The Saviour of the Lost (Luke 14–19)

If you want to know and appreciate Jesus more—both who he is and what he has accomplished—Luke is the Gospel author for you. He has done the hard work of researching the history and compiling it into an “orderly account”, structuring the narrative to give us clear access to the truth of Jesus and insights into its profound significance.

In this third of four volumes, which together cover the whole of Luke, pastor and teacher Des Smith walks us through chapters 14 to 19. As Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, we learn what it means to follow him in a fallen world. We see Jesus’ mission and heart for the lost, and we are encouraged to hold on to our faith throughout the trials of life.

This is an ideal guide for individual Bible study or for use in small groups.

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Table of contents:

1. Guess who’s coming to dinner [Luke 14:1–24]

2. The cost of following Jesus [Luke 14:25–35]

3. Lost sheep, lost coin, lost sons [Luke 15]

4. Money: Good servant, bad master [Luke 16:1–15]

5. If you serve money, God will send you to hell [Luke 16:16–31]

6. Walking as disciples [Luke 17:1–19]

7. When does the kingdom come? [Luke 17:20–18:8]

8. Salvation blockers [Luke 18:8–19:10]

9. The king enters Jerusalem [Luke 19:11–44]

How to make the most of these studies

1. What is an Interactive Bible Study?

Interactive Bible Studies are a bit like a guided tour of a famous city. They take you through a particular part of the Bible, helping you to know where to start, pointing out things along the way, suggesting avenues for further exploration, and making sure that you know how to get home. Like any good tour, the real purpose is to allow you to go exploring for yourself—to dive in, have a good look around, and discover for yourself the riches that God’s word has in store.

In other words, these studies aim to provide stimulation and input and point you in the right direction, while leaving you to do plenty of the exploration and discovery yourself.

We hope that these studies will stimulate lots of ‘interaction’—interaction with the Bible, with the things we’ve written, with your own current thoughts and attitudes, with other people as you discuss them, and with God as you talk to him about it all.

2. The format

The studies contain four main components:

• sections of text that introduce, inform, summarize and challenge
• numbered questions that help you examine the passage and think through its meaning
• ‘Implications’ sections that help you think about what the passage means for you and your life today
• suggestions for thanksgiving and prayer as you close.

3. How to use these studies on your own

• Before you begin, pray that God would open your eyes to what he is saying in the Bible, and give you the spiritual strength to do something about it.
• Work through the study, reading the text and answering the questions about the Bible passage.
• Resist the temptation to skip over the ‘Implications’ and ‘Give thanks and pray’ sections at the end. It is important that we not only hear and understand God’s word, but also respond to it. These closing sections help us do that.
• Take what opportunities you can to talk to others about what you’ve learned.

4. How to use these studies in a small group

• Much of the above applies to group study as well. The studies are suitable for structured Bible study or cell groups, as well as for more informal pairs and triplets. Get together with a friend or friends and work through them at your own pace; use them as the basis for regular Bible study with your spouse. You don’t need the formal structure of a ‘group’ to gain maximum benefit.
• For small groups, it is very useful if group members can work through the study themselves before the group meets. The group discussion can take place comfortably in an hour (depending on how sidetracked you get!) if all the members have done some work in advance.
• The role of the group leader is to direct the course of the discussion and to try to draw the threads together at the end. This will mean a little extra preparation—underlining the sections of text to emphasize and read out loud, working out which questions are worth concentrating on, and being sure of the main thrust of the study. Leaders will also probably want to work out approximately how long they’d like to spend on each part.
• If your group members usually don’t work through the study in advance, it’s extra important that the leader prepares which parts to concentrate on, and which parts to glide past more quickly. In particular, the leader will need to select which of the ‘Implications’ to focus on.
• We haven’t included an ‘answer guide’ to the questions in the studies. This is a deliberate move. We want to give you a guided tour of the Bible, not a lecture. There is more than enough in the text we have written and the questions we have asked to point you in what we think is the right direction. The rest is up to you.

5. Bible translation

We quote from and refer to the English Standard Version, which we recommend. There should not generally be any problems, however, if you are using a different translation (though it might be useful to have an ESV on hand in case of any confusion).