Thursday 6 March 2014

SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY- WEEK 4- YEAR-A

I Reading: Isaiah 58:9-14: Your light will rise in the darkness.
Gospel: Luke 5:27-32: I have not called the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.

Jesus Reveals His Great Mission: The Greatest Mission of All (5:27-39)

The greatest life ever lived on earth was the life of Jesus Christ. Therefore no mission can ever compare with the mission which he was sent to do. The greatest mission of Christ was...
·       A quickening mission: to make people alive to God.
·       An eternal mission: to give people life forever.
·       A purposeful mission: to cause people to commit their lives to God unconditionally.
Luke’s very purpose in this passage is to reveal the greatest mission of Christ. With the skilful mind of a man who knew the Lord intimately, he waves several events together to spell out the great mission of the Lord.
1.    The mission of calling outcasts (v.27-29)
a.    He went forth
b.    He saw
c.     He called
d.    The outcast left all and followed Jesus
e.     The outcasts reached his friends
2.    The mission of calling sinners to repentance (30-32)
a.    The religionists questioned Jesus’ associations
b.    Jesus’ answer
i.                 He illustrated his mission
ii.               He stated his mission
3.    The mission of bringing real joy (33-34)
a.    The religionists questioned Jesus’ behaviour
b.    Jesus’ answer: his presence brings joy and vitality to life
4.    The mission of dying (35)
5.    The mission of launching a new life and a spiritual movement (36-39)
a.    Illustration 1: not patching the old, but starting a new
b.    Illustration 2: not putting his teaching (wine) in old wineskins, but in a new wineskin
c.     Illustration 3: the new is difficult to accept- it takes time

Thought: Jesus’ call is issued to all people, for all people are outcasts, the outcasts of heaven. However, there is a condition to becoming an acceptable person to God. A person must humble him/herself before Jesus, just as Jesus humbled himself before us (Mt 18:3; 2cor 7:10; phil 2:8; 2:6-8; Ps 2:6-9; Joel 2: 12).

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