The further we go in Luke, the more we see Jesus inviting people in: He is preaching and demonstrating the Kingdom of God, but ultimately he’s looking for people who will really hear him and join him. He isn’t interested in large crowds. He doesn’t want to just upend religion and question the status quo. He wants to build a family — a spiritual family of brothers and sisters — who will be with him and do the work of preaching and demonstrating the Kingdom with him. Jesus has come to reweave the fabric of Shalom, and as individuals experience him, his ministry, and his message, they become participants with him in the work. To be a part of Jesus’ family means we not only listen and receive from him, but that we also get involved and do the work alongside him.
All In The Family
November 6, 2022 • Steve Hart • Luke 8
Justice, Mercy, and Neighboring
November 20, 2022 • Steve Hart • Luke 10
The world is broken, frayed at the edges — but the King has come, Anointed by Spirit, with healing in his hands! In his life and ministry, Jesus gathers up all this old, sin-tarnished, shame-tattered, sick and dying world in arms, eventually bearing it all in his body on the cross. He takes it all into the grave with him, walking out 3 days later, alive and new, and pulling the world through with him! And he’s gathering a Family — those who’ve heard the news of restoration and are experiencing its in-breaking, who sit and listen and receive his mission and ministry, who cease their anxious striving and put trust in him and his work. And it is that very Family who then respond as he calls them to follow him and his way, participating in the ministry of Restoration. Jesus calls us to join him in the world as Missionaries, proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom in the power of the Spirit, and as Neighbors, moving with compassionate care toward the frayed edges of the social fabric.
Crowds, Confessors, and Crosses
November 13, 2022 • Jon Schuler • Luke 9
Every character in Luke 9 seems to have the same basic question: who exactly is Jesus? Is he a revolutionary? Is he the Messiah? A circus act? A reincarnation of Moses or Elijah? But when heaven breaks open and the answer is given, his disciples must reckon with Jesus being much more than they imagined... and much more demanding of them. But they will discover that there is more for them as they go deeper in Christ, and he's inviting his disciples into more NOT so they can do more but so they can receive more.
Faith, Forgiveness, and Love
October 30, 2022 • Scott Cooley • Luke 7
Luke continues his message of crystallizing the kingdom and here he gives some great pictures of those who get the blessing and those who miss out. The key to God’s kingdom has always been faith. I believe who God says He is and that He is going to accomplish the redemptive restoration that He said He would. The opposite of faith is to be offended and make ourselves autonomous from the need for God and a savior. Luke paints this picture well in chapter 7.