In today’s passage, we read about the encounters of two individuals who desperately needed Jesus’ help. One of them was a man with leprosy who was an outcast because of his condition. The other, a paralyzed man who had no physical way of making his way before Jesus. Yet in both stories, we see that it is not what we offer nor who we are that Jesus is looking at, for Jesus looks at our heart and desires to heal and restore us. 

Do you remember the last time you struggled to withhold yourself from something you knew was bad for you?  That’s temptation, and that’s something we as humans dearly struggle with.

The Bible is full of stories of failures and consequences when dealing with temptation.  Jesus was also faced with temptation, and today we’ll look at 3 different temptations Jesus faced to understand some characteristics of temptation and how to overcome it as followers of Christ.

Jesus brought about a counter-cultural way to live life, with God’s Kingdom as the aim of it. We see how God’s plan to redeem His people started from the very beginning: from creation, into the fall with Adam and Eve, to them being banished from Eden, to God’s covenant with Abraham to bring about restoration for His people – all culminating with the Word as found in Luke. 

“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.” (Luke 3:4) 

With the coming of the Lord, all will be turned upside down. Those who are prideful, powerful, and comfortable will be brought low. Those who are poor, weak, hungry, and humble will be lifted up. 

Job interview results, college acceptance letters, promotion results, the waiting game is hard for many of us.  Even in the Bible, Israel had to wait 2000 years since God’s promise to Abraham to enter the promised land.  They had to wait 1000 years since God made a promise to King David that his descendent would secure the throne and His kingdom would reign forever.

We as Christians are also in a waiting period: Is God really going to come again?  When is it going to happen?  When is he going to work in my life?  Today we go over what happens when God comes and how do we prepare for it.