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The Bible Breakdown: Daily Bible Reading
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Welcome to "The Bible Breakdown," where we break down God’s Word so we can know God better. I'm your host, Brandon Cannon, and I'm here to guide you through the pages of the Bible, one day at a time.
Each day, we'll read through a section of the Bible and explore key themes, motifs, and teachings. Whether you're new to the Bible or a seasoned veteran, I guarantee you'll find something insightful or inspiring. My hope is to encourage you to dive deeper and deeper.
So grab your Bible, your journal, your coffee, and join me on this journey of faith and discovery. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button to stay up-to-date with our daily readings and breakdowns.
Remember, as we journey through the pages of the Bible together, we're not just reading a book, we're unlocking the secrets to eternal life. The more we dig, the more we find! Let's get started!
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The Bible Breakdown: Daily Bible Reading
Luke 06 Round Two: Jesus Talks About the 12 Desciples
Life's storms are inevitable. Whether you're emerging from turbulence, currently weathering a tempest, or unwittingly heading toward one, the foundation you've built will determine whether you stand or collapse. This powerful truth concludes Jesus' teachings in Luke 6, where he challenges us to do more than simply call him "Lord" – we must actually follow his instructions.
The journey through Luke 6 begins with Jesus confronting religious leaders about their rigid Sabbath traditions. When his hungry disciples pick grain on the holy day, Pharisees immediately criticize them for "breaking the law." Jesus brilliantly responds by referencing David's actions when he and his companions were hungry, boldly declaring himself "Lord of the Sabbath." Later, he further provokes these leaders by healing a man's deformed hand on the Sabbath, demonstrating that compassion should always override legalism.
After spending an entire night in prayer, Jesus selects his twelve apostles – ordinary men destined for extraordinary fates. History and tradition tell us that eleven would ultimately be martyred for their faith. From Simon Peter's upside-down crucifixion to Bartholomew being skinned alive, these men faced gruesome deaths rather than deny what they had witnessed. As Pastor Brandon poignantly observes, "People will often lie for something they believe is true but don't know for sure. These people knew... Very seldom will someone die for a lie."
Jesus then delivers revolutionary teachings that completely upend conventional wisdom. He pronounces blessings on the poor and hungry while warning the rich and satisfied. He commands his followers to love enemies, do good to those who hate them, and give without expectation of return. These aren't mere suggestions but requirements for those who claim to follow him.
The chapter culminates with Jesus' stark comparison between two builders – one who constructs on solid rock and withstands life's floods, another who builds without foundation and faces inevitable collapse. This metaphor powerfully illustrates that genuine faith requires more than intellectual agreement; it demands transformed living based on Christ's teachings.
What foundation are you building on? Will it withstand the storms that inevitably come? Join us as we dig deeper into God's Word, discovering that the more we dig, the more we find.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at thebiblebreakdowncom. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello everybody, and welcome to your journey through the Gospel of Luke. Today is Luke 6.
Speaker 1:This is me, your friendly Bible tour guide, pastor Brandon. We're just enjoying God's Word one chapter at a time. One of the things I love about God's Word is the more we dig, the more we find. That's my hope for you, guys. This is not intended to be the deepest exegesis through the text that's ever been. It's to kind of whet your appetite, to help you to see that there's so much in God's Word that just a casual reading can start to speak life to. But then there's just infinitely more that we can understand, and so I just really hope that what this does is it helps you to see that, man, god's word is alive and it is powerful. It is interesting and it's funny. There's a lot of great things that happen, but then also here's the thing is that Jesus don't mess around, man. He tells you like it is, and we're going to see that, and I love that about Jesus is he tells you the truth and then he says what are we going to do about it? And I love that.
Speaker 1:So today, what we're going to do is we are going to read through Luke 6. There's a lot here, and so we're going to get started and we're going to talk about some things today that I think are extremely interesting. So first we're going to look at how Jesus is going to be discussing back and forth with some Pharisees. He's constantly trying to challenge these Pharisees and always they start it, but Jesus finishes it every single time. And then Jesus is going to heal on the Sabbath day, which is going to just like tear them up completely. It's ridiculous. But then Jesus is going to call out his 12 apostles, and I want to tell you what happens to these apostles, because you know, all but one were martyred for their faith, and there's a lot of ambiguity there. There's a lot of you know, we don't know exactly. We have traditions, but we can't confirm these, like we can't be like hey, here's the body, here's the thing, right. So a lot of it is just is is guesswork, but informed guesswork. We're going to talk about that, the crowds that follow Jesus.
Speaker 1:And then here's something that's amazing is the book of Matthew, chapter five, six and seven. It talks about like one of the longest discourses that has been recorded from the life of Jesus. Scholars call it the sermon on the Mount, and what we see in the gospel of Luke is we see his recounting of the sermon on the Mount. Here's the thing that is so very interesting when Matthew wrote down the Sermon on the Mount, it's because he was there, it's because he heard it himself and he wrote down what Jesus had to say. Remember, luke is an investigative journalist. He's a doctor by trade, but he has been commissioned by somebody named Theopolis, and he has now gone into the Judean countryside and he is interviewing these different people, has now gone into the Judean countryside and he is interviewing these different people, and his goal is to affirm the things that Theopolis has heard from Paul and Peter and everyone else has traveled their way to Rome, and so he is collecting these stories, and what we see here is this is the recounting of what Jesus had said at the Sermon on the Mount that everyone is saying, and of course, it lines up with what Matthew is saying, and you got to remember too, matthew and Luke are not sitting side by side at a coffee shop going and comparing notes. These people probably even likely, never, never saw one another. They're in different places, doing different things, but yet their stories line up because this isn't simply written by men, it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the divine overseer, the divine author of this text, and so he is lining it up because it is true, and so we're going to see this kind of synopsis of the Sermon on the Mount as we finish this up. So let's get started with this and remember the more we dig, the more we find. And so I want to kind of whet your appetite for some things, and I'm excited to see what God does through this study together. So here we go. Luke, chapter 6, verse 1. You've got your NLT Bible, got your coffee. Let's go through this together, verse 1.
Speaker 1:But some of the Pharisees said why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath? Jesus replied haven't you read in the scriptures that David did what David did when he was with his companions and they were hungry? He went to the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priest can eat. He also gave some to his companions and Jesus added the Son of man that's his favorite term for himself is Lord, even over the Sabbath. Now what Jesus is saying here is is there was this overindulgence of the law. What the Pharisees would do particularly is they would take what God's Word said and then they would add a whole lot more stuff to it.
Speaker 1:The law of God we just got through reading this in Leviticus said that on the Sabbath day you're supposed to rest. You're not supposed to do any kind of work. Rest. You've earned it. Once every seven days, rest, take a break. But then what the Pharisees started to say is they started to say you know what is rest, let's define it. And so they would say things like you couldn't walk further than a quarter mile from your house on the Sabbath day, you couldn't do this, you couldn't do that. And they even got to the place to where they said that if you're walking through a grain field and you're hungry to take the grain, to pluck the grain and eat, it was harvesting. So he'd gone way overboard. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying do you not realize there's common sense to this thing? The goal is for you to rest, not for you to be in bondage to the traditions of men. So that's what he's doing. He's challenging their traditions with this. Alright, here we go, verse 6.
Speaker 1:On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man's hand, they had planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. Man so silly. But Jesus knew their thoughts. And he man so silly. So once again, you see that they are frustrated over the Sabbath. They'd rather keep their traditions than see someone set free. And Jesus calls them out on it. He's like hey, stop being stupid, stupid, I want to heal people around here. All right, here we go. Jesus is going to call the 12 disciples or apostles. He says this verse 12.
Speaker 1:One day, soon afterward, jesus went up on a mountain to pray and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and he chose 12 of them to be apostles. Here are their names Thomas, james, the son of Alphaeus. Simon, who is called the Zealot. Judas, son of James. And Judas Iscariot, who would later betray him. For now we're going to call him Judas the jerk. Okay, that's just the way. That is All right.
Speaker 1:So let me kind of explain to you what is going on here. So at this point Jesus is collecting disciples Some he has called, some who just refused to leave. I mean, and imagine, imagine you were born blind Jesus. Imagine you were born blind, jesus heals you. I'm going to follow that guy. So he is slowly collecting disciples and he's telling all these people, come and follow me, come and follow me. But then what he does is then he takes from those disciples I don't know how many at this point, and he takes from them. At one point he collects over 5,000. And he chooses 12 from them to be his personal one-on-one students. He's going to teach them and then they are going to go and teach everybody else. What a wonderful honor. And he chooses these 12 apostles.
Speaker 1:Now what ended up happening is they became his 12, and then, out of that 12, he had three that were really close to him. That was Peter, james and John. And then from those three, he had one that we would consider his best friend and that would be John, who called himself John the Beloved, according to John, when he wrote his gospel several years later. And what would happen is they would follow Jesus and there was this larger crowd that was around them, but it was always the 12 that was being used by Jesus to help with the crowds. You know, kind of a lot of ways was like his personal like attendance to kind of help him get do things, get things done, all this kind of stuff. But they were also training under him to be the future leaders of this movement that Jesus is created.
Speaker 1:And so then what happened is, after Jesus rose from the dead, the 11 disciples because Judas goes and dies, judas the jerk, they go and they continue to do ministry and eventually they are all martyred for their faith. And so I just want to share that with you, because here's the interesting thing about all of these disciples Do you know, people are martyred for their faith all the time. It happens all the time. Unfortunately, 9-11, when the twin towers were destroyed, these people who did this, they were martyred for their faith. They thought that they were serving Islam, the Muslim faith, by martyring themselves. People martyred themselves all the time.
Speaker 1:People die for lies all the time, but they never die for a lie they know is not true. That's one of the things that is so amazing about the lives of these apostles. People will often lie for something they believe is true or they have been told is true, but they don't know for sure. These people knew when, later, after Jesus was raised from the dead, and they were told if you don't deny that Jesus rose from the dead, we will kill you. You don't deny that Jesus rose from the dead, we will kill you. Very seldom will someone die for a lie, and so one of the greatest testaments that these men knew they had seen Jesus rise was their unwillingness to deny the truth, which is why I want to share with you that all but one of these men likely died under horrible circumstances and we don't know for sure on all these. This is what tradition says because they weren't interested in making a name for themselves. They were interested in making a name or sharing the name of Jesus, and that's why we don't have all of the direct facts. Because they didn't want to push themselves forward. They were pushing the gospel forward, but, according to legend, all but one of them died in a horrific way, and that is so powerful to me. These brothers of mine and these brothers of yours in the kingdom of God said you know what? I cannot deny what I've seen. Well, we'll kill you, you may have to kill me, but I cannot deny what I've seen, and it just proves even more their beliefs. Let me share with you in order. This is how these men faced martyrdom and walked into it because they believed what they had seen.
Speaker 1:Simon, according to tradition, was crucified upside down. According to tradition, it says that when he was about to die, he requested that the Roman soldiers crucify him upside down which was a relatively common way of crucifying people because he said I am not worthy to be crucified in the same manner as my Lord Andrew. His brother was also crucified, but he was crucified on an X shaped cross, which is why now the X is a symbol for Andrew. James was actually beheaded in Acts, chapter 12. John was the only one that we think died of old age. Now, that doesn't mean they didn't try. They boiled him in oil, they did some other things. They exiled him on a political prison island called Patmos, but he's the only one that we suspect actually died of old age.
Speaker 1:Philip died by hanging and, according to legend, while he was dying he requested or, right as he was dying, he requested that his body be wrapped, not in linen but in papyrus, because he did not feel like he was worthy to be wrapped in the way that his Savior Jesus had been wrapped. Bartholomew was preaching in India and was skinned alive with knives. Matthew we're not really sure exactly how he died, but we know that he was martyred. Thomas was speared to death in Ethiopia. James, the son of Alphaeus, also known as the Younger some think he may have also been the brother of Matthew, but he was sawn into pieces. Simon, the Zealot tradition says he was also crucified. Judas, also known as Jude, or Thaddeus he was killed by being shot with arrows. And Judas Iscariot, also known as Judas the Jerk he hung himself. These men died. All but Judas Iscariot died because they refused to deny who Jesus was. I think that's powerful and amazing. All right now that they've been chosen.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in verse 17,. When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large level area surrounded by many of his followers, by the crowds, and there were people from all over Judea and Jerusalem, from as far north as the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and be healed of their diseases and those troubled by evil spirits were healed. Everyone tried to touch him because healing power went out from him and he healed everyone. Now this is where Jesus is a retelling of the Sermon on the Mount. It takes three chapters in the book of Matthew and he finishes up. We're going to read it straight through and then we'll bring this to an end. Verse 20,.
Speaker 1:Jesus turned to his disciples and said God blesses you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh. What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of man? When that happens, be happy. Yes, leap for joy for a great award awaits you in heaven. And remember their ancestors treated the ancient prophets in the same way. What sorrow awaits you who are rich, for you have only your happiness now. What sorrow awaits you who are fat and prosperous now, for a time of awful hunger awaits you. What sorrow awaits you who laugh now, for your laughing will be turned to mourning and sorrow. What sorrow awaits you who are praised by the crowds for their ancestors also praised the false prophets.
Speaker 1:But you who are willing to listen, I say love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other cheek. Also, if someone demands your coat, offer your shirt. Also, give to anyone who asks. And when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you.
Speaker 1:If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much. If you lend money to those who can repay you, only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners lend to other sinners for a full return. Love your enemies, do good to them, lend to them without expecting to be repaid.
Speaker 1:Then your reward from heaven will be very great and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate, and don't judge others, or you and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others and you will be forgiven. Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together and, to make room for more, running over, poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. Then Jesus gave the following instructions Can one blind person lead another?
Speaker 1:Won't they both fall into a ditch? Students are not greater than their teacher. Won't they both fall into a ditch. Students are not greater than their teacher, but the students who is fully trained will become like the teacher. And why worry about the speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, friend, let me get rid of that speck in your eye when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite, my word. Idiot. First get rid of the log in your own eye. Hypocrite, my word. Idiot. First get rid of the log in your own eye and then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
Speaker 1:A good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit, figs are never gathered from thorn bushes and grapes are not picked from the bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart, and then he finishes up with this warning, and also joy. He says this so why do you keep calling me Lord, lord, and then don't do what I say?
Speaker 1:I will show you what it's like when someone comes to me, me, lord, lord, and then don't do what I say. I will show you what it's like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it was well built. But anyone who hears and doesn't obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground without a foundation. When the floods sweep against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins. So Jesus has a lot to say there, but he finishes it with this idea of you know why I'm telling you this stuff. It's because storms are coming. Storms are definitely coming.
Speaker 1:I truly believe that everybody listening to this right now is in one of three places. You're either coming out of a storm, you're either in the middle of a storm or you are turning right into one. Storms are part of life and Jesus is saying storms are on their way and I don't want you to build your life on something that will fade. I want you to build your life on something that will fade. I want you to build your life on something that will stand and, like we were learning before, you know all of those apostles, they gave their lives, not for something they thought might be true, but for something they knew was true, a solid foundation. And so, when Peter was facing crucifixion, andrew, when you know, simon the Zealot was facing crucifixion. When you know Judas was Judas not Iscariot the jerk was being faced by being shot by arrows and Thomas saw a spear coming at him and James saw the saw headed his way and two of the guys, or one of the guys, was beheaded. All these things were coming, their foundation.
Speaker 1:If it had been built on sand, on just somebody's idea that they thought might be true they wouldn't have been able to stand, but because their life was so founded on something solid that, even when faced with the worst thing imaginable, I can almost hear them saying I really don't want to die, but I cannot deny what I've experienced. I want to ask you that question what hope have you got? Is your hope built on just some really good ideas that you think might be true as long as it makes you feel better and makes you healthy, wealthy and wise, or do you go? Hey, take everything from me. I cannot deny who Jesus is. That kind of trust and belief is what a legacy is made of and is what a foundation is made out of. All right, I love you so much. I can't wait to see you tomorrow for Luke, chapter seven.
