This week we
will continue to study the Gospel of Luke.
The visit by the shepherds ended with Mary “treasuring up all these things”, and this chapter will end with Mary “treasuring all these things” as well. These words serve as an “inclusio” to highlight the purposes of Luke, giving us the account concerning his prolonged stay in the temple:
(1) Luke skips over the pursuit of Jesus’ life by Herod which
ended with Joseph fleeing to
(2) Read v. 40 and the words of Mary in v. 48: Do you think that Jesus grew up as a normal child or that he grew up without the growing pains of a child and, as some pseudo gospels claimed, could perform all kinds of miracles even as a child?
(3) What might be the significance of Luke stating the exact age of Jesus?
(4) The family was observing the Passover in
(5) What might Jesus be doing during the three days without His parents at the temple?
(6) Do you think He was asking questions only or in a more subtle way teaching the teachers?
(7) Do you think Jesus was aware that His parents were looking for Him? Was he being disobedient? (See v. 51)
(8) Reflect on Jesus’ answer in v. 49.
a. What did He mean by “in my Father’s house”?
b. Why did He appear to be rebuking Joseph and Mary for searching for Him?
c. Why did Mary have to “treasure” this event in her heart?
- What does it say about Mary’s understanding of who Jesus is?
- What does it say about how Mary took Jesus’ rebuke or reminder?
(9) What is the purpose of Luke recording this particular incident in the life of Jesus as a child?
(10) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) When did John the Baptist begin his ministry? (See Note I below.)
(2) Why does Luke choose to pinpoint the time of John’s ministry in such detail?
(3) It appears that while water cleansing is a common religious ritual of the Jews, baptism (in the form that was practiced by John) does not appear to a popular rite of cleansing. How important is it as a symbol for repentance and the forgiveness of sins? (See Note II below)
(4) Isaiah, in his prophecy (Isa. 40:3-5), gives us details of John’s ministry and its purpose.
a. Why would his ministry be in the wilderness — the countryside around the Jordan?
b. How was his ministry a preparing of the way for (or making straight the paths for) Jesus?
c. What might be the meaning of the filling of valleys, lowering of mountains and hills, and the straightening or smoothing of crooked roads or rough ways?
(5) These people were coming to receive the baptism of repentance. Why did John call them brood of vipers?
a. If their desire for baptism was not out of repentance, what then was their intention for being baptized by John?
b. What’s wrong with their confidence in being children of Abraham?
c. What fruit did John refer to that would be “in keeping with repentance”?
(6) If his baptism was not enough to flee from the coming wrath, what then was the use of his baptism?
(7) From vv. 11-14 John gave examples of their “fruit” of repentance. Describe the fruit of repentance that is reflected by each of the following.
a. v. 11
b. v. 13
c. v. 14
(8) How relevant was John’s message to you today?
(9) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Note
I:
Luke gives a very specific time of the beginning of John’s ministry. According to secular history, the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar was AD 28-29; Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee from 4 BC to AD 39; Herod’s brother Philip ruled his tetrarchy from 4 BC to AD 33-34; while Lysanias was not mentioned by secular history. Annas was high priest from AD 6-15 when he was deposed by the Roman governor Gratus and he was succeeded by his son-in-law Caiaphas from AD18-36.
Note II:
The CBTEL gives one of the most exhaustive treatments of the word meanings and practices of baptism. While the word itself, in its various forms, does not carry the primary force of dipping or immersion, it does signify “to plunge, to bathe or to overwhelm” when it was used four times in the Septuagint. However, I believe the best interpretation might be the use by Paul in Romans 6 which, when used in Christian baptism, best depicts a scene of total immersion.
(1) What do you think was the reason that the people were wondering if John was the Messiah? (He did not even perform any miracles.)
(2) What was the “good news” that John preached?
(3) In vv. 16-17, John talks about Christ:
a. How did he compare himself with Christ?
b. What did he mean by Christ baptizing with the Holy Spirit and with fire? (See Acts 2.)
c. Which part of the good news is in fact “bad news”?
(4) Herod was not a Jew. Why should John bother to rebuke him as well?
(5) What examples can we learn from John within this short passage?
(6) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Luke gives a shorter version of Jesus’ baptism (3:21-22). Let’s look at his focus:
a. Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus while He was praying. What might be the connection between the two?
b. What might be the significance of the descending of the Holy Spirit upon Him in bodily form?
c. What impact might it have on John the Baptist? (See Jn. 1:32-34)
d. What did Father God say from heaven? Based on the words spoken, what feelings were expressed by Father God and why?
e. Why did Father God choose to do this at Jesus’ baptism?
(2) According to Luke, when did Jesus began His ministry?
a. What did He do during His first 30 years?
b. Shouldn’t He have begun this great and important ministry much earlier so that He could have traveled to more places and so that more people would see His miracles and hear His preaching?
(3) Luke also gave a genealogy of Jesus. Compare his genealogy to the one in Matthew (in Matthew 1):
a. With whom did Matthew start tracing Jesus’ genealogy and with whom did he end?
b. What was Matthew’s purpose according to Matthew 1:1?
c. With whom did Luke start tracing Jesus’ genealogy and with whom did he end?
d. What was Luke’s purpose judging from these words, “He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph”? (Lk. 3:23)
(4) Based on the passage that we read today in Luke, who is Jesus?
(5) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Luke gives us the timing of Jesus’ temptation. Let’s consider the implications of each of the following:
a. He was full of the Holy Spirit.
b. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert.
c. He ate nothing for 40 days (and nights).
(2) Why did Jesus have to face this series of temptations? Why did it happen before He even officially began His ministry?
(3) The 1st temptation:
a. What had caused Jesus’ hunger that appeared to have given the devil the opportunity to tempt Him? What lesson can we learn from this?
b. On what basis did the devil challenge Jesus to tell the stone to become bread?
c. Did Jesus have to command the stone to become bread to prove who He is? Why or why not?
d. Could Jesus not simply ignore the devil?
e. If this temptation was of no appeal to Jesus, I do not believe the devil would even try. Therefore, what if Jesus did turn the stone into bread to satisfy His hunger, did it amount to yielding to the devil’s temptation? Why or why not?
f. How did Jesus respond to the devil?
g. How would you label this particular temptation?
h. What can we learn regarding how to overcome this kind of temptation?
(4) The 2nd temptation:
a. Why was Jesus willing to be led to such a high place?
b. Jesus could have said to the devil, “earthly authority and splendor means nothing to me”. Why didn’t He say that?
c. How did He respond to this temptation instead?
d. How then would you label this particular temptation?
e. What can we learn regarding how to overcome this kind of temptation?
(5) The 3rd temptation:
a. Why did the devil repeat his challenge saying, “If you are the Son of God”?
b. Jesus responded to the previous temptations with the word of God. Now the devil also used the word of God to tempt Jesus. Why would even the Word of God be used to tempt us?
c. Look up Psalm 91:11-14 from which the devil only quoted from vv. 11-12. How important was it that he left out v. 14?
d. How did Jesus respond to this temptation?
e. How then would you label this particular temptation?
f. What can we learn regarding how to overcome this kind of temptation?
(6) Luke said that the devil “left Him until an opportune time”:
a. What other times in Jesus’ life can you recall which offered a more opportune time for the devil?
b. Read Luke 23:35. How similar was this temptation from the ones that we have been reading today? Which might present a greater challenge to Jesus? How did He respond to the temptation while on the cross? (Isa. 53:7)
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Judging from the accounts given by Luke so far, what might be the news about Jesus that had spread throughout the countryside (of Jordan)? What might account for the great interest generated? How did it speak to the effectiveness of John’s ministry?
(2) Jesus spent most of his life in Nazareth, but this appears to be the first time He spoke to these people in their synagogue. What might be the attitude of these listeners of His hometown who knew His father, mother and siblings?
(3) Jesus read and spoke from the passage in Isaiah 61:1-2. By saying, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”, He affirms that He was the one spoken of by Isaiah. Let’s reflect on the passage that He read slowly:
a. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, and has anointed me.” How does this echo Luke’s repeated mention of the Holy Spirit in the preceding verses in chapter 4?
b. His mission will include (a) the preaching of the good news to the poor; (b) the proclamation of freedom for the prisoners; (c) the recovery of sight for the blind; (d) the release of the oppressed; and (e) the proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor. Let’s consider them together:
- Did Jesus free any prisoner, including John the Baptist? Why not?
- Did Jesus release any of the oppressed, especially Israel from the oppression from the Romans. Such a deliverance was definitely one that the people were looking forward to upon the appearance of their Messiah.
- Should we then interpret this passage only from the immediate context of the physical environment?
- Who then were the poor who could hear the good news? What is the good news?
- Who are the prisoners who would be set free by Jesus and from what?
- Who are the blind who would recover their sight and from what blindness?
- Who are the oppressed who would be set free by Jesus and from what?
- What then is the year of the Lord’s favor? (See Isa. 49:8-9; 2 Cor. 6:2)
(4) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Note:
If you make a side by side comparison of the passage from your Old Testament and the passage so read by Jesus, you will notice some obvious differences. It is because the version from which Jesus read (or the one Luke so recorded) was from the Greek translation of the OT, called the Septuagint, while the OT passage is a translation of the Hebrew manuscripts.
(1) Luke probably gave us a very short version of Jesus’ preaching that day, but the people’s response was quite interesting. As much as they were amazed by Jesus’ gracious words, they responded by saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?". What does it mean?
(2) Should we focus on the words being preached and not who the preacher is? Why or why not?
(3) What did Jesus accuse the people of His hometown of?
(4) Was it wrong for them to expect Him to perform the many miracles that He had done in Capernaum? Why or why not?
(5) However, the two examples that Jesus quoted from the Old Testament seem to point out an even bigger problem with them. What was their bigger (or real) problem?
(6) Why did they become furious upon hearing the two examples Jesus gave?
(7) In their fury, what did they do?
(8) What was their sin?
(9) Was Jesus being too harsh on the people of His hometown? Why or why not?
(10) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?