Sermon and Worship Resources

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Luke 19:1-10, Luke 18:35-43

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Two incidents at Jericho demonstrate Jesus’s mission to save the lost, whatever their place in society, whether oppressed or oppressor. Understanding the Text The journey that began in 9:51 is near its end, as Jesus and his disciples cross the Jordan and enter Jericho before the final climb up to Jerusalem. Two events in Jericho illustrate again the deep social divisions that came to o...

2. A Sick Woman and a Dead Girl

Luke 8:40-56

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Jesus’s extraordinary power to heal extends even to someone who has just died. Understanding the Text Two further miracles of healing add yet more weight to the impression of unlimited power that characterizes the whole of the Galilean phase of Jesus’s story and that form the basis for the key question of 9:18–20: Who is Jesus? After his authority has been asserted over the natural ele...

3. A Special Child Promised

Luke 1:5-25

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R.T. France

Big Idea: The promise of the birth of a special child shows that a new age is dawning: John the Baptist will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. Understanding the Text We have considered Luke’s introductory statement of intent (1:1–4) in the introduction (“Luke the Historian: Luke 1:1–4”), and I will not comment further on it here. The story then begins, to the reader’s surprise, not ...

4. Affluence and the Afterlife

Luke 16:19-31

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Material wealth can go with spiritual poverty; in the end it is spiritual wealth that matters. Understanding the Text There has been no change of audience since 16:14: Jesus is still speaking primarily to the Pharisees. (He will return to teaching the disciples in 17:1.) Luke has characterized the Pharisees as lovers of money (16:14), so this parable is a warning to the affluent. It is...

5. An Encounter across the Lake

Luke 8:26-39, Luke 8:22-25

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Jesus displays his unique power over both the natural elements and supernatural oppression. Understanding the Text Thus far, Jesus’s mission has been confined to the Jewish areas of Galilee, though we have heard of crowds from a wider area coming to hear him (6:17–18). The decision now to cross the lake takes him into Gentile territory on the eastern shore. It is only a brief visit, bu...

6. At the Tomb

Luke 24:1-12, Luke 23:50-56

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Jesus is given a respectful burial, but two days later the tomb is empty, and angels say that Jesus is alive. Understanding the Text This is the point at which the whole story turns around. The apparently inexorable process of Jesus’s arrest, trial, and execution has now run its course, but that is not to be the end. Earlier in the Gospel we heard Jesus’s predictions of resurrection “o...

7. Challenge and Counterchallenge

Luke 20:9-19, Luke 20:1-8

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Jesus’s dramatic arrival in Jerusalem provokes the religious leaders to question his credentials, but Jesus in turn uses a parable to challenge their legitimacy. Understanding the Text After the long journey southward (9:51–19:44) Jesus has deliberately entered Jerusalem as the Messiah, and his actions and teaching in the temple have thrown down the gauntlet to the religious authoritie...

8. Discipleship and Mission

Luke 10:1-24, Luke 9:57-62

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R.T. France

Big Idea: To follow Jesus and share his mission demands full commitment. Understanding the Text Ever since 5:1–11 Jesus has been gathering disciples. In 6:13 he chose the Twelve from among a larger number. It is clear that the Twelve will be his principal companions on the journey to Jerusalem, but who else will go with them? We are not told whether the three potential recruits in 9:57–62 did in...

9. Divided Loyalties

Luke 12:1-12, Luke 12:13-21

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Those who are preoccupied with immediate concerns are in danger of missing what ultimately matters. Understanding the Text The latter part of chapter 11 has been dominated by the theme of opposition to Jesus. That theme is now continued, but also it is developed to speak of the opposition that Jesus’s disciples too must expect to meet, and that will challenge them to stand up for God i...

10. Feasting and Fasting

Luke 5:33-39, Luke 5:27-32

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R.T. France

Big Idea: The joyful inclusiveness of Jesus’s ministry contrasts with the joyless ritual of formal religion. Understanding the Text The note of controversy that came into Luke’s story with the accusation of blasphemy by scribes and Pharisees against Jesus in 5:21 is now further developed in two scenes in which he is criticized first for mixing with people regarded as irreligious and second for n...

11. Getting Ready for the Passover

Luke 22:7-38, Luke 22:1-6

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R.T. France

Big Idea: It is at Passover time that Jesus is to die, and he is determined to have a last Passover meal with his disciples before his death occurrs. Understanding the Text In 21:37–38 Luke rounds off the account of Jesus’s teaching in the temple courtyard, which began at 20:1. With the mention of the Passover in 22:1 the long-anticipated climax of the story (see 9:22, 31, 44, 51; 13:31–35; 18:3...

12. God and Mammon

Luke 16:16-18, Luke 16:1-15

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Our heavenly well-being depends on how we have handled the possessions entrusted to us here on earth. Understanding the Text Two more parables (16:1–8a, 19–31) follow the three in chapter 15. In the light of the interpretive comments on the first parable in 16:8b–9, both parables make a connection between life on earth and life in heaven, and the focus in both is on wealth and how we u...

13. Hearing and Responding

Luke 8:19-21, Luke 8:16-18, Luke 8:1-15

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R.T. France

Big Idea: When God’s word is proclaimed, there are different levels of response, ranging from those who take no notice to those whose lives are transformed. Understanding the Text At the heart of Jesus’s mission as announced in 4:14–21 is teaching and the proclamation of good news. We have had an important section of his teaching in 6:20–49, which concluded with trenchant comments on the importa...

14. Interpreting the Times

Luke 12:54-59, Luke 12:49-53, Luke 12:35-48

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R.T. France

Big Idea: God’s true servants will not be caught unawares but will always be found doing their master’s will. Understanding the Text The theme of readiness for the Lord’s coming, begun at 12:35, now continues: 12:35–48 is a coherent unit of teaching, which has been broken up here simply to accommodate the commentary divisions. The collection of sayings that follows in 12:49–59 does not relate sp...

15. Jesus and John the Baptist

Luke 7:18-35

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Jesus affirms the exceptional importance of John as the prophetic herald of the kingdom of God. Understanding the Text John’s public activity had ended with his imprisonment (3:20), though we have heard since of his continuing influence (5:33). Now Luke invites us to consider how the ministries of John and Jesus relate to one another, and he ensures that his readers will not devalue Jo...

16. Jesus and Women

Luke 7:36--8:3

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Jesus’s work of salvation extends to people shunned or ignored by Jewish society; women play an unusually large part in his mission. Understanding the Text After the characterization of Jesus as a bon viveur and a friend of the disreputable (7:34), we now find him at a dinner party and befriending a disreputable woman. Two themes from earlier in the Gospel reemerge in this story: Jesus...

17. Jesus Takes the Initiative

Luke 21:5-38, Luke 21:1-4, Luke 20:41-47

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R.T. France

Big Idea: The pretentious religiousness of scribes and wealthy worshipers and of the magnificent temple buildings contrasts with the simple devotion of a poor widow. Understanding the Text In place of the question-and-answer scenario of the first part of Jesus’s public ministry in the temple (20:1–40), we now have a series of pronouncements by Jesus that bring that phase of the Jerusalem story t...

18. Jesus’s Fallible Followers

Luke 9:51-56, Luke 9:46-50, Luke 9:37-45

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R.T. France

Big Idea: The disciples show that they have not yet absorbed the message and values of the kingdom of God. Understanding the Text Luke 9:51 marks the end of the Galilean ministry and the beginning of the long “journey section” of the Gospel, which lasts until Jesus reaches Jerusalem in chapter 19. This is not a tightly organized travel narrative (indeed, the occasional geographical indications d...

19. Jesus’s Manifesto

Luke 4:14-30

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Back in Nazareth, Jesus sets out on his mission of deliverance, but his own townspeople in Nazareth reject him because of his vision for the salvation of all people everywhere, which includes the Gentiles. Understanding the Text Jesus’s return from the wilderness area marks the beginning of his public ministry, which will be focused in his home province of Galilee until he sets off for...

20. John the Baptist

Luke 3:1-20

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R.T. France

Big Idea: John calls the people to a new beginning, and so prepares the way for the Messiah. Understanding the Text We now move into the story proper, and it begins, as chapter 1 led us to expect, not with Jesus but rather with John, the forerunner. At 3:21 the focus will turn to Jesus, but John’s call to repentance, and the considerable impact that it had on public opinion, will remain in the b...

21. Lessons in Discipleship

Luke 17:11-19, Luke 17:1-10

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R.T. France

Big Idea: True discipleship cannot be undertaken casually; the service of God demands all that we can bring to it. Understanding the Text In 17:11 Luke reminds us that Jesus and his disciples are still on the journey to Jerusalem. Much of the journey narrative (9:51–19:44) consists of teaching given to the disciples. In the last few chapters this has largely taken the form of parables, and we wi...

22. Lessons on Devotion and Prayer

Luke 11:1-13, Luke 10:38-42

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R.T. France

Big Idea: It is our personal relationship with God that should take priority in our lives; those who know God as Father can pray to him with full confidence. Understanding the Text Prayer, and especially Jesus’s practice of prayer, is a prominent theme for Luke. He has portrayed Jesus at prayer already in 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, 28–29, indicating that this was an important part of his way of lif...

23. Lord of the Sabbath and Appointing the Twelve

Luke 6:12-16, Luke 6:1-11

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R.T. France

Big Idea: Jesus, the Son of Man, declares that he has the authority to determine how the Sabbath should be observed. Understanding the Text The two Sabbath incidents in 6:1–11 complete the series of confrontation stories that began in 5:17–26, and the concluding discussion of “what they might do to Jesus” sets an ominous note for the further development of the story. But alongside the official ...

24. Lost and Found

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:11-32

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R.T. France

Big Idea: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (19:10). Understanding the Text After the scene at a Pharisee’s table in 14:1–24 (cf. 7:36–50; 11:37–54), the focus turns to the much less conventional meals that Jesus enjoyed with social and religious outsiders. This theme was earlier raised by the meal in Levi’s house (5:27–39) and by the “sinful woman” who disrupted another mo...

25. “Love Your Enemies”

Luke 6:27-38

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R.T. France

Big Idea: We should treat other people as God treats us, looking not to our own advantage or satisfaction, but to what is good for them. Understanding the Text This is the middle section of the sermon that began at 6:20. Its first section set out the choice between two ways of life and commended that of discipleship. This section now explores some of the ethical implications of discipleship, wit...

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