Crossway Christian Church

In these verses, we see the power of God on display through Jesus. Luke is writing to to his friend, Theophilus, to remind him to cut the chute and pull up the anchor. He's telling him, "Look everything you heard about Jesus, everything you first believed about Jesus is true." And for us today, that which we need to believe again is the power Jesus wields in our life.

Jesus wants his disciples to be a people of prayer. In this passage, he encourages us to pray by telling us who God is. And he wants to show them that indeed, God is a Father to his people - a loving and generous Father who delights to pour out his gifts of blessing on his children.

Here Jesus himself tells us how to pray. It's a passage that returns us to basics, yet at the same time refreshes our souls with the reminder that God both commands and invites us to pray.

In Luke's Gospel, this is an important passage on the nature of discipleship itself. Regardless of your gifting - or your gender, for that matter - this is a crucial passage on understanding what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Specifically, it's about making sure that we have right in our minds, our hearts, and our priorities the one thing necessary to grow and mature as Jesus' disciples.

Most people recognize this story, but it is also very often misunderstood. Context is essential. This story is in fact given by Jesus to show a lawyer, a deep deficiency in his own heart, and his need of saving grace. This parable is really about the gospel itself.

Prayer is one of the most precious privileges of the Christian life. But what happens when God fails to heed our prayers? Where does the problem lie - with God or with us?

Jesus prays, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (17:17). What does it mean to be sanctified? In praying for believers to be sanctified, Jesus is praying that they be holy; that they be set apart.

What is the gospel? And, why is it important that we get these truths right, and if we are already Christians, why is it so important that we keep talking about this Gospel? Here we find the answers we are looking for.

Here we have the Christmas story with a new spin. We'll think about the same story - the birth of Jesus as the Savior of the world - but we'll look at it from a different perspective.

Now, today, we want to see how Luke ends this section by telling us about the return of the 72. And the theme we see here is joy. It’s a wonderful reminder that the hard call to follow Christ and leave everything else behind, never ends in misery but joy.

This message from Jesus is one to embrace with obedience and faith and consider how to speak to the calling Jesus has placed on our lives. Specifically, the calling to be sent on mission, making disciples of Christ for the fame of his name.

Luke reminds us that we must count the cost. We must consider what it will cost us to follow Jesus as his disciples.

As we think about Jesus' words and actions here, we need to understand that Jesus is pointing us toward a life of gospel humility. That is, humility made possible by and empowered by the gospel; the good news of Jesus' salvation for sinners.

How do we deal with our unbelief? First, we humbly admit to God that we do not believe as we should. From this passage, we want to think about how we can cultivate a real, steady, consistent faith in this life, and arm ourselves in the fight against unbelief.

As we seek to understand and apply this passage for our lives, we want to behold the glory of Jesus. When we do that, we will see how everything else pales in comparison to him.

From these verses we see the essence of Christianity itself. One of the most important passages in the entire Bible.

As we think about the Reformation of the Church in the 16th century, as we hear about men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Knox, we can appreciate their efforts and acknowledge our deft to them because we know who stood behind all their accomplishments. It was God himself.

Here we come to a story that is well known but perhaps is not well understood. It's an important story because it appears in all four Gospels of the New Testament. We not only see a miracle of Jesus, but one that gets to the very heart of who Jesus is as the Savior of the world.

From this first mission of the disciples, we not only see the beginnings of their future apostolic ministry, but the same essential principles for our own ministry today.

Here Paul describes his apostolic ministry to the Colossians. This description serves as a pattern for us today for all Christian ministry.