This lesson is an attempt to “put it together.”  To provide you with the pathway to growth.  “Do what you’re told” is the short answer, another one might be “trust and obey.”  So to grow stronger, start by teaching, healing & reproducing.  Find an act of service and/or fun, and invite a friend to join you.  Then do it again.  Then do it better, and do it more.  Start somewhere, and increase steadily in quantity and quality for the rest of your earthly life. 

Combining basics learned from 1 John 5.4, Hebrews 11, James 2.14-26, Luke 17.5-10 and 1 Samuel 17.34-37, we learn the  basics of growing faith.  We learn that faith is what we need in order to obey.  Sometimes it seems like we need more than we have – this lesson teaches the basics about how to grow that faith.

What tasks you?  What tempts you to fear, frustration, stress, or anger?  What habits would you like to overcome?  How can you grow stronger, more durable and more obedient to God?  This is the first of what (hopefully) will be a 2 part series that will teach you practical truths so you can do things that are otherwise impossible.  The power to overcome – it’s one of God’s great gifts.  

Telling the story of the rescue club to serve as a reminder of our primary purpose, because “rescue” = “seek & save.”  Like good rescuers working together, we teach, heal and reproduce … that’s rescue, recruiting, training and developing rescuers.  As we move forward, we’ll talk about growing up into stronger, wiser and more mature rescuers.  

Visit chapter 9 & 10 … where Jesus (the sent) sends the 12 as 6 pair, who also send 6 pair.  These were their first “baby steps,” in which they start taking responsibility to do God’s will and “go” to make disciples by healing, teaching and reproducing.  

We cover chapter 8, briefly discussing each of the chunks, but focus mostly on the Parable of the Sower and the Seeds.

This lesson started out as a quick overview of chapters 7 & 8, but I ran out of time. 

Remember the two layers: 1) Jesus & his audience – and 2) Luke and his audience.  We skimmed over the bits and put it into “chunks,” as Luke laid it out for his audience … mostly to show them how Jesus dealt with his own people (Jews) and other groups of people.  You should practice doing this as you study through any gospel … break it into chunks, stories, thought ideas, parables, etc.  Then see the message the writer was trying to convey to his audience. 

Then – focus on Jesus and his audience.  As disciples, this is our primary interest.  We want to understand how Jesus handled different people differently, so we can handle them the same way.  How did Jesus treat religious folks, compared to “sinners,” and why?  How did he treat Jews differently than gentiles?  But mostly … we want to watch how Jesus trained the 12.  He started them off with the Sermon on the Plain in chapter 6 (last two lessons), and then now he’s demonstrating for them how to live that sermon.  Again: first he said it, and now he is demonstrating it.  He is giving himself to people, he’s sharing what he has … just as we should.  He had the miraculous gift of healing, but we have money and medicine and time … we can also be healers!  Should we “heal” only Christians?  Should we focus only on them?  How should we treat “sinners,” like the sinful woman who came to the religious guy’s house?  

Jesus taught us in the sermon to love people … now he shows us what that looks like in real life.

This is a review of the sermon on the plain from Luke 6.17-49 … but our focus in this lesson is on the disciple’s view of scripture.  The steps are these:

  Review the “chunk” of text, and then break it down into mini-chunks, being sure to keep it in context, to know who Jesus is talking to, who he is talking in front of, and what he’s trying to accomplish.  Pay special attention not only to what Jesus is saying, but also how he’s saying it.  

  Then review the same text, and this time look at Luke’s layer.  Why did Luke choose this particular lesson, and why did he put it in this place in the gospel?  These are the sample kinds of questions you should learn to ask.  

  Now go over the text yet again … this time hopefully with others who also want to be disciples of Jesus … and challenge yourselves to see if you’re doing what Jesus teaches.  Learn to take these lessons personally and apply them to your life when your life matches his circumstances.

  Now again, go over the same section of text.  This time see it not as a disciple, but as a disciple-maker.  If you’re making disciples as Jesus did, then you’ll want to teach the way he taught, react to things the way he did, lead the way he did.  You’ll want to understand how/why he started with what he did, and why he saved some teachings until later.  

Finally, do all of the above as a conversation with God.  Remember that the bible is God’s word – it’s God’s way of speaking to you.  Now have a conversation with God.  Prayer is talking to God, reading the bible is listening to Him.  Ask Him to help you understand His word, to apply it, and to see the parts He most wants you to understand and live.  

PS: the formatting video I mentioned is located here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVkcNzIelC0 

We want to learn to understand the bible as disciples of Jesus, not scholars or preachers or Sunday school children.  To do that, we need to keep each section in context.  The goal of this short lesson is to give you an intro to this idea … to see the text as Luke portrays it: Jesus’ introduction to his new dedicated disciples, and a reminder that they’ll become unpopular, but need to love the bad guys, anyway. 

Now you have lots of homework: study the section of Luke 6.17-49.  Break this lesson into the chunks we discussed last lesson.  then see each chunk as it fits in with the work of Jesus so far, and as it applies to those he’s teaching.  Finally, consider how this will apply to you as a disciple, and as a disciple maker.  That means you’re first a student, like Jesus’ 12, but also that you want to learn to teach others as Jesus taught.  When you make disciples, you’ll want to do exactly as Jesus is doing, right?  

This is the lesson where the principles introduced so far should begin to merge together into the story of Luke.  Remember, Luke’s original audience were active gentile disciples of Jesus, and their version of church and Christianity was very different than ours, and much more like what Jesus intended.  So it was necessary to help you also understand the nature of discipleship … before we begin to see the text from which it’s taken. 

Here I introduce you to the major characters in the gospel: Jesus, his close disciples, “the crowd,” or “the people,” and the religious conservatives, generally called Pharisees and teachers of the law.  It’s easy for us to see the religious people as bad guys, but it’s important to remember that they are the ones with the right doctrine and teachings. 

My hope is that from this study of the text you’ll be able to picture yourself imitating Jesus in your own life, at your job, in your school, and with your family.  Can you find a “Simon” at work, and train up a “Peter” who will one day be a great man in our Father’s Kingdom?  No, you can’t – at least not on your own.  But with God’s help, and close attention to Jesus … you can do this and more!