The Beatitudes and The Golden Rule, which answer these questions and in so doing, invites us into kingdom life.
Kingdom Economics
February 26, 2023 • Stephen Putbrese • Luke 6:37–49
As Jesus finishes what is known as the Sermon on the Plain, he describes some norms of the Kingdom, which we can think about like economic laws - like a spiritual supply and demand. In his profound and insightful teaching, Jesus gives five laws: 1. You Get What You Give, 2. Pick Your Teachers Wisely, 3. Critique Yourself Before Critiquing Others, 4. You Produce What You Are, and 5. You're Only as Good as Your Foundation.