The Gospel According to Luke Chapters 11-12

1. The Gospel According to LukeChapters 11-12 GCBC Adult Studies Week 6 –November 17, 2013

2. Structure of Luke

3. Luke Details… • Date Written: ~ 60 AD (range 58-64) • Original Audience: Theophilus – Possibly Greeks who had heard of Jesus • Not an eyewitness or Apostle, but a compiler of accounts “handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses” • Purpose: “so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.” • About 65 years after the birth of Jesus – a carefully researched account is appropriate

4. Study Questions • When Jesus responds to His disciple’s question about prayer, does the text indicate they were to recite the exact words? • Luke 11:2 And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come…’” • Consider Matthew 7-9 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven…’”

5. Study Questions • What does it mean for these disciples to pray “Your kingdom come”? • They are to pray that God will begin the Messianic Kingdom for Israel

6. Study Questions • Was the “Lord’s Prayer” completely new, and how would you relate it to their culture? • The content – submitting to His will and trusting that He will provide all that is needed – describes how the Jewish nation was to obey and be blessed by the Mosaic Covenant. The Prayer is basically a request for God to restore His relationship with Israel as promised!

7. Study Questions • Does vs. 11:8 indicate you are to keep praying for things because such persistence causes God to answer? (Consider vs. 11:13 in your answer.) • 11:5-8 Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”

8. Study Questions • Does vs. 11:8 indicate you are to keep praying for things because such persistence causes God to answer? (Consider vs. 11:13 in your answer.) • 11:13“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” • No – His teaching is that the Lord knows our needs and will provide them – unlike people who only give grudgingly

9. Study Questions • How would you explain the parable in 11:24-26 considering the cultural history of Israel? • 11:24-26 “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

10. Study Questions • How would you explain the parable in 11:24-26 considering the cultural history of Israel? • Illustrated by Israel’s history, they repented and turned back to the Lord many times, but always turned aside and became worse than they were before in a downward spiral as seen in Judges and in the kingdom after Solomon.

11. Study Questions • Is the parable in vss. 11:33-36 related to the parable in vss. 11:29-32? How would you explain them?

12. Question 6 – context illustration • 11:29-32 As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

13. Question 6 – context illustration • 11:33-36 “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.”

14. Study Questions • Is the parable in vss. 11:33-36 related to the parable in vss. 11:29-32? How would you explain them? • The parables combined illustrate the lack of belief in the response of the Nation to the signs and message of the Messiah. They see, but do not believe, showing the “light” does not enter them through their eyes.

15. Study Questions • In vss. 11:37-52 Jesus pronounces “woe” to the Pharisees and Lawyers. What does that mean? • In this context “woe” is basically an announcement of judgment or condemnation based on the descriptions that follow.

16. Study Questions • Is there a modern application for the way Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and Lawyers as we speak to unbelieving people? What would it be? • Although we reach out in love with the Gospel, we should also be clear that rejection of God will eventually bring condemnation and judgment when He judges all of mankind.

17. Study Questions • What is “the leaven of the Pharisees” considering His full section of 12:1-12? • 12:1-3 Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “ Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

18. Leaven of the Pharisees • 12:4-7 “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

19. Leaven of the Pharisees • 12:8-12 “And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him. When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

20. Study Questions • What is “the leaven of the Pharisees” considering His full section of 12:1-12? • Matthew 16:12 Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. • In context of Luke’s emphasis on hypocrisy and future judgment, it suggests the way the Pharisees observe the signs of Messiah and listen to His teaching, while rejecting and remaining internally unbelieving.

21. Study Questions • How should you understand vs. 12:13 considering the inheritance customs of the Jewish people at that time? • 12:13 Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” • By custom, the eldest son receives a double portion and inherits position as leader of the family. • Likely this man is a younger son seeking an even distribution

22. Study Questions • Does the parable in vss. 12:16-21 have a broader meaning in the cultural history of the Jewish people at that time? • 16-21 And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

23. Study Questions • Does the parable in vss. 12:16-21 have a broader meaning in the cultural history of the Jewish people at that time? • The nation’s leaders enjoyed their status under the current system, and expected it to continue all their lives, with God’s judgment being a far future event. Jesus indicates the time for the nation to respond or face judgment was immediate.

24. Study Questions • Should the parable in vss. 12:22-34 be seen as being primarily individual or national instruction, and why? • It is national: If the nation accepted the Messiah and the offered Kingdom, this describes how God would deal with restored, believing Israel

25. Study Questions • Who do the “slaves” illustrate in vss. 12:35-48? • 35-38 “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the £second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.” • 41 Peter said, “Lord, are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?”

26. Slaves… • 42-48 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

27. Study Questions • Who do the “slaves” illustrate in vss. 12:35-48? • Those in leadership positions who have access to God’s revelation and should lead the country. The Apostles will lead in the Kingdom Age due to their acceptance and belief in the Messiah. The Scribes and Pharisees who should so respond by reject Him will not.

28. Study Questions • How would the original disciples have understood the illustration of “fire” in vs. 12:49? Why? • 49 “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! • Judgment that comes with the return and the establishment of the Kingdom

29. Study Questions • How should they have understood “the present time” from the illustration in vss. 12:54-56, and based on that the one in vss. 12:57-59? • 54-56 And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time? • The time the Messiah offers the Kingdom

30. Study Questions • How should they have understood “the present time” from the illustration in vss. 12:54-56, and based on that the one in vss. 12:57-59? • 57-59 “And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right? For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.” • Illustrating the pervious: God will judge in the case of the Pharisees vs. the Messiah

31. Next Week • Read Chapters 13 & 14 • Consider the Study Questions • Work out answers yourself, then refer to commentaries if desired.