Trips and Takeaways
"I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God ...that is why I was sent." Luke 4:43 (NIV)
I'm often asked how to go about studying the Bible on your own. We have to understand that there is a big difference between Bible reading and Bible study. While both are important to our overall spiritual growth, Bible reading is just that: reading. On the other hand, I like to think of Bible study as taking a trip and spending some extended time staying in a particular location. Before taking the trip, it's important to get an overview of our destination. Once we're there, we unpack and stay for a temporary period. When we're ready to leave, we re-pack our luggage and go home. That analogy fits well with the way I study a particular book of the Bible. The Bible is a book, but it's also a library of 66 books that all tell one story: God's story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. When studying each book in the Bible's library, we need to gain an overview; to unpack the contents; and then to repack for the trip home.
I'm still repacking the Gospel of Luke after a 10 week Bible study that actually began for me personally last April. For wrap up study, our group compiled a long list of our Top Luke Takeaways. A Top Takeaway is a spiritual truth, gold nugget, insight, or life application that really impacted you over the course of the study. As a group, we had over 40 Top Takeaways, but here are my Top Ten:
Jesus, Savior of the world (Luke's main theme) to the least, last and lost
The gospel is both good news and bad news. The bad news is we can't save ourselves. The good news is we don't have to. Jesus IS our salvation.
The kingdom of God is the redemptive reign and rule of God (Luke's secondary theme); the already, not yet upside down Kingdom of God which is fulfilled, but not yet consummated.
Kingdom= Reign; Church=people. (More on this later, but we mustn't confuse the two)
Parables and the power of story
Eyewitnesses and the power of a changed life. Luke begins and ends his book with eyewitnesses and then begins Acts with eyewitness testimony to the historicity of the Gospel.
There is no neutrality with the gospel. Those who heard Jesus' messages and witnessed his miracles were either amazed, angered, or altered. Which one are we?
Jesus' authority over demons, disease, defilement, danger and death
Prayer- Jesus' priority and pattern of prayer; our need for perseverance in prayer - Be like the persistent widow --keep coming!
Redemption is so much more than salvation. Redemption is restoration, God making all things new.
Much of our study time was spent on trying to get our arms around the kingdom of God concept. That phrase, the kingdom of God, is found approximately 25 times in Luke. Several weeks ago I came across a beautiful song entitled King Forevermore by Aaron Keyes. The third verse beautifully describes Jesus' story found in Luke's gospel. I asked each woman in our study to bring at least 1 song whose lyrics referenced Jesus as King. There are over 12000 and I'll be sharing some of our King themed songs next time, but for now, Keyes' third verse lyrics are below:
Mighty God in mortal fleshForsaken by a traitor's kissThe curse of sin and centuriesDid pierce the lowly prince of peaceLifted high, the sinless manCrucified, the spotless lambBuried by the sons of manRescued by the father's handTo reign as king foreverReign as king foreverReign as king forevermore
Jesus, King Forevermore!
Amen and Amen,
Donna