"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.

Follow the Leader Luke 5:27-31

In this passage Jesus has an encounter with a tax collector named Levi or other wise known as Matthew. Tax collectors were regarded as traitors to Israel because they collected taxes for the hated Romans. And not only were they seen as traitors, but also as thieves, because Rome only required a fixed sum but allowed the tax collectors the right to charge people any amount above that sum for their own pay. And sometimes they would charge exorbitant amounts. The people had to pay whatever the tax collectors demanded because these were the representatives of Rome. Now along comes Jesus - walking down the road - and he stops right in front of Matthew’s table. And He says nothing more than: “Follow me.” Matthew jumps right up, closes shop and leaves everything to follow Jesus. As I thought about this I couldn't imagine somebody I didn't no coming into my office and say follow me and actually take that person serious. Put yourself in Matthew's shoes your in the middle of your job working a man comes by and says follow me. What do you do?? How crazy does that sound. Matthew gets so excited about following this stranger named Jesus, that he holds a meal and invites all his friends to come and meet him. I want to blog about three observations this passage has revealed to me.

1. Jesus went looking for Matthew

Jesus only had 12 disciples. These were primary builders of His early church. And here Jesus hand-picks Matthew to be one of those followers. A lot of people would not have picked Matthew after all he was a tax collector. But people like Matthew is who Jesus was looking for. People who were sick inside and who wanted to change their lives. This is why I think Matthew was so prone to follow Jesus when he said, "Follow Me" Matthew needed a change from the inside out.

2. Jesus looked for Matthew because He knew Matthew was ready to change.

Most people would have written Matthew off he's a tax collector lowest of low. There are people out there that we just don’t think are interested so we don’t invite them or don't talk about our faith. I want to challenge you to never give up on people you don't know what the Holy Spirit is doing in their heart. Sometimes it can be simple words like follow me that have such an impact on somebody's life. Thats all Jesus said to Matthew and his life was forever changed. Some of the people that you may have written off long ago may be ready to be changed from the inside out and there waiting for you to step up and say something!!!

3rd thing we learn from this story is that every new person we bring to Christ has friends.

Matthew had friends probably not many but the ones he did have he wanted to share his new found faith with. A relationship with Jesus is contagious as a Christian we have the greatest gift ever offered what are we doing with it??

Rejected Luke 4:14 -30

By this time in the gospel of Luke the news has spread widely about the miracle worker from Nazareth so His family, friends, and neighbors were anxious to see and hear Him. Jesus was asked to read the Scripture text and to give the sermon. The passage He read included Isaiah 61:1-2 and He selected it for His text. The Jewish rabbis interpreted this passage to refer to the Messiah, and the people in the synagogue knew it. Can you imagine how shocked they were when Jesus boldly said that it was written about Him and that He had come to usher in the "acceptable year of the Lord." The reference here is the "Year of Jubilee" described in Leviticus 25. Jesus was bringing a spiritual "Year of Jubilee" for the nation of Israel.

The problem was that His listeners would not believe in Him. They saw Him only as the son of Mary and Joseph, the boy they had watched grow up in their own city. How crazy is that!!!! Jesus is right there in front of them and all they see is the son of Mary and Joseph. The crowd wanted Jesus to preform miracles in Nazareth like he did in Capernaum, but He refused. That's the meaning of the phrase, "Physician heal thyself.

At first, they admired the way He taught, but it didn't take long for their admiration to turn into antagonism. Why? Because Jesus reminded them of God's goodness to the Gentiles! The prophet Elijah bypassed all the Jewish widows and helped a gentile widow in Sidon 1 Kings 17:8-16, and his successor Elisha healed a gentile leper from Syria 2 Kings 5:1-15. Our Lord's message of grace was a blow to the proud Jewish exclusivism of the congregation, and they would not repent. Jesus is saying that Jews had to be saved by grace just like the pagan gentiles!! The congregation was so angry they waned to kill Jesus! Augustine said, "They love truth when it enlightens them, but hate truth when it accuses them." (Ouch!!!) This applies to us today we want gracious words but we don't want to face the truth.

In spite of the unbelief of the people in Nazareth, the scriptures declared that Jesus of Nazareth is God's Son, the Messiah sent to fulfill His promises. I bloged about this passage because maybe like Jesus you feel like the hardest people to reach are the ones who have known you the longest. Be encouraged today that if you face rejection from those who say they know you your in good company.

Temptation Luke 4:1-13

TEMPTATION!!!!! We all deal with it. But how do we over come it. The famous author Oscar Wild had this to say about temptation," The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." I disagree with this quote but how do we overcome temptations when they come our way?? Lets look at our example. In this passage Jesus exposed the tactics of the enemy and revealed to us how we can overcome when we are tempted. This experience helped prepare our Lord for his present ministry as our High priest, and we may come to Him for the help we need to overcome the tempter (Heb. 4:14-16). The first Adam was tempted in a beautiful garden and failed. The Last Adam was tempted in the dessert and succeeded. We have at our disposal the same spiritual resources that Jesus used when he faced and defeated Satan: prayer (3:22) the Fathers love (3:23), the power of the Spirit (4:1) and the Word of God ("It is written"). Plus we have in heaven the interceding Saviour who has defeated the enemy completely. Temptation is Satan's weapon to defeat us, but it can become God's tool to build us (James 1:1-8, 13-17). In the first temptation, Satan suggested that there must be something wrong with the Fathers love since his holy son was hungry. This temptation Satan is asking Jesus to separate the physical from the spiritual. Whenever we label different spheres of our lives physical, material, financial, or spiritual, we are bound to leave God out of areas where He rightfully belongs. Christ must be first in everything, or He is first in nothing (MAtt. 6:33) It is better to be hungry in the will of God than satisfied out of the will of God.( That deep take a moment and think about it). When Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, He put the emphasis on the word man. As the eternal Son of God, He had power to do anything; but as the humble Son of Man, He had authority to do only that which the Father willed. As the servant, Jesus did not use His divine attributes for selfish purposes (Phil 2:5-8). Because He was man, He hungered; but He trusted the Father to meet His needs in His own time and His own way. Question do we do he same thing? Is it your timing or his?? You and I need bread for the body (Matt. 6:1) but we must not live by physical bread alone. We also need food for the inner person to satisfy our spiritual needs. This food is the Word of God. What digestion is to the body, meditation is to the soul. As we read the Word and meditate on it, we receive spiritual health and strength for inner person, and this enables us to obey the will of God. Satan questioned the Father's love when he tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. He questioned His hope when he offered Jesus the world's kingdoms. Satan questioned the Father's faithfulness when he asked Jesus to jump from the temple and prove that the Father would keep His promise. Satan attacked three basic virtues of the Christian life-faith hope and love. I want to suggest that there are no "shortcuts" in the Christian life, and there is no easy way to spiritual victory and maturity. If the perfect Son of God had to hang on a tree before He could sit on the throne, Then His disciples should not expect an easier way of life. (See Luke 9:22-26 and Acts 24:22). Jesus came out of the dessert a victor, but Satan did not give up. He watched for other opportunities to tempt the Saviour away from the Fathers will. Author Andrew Bonar said i like this, "Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle." Question: When temptation comes will you be ready?

To Grow Luke 2:39, 52

Before reading this you should read Luke 2:39,52

Having Obeyed the Law in everything, Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth, which would be the Lord's home until He started Hs official ministry. One question I have always had is what was Jesus like as a teenager into adulthood? Was he picked first for dodge ball(I'm not really sure if dodge ball was invented at this time)? Did all the other teenagers in the neighborhood look up to him? Was he popular or was he a fringe kid? Luke reports that he developed physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. We know Jesus worked with Joseph in the carpenter shop (Matt 13:55 and Mark 6:3) and apparently ran the business after Joseph died. (Just a thought How awesome would it be to own furniture made by Jesus. How many people could say you see this couch yeah the son of God made it. Got to be honest it would be pretty epic). Joseph and Mary had other children during those years Matt. 13:55-56; John 7:1-10). How was Jesus as an older brother?? Luke gives us only one story from Jesus youthful years. Joseph and Mary were devout Jews who observed Passover in Jerusalem every year. Three times a year the Jewish men were required to go to Jerusalem to worship (Deut. 16:16) but not all of them could afford to do so. If they chose one feast, it was usually the passover; and they tried to take their family with them, for it was the most important feast of the Jewish calendar. People would travel to this feast in caravans, the women and children leading the way and setting the pace, and the men and young men following behind. Villages often traveled together and kept an eye on each other's children. At age 12 Jesus could have easily have gone from one group to another and not been missed.

They had gone a day's journey from Jerusalem when they discovered that Jesus was missing. It took a day to return to the city and another day for them to find him. I wonder what was running through Mary's and Joseph mind when they couldn't find Jesus? Mary's rebuke brought a respectful but astonished reply from Jesus; "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had t be in My Fathers house?" Jesus was affirming His divine Sonship and His mission to do the will of the father. Even at the age of twelve, Jesus was moved by a divine compulsion to do the Father's will. To my teenagers that read this you are not the church of tomorrow you are the church of today!!! does your life bring glory to the fathers will.

Jesus grew in a balanced way without neglecting any part of life, and His priority was to do the will of His Father. He knew how to listen and how to ask the right questions. He learned how to work, and HE was obedient to His parents. Jesus grew up in a large family, in a despised city, nurtured by parents who were probably poor. The Jewish religion was at an all-time low, the Roman government was in control, and society was in a state of change. Yet when Jesus emerged from Nazareth, eighteen years later, the Father was able to say of Him, "Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased"(Luke 3:22). May the Father be able to say that about us!!!!!