Luke 6:22 “Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.”    Son of Man is here capitalized for a very good reason. The title ‘Son of Man’ comes from Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 through…

Luke 6:21 “Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.”    To understand this verse correctly it must be taken in context. Just as Jesus was not simply talking about poor persons in the last verse, He is not here referring to…

Luke 6:20 “Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.”    Although Jesus had quite a ministry to the poor and oppressed, this verse does not mean what it appears to on the surface. The poor should be ministered to. Their…

Luke 6:19 “And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.”    We know Jesus can heal people without touching them. He and His disciples did it more than once. But, it generally wasn’t done that way? Why? There is a message in the touching. Though…

Luke 6:18 “as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed.”    Jesus has absolute power. As we study His life it is important to keep this in mind. We tend to forget because we are limited and would expect Him to do different things if He was really that…

Luke 6:17 “And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases,”    Notice here several groups…

Luke 6:16 “Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.”    Judas Iscariot is listed last for a reason. But this reason had nothing to do with him being marginalized. Though sure enough he wasn’t a member of the inner circle (Peter, James, And John) we have reason to believe…

Luke 6:15 “Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot;”    Jesus selected His special group from a good sampling of a cross section of Jewish society. As we look at the list of names, we are struck by a couple of things. One, He did not choose many who…

Luke 6:14 “Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew;”    Peter James and John figure prominently into the earthly ministry of Christ. they go on to become what we generally refer to as the ‘inner circle’, the group closest to Christ, though Jesus Himself makes no…

Luke 6:13 “And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles:”    Jesus selects a small group from among His disciples to serve in a special capacity. Though I think we need to help all members of the church understand that they…