THE DISCIPLES' RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS GOD'S PEOPLE AND THE WARNING NOT TO GET ABOVE THEMSELVES BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY WILL ACCOMPLISH (17:1-10). Some have spoken here of ‘separate sayings' but there is no reason why this passage should not be seen as a unity. It is a string of connected sayings of a t... [ Continue Reading ]
CAUSING STUMBLINGBLOCKS FOR CHILDREN (17:1-2). The first warning is against putting causes for stumbling in people's way, especially in the way of weak disciples and believing children. Analysis. a And he said to his disciples, “It is impossible but that occasions of stumbling should come (Luke 1... [ Continue Reading ]
THE NEED TO FORGIVE READILY (17:3-4). Jesus also stresses the need to forgive readily those who recognise their faults. Being unwilling readily to forgive could easily result in causing the weak who have sinned, and sense that they are unforgiven, to stumble and fall away. Such people often need to... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” And the Lord said, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed,” You would say to this sycamine (mulberry) tree, ‘Be you rooted up, and be you planted in the sea,' And it would obey you.” The plea for increased faith is by ‘the Apostles'... [ Continue Reading ]
“But who is there of you, having a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, who will say to him, when he is come in from the field, ‘Come straightway and sit down to meat',” Jesus is well aware, however, that power as well as wealth can corrupt people and prevent them from keeping their minds on things... [ Continue Reading ]
“And will not rather say to him, ‘Make ready that on which I may sup, and gird yourself, and serve me, until I have eaten and drunk, and afterwards you will eat and drink?' ” Will the master not rather tell the servant to get the meal ready, and serve it up to the master and his family, until they... [ Continue Reading ]
“Does he thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded?” Indeed this is so much so that the servant will not even expect to be thanked. He will recognise his place. He is merely doing what as a servant is his duty. It was a generally held view that servants must be kept in their p... [ Continue Reading ]
“Even so you also, when you shall have done all the things that are commanded you,” In the same way when the Apostles are carrying out all the commands given to them, they are to be the same. “Say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which it was our duty to do.' ” They are to say, ‘W... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And it came about that, as they were on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee.' When Luke gives a detailed introduction he regularly has a purpose in it. Thus the mention of being on the way to Jerusalem brings the shadow of His death over the narrative. It... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men who were skin diseased, who stood afar off,' Approaching a certain village (Luke's source may not have known its name) Jesus came across ten men who ‘stood afar off'. They were skin diseased and therefore unclean and were thus forbidd... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And they lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” ' These men pleaded in loud voices for Jesus to show His compassion to them, acknowledging Him as ‘Master' (Epistata - the One who stands over). This title is usually only used by Luke as spoken by disciples of Jesus, and... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And when he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And thus it happened that, as they went, they were cleansed.' When Jesus became aware of them (an eyewitness touch) He commanded them to go to the priests to be examined, as though they were those who had been cured of... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, with a loud voice glorifying God, and he fell on his face at his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan.' But one of the men had not gone with the others. He was a Samaritan and would seek out his own priests. But as soon as he... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And Jesus answering said, “Were not the ten cleansed? but where are the nine? Were there none found who returned to give glory to God, save this stranger?” Jesus was impressed by his attitude of thanksgiving and faith. When He asks His question about the nine He is not suggesting that they have do... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he said to him, “Arise, and go your way. Your faith has made you whole.” ' Then He turned to the man and declared that his faith had ‘saved him', had made him whole. Thus it is made clear that non-Jews also could find salvation through faith in Jesus. The idea is not that the other nine were n... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And being asked by the Pharisees, when the Kingly Rule of God is coming, he answered them and said, “The Kingly Rule of God is not coming with observation, nor will they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the Kingly Rule of God is within (or ‘among') you.” ' The Pharisees pressed Him as to when the... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he said to the disciples, “The days will come, when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you will not see it.” ' Then Jesus turned and spoke to His disciples. He did not want them to think that it was all quite as simple as that. While the Kingly Rule of God was here am... [ Continue Reading ]
“And they will say to you, ‘Lo, there!' ‘Lo, here!' Go not away, nor follow after them,” Nor are they to be deceived by any who claim to be reintroducing those days and claiming that they are again setting up ‘the days of the Messiah' in this physical world. For when He does return it will not be ‘h... [ Continue Reading ]
“For as the lightning, when it lightens out of the one part under the heaven, shines to the other part under heaven, so shall the Son of man be in his day.” For when He comes He will be revealed in splendour and glory (compare Luke 8:29) in the same way as the lightning lights up the whole heavens.... [ Continue Reading ]
“But first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.” But He must first suffer on earth. That He is unquestionably speaking of Himself now comes out (although those who had heard His inner words to the disciples earlier could hardly have doubted it). For He now declares that bef... [ Continue Reading ]
“And as it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of man.” Here the ‘days of Noah' undoubtedly refer to the days prior to the day that Noah left the world and entered the Ark as the next verse makes clear. We would therefore expect the parallel phrase ‘the days... [ Continue Reading ]
“They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” And what happened in ‘the days of Noah?' They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage. In other words life seemed to be goi... [ Continue Reading ]
“In the same way even as it occurred in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.” A second example is now given, the days of Lot, which is ‘in... [ Continue Reading ]
“In the same way will it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed.” But here in the second example there is possibly a greater emphasis on the final Judgment depending on how we read the ‘day that the Son of Man is revealed'. This may be in contrast with ‘the days of the Son of Man', with more... [ Continue Reading ]
“In that day, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away, and let him that is in the field similarly not return back.” The first illustration of the urgency of these days is to picture it in terms of escaping from catastrophe without looking b... [ Continue Reading ]
“Remember Lot's wife.” The second illustration is Lot's wife.' She did look back. Unlike Lot, her heart was in Sodom and not with God. She was reluctant to leave. And she became an example of all who are judged. Thus those who would be ready for that day must ensure that their hearts are not like h... [ Continue Reading ]
“Whoever will seek to gain his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life shall preserve it.” The third illustration is between those who cling to their lives of sin, like Lot's wife, and thus perish, and those whose hearts, like that of Lot, are on the righteousness of God (2 Peter 2:7), in... [ Continue Reading ]
“I say to you, In that night there will be two men on one bed, the one will be taken, and the other will be left.” We now have a final statement of the climactic events which will take place, and typically of Luke, one refers to men and one to women. They equally participate in both blessing and ju... [ Continue Reading ]
“There will be two women grinding together, the one will be taken, and the other will be left.” The same picture is now applied to women grinding in the mill together, the one turning the stone, the other pouring in the grain. Very often this would be mother and daughter, or two sisters. But the on... [ Continue Reading ]
“And they answering say to him, “Where, Lord?” And he said to them, “Where the carcase (body) is, there will the vultures also be gathered together.” This then raised the obvious question among His listeners. Where then would they be taken? The reply is a vivid one. The vultures gather to their food... [ Continue Reading ]