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Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 11:52     52 “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.”     Jesus continued to warn the religious leaders of judgment to come. Not only were these religious leaders not going to enter the Kingdom of God, but they were also preventing others from entering. What a serious charge this was for those who boasted in their

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 12:6-7     6 “What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. 7 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.”     Jesus was addressing those He called “Dear friends” (Luke 12:4). He wanted them to know how valuable they were to God. Those who now read these verses should be comforted as they realize God knows every de

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 12:20-21     20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’ 21 Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”     This is what God said to the man who built more storage space for his crops and thought he was set for life. God called such a person “a fool” for only thinking about earthly treasure. At his death all that wealth would be of no

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 12:32-34     32 “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. 34 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”     A “little flock” would

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 12:45-46     45 “But what if the servant thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? 46 The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant in pieces and banish him with the unfaithful.”     Jesus continued to make the analogy between a master returning home and the Son of Man returning. Those expecting Him will be rewarded, but those not expecting Him

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 12:57-59     57 “Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right? 58 When you are on the way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. Otherwise, your accuser may drag you before the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, who will throw you into prison. 59 And if that happens, you won’t be free again until you have paid the very last penny.”     Jesus was criticizing the crowd for not knowing how to discern the

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 13:10-13     10 One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, 11 he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” 13 Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God!     The reference to the “Sabbath day” reveals they were sti

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 13:22-24     22 Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He replied, 24 “Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail.”     Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. This would be His last trip there because He would give His life there for lost mankind. He was asked if only a few would be saved.

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 14:1-3     1 One Sabbath day Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, and the people were watching him closely. 2 There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, “Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?”     This is another passage indicating the Sabbath day was always an issue with the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus seemed to tak

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 14:15     15 Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!”     Jesus had told about being willing to invite the undeserving to a meal. It is a reminder that all people are undeserving of what Jesus did for them when He died on the cross to pay the penalty for their sin. A man at the table expressed appreciation to a time of breaking bread in the Kingdom of God.   RE

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 14:28-30     28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? 29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. 30 They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’”     Jesus had told the crowd they needed to tak

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 15:6-7     6 “When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”     Jesus continued to tell the story about the lost sheep and the joy when it was found. He was stressing to the religious leaders criticizi

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 15:20-21     20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’”     The father was thrilled to see his younger son returning home. He gave his son a great welcome with hugs and kisses. The

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 16:1-2     1 Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. 2 So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’”     Jesus told another parable to His disciples. It had to do with being faithful in handling money. The manager was wastin

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 16:14-15     14 The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. 15 Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.”     Jesus had said a person could not serve two masters by trying to serve God and being enslaved to money. The Pharisees, who loved money, ridiculed Him for such a statement. Jesus pointed out their hypocris

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 16:25-26     25 “But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there.’”     This was Abraham’s answer when the rich man was in agony and wanted Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 17:1-3     1 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! 2 It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. 3 So watch yourselves! If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive.”     Jesus gave this serious warning to anyone who would

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 17:15-16     15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” 16 He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.     Jesus had told the 10 lepers to go show themselves to the priests. On the way there the lepers were healed. One of them returned to thank Jesus. The last statement in this account is significant: “This man was a Samaritan.” This would have been a

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 17:28-30     28 “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— 29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”     What did Jesus mean by the world being like the days of Lot before He ret

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 18:4-5     4 “The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”     Jesus continued telling His disciples about the judge who did not fear God or care about people. A widow was coming to him because she wanted justice in a dispute she was having. She had come t

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 18:15     15 One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him.     In the debates that arise about whether sprinkling babies or immersing adults, those who believe in sprinkling like to use this passage. Jesus “touched and blessed” their babies ( breph ē ). This Greek word was even used in the first century to refer to a nursing child

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 18:26-27     26 Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?” 27 He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”     This was the response of the listeners when they heard Jesus say, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). They thought no one could be saved, but Jesus assured them, “What is impossible for people is possible with Go

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 18:40-43     40 When Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. As the man came near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord,” he said, “I want to see!” 42 And Jesus said, “All right, receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.” 43 Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God, too.     Jesus stopped when the bling beggar cried out to Him. Jesus

Day 1  RECEIVE   Luke 19:11     11 The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away.     The kingdom Jesus spoke of was His earthly kingdom. His rule on earth would be a thousand years in length. It is referred to six times in Revelation 20:1-7. This is to be distinguished from the rapture, or catching up of believers to meet Jesus in the air,