SUPPLEMENTAL SCRIPTURES
- Isaiah 57:15
- Micah 6:8
- James 4:10
Doing things which appear right before others does not guarantee a right standing in the sight of God. Jesus probed the hearts of the men who were invited to the dinner as they sought the chief rooms in which to eat, and told a parable about taking the lower place. The parable also brought out that one should not invite his friends, relatives, and rich neighbors to his dinners, but rather the poor, lame, maimed, and blind. Our motives will determine our reward. Humility, not self-exaltation, is a hallmark of the Gospel. This is demonstrated again in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican.
QUESTIONS
- Why do you think that those who had been invited to dinner by one of the Pharisees chose the chief rooms in which to eat?
- How could church meetings be a possible place of testing a Christian’s motives in regard to “place seeking”?
- Why did Christ advise the chief Pharisee not to call friends, brethren, kinsmen, or rich neighbors to his feasts?
- Whom did Jesus advise the Pharisee to call to his feast? Why?
- What was commendable about the Pharisee who went up to the Temple to pray? What was abhorrent to God about the same Pharisee?
- What did the posture and actions of the publican in our text indicate about his approach to God?
- Why is it so difficult for people to pray the simple, one-sentence publican’s prayer? Why is it vital that they do?
- Explain the difference between the publican’s justification and the Pharisee’s.
- Explain Luke 14:11, “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
THEME THOUGHTS
Jesus, the greatest of all teachers, often chose to instruct His followers by means of parables—making a comparison between earthly things with which people are familiar, and spiritual things with which they are not so familiar. The Scriptures teach that there is a striking analogy between the natural and the spiritual. Therefore, Christ’s parables were not riddles; they were intended to reveal truth to those who love Him. He told His disciples that it was given unto them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. But to those who loved darkness rather than light, the meanings of the parables were hidden. Matthew 13:10-15The parables recorded in the Gospel of Luke are remarkable for their simplicity. Jesus sought to put the truth in a form that would bring it within the grasp of man’s finite mind. And we read that “the common people heard him gladly.”In this quarter we will focus on eleven of the parables given by Jesus as recorded by Luke, a writer who emphasized Christ’s sympathetic attitude toward the poor, the lowly, and the outcast. The objective for each lesson indicates the point the parable makes relative to our lives today. The Christmas lesson features the account of Christ’s birth as given by Luke. The final lesson of this quarter will be an overview or summary of the material covered during the preceding weeks. May God bless you as we study these lessons together.