This Sunday, April 10, 2016 "Coming Home" Series Begins

As those who were present this past Sunday knows I did not begin the "Coming Home" series but I plan to begin that series this Sunday.

There is no chapter in the New Testament so well known and so dearly loved as the fifteenth chapter of Luke.  It has been called "the gospel in the gospel" as it preaches one of the reasons Jesus came...to save sinners.

Luke 15 starts as seemingly a way to introduce a new subject, “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”

The Message says, “By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.”

Instead, this is not a new subject at all but a continuation of the entire purpose of the writing of the gospel of Luke.  Jesus loves sinners. He loves the outcasts, the down-and-outs.  He loves the rejects.

Take a quick tour of this gospel and let us see this powerful impact of Jesus receiving them.  Most of what is listed here is found ONLY in Luke.  I mentioned some of this in November when we introduced the book of Luke. But just a brief reminder here:

1. The author himself was a Gentile.
2. The book was dedicated to Theophilus, a Gentile.

3.    Women play an important role in Luke and most of them are not portrayed in a favorable light:  Elizabeth is the wife of a priest, but barren meaning to most she is rejected by God and under His judgment.  Mary is pregnant before marriage.  A woman who is described as a "sinner (7:37) washes the feet of Jesus while letting down her hair like a prostitute.  Women are described in 8:2-3 as providing for the needs of Jesus.

4.  Samaritan - half Jews and half Gentiles - are uniquely placed in Luke.  The most repeated story Jesus ever told was about a man who helped another man and Luke 10 tells he was a Samaritan.  Only in Luke 17:16 do we see ten lepers who were healed with only one returning and it says, "He was a Samaritan."

5.  Luke is the only one to tell us the first time Jesus preached he took a text revealing that he was coming for the poor, brokenhearted, captives, the blind, the oppressed and its time NOW for it to happen.  (Luke 4:18-19)

Over the next eight weeks we are going to go deep into this wonderful passage in order to mine the truths of God and the salvation He provides.  Come and join us as we "Come Home."