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Luke 7:18-35

Is God for real?: Luke 7:18-35

What I love and hate about Jesus is that he is surprisingly surprising. I love the way he spins people out, he touches the untouchables, he has dinner with hardened criminals. But I hate the way he sometimes surprises me by allowing me to suffer far too much, as far as I’m concerned.

Not what you expected?

John the Baptist was a full on Prophet of God. No one in all of history can compare to his dedication to God. But even John asked Jesus whether he was the one he hoped for. So if John can have doubts how much more should we expect to sometimes struggle.

What is surprising is that Jesus assures John of who he is by doing a bunch of miracles. After that Jesus praises John, even though he had just questioned Christ as to his true identity. So it is ok for us to struggle with doubt. Perhaps Jesus wasn’t ministering in the way John expected. After all he was in prison, and Jesus seemed to be gathering to himself a large crowd of no hopers instead of overthrowing their nations enemies or cleansing the Church of religious hypocrites.

Sometimes Jesus doesn’t work the way we expect him to in our lives. He can allow some pretty hard stuff to happen. The trick then is to learn to recognise Christ in our lives, to see and hear Jesus working despite painful circumstances, people or experiences. Today I hope to encourage you to learn to see and hear Jesus within John’s story, your own story and our community’s story. the Rev     

Romans: See and Hear Christ

Bible Reading: Luke 7:18-35

Exercises

• Explain the story of each of the following sections v18-22, v23-30, v31-35.

• Explain how Jesus answered John’s question and why is this significant.

•  Share in what you can relate to John’s question of Jesus.

• Discuss in what ways this John’s story encourages you.

• Share how you have been and will be used by Christ to reveal himself to people.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for loving me despite my questions and doubts. I give you thanks that I can turn to you even from within my doubts of you. Forgive me for doubting your goodness and your ability and willingness to care. Help me to see and hear Christ working in my life and through my life. Use me in such a way that other people will see Christ in and through the way I live.  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it