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FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: Luke's Perspective of Jesus: Ch. 8 Message Outlines (Include Audio)

Luke 8:40-56 (1)

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 7 Study # 1
June 28, 2009
Lincolnton, NC
(Download Audio)

(536)

Thesis:   Grace seeks to generate "faith" by ignoring disqualifying attitudes and actions and initiating actions that tend toward the establishment of it.

Introduction:   It is clear from the combined stories at the end of Luke 8 that Luke was attempting to show that Jesus was focused like a laser upon the generation of "faith" in His disciples as He prepared them to take on more of the responsibility of the ministry. In the "story within the story" He declared that it was the woman's "faith" that had saved her. And in the original story He countered the bad news from the household that the daughter had died with the exhortation, "Do not let your fear run away with you; believe and she shall be saved." Thus we can hardly miss the point: faith is the divine requirement of life.

Within the concept, the issue of "fear" is paramount. The Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them because of a great "fear"; Jairus was afraid because his daughter was dying; the woman who surreptitiously touched Jesus' garment was trembling with fear when she found that she could not remain unknown, and Jesus directly charged Jairus to take charge of his fear and block its inclination to explode. In every case, "fear" held the potential of enormously destructive choices.

This morning, since the transition to the story about Jairus deliberately establishes a contrast between those in Galilee and those in the land of the Gerasenes, we are going to take the time to look into the background for that contrast.


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