Chapter 8

8:1-15

8:16-21

8:22-25

8:26-33

8:34-39

8:40-56

Recap

Chapter: Luke 8

Passage: Luke 8:1-15

A. Find Out:    

1. What was Jesus doing and who was with him? v.1-3

2. What were the four places the seed in the story fell on? v.4-8

3. Who questioned the meaning of the parable? v.9

4. Why did he say he spoke in parables? v.10

5. What did the seed falling on the path & the rock represent? v.11-13

6. What did the seed among thorns and on good soil represent? v.14,15

B. Think:

1. What do the people travelling with Jesus indicate about him?

2. What is the point of parables according to Jesus?

3. What was the point of this parable?

C. Comment:

     This passage tells us a great deal about Jesus and about his teaching ministry. First of all the people travelling with him: note the variety of people, the high and the lowly, men and women, all travelling together, all blessed by Jesus and now seeking to be a blessing to him.

     Second, the method of Jesus' teaching: he uses parables because they are memorable but they are also obscure to the casual and yet will provoke the seeker to come to him and find answers.

     Finally, the meaning of this particular parable: the aim of this story is to say that when he spoke God's word, it had a different effect depending on the heart that received it.

•   Some people hear the word but then, because their lives are so open to Satan, he just snatches it away and they forget it straight away.
•   Other people hear the word and say “That's great” but as soon as pressure comes on them they show that it had not gone deeply into them and they fall away.
•   Another groups of people hear the word but as they go back into their home situations, the worries of life just overwhelm them and the word is forgotten. Again it hasn't gone deep.
•   The final group are those who hear and receive the word deep into them and are changed by it. In them alone does the word of God bring the fruit of true salvation.

D. Application:

1. My heart?

•  The state of heart determines the response to the word of God. How is my heart revealed? Does God's word come to me and take root and bear fruit?

2. The state of heart

•  The state of heart can be changed. Am I determined to ensure that my life will be fruitful?  What do I need to do to ensure that?

Chapter: Luke 8

Passage: Luke 8:16-21   

A. Find Out:

1. What doesn't one do with a lamp? v.16a

2. What does one do with it and why? v.16b

3. What will happen to what is hidden or concealed? v.17

4. What principle does Jesus state for the listener? v.18

5. Who then came to see Jesus? v.19,20

6. What did Jesus say about his family? v.21

B. Think:

1. What are these passages about? (see v.18,21)

2. What is the link with the previous passage?

3. So how do you think v.16,17 fit into that?

C. Comment:

      So far in this chapter Jesus was teaching on the different ways people can respond to the word of God that (implied) comes through him. In verse 18 he exhorts “consider carefully how you listen”, as if to say, “Well you've heard the teaching, now make sure you are like the good soil”. Then when his family arrive, he uses family as a teaching to say anyone who hears and DOES what I bring from God is part of my family. So what sense do verses 16 & 17 make in the light of this?

      Ah, look at what we just said - “in the light of that”. What does that phrase mean? It means when we understand the rest. We say, “suddenly the light dawned on them” meaning suddenly they understood. Now Jesus was talking about truth, or understanding God's word. Look, he says, you don't hide a light, so similarly I'm not here to hide the truth but to bring it out into the open (v.16),  indeed you can know all things (v.17).

      Now comes v.18 - when you listen carefully and seek God to understand, you will be given even more. The person who can't be bothered to seek God will not have the truth and even the little wisdom they think they have, will be proved to be nothing. When they think they are clever they'll be shown they aren't, their cleverness will be taken away. No it's the person who hears, receives and obeys who will receive more!

D. Application:

1. How to change my heart?

•  We asked this in the previous study.  This one shows I can do it by changing my attitude and make myself a seeker. Will I do that?

2. How to increase my understanding

• Truth is given by God to the open hearted seeker. As I make myself a seeker, He will grant understanding. Will I do it?

Chapter: Luke 8

Passage: Luke 8:22-25

A. Find Out:

1. Who suggested what? v.22

2. What happened? v.23

3. What was the disciples' response? v.24a

4. What did Jesus do? v.24b

5. How did he rebuke them? v.25a

6. How were they left feeling? v.25b

B. Think:

1. How real was the danger on the lake do you think?

2. Why do you think Jesus was able to sleep in it?

3. Why do you think he rebuked the disciples?

C. Comment:

      Moving away from his teaching, Luke now gives us an incident that occurred one day as they were travelling. For some reason Jesus suggests they go across the lake (which is really a small sea). The lake is known for its changeable weather and while they are part way across a storm comes. This is a serious storm!  Luke says they were “in great danger” and these disciples, some of whom are fishermen who had spent their whole lives on this lake, were seriously worried!

       Now in the midst of this storm something strange is happening: Jesus is sleeping.  Is he oblivious to the danger? No, he's simply tired AND at peace in the knowledge of his Father's will - at peace in the knowledge that his Father is looking after him and that he can handle whatever comes along.

      The disciples do not have that double assurance yet! They wake Jesus in panic, and Jesus simply takes authority over the storm and it abates. The disciples are astonished. More than that, they are afraid. They had not realised that their master has this sort of authority. This is a completely different ball game!

      But now Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith. Why? He obviously expected them to react in a different way. How? Well perhaps he wanted then to call on God themselves for deliverance, perhaps simply to trust Jesus in peace that God would look after them and that Jesus could handle it.

D. Application:

1. The storms of life

•   In a “storm” do we panic or trust God? Do we have that assurance that Father is looking after us, His children? Is that assurance translated into peace in the face of turmoil?

2. Handling the storm

•  In a "storm" do we know the authority we have? (see Eph 2:6 & Jn 14:12)  Do we go down under it or take authority over it under God's direction?

Chapter: Luke 8

Passage: Luke 8:26-33    

A. Find Out:

1. When did they go and who did they meet? v.26,27a

2. How is the man described? v.27b,29b,c

3. What did Jesus do and how did the man respond? v.29a,28

4. What did Jesus next do and with what response? v.30,31

5. What did the demons ask? v.32

6. So what then happened? v.33

B. Think:

1. What was state of the man to start with?

2. How did the demons seem to resist Jesus?

3. So what stages are there to this deliverance?

C. Comment:

     This is one of the rare cases of deliverance recorded in the Gospels that seem to take place in stages. Mostly Jesus simply spoke a word and the demon came out. In this case it is different.

     Note first the state of the man: he had probably been classified as a madman and has been chained up because he was so wild and violent. Yet so strong had he been that he had broken free and now lived out on his own in a graveyard. Note, therefore his symptoms: utterly violent, isolationist, self-destructive, associating with death.

     Now see how Jesus dealt with him. First, Jesus commands him to be released, but there seems to be resistance. Second, Jesus asks him his name and finds out there are a multitude of demons in him. Finally the demons beg to be allowed to exist in a nearby herd of pigs. For whatever purpose, Jesus consents and the demons leave the man. Note, therefore, that there was no question over the fact that they were going to leave, simply where they would go. Once in the pigs they cause them to destroy themselves.

     The temptation here is to lay down a strategy for deliverance, but this might be a one-off case. What it does show is that however many demons there are, Jesus is still Lord and has the authority to tell them to leave.

D. Application:

1. Deliverance is a fact of spiritual life

•  Is the thought of demonic deliverance alien to my thinking? Do I realise that this is a very real activity when God is on the move?

2. Fear?

•  Does the thought of the demonic create fear in me, or do I realise that Jesus is always Lord, even over masses of demons?

Chapter: Luke 8

Passage: Luke 8:34-39

A. Find Out:

1. What did the watchers do? v.34,36

2. What did the people find when they came? v.35

3. How did they react? v.37

4. What did the delivered man ask? v.38

5. What did Jesus tell him to do? v.39a

6. So what happened? v.39b

B. Think:

1. What was the first effect that was positive?

2. What was the second effect that was negative?

3. Why do you think Jesus told the man to stay?

C. Comment:

     The man has been wonderfully delivered. The initial effect of the deliverance was somewhat strange, a whole herd of pigs died. Unfortunately that effect tends to hide the main effect: the man WAS delivered! The man who was once mad, a threat to society, is now in his right mind and normal. THAT ought to be a cause for rejoicing but, Luke tells us, it was a cause for fear.  When the returning crowds saw the man now restored and when they heard the manner of his deliverance they were afraid.

     Why? Perhaps they themselves felt threatened. Here was a healer who obviously had power beyond anything they knew. A man doesn't get demonised to the degree that this man had been unless he is involved with the occult or idolatry in a big way. Perhaps many others in the area were similarly involved, and now they realise the might of the power and authority that has come into their land. Perhaps their lives are being challenged.

     The man himself, understandably wants to go with Jesus but Jesus, perhaps sensing his Father's will for the man, instructs him to stay and be a witness to his own people. Testimony is incredibly powerful and this man has an incredibly powerful testimony. It is better that he stays and is Jesus' witnesshere in his own home.

D. Application:

1. Fear of Deliverance

•  The enemy fears Jesus' presence and power. If we fear Jesus' activity is it because the enemy speaks that fear into us, and we accept it?

2. Witnesses

•  Are we the witnesses to Jesus that he's called us to be?  We are called to shine "where we are!"  Do I do that in my home,   my neighbourhood,  my work, school or college?

Chapter: Luke 8

Passage: Luke 8:40-56   

A. Find Out:

1. Who was Jairus and why did he come to Jesus? v.41,42

2. Who came and touched Jesus and why? v.42-44

3. How did Jesus reveal her? v.45-48

4. What news then came and how did Jesus respond? v.49,50

5. What did Jesus do at the house? v.51-54

6. With what effect? v.55

B. Think:

1. Why do you think that Jesus revealed the woman?

2. Why do you think Jesus cleared Jairus's house?

3. Why do you think Jesus said not to tell anyone?

C. Comment:

       First, consider Jairus, a synagogue leader, who comes pleading for Jesus to come and heal his only daughter who was dying. Most of the time, it seems, the various religious leaders were threatened by Jesus and therefore opposed him. This leader is desperate and often it takes threatening circumstances to make people put down their prejudices.

     Then there is the woman who needed healing. Why didn't she come openly? Perhaps she would be embarrassed at her infirmity, perhaps she wasn't sure that she could be healed and so reached out to Jesus in a surreptitious way, “just in case” nothing happened. Whatever the reason, Jesus was aware of what she did and simply confirmed to her that she had in fact been healed.

     Finally there are the people back at Jairus's home, apparently mourning for the death of the little girl. As good as that may apparently be, they are a hindrance to faith; they firmly believe she is dead and nothing is going to change that. For this reason, perhaps, Jesus makes them all go out while he raises the little girl to life. Years later Peter would follow the example of his master (see Acts 9:39 ,40) and put the faithless outside while he prayed.

D. Application:

1. Prejudice

•  Will ity take a crisis for me to cry out ot God and really start to move in faith? Ask the Lord to help you BEFORE a crisis.

2. Remove faithlessness

•  Lack of faith has to be removed from situations requiring faith. How might that apply in situations that I can see?  

3. Faith Rewarded

•  Jesus honours even the smallest of our faith activities. Is my life founded on faith?

RECAP:   "The Diversity of Jesus' Ministry"  Luke 8

SUMMARY :  

In this third group of 6 studies we have seen:

COMMENT:

      As we said at the end of the last Recap, in chapter 8 it is as if Luke is stacking up the evidence pointing towards Jesus in an ever bigger pile. It has been a chapter piled with such varied activities. First of all Luke introduced us to Jesus' teaching style of using parables with a parable that spoke about the varied effect of the word on different hearts. He then revealed Jesus to us as one who even has control over the elements, then over demons, sickness and death itself. If we had any illusions that Jesus was just a good teacher, Luke has shattered them by the things of this chapter!

LESSONS?

1. The state of a person's heart determines their response to God's word.

2. God gives and gives to the open hearted seeker.

3. In a “storm” do we panic or trust God?

4. Jesus is Lord over all creation.

5. Jesus is Lord over the powers of darkness.

6. Seekers find power for healing with Jesus.

7. No situation is too hard for Jesus.

PRAY:

     Ask the Lord to let the truth of these lessons really impact you to hold you secure in the storms of life.

PART 4: "Greater Revelation & Uncomfortable Lessons"

      When you think the revelation has peaked, even more incredible revelation is brought by Luke for us in the coming chapter. Watch for it!