Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 3 Study # 2
April 22, 2007
Lincolnton, N.C.
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<338> Thesis:   Acting "responsibly" means "acting by faith". Introduction:   In our introductory study of the paragraph before us, we considered Jesus' focus upon "teaching" and Luke's focus upon Jesus' "audience". We saw that Jesus, and everyone who wishes to be His disciple, understands how absolutely crucial it is for people to have enough of the details of the facts before them when they come to "decision time". We also saw that Jesus' audience was composed of "the people of influence" within the culture. Whatever the religious leaders decided about Jesus in light of the facts He was laying before them, they would take back to their "places of influence". Israel was facing the most critical "decision" of its entire national history -- the answer to the question: Is Jesus of Nazareth the Promised Redeemer? -- and those who were in the positions of influence were going to exercise that influence one way or another. Given these two realities -- that decision time was upon the nation, and that the time for pressing one's influence upon others was at hand -- Jesus not only laid out His "facts" in words of explanation, He decided to stage a "sign" event that would argue for His case and the responsibility of His audience. This morning we are going to look into the details of the "sign" to see what we may learn from it for our own living.