Beachside

In Luke 9, we read about something commonly called “the transfiguration.” Jesus and three of his disciples went up onto a mountain to pray, and something miraculous happened. Jesus’s physical appearance changed to show he truly was divine, and visions of two heroes of the Old Testament (Moses and Elijah) appeared with Jesus as well. As you can imagine, Jesus’s friends who saw this—Peter, James, and John—would have been stunned. And Luke points out that the three saw this as they were on the verge of being asleep, so that must have been quite the wake-up moment!

For them to see Jesus in a deified state like that is something called a “theophany,” meaning “God appearing.” There are only a few theophanies mentioned in the Bible, where people got to see a physical appearance of God in some sort of supernatural, miraculous fashion like the one Luke mentions. And with Moses and Elijah to appear alongside Jesus was an indicator Jesus was there to fulfill what God promised centuries ago—to send someone to restore people’s relationship with God and to make God’s people a blessing for the entire world.

The transfiguration was so incredible that Peter offered to build a shelter for each of the three men who had appeared. Now, these shelters Peter was talking about were most likely a type of booth used in one of the Jewish celebrations—a type of booth a Jewish person would come to for seven days straight. It was Peter’s way of saying, “Can we just keep this moment going for a while? Can it stay this way? This is incredible.”

Certainly there was a reason God wanted Peter, James, and John to see Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in this glorified state. This transfiguration gave them a clearer picture of who Jesus was. For Peter to proclaim, “It is good for us to be here” is one of the great understatements of all time.

But that moment wouldn’t last forever. It was brief. The three friends would come down from that mountain with Jesus, and their ministry would continue. But it would continue with the memory of something that would inspire them going forward.

Occasionally, you’ll have some spiritual highs. Maybe it’s a song you hear at just the right time. Maybe you feel like God brought someone into your life that helped change you. Or maybe you feel like you were witness to a bona fide miracle. Whatever your moment was (or moments), it didn’t last forever. However, there’s no telling what God can do with that moment. From time to time, it’s good to think back and remember one of those moments. How can remembering it inspire you to live out your faith and inspire others to live out theirs?

That’s it for this time. Read Chapters 10 and 11 to get ready for the next one.

It’s no secret that Jesus did much of his teaching in the form of parables. A parable is a fictional story with a spiritual lesson. And, typically, when Jesus told a parable, he didn’t explicitly tell the exact meaning of the parable. It was up to the listener to decipher what it meant. In fact, as we read in Luke 8:10, Jesus told his disciples that was sort of the reason he taught so much in parables. It was one of the ways to tell if someone was really interested in the things of God. If they understood the parable, or if they were curious enough to try to find the meaning of the parable, that was an indicator of someone trying to take a next step in their faith. But for those who would hear parables and not really try to understand them, well, that was an indicator they may not be interested in what Jesus was trying to tell them about God. And to illustrate that point, he told them a parable. So yes, he told a parable to explain why he told parables!

In this particular parable (also in Luke 8), we hear about a farmer who sowed (or planted) seeds in several different places. He accidentally dropped some of the seeds on his walking path and the birds ate them. Some others got dropped among rocks and thorn bushes, and a few sprouts grew but died pretty quickly. Some got placed into good soil. As you can guess, the seeds that ended up in the good soil yielded a way better crop than the seeds that landed in the other places. In each situation, the seed was the same. It was the environment that made all the difference.

The disciples asked him what all that meant, and he told them: “The seed is the Word of God, or the message of God—something to point people toward God. And there are times when that message doesn’t really take root in someone’s life, but sometimes it does. And when it does, there’s growth—not just immediate growth, but sustained growth. There’s long-term change.”

Maybe you can relate to what he was talking about in that parable. Perhaps you remember a season when your faith was a big part of your life. But now, if you’re honest, maybe it’s not. And just like some of those seeds were trampled and eaten by birds or fell into rocks or thorns, obstacles got in the way of your relationship with God being a bigger part of your life. If that’s the case, what’s that obstacle? What would it look like to remove it? Is it still even there? What would it take for you to dig into that good soil and see real, life-changing growth?

Before the next session, read Luke Chapter 9.

Imagine for a second that your friend is working as a server at a local restaurant. You know he’s working on a particular night, and you and a few others decide to go out and sit in his section. But when you get there, you see the night is going horribly for your friend. The place is understaffed. Guests aren’t happy. Your friend is not having a good night at work. Even though you’re a paying customer, what would you say to your friend?

“Don’t worry about us! We’re fine. Come back and take care of us when you can.

We can wait. No problem.”

And you’d feel good about doing that. You’re doing something nice for your friend. You’re giving him a break. 

But according to Dr. Richard Beck, the author of the book Unclean, there has been no significant moral demonstration on your part. As Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, some of which appears in Luke 6, even the pagans do that. Everybody takes care of their own people.

A mark of Jesus followers is how we think about and treat the people who are not our people. It’s when we offer the same hospitality to those who look different, vote differently, or live differently. It’s when we truly see those people as just as valuable as anyone else.

As Jesus said, Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:35–36)

That’s it for now. Before next time, read Chapter 8.

We don’t have many details about Jesus’s life before his public ministry began. Matthew and Luke give us some highlights surrounding Jesus’s birth, and Luke tells us a quick story about Jesus bailing on his family for a few days when he was about 12 when he learned and taught at the temple. But that’s about it.

Most of the stories written about Jesus start when he was about 30 years old. It’s around this age when he really began to embrace and live out his role as the Son of God. Something happened then. We don’t know what, or how his heavenly Father communicated it to him, but it was time. It was time for him to step out of the shadows and show people who he really was… to show people who God really was.

His first way of doing that was demonstrating that he could withstand even the greatest of temptations and still remain focused on his mission that lay ahead. In Luke 4, we read that God directed Jesus into the wilderness, where he ate nothing for a solid forty days. It’s then—hungry and tired—that Jesus is tempted by the devil himself. Food, power… he would get both of those if he’d just jump through a couple of the devil’s hoops. But he resists.

The enemy was trying to get him to doubt God the Father, but Jesus repeatedly showed that he believed that what his Father said could be trusted.

It’s not quite the same as what Jesus experienced, but we’re faced with similar choices on a regular basis: Do I trust what God has for me—or will have for me in the future—is good enough? Or am I willing to take a shortcut for short-term satisfaction?

Can God provide intimacy for me in a healthy way, or do I take the shortcut of finding intimacy in the wrong way?

Can I learn to be content with whatever material possessions I have, or am I willing to take a shortcut to gain even more?

Do I have a need to gain or hang onto popularity or power? Am I willing to take a shortcut ethically to try to get them or keep them?

That’s it for now. Before next time, read Chapters 6 and 7.

In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we get to eavesdrop on the angel Gabriel, who gives two birth announcements, in a sense, to two different sets of parents. And for what it’s worth, the two Moms are related… cousins in some form or fashion. At any rate, these two babies will be born about six months apart.

The first baby born will end up being one of the great prophets of the day: John the Baptist (or John the Baptizer), whose main purpose will be to let people know that the long-awaited rescuer, the coming King of the Jews, has arrived. And John’s parents were Zechariah and Elizabeth.

The other announcement was for the upcoming birth of Jesus, the Savior who was coming to restore a connection between God and his people. We read in Luke 2 about the humble circumstances surrounding Jesus’s birth.

One fascinating observation has to do with how OPPOSITE the circumstances were surrounding the birth of these two Hebrew boys. For instance…

Jesus’s parents, Mary and Joseph, have no social significance to speak of. Joseph made a presumably modest living as a young carpenter, probably working for his dad, and they lived in a town that was just a small dot on the map.

Zechariah and Elizabeth, on the other hand (John the Baptist’s parents), lived very near Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem. Zechariah was a priest with important responsibilities at the temple.

Neither couple had any reason whatsoever to believe they would have a baby, but they had sort of opposite reasons for why they thought that. For Mary and Joseph (who weren’t married), they had yet to, you know, try to conceive. For Zechariah and Elizabeth, they hadn’t been able to have children in all their years of marriage… and now they were old.

So to both couples, this whole “You’ve got a baby on the way” came as quite a shock.

But isn’t that how it works sometimes? In one of the most incredible examples (well, two examples), we see God working in a way no one could have imagined.

Something remarkable, though, is what these couples had in common. While neither couple expected a pregnancy, both trusted God even when it didn’t make sense.

For us, it can be tough to try and make sense of our circumstances. But regardless of where we find ourselves, we can trust God through those circumstances.

That’s it for now. Before next time, read Chapter 3.

If you asked the average church attendee or someone who is a little familiar with the Bible, “Who wrote most of the New Testament?” you’re usually going to get the answer, “the apostle Paul.” And that’s partly true. Paul did write most of the books in the New Testament. But in terms of the number of words written, most of the pages in our New Testament were written by Luke.

Luke wrote two large documents that account for about 28 percent of the New Testament. He wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, and Acts is really just a continuation of the book of Luke. The Gospel of Luke gives an account of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. Then Acts gives an account of how the early church got started.

Luke became a Jesus follower several years after Jesus walked the earth, most likely under Paul’s influence. Luke was probably a Gentile (someone without a Jewish background), so he would have come to know and understand Jesus without being  raised learning the Hebrew Scriptures.

Professionally, it appears Luke was a medical doctor, and that he left his full-time profession to travel with Paul and do the work of spreading the good news that people could access God through his Son, Jesus.

Luke wasn’t a firsthand witness to the stories and teachings—and miracles—of Jesus, but he took the time to collect all the information he could, summarize it, and put it in an orderly fashion. There were tons of stories circulating about Jesus, and Luke was passionate about organizing those stories in a way to help people understand who Jesus was and what he came for.

One of his main sources was Mark, the same Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark by documenting a lot of what Peter told him about Jesus. So if you ever notice that a lot of Luke’s Gospel looks like Mark’s Gospel, that’s why. And there’s also some overlap with Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke share some of the same stories about Jesus with different details here and there. That’s why those three Gospels are known as the Synoptic Gospels. “Synoptic” means “seen in a similar way.”

But Luke found some other nuggets about Jesus that are only in his account and not in the other Gospels… things like Jesus’s parables of the prodigal son and the good Samaritan.

Ultimately, Luke wanted to present a clear, historical narrative of the person and work of Jesus as the Savior of all people.

 Over the next five weeks, we’ll provide a guide to help you read through the 24 chapters in Luke. You’ll get a two-minute devotional every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and we’ll give you instructions to read a chapter or two of Luke on the off days.

So, here we go: Before next time, read Chapters 1 and 2. We hope as you journey through Luke, you’ll see God in a fresh, new way.