Luke 17
COMMENTARY:
: 2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. (4624 “offend” [skandalizo] means to put a stumbling block or impediment in the way, to entice to sin, to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey, to cause to fall away, cease believing, to give up his faith or cause to sin.)
DEVOTION: Those who are adults and believe are to make sure that those who are babies in Christ mature under our ministry. Our children’s ministries have to be the best we can do each Sunday and Wednesday.
Parents and grandparents are very important in the growth of their children and grandchildren. If the parents or grandparents don’t know the LORD it can affect the relationship their children and grandchildren have with the LORD.
Too often we don’t realize how important our actions at home can affect our children. If they see one thing at church and one thing at home and there is no consistency it causes problems. If the grandparents are close and claim to be believers and the grandchildren see them not honoring the LORD by their actions and by their attendance at church it affects the grandchildren.
We have thirteen grandchildren that we are praying for regularly. We talk to them about the LORD. We try to encourage them to grow in the LORD. We give them books and magazines to help them grow in the LORD. We are important to them and they are important to us.
As parents we tried to raise our children to love the LORD. All four made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and are trying to raise their children to honor the LORD through their lives and attendance at church. We have six of our grandchildren baptized by immersion. The many of the others have been dedicated to the LORD.
The only hope can be a family that does their best to make sure their children and grandchildren know the LORD. It is a God-given responsibility. We answer to the LORD for the first years of their lives and they answer for the adult part of their life. We need to give them a good start.
CHALLENGE: Keep your children from falling into sin by proper instruction and prayer.
: 5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. (4102 “faith” [pistis] means assurance, belief, fidelity, conviction of the truth, trust, doctrine, persuasion of a thing or pledge to be faithful.)
DEVOTION: The disciples were taught by the LORD to take heed to themselves. They were to live in the truths that HE was teaching them. They were to be sure that they keep a close daily watch on their actions. They were going to be the example people would follow after HE died on the cross and ascended into heaven.
Part of the instruction dealt with the truth that they were going to have people sin against them. They were going to have people tell lies about them. They were going to have people who would not listen to their teachings. This included fellow believers.
If this happened they were to rebuke their brother in love with the mission of reconciliation to the truth of the Word of God. If the brother listened to the rebuke and changed his attitude they were to forgive him.
Now it wouldn’t be hard to do this if it only happened once but Jesus is telling them that they have to do it seven times a day. Ouch!! And if they repented of their offence against them they were to forgive them.
That would not be easy for them and it is not easy for us. We don’t like people saying or doing bad things against us. We are their fellow believer but they are doing us harm.
CHALLENGE: Obedience to the LORD is not easy but it commanded and we need to put it into practice in our daily walk with HIM. Forgiveness of those who hurt us is hard but commanded.
: 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. (2168 “thanks” [eucharisteo] means being grateful or pray.)
DEVOTION: Are we an entitlement people? Do we think that this started in our generation? Here we have the LORD instructing the disciples about not offending new believers. HE is teaching about forgiving those who offend us. The disciples are asking HIM to increase their faith. HE gives them an illustration of a mustard seed type of faith that can move trees into the seas. The next illustration is of an obedient servant.
Now along the road HE meets ten lepers who want mercy. HE tells the to go to the priest for confirmation of healing. On their way to the priest one realizes that he is healed. He returns to Christ and glorifies God. He fell at the feet of Jesus. He gave a word of gratitude to HIM. He was a Samaritan.
Remember that Samaritans were not liked by the Jews. They were half-breeds: part Jew and part Gentile. There was a real animosity between the races. It is thought that the other nine were Jewish and rejected the ministry of Jesus.
One of things we have to deal with in our lives is a short memory. Many times we are blessed of the LORD a week ago with what we consider a big blessing and we are grateful to him for his gift of a blessing.
However, we sometimes fall into the trap of saying to the LORD, “What have you done for me TODAY?” We are individuals who would like big blessings every day. We have them but don’t realize that we have them. We want MORE.
What is enough? A little bit more. It is a problem. If we could look at our lives from the LORD’S perspective, we would know that we are blessed. However, we have a problem looking at our lives from his perspective. Our old nature gets in our way. Here is an example of an individual coming to the LORD to express his gratefulness. The LORD asks “Were there not ten cleansed?” Where are the other nine?
Are we grateful for the blessing we have in the LORD? Do we tell HIM so daily? Do we continually want more blessings? HE wants to give us blessings but HE also wants us to give HIM glory. Do we have a testimony of being a thankful person? Or are we a grumbler?
CHALLENGE: Ask someone close to you if you are a thankful person or a grumbler? If you are afraid of the answer – change!!!
:33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. (2225 “preserve” [zoogoneo] means to bring forth alive, to give life, to keep in the state of having life or being alive, keep alive, to be born alive, or to cause to continue to live.)
DEVOTION: Too often we are more concerned with getting ahead in this world. We work to make as much money as we can and then are too tired to be the witness we should be for the LORD.
We try not to offend anyone by telling them about Jesus because we don’t want to lose them as friends or acquaintances. We want everyone to like us. We tend to be people pleasers. We don’t want to hurt anyone and don’t want anyone to hurt us.
Jesus says that we are to not worry about saving our life. Our life is in HIS hands and we need to trust HIM to take care of us. If we give our all to HIM, we might lose our life but we at the same time save it.
Once we are sold out for Christ to the world it seems like we have lost our life or our way. They think we are crazy. They don’t understand why we change our habits to serve the LORD. Yet, the LORD says that when we get to this point in our life, we are preserving it. We are preserving it for eternity in heaven.
Our present life will only last a few years compared to eternity. Our priority needs to be to honor the LORD no matter what. Once this happens, we can preserve our soul for the rest of our life to serve the LORD for as long as HE gives us breath.
CHALLENGE: What are we doing to preserve our eternal life today?
DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SOUL
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Days of Lotverses 28, 29, 32
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead – God/man, Messiah)
Lordverses 5, 6, 37
Healing of Ten lepersverses 11-19
Jesus verses 13, 17
Masterverse 13
Son of manverses 22, 24, 26, 30
Sufferverse 25
Rejected of this generationverse 25
Revealedverse 30
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
God glorifiedverses 15, 18
Kingdom of Godverses 20, 21
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Little onesverse 2
Brotherverse 3
Servantverses 7-9
Samaritanverse 16
Strangerverse 18
Days of Noah (Noe)verses 26, 27
Days of Lotverses 28, 29
Sodomverse 29
Lot’s wifeverse 32
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Offend little oneverses 1, 2
Trespassverses 3, 4
Unprofitable servantverse 10
Reject Christverse 25
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Take heedverse 3
Rebuke trespassverse 3
Repentanceverses 3, 4
Forgivenessverses 3, 4
Faithverses 5, 6, 19
Commands to obeyverse 10
Dutyverse 10
Mercyverse 13
Glorify Godverses 15, 18
Thankfulverse 16
Save verse 33
Preserve lifeverse 33
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Jerusalemverse 11
Samariaverse 11
Galileeverse 11
Priestsverse 14
Phariseesverse 20
Church (New Testament people of God)
Disciplesverses 1, 22
Apostlesverse 5
Last Things (Future Events)
Kingdom of Godverses 20, 21
Heavenverse 24
In the dayverse 30
In that dayverses 31-37
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