Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Luke 7 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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Start with a soldier who calls himself unworthy, move to a funeral that stops mid-street, visit a prison cell full of questions, and end at a dinner party undone by tears and perfume. Luke 7 doesn’t just tell stories; it shows what happens when humility meets authority and mercy.

We walk through the centurion who understands command so well he trusts Jesus to heal with a word. That insight into authority sparks a deeper look at prayer, dependence, and what it means to approach God without entitlement. From there, we step into the shock of a young man sitting up from his coffin and the hush that follows when people realize death just lost an argument. These moments anchor big themes—sovereignty, compassion, and the difference between our desired outcomes and God’s better plan.

John the Baptist then gives voice to doubts we hesitate to admit. From prison he asks, “Are you the one?” and Jesus answers with Isaiah’s proof points—sight restored, good news preached—while quietly omitting “captives set free.” We talk about the courage to bring honest questions to Jesus, and the blessing of trusting him even when deliverance doesn’t come on our timetable. Along the way, we confront the crowd’s criticism—John is too austere, Jesus too social—and why real discipleship will always draw heat from both sides.

It all culminates with a woman known for sin pouring out costly love at Jesus’ feet. Through the parable of two debtors, we explore how understanding the size of our forgiveness expands the size of our love. If our sin seems small, our worship stays small; when grace feels infinite, devotion becomes bold, grateful, and unashamed. Expect practical takeaways: embrace humble faith like the centurion, voice doubt like John without quitting, refuse people-pleasing religion, and let forgiveness lead your worship. If you’re hungry for a grounded conversation about faith, doubt, authority, and grace, this one will meet you where you live. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find the show.

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Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck, along with Pastor Holland. We're talking Luke chapter seven. And I'm going to outline it. We're going to make some observations, find some interpretations, and land the plane with some applications that you can take with you today. All right, here we go. Luke 7, verses 1 through 10. This is the faith of the centurion. A centurion was a Roman uh warrior who was in charge of about 100 men. And he asked Jesus to heal his servant, and Jesus marvels at his faith. Then we have verses 11 through 17 where Jesus raises a widow's son. I mean, the guy just literally sits up in the coffin. Verses 18 through 35, we see uh Jesus and John the Baptist, where uh John's imprisoned uh disciples inquire if Jesus is the Messiah. And uh Jesus points to his miracles as evidence and then praises John as the greatest prophet while critiquing the generation's fickleness. Verse 36 through 50, we have Jesus anointed by a sinful woman at a Pharisee Simon's house in Galilee. A sinful woman washes Jesus' feet, and all of the scandal arises. And so we're gonna look into that a little bit as well. All right. So uh Holland, give me some observations you may have made uh in this text.

Pastor Holland:

All right. First thing for me is this centurion, which is awesome. Um Jesus marvels at his faith. You know, how often do we hear Jesus marveling at something? Right. And he's marveling at this man's faith. This was not a Jewish guy, but the the elders of the Jews, that's who he sends to Jesus, right? Um, they're like vouching for him. And it says that um they pleaded with Jesus saying, He is worthy to have you do this for him. They're fans of this guy, right? The the Jewish elders are fans of this Roman Gentile centurion, and here's why he loves our nation and he built us our synagogue. That's what patriot and uh a builder, you know. He's uh he's a guy who you know is really like using his skills, his strength, his influence to bless people. Um, and when Jesus comes, he recognizes uh who Jesus is and his understanding of authority and um understanding of who Jesus is, you know, leads him to make this request of like, hey, if you just say the word, it'll happen. I I know how authority works. I know that you can just speak the word and it'll be done. And Jesus marvels at this. I think the centurion is like a fascinating person.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I I love how the elders say he is worthy. Yeah. And then he says, I am not worthy. Right. Yeah. Which that says a lot. Here's a generous guy who most people, okay, I don't want to say most people, of many people who are generous would also have like a God complex a little bit. I am worthy. Look at all I've done. Yeah. He's like, I haven't done that for these people. I've done that for God. I am not worthy, which I love that. And then Jesus is like, I can work with that. And he sees this guy's faith. Okay, love that aspect. How about um this one really doesn't get talked about a lot? Where they're in the middle of a funeral procession, and Jesus stops the funeral procession and just tells the guy to get up, and then he gets up, and everyone loses their mind. Um it's kind of wild. Like he's got the power to remote heal, yeah, and he's got the power to raise people from the dead, which I think is kind of wild.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I love it.

Pastor Plek:

All right, and then what about just uh John the Baptist, even after all this, the guy that's the one that's promoting Jesus probably the most, right, is now experiencing doubt. What do you what do you see in that?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, he's um you know, wondering uh is this really the one? Um and you know, John had announced him, he he baptized him, right? You know, and so it's it's a little shocking to hear him, you know, ask these questions. Uh, are you the one you know that we've been waiting for? And uh, you know, I think it speaks to um just the the the mystery of the gospel a little bit of that Jesus came. And even John, who recognized him as the Messiah, didn't really know how this was all gonna play out. Right. And he's seeing you know the ministry of Jesus and going, all right, where's the big, you know, how how is this all gonna happen? What is this how it's supposed to go? Am I missing something? Did I get this wrong? So I think it's very interesting.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. And I think it's interesting that he goes, he quotes from Isaiah. Yeah, and it says, you know, tell John we've seen and heard the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the good news preached to him. But when you look at the the the one part of those verses he leaves out is the captives are set free. Yeah. And so clearly John gets the message, you're not getting out of this. Yeah, you're I am the one, and here's your fate. And you did your job.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Way to go. And um, and he you know closes that out with blessed is the one who's not offended by me. Yeah. That's such a great line. Yeah. Like, John, don't be offended by this. Um, this is your lot in life, and it's a good one. You're gonna be remembered, you know, throughout all ages for your faithfulness, but right now it's gonna stink.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, and then this is I think this gets into verses 28 through 32, where there's he's like, How come you're not dancing? When we play music, you should dance. When we start singing sad songs, you should cry. Yeah, like that is this is where um you need to understand that that God operates on his own way, and when you start um predicting or depicting how John or Jesus should be acting, you're probably in the wrong.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and you know, this points out too that like no matter what you do, you're gonna be hated. You know, John the Baptist, eating no bread, drinking no wine. Oh, he's demon-possessed. Right. That's what they say. Um, Jesus comes, eating and drinking, ah, glutton and drunkard. And so no matter what, there's not a way to do Christianity or follow Jesus um legitimately that doesn't get you hated on by other people. Uh, and so you know, don't bother looking for it. Just be faithful and let the haters hate.

Pastor Plek:

Right. All right, what about this last one? Speaking of someone who did not worry about people pleasing, she wanted to please Jesus, right? This woman who comes and worships Jesus by pouring the nard on his feet, wiping uh his feet with her hair, you know, wetting them with her tears. What a wild display of worship that is offensive to Simon. He's like, Does Jesus know what the heck is going on here?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. I love the parable that he tells too. You know, a moneylender, two debtors, one owed 500, the other owed 50. And when they couldn't pay, he canceled the debt of both. Which one will love him more? And, you know, just showing this sinful woman understood the great debt that has been canceled on her behalf. Yeah. And it produced so much love. And there's this reality that anyone, you know, um, who really grasps how much we have been forgiven, like how offensive our sin is to God, and that He would forgive us. Um, that produces so much love, so much worship, so much adoration. Um, it's beautiful.

Pastor Plek:

Okay, let's get into uh some truth about the nature of man. Um how about humans exhibit unbelievable faith when humbled by need? Yeah, the centurion declares himself unworthy, but praise. Uh what about um verse 19 where John is asking, uh, hey, are you the one? Like he is like desperate for answers because he's looking, he knows that it's not looking good for him in prison. Right. And so that the humility of just asking Jesus, what's going on? Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I think um, you know, Simon's uh the conversation um with Jesus and Simon, you know, about this sinful woman, it shows our hearts misunderstand grace. We we struggle to understand um our own depravity. We uh struggle to understand how sinful we are, we struggle to understand how gracious and forgiving God is. Right.

Pastor Plek:

I really like I think just on top of that, this this woman, when Jesus uses that parable, like are I think we need to ask ourselves, am I the one that's being forgiven 500 denarii? Am I the one that's been given been forgiven 50 deneri? And if you only see yourself as a 50 deneri guy, you're probably gonna love 50 deneri's worth. Yeah, right. But when you are forgiven so much, it's an infinite debt.

Pastor Holland:

Right. And that's the reality of it is we've all been forgiven. It even if your sins in this life, you know, might be to a greater or lesser degree than someone else, you can compare and stuff. But if we go, well, what's the debt I owe to God? Right. It's it's an infinite debt, and he's forgiven us of that. And the more you understand that, yeah.

Pastor Plek:

That's why you're those who know God's word more and recognize how perfect, holy, and awesome God is, yes, that's how your devotion and gratitude grows in that. Okay, let's get into some truths about the character of God. What do you got? God forgives sin.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Who is this that forgives sins? Right? That's what they ask at the end. It's you know, it's it's showing the divinity of Jesus. He only God has the authority to forgive sins. Yeah. And so it shows the divinity of Jesus and the mercy of God.

Pastor Plek:

Uh, how about God's will may not be what you want? Yeah. That that in John's case specifically, like God's will for your life may not be on the front end what you were expecting or thought was, you know, sort of the plan, but ultimately his sovereign plan is better than anything you could ever hope for.

Pastor Holland:

Man, that's good. Yeah, sovere sovereignty. You see that here. He's able to, with a word, heal the centurion servant from a distance. Um, he's sovereign over um all things, he's omnipotent and omnipresent, omniscient.

Pastor Plek:

He can so based on that, let's get to spec. Sin to avoid, promise to claim, example to follow, command to obey, knowledge to believe. What you got? Okay.

Pastor Holland:

Um, I think an example to follow, I go back to the centurion. Yeah. That example is humility. Um, you know, I'm not worthy, but God, I know you can do it. Like that's that's the kind of humble yet bold faith um that I that I think God is pleased with.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, and that same vein of example to follow, that woman's worship. Yeah, she gave everything, she was in devotion, she understood what she'd been forgiven, and she came to worship fully. I love that. Um, how about uh command to obey? How about just simply the obey, obey the call and recognize and respond to Jesus as the Messiah based upon what I've seen and what I've heard, and maybe we need to share our testimony with someone about what we've seen and heard from God. Amen. Yeah, that's good.

Pastor Holland:

Anything else to wrap us up? I think uh, yeah, that last conversation again, um knowledge in terms of the knowledge to take away from this. Um yeah, knowledge to believe. Um, just the knowledge that um that we have sinned against a holy God and that he forgives sin, and that should produce love. And so I think just coming away from this chapter, I go, man, we should come away with this knowledge of how great and gracious God is.

Pastor Plek:

Love it. Hey, thanks so much for joining us today. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

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