Luke (Letter 42, Larry Crabb’s 66 Love Letters)

Let Jesus lead the way
The road to perfect maturity will make us vulnerable to severe temptations that those who settle for apparent maturity will feel less strongly. But if we want to be formed like His Son that is the road we must choose, the one less traveled.
In Matthew, God introduced His Son to us as our King. He told us how citizens of His kingdom are to live.
In Mark, we met His Son as our humble servant, a man who made no demands for Himself. His complete lack of spiritual entitlement called us to recognize and hate ours.
Perfect maturity feels deeply and loves generously even when life is hard. That is what it means to become like His Son.
Jesus told his followers to wait until the Spirit came.
We can become apparently mature without His Spirit’s power. Human effort is sufficient.
Peace will come to Earth only when everyone is perfectly mature.
Movement in that direction requires the power of His Spirit, to divide and expose the two roads within us, leading us forward to the narrow road.

Book Name: LUKE – From Ray Stedman

Click here for entire Bible Summary from Ray Stedman

The Gospel of Luke: THE PERFECT MAN

Here is the Gospel of the Son of man – Jesus, the man. His essential manhood is constantly being set forth throughout this Gospel.

“The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost,” {Luke 19:10 KJV}.

In the beginning of this Gospel, Luke tells us how he came into the race. Then, he came to seek. The first part of his ministry consists of seeking man out – of moving into the heart of humanity. Finally, he moves on to save by means of the cross and his resurrection. The first three chapters and beginning of the fourth give us the entrance of the Lord into the race, beginning with his genealogy; how he was born and made one of us.

Finally, we read: And when he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. {Luke 19:28 RSV}
That marks the close of his ministry of penetrating into the character and nature of man, and the beginning of his work to save man.

Then Chapters 4 through 19 trace for us the first part of his ministry among men, and especially, his journey toward Jerusalem:
When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. {Luke 9:51a RSV}
The record of this journey occupies Chapters 9 through part of 19, and recounts incidents along the way.

In chapter 4 he is declaring here what he came to do – to enter into the poor, the oppressed, the blind, the captives, and to set them free.

The whole story of the following chapters is of his entering into the common place experiences of man, where men live in darkness, slavery, and death. Soon he begins his journey to Jerusalem, as we have already noted, when he begins to enter fully into the soul of man.
At last, in Chapter 19, Verse 28, we see him preparing to enter as the great high priest into the Holy of Holies of man, to restore that which has been lost for all these many centuries.

As you continue through Luke, you see the Lord moving from the Mount of Olives down into the city, cleansing the temple, teaching and preaching in it, returning to the Mount to deliver the Olivet Discourse. Then he goes on to the upper room, to the Passover feast, from there to the Garden of Gethsemane, to Pilate’s judgment seat, and from there to the cross, followed by the mob as they take him outside the city gates to nail him on the tree.

Then we have the wonder of the resurrection morning and the account that Luke gives us of the two men who were walking on the road to Emmaus when a stranger appeared to them and talked with them.

That is where we stand now. The secret of every human heart is open to anyone who opens his own heart to the Son of man, to the one who penetrates the depths of the human spirit, and from there reestablishes that relationship with God which makes a man what God intended man to be.

LUKE – David Jeremiah (Understanding the 66 Books of the Bible)

Key thought: Jesus Christ is Savior for the entire world, for everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, for all are lost and need to be saved.

Key Verse: For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10

Key Action: The followers of Christ must be gripped by the needs of lost people, seek them with the message of life, and rejoice with the angels when they come to Christ.