The gospel of Luke.
Pay attention over the next twenty four weeks on what you see in Jesus, as we read through the gospel of Luke together. Think in terms of these two things:
1. A complete portrait of who Jesus is. What we have revealed is only a limited portrait of His entire life on earth, but it is sufficient for us, it is all we need to know. As His followers, we need to be intimately familiar with Jesus, who He was, what He did, what He said and how He regarded people, how He interacted with people.
2. Then, we need to pursue a more consistent imitation of Him in our daily lives. The goal is to truly be like Him.
So let’s begin looking at the portrait of Jesus. In Isaiah 8:18-20, Isaiah says that he, and his children, are a sign from the God whom you worship. Isaiah’s name meant “Jehovah is salvation.”
If you want to see Jesus well, Isaiah 9:6-7 is a good place to start. A Son is coming whose name shall be Immanuel, wonderful counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
7 words to describe Him:
1. Salvation. Is found only in Him.
2. Guidance. He’s a Wonderful Counselor. All the words He gives are perfect, are golden. He knows the right things to say all the time. He has all the answers we need.
3. Power. His power is limitless. Nothing is beyond His power.
4. Care. He is not an absentee Dad, as we find far too often in the world today. Jesus is the perfect father to us. He cares about everything in our lives, our hurts, our pains, our emotional struggles.
5. Union. A union with God brought about by the Prince of Peace. The things which divide us from God He has removed
6. Calm. Jesus brings calm in the midst of chaos.
7. Hope. We can become too focused on the comforts of our culture. That has been brought to light in the past year especially, when some of those have been challenged or even removed. Some of us fear what the future holds in our country. We need to realize our focus needs to be on the hope He provides.
We need a bright vision for our future. This world is not our home. What sort of people ought we to be in holy conduct and godliness? That needs to be our focus every day.
Read 2 Peter 3:11-15.
