Luke Part 1 Week 23

Day 1 

RECEIVE 

Luke 5:33 

³³ One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?” 

The watching world has questions about what believers do. Here the Pharisees ask why John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray but Jesus’ disciples do not. Jesus’ disciples were eating and drinking as usual. The Pharisees thought everyone should be following what they do. 

REFLECT 

Have you had some unbelievers ask why you are living differently than they are? 

RESPOND 

With a friend, read some Bible portions that tell believers in Jesus how to live. Read Ephesians 4:28-32 and Colossians 3:1-17. 

Day 2 

RECEIVE 

Luke 5:34-35 

³⁴ Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. ³⁵ But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” 

Jesus answered the question of the unbelieving Pharisees. He told them His followers had no reason to fast by using a groom as an example. His parallel was that someday He would be taken away from His disciples and then, because of their sorrow, they would fast.  

REFLECT 

Notice that fasting is associated with sorrow. When the sorrow is intense, a person does not feel like eating. 

RESPOND 

Join with a friend to read about what Jesus said about fasting as recorded in Matthew 6:16-18. Could this also be applied to those who talk often about what they’ve given up for Jesus? 

Day 3 

RECEIVE 

Luke 5:36 

³⁶ Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.” 

Jesus used an example of two kinds of material to show the Pharisees that what they believed and practiced could not be believed with what He was presenting. To mix the teachings would destroy both systems of belief. The Pharisees were content with the old system and refused to change it for new truth told by Jesus. 

REFLECT 

Do you realize that the truth of grace in the New Testament is far different from the law in the Old Testament? The New Testament only refers to a “Sabbath” in reference to what was practiced in the Old Testament. There is no command for believers in Jesus to keep a Sabbath. It was given by God as a sign of His covenant with the people of Israel (see Exodus 31:16-17).  

RESPOND 

Help another person to see that believers in Jesus are not to live according to the Old Testament laws. Read John 1:17; Romans 3:19-20; Ephesians 2:8-9; Colossians 2:16-17.  

Day 4 

RECEIVE 

Luke 5:37-39 

³⁷ “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. ³⁸ New wine must be stored in new wineskins. ³⁹ But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” 

Jesus continued to explain to the Pharisees why the teaching of the law could not be mixed with His teaching of grace. They were content with the old system that only revealed one’s sinfulness but did not offer salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. Even in the Old Testament, however, the way to become right with God was by faith (see Genesis 15:6). 

REFLECT 

In your daily life, are you attempting to follow laws or the grace of the Lord Jesus? Do you follow a list of rules or your love for Jesus? 

RESPOND 

When the Bible refers to the “weaker brother,” it is not referring to one who has been a Christ-follower for years. It is referring to one recently saved out of a sinful world and who does not understand about grace and freedom in Jesus. Read Romans 14:1-10; 1 Corinthians 8:9-13.  

Day 5 

RECEIVE 

Luke 6:1-2 

¹ One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. ² But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” 

The Pharisees were trying to become right with God by keeping rules. They were so strict that they thought the disciples rubbing the grain in their hands were actually threshing on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were legalists and they would even add rules to show how holy they supposedly were.  

REFLECT 

If you’ve lived in a rural area you have likely seen workers rubbing grain in their hands to get at the heart of the heads of grain. Today that would be far from being considered as “threshing grain.” The rules that some legalists add, however, can be as unreasonable.  

RESPOND 

Talk with a friend about living to honor Jesus because of your love for Him. As someone has said, “Sin is more than breaking a law; it is breaking the heart to God.” Read Acts 13:22 to see what God said about David. When sin was pointed out to David he admitted sinning against God (see 2 Samuel 12:13).