Luke

Theme: Costly Grace
 
This week’s lessons impress upon us the importance that one cannot be a true Christian without being a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Scripture: Luke 5:31, 32 
 
There is a defect, even a fatal defect, in the life of the church of Christ in the present day: a lack of true discipleship. For the genuine Christian, discipleship means forsaking everything to follow Christ.

Theme: “Follow Me”
 
This week’s lessons impress upon us the importance that one cannot be a true Christian without being a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Scripture: Luke 5:31, 32
 
But it is not only a false theology that has encouraged this fatal lack of discipleship. To limit it thus is to blame theologians, and God does not allow us to blame others for our own failures.

Theme: Elements of Discipleship: Obedience and Repentance
 
This week’s lessons impress upon us the importance that one cannot be a true Christian without being a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Scripture: Luke 5:31, 32   
 
In the course of this devotional series, each of the following elements will be considered in much greater detail.

Theme: Elements of Discipleship: Submission and Commitment 
 
This week’s lessons impress upon us the importance that one cannot be a true Christian without being a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Scripture: Luke 5:31, 32
 
3. Submission. In one of Jesus’s most important sayings about discipleship—which we will study more carefully next week—the Lord pictures discipleship as putting on a yoke.

Theme: Whoever Will May Come
 
This week’s lessons impress upon us the importance that one cannot be a true Christian without being a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Scripture: Luke 5:31, 32
 
Yesterday we looked at submission and commitment as elements of discipleship. We now come to the final element.
 
5.

Theme: What Is the Cost?
 
This week’s lessons show the price that must be paid to follow Christ, as well as the blessings that come when we do.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:25-35
 
I was talking with a distinguished doctor who was commenting on missionary practices in his area of the world. According to him, there is much valuable work being done, and the people doing it are certainly earnest and dedicated believers. But there is one thing lacking.

Theme: Implications for Sola Scriptura 
 
This week’s lessons show the price that must be paid to follow Christ, as well as the blessings that come when we do.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:25-35
 
Jesus also said many specific things about the cost of salvation. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

Theme: Implications for Sola Fide and Sola Gratia
 
This week’s lessons show the price that must be paid to follow Christ, as well as the blessings that come when we do.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:25-35
 
Yesterday we looked at sola Scriptura.  Today we look at sola fide and sola gratia.
 
2. Sola fide. The second great distinctive is sola fide.

Theme: Considering the Cost
 
This week’s lessons show the price that must be paid to follow Christ, as well as the blessings that come when we do.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:25-35
 
It is not hard to be an outward Christian. A person can go to church once or twice on Sunday and pretend to be tolerably upright during the week. There is no self-denial, no sacrifice here.

Theme: Paying the Cost
 
This week’s lessons show the price that must be paid to follow Christ, as well as the blessings that come when we do.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:25-35
 
What must I pay to be a Christian? I must pay the price of my own self-righteousness, no longer counting myself a good person but rather as one who has transgressed God’s righteous law and is therefore under the sentence of His wrath and condemnation.

Theme: A Hard Saying of Jesus
 
This week’s lessons focus on the high price of new relationships that must be paid to follow Christ.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:26
 
Quite frequently, when I am conducting weddings, I point out that the family is the most basic of all human institutions.

Theme: Beyond Accounting
 
This week’s lessons focus on the high price of new relationships that must be paid to follow Christ.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:26
 
Yesterday we concluded by offering another way to understand our passage, which was that Jesus was speaking in hyperbole; that is, he was intentionally exaggerating in order to make a point.
 
But there are a number of reasons for thinking that this may be too facile a handling.

Theme: Two Shocking Truths
 
This week’s lessons focus on the high price of new relationships that must be paid to follow Christ.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:26
 
1. The radical demands of Christ’s kingdom. Over the years that I have been in Christian work I have been asked to serve on a number of boards of Christian organizations, and to the extent that I have had time I have been glad to do so. I have done everything I am able to do for these organizations.

Theme: Two More Shocking Truths
 
This week’s lessons focus on the high price of new relationships that must be paid to follow Christ.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:26
 
3.

Theme: Old Family, New Family
 
This week’s lessons focus on the high price of new relationships that must be paid to follow Christ.
 
Scripture: Luke 14:26
 
But I think I hear you thinking. “That is all well and good, to be talking about breaking with old social acquaintances or other distant friends. But that is quite a different thing from breaking with one’s parents or, worse yet, one’s husband or wife.

Theme: Three Who Faltered
 
This week’s lessons press the importance that it is not enough to merely show an initial interest in following Christ; one must persevere in obedience to the very end.
 
Scripture: Luke 9:57-62
 
Eight hundred years before Christ’s day the prophet Elijah was led to enlist Elisha as his fellow worker and successor. He found Elisha plowing, went to him, and threw his mantle over him.

Theme: The First Two Difficulties
 
This week’s lessons press the importance that it is not enough to merely show an initial interest in following Christ; one must persevere in obedience to the very end.
 
Scripture: Luke 9:57-62
 
1. Physical hardships and deprivation. The first of these three individuals (like the third) volunteered to follow Christ. He said, “I will follow you wherever you go” (Luke 9:57).

Theme: The Third Difficulty
 
This week’s lessons press the importance that it is not enough to merely show an initial interest in following Christ; one must persevere in obedience to the very end.
 
Scripture: Luke 9:57-62
 
3. Determination to set one’s own terms. The third of these three individuals (like the first) also volunteered to follow Jesus. But he wanted to do so on his terms rather than on Jesus’ terms.