Week 12, March 17–23: Luke 14–24, Deut 1–7; Ps 31–36

• Sun 3/17: Luke 14–16   
• Mon 3/18: Luke 17–19, Psalm 31
• Tue 3/19: Luke 20–21, Psalm 32
• Wed 3/20: Luke 22–24, Psalm 33
• Thu 3/21: Deut 1–2, Psalm 34
• Fri 3/22: Deut 3–5, Psalm 35
• Sat 3/23: Deut 6–7, Psalm 36

We read Luke 9 a few days ago. There, in verse 51, it said, “Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.” The rest of Luke’s Gospel moves in that direction, towards Jerusalem. That is where Jesus would accomplish what he came to do. The reason Christ came, the purpose for which the second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, took on flesh and dwelt among us, was to die for the sins of the world. This week we will be reading Luke’s account of the culminating events of Jesus’ life on earth, his death on the cross for our sins and his miraculous and victorious resurrection. This is the good news announced to the shepherds by the angelic host (Luke 2:8–14), the message John the Baptist prepared the way for in the wilderness (3:4–6), the gospel Jesus commissions his disciples, and us, to take to the world (24:44–49; Acts 1:8).

Reading through each of the Gospels allows us to savor both the deeds of Jesus and the cross of Christ. As long as people have been reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John there has been a tendency either to emphasize Jesus’ compassionate works—healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, loving the lowly—or to focus only on his atoning death and victorious resurrection. But reading the Gospels well urges us to reject this binary choice. The Gospels call us to see Jesus as the one who came into the world to meet the physical needs of those around him. And the Gospels make it clear that Jesus’ miraculous deeds of compassion demonstrated to those he healed and to us today that he was the long-expected Messiah who came to conquer sin and death through his own death on the cross and through resurrection from the dead three days later. Rather than having to choose one emphasis or the other, we rejoice in both as we read the Gospels.

In the last chapter of Luke, we see something that comes up all through the Gospels, and really all through the NT; that is, how Jesus and the apostles all understood the OT Scriptures all to point to Christ. Jesus tells and shows this to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (24:25–27) then to the eleven disciples when he appears to them after his resurrection (vv. 44–47). He claims that the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, the whole Hebrew Bible, or what we call the Old Testament, finds its fulfillment in his life, death, and resurrection. This perspective is helpful to keep in mind as we finish Luke and go back and pick up where we left off in our reading in the OT.

We’re back in the Pentateuch, starting where we left off after Numbers and reading the first few chapters of Deuteronomy this week. Just remember, we are picking back up in the middle of the story. Deuteronomy is the fifth part of the Pentateuch, which is a continuous narrative that started with creation and ends here in Deuteronomy with the people of Israel getting ready to go into the Promised Land. We have recently finished a series preaching through Deuteronomy. If you have time, it might be helpful to go back and listen to some of the sermons in that series as you work through the reading.

Be encouraged, Gresham Bible Church. Your investment of a few minutes each day in God’s word is time very well spent. The Lord calls his people to love him with their whole being. To love him we must know him, and to know him his words must be on our hearts. And what is the way his word is written on our hearts? It can only happen if we read it. You are loving God by reading Scripture.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deut. 6:4–9)