Author: Bill Hall

Luke 7:3 ” So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant.”

   Not only did this man believe that Christ could heal his servant, but he understood the scope of the mission of Christ. Like Naaman going to see Elisha, his status as a Gentile, and Christ’s as a Jew, was not an issue for him. Perceived need will often outweigh all other considerations.

   Heavenly Father, we will praise You for Your great grace! You have not held back on the basis of our sin. You deal with us on the basis of belief. And if our need brings us to a place of belief You are at work in that. Thank You! We may hope to be holy because You, the Holy God have willed it so. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:2 “And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die.”

   Jesus ministers to every type of need that can be imagined. In this case, the centurion’s servant had likely been with him since he was young. They may have even been childhood friends, as strange as that sounds. So this was a unique need. There was a sick person, that was not strange. But the relationship of the requester to the one who needed healing is what is special here.
   Jesus said nothing of the relationship. In fact, Jesus teaches us to be servants to all. If there is any social inequality here, Jesus chooses to let His power and teachings bring about change.

   Heavenly Father, the power of the gospel is our tool for great change. Thank You for giving us something more influential and life-changing than any ideology or philosophy. We can be confident in Christ that the most serious problems can be solved. You are so wise! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:1 “Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum.”

   Everything Jesus did had a purpose. He had a mission and He chose His actions to fit with it. And the primary thing He did was teach. We tend to lose sight of that. We talk about His miracles and other aspects of His ministry. But, His teaching was the main thing. To remember the significance of His teaching is to remember the fact that He wanted His hearers to act upon His words. This is the message of Christ. We must accept and embrace the truth of His words. There is no alternative. He has the good word from the Father, and is the Source of truth.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us the truth! Though we don’t always immediately understand or like what we hear, we are so thankful for it. Your Word soothes the hurt in our souls. This life brings us such confusion, but You bring us clarity in Your book. Thank You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 6:49 “But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

   To hear and do nothing is a great danger. We see here that Jesus says the fall of this house was complete. Why? What is He emphasizing? He is telling us that the danger if hearing and not doing is a serious one. In the long run it will go easier for those who never heard and continued in sinful ignorance, than for those who in their sin ignored the message clearly explained to them.

   Heavenly Father, may we never fail to praise You for the heavenly gift! You have shared with us the most amazing news and our very soul longs to hear it again and again. May our mouths be ever full of Your praise! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 6:48 “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.”

  One of the often overlooked blessings of following Christ is psychological stability. Building on the Rock does not only stabilize your spiritual well-being. That spiritual stability spills over into every area of life. It leads to a normalizing trend in society. Though this in itself is not a reason to be a Christian, it serves as an evidence that a relationship with Christ makes a difference in an individual’s life.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for keeping us from the craziness of sin. Your Word shows us the path for our feet. We can walk without stumbling. Christ is our great foundation that keeps us safe among the pitfalls of life. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 6:47 “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:”

   Christianity is about a Person. It is not just some list of rules or rituals. It is not a culture or simply a way of thinking and doing things. It is a relationship with the Lord Jesus. The critical first step we see right here, ‘whoever comes to me’. We must come to Christ with a heart ready to listen, ready to follow. We must, as did His disciples, know that He alone has ‘the words of life’.
   And this coming and hearing and doing leads to a life in which He is the all in all. Everything else is done in connection with the focus on Him. It transforms the individual. Nothing else is like it. Nothing else is significant in comparison.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for having arms wide open to those who will seek Your Son. You have made salvation a plain proposition. We can see and know the way of life. You are so wise! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 6:46 “But why do you call Me`Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?”

   Why does Jesus repeat the ‘Lord’ here? He is reminding His hearers of the tendency to say a lot of God-honoring things without following it up with God-honoring deeds. Words and deeds are meant to go together. But just as the Jewish nation, so often people honor God with their lips while their heart is far from Him. We have all been guilty of it.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for Your mercy! And thank You for Your power! Though we get our worship out of order, You are indeed worthy of it. You alone are God and we are blessed to be a part of Your world. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

   Again we see Jesus talking about good people and bad people. But we can see in other Scripture that before God we are all bad people. So how can we have good treasure in our heart? Is it just possible that some are born good and some are born bad? No, not quite.
   The key here is to understand that it is all a work of God. Only by the crosswork of Christ is it possible for us to be redeemed. Only by His righteousness may we have righteousness. We can have good treasure inside of us, but only because of our relationship with Him. It is dependent upon Him, and not us. We must respond in faith. There is a choice of the will on our part. But, even our choice is a gift. Without His grace, we would not be free to choose. And when we do, we are manifested forth as those good people that He describes here. And as good people, we are able to work out of our good treasure.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for Your grace! Thank You for the work You do in our hearts. Because of Christ, we may work good works. We may be generators of good things. We may throw the evil out of our lives. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 6:44 “For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.”

   The emphasis here is on the fact that this rule applies to every tree. Every tree is known by its own fruit. It is impossible for the trees to hide and make themselves out to be something else, because the fruit they bear belongs to them. The same is true with people. In spite of any attempt at disguise, the fruit will reveal a person’s own characteristics. That which that person is intrinsically will come to the fore by virtue of the fruit evidence.

   Heavenly Father, You alone know our true nature. You alone know what we shall be like millions of billions of years from now. In this life we think we know so much, but You know us better than we know ourselves. We will bring all glory to You, for You so richly deserve it! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 6:43 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.”

   Jesus uses the illustration of trees to bring up the subject of nature. The nature of something is an intrinsic set of characteristics that are true about that thing in its very existence. The difference between an apple tree and an orange tree is intrinsic.
   The same applies here. The good tree and the bad tree are intrinsically different. But are any of us intrinsically good? How can this help illustrate anything real? Are people right when they say we should just try to be ‘good’ and that this will earn us a place in heaven? Or is Jesus telling His hearers something more?
   Jesus is speaking of something that is true of the tree from day one. It isn’t an orange tree one day and an apple the next. But, yet, we would say that the Christian is made the righteousness of Christ. By the blood we are cleansed and made to be ‘good’ trees in spite of our great and many sins. So do we then become that which is intrinsically different? Keep the result with the cause. We are what we are by the grace of God. If you become a child of God, this is retroactive. Though you wandered in sin lost without hope, yet you have been sanctified if you have tasted of that heavenly gift. And thus you are manifested forth as a good tree from the outset, and will bear good fruit.
   Just as the orange tree or the apple, it will take time for the fruit to show. But if it is a healthy tree, the fruit will show. And it will be consistent with the type of tree that it is.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for Your great mercy! Though we would all have been justly condemned before You, You have in Your great love made it possible for us to be good trees. Oh You are so wise! You are so much smarter than we are, or than the old devil. You alone understand the true measure of Your grace. We sing of it like we think we understand it, but we do not yet see it fully. You are truly magnificent Father! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.