Crossway Christian Church

Over the last few weeks we have seen Jesus' life and ministry and how that provoked many religious leaders to be his enemies. Yet, what Luke now highlights for us is that just as Jesus had enemies, he also had followers. From these followers, Jesus was going to gather together a new people of God.

What does it mean to keep the Sabbath? On the simplest terms, it meant to rest. Certainly, there is some practical element to it. God knows his creation, and taking a break is good. But there is a deeper reality to the principle of rest. The Sabbath was meant to point people back to God, that they might find rest of their souls in him.

What Jesus brings is so new that nothing old can compare. This was true for the ancient Jews and it's true for us today. Jesus offers a new relationship with God.

In the previous section, Luke shows us what kind of Savior Jesus is - a Savior who can meet our deepest spiritual need and who is willing to save. Luke continues this theme as we see Jesus call yet another disciple to himself. From these verses, we see how Jesus still calls disciples to himself today.

Here we read about two times Jesus healed. In looking at these stories, we want to see what they tell us about Jesus and what they tell us about ourselves and the healing we still need today.

Spiritual warfare is a gospel-centered war. This spiritual war is not just a war in our hearts and our churches, but a war of advancement. The kingdom of Christ is meant to grow and expand and bring new citizens into its realm of salvation.

Every day we face the temptation to sin. How are we going to say "No"? Do we even understand how temptation works? Here we look to the Word to understand temptation and how to defeat it.

In the deepest parts of our heart, we daily experience the turmoil of gods at war. Everyday numerous idolatrous gods battle against the one true, God for the affections of our hearts. How can we know what real worship of the living God should look like? And, how is it achieved?

The real power of spiritual warfare lies - not with us, but with God. And the way to receive that empowerment is through prayer. Prayer is essential for spiritual warfare.

In this day and age, it's not that there's more sin in the world or more temptation than there's been before, but it seems today that that exposure level is higher. The war for us is to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh and to believe that what God has given us now is sufficient.

Our cultural focus on individual liberty brings not just occasional temptations, but in many cases ingrained patterns of spiritual destructive behavior. How do we stop the impulses that so powerfully war against us and our resolve to live a righteous life?

Here we see further how to stand strong in the Lord and how we can fight this formidable foe. Though, in order to fight we must walk by faith in Christ alone. Guest Speaker is Deacon Jason Skidmore

In Ephesians 6, we see that we are engaged in a spiritual warfare, and our enemy is very real. He is powerful and he is dangerous, and we would be wise to listen to what God has to say. Guest speaker is Deacon Doug Brubaker.

The gospel is the good news! Here we look at the essential elements of the gospel.

Here we see both how we become disciples of Christ and how we continue to live as disciples of Christ. In these verses, Luke lays out for us the basics of discipleship.

Seeing Jesus' authority gives us confidence in him. Seeing his authority will give us confidence that he is able to save us from our sins and care for us now.

Jesus preaches about his work as the Messiah and how he will bring the salvation of God to sinners. We see how Jesus viewed his own life and ministry and purpose. Here we see exactly what Jesus thought and taught about himself and what it meant for him to be the Messiah and how he would accomplish that great ministry.

Here will see Jesus venture out into the wilderness where there is not only wild animals lurking but an ancient foe who led the first man to bring sin and death into the world. Luke shows us that Christ is the perfect Savior for all people. Because of his saving work we are assured of victory on the last day, but more than that, we can have victory now over sin.

From John's words and Jesus' genealogy, four pictures emerge that tell who the Christ is and how he is superior than John.

John receives the word of God. See the effects in John's day and the saving purposes of God. Also, sets a pattern for the word's effect today.

Luke makes it clear that Jesus was just like any other boy, yet he was more than any other boy. He was the Son of God and, even at twelve years old, was growing into the perfect Savior of the world.

When Christ is born, Luke is clear in showing that the new age has dawned and the glory of the old covenant is fading away.

Zechariah, the priest, is blessing - or, praising God for what He has done. We see here what Zechariah was doing then has implications for how we should live today.

God has given us instructions about what kind of speech should characterize our words and why we should speak that way.

When we look to the Bible, prayer is all through it. Why is such attention given to this religious practice? Because it's more than just a religious practice. For Christianity, prayer is more than duty to do, it is part of the way we cultivate a relationship with God. Here we see what it means to pray according to the instruction and hope in God's word.