Luke 18.31-19.27 – To See or Not to See

Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem is almost complete, but the disciples are still struggling to understand the truth about Jesus and his kingship.  Yet whilst the disciples can’t see, a blind beggar now can, and a chief tax-collector who ‘wanted to see’ gets to meet Jesus face-to-face and experiences the salvific presence of God.  Wherever Jesus is, there also is the new life and mercy of God’s kingdom; a kingdom however that at once arrives with a warning and promise of judgment.

• As Jesus asked the blind beggar, so today he asks you: ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Take some time to consider this and bring any thoughts to God in prayer.

• What are you prepared to do to make sure that you ‘see’ Jesus?

• In what ways are you joining in with Jesus’ mission ‘to seek and to save’ the lost? 

• How does the judgment of God’s kingdom make you feel?

Luke 22.1-38 – The Last Supper

To give his followers (both then and now) a way of understanding and remembering what was about to happen to him, Jesus doesn’t teach a theory; he uses a meal – the bread symbolising his broken body, the wine his shed blood and the call to ‘remember’, the Passover (Exodus 12) as Israel looked back at the Exodus.  Now however, God would act to save his people not simply from Egyptian slavery but from slavery to all evil and even death itself.  Jesus’ own death would enable Israel and the whole world to ‘escape’.  And notice here how the blend of celebration and betrayal mirrors the triumph and tragedy displayed in the cross.

• What difference does it make to your life today to know that the powers of evil and death have been defeated?

• What do you think is happening when we remember Jesus in this way?

• What does re-enacting this meal mean to you?

• In what ways might you be able to ‘serve’ others today?

Luke 18.1-30 – Receiving the Blessing

Persistence in prayer, genuine repentance, child-like trust and dependence, and a willingness to abandon all forms of security other than Jesus himself; all marks of the kingdom of God and the way to receive its blessings, both now and in the future.  And the promise that comes to all those whose lives are marked in this way is among the most comforting in the whole gospel: this one ‘went home justified before God.’          
• Look back at vs. 11 and 12.  Do you know that God’s approval and favour can never be earned?

• In what ways are you currently trying to earn God’s approval and favour?  

• What might Jesus be asking you to give up for the sake of God’s kingdom?

• How can you become more child-like towards God?  Ask him to help you become like this.

Luke 17.1-37 – Faith that Saves

Jesus teaches that the kingdom of God is at once both a future expectation and a present reality.  And the way to enter that kingdom is by responding to Jesus with acceptance, trust, gratitude and praise; in other words, with faith.  Faith however which doesn’t need to be great.  No, what matters to Jesus is the great God that that faith is looking out on; the God of life and death, who is now at work in and through his son Jesus Christ establishing his kingdom.

• What does faith look like for you today?

• What are you trusting God for, both now and in the future?

• ‘He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him’ (v.16).  Take some time to count the many things God has blessed you with, naming them before him, and giving thanks.

• What do you understand ‘the kingdom of God’ to mean?

Luke 16.1-31 – Money Matters

Some things in the kingdom of God are black and white – you cannot serve both God and money.  Jesus is challenging his disciples about their priorities when it comes to handling material wealth and possessions.  And the key to it all is whether or not they are faithful.  For God entrusts money and property to people as his ‘managers’, on the basis that it is to be used wisely and generously to the benefit of his children and to his glory.  In the kingdom of God, money is not a possession.

• How do you think about the material wealth and property that you have?  As a gift that you hold on ‘trust’ for God, or as a ‘possession’ that you own and control?

• ‘You cannot serve both God and money’ (v.13).  In what ways do you know this to be true?

• How might you be more faithful to God with all that he has given you?

• What can you give away today that will bless someone else and so bring glory to God?

Luke 15.1-32 – The Father’s Heart

In a series of three parables Jesus reveals the radical nature of God’s love; a love that doesn’t have to be earned.  A love that cannot help but go looking for the lost – to look for them as a shepherd would a lost sheep, a worker would her lost savings, or a father would his lost son – and then rejoice and lavishly celebrate upon finding them.  This is a picture of God’s heart and joy, of the party that goes on in heaven every time a single sinner turns to the good news of Jesus Christ and begins to follow God’s ways.

• How should a love like this impact the way you live?

• Is your life so marked by a celebration of the good news of Jesus that it provokes opportunities to tell stories about finding something that was lost?

• In the parable of two lost sons, who do you identify with most – the younger son, the elder brother, or the father?  Why do you think that might be?

• What is your attitude towards those who don’t know Jesus? 

Luke 13.22-14.35 – In, Out, Shake it all About

Jesus holds open the gate to the kingdom of God and offers an urgent but costly invitation to enter in; not least to the people of Jerusalem.  But in the kingdom of God things are not as they might first appear.  For there will come a time when those who thought they were automatically in God’s kingdom will find themselves thrown out of it, and many who thought themselves to be out of God’s kingdom will instead be drawn in to it.  Those who sit down and eat the feast of God’s kingdom will indeed be a surprising and perhaps even ‘shocking’ group of people – people with all kinds of moral, social, ethnic, cultural, ethical and physical backgrounds.  And this is simply the result of the strange workings of God’s grace.

• ‘All those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted’ (14.11).  Why do you think the kingdom of God operates on principles like this?

• In your experience what reasons do people give for not accepting the invitation to share in God’s kingdom?

• How could you help people to accept God’s invitation?

• In what ways is the invitation to enter God’s kingdom a costly one?