The Gospel of Luke 12

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 23-24

If you are looking for the beginning of this study you can start HERE with the brief introduction. At the bottom of that introduction will be the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. For this study the English Standard Version is the translation that is being utilized and you can read it online HERE or pick up the copy of your choice from Amazon or your local book store. I find THIS EDITION to be useful for deeper study and annotation.

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Despotism, Unbelief, Justice, Faith, Light vs. Darkness, Resurrection, Euchatastrophe

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did the chief priests and scribes accuse Jesus of to Pilate?

2. How did Pilate attempt to make the question of Jesus’ innocence or guilt someone else’s responsibility?

3. How many times did Pilate attempt to dismiss the charges against Jesus? 

4. Who was released from prison instead of Jesus and of what was that man guilty?

5. What prayer did Jesus offer on behalf of those crucifying him?

6. What did Jesus promise the repentant criminal being crucified next to him?

7. What atmospheric event took place while Christ was being crucified?

8. Where was Jesus’ body laid to rest after he died?

9. What did the women not find in the tomb on the morning of the first day of the week? What were they surprised to find instead?

10. Where, and to whom, did Jesus first appear after his resurrection according to Luke’s account?

11. How did Jesus prove he was not a ghost but, rather, that he had bodily risen from the dead?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Why did Pilate become friends with Herod because of what Herod did with Jesus?

2. Why did Pilate deliver Jesus to be crucified when he clearly believed Jesus was innocent of his accusers’ charges?

3. Why might they have made Simon of Cyrene carry Jesus’ cross for him?

4. What should we infer about what follows death from Jesus’ words to the repentant criminal on the cross next to him?

5. What is the significance of the fact that “the curtain of the temple was torn in two” as Jesus was dying? What curtain is being referred to?

6. Why is it important that Luke notes that Joseph of Arimathea “was a member of the council…who had not consented to their decision and action” against Jesus?

7. Why did Luke not refer to Jesus as “the Lord Jesus” for the first time until the last chapter of his Gospel?

8. Why did the disciples not believe the women’s account about Jesus’ body being gone and seeing angels?

9. What is the significance of the fact the the disciples on the road to Emaus didn’t recognize Jesus until “he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them”?

10. Why did Jesus take pains to demonstrate that he was not a ghost but that he had risen bodily from the dead?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. What is the core belief of the Christian of faith? How is it unique among all the other religions of the world? Explain your answer carefully. 

2. Does the manner in which Jesus died matter? Could Christ have been beheaded for our sins or did it have to be by crucifixion? Explain your answer with good reasoning.

3. What factors account for why people believe certain things but not others? Are some things harder to believe than others? Why? What amount of evidence is sufficient to warrant faith in something miraculous? Explain your answer carefully and with reason.

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Exodus 20:16. How did Jesus’ accusers clearly violate this commandment?

2. Read Isaiah 53. How many points of commonality can you find between Isaiah’s prophecy (about 700 years prior to the birth of Christ) and the events of Luke 23? Why is this significant?

3. Read 1 Corinthians 15 and answer the following question: How important is the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Why does it matter?