Community bible study time!

[lostnfound]

Good morning you guys. We are on to Luke chapter 2. If you did not get the chance this weekend to share what you learned in chapter one. Go ahead and post away. We would love to hear from you.

[WANDERER]

This is a great idea...but I'll just be a listener and read along I think. Looking forward to your thoughts on Chapter two.

(I don't attend church *not LDS* so this makes it a very cool thing to actually be kind of part of a bible study group. Thanks for that).

[lostnfound]

This is a great idea...but I'll just be a listener and read along I think. Looking forward to your thoughts on Chapter two.

(I don't attend church *not LDS* so this makes it a very cool thing to actually be kind of part of a bible study group. Thanks for that).

You can join in anytime if you want to.

[Hemidakota]

I am very passionate about God's word and thought it would be fun if we would walk through the book of _Luke together! This would not be a thread of debate but rather a thread of learning together. My only suggestion is that you would not use a commentary to help you with insights but rather prayer and holy spirit for discernment into the scriptures. Feel free to use hebrew/greek books to help or historical helps to get dates and such.

Each week we will study one chapter together. Starting with the Luke Chapter 1 Some of the questions I would like

for you to consider when you are working through your chapter.

1. Who is the author and time and date written?

2. Who is the author speaking to?

3. Are there any comparison/contrasts to observe? Repetitions of words? Cause and Effect or purpse and result statements?

4. Are there any promises for us to hang on to and any conditions?

5. How does this apply to my life?

6. What does this passage teach me about God?

7. Steps of action you need to take to obey?

8. Write out a prayer concerning what you learned and want to put into practice?

I hope you all enjoy as we walk through this incredible book together!

Please feel free to post each week as you learn and what God is teaching you. If something comes up that you want further clarification on just ask away.

I am just finishing the Book of Revelation. I wish I had caught this thread earlier.

[lostnfound]

I am just finishing the Book of Revelation. I wish I had caught this thread earlier.

Hemi just read and catch up ..come join us.. :)

[Hemidakota]

I already pass that book [Luke]....next is the BOM. Prior it was the OT and then the NT. Book of Revelation will be completed by this week.

[lostnfound]

I already pass that book [Luke]....next is the BOM. Prior it was the OT and then the NT. Book of Revelation will be completed by this week.

THis has got to be 8th time going through Luke. i learn something new each time. :))))

[skalenfehl]

There are still lots of good things to comment on with the first chapter but I'll leave it with one final comment.

Luke 1: 78

78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

I find it interesting to note that Christ is referred to as the "dayspring" in this verse. I like referring to other translations from the following site:

Luke 1:78 Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which

The only other place in the Bible so far that I've found where Christ is referred to dawn, or light in this context is in Malachi:

Mal. 4: 2

2 ¶ But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. (emphasis added).

Interesting.

[WANDERER]

I find it interesting that

22And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.

Who?

10And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.

A faith-filled response.

When Zacharias finally did get to speak he a)first praised God and b)was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied.

The order of things is worth noting.

[Dr T]

Thank you for you good thoughts Wanderer :)

[Ashes]

One thing I really loved and paid close attention to is how Jesus' and John's relationship began in the wombs...... John leaped when Mary spoke knowing it was Jesus inside her .....The closeness they shared began in the womb.

[Dr T]

That is very cool, I agree :)

[lostnfound]

I love that too :)

[skalenfehl]

Do you have any outline for Luke 2?

[lostnfound]

Do you have any outline for Luke 2?

If you mean questions to ask yourself? Use the same questions throughout.

Is this what you mean or do you mean something else?

[skalenfehl]

I was wondering if you had a new set of questions to contemplate for Luke 2. We already know who he wrote to, when it was written etc. Just wondering if there are key items you'd like everyone to consider.

[lostnfound]

I was wondering if you had a new set of questions to contemplate for Luke 2. We already know who he wrote to, when it was written etc. Just wondering if there are key items you'd like everyone to consider.

Skalenfehl..The first question will not apply throughout but the others will..

here is a few more questions..to just consider as well..i thought they were fun..

1. What is the rest of the story? (Vses 5-7) Pledged to be married? Expecting. Time to be born. Where born? Why no room? “The” inn.

2. Why the story of the shepherds at night? Note the place name? Where the child would be found? Do you think the shepherds were looking for this event? (Vses 8-14)

3. What did the shepherds do with the announcement information? What did they find? Where? What did they do? What did Mary do with this information? (Vses 16-20) “just as they had been told.”

4. Of Simeon. Who was he? What was he waiting for and why? How come he showed up? Note Simeon’s comments, a prayer, recorded by Luke. (Vses 25-32)

5. What effect did what Simeon said have on Joseph and Mary? Was this part of the need? What does he say to Mary? Could “a sword” be “like a sword,” thinking of the crucifixion? (Vs 33-35)

6. Of prophetess Anna “also”: whose daughter, of what tribe? Old. Her history. Her dedication to the Lord evidence. When she came to them. What she said to whom. Why? (Vses 36-38)

7. Of Jesus and Joseph and Mary. What next? (Vses 36 – 40) Returned to Nazareth when? What do we know of Jesus?

8. An interesting happening on the road of growing strong and in the grace of the Lord. How often did Jesus’ parents go to the Feast of the Passover? This is one time. What happened? Note the timing. Note what Jesus was doing. Note the chastising by his mother? “Your father and I” (Vses 41-48) What was Joseph and Mary’s reaction on seeing Jesus? Why?

9. Should the parents have known where Jesus would want to be? (Vses 49-50)

[skalenfehl]

I'll be out of town this weekend, but I'll try to get to all this asap. Thanks for posting. :)

[Hemidakota]

Be safe....

[Hemidakota]

1. What is the rest of the story? (Vses 5-7) Pledged to be married? Expecting. Time to be born. Where born? Why no room? “The” inn.

When they had arrived in Bethlehem, the city of David, a city whose name means literally "house of bread" (appropriately, the place from which will go forth the true Bread of Life), they sought earnestly a comfortable setting for the birth of their baby. Because of the crowded conditions in Bethlehem and perhaps the insensitivity that too often exists in and among masses of people, "there was none to give room for them in the inns." (JST Luke 2:7.) Inns presumably refers to places of lodging that are sometimes called khans, or caravanseries. They were locations where caravans or companies of people settled down for the night. Such places may have consisted of no more than crudely constructed roofs over open courts. Farrar offered his own perspective (from the nineteenth century) of these locations. They were "perfectly public; everything that takes place in them is visible to every person in the khan. They are also totally devoid of even the most ordinary furniture."

In the words of Elder Bruce R. McConkie:

"In the area of Bethlehem, sometimes the whole khan, sometimes only the portion where the animals were kept, was located within a large cave, of which there are many in the area. But unless or until some of the saints—and such a thing is by no means improbable or beyond the realm of expectancy—see in a dream or a vision the inn where Joseph and Mary and Jesus spent that awesome night, we can only speculate as to the details." [The Mortal Messiah 1:344]

Thus here in the humblest of circumstances we become witnesses of the condescension of God the Son, the Holy One of Israel, leaving the courts of glory, coming down to earth, taking a tabernacle of clay, and becoming the most helpless of all forms of life—a human infant [by Kent P. Jackson, Robert L. Millet]

Elder Neal A. Maxwell had this to say:

In coping with irony, as in all things, we have an exemplary teacher in Jesus, whose divinity was assaulted almost constantly. For Jesus, irony began at His birth. Truly, He "suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning" (3 Nephi 11:11). This whole earth was Jesus' footstool (see Acts 7:49); He created it; yet at Bethlehem there was "no room . . . in the inn" (Luke 2:7) and "no crib for his bed" (Hymns, no. 206).

[Hemidakota]

2. Why the story of the shepherds at night? Note the place name? Where the child would be found? Do you think the shepherds were looking for this event? (Vses 8-14)

Elder McConkie stated:

[8]Shepherds..These particular shepherds were righteous and devout men who by lives of holiness and purity had prepared themselves to behold the angelic presence and hear the heavenly choirs.

[10] All people...Not just to the Jews, not just to the house of Israel, not merely to a favored few—the glad tidings of salvation were to go to all the ends of the earth; every ear should hear, every eye see, and every heart be penetrated.

[11]The city of David...Bethlehem, where David was born. A Saviour] The one who would work out the infinite and eternal atonement bringing immortality as a free gift to all (thus saving them from the temporal effects of the fall of Adam) and bringing eternal life to those who would hearken to his teachings (thus saving them from the spiritual fall).

[12]Swaddling clothes...Bands of cloth commonly wrapped around newborn infants. I. V. 12. And this is the way you shall find the babe] The swaddling clothes and the manger were not a "sign" which would identify Jesus; the angel was merely describing where he was and how he was dressed.

[14] And on earth peace, good will toward men] Marginal readings give what is probably a more accurate translation of the "Gloria in excelsis" song: "On earth peace among men of good will," or, "On earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased."

President J. Reuben Clark ["Behold the Lamb of God"] stated:

When the hour was near for Jesus to come to earth and take a mortal body, an angel told Mary she should bear a son; and to Joseph the husband of Mary he revealed that the son should save his people from their sins. The unborn John bore witness to the presence of Deity when Mary visited Elisabeth. On this hemisphere Jesus himself foretold his birth as of the next day. In Palestine, an angel announced the birth to the shepherds tending their flocks on the hills, while a multitude of heavenly voices caroled, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." His star appeared in the heavens. (Luke 1:26-56; 2:8-20; Matt. 1:18-25; 2:1-12; 3 Nephi 1:4-14; 21-22.)

Then was fulfilled the great prophecy of Isaiah:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6-7.)

So was the birth of the Lamb of God foretold long before and chronicled and witnessed at the time.

[Ashes]

The promised one of God enters creation among the creation.

God was quietly at work, and a stable iwas Messiah's first throne room.Response to the Birth (2:8-21)

The angels present the commentary of heaven on the events of Luke 2:1-7. They identify the child and reflect the heavens' excitement that this child has come to do God's work

This birth has value because of whose birth it is. The shepherds have found that the angel's words were true, that events have transpired just as they had been told. God's word is coming to pass; his plan is again strategically at work. They break out in praise to God because he has sent Jesus, the Savior, Lord and Christ.

As I read about His birth, I reflect back to Colossians 1:14,15

14 in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins:

15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation

[lostnfound]

sorry you guys for my delay in posting on luke chapter 2 this weekend. It has been busy for me. But I will soon. Is anybody else doing this with us that wants to share?

[Ashes]

Lostandfound............... What were your thoughts on chapter 2?

[skalenfehl]

I was out of town all weekend. I'll catch up asap.