Luke 13 verses 15 & 16. “The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen...

Luke 13 vs 15-16. “The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years,...

Luke 13 verses 10 – 21   Luke 13 v 12. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Women, you are set free from your infirmity.”   If the previous section of this magnificent gospel reminded us of the shortness of time and the urgency of the...

Luke 13 verses 8 & 9. “’Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig round it and fertilise it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”   Why does God allow rebellious, indeed seriously evil people, to continue...

Luke 13 v 3. “I tell you, No! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”   The teaching of our Lord, in these verses, on the need and urgency of repentance, is right up to date because people today, just like our contemporaries in our Lord’s Day, are prone...

Luke 12 verses 58 & 59. “As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you...

Luke 12 v 57. “Why don‘t you judge for yourself what is right?   The underlying theme of the last two chapters of Luke’s gospel has been the pending judgement of God. This theme is now carried on into the verses before us today. The time that separates our...

Luke 12 verses 52-53. “From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law...

Luke 12 v 51. Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”   One of the common criticisms against Christianity is that religion causes wars and troubles. There is, of course, truth in this statement in a broad sense. But two things...

Luke 12 v 48. “…..From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”   Now the analogy changes to that of a large household, watched over by a steward – a kind of business...

Luke 12 v 35. “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning.”   Jesus now reminds us of another great event that should occupy our minds far more often than it does and that is the second coming of the Lord. A proper consideration of this event will...

Luke 12 verses 27- 28. “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into...

Luke 12 v 28. “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!”   When Jesus points to the ravens (v24) he is not saying that the birds of the...

Luke 12 verses 25 – 26. “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”   In this section Jesus enlarges on the idea of being “rich toward God”. And our Lord was wise enough...

Luke 12 v 20. “But God said to him, ‘Your fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’   So, this rich farmer in the parable had a problem. He had huge amounts of excess (12 v 17). His problem...

Luke 12 v 15. “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”   Jesus says we are to be on our guard against all kinds of greed. He apparently taught that greed and covetousness could...

Luke 12 v 15. “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”   Notice that this section opens with a family dispute about an inheritance. I wonder how many times you have heard of...

Luke 12 verses 11 & 12. “ When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”   Many people are troubled...

Luke 12 v 8. “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. “   We would not be human if we did not feel the hurt of rejection. But if we are to be true to Christ, then such rejection will at...

Luke 12 v 7. “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”   There is another element that helps us in the matter of fear and timidity in standing up for the Gospel – and that is the way God values...

Luke 12 v 3. “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner room will be proclaimed from the roofs.”   The opposition to Jesus described in the last verse of the previous chapter must have been a...

Luke 11 v 52. “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”   It was the task of the teachers of the law to expound the law so that ordinary...

Luke 11 v 48. “So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets and you build their tombs.   This is a serious charge Jesus makes against the teachers of the law. He is telling them that they were in essence no different from...

 Luke 11 verses 45-53 Luke 11 v 46. “Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”   The teachers of the law, were local expert...

Luke 11 verses 43 & 44. “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the market places. Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.”   In this place our Lord...

Luke 11 verses 40-41. “You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”   Notice how easy it is to turn observance of rituals into a substitute for...

Luke 11 verses 40-41. “You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”   We all know of people who are preoccupied with religious symbols and...

Luke 11 v 39. “Then the Lord said to him, “ Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness”.   A very sad scene unfolds in these verses. Here were people devoted to the observance of the Old...

Luke 11 verses 35-36. “See to it, then that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.”   The darkening of our perceptive...

Luke 11 v 34. “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.”   If we are going to believe the evidence about Jesus, then that evidence must be allowed...