The Lord's Day often comes with a variety of questions. Is there a Christian Sabbath for the church? If there is, how does Jesus' Person and work influence how we keep it? Are there things permissible and not permissible? Things encouraged or discouraged? In these two Sabbath accounts, Jesus (who is Lord of the Sabbath) provides us with answers.

Fasting is not something we often think about. The idea of depriving oneself in a self-gratification obsessed culture seems ridiculous! However, is fasting an appropriate activity for a Christian? In Jesus' answer to this question we find gospel principles not just for fasting, but for any act of devotion and service to God.

In the calling of Levi we are exposed again to our greatest need. Jesus is the Great Physician who came to heal the sin-sick. Similar to Levi, our calling as Jesus' disciples is to praise God for His salvation and point others to Jesus.

Jesus' healing of the paralytic exposes our greatest need: God's forgiveness. It also reveals that Jesus came to reconcile sinners to God and bring them into His eternal kingdom through taking the penalty we deserved for our sin. Our response to God's forgiveness in Jesus is living in humble adoration and in godly awe of His grace and mercy.

While travelling around Galilee, Jesus is confronted by a leper. Leprosy in Jesus' day was basically a death sentence. Isolated from community, left to suffer and barred from God's presence was the lot of the man full of leprosy. Yet, Jesus in His compassion touches the leper and cleanses him. Luke thus provides us with a wonderful picture of the salvation Jesus came to bring. Jesus is the King who came to save us from sin's corruption and sin's separation. He is the Saviour who says to sinners, “I will; be clean.”

We see in Peter's experience the result of an encounter with the true and living God. An encounter begins with God revealing Himself to us through His Word. This revelation of God leads to a revelation of ourselves as sinners. We are moved to confession like Peter, "I am a sinful man." Yet, in God's grace, He moves toward us to redeem us in Christ. Then, He calls us to partner with Him in His mission to seek and save the lost.

Authority is not a concept we naturally warm to. Through its abuses and our cultural aversion, we tend towards believing that authority is a bad thing. However, we have no authority over the forces of evil, sickness or even our own lives. Yet, Jesus displays His authority over all these things. Jesus came as the King, but uses His power to compassionately call sinners into His kingdom and to save them through laying down His life on their behalf. Jesus exercises His authority to save!

Luke 4:14-30 recounts Jesus' rejection in His hometown of Nazareth. As followers of Jesus we rejoice in the fact that He came to set sinners free through His life, death and resurrection. Jesus is the good news; the gospel! Yet, we must also recognise that just as people rejected Jesus, people will reject us as His followers. We can take comfort in the fact that Jesus experienced being an outcast and never leaves or forsakes His own.

The wilderness, a place of testing and failure for Israel, becomes the place where the new Israel, the second Adam is tempted by Satan but doesn't yield. Thus, as our representative, Jesus succeeds where we failed. He is our perfect sacrifice and our spotless righteousness. We also learn by Jesus' example how to fight sin in our own lives. We use and live in God's Word to combat the fiery darts of the evil one.

What is repentance?

Lessons from Jesus’ Early Years

Jesus comes as our substitute, comforter, Saviour and sword.