Bible Study Notes: 8:00 AM PST 11/29/2025

Hello All, Please join us, our Zoom Link is below for this Saturday's session at 8:00 AM PST 11/29/2025. We show gratitude for each other and our community with our presence; and for that gratitude I am eternally thankful. May the Holy Spirit bring you His wisdom and His understanding. Please join us!!! Numerous times we may experience an event intersecting with a highly appropriate and significant Bible verse. We marvel at the coincidence, completely overlooking the fact that in God's world there are no coincidences. Here we are at the closing of the very popular holiday in America - Thanksgiving and we are reviewing the notes concerning the earliest teachings of Jesus. If we unpack all the implications of that intersection we find much for which we can be thankful. We learn from His words in the Sermon on the Plain that we are to: "Love our enemies, Imitate God and Do not Judge." Jesus is giving us a call to action; His sermon is filled with action verbs. We must be thankful for Jesus coming to earth to personally teach us. And we must be even more thankful for the courage He gives us to hear Him and apply His teachings. May we all practice the essence of thanksgiving every day - it is an action verb. Love, hank Zoom Link: For Study, Prayer and Fellowship - 8:00 AM PST 11/29/2025: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82968961343?pwd=LzcwVjJKcWVESDRURlhDcXlNV0JUdz09 Meeting ID: 829 6896 1343 Passcode: 77299ere: Bible Study Notes: 11/29/2025 – Prologue – The first step in becoming a son or daughter, or being begotten from above, or in entering the kingdom, or being saved, or finding eternal life is stated by Jesus as: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” [Matt. 5:3] What does Jesus mean by “poor in spirit”? Or as Luke stated simply “you poor” [Luke 6:20] For me this is an “Oh Wow” moment. The quote from [Matt.] is from what we know as ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ (TSM) [Matt. 5:1-10]. The quote from [Luke] is from ‘The Sermon on the Plain’. (TSP) At 94 years of age, I can never recall hearing any mention of TSP. I have read and studied the verses contained in this sermon, but never made any locational connection. Both of these sermons are by Jesus as He lays out His vision for mankind. Since both contain beatitudes or blessings it seems appropriate to look at them at the same time. Thus, in this study we will investigate [Luke 6:17- 49] We will be guided by Rev. Arthur A. Just Jr., PhD. The Sermon on the Plain is the second sermon of Jesus recorded by Luke. The first was given in the synagogue of Nazareth. [Luke 4:16-30] TSP is the most significant summary of Jesus’ catechesis during His Galilean ministry. It is the beginning of Jesus’ teaching to his disciples about what it means to be a catechumen. (A convert to Christianity receiving training in doctrine and discipline before baptism.) This sermon was addressed to three groups: The crowd, (Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon [Matt 6:17]; the disciples (more than 72); and the twelve. They all gathered to hear, touch, be healed and to be taught, especially the disciples: a diverse audience. However, Jesus teaches, but seeing the multitudes He goes up on the mountain and His disciples follow and when He sat down His disciples came to Him. [Matt. 5:1] This implies they were the principal hearers of TSM. Until the TSM Jesus has not focused exclusively on them. This is the first of Jesus’ teachings directed specifically to His disciples [Luke 6: 20] or hearers [Luke 6:27] Luke’s gospel continues the OT catechetical tradition of the two ways: the way of life and the way of death. Luke (TSP) does this more bluntly than Matthew (TSM) as Luke emphasizes the ‘either/or” alternatives. The catechumen is to see that life is filled with these alternatives and Jesus in Himself and in His teachings is offering the way of light and life. By going back to the OT, as we experience in Deuteronomy that “to hear” God’s word was meant to mean, “to hear and believe and so, to put into practice.” It is not enough to hear – it is to hear and to do. [Luke 6:47, 49] There is a great similarity between TSP and [Deut. 11:26-28]: “See I am placing before you this day blessing and curse; the blessing as you listen to (believe and practice) … and the curse if you do not listen.” In OT times and in the words of Jesus , to listen to God’s Word is to hear in faith – faith that is created by the Word itself, faith that shows itself in works of love, [Luke 6:27-30] and faith that receives the blessings promised in the Word. TSP is divided into three parts (Or what you were never taught about your A – B – C’s: Sec. 1 [6:20-26] Three Beatitudes, a way of life [6:20-23] and three Woes, a way of death [6:24-26]. Sec. 2 [6:27-38] (Center) which contains 16 imperatives that contrast the way of life with the way of death. To be brief – the way of life or the way of death – as expressed in verbs (actions). Group A – Love your enemies: Love [27], Do good [27], Bless [28], Pray [28], Turn [29], Give [30], Do not demand [30], Do [31-34]! Group B - Imitate God: Love [35], Do Good [35], Lend [35], Become merciful [36]. Group C - Do Not Judge: Do not judge [37], Do not condemn [37], Forgive [37], Give [38]. Sec. 3. [6:39-49] The Goal of Catechesis: Enlightenment (Sight) [6:39-42], Transformation (Good fruit) [6:43-45], Foundation (Rock) [6:46-49]. This actually outlines the early Christian teachings as first taught by Jesus! Matthew’s beatitudes are often called the spiritualized version of Luke’s beatitudes. Others assert that Luke’s beatitudes should be interpreted in a this-worldly sense. Compare Matthew’s “poor in spirit” [Matt. 5:3] with Luke’s “poor” [Luke 6:20] (There are others) But, why must we under-stand Jesus’ words as either spiritual or physical? We have options: we can let the words wash over us with their power or we can think both for that reflects Jesus’ incarnation by the Holy Spirit which allows Jesus to become human flesh and of His ministry in which He does not distinguish between soul and body; as He rebukes demons and bodily fever. Luke records that Jesus’ ministry fulfills [Isa. 61]: “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” [Luke 4:16-21] Jesus used [Isa.] in His first sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth. It is program-matic and foundational for the rest of Jesus’ teaching. In late 1998 my pastor, Mike Coppersmith, challenged me to read the Bible cover to cover in 1999. He said read it, not for its profound theological meaning, but as a historical narrative of the foundations of Christian faith. I began on 02/09/99 and ended on 12/30/99 averaging 2.8 pages per day. On 06/10/1999 I arrived in KG. At mid-day I opened my Bible for the day’s reading: [Isa. 61] The Year of the Lord’s Favor. “The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me …” I wept. Later I went to the Olmeda Café for tea and it was there that I first met Maha and the rest is history. [Isa. 61] moves me every time I read it. Jesus’ ministry fulfills [Isa. 61] and as He proclaimed in His first sermon in Nazareth; He is present in the world to provide release from all kinds of bondage. [Luke 4:18-19] His miracles free those oppressed with physical or spiritual evils alike, since the root problem of them all is sin [Luke 5:20] Each beatitude and woe concludes with a trust that reflects one’s present and/or future status with respect to God’s kingdom. Thus, in ‘this-worldly’ (temporal) and ‘other- worldly’ (spiritual) there is both a present and future reality. And, both the spiritually poor and hungry as well as the physically poor and hungry are Jesus’ concern. Who might the first hearers have in mind? Who are the poor, the hungry, the hated, the insulted, the excluded who have attained that status because they are followers of the Son of Man? Would they not think of all the martyrs who have gone before them; the saints who preceded them and are now with them in church? Would they not see themselves? For when we enter the Christian community, by Baptism, these beatitudes describe the character of those who belong. Today we live in a world that differs little from the world that was hostile to the way Jesus lived His life and that put Him to death. The 20C. was the most lethal, for Christians, in all of history. In a capsule, we are looking at the imperatives of the TSP and TSM that lead us to a life in Christ and the enlighten-ment, the fruit and the very foundation of this life. [Luke 6:39-49] AMEN 14&15 Love, hank Hank Hohenstein, OFS Land Steward 161 Osprey Vista Shady Cove, OR 97539 Cell: 541-973-5442 hankhohenstein@gmail.com