Straight to the Heart of Luke

60 bite-sized insights

Phil Moore

• Publisher: Monarch Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9780857218001
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Luke is excited. As the only non-Jewish writer in the New Testament, he can hardly believe that God became a human, not just for Jewish boys like Peter and Paul, but for Gentiles just like him. His excitement about the Gospel is contagious, as he tells us, wide-eyed: All of this happened for you too.

Want to explore Luke, but feel like you don't have the time? Straight to the Heart of Luke is a concise and bite-size approach to Bible study, giving you nuggets of information that you can think about throughout the day.

Bible study for busy people.

Luke was so unlike the other New Testament writers that many of his contemporaries believed he wasn't qualified to write Scripture at all. But to understand the message of his gospel, we need to grasp who he was.

Luke was the only New Testament writer who was not a Jew. The apostle Paul defends him by stating explicitly that his gospel was as much Holy Scripture as the Old Testament.

Luke was an outsider to the Jewish faith that God inspired to compile an account of the life of Jesus in order to show people all around the world that what Jesus said and did him said and did for us all.

The astonishing message of Luke's gospel is that what happened to Jesus happened for you. Phil Moore helps us to understand and see God's wisdom in choosing Luke as a writer. He shows that Luke assures us that this isn't someone else's story: he came for you. We can say yes to Jesus, discovering that he can use you.

And that all this is possible because he made a way for you.

Act Two:

He Can Use You

It’s Your Turn (9:1–17)

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority.

(Luke 9:1)

Stomp is one of the cleverest shows ever to run in the West End and on Broadway. Even if you have never seen it, you must at least have heard about its musicians. They are so talented that for ninety minutes you watch them making music out of just about anything. Bin lids, buckets, wet socks, garbage cans, shoes, pots and pans, brooms, plates, cutlery and keys – you name it, they play it. Kitchen sinks, blenders, newspapers, drainpipes and apples – there doesn’t appear to be anything they can’t play. If you go to see them, I hope you have a brilliant time and I hope it reminds you of Act 2 of Luke’s gospel. At the start of chapter 9, God starts to reveal his skill as the master musician of the universe. Jesus suddenly turns to his followers and says: It’s your turn.

Given all that Luke has told us about the way that Jesus wields the power and authority of heaven, it’s startling how Act 2 begins: “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority.”1 Jesus suddenly informs the Twelve that he is giving them badges and guns of their own. We saw throughout Act 1 that Jesus came to be our great Example, resolving to minister only in ways that his Spirit-filled followers are able to follow. All the same, this sudden transition into stage two of his plan still comes as an abrupt surprise.2

Jesus splits the Twelve into six pairs and sends them out into the towns and villages of Galilee.3 He does not dumb down the mission as he sends them, since achieving it is all about partnering with God’s Spirit and not about any talents of our own. Note how closely the mission Jesus gives them mirrors his own ministry in Act 1: “He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal those who were ill.”4

I don’t know which is more surprising – that the Twelve go ahead and attempt the impossible or that verses 6–10 say that they actually succeed. It doesn’t matter that they are the human equivalents of wet socks, bin lids and garbage cans. It’s the skill of the master musician that counts, not the quality of the instruments he decides to play.5

In fact, Jesus assures them, their weakness is their strength. They must burn their bridges with the resources of this world if they want to learn to operate on the resources of heaven. He instructs them to “Take nothing for the journey – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.”6 To become powerful, they need to weaken themselves. To become strong, they need to rid themselves of the things that fool them into thinking they are strong already.7

When the Twelve come back to Jesus, they are very excited. They can hardly believe that they have seen so many people healed and delivered and brought to repentance through their own voices and hands. They are pleased when Jesus suggests that they withdraw to a quiet place together for a ministry debrief. When thousands of people gatecrash their little retreat and Jesus starts teaching and healing them, the Twelve want him to send the crowd away.8 Quite apart from their own desire to continue their debrief undisturbed, there is a practical consideration. They are in a deserted place and there are around 5,000 men in the crowd, not including women and children. Unless Jesus disperses them to the surrounding villages to buy food, they will go hungry.9

This was actually why Jesus brought them here, knowing that the crowds would follow. It wasn’t just to debrief them on the past few days, but also to give them the next lesson on the syllabus. He wants to teach them that partnership with God’s Spirit is not like a labouring job, where you clock in and clock out at fixed hours. It is about watching to see what the Father is doing and then joining in, whatever the time.

Unlike John’s gospel, Luke does not mention that the five loaves and two fish were provided by a boy in the crowd, because he wants to use this miracle as a picture of what God can do through the limited resources of the Twelve. Jesus sees that they do not yet have faith to perform this kind of miracle, so he performs it for them. He looks up to his power supply in heaven, speaks a prayer of blessing over the bread and fish, and then lays his hands on them to tear them into pieces for the crowd. He asks the Twelve to do the three things that they at least have faith to do.10 They are to divide the crowd into groups of fifty, to distribute the food to them and to go round with a basket each in which to gather up all the leftovers.11 When everyone has eaten, the Twelve look at one another in amazement. Each of their baskets is full (note the number twelve again). They have more food than when they started. It’s a promise that God will provide all the resources that they need as they enter this new stage in his plan.

Luke wants you to be excited about this new stage in the story too. Remember, Luke came from the city of Antioch, where the believers were first labelled Christians – a derogatory term which meant little Christs. The Antioch believers had gladly accepted the insult, since two Old Testament passages spoke about the Messiah’s army of little messiahs.12 They were happy to be known as a band of Christians, and so must we be. The message of Act 2 of Luke’s gospel is that Jesus is calling you to be a little Christ. Jesus is your Example and he is able to use you.

Notes

1 Luke prepared us for this by repeating the number 12 in the final verses of Act 1. See 8:42, 43.

2 That’s why I can’t agree with those who view Luke’s structure primarily in terms of geography: Galilee (1:1–9:50), Judea (9:51–13:21), Perea (13:22–19:27) and Jerusalem (19:28–24:53). The big progression in Luke’s gospel isn’t about where the action takes place. It’s about who lies at the heart of the action!

3 We are given a much longer record of his instructions in Matthew 10:1–42. Luke keeps it brief for now because he will give us lengthier instructions later on in 10:1–24.

4 They are even to follow his example by lodging with their own “disciples” in 9:4.

5 Luke gives a far shorter account of the beheading of John the Baptist than Matthew 14:1–12 or Mark 6:14–29. He is writing for Judge Theophilus, so he does not want to dwell on a Roman official ordering an execution!

6 This is a great example of a perceived contradiction in the gospels, since Mark 6:8 says only to take one staff, while Matthew 10:10 and Luke say not to take a staff at all. We need to remember that Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic. The gospel writers interpret differently his Aramaic command, “Do not take staffs.”

7 Churches and missionary organizations tend to work on the opposite principle, but Jesus says that lack of necessary funds is no good reason to postpone obedience. Lack of resources is a key element of his strategy.

8 Note that Luke says preaching the Kingdom and proving the Kingdom through miracles go hand in hand.

9 Mark 6:45 explains that they were in the countryside near Bethsaida. The disciples rowed to the town later.

10 If Jesus could multiply the food without them, he didn’t need their help to distribute it! This miracle aimed to teach them how to partner with God.

11 Good church administrative structures aren’t unspiritual. They are often key to partnership with the Spirit.

12 1 Chronicles 16:22; Psalm 105:15; Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16. See also John 14:12.

How to Share the Gospel (9:18–26)

Who do the crowds say I am?… Who do you say I am?

(Luke 9:18, 20)

According to World War Two folklore, the Nazi tanks that invaded Poland in September 1939 were met by Polish cavalrymen wielding lances. Their courage was as great as the carnage that followed. Napoleonic weaponry was no match for the Nazi Wehrmacht.

Jesus was determined that the mission of the Twelve would not be like the one-sided Battle of Krojan...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the "Straight to the Heart" Series
• Introduction: All of This Happened for You
• Act One: He Came for You
• Act Two: He Can Use You
• Act Three: He Made a Way for You