Four Aspects of Ministry Luke 9:1-11

Luke chapter 9 is an amazing passage of scripture. In the next four blogs I'm going to break down four aspects of ministry that are found in this chapter. The first aspect of ministry we see is Jesus SENDING out the 12. The 12 had been ordained by Jesus some months before and had been traveling with Jesus as His helpers. Now he was going to send them out in pairs to put into practice what they had learned. Before Jesus sent them out, He gave them the equipment needed to get the job done, as well as the instructions to follow. Jesus told the apostles what to take on their journey, with an emphasis on urgency and simplicity. They were to rely on the Lord knowing He would open doors for there provision. (Wow what an awesome piece of scripture). It reminds me of God leading the people of Israel out of Egypt and how they needed to rely on his provision. Application for us are we ready to step out, and trust that the Lord is still holding us in the palm of his hand? Are we relying on God's provision for our life? Or our we holding unto our "security blankets." I challenge you to think about your life who are you relying on? Are you making steps of faith or are we making steps in comfort. Let us not forget that he is our provider our help and ever present need. God knows what your going threw he doesn't abandon his people. the disciples where provided for just like the people of Israel where. If God is calling you to go or do something rely on his provision and step out in faith.

"The Parable of the Sower" Luke 8:1-15

The seed without the soil is fruitless, and the soil without the seed is almost useless. The human heart is like soil: if it is prepared properly, it can receive the seed of the Word of God and produce a fruitful harvest. In this passage Jesus described four different kinds of hearts, three of which did not produce any fruit. The proof of salvation is fruit and not merely hearing the Word or making a profession of faith in Christ. Jesus had made that clear in His "Sermon on the Mount" (Luke 6:43-49).

Hard Soil: Represents the person who hears the Word but immediately allows the devil to snatch the seed away.

The Shallow Soil: Illustrates the emotional hearer who quickly responds to the message, but he quickly loses interest and does not continue. In many places in Israel you find a substratum of limestone covered with a thin layer of soil. The shoot can grow up, but the roots cannot go down, and the sun withers the rootless plant. The sun represents the testing that comes to all professing believers to prove their faith. The sun is good for plants if they have roots. Persecution can deepen the roots of a true Christian, but it only exposes the shallowness of the false Christian.

The Crowded Soil: Illustrates the person who does not repent and "weed out" the things that hinder the harvest. There is enough soil so the roots can go down, but not enough room for the plant to grow up and produce fruit. the plant is crowded out and the fruit is choked. The person with the crowded heart comes closest to salvation, but he still does not bring forth "fruit to perfection."

The Good Soil: Alone is fruitful. It illustrates the individual who hears the Word, understands it, receives it within and is truly saved, and proves it by patiently producing fruit. Not everybody produces the same amount of fruit but all true believers will produce some fruit as evidence of spiritual life. That fruit may include winning others to Christ (Rom. 1:13). Financially supporting the work of the Lord (Rom. 15:25-28), good works (Col.1:10), Christian character (Gal. 5:22-23), and praise to the Lord (Heb. 13:15).

This parable shows that Jesus was not impressed by the great crowds that followed Him. He knew that most of the people did not really "hear" the Word and receive it in their hearts. He gave this story to encourage the disciples in their future ministry, and to encourage us today. When you consider how much teaching, and preaching in the course of a month or a year, you wonder why there is such a small harvest. The fault does not lie with the sower or the seed. The problem is with the soil. The human heart will not submit to God, repent, and receive the Word and be saved. Close with this as you think of your life what kind of growth are you producing in your own life?

Amazing Faith!! Luke 7:1-10

In the Gospels and the Book of Acts, Roman centurions are presented as quality men of character, and the one found in our text is a prime example of that. The Jewish people in that time had little or really no love for the Romans soldiers. However these Jewish elders commended this officer to Jesus. This Roman centurion loved his servant and did not want him to die. I'm really impressed by this Centurions love but also his humility. Imagine a Roman officer telling a poor Jewish rabbi that he was unworthy to have Him enter his house! (Talk about counter cultural) this Centurion is definitely going against the grain. The Romans were not known for displaying humility especially to Jewish people. But the characteristic that most impressed Jesus was the man's faith. Twice in the Gospel record we are told that Jesus marveled. Here in Capernaum, He marveled at the faith of a Gentile; and in Nazareth, He marveled at the unbelief of the Jews (Mark 6:6). The only other person Jesus commended for having "great faith" was a Gentile woman whose daughter He delivered from a demon.

The centurion's faith certainly was remarkable. After all, he was a Gentile whose background was pagan. He was a Roman soldier, trained to be self sufficient, and we have no evidence that he had ever heard Jesus preach. What Jesus and this Centurion had in common was they where both under authority, and because they were under authority, they had the right to exercise authority. All they had to do is say the word and things happened. This centurion displayed amazing faith no wonder Jesus marveled!!

Application:

If this Roman, with very little spiritual instruction, had that kind of faith in Jesus how much greater our faith ought to be! We have the Word of God to encourage us, and yet we are guilty of no faith MArk 4:40 or little faith Matt. 14:31. Our prayer needs to be Lord increase my faith Luke 17:5

Blind leading the blind Luke 6:37-45

This is amazing piece of scripture and I want to encourage you to read this whole chapter it's definitely life changing. But today I want to reflect on verse 37-45 in chapter 6. I think this section of scripture teaches us some important lessons about ministry. As disciples of Christ we must be sure that we see clearly enough to guide others in their spiritual walk. Jesus in this passage was referring to the Pharisees who were leading the people astray (MAtt. 15:14, 23:16). If we see ourselves as excellent guides, but do not realize our blindness, we will only lead people into the ditch (Rom. 2:17-22).

The Pharisees were excellent at judging other people to make themselves look and feel better about themselves. After reflecting over these verses A question comes to mind. Is it ever okay to judge somebody? If you look at scripture there are several verses that say judging is okay (I'm not going to list all of them heres a couple (John 7:24, 1 Corinthians 6:1-5) In fact there is a whole book called Judges found in the Old Testament. The question isn't is it okay to judge somebody else the real question is what is your intent of your judging? Difference between Righteous judgement and condemning judgement: when you condemn your giving no hope. It’s to late. You can't ever atone for your sins. Righteous judgement is to help restore that person. Matthew 18:15-17 is a perfect example of two brothers in Christ one judging another on his fruit. Today we use the word accountability and if you think about it when your accountable to somebody else your really judging them. Your saying there's a standard that I'm suppose to hold you to and if you live contrary to that standard it's my responsibility in love to approach you and confront you.

Again Jesus in this passage is speaking to the Pharisees people who new the law. People that should have known better!! The Pharisees were always judging the gentiles, people who didn't know the law. The pharisees should have been showing people grace not condemnation. And this is where the application lies as man and women of God we need to show the love grace and compassion of our savior to those who our outside the family of God. Is there sin in the world absolutely but we can't hold people to a Christian standard if they don't know who Jesus is. Another key point of this passage is before you go around judging other peoples lives judge yourself first. Verse 40 reminds us that we cannot lead others where we have not been ourselves, nor can we be all that our Master is. In fact the more we strive to be like Him, the more we realize how far short we fall. This is a warning against pride, for nothing blinds a person like pride. It certainly is not wrong to help a brother get a painful speck of dirt out of his eye, provided we can see what we are doing. If you think about it, it's kind of humorous to see an eye doctor with a plank in his eye preforming surgery on somebody that has a spec in his eye. The emphasis here is on being honest with ourselves and not becoming hypocrites. It is easy to try to help a brother with his faults just so we can cover up our own sins! Here's a thought to reflect on people who are constantly criticizing others are usually guilty of something worse in their own lives. So lets remove the planks in our eyes before we remove specs from others.