God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

LUKE 12:1 – 13:9: THOSE OF LITTLE FAITH

© Rosemary Bardsley 2025

A. DO NOT BE AFRAID – 12:1 – 34

Jesus spoke to his disciples, knowing the smallness and fragility of their faith. He gave them what seemed like impossible commands:

Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body.
Don’t worry when you are arrested and have to verbally defend yourselves.
Don’t be afraid ... when humanly speaking there is every reason to be afraid.

It is easy to wonder ‘Why?’ Why should the disciples of Jesus not be afraid where fear is the obvious, automatic and natural response?

From these verses, what did Jesus say about his followers and about himself and the Father to reassure them?
12:6, 7:

12:8:

12:12:

12:28:

12:30:

12:32:

Jesus’ ‘Do not be afraid’ is a word of encouragement based on a number of interwoven truths: As his followers, we are his ‘little flock’, and he is our Shepherd. As followers of Christ, God, the God of infinite knowledge, is our Father, who feeds the birds and clothes the grass, and values us far more than these. As followers of Christ we are, by God’s pleasure, members of his Kingdom.

From these verses, how do the perspectives and priorities of Christ’s kingdom differ from our human values?
12:4, 5:

12:13 – 21:

 

12:22 – 26:

12:29 – 31:

12:32 – 34:

Those who belong to the kingdom of Christ are members of his eternal kingdom, a kingdom that has a totally different mindset and operates with a totally different value system than that of the world.

Those who belong to the kingdom of Christ know that death is not the end. Those who have acknowledged Christ on earth know that Christ will acknowledge them in the presence of his Father in heaven. Those for whom knowing God is the greatest treasure recognise the insignificance of earthly goods and earthly wealth. Those whom Christ calls ‘my friends’ know that they are so precious to God that even the hairs on their heads are all numbered.

Those who thus know that God is for them know also that, having trusted him in the bigger, eternal matters, they can trust him also in the smaller, earthly matters; that they can trust him even through and beyond the agony of death.

God himself is our treasure: all other ‘treasures’ Jesus Christ commands us to hold loosely.

Note: In 17:6 Jesus made it clear that ‘little’ faith is not wrong faith. ‘Little faith’ focused on the right object of faith is powerful, not because of its own power, but because of the One in whom it believes.

 

B. LIFE IN THE KINGDOM – 12:35 – 59

To those of ‘little faith’, having encouraged them about their fears, Jesus proceeded to explain further implications of being members of his kingdom.

B.1 The responsibility of being expectant and ready – 12:35 – 48
Although Jesus has previously mentioned his death and resurrection (Luke 9:22), he had not yet spoken of his return to glory in heaven and his subsequent return to earth. His teaching here anticipates both his absence and his later return. Two of the parables here speak of a master returning after an absence.

Some questions:
[1] What did Jesus teach about being expectant and ready for his return?
In the first parable – 12:35 – 38:

 

In the second parable – 12:39, 40:

 

In the third parable – 12:42 – 48:

 

[2] About verses 47 & 48 and Peter’s question in verse 41:
How do these verses answer Peter’s question?

 

What is the difference between knowing what God says and believing what God says?

 

Suggest what lack was at the back of the actions of the servant in verse 45.

 

To be members of Christ’s kingdom is to know and believe that he is coming back, and, because of that knowledge and that faith, to be watchful, alert and engaged in doing his will at every moment, no matter what time he comes. To be ready and engaged, and watching for his coming, like the servants in the first parable, and the first servant in the third parable, is the attitude of faith. To be disengaged, to be acting contrary to the values, will and expectations of the Master, like the second servant in the third parable, is the attitude of unbelief.

B.2 The tensions of life in Christ’s kingdom
While Jesus did indeed come to bring peace on earth for those who are the recipients of his grace (see Luke 2:14; Isaiah 53:5; Romans 5:1; Colossians 1:20), his very presence, and that peace with God that he gives, create a division between humans and humans, as Jesus pointed out in verses 52 and 53.

His presence was divisive, as we have seen even in the previous chapter of Luke: some were amazed, others accused, when he cast out a demon (11:14, 15). And at a deeper level, from God’s perspective, his presence brought judgement (which is commonly represented by ‘fire’ in the Scripture): his presence challenged each of us to a final decision. As we have seen, there is no neutral ground. The same words of Christ that save those who believe in him condemn those who don’t. And this is perhaps why Jesus said what he said about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in 12:10. Jesus said ‘The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life’ (John 6:63). To reject the words of Jesus, to conclude that they are just human words, is to blaspheme the Spirit. To reject the words of Jesus that offer life, is to choose death, is to choose judgement, to choose the ‘fire’.

But there is a still deeper meaning in these words of Jesus in Luke 12:49, and the pointer to that meaning is verse 50.

Verse 50: Jesus refers to his death as ‘a baptism to undergo’ – something that is going to immerse him, and speaks of being distressed/constrained/pressured/preoccupied ‘until it is completed’. There is a heavy compulsion upon him to move determinedly towards that death.

Verse 49: Jesus expresses a similar urgency regarding the ‘fire’ – ‘how I wish it were already kindled’ – that he came to bring to the earth. His death, in which he bore the full fire of God’s wrath for those who believe in him, was the kindling of the fire. This is true in that there God’s judgement was poured out on Christ as our substitute. But also there the purpose of his incarnation was completed, and from that point onwards the word of Christ, the gospel, began its divisive work, making a separation between those who believe and those who do not believe, releasing the former from God’s judgement and confirming the latter under God’s judgement.

And with this tension we who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have to live: That, at the same time, we have peace with God, but division from those who have not believed in Christ.

How is this tension present in your life?
What differences have you noticed between you and unbelievers?

 

How do your values differ from theirs?

 

What difficulties have you experienced because of your commitment to Christ?

 

B.3 More about being ready – 12:54 – 59
Jesus here rebukes the religious leaders for their failure to recognise the significance of ‘this present time’. His coming was the fulfilment of all that the Old Testament anticipated: His coming fulfilled the prophetic symbolism of the Jewish rituals and of the Tabernacle/Temple. His coming fulfilled the words of the Old Testament prophets. His coming brought in ‘the last days’. He had already told them about that in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4), and in his answer to John the Baptist’s question (Luke 7). Here, in his coming, God has come to them. Here, in his coming, God confronts them with the ultimate choice: to repent, believe and receive full pardon; or to deny Christ and face condemnation. Anyone, perceiving the options, even in a secular legal context, would do their utmost to avoid judgement (verses 57 – 59), yet Jesus’ hearers, because they do not understand who he is, also do not see the critical nature of their response to him.

In 13:1 – 9 Jesus stresses the urgency of the need to repent, an urgency that applies to everyone, not just the ‘sinners’.

Read 13:1 – 9. Answer these questions:
What happened in Galilee?

Were the people killed there worse sinners than others?

How did Jesus teach that everyone is equally guilty of sin?

What happened in Siloam?

Were those people more guilty than those who did not die then?

What will happen to everyone unless they repent?

What do verses 6 – 9 teach us about mercy?

What do verses 6 – 9 teach us about judgement?

We are all sinners (see Romans 3:9 – 23 and 1John 1:8, 10). We all guilty before God, the Judge of all the earth. Not one of us can escape facing his judgement and his wrath – unless we repent. That is, unless we change our minds and believe in him by believing in his Son, Jesus Christ. Our default legal position is that we are all guilty and condemned. But God, in sending his Son to live and die for us, offers us a reprieve, a way out, a liberation from this otherwise inescapable future. Here Jesus stands before the crowds as that one way out. Here Jesus stands before us and says ‘There is still time. You are still in the age of grace, it is still the ‘one more year’ of mercy, before I return in power and glory to judge the earth.’