Priest of the Word

Introduction

Welcome

My name is ...

Going through a series in the Gospel of Luke

August 19 - Starting a new series in the book of Acts called Witnesses

In preparation for our fall launch I want to help you get more deeply connected.

3 PRINCIPLES: Gospel | Community | Mission

Rooted and being transformed by the word of God, A biblically formed people that sees Jesus as the central theme and a people who are being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Growing together as a family & community.

Community Group is one way to get connected.

We will have

Being on Mission together - to serve others inside the church and to share the hope of Jesus with those not yet part of the church

We have numerous opportunities to serve here at CrossPointe

Take this card

If you don’t currently serve then I want to encourage you to join a team today. Pick one team on the back.

Some needs:

Set-Up & Tear-Down

Production

Children’s Ministry

Hospitality & First Impressions

GOSPEL OF LUKE REVIEW

Big Idea is to have certainty in our faith

Big Idea: We can experience certainty in our faith when we prayerfully cultivate healthy hearts that hear the Word of God, hold fast to the truth, and share it with others.

Passive Spectator

Active Hearer

Jesus is the Word

How Do You Receive the Word

God Multiplies through Our Proclamation

Pray

JESUS IS THE WORD

Luke 8:1–3 ESV

Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.

What did Jesus Preach?

“Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.”

Wrong Ideas:

Some would say that the “good news of the kingdom of God” was Jesus preaching a message about overthrowing evil government powers, the transformation of society, and the lifting up of the poor. These are great causes and can be seen as outcomes from the Kingdom but they are not the Kingdom itself that was being proclaimed.

As we’ll see in in the future, “when Philip preached “the good news of the Kingdom of God,” men and women believed and we baptized. They turned from their sin, trusted in Jesus, and began a new life in Christ, symbolized by baptism.

Right Idea:

Jesus is proclaiming something truly revolutionary

He means that with his own coming to earth, God’s saving rule and reign over a broken and rebellious creation has drawn near in a way that has never happened before in human history.

He is saying that God’s promises to establish his kingdom are beginning to be fulfilled, and that God will one day usher in a new creation, which is inaugurated through Jesus’ incarnation.

While the good news of the kingdom of God has significant implications across all of life, it is fundamentally a message about what Jesus has done to save sinners.

Author & Pastor, John Piper says...

This gospel of the kingdom is the good news that, at the coming of Jesus, God moved into this world in an unprecedented way. Since Jesus has come, God is exerting his right to rule in new and powerful ways. He is attacking his enemy the devil in new ways. He has dealt with sin in a new way. He is gathering a people in a new way. He is empowering his representatives in new ways. And in all this he is reigning as king. This is the coming and the advancement of his kingdom.

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“And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.”

It isn’t surprising to see men, particularly the disciples listed here.

The addition of women is very surprising and unlike every other rabbi of his day.

In addition, God says her name:

God used women to build his kingdom from the very beginning. Luke affirms these women and the parts they play.

We believe that God equally values men and women and uses both to build his church. We believe that men and women are different and exercise different roles within the church yet it is clear that both are highly valued and necessary in the proclamation of God’s kingdom.

BE CAREFUL HOW YOUR HEAR?

Luke 8:4–8 ESV

And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

LUKE 8:

Jesus isn’t trying to build just a a larger audience. He is building his church, his kingdom. A people fully surrendered to Jesus.

A parable is a story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Lessons about Faith (Luke 8)

A parable starts off as a picture that is familiar to the listeners. But as you carefully consider the picture, it becomes a mirror in which you see yourself, and many people do not like to see themselves.

Audience: is everyone who has ears, let him hear

Just because you have ears, does not mean that you listen.

If you are a parent you’ve said something similar to your children or even a spouse or friend. It’s like people have selective hearing. They only hear what they want to hear.

The disciples listened to the parable but didn’t understand its meaning so they asked Jesus:

Luke 8:9-

Luke 8:9–15 ESV

And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

The Four Soils describe the differences in the condition of our heart and how we receive the word of God.

Parables have one overarching theme or meaning. Sometimes people get themselves into trouble by trying to over symbolize each detail in the story.

Jesus spoke in so that those who resisted God’s revelation would not understand while those who desired God’s revelation would understand.

THE FIRST 3 - WARFARE & WARNINGS

We see the devil present in verse 12. He wants to steal the word from our hearts before it can take root, grow, and produce the fruit of transformation.

There is a battle taking place on the soil of the human heart. Let’s take a deeper look so we can understand the battlefield and how to fight for the condition of our hearts.

SOWER = JESUS OT ANYONE WHO PROCLAIMS

SEED = WORD OF GOD

The sower can be anyone who proclaims the good news of the kingdom of God.

We see that hearing leads to belief/faith, which then leads to salvation.

HARD SOIL

PATH = SATAN’S OPPOSITION (12)

People are blinded

They heard the words spoken (but the words fall of deaf ears…)

Satan has blinded the hearts and minds of the unbeliever.

The Gospel of Kingdom of God is spoken but quickly stolen

2 Corinthians 4:4–6 ESV

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Satan has blinded the hearts and minds of the unbeliever.

The Gospel of Kingdom of God is spoken but quickly stolen

“I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh”

The ear is the gate to the heart. Satan steals the seed to kill the soul.

SHALLOW SOIL

ROCK = FALL AWAY (13)

Hear the Word, receive it with joy but… it doesn’t lead to genuine faith and salvation

Temporary, intellectual ascent or emotional response

In time of testing they fall away because they are not rooted

Warren Weirsbe

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Lessons about Faith (Luke 8)

In many parts of the Holy Land you find a substratum of limestone covered with a thin layer of soil. The shoot can grow up, but the roots cannot go down, and the sun withers the rootless plant. The sun represents the testing that comes to all professing believers to prove their faith. Sun is good for plants if they have roots. Persecution can deepen the roots of a true Christian, but it only exposes the shallowness of the false Christian.

CROWDED SOIL

THORNS = EARS GET CLOGGED (14)

They hear but…, they get start on their way

3 Categories Crowd out our faith

CARES: Attention is choked away by the cares of the world, anxious cares

RICHES of the world, money, busyness, prestige, position, salary,

PLEASURES of the world, entertainment, vacation, beach day, amusement park, sporting event. We live in a city that is on the map for one reason: entertainment.

They hear, but the lack of fruitfulness reveals the absence of saving faith

God Multiplies through Our Proclamation

INTERNAL: GOOD SOIL = HEAR, HOLD, FRUITFUL

Hear the Word and Hold Fest to it

How:

Honest heart

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Lessons about Faith (Luke 8)

Faith is not a matter of IQ or education; it is a matter of humbly preparing the heart to receive God’s truth

Humble: Heart of stone, that is weak and easily distracted.

Good Heart

Any goodness in my heart is a result of God’s work in my life.

Fruitful Heart

With patience...

Doesn’t happen overnight and no two people are the same

Jesus wasn’t impressed with great crowds that followed him. What is the condition of our hearts

EXTERNAL: INCREASING FRUITFULNESS

Hide or Proclaim what you’ve heard / Message of Jesus

If you speak of what your learn then more will be given to you

If you hide or suppress what you know then even what you have will be taken away.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Lessons about Faith (Luke 8)

it is easy to think we are “spiritual” because we listen to one preacher after another, take notes, mark our Bibles, but never really practice what we learn. We are only fooling ourselves.

Not about how much of the Bible you read, or how many podcasts you listen to, how many different preachers you listen to during the week.

The issue is this:

1. Are you in God’s Word?

2. Are you prayerfully applying what you hear?

CONCLUSION

Humble yourself before God

Admit you’re a sinner and don’t have your stuff together

Get into God’s Word

How will we hear God’s Word unless we spend time in God’s Word.

Not somebody else talking about God’s Word, Not that you have to read the entire Bible in a year.

Prayerfully Apply & Proclaim What You Learn

APPLICATION

, , & 16 because next Sunday we will be in Luke 17

Prayer

Give me ears to hear and eyes to see the beauty of Jesus in your Word

Questions

What do these verses help me to know about God?

What do these verses help me understand about myself.

Prayer

How is God asking you to apply his Word

Who can you tell what you’ve understood from his Word?