Category: Advent 2025 – Luke’s Gospel

Advent 2025 – Day 4

Emily Chase December 3, 2025 0

Thank you for your faithfulness in coming back for the next episode in our Advent study of Luke’s gospel. Today, we are in chapter 4.

In heaven, Jesus had never faced temptation, but as a human, Jesus was tested in every way just as we are. After Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit led him into the wilderness. God’s enemy met him there. Satan hoped to defeat Jesus’ ministry before it began. Fasting, Jesus faced hunger and thirst for the first time, yet he resisted when Satan enticed him to turn a rock into bread. After 40 days of not eating, Jesus felt physically weak, but he fought the temptation to take a short cut to glory and power.

Before Jesus was born, his earthly father also faced temptation. When Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, he seriously considered divorcing Mary. Divorce was a quick solution to a problem pregnancy. If Joseph had carried out that plan, Mary could have been stoned for presumed adultery, and inside her womb, the infant Messiah would have also died. Satan would have succeeded in thwarting God’s plan before Jesus was even born. But Joseph resisted the temptation of a human way to resolve the “problem.”

Instead, Joseph chose the tougher road: He tore up the divorce decree and, by faith, believed that this child was conceived by the Holy Ghost.

When Jesus faced Satan in the wilderness, did Jesus recall the example of his human father? Joseph resisted temptation and rescued his son’s life. Jesus resisted temptation in order to save our lives.

What temptations do you face these days? Who has set an example for you to follow? And who is watching your example?

Advent 2025 – Day 3

Emily Chase December 2, 2025 0

We are still early on our Advent journey through Luke’s gospel. Feel free to invite a friend to join this expedition and read with you each day.

Remember that there would be no cross nor resurrection without the initial events that we have read about in chapters 1 and 2. Now in chapter 3, Luke reminds us of Jesus’ humanity. Where Matthew listed the legal lineage through Joseph, Luke outlines the blood line of Jesus through Mary. Matthew’s list only went back as far as Abraham, but here, Luke takes us all the way back to the very first man, Adam. The Lord had a plan for salvation that went all the way back to the time of Adam!

Mary’s family tree descends not through King David’s son Solomon but through another of David’s sons, Nathan. This son was named after the prophet Nathan who confronted David about his sin with another man’s wife, Bathsheba. Nathan was a godly man whose intent was to restore David’s relationship with God. Later, God would choose David’s son Nathan to continue the blood line of Jesus, the Messiah whose desire is to restore everyone’s relationship with the Father.

Advent offers a season to refocus our attention on God and renew our own relationship with the Father. What area of your life would you want to set to rights with the Lord as Christmas draws near?

Advent 2025 – Day 2

Emily Chase December 1, 2025 1

Welcome back to the second of our Advent devotionals as we travel through the gospel of Luke.

Chapter 2 offers us the essence of the Christmas story, told to Luke by Mary, the only living eyewitness to most of these events. By the time Luke is writing his gospel around AD 60, Zecharias, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna and even Joseph have died. This chapter is full of the private ponderings of Mary’s heart down through the years. No other gospel gives such an intimate glimpse into her heart.

As Jesus’ parents arrive in Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary are both tired from their journey. Mary is in labor, and Joseph can’t find a place for her to give birth! What is Joseph to do? If you knew your child was to be the Son of God, how would you feel under these circumstances? Overwhelmed? Anxious? Stressed?

Will the Lord fling open the doors of Herod’s palace so that the King of Heaven can be born in regal style? No. Instead, the Lord leads the couple to a manger. When people come to a palace, they bring gifts and tributes, but when sheep and oxen come to a manger, they expect to receive sustenance. And so, we too come to Jesus to receive His gift of salvation: “Immanuel” – God is with us.

Neither Mary nor Joseph was certain what the next step would bring. Are you facing anxiety or confusion in this season? Are you exhaisted? Remember today that, no matter your circumstances, God is with you.

Advent 2025 – Day 1

Emily Chase November 30, 2025 0

Happy Advent! Every year for the past 40 years, I’ve created a series of 24 devotionals on a theme to prepare our hearts for Christmas. The theme for 2025 will take us on a trip through the 24 chapters of Luke’s gospel. You are welcome to read through the gospel with me, one chapter per day. We will be looking at the ripple effect of that 1st Christmas throughout the gospel.

As a writer, I am surprised that Luke begins his story of Jesus by telling us about the birth of John the Baptist. Who starts a biography by describing the birth of the cousin of the main character? But just as we have Advent to prepare our hearts for Christmas, Luke is telling us about Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, who will prepare the way for Jesus.

As you read this opening chapter today, remember that God had sent no prophets for 400 years before Jesus was born. No angels delivering messages from God. Four centuries of silence. And suddenly, in this chapter an angel shows up to tell both Zecharias and Mary that the long-ago prophecies of Isaiah, Malachi and others are about to be fulfilled: “A virgin will conceive and bear a son and you shall call him Immanuel.” (Is. 7:14)

I can relate to Zecharias: He reacts with fear and unbelief. He is very human. But I want to react like Mary: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” How about you?